DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN X READERS

Not Alone [Ralph]

Request: The other is with Ralph. Where you found him and have both lived together in the old house for some time and always you protect Ralph but he finds out the character is afraid of the dark and the roles are switched? (note: the requester also requested Ralph and the reader have been friends for a long time, but now they're lovers) @shallonj

Fandom: Detroit: Become Human, Ralph x reader

Warnings: Mild scotophobia, Ralph being Ralph (aka being threatening towards the reader when he sees them for the first time)

A/N: Last time I wrote for Ralph was uhmmmmmm, 8 months ago? So I'm sorry if I'm a bit rusty. The reader and Ralph being a couple is just hinted, hope you don't mind! And a note: this is placed before the events of the game.

(+ A special note to the readers here on Wattpad: if you were wondering, I don't love Ralph (why I was writing Ralph as Trump at first oh god no) in that way. I love him platonically, but I could never imagine myself to kiss him or anything like that. I'm just getting tired because I regularly get a comment or a message saying that "I see you like Ralph a bit more than most of us *wink wink*" and I just wanted to say it that these are all requested. Only Like Humans is from my own head (Like Humans is a platonic oneshot btw) and I wrote that just after I had finished On The Run chapter and I felt so bad for Ralph that I just had to write something for him. That was different + in Finnish at first but after I decided to start writing x readers again, I translated it to English with x reader adjustments :D But yeah, these are all requested and none of these besides Like Humans is from my own head and the only one I like in a romantic way, is the birb boi Rupert)

Word count: 1,093

—

It had been five years since you first met with Ralph. You still remembered it clearly and it was kind of a funny story. You see, when you first met Ralph, he threatened you with a knife and you were sure he was about to kill you. But in the end, you had become very close.

—

When you sought for shelter on that cold winter day, you came across an old, abandoned house and decided to check it out. After getting yourself through the wire fence, you were met with a frantic, damaged android who threatened you with a knife. You hadn't encountered any deviants before and at first, you didn't know what was up with this android. A software malfunction, which made him to act dangerously or a crazy owner who had made his android to kill all the trespassers?

After your immense wave of fear and bracing yourself for the android to attempt to kill you, you noticed something. He was talking in the third person and was saying that humans aren't welcome there, that humans will hurt him - over and over again and it was like he was trying to convince himself to keep his position and not retreat. Like he was scared of you. And then it just... clicked.

Slowly, your shock and fear partly melted away. Of course, you were still wary of him, but you attempted to speak with him - try to convince him that you're not going to harm him. He was suspicious, of course. But his LED had been blinking yellow in short periods and you knew he was contemplating if you spoke the truth, if he should give you a chance to prove your words.

Eventually you had convinced him that he had nothing to be afraid about, that you're only spending one night and that you promise you won't bother him. He was reluctant, of course, and didn't let his guard down even when you were inside. He still eyed you suspiciously and squeezed his knife like a lifeline, but you tried to move slowly and not make any sudden movements, not even scratch your nose. Your calmness and patience seemed to calm him down too a bit and he gestured towards the fireplace, indicating you could sleep there. Then he hurried to the room next to the living room.

You had found a hard mattress, a rough pillow, and a thin blanket, but they were enough for one night.

At the morning, you didn't see that android, Ralph, in the house. You had promised to leave that morning but you just wanted to confirm it to him. And just as you were leaving, Ralph emerged from the door, nearly bumping into you.

"Ralph doesn't want them to go!" he screamed and you looked at him, a surprise and confusion plastered all over your face. Ralph lowered his head, his face twitched a few times and then muttered the next words very quietly and you had to struggle to hear them. "He's lonely, he wants to have a family..."

And after a moment of thinking, you had decided to stay - for now, at least.

—-

Androids had been disappearing a lot lately. They were either found destroyed from the alleyways and streets, or... not at all. And in those cases their tracking chips had stopped working and they didn't give any warning signal, as the destroyed androids had given. So naturally, it made you wonder if there were more androids like Ralph. Androids with... feelings.

Every time Ralph was scared of something, you protected him. You were there to soothe him when he was scared because of people being loud outside or if he was scared you would leave him because of his faults. Or when he was scared he would hurt you someday, because sometimes he'd get aggressive if you didn't want to do something Ralph wanted to do.

But now, it was a cold winter night. You had woken up in the middle of the night. The fire in the fireplace had gone off ages ago and you were there, sitting on the floor of the pitch black living room.

You didn't even know why you feared the dark so much. You just felt unsafe when you had no source of light anywhere. You felt how your heart started thumping loudly against your chest, how your hands started shaking and you let out a terrified whimper.

It didn't take even 10 seconds before Ralph had rushed by your side, questioning if you had hurt yourself and tried to comfort you even when he didn't know what's the case.

"Ralph tries to help, but he doesn't know how! Why Y/N is so scared? He's stupid, he doesn't know how to help you..." Ralph sounded like he was panicking because of your sobs and you grasped his shawl in an attempt to make sure he won't go away.

"I'm... I'm scared of the dark.... don't go away Ralph, please stay here with me..." you pleaded and took in a shaky breath, before feeling a tear falling down from your eye.

Ralph didn't know what to do. He wasn't familiar with soothing anyone, and he wasn't a nurse android either. But then he remembered all the times you had helped him go through all his fear attacks and he just knew he had to help you - even if he didn't know how. So Ralph carefully and slowly wrapped his arms around you, shifting a little so he could be on that mattress with you.

"R-Ralph... will try to comfort Y/N. He... he loves them very much so he does everything he can."

He brought his hand to stroke your head, in slow motions. His fingers twitched a bit, but it didn't seem to bother you. He guided your head to lay on his lap.

"Y/N needs sleep so they could be happy in the morning", he muttered and proceeded to stroke your hair. He already knew you were calming down and you had closed your eyes, trying to relax in Ralph's touch.

Ralph continued stroking your head until you finally fell back asleep, breathing steadily as Ralph smiled to himself. He was staying with you to make sure you wouldn't wake up panicking again the whole night.

He wouldn't let anything hurt you. Just as you hadn't let anything hurt him either. He would do everything he can so you could be happy with him - so you would stay with him forever and never leave him alone again.