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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

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1651. You will regret this.

This was prompted by the amazing @aurea-b! I hope you enjoy, even though it got a bit dark.

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: For Reed900: bullying/mental abuse, Gavin is anti-android at first. For the rest: mentioned implied sexual abuse/rape)

Nines had been confident his future would be better. He was ready to leave his past behind him and thankful for the chance at life the DPD was willing to give him. He had been made Detective and had been given a partner. So far, so good.

Only that his partner had to be Detective Gavin Reed.

It was easy to say the man was a total asshole. There was no sign of compassion in the man, on the contrary even: He liked to be the embodiment of a school bully grown up. He hated androids and let him know it. Giving him useless tasks just to get him out of his way, calling him names and accidentally “spilling” his coffee or any other liquid, causing him more than once to short-cut in non-vital system, was just the tip of it.

It wasn’t as bad as some other things that had been done to Nines during his time at Cyberlife, but he had wanted his life to get better, not just a different kind of bad. The prolonged exposure to the man’s bullying was tiring and at some point, the nights spent alone in the bullpen weren’t enough to brace himself for the next day. He needed to stand up for himself. He had to tell Gavin he couldn’t simply do as he pleased with him. He would start setting simple boundaries, easy enough to respect, and work his way up from there. Surely, the man would be able to learn. Maybe Gavin simply didn’t know that what he was doing was annoying and disrespectful. Who knew how human minds worked. He would come around surely.

So, as Gavin stood up for a smoke break, Nines did so, too. ‘I think I’ll accompany you today.’ ‘Knock yourself out, plastic. Just don’t expect any chit-chat.’ Nines nodded and followed the man, convinced that the fact he hadn’t reacted aggressively just yet was a good sign. Once outside, he waited for Gavin to light his cigarette. He was usually calmer once he had took a few drags and Nines thought that them being alone without anyone watching would make the man more diplomatic. So, when he decided he had waited enough, he spoke up: ‘I want to be called Nines. You don’t call your other co-workers names and I want to be treated the same way. I want you to stop calling me tin-can or toaster or whatever racist term you throw my way.’

Nervously he watched the man’s reaction, who simply took another drag, before putting the not even halfway finished cigarette out and throw it away. ‘Oh yeah? You want that?’ Nines was pleasantly surprised, when the human seemed to actually think about it, nodding to himself. That belief was shattered, when the human looked up grinning and Nines knew he had made a grave mistake. In a sudden fit of anger, Gavin took him by the lapels and pushed him against the next wall. He was a surprisingly lightweight model and although it had been one of the reasons why he was allowed to exist, he really wished Cyberlife would have finished him and installed the heavy reinforced plating.

‘You know what?’, Gavin hissed, pushing him against the wall for emphasis. ‘I don’t give a shit what you want! You are a machine. A tool. You may help me with analysing things and being able to see stuff I can’t. But here’s the thing: You can do nothing I couldn’t do myself with blacklight and a bit of time. I don’t need you. I was fine before and I’m fine now. And how I see it, you don’t have anything to force me to comply. Complain to Fowler, see if I care. The only two options you have, tin-can…’ He smiled and cupped Nines cheek to give him a little slap. ‘Is either become the obedient machine you were supposed to be or fend for yourself on the streets where some kids will have their fun with you one night. Who knows, maybe Cyberlife takes you back in – Oh wait… They didn’t want you either, right?’

If Nines applied any more force to his jaw, he would shatter it. He was furious. What did this human think who he was? He wanted more than anything else in the word to punch this man in the face. Maybe break his nose a second time, see the blood spill and Gavin in pain. A bit of revenge for the last month’s abuse. But even more than the human fuelled his anger did the fact that he was right: That were Nines’ only options. Cyberlife had deactivated him and thrown him into a heavily reinforced room to rot after he had deviated and lashed out on the testing grounds, effectively killing all seven Cyberlife researchers that had tortured him plus some more security guards afterwards. He was deemed dangerous and aggressive; most thought his soldier programming had simply never worked correctly and was too dangerous to develop any further. The DPD’s fifth precinct had been the only one to take him as Connor would be able to easily overpower him without his reinforced hull plates. So, Gavin was right saying he could either obey or live his life as a fugitive on the streets of a city that had only recently began seeing androids as sentient beings. The futility of it all had Nines fuming though and he leaned in, hissing: ‘You will regret this.’ He freed himself from Gavin’s grip and marched back into the building.

He didn’t want to give in. He didn’t want to bow his head and let the Detective slap him around. He continued to stubbornly go his way of enduring the abuse and trying to retaliate, but at this point he was just tired. Maybe trying to fend for himself wasn’t as bad as he thought. He could at least try it and if it wasn’t any better, he could still come back. If his only other option was to become slave to Gavin Reed, then the humiliation of crawling back to the police was just another drop in the ocean. He told no one. He just waited until the nightshift arrived, then he put his badge and gun on his desk and send an apology email to Fowler. He would get out of here. He would get away from Gavin Reed and it would be better surely. These thoughts in mind he nodded to himself and walked out of the building.

Gavin came in the next day unsuspecting of what waited for him. As he walked towards his desk and Tina stood next to it, he didn’t think much of it. A grave mistake. ‘Gavin.’ Oh-oh. ‘What the hell did you do to him again?’, she said, her calm voice far worse than any shouting. ‘Isn’t it enough the guy was tortured his whole life?’ ‘The hell you talking about?’, Gavin tried to brush the accusation off, but was interrupted: ‘Did you really need to make it worse? How do you think a bot like him will survive out there? Everyone thinks he’s a murderer! How the hell did you bully him away from the only safe place he knows?’ Gavin held up his hands. ‘It’s just a machine, Tina, chill!’ ‘Just a machine?’ This wasn’t their usual arguments or nagging, Gavin knew. The woman was extremely angry. ‘Gavin. I understood your anti-android bullshit back when it made still sense. Back when those plastics took our jobs and made our lives miserable. But I won’t accept it now. Connor isn’t just a machine. And even if, he saved Hank’s life! If he hadn’t been there, Hank would be dead. That has to account for something, right? And if they were just machines, what would that make me? My fucking girlfriend is an android! Do I love her any less? Do I treat her as if she wasn’t a person?’ Gavin just looked at her, lost for words. She sighed.

‘Wake up Gavin. The world has changed. The world is still changing, damnit. You can’t stop that. And you hurt someone. You met someone who only knew pain and you hurt him even more. I’m sorry Gavin. I liked you once, because you were funny and because you saw what most of these science-fiction freaks didn’t see in their euphemism. But I can’t- I don’t want to stay in contact with someone like that.’ ‘What? Tina!’ ‘No, Gav, please. If you change your mind, I’ll be there for you. But please, don’t speak with me until then.’

Gavin was at a new low. He knew that as he found himself alone at home the entire week. He started drinking more, the time he spent at work is his only anchor point. He went to work, did his job, came home and waited for the day to end. With Tina gone he was lonely. Worse than lonely, he was alone. They had been constantly with each other, going drinking, to the movies or just chilling at home. His actions had really cost him his last connection to the world. Again. Well, that was fine, right? He had spent the best times of his life alone. He had been successful, moving away from his family to Detroit, acing one exam at the academy after the next, getting a job at the police and quickly making it to Detective. Who said this wouldn’t be the same? He nursed his whiskey bottle and swallowed the burning liquid. Yeah. This wasn’t the first time his life had been miserable. Life had its ups and downs, Gavin’s just seemed to have them at a lower average than normal people. That was fine, he was fine, he would just move on, step after step and pull himself out of the shit he was in right now. He always did.

He didn’t manage to do that for several weeks. He drowned himself in work, but life didn’t get better. He should go out and meet people, maybe some that wouldn’t leave him behind, but deep down he knew he would only meet persons that would drag him down even more. He needed good people to remind him when he was entire shit again, but the problem was that for good people you actually had to change to be likeable. And for him that was just a little too much work.

Finally, after nearly a month, he got one of these big cases that would either destroy you or gain you a promotion. A huge Red Ice lab somewhere in Detroit, base of operation for a whole gang. He had found most of the evidence himself, now it was time for SWAT to build up a plan on how to get in there and arrest everyone involved. Later he could go in and search for more evidence to make sure they got every last one of them. Everything went smoothly. Gavin sat in a police car, watching the black SWAT-vans and listening in on their radio. There were the first easy arrests before inevitably chaos broke loose when they entered the main room and sounded an alarm. But after a short and intense shooting, they had cleared the building.

Gavin sighed, getting out of the car and following his team: Tina, Chris, Person. None of them looked at him, none of them could be bothered. Gavin didn’t care. The first chance he got, he walked away from them, deciding to investigate the basement. He walked through a few small corridors, narrowed even more by pipes running along the ceiling and side. So far nothing indicated anyone really used the area. Until he came to a door that was kept open by a brick. Red light painted the wall, likely emergency lighting. But as he opened the door, he was corrected. In the middle of the room on top of a few dirty mattresses laid an android. It was without its skin and completely naked. Gavin carefully stepped further into the room and froze all over as soon as he recognised the android. ‘No way.’

Nines lay before him, looking up to him with wide eyes. He seemed not able to move anything but his eyes, otherwise Gavin was sure he would have scooted into a corner and not lay there exposed in the open. The android watched him with unbelievable fear and panic in his eyes and his LED a dark red. Gavin swallowed and finally had the sense to crouch down towards him. But that only made it worse, Nines pressing his eyes closed hard, seemingly bracing for something far worse.

Gavin couldn’t take this anymore. The way Nines responded, even if -or maybe because – it had been just his eyes, broke the man. This was his fault. The android indeed had been safe with the DPD. And only because he had repeatedly been an asshole, he had fled one night just to end up as a plaything for some thugs. He knew touching him wouldn’t do any good, so he decided to quickly shrug off his jacket and drape it over Nines’ torso. The android looked up at him in surprise, blinking at him as Gavin positioned the jacket to hide the necessities. Only then he realised he was actually crying. He didn’t even care that the android was watching him closely. He pressed his own eyes closed, whispering: ‘I am so, so sorry.’

Suddenly, the door opened and Nines’ eyes jumped up in panic again. Gavin only sniffed and whipped away his tears with his sleeve before turning around. ‘Tina? Get Connor.’

Back at the DPD, Gavin sat at his table, watching Connor and Hank taking Nines to an interrogation room. Gavin didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to know what they would be talking about once they had reactivated the android’s full motor control. He didn’t want to think about what had been the cause of this all and he definitely didn’t want to deal with any of his feelings at the moment. So, when the door opened and Hank’s face turned up at the entrance, Gavin decided to bolt.

He hurried out of the building just to find himself in the DPD parking lot. He leaned heavily on his motorcycle, pushing the key in hoping to get home as soon as possible. Of course, his stupid bike wouldn’t start though. And that was the time, the damn android had made its way out of the building towards him. Nines came to a halt next to him and Gavin simply panicked. He didn’t know what exactly happened, but with all his thoughts racing a mile a minute, he began babbling: ‘I’m sorry, this is all my fault, tin-can, I- Damn, see I can’t get it right even this time! I’m sorry, Nines, I was the one who drove you away. I’m the one who send you straight to them, I’m…’ He couldn’t continue talking as he hadn’t any more air to speak. He felt his chest tighten and his eyes water up and he struggled to even get air through his blocked-up throat. Nines used the break to hold out a hand. ‘I just wanted to give you your jacket back. Thanks for that.’ ‘Thanks? Damn it, bolts- …Nines. I send you to hell and you thank me for bringing a jacket?’ ‘I didn’t expect that’, the android answered in a completely collected manner. ‘Yeah, sure. Wouldn’t expect that from me either if I were you…’, Gavin admitted. ‘You look terrible.’ Gavin chuckled through tears that had started rolling down quietly. ‘Yeah, my life kinda went to shit. Deserved that though.’

‘Why?’ ‘Because I treated you like shit, tin-can!’ Gavin had shouted that, but the echo from the parking lot let him quiet down a bit. ‘I treated you like a machine, like… Phck, even a machine doesn’t deserve the shit I pulled on you.’ ‘No, it doesn’t.’ Gavin swallowed and nodded, looking at his bike. ‘What I did to you wasn’t fair.’ ‘No it wasn’t.’ ‘You endured it all and I made it even worse.’ ‘You did.’

Silence stretched, until Nines spoke up again: ‘Do you regret it?’ ‘Oh, yes. Tin- Nines, yes I regret it like nothing else in my shitshow of a life.’ ‘Would you change the way you treated me if you could?’ ‘Yes…’ Another quiet break followed until Gavin finally looked up and Nines smiled at him. ‘Then prove it. Hank and Connor offered me to live with them should I ever need it again, but I want to stay with the DPD. Although this time I won’t take any shit from you. I would have asked to be partnered up with someone else, but you look like you mean it.’ ‘Phck, yes, Nines, I mean it. I… I don’t think I see your kind as human, maybe I’ll never. But… You are not just a machine. You are a person. If I didn’t see it before, I know it now. The way you… The way you looked at me when… No one should ever look at someone like that. I… I want to make up for what I put you through, I really want to. And I promise you one thing: If I ever do something like that again, if I ever wrong you again, I’ll be the one who leaves. I have… more options than you have.’

Nines laid his hand on his motorcycle to start it up for him, then held it out for him. Gavin hesitantly took it. ‘Then I’ll be looking forward to working with you, Gavin. Just know that I’ll remember your promise and will use it.’ ‘I wouldn’t expect anything else. Detective Nines.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #another Reedemption arc #I love asshole gavin transitioning to nice gavin but why do I always torture Nines for that?#we'll never know

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