Work Text:
“Richie, you hear me?”
Richard nodded, lost until then in the puffy white of his latte, spoon lazily stirring the foam, as the chocolate flakes melted in the clouds of cream. He barely stifled a burp in his fist, “Sorry. Just… lost in thoughts.”
“You don’t say,” Silas was loudly slurping from a juice box, squeezing so hard that sticky rivulets of peach were now staining and dirtying his knuckles, and munching on the paper straw like some kind of delicacy for his palate, he nudged at his sibling’s desk, “Say, what’s up with your android?”
“He’s not my android,” with a patient sigh, Richard averted his stare, cheeks slightly flushing, “He’s my partner.” Although that partnership was far from going well.
The GV200 was suspicious and untrusting.
Being a good enough partner wasn’t easy when it involved getting along with someone that cultivated a genuine hatred for the world and consciously decided to push his luck time after time, hoping the department would eventually dump him in a junkyard.
The scars on GV’s resting bitch face told stories Richard was far from asking about, electrifying deep blue that inevitably drew the attention to the circuits beneath, shatters in his damaged chassis that showed multiple tiny cuts near his forehead or the stubble on his chiseled jaw, glowing blue in perpetual contrast with the sizzling red of his LED.
“’kay,” Silas lazily smirked, resting the chin on his palm, chewing on the ball of melted paper in his mouth, “So, why he’s not working?”
GV was holding a pen between his upper lip and the nose, keeping it in a precarious equilibrium, back against the reclined chair and tattered Converse pushing against the edge of his desk. Near his terminal, there was a block note Richard had never seen before, something that the android had been scribbling incessantly on in the last hour, only to jealously close it anytime someone walked near his desk.
“Must be done with it.”
Wishful thinking, Richard admitted to himself, but his doubts were confirmed the moment he walked back to his station, tapping the android’s shins to catch his attention, “GV, how’s going with the report?”
Maybe it was the look of sufficiency the android gave him, but his lopsided grin, barely showing the hint of his canines in an endearing grimace, spoke volumes of the current state of his job.
“Could use some beta-reading,” he teased, pen falling off his lips and now rolling on his stomach, “My eyes need a beauty rest.”
As soon as GV noticed the direction of the man’s attention, he snatched the treasured possession for himself, slipping the block note beneath his hoodie, concealing it from their colleagues’ prying eyes, “Eyes off. That’s not work-related.”
“Oh?”
Richard’s brows raised in genuine surprise, and all the android’s hope to get him off his back died the moment the brunet leaned on the edge of his desk, his imposing, tall build only making him look shorter and smaller, tiny and pushed against his chair, in the corner of his workstation.
“Don’t say a word. I don’t have a hobby if that’s what you’re thinking,” his LED blinked, scarlet hues circling and glowing darker and lighter, back and forth. The copier conveniently printed out his report. Taking the papers, he waved them at Richard, offering him the pen he’d been toying with, “There. Here’s my work, just check for any mistakes. Don’t wanna do all the job by myself, or they’re gonna deem you useless and fire your pretty ass.”
Shyly chuckling, Richard ignored the subtle tingling in his cheeks at the realization that, after all, the android fancied his company enough to worry about his position and call his ass pretty. Rolling the swivel chair closer to the desk, he grabbed the pen the android had lent him, patiently wiping his glasses from the dust. “Can’t argue with that.”
The document was riddled with mistakes, misspells, and lack or misuse of punctuation, but nothing that he wasn’t used to.
Spying in his peripheral, he didn’t miss the sneaky way GV had pulled the block note from his hoodie and, now rocking himself back and forth on the chair, he was scribbling something, writing dangerously close to the paper, nose almost glued to the page, all curled up in himself, the hood falling over his mussed hazelnut hair and almost hiding the scarred forehead.
He looked peacefully happy and cute, as cute as a feral android with serious anger management issues could be. Word was that he once got so angry he started to spit foam out of his mouth like a hydrophobic dog, although he’d never seen that personally.
“Whatcha lookin’ at, meat sac?”
“Nothing. It’s just odd, to see you so protective of something. Giving a try to writing?” Richard curiously teased, gaze bumping from the corrected papers, red lines and words crossed on half the report, to the android scribbling on his notes, barely sparing him a gruff hum before raising his verdant stare.
“Perhaps,” GV rebuked, “If you wanna take a laugh at me, go for it. That goddamn hunk of bolts and synthetic meat already did that.” He nudged in the direction of the HK800, hands behind his stiff back and broad shoulders hovering behind Connor like his shadow, pristine jacket spotless, and long argent strands collected in a tousled ponytail. “Finds it funny that someone like me even remotely thinks his writing might be worth a penny. Since… y’ know.” He gestured at the papers, far too self-conscious of his mistakes.
Richard didn’t feel like rubbing the salt into his wounds, but he had no words of comfort to offer him, nothing that would make it any better for GV.
He hadn’t been built for paperwork, he was barely compatible with any state-of-the-art software, and every technological advancement and update only made it harder for GV to keep up with everyone else, left behind and barely capable of interfacing with any other android. If the department was still keeping him around, it was merely out of affection. Sure, the android had the worst temperament out there, but there was more humanity and personality in his behavior than in half of the human employees.
Maybe –just maybe– even Connor had grown attached to his mug, despite always complaining about his recklessness and the repair costs, replacement and spare parts too hard to find for an outdated model such as him. Yet, there was something intrinsically funny in catching glimpses of the android munching on obsolete reliquiae of floppy disks like crunchy crackers and cleaning his teeth with the point of his pen.
Working was preferable to seeing him fucking around, but Richard never objected to being his proofreader, and no one ever questioned their arrangement.
“I could still check your mistakes, if you want,” Richard casually offered, trying not to sound apologetic or like someone taking pity on him, but the GV had already rolled on his chair and turned his back: “No way. I’ll probably just round up some money and get some software that does it for me. Besides, I don’t want you to read what I’m writing.” There was a faint blush spreading on his cheeks, pretty aquamarine gradients prickling his face and matching the sizzling blue of his scars’ exposed circuits, stare avoidant in plain embarrassment.
“Well, if you’ll publish it, I’ll read it eventually.”
“Joke’s on you. I’m gonna use a fake name. Like hell ‘m gonna use my model number. No one in their sane mind would ever publish an android’s work.”
Richard set the pen aside and took a peek at the android’s curved body, rolled into a ball, shoes on the seat, and block notes now sitting on his thighs, scribbling something in a position that hurt his back by merely looking.
“They did publish that book a few years ago. That Philip Dick rip-off,” he started, but his enthusiasm was lost on GV.
“Yeah, yeah, I heard that shit too, but it was all Cyberlife propaganda. It was all just a huge marketing maneuver, long before deviancy was a thing. Besides, the only one that profited from that book was the creator of the algorithm. The android never saw a cent. So...”
“…That’s awful.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
The conversation died there.
GV wasn’t easily persuaded, and there was no point in dragging on a topic that was already going nowhere. For a while, Richard never brought up the matter again, and whenever he spied in his peripheral the android scribbling notes on torn pieces of paper or half-printed documents that were to be trashed anyway, he simply pretended not to notice him. Sometimes, he could feel fugacious glimpses studying him, nervous green irises ogling his movements just to return to the paper whenever the Detective would even remotely feel observed. It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when they were together on a stakeout, that Richard decided to bring it up.
“Do I have something on my face?”
“Whȧ̯͔͠t?”
“You keep staring at me all the time. Is there something wrong with my face?” No matter how much he checked himself in the rearview mirror, trying to make something out of his face without his glasses on; it all seemed in order. Yet, GV never stopped catching glimpses of him, as if he had grown a pimple on his forehead only he could see.
Arms crossed in front of his chest, the brunet nervously bumped his knee on the floor, as the car rocked with every tap of his soles. The cockpit was tinged in purple gradients, the constant fiery scarlet of his right temple clashing and mingling with the radiant electric blue of his hoodie and relative android identifiers. “Everything’s wrong with your face. But it’s not like you can do somethin’ ‘bout it.”
Richard raised his brows, sort of expecting that answer already, “And here I thought you’d offer some good feedback.”
“The only feedback people are gonna get from me is a punch, if you catch my drift.”
“Well, this won’t get you far in the editorial business,” he fixed the collar of his white and immaculate coat, fiddling with something in the eternal wait for something –anything– to happen, “You might want to reconsider that.”
All he got in response was a stifled groan, as the silence was filled by the scratching of coarse fingers along the bright scars sparkling on the brunet’s ruptured olive skin.
“Doesn’t matter,” GV finally added after a long moment of silence, cautiously considering his words, “I’m not even sure someone will ever be interested in my work. I think once I get out of this writer’s block, I’m just gonna finish the last chapter and then abandon it in a drawer for the century to come. I’m already kinda demotivated at the moment.”
“I mean, if you’re so sure it’s so boring, my offer is still open.”
Getting a word out of his partner was harder than extorting a confession from any criminal, but Richard was still confident maybe this would be the moment the android finally decided to trust him. “There’s nothing wrong with being shy,” he tried again, cautiously circumventing the topic, trying to win the man’s sympathy and trust no different from a human approaching a feral and rabid raccoon, “You’re talking with the embodiment of shyness. Besides, you don’t necessarily have to show me the whole thing. But maybe you can start with a chapter? Maybe a paragraph... or the plot. We can still work something together, even if it’s not much.”
Caution was rewarding, and the initial unusual disdain that GV was throwing at him, was now replaced by a puzzled stare, pouted lips pursed as they unusually had not a quippy or smartass remark to offer, knees bouncing faster and louder, as the entire car shook up and down, like implacable waves.
GV opened his mouth, about to say something, but he quickly shut it before any words could come out of it, leaving Richard in a puddle of hopelessness, jaw clenched and rough fingers pulling at the worn fabric of his hoodie until the bronze complexion retroceded to show glimpses of tattered white chassis. Pulling the hood over his head, he covered the glowing scar of his nose, murmuring so feebly that it was a miracle the Detective had caught any of that.
“It‘s a love ś̟t̘̻̏̈́o͉̿̉͢ŗ̖́̾y͓͝,” he bashfully muttered, inwardly wishing he could bury himself alive in the spot.
“A love story?” Richard’s tone might have been too incredulous, as the android snapped before his eyes: “Yes! A phckin’ love story! Are you happy?!”
“I am surprised, but I don’t find the concept that risible. I mean, there are plenty of love stories out there, and while I agree some are horrible, an old saying goes that everything can be a better love story than Twilight. And Twilight sold one hundred million copies, just so you know. Whatever you’re working on, how can you be so sure it’s not going to sell?”
“C-Cause,” GV nervously stuttered, and put his feet on the passenger seat, not really caring about the dust and dirt he’d get on it, “Cause ‘s about love between a human and an android. And ‘m not sure someone might wanna read that shit. I mean, there’s gotta be some sad freak out there in love with a meat sac, or a pathetic human being that thinks they’re not happy with other organics and decides androids might be worth a goddamn shot. But I see how people look at us. One thing is phckin’ and usin’ us as sex toys or chat-bots, paying eighty bucks for an hour with the partner of your dreams in an Eden Club without worrying about STDs or knockin’ them up, and another is considerin’ a relationship.”
Shoulders raised, he never really stopped gesticulating until he caught up with how far he got with his reasoning, bared as he spilled his most intimate thoughts in front of the Detective, naively trustful.
Richard was quieter than usual, thoughtful as he took in his stream of consciousness, no longer paying attention to the apartment in the distance they were meant to survey, but focusing instead on the distraught look on the android’s face, pursed tight lips frowning as his LED circled darker in distress.
“I’d consider it,” his answer might have been a tad haste, but the silence was growing unbearable, and the heavy boulder sitting on the Detective’s chest didn’t hint at going away any sooner. And maybe it was wishful thinking, but it was making him silly happy, and insanely hopeful knowing that GV wasn’t averse to that kind of relationship. He must have really looked stupid, because the android was now dumbfoundedly staring at him, like a deer in the headlights.
“You,” GV rebutted, almost incredulous, repeating his words aloud as if it made it any easier to process them, “And another android.”
“What’s so weird about that?”
“Dunno. Just… guess I never pegged you as someone who wouldn’t mind that.” Zipping up the hoodie, GV nervously held his shins, heels sitting on the edge of the soft seat.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. He wasn’t supposed to hear the echoes of his heartbeats to his ears, overwhelming statics and ringing tinnitus almost making it impossible to hear his own thoughts and let alone Richard’s words, internal fans whirring so loud they caved a metaphorical chasm in his chest, swallowing his hammering thirium pump in a raging whirlpool.
“Working with an android for as long as I did can really change your perspectives,” Richard timidly chortled, in that constipated grin that almost made his titanium ribcage unreasonably tighter, crackles of electricity running on his thin wires, software instability pop-ups crashing in a waterfall of notifications on the top-right half of his HUD, until the Detective’s face was obfuscated by notices that were promptly shut off and discarded, desires stifled and chocked before they could grow into something bigger and get out of control, dreaming of something so unobtainable it hurt to only ponder it.
“Not all of us are built for intimacy,” stifling his hands under his ass, GV attempted a protest, shoulders raised and tight, bearing himself for what was inevitably coming, “Most of us are smooth as a bowling ball down there. Not really appealing to humans.” Deep inside, he wanted to convince himself more than Richard that this could not work, not with him, not with any other android out there. Jealousy was wrong and unreasonable, but there was nothing in his code that made sense, to begin with, and humans always chased sexual intimacy in their relationships. Maybe, if he managed to dissuade Richard enough from that thinking, it would have been easier to bear how unreachable he was, a longing that he forced deeper into his heart, buried under the weight of unrealizable fantasies.
Richard was undecipherable at the moment, deep sapphire irises staring at him and almost absent, pondering his words as if he was speaking an alien language, leaving him hanging onto a vile, subtle thread with all his might, waiting for a nudge of life, a hum of consent or a scruff of disapproval.
Nothing happened for a moment, and if GV concentrated real hard, he could bypass the noise of his thirium pump beat, frantic just as the loud whirring of his fans, and hear the frenetic rushing of the human’s heartbeat.
“Perhaps you’re right,” carefully dosing his words, Richard leaned against the headrest, basking in the luminous purple tinges of the cockpit, “But not every human being wishes for that kind of intimacy either.”
“Yeah, sure. I heard that shit too, but the probability of meeting someone like that is so infinitesimally small… What’s the point in even trying? In the end, you can’t pick whom you fall in love with, it just happens, and it sucks majorly. Besides, this isn’t something humans are willing to compromise on usually.”
Furtively peeking at the android, Richard inadvertently crossed his verdant gaze, timid long lashes slowly batting, revealing plump blackberry pupils lost in deep thoughts. His parched throat restricted with every scorching breath in a suffocating vice, the loud thumps of his racing heartbeat struggling and wriggling in his gullet as his words wouldn’t just leave his seamed lips, voice breaking before he could make any sound, frozen tapered fingers mechanically leaving the steering wheel as he pondered what to say.
“I’d compromise,” blunt words rolled out of his mouth before he could even realize it, lower lip trembling at the realization of what he’d just said, “If— you hypothetically asked me. I mean, sure, you’re not asking me. But, in case you did—”
“Are you coming on to me?”
“I— what?!”
“You keep saying this shit, and I swear to phckin’ rA9 I can’t tell if you’re phckin’ with me just for a laugh or something to tell that shit-face of your brother tomorrow, or you’re just trying to get in my pants ‘cause you never got laid and at this point, even a broken android will do.”
Richard merely blinked, baffled as his lips spread so much a fly could enter, get an hour-long tour of his mouth and leave without getting harmed. This was probably the closest a human being could get to blue-screen, and it wasn’t the GV’s uncooperative attitude to drag him to that point, but his surprising stubbornness in refusing, even for a second, to acknowledge that someone might have really liked him— even been in love with him.
“GV. I am not here to ridicule you.” Don’t push me away, I beg you. “I just want to—”
He winced, a bolus strangling his trachea, heart sinking in the caved pit of his chest.
What did he want?
Had he ever given a single thought to his feelings instead of passively sitting by like a passenger, a spectator of his own life, waiting for the tides to take him?
When did sitting alone with the android become so nerve-wracking? When did every breath shared and every second of elapsed silence gradually evolve from relaxing and relieving to embarrassing, and every stolen glance squelch his heart and turn him into putty, until every accidental touch was never enough, if not an endless yearning for more?
The slam of the door snapped him out of his thoughts, and as soon as GV rushed out of the car, Richard was tailing right behind him, in a frantic hurry, as his labored short breath condensed in the cold night, fear and chill seeping into his bones, and investigation forgotten as he ran to grab a hold of his hoodie, nervous pale hands grabbing and tugging at the edge of his sleeve before it was too late.
“GV. Please. Listen to me for a second.”
“I’m giving you thirty seconds, and I swear to phckin’ rA9 ’m gonna give my resignation and never come back if you try to bullshit your way out of this.”
“Please— there’s no need for extreme decisions.”
“My compliments, you just lost yourself ten seconds.”
Richard jolted, nails digging into the android’s sleeve, never really letting go of the rough fabric, terrified that if he ever loosened his grip, he’d be gone forever.
“Fine! Fine!” voice faltering, he was barely able to meet the scowl the android was throwing him, severe jade eyes dissecting him to uncover the supposed mountain of lies GV was expecting to hear, “I— I don’t want to take advantage of you. You’re my partner, probably the best I ever had, even if you fuck up from time to time and your attitude is the worst out there.”
“You’ve got ten seconds left.”
Richard gulped, chill sweat beading on his temple, shivers running on the goosebumps of his skin, “B-But I’m not lying. I’m not doing it because I’m desperate to get laid, I’m a virgin, or whatever you might think the reason is.”
“Five.”
“I just—” mincing a curse beneath his breath, he toyed with his lower lip, peeling a bit of chapped skin until it bled, heartbeat echoing so loud in his eardrums it became almost impossible to hear anything else but that and the torrent of his implacable thoughts, “I just like you very much. It’s as simple as that. You’re a stubborn dumbass, and sure, you’re always cursing and swearing, and etiquette was never an option in your vocabulary, but I never said I didn’t like any of these. And… I don’t know— maybe it’s silly, because, in the end, I’m one of those delusional meat sacs that thinks you’re worth it, you’re worth every minute of my time and you’re funny and really smart, you’ve got an awful sense of humor that is made up for 90% of outdated vines and 10% of awful Youtube Poops that never made me laugh, but the real idiots are those who don’t see how…” the blush on his cheeks was becoming blatant, burning crimson flushing to his ears, as his words stumbled, “H-How beautiful you are. Even if you hate all your scars and the color of your LED, I think they’re all breathtaking.”
The crisp wind had his legs tremble, but GV didn’t shake despite the thin layer of fabric he was wearing, frozen and unmovable, as he barely blinked, trying to make reason of what he’d just heard.
Richard nervously met his eyes, and his hold on his sleeve loosened, defeated and discouraged.
“Forgive me. I believe I exceeded my five seconds.”
GV curled his nose, but his attention was elsewhere. He stepped closer, and when Richard squinted his eyes, fearing the worst, bracing himself for a kick in the groin or a punch in the stomach, he just felt the unexpected warmth of soft lips brushing his, a kiss so delicate and tender it almost felt unreal, hot tongue coiling around his only to lewdly lap around the edge of his lower lip and suckling on it before letting it go in a loud click.
When he opened his eyes, GV was standing on his tiptoes, white palms showing the articulations of his fingers’ mechanisms as they treasured his sharp jaw, the pretty grumpy scowl on his face tinged in the most beautiful shades of the marine ocean, a radiant blue on his cheeks, and a burning cyan sizzling on the tips of his ears, the rippling seam of his mouth now quivering.
“You had some blood on your f̛̱̤͍̑͂͢͠a̫̟̰̰͂̈͑͛c̪̗͙̋͗̓ë͉̝̜́́̈.”
Richard didn’t bat an eye, unblinking and dazed as if he’d just hit his head against the wall and directly ascended to Heaven.
“I… see.”
“You do?” GV smirked, almost teasing, and Richard couldn’t believe that the android was smiling for the first in a long time, so genuine and naive that it was just too tempting to gently lean in, foreheads bumping, greasy human skin against ruptured chassis, and kiss him again, just with the same, renewed impetus.
Touching the rivulets of blood spilling from his broken lip, he dared take a step further, thrilling at the realization that GV not only hadn’t faltered but took a step closer as well, timidly opening his arms as Richard threw himself into them, hugging and shrouding the android with his coat, long arms closing in a tender and yet tight embrace around his slim shoulders until GV’s maroon stubble prickled against the cashmere of his turtleneck.
“I do.”
Hugging him back, the android buried his face against his chest, “Sure. You’ve got some explaining to do once we get back.”
Richard delicately leaned his chin over his head, nuzzling against the soft tangle of mussed hazelnut hair, humming something on the notes of an “I know.” Maybe that was happiness: cherishing the android’s minute body in his hold and never really thinking about anything else but that moment for the next few days or months. “Perhaps we can start with... a date?” he added, fighting back the awkwardness in his words, the mere thought of holding GV’s hand and doing something so unusual not really helping his anxiety, stomach pulled into a nervous knot, “I-If you want to, of course.”
GV nodded vigorously, and although he didn’t properly talk, the tighter hold around his ribcage, squeezing until something cracked, surely enough was speaking volumes of his enthusiasm, skin retroceding and peeling off from his knuckles until it revealed the dented chassis beneath. “Can’t wait for that,” he uttered, finally meeting the Detective’s gaze and standing on his tips to offer him a quick kiss. He threw a glimpse to the apartment in the distance, and quickly returned to him though, wearing a shit-eating grin, “By the way, the explanation part was referred to the job. The suspect just left the building.”
He could almost hear the gears turning in Richard’s brain as he processed the information.
Oh, right. His job.
GV was gleaming, a lascivious grin plastered on his face, “I’ll give a call to Tina and ask she and Chris handle that. You’ve never taken a day off. Why not start with tonight?”
Richard playfully shook his head, stifling a chuckle as he felt tepid white fingers sliding between his, holding onto his knuckles tightly and rubbing them in gentle circles as they walked back to the car.
“Guess you’ve got yourself a good ending for your book now, don’t you?”
“I suppose,” GV’s LED kept blinking crimson as ever, but it was no longer in distress, peaceful as watching a burning sunset.
“Can’t wait for the sequel.”