Work Text:
“I know this place.”
“Eh?” Piper paused while scratching something unidentifiable off her coat. The logical, reporter-oriented half of her brain knew it was ghoul innards. The more optimistic half insisted it was weirdly-textured dirt. She shook her finger in disgust and looked up.
Nathan had frozen in front of one of the many ruined buildings that populated downtown Boston, halfway through another long-legged stride. He stared at the entrance, flanked by shattered glass fronts and long dead planters. Piper walked up to him, peering into the darkness inside.
“Really?” She asked. “What was it?”
“A restaurant”, Nathan replied in a dazed whisper, and now Piper’s curiosity was piqued.
“Oh wow, really? Like a proper, fancy-shmancy restaurant? What was it like?”
Nathan frowned in concentration.
“I don’t know. It was definitely fancy. It was called something foreign, something … French?”
--
“Bonsoir madame, monsieur. Welcome to La Belle Reunion. Do you have a reservation?”
There they were, on a warm Saturday night, dressed to the nines with the kid under Codsworth’s watchful eye. Nate looked at the pencil-moustached twerp and tried to remember where he was and what he was doing. He stared outwards, feeling slightly dizzy and the slightest trickle of sweat down the back of his neck.
A familiar hand wrapped around his bicep and squeezed gently.
“Table for two at 7’o’clock. Under the name Porter.” Nathan turned to see Nora smiling up at him, soft brown eyes filled with the question: was he alright? Could he do this? He took in a deep breath and nodded, then turned back to the concierge.
“What the lady said.”
The concierge grinned widely, tracing his finger down his list, then snapped his fingers.
“Mais oui, here you are. Monsieur and Madame Porter, your table is ready.”
With a flourish, the small man strolled into the restaurant. Nora raised her eyebrows at Nathan and gestured towards the door with her head. Finally they both followed the attendant, her hand a constant comfort at his arm.
--
Nate slowly stepped into the ruin and Piper was right behind him, grinning and reaching for her notebook.
..
Her smile faltered a little as they came into the restaurant proper. The place had been trashed: Dishes and tables smashed and tossed around the place. The tell-tale signs of super mutant activity were everywhere: mainly dismembered bodies, hound cages (mercifully empty) and a trampled meat net. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
If Nate had noticed any of it, he didn’t show. He walked down the shallow steps of the entrance, sliding his hand over a cracked and stained bannister. His eyes traced over the devastated establishment, but they seemed to be seeing a different place, or a different time.
..
The Reunion was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday night: A couple of couples here and there, and the occasional Bostonian businessman eating alone. The concierge led them to a small, round table next to the dance floor, and presented them with an assortment of menus. After the usual rituals of debating and deciding were completed, Nathan found himself sitting across from Nora, holding aloft a wineglass.
“To coming home.” He said.
“To staying home.” Nora said quietly. Nate laughed nervously and sipped at his wine, suddenly hyperaware of the fragile glass stem under his fingers.
Nora set down her glass and paused, looking hesitant.
“Nate, have you thought about seeing Doctor Ford?”
Nathan shook his head almost violently.
“No, God no.” He leaned forward, whispering; “Can you imagine what would happen if it got out? What could happen to you and Sean?”
“I know, but still,” Nora sighed, looking unhappy. “These nightmares? Those moments when you go somewhere else?” She looked away, then turned back to him. “Sometimes you scare me, Nathan.”
Impulsively, he reached out and held her hands, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“I’m sorry, Nora. But I’m going to get better. It’s only been a few weeks, I just need a little more time, ok?”
She smiled, nodding. Then she looked confused, her eyebrows crinkling. Nate turned to see the concierge running up, practically stumbling in his urge to apologise. He winced, resisting the sudden reflex to meet the running man with a punch to the throat.
“Madame, forgive me, the beef wellington is no longer available.” The concierge shrugged helplessly. “War rationing, you understand.”
Nora pursed her lips, thinking. Then raised a finger.
“The braised salmon?”
His smile went from weak to radiant.
“Of course, madame! I shall have it prepared immediately!” And again he was off like a shot, a bullet in formal attire. Nathan chuckled to himself quietly, meeting Nora’s amused eyes. Then her entire face brightened up as the music playing over the restaurant’s speakers changed, and a familiar piano tune echoed through the room. She practically bounced out of her chair.
“Oh my God, Nathan.” Her eyes sparkled with delight as she reached for him. “Come on, it’s our song, we have to.”
For the first time in a very long time, Nathan began to feel like things were normal again. He smiled, standing up and joining his wife at the dance floor.
--
Piper’s bemuse transformed into growing amazement as Nathan slowly walked out on to the stained floor, then stiffly held up his arms, curled around an invisible figure. After a moment, he began to delicately step around the floor, twisting and turning in an unmistakeable dance. Piper gaped at the sight: a tall, bearded man, dressed in a stained military uniform and a battered beret, strutting across the dancefloor and humming to himself. His boots somehow always managed to find the clean spaces, treading their way neatly past bloodied limbs, piles of scrap and super mutant refuse. She slowly sat down, shaking her head.
“Didn’t know you were so talented, Blue.”
In the silence, his soft, growled whisper carried far.
“Unforgettable, in every way. And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay…”
Piper sighed, leaning her chin on her palm, and watched the man dance. Then she heard it. Heavy footfalls and deep voices accompanied with the unmistakable snarl of a mutant hound. She bolted upwards, reaching for her rifle.
“Blue! We’ve got company!” She hissed.
The sole survivor danced on heedlessly.
..
This is how it was supposed to be, how it was always supposed to be. His scarred hands at her shoulder and hip, her steady warmth in his arms, their matching smiles. This is what had kept him going: through the conscription, through training, through the time a power armour suit had malfunctioned and almost snapped his right leg in half. The memories of moments like these, and the promise that were similar moments in the future. He smiled, his eyes glazed over, then shook his head at a sudden pinch at his arm. He looked at Nora to see her raise one eyebrow inquisitively.
“Whatcha thinking about, big guy?”
He laughed and thought to himself for a second.
“How we met.”
She giggled, shaking her head.
“You were such a jackass.”
He puffed up his chest with mock indignation.
“Excuse you. I was a patriot.”
She just kept shaking her head, grinning.
“You were a jackass who walked over to a group of protestors and called us worthless, Commie traitors.”
He coughed, ducking his head.
“Ok, yeah, I was kind of a jackass. What happened to that lady, anyways?”
“She survived.” Nora’s smile fell a little. “She lost the baby, though.” Nate winced, but Nora continued: “But it’s ok. The message got through, and it won’t happen again. And hey,” She looked up at him, and her lips quirked in amusement, “I got to meet a handsome, patriotic soldier boy.”
Nathan leaned down, pressing his forehead against hers, and closed his eyes.
..
The group of super mutants stomped into the restaurant and were immediately brought short by the sight of the twirling man inside. They looked at each other, one scratching his head. They’d seen a lot of different behaviours from the humans they had hunted: screaming, begging, desperate attempts at bargaining: but never dancing in a circle, humming. Finally, they shrugged: fresh meat was fresh meat. The one in the lead, holding the chain leash of a snarling hound, stepped forward.
“Hey, big guy! Catch!”
A spherical object soared through the air and bounced off the head of the lead mutant. He looked up just in time for the grenade to go off, causing him to topple to the ground with a shredded face. The chain went taut and the hound went into a frenzy, desperately leaping forward and tugging at the lifeless arm.
The others roared in challenge and charged forward. One mutant was immediately slammed in the chest with a spray of bullets: he shook his head, pawing at his bleeding body, then carried on regardless. Piper swore, reloading, then fired again, her well-loved pipe rifle juddering in her arms. This volley of bullets found their mark: stitching up the mutant’s throat and then repeatedly striking his head. He finally fell to the floor.
But the last mutant hadn’t been idle. Unusually intelligent, he had ducked low behind a pile of ruined couches for cover, and slowly crept up to where Piper was reloading after her last flurry. She looked up in time to see him swinging a pool cue, swatting the rifle out of her hands. She cursed viciously and leaped for her gun, only to feel an iron grip around her leg. The mutant slammed her down on to the floor and she yelped in pain. Piper managed to wriggle on to her back to see the monster raise his weapon above his head, intent on a killing blow. She fumbled at her belt, and before the cue came down, raised the massive revolver Nate had given her the day before. The crack echoed throughout the restaurant: the mutant stared down, weaving on his feet, a large hole neatly splitting his skull in two. Finally he tumbled down, slamming into Piper and pinning her on the floor. She took the opportunity to finally breath, her head slowly thumping on to the cracked marble. She closed her eyes, taking in deep breaths, and then she heard a victorious snarl. The hound had pulled the chain loose from its dead master’s hand, and was charging towards its fallen prey, growling viciously. Piper immediately began to work her hand out from under the dead mutant, screaming in rage.
“Goddamnit, Blue!”
..
“I’m so glad to be back” He whispered in her ear. She nodded, stroking his back.
“It’s going to be ok, Nate. It’s all going to be ok.”
He started shaking his head, desperately trying to hold back, feeling his eyes grow wet regardless.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gone, I never should have gone.”
She chuckled gently, patting him on the cheek.
“The whole point of conscription is that you don’t get to choose, dummy. But it’s all alright now. You’ve come back.”
He smiled, nodding, and then felt her hands grip his jaw firmly. He opened his eyes, and saw her gazing at him fiercely, her own eyes filled with both grief and hope.
“You’ve got to come back, Nathaniel.”
..
“Blue, pull your tall, dark and handsome head out of your ass and help me!”
Nate blinked, and looked around. He saw three dead mutants, and Piper desperately holding back a slavering hound with one arm, her revolver jammed between the beast’s teeth. In one smooth motion he withdrew the massive rifle on his back, kneeled, peered down the sight and fired. The hound’s head promptly evaporated, showering Piper in blood and giblets. She groaned, shaking her head rapidly and spitting desperately. He quickly walked over and heaved the mutant off of her, helping her to her feet. She paused in wiping liquidised mutant off her face to look reproachfully up at him.
“What the hell, Blue?”
Nathan looked around, and seemed to see the trashed restaurant properly for the first time. He grimaced.
“Hrmph. Shit.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Piper spat one last time, then looked down, noting that the small spatter of ghoul brain was now the least of her problems. She looked back at him, wrinkling her nose.
“Any chance I could get a shower soon?”
He nodded.
“Diamond City ain’t too far from here. Let’s head back, my first visit to Goodneighbour can wait.” Hoisting the rifle on its strap, he started to make his way to the exit, when he felt a small hand grab his shoulder. He turned around to see Piper glaring at him.
“What happened there, Nate? What was that all about?”
He took one last look around the Reunion, the last restaurant they had eaten out at before everything ended.
“I don’t know, Pipes. Guess some places you can’t really forget.”