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When the foot came out to trip him, Connor had looked away the same moment.
Sending him nearly flying, Connor let go of the papers he was holding, his arms coming out to the closest thing to try to steady himself.
He heard laughter, but didn’t look up at whoever the culprit was, just setting his mind on picking up the papers which had gone everywhere in his fall.
Little things had been going wrong for him today, and his ‘bad day’ as Hank usually called it was just getting worse and worse.
Starting the day off with a small glitch in his processors, he didn’t ‘awake’ from stasis in time to ensure Sumo was fully sorted out and Hank was up and ready. He then applied too much pressure when pouring the milk out into Hank’s morning coffee, causing milk to erupt from the bottle, the liquid going all over the kitchen floor.
Then at the precinct, the coffee machine had broken, spitting out boiling water onto his clothes and hand, the hot water burning away part of his synthetic skin, causing him to yelp in pain for a second before frowning and turning the machine off.
Being tripped by one of the officers wasn’t really surprising to him, as it hadn’t been that long since androids were officially considered sentient beings and were given equal rights, but still, an annoyance was beginning to build up, stress levels rising steadily.
It was the end of his shift, so he filed away his papers (they should really be scanned into the system), and headed back to his desk, watching Hank packing his stuff up and putting his coat on.
“You ready to go?” The Lieutenant asked him, glancing a little at the slight frown on the brunette’s face.
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
Pausing in turning his terminal off, Hank looked closely at the android, noticing the slight way he held his shoulders, his posture a little tenser than usual, and the slight frown furrowing his brows. Something was bothering him and it was as clear as daylight.
When Connor switched off his terminal and put his jacket on, the two left the building, and began to cross the road to where Hank’s car had been parked, due to the parking lot being full.
Getting to the other side, a car flew past, the window rolled down as a man stuck his head out.
“FUCK OFF YOU PLASTIC ASSHOLE!” The man jeered, and Connor just stared after it.
Hank glared after the car, but the vehicle was gone before anything could be done, so he gave up and steered the brunette towards his car.
A couple of people a little further up the street were staring at him, one of them leaning over to whisper something in their friend’s ear, and the other pulled an odd face before they quickly left, and Connor had had enough.
“Hey…you alright, kid?”
Connor exhaled.
“No. No I am not.”
Hank turned to look at him, a worried expression spreading across his face.
“Today just…today has been less than optimal and it has been raising my stress levels considerably.”
“Connor-” Hank tried to attempt to reassure him, but the android didn’t seem to hear him.
“I mean, I know some things can’t be helped and I understand that, but the comments and discriminatory behaviour has just been completely unnecessary and this feeling is building up in me and I don’t like it and I don’t understand it but it’s getting worse and I just want it to stop…”
“Kid, I-”
“And it’s not just humans refusing to accept it! Some androids can’t even stand the sight of me! I know what I was designed to do but I couldn’t help it! I didn’t choose to be dangerous, I didn’t choose to be a deviant hunter, I didn’t choose to be made!” A fiery, hot sensation was spreading throughout his biocomponents, and he didn’t know what it was, but it hurt, it made him feel bad, and he didn’t want to feel it again.
Hank felt his heart drop hearing the android’s exclamation, and tried to stop him again, but the android was so angry that he couldn’t seem to stop. Hank was willing to bet he didn’t even realise it.
“Connor, listen-”
“And people are so, so mean, and they act like I don’t have emotions, and I may not act like it sometimes as it’s part of the job but I do, I do have emotions, I do feel, and it hurts, it hurts so much and it’s-it’s, it’s not fair!”
Giving the android a sad look, Hank placed both hands on the boy’s shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug.
Connor froze for a second, the emotions getting the better of him. And then he just broke.
Tears began to flow heavily down his cheeks, heart-wrenching sobs racking his frame, and Hank continued to hold him as he let it out.
All of his emotional pain, all of his frustrations that had built up came flooding out at once, and he slowly sunk down to his knees as he sobbed, Hank following him down.
Hank felt his heart break.
“Shh, it’s alright. Just let it out…” He soothed, one hand running through the brown locks, the other holding him in the embrace which tightened with each shake of his body.
“I-I do feel, I do feel, I do…” Connor rambled, his hands grasping the back of Hank’s jacket tightly as he buried his head in between the Lieutenant’s shoulder and neck.
“I know you do, son. I know.”
Tears were still streaming down the android’s face as Hank tried to pull back slightly, only to stop when he felt resistance as Connor didn’t let him go.
“Listen to me, kid.” Hank spoke softly, continuing to hold him and run his fingers through his hair; the familiar sensation having a calming effect. “You are a good person. You hear me? A good person. It doesn’t matter what others think of you, as long as you do the right thing. You’ve saved thousands of lives, and I’m willing to bet that each and every single one of them remember that, and they had better be fucking grateful ‘cause without you, half of them would be on their asses.”
The oh so eloquent way it was phrased elicited a quiet snort from the kid, another sob taking its place, but Hank took it as a win anyway.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You’ve never hurt anybody intentionally, and you never actually caught any androids before the revolution. You always let them go. You knew it was wrong and you acted on it. I’m so fucking proud of you, and you don’t deserve half the shit you get.”
This time, Connor was crying for an entirely different reason.
“B-but-”
“No buts. I stand by what I said, no stuttering, no take backs. Come on, let’s get off this floor and go home. You can cuddle up with Sumo as we watch that fish documentary you recorded last night.”
With something to look forward to, Connor finally pulled away from the hug, an arm coming up to wipe away his tears with a shaky hand, which Hank took a hold of to steady it.
“Come on, kid. You’re gonna be just fine.”
Who knew how long the android had been bottling up all of these negative emotions for, and Hank dreaded to think. He promised to himself that he would talk this through with the boy when he’d calmed down a bit more, and made sure that he said something before anything like this could happen again. He cared about the kid, and it damn fucking hurt to see him just…break down like that.
Guiding the brunette over to the passenger side of the car, he let him get in before getting into the driver’s seat. Turning the engine on, he began to pull away from the curb, eyeing the trembling ‘droid beside him.
“You can talk to me, you know?”
Connor gave him a small smile.
“I-I know.”
“Seriously. Whenever anything gets too much, you can come to me. You’re not alone.”
Connor smiled slightly wider at that. He wasn’t alone. He had Hank and Sumo.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“It’s Hank-”