The aging car growled angrily but sped up nevertheless, the entire thing shimmying dangerously as Connor tugged his cigarette from between his teeth and extended his arm to lightly tap the thing against the rolled down window, sending a flurry of sparking ashes dancing from off the tip before returning it to his mouth. The man kept a single hand wrapped loosely over the top of the steering wheel, using the other to carefully clasp the cigarette stuck gently between his lips to take a drag on it every few moments, the white paper burning up rapidly under the ever consuming burn steadily creeping closer to the detective’s mouth.

“Detective, I must inform you that you have exceeded the speed limit for this section of road by fifteen miles per hour.” Hank pointed out stoically, resolutely blinking away the recommended report his programming dictated he should send and instead opting to merely reach a hand up to clasp the plastic handle above the door frame, aiming to damage as little of his expensive body as possible in the likely (36%) chance that Connor got them into a wreck.

“Quit worrying, Hanky Panky!” Connor waved off the android’s statement, only increasing his chance of wrecking to a solid 48% as he removed his hand from the wheel to shoo away the words. However, quite unsurprisingly, this thoughtless action sent the vehicle steadily drifting into the neighboring lane, the front bumper of the thing crossing the bold, white line as an enraged honk blared from the car alongside them and Connor startled into action. “I know exactly what I’m doing!” The man assured optimistically, despite the fact that this was obviously a bold faced lie as the detective gripped the steering wheel tightly and roughly swerved their car into the correct lane once more with a messy jerk of the item.

“I’m not so sure you do, Detective.” Hank bit out irritably, his grip on the overhead handle tightening until the android began to feel the weak plastic bend under his steely grip and pulled his hand back to see the light indent of his own fingers crunched into the unfortunate material. Whoops.

One might think a rude comment like that would strike Connor as unpleasant or at least unwarranted but, on the contrary, a light blue arrow danced gleefully into Hank’s vision and the horrible driver merely released an amused snort in response to the dry insult. “Come on, Robocop! We’re almost there and I haven’t killed us!” Detective Anderson pointed out cheekily, taking his cigarette from between his teeth to tap it lightly against the window once more, revealing a slight grin tugging at his freed up lips.

“Where exactly is there, Detective?” Hank inquired, still having to yell to be heard over Luis Fonsi’s Despacito which now blared cheerily forth from the speakers as Connor finally began to slow somewhat and flicked on his right blinker to take them down a side street, only to immediately begin speeding up to a dangerous pace once more the moment they were off the main road.

“The best coffee shop in town!” The detective promised confidently, taking a final drag on his cigarette before the singeing ashes finally reached the butt of the thing and the man reluctantly snubbed the burning item out on the plastic of the dashboard before dropping the worthless leftover into a conveniently placed ashtray resting atop the middle console.

Awkward silence settled over the cramped vehicle once more after that, neither party able to bring much to the floor in terms of casual conversation as one was an android activated not but a few days ago and the other was quickly revealing himself to be a socially inept mess. Connor kept tossing sideways glances over at the prototype and shifting about purposelessly before fixing his coffee orbs to the road once more only to repeat the same process again moments later while Hank tried to busy himself with running over the case files he’d downloaded in the confines of his mind.

However, after the fifth time Connor chanced a quick look over to the robot and tapped his long finger noisily atop the steering wheel in an increasingly rapid series of anxious beats, Hank had to say something. “Tell me about yourself, Detective.” The android tried on a whim, throwing the basic conversation starter abruptly into the silence between them with nothing to offer in terms of softening the sudden shift.

Connor startled a bit at the sudden question, quickly snapping his gaze back to the road ahead of him as if he’d been caught in some guilty act and tightening his grip on the steering wheel a bit, though a translucent dash of light blue indicated the guys true relief at having the awkward silence dissipated and let Hank know he’d made the right decision.

“Whaddya wanna know?” Connor inquired with genuine curiosity peaking through his lilting tone after looking thoughtful for a moment, as if the guy couldn’t quite think of anything worth mentioning to say about himself.

“What do you like?” Hank tried stiffly, sorting through his relations protocol in search of what exactly one was supposed to ask in this sort of situation and finding only such basic questions as that.

“Coffee.” Connor snorted hopelessly, a slight wistful look glimmering in his chocolate eyes as the man slowed once more and turned them down yet another side street, though this time they didn’t speed back up.

“What’s your favorite food?” The android tried again, having gained little actual useful information from his last attempt and now going steadily down a list of basic “Get To Know Your Partner” prompts he found buried deep in his coding.

“Coffee.” Connor stated once more, with such confidence and surety it was impossible to tell if the man was actually joking or not as he finally began to pull them to a stop in front of a run down looking building with little to speak of in terms of outdoor decor and a lot less to speak of for a welcoming atmosphere.

“That is not a food, Detective.” Hank tried flatly but only received a nonchalant shrug in reply, leaving the machine to scramble for some way to redeem this worthless conversation. “Do you have any talents? Any awakening discoveries? A hobby?” The android read off monotonously, getting nowhere no matter what he pulled from the unhelpful list of questions as Connor finally swerved the car messily into a piss poor excuse for a parking job alongside the road and threw the ageing piece of machinery in park.

“Once, I fit a whole pack of cigarettes in my mouth just to see if I could.” Connor informed proudly, beaming to himself as if this were a true accomplishment he deserved a big, shiny trophy for. “And if I learned anything from that experience, it was that I could totally deep throat a porn star.” The man declared lightly, looking far too pleased with himself as he pulled the car door open and stepped out into the street beyond.

Hank set a programming block against ever asking Connor about himself again.