A/N: Originally posted on the Fallout Kink meme. OP wanted companions exploring their gender identities, and shipping. So here we have transmasculine Danse, transfeminine Piper, demiboy Preston, and agender Curie.
The fact that Piper and Danse both had the same idea is just a little bit embarrassing. At least, it is for Danse. Piper just finds it hilarious.
"I think Blue's rubbing off on us," Piper laughs, leaning down to pluck a hubflower from a browning bush. "Picking flowers for a gift?"
"It's- it's a gesture of affection. Flowers are a-"
"Calm down, Danse, before your blood pressure skyrockets."
He huffs and turns away to pick a few flowers from another bush. It's a shame that there's really nothing other than hubflowers to use. He's seen some pre-War books with beautiful arrangements; bright yellow flowers in cup-like shapes, many-petaled red flowers (roses, he thinks they're called), soft purple flowers that came in bunches attached to a stalk. But all they have now is the pale blue-purple hubflowers, and a bit of faded string to tie them together with. At least hubflowers are hardy.
They sit together on the hill leading up to Vault 111 once they've gathered enough for a bouquet. Danse just follows Piper's lead, watching how much she picks and arranges together.
"This looks terrible," Piper grumbles, holding up her bouquet. Danse holds his up too for them to compare, and they discover that both of their flower arrangements look rather lackluster.
"I'm not quite sure what I expected," Danse admits. "This... is really the best that we can do, given the circumstances."
"Maybe there's some nice paper we can wrap these in."
"I find that doubtful."
"...yeah, me too."
They're both quiet for a moment. Danse would say he's just enjoying the good weather, but it's much too awkward. Overhead, the clouds float by lazily. It's a nice day, actually.
"Hey, Danse? Can I ask a sort of personal question?"
Piper turns her head to glance at him. It's not often that they have very serious conversations, but Danse can tell that something is bothering her.
"I suppose it depends on the topic," he responds. He's not keen on talking about his synth-ness right now, if that's what she's asking about.
"Did... did you always know you were a man?"
Danse doesn't really know how to answer that. He puts his hand to his chin, thinking about how to answer Piper's question.
"I believe I would be the wrong person to ask," he finally replies. "A large amount of my memories are fabricated. I don't remember much of my childhood, real or not."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Piper seems to deflate a bit at that.
"But- well, I do remember my teenage years much more clearly. That was when I started to think that something was different. I wasn't as comfortable being seen the way that I had been. I gave it some thought, and eventually I came to the conclusion that I was a man."
"But... you didn't know from the beginning, did you?"
"I'm not sure. I don't remember, if I did."
They fall quiet again, Piper apparently deep in thought. She curls her hands into fists, resting them against her knees.
"Piper, is something the matter?" Danse asks. It's not like her to be like this; certainly, she's curious, but asking about rather private matters such as this is rare. Not that Danse is hesitant to answer, at least to her.
"I was thinking about myself. Y'know. Being a woman," she begins explaining. "And I haven't met a lot of people like us, before I met Blue. But I did meet a few, and it seemed like all of them always knew from the start that they were different. But I didn't. It took a while before I started thinking I wasn't a boy, but until I got there, I... well, I wasn't uncomfortable with myself. You know what I mean?"
Danse nods.
"And sometimes I feel like a fraud. Like, is this really just something that'll change? Am I just dressing up and playing like I'm a woman? Shouldn't I have known from the start?"
Piper falls quiet again, looking up at the sky with a look of confusion on her face. Danse isn't sure how to answer her. He doesn't have enough of his own experiences to draw on, at least not ones that he knows to be real. But the time he spent with Cutler is real, he knows for a fact. And what he felt then was real.
"I don't know for certain how I would have felt, myself," Danse starts slowly. "I... I don't know if this is how I felt when I was with the Institute. But I know that I questioned the same thing. When I started to think about it, when I was living in Rivet City, I thought that maybe it would go away eventually. And I thought that because the idea was new to me. So... I suppose I didn't always feel that way."
He's not really certain if that's going to help her at all, but suddenly he feels arms wrapped around him. Piper presses herself against his side in a tight hug, and Danse carefully puts his arm not currently pinned to his side on her shoulder.
"Thanks, Danse," she says, voice a bit muffled from having her face shoved against his shoulder. "Really. Thank you."
"Ah... yes, of course," he replies, unsure of how to react. He's really not good at comforting words, or comforting gestures, or any sort of comforting people in any way, shape, or form. But his words seem to have helped Piper, and at the end of the day he supposes that's really what's important.
"So! Sorry about getting weepy on you," Piper says, immediately pulling back as if nothing had just happened. She smiles at Danse, then leans behind herself to pick up her collection of hubflowers. "I'll help you pretty up the flowers then. You know, as thanks."
"That isn't really necessary-"
"Let me rephrase. You're going to let me pretty up these flowers for you, because these look hideous the way they are now, and I want Curie and Preston to have some nice, pretty floral arrangements from their girlfriend and boyfriend, respectively."
Danse chuckles as Piper gets up, taking her hand to help him get to his feet.
"Alright then, Miss Wright."
"Perhaps some colored paper would be possible..."
Danse attempts to offer help, although he's just as much at a loss as Piper is. She has a sheet of dirty brown paper, probably used to wrap a package and left lying around. There's a big tear in it in the middle, with a dark stain on the edge.
"Exactly how?" she asks, looking up from the paper. She's been staring at it for a while now, as if doing so could magically turn it into something presentable.
"Is it possible to dye it?"
"I guess... with what, though?"
They think for a while, going through several ideas that wouldn't work before falling into silence again. The flowers themselves are too pale to give the paper color, tarberries are not worth using on something like this, and using tatos would only end in a mess.
"Well, we tried," Piper says a little despondently. "At least we put effort into it."
"I suppose so."
"I just kind of wish there was more we could do. Something better than wilt-y flowers tied with string."
Piper wonders what kind of gifts people gave each other pre-War. Flowers, certainly, but with nicer arrangements. Jewelry for women. Sometimes watches for men. Candies, especially chocolate, or homemade treats. Bottles of expensive alcohol. She and Danse go back and forth, listing what they know from what they've read and what Sole has told them. These are things that neither of them have, neither of them could ever possibly get their hands on. Jewelry might be possible, but they aren't smiths. Treats are out of the question too, as Piper has no confidence in her ability to make sweetrolls, and Danse mentions the lack of supplies to do so in the first place. Alcohol is a silly thing to be giving Curie or Preston, considering that neither of them seem to drink a whole lot, and Danse doesn't feel too comfortable handling alcohol right now while he tries to keep his distance from it.
Speaking of which...
"How's that going, by the way?" Piper questions with a smile on her face. "The 'keeping your distance' thing."
"Two weeks," Danse replies, and he seems incredibly proud of himself. Piper beams at him, and punches him in the shoulder in the most affectionate way possible.
"Look at you! That's great to hear, Danse."
"I suppose it helps to have support."
"As it does, always."
"I do mean that," Danse says, sitting down next to Piper. "To have the support of others has made this less trying. As it was with... with everything else."
He sits up a bit straighter in his chair, making him just barely taller than Piper, who is slouched over in a position that can't possibly be good for her posture. He's wearing the bomber jacket that Preston had found for him, padded thick with insulation that serves a dual purpose of hiding the slight curve of his waist. It's his favorite jacket, miraculously fitting well on him. Warm and comforting, like Piper's gloves are for her.
"Don't worry. Big guy like you can take on the world," she chuckles.
"Big-? Piper, I'm at least four inches shorter than you."
"Doesn't matter. Hancock said so himself."
"I don't think that Hancock is a good indicator of that, considering that he may break his legs if the wind blew too strongly."
Piper laughs out loud at that. Danse has a point, but she doesn't want to admit that he's right. So instead, she deflects back to the original topic at hand.
"Oh! So, about the paper. I think I have an idea?"
"What are you two doing?"
Danse and Piper both look up at the same time, and immediately react by shoving as many things on the table to the ground as possible. Which doesn't work quite so well, considering that half of the table is covered in cut hubflowers, and the other half is occupied by a bowl of carrot shavings and a pile of carrots.
"We- uh, hi Curie!" Piper squeaks, attempting to hide what sounds like a crumpling ball of paper behind her back.
"Preston! You returned early," Danse adds, his voice attempting to stay steady, although the slight waver at the beginning ruins the effect. That, and the carrot with a knife stabbed into it that he's still holding in front of himself.
"I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm curious," Preston chuckles. Curie just smiles at the two of them, completely clueless as to what they're doing. Not that Preston has any idea either, anyhow. "So, care to indulge us?"
"Nothing," is the simultaneous answer that comes from Danse and Piper.
"This is a whole lot of 'nothing,' then, I guess."
"Mon chéri, what is this?" Curie asks, looking curiously at the flowers strewn across the table and now also the floor. The combination of flowers and the carrots is rather confusing. "What are you doing with all of this?"
"We, erm."
"We were... that is..."
"And why the carrots?" Preston eyes the bowl with curiosity and confusion. It's full of carrot shavings of varying sizes, likely made from the kitchen knife stabbed into the carrot that Danse is still clutching.
"Did you know that carrots soaked in water make a good dye?" Piper asks in an attempt to deflect. "Yeah. Um. Dye. We were making dye. For- for Sole. Because-"
"I think we should come back later, Curie," Preston says with a chuckle, and motions to her for them to leave. Curie, ever curious, takes one last look at the carrot shavings.
"I would suggest that they should be cut thinner, if you are making dye," she says. "It will be much easier to extract the color."
"Er- thank you, Curie," Danse answers. "We'll- um. Keep that in mind."
Neither Preston nor Curie are actually surprised by the fact that they're getting flowers, having accidentally walked in on Danse and Piper preparing them, but what does surprise them is the amount of effort that has gone into the presentation. The paper, dyed a strange orange-gray, smells distinctly of carrots, and there are a few stalks of white carrot flowers included among the purple hubflowers. The bunch that Danse presents to Preston includes irridescent thistles nestled among the flowers, and Piper's gift to Curie have a few tato flowers woven around the hubflowers stems.
The two of them do it at the same time, although in separate places; Piper plucks a carrot flower from her bundle to weave into Curie's hair by the riverside, and Danse presents his bundle to Preston behind the workshop. Danse can hear Curie's delighted squeals, and Piper definitely hears Preston's hearty laugh, despite the distance between them.
"Mon chéri, this is lovely!" Curie squeaks, giggling as she attempts to look at the flowers resting right above her forehead. She can't quite see them without a mirror, but that can wait. The rest of the bundle is in her hands, wrapped in dyed paper and bursting full of various flowers that threaten to spill from her hold. There had been a lot of flowers on the table when she and Preston had walked in, after all, but she hadn't expected that all of them would end up in the bunches that Piper and Danse had made.
"This must have taken quite a while to do!" she says, eyes twinkling. "What a wonderful gift! Thank you very much, Piper!"
"Anything for my cupcake," Piper responds, pulling Curie into a hug while careful not to crush her hard work between them. "I thought you might like it."
"I do! Oh, I do hope I look pretty with the flowers in my hair!"
"You're the prettiest person in the world, Curie."
Curie plucks one of the hubflowers from the bunch and sweeps back Piper's hair behind her ear, before slotting it neatly into the space above her ear. When she's certain that it'll stay, she takes a step back and admires her handiwork.
"Ah, and now you are the prettiest girl in the world!"
Piper blushes, pink tinting her cheeks, and she giggles with her mirth stifled behind her hands, covered in gloves neatly made by Curie for her.
Danse looks everywhere except for at Preston while Preston's eyes go wide at the bundle being presented to him.
"I- oh. Wow," he says, clearly impressed. "Danse, this is... wow."
"It isn't as... presentable as I had hoped, but-"
"Danse, this is great. Really, this is really, really nice."
Preston takes the bouquet with a smile on his face, and leans forward to plant a kiss on Danse's cheek. Danse immediately turns bright red and chuckles nervously, rubbing his neck.
"I- I'm glad you like it," he stammers.
"I love it. There's gotta be a vase around here somewhere for these. Man, Danse, this is so great. I love you."
Danse's hands end up shoved in the pockets of his padded jacket, smiling shyly at Preston. Preston plucks a hubflower from the bunch and opens the front pocket of Danse's jacket, placing the flower there in imitation of a boutonnière. He does the same for himself, threading the stem through one of the buttonholes of his coat, and when he's satisfied with his handiwork he grins at Danse.
"I suppose we match now," Danse chuckles.
"A handsome man and a handsome person, indeed," Preston says, and Danse ducks his head to hide the blush on his face.