From Your Wires to Your Core

A Family Dinner

Gavin's leg was bouncing the whole way to Elijah's house, as it had been all afternoon. It started after he'd sent a simple text asking if he could meet and saying he needed some help. He'd been wary of bringing any specifics into it via text. He'd thought that it would take a while. Maybe he wouldn't see the text until later, or he'd need to think about it, or maybe he'd ignore it altogether. What he hadn't expected was to get a more or less instant response. He'd just been standing to put his phone away and grab another coffee when it had vibrated with a simple message. Sure. Dinner? My place at seven? Gavin almost thought he was going to have a panic attack. Dinner? With his new brother? In that huge mansion?

They'd had a small back and forth. Nines had watched as he stood anxiously in front of his desk, apparently planning on getting a fresh coffee. Within moments, Nines had confiscated his empty cup and bought him a bottled water from the vending machine instead. Gavin had frowned at that, but accepted it anyway. He didn't have to push too much. Elijah had jumped at the chance for him to bring Nines. He'd asked about food preferences, and Gavin had said he liked steak, but left it largely up to Elijah to choose. It was strange that Elijah didn't pry into the reason for their visit, but maybe he was more used to conducting business in person.

After that, Gavin's leg had been bouncing nervously for the rest of his shift. Since it was case related, Hank had told them they could leave early and he would clock them out at the end of their usual shift. As their superior, he could do that, and Connor could confirm it was work related. Not that Fowler would question anything Hank said. Nines had done what he could to calm his human, besides allowing him to indulge his vices. Taking his cigarettes had stopped him from chain smoking, and confiscating his cup had stopped him from turning to caffeine.

He'd tried to engage him in other case related queries, even though he'd already worked out satisfactory answers himself. He'd also reminded him of the cases he needed to write reports for and distracted him with idle chit-chat about the various goings on in the city. The good news was that abuse against androids was slowly declining. Humans were getting used to the idea of androids being around. They weren't so scary anymore. They weren't all out to steal jobs. They just wanted to live like normal people. The surprising thing was that android on human crimes had begun cropping up. They were mostly old grudges being acted upon. There were even androids who were actively applying to the police force now, mostly thanks to Connor's integration program.

Nines had driven them home at six, giving them time to get showered and dressed for the meeting. On the way back, he'd asked what to wear, only to find Gavin himself had no idea. Elijah's house was fancy, and Elijah himself was fancy to some extent. Gavin didn't do fancy. Not at all. In the end, he just told him to pick out something nice, though Nines didn't really know what that meant. He wasn't sure Gavin did either.

At the house, they'd both showered before looking through potential options. Gavin could have used the clothes Elijah gave him, but he thought that would be pandering, or maybe it would seem like he didn't have many choices. He'd sighed while looking through his wardrobe, eventually settling on black slacks and a light linen shirt, which he left untucked. It wasn't buttoned all the way to his throat either. He left the first three buttons open, showing off his collarbone. He then pulled his jacket over the top and called it a day. Nines had chosen similar slacks with a tight woollen turtleneck and finished the look with his white leather jacket.

The drive felt long, and Gavin's leg bounced faster and faster the closer they got. He was overthinking it. He'd been to dinners before. It wasn't the first time he'd asked experts for help, either. It was rare for those to overlap, but not unheard of. This was his brother though. The brother he'd only just met. The brother he'd only contacted because he needed something. Jeez, I'm a shitty partner and a shitty brother...He knew he'd be pissed if his long-lost brother kept turning up asking for favours. He started to feel sick as they reached the bottom of the mountain path that wound up to Elijah's glass palace. He bent over a little as Nines parked, taking a deep breath.