Survivor - Connor x OC

Babel

Mumford & Sons - Babel

Connor slid out of the taxi and reached his hand back to help Taylor out as well. The cab ride had been quiet. She sent him small glances from time to time but had remained subdued since she informed him that Alex would meet them at Hank's for dinner.

Now she considered his offered hand, a brief hesitation in her countenance before she accepted it, her smaller fingers cold against his synthetic skin. As she stood beside him, he wished he could read her thoughts.

Sometimes he could glean what she was thinking in her expressions. He had spent enough time with her to learn how she furrowed her eyebrows when she was concerned, how her true smiles made her eyes crinkle, how her hands would start to move whenever she became anxious.

Other times, like now, her emotions seemed a complex puzzle without any discernable pattern. She'd kissed him, but had she been about to say that she didn't have any feelings for him? He had interrupted her because he'd been panicked that she may have sent him away.

She had made him stay away at first when she was drunk. When he had comforted her, she had tried to kiss him, and then withdrew again after he held her back. He didn't know if what he felt for Taylor was attraction, like she'd said, or something more than that. The thought of leaving her, of not being able to see her again, terrified him. Now the uncertainly of it weighed on him.

"Connor?" His LED, pulsing its insistent yellow, faded back to blue as he blinked back into the moment. Taylor's eyes were searching his face now, concern in the lines on her brow. He focused on the soft blue-green ring near her pupils. "Is something wrong?"

"No. I am functioning at optimal capacity," he said it without thought, almost an automatic response as he returned to himself. Her lips curled into a humorless smile.

"Not what I meant. You were zoning out on me there." Her breath came out in a small puff of white as she stared up at him. The taxi had already left, not even visible on the street anymore. A light snowfall drifted down from the heavens, flakes of white collecting in the blonde of her hair and along her eyelashes.

"I was...thinking," he said hesitantly, unsure if he should say more than that. The lines in her forehead deepened. Her fingers were still trapped in his grip, he realized, icy to the touch.

"Maybe do that inside where it's warm? We aren't all impervious to the cold," she said it with a touch of amusement, the worry never leaving her face.

"Right." He paused again, unsure whether he should release her hand or not, but she didn't pull away as he tugged her in the direction of the house.

Hank had given him his own key. He claimed it was to prevent any more unceremonious entrances through the windows, but he'd also qualified it with permission to come and go as he pleased. Connor removed said key from his jacket pocket and opened the front door to usher the now shivering Taylor into the heated interior.

He heard the familiar sound of Sumo's deep, booming bark from somewhere in the kitchen. In the time it took him to turn around and shut the front door, the barking was penetrated by a sudden, high-pitched squeal. He whipped back around to find Taylor on the floor, the bulk of the large St. Bernard standing over her.

"Sumo!" Connor moved to drag the dog off of her, but the blonde had collapsed into a fit of giggles as the dog licked her in the face. His tail was wagging back and forth with enthusiasm as Taylor reached up to scratch behind his ears.

"Hello to you, too." Connor finally stepped forward again, grabbing Sumo's collar and pulling him backwards enough so that she could regain her footing. She rubbed at her face with the sleeve of her coat, then blinked at him. "Did I get all of the drool?"