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1. make-believe wears a thin disguise by hpysprkl

   Fandoms: Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Fallout (Video Games)  

   • Mature
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • F/M, Gen
   • Work in Progress

   14 Nov 2025

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Deacon & Sole Survivor (Fallout)
   • Deacon & Female Sole Survivor (Fallout)
   • Deacon/Sole Survivor (Fallout)
   • Deacon/Female Sole Survivor (Fallout)
   • Sole Survivor & Nick Valentine
   • Deacon (Fallout)
   • Lone Wanderer (Fallout)
   • Sole Survivor (Fallout)
   • Nick Valentine
   • Dogmeat (Fallout)
   • Canon-Typical Violence
   • Stalking
   • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
   • Depression
   • Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
   • mild substance/alcohol abuse issues
   • Autistic Female Character
   • and we’re not gonna infantilize her thanks
   • neurodivergent characters
   • some canon divergence
   • although it’s not so much canon divergence as fixing the plot holes
   • identity fuckery
   • lying
   • local man’s love language is lying: more at 11
   • the spark that ignites the slow burn
   • Slow Burn
   • seriously so so slow
   • additional tags to be added as we go
   • Angst

   Summary

   He hadn't anticipated any of this — how could he? It was supposed to be a fucking recon mission, maybe a chance to trade blows with the Institute if he was lucky, not a torturous deep-dive into his traumatic past.

   And now this vaultie...fuck. There's a complication he really didn't need. She's shaken something loose beneath his mask, an instinct he hasn't felt in a very long time. Something fierce and covetous, born of a bone-deep need to comfort and protect.

   That Deacon will do whatever he can to help her is a foregone conclusion, he realizes. The only question remaining is how far he's willing to go to do it.

    

   A survivor and a wanderer, from worlds as alike as they are different, collide. The wasteland will never be the same, and neither will Deacon.

    

   Series

   • Part 1 of holding out for a hero

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   14,163

   Chapters:

   3/13

   Comments:

   47

   Kudos:

   36

   Bookmarks:

   9

   Hits:

   256