Chapter Text
Crunch crunch crunch.
Each step Lucy Maclean carried out always sounded the same. The ground was always dry and withered away exactly like the rest of this new world was.
Before she left vault 33, footsteps would sound more metallic and loud, you could never sneak about unless you crept without shoes on. But the thing about metal was that it was cold, and sneaking about as a child to meet her friends at night or to get out of chores was almost worth it less than cold feet.
Oh how Lucy wished her only concern was cold feet now.
Crunch crunch crunch.
You definitely couldn’t take your shoes off out here that was for sure, unless you wanted to step on something poisonous or get infected with a radiated bug somehow.
It was entirely possible that these tiny dry cracks in the ground could house a whole radiated, creepy little bug army ready for the possibility of easy pickings…looking back on her first few days out here the vault dweller was proud that at least her very naive mind to this new world didn’t think to take her shoes off before she went to sleep.
Lucy shivered at picturing basically her worst nightmare of bugs and shoes and ew ew ew think of something happier Lucy!
Being deep in thoughts was probably not the best thing for the girl to be doing and that thought only amplified when she noticed that her steps were now accompanied and being overlapped by other crunching.
The girl looked up from her shoes to notice the looming figure of the Ghoul that earlier was walking ahead with Dogmeat, he seemed to now be matching her speed and that meant some sort of rare conversion.
“Not to offend and all those niceties but you’re slowing the group down greatly.”
Lucy tilted her head at the man, rubbing an arm on her forehead to wipe the ever coming sweat off of her head.
“Oh I am?” She asked genuinely, not realising she was walking any slower than usual.
“I’d compare it to a snails pace but that would be just plain mean don’t ya’ think?” He asked sarcastically making the girl stand slightly straighter than she had before.
Usually most people didn’t notice the little posture and body language changes Lucy would make when she was offended but the Ghoul did, and Lucy would be lying if she didn’t hate it.
“Strike a nerve? Sure are a soft one aren’t you?” He commented more to himself before he sped up his steps slowly once more.
Lucy decided to keep her gaze strictly straight on after being accidentally ambushed by the man’s proximity.
It had been about nearly two weeks now since travelling with the ghoul and Lucy could complain about his blatant sarcastic personality and the way that he conveyed himself which screamed ‘I’m doing you a favour, so stay out of the way’ but honestly she could have had worse partners to be in this situation with.
A little conversation here and there would be nice though.
Lucy did want to ask the man a question though, she had been avoiding the topic all together because for some reason she felt like she may hit a nerve but after realising that she practically saved him a while ago with those drugs he so badly needed a simple question couldn’t do that much damage.
“So uhhh..hey!” She started, making the ghoulafied figure infront of her turn his head slightly despite still walking.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, because calling you ghoul is probably not what you ideally want to be referred to-“
His head turned slightly more.
“What is your name exactly?” She asked with a smile.
The disfigured man stopped walking almost immediately and instead became still. Lucy sensing the rising tension walked up to him.
“You know, Everyone has a name and I feel rude not knowing- well yours!”
The man’s face didn’t waver, it stayed as straight as a mannequin. He did although, decide in that moment to spit to the side of him aiming at the ground below.
Lucy grimaced slightly.
“What do you think we are? Pals?”
Lucy rolled her eyes, he was trying to be rude. Luckily, Lucy wasn’t as ‘soft’ as he liked to tell himself and her on the daily.
“Come on not even I would go that far. I just think-“
“Yeah? Well maybe stop doing that.”
Lucy raised an unimpressed brow, at that point though, the guy had already started his ascent again.
“You are such a grump you know that? Honestly getting so defensive over something as small as your name!”
The older man adjusted his hat so the lowering Sun avoided his eyes as he walked in its direction.
“If it’s somethin’ so ‘small’ then maybe you should stop getting so agitated when I don’t tell it you, hey sweetheart?”
He spoke nonchalantly as if he was simply disregarding her like a child. This made Lucy walk closer to him and match his pace a bit better to defend herself.
“I am not agitated in the slightest bit!”
“Sure, and your voice has gone ten pitches higher because you were trying to sing.”
This made the girl open and then shut her mouth quickly. She instead chose to do a deep breath…. breathing exercises Lucy, calm, trees, safety, a cold nuka cola…see wow that was easy. Ahhh much better.
“Okay mister ‘tough guy’ don’t tell me your name, that’s dandy with me.”
Mr tall dark and rude tilted his head.
“Great.”
“But that just means I get to make up a nickname for you.” She grinned up at him, making him instantly lock in eye contact.
His face scowled more so then usual,
“Oh no, did I hit a nerve this time?” She grinned slightly.
The ghoul squinted his eyes and tilted his hat back as if he found himself no longer being able to be in his ‘relaxed’ demeanour.
“You’re being more ear deafenin’ then usual, what’s the occasion?”
“Hmm, let’s see. We have hunter,” Lucy started, ignoring the Ghouls impolite jab .
The ghoul lowered his brows in confusion.
“You know, cuz you hunt.”
This made the man roll his eyes in the apparent stupidity of it all.
The Vault Dweller looked up at the mans…hat?
“Hat man?”
Then down to his hip.
Lasso?”
“You can’t be fuckin’ serious- hat man? Lasso? Are you jus’ naming the things I own?”
“Sure am cowboy.- hey! You do look and act like one of those. How about it, cowboy?”
The Ghoul stared daggers at the girl beside him, she seemed to love the sound of her own voice or somethin’. Maybe she just enjoyed to annoy him but most of the time that simply backfired onto herself one way or another. It was easy to mess with Lucy when she was being irritating but today she seemed really stuck on this whole naming thing.
He didn’t want the Vault Dweller to know his name because it wasn’t any of her damn business. Not just that, but because it was of a man he had killed a long time ago. Cooper Howard died along with everything he knew and loved.
So that never ending voice just full of questions and joy really grated him the wrong way more than usual today. He could think logically and know that she was jus’ simply making conversation, and maybe he himself would be inclined to join maybe a few hundred years ago when life was more simple and conversation came easier, but that wasn’t simply the case anymore. Nowadays he realised talking with no point benefited nobody, getting close with folks and making friends wasted time and to put it simply, he couldn’t care any less.
Despite himself showing annoyance by the way he glowered at the Vaultie, she simply chose to ignore his threatening presence for some reason. Usually he would teach anyone a lesson to not get so confident and comfortable around him, but because he couldn’t simply kill this girl anymore, he decided to let it go just this once.
“You could call me your royal highness and I still wouldn’t give any more of a shit.”
Lucy seemed to take the Ghouls lack of usual worse verbal abuse towards the name as a small victory.
“Cowboy it is.”