It felt like so long ago since he had first underwent implantation, but then he had been the first, hadn't he? Paired with A.I. Aquarius, the first of the Zodiac units and assigned to him even before she knew what life felt like, all based on their proposed compatibility for one another.
He had always wondered what had made him so special to have the first. In all honesty there was nothing, probably. It just made him the first to know just how uncomfortable the procedure was.
And the first to realise just how much a blessing in disguise an AI was.
But he and Acadia- they had instantly connected to one another. He couldn't remember a period of hostility towards each other, or awkwardness, or anything else to put a kink in things before 'things' had even properly begun. She had just simply slipped into his life, as if she had been there from the start; almost like a daughter, though he knew others would find the notion ridiculous.
And so his smile subdued itself when she didn't turn her eyes to meet with his own, and though the shine in his eyes didn't extinguish it faded, much more temperate now. That natural connection wasn't there. There wasn't some sort of instantaneous bonding. No new revelations without words even being necessary between each other. Perhaps that connection hadn't been there for Cheyenne, either- only Tallahassee, which could be a symptom as to why it never worked out for her, and why it could very well not work out for him.
The first time he had met Acadia, she became akin to a daughter to him. The first time he had met Tara, she became an acquaintance.
But that meant nothing. He had to persevere. And the first step to persevering would be at least making some semblance of an effort to get comfortable with her and tone down the awkwardness that threatened to hang stagnant in the air if he didn't say something. But what could he say? He didn't even know how to begin to make small talk with her, to do anything more than just nod and agree with the comment she made, and then moments later he didn't need to, as her eyes finally looked up at him and he could feel himself being studied by them.
He was looking at her, and her lips didn't move. But he heard her voice, hardly clear as day within his mind- more a murmur, and seconds passed by as he took his own opportunity to study her, her synthetic skin flawless. He didn't ask her: 'I'm really not what?', though he had no idea what she meant by those words, even if his subconscious, the only thing that had pointed out who she wasn't, did.
His heart thumped in his chest, though by all appearances he seemed nothing more than normal. It was safest to reason that he was imagining it, or maybe she hadn't meant for him to hear her. He didn't know. Probably over thinking it. Stop over thinking it. Keep talking.
"All the same, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I would've thought you'd of been back there," he gestured with a hand behind him, in the vague direction of where he had just emerged from implantation, "instead of out here." Another hand gesture, encompassing the empty area around them. Nothing much of interest was around, really; it was just the two of them.
"So did you want to go somewhere, or did you have somewhere else to be, or someone else to see, or..." He trailed off, shifting on his feet. Still not knowing what to say- seemed like he was getting like this an awful lot since he had woken up with Acadia dead beside him.
"... Or I can show you my room, if you'd like." That sounded weird. "I mean, just so you know where it is; you're free to come and go now as you please. Some of Aquarius' things are still lying around in there, but if you want you can just..."
For a moment, he lost contact with her eyes, his own pair flicking away for barely a millisecond. "You can just move them, if you need the space for anything."