It all started with a single word. And then it escalated to something much more. It escalated to yelling and screaming, terrifying arguments of monumental scale. Eventually it led to fear in the people, and the governments, and the soldiers. Peace was over, and then came war. Though true the war lasted a total of two hours. The world lashed out at each other with the same nuclear power that had sustained us for so long, a power that we had not unleashed since the year 1945. The entire world was crippled by this power so quickly that the people barely had time to react. They were shoved into vaults and put under terrible experiments set forth by Vault-Tec, an assumed hero to the people turned the greater of some evils. I was subject to one of these cruel experiments. I was frozen in a box for over 210 years and then released into the wasteland. I now called this wasteland home, with some amazing friends to boot, and some much more than that.

It had been two weeks since the threat of the institute had been demolished, all thanks to me, the minutemen, and a very tenacious reporter. Some liked the idea, the symbolism, of having the minutemen at my side, some were a bit offended, and others were completely indifferent. Honestly I didn't care who it was by my side as long as Piper was. And now, two weeks later, at the Red Rocket Truck Stop I call home, we finally got around to a celebration.

Outside of the station, to the left of the building, we were all seated around a bonfire, crackling and spitting sparks out as if angry for being set ablaze. We had some of the corn and tatos that were growing not 20 yards away thrown into a pot and set above the flames. Dogmeat was lain at my right, beside the log I was seated on, and Piper was on my left, laughing at one of Preston's old stories that always got a laugh.

"I'll be right back." I whispered to Piper, patting her shoulder and standing.

She nodded and Dogmeat raised his head from his paw, whimpering curiously.

"Stay here boy, I'll be right back." I said with a smile, scratching his ears.

He seemed satisfied and rested his head on his paws once more. Walking into the building and closing the door behind me, I continued through the garage, letting my hand glide smoothly over the surface of the X-01 Power Armor that I called my own. I let my hand fall before walking out of the garage and up the small incline to a large shack I'd built before stepping up the old, creaking wooden stairs and opening the door. I raised the lever on my right, the lights flickering on and showing my impressive collection of power armors. I had 8 exoskeletons now, 2 of which were brotherhood of steel standard issue T-60s. 5 of the others were made of mismatched armor I'd found, ranging from Raider Mk.1 and 2, all the way up to refined T-51 and T-60 bits. I smiled to myself and grabbed the gloves off of the hook they hung from, slipping them on and opening the large metal trunk on my right. I grabbed a T-51 I'd found during my scavenging ventures and dusted it off, chewing my inner cheek to the sight of some minor damages. I glanced to the last exoskeleton in the row, which was exactly that, an exoskeleton. I lugged the helmet over to it and fixated it to the shoulders.

I stepped back and noticed how a dent here and a dent there lopsided the piece and made it look a bit worse for wear. I was itching to fix it so I took it off and was taking it back out to the Power Armor Station in the garage before a light-hearted bostonian accent stopped her.

"Thought I might find you out here, dollface." came the voice.

I didn't need to look to see who it was, I simply smiled as I rounded the corner, meeting Piper's eyes in the doorway. I shifted the helmet's weight in my hands and gave a soft greeting.

"Hey Piper."

"Hey there works-a-lot. Come on Blue! You gotta come celebrate with us!"

I chuckled, setting the helmet on top of the trunk and glaring at her.

"Ten more minutes."

"Five."

"Ten."

"Blue!"

I chuckled once more. Aggravating the reporter was one of my favorite hobbies.

"Alright Blue, I'll sweeten the deal. You stop working on the power armor right now and-"

"This better be a sweet deal."

"It will be! Anyways, and then, you can spend those extra ten minutes with me."

"Wouldn't I be spending them with you anyways?" I asked with a small smile.

"Possibly, but would you get them with me alone?"

I liked the sound of that. my heart thumped rapidly in my chest, trying to rip through the fabric of my jumpsuit. I swear she could probably see my heart thudding against the interwoven fibers. I kept my face straight though, and forced my cheeks to submit, before coming back at her.

"Depends on where we're alone, bedroom or elsewhere?"

I'd gotten her with that one. I saw her cheeks flush as red as her trenchcoat and her emerald orbs dart to my own murky brown eyes. She shrunk into herself, making her shorter than she already was.

"P-Percy! You can't let anyone else hear you talk like that!" she whispered at me with ferocity in her breaths.

I smiled and winked at her, her cheeks becoming redder now than the truck stop outside. She grunted, forcing the redness in her cheeks away and stepping fully into the metal confines of the shack. She close the door behind her and grabbed the lever beside her, pulling down and shutting off the light source in the room, slivers of moonlight peering through the rusted roof of the shack being the only light left, but it was enough to see by.

I was a bit shocked but I refused to let her see that as she stomped up to me, pushed me backwards until my back collided with metal, and then grabbed the back of my neck, pulling my lips down to hers.

I refused to lose to her, so I grasped her hips with my hands and easily lifted her to my height, pulling her closely as her feet left the ground. She squeaked into the kiss and wrapped her arms around my neck tighter, her legs flying around my waist.

"Blue! Bad!"

I chuckled before turning her back to the wall and initiating another kiss. We were neck to neck, chest to chest, lips to lips. We were heated, molten, melting into one another. I felt the frustration and tension in her shoulders fall out of her posture as we were lost in each other.

When one of us finally broke the kiss I looked down at my Pip-Boy.

"We have some impeccable timing, it's been 9 minutes."

"Damn, there was one more minute we could've used."

I snickered at this and let her down from my waist, her fingers weaving apart and her legs releasing from their vice on my hips. I set her down and let her fix her scarf and hair, grabbing her hat from the ground where it had fallen off. She fixed it on her head and smiled her trademark smile, looking away from my face as she spoke.

"We should probably get back."

"You're probably right, any longer and they'll know something's up. you go out first, I'll follow in a minute."

"Don't you dare fix that helmet."

I raised my hands in defence as she left, leaving a smile plastered to my face.

I picked up the helmet when the door closed and looked at it.

"I'll be back for you." I said, setting the helmet down and walking out the door.

That was eight years ago. I had recently turned 40, or 254, it depends on how you look at it. Piper was younger than me, her 39th birthday six months ago. It was good that I was aging, being able to settle down a bit more. People rarely recognized me as the Sole Survivor anymore, I was glad too. Nick Valentine and Preston, the Railroad and the Minutemen, were the only others that knew very well my identity. All of this was amazing, but what was even more amazing was…

"Mom!" came a small, high pitched voice from the garden outside.

I stood from my chair out front, walking around the building and looking at my beautiful daughter. It was a miracle that we were able to have a child through a process that I can not go into a lot of detail about before confusing myself. In its basics, some of my DNA, and some of Piper's was taken and used to create valid gametes for reproduction. They were then combined and left to fertilize in a sterile environment. In nine months we were asked to return to the facility. We arrived and received a child, simple as that. She had Piper's jewel colored eyes, and now that she was six, I was realizing she had my ambition. I only hoped that she wouldn't grow up to be like me.

"What is it sweetie?"

"Look what we and aunt Natalie made!" she exclaimed, showing me a pile of dirt in front of her. It was tightly packed together and hollowed in some places. It slightly resembled our home.

"Is it our house?" I asked.

She beamed with pride when I said that, seeing as I'd known what it was.

"Man, she definitely is a builder, all I did was go grab dirt!" said the grown up Nat.

It was strange seeing how similar to Piper she looked when she was younger, almost scary looking. Nat wore her hair even shorter than Piper did, and had brown eyes instead of greens, but their faces were nearly identical. I mouthed a thanks to her to which she nodded and smiled.

Quinsley giggled, "Oh come on Auntie Nat, you did more than that!"

"I refuse to believe I did."

I watched them bicker back and forth playfully and chuckled, wishing Piper were back from Diamond City to see this. She was making a supply run for our house, though I continue to tell her to just take some from Sanctuary, she refuses to do that to Sturges, Nick, Nat, and Preston.

"Mom?" came Quinsley's tiny voice.

"Mmm?" I responded.

"Can I go to Aunt Nat's?"

"You sure can." I said cheerily.

"Yay!" came both their voices simultaneously.

I laughed at Nat's playfulness and watched them walk all the way to the bridge before turning to tend to the melons.

"Seems to be growing well…"