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ALERT: Hardware systems lagging. Please report to CyberLife for a quality assurance checkup.
Nines dismissed the warning as he’d already done countless times. He was all too aware of the tuneup he was due for, and had already scheduled one for himself. For two months from now.
Android healthcare was still a disaster to navigate, and anything less than a life or death situation always had an egregious wait time. At this point, he could only treat the system alerts like Gavin treated software update opportunities that popped up on his laptop: ignoring them for weeks on end.
“Earth to tin can, come in tin can,” Gavin said, snapping his fingers in front of Nines’s face. “Come on, I’m heading out.”
Nines blinked, bringing himself out of his medical pondering. “Apologies, Gavin. Just going over something.” Nines turned from the cabinets storing various baking dishes he'd been perusing, raising his eyebrows as he took in the sight of his partner. “I see you’ve adhered to bundling up for once.”
“Hey, mountain hiking is very serious business,” Gavin said, pulling a puffy, olive-colored winter jacket closer. The human also wore similarly puffy pants, sturdy snow boots, and a rather adorable beanie. “Gotta be accurately prepared.”
In a bare fraction of a second, Nines pulled up the weather on his HUD, scrolled through the prospective forecast, and dismissed the app. “There’s another snow storm approaching, and there’s still two feet of accumulation from the last snowfall. Are you sure you’ll be safe?”
“Nines,” Gavin said, that familiar I-swear-I-know-what-I’m-talking-about-so-get-off-my-dick tone lacing his voice, “Tina and I go on this trip every year. We know how to handle a little snow, and it’s definitely not going to scare us off. Hey—”
He adopted a softer manner, gripping Nines’s bicep and squeezing as he offered a half-grin. “I’ll see you tonight, alright?”
Nines had no real worry in the first place, Tina had a good head on her shoulders after all, and she would surely keep the pair out of trouble. He returned the grin with ease. “Alright. Have fun,” he said.
“We will,” Gavin promised, and leaned forward to share a quick goodbye kiss with Nines before heading to the door of their apartment. He had to toe Asshole out of the way, the cat sleeping in front of the entrance, and as she gave a short Brrrop? of confusion, Gavin said, “You’re not invited, Asshole,” before finally exiting.
Nines chuckled as the door shut, returning to the task of baking some peanut butter cookies for the upcoming holidays, watching out the balcony window as tiny flakes of snow began to drift onto Detroit.
*****
Four hours after Gavin had departed, Nines was playing with Asshole while the cookies cooled, dragging a shoelace about the apartment that she pounced on relentlessly.
An incoming call from his boyfriend pushed aside yet another alert about his lagging hardware. “Hello, Gavin,” Nines greeted as he made Asshole jump straight up into the air with a sharp yank of the shoelace. “Are you and Tina heading home?”
“About that…” Gavin said, and Nines grimaced at the sheer level of static coming from Gavin’s end, a fierce wind howling in the background. “We walked almost the entire trail without a problem, and then on the last curve, we mighta, sorta… fallen into a snowbank?”
“You what?” Nines asked, standing up straight and abandoning his grip on the shoelace. Asshole attacked one final time, noshing on her on her finally-felled prey. “Are you hurt?”
“No, no, we’re fine,” Gavin assured, the static of the call giving him a vocal strobe effect. “We just— We can’t stand up, neither of us can get the leverage. We tried digging and—” Nines heard Tina shout something in the background, the static and wind making it impossible for him to decipher her. “It hasn’t made things any better.”
“You need me to come get you,” Nines stated, already slipping on a coat and pair of shoes. No longer interested in the deceased shoelace, Asshole watched him with a cocked head.
“Well yeah, but frankly I’m just calling to warn you. Tina already called Valerie since they own a bunch of shovels, and apparently she’s pissed,” Gavin said. “She’s coming to our place to pick you up.”
No sooner had Gavin informed Nines of his newfound chauffeur than a text message from Valerie appeared on his HUD: Get your ass out here, we’ve got two morons to save
Nines gave a slight sigh at the whole predicament, mentally preparing himself for a long, frustrating evening. “Are you sure you and Tina will be alright until we get there? You don’t need me to call professional services?”
“Just get over here and save us, tin can,” Gavin said. “Tina and I are fine, but we’re freezing our tits off out here.”
Again, Nines sighed at his boyfriend’s crudeness, but slipped out the front door to begin his unwanted adventure for the day. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Call me back if things get worse, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, I will,” Gavin said, then once more adopted a bit of a kinder demeanor. “I’ll see you soon, Nines.”
“See you soon, Gavin,” Nines said, a pang of fondness mixing with the worry swirling inside him, and hung up the call.
Though the snow fell in great sheets outside, finding Valerie proved to be no difficult task. A lone woman stood in the middle of the parking lot, hands on her hips with shovels shoved into a pack on her back and an impressive motorcycle-style helmet donning her head.
“I told Tina to push off this stupid hike for a couple days,” Valerie shouted over the wind, approaching Nines, “but does she listen to me? Nooooo, she goes on and on about how going on this date is important and how nothing’s happened before, and winds up getting herself stuck in the snow!”
“Good evening, Valerie,” Nines said as cordially as possible while Valerie unslung the bag from her back, fishing around inside as she continued to grumble. “They certainly did pick quite the day to get themselves in trouble.”
Valerie gave a sharp bark of bitter laughter. “You can say that again. Put this on, we gotta get going,” she said, pulling out an extra helmet from her bag and shoving it into Nines’s chest.
The android blinked, taking the protective gear from Valerie and finally catching sight of the vehicle she had rode in on. A snowmobile idled nearby, halfway parked and ready for its next journey. “You’ll have to wear this, too,” Valerie said, holding out the shovel-filled pack. “You’re riding backseat and I don’t want it squishing in between us.”
Nines gave the helmet a cursory glance, frowning. “Technically I don’t need this. My chassis can withstand up to—”
“You put that goddamn helmet on right now or so help me—”
Nines shoved on the helmet, wondering how Valerie managed to give such an intimidating glower through her visor.
“That’s better,” she said, and handed off the pack of shovels. “Now get on.”
Nines obliged, slipping onto the back of the snowmobile while Valerie revved up the engine. Soon enough, they were driving into the storm, wind and snow battering at them as they rounded through the streets. “Snow’s made the roads pretty bad. Not much traffic, but everyone trying to navigate this is getting outpaced by snails,” Valerie said. She patted one handle of the snowmobile as it cut a quick path for them, “but this baby should let us move fast enough to get to the Heartpeak hiking trail in about twenty minutes.”
“That seems neither safe nor legal,” Nines yelled over the storm, tightening the hold he kept around Valerie’s middle.
“Keep testing my patience while my wife is actively freezing to death, and I’ll show you what’s not legal!” Valerie shouted back, earning a furious honk from a lone driver she raced by.
Nines stayed quiet for the next few minutes, silent while Valerie maneuvered them through the near-nighttime traffic. She certainly drove well above the speed limit, but her skills were smooth enough that they never came close to crashing. Nines thought of calling Gavin to pass the time, but a certain observation drew him away from the prospect. Though Valerie was bundled up from head to toe, the speed of the snowmobile and the harshness of the wind let the snow slip into the crevices of her various layers, slowly chilling her to a frightening degree. “Valerie, you’re getting too cold,” Nines warned. “You could grow numb.”
“Oh, my bad, must’ve forgotten to turn the heat on,” Valerie said in a deadpan, pretending to fiddle with buttons on an imaginary dashboard. “How’s that?”
“Valerie…”
Nines felt more than heard Valerie sigh. “I’m sorry I’m being so snippy, I’m just worried. But I don’t have a better solution right now, do you?”
Nines evaluated possible responses, biting his lip as one sprang to the forefront. Ignoring all the hardware warnings that had been popping up in his head the last few weeks, he reached forward. “Let me know if this isn't OK,” he said, and gripped her arms, pressing himself flat against her back while he turned up his internal temperature.
For five endless seconds, Valerie said nothing. Then, “That actually helps a lot. If you could keep that up for the rest of the trip, that’d be great.”
“Not a problem,” Nines said, tightening his hold and hoping to rA9 that his systems held strong.
*****
“Quit squirming around, you’re just covering yourself more!”
“Well shovel faster!”
Valerie gave half a huff, half a groan. “Next time you’re in imminent peril, you can shovel yourself out.”
“You’d miss me too much,” Tina teased through chattering teeth.
“Uh, Nines? You wanna try actually digging instead of making a little moat around me?” Gavin asked, face semi-submerged in the snowbank.
“Give me one second, Gavin, I have a plan,” Nines said, continuing to shovel tiny mounds of snow around his boyfriend. Once he was satisfied, Nines abandoned the shovel, sticking his hands under Gavin’s armpits and lifting the human out of the mound in one fell swoop without causing a miniature avalanche.
“There,” Nines said, brushing off the excess snow from Gavin’s clothes. “Is that better?”
“Mildly,” Gavin said, trying to sport a smirk that refused to stay on his blue lips. He shoved gloved hands underneath either of his armpits while he shivered. “Fuck, I’m freezing.”
“Stay close to me,” Nines said, pulling his boyfriend to his side as he kept up his internal temperature. “I’ll keep you warm.”
Nines proceeded to help Valerie dig her wife out of the snow, and soon he was safely hoisting Tina out of the snowbank. “Jesus, babe, your fingers,” Valerie said.
“Yeah…” Tina said, lifting her hands to take stock of her curled, frostnipped appendages, fingers past the point of shaking. “These are not going to be fun to thaw out.”
“Are you sure you two don’t need medical attention?” Nines asked, hugging Gavin to his side. “You’ve been out here for so long—”
“No,” Gavin and Tina chorused, Gavin continuing with, “No toes lost yet, tin can. We just need some good old indoor heating.”
“And a hot bath,” Tina added. She looked at the snow melting around Nines’s heated feet and asked, “I don’t suppose you have room for one more, Nines?”
Nines extended his arm, letting Tina huddle against his opposite side and kicking up his internal temperature another notch. With her and Gavin safe, the four of them set off on the short trek to Tina’s car, currently the only vehicle besides Valerie’s snowmobile in the parking lot.
ALERT: Hardware systems lagging. Coolant systems in need of maintenance. Please report to CyberLife for a quality assurance checkup.
Nines pursed his lips, blinking the warning away. Coolant systems? That was new. He’d call CyberLife in the morning; perhaps he’d be able to get his appointment moved up.
For now, though, he had two humans to warm.
*****
“How are you feeling?” Nines asked.
“Much better,” Gavin said, snuggled against Nines on their couch as he repeatedly curled and stretched his fingers. “Tina was right, it was a bitch to thaw myself out, but I’m fine now.” He gave Nines a smirk. “Of all the accidents I’ve landed myself in, that was the seventh least pleasant.”
Nines rolled his eyes but returned the grin, hugging Gavin closer to press a kiss against his forehead. “I’m just glad you’re alright now. The soup should be ready in another few minutes. Do you want me to get you more hot cocoa?”
“Please,” Gavin said, handing Nines his mug, to which Nines went into the adjacent kitchen to fill with milk. “And thanks again for getting us. I know we probably shouldn’t have gone out because of the storm, but… it’s an important day to us, you know?”
“You met today, didn’t you? Years ago?” Nines called, watching the mug spin in the microwave.
“Yup. Tina holed herself up at the youth shelter just a couple weeks after Fowler dropped me off there. We didn’t exactly get along at first—er, well…” Gavin stalled as Nines took out the mug and began to stir in two packs of cocoa mix. “We didn’t hate each other. It wasn’t like how you and I started out, but we weren’t friends. I’d already developed a reputation as ‘that kid,’ but one day she came up to me and was like, ‘You ever want to scream from the top of a mountain?’ That night, we snuck out, hitched a ride to Heartpeak, hiked to the top, and screamed our fucking hearts out. Nothin’ like catharsis to bring two people together. We’ve been taking the same trip every year since.”
Nines chuckled, bringing the mug back into the living room. “And did you two have a good scream this afternoon?”
“Best one yet,” Gavin said, chuckling right back as he accepted the cocoa. Nines retook his spot next to his boyfriend and Gavin curled against him while sipping at his hot chocolate. “Damn, you’re warm. You still got your processors running hot? You can quit being a living space heater now.”
Nines gave a laugh he hoped concealed his nerves. His lagging cooling systems still hadn’t brought down his internal temperature, and it was starting to get uncomfortable. A full-length stasis should fix the issue, and until then, he wouldn’t worry Gavin. Smoothing his arm down Gavin’s side, he teased, “What, am I not good enough to be your stand-in blanket?”
Gavin laughed, warm and full, wrapping an arm around Nines’ shoulders. “Come here, you bastard,” he said, and the two shared a long, sweet kiss.
*****
It was almost 3:30 in the morning when a blaring alert forced Nines out of rest mode. WARNING: Biocomponent cLA#49465 compromised. Cooling systems corrupted. Please return to CyberLife for immediate component replacement.
Nines’s eyes shot open, his internal temperature broiling. Shouting half a cry of alarm, Nines flung himself out of bed, scaring Asshole into scampering away, as he raced into the kitchen.
Wrenching open the freezer, Nines took out an ice cube tray while dialing CyberLife’s emergency line. “heLLo?” he asked once the dial tone ceased, frightened by the sound of his own distorted voice as he clutched the ice cube tray to his chest, where his overheating thirium pump worked double time.
All that greeted him was an automated message, the pleasant voice listing half a variety of options before fizzling out as his communication systems grew corrupted.
“Nines?” came a tired, scratchy voice. Nines looked up to see Gavin in the doorway, rubbing at one eye while yawning. “The fuck are you doing? What’s the matter?”
Nines opened his mouth, to say what he wasn’t entirely sure, but a new warning interrupted any focus he could spare.
Nines’s legs buckled as the tips of his fingers began to smoke, and he fell to the floor with a static-filled scream, letting the ice tray clatter to the floor just as his left ring finger lit aflame.
The android was too preoccupied with the state of his hands to notice Gavin’s eyes grow wide, his boyfriend rushing forward and gripping Nines by the shirt, dragging him to the balcony and wrenching open the door, to throw him into the three feet of snow still atop the outlook.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin demanded, piling snow on top of Nines to put out and prevent any further fire. “Nines, you have to tell me what’s wrong!”
Nines could only whine, crying as countless errors invaded his vision, most all of them promising his imminent demise.
“OK, OK, hey—” Gavin said, adopting a gentler tone. He kneeled beside Nines, taking the android’s left hand in his own and pulling back the artificial skin of his prosthetic fingers, starting an interface to send over waves of comfort. “It’s alright, tin can, it’s OK, I’m right here. I just— I need you to tell me what’s the matter, alright?”
Nines made as valiant an attempt as he could to repress his sobs, clutching his love’s hand and gathering the strength he needed to stutter, “C-cOOlLiNg sYst-e-e-e-em… b-b-bROkeN.”
Gavin hissed a sigh, squeezing Nines’s hand all the tighter. “OK, so… how do we fix it?”
“O-o-opEN… bACk P-o-o-orT,” Nines said, peeling back the skin around a panel below the back of his neck.
“OK, OK…” With a hand Nines felt was trembling, Gavin was able to clumsily open the port. “Jesus,” he whispered, and Nines whined at the implication.
“It’s OK, it’s OK!” Gavin backtracked, tightening his grip on Nines’s hand. “It’ll be alright, Nines. What do I do now?”
“I N-e-e-e-eeD… I n-E-E-e-e—” But Nines’s voice trailed off into empty static, his body shuddering into an immobile state in order to preserve essential functions. His grip on Gavin’s hand went slack, and soon he could only command movement in his eyes.
“Nines? Nines!” Gavin yelled, shaking his boyfriend. “Nines, talk to me!”
Nines could only give his boyfriend a pleading look, sending all the desperation of a dying man through their interface. Summoning the last reserves of his strength, Nines sent over a mental image of the component he needed.
“OK, OK, alright. Shit, alright. I’m gonna call for help, OK? I’ll be right back,” Gavin promised, pressing a quick kiss to Nines’s temple before piling more snow onto the android and rushing back into the apartment.
If he had the ability, Nines would have begged Gavin not to leave him alone, terrified of shutting down in his love’s absence. As it was, Nines couldn’t even whimper in protest, left in the cold while snow melted around him. After everything he’d done, everything he’d been through, was an ultimate void going to consume him in solitude because of a faulty biocomponent? Saline tears leaked down the android’s cheeks, no shuddering able to accompany them.
“Brrrrop?” came a curious mewl. Nines strained his eyes to get a view of Asshole in the balcony doorway, paws squishing the soaked living room carpet from the melted snow. She cocked her head at him for a moment, then proceeded to hop up on his calves, walking the length of his legs before settling herself at the small of his back, curling up and purring.
Nines felt his overworking systems calm a bit, her small, furry comfort able to bring his stress levels down just a few degrees.
“Don’t you give me that shit! I know you’ve been fiddling with biocomponent development experiments!” Gavin shouted from somewhere in the house, getting closer to where Nines still lay. There was a pause, then, “Because you’ll be faster! Now do you have a cooling component or not? Hey, Asshole, get!”
The cat sprung off Nines’s form, her presence replaced with Gavin’s as he knelt once more beside the android. “OK, OK, I unlocked the front door so you can just come in. What do I do to help him now?”
As Nines half wondered who was on the other end of the line, half desperately wished to speak to his love, Gavin followed a set of instructions Nines couldn’t hear, trembling fingers dancing over the open port.
Gavin pressed one thing and sent an uncomfortable jolt through Nines’s body. He pressed another, and Nines knew the world no more.
*****
Roughly five hours later, Nines was hanging up a final call to CyberLife, at last able to get someone to move up his appointment to just one week from now. The android heaved a tired sigh, only one of the two confrontations he needed to do today complete.
Stalling, he reached a hand back to the spot just below the base of his neck where Lazzo had managed to fit a custom cooling component. It had taken a significant amount of time to calibrate, but it had saved Nines’s life, and was in perfect working order. Lazzo had claimed it to be his best piece, though admitted his “component quality extension” project wasn’t nearly as tested as it ought to be, and urged Nines to get a real replacement.
Nines quit rubbing at his artificial skin, the spot just as smooth as the rest of his body, as he sighed. Best to rip the next bandage off now.
The android made his way through the quiet apartment, not even Asshole offering a sound as he passed her by. Framing himself in the kitchen doorway, Nines took stock of Gavin, sitting at the table and typing away at his laptop. He had on what Tina had once described as his “resting bastard face,” and Nines bit his lip as he saw the necklace of his old LED spin an unsteady yellow.
Taking a cautionary step forward, Nines said, “I got a new appointment.”
Gavin did not cease typing at the computer. “When?” he asked simply, voice clipped.
“In a week,” Nines answered.
Now Gavin turned to face him, chair creaking as he stared Nines down with furrowed brows and a brooding expression. “It’s not today?”
Nines shifted on his feet, biting his lip again. “They said they couldn’t move it up any further than that.”
Gavin stood from his seat, closing his laptop and beginning to walk towards the doorway. “I’ll give them a call.”
“Gavin, I don’t think that’s necessary—” Nines said, trying to intercept his boyfriend’s stride, but Gavin’s demeanor instantly went from a two to a ten, and the human shouted, “If I have to swing my fat ass human privelege around to make sure you don’t spontaneously combust, I’d say it’s pretty fucking necessary, Nines!”
A silence fell between them, filled with all the tension of the early morning’s desperation. Nines was only able to get out half of Gavin’s name before the human crumpled, tears spilling down his face as he gripped the front of Nines’ shirt. “You almost died in front of me again, Nines! I mean, I knew you had a checkup due kinda soon, but how the fuck did your systems manage to get so broken?”
Nines’s thirium pump ached at the sight of his love in such distress, and he raised his left hand to cup Gavin’s face, his right to lay over one of Gavin’s hands. “Yesterday’s conditions ended up being more taxing than I thought they’d be. I’m sorry.”
“You almost burned alive to keep me warm?” Gavin asked, pulling away from Nines’s hold. “Why didn’t you turn off your heating?!”
“I wasn’t going to just let you freeze!” Nines defended.
Gavin scoffed. “We’ve already established that fingers can be replaced,” he said, waggling his prosthetics in front of Nines’s face. “You can’t!”
Nines’ systems twisted all the more from the mutual pain and frustration that threatened to spark concern into a flaming argument. He wouldn’t let pointless squabbling waste away precious time. Spreading his hands, Nines said, “I only wanted to protect you; I didn’t think it would get so out of hand. But I shouldn’t have put myself in so much danger, and I’m sorry for what happened because I ignored it. I promise—” Nines held out his hand to Gavin in an apologetic invitation, skin pulling back, “—it will never, ever happen again.”
Gavin stared at the hand with a set jaw, letting out a long sigh. Nines swallowed on reflex, worried his apology wouldn’t be enough to leave behind the morning’s horrors. Eventually, though, Gavin took the hand in his own, the skin of his prosthetics also retracting. An interface of anxiety and relief between them, the pair pulled each other into an embrace, Gavin leaning his head against Nines’s chest.
“You better fucking take care of yourself,” the human mumbled. “This house isn’t big enough for two people who ignore their basic needs.”
Nines couldn’t help but give a small, soft chuckle. “You’re absolutely right.”
“And I’m calling CyberLife,” Gavin said.
Nines pressed a kiss against the top of Gavin’s curls. “I love you so much, Gavin.”
Gavin tightened his hold, affection flowing and bouncing through their interface. “I love you too, tin can. So much.”