Chapter Text
“How do you sleep at night?” Tina had asked him, a teasing lint in her voice. Though part of her question was unnervingly serious, her light words felt heavy in the late of night.
Because truthfully, Gavin didn’t.
Whenever Gavin was on the clock, it felt like the world was swirling. Constantly moving, stimulating, and Gavin swirled with it. But once the world stopped spinning, the dizziness left him sick in the night, and stillness unnerved him.
So, truthfully, Gavin rarely slept just as he was rarely truthful. “Like a baby.” He said, gave her a two-eyed wink then stuck a lollipop in his mouth. Carefree and without thought— in Connor's words, “Unprofessionally lax.” Asshole.
But he lay there, one hand tucked beneath his pillow and the other laying listlessly across his stomach, staring blankly at the ceiling. The unwatched TV yapped in the background, giving the otherwise unlit room a tinted glow.
He grumbled, abruptly snapped out of his static state when some cheesy old band crackled through the bedroom. He blindly reached for his phone on the nightstand, ignoring whatever had shattered, and picked it up with a drowsy greeting.
”Hmmeah, cap’n?” He slurred, and then he groaned again. This was going to be a long night.
━━▲━━
Earlier
“Cap’n you cannot possibly be serious!” Gavin huffed, looking between Captain Fowler and it, who was giving him a hollow-eyed stare from the corner of the room. How the hell anyone thought these things were alive, he didn’t know. “I don’t want to work with that thing.”
”I don’t recall asking what you wanted, Detective Reed, only what you were ordered to do.”
” ordered ?” He scoffed, “That’s the thing that's meant to be ordered around here.”
”Detective Reed,” Fowler snapped, “May I remind you that I am your commanding officer? By all means, both of you are expected to respond and follow through on my orders. Is that understood?”
Gavin nodded, and Connor, the robo suck-up, responded with a prim, “Yes sir…”
though he hesitated and continued in a surprisingly shaky tone. Dumb plastic and it’s human intimation “but with all due respect, Sir, I don’t understand your reasoning behind pairing me with Gavin in Hank’s absence. Wouldn’t it be more efficient for my temporary partner to be someone more…”
Suddenly both the Tincans and Captain Fowler's attention had drifted towards Gavin. “What?”
”Compliant?” It settled on.
“This precinct has been able to maintain a stable system regarding teamwork, the last thing I need is you disrupting that.”
Connor seemed a little put out by that, which made Gavin snicker, which made Fowler glare at Gavin. He quickly dropped his grin.
”That being said, you’ve done well working with other officers in the precinct. For the most part. I am not expecting you too to be buddy-buddy after a few days.” Both men— well, man and masculine robot— shuddered at that. “But you must prove to me that you’re both capable of adapting and that your jobs come before personal relationships.”
“I think ‘Relationship’ is jumping the gun.”
“It’s more of a mutual disdain,” Connor admitted.
Fowler slouched forward, a rare look of amusement softening his frown. “Seems you two are agreeing already.”
“Ew.” Gavin spat and— wait, why were there two voices for that? And how come when he looked back at Connor he was whistling and looking away all innocent like?
Connor wobbled on the back of his— his? Where was that coming from?— feet, like it was antsy or something. ”Are we dismissed, Sir?”
Captain shook his head, whatever was on his mind sure was amusing. “Yes, dismissed.”
Connor nodded, turning swiftly on his feet to exit. He seemed to be in a hurry of some sort, because on his way out he walked straight into the screen door, blinked, and then properly pushed the door open with a heavy grimace.
Gavin just— he didn’t know what to say to that, but he did appreciate the laugh. He must’ve given “Mr. Detective Prototype” too much credit if he thought it was smart enough to know to open the door before walking through it.
“Alright, tincan,” Gavin began as he followed the android out of the captain's office, still chuckling a bit. “Let’s get things straight. If you think your plastic ass in well-pressed pants is going to tell me how to do my job, then you're dead wrong.”
He closed the distance between them. He wanted to be intimidating here, but it was a bit difficult when an android who stood tall at 6 feet was the target. The point got across though. “Stay out of my way. Or I’ll drag you down to android hell myself.”
“Why would a human be in android hell—?”
“Cuz I’m the warden dipshit!” He snapped, throwing his pointer finger into the android's face. “And I’ll make sure you burn .”
Connor looked like he was going to say something, but exhaled— what or why it was breathing, Gavin couldn’t tell ya— and just went, “Okay.” Like the obedient bitch it is.
”Alright.” Gavin nodded at him.
”Yeah.”
”Mhm, good.”
When Gavin walked off and lolled back into his desk chair, Tina shook her head and snickered at him. “How do you sleep at night?”
━━▲━━
Present
Gavin was half hoping that his eyes would roll back into his skull and he’d die before he had to deal with Sherlock Robocop, yet he was there. Fully alive. Unfortunately. So he sucked it up and marched into the club.
Considering this was about some “android homicide” he would’ve expected another Eden club situation. Except this was a very human-looking club. For humans. And last Gavin checked most androids post-revolution wanted nothing to do with humans.
So why the hell were four Androids having a girl's night out in a human club?
”It could be the pressing lack of Android welcoming establishments,” Connor answered, “Tensions have been high since the revolution. I’ve already taken their statements, too. It seems they just wished to de-stress in a similar fashion to humans.”
Gavin shook his head, walking beside Connor and into the vibrating club. It’s been six months since the revolution, and frankly, the whole “Android rights” thing hasn't been swinging in the plastics' favor, but they’re being left alone by the law otherwise. That being said, a destroyed Android doesn’t need to be taken as a homicide case.
But Gavin had a sneaking suspicion that Connor purposefully got them dragged down here. Maybe he wouldn’t have minded a 3 am case to keep away from the stillness… if it was an actual homicide.
”Why anyone is afraid of you plastics taking over is beyond me, you guys aren’t even smart.”
Connor looked over at him, brows knitted in some intimation of confusion, ”Excuse me?”
”Four androids go to a human club, one bitch drops dead. It’s not even shocking. Why none of them thought waltzing into a human bar wouldn’t get one of ‘em killed is beyond me.”
“You say that as if four human women going into a club isn’t just as risky.” He shot back, the confusion giving way to faux irritation. “And don’t refer to victims as ‘bitches.’ It’s disrespectful.”
”I’m sorry, you’re telling me what to do?”
Then Connor— did that little shit just roll his eyes!? The hell is happening today? Then he had the nerve to just cross over the holographic evidence line and waltz on like nothing happened. Ballsy these tincans.
But Gavin took a breath, carefully clenching and unclenching his hands to calm the nerves. He just needed to prove to the captain that he wouldn’t let this ‘mutual disdain’ get in the way of his job… even when his job was particularly stupid, so he carried on.
“Alright,” Gavin crossed the holographic line. His voice cracked a bit in his mostly masked anger, and he was quick to clear it. “So what happened exactly?”
Connor looked over the body with a carefully stoic expression. He circled the chick like a vulture, probably doing his reconstruction shit. Its LED was cycling yellow.
It’s? His? Gavin didn’t know anymore.
”Hello? Earth to Tinman?”
Connor glanced up at him, held his— He’ll just go with ‘his’ — silence a moment longer until his LED turned blue. He still looked perplexed, though. “Her throat was crushed, near the equivalent of a human windpipe, then she was beaten. Sometime before that, she had been forcefully undressed. But…”
“But?” Gavin pressed, watching the android paste around the room like a madman, flinging that stupid coin in the air and catching it repeatedly.
”But it doesn’t seem like she was dragged or forced into the room. In fact, my reconstruction suggests she walked in on her own merit.”
“Think the ass who did this jumped her?”
”No— well, yes, but not in the way you're insinuating.” He came to a stop by the far wall of the small room, spinning his coin on his knuckles before flicking his wrists and shoving it back into his pocket. His mood ring spun yellow, and he nodded as he came to a decision.
“There are cameras around the halls, at least one of them should have spotted where she came from and what kind of state she was in. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a clean shot of the suspect as well.”
Since he figured he’d play along, mainly for the sake of not risking a possible promotion, Gavin motioned for Connor to follow him out into the hallway. “C’mon then, let’s get that footage.”
And when they did? Oh boy, Gavin did not expect it. The AX400 victim fumbled into view, crinkly ginger hair and all, stumbled from one side of the hallway, and leaned over to the other. She was all feathery on her feet and beatific, and it was all very, very strange.
When Gavin glanced over to Connor to gauge his reaction— which in hindsight was stupid, all of his expressions were just social programming, deviation be damned. That being said, Connor looked as bewildered as Gavin felt.
Damn social programming thing.
"This... isn't normal?"
"I don't know, do I typically seem intoxicated to you?"
He snorted, "You did ram straight into a screen door-- speaking of which, what was I saying earlier about androids not being smart?"
"We have a homicide to investigate, Detective Reed. Could you maybe not insult the once living being who was violently murdered?"
"Well, that's dramatic. Besides it's a tincan, most the dumb fuck could be charged for is the destruction of property-- oh wait, since you guys weren't satisfied being just that, guess he can't be charged for that either."
Connor gave him a hard stare, and Gavin stared back, challenging the android to say anything.
Switching gears entirely, Connor refocused on the 'homicide.' No, refocus was an understatement, his eyes were all scrunched up along with his eyebrows. He heard Hank squawk about how locked on Connor gets, but this was insane.
"She seems to get called by someone," He squinted a little harder, though frankly, the footage was in pretty good quality. Maybe that was just his face. "You can see a hand beckoning her, leading her over to..."
Connor trailed off, and Gavin followed where his finger had traced along the screen. He was currently pointing to a blank spot, right where another camera should've been.
"Shit."
"That's not very PG of you, tinman. You can't be cursing like that when you go back to Oz."
Connor gave him a sideways glance, then looked back to the screen in suspicion. "Odd how the only camera out is the one we need." Which was, yeah, a good point. The monitor displayed up to a dozen cameras at a time, and eleven of them were in perfect working condition.
"I'd say this was premeditated. Hiding right out of sight on the camera systems seems like a thoughtful move. Either the perp knew about the blind spot--"
"Or made it themselves."
Gavin cringed, "We don't-- we don't do that. I finish my sentences on my own, thank you."
"...Sorry."
"Whatever. I still don't get the drunk thing, though."
Connor hummed, re-watching the video for the thousandth time. "She could've been malfunctioning, or even suffering from a virus of some sort."
"Sounds about right."
"Either that or she did in fact consume alcohol, this would've sufficiently diluted her thirium and caused her to run on lower than average functions."
"You shitheads can drink?"
Connor shook his head, a disappointed scowl on his stupid plastic face. "Let's head back to the crime scene so I can run a diagnostic on her thirium."
"Why didn't you start with that?" Gavin followed behind as Connor took his leave of the surveillance room. On the way out, Gavin gave the club owner, who had been loitering just outside the door of said room, a subtle nod.
"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not entirely thrilled to lick blood."
Gavin snorted, then started to make a retort, only for the Android to stop in his tracks and cause Gavin to collide into him. "What--"
"Shhh." Connor shushed him. shushed him! That little punk ass-- wait, what was that noise?
Gavin partly followed Connor's gaze and partly followed his own ears, both of which led up. It was this weird lumbering sound, like someone or something was clambering through the vents.
Both Gavin's and Connor's eyes followed the movement of the sound, moving leftward and-- what do you know, to a vent. Before Gavin could call out an order, the vent was kicked outward and a male, seemingly human body barreled out and into the hallway.
"Get him!" Gavin barked, though it was redundant as both he and Connor were already hot in pursuit.
Before the rest of the cops stationed by the scene of the crime-- god, they always return to the scene of the crime-- could react, the man shoved them down like dominoes. Gavin slowed his pace, but Connor just as swiftly pulled an officer to her feet as he kept running.
Determined not to be left in the dust, Gavin hopped over the fallen bodies and attempted to catch up with Connor. Though by that point the Android had gone into overdrive. "Connor!" He called, only knowing he caught the guy's attention by the slight tilt of his head, "Split directions and we can cut him off!"
With a curt nod, Connor skidded to slow his pace, glanced side to side, and then bolted into another direction. Gavin picked up the speed, sliding around a corner and catching sight of the suspect stupidly pressing for the elevator.
"Hey! DPD, put your hands up!" The man compiled and slowly raised his hands, and Gavin took that as his chance to slow his pace some. Just his luck though, the man immediately dipped at the sound of the slowed footfall, efficiently duping him. "Son of a--"
Shaking it off, Gavin pursued, turning a corner once again to see the hooded figure throw open the door leading to the stairs. The club was a fairly large building, possibly an office complex at some point, which spanned two floors. The first floor was the more traditional disco-lit and dance floor space, while the upstairs was for storage and to provide a more quiet lounge. The murder-- god, Connor really had him over here calling this a murder-- had taken place on the second floor.
The first floor was more or less unaware of the happenings above them, Gavin could even feel the bass of the music from under his feet. If he let this asshat escape into the crowd, or worse, the dance floor-- there was no telling what would happen.
To do his best to keep that from happening, Gavin slid down the stair railing, only jumping off and back onto solid ground when he was hot behind the suspect as he hit a corner. Gavin had stumbled a little, but gained his footing and closed enough distance to try to restrain the suspect.
He ended up pulling the suspect's gray hoodie, but instead of yanking the man back, Gavin felt himself being pulled forward. He lost his balance, which thankfully threw off the suspects too, but also ended up in them crashing to the floor and rolling down the stairs.
They had fumbled quite a bit, and Gavin's vision blurred as he felt a crushing weight land atop him and knock out his breath. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't rolling anymore, and he tried to clamber back up to his feet.
He wheezed, his hand shooting up to grasp his rib, but limped on and out of the stairwell, pushing the door open. The tinted lights swirling around made him dizzy, and the blaring music stung his ears. His head panged... and he slumped back against the wall.
Eyes had wandered to him, but it was too dark to make out exact expressions. Maybe he shouldn't have told Connor to split, the speedster freak probably would've caught the suspect before he made it to the stairwell. That being said, Connor was probably apprehending him already. Which was good, he wouldn't have to worry about another case under his belt. Especially one so trivial.
Stupid Androids, making a big deal of other Androids... Androids in which they befriended and... cared enough about to bring them out and try to have fun. What was it Connor said? De-stress? Stupid Androids. Stupid... faced... Android.
Oh, someone was standing in front of him. But his head was starting to ache and he was too winded to move much. He could see their feet though-- dress shoes, they seemed expensive. Who wore expensive dress shoes to a club?
An arm wrapped around his shoulder, which he tried to shrug off to no avail. They began to lead him across the club, and Gavin couldn't help the relieved sigh that slipped as fresh air hit his face.
He was slowly lowered, and he could finally hear the voice that was previously muffled. "Gavin? Are you alright?"
His head shot up and unexpectedly met with those brown doe eyes that he knew and hated. "Connor?" He wheezed-- of course, Connor was the one wearing dress shoes. He must've been really out of it not to realize that. "Where's the hoodie guy? Did you catch him?"
Connor hesitated, and if Gavin hadn't known any better he'd say that the Android gulped from nerves.
"Connor, did you catch him?"
Slowly, the android shook his head. "I lost track of him as I was momentarily impeded. I... after I lost him I was quick to come and find you."
Gavin cringed, he could feel Connor scanning him, and even worse could he feel the weight of that stupid plastic hand on his shoulder. He didn't need some stupid plastic tincan supporting him.
"Don't fucking scan me." He grumbled, lashing his shoulder out of Connor's grasp. That stupid plastic hand hovered for a moment, then retracted to its side. He didn't look at its face.
"I'm sorry." God, it even sounded sincere, whose idea was it to program these wolves in sheep's clothing with faux sincerity? It was high time they got their asses kicked. "But I believe you need medical assistance. You've seemed to sustain an injury to one of your ribs, it's best if--"
"Shut up." He wheezed.
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me, you dumb metal scrap-box, I said shut up!" Gavin shot up to his feet, ignoring his own wince of pain, and shoved Connor backward. "I don't need you or your half-assed help-- so go fuck yourself off into a tornado or some shit and leave me the hell alone!"
Its face crumpled, "I don't understand, I prioritized your safety over the stability of our mission-- is that not the right to--"
Gavin kicked down some innocent trash can, the loud clanging of the metal against the concrete quickly silencing the Android. "I said shut up!"
Connor's mouth, once slightly agape, flattened into a line. Good. Following orders like a good little bitch.
That one cruel thought made his lips tick upwards, and he didn't even care that Connor was looking at him like he lost his mind. The funny thing was, Gavin wasn't even sure why he was so angry.
Was it the pain? The exhaustion? The way the once happily stimulating spin of the world was now suddenly making him sick-- no wait, that might just be his ribs. Or was it just a burning hatred for that stupid plastic face? It deserved to be shut up, always running its smart month. Piece of shit.
When Gavin looked up from the concrete again, knuckles turning white at the deadly tight clench of his fists as they hung by his sides, Connor was gone. When had he left? The Android was always so fearless and stubborn-- did Gavin really manage to scare him off?
After all this time of trying to provoke and intimidate Connor, this is what happens? He ends up seriously losing his cool and instead of a snappy response or even a fist to the face he just ends up scaring the android off.
How did Gavin expect himself to sleep at night?