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“Whenever you’re ready, Con!” Hank called out gruffly, Sumo adding onto that with a little “boof” of impatience.
“Just a moment, Lieutenant.” Connor scrunched up his nose, staring at his own whirring LED in the washroom mirror, waiting for it to return to blue while he gently wiped off some blue blood from his bottom lip, drying off his thumb on his trousers. After close inspection, Connor’s gaze finally left the mirror—
Warning: Thirium levels below 80%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs.
Connor blinked the warning out of his vision, smoothing out the front of his button-up, shooting Hank a brief smile as he grabbed the leash from him, Sumo happily wagging his tail as he followed closely behind.
“Good boy,” Connor praised the big mop of fur for his compliance, internally grateful he wasn’t about to get dragged down the block.
Hank was huffing and puffing by the time he had caught up. “Jesus, Con, when I said ‘whenever you’re ready’, I meant take your time, not put it into fifth gear.”
Connor rubbed the back of his neck apologetically. “I apologize, Lieutenant—”
“How many times do I gotta tell you to just call me Hank?”
“ Hank . I did not mean to cause your blood pressure to spike.”
Hank narrowed his eyes at Connor. “Are you still doing that creepy shit where you can read my heart and shit? That is totally unfair, Mr. I-Just-Got-Shot-But-Didn’t-Tell-Anybody.”
“ Haaaank ,” Connor whined. “That was a singular incident that occurred three months, seven days, two hours and seventeen minutes ago.”
Hank snorted, jokingly rolling his eyes. “What, are you mentally keeping a ‘Days Without Incident’ board?”
Connor flushed light blue. “Definitely not.”
“You are !”
“I’m simply noting when—”
“Yeah, yeah, tell me whatever story you want, Con, I know the truth.”
Connor simply walked the dog.
Warning: Thirium levels below 80%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs.
“What was that for?” Hank put on his Detective Voice ™. Uh oh.
“What was what for, Lieutenant?”
“Your LED thingy went yellow. Please don’t tell me we have a case because I sure as hell am not going in on a Sunday.”
Connor shook his head. He wondered why he hadn’t just ripped the annoying thing out already. It was a hindrance to his secret and many androids had since taken theirs out after the revolution.
It just felt like him, that was all.
“Just a minor maintenance warning. Nothing to worry about.” It wasn’t a lie.
Hank was skeptical. “Minor? What kind of maintenance?”
Connor had been expecting this. He expected it all. “I require some oil in my left kneecap. Nothing I cannot get fixed tomorrow at the station.”
This seemed to satisfy the man for now. Sumo, however, was not. The dog gently pawed at Connor’s feet, thoroughly distracting the android.
“What, Sumo?”
The Saint Bernard whined, tail wagging lowly. Connor sated him with some good head scritches.
The trio returned home for the evening to settle on the couch with the television playing some sort of rerun of a show Hank liked. There were lots of pillows and blankets and Sumo was very happy to serve as one of Connor’s blankets. It was wonderful.
Until Hank brought in a mug of hot chocolate for himself and a mug of warm thirium for Connor. He had to resist the thoughts that would turn his LED a quick yellow.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Hank complained as he sat down, placing a mug in Connor’s hands.
Connor swallowed, staring into the mug as he removed another warning from his HUD.
Stress Levels ^^^ 78%
Connor forced himself to take a small sip from the mug before placing it on the coffee table in front of him and promptly removing it from his memory.
“I thought you guys liked that kinda stuff? Don’t let what I say about your weird blood shit get to you, Con, I don’t mean it.” Hank had leaned in closer when Connor had put his mug down instead of happily slurping it down.
He wondered when he’d zoned out.
“I do, Lieutenant. However my thirium levels are at full capacity and I cannot take anymore at the moment.”
Hank studied Connor’s face, eyes scanning over it. Connor briefly wondered if humans could scan vitals, but a quick Google fact check came up with the fact that they could not. Even if Hank made him believe otherwise.
Much to Connor’s relief, Hank leaned back into the couch, looking to the television, bringing his own mug to his lips before responding. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Connor’s LED cycled yellow for a moment in mild confusion at the question. “I know, Hank.”
“I’m here if you ever want to talk.”
“We are talking. Right now, in fact, are we not?”
“I may not know a lot about all this tech stuff, but I know you got enough social integration programs or whatever that you know what I mean, Con.” Hank turned to face Connor again, face scrunched up in worry.
“I know.” Connor couldn’t bother to think up any other response.
Hank let it go. “Alright.”
The rest of the night went by smoothly by Connor’s standards. Hank retired to his room to sleep in bed so his back didn’t make him regret his life decisions in the morning and Connor went into stasis until exactly 7 a.m. when he arose.
Connor made Hank a decent breakfast and some coffee before heading to the washroom and letting the tap run before leaning over the toilet.
Warning: Thirium levels below 80%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs.
Fucking hell.
Connor ignored the warning in his HUD and shoved his index finger down his throat anyway. Sometimes he wished there was an easier way, but this was a feature that was very similar to humans, unfortunately.
Connor spat out a little dribble of blue blood, shoving his finger farther until he was gagging and more of it came up until he felt “empty”.
Warning: Thirium levels below 75%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs.
Connor cleared his throat a few times, straightening up and flushing the toilet, standing over the still running sink. The android jumped when Hank knocked on the door. “Con? Why do you got the water runnin’?”
“Just cleaning up, Lieutenant. Breakfast is in the kitchen.”
Hank sleepily hummed, and Connor heard the man’s footsteps head away from the door. Connor let out a sigh of relief, locking the door before staring at his reflection.
He found himself staring into his own eyes through glass much too often.
Connor splashed some water on his chin, washing the blue blood off before turning off the tap, exiting the washroom and joining Hank in the kitchen. “Here, Sumo. Breakfast.” Connor gave Sumo a scoop of dog food in his bowl. Why they even put it in his bowl anymore was a mystery, because the fluffball just made a mess and half of it ended up on the floor anyway.
Warning: Thirium levels below 75%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs.
Connor internally sighed. This was the only downside. It was annoying.
Hank stood up from the table. “Alright, let’s head in.”
Connor furrowed his eyebrows. “We usually don’t leave for another fifteen minutes.”
“Yeah, well, I wanna let you get your knee oiled or whatever. I keep seeing your forehead light thingy flashing and one of these days it’s gonna give me a heart attack.”
Connor just smiled meekishly because God that was a terrible excuse to tell Hank because now he was going to expect it to not happen again.
So Connor trailed after Hank out into the truck where they sat and listened to heavy metal before getting out and heading into the station.
“Alright. Go do what you gotta do to fix your oil thing or whatever.” Hank dismissed Connor, lounging at his terminal.
Connor awkwardly nodded, heading off in a random direction.
He found himself at the washrooms. He always did. It was a free opportunity that he couldn’t risk not taking.
Connor went in, carefully making sure there was no one in there before hiding himself in the last stall before carefully crouching on the floor, swiftly shoving multiple of his fingers down his throat. It was an instant success.
Warning: Thirium levels below 65%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs immediately.
Connor stood up and put a hand to the wall to steady himself, hastily flushing the toilet. From the way his processors went into overdrive and his internal cooling fans whirred to life, Connor knew he might be in some deep shit.
Connor exited the stall just as Gavin entered the washroom. “I didn’t know androids needed to piss—why the hell do you have blood coming out of your mouth???”
Connor stuttered. “Just a mishap.” He quickly wiped his chin and mouth with his sleeve.
Warning: Thirium levels below 65%. Seek Cyberlife for repairs immediately.
Gavin eyed Connor.
Connor’s face was hitting the floor far too fast.
“—ing up. Yes, he’ll be alright, Mr. Anderson. He just needs to allow others to help.” Markus?
Connor gently blinked open his eyes, feeling Markus card his fingers through his hair.
“Con. . .” Hank was there, too. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Didn’. . .didn’ wanna. . .worry. . .” Connor managed. His face felt like jello and he wrinkled his nose distastefully.
Markus snickered at this. “Your systems are still coming back online after getting the correct amount of thirium. It’ll be weird.”
Connor finally realized where he was, recognizing the painted walls of Jericho. Connor was handed a mug of cool thirium. At which Connor simply fuzzily stared at. He already felt so full, how was he supposed to have more. . .?
Hank seemed to notice this and gently put the mug on the side table with a sad however supportive smile. “Whenever you’re ready, Con. That’s all we can ask.”
Connor gave Hank a small smile in return. “Thank you. . .”
“Connor should really get some rest.” Markus turned to Connor. “Going into stasis will allow your systems to continue to return back to proper functioning. I’ll be back in with Simon to check in later.”
As Markus left, Connor slowly turned all of his attention to Hank.
“I mean it when I tell you that you can tell me anything, alright? We’ll get through it together. You were there for me before and it’s my turn to return the favor.” Hank looked sick with worry.
Connor nodded sleepily. “Okay.”
Hank lovingly pat Connor at the calf. “Sleep, son.”
“Hank, may I remind you that androids don’t—”
“You get what I mean.”
Connor gently smiled. “Yeah. I do.” He slowly closed his eyes and fell into stasis.