SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

eight ━ the right information

To his surprise, Mia immediately picked up on the volume change and cursed out loud. She abandoned her pot and turned around to the phone he hadn't noticed was right on the kitchen island standing between them. The glowing insignia on his jacket, mandatory to be worn by Androids, made it impossible for him to go unnoticed and, with him half in the darkness, half in the light, Mia didn't comprehend at first anything else other than the fact that someone she didn't previously see was standing there — obviously, she screamed.

Connor stepped forward when she backed away, having seen the trajectory of her elbow way before she did. Mia wasn't even aware how close she came to setting her sleeve on fire the moment she knocked her elbow into the pot and had it slide further up the stove's surface, at least not until Connor pulled her arm away from the kitchen appliance in cause altogether.

She shrugged her headphones off, letting them drop down around the base of her neck, and finally breathed out, "Connor. I didn't hear you come in."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, but you really shouldn't be listening to music this loud," though he apologized and let go of her arm, he stood his ground and did not let go of the subject that had bothered him enough to interfere with the display of humanity. Instead of pointing out the downsides loud music brought to her wellbeing, he resorted to a more serious approach to making her understand his reasoning. "Anyone other than me could have gotten in the house and you would have been unaware of it."

"You're thinking a lot about break-ins lately, aren't you?" Mia rolled her eyes, turning back to the stove despite Connor not taking any signs of wanting to take a step back to exit her personal space. She focused on pulling her pot back on the heated circle. "You do realize this is a small town, not a city, right? Break-ins may be common crimes in Detroit, but they are not around here."

"There was a murder at the farm Officer Brady and I were requested to investigate," Connor informed her as a way of defending his sudden care, fact that once mentioned had Mia's eyes widen. "I do not believe this is a safe town if someone can be murdered in their own home, with their own gun."

"A murder?" She turned to him. "Goodness, Connor, I—" After a brief pause of consideration in which she looked down at how damp his clothes still were, Mia looked up, "That explains the abundance of data I got on your performance today. Are you alright? Do you want us to do the debrief tonight?"

"Has the data been satisfactory?"

"Of course," she dismissed his genuine question as a granted — Mia was convinced Hell would freeze over before Connor's performance could be anything but satisfactory. "Let's debrief now," she decided for him, turning off the stove and picking up the wooden spoon from the pot in order to swipe a finger over the white-ish sauce to her mushroom stew. She licked the fingertip clean, pleased to conclude it was cooked just right, tasting as it was supposed to, like home.

"I was hoping you could help me with something instead and we can save the debrief for tomorrow morning," Connor stepped out of her way as she maneuvered the hot pot off the stove and onto the counter. He peered over at the food she had cooked and instead of explaining what he needed her help with, he furrowed his eyebrows down, confused, "What is that?" He didn't think his curiosity was misplaced — after all, this was his first time being included in a famously human environment, namely a home.

"A special recipe," Mia answered, guessing he wouldn't have been so confused had his scanners been able to identify the name of the concoction she wants to call nutritious food. Her smile sold Connor on the idea that this supposed meal at the very least brought her joy. "My dad used to cook me this when I was little. I wish you could smell it," she sighed, scooping a tiny bit of her stew's sauce off the spoon again and lifted it up to Connor, for sampling.