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New faces weren’t uncommon at the Muddy Rudder so Marco figured he’d go more or less unnoticed. All he needed was another drifter and he could wet his tongue with fresh blood once again. He was beyond sick of blood pack meals.
After a couple nights he spotted a decent mark – a tall girl, clearly alone, and clearly in need of a drink. Marco watched her down two fingers of whiskey before even bothering to make small talk with the barkeep. He finished his drink and waited for her to settle in before he got up and moved to the bar next to her.
“Hey Belle, can I get another?” he asked, sliding his empty bottle back across the bar with a few caps. The old woman got him a new beer and told him she appreciated quiet drunks like him with a deep purse. He offered her a sheepish grin before turn toward the girl only to find her sizing him up out of the corner of her eye.
“Charmer, isn’t she?” Marco asked. She answered him with a shrug and a bored look before going back to her whiskey. Marco shrugged in turn and leaned back against the bar to look out on the half empty room while he worked on his drink. He definitely noticed when she kept stealing glaces at him and let her get away with it for just a couple minutes before catching her eye and breaking into a nervous looking grin. “What?”
Her expression clammed up immediately and Marco struggled not to laugh. “Nothing,” she said, bristling, “You look familiar is all.”
“I think I’d remember if I’d met an amazon.”
She snorted. “Wow, fuck off.” But her face was much redder than it had been a moment before.
“Sorry, sorry,” Marco laughed. “You got a name?”
“...No.” The girl hesitated. “And… don’t go telling me yours, I don’t care what it is.”
“Suit yourself. Can I buy you another drink?” Another moment of hesitation but she accepted and downed the thing with the same lack of ceremony as her first. After that she was friendlier and they chatted about her passions (mostly smashing raiders into gristle with her bare hands) until she’d had enough to drink that she was grinning and ribbing him like they were old friends.
“You seen the view from the tower here?” he finally asked. “The wasteland almost looks beautiful from up there. And you can take out mirelurks without them even knowing you’re there.”
She made a face. “Sounds boring.” But before Marco could defend it, she was out of her seat. “Let’s go, I wanna see how far away I can shoot a centaur from.” Marco grinned and grabbed them each another beer before following after her.
They laughed all the way up the narrow stairs, the amazon leaning against him and occasionally trying to swipe the beer out of his hand. Halfway up the tower, Rivet City’s metal wall peeled away to form a sort of window. She tugged Marco over so she could lean against the open wall and catch her breath, complaining she was dizzy.
“You alright?” Marco asked, pressing a hand to her forehead and cheeks. She was flushed and he could feel the blood rushing just beneath her skin.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said and pulled his hand away from her face before pausing to take him in with a look of hard concentration. When her hands found the front of his jacket and she tugged him closer in the enclosed space, Marco wondered briefly who she was thinking of. He combed his fingers through her hair and pulled her into a kiss. It was a bit sloppy after they’d both been drinking all night but she held him there for a long moment, giving him more than enough time to taste the alcohol on her tongue and to feel the heat rising off of her.
Marco broke the kiss slowly, not daring to pull away from the tender moment they’d created. He murmured and held her close before trailing his mouth down her neck to where her pulse was racing. He ran his tongue down the rise of the vein, winning a shiver from her, and let his teeth graze her skin. He was salivating.
Her breath hitched and she jerked, her fist snapping out from her side in a blur and catching him square beneath the ribs hard enough to knock the air out of him. Marco doubled over against the wall and looked up at her as he gasped for breath. Her face was disappointed and glum as she backed out of his reach.
“You ruined it,” she said and wiped his kiss off her mouth. “Ugh, this was stupid.” She turned on her heel, kicked their empty beer bottles out of her way, and stormed back down the stairs without another glance at him.