Work Text:
Odd Moments
His complete lack of human social skills was both off putting and strangely endearing. Dash seemed almost childlike in his joy that she would work with him - or even talk to him. It was … sweet. Normally people wanted something from you or had their own agenda (Vega's former partner flashed across her mind at that thought). It was so strange to find someone who didn't think like that or, at least, didn't know to think like that.
Since meeting him Vega had been forced to reconsider several of her own opinions on the world. To her, PreCrime had been the pinnacle of police work, the greatest human creation since the computer itself. When John Anderton had it abolished it was like the world had gone mad, and no one even knew why. Still in the Academy at the time, Vega remembered those following months with horrifying clarity. Murder rates went from nonexistent to the triple digits over night. The public, who had turned the PreCogs into near deities, suddenly had nothing to turn to and panicked. It was chaos.
But now she saw it through Dash's eyes. He was, despite his oddness, a man like any other and not the unfeeling vegetable PreCrime had stated him to be. They were children forced into slavery and treated as inhuman tools. And they were terrified of going back, Vega could see that even behind Arthur's cool demeanor. It twisted up everything she used to think.
Was this what Anderton realized? Was that why he shut it down or was it something else?
"Just how accurate is this thing?" Dash's voice broke into her thoughts.
He was examining the LoveMatch bracelet from the club. Out of the range of the building it was nothing more than a clear strip of TecPlastic, but Dash had kept it anyway.
Vega chuckled. "It won't find you your soulmate if that's what you're wondering. It mostly just weeds out people you'll probably want to stab after a five minute conversation."
Something flickered behind his expression and Vega immediately regretted her choice of metaphor. She wondered how he lived with that much death in his head.
"So 51 percent is not that bad?" Dash smiled shyly looking up at her.
She felt herself smiling back automatically. Vega folded herself down onto the couch beside him, pointedly not noticing they way he almost flinched at her nearness. Dash really was a social tragedy.
"Well we haven't gotten bored of each other yet, have we?" She kept a little space between them so he wouldn't get overwhelmed by sudden human contact.
Dash laughed at little nervously. "I doubt I could get bored of you, Detective."
Vega bumped his shoulder teasingly and this time he didn't flinch away. "The Detective and the Psychic - we should have our own sitcom."
He flushed in embarrassment, the tips of his ears turning red. Yes, Dash really was strangely endearing.