SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

seventeen ━ when in doubt, test

Mia's been waiting for a reason to tear that shirt off of her ever since they drove off from the house and thoughthe bottom half couldn't begin to fix the blood trail dripping from her right shoulder all the way down her back, it was a beginning to her getting an outlet for all the buzzing emotions inside of her that simply kept on pouring into an overflowing cup. She would have, of course, much rather remove her shirt entirely and abandon it there, with the rest of the filth, but the weather was getting too chilly outside for her to be that reckless.

Her improvisation of a bandage was indeed very rudimentary, but it would do its job in forcing the lighly bleeding wound on Connor arm shut. Just as he was about to question the use for the bandaids she had already opened in preparation for this setup, Mia retrieved a single plaster and, tip toeing forward, eyed the cut on his cheek.

There was a thin trail of Thirium dripping from that spot, and after swiping her big thumb across her tongue, she reached out and wiped his synthetic skin clean for him. Finally, she placed the plaster over the cut, reaching out to take a second one which she aimed to stick over the edge of the improvised bandage in order to not have it get too loose around the wound.

Something about the gentleness and care with which she took care of him reminded Connor too abruptly of what he's done. The broken protocol, the gun still so close to him, the image of the dead human and the lack of regret he still associated with that gruesome sound of him choking on blood.

Before his eyes could drop to the still visible stains of blood on Mia's shoulder, Connor reached to the side and took one of the bandaids too.

"What happened with not moving the arm?" Mia chuckled weakly.

Unbeknownst to her, her words had dragged him right into the arms of the problem he knew he'd be selfish to ignore any longer. There he was, after all, disobeying another order. Even if she didn't sound angry with him moving, an order was given and ignored, and such system instability could not be taken any further.

Knowing that, he looked up, an unintentional hint of sadness corrupting his eyes as they calculated the perfect angle for him to place the bandaid over Mia's bleeding cut on her cheekbone.

"Now we are matching," she smiled and he could feel that smile raise under his thumb as his hand lingered much longer than he would have normally allowed it to. Without fail, Mia noticed this hesitation of his to let go and tilted her head, not away from his touch, but further into it. "Is there something wrong?"

Connor recoiled at her trusting touch a little too quickly for him not to feel forced to also say what was on his mind, there and then. "I want you to reset me." And I wanted to burn into my memory how holding you felt before I would forget all of this, his processing unit had acknowledged that thought, but he did not say it.

Clearly, Mia had been startled by his blunt request, her raised eyebrows told him this much, but she wasn't necessarily surprised by it. There was of course the chance that she was too exhausted or overwhelmed by the situation and the past events for her to react with anything other than bluntness, but Connor could have sworn he expected her expression of shock to linger a lot longer than it really did.

Before he knew it, she was looking at the gun, whose holster was still visible from under his folded shirt besides him.

Mia would have much rather forgotten about the whole ordeal. Wearing the blood of someone else on her shirt was enough of a strain on her psyche without also recalling in detail the fraction of a second it took from the moment she felt the pain of that man's hit to seeing Connor extending a gun forward and pulling the trigger without as much as a flinch. In that moment, she could have sworn he had looked like he had always held a weapon, though she knew that wasn't true. When CyberLife was founded, she still remembered the way everyone on the news could only think about how androids could be weaponized next. It was only recently that, in Elijah's absence, the executive board have finally greenlit androids to be built and dispatched into the military, but that was not the principle on which the company was built and not the idea that stood behind Connor either.