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He looked through his scope, his finger ready to pull the trigger. The ache in his shoulder almost became unbearable. His enemy hid behind a small crate and the moment he would crawl out of his little hiding place… Abel held his breath. Sweat gathered on his forehead. Any moment now. The gunman behind the crate raised his head ever so slowly to see if they had left. But that was all Abel needed. A single shot and the fight was over. The raider sunk quietly to the ground. Abel relaxed against the fallen table which he had used as cover. Those raiders surely wouldn’t be bothering the settlements under the Minute Men’s protection. He looked at the dead women next to him. She had attacked him with a board with nails in it. He wondered how he had been able to keep his hands still with the wounds she had inflicted on him. Damn, his shoulder and thigh really hurt. He would’ve been in a serious situation, out of stimpaks and alone. Fortunately, he didn’t come to this place on his own. He heard a familiar stomping that came closer.
“The other rooms are clear”, said Danse, climbing over the remains of a wall. “Seems you’re good as well. I propose–” He fell silent when he saw the holes that were torn into Abel’s jacket and pants.
“Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it looks”, Abel assured his companion. “You have a stimpak left, right?” Danse shook his head. “Oh.”
The soldier held out his hands with bandages. “I don’t have anything against the pain but I can patch you up until we get back.” He climbed out of his power armor, knelt down and examined the wounds. Then he carefully started wrapping the bandages around Abel’s shoulder and thigh.
Abel jumped a few times, tried to keep his vision from going white as best as he could. It was his own fault. He had been to “busy” to remember to get new stimpaks and not go unprepared into a mission.
“Can you walk with this?” Danse pointed to his wounded leg. “I don’t think you can.”
“Indeed”, Abel panted, sweat now dripping from his forehead. “I don’t think I can.” Nonetheless, he managed to give Danse a smile. He reached out and gently touched his cheek. His skin was warm, there was even a single bead of sweat running down his temple. You’re not a machine. Abel didn’t care what he was at the end of the day. He had seen Danse at his best and his worst, seen him in victory and in defeat – hell, he had seen the fear in his eyes when Maxson wanted to kill him.
“I love you, you know that, right?”
Danse smiled. “Yes. And I love you too. Now, let’s get out of here.” He hurried back to his power armor, jumped in and helped his lover. “Put your arm around my neck.”
Abel did as told, though the movement sent another wave of burning pain through his body. “My knight in shining armor”, he said jokingly.
“I’m not a knigh – oh, it’s a saying.”
Abel rolled his eyes, his hands wandered instinctively to his “new” necklace as Danse carried him out of the building. The sun was shining right at them and both had to take a moment to get used to the bright light. Then Danse turned north to walk back to Sanctuary.
After a while the ex-Paladin asked: “What is that?”
“Hmm?” Abel looked up. His constant fumbling with the necklace hadn’t gone unnoticed. He pulled it out of his shirt.
Danse looked at it before looking back up, clearly puzzled. “You still have my holotags? Why?”
Abel ran a hand over his beard. “I just couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. They belonged to you. And this way I always have a part of you with me.” Danse looked touched but also seemed to be full of sorrow. “I know the Brotherhood meant everything to you. I wish I could have done more”, Abel whispered.
Danse shook his head. “You already saved my life, that’s enough. Let’s talk later about this, I just want to get home.”
In the evening they had arrived back in Sanctuary, found stimpaks for Abel and properly cleaned his wounds. Abel lay down in his bed, the holotags in his hand. Danse had left without a word after he had treated his lover’s wounds. It was still hard for him. I wouldn’t act differently – he is probably traumatized by all this shit. And yet there was still one thing Abel hadn’t told him because he was afraid of his reaction. He would tell him soon because he already had experienced that keeping certain things from Danse didn’t end well.
A few months earlier
Heavy rain was pouring down from the sky. His clothes were drenched in a matter of seconds. Not that he would care. All that he wanted was to get out of there. Clear his head for a while. The airport was big and occasionally a few Knights or Initates would cross his way but they all tried to avoid the rain. Abel walked quickly but even though he was almost jogging, he heard the vertibird behind him coming down. A familiar voice shouted his name, he kept going.
“Soldier, I command you to wait!”
Then Abel lost it. He stopped abruptly, threw the bag that he had been carrying onto the ground and gave his pursuer an enraged look. “What?!”
“I commanded you to speak with me”, Danse replied loudly. He seemed taller than ever in his power armor.
“It’s no use anyway, I need a break from all this”, Abel snarled back at him. He turned around and immediately felt a very tight grip around his arm. It forced a groan out of his throat.
“We need to talk about this, soldier.”
Abel swirled back around. “Stop calling me that!”
“You kept valuable information from us!”, Danse shouted and pointed the finger at him. “From me .”
“Even if I hadn’t, you would’ve killed her anyway!” He freed himself from the Paladin’s grip. Abel had met a friendly synth woman who apparently had “valuable information” for the Brotherhood of Steel. It wasn’t enough to just take it from her, no, they killed her. Of course they did. And Abel had been left in the dark. He would have prevented it. He punched hard against the breastplate of Danse’s power armor.
“It… was a direct order”, Danse explained quietly.
“That’s no fucking excuse, Danse. Believe it or not, she was just like you and me.” Until now Abel hadn’t seen how extreme the measures of the Brotherhood could be. Every cause had to have its flaws. “One day it’s all gonna come back to bite you in the ass. Remember my words.”
“What do you want me to say? I just followed my orders.”
Abel ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t bothered to tie it in a knot, like he always did. “So, you’re just a spineless soldier after all. Good to know. We’re done here.” He would go back eventually but for now he wanted time for himself. He wanted to collect his thoughts.
Abel threw his head back into the pillows. Had he treated him unfairly? It had felt like Danse had completely betrayed his trust back then. But now that one thing had come to another… He just wanted Danse to feel loved.
“I’m sorry.”
Abel’s thoughts were quickly interrupted by his lover. “For what? Come here.” He pointed at the mattress and got Danse to lay down with him.
“I tend to get so emotional these days”, the ex-Paladin said and snuggled up to Abel. “It would be wrong to say feelings are new to me, I’ve always had them.”
Abel gently caressed Danse’s hair. It was soft. “It’s okay to become more emotional when you go through hard times.” Danse didn’t answer. “Anyway, I know this might not be the best moment but Maxson gave me your position as Paladin. I didn’t really have a say in that matter.” Abel feared his lover might jump to his feet, be angry or hurt but – he smiled.
“He thinks you’re good at what you do. And so do I.”
Abel was surprised by his reaction. “I told him that I have other matters to attend to and would stop by when I can. Wasn’t a problem.”
Danse chuckled and put his arm around Abel’s waist. “You really can talk Arthur into almost anything.”
Yet, Abel saw the pain in his eyes. It was still too fresh. “After all… You still don’t hate them, Danse?”
Then something happened that Abel didn’t expect. Of all the ways to show emotions – Danse cried. Small tears ran out of the corners of his eyes and landed on the pillow. “I want to hate them, I really do”, he sobbed. “But I can’t! We went through so much… I’m just a stupid machine, I get that I don’t belong anywhere.”
Abel was overwhelmed and simply pulled his lover as close as possible. “That’s not true. You belong to me, we belong together, Danse. It’s all that matters.”