hunger ; detroit: become human

epilogue

Valeria

Morning of March 15th, 2039 - 9:25 AM

Valeria groaned quietly as the alarm went off, but when she reached for it, her hand hit the wood of her nightstand instead of the clock. The beeping stopped shortly after, and then an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her against a solid chest.

"Morning, Val," Connor mumbled, his thumb brushing over the exposed skin of her stomach.

"Mornin', Con," she hummed, reaching down to hold his hand with a small smile. She gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go so she could roll onto her other side to face him. His eyes were closed, and that one curl of hair had shifted forward a bit, so she reached to tuck it back into place. He leaned into her touch with a hum, then opened his eyes slowly. Warm brown eyes met pale bluish-green ones, and they both smiled at one another.

"Time to get up," he whispered, chuckling a bit as she groaned and hid her face against his chest.

"Nuh uh. Don't wanna," she huffed, snuggling up to him a bit more.

"And this is why I've been setting the alarm earlier," he said, making her laugh as he pulled her on top of him before he shifted to lay in the middle of the bed. She folded her arms on his chest and propped her chin on them, and he leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. She closed her eyes with a soft hum, feeling his hand rub her back gently. It had all become part of their morning routine. Connor had moved the alarm clock to his side of the bed to stop Valeria from hitting the snooze and rolling back over, so he'd taken it upon himself to set their alarm every night. And of course, he set aside time for them to cuddle when they first woke up. They stayed like that for a bit, in comfortable silence, until Valeria's phone buzzed on her nightstand. She groaned quietly before reaching to grab it, her head tilting slightly as she saw Gavin's contact photo on the screen.

"Huh? He never calls this early," she muttered before answering. "Hello?"

"Val! You need to fuckin' get your ass down here NOW!"

"Whoa, whoa! Gav, calm down. We'll be there in, like, thirty minutes. Think you can wait that long?"

"I don't know! Just get a fuckin' move on!"

He hung up on her, and she set the phone back down, shaking her head before bracing her hands on either side of her boyfriend to prop herself up.

"Everything all right? He sounded frantic," Connor asked, gripping her wrists gently.

"I dunno. Last time he called me that freaked out, Ripper had to go for emergency surgery. We'd better get ready." She leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, pulling back before he had a chance to deepen it, and winked as she climbed off of him and onto the floor. She walked to her dresser as he huffed, and she heard the covers get tossed back before the bed creaked. She opened up one of the drawers and reached for a black rib knit top with long sleeves and a pair of ripped jeans. From another drawer, she grabbed a pair of socks and tossed them on the bed as she pulled on her other clothes. Once she was fully dressed and her shoes were on, she grabbed a dainty necklace with a small heart pendant, a Valentine's Day gift from Connor, and clasped it around her neck. Then, she snatched her blue night owl watch, a Christmas gift from Connor, and set that into place.

"You ready to go yet?" she asked, looking over her shoulder. Connor had gotten himself dressed in a light blue button down, dark jeans, and his standard pair of dress shoes, as well as the watch Valeria had gotten him for Valentine's Day.

"Mhm, I'm all set," he said, and she nodded, grabbing her phone and her keys from the nightstand.

"All right, let's head out then. Before Gavin pops a blood vessel."

The pair made their way towards the front door, and over in the living room, a chocolate lab lifted their head, their collar jingling slightly.

"Be a good boy, Max. We'll be home later," Connor called, and Max barked once before setting his head back down on his doggy bed. Valeria smiled and shook her head, then opened the front door and stepped outside. It was a brisk March morning, not unpleasant, but had she been a human, the air might've been nipping at her skin. Twirling her keys around her index finger, she walked over to her motorcycle and swung her leg over, straddling the seat as Connor grabbed their helmets from the garage. He tossed one to her, smiling as she put it on and patted the seat behind her. He put his own helmet on and climbed onto the bike behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as she started it up.

"Hold on tight, pretty boy," she called, and with a grin, she pulled out of their driveway and started off down the street, the engine of her motorcycle roaring.

***

When they finally reached the station, Hank and Cynthia were waiting for them outside. Valeria took her helmet off, shaking her hair out as Connor did the same, and they both shared a look.

"I've got a weird gut feeling right about now," she said, climbing off of the bike.

"Me too. Only one way to fix it, though," he said, holding out his hand for her to take. Their fingers laced together, and they walked up to the front doors, both offering smiles to their friend and coworker.

"Hey Hank, Mrs. Kamski, everything all right?" Valeria asked, and the two of them chuckled, and Cynthia shook her head with a small smile.

"Depends on your definition of 'okay'," Hank said, and her brows pinched together. Glancing at Connor, she let go of his hand and hurried inside, looking around. She saw Fowler up in his office, and before she could run up the stairs to go in, he caught her eye and pointed down the hall, but he didn't really have to.

"VAL!" Gavin's voice rang out from the break room, and she ran over, narrowly avoiding a second officer in the room to grab his arms.

"What? What is it? What's going on?" she asked.

"The worst possible fuckin' thing, that's what!" he snapped, eyes narrowing as a hand held Valeria's shoulder. She looked over her shoulder at Connor, then jumped, letting go of Gavin's arms. That wasn't Connor, but this android was almost identical to him in every way. Same height, same build, same hair, but the eyes were a piercing blue, and his uniform was very different. Where Connor used to wear a white dress shirt, black tie, dark jeans, dress shoes, and his gray CyberLife jacket, this android was dressed in a black dress shirt, dark pants, dark shoes, no tie, and his CyberLife jacket was primarily white, with a turtleneck-like collar around his neck. She read the model number on the jacket: RK900.

"I would like to request that you keep your hands off of Detective Reed. As a fellow android, I would assume you'd remember how fragile humans are," the RK900 said, and her eyes widened. He even sounded like Connor.

"I'll smack him upside the head if I want to, thank you very much. I've known him far longer, and the man's got a head like a fuckin' rock," she said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Val? Who's this?" she heard Connor ask, and she looked around the RK900 to her boyfriend, he stopped short as the other android turned around.

"My name is Connor, and I'm the android sent by CyberLife."

Valeria looked at Gavin, and then to her boyfriend, before leaning against the wall, her hand on her forehead.

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me!"