I was very bored one day and happen to like Fallout. R&R if you want to, it would be greatly appreciated.

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It all started with a small kiss.

Nothing much, I don't even think it was an open-mouthed one. I was standing by a dead tree, looking at the land when we were camping. Nothing passed through my head, I was just killing time. I heard something behind me and turned around, my hand on my gun. And there he was. Sulik looked at me in a strange way. He probably worried about the gun, so I removed my hand from it and smiled at him. To my great surprise, he smiled back, like it was a great joke. We didn't say anything. He just came towards me, took my face in his hands and kissed me. He didn't even ask. But I didn't protest, I was surprised. I never expected him to do that. I can't really remember if I returned the kiss. When we parted, none of us said anything. It was like words weren't required. We just returned to the others, not giving anything about the last minute away.

That was a strange thing. We never discussed it, we just kept it a secret for some strange reason. I know none of the others would care too much about it if we would've chosen to reveal it. They'd probably grin, wink at each other and pat Sulik's shoulder when I wasn't looking. Men-things. But I doubt there would be any hard feelings. Then why didn't we tell them? We were all friends. I hope. Relationships changes people, I guess.

The following days were strange. We fought creatures in the wastes, it suddenly seemed to be inevitable to run into them. And I worried about him. But, strangely, no more than I worried for the safety of all my other friends and companions. It was like nothing had ever happened. I began to wonder if maybe we just tried something and some part of us felt that it didn't work. I told myself to confront him one day and ask.

I did.

But not really like I had in mind. I was planning to ask him why he kissed me, how he felt when he did it and maybe if we should try and make anything out of it. It became a five-minute long declaration of my feelings for him instead. My mind apparently had nothing to do with what words I said. I can't remember half of them, but I guess they were really dumb. I do remember one thing clearly, though. I was walking back and forth, nervously rubbing my hands against each other. I was at the end of my ridiculously long speech when he took my hands and told me to shut up. He even used those words. He tried to talk, but I guess I panicked. I took the small chance I saw and kissed him. Quickly and clumsily. And before he had any time to comment that, I laughed sheepishly in a shrill voice and almost began to explain it. But he had a strange look on his face, like he didn't know whether to laugh or slap me, so I kept my mouth shut.

And he just stood there, held my hands and looked at me. Or something beyond me. Maybe he was listening to something. His spirits? It got very uncomfortable. I tried to say something, but couldn't think of anything good. I didn't want to yap on about nothing at all, he would definitely get bored and walk away if I did. So I smiled at him.

Here's the pretty part. All I had to do was smile, as if he was awaiting an invitation. He kissed me hungrily, a real kiss now. Not at all like my clumsy attack earlier. And I'm sure I answered that one, for quite some time too.

I'm sure you're wondering now, isn't it complicated to kiss him? He has a bone in his nose. I guess my reply is yes and no. It was hard when I reminded myself "he has a bone in his nose, how does this work?". But there were no problems when I kept my mind off it, and that was easily accomplished.

We got to a small town just a few days after that. It wasn't even named anything, but it was nice and quiet. And it had one of the best hotels I've ever seen. Needless to say, we were all tired and I had enough cash, so we rented a room each. I took my first bath in weeks, heavenly if you need to know. And I tried to sleep.

I've never had problems with sleep before. But I guess when you have your mind full of things, it's hard to let them go. Maybe it was the eerily soft bed. It could've been anything I can think of, but we all know why I couldn't sleep. I knew which room he had. It would be very simple to just sneak over there. No one would suspect anything.

Yes, let's do it! some part of me said. I agreed completely. But I didn't get out of bed. I lay there, under the covers in my pitch black room, still wearing my stupid, dusty jumpsuit and imagined how wonderful it could be. But I didn't get out. Whatever part had tried to convince me earlier was now almost screaming. I sighed and put my hand over my eyes. I wished I could stop being such a dumb-ass and just get out of bed. I heard the door click. I almost stopped breathing and reached for my gun. I heard the unmistakable sound of a toe smashing into a chair. Someone swore. I sighed in relief. I only knew about one person who swore in that way.

I whispered who it was, just to be certain. He whispered a reply. I tried to determine where he was. It was almost impossible to see my own hand before my eyes. After a while listening to him stumble around in the darkness, I giggled to myself. He must have turned against the sound, trying to find me there. I don't really know how he did it, but somehow he managed to fall right onto me. Not in a very romantic way though, I got his elbow in my stomach and I probably kneeled him somewhere. I tried not to laugh until I began breathing again. It was not easy, mind you. And once I could, I had to stop myself from laughing loudly. It was nice to be so relaxed. I felt his hand on my shoulder. I tried to find his other hand. It was a nice game, trying to find his other hand. But he soon seemed to get bored with it and spent some time on another game, find the zipper.

Everyone who's ever met or even seen Sulik can say that he is a very interesting person. All I can say is that it was an equally interesting night. But I couldn't help but wonder about his spirits. Were they watching in some way? Perhaps even making remarks about it? Or were they politely looking away? I hope they were, but at the moment it didn't matter. Not a single little bit.

The following morning I woke up before he did, and I took the time to really study him. I followed the lines of his tattoos, saw how his chest heaved and sank when he breathed, studied his muscles, his skin… I looked at his face for a long while, enjoyed the look of boyish innocence that every man seems to get when they sleep. Not even his facial tattoo and the bones destroyed that look. Sometimes when I am annoyed with him now, I just think of that time. I saw that it was late morning and I wasn't sleepy. I couldn't lie there and look at him all day. I quietly slipped out of bed and got dressed. I risked planting a kiss on his forehead before leaving. I bought a cheap (but terribly disgusting) breakfast. While I forced myself to eat it, I feared that someone would suddenly grin at me and say "So, I heard you had a good time…". Don't really know why.

Sulik came down about half an hour later. We said good morning like nothing had happened. No one could suspect a thing. We should be actors. We left the hotel in the small city and headed out into the wastes again.

Since then, our relationship had its ups and downs. Sometimes when I think about us my mind goes to an elderly couple. We think we just like being around each other, when we really just don't have the energy for the real stuff. And then we can suddenly just disappear for a while. It's like we save all the energy we have for one or two extraordinary moments under a long time.

The others found out after some time. I'm not sure how. Maybe one of them caught us one time and had to squeal a little. Just a little. In which case, we soon became more open about it anyway and no one had any comments about it. I'm sure they patted Sulik on his shoulder and cheered when I wasn't around but hey, they're all men and decent enough to wait until I wasn't there. Not everyone would do that. I just hope he didn't brag about it or anything stupid like that.

I'm pretty sure he didn't. Not his style. And if he did, the others have probably "forgotten" about it by now. No harm done.

Kisses are wonderful things, aren't they?

Hey, that looks like a decent hotel…