SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

twenty ━ an early snow

Perhaps we will do that again this year, Connor couldn't help the passing of that hopeful thought right as Mia stopped them before a door to their left. The number on its security panel matched the one on the keycard.

"Moment of truth," Mia sighed and without any resistance, let Connor take it from there, handing over the keycard and stepping out of his way, just in case his recent postive outlook was as improbable as it sounded.

He raised the keycard, but stopped before it touched the scanner. Pleasant as it was to now have the confirmation that her nervousness after their bedroom conversation would not affect the way she talked with him, Connor felt it was a betrayal to the significance that conversation she was avoiding held to just let it go completely and dedicate himself to this pseudo-investigation of hers.

"Mia," he lowered his hand and turned to her then. "What you said back in the room..."

"We can forget about that," Mia dismissed the topic, something Connor expected to hear. Right away, he shook his head, but just as he was opening his mouth to make an argument as to why that would be unwise of them, she explained herself instead, "You were right. I am tired and tired brains don't exactly work well."

"Then we can talk about it when you're no longer tired, yes?" Connor raised his eyebrows and to his surprise, Mia's tensioned shoulders dropped, her guard completely broken by something she must have seen in his eyes.

She saw too much hope in Connor's eyes to follow her instinct of dismissal again. "Yes," she barely mouthed along her agreement. "We'll... talk about it tomorrow," Mia forced the words out of her, her gaze dropping.

There was no mistaking the relief Connor felt hearing those words. Weak as they were when spoken, they alleviated a good chunk of the pressure that has been piling onto his processing unit since she alluded to the aspect of 'love' affecting them. "Promise?" He took a chance to probing a little further, in the hopes of gaining himself the last bit of reassurance needed to let the topic go and put his trust in her fully. Mia is not cruel, he reasoned with himself. She would not forget about me.

You owe it to him, Mia heard that thought dance around her mind while she had the slightest of hesitation to allow her courage to build up the momentum for her to raise her gaze back to his. You owe him a better explanation, damn it, the scolding of her consciousness lashed out on her the second she distinguished a sense of desperation in the way his eyes studied her reactions.

"I promise," she sighed out those words like they were a heavy stone, lifted off of her chest.

If he had even one percent less restraint, Connor knew he would have offered Mia not a simple smile but an embrace as a sign of his gratitude for what he believed to be a true mercy from her.

Good, he thought to himself, finally able to distinguish his tasks after the absolute havoc she had wrecked of his systems in the guest room. First we handle this investigation and hopefully get Mia tired enough that she would fall asleep a little easier, he begun running through his plan as he turned to the door and pressed the keycard to the door's scanner. Then I make sure she sleeps through the night and when she wakes up, we'll talk over breakfast about whether she actually has fallen in love with me or I merely understood her wrong.

The very idea of her, a human, being enamored with him, a machine who was by no means equipped with the means to show the kindness and care required for such affectionate emotions to take root, was downright insane for him to grasp. Just thinking about it did things to his biocomponents that Connor was not ready to assess in full and thankfully, he didn't have to. Not just then.