Work Text:
Connor had decided to get most things for Christmas day sorted on the 23rd. Why? Because he feared that he wouldn’t get everything done in time. Sure, he’d already given presents to his friends at work and New Jericho, so all that was left was Hank and Sumo’s presents. But those were very important!
For Hank, of course, he’d bought him some books that he remembered the man mentioning he wanted to read, along with the t-shirt with the words ‘BEST DAD’ printed on it. For Sumo? A huge bag of tennis balls, about fifty in total. Yes, the good quality ones. He’d saved up for that for a while.
Yes, Hank would kill him for it. But the look on Sumo’s face as he tore open the huge parcel, squeaky balls spilling out onto the floor? Worth it.
All in all, not a lot to wrap. After that, there was the task of making cards, writing out heartfelt messages (including to Sumo). Then, watching Hank pre-prepare food for the Christmas day dinner.
This time that would include him, finally. He wouldn’t have to stand and stare at Hank eating on the day because android food had just started to be released. Some hardworking androids had banded together, sick of drinking thirium pouches, and created human-food items, created out of thirium. The only difference was that all of the food was various shades of blue, but that was okay for him.
His food wouldn’t need to be prepared. No, they’d ordered it in a while ago. Lucky that thirium food would keep for a few months.
So, he set to work over the day on these tasks. Wrapping presents only took half an hour, making cards took a little more, but by the time these were done it was still the morning.
Leaving his room, he peered around the house for Hank and found him sitting on the couch, fussing over Sumo.
“Hello, Hank.”
“Hey.”
“What are you up to?”
“Not much. Spoiling the big lump.”
Sumo, the ‘big lump’ in question growled at the undignified description.
“Hank! Be nice to him. He’s not a lump.”
“Alright, alright. You’re not a lump, Sumo. Happy?”
The dog rolled onto his side, facing away from Hank, staring up at Connor instead, who immediately rushed forwards to hug him.
“Pfft. Here I was thinkin’ I didn’t get Sumo enough for Christmas. I could just stick a bow on your head,” he gestured to Connor, “and he’d be fine with it!”
“Talking of wrapping presents… I did mine.”
“What? Christmas is in two days.”
“Exactly!”
“Yeah, you have plenty of time. I’m wrapping yours on Christmas Eve.”
Connor huffed. “What if you run out of time?”
“Relax, there’ll be plenty of time. Haven’t got much to do tomorrow…”
“There’s the rest of the Christmas dinner cooking…”
“How much do you think I’m plannin’ on eating?”
Connor didn’t answer his question. “And there’s… all the other stuff!”
“Such as?”
“…I don’t know. There’s a lot to do. It’s a big day, Hank.”
“And it’s also meant to be fun. So pipe down and sit here.” He patted the spot on the other side of him. “Relax. We’ll figure it out.”
Connor sighed, running his hands through his hair. All the planning… it could wait. Hank was right, there wasn’t that much to do. He sat down beside him.
Hank patted his knee. “There you go.”
“Sorry. I just… feel like I always have to be doing something. Particularly now, but…”
“Why’s that? We’re off work right now. Got shit all to do.”
Connor wrung his hands. “I… I just feel like I always have to be doing something. If it’s not work it’s thinking about what we need to do next, or if Sumo’s okay, if you are, if… I don’t like not having tasks to do.”
“Ah. Thanks to the way those Cyberlife fuckos programmed you?”
He nodded.
“Thought so. Look, it’s probably hard for you to sit down and chill out… Especially when it was coded into you to always be working on a goddamn mission. Maybe I can’t just tell you to sit down and not think about it. But what if… what if I give you a mission. Yeah, I’ll give you one. Don’t expect it to be completed or anything, but—I give you the mission to have a break.”
Connor laughed. “What?”
“I’m bein’ serious. Yeah, I know, doesn’t happen a lot. I just thought—if you had something to focus on, even if it’s doing nothing, then maybe you wouldn’t feel so restless.”
Connor thought about it. Experimentally listed the task ‘Have a break’ as his overall mission. It took a moment, before it was accepted, flashing once in his vision before fading away to the back of his mind. He smiled.
“It… It helps.”
“Oh. Well, look at that. I am good with technology.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “Alright, since you just helped me, I won’t bring up the time just last night where the TV—”
“Let’s not bring that up again! And here I was going to ask you if you were feeling better and wanted to watch some shitty Christmas television with me…”
“I am, thank you. And I will so long as it’s not those romance movies.”
“What, you think I like them either? They’re pure meme material. Laugh at them, the shitty acting and even shittier writing.”
“Fine. What about that one with the dogs on it?”
Hank stared at him. “That’s… not a shitty Christmas film. Fuck, you’re trying to trick me!” But he smiled and put the dog movie on anyway, because Connor looked so excited for it and… and he was glad he was. Glad they could sit together on the couch and just relax. That he even had someone to be company with him and Sumo. He could only vaguely remember last year’s Christmas… probably because he was drunk for most of it.
This was nice. Connor might be a little shit sometimes, but he was his little shit. And they’d have a damn good Christmas come the day.