Archive of Our Own

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"Alright, I'm heading out!" San calls out to his roommates who are home.

"Good luck," Yeosang's deep voice comes from behind his door.

"Don't get robbed again." Hongjoong doesn't look up, his foot against the table as he pages through a book.

San smiles to himself as he closes the door, locking it as he goes, then turns and trots down the worn metal staircase. His fingers barely graze the chipped metal as he hops down into the sunlight.

Today was the day! After saving for so long -- pinching every penny he could, cutting out fancy food like meat (or anything other than ramyeon), and walking everywhere instead of using any transit... He can finally afford the helper bot that he's been hopefully staring at in the secondhand store for the better part of a year.

He's been running his family's Florist for three years now, and hasn't had a single month of profit. But he's hopeful - he has a small group of loyal customers, and maybe this year people will realize that real flowers and plants are so much better than the plastic-and-silicon imitations that everyone feels are so much more convenient.

And now, with his new bot, he won't need to do everything himself. Or with the tiny bit of help he's been able to get from his roommates, out of a sense of guilt on their parts.

San waves to his neighbor - the second shop next to his. An old mechanic shop that mostly works on vintage vehicles and older bots. But the kid who runs the place now has been friendly, and they've made fast friends. He's only been here for a few months now, having taken over after the old man who ran the place passed away suddenly.

"Hey Mingi. Leg treating you okay today?" San's eyes slide over the pantleg that's been rolled up to Mingi's thigh. His entire leg is shining metal. A labyrinth of twisting wires, plates, and tubes.

Mingi's handsome face twists into a smile as he looks up from his work. He's holding some tools in his leather-gloved hands. Everything he's wearing looks worn out, but Mingi himself never seems tired or downbeat by it.

"Yeah, it's fine. Just trying to see if I can get it to move a little faster. I'm still limping on it, and it's getting annoying with the heat." Summer is coming in full force now, and San nods as he feels sweat trickle down his back.

"You should take Yeosang up on his offer to help." San crosses his arms, scolding him.

Mingi scratches at one of the moles on his cheek, smudging oil along his clear skin.

"Yeah. It's just.. I don't wanna bug him."

San knew it was because Yeosang wouldn't charge him for it. And Mingi has his pride. Just like they all do, he supposes.

He shakes his head and ruffles his rough-shorn hair. Mingi had cut it recently after spilling some kind of chemical all over himself. It didn't hurt him, but it did dye the tips of it blonde. There's still little pieces and bits left that stand out shining in the dark of the rest.

"Stop by later, okay?"

Mingi perks up. "Oh, is today the day? You're gonna go get the helper droid, right?"

San beams at him. "Yeah. I'm really excited. Yeosang says it sounds like it's in good condition, and he should be able to install some programs onto it. Maybe it can even do my books for me..." He sighs wistfully.

"I'll probably hang out with Hongjoong a while, so I'll see you when you get back."

San nods, then gives him a small wave before adjusting his backpack and heading off down the street, a spring in his step.

---

The shop itself is poorly lit, with stacks of mismatched items piled high to the ceiling, threatening to crash down at the lightest touch. Everything here is a little worn, and most of it is worse for wear. But almost all of it is promised to still work.

Which is why San had decided to save up for the android sitting in the corner of the shop. His eyes fall to it -- to him -- while he waits for the owner to finish packing up some items to go with him. (His chargers, manuals, and certificates.)

Even in the dim light of the dusty store, San does find this particular android beautiful. All of them are unique in their own ways - even droids from the same make - but something about this one... His slight imperfections, maybe?

Long eyelashes brush honey-colored cheekbones. A dark mole kisses the top of one of them, and another stands out against the blush of his full bottom lip. His dark hair is long, just to his shoulders, and a little choppy.

And of course... San's eyes trail to the cat-like ears on the top of his head. All androids had some type of animalistic feature -- usually animal ears and tail. By law, they needed to have some type of large signifier that they weren't human.

But most makers wanted their droids to look appealing, too. After all, who didn't want something nice to look at daily? So the compromise was usually the cute ears and tails. Each maker has a different trademark - some were more shiny, futuristic, and plastic. Some were more realistic.

It looked like this one had more realism. His ears looked fluffy, and a dark tail that wrapped around him looked just as soft. San supposes he’ll know what they feel like soon enough.

“I’ll let you take him as-is. I don’t have his box anymore, but you can keep the clothes he’s wearin’. Not that they’re worth that much.” The owner sighs and runs a hand along his thick, bushy mustache.

“Thank you, sir.” San nods respectfully.

“You’ll be able to carry him back on your own? He’s pretty heavy, and he needs a charge before he’ll be able to move around again.”

San begins packing up the wires and booklets that were set in front of him into his backpack. “I’m stronger than I look, sir.” He smiles goodnaturedly, and the owner waves him off with a sigh.

“Alright, kid. No refunds or returns. You don’t like him, find someone else to buy him. He’s been dusting up my shop for long enough.”

“Yes sir.” San nods before looking at the android again. And carefully hooks his hands under his knees, and supports his back to pick him up.

He’s much heavier than he looks. The boy looks delicate and soft and pretty, but it’s like he’s made out of metal. Which.. San guesses he probably is. So that tracks. Still, his synthetic skin is soft under his touch. The boy is wearing a simple, old button-up shirt, and a large pair of mens boxers that graze the tops of his knees.

He’s otherwise unclothed, and barefoot.

“Thank you again, sir.” San gives the best little bow he can with the burden in his arms, then turns to leave the shop. The sound of the bell above the door accompanying him.

---

“So, what do you guys think?” San asks the group, still breathless from his hike across town and up the stairs. He’s sweating through his tank top, but he’s too excited to care.

The android is sitting perched in the chair he’d settled him in, wires plugged into the nape of the back of his neck to charge him. He likely needs to run through years of updates, so it could be a while until he’s awake.

Yeosang, Hongjoong, and now Mingi are all observing the new droid in front of them. Yeosang sits in front of him with a small tablet plugged into the USB just behind the android’s ear. He’s typing into it, making sure he’s updating properly. His expression is unreadable.

San cocks his head. Usually, the group was much more talkative than this. “What? Is there something wrong with him?” San feels worry twist in his gut. What if he got ripped off?

“Uh. I don’t know how to say this in a nice way,” Hongjoong speaks up first. San’s eyes slide to the light-haired young man. He’s the second-newest addition to their group (behind Mingi), but he’s slotted in perfectly. His natural charisma makes all of them look to him for advice, attention, and validation.

His lips, already naturally upturned at the corners, seem to be struggling to hold back a bigger smile. “What is it?” San frowns, lips pushing out into a pout.

Hongjoong and Mingi exchange a look. Yeosang still will not look at anyone.

“San, you bought a sexbot.” Hongjoong can’t keep it inside anymore, and bursts into a laugh. Which just makes Mingi spill over into a loud bark. Even Yeosang has to hang his head to hide his shaking shoulders.

“What?? What are you talking about? No I didn’t!” San feels his face flush, neck turning bright red in embarrassment.

“He’s an older model, but yeah. Looks like he’s a pleasure bot.” Yeosang speaks up now, his voice deep and lisping slightly at the ends of his sentences.

San’s mouth opens in shock. He’s dumbfounded. A sexbot? Who would even buy something like that!

He would, apparently.

His expression sends Hongjoong to his knees in laughter, Mingi joining him. “Guys-- Guys come on. It’s not that funny. He’s still an android, right Yeosang? He can still help me right?” He’s speaking up over the two cackling hyenas.

Yeosang, bless him, manages to pull himself together enough to nod and speak up. Though his cheeks are flushed with amusement. “Yes. You can technically use any droid for anything. He just might have a… unique personality. And, of course, he was made for One thing, so he’ll likely want to do that Thing.” He clears his throat.

San’s face blushes even redder as Mingi cackles loudly. “Shut up you two, it’s not that funny!”

“None of his data is corrupt, though. Looks like he was only in use for a couple of months at most. His long-term data is tiny.” Yeosang keeps talking as the boys begin to pull themselves together. “It’s encrypted, of course. Most of these bots have privacy walls installed due to the… Ehm. Nature of their programming.”

San sits down heavily in a chair and runs a hand through his still sweat-soaked hair.

“So what does that mean? Is he defective? The owner said he was sold to him over two years ago.”

Yeosang shrugs. “Could’ve been bought as an anniversary gift that went south. Could’ve been a companion to someone old and dying. He’s not physically defective, and like I said, his data looks great. If anything, he seems more like a host or a companion bot rather than just a… sex bot.” He snorts and coughs down a laugh.

San sighs in relief and sits back. That’s good at least.

“Don’t worry too much about it, San.” Mingi grins at him and winks. “It just means he’s easy on the eyes. He’ll still be able to run errands and do basic math and shit. My mentor used to buy old manual labor androids because they were the best at hitting baseballs. Would fix em up and resell them as coaches and personal trainers to rich kids.”

“He is cute,” Hongjoong nods. “His body proportions are perfect. It’ll be fun to dress him up, at least.”

The door to the apartment clicks open, then slams heavily as their other roommate steps in. Mingi immediately looks more attentive, and glances over to the man in the suit stepping into the apartment, shrugging off his jacket.

Yunho has been San’s friend the longest. They’ve been roommates for years, and they’re practically married aside from that they aren’t sleeping together. Consistently, anyway.

“Hey guys, what’s with the party-” He pauses as he looks down at the android.

“Why do we have a sex bot?”

San sighs and buries his face in his hands as the group dissolves into laughter again.

---

As it turns out, software and firmware updates for a two-year-old android take time. After the first hour or so of joking, the humor wore off for the group, and they’d decided to eat and watch TV while waiting for the droid to finish updating and charging.

It’s late now, nearly midnight, when Yeosang makes a noise to call them to attention. Hongjoong blinks awake from his slouched spot on the couch, tiny frame easily draping over one of the arms, with his head resting on Yunho’s lap.

Mingi was settled on the thick armchair, while Yeosang and San settled on the loveseat.

“He’s booting up,” Yeosang says quickly and settles back down beside the chair to look at the tablet. San gets up and scoots closer to the bot, while the others sit up to attention.

“Does he have a name?” San asks softly. Unsure why he didn’t ask before. Most new androids came without them, but some, especially social-oriented bots, came with default names.

“... Looks like it’s Wooyoung.” Yeosang says softly.

“Wooyoung,” San’s voice is low. It somehow suits this soft boy.

Almost as if him calling him woke him up, Wooyoung’s eyelids flutter, then slide open, revealing pretty, dark-gold eyes.

San feels himself blush again, though he isn’t sure why, while Wooyoung’s pupils adjust. His ears twitch a little.

“Good morning.” He says brightly. His voice is pretty and soft.

San smiles back. “Good morning.” He replies.

Wooyoung’s smile widens even more. “My name is Wooyoung.”

San nods. “I’m Choi San. You can call me San, though.”

“Sannie,” Wooyoung says immediately, causing San to startle. And the droid sits up and kisses him right on the lips, arms wrapping around his neck, and tongue probing into his mouth.

San tenses up in surprise, catching him in his arms even as he’s being kissed. He makes a small noise, but before anything more can happen Wooyoung pulls away and licks his own lips.

“New user registered, Choi San.” His eyes slide to the other boys in the room, who are all staring with a mix of bewilderment, amusement, and tension.

“Who’s next?”

“No one!” San speaks up quickly. “I’m your only user. I mean, not your user. I’m your… Parent? Owner? I-- Help me out here, Yeosang.”

“He’s your primary user, yes. But San’s going to be using you for other tasks than your main programmed directives.” Somehow Yoesang has managed to stay calm, even as San feels his entire face burning off.

“Oh, okay.” Wooyoung turns his attention back to San. “So you’re my sole user.” He kisses his jaw. “It’s okay. I don’t mind not being shared. What are your other directives? You want to do weird stuff, right?”

Joong coughs to hide his laugh.

“Uh-- Wooyoung, ah. No. I’m a florist. I need help running my shop. And balancing checkbooks, and helping customers. That’s all!” San hates how frantic he sounds, and he looks to the others.

Yunho gets up and brushes himself off. “I’m gonna go get ready for bed.”

“Yeah, I should get going,” Mingi waves to them.

“Mind if I crash with you tonight, Yeosang?” Hongjoong asks, and Yeosang nods goodnaturedly as he stands up, too.

“Goodnight Sannie~” Yeosang claps San’s shoulders and gives them a little squeeze before he retires to his room with Hongjoong.

Just as quickly as Wooyoung woke up, San’s now alone with the droid, who’s already trying to tug at San’s shirt. “I can tell you’re tense. Why don’t we work out some of those muscles.”

San hears multiple doors closing. Fuck. Okay. He’s on his own here.

He gently takes Wooyoung’s hands into his own, causing Woo to tense slightly, his catlike tail whipping, and thunking against the chair.

“Wooyoung. You’re very cute.”

Very cute, actually.

“But I did get you so that I could have some help in my shop. That’s all. I don’t want to have sex with you.”

Wooyoung stares at him. “Why not?”

“Huh?”

“Why not? Is there something wrong with me?” He frowns.

“What? No, of course not-”

“Do I smell bad? Do I not look like how you want me to? Is it because I’m a male model? I can remove my penis, and we can go find a suitable vagina if that’s more into your tastes--” San claps a hand over his mouth as his ears practically steam from the blush.

“No-- nothing’s wrong with you. Or your… parts. Or anything. I just wanted some help in my store. Okay?” San lowers his hand away from his mouth.

Woo’s ears press to his skull. “... Okay.”

San has to admit the pout is …

very

cute. “Good boy.” He says and kisses his forehead gently. The soft hair tickles his nose.

Woo arcs into the touch, and San realizes he’s going to have to be verrry careful about how touchy he can be with this boy.

He sighs and settles on the couch. “It’s late, and I need to get some sleep soon.”

Wooyoung immediately climbs onto his lap and curls up against his chest, tucking his head under San’s chin. Well. It’s not sex, at least.

“Okay, you can sleep.” Woo says kindly.

San sighs and gently holds him back. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he’ll talk to him about boundaries, and try to explain that he doesn’t need to be touchy or have sex with him, or anything like that.

But tonight, he’ll enjoy this cuddle as he falls asleep with him in his arms.

---

“See here? This is where we keep the cut arrangements for customers. You want to make sure you’re not opening it frequently, or the temperature and moisture can get messed up. And Wooyoung?”

“Hmm?”

“Please stop touching my dick.” San sighs, sounding exhausted.

This first day has been a mixed bag. After waking up to him grinding on his lap, he’d managed to peel him off and get ready for work -- and found him draped over a shockingly unbothered Hongjoong.

“Morning Sannie,” Joong said, “Cute toy you got.”

After peeling him off, he’d dressed Wooyoung in some borrowed clothing (while gently but firmly keeping his hands off), then taken him down to the shop. Mingi was already at work tinkering as they passed him on the way.

They waved and San dragged Woo along before he could do anything too inappropriate.

Luckily it’d been a slow day so far, and San had been able to show him around the shop, and introduce him to different things and what he’d be helping with. Unluckily, it seems like overcoming Woo’s primary directives was going to be more difficult than simply asking.

Woo sighs and withdraws his hand, but looks at the cooler and seems to be paying attention.

“Are you sure you’re comfortable doing all this?” San frowns slightly.

Woo blinks, dark eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “What?”

“I mean, are you alright with helping me with these things? I know it’s probably not too fun for you.”

Wooyoung stares at him. “... I-- why are you asking me that? Why do you care if anything is fun for me?”

It’s Sans turn to look confused. “I don’t want you to do something that isn’t fun for you? Or that you actively hate.”

“… why? I’m an android. No ones ever asked my opinion on my tasks.”

“Well. I guess I’m just weird, then. And I care that you’re not miserable.” San smiles slightly.

Woos tail flicks slightly. “… you are weird.”

San smile widens as he gestures him over to show him where they keep the orders.

“… I don’t dislike this.” Woo says softly. “But I don’t want you to get rid of me, just because I’m not good at it.”

San frowns. “Wooyoung. I wouldn’t do that. If you’re not good at this, we’ll find other ways you can help me. I promise.”

Woo cocks his head, ears twitching. But he finally nods. “Humans love to promise.” He sighs. “I’ll do my best. I don’t think my next owner will care if I dislike my work.”

“… do you… like your other… work?” San asks in possibly the most awkward way possible.

Woo gives him a knowing grin. “You mean sex. You can just say sex. It’s not a bad word.” He hums as he thinks about it. “I’m good at it. I’m programmed to enjoy it, physically. So I guess I do.”

“I see…” San frowns.

“That bothers you?” Woo cocks his head again.

“It feels… wrong. Like, you’re programmed for that thing… just feels like I’m taking advantage of you. Like you don’t have a choice.”

“Aren’t all humans programmed to find sex pleasurable?” He sighs and lightly taps his arm. “Besides, I was programmed to be able to give and remove consent. I won’t just blindly say yes to anyone. You could remove or override that feature, but I’d ask that you don’t.”

San flushes at that and looks away at the handwritten spreadsheet of orders.

“You tell me if there’s ever anything you don’t want to do. Okay? No matter what. I won’t make you do it, unless.. unless it’ll hurt you not to.”

Woo laughs lightly at that, causing San to glance at him again. The way his smile brightens up his entire face…

“Believe me. I’m kind of a defect. I’ll tell anyone if I don’t want to do something.”

“That doesn’t make you defective.” San reaches out and gently pats his head. Woo leans into the touch.

“You’re really okay with a sex android who talks back and won’t be that good at helping you out here?”

San smiles at him gently, and Wooyoung's eyes widen. “Of course. I’m learning that you’re Wooyoung, and I think it’s a lot more fun than if you weren’t.” He pauses. “Besides, the owner said no refunds, so— ow!”

Woo punched him in the arm, lightly, but they’re both smiling. San can’t help but notice how… lifelike he is. Were all androids like this? it’s not like he gets to interact with them a lot, especially in his line of work. Most people who come to his shop are older, and don’t have one themselves.

Maybe he’ll ask Mingi or Yeosang, they might know.

Woos tail flicks again. “Okay, show me your boring numbers. And then you can tell me how to water plants or whatever.”

San is vaguely glad he can’t return Wooyoung even if he wanted to. Not that he wants to.

---

Another day, another ill-fated temp job. Hongjoong might be the unluckiest person currently living.

He’s been chronically between jobs for the better part of two years, due to one misfortune after the other. First was the one where he’d accidentally tripped and spilled an entire pot of fresh coffee on the CEO of the corporation.

Next was the one where his boss ended up being a man he’d slept with months previously. It was a family-owned business, and his wife did the books. He’d been quietly asked to leave within three hours of his shift starting.

Possibly the worst one was when someone else showed up early for the next job, and said that

they

were the new hire. After the confusion when he showed up, they decided they’d already started training the imposter, so bye. He didn’t even get paid for that one.

Which lead him to buying a fish cake skewer with the last of his money -- which was promptly stolen by a feral cat. The four days without food left him curled up against a building, hating his life, when a man with kind eyes scooped him up to help.

It took a little bit of convincing San, Yeosang, and Yunho that no, he wasn’t a drug addict or sex pervert. He was just extremely, incredibly unlucky. Constantly.

But maybe it was the first bit of his luck turning around when the three offered him to stay. He’d made fast friends with them and their other friend, Mingi, and often hung around them when he wasn’t out trying desperately to get some form of income.

It’d been embarrassing, at first. Accepting their charity and cramming himself into a two-bedroom flat with three other men. He’d tried to cook, clean, do anything to help out.

Quickly they learned to ask him to stop, and it was better to have him not try to help. Especially when he scorched an expensive pan of San’s, which lead him to tears even as he smiled and tried to tell Hongjoong it was fine. (He’d caught San sniffling over the garbage can later as he said goodbye to the pan.)

But somehow over the months, they’d settled into a routine, and Hongjoong finally started feeling like he’d found some semblance of family with these boys. Late nights and deep talks, sleepy mornings and coffee. Quick lunch dates between shifts. It was… nice.

It was also nice to slowly be able to begin collecting some clothes again. He’d always had an eye and an enjoyment of fashion, which at the very least meant he was getting more interviews. Turns out when you looked like you showered consistently and wore clothing without holes and stains, people were more likely to hire you. Bastards.

He twirls an olive as he leans against the bar. He’s had some fairly consistent call-ins for this bar when the regular employees can’t make it. Joong knows it’s a favor to Yunho, who’s friends with the owner, but it was still nice that he got a couple hundred every few weeks or so.

It’s a busy night, but not so much that he’s constantly looking over heads and filling orders. More that everyone’s settled with a drink and buzzing with their friends, dates, colleagues. He likes nights like this. It’s nice to people-watch.

But there’s one person, seated in the corner who’s caught his attention. The man is wearing a heavy jacket that buttons up to his face, and a beanie that covers the rest of his head. Only light eyes peer out from the opening his clothing makes, and they’re calculating and scanning the bar constantly.

He ordered a single soda when he’d arrived, and it sits untouched in front of him. He hadn’t even tipped when he’d closed his tab.

Hongjoong rests his chin in his hand, fingers lightly pressing against his mouth where he nibbles on one of his nails. It’s not too busy. And something about this guy makes him want to go bother him. He isn’t sure why.

Maybe he just wants to heckle him into a tip, or to leave and free up the table.

He finds himself in front of the table, hands splayed down on it as he leans over. “Hi.”

The man blinks, pulling his gaze from the crowd and looks up to meet Hongjoong’s eyes. Something about them, from this distance, makes him pause. They’re a bit strange, in a way, but he can’t put his finger on why.

“... Yes?” The voice that comes out is low and quiet, but somehow carries through the din of the busy room.

“You know, most people here order more than one drink.” He glances to the glass, covered in condensation that’s now pooling around it. The ice has long since melted, creating a layer of water sitting on top of the dark soda.

The man doesn’t even glance towards the glass. “Is it an issue that I have not?”

Joong raises an eyebrow. “Kind of. You’re taking up a spot that could go to

paying

customers.”

“Then I will order another drink.” He says simply.

“Uh… huh. What’ll it be, handsome?” He smiles his best, most charmingest smile.

To his surprise, the man’s eyes widen. “I… I will have ah… Beer?” He offers a little lamely.

“A beer. Okay, what kind of beer?”

“... There are different kinds.” He seems to be mumbling that to himself. Hongjoong can’t help but take a little bit of pity on him.

“I’ll just get you what we have on tap, alright?” The man nods, and Joong can feel his gaze on his back as he makes his way back behind the bar.

But, as soon as he looks back up from his pour -- the man is gone from the table. The drink still untouched. He looks around quickly to see if maybe he’d gotten up to move somewhere else -- but there’s no sign of the man in the bar.

He feels a weird pang of disappointment, and sighs as the fun for his evening has seemingly vanished into thin air. But as he goes to clean up the glass, he notices a small coin placed under it. He frowns and picks it up, fingers running over the worn metal.

It doesn’t seem to be any currency he’s aware of. If anything, it seems like a piece of metal cut into the approximate size and shape of a coin, but the wearing on it tells that it’s more been used as a worrystone. He runs his thumb along the indent, where it feels like someones done the same countless times.

He pockets it. It’ll work as a tip, he thinks.

--

Mingi sits back in the plastic chair in front of his shop, the back of his head pressed against the glass as he listens to the cicadas and crickets sing in the summer air. Sweat trickles down the back of his neck as he raises a bottle of beer to his lips and takes a slow drink.

This part of the city is quiet. It’s old, and old-fashioned, but there are still some people bustling around. Older citizens who enjoy their nightly walks. Young families too poor to afford a nicer, more developed part of town.

There’s a small park in front of the building, across the street, and Mingi watches a group of young teens sit on and around a swingset, shadows long and dramatic as the single streetlight illuminates the tops of their heads with a yellow glow.

San has already closed up shop with his new, cute little droid. They’d chatted a little before San had dragged Wooyoung away to go start dinner, but not before inviting him up.

Mingi’s suspicious that San might know. He’s been invited over for dinner every day this week, which makes his gut twist in shame.

It’s obvious. This part of town is old. Worn down. Old-fashioned. Mingi’s shop doesn’t get much foot traffic, and the rare customer he does get is usually just trying to sell parts. The only reason he’s even been able to keep the lights on is due to San, Yunho, and Yeosang paying for the whole building without asking Mingi for payment in return.

He grips the glass bottle in his hands, twisting it and pushing the paper label up with his thumbs. His stomach growls traitorously, but he doesn’t want to spend yet another night sponging off of their charity.

He should head inside and tug out the worn futon he uses to sleep on. He’s been sleeping in the shop for months now. It was too expensive to keep his apartment and try to keep the shop going, and commuting also wasn’t cheap. So this was the simple solution. Until he could get some clientele, he promised himself.

Shame. A constant in Mingi’s life, recently. He can practically hear his mother’s voice urging him to come home. To sell the shop and give up on it. But he couldn’t. It was his grandfather's, and the memories and love and care that have been poured into this shop was too much to give up. Not until he tried with everything he had to keep it.

And he was about to reach that limit of ‘everything’.

The slam of the heavy metal door above him rouses him from his thoughts as he hears footsteps down the steps. He glances up to see Yunho holding a plate and a bottle himself. He gives him that kind smile that sends Mingi’s stomach fluttering for a different reason.

“Hey Kid,” He says with false gruffness and joins him in the plastic chair beside him, earning a smile from Mingi.

Yunho and him had been childhood friends, and he was one of the few people who’d climbed out of this worn and tired part of town. But somehow, he’d ended up back here. Even with his fancy corporate job, he made the commute every day.

It had been a coincidence that San and him had been roommates since college, and even more coincidence that San’s florist was right next to his own grandfather’s garage.

‘When coincidences pile up, it starts feeling like fate, right?’ was what Yunho had told him some months ago when he’d moved in.

Yunho practically forces the plate onto Mingi’s empty lap.

“Ah-- Yunho, I already ate, really--” His growling stomach betrays him yet again, and Yunho laughs brightly.

“Okay, well you have a black hole in there, so enjoy this. Wooyoungie made it.” He leans back in his chair, causing the plastic to creak. He’s still in his work clothing - slacks that make the long lines of his legs stand out, and a button-up shirt that’s been opened to reveal his pale chest.

He’s lost the tie and jacket somewhere upstairs, Mingi assumes, and he’s replaced his pointy dress shoes with plastic slides.

“Wooyoung? That’s the droid, right?” Mingi immediately bites into a rolled omelet -- that tastes shockingly good.

“Yep. He’s settling in, I think. And he can cook and clean. Looks like he’s not just a sexbot.” Yunho snorts but smiles.

“That’s good at least. But it might be good for San to get laid now and then. Man’s pent up.” Mingi says around a mouthful of food.

“You’re not wrong.” Yunho sighs as he looks out to the playground, where the kids have begun laughing.

They sit in comfortable silence for a moment while Mingi eats. It was always like this with Yunho - comfortable.

“Have you thought about my offer?” Yunho finally breaks the silence. Mingi swallows the last bite of rice as his ears heat up in embarrassment.

“Um. Yeah, I think I’m good for now.” He doesn’t make eye contact with Yunho. He knows he’s getting a hard stare.

“Mingi, you’re sleeping on an oil-stained futon in a garage. It’s really not a big deal if you walk up twenty steps and sleep on our couch.”

He runs a hand through his hair to give himself a moment to think of an objection.

“It can’t be good for your leg to only shower with a hose. Or to sleep on that, you’re practically on concrete.”

“It’s fine, Yunho.” He mumbles and glances at his leg through his jeans.

“I will tattle on you to San.” Mingi’s eyes snap up to meet Yunho’s -- his expression overly serious.

“You wouldn’t.” Mingi groans. He knows as soon as the secret is out in the open, it’s over for him. San wouldn’t allow it. Neither would Yeo, Mingi thinks. Even if the guy is a little weird, he knows that new bottles of oil and new parts for his leg don’t just appear out of thin air.

And neither Yunho nor San would know what Mingi actually needs. That left only one person who could have been leaving supplies perched conspicuously on his workbench.

“Damn right I would. So either say yes and we can just tell them you’re moving in, or have the hens start squawking and fussing.” He sips his drink.

Mingi sighs. Joong would understand -- he wouldn’t pressure him about this. But he and Joong have an understanding and a gentleman’s alliance. Unlike the other boys, the assholes.

“Give me a week.” Mingi bargains.

“A day.”

“Five days.”

“Four.”

“Deal.”

Yunho looks like he might go back on it, but he holds out a hand to shake. Mingi takes those long slender fingers in his own for a firm shake - the rings on his hands biting into both of their skin uncomfortably.

“There’s no shame in asking for help, Mingi.” His expression softens as Mingi looks away again.

And sighs his shame into the night.

---

Being dead is kind of like dreaming. Memories float to the surface, where he can watch them with polite interest, before they float away. Leaving him in the dark, quiet, and calm.

But so many of those memories feel precious. Feel important. Feel like they should matter. But even still… They float away. And he’s alone again.

And he’s alone for a long, long time.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Wooyoung is, by all accounts, a very strange android. The boys can’t decide if it’s due to his age, or some customized programming from his previous owner, but the one thing that none of them can deny: Wooyoung is a very strange android.San thinks this again as he steps out into their main living space to a cacophony of noise -- Wooyoung barking orders to Yeosang and Hongjoong as if he’s running a celebrity chef show.The kitchen is an open concept, with an island that faces the living room, leaving plenty of space for everyone’s voices to carry through the apartment.San blinks the sleep away from his eyes, then shuffles to the bathroom to do his business, not ready to face them. He takes longer than he might’ve otherwise.This has become a regular occurrence for their home in the week and a half since Wooyoung’s come to stay. Woo has decided that he is their new live-in chef, if San isn’t going to fuck him. (And he hasn’t been able to convince the others to, either. Yet.) But he also seems to enjoy bossing everyone around just as much.After washing his face and shaving, San returns to the main room, where a spread of food is beginning to appear on their small round table. He shuffles and sits down at one of the mismatched chairs, blinking at them all sleepily.“Sannie, the least you could do is make the table.” Woo scolds, but there’s no bite to it. He sets down another heavy plate piled with pancakes. “Hongjoong, go wake up Mingi.”“Yes sir,” Joong laughs, enjoying this. He seems to be the one who finds it the most fun that Woo is like this. He trots off to Yeosang’s room, which has now become Yeosang, Mingi, and Hongjoong’s room.About four days ago, Yunho had announced to them all that Mingi would be joining them in their apartment for the foreseeable future. San had been happy to have more company, and Yeosang seemed relieved, giving Mingi a gentle nod and smile when he’d come upstairs with a backpack of his clothes.Neither Mingi nor Hongjoong could decide who would take the couch. Woo pointed out that they were all adults, and it would look childish to have someone constantly crashing on the couch, so they should all sleep in one of the bedrooms. And that was that.San manages to get up and begin slowly setting the table, though he’s mostly still blinking and absently putting down utensils. Wooyoung tuts behind him and bumps him out of the way to do it himself. “What did you all do when I wasn’t here?”“Mostly just drank protein shakes,” Yeosang offers with a yawn.“Or boiled eggs,” Yunho agrees from his spot on the couch. He’s sipping on coffee while his tie hangs around his broad shoulders.Woo gives them all a disgusted look as Hongjoong returns with a fluffy but smiling Mingi.And that’s how their morning begins - all of them huddled around the table. Forks flying as they reach for pancakes and quickly decimate the food Wooyoung made. It was surprisingly good. Woo himself even ate a small amount.Androids can, apparently, eat very small amounts of food. But they generally stick to beverages and hard candies. Woo has a particular affection for iced americanos.Yunho heads out first, waving to them all as he ducks his head outside, pauses for a moment to put on a raincoat, then quickly hurries out the door. San peers out the window, seeing the rain beginning to sprinkle down as Yunho power walks down the street.“Ugh, rain.” Woo complains as he picks up plates to clean.“Is there anything you do like?” Mingi’s grinning fondly at him. Mingi and the little droid seemed to be bonding nicely, San thinks. For some reason that sends a slight pang of annoyance through him.“Mm. I like coffee, sunny days, warm naps…” He grins at Mingi.“Yeosang, can you reprogram him to like more than three things?”“Hey!” Woo huffs.“Can’t touch his code, remember?” Yeosang sips his coffee, looking sleepy and pleased. Woo sticks his tongue out at Mingi in response, and San gently pats his head, causing those pointed ears to perk.“Come on, I need to go into the city today to get some supplies.” He wasn’t looking forward to it. The city is always dirty, busy, and sterile in a way that sets San on edge. Woo, however, perks up in excitement.“Right! Let me change my clothes first.” San sighs inwardly. It seems that Wooyoung loved to dress up - and Hongjoong loved to dress him, thankfully. But it was clear he was going to need to buy more clothes for him. He couldn’t keep asking Hongjoong to lend his clothes to Woo, even if they were the same size.Woo scampers off to change, and San begins tugging on his boots as Mingi yawns.“Be careful out there. There’s still some protests going on in the South Side.”“Still?” Yeosang frowns from his cup. Hongjoong nods.“It’s a mess. Droids and people are trying to fight for more rights for droids. Working hours, pay, citizenship.” He looks thoughtful as he stares after where Wooyoung left.San notices Hongjoong is running his thumb along a worn coin.“They’re still classified like property or pets, right?” Mingi frowns. Yeosang and Hongjoong both nod. San finds himself uncomfortable with this conversation, with Woo so close.“Though some people have married their droids. Which has raised more ethical questions.” Hongjoong huffs and shakes his head. “Some countries have already passed laws to ban them from earning anything. They can’t own property or money. A couple have voted to turn them into full citizens. The issue is split everywhere.”“What do you think, Yeo?” Mingi asks with a cock of his head. He looks like he’s thinking hard. “You’re the one who programs these guys.”Yeosang seems to be considering his words carefully.“... None of the code for any android is made from scratch. It’s all working with existing code. But the code itself seems to… adapt. Mutate. When we install it on a new droid.” He shrugs. “It’s part of the AI to evolve, but it acts unlike any other coding language I’ve used.”Mingi blinks in surprise while Hongjoong narrows his eyes.“Sounds spooky.” San says to break the tension, and Wooyoung bounds out of the bedroom. He’s wearing a stylish jean jacket, black pants, and pointy shoes. The pants had been modified by Hongjoong to account for the tail that’s whipping behind him.“Anyway. Just be careful out there. Everyone’s on edge.” Joong crosses his arms as San nods and waves at them. He tugs on a ballcap and grabs an umbrella for Woo.“We’ll be back soon. Don’t get into any trouble while we’re gone~” Woo says in delight, lacing his fingers with San’s.San flushes as they tromp down the metal steps outside, the rain picking up into a steady drizzle.“Woo, I told you-- you don’t need to hold my hand--”“I know. You remind me literally every single day. It’s not always about you. Maybe I want to hold your hand?” Woo fixes him with an annoyed look, but drops his hand almost in disgust.“I... I just-” San begins to stammer.“You feel guilty because you feel like you’re taking advantage of my programming. So what? You heard Yeosang - our programming evolves. Changes. Just because some guy wanted to make a horny robot doesn’t mean that that’s all that I am.” Woo’s speaking so fast, San can barely keep up.“You heard-”“Of course I heard. You all talk like loud animals, and I have super-hearing, remember? You refuse to let me forget any other time that I’m an android, so you should do better at remembering.”San feels himself reeling from the overload of everything Woo’s said in under a minute. He guesses when you don’t need to breathe, you can talk faster. Or maybe it’s another thing unique to Woo.“I know you see me as a tool. Like a toaster or an alarm clock. But I do have more things that I can do other than just the single thing I was marketed for. So stop acting like anything I do is being forced out of me.” And with that, it looks like Woo is done scolding him.Sans ears are burning with something like shame.“Wooyoung… I’m sorry. I still don’t… Really know how to navigate any of this. In this part of town androids are still rare, and the only ones I really interact with are in the city.” He adjusts his ball cap.“Well, then why don’t you start by listening to what I tell you?”San stares at him, while Woo pointedly looks ahead at the street as they walk. He carefully, gently, takes Woo’s hand in his, earning a sideye.“Okay, Wooyoung.”“Woo. Or Youngie.”“Okay, Woo. I’ll try to listen better.”Woo’s mouth twists as he tries to hold back a smile. San feels himself smile back.“See? You can break free from your shitty programming too.” Woo says pointedly.----San’s skin prickles. He can feel the stares on them as they sit on the bus that will take them into the city. They’re still in their borough, though, so it isn’t surprising that so many people are watching them with interest.It’s rare for an android to be around here -- especially one in such good condition. Most of the ones here are broken or run down in some way. The bar that their group frequents has an ancient piano-playing droid with one arm (which the droid seems to enjoy poking fun at), but that was an outlier.San keeps his arm around the back of the bus seat, making sure he’s watching for any threats. The conversation from earlier is still sitting heavy on his mind, and he’s worried. Not about anything specific, just a general worry.Woo just looks excited and pleasantly pleased to be on the bus. San watches as Woo makes eye contact with a small little girl, who’s staring up at his ears with something like awe.Woo’s ears wiggle, and he grins at the little girl, who laughs and smiles back at him, making Woo’s grin widen. Her mother beside her tugs her daughter closer to herself and fixes Woo with a distrustful glare.Woo’s smile flickers and dims, and he looks away from the girl. San gently rubs the back of Woo’s neck in response, petting comforting circles there.Wooyoung leans into him more, and stares out the window.---Mingi’s cleaning up the shop when the bell above the door rings, drawing his eyes up to someone he hadn’t expected.“Hey Yeo -- didn’t get enough of me at breakfast?” He grins at the shorter man, whose eyes gaze around the shop.“Hi Mingi. Actually-- I wanted to ask you for some help.”Mingi feels a bolt of shock skitter through his body. Help? His? From Yeosang?“But you’re a genius.” He blurts before he can help himself. Yeosang’s lips lift into a shy smile, his head ducking as he tucks a stray lock of hair behind his ear.“I’m good at coding. But I’m not a mechanic like you.” He sits heavily on one of the rolling chairs in front of a workbench, turning to look at Mingi.Mingi runs a hand through his hair and leans on his broom.“What could you need my help with…? I mean, of course I’ll help. I just don’t know what… Or why me?”“Because you’re good at what you do.” Yeosang shrugs. Mingi feels a surge of gratitude and maybe… pride? Embarrassment? Shame? All mixed together. It kind of feels like indigestion.“Okay. What can I help you with?”Yeosang fidgets with a couple screws on the bench, twirling them with slender fingers. “I… kind of have a little… pet project? I’ve been working on. And I think I’ve restored most of his -- its -- memory and data. But the body needs some work.”Mingi blinks. “Is it a droid?” Yeosang nods. “Then sure, I can help. Of course I can help.”“Okay. Are you busy now, or…?” Mingi shakes his head.“Nope. Let me lock up and we can go. Is it upstairs or is it somewhere else?”“He’s in a little workshop I rent. It’s not too far from here.” Yeosang tucks another stray lock of hair behind one of his ears. It seems to be a habit of his. Mingi’s never noticed the piercings there. One is dangling halfway down the length of Yeo’s neck. It’s pretty…“You know, you could always use my shop. I know it doesn’t have, like, the latest equipment but…”Yeosang blinks up at him, then smiles. “Really?”Mingi feels himself blush. “Yeah, of course.” Yeo’s smile makes his heart race.Fuck, he really was out of it this morning.“... Thank you Mingi. I’d be happy to work here, if you’ll have me.”Mingi feels himself scoff as he looks away, an embarrassed smile on his face. “Alright, lead the way.”---“Sorry for the mess,” Yeosang says into the dark room before flicking the light on.The workshop was a little rented room in an old warehouse near the water -- about a fifteen-minute walk from their apartment. It wasn’t dingy, just old and a little rundown. But there was a charm to the old building.And it was well-secured, which Mingi assumes was a must for Yeosang.On the walk here, Yeo had explained that he’d been working on a very, very old droid. One that must be over twenty years old, if not older. Yeo thinks it might be one of the first-ever commercially-available droids, which was exciting for Mingi.He’d worked on some older droids in his time, but most of them were old construction or manufacturing droids. Mostly humanoid shaped, but still distinctly robotic.This one was a true android -- like Wooyoung.That droid is in the center of the room, in some kind of hangar to keep him upright while Yeosang has been working on him.“Oh, wow. You weren’t kidding when you said he wasn’t in great shape.” Mingi says softly as he steps forward to inspect it.The droid’s eyes are closed, long lashes brushing against rounded cheeks. He looks… boyish. Cute. Lips a little pursed, and his skin a sunkissed gold.His dark hair looks soft, and rests just above his eyes. It looks like Yeosang has been taking care to make sure he doesn’t get matted or dirty.But his face might be the best part of him. From his neck down, a twisting labyrinth of metal, tubes, and plates sink down into a worn button-up shirt. One of his arms ends abruptly above his elbow, with dangling wires hanging uselessly in the air.“He still has synthetic skin from about his mid-stomach to his thighs.” Yeosang says softly, pointing to where Mingi can see the skin peeking out from just above the shorts he’s wearing.“But everywhere else…? I don’t know if it rotted off or…” He trails off as Mingi shakes his head.“Droids this old had better materials than they do now. They were for the richest of the rich, and used mostly for tech demos or billionaires to have on their yachts. He might never have had the skin -- maybe he always wore suits or something.”Yeo nods thoughtfully at that.“You said when you try to boot him up, he’s not coming on?” Mingi steps forward and begins inspecting the poor boy. He shifts the shirt off, and opens up the compartment in his back.Even modern androids still have this access compartment, but they’re usually hidden by a very small seam and synthetic skin. This boy had none, so it was just a small lever to turn, and a tiny door to open to peer inside.“Yes. I can still access his data while he’s plugged into a secondary power source, but he doesn’t seem to be able to boot.”“Mmm. Looks like it might be his internal battery. They’re harder to come by, but not impossible. I know a guy. Also looks like there might be some corroded parts here in his body chassis,” Mingi frowns as he picks at some of the corrosion with a fingernail.The familiarity of the metal and panels makes his own thigh twinge. Phantom pain responding in sympathy.“Most of these are simple fixes. Just a couple parts to replace. But his arm… It might be easy to get a battery, but to get a fully compatible arm…” He crosses his arms, thinking.“I don’t know if he’ll really need it. I’m not planning on making him work for me or anything.”“Still, it could affect his balance, so we’ll have to test him once he’s up and running. Worst case we’ll build one ourselves. And we’ll need to buy him some droid ears.” He nods towards his head -- completely absent of animalistic ears.Another telltale sign of his age. He was made before any laws had gone into effect.“Let me finish getting him cleaned up and make a list of what we need. Then I can reach out to my supplier and get those parts ordered.Yeosang nods and the smile on his face seems quietly excited. “Okay. Thank you, Mingi.”“Any time, Yeo.” He ruffles the smaller man’s hair, earning him a soft pat.---“Oh, can we please go to a cafe while we’re here?” Woo’s back to his speed talking, and his tail swishing around in excitement.“A cafe?” San huffs in amusement as they step out from the subway stairs. Two busses, a full train line, three more transfers after that, and they’re finally in the part of the city they needed to be in.San had an old friend here who made the most exquisite vases. She was a woman well in her forties, who once babysat him when he was a kid. But she’d made it, just like Yunho. Only she’d decided to stay in the city center rather than return to their worn-down part of town.It was bustling here. Loud, with people pushing here and there to get to wherever they needed to go. Cars streamed by, not caring about the pedestrians who dared to stride across the road.San couldn’t help but notice how everyone here was so much more… tense. Withdrawn. His fingers tightened around Woo’s.‘Stay near me when we get there,’ he’d insisted to Woo while they were on the train. Woo had laughed.“Yes, a cafe. I like the one near our house, but they’re… old school, you know?”“I like old school,” San mumbles, more to himself.“Oh, and can we look at a bag store. Oh and shoes! And I want to see a real food truck. And--”“Woo, we’ll be back plenty of times.” San can’t help but smile, though.Woo’s ears droop. “I know.” The slight pout makes his heart clench.“... We can get a to-go coffee from a cafe, okay?” San feels his will crumbling and melting. He has a suspicion that Woo will be able to get anything he wants.Woo’s ears perk immediately. “Okay!”San was relieved that Woo wasn’t attracting any wary stares anymore. He wasn’t sure if it was that the culture here was less likely to stare at things that were different, or if androids really were just normal now.He’s been into the city center plenty of times, but maybe having Woo with him made him more aware of how people saw Androids. And made him aware of how many droids were milling around among the people he was squeezing past.He notices the ears more than he had in the past -- small arctic fox ears here, plasticky, bubblegum pink mouse ears there. Androids walking amongst humans -- some with them, and others seemingly on their own, left to their own business.And San can't help but notice how much Woo seems to love it here. How he seems to come alive more.“You like it here, don’t you? You must be bored back home.” He notices the pout in his own voice.Woo blinks at him, puzzled. “Of course I like it here. But I’m not bored at home. I haven’t been there long enough to get bored.”San feels a flush of embarrassment. Had he gotten jealous? Scared?“Right. Of course.”“And you call me weird.” Woo huffs and squeezes his hand again. San squeezes back.“I am tired of the rain, though. Let's get our coffee, get your errands done, and let's go home.”San nods, adjusts his cap again, and lets Woo drag him into the warmth of an ultramodern cafe. Ready to buy this boy anything he asks for.---Hongjoong takes a long drag of a cigarette as he stares out at the rain from under the awning of the building. Both San and Mingi’s shops were covered, but he’s ignored the plastic chairs there to stand.He really should quit. He knows this. But on days when the boredom creeps in, and he’s been cooped up inside… It was an excuse to stand outside for ten minutes or so.He flicks the ash off the cigarette and turns his head to look down the street. It looks misty and almost magical with the summer rain. His other hand in his pocket worries at the coin still there as he thinks about the man from the other night.He isn’t sure why he keeps thinking about him. Maybe it was the souvenir he’s still keeping on him, or because of how strange he was. Maybe he’s just bored. He loved spending time with the boys, sure. But…There’s something he’s missing. He glances at his phone, rereading the message from Yeo. Explaining he’s going to hang out with Mingi for a bit. He bites his bottom lip, worrying there.If Yeo had stayed home he at least wouldn’t be bored. Whenever the other boys weren’t around they somehow always found themselves in bed. It was easy, with Yeosang. He didn’t make it a big deal. Just a relief of pressure as their lips smashed together with bruising force.He drops the cigarette and scrapes it into the wet pavement with his boot.Just a way to blow off steam, as Yeosang hooked one of Joong’s knees over his surprisingly muscular shoulder. Just two guys fooling around, as Yeo sent Joong spilling over in pleasure, chipped nails raking lines down his back.He’s lost in the memories, stomach heating up. Which is why he doesn’t notice someone approaching him. He feels hard metal press into the side of his head.He tenses up, freezing.“Turn around. Slowly. Any sudden moves and you’re dead.” The voice is low. Calm.Joong swallows thickly and does as he’s told, shaking slightly as he turns with his hands up. And he finds himself face-to-face with a man mostly covered. A mask covers the bottom half of his face, black with small bits of metal glinting in the rain. Maybe it’s some kind of respirator?His hair is pulled up into a half ponytail, but his bangs stick to his face from the moisture. And his eyes are glaring, intense as they meet Joongs. But something about them tickles his memory. The bar.This was the same guy.His eyes flick down, and he notices a deep gash in the fabric of the Man’s torso. The unmistakable gleam of metal peeks out from the torn material.“You’re hurt.” He finds himself saying. He’s surprised that his voice isn’t even shaking.The man’s -- android’s -- eyes narrow slightly. “You have something that belongs to me.”Joong frowns. “Uh.. Nope? Don’t think so.”The man’s eyes flutter, and he falls heavily onto his knees, then leans back, hand covering the wound.“Shit. You’re really hurt.” Joong kneels beside him, frowning at the injury. The gun is still held loosely in his other hand, and Joong spares it a small glance.“Broke my comms.” His voice is a little raspy, slow in a strange way. The man’s eyes flutter closed. This close, Joong notices that the hand pressed to the gash in his torso is also mangled.“My friend-- friends. Both of them. They can probably help fix you up. So just… Don’t die, okay?” Can androids die? Great, another horrifying thought to keep him up at night.He isn’t sure what he’s doing, or why. This droid just put a gun to his head. The very illegal gun that’s still in the droid’s grip.But he’s hooking the droid’s good arm over his own shoulders and hoisting him up before he can stop to worry too much about it. The droid is shockingly light -- even more surprising after having Woo hop all over him, nearly breaking bones with how heavy that kid was.The man’s eyes blink open again and roll to his face. Silently questioning him.“Look, as long as you don’t shoot me, I’ll help you out, okay?”The droid’s eyes close again with finality, and he becomes limp against him. Joong makes a small grunt of effort as he shifts his weight to pull out his keys. He fumbles with one hand to unlock the Florist, then pushes into San’s store.It’s dim in here without the lights. The place is casted in blue-grey shadows. There’s a faint light coming from the display cases and coolers, at least.He settles the wet droid onto one of the work tables, grateful that San kept the place so tidy. Trying to clean off one of Mingi’s messes would’ve taken him an hour, most likely.He steps back once the man is lying on the table. And realizes what the hell he just did. He grabs his phone and calls Yeo. No response.Then Mingi. Again, nothing. He doesn’t bother leaving a voicemail.“Shit. Mingi, Yeo.. where are you two..” He texts them furiously. The minutes seem to stretch on as he waits for a response, the only sound in the quiet shop coming from the soft patter of rain outside, and the rhythmic dripping of water droplets falling from the android onto the tiled floor.He bites his lip again as he leans in to look at the droid. And he reaches out, despite himself.Joong gently tugs the mask off of the Man’s face to reveal him fully. He finds that the droid’s lips are full, and shockingly beautiful. Open just so slightly.The android’s nose is strong, but perfectly suits his face Joong thinks. His dark, perfectly manicured brows are slightly furrowed, as if he’s having a bad dream.The droid’s eyes snap open as a vicelike grip captures Hongjoong’s wrist. They stare at each other for a long moment, Joong feeling his heart leap into his throat. Despite being hurt, and maybe barely operational, the grip on his wrist is hard enough to bruise.Joong can see his pupils adjusting again, and realizes why his eyes had seemed so strange. Both before, and in the bar. The irises are a soft blue, but they look almost reticulated. Droid eyes.And then those eyes close again, and the robot slumps back onto the table, fingers sliding away from him.The ringtone that blasts from his other hand makes him jump nearly out of his skin in surprise, and he raises a shaking hand to his ear.“Hey Yeo. You two are gonna wanna see this.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Okay, I think you officially can’t make fun of San anymore for the sexbot thing.” Yunho says with a sly smile to Hongjoong.Joong, Yunho, Yeosang, and Mingi are all crammed into Mingi’s shop while Yeo and Mingi assess the (confirmed, VERY illegal) droid. He’s been out since he’d last grabbed Joong’s arm hours ago, but they still decided to tie him to the bench just in case.Mingi and Yeosang had come back in a rush once Hongjoong explained that a strange droid had appeared with a gun. They’d practically smashed into Yunho as they ran home, who’d just been coming home from work.But having them all here made it much easier to shuffle the droid from the Florist into Mingi’s garage. Especially since Mingi was off-balance. The running from wherever they’d been seemed to have jammed his prosthetic slightly.Joong’s eyes slide to where he can see the glint of metal from under the workbench. Mingi had rolled up his pants leg to wipe it down, but it’s still dripping some water from the run in the rain. He feels a pang of guilt, but there’s nothing to be done about it now.Once they had the droid tied down, Yunho had been the smart one to gingerly take the gun, check the safety, then remove the magazine and put it away. Joong wondered when he’d learned how to do that.“I didn’t mean to bring him home. He just showed up,” Joong explains with a slight hint of defensiveness. Yunho nudges into his shoulder.“He’s completely encrypted. I can’t even run commands to get him to boot.” Yeosang looks annoyed by this.
“Can’t you type into that tablet and hack him?” Joong waves a hand.“Hack him?” Yeo stares up at him for a long, judgemental moment. Then looks back down at his screen dismissively. “You watch too much television.”Mingi is wrist deep inside the man’s torso, patching up the damage there. They’d decided to wait on the hand until he was awake again. Just in case he woke up swinging and tried to beat them all with a brand new hand.
“What’s the damage from, anyway?” Yunho speaks up, frowning over Mingi.
“Looks like a weapon. Like a gunshot but if the bullet exploded.” Mingi grumbles.Everyone exchanges a wary glance. Hongjoong feels the skin on the back of his neck prickle. Maybe he should’ve just left him out in the rain to rust, pretty face or no.Mingi pulls away and wipes some sweat from his brow, smearing some dark grease across his face in the process. Joong can’t help but find it cute.“I think I’ve done what I can with his body. We just have his hand to worry about.”“You guys throwing a party without us?” San pokes his head into the shop, an excitable Wooyoung pushing past him into the space.“Who’s this?” Woo frowns and bends over the asleep droid, while San tries to reel him back in.“We don’t know,” Joong shrugs. “He showed up here and put a gun to my head then passed out. We can’t get him to wake back up.”“He did what?” “You didn’t say that part, Hongjoong-” “Shit.”
Joong awkwardly chews on a nail as he meets the eyes of everyone in the room now staring at him, mouths agape.“Oh, did I leave that part out? It’s not really important is it?”“... An illegal, unregistered android shows up to our house and pulls a gun on you. Yeah, that’s kind of an important detail.” Yeosang sounds incredulous.
Mingi is nervously eyeing the repair he just did, as if he might shove his fist back in and mess it up again.“Maybe we should just put him back outside, then?” Yunho suggests.
“Or report him to the police,” San grumbles.“The cops? Fuck no.” Joong bristles.“Well we can’t just let him stay here!”
“Why not?”“What do you mean why not, we already have six of us crammed into a two bedroom apartment, and he pulled a gun on you, Hongjoong. ”
“Technically there’s only five. Wooyoung doesn’t need a bed, and this guy won’t either.”“Kim Hongjoong, I swear to god-”“Wooyoung, what are you doing?” Yeosang’s voice breaks up the rapidfire conversation, and they all snap to the small droid, who’s plugged his connection cable into the port behind the sleeping droid’s ear.“What, you said you couldn’t wake him up. I’m taking care of it.” Woo sounds breezy and matter-of-fact. His ears suddenly perk straight up, his tail tensing. He blinks. “Woah.”
“Woo, you don’t know if that could hurt you,” San sounds nervous. Yeosang also looks alarmed, which doesn’t bode well.“He likely has extreme firewalls to prevent any peer-to-peer connections. Wooyoung, you should eject--”
“Don’t be such a worrier, Yeosangie, I’m fine--” Woo’s pupils dilate suddenly, all the gold of his synthetic irises disappearing. Swallowed up by the black of his pupils. Joong notices he can see the little faint red dot in the center of them, likely the back of his visual receptors. Weird.“Uh.. Wooyoungie?” Yunho waves a hand in front of his face.His eyelids flutter faintly, but he looks rigid.“What do we do, should we unplug him?” San’s gone pale.“No, it could corrupt his data. Wait until we have no other options.”
The group stands in silence, all staring at Wooyoung expectantly. Seconds stretch into minutes, and Joong thinks San might stroke out from stress. His face is drawn and pale.“Yeo, don’t you think we should—“ suddenly Wooyoung blinks again, pupils shrinking back down.And he collapses to the floor. San rushes to grab him, Yunho stumbles, Yeosang moves to pull the chord.
But Hongjoong sees the android on the table’s eyes shift, and then open. And they lock to his again.“‘Morning.” He finds himself saying.The droid stares at him in surprise. Then tries to shift up. He realizes that he’s been bound, and seems to test his restraints. Hongjoong thinks it’s more of a courtesy. Somehow, it wouldn’t surprise him if he could just tear through the ropes at his arms and legs. “It appears I cannot get up.” He says dryly.Everyone looks up to the droid. Woo is unconscious against San’s chest, while Yeosang plugs his tablet into Woo’s port.“What did you do to him.” San cuts in before anyone else can get a word out. The droid doesn’t even spare him a glance, keeping his gaze firmly on Hongjoong. Joong feels his heartbeat quicken.“Nothing. He gave me a ‘jump’ and used up his battery.” Finally the droid’s gaze slides down to the sleeping Woo. His expression seems to soften slightly. If Hongjoong didn’t know any better, he’d think he looks… grateful?Yeo nods in confirmation. “He looks fine. Just low power and went into standby.” San sighs in relief, but still glares at the droid.“Lets start with introductions.” Joong quickly tries to move things along before San can find that gun and empty the clip into the droid.
“I’m Hongjoong. This is Mingi, Yeosang, Yunho, San, and Wooyoung.” Joong gestures to them all in kind.The droid seems to be thinking for a moment. Joong can practically hear the gears in his head whirring.“My name is Seonghwa.” He says finally. “Can you untie me?”“That depends. Are you going to try to shoot my friend again?” Yunho steps forward, looking uncharacteristically imposing. Hongjoong’s stomach does a small flip.Oh.
Great, another thing for him to unpack later.“... No.” The droid has the good sense to look guilty.They all exchange another glance. Then Joong nods to Mingi, who begins removing the restraints. Seonghwa slowly sits up, then frowns at his still ruined forearm and hand.“Sorry,” Mingi says sheepishly. “We can still get that fixed for you.”“You repaired me?” Seonghwa fixes Mingi with that unceasingly steady gaze. Mingi’s cheeks flush, and Joong raises his eyebrows.“Yeah. It’s not the best patch job but it should keep you going for now.”
“... Thank you.”
Mingi ducks his head in acknowledgment.“I’m going to get Woo upstairs to charge.” San says and grunts with effort as he stands with the deadweight android. “And I guess I’ll get dinner started because he can’t.” He throws another dirty look to Seonghwa.“I’ll help,” Yunho offers, and San nods. Yeo also gets up to go, his hand lightly brushing Hongjoong’s. Joong’s fingers reach for his, and they give each other an uncoordinated squeeze before the group leaves.After the door closes behind Yeosang, he glances up and notices Seonghwa staring critically at him. Joong shifts, then settles beside the table with Mingi.“So give us the news, doc. How bad is it?”“Less bad than I thought. It’ll still take a couple hours to get it working again, but you should just replace it.Seonghwa nods. “I will leave once you are finished.”“You don’t have to.” Joong says too fast. He winces. Embarrassing.“He’s right. We could find some space for you at least until we can get you properly fixed up.” Mingi mumbles as he already begins picking out loose pieces of metal from his arm. “The fix in your torso was mostly a patch job. You need some replacement parts.”Seonghwa shakes his head. “I… would not want to impose…”
“You have super-secret spy stuff to do, right?” Joong’s lips twist into a toothy grin.Seonghwa seems to freeze up at that, causing Joong to burst into a laugh.“I wasn’t serious. But I guess you just confirmed it.”
“I don’t often have the opportunity to talk to… anyone.” The droid grumbles.“I can tell.” Is he imagining things, or is that a soft pink blush that’s creeping across his face?“If you do stick around we have to install some secondary ears on you. I’m not about to pay a giant fine for you.” Mingi grumbles.“I won’t ask you what you were up to, or how you got those injuries. But… you can crash here if you want. Or come and go. We’re not narcs.”
“What’s a narc?” Seonghwa asks softly. Mingi snorts.“Uh. Tattlers?” Joong offers. Hwa nods, looking serious. There’s a nervous set to his eyebrows as he glances around.“Shit, I really gotta piss.” Mingi blurts. Ever the dainty princess, their Mingi.“Don’t let us stop you.” Joong sighs as Mingi quickly gets up to rush upstairs.Leaving the two of them sitting in a tense silence. Alone together.“… Soo—““I should kill you all.” Seonghwa interrupts, startling Joong. He doesn’t have the sense to be afraid, he just looks mildly bewildered.“It’s protocol. You all saw my face, my parts. My programming. I should be absolutely sure none of you can breathe a word about me to anyone.”“Uh… I’d really ask that you didn’t do that?”“… I do not want to.” Seonghwa admits softly.Joong feels himself relax. “That’s good to hear. Let’s chase that feeling. You don’t want to, so you won’t, right?”Seonghwa is quiet for longer than Joong thinks is polite, but he finally nods.
“I will not kill you. Any of you. It would be a poor way to thank you all for helping me.”
Now that he’s up and not trying to hurt him or kill him, Joong notices more things about this droid. The stillness to him. A nervousness to his eyes that telegraph he’s not entirely comfortable.He seems almost embarrassed to be in this situation.“I’m serious about you being welcome here, you know. You can come back any time.”“I likely will not.” There’s a pause. “… but thank you.”“Yeah, any time.” For some reason that makes Joong feel a little sad. And lonely.
---
“And then you just… let him leave?” San sounds absolutely bewildered as Joong sips on a can of some of the cheapest, most heinous-tasting beer they have. His cute lips twist in disgust.“What, you expected me to… jump in front of him or something? Grab him and cry and beg him not to leave?”The boys are all settled back in the living room. Wooyoung has booted back up, but he’s still charging and curled up into San’s side, looking tired and blinking slowly.
Mingi picks at some of the oil under his fingers and tries not to look too disappointed. Working on that weird droid had been fun -- and the most work he’s done in months.
“Well, no. But he’s clearly dangerous. He had a gun.” San grumbles. Mingi exchanges a look with Yeosang, who coughs to hide his smile. San is so transparent.“What are you smiling about, Mingi? I’d expect you to at least try to stop him once you were done.” Mingi winces as the ire is quickly and efficiently turned to him.“It’s probably best that you let him go without an argument. He did seem uh… capable,” Yunho cuts in, but looks thoughtful. “Did he ever say why he pulled a gun on you?”“He said I had something of his,” Joong takes another sip and grimaces. “Nope. I can’t drink this anymore.” He shoves the can onto their busted, second-hand coffee table.“Well… Did you? Did you give it back?”
“No, I don’t have anything, and he didn’t take anything so. He was probably just broken and it messed with his memory or something. Right Yeo?” Yeosang glances up at Hongjoong.“I mean… Sure.” He grabs the can and sips at it. Joong’s nose wrinkles.“Thanks for the backup.” He grumbles, but they all settle into a comfortable silence as they watch the shitty late-night sitcom on TV.“... He was really lonely.” Wooyoung finally speaks up, sounding groggy and half-asleep.Everyone turns to the small droid, his ears flicking as he yawns. His tail curls around San’s waist.“What do you mean?” Mingi speaks up.
“When I connected with him. When we do that we communicate faster than we can talk. It’s just thoughts and impressions. But…” Woo looks a little sad. “He was so lonely.”Joong blinks, looking uneasy. Mingi grunts out a soft “huh”, before turning back to the TV. Androids were a lot more emotional and complicated than he thought.
More than any of them thought, judging by the looks on all their faces.“What do we do if he comes back?” Yeosang speaks up from the top of his can. There’s a pregnant pause.“I guess… Try not to freak him out?” San surprises Mingi by being the one to speak up first. “Maybe… See if we can help him.” Woo glances up at him, giving him a tired smile. San looks embarrassed, but pleased.“Easy to say when you’re not the one in danger of being shot,” Hongjoong sighs. “But I think so, too.”“... If he comes back, we call each other immediately,” Yunho speaks up. The rest nod in agreement. “And maybe invest in a taser.”Hongjoong sighs again and buries his face in a couch pillow.
---
It’s easier to stay asleep. To stay dead.
To not have to face the world, or its troubles, or the horrible people within it. It’s so much easier to turn away and close your eyes and give everyone and everything ‘just five more minutes’.
But five has turned into ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. Then thousands of thousands.The dream surfacing now is one of the more pleasant ones. Even if none of them were very pleasant at all if one knew the truth. He felt himself smiling as he reached out to grip the hand of an older gentleman, who looked absolutely thrilled to be doing so.A world leader, he recalls. And beside him, his wife was in a lovely shade of blue. He’d brought her gloved hand to his lips, where he’d given her a chaste kiss. She’d giggled and gushed about how lifelike he was. How real.Something about that makes the dream sour. The smiles of the dignitaries and aristocrats around him feel too wide. Feral. Hungry. Their laughter and compliments turn into hysterical shrieks that pierce his ears and make him wince.“Sing.” The single word feels like a shard of glass in his chest. Every breath he takes shreds his lungs.But he doesn’t have lungs, does he?He feels the world closing in on him, wrapping around his neck like a noose-- And when he feels like he’s about to scream -- about to finally break free and wake himself from the nightmare -- it stops.Like a film suddenly halted, the images around him freeze in place. And then slowly begin to fade away into nothingness, leaving him where he’d started.
Asleep. Dead. Waiting for those five more minutes to finally end.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sunday mornings are best for shared secrets and comfortable silences. So it’s fitting that Mingi and Yeosang are settled around the small shop space that Yeosang rents, hushed voices filling the otherwise quiet room.After the too-dramatic standoff a few days ago with Seonghwa, Yeosang, and Mingi had quietly agreed to not tell the others about yet another illegal droid in their orbit.Mingi’s been working on the old droid, cleaning out the corrosion, and replacing some older wiring. All the while, speaking to Yeosang, and getting to know him a little better. And the nature of his work.“So, you can’t really mess with some of the Android’s code, right? Then what do you do?” Mingi flushes as Yeosang bursts into a breathy, surprised laugh at that.“Sorry, that was an asshole thing to say.” Mingi mumbles and plucks another stray wire.“No, it’s not,” Yeo taps away at his little tablet, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear again. He does it a lot, Mingi notices. And can’t help but follow the line of his fingers as they sweep behind his ear. Then linger, and drift along his jaw.Yeo glances up, meets Mingi’s gaze, and Mingi quickly looks away.“The personality is the part of the code we can’t modify - not just me. It’s the AI, and proprietary. But even on coding forums people haven’t been able to crack it or modify it in any meaningful way.”“Think of it like.. An android body is like a human body. It’s got all its organs and stuff, right?” Mingi nods. “That’s what you specialize in. But the coding I work on works with the mechanics. It helps everything in the android move.”He pauses, then smiles slightly.“But, to make it a little confusing, we can program memories and directives. We can stunt the personalities, or implant specific experiences to influence their personalities. It can be a little volatile with the AI, and your mileage may very, but with the combination of memories and …. self-correcting code, we can usually. make a droid do what we want.”They both pause, thinking of Wooyoung and how willful he is. “Usually,” Yeo adds again, seemingly responding to the unsaid quip.“So where does the AI programming come in?” Mingi carefully prizes the old battery out from the boy’s chest, stealing another glance at Yeosang as he sets it carefully in a tray.Yeo’s long eyelashes brush the tops of his cheeks as he scrolls through something. Mingi swallows.“The Core. Every droid needs one to function. It’s what houses the AI. Their personality derives from that.” Mingi nods as he spies the Core inside of the boy.It’s a small thing - about the size of his closed fist. It almost looks like a metal ball, with wires pressed into it. Some ghost of a heart, he thinks.“Think of it as the ‘spark’ of their artificial lives. Without it, they’ll move mechanically, but they’re just like clockwork dolls. They can only do simple tasks, and can’t think beyond simple if/then coding. They’re not capable of any complex thoughts or problem-solving without it.”“Sounds kinda philosophical.” Mingi muses, meeting Yeosang’s gaze again. He can’t help but flick his attention to his lips as Yeo smiles and bites his bottom lip.“It is. It’s why everyone’s so tense recently. Congress has called for the company that makes the cores to release their patent work so they can better build laws around it. The lawsuit in response is starting to work through the courts.” He pauses, smiling again. “But of course, you’d know that, right? You keep up with all the latest news.”Mingi coughs and plucks up the new battery. “Yeah, you know me. I’m actually representing uh--”“Mettrie,” Yeo politely provides the name of the company, standing to come watch him work.“Mettrie yeah. It’s all just beeps and bops, really.” Yeo chuckles in response to his stupid joke.Mingi presses the new battery into the boy’s chest with a soft click and begins attaching wires and screwing in bolts.“You think this will get him running again?” Yeosang asks softly from where he’s peering over Mingi’s shoulder. His soft, deep voice is so close to the shell of Mingi’s ear, he feels the hair on the back of his neck prickle and stand in response.“It should,” Mingi manages to keep his composure. “I don’t see anything else that would keep him from booting up.”Yeo nods and settles in the seat beside Mingi, seemingly completely unaware of the effect he had.Mingi lets out a breath. He has to pull it together. But he’s hyper-aware of how close their seats are.“So… what’s the story behind him?” Yeo blinks at him in response. “I mean,” Mingi continues, “Why this bot? Did you just want an old one, or was there something about this model..? The ones made back then were only for entertainment right? Some sang, some danced, some did gymnastics…” He trails off as Yeosang’s chestnut-brown eyes slide to the droid again.“... When I was a kid, I saw him. Or at least this model. Not that there was a lot of them around.” He smiles slightly. “Even when I was a kid he was already old. But he was a singer. Hearing an android sing… really sing. Live, without prerecording. Able to change his pitch and tonation and improvise…” He sighs thoughtfully.“It was magic. It’s when I realized I wanted to learn about them and make them in some way. I can’t build them,” He holds up his hands, showing the slight tremors there. “Not the precise work that they need. But I’m smart. I’m good at math. I can program them.” Yeo smiles sheepishly.It’s not cocky or arrogant coming from him. It just… is. He is smart, and very good at what he does. And Mingi thinks he’s likely worked his ass off to get there.Mingi’s lips twist into a boyish grin. “So you decided as a kid, and went after it your whole life? Impressive.”That does cause a blush to bloom across Yeo’s face, but he tucks a stray lock of hair behind his ear again as he meets Mingi’s gaze.Shit.“Um. Okay. It’s installed. He should be charging now.” Mingi says quickly.Yeosang holds his eyes for a beat before he looks away, checking his computer to verify. He breaks into a small smile as he checks.“He’s charging. It looks like he’s going to be able to boot.”Mingi feels something unclench very slightly as he leans back in his chair.“Really? Thank god. I was totally out of ideas if this didn’t do the trick.That earns him a soft laugh from Yeo, making Mingi’s cheeks heat up again. “But you were so confident!”“All an act,” Mingi’s grin grows as Yeo laughs harder.Shit.“Thank you, Mingi. For your help with this. I know it’s putting you in a tough spot -- if someone found out you--” Mingi cuts him off with the wave of a hand.“It’s fine. It’s been fun to work on him.” He clears his throat. Alright. He can do this. “With you.”Yeo doesn’t look surprised by this. He knocks his knee into his. “... Can I confess something?”Mingi blinks. “Sure.”“.. I knew it was the battery.” Mingi keeps staring as Yeosang leans in a little more. Sees his hand settle on his metal thigh.It happens all at once. Mingi’s hand lifts to his neck, fingers grazing that pretty dangling earring, as Yeosang leans up and in.Their lips crash together clumsily, earning a soft giggle from Yeosang. But he doesn’t seem bothered, so neither is Mingi. After a short beat, Mingi’s eyes flicking to meet Yeo’s, they kiss again, slower this time. Carefully.Yeosang surprises Mingi by shifting and sliding into his lap, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. The warm weight of him sends a thrill through Mingi. Yeo’s lips part as the kiss deepens, and Mingi is all too eager to dip his tongue into his mouth.They cautiously taste each other, like they’re afraid either one of them might suddenly snap out of this spell. Yeo tastes sweet and warm, like honeysuckle on a hot summer day.One of Mingi’s hands settles on the small of Yeo’s back, as the other settles into his soft, dark hair. He’d been dying to card his fingers through it -- watching Yeo daintily tuck his hair away was nearly torture.Mingi gently nips at Yeo’s bottom lip, earning bruising pressure against his back from Yeosang’s fingertips. He smirks at that, gasping into his mouth as Yeosang shifts to grind his hips against his.Cheeky fucker.“Yeosang-” He gasps, cheeks flushing from how husky his voice has become. Yeosang pulls away long enough to look at him. His cheeks are pink, but his eyes are dark. Sharp.His stomach tightens and his dick twitches against his jeans. Yeo’s lips curl into a smile as his eyes trail down, and an eyebrow quirks up.“I like you too, Mingi.” His deep voice is coy. Which just makes his dick ache.His fingers knot into his hair and he pulls him back into a crushing kiss. There’s a desperation this time - hot and frantic as Yeosang arches into the touch, his chest pressing into Mingi’s.“Why is this what I wake up to.” A dry, unfamiliar voice startles both of them to their feet, legs tangling beneath them as they clumsily get up.Mingi shifts to push Yeosang behind his back as he frantically looks for the source of the voice, the adrenaline from the kiss, and the sudden intruder fueling him. He can hear Yeosang catching his breath behind him.They both realize at the same time who the owner of the voice is - the droid settled in the hangar in front of them. His eyes are open to reveal dark irises. And now that he’s awake, there’s a distinct personality shaping his face.And he looks annoyed as hell.---San shifts slightly, before blinking awake. It takes him a moment before he realizes what abruptly woke him -- Wooyoung isn’t here.He’s so used to sleeping with the cute droid, that without him around to cling to him… He slowly sits up, hair fluffed up around his ears, and looks around.Yunho’s bed on the opposite side of the small room is also empty, the sheets slightly mussed. San’s tempted to flop back down into bed and go back to sleep, but he knows he should get up and say good morning.It’s so rare Yunho gets a day off these days.He slowly claws his way out of bed and starts up his phone for music, then quickly dips into the bathroom for a quick, hot shower. Judging by the water temp, Hongjoong still isn’t awake. Lucky him.The quick shower turns into a slightly luxuriating bathroom time. He’s able to clean off, shave, and get dressed all without anyone banging on the door, or barrelling in, or calling for him.It’s suspicious.San tugs on his hoodie over a pair of grey sweatpants then makes his way out into the living area - hair still dripping onto the collar of the hoodie. The couch is barren, and Yeosang’s door is open to show Hongjoong still dozing happily, tangled in his sheets.San huffs in amusement, before wandering towards the kitchen - when movement catches his eye.He looks towards the sliding glass doors that open out to their small balcony. It’s a tiny little outcrop from the apartment, with barely enough room for two people, but that’s exactly what he sees.Two people.Yunho, sitting in one of the plastic chairs out there -- and Wooyoung in his lap. He smiles slightly as he approaches. Woo must be bothering Yunho. He should go rescue him.But what he sees as he gets closer is definitely, decidedly, not bothering Yunho. Wooyoung’s pretty hands are in Yunho’s lap. At first, San thinks .. Well, he’s not sure what he thinks.Because it’s less than a second later that he sees what Wooyoung is holding. A hot blush blossoms across San’s cheekbones, spreading down his neck and to his ears as he watches Yunho lean back, eyelids fluttering.Woo is stroking Yunho’s dick. With very apparent skill. San's heart is pounding in his ears as he watches, unable to look away. His mind flashes to his own hands wrapped around Yunho like this. Hushed, conspiratory whispers in a too-small room with too-thin walls.He bites his lip, and his feet are moving before he can stop himself. By the time he’s opening the glass door, Yunho has cum onto Woo’s hand, who looks delighted by his success.“Um. Woo-- Wooyoung. Whenever… Whenever the two of you are… Done. I need your help in the shop.” San manages to say. His voice sounds far away even for himself.Yunho’s head snaps up to see him standing in the opening, but San’s eyes can only fall to Yunho’s dick. Which is still out. They flick to Woo’s hand, still covered in a rope of cum.And then he abruptly closes the glass door, spins on his heel, and storms away, cheeks and eyes burning. A peal of loud laughter from Wooyoung chases him through the apartment as he quickly toes on his shoes, and heaves open the front door.Jealousy, hot and acidic burns his gut up to the back of his throat. But he can’t decide who, exactly, he’s jealous of.---He never thought he’d be released from his endless cycle of memories and dreams. But here he is. Awake and staring at two young men, who’d just been getting frisky with each other right in front of him.It’s not the act itself that irritates him - but that he’d been treated as an inanimate object. Nothing more than another chair in the room, or a dusty lamp.If he could move he’d have started swinging. But something’s messed up in his wiring - he still can’t move. He glances down towards his body.“Can you two stop staring? I can’t move. One of you idiots must’ve broken something when you were banging around inside me.” He grumbles as the two step forward.The tall one looks bewildered - his angular but handsome face drawn into a kind of childlike shock.The shorter one is… Well. There was no other way to think about it. He was stunningly pretty. A face like a statue, with dark hair softly curling around his cheeks. Jongho isn’t sure why that irritates him more.“Sorry,” The shorter one speaks, surprising him by having such a deep voice. “We didn’t think you’d be awake yet.” He nudges the larger man beside him, who glances at him, then nods.“Yeah, sorry.”The big one immediately moves behind him to begin digging around in his back. The sensation is strange - a tug of pressure and movement. But not pain, thankfully.The smaller one steps in front of him, examining him.“I didn’t think you’d be so intact. I was worried your core would have corruption, or that your components were too corroded to boot properly…” He seems to be almost mumbling to himself. Irritating.“Hey. Talk to me, not to yourself.” Jongho grumbles.“Oh. Right. Sorry.” He blinks up at him, brown eyes clear and shiny. Jongho sighs, wishing he could actually bring air into his lungs. It seemed so refreshing when humans did it.“What are your names. Are you two my new users? I hate to tell you this, but I’m not really programmed to be part of your relationship, so-” A cough behind him cuts him off.“Sorry,” The one in front of him smiles, trying to hold back a laugh. “My name is Yeosang. The one behind you is Mingi. And neither of us want you as a third. Right, Mingi?”A grunt is all he gets in response.“Okay. I’m Jongho. Where are we?” When were they?“Oh, this is just my shop. We needed a space to work on you.” He pauses. “You don’t have a GPS? Or connection to the internet?” He watches the young man -- Yoesang -- reach for a small tablet and begin tapping away on it.“No.” Jongho slightly shakes his head, earning him another glance from Yeosang. The man’s eyes are practically glittering with interest.“Look, can you guys just get me fixed so I can move around on my own?” Not being able to move, to interact with his environment... It just helped solidify that feeling of being a prop.“Yeah, I think I found the problem. One sec-” Mingi’s deep, slightly raspy voice is soft behind him. As if he’s concentrating very hard.Jongho turns his head to rib at him, to tell him not to fuck up again, but he stops when he feels the connection slide into place. Like cold water is rushing from the base of his neck, down through his body.He flexes his hand, realizing the other is gone. Then his toes. He hears, rather than sees or feels the two working around him to get him down from whatever he was being held in.“Careful - you’re missing an arm so it might mess with your sense of balance.”Jongho doesn’t say a thing as he feels the pressure on his feet against the hard ground. The exposed nerves of his feet send shocks through his body, his mind not able to process the strange sensation.He looks around slowly -- at the windowless grey room. And a sense of overwhelming claustrophobia threatens to drag him down.“Can we go outside?”Yeosang blinks at him, checking his tablet again. “Yes. Yeah. Of course. You’re still charging but give it twenty minutes and we can. It’ll give Mingi enough time to install your ears.”“What?” Jongho looks at Yeosang. “I already have ears?”A sound to his right draws his attention away, to where Mingi has opened a drawer. He pulls out what looks to be a headband with fuzzy animal ears on it, brown and rounded. And undeniably cute.“Right, you were likely decommissioned before the laws went into place. All androids need to have some form of easily seen animalistic feature. The easiest and most popular are animal ears and tails.”Jongho feels a growing sense of dread as Mingi approaches him with the ears.Great. Somehow the future is even worse than he could’ve ever imagined.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

San’s hand is stinging in pain.He’d come down to the store and slammed his fist into the wall, leaving his knuckles bruised and sore. Jealousy has his face flushed, his stomach twisting. His eyes burning.And it’s so stupid, isn’t it? Because he isn’t sure who he’s jealous of.
It’d be embarrassing if his mind could actually parse that, but he’s too caught up in his own feelings. His temper sparked up, making him want to do something, anything, to burn out this energy.The bell above the door rings, and San’s head snaps up to see Wooyoung stepping inside, looking amused. He feels anger, hot and sharp, flare up.“What? You come here to laugh at me more?” His voice comes out clipped, hurt.Woo sighs and moves to sit on one of his work benches.“Now, now. Why are you so upset, Sannie?” He kicks his legs, tail flicking behind him.San frowns, eyes narrowing as he glares at Woo. “You were giving my best friend a handjob on our balcony, Wooyoung.”
“So?” Woo inspects his own nails.“So?” San balks.
“Yeah. So? So what? You aren’t dating him. And you’re not fucking me either, so…” Woo fixes him with an irritated look. San’s brain is buzzing as he stares back, short-circuiting.“So--So-- So you’re supposed to be my helper.”“And I am helping you.” Woo says with a hint of ice. “How is it my fault that you don’t want me?”
“I never said- I didn’t..” San sighs and runs a hand through cropped hair.“So what is it?” Woo urges again. “What do you want, San.”“I want- I-” He feels his heart jump into his throat, anger, and jealousy changing into something that makes his eyes sting.Woo’s expression seems to soften very slightly, but he doesn’t relent. Refuses to give San an easy out. His hackles raise.“What do you want, Wooyoung? Because you just say you want to help, but that doesn’t mean anything, either!” San throws back at him.The droid’s jaw shifts and tics, tail flicking. San feels a small surge of triumph and pushes on.“You want me to treat you like a person, but you’re so focused on my needs or wants that I don’t know anything about you.” San steps closer to the bench Wooyoung is sitting on, crowding him.“You do know me,” He replies breezily. “I’m Wooyoung. I’m funny and good at cooking and like Americanos.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. It’s just how you act, but what are you like? What are your fears or hopes or dreams?” Woo’s lips press into a thin line. San presses harder. “How can you expect me to want anything from you when you won’t even let me get to know you?”That seems to have struck a chord, as Woo’s ears press back against his skull and he stares back at San, both of them quiet for a long moment.“... I’m afraid you won’t want to keep me if you know me.” Woo’s voice comes out as almost a whisper.San blinks in surprise, then frowns slightly. “Wooyoung-” Woo holds up a hand to stop him. He hops off the counter and pushes past San, and San opens his mouth to stop him -- but Woo just grabs something from under the counter.An old bottle of whiskey, and two glasses.
A memory floats by- San’s birthday and a late night in the shop, in the dark. Hongjoong had gotten him that bottle, and they’d stayed up until the sun began to peek over the horizon as they whispered tipsy secrets to each other.“This is what you humans do.” Woo climbs back up on the bench, sitting cross-legged as he pours the two drinks. San sighs and climbs up, too, sitting across from him.“Let's get to know each other,” Woo says and holds up his drink for San to cheers. He feels himself relaxing as he picks up the glass -- cheap, but it gets the job done. Their glasses tink together in the shop.“I don’t usually drink this early,” San mumbles into the cup, taking a sip of liquid heat. Wincing slightly as burns down his throat.“And I don’t usually talk this much about myself. We’re both making sacrifices.” The humor is starting to seep back into Woo’s voice, even if San thinks he can hear the slight nervous tremor to it.“Okay, Wooyoung. Let’s learn about each other.” San smiles. Wooyoung sighs and downs the whole glass.
---
The repeated slamming of the heavy metal door draws Hongjoong from his dozing. He has got to convince Yunho or San to replace it with something that closes more quietly.He blinks the sleep from his eyes, rolls over in Yeosang’s empty bed, and tugs out his phone from under the pillow to check the time.And groans when he sees it's barely nine.After a too-long yawn, he manages to drag himself from the bed and into the bathroom, relieved that he’s either beaten the others here, or they’ve already done their morning rituals.
Even a shower hot enough to turn his cheeks and shoulders pink isn’t enough to fully wake him up. He might have dozed against the tile as he just let the water run over him, startling awake only when he started feeling himself fall.He shuffles back to Yeosang’s room to pull on some comfortable lounge clothes for the day. He meets his own eyes in the mirror that’s half-covered in a rumpled shirt - unclear who’s it is. Judging by the color, likely Yeosang’s.His hair is a faded brown, and he sighs, running a hand through it as he considers which color he’ll do next. Maybe blue? He grabs his pack of cigarettes and pushes out of the room, giving Yunho a little wave as he heads for the balcony.“Morning Joong.” Yunho sounds bone tired already. Must have not gotten enough sleep, Joong assumes. Judging by his grip on the coffee mug he has, he must be going through it.“Mornin’,” He’s cut off by another big yawn. Yunho pushes a cup of coffee towards him, which he takes gratefully.“Where is everyone?” He sips the top of the coffee, enjoying the rich smell more than the flavor.“San and Wooyoung are downstairs, I think,” Is it just his imagination, or are the tips of Yunho’s ears pink?“I dunno where Mingi and Yeo are.”“Hm. Enjoy your quiet morning, then.” Joong gives him a knowing smile, which Yunho weakly returns. Joong waves and slides outside to enjoy his morning smoke with his coffee.Joong sighs and leans against the banister. He pauses briefly to pack the cigarettes, tapping the box lightly on the cool metal.The ritual of it all helps slowly bring his thoughts together: He brings one to his lips; lights it up; takes a long drag; sighs out slowly.
His nerves are starting to feel more settled as his mind clears, and he watches the smoke drift up lazily. The street is quiet, save for the soft chirping of birds. Even the kids across the street are sleeping in today.He likes Sundays like this. When they’re all home and busy doing their little off-day things. Almost like it’s purposefully trying to ruin the vibe, his mind slides to the temp job he’s supposed to start Monday.A magazine stand. Who even buys printed media anymore? It seemed like yet another waste of time, but it paid minimum wage and he does need to give some money to San this month, or he’ll feel like a true dirtbag.His teeth worry at his thumb. It won’t be enough. Maybe he can pick up another shift at the bar? But then, maybe he’d see that droid again, and the last thing they’d said was his threat that he'd kill them all.He’s barely halfway through the cigarette when he hears the front door fall closed, breaking him from the looming dread of another dead-end retail job (and the strange excited hop his heart had done at the thought of seeing the droid). He turns slightly to look into the apartment and blinks in surprise when he sees Mingi, Yeosang, and a new addition.He’s clearly another android, judging by the missing arm and dangling wires. But he doesn’t have any animal ears. Joong frowns as he notices the vibe inside is suddenly… very tense?“What the fuck is this?” Joong feels a jolt as he realizes the person speaking is Yunho? Huh.“And who are you?” The droid replies flatly, which funnily enough, doesn’t seem to help the situation at all.“This is Jongho,” Yeosang speaks up quickly, putting himself between the two. “He’s a project I’ve been working on. He’s finally ready to be out and about so-”“So you brought another illegal android into our home? Yeosang, you should know better- Where the fuck are his ears? Did you walk here with him like that?”“Yunho, hey it’s not that big of a deal-” Mingi holds up a hand, trying to reach for him to calm him down.“Not a big-- Mingi, do you ever turn that old ass radio of yours onto anything but old trot songs? Or are you just ignoring the riots and protests happening like ten miles away?” Yunho’s neck is red now, which is fascinating to Hongjoong as he watches the verbal volleying.Mingi’s neck flushes in response, all the way to the tops of his high cheekbones.“Yunho, don’t be a dick.”“And don’t be an idiot, Mingi. Your leg is metal, not your brain.” Mingi clams up at that, but Yunhos still plowing ahead.“Do you guys have any idea how dangerous- Where is his registration?”
“Uh, I think I have it at the shop-”
“You better.” Yunho seethes, causing Yeosang to look like a scolded puppy. “I can’t believe you two. Can’t we just have one day? Just one? Where you all aren’t trying to have the corps and cops at our door?”“Yunho, I don’t get why you’re so upset.” Mingi speaks up again, annoyed even as he’s sheepish from the scolding.“Of course you don’t. Because none of you even think about anyone else. Do any of you even know what I do for a living?”Silence meets him, which seems to piss him off even more. “I can’t look at any of you right now. Fuck-” He runs a hand through his hair, then grabs his keys and heads for the door.The door slams closed, followed by the metal steps loudly ringing out as Yunho stomps down the stairs.“The fuck was that about?” Hongjoong finally asks, not even realizing he’d slowly inched towards the door until he was hanging half-inside the apartment.“I think your roommate might need anger management classes. They still do those, right?” The droid replies and meets Hongjoong’s eyes.“Are any of you guys gonna go after him?”
Silence.“No takers?” Hongjoong sighs and presses his ashy cigarette into the ashtray (He’d never made it beyond half anyway), and quickly crosses the apartment.“I dunno what’s got him so upset, but Yeosang you should get that kid some ears on before I come back with him, or he might knock your heads together until they pop.”
Yeosang nods with a sigh, and he barely catches the three turning to each other before he’s out the door to follow Yunho.So much for a quiet morning.
—-
“How do we start?”
“How useless are you, Sannie?” Woos voice comes out as a sigh, but there’s no bite to it.“I’m not good at drinking games.”“You learn as you go. But here, we each can ask a question, then we drink. If you don’t answer the question you double up your drink, okay?”“Can you even get drunk-?”“First question: Why do you work here?”
San pauses, staring back into Wooyoung's eyes. He’d never noticed — they’re mismatched. One mono, one double lid. Lucky lids.“Because I like it?” San offers, pulling his eyes away.
“Come on, more info.” Woo huffs, tail flicking.San sighs and leans back. “… my grandparents owned this place. And Mingis grandfather owned his shop, too.” Sans fingers worry against the glass. Pressing condensation into the cool material, and streaking it.“I loved being here as a kid. Working part-time here as a teenager. But we, my family, we moved away when I was around sixteen. I didn’t get many opportunities to come here after that.”He lapses into silence, the too-familiar guilt beginning to simmer in his gut.A gentle touch to his knee gives him a small start, and he looks up to see Wooyoung watching intently. Expression open and … kind.“And when they passed… they left the shop to my parents. They were going to sell it, but I begged them to let me come and try to run it. They said I had a year after college to break even.”“And you did?” Woos eyes widen in surprise.
“Nope.” San feels the creep onto his face as he gives him a conspiratorial wink. He drains his glass as Wooyoung laughs brightly. Already San feels his cheeks heat up, and a fuzzy warmth settle in his mind.“My turn.”“Okay, flower boy. Ask away.”“Why were you in that shop?” He leans forward slightly as Wooyoung seems to tense.“I don’t know, I guess that guy bought me. Next-““Wooyoung.” San pins him with a steady stare.“…”
For a moment, San thinks that already Woo is going to double up and skip the question.“I’m a sexbot, I guess. Is the… dumbed down version of what models like me are used for.”San flushes, but nods. “Yeah.”“It’s not all my programming is for, you know. Yes, I can have sex and yes I probably have a more innate knowledge of positions and angles and methods-““Wooyoung.”“But I’m also meant to be a companion. I guess a more accurate name would be a .. housewife bot?” His ears flick as he considers it. Cute.“I was bought by a young man. He was really cute. At first, I didn’t know why he would even need someone like me. His place was pretty clean, it seemed like he could make a decent meal, and he also didn’t fuck me,” Woo gives San a pointed glare.
“… well. At least not at first. Anyway—““You haven’t answered the question, Wooyoung.” San sighs but smiles. He finds his rambling charming — and he’s starting to learn more about him: he likes to talk. He gets lost in his own stories. He waves and gestures his hands when he talks.
“… to cut a long story short, and so I don’t bore you with details: he was sick. When he passed, his family shut me down, then I guess decided to pawn me off.” Woo looks down at the glass. San notices how tight his grip is on it.Reflexively, he reaches out to gently take one of his hands. Woo looks up at him, eyes sparkling. And San realizes with a small start that droids couldn’t cry unless modified to do so.
“… he didn’t see them much before he died. I think… I think they hated me. Because I was there and they weren’t. Because humans are dumb and petty and fragile.” He knocks back his glass.“… I’m sorry.”“For what? You didn’t toss me out. Not yet anyway.”“Wooyoung-“
“I know what you meant.” He snaps. But squeezes his hand back.“Thank you.”San smiles slightly as he refills both of their cups.“Your turn,” he prompts, and Wooyoung grins, back to his playful self as the tension sweeps out of the room.“When did you and Yunho fuck?”San knocks his drink back, then grabs the second glass to double up as Woo's loud laugh peals through the quiet shop.
—
Thankfully, Yunho had just made it to the end of the street before stopping. His hands are in his pockets and he’s staring up at the buildings there.Joong steps up beside him, quiet as he stares in the same direction. Giving him the space to decide for himself what he wants to say.He knows it’s hard to live with all of them. Knows how much pressure Yunho is under — San isn’t the one paying all the bills. He barely breaks even most months. Yeosang is a contractor and doesn’t get benefits.And five adult men eat a lot of food.“… I was an asshole.” Yunho mumbles.Hongjoong glances towards him, bites down a smile at how red his ears are.“You were justified. And I think more than a little bit of that anger should’ve been directed towards me. My illegal droid had a gun.”Yunhos expression cracks a little, a smile tugging up his lips.”I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”Hongjoong shrugs. “Serves us right.“They stand in silence for a moment, then Yunho turns and begins heading back. Joong follows.He notices Yunho fidgeting with something- a cell phone. He’s opening up the back, then plucks the battery out and pockets both. Weird.“I just… Yeosang could lose everything if the places he freelanced for found out about what he’s doing. Mingi could lose the shop, and with his leg-“ Yunho cuts himself off.
Joong stays silent, not wanting to touch that landmine.“And if anything happened we’d all be fucked. They’re cracking down hard on any unregulated droids. People are getting jail time, they’re getting blacklisted from any meaningful work…” Yunho sighs.Joong feels a tug of guilt that he’d been so eager earlier to see Seonghwa again.“I’m just.. I like how things are. I don’t want Yeosang or Mingi or you dragged off or strapped with hundreds of thousands of debt from fines. I don’t want them to take Wooyoung and decommission him for connecting with illegal droids.”Yunho pauses before they reach their building."You’re right. A lot of it was leftover from how pissed at you I was.” But he does smile when he says it.Hongjoong puts up his fists weakly.“Alright, big guy. Let’s throw down right now. We’ll settle this as an old-fashioned street brawl.”That does make Yunho laugh, which eases the knot in Hongjoongs chest.“Just… no more assassin bots in our place?”“Tell that to Yeosang and Mingi. Did you see their droid's glare? I bet he can shoot lasers from those eyes and light us all up.”Yunho sighs and checks his watch. Joong catches a glimpse — it’s not even noon.
“It’s a Sunday morning. We should all be eating Wooyoungs pancakes and watching TV.” Yunho sounds stupidly cute for how serious and responsible he usually tries to sound.It must be one of the privileges Hongjoong gets for being older than him. He lightly pats his back, giving him teasing rubs.“Poor baby. You wanna go get milk and some cereal for your big Sunday morning?”The tension does leave him more, and he laughs again.
“We do need more coffee creamer.”“Come on, let’s finish our walk by getting some. By the time we get back, everyone should be cooled off, yeah?” Somehow, Hongjoong has ended up as the peacekeeper. It’s exhausting.“As long as you don’t pick up any stray droids along the way.”“Nah, you know me. I only like them if they threaten my life.”But his mind does wander to that droid, wet from the rain. Dark eyes shining with pain.And a deep down part of him sends out a small, secret wish to see him again.
—-
Shame. More and more and more of it. It’s like he can never escape it. Mingi runs a hand through his hair, then impulsively kicks against the corner of his workstation. Anything to distract from his brain eating itself.
Then hisses as he feels a pop from his leg. Shit.He wobbles slightly as he puts pressure on it, but it holds. He glances over to see Jongho staring with a very judgmental raised eyebrow.Mingi blushes again as he grabs his tools and awkwardly limps over to him.“This might feel a little weird.” He mumbles, embarrassed as he begins carefully sliding his tools into the pressure points of Jonghos head plate to open it up, and install the ears before Yunho gets back.He blushes again in shame and irritation as the emotions from the argument keep plaguing him.Yeosang had quickly left to go get Jonghos registration (or forge it quickly, Mingi suspects), leaving him in silence with the droid in question.“… nothings changed.” Jongho says. His voice is soft but strong.“Huh?”“People still talk about droids like we’re desk lamps. You all talk around me and about me, but not to me.” He sounds matter-of-fact. Not annoyed, just blunt.“Oh. Sorry.”“Huh?”“Sorry. You’re right. Yunho was pissed but he shouldn’t have acted like you were some toy we brought home. That must’ve been weird for you.” A soft click punctuates the ears slotting into place.“… I didn’t expect you to actually apologize.”“Huh? Why not?”“Besides, that Yunho should apologize. Even if it sounds like he was right.”Mingi tightens the screws to secure the ears in place, then carefully slides the skullcap back into place.“… are there really protests going on? About droids?”“I dunno. I guess? They’re not happening in this part of town.”He brushes the droid's hair with his fingers, then settles back to admire his work. Cute, round, brown bear ears peek out from his hair now.“There’s a lot I’ll have to catch up on. Doesn’t seem like you’ll be much help there.” His lips twitch as he seems like he’s trying to stop himself from smiling.Mingi sighs and scratches the back of his head. “Yeah, you’re not wrong. I can at least help fix you up, though.”“Worry about yourself first.” Jongho nods toward Mingi's leg. He feels heat on the tops of his cheeks.“… it's fine. I’ve lived with it for a while, and I’m used to it coming and going like this.” He sits down beside him and begins rolling up his pants leg to inspect the damage.“Are parts that faulty now?” Jongho sounds baffled.“… droid parts are different than… than prosthetics. Different weight variants. Different connections, and weathering issues.” Mingi runs his fingers along a plate, looking for the release.“And prosthetic parts are more expensive because of that.”“So you can’t afford good parts?” The question is just as blunt as his other ones, but there’s no malice to it. It’s just frank, curious.
Mingi finds it oddly comforting. Or maybe it’s also because there’s no pity to be found there, either.“Nope. I’m kinda dead broke right now.” He grins at the droid, who’s lips twitch again.“But you’re still buying parts to fix me up?”“Yeosangs paying for all that. I’m just the one with the hammer and chisels.” He sucks In small breath as he finds the issue— a torn tube in the center of his leg that’s spilled all over the inside. He sighs.He’ll have to take the whole thing off and clean it out tonight. His immediate gut reaction jolts through him. He doesn’t want to do it in the apartment.Doesn’t want them to see it, or give him those looks. The least weird one about it is Hongjoong, but he still stares. Eyes full of questions he’s too tactful to ask.The worst is Yunho.
So he’ll stay in the shop tonight and get it fixed up before anyone can notice that anything’s wrong with his leg.”You’ll actually properly introduce me to everyone right?” Mingi glances up.“Yeah, of course.”“Good, because I think the names I’ve given everyone in my head might be too rude to say out loud.”This time, the droid does smile slightly, eyes sparkling.Mingi decides that he likes this droid.“Good. Use them when they least expect it.”“Yours is dumbass.” His grin turns toothy, gums flashing.Mingi bursts into a laugh, relieved for the lightness that helps chase away some of that lingering shame.But not all of it.