Chapter Text
Valkyrie McCleánn was such a bad shot, that Robert found himself wondering how she'd made it into Goodneighbor in the first place, given the Super Mutants around the block, and the Gunners stationed at Mass Fusion, which was basically on the front porch. She panicked every time ferals crawled out from some dank hole and missed three out of five shots, meaning he had to save her life regularly. One day, when they were walking through a little settlement called Oberland Station to deliver a bunch of resources, he stopped and tapped her shoulder.
"Boss?" he asked, hoping to get her attention. She Val turned to face him, he remembered why he always saved her. Not for the caps she paid him, but because as clumsy as she is, it would be a waste to see a beautiful face like that go. With her fire red hair falling in thick waves down her back, to the freckles that covered her face like stars in the sky, and even the way her big green eye sparkled when he told her stories of growing up in the Capital Wasteland. He didn't want to admit it, but Robert Joseph MacCready had a soft spot for hus employer. And he tried to convince himself it was because she was such a crap shot, that he would teach her how to shoot. No other reason. "Can we take a break here? I wanna practice with some of my guns." he jerked his thumb in the direction of a broken brick wall with some bottles and cans lined up in a makeshift shooting range.
Valkyrie flashed him a bright smile of painted pink lips and thw whitest teeth he'd ever seen. His heart skipped every time he saw that smile. "Sure thing, Bobby. Do whatever you've got to do."
"We." he corrected her. "We're going to practice. Because you, my friend couldn't hit the barn door if you were sat on the lock. So I'm going to teach you."
Val pouted and removed her pistol from its holster. "I'm not that bad, but alright." she walked toward the shooting range and looked at the targets. They weren't moving, so it should be fine. Robert smirked, and tapped her shoulder. "Uh, Boss. We're hitting them from there." he pointed to a line he'd drawn in the dirt with his toe twenty metres away, before taking out his own pistol and aiming for the left most tin can.
Valkyrie reluctantly joined him and watched as he shot the can and it buckled under the pressure of the bullet before falling off the wall and clattering to the ground. She would never get used to the volume of gunshots. "Your turn, Red."
"Red?" she cocked her head, ginger curls falling around her face in the cutest way. "I've been called Blue before, but never Red."
He blushed a light shade of pink, looking away. "Sorry, it just kinda slipped out... Cos you've got red hair." he felt silly for calling her anything other than 'boss' because he didn't know if she considered him a friend of just a hired gun. But when her laughter bubbled up he felt his heart stop. She had the sweetest sounding laugh. It sounded warm like a campfire and sweet like an ice cold Nuka Cola.
Mac tried not to focus on it, but he was finding it harder to deny he liked this girl a lot. RJ hadn't had a crush since Lucy, and he'd got it bad for her. Nervousness, shaking, tripping over his words, the whole nine yards. Thankfully he wasn't like that around his boss, shed probably think he was soft, or not the right man to protect her out here. He didn't want that, in case she found someone else to hire.
Sometime during his daydream, Val had taken aim at the empty vodka bottle in the middle of the wall and the sound of her shot brought him back to the present. She smiled as the bottle broke and fell to the ground. "Piss-poor." he scolded lightly. "You barely nicked it. Here, try this." Mac stepped up behind her and placed his hands over her own, molding her grip on the weapon to a more comfortable one. "Its a gun, not a grenade, you're can't hold it like it's gonna bite ya." he chuckled. Valkyrie felt her cheeks heat up at the close proximity of the man behind her, she could feel the muscles of his arms against her own, slender arms. She felt his strong, calloused fingers pressing in her hands, guiding her to hold the pistol differently. "Look down the sight, breathe in and relax. Aim for the center of your target." he told her, speaking in a softer tone than his usual snark. "'Aim for the chest, forget the rest' as my friend used to say."
Valkyrie took a deep breath, look down the sight of the gun and squeezed the trigger, feeling the recoil tense through her arm as she shot the next bottle. When he shattered she felt a giddy grin spread across her freckled features and she giggled. "Did you see that, Mac? I did it!" he smiled and released her from his arms. "I did, Red. I saw it."