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It wasn’t the first time she caught him glancing at her, and definitely not the last. Amidst battle he’d always glance over his shoulder to stare at her whether she was shooting at a super mutant suicider or slamming the end of her gun against a raiders jaw. She’d give him a curt nod before covering his back despite being surrounded herself. Katherine never understood why he stared, and she always figured she simply surprised him considering she was originally a vault dweller. It wasn’t until she heard him groan from behind her that she turned, a feral ghoul clawing into his arm.
“Hancock!”
Her body rushed forward until she collided with the ghoul, tearing it away from the groaning Goodneighbor mayor. She pressed the tip of her pistol between the ferals eyes and shot at it haphazardly, blood splattering over her cheeks and nose like freckles of cruor. Katherine sat on her knees with an exasperated sigh, turning her head to Hancock, a stimpak already pressed into his leg with his marred fingers.
“Are you alright Hancock?”
He chuckled but didn’t look at her. “Fine, Sunshine.”
Katherine frowned at him. “You’re bleeding all over yourself, hang on,” she instructed. She tore away a piece of dirtied cloth from her attire and crawled over to him to wrap the makeshift rag around his bicep. “Good thing Sanctuary is close by huh?” She paused, looking about for a minute. "If you consider Jamaica Plain to be close to Sanctuary..."
Hancock grunted in response as she gently tied off the rag on his arm, his head lowered and tricorn obscuring his face. “Hn.”
“Can you stand?”
“Yeah.” He stood carefully before Katherine stood herself, examining his posture carefully.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
He grunted again. It wasn’t the first time she saved his ass, and it made him feel like he was being babysat. A dweller of all things babysitting a ghoul. The thought almost made him laugh.
However humorous his thoughts were, annoyance ran in Katherine’s veins and she flicked his battered tricorn off his head entirely, staring into his dark eyes almost searching for something yet he remained with a neutral expression. “What’s your problem Hancock?”
“Nothin’ you need to worry about.” If anything he needed to worry about it. No one could pull off the blood splattered look quite like her. He caught himself looking over every fleck of feral blood on her cheeks.
She huffed. “You think I’m not going to worry about my-” she shut her mouth with a pop. “My…”
Hancock raised a brow. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Ugh, nevermind,” she seethed, turning on her heel and walking a few steps ahead before turning to face him. It was odd, though she didn't know if it was because she almost called him a...boyfriend? Lover? They were far from that, and yet when she faced him now the words nearly tumbled out of her mouth without warning. Her face was scrunched up in slight vexation. “I like you.”
He was adjusting his hat on his head, but froze entirely when she said that. His eyes glared at her unmarred face. “What?”
Katherine sighed. “I said I like you, Hancock. Not in the ‘just friends’ way either.”
Hancock laughed, walking beside her and patting his hand on her shoulder. His heart may have stunted for a minute, but then again it could be the damn air of the Wasteland finally getting to her. “I think you got a case of rad poisonin’ in your head.”
"And what's wrong with a little rad poisoning these days?"
His steps paused but he didn't turn to face her. "You ain't jokin'...are ya?"
Katherine frowned. "No, I'm not."
"Look," Hancock said with a sigh as he began, finally turning around to really look at her. She was like something you'd see on a television show or in a cheap magazine, never caked in makeup or showing off her assets. She was Katherine Winters, a vault dweller who grew up in a world more different and elegant than his could ever hope to be. It pissed him off at first, until she changed his mind when she put a bullet between Finn's eyes. It may have been their first encounter, but he knew from the armor covering her blue a yellow suit that she was lost if not stupid to roam around in a vault suit. A damn bullet changed his mind entirely, and he was enamored and curious about her ever since. He blinked when he realized he didn't finish speaking and vaguely gestured to himself. "You don't wanna wake up to...this."
She folded her arms over her chest. "Who says I don't?"
"I do," he spat out. "Even I know I'm nowhere close to havin' someone like you." It stung to hear himself say that.
Her arms dropped to her sides, her feet carrying her just a little closer. "But, you feel the same?"
Hancock frowned crudely and looked around as if he was looking for a way to change the subject entirely before giving up. No amount of cons their relationship would have could've stopped him from speaking his mind, he was too honest. "Isn't it obvious? But I'm not not gonna let it happen."
Now that made her nothing less than angry. He didn’t believe her, a vault dweller 200 years old could care for a ghoul? Actually, it made sense to an extent and things were different but still caused her teeth to grind. Katherine closed the distance between them, grabbing the side of his face and forcing him to look down at her. She was glaring at him before pressing her lips to his nearly missing ones irritably. After a few moments she pulled away from him with a smug grin.
“You’re an idiot, Hancock.”
A sputter of laughter vibrated through his chest. “So are you, kissin’ a ghoul like me.”
“Believe it or not, I have a thing for the zombie king types,” she countered, hooking her arm with his. Her smile was wide as she looked up at him.
He returned her smile with a smirk. “Just so you know Sunshine, people are gonna think you’re insane for hangin’ with me. I'm startin' to think so.”
“If anything, they’ll think you're insane, dating a woman 200 years your senior. It’s pretty scandalous.”
Her words were drowned out by his raspy laughter.
At the time she didn’t realize it, but as they walked into Sanctuary giggling like lovestruck teenagers in 2077, Katherine noticed the way his eyes squinted when he smiled, and the way he walked with confidence wherever he went. At first she just ignored the feelings bundling up in her gut and casually flirted with the man to sate herself, but her eyes couldn’t help but examine all that he was constantly, and each time she looked at him bloatflies swarmed in her stomach. She’d been staring at him too.