Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 22 - It's Really Not Snooping if it's Part of Your Mission

Pants were easy enough to procure, the only options being a variety of dress pants that would be no match for the weather and a few pairs of dark jeans, one of which Hank quickly grabbed and slung over his arm with the trench coat. An undershirt, however, seemed determined to prove more difficult. Hoodies seemed to be Connor's attire of choice, the endless sea of the heavy, bulky things only disturbed by the occasional oversized sweater that would be of no more use to the robot. Not a single t-shirt or thin jacket in sight, as if the man were intent on never owning a single thing less than the bulk of a small planet.

The only other option appeared to be a few white button ups, nearly identical to the ones Hank had seen Detective Anderson wear the past few days that littered the massacre of material here and there. The android felt his lips draw down into a frown as the thin material was less than what he had hoped for to combat the frigid evening but the machine couldn't very well bring Connor the oversized "Jingle my bells" sweater knitted from the most atrocious shades of red and green someone could imagine or anything of the like - So a button up would have to do.

Hank grabbed a random one from the top of the pile, a thin, black tie still hanging limply around the collar of the thing as he tossed it over his arm and finally pulled the closet door shut to return to his companion. The robot made his way back through the room and crossed the hallway to the bathroom, reaching out and pulling open the handle of the door beyond without pause to present Detective Anderson with his findings and complete his task quickly and efficiently as he was designed to - Until Hank's eyes fell on a bared expanse of skin and he suddenly couldn't quite remember was his task actually was.

Connor's hoodie had been tossed aside, leaving the pale skin of his back exposed all the way down to the low hanging waistline of his pajama pants, which had been untied and were hastily beginning to slump down as if they weren't quite the detective's size and were far more interested on having a romantic love affair with the tile floor below than clinging to the man's now exposed hip bones where they barely clung to the jutting curves - Revealing the waistline and beginnings of a pair of tight fitting boxer briefs with cartoon pandas printed across them. Hank could only be grateful Detective Anderson was turned away from him as the clinging material left nothing to the imagination.

The freckles that littered Connor's neck and speckled across his cheeks and jaw bone here and there continued on down his back, dusting across where the outline of his chest and then his ribs could be followed into the trimmed slope of his stomach down to the curve of his hips. Aside from them, however, the pale expanse of flesh was marred with painful looking scars, now light pink with age but wide and sprawling nevertheless, winding all the way from the peaks of his angular shoulders to the dip of his lower back and trailing around towards his front where Hank's vision was cut off.

"I was gonna shower so I didn't smell like a hospital dumpster!" Connor yelped defensively - as if he needed an excuse for Hank bursting into his bathroom unannounced - slamming his arms across his front only to flail and try to struggle his pants a bit back up before snapping his arms across his chest and stomach once more.

"I brought some clothes!" Hank explained hastily, holding up said clothes as if trying to prove his words, though no one had doubted them, before dropping the cloth as if it had burned him and stumbling back into the hallway before any more could be said, slamming the door in his wake. Caution: System temperature rising, warned a notification in the android's vision as he stared hard at the carpeted floor of the hall, gazing intently at the innocent threads as if the image would burn itself into his eyes and replace the picture he currently had seared there if he looked at them hard enough.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. ( S*ftw@re I*st@bil*ty, his systems proved that)

Instead, the android did what he was designed to do to try to get himself set back on course - Found a task to complete.