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Nick Valentine and Sturges were lying on their stomachs in the dirt as they tinkered with the internal workings of Sanctuary’s largest generator. Due to the influx of new people and the increase in the power demand, the generator was prone to overheating which meant that routine power outages were frequent.
“Yep, as I suspected, this baby’s alternator is shot.” Sturges said. “Hand me that socket wrench from the toolbox so we can pop this thing out.”
Nick passed him the wrench and adjusted his fedora to cut out the sun’s glare. “I’ll hold it for ya while you ratchet it out of there.”
Sturges grunted appreciatively and put the wrench over the corroded nut and pushed. At first, the thing didn’t budge, but Sturges rose up onto his knees and tried to get more leverage. He grunted and the rusted metal turned as powdery copper cascaded over Nick’s hands. Thankfully, the other nut came out easily and Nick wiggled the piece out from underneath the generator’s hull.
“Hoh boy. That was rusted on there good.” Sturges commented as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Nick handed him the rusted alternator and took an oil stained rag from the toolbox and wiped the copper dust from his hand.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” Sturges replied noting that the rust was far more difficult to remove from the copious crevices and thin wiring that made up Nick’s metal hand.
“Don’t worry about it.” Nick replied. “I’ve had jobs worse than this. A little rust isn’t going to hurt anything.”
Sturges seemed doubtful but shrugged. “Well, I gotta clean the rust off this piece to see if it’ll still run. Otherwise scavenging another one’s gonna be a sonofabitch. You don’t need to stick around for this, but I wouldn’t mind the company.”
Nick grinned, “Then I think I’ll just sit with you for a while. Nora’s still working with that one dame ... what’s her name, Marcy I think? So I’ll just be getting in the way.”
Sturges perched himself on a tree stump while Nick sat on a plastic lawn chair. He took some cleaning solvent and a toothbrush and cleaned away the rust with the same loving care as an artist would add the final minute details to their painting.
“So how’s everything with you and Nora, anyway?” Sturges asked. “To be honest, I never saw you as the relationship type.” Sturges had a talent of asking questions in a way that didn’t sound like prying, and Nick enjoyed Sturges’s company well enough that he found comfortable to be a little more candid with him.
Nick sighed, “She’s great. Nora’s a helluva woman.”
Sturges nodded. Their conversation could’ve ended there, but something was gnawing at Nick and he’d regret it forever if he didn’t at least breach this conversation with someone who might know something useful.
“But sometimes I don’t think I’m enough for her.” Nick replied.
God, he nearly cringed at how those words sounded coming out from his lips. Small talk between two men didn’t usually begin with one’s deep insecurities. No, men talked about sports, or beer, or women, or the weather if the well of conversational topics had run dry. Nick shook his head at his own patheticness.
“Well, she’s still with you ain’t she?” Sturges replied and doused the rusted piece with some more solvent, the fumes rose up into the air, and Nick was grateful that they were doing this outside.
“Yes.” Nick replied. “But I think she wants more out of our ... physical relationship.”
Nick fought against every instinct that told him to bury his head in his hands in embarrassment. Pre-war Nick came from a world where discussions about sex between two men were more about what they’d want the woman to do to them or what they’d do to that woman, and not about one’s inability to perform in the bedroom. Not only was he a man’s mind in a machine’s body, but now that man’s mind had to reconcile how to have a satisfying sexual relationship when he was missing the one crucial piece of male anatomy.
“Have you guys hooked up yet?” He asked.
“More or less.” Nick replied vaguely.
“And did she seem ... dissatisfied with you?”
Now it was Sturges’s turn to feel uncomfortable. He wasn’t the type of man to tap dance around an issue. He was a mechanic. He worked in absolutes. If something was broken then it needed to be fixed. The in-between vagueness that Nick was throwing at him was starting to hurt his head.
“Nora’s not the type of woman who’s going to kick a man outta her bed for eating crackers.” Nick replied.
The adage was completely lost on Sturges and he shook his head, “Nick, why don’t you just spell it out plain because I ain’t understanding a word of this. What is Nora’s problem?”
“It’s not Nora’s problem, it’s mine.” Nick interjected. “I --”
He faltered and he looked helplessly at the mechanic. “I’m not equipped.”
“Equipped with what?” Sturges was still lost.
Nick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “... I was never equipped with a ... penis.”
“What.” Sturges stopped cleaning and stared at Nick, wide-eyed.
-- “Yeah.”
-- “Really?”
-- “Yeah.”
-- “That sucks.”
“Yeah.” Nick chuckled sadly.
“Well jeeze, Nick.” Sturges said and resumed cleaning the alternator in his hands. “Those Institute folks really screwed you over.”
“Yeah.” He replied darkly. In fact, it was just one of the many reasons that he hated the Institute. He couldn’t imagine the type of cruelty it took to create a synthetic human, albeit one more robotic than human, and give him the emotions, instincts, and hormonal drives of a red-blooded American man, and not give him a crucial piece of anatomy to act on those desires.
“Well if it makes you feel any better, there are other ways you can get off.” Sturges replied.
That was news to Nick. He knew that his body could register pleasure because every kiss that he and Nora shared and every time her skin danced across his sent blooms of warmth up his body, but he assumed that the sensation stopped there. He certainly enjoyed when Nora’s body writhed beneath him and he recieved gratification knowing that he was getting her off, but there was no final finish for him. In all his existence, he had never experienced an orgasm. He even tried to tap into Pre-War Nick’s memories and experiences in these matters, but it wasn’t exactly like reading an encyclopedia or a textbook. No, Nick’s memories came at him in flashes and his memories rarely ever made sense.
“How would I do that?” Nick asked.
Sturges’s cocked a bushy eyebrow at him. “You’re really askin’ me how to jerk off?”
Nick rolled his eyes, “Hey, smart ass. This body didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual, and since I just told you my main problem, I couldn’t even jerk off if I wanted to!”
Sturges grinned and raised a dirty hand up in apology. “Alright, alright. I hear ya.”
He set the solvent on the ground and began moving the individual pieces to ensure that all the rust had been cleaned out. “See, since you can already feel sensation -- both pain and pleasure -- you need to figure out where the most sensitive spot on your body is. I’d put my money on the fact that you’d be most sensitive in the spot where your johnson should be.”
Nick forced himself to fixate on the object in Sturges’s hands. He couldn’t bear to look the man in the face as they casually discussed how he could get off without a penis. “Alright, then what?”
“Then you gotta find somethin’ to stimulate it.” Sturges replied and rose up from his perch on the stump and clambered back onto his belly. Nick followed him and grabbed the two fresh screws and nuts from the red toolbox nearby.
“See, think of sex like a generator.” He replied and wiggled the cleaned piece back into place. Nick held it there for him while Sturges threaded the first nut onto the bolt. “Generators don’t create their own energy, they use mechanical means -- in this case, gasoline power -- to create the electrical current to store. Since you already have the faculties to feel pleasure, all you need to do is find someone who will help stimulate you enough to build up that power.”
Nick passed him the other nut and bolt. He was completely mortified by the analogy but he didn’t want to say anything.
“I would imagine that the actual orgasm would be a little more powerful because your stored energy wont have anywhere else to go, where as a man’s has to come out as --”
“-- Alright, I think I got it. Thanks.” Nick interrupted. He was glad that the group planned to hit the road in a few days. He wasn’t sure if he could ever look Sturges in the eyes after this discussion.
Sturges and Nick both clambered out from beneath the generator. Nick’s trench coat was full of dirt and his hands were stained in grease and more rust, but working with his hands reminded him of his ol’ handyman days back in Diamond City. Of course, he never had these types of discussions with any of the Diamond City residents.
“Well, let’s see if this baby’ll work.” Sturges said. The man walked over to the giant breaker that controlled the output of electricity from the town’s intact power lines. Nick, I’m gonna need you to start up the generator motor by hand until we can see that this alternator will catch the electricity being generated.
Nick grabbed the old lawnmower pull chain that had been repurposed to start the small gasoline engine attached to to the side of the generator. He gave it two tugs and the engine roared to life. Black acrid smoke bloomed out of it’s exhaust pipe.
“Alright, stand back!” Sturges called out. “This may get a little explosive.”
Nick obeyed and too a few cautionary steps back as Sturges flipped the breaker. The generator sparked once and then the entire thing began vibrating to life. The streetlights and the small bulbs from electrical candelabras, tea lights, and construction floodlights all flickered on and a resounding murmur of happiness echoed through the town.
“Alright, it worked!” Sturges beamed. “Thanks for the assistance, Nick. That thing would’ve been a bitch to start without you.”
Nick nodded in farewell and pulled a cigarette out from his pack and lit it. A heavy feeling pooled in his gut as he thought about what Sturges had said. If sex was really that simple, then maybe he could finally get over his physical hangups once and for all.