Beyond The Sea [Hankcon / Hank x Connor AU]

septem; night light

"---You don't look so happy, Anderson." He looked up from his desk, seeing Oliver standing over him, coffee in hand. "Yeah, ain't that the truth." He sighed, taking the cup from him. "Hey, I just got that." Oliver protested, but was ignored. "For me? Thanks," Hank took a sip, and could see his partner get irritated. "Whatever. You rolled in late this morning, what's up?" He sat on his desk, and Hank didn't speak for a while.

"--Oh, hold on a second... Was it the date?" Oliver asked, Hank looking at him. Their kind of friendship was one where just a glance was more powerful than a spoken answer. "Oh, shit. What went down? Did you get stood up?" His partner stifled a laugh, folding his arms. "It went well, but... I don't know, man... He ran out on me. I don't know why. I assumed he was going to the bathroom because our server had spilt water, but... He never came back." Hank shrugged, taking another sip of coffee.

"Well, damn. Maybe it was so they didn't need to pay?" Oliver laughed, but stopped when he was shot another look. "Or maybe, it's another "missing person case"." His partner did finger quotes as he spoke again. "Oh, shut up, man. That incident is serious," Hank reminded him, not looking impressed. "If it was serious, we would be working it by now. But alas, you've been told to drop it." Oliver returned the favour, Hank just looking at his computer screen. "Who's to say I've not been working it on my own terms?" He asked, a faint smirk on his face.

"What the hell? You know you can't do that. If anyone found out, you'd be in deep shit." Oliver, for perhaps the first time in his whole career, looked genuinely worried. He acted the asshole, but he cared about his job and its rules. "Well, no one's gonna find out, right?" Hank looked back at him. They stared at each other, and he knew his partner wouldn't give up on him.

"What have you found?"

Hank laughed a little, angling the screen towards him. "A few missing persons reports from outta state have been brought to my attention from other departments. Both cases are surrounding people who were last seen within 2 weeks of us seeing that missing person whilst patrolling." He explained, Oliver shaking his head. "That doesn't correlate. There's a slim chance of those people being that one person we saw. That one person could've been anyone, and could've just been an innocent swimmer, for crying out loud." He said, Hank finishing the coffee before speaking again.

"I had a feeling you were gonna say that."

He brought up another webpage, listing a person by the name of Rob Spelmann. "--He's a surfer. Reports and eye-witnesses say he got caught in a storm, and hasn't been seen in a couple weeks." He explained, seeing a hint of a smile on his partner's face. "Damn, Anderson. I think you might be onto something here." He laughed, genuinely impressed.

"Onto what?"

The booming question took them both by surprise. It was from their captain, who stood there with his arms folded. "---Anderson was giving me some advice on how to spice up my love life, sir. These youngins with their tips n' tricks," Hank looked over to him, an eyebrow raised with how quick that answer was. "Is that so?" His captain looked at him. "Oh, sure. You know me." Hank replied, shrugging slightly.

He was by far the youngest on the team, and knew his captain didn't care that much to further look into it. He sighed a sigh of relief when he walked away. "---Where the hell did that come from, Waters?" He couldn't help but laugh, his partner just laughing too. "I wanted to make it as uncomfortable as possible. You know that guy hates shit like that. And whattaya know? He walked away." Oliver smirked at him, looking back to the screen. "Now... What other shit to you have on this guy?" He asked, Hank bringing up more of his research.

He was onto something, and he was gonna save the day.

In time, of course.

________________

"---Where the hell have you been, Connor?!"

He was immediately lectured by his father the moment he got home. It was around 7 o'clock the following morning, after spending the night before wallowing to himself. He felt terrible, he felt guilty, and... He felt human. For the first time since he'd been banished.

He didn't know what to say to his dad, so instead, had hidden himself away at work. He didn't want a bad reputation, so went in as if nothing had happened. His manager had questioned his sheepishness, but a good old lie of not getting much sleep seemed to be a fitting answer.

Humans were bizarre creatures.

The whole day was dead, but this was the first time he'd been on an all day shift. He and his fellow staff members had had a couple people in for lunch hour, but aside from that... 

Nothing.

He was in the back tidying now. He kept losing focus on with what was on his mind. God, he felt terrible. What the hell did Hank think of him, walking out like that? "---Maybe he thinks you just wanted to get outta paying the cheque." He remembered his dad had joked earlier to cheer him up a bit, but he didn't feel like smiling. 

"Connor!"

He zoned back in, seeing Sal looking right at him. "---Quit daydreaming." Sal muttered, Connor glancing at the brush in his hand. "---I think I'm pretty much done here," He mumbled, not exactly being the confrontational type. "Good. Look, I don't know what's going on with you, kid, but I'm not having it tonight." Sal sighed, Connor's eyes widening and heart racing.

Was he about to get fired?

"---Jen said she'd stay on to cover tonight. It's kinda late, so you can go home. Catch up on some sleep." Sal's next sentence took him by surprise. "Oh! Well... Thank you, Sal. Are you sure?" He asked quickly, seeing his expression. "Get outta here before I change my mind." He sounded fierce but had a warm smile on his face.

He'd grabbed his jacket from the staff room before he left the bar, and headed off back home. He knew his dad was working late, so was thankful to have that set of keys on him. He was thankful for this "alone time", as he needed to be on his own again, to think things through, and quite possibly... to cry some more.

But that was soon cut short. 

Very, very short.

He caught eye contact with him as he crossed the road, and he knew it was too late to turn back and do anything else, but he did it anyway. He turned around and went in the complete opposite direction.

He couldn't face him now.

Not after last night.