Gavin's tired eyes went from a rather unamused Fowler, to the stoic RK900, then back to Fowler again. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," the detective expressed in a dejected tone. "Did I stutter, Reed?" the Captain raised a brow. Gavin took a step back, shaking his head in disbelief as he couldn't come to terms with the sheer stupidity of the situation he was currently in.
Rubbing the corners of his mouth, he examined the serious-looking android standing in the corner of the briefing room. "You're out of your fuckin' mind if you think that I'd agree—even for a millisecond—to have that thing assigned as my goddamn partner," the detective hissed, pointing at the composed machine. "Well I hate to break it to you, Reed, but you don't have a choice here. The county department's been on my ass about all DPD officers having a mandatory android partner during investigations," Fowler explained, "either you sign off on having model RK900 as your partner or you turn in your badge. It's as simple as that." Gavin smirked just enough to show some teeth, "You wouldn't dare. You need people like me on the force, Fowler," the brunette pressed his hands on the Captain's desk, "You're bluffing."
Fowler blinked a few times, dumbfounded by his subordinate's behavior. "Have you completely lost your mind?" the Captain began, "Did you forget who you're talking to?" he stood from his chair. "If you don't want it as your partner, then turn in your badge! I've got work up to my fuckin' ears and if you think I got the time or the energy to deal with your shit, well then you're as dumb as you fuckin' look," Fowler yelled as he leaned onto the table.
Gavin snickered, pushing off the desk. "Fine," the detective reached into his coat pocket and tossed his badge on the table, "I'm done," he concluded turning towards the door. The Captain remained quiet, a permanent frown etched onto his face. Gavin exited out the front door and slowly walked down the ramp then paused, gnashing his teeth. He waited a few minutes before crinkling his nose and squinting his eyes, angered by the predicament he was in. "Fuck!" he shouted to himself, knowing full well how desperately he relied on this job. It would've been great if he could just walk out of the station and never look back; that oughtta have shown Fowler, but alas, Gavin was only good at two things—being an asshole, and being a crotchety cop. After a few seconds of contemplation, the detective let out a frustrated sigh then tromped back to the door. He opened the front door with one powerful push and walked in, anger dripping down his face. The Captain's eyes shot up to meet with Gavin's gaze. The detective quickly looked away, clearly upset he had to crawl back to his superior with his tail between his legs. "You're a real piece of work, Reed," the Captain expressed, folding his arms across his chest. "Lucky for you, I'm in a good mood today and I'll forget what just happened," Fowler continued as he picked up the detective's badge. The detective frowned but didn't make eye contact or bother voicing resistance. "Now, here's what you're going to do, Gavin," Fowler got up from his chair and walked over to his subordinate, "You're going to take your badge," he continued, lifting Gavin's coat and placing the badge back into the chest pocket, "you're going to apologize," he firmly patted Gavin's shoulder, "and you're going to walk out of here with RK900 as your partner," Fowler concluded staring at the detective's bitter expression. "Do you understand?"
"Perfectly," the brunette growled through pressed teeth. "Good. Now apologize," Fowler sternly demanded. "Sorry," Gavin abided in an aggressive tone. "Sorry, what?"
The detective backed away, laughing as he attempted to refrain himself from maiming his superior. He interlaced his hands on the back of his neck and looked up, sighing, trying to remain level-headed. "Sorry, Captain," he finally expressed, letting his hands fall to his sides. "Beautiful. Now to tell you what I really called you in here for," the Captain walked back to his chair. "You've been reassigned, Reed," Fowler said, taking a seat.
Gavin's eyes widened, his heart rate rapidly increasing as rage began seeping into his veins. "I've been what?"
"Reassigned," the Captain repeated, "Since no one is voluntarily willing to take up android cases, I've been forced to allocate officers to said cases." The detective pressed his lips together and looked to the floor, nodding his head. "And I just had to be one of those officers, huh, Fowler," Gavin said looking up at the senior officer. The Captain shrugged, "I see no reason for you to get upset over this, Reed. On the contrary, it'll be a good thing, don't you think?"
Gavin chuckled, unable to discern whether this entire conversation was real or a fever dream. "Don't dick around with me," the detective expressed with a faded smile. Fowler sighed, "This conversation is over, Gavin. You've been assigned a series of cases with RK900 as your partner. You'll find the files on your desk terminal."
"Oh, so that's it? I don't have a say in any of this shit?" Gavin questioned with furrowed brows. "I don't have time to listen to you bitch. You've already thrown your tantrum and that was about as much as I can handle from you. You're lucky you still have a fuckin' job," the Captain tapped on his desk. "Now get the fuck out of my office, I have work to do," Fowler shooed with his hands.
"Fuckin' prick," Gavin whispered under his breath as he left the room. Fowler shut his eyes and brought his hand to the bridge of his nose, massaging skin. He then slammed his hand on the desk, cursing to himself. The Captain looked toward RK900 who was still in the room. "You," he started, "You waitin' for a formal invitation or what? Get out of my office," Fowler demanded, pointing to the door.
Without uttering a single word, RK900 obeyed and followed after the detective, exiting the briefing room. "I can't believe this. I can't fucking believe this shit!" Gavin yelled from his desk. "Unbelievable," he chuckled as his poised partner approached his workspace.
RK900 remained expressionless as he observed the detective from behind. After a few minutes of angered grunting and cursing, Gavin looked over his shoulder and tilted his head to meet the gaze of the collected android. "The fuck are you lookin' at you piece of shit?" he scowled. "My apologies, detective. I was only looking for an appropriate window to introduce myself. Seeing as you are currently busy wallowing in self-pity, I felt it best to remain silent," the android expressed in a cold manner.
Gavin raised his brows in disbelief, taken aback by what the android said. The detective stood from his seat in an attempt to intimidate his partner, only to find himself having to look up to meet RK900's deadpan stare. The slight height difference angered Gavin; the last thing he wanted was to be the shorter one of the pair. He frowned and grabbed RK900 by the collar, baring teeth, "Listen to me, Iron Giant, the last thing you wanna fuckin' do, is to piss me off even more than you already have. So, how about you just shut the fuck up," Gavin snarled.
RK900's LED momentarily flashed yellow before returning to its original blue state. He knit his brows together, analyzing his human partner before tightly clutching Gavin's wrist. The detective winced, letting out a grunt as he let go of the android's uniform. Although his partner let go of his collar, RK900 refused to loosen his grip on Gavin's wrist. "Let go of me, asshole," the detective demanded, fear and fury glazing over his words. The android looked to his partner's chest then back to his fiery grey eyes. "I suggest adopting a friendlier attitude towards your new partner, Detective Reed," the android leaned closer, shrinking to the gap between the two men, "We're going to be spending an ample amount of time together after all."
Gavin's muscles tensed up as he felt RK900's grip tighten even more. "I'm warning you, fucker," the detective hissed, preparing to deck the machine with his free hand. The android ignored the human's protests. Gavin snapped and with rage-filled eyes, set course to punch RK900; but the punch never landed.
Gavin looked to his hand, trying to hide the growing uneasiness he felt from within. The android had caught his fist midair and continued to hound him with piercing blue eyes. Then without hesitation, the reserved machine forcefully guided his infuriated counterpart to the DPD storage room.