[There’s that wall again, coming down between them, but this time Connor is the one who’s ensuring it exists. He even wonders why — he had referred to other people as friends before, had even told Arenvald that he considered Hank a friend, in one conversation. But to say it out loud before the man incites something strange in him, shaped like trepidation, in knowing that the Lieutenant might just laugh at them, or ask him again what’s wrong with him, or tell him that he’s broken because this man knows how androids are supposed to behave in their world, unlike anyone else here—

He’s never felt this before. Like he literally can’t get the words out. Maybe there was something wrong with his software, continually being strained. Fear of rejection does that to a person.]

I thought I was clear. I just—

[He hasn’t noticed the way he wrings his hands together. One word at a time.]

I was told that... to return to how we once were, I shouldn’t give up on you. Or that you’d eventually come around, with time. And it would be easier to become friends again.