On a Different Note {Reed900}

Chapter 1

Gavin loved the rain.

He loved how it splashed against the roof of his small house, making small thumps as the storm pass through. He loved watching the droplets crawl down his window the next morning as he drank his coffee and prepared for work. He especially loved nights like these, where the rain thundered down heavily. It was odd. Normally when people said they liked stormy weather, they meant a small drizzle. Gavin though? Stormy nights like these were the best. There was no reason for him to go out. No reason for him to see anyone, or to do anything. No reason for him to impress anyone, or to hide anything.

It was comforting to him.

So obviously the detective would be slightly ticked off when a knock rang through the house at around 12 am, right after Gavin had pulled his guitar down from the closet. He'd picked up the instrument when he was about 19, and had been super into playing it until about 27. Now it was more of an occasional thing he'd do to relieve some stress. Gavin laid the guitar against the wall suspiciously before grabbing his hand gun off the table and walking towards the door, brows furrowed as he slowly opened it.

"Good morning, Detective Reed!"

Gavin immediately placed his gun on the nearest table, relaxing as he groaned. Connor stood outside his door, a bright, cheeky grin on his face. He was absolutely soaked, but didn't seem to mind it. Their relationship wasn't as bad as it was when they first met (though, it really only improved because Hank is a scary son of a bitch and Gavin wasn't about to get murdered by some old Lieutenant for harassing his boy toy) but Gavin still wasn't *buddy buddy* with the precincts gay toaster.

"It's 12 am, the phck do you want tin can?"

Connor cleared his throat despite not needing to. "I...I need to ask a favor of you."

"Absolutely not."

"Detective-"

Gavin was about to slam the door on Connor, but the brunette was quick and strong, and managed to easily catch it.

"Detective, you know as well as I do that I could easily snap your neck right now, so if you could please-"

Gavin didn't want to test him. "Fine! What do you want!?"

Connor's smile returned. "I need you to harbor and android, just for a couple days."

"Absolutely not." Gavin tried to shut the door again, but still, Connor held it open with his stupid Android strength.

"Detective, please." Connor pleaded. "I'd let him stay with me and Hank, but there's not enough room. Jericho is filled to the brim and I don't trust that he'd be safe at a hotel." He sighed gloomily. "Despite anti-android hate crimes being illegal, there's still a high rate. It is safest that he stays with you until we find him a more permanent place to stay."

Gavin scrunched up his nose, still not liking the idea. But he knew Connor would still make him harbor this dumb android, no matter how much he fought back. That's just how Connor worked, that stubborn prick. With a sigh, Gavin begrudgingly agreed. "Fine. But *only* for the next week. If he's not out by then I'm setting his ass on fire."

Connor furrowed his brows. "That's illegal, Gavin-"

"Yeah, I know." He huffed before glancing around over Connor's shoulder. "So where is this android anyways?"

"Ah-" Connor turned around, seeming to motion to someone. After a small moment of awkward silence, Gavin could hear the faint sound of someone else stepping up his front steps, though he didn't see the android until he'd fully stepped onto the porch, and oh boy was he good looking.

He was taller than both he and Connor, though looked scarily similar to the shorter android. Same pale, freckled skin, same nose, same hair. Their faces were also a pretty close match, though Connor was much more doe-eyed then his taller twin. And the eyes...Gavin had never imagined Connor with blue eyes, but now that he'd been given an example, he much preferred them to Connor's normal brown ones.

"Gavin, this is Nines." Connor grinned and gestured to the taller android.

"Uh. Hi." Gavin mumbled, like an idiot.

Nines held up his hand, and a blue, glowing rectangle flickered to life. On it, in bold, white font, was the word 'hello.'

Gavin tilted his head in confusion. "The phck?"

"When the revolution ended and Cyberlife was taken down, Nines was being built. They left him without having finished building him. They left out his voice box, as well as a few programming things."

'I don't get mission alerts.' Nines added, his LED shifting to yellow.

"So...he's mute?" Gavin huffed, eyes trained on Nines. Nines seemed to be uncomfortable with the detectives staring, and kept glancing away awkwardly.

"You could say that, though it can be fixed." Connor noted. "We'd need to find a voice box though, and they aren't easy to come by...so yes. He can still hear you though."

Gavin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Anything else I need to know? Because I'd like to go to bed at some point."

Connor shook his head before patting Nines's back. "Nope, that'll be all! I gave Nines some money so he could buy some clothes tomorrow, but besides that he won't be needing much from you." The brunette grinned at the two before stepping backwards. "Have fun you two!" And with that, he was off, heading back to the old, beat up car that Hank still had.

Gavin and Nines stared at each other, very obviously awkward. After a few moments though, Nines seemed to get bored and held up his hand again. 'May I come in?'

"Yeah, sure, whatever." He huffed, holding the door open more and stepping aside so that the taller man could step in. The detective followed him inside, before slowly shutting the door. "Sorry for the mess, mnwasn't expecting any visitors."

'It's fine.' Nines smiled softly at him, and Gavin felt his heart skip a beat. 'You have a cat?'

"Oh, yeah." Gavin chuckled sheepishly. "They're both probably asleep. You'll see em' tomorrow." The detective added, as he quickly stuffed a couple objects into a drawer. "How'd you know?"

'Scanners.' Nines responded, eyes still dancing around the living room. Finally they landed on the guitar that Gavin had propped up against the wall. 'You play guitar?'

Gavin blushed furiously, quickly walking over and shoving it back into the closet. "What!? No, no. It's uh...it's a friends." He grumbled out. "He's out of town and asked me to keep an eye on it...yeah."

Nines raised a brow suspiciously, but didn't ask anymore questions about that. 'Nice home.'

"Eh, it's 'aight."

'What makes you say that?'

Gavin shrugged. "It ain't fancy or anything." He paused though, realizing that Nines had probably only been inside two houses; his and Hank's. The android probably didn't have any standards when it came to this stuff. "But it's home I guess."

Nines looked deeply confused, but again, didn't ask. The two of them stepped into the living room, though Gavin took a few extra steps so he was by the staircase.

"You...you ok with just crashing on the couch?"

Nines nodded. 'I don't need to sleep, so I'm sure I can manage.'

"Alright, smartass." Gavin chuckled before beginning to walk upstairs. "Night."

Gavin fell asleep quite easily that night, what with the pounding of rain against his window. But a small, nagging feeling in his gut kept bothering him.

It probably isn't anything, though.