MacCready took one last puff from his smoke before throwing the butt into the river. He exhaled and watched the smoke dissipate, before walking to catch up with Ashley. She stepped onto the bridge and walked with her combat rifle resting on her shoulder, her pip-boy was tuned to Diamond City Radio, and Travis was finishing up his stutter filled news story about Ashley rescuing Nick Valentine. MacCready snickered, the rescue happened three months ago, this was the first time he heard it on the radio.
Top quality journalism.
"Didn't even mention me," MacCready said "God forbid he mention that I was the one who killed half the triggermen in that vault."
"Umm... I think your a bit off there Mac. I was the one who did all the heavy lifting there." She responded, mockingly putting her free hand on her hip.
"It's cheating to use a mini-gun!" Mac defended.
"No! It's not cheating, it's called not being stupid enough to bring a sniper rifle." She pointed to the wooden hunting rifle slung over his shoulder and chuckled. Despite the insult, MacCready smiled, he couldn't help it whenever he heard her laugh. She sounded just like Lucy...
He squinted in the distance and stopped her. He brought his rifle over his shoulder and looked through the scope. He fired two shots before signaling that it was safe to move. A few minutes later they reached the end of the bridge, and found the corpse of two super mutants.
"How's that for stupid?" He said cockily. She stood defeated as he walked towards their destination.
He heard her running through the grass to catch up. "So why are we coming to Sunshine? Kind of a big detour on the way to C.I.T." He inquired as he checked his pack for another cigarette. He grunted as he realized he was out. "This'll be a long trip" He thought.
Ashley brushed a lock of brown hair from her forehead as she walked up the hill next to Mac. "I built... something. I want to see if anything came of it." She answered vaguely.
"That's not really an answer. I thought you and Preston decided not to build here? Don't you need to focus your resources on Fort Irrigation or whatever the hell-" He cleared his throat. "Whatever you call it?"
"It's Fort Independence," she corrected "And I decided to use the space here for a pet project." She giggles as she said the word 'pet.'
"Why do I feel like I'm not gonna like this?" MacCready assumed.
"You probably won't." She teased as they entered the warehouse. MacCready immediately spotted the Assualtron standing inside. He immediately reached for his rifle, but Ashley stopped him.
"Hello miss Ashley." The robot greeted in a surprisingly human voice. By the sound of it, it had a male AI.
"Hello Rio. Anything happen while I was gone?" She asked. MacCready rolled his eyes.
"No ma'am, everything's been quiet. The raiders at the federal ration stockpile were less of a nuisance than I anticipated." He reported, taking no notice of MacCready.
"So..." MacCready started to ask. "You dragged us out here to check on one Assualtr-" a loud bang interrupted him. Loud was almost an understatement, MacCready immediately pulled Ashley behind him and drew his pistol.
Ashley seemed to be ecstatic however. She rushed from behind him and outside, where a huge metal container was shaking violently, MacCready slowly approached and asked, "What the hell have you got in there?" He almost didn't want to know the answer, he wanted to grab her and book it the hell out of there.
"If my bait worked as I hoped..." she pulled a lever and the large door slowly. MacCready nearly had a heart attack as a ten-foot tall deathclaw stomped from the trap, and released the loudest, most terrifying roar he'd ever heard.
Ashley stood her ground, with no fear in her eyes. MacCready was completely convinced she'd gone insane. He tried to pull her away, when that failed he aimed his rifle for the monsters eye. She pulled his rifle from his hands and dropped it on the ground.
Instead of running, he stood there and waited for whatever she or the deathclaw was going to do. He gulped as it dropped is head down to her level and growled. She raised her hand and whispered, "Who's a good deathclaw?" MacCready's jaw dropped at the woman who was talking to the most mutated killing-machine in the wasteland like it was a fucking puppy.
The deathclaw, instead of biting her arm off, sniffed her hand. And after what felt like an eternity, it rubbed her face against Ashley's open palm, Ashely squealed happily as it made a purring sound like a house cat.
MacCready raised his hands in what could only be defined as a 'what the fuck' gesture. She turned to him and said "I learned this trick from Deacon" with the biggest grin on her face he'd ever seen.
"Deacon tamed a deathclaw?" MacCready asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Well... no. But it sounded like he knew what he was talking about." MacCready started to curse, but stopped and put his head in his hands. He was at his limit, and to top it all off... her infuriatingly cute voice said asked of the most criminally insane questions anyone had ever asked him.
"Can we keep him?"
"No!" He yelled. "Putting aside the fact that this thing could have a mood swing at any time and kill us both, we barely have enough food at the end of the day for us, we can't feed a deathclaw! It's gonna get hungry and see the two human happy meals holding his leash!" He pointed to the two of them as he ranted.
"Please?" MacCready sighed.
"No."
"Please?"
"No.
"Please?"
He looked at her, right into her big brown, puppy-dog eyes and groaned in frustration.
"Fine." She squealed and wrapped her arms around him, Mac could already feel his face heating up when she planted a kiss on his lips. "Thank you!" He stood paralyzed as she went on about what to name him or her.
"How do you tell the gender of a deathclaw?" She looked under his belly before turning to MacCready. "Mac?" He was still frozen, she waved her hands in front of his face and he snapped back to reality.
"Huh?"
A Few Hours Later
The two stood amongst the wreckage. The raider camp was completely in flames and bodies coated the area. Sparkles, their newly named pet, chased a single survivor down the road before ripping them in two.
"So much for subtlety." Ashely chuckled. She turned to MacCready. He averted her gaze, hoping she wouldn't catch the ever-present blush on his cheeks.
"Mac?" He turned back, but kept his face pointed towards the ground. She sighed and pulled him by his sleeve towards a nearby couch. They sat down and she scooted towards him.
"What's wrong?" She asked, like she didn't already know the answer. "Listen..." she started, a scream followed by a growl from Sparkles interrupted her, but neither she or Mac seemed to notice. "If I made you uncomfortable today,"
"No-" he interrupted. "No... you didn't make me uncomfortable at all. It was.. it was just a surprise." He gave a nervous chuckle.
She scooted closer, "A good surprise?" She optimistically asked. He rubbed the back of his neck.
"That depends, I guess... on how you feel." He looked at her slightly confused expression, "Was it real?" He bluntly asked. "I mean... did you- mean for that to happen? Or was it just a heat in the moment decision?"
She smiled. "I admit, I got caught up in the moment," he instantly looked sad and defeated. She brought a hand up to his cheek and turned him towards her. "But I've wanted to do that for a long time."
They brought their lips together, and MacCready felt his heart stop. This kiss was nothing like the one earlier today. He felt so much emotion and love pour into it, he slowly felt himself melt into her.
He fell back into the sofa and she climbed on top of him, never separating her lips from his. MacCready nearly passed out before he heard loud footsteps right next to them. He glanced away from Ashley. Sparkles was standing patiently, caked in blood, he looked like something out of a weird grognak comic.
Ashley slipped off of him. Knowing the moment was over, MacCready got up, "I wanna try something." He said. He picked up a two by four from the ground and waved it in front of Sparkles. "Go get it!" He tossed the plank across the street, the two laughed as Sparkles ran eagerly to retrieve it, feeling the stress of the wasteland melt away. If only for a moment, they were in a state of pure happiness.