Teach me how to feel alive [Connor • DBH]

eight

" look me in my eyes. Tell me everything's not fine or the people ain't happy and the river has run dry "

✩

"Shit," I muttered, leaving Hank's desk to deal with Gavin again. He seemed to be pestering Connor, I wasn't sure what it was about, but when Connor refused Gavin dug his hand onto Connor's stomach. Connor collapsed to the floor and Gavin bent down to his level.

"Stay outta my way... or next time, you won't get off so easy."

"Leave him alone, Gavin," I spoke up, stepping between him and Connor, Gavin gave an amused grin and his eyes flickered across my features.

"What? You here to punch me again?" He asked, moving closer to me, my eyes found the bruise forming beneath his eye — right on his cheekbone. Gavin moved so there was very little space between us, but I stayed rooted in my spot no matter how uncomfortable he made me. "I told you, these things aren't human. Don't pretend like they are."

"And I told you to leave him the hell alone," I hissed, making Gavin roll his eyes lazily, turning on his heel, he left the room without another word; his friend following close behind. I waited for them to disappear around the corner before turning to Connor and helping him off of the floor. "Are you alright?" I asked, helping him to his feet, he adjusted his tie and sent a small smile down at me.

"I'm fine. You know androids can't feel pain, right?"

I couldn't help but smile up at him, an eyebrow raised towards him. "If you can't feel pain, then why'd you collapse like that?" I asked, only aiming to tease him, but then his eyes started flickering ever so slightly.

"It's a... reaction implemented by Cyberlife," he said slowly, his eyes focusing on mine again. "To allow the humans to accept us. To make us seem more like humans."

I didn't bother asking him anything else about it, I just hummed in response, and we both headed back to Hank's desk where he was still sulking. I sat in the chair in front of the desk while Connor tried to talk to him, though it was obvious Hank didn't want to talk, so Connor eventually just gave up and looked around for a moment.

"Is there a desk anywhere I could use?" He asked.

"No-one's using that one," Hank replied, pointing to the empty desk in front of him. Connor turned and took a seat, looking towards me for a moment, he then tried to have another stab at making conversation.

"You have a dog, right?" He asked, making Hank's nose scrunch.

"How do you know that?" He grumbled in response.

"The dog hairs on your chair," Connor explained, a small curve appearing on his lips. "I like dogs. What's your dog's name?"

Hank looked at Connor like he was muck on the bottom of his shoe. "What's it to you?" He replied harshly, making Connor look down at his desk with a sad look behind his eyes. I sighed, making Hank turn his eyes to me, and my I looked between him and Connor; sending Hank a pointed look as if to tell him to play nice. Hank sighed slowly. "Sumo. I call him Sumo."

Connor smiled. Then, he turned his eyes to me. "And, Tessa, you have a cat, don't you?" He said, surprising me that he had decided to take an interest in me. It took me a moment to reply to him.

I put a smile on my face. "Yeah. Her name's Aubrey," I replied, making Connor mirror my happy expression. It was good that he was trying to get to know us in the way most humans would, especially since he could just search the internet and find out pretty much everything about us.

There was a beat of silence, Connor seemed to be thinking of what to say next.

"Do you listen to Knights of the Black Death?" He spoke up, making Hank look at him like he was crazy and making me snort loudly. "I really like that music... it's full of... energy."

I had to laugh. It was hilarious to think that an android like him would enjoy heavy metal music even a little bit.

Connor looked at me like a lost puppy, confused and tilting his head to the side, I just kept giggling to myself. "You listen to heavy metal?" Hank questioned, clearly not believing that Connor would listen to that sort of music. Connor paused.

"Well..." he said. "I don't really listen to music as such... but I'd like to."

"Yeah, well, trust me, heavy metal is not the way to go if you wanna listen to music," I spoke up, leaning back in my chair, and receiving a deathlike glare from Hank.

"Shut up, princess, it's not like your music's any better," Hank shot back, looking quite pissed off, but I could see there was a hint of a smirk on his face as he looked towards me.

"It's a hell of a lot better than yours, princess."

Hank and I shared a laugh, he definitely seemed a hell of a lot better than he did a few minutes ago. That was good.

Connor thought of another question to ask, this time, it wasn't really directed just at Hank — but to both of us. "Have you known Captain Fowler for long?" He asked us, both of us scoffed and turned our attention to the captain sitting at his desk.

"Yeah, too long," Hank replied.

"He's a royal pain in the ass, but he's a nice guy once you put in the effort," I added, taking my eyes off of Fowler to look at Connor, and he seemed quite interested in what we had to say. He appeared to be listening to us intently. Then, his eyes shifted, as if he was itching to ask Hank a question.

"I was wondering," he said, making Hank lift his eyes up to him. "Do you always arrive at the office at this time?"

Hank seemed annoyed now. "I arrive when I arrive," he said to Connor, sending a glare his way. "Stop busting my balls, okay?"

Connor's eyes landed on me, as if he was confused as to why Hank reacted like that, but I didn't really give him an answer. I just raised my brows jokingly while Hank wasn't looking, making Connor smile again. He turned his attention away from me.

"If you have any files on deviants," he started. "I'd like to take a look at them."

"Terminal's on your desk, knock yourself out."