"Hey kid, you all right?" Tony says, a coffee in one hand and his arm around Peter. He's just heard about how Connor was one of the ones who helped gather the many clues around the crime scene at Peter's Aunt May's place.
Connor shrugs, a human notion of being nonchalant in many cases. It isn't the first deceased body he's seen, and Connor knows it won't be his last. Tony furrows his eyebrows behind his sunglasses, worried about the two people who he has come to care about, almost like an eccentric uncle.
Connor doesn't comment but eyes the menu. They're sitting in a little doughnut cafe that Tony decided to take the two boys to, so they could all bond a little, and maybe even lighten up Peter's downcast mood, even if it is just a little.
Grief was normal, but it's been a few months now since May has died, and Peter has moved in with him. The details of the crime scene were now public, but the person responsible for the crime has not been apprehended or found yet, despite Connor's efforts.
Connor hardly spends any time at the internship program anymore, every spare waking minute he's at the police station downtown, looking over the evidence, finding anything they could have missed. Anything at all.
Tony's looked at some of the footage behind Connor sifting through the evidence, and he was both disappointed and impressed. Disappointed that Connor had somehow stayed up for 72 hours straight without going to his home even once, just cycling through a routine of school then time at the station.
Tony's impressed that he's managed to function that long with neglecting that much of his own needs, Connor was a growing teenage boy, after all. It wasn't healthy.
He had no choice to pull Connor away from his self-appointed police work for an afternoon. They all deserved a small holiday, but all he Connor allowed him to do was just take him to a corner doughnut store, close enough to the station that he could bolt if any new leads came up.
Tony didn't tell him that he had deactivated Connor's phone temporarily. They didn't need distractions. This was a time for relaxation.
He watches Connors eyes flitter across the pastel green menu in his hands.
"Found something you like?" Tony teases, although it's in a vain attempt to bring the sound of Connor's laughter. It doesn't work, but in all seriousness, Tony is one hundred per cent prepared to pay for whatever doughnut Connor wants. He deserves it.
Tony doesn't wait for whatever Connor says, and orders three of their doughnuts from the 'Today's Special' subsection of the menu and a family serving of french fries. The waitress smiles and scribbles down their order in a neat script. She walks into the kitchen and a foreign language is yelled out, a loud conversation between the employees of the cafe.
It's only seven minutes later and the food that Tony ordered is served, the french fries in a large bowl that is centred, and each person gets a generously sized doughnut placed in front of them, on a saucer that would typically be used for serving tea.
The doughnut is large, almost as large as a typical burger. The frosting is a strawberry flavour, and sprinkles are pressed into one half of the frosting, leaving the other side plain. A quick scan from Connor indicates that the doughnut is indeed not adequate to be part of a healthy person's diet, in any circumstance, ever.
Tony starts eating the doughnut regardless of the copious amount of saturated fat and sugars that the doughnut contains. He either doesn't notice or doesn't care. Even Peter's reluctantly eating but Connor doesn't move his hands. Instead, when the waitress comes back around, he flags her down and asks for the doughnut to be placed in a takeout box or bag.
She readily complies, smiling happily as she brings the plate back in. She returns a few seconds later with a white takeout box, presumably casing the doughnut, and tells him to enjoy the doughnut where ever he's going to take it. He smiles, avoiding eye contact with Tony who he can tell is now staring with concern at him.
Tony decides he's had enough, and he tells Connor exactly what he thinks on the matter.
"Connor… I've been keeping a close eye on you, and if I'm not wrong, you haven't consumed since last week, Friday. Even that was just your weird diet juice!" Connor looks down towards his hands which currently rest on his lap. He looks ashamed, and he almost feels ashamed.
But that's impossible. Android's can't feel anything, right?
He now understands. He's not human enough and now Tony's confused. Maybe even disappointed. Has Connor disappointed Tony? He can't tell but the stare he's receiving from Peter and Tony practically confirms it. He'll try better. He could eat, he could simulate human acts.
He could definitely do this. Integrating with humans was one of his main functionalities, and if he failed that then not only has he failed Tony by not being human enough for Tony to like him, but he's also failed Amanda by failing to execute one of his primary programs.
The looming threat of being shut down always rests on his shoulders every time he goes to speak with Amanda. He knows he should feel honoured to have his very own personal connection with Cyberlife, unlike older models of android's who had to repeatedly report back manually, but he can't help but feel scrutinised every single time. He can't help but feel judged.
Like they're examining every one of his flaws, writing it down so they know where they went wrong, and what they should leave out of their next RK model.
Connor already knows about the RK900 project going underway. He already knows he's going to be deemed obsolete and replaced, in a matter of months even. He should have accepted his fate already, instead he feels betrayed and expendable.
It's not like that was wrong though. Every time he was damaged, he could be replaced just as easily, only with a few memories lost in sacrifice to the transporting of his cloud data process.
The only reason that he even had to be careful and mindful of his own mortality right now was that there was no access to a cyberlife plant. If he was damaged or destroyed, he wouldn't be as effective in getting hank to return.
He wouldn't be reckless, he couldn't afford to. Hank's life was on the line here.
"I'll… have a drink. Just apple juice would be fine." Connor see's the grimace upon Tony's lips, but he relents and orders an apple juice for Connor and a soda for Peter and himself.
Connor knows that he won't have any trouble taking in the Apple juice, it would cool his systems just as fine as water would, but no energy power would be converted from the calories inside of it.
If he was going to consume something, it better be useful to him, either that or really low maintenance to take out of his body, or vessel, if you will. The amber liquid smoothly went down his throat. Without warning, Tony yanks the beanie off of Connor's head and is taken aback when instead of a nasty scar that Connor could have been trying to hide or something of the sort, there's a jarring LED in his temple.
It's circular and was a light blue colour, then it was yellow for a split second before flashing red for a few seconds. It returns to the soft yellow colour, whirring silently. Connor sighs, he knew this day would come.
Tony tries to speak, but no sound comes out of his mouth when he gestures wildly to Connor's head where the LED is situated. Peter just stares at him, unblinking. He doesn't know how to react and decides just to resume eating his doughnut.
"It's an LED that tells them what I'm thinking… how I'm going. It transmits signals coming from my… brain in a certain colour." Connor tries to keep as close to the truth as possible, but to maintain his cover, a few things must be changed.
Immediately Tony picks up on his vague use of the pronoun 'they'.
"Who is 'they'?" Connor shakes his head, almost in response.
"It doesn't matter. They can't get to me now." His voice isn't solemn as Tony would expect it to be. It's a voice that knows it's just stating a fact that it can't change.
Tony's mind immediately goes back to thinking about the fall of Hydra. Maybe that's what Connor was referencing to when he said that they couldn't get to him anymore. It doesn't really matter, just that more and more was being uncovered about exactly who and what Connor was.
Connor snatches back the beanie that Tony had decided to take off his head and repositioned it back on himself. He walked grasped the takeout box holding the doughnut and left the shop.
The police may have a new lead.
When Connor walks into the flat, the small object on the table is the first thing he notices. It's a hard drive with a small inconspicuous hydra logo on the side, with the motto written in Russian.
He picks up the drive and inserts it into the computer that was distributed to him by Hydra. On the drive, it reads that they had worked for him. He's going to be part of a local transport Hydra team to handle the transport of Loki's sceptre from the local SHIELD facility to a Hydra one.
This would be the perfect time to get hands-on time with the mind stone which was situated inside the sceptre, which was also related to the tesseract. Everything was beginning to come together nicely in Connor's own opinion.
In a matter of months, he speculates, the final play of actions to be executed in which he can finally have Hank safely returned to their own world, and to their own time.
He sends a message of confirmation to his main Hydra handler. There's an extra sidetone that this is going to be a mission that is also going to incorporate Hydra's most valued asset. The Winter Solider. Their own personal assassin.
It's only one of the first missions of many, in preparation to the final game plan. To cleanse the world of any potential threats utilising the Helicarriers then rebuild the world anew from its former ashes.
It's not a plan that Connor wants to exactly be a part of, but right now this worlds safety wasn't his priority. His priority was to make sure Hank got home. As long as his programming was set for him to put his mission above all else, nothing would stop him from completing his goal.