Even Androids Fall in Love (part 2)
Maid Rin Week day 8
Part 1
Prompt: Freestyle day
Words: 2655
Pairings: Mako(fem)rin, Soukisu, and lots of unrequited feelings
Rating: M for this part.
Warnings: Violence and character death (though not described in detail).
Summary: Rin confronts the other members of the SANO unit.
Notes: Things get sad because I’m apparently incapable for going just two days without sad AUs. Writing for a full week straight was exhausting but a lot of fun. Now I can actually go look at everyone else’s entries without stressing over mine lmao
Big huge thank you to leninmeringuepie for beta reading all my fics. I really owe her (especially after the sad fics I did whoops)
~~
“Do you really need that many weapons?” Haru stood behind her, watching as Rin strapped knives to herself. “Even this?” He nodded his head at the chained sickle he was holding, not entirely sure he wanted to look up how this was used.
The redheaded android glanced back at him, a frown on her face. “Yes. Sousuke and Kisumi won’t need to overcompensate. They have each other. But I’m alone.” Adjusting her shorts and tank top to make sure nothing fell out of place, she took the kusarigama from Haru’s hands. “I’m going to bring Makoto back.” Strapping the weapon into a special holster on her back, she pulled on a loose maid dress.
Inspecting herself in the mirror, Rin’s frown deepened. It would have to do. She picked up the USB that had been left on Makoto’s pillow and handed it to Haru. “I already downloaded the map data. It’s where they took Makoto. If I’m not back tonight, then… Well, I’m sure you can figure out what to do with that.”
Her smile was forced as she turned to leave, only to be stopped by a hand around her wrist. Glancing back at Haru, she waited a moment as he fidgeted. She moved her hand to hold his gently and she gave it a squeeze. “I’m bringing Makoto back. I promise.”
~~
Rin shot open the door to the warehouse, an annoyed look on her face. This place was stupidly cliché. Waving the smoke out of her arm, she transformed it back into its normal state as she stepped inside. She flexed her fingers, hoping that the months of keeping her limbs in their “off” state wouldn’t affect the speed of their transformation. Going up against the other parts of her unit would almost certainly call for her to bring out the big guns.
Stopping just inside the doors, Rin scanned the building, her eyes darting around in an attempt to find Makoto as quickly as possible. From her location, she picked up nothing, so she began to move slowly and carefully through the building.
It had been abandoned several months ago and the city was still determining what to do with it. Secluded and fairly open, apart from a few old shipping containers, it was an ideal place for the three of them to face off. That fact confused her more than anything else. If they had been altered so badly, why would they have chosen a location where collateral damage wouldn’t be an issue?
The sound of something whizzing through the air snapped her to attention and she tilted her head to the side, narrowly avoiding getting a ballistic knife to the eye.
“Aw, I missed. I told Sousuke I’m not as good with knives as he is!” Kisumi moved out from behind another container, giving Rin a wave. “I missed you, RinRin!”
Anger burned through her systems and Rin ripped off the dress, unholstering one of her pistols. She turned on her backup cooling systems, knowing that she couldn’t risk overheating during the fight.
Kisumi must have spotted the kusarigama on her back because he instantly brightened up. “I knew you would keep it! There was no way you’d forget about us.”
“Shut up.” She squeezed the trigger in rapid succession, emptying the entire clip in the process.
Every single shot missed.
Cursing herself, she tossed the gun aside and moved to grab the other one. That brief moment had been enough for Kisumi to run at her, slamming her into the side of a container.
“Rin! Just come back with us! We’ll let the prince go if you do!”
Rin growled and slammed her head into Kisumi’s, startling him enough that she could slip out of his grasp. Putting distance between herself and her old friend, she gave each container a scan, hoping to find a heat signature.
She got lucky when she picked up Makoto’s body heat and even luckier when she opened the doors to the container and nothing blew up. “Makoto…” Despite the fear on her prince’s face, relief flooded through her processors.
Only to vanish in the next moment as she was slammed to the ground.
Sousuke was much larger than both her and Kisumi, so they had always been at a disadvantage in close combat. Which was unfortunately Sousuke’s specialty. He grabbed one of the knives off her legs and slammed it into her right shoulder, pinning her to the ground.
Rin’s sensors when haywire as her body tried to repair the synthetic muscle, only to be stopped by the steel blade. Fear spiked through her, because if she failed, Makoto would die. And she had promised the no matter what, she would bring him home.
So, when Sousuke moved to pin her left shoulder, she popped the hinges off her fingers, the tips swinging down at the first knuckle to reveal four gun barrels. Jamming them into Sousuke’s right shoulder and fired.
Watching him jerk and tense as she nearly blew his arm off, Rin bit down a wave of remorse. There was no time for that now. She could repair her unit after they were incapacitated and Makoto was safe.
Clutching his shoulder, Sousuke looked down at her before slamming the fist of his functioning arm into Rin’s face. The impact was jarring and she struggled to focus.
The fear returned when she heard Kisumi’s footsteps. He crouched down next to her head, sighing softly. “Don’t worry, Rin. We’ll fix you.” With that, he bent down, putting his mouth against her ear, and whistled.
~~
Rin’s next conscious moment found her in the strange headspace the three of them had created during linkups. They had liked it, because they were able to project themselves into the space, giving the illusion of being able to move freely. In reality, she knew that the three of them were most likely lying on the floor of an abandoned warehouse, linked up and appearing catatonic to outside observers.
With a grunt, Rin sat up, glaring at the two androids sitting in front of her. Her eyes shifted to Kisumi as she felt him probing around in her programming. “There’s nothing wrong with me. Though the same can’t be said about you two.”
Instantly, she felt his presence retract and he had the decency to look embarrassed. “We just… We thought maybe you had been programmed to love him…”
Anger flared inside of her again and she fought back the urge to ram her fist into Kisumi’s face. “Why would you think something like that? Makoto would never tamper with my programming!”
“Because he’s a human.” Sousuke finally spoke, though his gaze was on the false ground they were sitting on. “We were so sure you’d been tampered with and we couldn’t forgive anyone who would do that to you.”
“I don’t get it. We all knew we were programmed to fall in love, so why are you acting like this? You went as far as to forcibly shut me down again just to go through my programming! Why is this bothering you so much?” Shouldn’t her unit mates be happy for her?
“Humans like to hurt us, Rin. We just had to make sure you hadn’t been altered.” Kisumi frowned a bit, finally looking up at her again. “It’s probably our fault, really. We weren’t there for you. But we’re together now. We can be a team again, like it was supposed to be!”
Rin started at Kisumi in confusion for a moment. “Well, half of my mission was to bring you both home with me. The Emperor wants to repair you! We can be a complete unit again!”
Sousuke’s eyes widened and he turned to glare at her. “No.”
“What do you mean no?!” Hadn’t Kisumi just told her that they wanted to be a team again?
The pink haired android sighed softly before speaking. “We’re not letting humans back inside our heads. It’s bad enough that they changed our basic function but they couldn’t bring themselves to stop there. They weren’t very good at what they were doing, either. Sou’s navigation system is shot to hell.”
“Well, at least my entire music library is various different symphony recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth interspersed with Singing in the Rain,” Sousuke snapped.
“Don’t remind me,” Kisumi grumbled, before turning his attention back to Rin. “We’re not going back with you, Rin. Even if you think the Emperor wants to help you, how can you know that for sure? How do you know he won’t scrap us as soon as we get to the palace?”
“Because he’s a nice man!” How many times would she have to tell them that the royal family was kind before they believed her?
“How do you know they’re not using you, Rin? Testing your AI?” Looking over at Rin, Sousuke continued to frown. “Did you even look for us, Rin? Or did you obey them senselessly when they told you we were dead?”
His words hurt and Rin covered up the hurt with more anger. “I wanted to! But they shut me down and kept me locked up! They thought I would malfunction without you!”
Sousuke finally moved from where he was sitting, going over to Rin and grabbing her shoulders. “See? They’ve always been using you, Rin. They never cared about us individually. Our adaptive AIs are probably just a fun toy for them to observe. Makoto will leave you once he’s bored of you. That’s what humans do to technology. Something newer and flashier comes out and we get trashed. Well, that’s if you’re lucky. Sometimes they use you to test virus protection or they take you apart to see how long you can keep functioning before breaking.”
Rin covered her ears, even though she knew that wouldn’t do any good in their shared space. “Shut up! Makoto would never do that to me!”
There was movement to her right and she felt Kisumi place a hand on her back gently. “You don’t know that, Rin. He’s human. Unpredictable. We would never leave you because we’re a unit.” He hesitated for a moment before trying to pull her into a hug. “We love you, Rin.”
It took Rin a moment to process what Kisumi had just said and when she did, she shoved at them both, trying to get away from them. “Why would you tell me that? I love Makoto! He would never hurt me, unlike you two! All you’ve done today is hurt me!” She slapped away Sousuke’s hand when he tried to reach for her again. “Don’t touch me!” Standing up, he backed away from both of them.
“Rin, wait!” Kisumi tried to grab for her as well and she kicked his hand.
“No! I can’t go with you. I love both of you but not in the way you want me to! We’re a unit but I love Makoto.” Hesitating, she reached for the back of her neck, feeling for the USB cables she knew were there in reality. “I choose to stay with him.” Ripping out the cords, she severed the connection with her partners.
~~
As soon as Rin was awake in the real world, she ripped the knife out of her shoulder before running back over to the shipping container. Makoto was still there and he looked at her with wide eyes. The fear she saw in his eyes, along with the dried tears on his cheeks, made her metaphorical heart ache. She hurried over to him, pulling the cloth gag out of his mouth.
“Rin! Are you alright? Your arm is broken!” He turned his head, trying to watch her as she untied his hands. Once the rope fell away, he jumped up from the chair he had been bound to, pulling Rin into a tight hug.
Rin felt her shoulder grow wet as Makoto started to cry again. “I should be asking you that, silly. My arm can be repaired easily. But you’re fragile! You’re not hurt, right?”
Makoto shook his head, tightening his hold on Rin. “Just rope burns. I was so scared, especially when they hurt you…”
“I’ll be alright. I could never leave you, Makoto.” She smiled softly and pulled back slightly so she could look him in the face. “It’s because I love you.”
The small smile Makoto gave her sent happiness coursing through her systems and she pulled him into a kiss. Makoto kissed her back, holding her close against his chest.
“Rin.”
Sousuke’s low voice had Makoto jumping away from Rin, green eyes filling with fear again. Rin put herself between the two of them, glaring at the other two SANO members. Kisumi hung back behind Sousuke, holding his good hand loosely.
“Get out of here. You and the prince,” Sousuke said softly, avoiding eye contact with either Rin or Makoto.
Rin reached behind her, grabbing one of Makoto’s hands and holding it gently. “You’re letting us go? Why?”
This time, Kisumi spoke up. “You were right, Rin. We hurt you.” He finally looked up at her, smiling sadly. “I don’t expect you to forgive us, so we’re letting you and Makoto leave. I hope he makes you happy.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? We can help you!” Rin begged. She didn’t want to lose the rest of her unit again if she could avoid it.
“I can’t bear to watch him touch you” Sousuke’s eyes narrowed at Makoto before flicking away.
“Besides, we hurt the prince and his companion android. And you. I don’t think we’d be welcome.” Kisumi glanced at Sousuke as he spoke, looking for affirmation.
Sousuke nodded in agreement, giving Rin a quick glance, frowning. “Goodbye, Rin.” His gaze switched to Makoto, his frown deepening. “Don’t hurt her.” With that, he started to walk away, pulling Kisumi along behind him.
They left before either Rin or Makoto could say anything to prove them wrong.
~~
“We failed our mission,” Sousuke said softly, glancing at Kisumi. The other android sat beside him, still holding Sousuke’s good hand. “This is twice we’ve been unable to kill the prince. We’re not going to get out of this, you know.”
Kisumi shrugged before leaning on Sousuke, lacing their fingers together as he did so. “I know.” With a sad smile, he pressed a soft kiss to Sousuke’s cheek. “At least we’re together.”
“Yeah.” Turning his head, Sousuke pressed his lips to Kisumi’s, gripping his hand tightly.
~~
After the incident, Makoto and Rin became extremely clingy with each other. Rin went weaponless most of the time for the express purpose of cuddling Makoto whenever she could. Despite this, she never let down her guard. Even though she believed that Sousuke and Kisumi wouldn’t hurt Makoto again, that didn’t mean other people wouldn’t try.
Makoto had insisted she get repaired as soon as they got home. Rin had been hesitant at first, remembering what had happened to the other two SANO androids but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to protect Makoto with a bad arm. The technicians at the palace seemed to have the same mindset as the royal family, because she came out of repairs better than ever and with none of her programs malfunctioning.
~~
A week after Makoto’s kidnapping, he and Rin were approached by the Emperor. The man held out a small tablet to Rin, a sorrowful look on his face. “We couldn’t find them in time. I’m very sorry.”
His words made her panic and she took the tablet, swiping between photos. The damage done to her other parts caused her to drop the tablet in favor of wrapping her arms around herself.
The Emperor picked the tablet up and turned it off. “I thought you should know.”
Rin felt Makoto’s arms wrap around her, simply holding her tightly as she shook with dry sobs.
Now, she really was the last member of SANO.
