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Its during a fire fight with a pack of muties that the realisation hits him almost hard enough to knock him flat on his back, or maybe it’s the concussion wave from the missile Hazel had just launched from the missile launcher she affectionately named Leveller, but MacCready found himself scrambling to his feet, his ears ringing and seeing white spots from the sudden flash of fire in the middle of the night, and frantically looking around for the Boss.
He found her crouched where he had left her, Leveller haphazardly dropped to the ground while she peered through the scope on her sniper rifle—Stinger she called it. She didn’t move for a few moments, scanning the levelled building that had contained the Super Mutant pack.
“Damn it.” She spat after a while, lowering her rifle.
“What is it, Boss?”
“We’ve buried any good loot.”
MacCready opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by the sudden rapid blam blam blam of a turret. He ducked behind the barricade Hazel was using and they flattened themselves to the ground as bullets whizzed over their heads and embedded themselves in the concrete and steel slab.
“Shit.” Is all Hazel says, rolling over onto her stomach. She brought her left arm up to her face, flicking dials on her Pip Boy before muttering another curse and grabbing Leveller. “We need to go, there’s too much radiation around here.”
“But, Boss we’re almost—“
“Later, Mac.” She insists, and takes off without waiting for him to follow, ducking behind buildings and cars, Stinger propped against her shoulder.
MacCready sighs and follows her quickly, hefting his own rifle onto his shoulder.
Once they’re out of the rubble and close to DC MacCready watched Hazel as they walk. She walks in front of him most of the time, covering the front while he covers the back. She’s taller than him by mere centimetres, much to his annoyance. Her long brown hair plated neatly down her back and tucked into her leather jacket, a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose.
The realisation hits him again—he’s falling for her, and he’s falling hard.
Everything he found annoying about her when they first met, was now becoming endearing and almost…cute?
The way she walked with her shoulders back, chin high, almost refusing to hide from danger, her snarky—and inappropriate—comments when they’re on the road and he sneezes, the way she cant seem to walk quietly no matter how hard she tries, her obsessive hoarding habits, even her whining over the lack of grand pianos in the Commonwealth.
Sh—shoot. He thinks to himself, as he holds the gate to the Diamond City Market open for her. He can’t afford to think of his boss that way, especially since she might be the closest shot he’s got to finding Duncan’s cure. The only chance he has to picking off those ghouls, grabbing the meds, and destroying the place.
He almost didn’t hear her when she spoke. “Huh?”
“See what you can get for the loot we’ve gathered today, trade and cell. Grab as many stims as you can, and plenty of Rad-Away.” She explains, swinging her pack off her shoulder and rummaging through it for a moment. “I need more bullets for Stinger, if you can grab any .308 for me, that would be wonderful. I’ll meet you at the Dugout.”
No specified time, no strict schedules, just sell it, bag it, and sleep it off. Sounded like a plan.
MacCready readjusted the pack on his shoulder and took the left side of the market place. Even as he haggled for lower prices on Med-X, he found himself turning away from the merchant and finding Hazel in the crowd, easily recognisable from Leveller strapped to her back.
Yeah. He had it bad.