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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Starting their great trek at sundown gave them not much more choice than to look for a place to crash for the night once they were safely away from the chaos they had left behind. Away with their bodies, since their minds both remain in Moldavor’s lair. What they’d discovered, what had gotten away. For very different reasons.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀At least neither of them are in the mood to do much talking.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Sure, he knew there was a chance of this happening once he got the vaultie’s last name. But anticipating it, and watching it all play out are entirely different. Plus, now that he’s had some time to think about it, he still doesn’t really see the family resemblance. Old boy must have shacked up with a looker, since Lucy looks nothing like her father.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Which she might be happy about one day. It isn’t lost on him that she’s completely and utterly devastated, he just doesn’t care all that much. Sure, he’s nosey enough to wonder what earth shattering revelations he had missed. But he doesn’t really have the mental fortitude to start coming up with too many theories, other than the fact that Little Miss Sunshine has a storm cloud over her head. Not unlike what he himself had experienced a long time ago.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He would be lying if he said that his spirits weren’t lifted when the shithole they picked was one of the ones blessed with this newfound electricity. He doesn’t expect much when he flicks the light switch near the broken down front door, for shits and giggles more than anything. But when light illuminates the sandy hallway he flicks the switch probably about ten more times just for the hell of it. While he can. Who knows how long this will last?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Which he’s trying not to think about. Ontop of everything else that’s happened in the past few hours the last thing he’s ready to start unpack is the idea that things might… change.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Been awhile?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He doesn’t realize he’s smiling until the expression falls a little when he looks at her down the hall. God, the sight of her is pitiful. She’s got her heart broken in that kind of way that permanently changes you as a person. And yet she’s managing a smile at him, and celebrating the small wins. Even when it’s the saddest goddamn thing he’s ever seen, or heard. She’d probably have some kind of catch phrase so corny it could make him sick, if he asked for one.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Somethin’ like that,” he mumbles, stepping away from the switch.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Doing a quick once over of the first floor something in a room towards the back catches her eye, and her smile becomes a bit more genuine. “Let’s see if this works!”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She darts into a room in the blink of an eye, and his bitterness at her naivety rears its ugly head. That, even while experiencing the end of her life as she knows it, she’s still so enamoured with the world that she’s so easily distracted.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀And yeah, he’s a little bitter that what she’s fussing over is a television. Mostly because he knows- since she can never shut her trap for more than a few minutes, and will talk about damn near anything just to fill the silence- that they had TV’s down in her vault.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀A vault, he’s come to relize, that he was supposed to have been in with her if things went differently. Where he could have been her neighbor. Where they could have been friends.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Though that train of thought is thankfully cut short when the screen lights up and comes to life. Not that he hasn’t seen a working TV in two hundred years. But they’re not the kind of thing that’s easy to come by nowadays. Walking into any old house, the chances of finding mostly intact clothes, or maybe even a discarded weapon, are more likely than a working TV.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀While he’s very determined not to let his hopes get up even in the slightest for things to go back to normal, he does think he could get used to this whole infinite energy thing.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Lucy seems to have no problem doing all the work cleaning the sand off of the TV sand, so he has no problem letting her and claiming the tattered couch.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Did you watch a lot of movies?” she asks, a little bit more chipper sounding than when they got here. “You know, before?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Not really.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“My brother and I loved movies growing up. We used to memorize scenes, and perform them for my parents. Or sometimes we’d lay in the cornfields at night, and look at the sky and wonder what it would be like in a spaceship.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Cramped. It’s cramped as hell inside a spaceship. Granted, the only one he’s ever been in was on a movie set. But he had been assured it was a very accurate replica, aside from any adjustments to make room for cameras and lights.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Oh goly, and we used to talk about the premiers, and the parties. I mean, I don’t know too much about those. Only the little bit that movies did show, and stories passed down from the original survivors. But I used to try and draw dresses I would wear.” He hears her get up and only a moment later she perches on the edge of the couch next to his feet, and he’s tempted to kick her off. “Oh, I love this one!”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He glances over before he can help himself, and immediately wishes he hadn’t. Because of course it’s gotta be something he acted in. It was a small role, towards the beginning of his career. But it makes his stomach churn nonetheless.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I always loved these crime movies. Watching them finally get the bad guy in the end.” Jesus, she’s already radiating pathetic again. These vault dwellers have an even more unpredictable range of emotion than he does. “I guess I never realized it’s a whole lot more complicated than that.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Neither did he, once upon a time.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I always thought that if I lived on the surface before the Great War I would be a police officer.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He snorts. He can’t help it, and he’s only further amused when it earns a sharp glare from her.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“What’s so funny?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Nothing,” he says. And he trusts she knows him well enough by now to know he says it sarcastically. “You seem like the exact kinda person who would say that.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Lucy scoffs at him a little and looks back at the screen again. “Yeah, well… you seem like the kind of person who got into a lot of trouble with them.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Nope. The idiot that he was, he had trusted the most powerful people in the world to be selfless. And had been wrapped around Uncle Sam’s finger so much that he really believed they would. Told people as much, too. That after the biggest investment in mankind they would just let it all sit around underground, maybe never even getting used.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“We were on a first name basis, the fuzz and me.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Is anyone on a first name basis with you anymore?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Up until now one of her saving graces was that the vaultie had had the sense to not ask him anything about himself. About nothing that wasn’t useful, just because she was curious.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She’s not really asking him anything. But she’s making it plenty clear she wants to.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He doesn’t answer, and she thankfully has the sense to let him.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He’s only in a handful of scenes in the movie, all of which are towards the end. And when he knows they’re coming his stomach starts turning itself into knots. This is different than reminiscing after she single handedly wiped out his suppliers. Because she’s here. Reminiscing is something he can only ever do by himself. God forbid the man beneath the radiation come up in conversation at all, he’s terrified to hear what someone might say. He’s mighty confident and sure of himself now, yeah. But even thinking about the days before the blast, and who he was when it happened, has him feeling like the same confused, heartbroken mess he had been at the time.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He hears her take in a small, but sharp breath as he says his first line across the room, and he swears his heart stops for so long that he might get buried again. In his peripheral vision he watches her lean a little more against the arm of the sofa. “Go-ly, my mom loved Cooper Howard. She thought he was so handsome. I didn’t when I was little, but I get it now. She watched The Man From Deadhorse so many times the film melted a little bit at the end. We used to joke that if he showed up at the vault she’d leave dad for him.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Oh, well, ain't that the most poetic type of justice he’s ever heard!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I wonder if I did the right thing…” she mumbles. Quiet enough that he has a feeling she’s saying it more to herself than for him to hearat all.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀But he does, and it brings back a question he’d left behind once they set out on this little trip.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“That was her that you shot back there, w’n’t it?” Good thing he’s looking at her directly when she nods, since it’s so little his peripheral vision might have missed it. Sympathy strikes him. It's an emotion he's still capable of, but he's not used to feeling it without a cruel edge to it. The sadness to her whole... situation isn't lost on him. Out of all the horrors of humanity he had encountered there aren't many he can't say he can't understand what it feels like. But both of his own parents died in an entirely unremarkable way before Janey was even born. Thinking about having to inflict any kind of harm on them, even in mercy... he sucks on his teeth a little while taking a small breath. “Well… wish I coulda said hello, then. Made all her dreams come true.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She looks over at him and he just knows there’s a harmless insult on the tip of her tongue. But before she gets the chance his voice on the screen cuts through the silence. And when her face falls, doe eyes looking over at the TV, and then back at him like she’s looking at his mangled face for the first time, he knows she knows. His voice is one of the few things left about him that hasn’t changed all that much.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“... you’re-”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Don’t go telling everyone who’ll listen long enough,” he says, before even thinking of confirming this. “Been a long time since anyone knew.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She shakes her head enthusiastically enough that she has to push some hair out of her eyes when she’s done. “No, I won’t. I won’t tell anyone. I get it, it’s private. You’re private.” Lucy looks over at the screen, and he imagines she’s trying to see the resemblance. “Sorry I put it on.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“‘S alright.” It’s a stupid thing to apologize for, is what it is.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“You could have told me to put something else on,” she says. “I mean, not that you’ve needed my permission for anything before. But… I just wouldn’t have minded.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He wishes she hadn’t said this, since it means he has to think about how to answer. Because he did know he could have easily had her put on something else. Or could have tried to distract her more once he came on the screen. Or, you know, just not say anything .
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Where we’re goin’, what we’re doin’; you would’ve found out eventually. More, too.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Like what?” As he simply glares at her she shrinks down a little bit and fidgets with her hands. “Sorry- that’s fine! That makes sense. Uh… thanks for telling me.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He simply grunts in reply.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She’s silent for a little while, watching the movie with a new kind of wonder. Those sopping wet eyes are wide open while she studies the screen so much she starts edging off the couch. Like she'll uncover more secrets about him if she pays close enough attention to a recording of him from over two hundred years ago.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀But she won’t. And once glance between him from the past and him from the present, anyone would deduce they are two entirely different creatures.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Which reminds him.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀His gaze lands on her again, the corner of his lips pulling up while he watches her for another moment. Though it would be easy to categorize her naivety and amazement to the world around her as childlike he’s starting to think this isn’t the case. As foolish and gullible as she may be, she might also be one of the most mature people he’s come across in years. Plus, even though he doesn’t know all that much about her (and intends to keep it this way, thank you very much), he does know she’s grown enough of a woman that calling her childlike is more demeaning than he would intend it to be.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Like calling… her childlike for enjoying watching cartoons and playing dolls with Janey just as much as she did.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Childlike is dehumanizing for the kind of woman who seemingly changes the lives of everyone she meets.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Plus… well, she don’t look like any kind of child he’s ever seen.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“You get it now?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀It seemingly takes a moment for her to register that he’d spoken at all. She’s definitely not so wrapped up in the movie to purposely boost his ego, but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t. Just a little bit. “Hm?” She hardly even blinks those big, watery eyes.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Your mom’s little crush on me,” he says. And he makes sure to drag out the words, to drag out her embarrassment. His head tilts slightly, while she spares a quick and nervous glance at him. “You said, you get it now?”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I-” She scoffs and presses her lips into a thin line. She’s glaring at him, but it’s not very efficient when she also isn’t quite meeting his gaze. Not that it would have been efficient in particular for him either way. “I would not have said that if I knew.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Obviously. “You still get it? Knowing he looks like that?” he asks, pointing at the TV and himself for emphasis.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She looks at him again, and he’s struck with the feeling as if she’s looking right through him, which she has done to him more than once before this. She’s the most naive thing he’s ever met, yet there’s things she seems to understand that he doesn’t think he ever has, nor will he ever.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She reminds him of someone. But that thought alone makes him feel sick, so he doesn’t dare invoke her name. Even if it’s within his own mind.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“I’ve gotten used to how you look. Pretty quickly, too. With everything else I’ve seen up here, you’re not all that interesting after a day or two.” He hates when she does this; hates when she says something no one’s said to him in centuries. And says it like she’s telling him about the weather. Yet another thing she’s clueless to; her affect on him. “I saw a lot of… different looking people. And I’ve seen others like you, and most of them looked much worse off. And, I mean…” she spares only a glance at a younger, kinder man before the monster, before her has her undivided attention once more. “Not that much has changed.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Now that’s just fuckin’ insulting.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Lucy lets out a laugh, and turns towards him a bit more. Pushing his feet further back on the couch in the process to give her more room. He decides to let her. “I’m being serious! I mean, obviously you look different . But the only things missing are your hair and your nose. Everyone out here has bad skin, and bad teeth. And there’s not really much else, so...”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She really means what she’s saying, too, which is the craziest part about it. Not only is she a terrible liar- so much so that he can practically smell it on her when she does attempt to lie- but she’s so goddamn earnest about everything.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀When she finally snapped, when he finally pushed her to her abnormally high breaking point, he had been a lot more than just smug about it. I fuckin’ got you, Vaultie. You’re just like the rest of us, and like your bureaucratic ancestors that made us all this way!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Only for her to turn right around and show him exactly who she really is. She’s a mother lifting up a car to save her baby. She’s blood, sweat, and tears personified. She’s a goddamn hurricane standing at five foot five. And, with the radioactive sunlight near blinding him while she bestows upon him the fountain of fucking youth, she may possibly have solidified herself as his fuckung guardian angel. Or something.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀And frankly, he’s never been happier to be proven wrong.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“You, little lady, might just be the strangest person I ever met,” is what he tells her with a shake of his head after a pregnant pause. Because what, out of this maddening train of thought, is there to be said aloud?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀This must be the right course of action, since she flashes him a prideful smile only a vault dweller could muster up nowadays. “And you, mine.”