WAR MACHINE ⊳ connor x reader

Ch. VIII

The air outside was inky and unusually cold (even for Detroit) as you rushed from the workshop to your home. After completing the cleanup and saying goodbye to both Connor and Elijah, your thoughts had only been screaming one word: Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

The door of your home creaked as you stepped inside. The apartment was small and humble, but it provided everything a young woman could need, including a small library with your favorite books.

Your taste ranged from (favorite genre) to things such as sophisticated poetry or philosophy. Well, about anything to win your interest, really.

You left your keys on a table near the entrance and wanted to immediately throw yourself onto your bed to get some well-deserved rest, until something in the corner of your eye caught your attention.

Plato's Symposium

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"RK800, restart!" You called out as you entered the main room of the workshop, locking the door behind yourself.

"Good morning, (y/n). It's exactly six AM. Why are you here one hour earlier than needed?" Connor, face decorated by that adorably dumfounded frown, stepped closer, meeting you in the middle of the room.

"Well, I found this last night, and it reminded me about what you said yesterday. About your knowledge in philosophy. I don't know...ah, this sounds stupid." You stopped pulling out the book from your bag, only then realizing what exactly you were trying to do. Teach a robot philosophy. It sounded outrageously stupid now that you were about to do it.

"A book?" Connor interrupted your thoughts, head tilting in confusion.

"Yeah, um, yes. Plato's 'Symposium'." Deciding that there was no going back now, you revealed the object, fully pulling it out of your bag, and presented it to Connor. "It's one of the first books I read on philosophy, and it's...mostly understandable. I don't know, I didn't want something too confusing as your first book, but then again, I didn't want you to think I considered you stupid either, so... here."

He took it from you slowly, cold fingers brushing over yours as he inspected the cover, then flipped through the pages.

"You don't have to read it. I mean, I can see why you wouldn't want to, since it probably won't be useful to you on the battlefield or wherever else you're going to be sent off to, but...I just thought...I don't know. I don't know what I thought."

"Thank you, assistant. According to my scan, it should contain roughly 44 thousand words. My reading speed is of about 250 words per minute, thus my estimated time to read this would be about three hours. One night should be more than enough for me to finish it."

Was that a yes to your offer? Probably. You couldn't help but smile at Connor.

"I...okay. Good, thank you."

"For what, assistant?" The Android asked, letting his fingers glide over the cover.

"For deciding to read it. You could have just refused." You shrugged your shoulders.

"I aim to please." Connor winked, then immediately returned to his neutral expression, as if he never had done such an uncharacteristic gesture. Your mouth hung open for a solid second before you shook your head.

"Right. Well, you can go back on standby or read, or whatever you want to. I'll start preparing the workshop."

"I'll start reading, unless you'd like me to help you."

"That's not necessary. You've helped me enough in the past few days. It must've been pretty boring and tiring as it is."

"Androids don't tire out like humans do, and as I have mentioned before, I don't have any opinions regarding activities. Although some..." Connor glanced down at the booklet still clasped in his hands. "do seem more beneficial."

"You decide." You smiled and shrugged your shoulders nonchalantly and then walked over to the storage room to begin your cleanup.

Connor weighed out his options, then set a timer of twenty-five minutes in his head. That was the time he planned on dedicating to read the enigma of a book you had just given to him. After that, he decided he'd check to see what else you would need help with. With that in mind, he opened the first page and began reading.

"Aristodemus meeting Socrates in holiday attire, is invited by him to a banquet at the house of Agathon, who had been sacrificing in thanksgiving for his tragic victory on the day previous. But no sooner..."

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Connor blinked at the ringing noise in his head, then realized he had exceeded the limit of 25 minutes set by himself with 53 seconds. He set the book aside, revising all the information he had saved in his memory drive for the past minutes, then searched for you. He found you in Kamski's study, gathering scattered papers into a neat pile.

"Well, Connor?" You asked, tapping the stack of paper against the table twice to even out the individual sheets. " What could you make of it? The book, I mean...It must have been pretty confusing. You can stop reading if you don't like it." You looked down at the tips of your shoes, beginning to doubt your already questionable choices once again.

"Can I ask you a personal question, assistant?"

"By all means."

"Why does this book resonate with you? It's centered around love. Does that particular feeling fascinate you, or did you want to research it?"

Difficult question.

"None of those. Sometimes, Connor..." You tapped your cheek in thought. "Sometimes it's just intriguing to ask yourself things and try to find the answer. And this book is about as honest as it gets when answering some of them, I think."

"Humans do have a tendency to become more bold and sincere when ingesting alcohol. I would presume that this is the case in this book as well."

"Well, it's about eleven Greek philosophers getting drunk on wine and discussing the meaning of love, so, yeah, basically. Which speech did you like the most so far?"

Connor's LED switched to that warm, thoughtful yellow once again, processing the information he had saved on his memory drive in the past 27 minutes. "Certainly not Aristophanes. The idea of two humans being physically glued to each-other's backs during primal times is absolutely absurd, along with the reasoning for their separation. Moving like that would be nearly impossible, not to mention the unpracticality of it when performing daily tasks such as cleaning or eating. Humans as a species would have died long ago due to natural selection, if that would have been the case."

"So not Aristophanes." You chuckled to yourself. "Anyone else you disliked?"

"Not so far. Pausanias seems most reasonable."

"Why do you think that?"

"He stated that love implies honoring one's partner's intelligence and wisdom. I think...no, I..." Connor's led switched to red for a second before he corrected himself. "My analysis brought me to the conclusion that he is the most reasonable out of the all the philosophers presented in this book so far."

"Hmm." You furrowed your brows in thought, however before you could even analyze the Android's words, Connor spoke up.

"(Y/n)? Do you disagree?"

Was he...looking for approval from you? No, that couldn't be. He- No, it, Connor, was a machine. It shouldn't have desire for approval, or anything of the sort. And yet you found yourself smiling encouragingly to the RK800: "No, I definitely agree with you so far. But, if you want to, I'll let you guess which one of them my favorite philosopher is once you finish it."

"That would be intriguing." Connor nodded and stored the book behind a shelf, then turned back around to you. "Now, how may I be of service?"