TITLE: Keep Leading and I'll Follow You

CHAPTER: 2, Lead Me On


"Alice: How long is forever?

White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second."

―Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland


An electrical storm churned to life outside the ramshackle building where RJ and David decided to take cover for the night. For now, they are warm and dry. That won't last long once the rain started. Mindful of his partner's dislike at being wet and cold, David pulled RJ toward him. The chilled humid air seeped in around the broken walls. RJ curled himself against David and sighed contentedly.

"RJ? We should get going. If we can make Diamond City before the storm hits, we can save time and stay dry."

The clouds block the morning light, but RJ knows what time it is. He's excellent at judging time and distance because that's how you survived out here. But damn if he knows where he is right now. Located somewhere between The Castle and fuck-if-he-knows. He thought he knew every inch of the Commonwealth. But this latest mission led them away from the city.

"What's the hurry?" He asked with his mouth scraping over David's three-day-old beard.

David deliberately stopped RJ's hand from drifting down his body. The shiver RJ's teeth invoked was entirely beyond his control. There wasn't time for this...Maybe. If they hurried.

"RJ?"

RJ shook his hand free of David's and used it to squeeze the muscular chest under his cheek.

"You're a tease and you'll pay for that. Now, get up and let's get moving. You'll have plenty of time to suck my cock once I get back from Nuka World."

"You're such a romantic," MacCready said, wincing at David's choice of words. Once in a while in the throws of great sex it was fine, but out of the blue and first thing in the morning? Not so much. An alarm bell went off in MacCready's head. What had David just said? "What did you mean, when you get back from Nuka-World?"

"RJ, we talked about this. It's settled."

Robert Joseph MacCready muttered a curse and tossed the tattered sheet from his legs. A second curse bounced him off the narrow bed, where he grabbed a pair of army fatigues from a nearby crate and yanked them on over his lean hips. One minute he's listening to David snore and planning an inventive way to say good morning, now he's mad as hell. The rage is churning and growing right along with that storm.

The man remaining in the bed silently watched MacCready dress. Experience taught him it was better to give RJ the opportunity to vent before attempting to reason with him. In the space of time between rolling away from their sleepy embrace and pulling on the pants, he'd watched RJ's mood shift from sleepy passion to anger. This particular disagreement and there was no way around it came with consequences and fallout.

"Don't screw with me. What happened to you lead, and I'll follow?" RJ emphasized his words by kicking a nearby enamel bucket. It clanged against the wood frame shack and rolled to a stop by the door.

"RJ. Leave it alone. I need you here. Take my power armor if you want and go to the Castle it's safe there."

"Are you kidding? I don't need safe. I don't need your power armor. I need you. No. The hell with you. I go where I please, isn't that what you're doing? What the happened to the deal we made?"

"Life happened."

"Sounds like one of those sayings that I read from your time. Life happens. Take life as it comes. You only have one life. If the stories we've heard are half as bad, then you need someone. You need me at your back."

"I'll be fine, RJ. Come back to bed. Please?"

Butterflies or death claws or whatever they were flooded RJ's stomach. The handsome, courageous and damnably stubborn man watching him had walked into this fucked up world two hundred years late. Marched in, swallowed his grief and dug right in. That he chose RJ to walk this world by his side humbled him. That he'd found love with David made him happier than he could remember. He loved Lucy, of course. David was a sexy mixture of passion and strength. But lately, David had revealed a cruel and often selfish streak that RJ hadn't known existed. Life was brutal and violent in the Commonwealth. But he knew that as long as they stayed together, everything would be alright.

RJ threw his hands in the air. "Get out of bed. I can't fight with you while you're laying there naked and…never mind. Just get up!"

The man in the bed raised an eyebrow, "I am up. That's why I want you to come back to bed."

"David, this won't be solved with sex, and I'm not backing down."

Swinging his legs off the bed, David reached RJ and sunk his nails into the back of RJ's neck in two steps. Pulling RJ forward until their forehead's touched, he said, "I know it. But I can't risk losing us both. We don't know what's going on out there."

RJ pulled away, his anger flaring. "You're very careless with your own life. Do you ever think about those of us who live for you? The ones who count on you, look up to you and rely on your guidance."

"I never asked for any of this, RJ."

"That's a fucking cop-out, and you know it." RJ's anger turned to a lump in his throat and trembling hands when he realized David placed him in the 'any of this' category. The words that lived in the corner of his heart where nothing good ever happened to Robert Joseph MacCready poured out. "Everyone knows your tragic story, home, wife, kid. You never expected to wind up in bed with a man either. A man with bad teeth and so many axes to grind some days he doesn't know how to take a breath."

David tried to place his hands on the RJ's shoulders, but he shrugged him away. "RJ, stop. Going to Nuka World alone is one thing. You're over-reacting…"

"…I'll just get out of your way. 'Cause I'm sure as fuck not gonna watch you kill yourself." RJ laughed, and David winced at the hollow sound. "It'll worse than that, won't it? I'll never know if you're dead or alive. Or find your body." RJ stuffed his feet into boots and shrugged on a coat. Overreacting? No that's not it. No. This was gut-boiling fear. David proved over and over that he could survive whatever the Commonwealth threw his way. He'd survived too much of his own brand of terror and more loss than any three people. So much loss... "Wait. That's it, isn't it?" RJ dropped on the bed and scrubbed his hand through his hair.

"What? RJ, I'll be back soon. I thought we understood each other. There's so much here that needs watching over. You're the only one I trust."

"You want to die!" RJ shouted loud enough to push David back a pace.

"You've talked yourself into some bullshit fairy story where if you die you'll be with Nora again. Know what? Never mind. I was alone for more years than I can count. But let me say this one more time, 'cause I don't want to say it to a headstone or your mangled body. I love you, David. Remember that when you head off into the sunset to play out your romantic death scene."

"RJ wait."

The door rocked on its rotted leather hinges when RJ fled the small wooden house.

David blinked hot tears away as he watched RJ march down the road in the general direction of Goodneighbor. He knew RJ would go straight to the Third Rail and when he returned that's where he'd find him. David dressed, gathered his gear and secured his weapons. Then he stepped into his power armor and headed into the storm.