A/N: I know this has been done before, but this is just my take on it! Rating will change in later chapers for adult themes and such.
For the Fallout Kink Meme. Original prompt: Overseer Almodovar realizes that the Vault is running out of little tiny baby Vaulties and the Vault is running the risk of being under populated. Not to fear! The Overseer, being mature and totally not driven batshit insane by power, decides to force all the Vault kids who are of age into marriage. He decides to match the kids up by genetic compatibility or something. Guess what? This results in everyone being paired up with the least compatible people.
1.
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Jan really hoped it would be Freddie.
She could get by alright with him; they had gone steady for a whole month and three weeks when they were fifteen, and it had been fine before those Tunnel Snakes had ruined it. Freddie had really wanted to be a member for a reason she could not understand, but that she put down to a combination of him being none too bright and to being the only boy in their class who wasn't included in the gang. Every day he would follow them around, lurking near their hangouts, trying to get in on the conversation, on the action, on anything they would let him be included in. And once those greasy hoods had gotten wind of their relationship, Butch had said he could join if he broke up with her in class.
And poor gullible Freddie had done just that after lunch had ended and everyone was filing back to their seats. She remembered it so vividly; she guessed she must still be hurting about it deep down. It had been their seven week anniversary and she had cried in front of everyone. Butch had tripped her up when she tried to run away. ("Have a nice trip, see you next fall Nosebleed.") Funnily enough, she'd busted her nose pretty badly on a desk leg.
Jan had been upset about that for a long time - even though she was a nice girl with a forgiving nature, and never held grudges against the people she liked. Freddie had apologised after, when he wasn't with his new friends, and she had publicly forgiven him; on the inside though, she was still pretty sore about the whole thing. But in light of recent events, she hoped it would Freddie she got partnered up with. The only problem he had was that he wasn't too sharp and, considering her other options, that wasn't much of a problem at all. He was sweet enough, kind in his own way and gentle. When they went steady for that whole month and three weeks, he'd treated her well enough, he'd respected her boundaries, he hadn't forced her to do anything she didn't want to do when they kissed that one time.
She could marry him, it wouldn't be a problem. She could give him as many children as the Overseer wanted them to have, it really wouldn't be a problem. As long as it was him.
Please please please let it be Freddie, it was like a prayer in her head, repeated over and over again. The other options were not so pleasant to consider. The other options could be dangerous.
Jan glanced at Amata sitting beside her. Her friend's hazel eyes were wide, and her full lips were pressed thin. She looked as scared as Jan felt. Never before had she understood the analogy 'like a rabbit caught in headlights' so perfectly; this was a snare none of them could escape unscathed.
Wordlessly, Jan reached out and took her hand. Amata gripped her tightly, and they sat in silence, clinging to each other. It was a small comfort.
There was a rumble of low chatter through the Atrium, where they gathered and sat in uniform little lines, waiting for the Overseer to take to the stage. Anticipation and fear bubbled under the surface, and Jan was worried that she was going to be sick. She hoped that if she was sick, it happened when the Overseer walked past her so that she could regurgitate her lunch on his shoes.
It would serve him right for all this. And for all the waiting.
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It had been the week before the infamous G.O.A.T, with tensions running high and the end of school looming ever closer, they had all been rowdier than normal. Even Amata had been disruptive, swivelling all the way around in her seat to talk to Jan. Brotch had not been amused by all the laughter and chatter going on while he was trying to teach them.
"Alright, settle down folks, that's enough," he said, curtly, trying to be heard above the babble. "You only have to listen to me for a little while longer, so please, if we could just focus. This is important stuff."
It certainly had not been important. It was so completely unimportant that Jan could no longer remember what he had been trying to teach them. The following half an hour overshadowed everything else in her mind.
The Overseer had materialised suddenly in the doorway, emerging like a vampire from a Pre-War monster flick.
"Ah, Overseer Almodovar, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Brotch reserved a particularly sardonic tone for the Overseer, and it always brought a smirk to Jan's face. Mr Brotch was the only adult she had ever met who was openly insolent to the Overseer's face, it made her laugh but it also made her feel strangely scandalised.
The Overseer was shuffling a few notes in his hands - if he picked up on the slight, he had chosen to ignore it. "I won't take up much of your time Edwin. I need to address the class." He went and stood in the illumination of the projector.
There were a few disconcerted mutters; Jan caught Amata's eye and mouthed 'what's this?'. Her friend had just shrugged and shaken her head; it wasn't a lie either, Jan always knew when Amata was lying because she was so bad at it. It can't have been good if his own daughter didn't know, Amata was the most in-the-loop person in the whole vault.
The Overseer cleared his throat. "Good morning students, I have an official Vault announcement to make." He paused, and Jan could have sworn it was for dramatic effect. Pompous bastard - she could think it, even if she couldn't say it out loud. "As I'm sure you are aware, the population of our fair community has dwindled in recent years. Why, as I stand before you today, only eight young faces look back at me. I'm sure you can join me in admitting that this is a serious issue. And, indeed, it is on your youthful shoulders the future of Vault 101 rests."
Another pause. Jan's throat began to feel tight - she didn't like the direction this announcement was taking, it felt too serious. She tried to catch Amata's eye again, but she had her sights thoroughly trained on her father and she looked worried. The silence in the classroom was so intense you could have heard a pin drop.
"Measures must be taken to ensure we don't fade away completely. Of course, Vault-Tec left behind a plan for just the situation we find ourselves in now. Now, there will be certain things we will require of all you gathered here today. This afternoon you will all be granted time off from class to report to the clinic for a physical examination. You will also be required to give a sample of blood for genetic screening."
More silence. Jan shot a quick look around the room, from what she could see in her peripheral vision, people had come to the same conclusion as she had. It was easy to see where this was going. She was surprised by this turn of events, but not horrified. In a twisted way, it kind of made sense.
"Now, the screening will take a while to yield results. But when those results are correlated, you will be assigned a partner based on your genetic profile-"
Suddenly, Brotch got to his feet behind his desk. He looked stricken; he actually looked more afraid than his group of students. "You can't be serious, Alphonse. They're only sixteen, they're children!"
The look the Overseer gave him went beyond withering. "Edwin sit down. Perhaps if you had done your duty a few years ago like the rest of us, these measures wouldn't be necessary." There was a silent power struggle as Brotch tried to stare him down.
After a few moments the brow-beaten teacher slipped back into his seat behind the desk.
The Overseer cleared his throat again and resumed. "You will be assigned a partner based on your genetic profile. This will be to promote genetic diversity and health in the offspring your union will produce. Now, to promote reproductive activity, you and your partner will be given your own apartment and double ration coupons will be given for the duration of the pregnancy as an incentive." The Overseer folded up his notes and slipped them into the pocket of his jumpsuit. "Any questions?"
A brittle silence descended.
Jan raised her hand uncertainly.
"Yes, Janet."
"This is mandatory?" She was surprised by how shrill her own voice sounded. "We have to? We absolutely have to?"
The Overseer frowned with very obvious disapproval. He had never liked her much, and she had never understood why. "Absolutely. Procreation is your Civic Duty." Ah yes, one of the commandments of Vault life. That had been drilled into their brains from a very young age – but to Jan, the idea of having children of her own had always seemed so abstract, like it would happen to another Jan in a different time. "The idea may be daunting to you now, but you are all capable young people. I'm sure you will find parenthood to be its own reward."
Jan felt numb. Not scared, not yet, the fear would come later. Mom died giving birth to me, the thought was an unwelcome intrusion and it made her blood run cold.
"This is bullshit." Always the hard-ass, Butch piped up from the back of the room. It seemed that all his bravado masked something else, and the crack in his voice spoke of uncertainty.
"No, Mr DeLoria, this is just the bare minimum of what the Vault requires of you."
"No, it's bullshit," he repeated, but in a lower voice, more to himself than anything. It was difficult to miss the dangerous look The Overseer shot his way. It was a look that said 'don't push your luck' and Butch shut up real quick.
A few more moments of silence followed. The Overseer slowly combed over the classroom with his eyes, daring someone to say anything else. No one did, they averted their eyes and kept their mouths shut. "Excellent. You will all be required to report to the clinic by one o'clock this afternoon, for the physical and blood sample. Any truants or late comers will be dealt with by vault security." The threat was implicit.
With that, the almighty one glided out of the classroom. Brotch paused and for a moment it looked like he was going to say something, but whatever it was died on his tongue and he started to rustle the papers on his desk instead.
Tense chatter began. Jan poked Amata on the shoulder with her pen. She was pointedly ignored; Amata's hands were pressed to her sides, fists clenched so tight that the knuckles were white. Jan knew to leave her alone when she got like that.
After a while, Brotch resumed teaching and this time he didn't seem all that bothered about who was listening and who wasn't. Jan phased in and out on what he said, her mind a confused babble.
The idea of having children was not the thing that was worrying her most right now – for as long as she could remember it had been made abundantly clear that it was expected, and she had accepted that because she had never been presented with any other option – it was the idea that she would not get to pick who the father was. Now, the Overseer had been right, the population of the vault was low, but she'd always expected to find a partner on her own terms. She had read the Pre-war novels. You were supposed to marry someone you loved.
But perhaps that was just her being sentimental.
Jan spent the rest of the lesson coming to terms with the fact that her future was completely out of her own control. And then, after class finished, she reported to the clinic with everyone else like a good little vault dweller.
Jan had practically grown up in the clinic, medical stuff had never phased her in the slightest; some people were put off by the cloying clinical smell of disinfectant but to her it smelled like home. This time, however, she found herself going a little light headed as James sunk the needle into her forearm. She watched her blood fill the cylinder and cursed it. That wasn't just any old blood sample, it was the rest of her life. She wished she could smash it.
"Daddy, did you know this was going to happen?" There had been a wobble in her voice when she spoke and now the clinic blurred around her as tears threatened to spill. Jan had cried a lot when she was little and it had made her an easy target. She tried to wipe her eyes subtly before her father saw.
James let out a long sigh before he answered. "No, of course not, sweetie. I'm just as surprised as you are." James had a convincing tone, but the fact that he wouldn't meet her eye told her all she needed to know. He quickly turned his back to her to finish up with her sample.
"I know you're worried Janny. But, unfortunately there's nothing I can do. The Overseer was very insistent that this was the best thing for the future of the vault." He paused, and turned to look at her with a pained expression. "It's for the best." He tried to smile, but it came over as thin and unconvincing. "Look, it'll take a long, long time to finish up these tests, it's not like we're working with specialist technology here. So you don't have to worry about it for a while."
He ran a gloved hand affectionately over her amber hair, and then pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. "I don't want this distracting you from the G.O.A.T, that's more important than anything else at this point."
"I don't want to take that stupid exam either. It's an unfair system of testing. What if want to chose my career instead of having it chosen for me?"
He chuckled, but his eyes looked sad. "Don't start with that radical talk around the Overseer, he'll have my head. We all have to do things we don't want to. Now, run along sweetie, I've got a lot more blood to take."
Jan had gone over to Amata's the next night. She liked Amata's room, there was definitely perks to being the Overseers daughter: she had Pre-war records and a record player and the Nuka-cola they had in the fridge was still carbonated. The Overseer always said he afforded himself no extra luxuries just for his position, but he was evidently a big fat liar.
Amata was the only person Jan knew who owned a record player, everyone else had to listen to the Vault PA system on their radios, and the fact that they weren't allowed to talk about the record player in front of anyone else made it abundantly clear that this was just the Overseer's daughter being spoiled.
Jan was jealous, naturally, but she kept her mouth shut about it. She liked listening to Amata's Peggy Lee records, and she wasn't about to jeopardise her listening privileges by blabbing about special treatment to the rest of the vault.
It was in the middle of one of those very records that Amata dropped the huge revelation. They had both been laying on their stomachs on the floor, bopping along to the music with a Pre-war magazine, when Amata rolled to face her, hand propped up under her chin. "Hey Janny, I've been thinking about this plan."
Jan took a careful sip of Nuka-cola through a straw. She made a non-committal noise; she really didn't want to talk about this. Or think about it. She just wanted to dance around and pretend everything was still ok. They could still get away with pretending for now.
"And I've been thinking about the whole partnering up thing." Amata continued, oblivious to her friends discomfort. "I'm scared Jan. I mean, just think about it for a second: one of us is going to end up with Wally, for sure."
It hit her like a punch to the gullet. Amata was right; there were only four girls in their class, one of them was his sister, and Christine was his cousin (although she'd heard some pretty colourful rumours about them anyway). For the sake of genetic diversity, it would have to be one of them. Imagine: married to a Tunnel Snake!
Jan could have slapped herself for not considering it sooner. Wally could be dangerous; he had a coldness in him, it radiated out of his eyes and you could tell that he really enjoyed it when he hurt you. Hell, ending up with any of those Tunnel Snakes would be awful. And she hadn't even considered it until this very moment.
Jan chewed her lip. "Can your dad really make us do this, Amata?" The question sounded weak out loud, and she already knew the answer.
"You know he can, Jan."
Jan gave a deep sigh, her chest getting tight with renewed panic. It was true. There was nothing they could do to change this situation. But they could buckle through it together as friends. Comradery made it a little better. Still, Jan could feel herself going pale and she slumped forward to let her hot forehead come to rest on the cool metal of the floor. She started to quietly do the breathing exercises her father had taught her to quell the sudden burst of anxiety.
Amata reached for her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "Let's just hope he gets eaten by radroaches or something." It was a weak joke, and there was no glimmer of amusement in Amata's face when she said it, but the attempt at humour was appreciated.
Jan managed a queasy smile. "It's a nice thought, Amata. But with our luck? We'll probably end up both married to him. Like those Mormons or something." They both had a weak giggle at that, even though it wasn't even remotely funny.
"We'll be ok though, won't we?"
With a deep breath, Janet summoned all the confidence she didn't feel. "We'll be ok. We probably won't find out for ages anyway. I'll bet you we'll forget about it soon enough."
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Of course, they had not forgotten about it. Jan had worried about it constantly and she felt that Amata had done the same, but it was never spoken about. No one else spoke about it either; it seemed to be the general consensus that if you spoke about the plan, you gave it the power to exist. Everyone was afraid of it and the misery it would cause, but everyone would do as the Overseer asked.
That was just the way things were in Vault 101.
So for a whole year and seven months, the vault populace had waited with baited breath. The students had passed their G.O.A.T and waited. They had gone to prom and waited. They had started their careers and waited. They had pretended everything was fine and waited. Life had slipped into a bland routine and they waited and waited and waited and waited.
Then, this morning the announcement had finally come over the intercom and Jan had almost thought it was a relief until she remembered that her life was about to end. They had filed into the atrium and they had sat and they had waited some more.
This was finally it.
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A/N: There we go, so that was the first chapter. I'm sorry if it seemed a little exposition heavy, or if it flitted about too much. Reviews will always be appreciated! Please tell me honestly what you think so far!