human
Genre/Summary: Breaking rules to feel a little human was okay, just as long as you didn’t get in trouble while doing it. Member: Lucas/Reader Word Count: 9,855 A/N: I’ve been working on this for a year at this point and finally I’m here to post it. Is it perfect? definitely not but it’s better than i expected so enjoy!
-
“I have to go-
“Can’t stay for five more minutes?”
A laugh. And then a press of lips to lips.
“It’s already late. I have to go.”
“Let me walk you home then?”
“No, no. I’ll be fine.”
“Y/N…”
“I’ll be fine! I’ll be fine. I’m going, okay? Bye.”
“Love you.”
There’s a smile from both parties, but not a second kiss. There would be no leaving if there was a second kiss.
“I love you, too, Lucas. Bye.”
-
It’s quiet as you head home. Dead of the night. Everyone is asleep, all the lights in all the houses turned off, leaving the street lit only by spotlights from the streetlamps.
You walk close to the grass, away from the light in case maybe someone is awake and peering out their windows to the street. You didn’t want anyone seeing you. You weren’t supposed to be outside, after all, especially when you were alone.
If anyone caught you, you were sure you’d be in deep shit. Deeper shit than being grounded or losing a leg. Something terribly, terribly worse.
You shudder thinking of the possibilities and pick up your pace, your feet taking you further and further down the street until you reach the house you’re supposed to be at. You don’t bother opening the gate, knowing an alarm system will go off immediately if you even try, so you hop over it instead, onto the grass behind it. You make your way around the edge of the enclosed space until you’re at the back of the house, and, looking up you see an open window on the second floor, one you had left open hours earlier.
“Okay… Okay, you can do it this time, Y/N. You won’t fall this time.” You take a deep breath before crouching, another deep breath, another, and then press a button on your shoes, air beginning to circulate through your soles. With another deep breath and a few more encouraging words to yourself, you jump, and with near ease, manage to grab onto the ledge of the window.
You don’t waste any time pulling yourself in, pushing off the side of the house into the room. You roll forward flawlessly in a somersault before coming to stand up, letting out a breath at getting back into the house without alerting anyone, and, without making that much noise.
It was for a first, that was for sure.
Though, you didn’t want to linger in case someone woke up, so you quickly take off your bag and plug it into the wall, stepping away from it when it lights up. You strip off your clothes and change into pajamas as quietly as you can, and then take a seat in your chair.
First, you open a panel on your arm and take a small USB from the arm of your chair, pressing the end into the port on your arm. A glow emits from your arm and spreads through the upper part of your body. You then do the same for one of your legs, opening a panel, taking a USB, and plugging it into your leg until your lower half is lit up. You do it one last time for your head, opening a panel on the back of your neck. It takes a few moments for you to get the USB in the right port because your upper half has already started to shut down, but you get it in eventually and take a deep breath as all your parts connect to the wiring of the chair.
You shut your eyes, and, with a few more deep breaths, shut down completely for the night.
-
“We’re going out today, Y/N.” You blink a few times as you enter the living room, already seeing the man talking to you rushing about, collecting things from the coffee table in front of the couch, pulling on a jacket as he goes, and even going so far as to turning on the robot dog laying beneath his little house in the corner of the room.
Kim Doyoung was a mess. That was the best way to describe him. He always tried to fit too many things into a schedule, and rushed to be thirty minutes early to everything, and tried to multitask even though for a human it wasn’t actually all that productive.
He was a mess, but you can only assume it was because he was a genius, and from what you’ve been told, geniuses weren’t good at being put together when their brain was running a hundred miles a minute.
Doyoung was the only genius you’ve met though, so you’re not sure how accurate that information is.
Especially when Doyoung told you it himself.
Maybe Doyoung was a liar too. That could be a very good possibility.
“Y/N, did you hear me?” Doyoung asks. You look at him, nodding your head when you meet his gaze.
“Yes, sir. I heard you. I’ll go get dressed.” You turn on your heel, ready to head back upstairs, but the call of your name stops you in your tracks. You turn back around and look at Doyoung. “Yes, sir?”
“…did you fall out of your window again? Your legs are filthy,” he says. You look down at yourself, and, just as he had said, your legs were in fact dirty, as if you had been playing in mud and didn’t bother to clean them up afterwards. You stare at them for a long moment, trying not to think of last night at all and instead of the lie that you had kept telling Doyoung recently.
“I… Yes. Well, I don’t remember falling out but that’s what must’ve happened, sir.”
“Did you wake up outside?” You shake your head. “I checked your power wires last time and none of them were malfunctioning. Why do you keep…” Doyoung stops his words to think to himself, mumbling things under his breath as he stares at the wall for a minute. Two minutes pass. And another. And another.
And then his eyes settle on you with a hard look.
“…you’re not lying to me, are you?” You immediately shake your head.
“No, sir- I would not lie to you. You took out the truth chip because you trusted me and I would not break that trust,” you say.
Doyoung looks you over for a few more seconds before turning back to the robot dog at the floor, seeming to believe your lie. You figure that’s your cue to leave, and you turn back around to head up the stairs.
Before you even make it up the first step, you hear a soft “I hope not” from Doyoung, something he probably didn’t want you to hear, but your hearing was exceptional and there was no way you wouldn’t be able to hear it.
You nearly laugh while going up the stairs. If you were actually human you’re sure you were probably supposed to feel bad for lying to Doyoung.
-
Doyoung and you take a long walk around the city. He and you go up and down streets, weave through shop after shop, window shopping, browsing, and buying exactly one item before settling at a coffee shop so Doyoung could get his fix of coffee for the day.
Every time you go out, you’re still amazed by all the buildings, standing tall and strong as you pass, and the people, rushing to work, walking and laughing with their friends, or just walking around and shopping just like you.
It was an amazing place that you’re sure you’d never get sick of. You loved going out and seeing everything.
It just sucked that you always had to go out with Doyoung or Icarus, the robot dog that kept an eye on you even if you were just in the backyard. Doyoung had only just invented androids a few years ago and sold the blueprints off to a company, so they weren’t exactly a huge thing in society quite yet. Only Doyoung and people who could afford them owned them.
But plenty of people wanted their hands on one. And, Doyoung, being the paranoid creator he was, didn’t want you or any of the others he’s created going out by themselves where people could easily kidnap you.
His fear was understandable, but, you could take care of yourself. You could crush anything in your hand with enough applied pressure, including a human’s arm, so you didn’t think it was a problem.
Which was probably why you were sneaking out at night. Because it wasn’t a problem to you, and you could take care of yourself better than Doyoung thought.
Besides. You were always with someone you trusted. There was no way he’d let you get hurt.
“What are you smiling about?” You look up at Doyoung who is raising an eyebrow at you with a curious smile. You shake your head and look down at your hands, trying your best to stop thinking about stuff you weren’t supposed to be thinking about when you with Doyoung.
“I just like being back in the city, sir,” you say.
Doyoung hums in acknowledgement before going quiet again. He couldn’t know about the person you kept sneaking out to see. If he did, he’d definitely kill you.
“Would you like to walk around for a little bit more then?” Doyoung asks. You nod your head quickly, half to keep up the lie, and half because you actually wanted to spend more time in the city.
Any chance to get out of the house was an opportunity you never passed up, even if it was with Doyoung.
After a few more minutes in the coffee shop, you finally get up and leave, heading down the street once more. You take in the scenery of the city again, the buildings, the people, the atmosphere, and, even though it’s embedded in your system because of your memory chip, you smile because it never gets old.
Everything is always changing and evolving, and your point is only proven when you see that a new shop has opened up on the corner of the street you’re on. It piques your interest immediately and you take Doyoung’s hand, pulling him inside the small, quirky store.
The second you step in, you know it’s an antique store. The interior is lit with lamps here and there, giving off only a small amount of light to add to the atmosphere. There’s shelves upon shelves piled with old knick-knacks and books and various other items that you’d only find in an antique shop and you’re ready to browse the whole store for half an hour.
Until something – someone – catches your eye.
There’s a boy standing between one of the rows of shelves, tall, lean, with a goofy smile on his face the moment his eyes land on yours. You try your best to keep your smile down, but it’s absolutely impossible when he’s looking at you like he’s seen snow for the first time, or stepped into a room full of several puppies.
His smile is ridiculously contagious and you have to look away and duck into the next aisle over before you do something utterly stupid in front of Doyoung.
That would be really bad. So bad. So, so, so terribly bad.
“Hey.” You nearly drop the small vase in your hand at the voice next to you, and, before even bothering to look up, you set it down, shoving at him a moment later.
“What was that for?” He asks, looking at you skeptically. You frown at him, but it doesn’t last long before the smile finds its way back on your face, and then he joins in as well. “You’re so cute when you try to pretend to be mad at me.”
“Shut up-
“Sorry, sorry. That’s your brother, right?” The boy, Lucas, asks you in hushed whispers, and you nod your head at him. You’re glad he was being cautious now, because Doyoung wasn’t supposed to know you knew another human, especially not one who Doyoung could do a background check on in three seconds to figure out who exactly he was and who he was affiliated with.
You can’t even begin to imagine what would happen if Doyoung knew that you knew Lucas or if he knew what you were to each other. It would only end terribly, you’re sure.
Doyoung was paranoid and worried about you like that.
“Okay, I’ll get back to my job then.”
“Job?” You ask. Lucas nods his head.
“Boss wanted us to get new jobs, to keep things on the quiet side, you know? So… This place opened up and I took my shot. Here I am,” he says, smiling at you as he points to the nametag on the left side of his chest. It’s one of those sticker ones, one that says “Lucas :P” because that’s just how dorky Lucas is. You shake your head before taking a step back from the shelf, bowing a little to him.
“Okay, well, I’ll get going then,” you say. Lucas grabs your hand before you can even take another step and he leans in, far too close for where you were right now. “Lu-
“You forgot something last night,” he says. You frown, squinting at him.
“What was it?”
“My goodbye kiss.”
And then he leans in, pressing his lips to yours, chapped lips soft against your own. You can feel your core heating up, the heat from it moving through your circuits and your wires until your whole body is warm. The circuits in your brain are the warmest, and, when you described it to Lucas, he said you were lightheaded, and you knew why because kissing was wonderful.
Kissing Lucas was wonderful.
You imagine this is what kissing is supposed to feel like for a human.
It's what being in love is supposed to be for a human.
“See you tomorrow?” Lucas asks when he pulls away. You quickly nod and step away, rushing to find Doyoung in one of the aisles.
Luckily, he’s preoccupied by a colorful cube, his hands switching the sides over and over as he stares at it. You take a deep breath before walking over to him, tapping at his shoulder.
“What’s that, sir?” You ask. He doesn’t look at you and just keeps focusing on the cube.
“Old toy. Used to have one as a kid and could solve it in like forty seconds,” Doyoung says. He continues on with the cube for another minute. Your eyes are fixed on the cube, studying it, watching his hands move, until all the colors are the same on each side, and then he and you make eye contact.
“…I should work on it,” Doyoung says. He looks at you for only a second longer before looking down at the cube again. He begins twisting it in his hands, messing up the colors until no sides are one solid color and then the cube is being shoved into your face. “Solve it.”
“Me?” You ask, taking it.
“Yeah, you. Just get all the colors the same.” You take the cube into your hands and look it over for a moment before beginning to move it in a similar manner that Doyoung was. Within seconds, all the colors are lined up on every side, the cube looking complete again. You look up at Doyoung and he’s smiling at you.
“Your eyes are as impressive as always, Y/N,” he says. He takes the cube back, and begins walking towards the front counter, and you quickly follow. Your eyes end up drifting to the aisle you first saw Lucas in, and, he’s standing there, sweeping the floor back and forth lazily as he looks at you with a soft smile on his face.
You can’t help but shake your head at him and mouth a “tonight?” at him, raising an eyebrow in the process. His smile only gets bigger and he nods so happily that you have to look at the floor.
Being back in the city really was wonderful.
-
“How can you solve this so quick?” You look away from the cube in your hands and across the table at Lucas. He’s got noodles hanging out of his mouth out of disbelief that you could solve this puzzle so quickly, and, you laugh.
Because Lucas is so terribly adorable.
“I’m good at puzzles,” you say. Lucas holds one of his hands out and gestures for you to hand over the cube. You do so and watch as he twists it up every which way, the solid colors on each side leaving with each turn. He hands it back to you when he deems it mixed up enough and then gestures at you.
“Bet you won’t solve that.” You smile and raise an eyebrow.
“What are we betting?” You ask. Lucas thinks for a moment, slurping up more noodles into his mouth, taking a bite of a snack he bought, and then grinning at you.
“A date tomorrow. Not at night. In the daytime.” You almost frown at Lucas’ proposition but keep your smile. If you frowned, he was just going to ask you questions, and, well, there was only one explanation for why you couldn’t have a date in the daytime.
He wasn’t supposed to even know about you.
No one was supposed to know.
It was different with Doyoung, because with Doyoung you kept your head down and stayed as inconspicuous as possible. If you tried that with Lucas, he was no doubt going to ask questions. It would only be a big problem if you went out in the daytime together.
“…Okay. And if I win, you’ll stop trying to get a date in the daytime,” you say. Lucas ends up frowning but doesn’t argue as he sits back in his chair, crossing his arms in a cocky manner. You roll your eyes and look down at the cube. You turn it over a few times, analyzing every little turn you would have to do to solve it, and then do so.
In 4 seconds flat, the cube is solved, every small square matched to the others on every side of the cube. Lucas looks at you in disbelief once more, noodles hanging out of his mouth, and his chopsticks still at his lips.
“I win,” you say.
“…that was so fast,” he says after slurping up the rest of his noodles. You nod your head.
“Mmhmm.”
“…you really don’t want to date me in the daytime, huh?” He asks. You open your mouth to protest and to tell him that that was absolutely not true and to give him the same excuse you always did, but the door to his room suddenly opens up and the both of you look to see who had barged in.
A small man, with slicked back hair and a well-fitting suit is standing there, his eyes narrowed on you the second you turn around. The man is familiar, his face and his eyes really, but you can’t exactly place where you’ve seen him before.
In a picture. Maybe smiling?
You’d have to figure it out later.
“Who is this, Lucas?”
“Oh, this is Y/N! Sorry, boss, I didn’t-
“Send her home. We have business,” the man says. He stares at you for a long moment, his eyes searching your face for something, but you’re not sure what. You can’t keep eye contact for long, his gaze leaving your core feeling cold, so you look to the ground.
“…I’ll be in the meeting room, Lucas.” The man finally exits Lucas’ room and you turn back to Lucas, seeing him smiling awkwardly.
“Sorry. I didn’t think we would be doing anything tonight,” he says. He stands up and walks around the table, offering his hand. “I’ll walk you out, Y/N.”
You take Lucas’ hand and squeeze far tighter than necessary, your whole body feeling uncomfortable from that man’s stare.
The feeling doesn’t go away as you walk home, either, and you can’t help but keep looking over your shoulder every few seconds just to make sure no one was following you.
No one was supposed to know you exist.
And you’re sure that man especially wasn’t supposed to know.
Lucas worked under him, and you knew they did shady business. While Lucas’ jobs were fairly mild, you’ve heard of other stuff they’d done. None of it had ever been good.
Usually you could take care of yourself, but, tonight you had never felt more nervous about your well-being.
As your system shuts down for the night, you think of Lucas, holding his hand, going on dates with him, and focusing on that instead of the terrible feeling that crawls across your skin.
-
“So, if you never want to go on dates in the daytime, what can we do at night?” Lucas asks when he sees you.
It had been over a week since the incident at his place, ever since that man he worked under had seen you. You had kept indoors for the week, your feet not letting you leave Doyoung’s house at night, and even when Doyoung invited you out himself. He had been confused, considering he knew you liked going to the city with him, but wrote it off in the end and took one of the other androids with him instead.
You just couldn’t go out when you had felt like that. That man had just made you too unsettled, even for someone like yourself that was programmed with self-defense measures, ones that made you forget about danger even when traveling by yourself at night.
That was until now, of course, when all your feelings had died down to just an ember in the pit of your core. You felt even better being with Lucas, his smile putting you at ease so quickly that you forget all about anyone else but him.
“There’s plenty of things to do at night. We can take walks. Go see a movie. Sit by the river and talk. You like talking. I figure being by ourselves is something you might like, you know.”
“Sure…” Lucas suddenly pulls you close by your waist, your chest hitting his. You look up at him, and before you can even say anything, his lips are pressing to yours. You can feel your core heating up at the kiss, and a smile graces your lips as you kiss Lucas back.
How could he really complain about you two going out at night when you could still do things like this?
“I guess I can’t really complain when I can still kiss you,” he says. You smile growing bigger at his thoughts lining right up with your own, and, you kiss him again, this time your arms wrapping around his neck to bring him even closer.
Being unknown to everyone else was okay, as long as you were known to Lucas.
-
Lucas, 1:12 P.M can’t go out tonight. Boss has big thing planned
You, 1:12 P.M That’s lame.
Lucas, 1:12 P.M I know
Lucas, 1:12 P.M next night we’ll go out. Love you <3333
You, 1:12 P.M I love you, too, Lucas.
“You look happy,” Doyoung says as he passes you in the kitchen. You quickly shut off your phone and shove it into your lap, looking down at the table.
“I read something funny-
“Sure you did.”
Your head shoots up at Doyoung as he walks out of the kitchen, a frown finding its way on your face as you watch his figure retreats down the hall.
Why did he sound so accusatory about it? Did he know something he wasn’t supposed to know? Did he think you were lying again?
Maybe he was watching the cameras again. Maybe he saw you sneaking out.
Your fingers bunch up in the fabric of your shorts, and the ember that had died down in the pit of your core grows bigger.
If Doyoung found out you were sneaking out, it was almost certain he’d wipe your memory chip. He wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing from you, especially when he’d figure out you lied to him over and over, when he had put so much trust in you, when you knew no one was supposed to know about you.
The unsettling feeling you got from Lucas’ boss is growing, but this time, it’s because of Doyoung.
You needed to see Lucas. You needed to see him so bad just to calm yourself even a little.
-
Lucas isn’t there that night, even though you had texted him over and over again that you needed to see him. You don’t know why you had thought he’d ditch his boss for you, but you had still hoped.
You walk home alone, your hands shaking so uncontrollably during your walk and even as your systems shut down for the night when you’re back at home.
-
“Y/N.” You look up from the book you had been skimming to see a head of messy black hair, bags under tired eyes and a barely presentable man in front of you. You’re about to smile at him until you notice how narrowed his eyes are, and you can sense the frustration seeping off of him.
Uh-oh.
“Yes, Doyoung, sir?”
“Where were you last night?” He asks. You open your mouth to speak, ready to spit off the first lie you can think of, but he puts up a hand and shakes his head before you can even get there. “Why am I even asking? You’re just going to lie to me.”
He turns away from you, mumbling something under his breath about wishing he never took the truth chip out of you before walking towards the door.
“You have no trust in me, sir,” you say, frowning at his back. The ember grows just a little bit more.
He doesn’t even turn around to speak – “For good reason, Y/N. Follow me, please. I need your assistance.” – and promptly exits out of the room without a glance back. You shut your book and leave it at the table, following after Doyoung as quickly as you can. You didn’t want to give him any more negative thoughts about you.
Once you catch up, you head to the basement together, down dark stairs, into an empty room. You stand in the middle of the floor and Doyoung opens a panel beneath your feet, pressing four buttons before closing it. A thin circle opens up in the floor around you, moving down and out of the way before railing comes up in its place. Once it’s settled, the floor shifts, and then you’re moving down.
In contrast to the dark basement, there is an overabundance of light to the laboratory below the house. Even the elevator that leads to it is bright, with white walls and little sockets that light it up as it moves. You go down floor after floor, until the elevator reaches the bottom, the small tunnel the elevator had been in opening up into a large room.
White walls meet you as well, but this room is a little more colorful, mostly because of the green lights that lit the large pods lining the walls. It’s not that much different, but, it’s better than the rest of the rooms in the lab.
The bottom of the elevator hits the floor finally and Doyoung waits a moment before pushing one of the railings open, stepping off the elevator and walking to his desk. You step off as well, closing the railing behind you and watching as the elevator immediately starts moving again.
“Y/N, over here, please.” You turn around and walk towards Doyoung, where he is now wearing goggles over his eyes and pulling on a rugged lab coat. There’s burn marks and smudged words in permanent marker where Doyoung had attempted to take notes, and you make a reminder to buy Doyoung a new lab coat.
It was the least you could do, you supposed.
“Who are you working on today?” You ask. You look down at the table in front of you, the body on it face down, and, you’re not sure who exactly this one was when you couldn’t see their face. Doyoung had only showed you a few of the androids he worked on anyways, maybe five out of the thirty he made, so usually you weren’t entirely sure which one was which.
Especially when he didn’t really use you as his lab assistant. He had a different android for that job.
“Android 60600,” he says.
“Ah, Donghyuck.” You definitely knew this one though. He was the one that had gone out with Doyoung the entire week you didn’t want to go out. “Is his core malfunctioning again?” Doyoung nods, and you sit in silence as you watch him open up his back. He removes wires carefully and takes out three different circuits before finally reaching Donghyuck’s core. The orb that should be bright and glowing is dark, and Doyoung pulls it out, wires coming with it as he holds it above Donghyuck’s back.
“I don’t know what keeps happening. I take him out in the city and he suddenly just drops there. Every time I think I fix it, it just malfunctions again.”
“Is it one of the stems? Maybe it’s short circuiting the core,” you say. Doyoung shakes his head and begins unplugging the wires attached to the orb.
“I made sure that after you the stems wouldn’t be a problem. The only problem I can think of is that I was sent faulty cores again. I gave them those fucking blueprints and they pay me in cheap parts- fuck.” Doyoung sits back in his chair, and your skin tingles as you feel every bit of his frustration. You move a hand to his shoulder, patting it a few times to offer some form of comfort.
“It’s going to take forever to upload him into a new core.” You look down at the orb in Doyoung’s hand and frown. It wasn’t an easy process to transfer an entire android’s person into a new core, and you can only imagine Doyoung getting little to no sleep over Donghyuck.
Little to no sleep was bad for Doyoung, but, also bad for you because Doyoung would no doubt be watching the cameras around the house while he worked. How were you supposed to sneak out if he was watching, especially when you thought he was suspicious of your activity anyways?
“Let me look?” You ask. Maybe he was overlooking something. Hopefully he was overlooking something.
Doyoung hesitates but ends up handing over the core to you. You turn it over in your hands a few times, feeling the grooves, checking for anything that wasn’t supposed to be there, looking as closely as you could. Sometimes having an android look was better than having a genius with terrible eyes look.
“I already had my honey look so I doubt you can find anything,” Doyoung says.
Right as he says it though, one of your fingers presses into the orb and the entire thing opens in your hands like a flower. Doyoung gasps and stands up, quickly taking the orb from you and setting it on the table. You look at it next to him, and, in red wires, a symbol you know very well stands out to you.
“Goddamnit, he talked to the Dream Gang- fuck. This is going to take hours to get out- why would he let them touch his core? Did he want to die?!” Doyoung sits back in his chair and rolls away from the table and over to his desk. He turns on two lamps and sets Donghyuck’s core down, getting to work immediately.
You knew that was your cue to leave. Doyoung was going to be focused on that for the rest of the day. You walk over to where the elevator had been and press the button to summon it. While you wait, you look back at Doyoung and open your mouth to speak.
“Doyoung, is it okay if I go out?”
Doyoung’s mumbling to himself, but it stops when you ask your question, and there’s silence for a few seconds. He grabs something from a drawer and then waves a hand at you.
“Absolutely not. I don’t want any of you leaving. Tell my honey to contact the others right now. I want them back and her down here in the next hour,” he calls to you. You frown and begin nodding your head but stop when you remember he isn’t even looking.
You turn back to the elevator and watch as it comes down and lands next to you, the railing opening up for you to enter. You do so, shut it, and then lean down to open the panel beneath you. You press four buttons just as Doyoung had done earlier, different ones, of course, and then the elevator begins its trip back up to the house.
You don’t waste any time the second you’re back into the basement. You rush upstairs, calling for Doyoung’s honey, not getting any response when you do. You head to the second floor, calling for her again, and hear a response from hers and Doyoung’s shared bedroom. You head down the hall, and open the door, seeing her standing there, folding laundry.
She was content with staying in the house all day, and practically being some housewife to Doyoung.
You would never be okay with that, but, you supposed that’s why all androids were built differently.
“Doyoung wants you to call everyone back home and then report back to him when everyone is back.” His honey nods at your words and pulls out a phone from her pocket, beginning to contact others. You stand there awkwardly for a moment, your eyes darting around the room.
You can’t remember the last time you were in Doyoung’s room, because usually he didn’t want anyone else but his honey in there. So, you take as much as it in, trying your best to commit it to memory. There was a bed, dressers, two different charging stations, most likely for his honey, along with a computer and a work desk, similar to the one in the laboratory below the house.
The one thing that really catches your eyes is a picture on the desk, halfway covered by a core Doyoung must have been working on. It’s the only picture in the room that isn’t on a dresser and doesn’t seem to be one that’s well taken care of like the rest.
You instinctively walk over to it, plucking the picture off of the desk and holding it in your hands. You brush off the dust and scan it over, your eyes studying every person in the picture. It’s nothing special, really, just a picture of a few people. Doyoung is in it, next to his honey, who looks like she had just been built or something, considering her legs were metal with wires dangling from them. She barely looks alive, if you were being honest. Behind her is Kun, a man Doyoung was friends with who usually brought by containers of android parts for Doyoung.
And, on the other side of Doyoung’s honey, is a man who immediately fills your core with a cold unease. He looks younger in this picture, but it’s the same eyes that looked at you so cold and calculating, who left you feeling so unsettled for an entire week.
You remember seeing this picture before, long ago, when Doyoung had let you out of the lab for the first time. You remember Doyoung snatching the picture away and putting it face down on his desk, not wanting to talk about the people in the picture.
Now you understood why.
Because the other man in the picture was the leader of the Dream Gang, the group of people Doyoung had told you and his other androids to stay away from, the group he had told you was nothing but trouble, the group who took androids like you, made by Doyoung, and rewired your cores until they couldn’t function properly anymore.
They were the group of people Lucas was a part of.
-
“I don’t want any of you going outside for the next week, so I’m putting you back down here for the time being,” Doyoung says that night. He’s lined everyone up in the basement, ready to send all his androids back to their original rooms in the laboratory. “I’m making adjustments to everyone, so something like Donghyuck doesn’t happen again. His core… it’s done for. He won’t be back in commission for at least another month. Even when I told you all to stay away from people like that- after what happened to Jaemin and Jeno- he still went against what I said, and I’m sure he’s not the only one who’s had encounters.”
Doyoung’s eyes land on you, only for a brief moment, moving onto everyone else after, but that short look at you says it all. That look meant those words were being directed towards you.
It was an awful feeling, having disappointment pointed in your direction.
“The adjustments I’ll be making will contain the following chips. A tracking chip, to let me know where you are at all times; a receiver chip, to give you specific instructions in the case that you are where you aren’t supposed to be; and a remote shut down chip, if you don’t follow instructions. This chip will render you incapable of your own thought and give you the flight response needed in tight spots. No matter what, it will make you run away from any threats to the safest place possible. There’s no way a human could catch up to you with this chip in place.”
Doyoung pauses, and then sighs. “In retrospect, I should’ve implemented these chips before I let you out into the world but doing so seemed like I was taking… your humanity away. Now, with the threat of the Dream Gang on our doorstep, I figure it’s necessary.”
“Is this truly necessary, sir?” One of the other androids asks. You look at them, not sure at all who they even are, and then look away.
Of course it was necessary.
Because even if it seemed suffocating, or restricting, at the end of the day, Doyoung was just trying his best to look out for all of his creations’ well-beings in the only way he knew how.
He was only trying to keep everyone safe.
“For right now, it’s the only option I have. Because androids don’t have any laws protecting them right now, there’s nothing police can do to apprehend the Dream Gang regarding what they’ve done to me or any of you. This is the best way I can think to keep you safe, without having to shut all of you down or stop my work. So, forgive me for now. I’m trying my best to make everything right again.”
You stare at Doyoung for a long moment after he’s done with his speech. His honey begins ushering everyone back to the elevator, three by three, back to the floor where all the android’s rooms were, but you stay where you are.
What did he mean by that? Make everything right?
Your memory flashes back to the picture on his desk, of the man in the picture, of the Dream Gang’s boss. What happened between them to put them at terrible odds with each other? What happened to them to make the Dream Gang do terrible things to Doyoung’s androids?
“Y/N, let’s go,” a voice says to you. You nod and follow them to the elevator. You ascend from Doyoung’s main lab, your eyes glued on Doyoung the entire time, watching as he hunches over the core on his desk, no doubt belonging to Donghyuck.
Doyoung cared so much about all of you, you knew that.
But you cared about someone too.
And before Doyoung could put all of those chips in you, you needed to talk to that person.
-
It’s not that hard to get out of the house, especially when Doyoung falls asleep working and the only line of defense is Icarus, the robot dog, who could easily be swayed with the right person saying the right words. You practically drag the dog upstairs with you just because he wants to follow you around.
It’s too easy, crawling out of a window, hopping over the fence, and walking down the street to the Dream Gang’s hideout; to where Lucas would be no matter what.
Doyoung was somehow still too trusting of everyone.
“So dumb…”
You walk and walk, your feet continuing to carry you to your destination, the building coming into view right before your eyes before you know it. You don’t even have to circle around the back and climb the tree like usual, because as you’re stepping into their territory, the front door opens, and, as if fate would have it, Lucas is standing there.
Surprise is written on his face when he sees you, and you try your best not to smile. It was so terribly adorable.
“Y/N- why are-
“I need to talk to you,” you say. Lucas closes the door behind him and rushes over to you, taking your hand and pulling you away from the building.
You follow easily, savoring the feel of Lucas’ hand in yours. You wouldn’t be able to feel it for a while after this, so you had to commit it to memory.
When Lucas deems it far enough away from the building he had come out of, he turns to you, his hands finding their way to your face. “What’s up? I got all your texts the other day but- we were busy and the boss wouldn’t let me ditch.”
You’re silent for a short moment, trying to calculate all your words in a manner that wouldn’t confuse Lucas the second they came out. You needed to be clear and concise.
Did you mess up Donghyuck’s core?
“What were you doing the other night? That big thing that was planned… What happened?”
Did you hurt Donghyuck?
“Oh. We were making a deal with someone and had to move shipments all night. Boss thought something was going to happen, so he wanted everyone there. Why do you ask?”
“I…” You pause and move Lucas’ hands away from your face. “Do you know about androids, Lucas?”
Lucas’ tilts his head a little, clearly confused. That was good. Confusion was so much better than knowing.
Knowing meant he was guilty.
“Androids? Uh… I think my boss used to deal with them? I think he used to… make them?” Lucas frowns at you and rubs the back of his neck. “Why are you asking? Seems pretty random…”
“I think he and my brother used to work together. Then something happened, and your boss left it all to him but... not on good terms. He’s… I think your boss has been messing with my brother’s androids. One of them is damaged now and it’s the third one it’s happened to.”
“Messing with them?” Lucas asks. You look down at the ground, nodding your head.
“Messing with their… insides. Messing them up so bad they stop functioning. It’s like if you were to take a human and just twist all their insides around until they died. Same concept.”
“…that’s- no. Hey, no. Boss isn’t like that. Boss is better than that.”
“Is he?” You ask. Your eyes settle on Lucas again, and he looks hurt and lost. It’s a face that makes your core feel cold. “The wires on the inside of the most recent android had the Dream Gang’s symbol, Lucas. The Dream Gang does that kind of stuff everywhere they go and- who else would be able to get into an android and do that kind of thing unless they knew my brother-
“He’s better than that, Y/N! I know he is!” Lucas steps away from you and looks down at the ground. He shakes his head in disbelief, because to him, his boss could do no wrong. His boss took people like him off the streets and gave them a home and a purpose to live. His boss gave people a new life.
To Lucas, there was no way he could do something like that.
“Lucas, if he is doing that- what would you do? Would you try and stop him? What if he ended up hurting someone you really cared about? What would you do?”
“What? Y/N, what-
“There you are!” You and Lucas turn to the voice, seeing three people coming towards you. Two people you don’t recognize, and one that you can’t even stand to look at. You look to the ground, trying to keep your face hidden as much as possible until they were gone again.
“Yo, Lucas, we’ve got stuff to do man,” one of them says. Lucas laughs a little, shaky and out of place. Why was he nervous?
“I know, dude. I was just wrapping up here, so I’ll catch up. Sorry for making you wait, Boss.”
“Not a problem,” the boss says. Your fists clench in the fabric of your shirt, too tight and scared to let go. Something in you was screaming to get out of there. You needed to get away before something happened.
“Y/N, I’ll… I’ll text you, okay? Please get home safely,” Lucas says. You look at him, his eyes not even meeting yours, and you nod slowly, preparing yourself to walk away.
Before you can even take a step, Lucas’ boss has a hand on your forearm, a shock pulsing through you the second his hand is on you. You can’t move, no matter what you tell yourself, and you stare at the boss, feeling so terribly scared at being forced to look at him.
“Y/N, was it? Thank you for taking care of Lucas all this time. I know he can be a loud one sometimes, so I appreciate it.” He’s talking to you like that, sounding nice and caring, but you can hear the bite to it. It’s dangerous. It’s something that makes your core shake.
And you’re so focused on that that you barely feel the panel on your arm being opened. You try to move, to take the hand touching you and break it, shatter it, throw it off of you, but the shock is still there, keeping you from moving. You feel a pinprick at the skin of your panel, and it travels all the way up your arm, disappearing somewhere between your wires.
The boss lets go of you after shutting your panel and smiles a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Send my regards to Doyoung.”
He steps away then, the two boys and Lucas following, leaving you standing there. The shock pulses through you one last time, and finally, you can move again.
You run home as fast as you can, because there was no doubt in your mind that man did something. He opened your panel. He put something in you.
You jump over the fence of your house, about to burst through the door to set off the alarms to get Doyoung to you as soon as possible, when your body suddenly feels heavy. You jump the fence only for you to fall to your knees on the doorstep. The world is spinning around you, things turning upside down as you feel a stab right at your core.
You can’t even call out Doyoung’s name before your systems shut down.
-
You wake up in a haze, your head spinning as you struggle to move. Your eyes refuse to focus, and the feeling of being sick floods your thoughts.
If you were human, you’d no doubt be throwing up by now.
“You’re awake,” someone says, their voiced muffled. You try to find the source, but every color and shape is too blurry for you to really make out. Where were you? The lab? Your bedroom? Had Doyoung or his honey found you on the doorstep? Did they know something was wrong with you?
You had to focus on what was happening. You had to set your systems straight. Your eyes close, and for a long moment, you let all your thoughts and worries fade away in favor of figuring out whether or not you were in danger. You bring attention to your core, trying to find the source of the problem. Everything connected back to it, so if something was wrong with your head, there was something wrong with your core.
However, the second you find the problem, a shockwave rushes through your body, and you scream out at the pain.
“Y/N!” Hands are on you, saying words you can’t quite make out as the shockwave hits your head. It’s the same stabbing pain you felt before in your core, and your head can’t even begin to figure out what’s what as once more, your systems shut down.
-
“Oh-
“Oh my god- I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
A smile. And then a hand reaching out.
“Thank you for helping me up.”
“Anything for someone as cute as you.”
“You are very cute too.”
“Oh? I’m glad we’re seeing eye to eye.”
“Yes, that is good.”
“You talk funny, cute girl. What’s your name? I’m Lucas.”
The hand that had helped doesn’t let go, and the hand that grabbed on squeezes tighter. There’s a smile from both parties, and no hurry to leave each other’s sides.
“I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you Lucas.”
-
Your eyes blink open slowly. There’s a light above you, shining brightly as it bounces off the white walls of the room.
This was the lab. Doyoung had found you then. Where was he?
“Do… Do… Doyoung.”
You turn your head slowly to the side to look at Doyoung’s desk, seeing him sitting there, his back to you. He must be working on something.
You needed to talk to him though. You open your mouth to speak, and broken syllables come out, in a voice that isn’t quite yours.
“Do… Do. Do- Doyoung.” His head lifts up and he whips around in his chair, looking at you with wide, tired eyes.
“Y/N- you’re awake.” Doyoung turns around in his chair the other way and stands up, something in his hands as he walks over to you. As he gets closer, your eyes focus on it, realizing it was a core. Your eyes trail the cords that dangled from it, finding that they led right to you.
Oh.
“Do… Doyoung, sir. I am- I am sorry. I lied to… to. To you.”
“I know.” Doyoung places your core next to you on the table and walks back over to his desk, grabbing something off of it. He brings it over to you, and you see the cube he had bought a while back, all of the colors scattered everywhere. He places it in one of your hands and picks up your core again, holding it gently to him.
“Y/N, try to solve that for me, will you?” You blink at him and then focus on your hands, willing them to move. It’s slow, but eventually they both touch the cube, and you begin to move each side.
It takes a long time to even get one side completed, and your hands drop to your side before you can even start the second, feeling absolutely exhausted doing just that.
Your eyes look at Doyoung, knowing all of this wasn’t good. You didn’t even need the way your body moved or the way your voice sounded to tell you that. The remorse rolling off of Doyoung said it all. “I am- I am dy- dying, right? Right?”
Doyoung looks down at you and nods slowly. You close your eyes for a long second, thinking of all the things you wanted to do, with every image in your head ending with one person, smiling at you like there was nothing but the two of you in the world.
You reach for Doyoung, grabbing at his sleeve.
“I… I want to- to- to. Lucas. Please. I want to- to- to,” you pause, trying to concentrate on the words. “See- see- Lucas. Please. Please.”
Doyoung hesitates, sighs, and ultimately steps away from you, walking back over to his desk. You stare at him, wanting to convince him, but nothing comes out as you try to speak. You close your eyes again, focusing on every memory you’ve saved with Lucas rather than Doyoung.
If this was all you were going to have left, then you were going to savor it until you couldn’t anymore.
“Y/N, he’s coming down.” You open your eyes and look at Doyoung, frowning. Lucas was? “He kept texting your phone, so I responded and told him what was happening. He’s wanted to see you for a few days now I just… was waiting for you to wake up.”
You try to talk again, but still nothing comes out. Doyoung walks back over to you and turns you to your side gently before fussing with the panel at the back of your neck. Your eyes wander around the lab, until they spot the elevator coming down, two people standing on it. Once it stops, Doyoung’s honey opens the railing and leads a blindfolded Lucas over to you.
“L-Lu-Lucas!” Lucas stops and looks around the room at hearing your voice. Doyoung’s honey tugs at his hand and he frowns before being pulled along until he’s standing right in front of you. You reach out, taking his hand.
“Y/N?”
“It- it’s me.” Lucas kneels down and takes your hand in both of his, squeezing tightly.
“You sound… weird. Is she okay? Can I- can I take the blindfold off?”
“…It’s not pretty, so only if you’re certain,” Doyoung says from behind you, closing the panel at the back of your neck. You hear him step away, and then watch as Lucas slips the blindfold off his head. His eyes roam your body immediately, no doubt taking in all the wires that were emerging from the middle of your torso. It takes a long moment before his eyes catch yours, and he smiles.
“No- no wonder you talked so weird when we first met,” Lucas says. You laugh at his words, squeezing his hand.
“I-I was… dreaming. About that. Ear-earlier.”
Lucas laughs himself and leans forward, pressing his lips to your hand.
“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I should’ve listened to you- I should’ve known you were right. Ten- he did this to you that night, didn’t he?” Lucas asks. You let out a noise to let him know he was correct, and Lucas shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I should’ve known.”
“No- no,” you start. “He-he gave you a home. There- there was no. No. No. No reason to doubt him.”
Suddenly, you feel a shock through your system and you cry out in pain, the sound broken as it comes out. Lucas jumps and squeezes your hand harder than ever and leans over you, looking up at Doyoung.
“What’s wrong- why is she-
“Lucas, she’s dying. Whatever Ten did to her, I can’t reverse. It’s eating at her systems faster than I can handle. The best I can do is move her core into a new core, but at that point she won’t be Y/N. She won’t remember anything she’s experienced. I need you to know that you’re losing her.”
You feel your core shudder in Doyoung’s hands and you cry out again. Lucas looks at you, moving a hand to touch your face, and you watch as tears begin rolling down his face.
“If- if it’ll save her- you should do it. If she forgets me, then so be it. At least she’ll be okay.” You move your hand slowly to Lucas’ face, wiping a few tears as they spill from the corner of his eyes.
“I-I don’t- don’t- don’t want to-to forget you,” you say. Lucas smiles and shakes his head.
“It’s okay. We’ll meet again. I won’t let you forget next time,” he says. Lucas places one of his hands to the one you’re wiping tears with and holds it.
Seeing him smiling and crying and being so sweet and loving next to you as your life was slipping from you makes your core feel warm. That warmth travels through your wires and circuits, touching your skin, and fills your whole body with it.
You smile at Lucas.
“Lucas… You… made me… feel… human. I… hope we- we- we meet again. I want- want to feel human- again.”
A shockwave suddenly hits, and it goes through your core again, through every part of your system with searing pain until you can’t feel anything. You stare at Lucas only for a moment before the world darkens around you.
-
“Doyoung, can we go into this shop? It looks cool.” Doyoung looks up at said shop, smiling a little as his eyes look back to you.
“Sure. Let’s see if you can find anything interesting.”
You grin, pulling Doyoung into the shop, and the second you step in, you know it’s an antique store. The interior is lit with lamps here and there, giving off only a small amount of light to add to the atmosphere. There are shelves upon shelves piled with old knick-knacks and books and various other items that you’d only find in an antique shop and you’re ready to browse the whole store for half an hour.
Until you hear a broom drop and you look at the person, staring at you with wide eyes. You tilt your head in confusion, not sure why they were staring at you.
“Is there something on my face?” You ask. The person, a tall, lean boy, shakes his head and quickly picks up his broom. Doyoung clears his throat next to you and you look at him.
“Lucas, it’s nice to see you again. How long has it been? A year or so?”
“…something like that.”
“Well, I’m glad you seem to be doing well. Y/N, this is Lucas.” You bow a little towards Lucas, who is now looking at Doyoung, confusion written all over his face. You look at Doyoung again, only to watch him sigh. “She’s my younger sister, and I would like it if you two could get along. I think you’ll be a good influence on her.”
You catch Lucas’ eyes once more, and he steps towards you with hesitation. You smile, putting out your hand in hopes of showing that you were friendly. Lucas watches your hand for a moment before taking it. You see a small smile light up his face, and then he’s looking at you again.
“It’s nice to meet you, Y/N. I’m Lucas.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Lucas. I hope we can get along.”
He laughs a little and squeezes your hand.
“I’m sure we will.”
