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only-ra9-can · 5 years ago

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Platovember Prompt 6

Warmth

I wrote a little something about Detroit: Become Human! Check it out if that’s what you’re into! (You can also read it on AO3 if you want :) ) Enjoy the show!

Darkness. The void of thought was swallowed in darkness.

Silence. Everything against his wishes was filled with silence.

Emptiness. The hands before him and the mind in his head were consumed by emptiness.

This was depravity, in every sense of the word. Not that that was an unfamiliar topic for Hank.

Almost as soon as the sensation began, it was shattered. A tiny light shone in the distance, the blackness nearly taking over its glimmer. It was spinning, spinning, spinning... red. Bright, harsh red.

A whimper then broke him out of his study. The sound was far off, and it echoed off the edges of the chasm, but it was enough to cause his feet to move.

Thoughts and voices were suddenly ambushing his head. So many mixed thoughts, so many rushed voices, the loudest though seeming to say protect.

Hank hurried off towards the direction of... whatever this was. No matter how fast he ran, he didn’t seem to be making any ground. How was he ever supposed to make it to—

“—ank?”

He froze, only for a moment. He knew that voice anywhere. He’d be damned if he didn’t.

“H-Hank?”

Connor.

The man gritted his teeth, and he continued his sprint. The voice was growing more desperate. He needed to help. He needed to.

As he got closer to his destination, Hank realized with a shiver down his spine that the circling light was only becoming gradually brighter. He had to get there, and fast.

He dropped to his knees once the whites of Connor’s glassy eyes were in view. His stomach churned when he slid a little on the enormous puddle of thirium covering the floor—or lack there of? That didn’t matter. Connor mattered.

“Connor! Connor, can you hear me, son?”

“...H-Hank,” the android groaned, eyes half-lidded and mouth slightly agar. His breaths were long and shallow. They sounded painful to Hank’s ears.

“I’m here. I’m here. What’s wrong?”

Eerily spontaneously, Connor’s eyes shot wide open, looking directly into Hank’s, piercing through his soul, and filling with thick, deep blue liquid.

“You’re too late, Lieutenant,” he accused. “You weren’t good enough, and now you’re too late.”

“No no no, we’re gonna fix you up. I’ll fix you, and then you’ll be fine, and I promise, Connor—”

“No. It’s over. You can’t just... fix me! I’m not just... just some little toy you can play with and put back together—”

“Of course not, Con—”

“NO! I’m not just a machine! I can’t just be fixed! After all, I’m human now, aren’t I?”

A lopsided smile revealed blue-stained teeth. Surrounded by the darkness, he looked so much smaller than the capable prototype that the man knew. Hank swore, with everything in him, that when he looked down at Connor’s eyes now, he saw the wide, terrified eyes of his first son.

“And humans can’t be fixed, Lieutenant.”

Connor coughed, the sound sharp and wet, as thirium spilled from his mouth. It poured out endlessly, morbidly reminding Hank of that trip to Niagara Falls. Connor just lied there, half propped-up with his own arm, as gallons and gallons of liquid splashed to the ground.

Hank hated every second of it. His instincts kicked in, and he reached for his partner to help stabilize him. With a breath catching in his throat, he watched as his hand passed right through Connor’s shoulders.

“Lieutenant, you can’t,” he somehow choked out. “You can’t, Hank.”

He was just an onlooker. There was absolutely nothing Hank could do but watch helplessly as the android suffered.

“Hank... please. Please help! It hurts!”

He squeezed his eyes shut, willing it all to go away.

“Hank! I can’t— it hurts! Please!”

In the midst of the pleading cries, another voice—a smaller, more far-off voice—reverberated against the walls of Hank’s mind.

Daddy? It hurts! I’m scared.

“I’m scared!”

“It’s going to be okay, son,” he found himself saying. “Just hold on!”

“It hurts! I’m scared! Please, Hank! I can’t die. I don’t want to die! I’m scared! PLEASE!”

“Connor!”

“Hank? Hank!”

“No no no I can’t lose you too. I’ve got you, I’ve got...”

“Come on, wake up. Please!”

Eyes flying open, Hank awoke with a gasp of the cold night’s air. He searched the room frantically until he found who he was looking for. Connor was sitting right in front of him, holding him by the shoulders at arm’s length, and watching with a complicated expression.

“Can you hear me, Lieutenant,” he asked in a calm, careful tone.

“Can I hear you? I can hear you just fine! Can you hear me?”

Connor’s face scrunched up. “I’m afraid I don’t understand...”

“It’s gonna be okay, alright? Just hold on.” In his delirious state, Hank pushed Connor’s hands away and fumbled towards the lamp on the side of his bed before he finally lit the bedroom with a dull, warm glow. While he took in the image before him and felt for injuries, he said, “I’m gonna fix this. Where does it hurt?”

“I’m alright. Nothing hurts.”

“But...” He stammered, “but you just—”

“It was a dream, Lieutenant. There’s no need for you to fix anything. I’m alright.”

Hank wasn’t a crier. Not by any means. But in that moment, as much as he hated it, a wave of relief crashed over him and caused a few tears to spill. None of it was real. Connor was okay. No one was dying today. With that in mind, he let the water drip down his face.

“I’m alright.”

“Connor,” he croaked. He gasped again at the gravity of it all, trying to fill his lungs with painful breaths of air. His eyes were wide and frantic. His hands shook from where they gripped onto his nightshirt. Warning signs appeared in Connor’s peripherals.

LUNGS

Increased breath rate

Hyperventilation imminent

HEART

Increased heart rate

54% above normal BPM

HAND AND ARM MUSCLES

Psychogenic tremors

ANXIETY ATTACK SUSPECTED

Connor grimaced. It was nothing he hadn’t dealt with in the field before, but he hated that it had to be Hank going through it. It was... something he couldn’t exactly describe. Sympathy? Guilt? Heartbreak?

CHOOSE APPROACH

Of course, Connor had the ability to handle situations such as this. He was equipped to deal with the challenges of human emotions. But this? This was different. Hank wasn’t just another set of human emotions. He was, for lack of better terms, something else.

So he tossed aside is programming’s suggestions. Being The Negotiator wasn’t going to be the best course of action. He decided he would go with his gut, as Hank seemed to call it.

He reached out, hesitating with his arms out awkwardly, before fully committing. Connor pulled Hank into a tentative embrace, staying there frozen until he got some sort of response.

The man in his arms seemed to have the same reaction. He sniffled once before whispering, “Connor?”

They stayed there for a moment, the air heavy with something that neither of them could quite place. Connor pulled away, just enough to look the man in front of him in the eye.

“I thought it would help,” the android tried to explain, his gazed shifting to the mattress. “Physical contact often helps in dealing with emotional trauma, and I thought it might do you some good, especially seeing how I was... likely the center of the problem. I was just trying to—”

Hank pulled him back in full force. Connor yelped in surprise. The former held the latter fiercely, and Connor, slowly but surely, wrapped his arms into a hug. A real hug this time, reminding him of that snowy day after the revolution.

It was warm, Connor decided, in every sense of the word. Even as the lieutenant let out the last of his tears, the deviant’s lips curled into a small smile.

“Do you...” he started, finally listening to something in his software. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Hank hummed over his shoulder. “It’s nothing,” he settled for. “You’re okay.”

“I’m okay.”

Something still wasn’t quite right though, Connor realized. Hank still hadn’t relaxed. Not really. Connor wondered if he could be the source of the issue.

“Pump and regulator are fully functional,” he started. “Ventilation is normal, as well as BPM and thirium levels. No abnormalities have been detected in my systems. I’m okay, Hank. I promise.”

Hank took a deep breath. He sat up while Connor put a stabilizing hand on Hank’s shoulder, a position usually assumed by the human of the two. When he looked up, he was pleased to find a calm, pale blue LED, and he finally let himself believe.

The tension melted from his form with a heavy sigh.

“That’s um... that’s good. Sorry.”

“Sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for.” Connor pinched his brows and seemed genuinely confused.

He thought. “I should’ve bothered ya. You shouldn’t be worrying about my fucked up mind. It’s none of your business.”

“You aren’t bothering me. I was designed to reactivate from stasis if something is deemed important to my mission. I simply wanted to make sure you were alright.” Connor shook his head with a smile. “And besides, you know your well-being comes as I higher concern to me than my own.”

It shouldn’t sat on the tip of his tongue, but Hank kept quiet. He knew how resilient Connor could be, and he sure as hell knew he wasn’t going to win that fight.

Besides, Hank didn’t think he wanted to fight. Not really. Not when the kid’s words caused a piece of him that had been dormant for years to bubble to the surface.

“Your business is my business. We’re partners.”

“Well, I’m still sorry, but...” Hank shrugged and grinned for the first time that night. “I appreciate it, son. I really do.”

The two both knew what he meant.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“What for?”

Connor paused. “For your cooperation?” Hank raised an eyebrow. “...and for, you know, everything.”

Hank almost laughed. Connor was saying thank you? To him? Did he have no idea how much he had done for him? Did he not know that he had changed his life for the better? Did he not know that he was the reason he was still standing?

And, well, Hank wasn’t really sure how to express all of those thoughts. Especially in the middle of the night after all that had just taken place.

“Yeah, you’re not that bad yourself,” he settled for, a wide smile spreading across his features. In a quick moment, Connor caught the glint in Hank’s eyes.

Warmth, his sensors reminded him. It glowed inside of him and filled him with this... feeling. Perhaps it was what humans described as love.

Connor liked love, he decided then and there. Maybe being human wasn’t all that bad.

Hope you guys liked it! :)

#detroit become human #my fics #my first dbh fic!#let’s gooo #hank anderson #connor rk800 #platovember

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