SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

thirteen ━ memory lane

By the time he finished his own personal tour of Mia's childhood home, Connor already knew all the spots he wished to have a look at downstairs before returning to the garage and checking in on Mia's progress to scraping together something that would be of use to them both.

While walking in front of the stacked shelves in the living room of the house, Connor had the background noise of Mia's loud sorting process of whatever she found worth salvaging through her boxes. Perhaps he should have been more worried about the tracker remover operation, given the age of all the junk in that garage, but the percentages on probability of success remained the same, so his stress levels were minimal. If anyone could figure something out form trash, it would certainly be Mia.

Finally, Connor arrived at that first spot of the house which had already caught his attention. The shelves in the living room had all been overfilled with books spanning in genre from philosophy to manuals and classic literature, but amongst them, a single shelf was dedicated solely to framed pictures. After a quick scan, he counted there were twelve of them, none of which containing Mia's mother however. If this was a shelf for family memories, Connor assumed her mother hadn't been around enough to make it on it.

He didn't linger on that observation for long though, not when the picture closest to him was so curious - Mia, six years old at the time of the picture, presenting to the camera a bowl-shaped fish tank with a single oranged colored fish in it. She was smiling from ear to ear, which allowed Connor to spot that she worn some thin braces when that picture was taken.

He wondered how she got the fish. Did the night that picture was taken had a story? It looked like she cared for that little being. She certainly seemed happy, Connor appreciated.

Moving his eyes to the next picture momentarily stunned Connor. With his eyebrows raised, he reached out, carefully minding the gentleness of his right hand as it picked up the said picture. His scanners were trying to tell him it was still Mia, but all he was seeing was a baby sitting in the snow and looking up with big eyes at the grey sky. He couldn't help a smile once he accepted the scanner data as a fact - Mia has once been a one year old child mesmerised by something as mundane as falling snow.

"What are you smiling about over there?" Mia asked, a smile of her own, albeit spiced with a nuance of smugness, gracing her lips. She had exited the garage to let Connor know that she got all she needed ready for him, but seeing him before the book shelves holding a picture and smiling forced her to reconsider her priorities. Without letting him do more than look back at her startled, Mia had walked to his side and nudged him to make room for her to see what picture he was holding.

Connor tilted the picture towards her, but now his attention had been reserved solely to watching her face for a reaction. "This is you," he informed her out loud, as if some part of him was still incredulous on the fact and wished to double-check.

Mia reached her right hand around and touched the corner of the picture's frame, "Sure is." Her temple was close to leaning on his arm while looking at the picture and for some reason, Connor had turned hyper-aware of the exact distance before that would happen or the one that her fingers would have to travel if they were to accidently slip down and touch his hand. "Back when I was younger, smaller and definitely much balder under that winter hat," she laughed in a soft chuckle, which Connor, try as he might, mirrored.

The vibration of his quiet and short laughter prompted Mia to straighten up and look at him, a single eyebrow raised at first. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Connor."

Was it inappropriate to smile over the picture? Asking himself that question following her statement made Connor take control of his expression and start returning it to a more netural state.