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Hank was too frustrated and upset by everything that had been happening to find much interest in doing anything when he got home. He sighed, worried that Connor would give in to Reed’s fucking demands and wind up stumbling home drunk again. A small guilty part of himself hoped Connor hadn’t learned that from him…
The lieutenant fed Sumo and let him out one more time before going to get ready for bed, early as it was. He tried not to let his worry about Connor turn into annoyance. It had been clear as day on Connor’s face that he didn’t want to go tonight.
Well, except for when he was smiling at fucking Reed.
The more he thought about the smiling and Connor’s apparent moodswings, the more concerned he got again. Was there really nothing he could find anywhere about social relations programming?! He was already in bed with all the lights off, but snatched his phone from the bedside table. He’d tried official sources, but what about unofficial sources? Come on, there had to at least be some sort of fucking reddit thread where “technology bros” or whatever were speculating about the coding. He’d have plenty of time to research while waiting for Connor to get home.
----
Connor’s anxiety crept higher and higher the closer his cab got to home. Hank had been disappointed and- and angry with him for going out tonight. I’ve heard that one before kept playing in his head over and over. What must Hank be thinking of him right now? A panicked thought in the back of his mind got louder and louder- that the door would be locked when he got there, and his key wouldn’t work, and Hank wouldn’t even want to live with him or be friends with him anymore-
When the cab came to a stop, Connor had worried himself sick. He let out a shaky breath before opening the door. All the lights in the house were off already. Hank had gone to bed early. Briefly, Connor felt like he would be intruding if he entered while Hank was asleep, and contemplated just staying out here all night. But as he forced himself to remain rational and quieted that panicking voice, he knew that would be silly and it would only worry Hank more.
As he approached the front door, he paused again momentarily. Would his key even work? He thrust it into the lock quickly and silently, then puffed out a sigh of relief. Of course it still worked. What had he been thinking?? He needed to get some stasis.
Staring into the dark, quiet house made him feel on edge again. If Hank was already asleep, Connor was going to make certain he stayed that way. He wouldn’t make a single noise or turn on a single light to wake Hank up. He owed the lieutenant that much.
----
The house was so silent that Hank heard the lock twist and the door open, as well as Connor’s soft footsteps as he treaded inside, even though Connor was clearly trying to be as stealthy as possible. Hank was surprised; he genuinely hadn’t expected Connor to be home this early. Maybe he really had only stayed for one drink. But how badly had that one drink fucked him up was the next question.
Except, Connor seemed to be moving around on his own just fine. Hank heard him creeping down the hallway, probably to grab his pajamas.
But the next second Hank heard Connor let out a surprised, “Oof!” There was a solid thump and happy panting. Hank then heard Connor’s quiet chuckle emanating from down on the floor instead of 6 feet up where it usually was. “Hi, Sumo,” Connor whispered. “I didn’t see you coming in the dark.” He whisper-laughed again as Sumo presumably started licking his face.
Hank smiled to himself. Connor was alright, and if one thing was always bound to put him into a better mood, that thing was Sumo.
Connor’s voice rose a tad unexpectedly. “No no Sumo shh-!”
A loud, excited, booming bark rang through the entire house. Hank jumped so bad he dropped his phone onto his face and started swearing up a storm.
----
Connor had been so intently trying not to make a single sound to disturb Hank’s rest that he hadn’t noticed Sumo approaching him energetically. When Sumo jumped up onto him, it so badly took him by surprise that he fell to the floor. But Sumo’s energy had only increased once he had Connor’s face within licking distance. Connor saw Sumo take a small step back, saw him panting with a big grin on his face, building up his breath more and more, gearing up-
Connor’s LED turned yellow as he frantically glanced at Hank’s door, which they were right outside of. “No no Sumo shh-!”
But it was too late. Connor cringed as Sumo’s bark surely echoed down the whole street, it was so loud.
The android’s eyes widened and his head whipped toward Hank’s room when he heard the man cursing rapidly inside. He was awake??
There was a long stretch of silence after the last vestiges of the sound stopped ringing through the hallway.
“Hank?” Connor finally called.
“....Yeah?” Hank responded after a long moment.
“Are… you alright?”
There was another pause before Hank responded. “Are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Me too.”
An awkward moment, then Connor tried placatingly, “Good night.”
“‘Night, Connor.”
Connor let out a breath, sitting forward and leaning his arms on his knees. Well, at least he still had a place to stay. And Hank didn’t seem too mad at him anymore, all things considered. But Hank was still... they were still... distant, not okay. Sumo nudged Connor’s face with his nose, and Connor was brought back to himself, remembering that he needed to get a few hours of stasis before tomorrow. Ugh.
But when Connor laid down, he found his mind was so chock full of everything that had been happening he couldn’t even bring his eyes to shut. He was too stressed out. He needed to do something.
An idea came to him, something that might assuage Hank’s anger and make him less upset. Connor swiftly rose from the couch.
----
The next morning, Hank woke up disgruntled and unsatisfied. He’d barely slept and the sleep he had gotten had been no good. He wasn’t able to find anything remotely like what he needed from unofficial sources online. The one good thing was that Connor didn’t seem to be sick at all. And he’d managed to wriggle away from Reed early last night.
When Hank emerged from his room, something immediately struck him as being different, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. He stood in his doorway for quite a while trying to figure it out, before giving up and moving into the kitchen.
Connor was there doing the dishes. Hank frowned suspiciously. “Have you been cleaning all night?”
The android jumped and turned to look at him, then glanced at the microwave to see the time, which he clearly hadn’t been aware of until now. “Oh, I guess so.”
Hank sighed. At least he didn’t seem overly tired. He’d probably be fine.
Then the lieutenant frowned. If Connor had been cleaning all night, then why didn’t things look very clean?
That’s when it hit Hank what looked different- the whole house looked like it had before Connor’s neat-freak-ass started living here.
Connor had turned off the sink and was drying his hands. His intense gaze was locked onto Hank, waiting for a reaction.
“The house looks.. nice,” Hank ventured, assuming this is what Connor wanted to hear.
The kid’s face fell though. He could tell Hank didn’t really think so. “Thanks.”
Hank frowned at Connor as the android went to start getting ready for work. What was going on now?! Did Connor really think this would make Hank happier, if their home looked like Connor didn’t live there at all? The thought made Hank hurt for him.
Things only got weirder at work. Connor was distracted at his desk, not getting a whole lot done, when all of a sudden Tina Chen came over to him. Must’ve made her acquaintance last night, Hank supposed.
“Hey,” Tina greeted him, and Connor jumped slightly before looking up at her. “I just wanted to make sure you’re really alright. You left in an awful hurry last night.”
Really alright? So she’d already asked him and hadn’t believed his answer. What had happened last night…?
“I’m fine,” Connor assured her with a brief smile. “I was just tired.”
“You sure?” Tina pressed again, still not believing him.
“Positive,” he said resolutely.
“Okay,” she finally accepted. “Glad to know you’re not too upset. See you around?”
Connor nodded pleasantly, and Tina smiled at him before heading off to talk to another officer.
Hank had given up asking Connor what was going on at this point (despite how constantly worried about the kid he was), but that resolve was being tested by this new development. Connor had already returned to working on his terminal, so Hank couldn’t catch his eye. What he caught instead was Tina having some sort of whispered argument with the guy she was talking to, an officer Hank didn’t know by name. Tina seemed to be prompting him, nodding her head towards Connor with wide eyes. After a couple of minutes of this, the officer finally came over to Connor as well.
“Hi, Connor,” the guy said, sounding apologetic already.
Connor looked up in surprise. “Danny?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to apologize for what I said last night, I really didn’t mean to bother you and make you leave-”
“No, you didn’t make me leave,” Connor said. “I was just tired and wanted to go home, that was all.”
“So it wasn’t like super inappropriate to bring that up in front of an android?? Shit I shouldn’t have said it like that, sorry, I don’t know-!”
“It’s fine,” Connor said, looking ever so slightly amused now. “There wasn’t anything wrong with what you said, Danny.”
“Sooo if we invited you out again you wouldn’t say no just ‘cause I’m there?” the officer grimaced.
Connor shook his head. “I have nothing against you, promise.”
“Alright.” Danny gave a relieved smile. “Good! Well hey, I am sorry you had to hear it from me like that though. But we’re cool?”
“We’re cool.”
“Great! Okay, see you later!”
Connor immediately turned back to his work again, not seeing the look on Hank’s face. What the fuck had happened last night?!
The only solace Hank could get from the situation was that two human officers had come to make sure Connor was okay, despite only really meeting him last night. Those two were in his good books now. And Hank supposed it wasn’t a bad thing for Connor to make more friends.
The cherry on top was that Reed seemed to be avoiding Connor after whatever the hell had happened. Connor could actually get some peace at work for once. Maybe the celebration drinks hadn’t been such a terrible idea after all.