The rose dress was a surprise.
Nick thought that he got too used to seeing his partner dressed in mismatched sets of raider leathers and whatever she scraped together on her journeys through the Commonwealth, if this surprised him. But then, Raider leathers were the only get-up he saw her in, ever since the moment she first entered Vault 114, charmed the terminal to do her bidding and swooped in to free him in the most charming, ironic, reverse damsel-in-distress scenario Nick had ever seen.
He calmly lit another cigarette, feeling the smoke pass through the damaged plastic of his neck, and studied his partner as he leaned back against the closest wall.
Emily sat at Colonial Taphouse, the one-and-only 'posh' restaurant at Diamond City, staring out at the shacks below with a look of quiet melancholy. Her hands held a glass of purified water as if it were a fragile flute of champagne, her legs crossed under the chair in a way Nick hadn't seen since… in a way he had never seen, but one the human Nick always admired in high-society dames.
He pushed himself away from the wall and came to sit beside her, "Why the gloomy look, partner?"
Emily startled at the sound of his voice, as most humans usually did when they heard the scraping undertone that marked him as a machine. Unlike most humans, however, she smiled and relaxed back in her chair. "Hey, Nick," she greeted, tone much softer than what he was used to from her. When his question registered, she took a sip of her water, and replied with one of her own, "Do you know what day it is today?"
Nick clicked his eyelids close and open in an approximation of a human's blink. "Fourteenth of February, I believe." He took another drag of his half-gone cigarette and leaned back in his chair. "My kind of day," he added with a wry smile.
She chuckled and hugged her glass as if it were the most precious thing she ever held.
Another one of her strange quirks. Emily loved to collect 'antiques', much like others collected weapons and armor. Anything pre-war, anything that reminded her of her old life was collected and carefully stored. While most of the items could be explained away as materials for the settlements she helped build, Nick noticed that she always kept at least one of the items for herself, setting it up in the house with the blue craddle. Nor did she ever scrap toy trucks or those atrocious Jangles monkey toys. That room in Sanctuary Hills now resembled a shrine more than anything.
Even if her son was… well…
Emily sighed and turned to watch the sun set over Diamond City. "My family had a… tradition, you could say. Every year at Valentine's Day, we would gather at my parent's house in the evening, dressed in our best clothes and…" She swallowed. "Father would dance with each of 'his girls'. Mother, sister, auntie, and me. He'd finish every dance with a kiss. 'No girl should go unkissed on Valentine's day', he used to say. Then we'd eat mother's chocolate cake and chat until the middle of the night."
Her shoulders slumped as she stared into her glass, lost in old memories. "We've done this every year. No matter how busy our law agency got, or how many difficult clients we've had, we always found time for our Family Valentine. The only time I didn't dance was when Shaun was born and I stayed at the hospital, but even then - my entire family gathered around my bed, bringing the cake with them, and father danced with little Shaun instead, then leaned in to place a kiss on my forehead."
There was a brief moment of silence. Nick understood enough to know how hard this must be for her. To loose everything she had, everything she has ever known, to wake up in a world changed, yet still keep fighting even after she discovered what happened to the last of her family… he admired that about her.
"What about your husband? Did he not dance with you?" The moment the words left his mouth, Nick's internal programming screeched to a halt.
Why did he ask that? As if his friend didn't have enough bad memories to deal with already, now he had to go and remind her of…
Emily's smile was one of sadness, but surprisingly, there was little pain in it. "He never got the chance. Our marriage was… it happened very fast, and we missed the chance last… the year before the explosion. Then Nate was on duty when Shaun was born. We've never spent Valentine's day together. Now I guess I never will."
Nick blinked a couple times. He doubted she even realized what she implied. "Never again, huh? Does that mean you plan to stay single for the rest of your life?" He gave her a smile he hoped was supportive. "A charming dame like you should have no trouble finding herself a new flame."
To his great surprise, Emily only shook her head. "I… can't. The people here, they are just so…Would you think me strange if I said they are too young?"
"Young?" He grinned. "Hate to disappoint, sweetheart, but cryosleep doesn't actually raise your age. Many of the people here are older than you."
"Possibly," she nodded, but her expression remained unchanged. "But no one here remembers how things used to be. Before the war." Her sigh was heavy with melancholy and memories he knew too well himself. "I am a woman out of time. I come from a different world, a world almost no one here remembers anymore. No one but the ghouls… and you."
The last part was spoken softly, but the receptors in his ears worked well enough still to catch it. He felt a strange shiver pass through his frame.
He watched her take another sip of purified water in silence, wondering if he should make the offer. No matter how much time they spent together, how many mysteries and cases they solved, there was some part of Nick that still carefully held back from… he didn't even know what.
Or worse - he knew, and wasn't willing to take that risk, to take that final step and actually make an offer his partner could refuse.
All their flirting until know was done in good humour, nothing more than easy jests on his part, mocking himself by pretending to be a handsome, suave detective, while knowing he could never be taken seriously. Small bits of humor to relax clients and acquitances.
A dance on Valentine's day though, a kiss - that was something entirely new. Skirting into dangerous territory. Something that could be taken seriously.
On the other hand, he couldn't stand to watch her depressed like this. A woman who could bring down a Mirelurk Queen, and take on an entire evil organisation to find her son, brought low by old memories and the realisation that she was all alone in the world, on a day that celebrated love. To see her realise that all her loved ones were dead.
But that wasn't true either, was it? She had friends. She had him. Emily said so herself, and as much as it still surprised Nick to realize a woman whose life was so damaged by the Insitute could appreciate the company of one of its creations, he knew her words that day were genuine.
As were his, every time he called her the best partner he ever had. There truly was no machine she couldn't charm.
His mind made up, he stood up and offered his hand to Emily.
She turned her face towards him with a quizzical expression on her face.
The sight of it was so damned adorable, that Nick felt the corner of his lips twitch. "You are right. The only ones who remember are the ghouls and me. And I do remember how to do this. So…" he paused, and when he saw her eyes widen in shock and her lips start to tremble, he added in a voice so gentle it surprised even him, "Will you grant me this dance?"
His friend and partner of several months swallowed the lump in her throat he couldn't help but notice, set down the pre-war glass, and took his hand with trembling fingers. "I'd love to."
One look at Wellingham, and the bot started playing a holotape tune Nick recognized. Better said, tune the old memories copied from the human Nick recognized. Yet instead of trying to analyse whether he heard it before, or if the memory came only from the human before him, Nick accepted it as simply a tune, and turned his attention back to his partner. Each day he spent with Emily, the distinction between human and bot Nick mattered less and less.
It ceased to matter completely now, at this moment, while staring into each others eyes as Nick gently led her into a slow dance.
One of her hands tangled with his metal one, the other resting on his shoulder. What did they even dance? Nick couldn't tell, nor did he care to. The only thing that mattered was the light that entered her eyes, and the smile that spread on her lips as they danced. Smile he gladly returned.
As they continued to move, Nick couldn't help but notice the way her fingers tightened on his shoulder now and then, as if afraid he would move away. The way her eyes never left his, the look in them so grateful that he would have blushed if he could.
The song slowed down, then stopped entirely, yet neither of them moved away from the other.
'That's another way to get the coolant pumping,' he thought as the cables in his throat tightened. Now was the time.
He leaned in, slowly covering her lips with his own. His sensors picked up the tremors that passed through her frame, the hitch in her breath, and finally, the way she leaned into him and yielded in his arms.
The electrical shock that passed through his system made him close his eyes and pull her even closer.
How long they kissed, Nick didn't know. What he knew was that crossing the boundary, the risk of having the people of Diamond City reject them both over getting too close to a synth was worth it.
She stared up at him, dazed. Then her eyes cleared and she whispered, "Thank you."
"Anytime, sweetheart. I can't let my partner go unkissed on my day, after all," he grined in response, trying to lighten the mood.
It felt wrong to have this woman, his friend and partner thank him for a simple kindness. Even if he felt that things wil never be simple between them again.
Emily smiled, and to his great surprise, closed the distance to take his lips in another kiss. The feeling was even better this time. Maybe because he knew she was the one who innitiated, who wanted to kiss him.
Once they parted, he noticed that her smile held no hint of the sadness that plagued it before.
"And I can't have my Valentine unkissed either." Her fingers caressed the plastic of his cheeks and Nick felt another small electric shock pass through his receptors from that action alone.
He loved the feeling of her hands on him. "Thanks, doll. But you should know that I never made it a tradition to be kissed."
Her smile turned mischievous, as she leaned closer once again, and used the lapels of his coat to pull him towards her. "Well then, Mr. Valentine, maybe it's time to make a new tradition."
"What did you have in mind?" He asked as he set his hands on her waist.
"To kiss my Valentine," she whispered and as their mouths connected once more, Nick couldn't help but think that this was the sort of tradition he could get behind.
- The End -
—
A/N: Not mentioned but pictured: Piper watches from around the corner, giggling to herself like crazy and going aww when she sees Nick and Blue kiss. She might also plot to mash their faces together if they don't start dating after this :D
A/N 2: Is this too sappy? Possibly, but I'm still trying to get over the fact that Bethesda won't let me love the toaster. This is my idea of compensating for the fact that there is no romance in the game.