Work Text:
Riku met the two of them in one of the shitty little temporary drinking establishments that cropped up outside of New Vegas. Nothing so permanent as a real bar, or even a caravan post; just a tent set up over a few makeshift tables, and someone ready and willing to part with some bootleg liquor out of the crate behind them in exchange for a few caps.
All three of them had exchanged more than just a few caps at that point, and for Riku at least, things had gotten a little pleasantly fuzzy around the edges. Not enough to be a risk, but enough that a shit day involving a shit close call with a stray group of Fiends felt just a little further away. He didn’t know what the other two were drinking about, but it didn’t really matter.
“The thing is, they’re absolutely onto something,” Kairi said, slamming the heel of the bottle in her hand down in emphasis. “There is absolutely some research in there that would help.”
“In the vault?” Sora, the third member of their impromptu drinking group, asked.
Kairi nodded. “Of course in the vault. That’s what the vault was for. They’re absolutely right about that much, but they won’t listen.”
“What aren’t they listening about?” Riku asked.
“How dangerous the vault is.”
“Of course it’s dangerous. It’s a vault.” He shrugged. That was pretty much a given when it came to vaults. If you could find it, someone or something else much worse had found it long before you.
“This one is different.”
Riku sipped his drink. They were all “different.” Also a given, when it came to vaults.
Kairi took a much longer, deeper drink from her bottle. “Yet those assholes want people to go in there for them.”
Judging by some earlier statements, Riku had gathered that the assholes in question were the scientists from Camp McCarran. He held up his own bottle in a sarcastic toast. “To the asshole scientists of the NCR. May we continue to trust them as far as we can throw them.”
Kairi returned his toast and drained the last of her drink. “Another round?” she asked.
Riku and Sora both nodded agreement, and she got up to make it happen.
Another couple of drinks in, and Riku was starting to regret accepting the latest round. The pleasant fuzziness still hadn’t tipped to anything more—he was still perfectly confident in his ability to shoot straight if he needed to—but it was making the prospect of searching out a place to hole up for the night sound daunting.
He groaned. “I need to quit for the night, I think. Need to get a little farther down the road before I turn in for the night.”
Sora let out a heavy sigh. “You’re probably right. I’ve got a ways to go.”
Riku wondered where he’d be heading to, and if they’d be going the same direction.
“I’ve got a room,” Kairi said. “If you want somewhere to stay.”
When they both looked at her, her cheeks flushed a little. Whether it was from the liquor or the offer, he wasn’t sure.
“That’d be okay with you?” Sora asked.
Bringing a stranger, much less two strangers, back to your place was a risky prospect. If Riku or Sora was dangerous, they could attack her. If she was dangerous, she could be leading them into an ambush. Though nothing in the couple hours they’d spent together made that seem likely. Her frustration about the vault and the McCarran scientists was too obviously genuine, and certainly didn’t feel like a script for a setup.
“Yeah, it’s okay,” she said. “Unless you’re expecting something fancy. I’m not staying on The Strip or anything.”
If she was, she wouldn’t be drinking here.
“It’s just a room at the El Rey. Pretty run-down, not the best of neighbors. Mostly the Fiends leave it alone, though.”
Riku shrugged. “Sure. Lead the way.”
The walk to the El Rey wasn’t a short one, but it also wasn’t nearly as long as he’d have been walking to find somewhere to bed down on his own.
The night was almost pleasant. All jokes about the heat of the day making people long for a nuclear winter aside, well, at least it cooled off a bit when the sun was down. It was even helping clear his head a bit.
“So, Vault 22 is dangerous, you’ve said.” Sora stretched as they walked, looking up at the sky. “But they want someone to go in for them? Why would they want anything from there? You said it was ‘research?’”
“It’s what Vault 22 specialized in,” Kairi said. “They were focused on horticulture. Agriculture, really. Way back before the war, they were worried about famine, low crop production, things like that. They wanted better crop yields, to figure out how to do it with less water, make the crops resistant to pests, things like that.”
“Well,” Riku gestured around them as they walked, turning a slow circle to encompass the Wasteland, “you can’t say they had the wrong idea. Can’t say it looks like they solved it, either.”
Kairi’s answering laugh was a little bitter. “Yeah. Except they did solve it. At least a little bit. Before it all went wrong. The doctor at McCarran knows it, but… no one is going to find their research and make it out of there.”
“Well that sounds ominous!” Sora said cheerily.
This time Kairi’s laugh sounded a bit more genuine. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t think it’s worth trying?” Sora’s voice sounded a little more serious. “I mean, if they really did find a solution. We could help fix… all of this.” He gestured at the Wasteland, just like Riku had.
“I wish we could,” Kairi said. “But the solution had… side effects. Bad ones. Ones that have made the vault too much of a risk.”
“How do you know so much about it, Kairi?”
She hesitated for several paces, until Riku thought she wasn’t going to answer him.
Finally she said, “My family was from that vault. A long time ago, obviously, a century and a half or more. Some people escaped and ran. Most of the survivors kept going once they got out, wanting to get as far from it as possible. My great-grandparents stayed closer. I think they thought it was their responsibility to make sure no one else tried to go in. Maybe people listened at first, but now? There’s always someone willing to take the risk for the right number of caps.”
Riku couldn’t argue that point.
The El Rey was as run-down as Kairi had described, but her room was decent enough. Relatively clean, with no scorpions lurking in the corners.
She flopped down on the bed. “It’s big enough,” she said. “Unless you prefer the floor.”
“Not really,” Sora said, flinging himself down on the fairly beat-up mattress. “Riku?”
“Yeah, even this bed looks more comfortable than the floor. If it really is all right.”
“Be my guest.” Kairi scooted over a couple of inches, pressing up against Sora, leaving a narrow strip of the bed as invitation to Riku.
“Somewhat literally,” he agreed. He sat down a bit more gently than Sora had, before stretching out next to her.
“Kairi…” Sora said from her other side. “Where is Vault 22?”
“In the hills west of Westside,” she said. She yawned. “Though you have to swing a bit north to find it. Which you shouldn’t do.”
“So you’ve said,” Sora agreed.
“Sleep now. Talk, or whatever else you want to do later.” Kairi’s voice was already getting softer and slower.
Riku hadn’t felt comfortable falling asleep with strangers for a very long time, but he didn’t think either of the other two were likely to try anything while he slept.
The thought of getting to continue their new acquaintanceship in the morning, to see where it might go, was actually an extremely appealing idea to fall asleep with.
Riku woke up to the sound of Kairi swearing. He came awake all at once, sitting up and swinging his feet to the floor. At least he didn’t feel hungover, so he really hadn’t had more to drink than he remembered.
He looked up at Kairi, standing in front of the room’s dresser. She had a scrawled note in her hand.
Riku could just read it from the bed: If it can help, I have to try.
“The absolute idiot went to Vault 22.”
“Well, shit.” Riku rubbed a hand across his face. This was already shaping up to be anything but an easy, restful day.