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Chapter Text

A taunt, with one eyebrow raised and a grin bubbling at your lips…

They collapsed against the walls of the little broom closet they’d shoved themselves into, gasping as quietly as they could as they waited for the grenade to go off and hopefully take out the few Raiders left in the hallway. The explosion sounded, and Kira pressed her ear to the door, listening for sounds of life.

When she was satisfied that no one would be coming for them in the next instant, she sighed and slouched against the wall. “If you cannot learn to sneak, Hancock, you are going to get us actually killed.”

She could feel him glaring at her in the darkness. “That trash can came out of nowhere!”

“I hate you so much,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re ridiculous.”

He snorted, and she could hear the grin in his voice as he said, “Love you, too, Sunshine. It’s not like you didn’t run face first into that can trap when we first got here or anything.”

She scoffed. “I did no such thing!”

Hancock spluttered, ready to argue, but she just laughed and leaned over to wrap an arm around his shoulders, pressing a kiss to his cheek and pulling away with a loud, “MWAH!”

(This was a surefire way to shut him up when she wanted him to be quiet for a moment, but it would be a lie to say she didn’t enjoy it.)

She flung the door open and grinned at the lovestruck expression on his face. “C’mon, loser. Let’s get moving—we still got this whole place to loot.”

He caught her around the shoulders and kissed her back, softer than she’d kissed him. She touched her cheek lightly when he pulled away, grinning, already over his momentary surprise. He waved one arm forward grandly and bowed a little as he said, “After you.”

She giggled and threaded her fingers through his, tugging him along. When he looked at her curiously, she said, “The hand-holding is so you don’t run into anything else, of course.”

Kira wasn’t even a little mad when he shook his head and tugged out of her grasp, mumbling something about “ruining the goddamn moment, idiot.”

Chapter Text

As we huddle together, storm raging outside…

“I hate radiation storms,” Kira sighed, sinking into Preston’s side, steadfastly ignoring the way he flustered at her touch. “Not only do they slow our travels down to a crawl and make us camp out in places like this, they’re also terrifying. I’d rather sit through a hurricane than a radiation storm.”

He had taken a long swig of purified water when she sat next to him, and he swallowed it down thickly to answer her. “I don’t really know what a hurricane is, but I get you.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder and smiled a little. “Hurricanes are—were, I guess—a force of nature, for sure. I never actually experienced one firsthand, but they tore up the southern seaboard every year. They knocked down trees and power lines and houses. They brought the ocean up onto land several feet at a time, sometimes. And then there was the eye of the storm, where it was completely calm,” she explained, drawing a little swirl in the air to help her description. “They were dangerous, but they were predictable. Unlike rad storms.”

They fell quiet for a moment and she could almost hear him mentally deliberating something in the silence. Radioactive thunder cracked, lighting up the room green, just as Preston reached over and threaded his fingers through hers. She startled a little at the feeling of skin-on-skin—she hadn’t heard him take off his gloves. He was tense next to her, obviously expecting her to shove him away with a laugh. She didn’t, though. All Kira did was readjust her hand to get a more comfortable grip on his and go still again.

“Sometimes I forget,” he began softly after a moment, “that you didn’t grow up in this world. You’re from a whole other planet, almost. I couldn’t imagine…”

“Yeah, I guess,” she conceded. “It’s not so bad, though.”

“No?”

She grinned as she turned to meet his gaze. She smiled a little wider when she saw that he was smiling, too. “Nah. I’ve got you. Helps keep me grounded when I’m having a rough time—like now, I guess.” Her thumb traced circles in the back of his hand as she said, “Don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t found you right after I defrosted, honestly.”

His smile was bashful when he looked away, shaking his head. “You’d have been fine, General. You’re the one who saved us that day, remember?”

Kira shrugged. “Yeah, but the depression that was hitting me pretty heavily probably would have suffocated me if I hadn’t had our little Sanctuary project to throw myself headfirst into, y’know? I—I think I might’ve…done something stupid, if you hadn’t been there.”

Soft brown eyes met hers again and his smile was a little fainter than before. “That’s my line, isn’t it?”

“Figured it was about time you knew that you saved me just as much as I saved you.”

Her name was nothing more than an exhale as he leaned in and kissed her—softly at first, still somehow expecting her to push him away after all this time, then deeper.

When he pulled back again, the words, “I love you,” fell from both of their mouths before they could stop it. They both paused, shocked, and then dissolved into quiet laughter. It was entirely fitting that the first time either of them said the L word, it would be in unison. They’d been working together since Kira woke up in this new world, and they would be fine so long as they continued to stick together.

Chapter Text

While baking chocolate chip cookies…

Mae couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this torn up about getting rejected. She was a musician—she should be used to this! But, she’d gotten her hopes up so high when they called her back after the blind audition. She’d thought for sure she was about to score a lead role on Broadway barely six months out of the gate, but no. They weren’t looking for someone who looked ‘like her’—translation: they weren’t looking for someone who wasn’t white. Which was crazy, the more she thought about it, because it wasn’t like The Lion King or something. It wasn’t like she was trying out for the part of Queen Elizabeth or someth—

“Mae? Darling, would you mind coming in here a moment?”

Mae took a hiccuping breath, scrubbing roughly at her face to try and wipe away the majority of the tears. She passed a mirror on her way out of the bedroom and almost flinched at the puffiness of her face.

Wrapping her arms around her middle, she padded out into the living room in her baggy t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. She rounded the corner, prepared to speak, when the sight in front of her stopped her in her tracks. Her boyfriend—her almost seven foot tall boyfriend, mind—was standing in the middle of their kitchen, wearing a pink, frilly apron she’d never seen before and holding a tray of baking ingredients.

He smiled hopefully.

“I, uh, I thought maybe we could make some cookies for dessert tonight. And—and if you wanted, we could make dinner together, because it’s domestic or, uh, or something. I dunno. It always sounded fun. Thought we could turn on some fun music and—I don’t know. We don’t have to if you don’t feel like it, though. You can go lay back down and I’ll call you when it’s finished,” he said in a rush. He shifted nervously on his feet as he waited for her response.

She smiled a little. It was really cute how flustered her giant of a boyfriend still got after almost two years together.

Smiling a little more, she said, “Alright.”

Jack’s face lit up. “Alright?”

She sniffled and used her sleeve to wipe at her face again. “Yeah, lemme just wash my hands,” she sighed, brushing past him to the sink.

She heard him set the tray back on the counter and start rummaging through the cabinets. Drying her hands on a dish towel from the drawer, she spun around and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. He gave a startled little laugh and she felt the vibrations in his chest. He pulled her closer and they swayed on the spot for a moment. Mae could feel the tension melt from her body as he held her—he smelled like the cologne she’d bought him for his birthday and—“Did you light a candle?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, your mum gave us some last Christmas and I found them the other day. Thought they’d be nice for some aromatherapy. The honeysuckle smells good, doesn’t it?” he responded softly.

She hummed and turned her head to look at the baking stuff to her left. “Are we making them from scratch?”

“Grandma’s secret recipe,” he confirmed, pulling away to brush her hair away from her face. He stroked his thumbs across her cheeks and cupped her face as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Are you starting to feel better?”

She smiled and nodded as they turned to start mixing the ingredients, flipping the radio on while they were at it. He handed her the bag of chocolate chips as he mixed the dough, rambling about what they could possibly make for dinner while these were baking. She wasn’t really listening, too preoccupied with trying to open the bag of chocolate chips quietly. She had just popped a few in her mouth when he turned to ask her a question and paused.

She knew she definitely looked guilty, with the open bag in one hand the other halfway between the bag and her mouth.

He shook his head and asked, “Are you seriously eating the chocolate chips right now?”

Mae couldn’t help the grin tugging at her lips as she argued, “I’m in distress!”

“You’re full of it, is what you are,” he laughed, reaching for the bag. She rolled her eyes as she handed it over, but not before grabbing a few more and munching on them. Jack shook his head, reaching into the bag to grab a few for himself, when he frowned. “Oh…”

Mae snorted, covering her mouth with her hands. “Are you stuck?”

He glared at her halfheartedly. “Just help,” he whined as she burst into giggles.

“How did you even manage?” she chortled as she tore the side of the bag, releasing his hand as she pulled the bag away. He just grumbled in response as she dumped the bag into the bowl of cookie dough. “You and your big, meaty claws,” she sighed.

Jack gasped in mock offense, and poked her in the side, making her giggles grow into full blown laughter. She turned away from him, trying to escape, but he caught her around the waist and picked her up, spinning around with a laugh. “What was that about my hands, Strawberry Shortcake?” he murmured in her ear as he set her back down.

She leaned in with the facade of kissing him on the cheek, only to blow a raspberry against his skin that made him laugh and let her go to wipe at his face. “I am perfectly average sized, thank you very much,” she said seriously.

“Whatever you say, darling,” he replied as he caught her gently by the back of the neck and leaned in to press a kiss to her lips. Humming as he pulled away, he continued with, “I love you.”

Mae grinned and curled into his side. “Love you, too.”

As they returned to their baking, Mae couldn’t help but think that she really did have the best boyfriend in the whole world.

Chapter Text

When the broken glass litters the floor…

Kira couldn’t breathe. The phone felt like a metric ton in her hands as she placed it back in its cradle. Picking up her Nuka-Cola bottle, she tried to walk back to the bedroom, but part of her knew she wasn’t actually going to make it that far.

It felt to her like the floor actually reared, and she stumbled, choking out a sob as she reached for the bar, her drink slipping from her fingertips and shattering on the tile floor. Her vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes, and she dropped to her knees, both unable to stand another second and to try and clean up the mess she’d just made.

Nate apparently heard the crash in his sleep, and came running down the hall with a baseball bat. He paused when he saw her crumpled form, hiccuping as she tried to pick up the broken glass around her.

“…Kira? Hun, what happened?” he asked softly, crossing the floor to kneel beside her. He ran a hand soothingly up her back before brushing her hair out of her eyes, wiping at the tears on her cheek as she coughed out another sob. He pulled her into his arms, hushing her, and she went willingly, burying her face in his shoulder and clutching desperately at his back.

“I—It’s—It’s Lin,” she sobbed. “She—sh-she and her husband, they’re—they—h-ha-hate crime.” Oh god, she couldn’t speak. “That was her mom o-on the phone. She’s—she’s—”

Her husband’s arms tightened around her and he rocked her soothingly as they sat together on the cold tile. Her chest ached, but she was glad to have him here, by her side. She loved him so much, loved that he could make her feel so safe, even when she had to deal with death threats on almost a daily basis down at the firm, just because of the way she looked. It hadn’t actually scared her before, but now…

“I love you,” Nate said simply after a moment. “I’m so sorry.”

She was thankful that he put two and two together, because she never would have gotten the words out.

Her hysterics were calming a bit, and she stuttered, “W-Why wasn’t there anyone there to protect them? Sh-She said they r-reported it.”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I guess the police are more biased than we’d like to admit.”

An idea tickled the back of her mind at that, though she didn’t say anything. Maybe…maybe if there was someone working in the justice system who knew what it was like to deal with the racial bias the tensions with China were causing—maybe Chinese Americans, even just Asian Americans in general, would be a little bit safer.

Suddenly exhausted beyond belief, she sighed and pulled away, pulling her glasses off to wipe away the tears on the lenses. Gently, tenderly, Nate’s fingers brushed away the tears on her face, tucking the hair in her face behind her ears. He offered her a small smile as he leaned in to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. She was smiling when he pulled away again, and Kira was struck with affection for him. She was so lucky, really, to have him.

As long as Nate was by her side, she was sure everything would work out just fine.

Chapter Text

“Come on, leave it! There’s a building a few blocks back we could—!”

“Got it!”

The dog they’d picked up a few weeks ago barked happily as it trotted into the dry trailer, and Kira grinned up at him through foggy glasses, the baseball cap she’d thrown on unable to really do its job in the downpour. Preston’s own hat was sagging under the water as well and, when she laughed and waved him in, well, what else could he do but follow?

The inside of the trailer was dusty, making all three of them sneeze, but was thankfully corpse-less, so the worst smell they had to deal with was musty air, which was swept away quickly with the rushing of the winds around the trailer. The only light in the trailer came from her Pip-Boy, casting a dull green glow around the room as Preston slid the door mostly closed, leaving it propped open for air circulation.

Kira paused as she took in the inside of the trailer, eyeing a trunk thoughtfully, before shaking out her sleeping bag and spreading it out on the floor. The dog settled dutifully next to her, and it made him smile watching her giggle and scratch his ears.

They didn’t talk much on the road like this—usually they were too tired—but it was nice to just sit in relative peace, with someone you trusted. And he did trust her, with his life, more than most. She’d proven herself a hundred times over at this point.

Tonight must be different, though.

“What was it like?” she asked softly.

He sat next to her, cold from the rain, and shook the water off his hat as he asked, “What was what like?”

“Growing up here.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, hard to hear over the sound of the storm. “I can’t really imagine—it’s all so terrifying.”

Preston shrugged, sighing a little. “It wasn’t all bad. We still played like any other kid—just had to avoid the Bloat Flies and the radiation storms.” He turned and looked at her, but she wasn’t looking at him, eyes still fixed on her fingers scratching at the dog’s ear. “What about you? What was it like growing up back then?”

She was quiet for a long minute, tilting her head to lean back against the wall, thinking. Eventually, she smiled a little and settled on, “Loud. It’s so quiet without all the noise pollution anymore.” She sighed quietly. “I grew up in New York. It was a huge city—one of the biggest in the country. Smog everywhere, but the food—oh, the food. And there was this little Korean place a few blocks from out apartment, and Mae and I—“

Kira cut off abruptly, smiling falling just a little in the dark. “Well, anyway. It was different.”

“It must be terrible, waking up to this. You must wish you could go back.”

She hummed, leaning into his side a little. “At first, yeah, I did. But the more I see, the more I watch—things may look bad right now, but you know what? The world will always, always, always keep turning—and that’s the most important thing, you know? 200 years of ruin, and we’re still here. We’re broken, and we’re scarred, and weary, and radiated to all hell. But we’re here. We’re still here.”

She rested her head on his shoulder then, sighing softly. “We weren’t supposed to survive the bombs, but we did, and that—that’s so incredible. Humanity is incredible.”

Kira paused, before giggling and reaching for his hand, twining their fingers. “You’re incredible. What you’re doing—helping people, without expecting anything in return—you’re the very best of humanity. That’s what kept us around, I think. That will to live, and to help each other live—it’s ingrained in our blood, I think.”

She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly. “You’ve helped me keep going. I hope you know that.”

Though his face was burning, he grinned and turned his head to kiss her back softly. “You, too, babe. You, too.”

Chapter Text

It’s a cold night out in the Wasteland that night. Maya and Tony were fast asleep, safe as they could be in the makeshift settlement they’d discovered a few weeks back. There was a guard on lookout, and he gave Mae a funny look when she wandered out past the fence. She waved at him as she went, tugging her jacket tighter around her torso to keep out the wind.

She didn’t know where she was going—she tried not to stray too far from the settlement. She stopped under a tree probably less than 50 feet away, and sat at the base of it, leaning back against the trunk to look at the stars.

She wasn’t sure how long it’d been since the bombs fell—four months? Five? It was a blur. The world was violent, now, and when she wasn’t running for her life from other people, she was worrying about the radiation storms that rolled in from Site Zero, where the bomb hit. She’d never forget the first time she and her friends saw a radiation storm first hand—the thunder as the world turned a murky shade of green, reminding them that no matter how normal they felt, the world was still changed forever.

There was no escaping the radiation, either. It was everywhere. People were dropping like flies every so often from radiation poisoning, and it was lucky that none of the people she knew had succumbed yet.

Her mind drifted as she stared up at the stars, clear and bright without the light pollution of Boston diluting it anymore. She wondered if her family felt a lot of pain before they died, or—or if it was so quick that they didn’t feel a thing. She hoped it was quick.

The wind picked up and Mae tucked her knees up closer to her chest, slipping her hands inside the sleeves of Kira’s FBI jacket. It was warm and sometimes, when she was really tired, she could still smell Kira’s favorite perfume like it had sunken permanently into the fabric. She brought up her hands to fiddle with the necklace Kira had given her after she’d gotten married—a family heirloom that had survived for thousands of years. In her pocket, she could feel the holotape her mother and grandmother had given her right before she’d moved away for college.

God, that seemed like a lifetime ago now, but it was barely four years ago when she’d just been graduating high school and moving to Boston. Barely four years since she first got into Berklee, since Kira had laughed over the phone that Mae might not want to live so close to her because she’d never be rid of her. Barely four years since she felt like her entire life was ahead of her, like she could do anything.

And that was all gone, now. Now the world was kill, or be killed. Survive, or die trying.

Mae didn’t know when she started crying. She only noticed when another gust of wind blew and made her wet cheeks extra cold. She wiped at her face with the sleeves of her jacket, laughing a little at the ridiculousness that she could still cry after all this. Her chest ached and she felt the loss of her loved ones especially strongly that night, though she wasn’t sure why. Her mom, her dad, her grandma, her fiancé, her sister…all gone in the blink of an eye.

She was sobbing then, thinking about how there was no future anymore. She wondered if she’d ever be happy again—if she’d ever do anything other than survive again. She didn’t have much longer left on this Earth, probably, so she didn’t have much time to find a way to enjoy life again.

Mae found herself overwhelmed and she curled in on herself to try and dull the pain. I want to go home. I want my mom and dad. I want my sister. I want—

“Mae?”

She jumped and gasped, startled, looking around wildly only to find Maya standing a few feet away, wrapped in the big jacket she’d picked up a few weeks ago, rubbing sleep from her eyes with one hand. Mae laughed a little, turning away to rub at her face roughly. She heard Maya close the gap between them, and then she sat next to her, leaning into her side comfortingly.

Maya didn’t say anything, just sat there and let her body heat warm her friend back up. Mae was her best friend, someone she’d crushed on for a few weeks even when they’d first moved into the dorm. She’d be damned if she just let her sit outside and cry, alone and scared.

Eventually, Mae’s sobs quieted, and she leaned against Maya with a shaky sigh. Quietly, in a soft, tiny voice, Mae mumbled, “Love you, Maya.”

Maya grinned. “I love you, too, sweetie. Can we go back inside now? It’s cold out here.”

Mae laughed a watery laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.”

Mae and Maya fell asleep curled around one another, with Tony snoring quietly right beside them. The world may have ended, but at least none of them were really alone in the aftermath.

Together, Mae was pretty sure they could keep going, keep on moving forward, keep on surviving forever.

Chapter Text

“Betcha won’t.”

“What if he never speaks to me again?”

“Deacon doesn’t strike me as the kinda guy to get upset about something like that.”

“Hancock,” her voice was a whine. “Can’t you dare me to do something else?”

He shook his head, laughing, and said, “This was your idea, Sunshine. You can do it!”

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. He was right and she knew it. Still, it was almost childish, the dare he’d given her. She’d expected something more along the lines of—well, she wasn’t sure what she expected actually. It was Hancock, after all.

“Fine,” she said after a moment, rising to go find Deacon. “You said the last time you saw him, he was dressed up kind of like Nick?”

She didn’t catch the devious look on his face, turned towards the door as she was. All she heard as she exited her house was a quiet, “Yep.”

She had a plan. It was a small plan, but a plan nonetheless. She would sneak up on Deacon while he wasn’t paying attention, grab him by the shoulders and kiss him as quickly as possible. She could explain afterwards.

Kira felt about 16 as she made her way through the fog that had settled over Sanctuary Hills—this was such a stupid game. Why had she suggested it? What had she been hoping to gain?

The fog was thick enough to obscure pretty much all defining features of the residents of the settlement, save for their silhouettes. Nick’s trademark outfit was pretty hard to miss, as much time as she spent with him, and she was vaguely glad that he was currently in Diamond City. It’d be weird to explain it to him if she accidentally kissed him instead.

In hindsight, this might have been the thought that Fate heard and thought, “Ahaaa, you’re right. I gotchu, friend.”

Eventually, she found the correct silhouette in the darkness, somewhere near the front gate, and she sighed to herself. Here goes nothing.

The first thing she noticed, when she seized him by the shoulders, was that he was remarkably cold and stiff. The second thing she noticed, as she turned him and pressed her mouth to his, squeezing her eyes shut, was that he was pretty cold, and that his mouth tasted vaguely like plastic, tobacco, and coolant.

Wait.

Oh, god.

She pulled away quickly, meeting Nick’s stunned yellow eyes. He looked positively dazed, and she suddenly wished she could melt right through the asphalt under her feet. Fuck. Goddammit.

Somewhere behind her, she heard a peal of laughter and she whirled on the spot, searching for her traitor of a friend. She could just barely make out his hunched over, chortling form several feet behind them, his silhouette just as obvious as Nick’s.

“HANCOCK!!”

Chapter Text

“I know this isn’t a smart decision-”
“Then I would recommend not doing it.”

This was, arguably, the stupidest plan Kira had ever come up with, and that was saying something, all things considered. There was that one time she ran, screaming and banging two pans together through a pack of Super Mutants, just to give a group of settlers the chance to get to safety before the grenades and bullets started flying. There was the other time she punched a Deathclaw in the face. And don’t even get her started on what happened at Swann’s Pond.

But this had to be the dumbest thing she’d done.

And Hancock seemed to agree.

“I know this isn’t a smart decision—,” she began, eyeing the Gatorclaw across the way.

“Then I would recommend not doing it, Sunshine,” Hancock grumbled at her side.

Dogmeat whined, almost in agreement, and she rolled her eyes.

“It’ll work,” she assured them, sounding much more calm than she was actually feeling. “I saw it in a movie once.”

“Kira—“

But it was too late. She’d already lit the flare and, pressing a kiss to the place where his lips should be (just in case) ran out into the open.

“Hey, ugly! Over here!” she yelled, waving the flare as though the beast couldn’t already see her. The creature roared, and charged right for her just as she turned on her heel and began to sprint in the other direction. We need more teeth, she’d thought, watching two other Gatorclaws go at it. In the back of her mind, she was well aware that this situation that happened in a movie wouldn’t necessarily work, but if they could get it away from the rollercoaster long enough for them to search the area, well…

She tossed the flare towards the other two gators, skidding into a narrow alley just as the Gatorclaw made a grab for her. The claws missed her by inches as she squeezed herself further into the space between the buildings, and waited.

And, miraculously, her plan worked. The Gatorclaws began to fight each other, and, proud of herself, Kira quietly and quickly made her way back to her companions.

Hancock looked vaguely impressed when she came trotting back, a smug smile on her face. He shook his head. “Has anyone ever told you you’re outta your mind, love?”

“Once or twice,” she laughed, catching him by his lapels and pulling him in for a kiss, adrenaline still pumping through her veins. He hummed appreciatively against her lips, letting her deepen the kiss briefly before she pulled back.

“Okay, let’s go find this code.”

“Lead the way, sister.”

Chapter Text

"I trust you."

Hancock didn’t get it. He didn’t get it at all.

Sure, Smoothskins came onto him sometimes, usually just curious about what it would be like, sometimes hoping to get on his good side for power purposes. But Vaulties weren’t usually among those people. Vaulties were spooked by the melted skin and missing noses, and coupled with his eyes, they usually didn’t talk to him if and when they blew through town.

But her.

She actively sought his companionship, after stumbling into town, shaking like a leaf with Nick Valentine and a dog by her side. She was hurt and terrified, dazed by either the pain or the adrenaline. Finn didn’t even faze her, though she somehow still found it in her to make a witty, snarky remark that made him grin.

She didn’t flinch when he stabbed Finn, nor did she shy away when he introduced himself. Even with the blood in her hair and on her face, and the bruises, she still looked fresh out of the Vault. He couldn’t fathom why she looked at him like she was looking at another Smoothskin.

Then again, she was traveling with Valentine, and after meeting a sentient synth, it was probably hard to be surprised anymore.

When he offered to come with her, he honestly wasn’t expecting her to accept. Wasn’t expecting her to smile, cross her arms and tilt her head, raking her gaze over him before saying, “Okay. We’ll leave in the morning.”

Tonight, they were at Nordhagen Beach, stretched out on the sand, watching the stars. She was talking about the constellations, what they meant and the lore behind them, but he wasn’t really listening to the words. The lilt of her voice, quiet and calm, was just so…

“Hey,” he interrupted, “I got a question.”

He saw her turn to look at his profile out of the corner of his eye, and he forced himself not to flinch at how it must look. “Why doesn’t it bother you?”

Kira pushed herself up on one elbow, looking down at him curiously. “Why doesn’t what bother me?”

He gestured vaguely at his face. “Me. Aren’t you afraid I could, I dunno, go feral on you? Or something?”

Hancock’s heart skipped a beat a little at the smile that crossed her face then, so sweet and loving, as she said seriously, “I trust you. You’re one of the best things I’ve found since I stumbled out of that Vault. You’re worth whatever little risk there is of that.”

He wanted to say something, anything, but then she was kissing him, slow and deep, and he thought to himself that the feeling of her soft, full lips on his ruined skin beat the high of any drug any day of the week.

Chapter Text

She didn’t like to think about it a lot, even as often as she played with the rings hung around her neck.

While she’d been in this new, dangerous world for a long while now–had gotten used to the radiation and the giant bugs and the melted faces and the giant lizards–she still hadn’t quite processed the entire thing. It still hadn’t really hit her that everyone was gone and that they weren’t coming back.

Maybe if she didn’t have Codsworth, she thought as she trekked up the path behind Sanctuary. Maybe if her entire life had been destroyed, instead of only bits, maybe she’d be more settled, more accepting.

But she did still have Codsworth, and he was floating alongside her now, making his familiar swoosh and clunk sounds as they climbed. Dogmeat was at her heels, as were Preston and Sturges. Nobody was making conversation and, as the clouds hung gray and heavy above their heads, she couldn’t blame them.

This wasn’t a pleasant favor she’d asked of them, after all.

The elevator ride down into the Vault was just as long and claustrophobic as she remembered, even with the light of Codsworth’s–uh, fire illuminating the space around them. The electricity flickered as she pulled the fenced door open at the bottom, and then men behind her seemed hesitant as they followed her deeper into the Vault.

She’d only been here twice, but she knew exactly the turns she needed to take and, before she knew it, they were back in the freezer room.

Kira’s stomach turned as she approached her husband’s body, worried to find him rotting away, only to find that the cold of the Vault had still preserved him. Nate looked just as she remembered him–sleeping, with a bullet hole in his head.

The breath she let out was shaky, catching in her throat, and she jolted a little when a warm hand pressed to her lower back.

“We’ll take it from here, Kira. You don’t have to do this.”

“I should,” she argued, hoarse and half-heartedly. “He’s my husband.”

Preston’s fingers were gentle on her chin as he turned her face to his. “Let us do it. You’ll have plenty of time with him soon enough.”

And that finally made her nod, tugging her FBI jacket closer around herself as she stepped back and let the men she’d brought with her pull her husband down from his seat, loading him into a body bag from one of the old hospitals downtown. 

They didn’t speak the whole way back up out of the Vault, or on the way down to Sanctuary.

Jack and Mae were waiting for them when they arrived, Jack having apparently made excellent time and already having dug an appropriately sized grave and set up the headstone. 

Her sister pulled her into a hug as they approached, and held her there as they lowered the body into the grave.

The actual burial was a blur, and she wouldn’t ever remember much of it, but she did ask to be left alone for a bit after it was over. She–needed to say goodbye. For real this time.

When they complied, she knelt in front of the headstone, laying a bundle of wildflowers at its base and sighing heavily as she struggled to think of what to say.

“Hi, baby,” she began, smiling a little as a few tears slipped down her cheeks. “It’s been a while. A long, long while. I’m–I’m sorry we haven’t put you to rest properly before now. I’ve been busy trying to–to find Shaun and…I don’t know, put the world back together again.”

She laughed, watery and thick. “You’d make fun of me for that, probably. Call me Wonder Woman and joke about how I just had to save everyone. I miss that.” She sniffled. “I miss you. I know we weren’t in a good place when–when all this went down but…”

She pulled her necklace from under her sweater, playing with the rings hung there. “But I loved you. And I hate that this happened. I hope you’ve found your peace, though, Nate. I hope you remember that I loved you, and that part of me will always love you. You were my first love. You were my best friend.”

Swallowing thickly, she pulled the necklace over her head and laid it atop the grave, hanging it from the headstone by a piece of piping they hadn’t pulled out of the slab before putting it up.

“Sleep well, honey. You deserve it.”

Chapter Text

Radiation storms seemed to be the best time to talk, Preston thought as he settled a little lower against the wall. They always got into really–deep conversations when they were waiting these things out.

This topic, however, was not one he would have expected.

“Ten Cures for a Broken Heart,” Kira read, muffled through the mouthful of snack cakes she was eating. She was sitting closer to the lamp in the corner of the room, and had apparently found an old magazine that hadn’t disintegrated in the past 200 years. She snorted as she read some of them, shaking her head.

“What’s number one?” he asked when she didn’t say anything else.

She hummed, squinting at the rotting paper. “I think it says ‘remember that there are other fish in the sea’.”

He chuckled, shaking his head too as he looked back down at his musket. 

“There’s more than one type of broken heart,” Kira said quietly after another minute, “but the tabloids were all about the ‘love ‘em and left ‘em’ kind back then.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, what else would you call it when you wake up everyday feeling like you’ve got a brick where your heart is supposed to be? Something’s not working right, right?” she asked lightly, but it sounded forced.

He looked up at her then, curiously, because he knew what that felt like, but how did she know? Unless–

“And what would you have put as the number one cure for a broken heart, then? Snack cakes?”

She snorted, giggling. “No. I’d have put friends at the top of the list. Friends and family and pets,” she added, reaching down to pat Dogmeat where he’d laid his head in her lap.

He hummed, leaning his head back against the wall. “That it?”

She looked up at him then, light brown eyes caught in the candlelight. “Punching things helps sometimes, too.”

He snorted, and they both paused for a second, before dissolving into giggles. He hadn’t been able to laugh with anyone like that in a long time.

“Laughter would be up there, too,” she giggled. “Laughter and good company.”

And as they smiled at each other with the storm raging outside, he found that he agreed with that sentiment. His heart definitely hurt a lot less when he was in her company, at least.

Chapter Text

She’d been gone for two weeks.

Two fuckin’ weeks since she’d taken off on that case with Valentine. Two weeks since he’d heard a peep from anyone about her whereabouts, two weeks since the last time anyone had seen the General of the Minutemen—two weeks since he’d seen her smile.

…God, he had it bad.

He’d been doing his best to keep his mind off of her (without too many hits of Jet, anyway—Kira was still worried out of her mind she’d come home one day to find him overdosed, and he hated worrying her). He buried himself in his work in Goodneighbor, helping the Railroad and their rogue synths, providing complimentary supplies to Minutemen groups when they blew in between patrols. When he wasn’t at Goodneighbor, he was wandering up towards the Slog to check on the ghouls there—people he’d known since before Diamond City went nuts—and when he wasn’t there, he was wandering up towards Sanctuary to see if…

…well, to see if she’d come home yet.

He wasn’t expecting anything today, really. He thought he’d drop by and say hello to some of the residents—people who’d moved from the Slog up into Kira’s newly refurbished neighborhood, with its massive wall and fully functioning electrical grid. If he didn’t have Goodneighbor to take care of, he’d have set up up here, too.

Dogmeat greeted him at the front gates, as he strolled up to the gate that had already opened when the scout caught sight of him walking across the bridge. He laughed a little when the hound tried to jump up on him, wagging his tail and panting happily like he was glad to see Hancock, specifically.

“Good dog,” he said absently, smiling and patting the fuzzy monster’s head as he continued further into the settlement.

The sun was starting to set by now, so the settlement itself was a little quieter than normal, most people apparently having holed up in the bar Kira had helped one of the residents set up farther into the settlement. He could hear music faintly filling the air from the open doorway, and a rise of laughter danced across the breeze as he listened.

He caught sight of a pair of lovebirds, hanging out under the big tree at the end of the cul-de-sac, sitting on the bench she’d placed there as the lights flickered to life in the limbs high above them.

Briefly, Hancock had a flash of Kira haphazardly hanging from one of those limbs, clenching some nails in between her teeth and hanging the lights herself, and he shook his head. 

This…may have not been the best idea, now that he was here. 

Maybe he’d just go sleep on her sofa and pretend that his heart wasn’t aching missing her.

It must have been several hours later, he realized, when he woke with a start, dazed and unsure of his surroundings. He didn’t feel high, or lagged, or hungover, so what had—?

“Hancock?”

That woke him up. 

Sitting bolt upright with a gasp, he found her leaning heavily on a familiar figure, smiling as she flipped the light on and stumbled further into the living room. Whatever joy that had been seizing his heart at the sound of her voice dissipated immediately when he processed that she was limping, Valentine half carrying her through the doorway.

“Shit, Sunshine, are you alri—?” he asked, already scrambling to his feet to try and help.

She waved him off. “Fine. There’s just some—crazy huge critters up north. Deathclaws are one thing, but those—” she cut off with a shiver. “I just got some cuts and bruises. I’ll be right as rain soon enough.”

“Cuts and bruises and a leg broken in four places,” Valentine grumbled, and Hancock watched his girlfriend blanch, almost embarrassed.

“Yeah, yeah. Jack said I’ll be fine, though, so don’t worry so much.”

He and Valentine shared a look, and finally Nick gave a heavy sigh.

“I need to get back to Diamond City,” he said. “Think you can take care of her until Dr. Roberts can get here from the Slog in the morning?”

Hancock grinned, reaching out and shifting her weight so that he was supporting her. “Course I can.”

“Good. She needs to take it easy. We had—a long trip.”

And then they were alone, and it finally started to set in that Kira was back and she was here and in his arms–and she was smiling.

“I missed you,” she breathed quietly, turning in his grip to wrap both of her arms around his neck. 

He smiled down at her, eyes already focused on those soft, pink lips. “Yeah? I missed you, too.”

She kissed him then, soft and sweet, sighing against his ruined mouth like she was finally home after a long day. He tightened his grip on her waist, just a little, still supporting her off her bad leg as he kissed her back.

When she broke away a few minutes later, she was smiling again. “You staying the night?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Only if you think you can handle sleeping next to this ugly mug.”

She giggled, kissing him one more time. “Let’s go to bed, then, love. It’s been a long two weeks and I’ve missed falling asleep with someone beside me.”

“Well,” he said, lowering his voice a little so that it did the rumbly thing she liked, “I think I can manage that.”

The way she tossed her head back and giggled was more than enough of an answer as he helped her hobble her way to her bedroom.

He may have it bad, but he could handle that, he thought as he slid into the bed beside her. Kira was more than worth it, anyway.