Work Text:
Gavin had one (1) secret. Well, kind of. He had small secrets here and there, but he had one major secret. He had always planned on keeping it a secret. He had an image to keep. He had perfected the angry gay look a long time ago and he wasn’t going to give it up any time soon. That’s why he didn’t want anyone to know of his “soft side”. Also if someone worded it like that, he would deck the with no hesitation.
His phone let out a soft ding, indicating a message. He opened the encrypted messaging system to see what the request was. It was just a short text asking for transportation to New Jericho. Gavin rolled his eyes and sent the Android a response letting them know they’d be at their location at 7pm. There was no response but he knew the recipient understood and would be ready. He closed the app and opened his
normal messenger.
AngryGay69: Gotta go play driver tonight. Anyone want to join?
WannabeWineAunt: I’m down. Drinks to celebrate after?
I’mJustWorried: Gotta pass sorry. Though if you're drinking pick a house and stay there. It took me an hour just to find you guys last time.
WannabeWineAunt: Not our faults. We told you where we were.
I’mJustWorried: Your exact words were “We’re surrounded by colors!”
I’mJustWorried: That’s how the “no drinking in public without me” rule came into place.
AngryGay69: Whatever dad. Go home and enjoy having a functioning family while the rest of us can’t relate.
Gavin laughed at himself as he put his phone away. He thought he’d be ok doing the lone wolf thing when he first started. But 10+ years later, he couldn’t imagine working at the DPD without Ben or Tina. It may be a dysfunctional family, but it was his favorite family. It had only been a couple years that they had been helping with his after work adventures, but Gavin had learned that things were better with them there.
As Gavin punched out for the day, he checked to see if the requestor sent any more messages. With no other correspondence, he met Tina at his car. “Sup princess?”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Queen. You’ll learn it one day.”
“Not in this lifetime. Get a crown and we'll talk. And NOT a BK crown!”
“You’re just mad because I got one and you didn’t!” Tina cackled as she hopped onto the back of Gavin’s bike. Gavin let her have the win as he sped down the highway toward his place.
Gavin lived in a small house some extra distance from the DPD. It wasn’t something to brag about, the details of the place didn’t matter much to him, but it worked. He parked the bike in the garage next to his van. He only drove the van for his adventures, most of the requests needed something bigger than a 4 door sedan. He wondered out loud when he said, “How many do you think we’ll be picking up today?”
Tina shrugged. “Don’t know, you have the messages. What do you think?”
Gavin shrugged right back. “No clue, they just asked for pick up. Guess we’ll just drive and see what happens? Let me go suit up
Tina always thought this part was extremely extra and unnecessary, but Gavin completely disagreed. He ended up giving the whole explanation just so she would get off his back. It shut her up at least. It took about 10 minutes but Gavin was in full blackout gear, no skin showing, facial features covered, and hood just in case.
“Amazon who.” Gavin’s voice was being filtered so that it was unrecognizable. He couldn’t risk being found out. It spooked Ben the first few times he did this with Gavin, but he understood nonetheless.
“Man their customer service has really gone down if they hired you.”
Gavin’s laugh came out warbled. “Bitch they couldn’t afford me.”
Tina linked arms with Gavin as they walked to the van. “They couldn’t afford us! Good thing we offer our services for free right?”
“I’ve been tempted to ask for gas money.”
Tina laughed and shoved Gavin towards the driver’s side. “Gavin the saint!”
“Hell is waiting for me you know this!”
They shared another laughed as they sped towards their destination
The laughter didn’t last long.
“Do you recognize the pickup location?” Gavin asked.
“Yeah.”
That was the whole conversation. They didn’t have much else to say about the Android graveyard. It was a pit on the other side of Detroit where people dumped their androids when they were broken or they were done with them. This didn’t happen as often as it did with the new laws in place, but it did still happen. Gavin found it hard to put levity into a mass grave. Tina must’ve felt the same way because the drive was quiet and tense the rest of the way.
They parked as close as possible without actually driving into it. Gavin took a second for himself before sending another message to the requestor. It took only a minute or so before a large Android was seen limping out of the pit. Tina and Gavin rushed over when they saw the Android slip and fall down painfully. They wordlessly got them to the van where they laid him down in one of the backseats. Gavin nudged Tina and motioned to the driver seat. Tina nodded and hopped in while Gavin grabbed a seat in the back near the android. Tina had them speeding away without another word.
Gavin gave the android a good look over. They were a male, taller than 6 feet, brown hair dirty and messy, clothes destroyed. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving. His Cyberlife jacket showed his model as RK900, but everything else was illegible.
“Are you ok?”
The Android’s eyes flew open, as if he forgot where he was temporarily. “Yes. I greatly appreciate the ride.”
“Are” Gavin hesitated. “Are you sure? You took a major digger earlier. It looks like your legs are working against you.”
RK900 looked down at his legs with a deep frown. “It appears they have been… damaged.”
Gavin frowned and tksed. His outfit was covering up his blatant worry. “What happened? Did someone hurt you?”
RK900 took a moment to respond but only said, “I don’t know.”
Gavin looked away to take a second to calm himself. He turned back and asked, “What’s your name?”
“I am an RK900 android. My model number is-“
“No no no. What’s your name?”
RK900 took another moment to find an answer. “I don’t have one.”
Gavin sighed and crossed his arms. He settled with “I’m sorry.”
The RK900 didn’t respond. It was another quiet drive after that.
New Jericho was looming in the distance when the Android spoke up again. “Is the level of anonymity necessary?”
“Yup.” Gavin said with a pop of his lips. “I’ll help any way that I can, but I’ve got things to hide. And since most androids have the internet hanging out in their head, this is the only way I can keep my secrets.”
“I want to press further but I feel like it would be an example of the saying ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth’? But since you asked me, I feel it’s fair to ask in return. What’s your name?”
When Gavin looked into RK900’s eyes, he almost said his real name. It was hard to say no to those baby blues. He settled with “You can call me T.”
RK900 tilted his head in confusion. “Only T?”
Gavin shrugged and said, “It’s all I can give you.” He wanted to apologize at least, but he knew he was already being too open.
They reached the entrance soon after. Tina got out to flag down a guard while Gavin used his body as a crutch to guide RK900 to the doors. It was a silent task, except for the guards calling commands.
“Thank you.” RK900 said quietly.
Gavin just nodded at first but then added, “Please stay safe.” Something must’ve showed in his modified voice because RK900 stared at Gavin for a little longer than expected.
Out of nowhere Markus burst out of the entrance to take RK900 off of Gavin’s hands. “You know, for all you do for us, you should at least give us your name so we know who to worship. Or at least thank.” Markus said all this with a joking smile, but Gavin didn’t respond.
Tina answered for him. “I think he left his jokes back at the graveyard.” Markus smile dropped like a brick. Gavin didn’t have it him to make jokes. He hated the pit and it drained him of everything, except for maybe sadness.
Markus spoke up again. “Thank you again, for everything. We appreciate it more than you know.” And Gavin knew he meant it. He had been helping out Jericho since before Markus had showed up. Gavin nodded. He wanted to say more again, but when he looked at RK900, he decided it would be best not to. Tina said goodbye for both of them as they made it back to the van. Tina started to drive them home. She knew it would be easier that way.
“This one is going to stick with you isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question. Gavin didn’t need to answer either. “Go for it Gavin. There’s nothing wrong with being there for him.” Gavin didn’t move for a few minutes. But then like a bolt of lightning, he used his phones encrypted messenger to send the RK900 a private message with his number on it. Gavin threw his phone into the cup holder next to his seat.
“Good news is he’s your type?”
“Shut the fuck up Tina."
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Text to RK900: Stay in touch. XXX-XXX-XXXX - T