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Nick didn't need to eat breakfast, but he still liked the ritual of going to the Noodle Bar in the morning, where Billy usually joined him. She didn't need to eat either, strictly speaking, but she was trying to be slightly more covert than Nick was and took her cup of coffee like usual.
"Weather's warming up," Nick said. Billy just hummed in agreement. "Guess you'll be loading up soon."
"Another couple weeks," she agreed. Once the weather looked like it had made up its mind she'd retrieve her wagon and brahmin from where she had them sheltered outside town and start her route as a caravaner, ferrying goods and people across the Commonwealth. Wintering in Diamond City had gotten more tolerable since she'd found a friend in Nick, but her feet still got itchy every time the sun came out.
"You shouldn't." Billy paused mid-sip, turning to face the old synth.
"What?"
"Leave. You should stay here, in the city." Nick wasn't looking at her. He had all his difficult conversations in profile view, she'd noticed.
"I don't want to stay in the city, Nick. I like being a caravaner."
"Pigeon wants you to stay."
Low blow, Billy thought distantly. "I thought Pigeon wanted to come with me."
"Pigeon just wants you around." Nick pulled a cigarette out, clenching it between his teeth. "You've got people here, Bill. You can put down roots."
"I don't think that'd be good for me," Billy said pointedly. "For a couple different reasons."
"Things are getting better."
"What, thanks to your friend?" Billy gave a snort of a laugh into her mug. "I'll believe it when I see it."
Nick's cigarette flared. She'd touched a nerve. She hadn't meant to; she genuinely didn't trust any "improvements" in the general state of the Commonwealth, regardless of who was trying to enact them. Nothing was that easy.
"Know what I think, Billy? I think you've forgotten what not running feels like. I think you get a little taste of it here every winter, with me and Pigeon and Ellie, and I think it scares the hell out of you. So every spring, off you go, running back across the wasteland, 'cause it's easier than trying."
Billy set her cup down very, very carefully, because if she broke another one Takahashi wouldn't let her sit at the bar anymore.
"I had roots once," she said in a low murmur. "I had plans for a life once. Why don't you remind me how that turned out for me, Nick?" Her voice was a hiss by the end, the traitorous burn of tears starting in the corners of her eyes.
Nick sighed. "I didn't mean - "
"Yeah." Billy stood, tossing a handful of caps on the counter. "Yeah, I know." She huddled down into her coat and stormed off through the marketplace, back to her apartment, a temporary shelter for a temporary person.