"I might have..." You mumbled, this only made Nines's frown deepen at you.
"No you did lie." Nines stated while tilting his head to the side, you had lied to Connor. You weren't leaving anytime soon at all you were staying right where you were. "I did lie..." You whispered out.
"Why did you lie? Was it something to do with your conversation with RK800 earlier?" Nines questioned as he rolled his chair closer to yours, his head dipping down slightly to get a better look at your face. "No it's nothing to do with that... I'm not leaving tonight. You're welcome to go home though... I'll give you my key." You told Nines as you struggled to pull the key from your jacket.
One of his hands stopped yours as your eyes flicked upwards to look at Nines. "If you are staying then I am also staying." Nines informed you as he pulled your hand from out of your pocket. "However I would like to inquire as to why you plan to stay late."
"Oh I'm not just staying late... I'm staying all night long... I'm going to look through every piece of evidence we have. I need to do more." You explained to Nines whose LED began to flash between red and yellow.
"Very well, we shall stay all night long. I must insist that we leave to get some dinner for you however." Nines said a smile forming on his face, you really weren't surprised at the fact Nines was going to stay. He wasn't the type of person to leave you behind. "Obviously... I'm not going to starve." You laughed, Nines stood from his chair and picked the mug you had tea in up from the desk. "Where are you going?"
"You are going to need a lot of tea to get through the night, starting with the one I am about to go and make you." Nines commented as he lifted the mug up a bit higher, this only made you smile at him thankfully. 'How did I manage to get a partner so perfect like Nines?' You wondered while staring at Nines. "Also you should probably inform the Captain that we plan on staying the night to go through evidence."
"I'll do that right now..." You responded as Nines turned away and moved away towards the break room.
Standing from your chair you move towards Fowlers office and knock on the door, a quiet 'come in' sounded out, so you opened the door and stepped inside.
"Detective L/N, hasn't your shift ended already?" Fowler asked as he pressed his back against his chair. "It has... but I'm staying... me and Nines are staying the night. We're going to look through all the evidence. So I'll probably be tired for my shift tomorrow." You told Fowler who nodded seeming impressed by what you said.
"Do whatever you want, just be careful Gavin is on the night shift tonight. So he'll be around for a little while." Fowler said which made you let out a loud huff.
"Hopefully we'll be down in the Evidence Archive while he's here." You muttered pushing yourself off of the back of the chair you were leaning on, then looking at Fowler you say. "Have a good evening Jeffery."
"You too, Y/N."
With that you left his office behind and moved back towards your desk, Nines wasn't back yet so you just sat down into your chair to wait. You didn't have to wait long as you caught sight of Nines walking towards you holding a mug of tea. He placed the mug down in front of you and then sat down besides you, a soft smile on his face.
"Thank you, Fowler said that Gavin is on the night shift tonight so don't be surprised if you bump into him at some point this evening." You told Nines as you lazily slouched forward in your chair to prop your elbows onto the desk. "I see, I highly doubt he will find himself in the Evidence Archive however, that would require him to actually do his job would it not?" Nines asked with a small smirk on his face, in trying to hold your laughter it just came out as a snort instead.
"That is true... where do you want to start?" You asked Nines who looked down to the desk top and started to tap his index finger down onto it. "You are the one who wanted to stay, therefore I believe that you must have had a vision inside of your head on what you wanted to do." Nines pointed out while his LED flickered between yellow and blue.
"Budge over then." You ordered him while pointing towards your terminal, Nines moved his chair to the right so you could squeeze in beside him. The moment you got onto your terminal you went to all of the digital versions of the case files and sighed. "Look at how many there are..."
"Yes that is certainly a lot," you and Nines were so close you could constantly feel his synthetic breath hit the side of your right cheek, "are we comparing each case or are we pointing out there differences?"
"Differences that's much easier..." You mumbled in response, Nines hand as it had been doing recently found it's way onto your thigh, beginning to rub soothing circles at the top. "Obviously the most recent one is that there were two couples not one... only one couple was killed in the usual way. But then they were killed and left in a different room."
"Samuels mothers case, they of course knew she had a child. Then there's the case where they did not know about the Android child, which resulted in them deactivating him." Nines said pointing at the two case files that involved any kind of child, you grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled some notes down. "You know I could just keep track of everything."
"I can't let you do everything... that's not fair." You told Nines as you placed your pen down onto the paper.
"Very well, do not forget the case that was done in an apartment building. It is the only time it has not happened inside a house." Nines expressed as he then watched you jot down yet another note. "How could I forget that... I almost lost you for the first time." You mumbled while using the pen to tap onto the side of your head. "Many of them have contained more than one message where as others have had only one. And they always change the place they put the messages."
"That is true, they are not very consistent on that, however they have always been consistent on there being at least one message." Nines commented as his hand moved from the top of your thigh and down to your inner thigh. You of course flinched. "Y-Yeah," you cleared your throat in an attempt to hide your surprise, "they've never missed an opportunity to write a message..."
"The only thing that has always stayed completely consistent is the removal of the hearts, yes they have hid them in different places but the hearts have always been removed." Nines pointed out to you as his thumb started to glide itself up and down your inner thigh, you were trying your hardest not to lose focus. 'Does he even understand where he's touching me right now?' You wondered to yourself, he probably had no idea what he was doing right now.
In an effort to make it so you didn't have to talk and sound like a babbling idiot you gripped ahold of the mug of tea Nines had made you, and took a small sip of it. Out of the corner of your eye you could see Nines watching you, his LED catching your eyes too. It was flashing red.
"Are you okay, Y/N? Your heart rate has increased... so has your breathing..." Nines drawled and that's when your mind went into panic mode. 'Oh no he's going to find out that I like what he's doing...'
"I'm fine honestly!" You squeaked out in defence, not missing the fact that a small smirk grew on Nines's lips.
"I see, well please let me know if you begin to feel overwhelmed by... stress." Nines said taking a big pause before he said the word 'stress.'
"S-Sure..." You stuttered instantly wanting to kick yourself for letting a stuttered word leave your mouth, you had hoped Nines would move his hand but he didn't. Taking a mouthful of your tea you swallow it down hard, as Nines's hand squeezed down on your inner thigh. "Is the tea to your liking? I made it slightly stronger to what you usually have." Nines asked his voice oddly husky, his hand unclenching it's squeeze on your thigh then clenching down once again.
"You know it's to m-my liking... you always make me a-amazing tea..." You stammered clearly the tea idea wasn't working at all, so you needed to find a new way to stop yourself from liking what Nines was doing. "Another thing that's always been different is that some of the crime scenes have symbols of lust... and even some of those are different. We've had flowers, blood of the animal of lust and apples..."
"Yes that is true... and most recently we've had actual drawn symbols of lust that have been used through the ages." Nines added as he looked over at you, an impressed look his face.
"What?"
"You haven't written any of that down." Nines said, using the index finger of his free hand to point at your piece of paper. "I can remember that stuff... I think..." You mumbled a short breathy laugh leaving your lips.
"Very well... I am always here if you do not remember." Nines stated with a smile on his face, reaching across him you enter one of the files to see that it was yours...
"I didn't realise there was a file... for that..." You breathed out, your breath now getting caught in your throat. Nines pulled your hand away from the terminal and exited out of the file so you could no longer look at it. "There is no need for you to look at it, you are completely aware of what happened." Nines said his voice sounded irritated but not towards you, his hand once again clamped down onto your inner thigh which caught your attention. "Y/N, do not let your mind wander to what it could possibly say."
"But it-"
"No. You will only upset yourself. I shall not allow you to work late if you are upset, I will simply make you go home." Nines told you, his voice had a deadly tone with it that told you he wasn't joking about that. "Aren't you curious about what it says?" You questioned Nines as his grip on your inner thigh only tightened, that's when he shook his head 'no'.
"I am not, I was there. I know what happened and no case file will tell me any different, we survived and that's all that matters." Nines declared as he loosened his grip on your thigh and moved his hand away completely, you felt lost without it there.
But then he pulled you into an awkward hug, both of your chairs making it hard. He pushed your head to bury your face into the side of his neck, while he rested the right side of his face on the top of your head. Nines ran a hand soothingly up and down your back.
"I'm sorry... I just forgot that we become a case..." You mumbled into the crook of Nines's neck.
"Do not apologise, I just don't want you to be upset." Nines said his voice quite hushed as he spoke to you, he then pulled you away from himself and tilted his head at you. "Are you ready to continue?"
"I am..." You said, confidently, picking your pen back up in an attempt to show Nines you were ready.
Everyone on the day shift had now gone home, the night shift slowly shuffling in signalling that you should probably get food soon. Looking over to Nines you saw him studying one of the case files intently, you didn't really want to interrupt him because he looked at peace.
"I believe we have extracted any kind of information we can from the case files, I believe we should head down into the Evidence Archive." Nines called out while he kept his eyes on the terminal, still reading the file. "Nines... I kinda need food..." You mumbled as his head snapped in your direction, you gave him a small smile as he looked at you.
"You should have said you were hungry, I was too engrossed in the case file to notice right away." Nines stated as he pushed his chair away from the desk and stood up, holding his hand out to you. "What would you like to eat?"
"How about you just drive us somewhere and I'll pick something?" You suggested shaking on the side of your jacket that you keys sat in, Nines tilted his head to the side before saying. "Yes that is certainly a good idea, may I have the keys?"
You buried your hand into your jacket pocket and pulled your keys out from inside it, then placing the keys into Nines's hand. He retracted his hand before then holding his other one out to you once again, you push your chair backwards slightly and then take ahold of Nines's hand allowing him to pull you up from your chair.
Luckily for you, you hadn't seen Gavin yet and you were hoping when you got back to the station that you wouldn't see him. Nines started driving around clearly waiting for you to see somewhere that you wanted to get food from.
"Y/N, are you sure that you would like to stay all night long?" Nines asked as you switched your gaze over to him, you knew he was probably just concerned about your wellbeing and didn't wish for you to possibly get ill. "Yeah I'm sure... it's something I need to do... to know that I'm doing enough." You replied giving him a reassuring smile.
"Of course, Y/N." Nines said his eyes still firmly fixed onto the road, you really appreciated the fact that Nines didn't try and change your mind about staying.
"Nines stop there!" You exclaimed slapping a hand onto Nines's shoulder, his eyes widened in genuine shock at your loud exclamation. "Y/N! I could have crashed the car!" Nines scolded but still drove towards where you had said to stop, you felt slightly guilty that you had actually startled Nines.
"Sorry... I didn't mean to almost cause an accident..." You apologised with a look of guilt spread across your face, moments later you felt the car stop as Nines cut the engine. "It is okay, I just did not expect your exclamation to be so loud. I was more concerned for your well being." Nines explained as his hand moved to place itself flat onto the side of your neck.
"I'm still sorry..." You mumbled as Nines's thumb rubbed itself absentmindedly up and down the side of your neck.
Nines unbuckled his seatbelt with his free hand and leaned over to console to be closer to you and used his hand to angle your head to look at him.
"Stop apologising to me, I am not angry." Nines told you as he stared right into your eyes, you swallowed hard as you stared right back into his blue eyes. "Okay..." You whispered out.
"Now shall we go and get your dinner?" Nines asked as he dragged his hand across your jaw before pulling his hand away completely. "Yes please..." You mumbled giving Nines a small smile.
You and Nines were now stood waiting for your order to be done, you were leaning against the wall while Nines just stood a couple of inches away from it. You were stood there making quiet popping noises with your mouth, thinking about what you and Nines would look through first.
Out of the corner of your eye you saw Nines step back so he was now also stood with his back leant against the wall, you decided to push your body up against his and leant your head onto his bicep. Nines didn't even flinch or seem to care that you had done this.
"I wish my food would hurry up and come... so we can go back to the station where I can eat my food." You mumbled as you used your left hand to hold onto the inside of his bicep, this actually caused him to flinch from the sudden contact. "I am sure it will not be much longer, Y/N." Nines stated as his hand collided with the side of your hip and continued to move, he was searching for your free hand.
You moved your hand to meet his interlocking your hands together, so now the two of you were holding hands. He seemed relatively content with holding onto your hand.
It would probably seem like you two were a couple to people who didn't know you, but it was just the fact that you two were so close to one another that it felt natural. Even if people did think that you didn't care, you knew where you and him stood and Nines was still a machine. He'd never want a relationship with anyone because he can't want.
While you were in your own little world your order must have been called as you felt Nines's hand tug onto yours, snapping your attention back to Nines you allow him to lead you along. Both of you still holding onto one another.
"Are you okay? You zoned out." Nines pointed out as he took ahold of your food, you let your hand drop from his bicep so you were now just holding his hand. "I'm okay... it actually made me forget I was hungry for a few moments." You chuckled as his lips quirked up into a small smile.
"That is fortunate." Nines mumbled as you both exited the building together.