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Six had never been a vain woman. She still wasn’t. She had just gotten very good at keeping up her appearance. The recently crowned queen of New Vegas dressed impeccably, gowns tight in just the right places with slits up the side, only slightly faded circle dresses. She had gotten good with her hair as well, learning to coif it just so after much practice. Make up was an after thought, sometimes present, sometimes not.
This sudden change was extremely off-putting. Well, only to Boone.
He knew she needed none of it. Though he did have to admit she looked lovely with red lips… It just seemed like it wasn’t her. However it wasn’t so much the change itself that angered him, rather than the man who had brought the change on.
“How do I look?” Six asked him, giving him a playful wink that made his stomach toss and turn nervously.
Beautiful, like you always do.
“Fine,” He muttered. “Why do you spend so much time on.. this?”
“Is there something wrong with a woman wanting to look good for her man?” She rolled her eyes at him, knowing he would never understand. “And has it ever occurred to you that maybe I like feeling pretty sometimes?”
He sat in silence, failing to summon the words that played over and over in his mind more often than not, watching helpless as she left for The Tops.
Her place in New Vegas was on Benny’s arm, though he would have paraded her around even without the extra effort she put in, she was his entirely. They had been seeing each other for a long time before she started doing herself up. This was something that Boone had conveniently chosen to forget. Another thing he had very much chosen to forget was the way that Benny had kissed her after they rescued him from the Fort. Even though he was certain Six was covered in equal parts blood and sweat by that point, having fought her way to him.
Boone rarely left the Lucky 38 now, aside from the times that Six coaxed him to accompany her doing this or that. He couldn't stand to see them together. Benny was a snake, couldn't be trusted. He knew the bastard would hurt her some day. And so he waited for that, growing more bitter each day that it didn't happen.
Why Benny of all people? It wasn't fair, like many things in life, Boone had learned this.
Boone hated the times he couldn't avoid them. The knowing looks they'd give each other across the room, the way Benny would touch her ass in what he thought was a discrete way, the whispers coupled with smiles. Genuine smiles.
She looked so goddamn happy around him.
Benny hid his surely bad intentions well. Boone recalled once seeing they were sitting at the dinner table, Six no more than shivered slightly and a checkered jacket was draped lovingly over her shoulders without hesitation.
He hated the rumors too. The ones that he didn't want to hear. Stupid things about how the couple had to bring in a new bed frame to the presidential suite Benny called home, or how loud they were some nights. Boone had always imagined Six to as fierce in bed as she was in a fight. He seemed to be right in that at least, not that it was any comfort.
After Hoover Dam was when it got worse.
They were all more or less alright. Weary and ragged, but alive. Of course the priority was getting back to New Vegas.
Benny had been waiting for her. She ran to meet him and he looked at her the way women dream of being looked at. He knew that look well. For it was one he often felt on his own face when he would look at Carla. Used to look at Carla.
Stupid grins on both of them. She all but jumps on him, legs wrapping around him. Six becomes a little girl again in his arms, tucking her head just underneath his chin, his arms pulling her in as close as possible, whispering gentle words in her ear.
Boone had almost lost the sick hope he carried that something would go wrong between Benny and Six, until one day he saw her crying. A sight he'd feared ever witnessing.
He was certain this was it. The bastard had finally fucked things up with her.
And then he saw it.
A diamond ring adorning her finger.
Heavy realization set in, as he tried to act happy for her, like a good friend would. Because that's what he was to her, a good friend. Never to be anything more.