I Love You/I Hate You

♪Chapter 19♪

Gavin laid on the couch with Smokey in his lap, scrolling through his phone. Nines walked over to Gavin, standing by the arm of the couch that Gavin had his head lying on. Gavin looked up at Nines. "Yes?" He asked. "Your stress is rising. What's wrong, Gavin?" Nines finally spoke, looking down at Gavin. "Nothing. I'm fine." Gavin said, looking back at his phone. "Even the cats can sense it. You're not okay, what's wrong?" Nines asked again. "Nines." Gavin glanced up at Nines then back at his phone. "Gavin." Nines kept watching Gavin. "Shut up." Gavin put down his phone, petting Smokey. He felt exhaustion rush over him, wanting to fall asleep. He fought back the tiredness until Nines started to run his fingers through his hair. "You're exhausted. Are you not getting enough sleep?" Nines asked. "Well, my sleep schedule is very fucked so, you figure it out." Gavin looked up at Nines once more. "Get some rest." Nines suggested, still petting Gavin's hair. "No. What if we get called out or something? I'm not going to sleep." Gavin sat up, moving Smokey and moving away from Nines' petting as it was making him more drowsy. "Then I'll wake you up, but for now, go to sleep."  Nines let Gavin move away, putting his hands behind his back. "Nines, no." Gavin watched Smokey jump off the couch and run off. "Fine." Nines walked off, pretending to give up. Gavin sighed. He hid his face in his hands, trying to keep himself awake. He grabbed his laptop, deciding to use it as a distraction. Nines eventually came back, sitting next to Gavin. He rested his head on Gavin's shoulder. Gavin let a small smile show on his face as he reached for Nines' hand. Nines held Gavin's hand. He moved his thumb up and down Gavin's knuckles, comforting him more. Gavin leaned against Nines, getting more tired. "You're an asshole, you know?" Gavin looked at Nines. "I know." Nines looked at Gavin, smirking. Gavin pulled him into a kiss, moving to sit on Nines' lap. Nines returned the kiss, holding Gavin's waist. Gavin eventually pulled away. "Now, will you stop telling me what to do." He pouted. "No, this kind of makes me want to do it more, just with different intentions." Nines joked. Gavin got off Nines, sitting beside him. Nines wrapped an arm around Gavin. A message from an officer got Nines' attention. He looked through it, seeing what was going on. Gavin watched Nines, noticing Nines' LED flickering yellow. He got worried when Nines' LED swirled from yellow to red. "Nines, what happened?" He asked, concerned. Nines sent the message to Gavin before grabbing the laptop. Gavin read through the message. "A teen girl called the PD, saying she was being abused for a while and was finally able to call the cops. Her dad was a junkie and her mom was a drunk." The girl was Katrina. Gavin put his phone away. "Isn't that one of our suspects?" He asked. "Yes, she is." Nines pulled up files of Katrina, finding her parents. Nines read through them, Gavin leaning over to read them too.

Katrina heard the sirens. She waited for her drunk mom to answer the door, peeking out her window. When the cops finally entered, she crawled out the window. She had a pink backpack in her hand. She dropped it on the roof before climbing out completely. She grabbed it, throwing the straps over her shoulder and quickly and silently getting off the roof. She ran off, grabbing her phone from her backpack. She texted the group chat she, Clara, and Jesse had. "I have a long story. Please don't yell at me once I tell you." She sent it. "Kat? What did you do?" Clara responded. Jesse responded with question marks. "I called the cops on my parents, and once the cops got there, I ran away." She stopped running, hiding behind an old abandoned house. She looked at her messages. "Call us!" They had responded. She groaned, calling them. They both answered, but before they could speak, Katrina started talking. "I ran away because, one, I didn't want to be there anymore and two because I wasn't going to deal with cops while I'm a fucking suspect!" She whisper-yelled. "I'm hiding in this abandoned house. I have nowhere to go, I'm telling you so maybe I could stay with one of you but now that I think about it, we're all suspects and all of our parents suck and we're idiots!" She continued her rant. "Kat, listen." Jesse spoke. "You ran away which makes you even more of a worry to the DPD. They are going to look for you and probably have, you know, the RKs looking for you!" He spoke. "No shit!" Kat snapped. They noticed Clara had left her phone somewhere, not responding. "Clara?" Kat got worried. "I'm here, sorry, just packing a bag." Clara responded. "Wait what? Why?" Kat asked. "I know where we could stay." Clara continued. She grabbed her phone as she set down a bag. "We?" Jesse asked. "Yes us! Unless you want to stay here and get caught." Clara responded. "Fair." Jesse sighed, getting up to grab a bag too. Kat sighed, leaning against a wall of the house. The officers had the parents cuffed while others searched for Katrina. Connor looked around her room, noticing the window open. "Lieutenant, the window was left open." He spoke, walking over to it. "So..what are you saying?" Hank responded. Connor looked around the room, recreating how she could've left. "She must have packed a bag while on the phone with police, waited for them to walk inside then left out the window." He looked over at Hank. "That doesn't help her being a suspect." Hank added. "Being a suspect is probably why she left and if I know what's been going on well enough, she might have ran to meet up with her friends." Connor continued. "Told you, they're smart, but if they're really smart, they probably won't be staying here for much longer." Nines spoke. Connor looked behind Hank, Hank turning around looking at Nines. "Where did you come from?" Hank was confused. Gavin walked over to Nines. "Our house." He said. "You're so smart, Gavin." Hank looked at Gavin. "I know." Gavin smirked. While Hank and Gavin picked on each other and insulted each other, Nines and Connor continued looking for clues. Nines found a note under her covers. "Excuse me detective and lieutenant. I found something." The others looked at him. Gavin took the note, reading it. "If I were you, I wouldn't love me neither." The note read. They continued to look, splitting up a bit. Connor climbed out the window, seeing how the girl got down. He looked around not seeing anyway to climb or slide down. "Did she jump?" He asked himself. "Probably." Gavin responded, looking out the window. "That fall could've hurt her but she made it out so fast." Connor looked at the drop. "Depending on how she landed she could've broken a bone." He looked at Gavin. "But she ran away so quickly, clearly not injured and if she is, she can handle it well enough to keep running." Gavin climbed onto the roof too. He sighed. "This is still not the kind of case I was hoping I would get again." He complained. Connor chuckled, going back in the house. Gavin followed.