DBH Reed900 oneshot collection

I'm not a photographer, but I can just picture us together

Five times when Gavin uses a bad pick up line on Nines, he is drunk. And one time, he isn't.

***

It's a party. Or more specific: an afterparty. It's Nines his first time at a party, or an afterparty for that matter; the whole night is filled with new experiences. Like how he is wearing a new shirt to work, instead of his usual work get up with the CyberLife jacket. It's a black button down with a matte satin sheen to it. The texture feels nice to his fingertips and he brushes one finger absentmindedly along the inside of his left cuff as he observes the people around him.

Tonight they celebrate fifteen years on the force for Chris Miller, Tina Chen and Gavin Reed. The three came up from the police academy together and have worked for the DPD in various capacities every since. They are honoured by Captain Fowler in front of the whole station and received a written commendation from the mayor. Tonight, Nines has heard various stories about their time on the force; tales of heroic deeds (Miller once saved a pregnant lady from a store robber, while being off duty), proofs of kindness (Chen still keeps in touch with the elderly man freed from his own bathroom three years ago, after he was locked in there by his son) and demonstrations of wit (like how an unarmed Reed kept a gang leader talking until backup finally arrived).

Nines loved the pictures the most, shown on a white screen behind the captain. Images of bright eyed, bushy tailed young officers, fresh of the academy. There are official photographs, but also snapshots taken by other officers. Those are Nines' favourites. After the ceremony was over, Nines synched with the computer that held the images and picked out his favourites. A fresh batch of newly sworn in police officers standing in front of the station, Reed, Miller and Chen in the front row, fresh faced and eager. Chen sitting in her patrol car, showing the three year old boy in her lap where the buttons for the lights and alarms are. And Reed, with two tiny kitten heads peeking from the zipper of his leather jacket. The two cats he saved from that Red Ice den still live with him, Nines had the honour of meeting them a while back.

After the official part, there were drinks at the station. Catering even provided some Thirium based drinks for the androids on the force. Interacting socially was still a learning process for Nines, though Connor ensured him multiple times he was getting better at it each day. Working with detective Reed proved to be an effective learning curve, with the detective being as volatile and versatile as a human could be.

At first, Nines thought the detective was all harsh words and sharp edges. And he was, at the surface. Thing was, that surface only needed a little scratching to show what was underneath. Gavin was the second youngest person to make detective at the DPD, which was telling of his intelligence and his dedication to his job. The detective harboured a great love for animals, yet he was extremely wary of big dogs. He refused to tell why, though. Lieutenant Anderson provided Nines with the reason for his fear of dogs, when asked: Reed was bitten on a raid when he was still a beat cop. No heroic tale, just a vicious dog and a young, scared police officer. The android understood why his proud and stubborn partner didn't want to talk about it, though he was happy to add another cluster of data to his ever growing file on the detective. And Nines discovered early on the detective could be placated with a good cup of coffee at the right times; which was perhaps the most important bit of data of all.

During the first months of their partnership it was a challenge to work with the detective. Nines felt like he had to prove himself with the human time and time again, something that really shouldn't be necessary: one look at his specifications and everyone could see he was designed for a job like this, just like Connor. He had complained to his predecessor about that, fed up that Reed wouldn't even take a moment to read up about his android partner. He had to tell or show the detective everything he could do, had to guess constantly whether he wasn't asked to do something because his partner didn't know he could be of assistance or whether the detective just didn't want to ask him. It was frustrating, even to the point of thinking about quitting. Yet Nines discovered the detective was as hard for himself as he was for those around him and eventually the android found he kind of liked proving his worth to the detective.