Campfire

by KRicci93

Piper wakes up to find that Blue has taken off in the middle of the night again, leaving her and Shaun unprotected. Worried that he's out "dealing with his demons", she gets out of bed to make sure the gen-3 synth boy is still safe in his room in Blue's personal home along the Charles River. However to her pleasant surprise, Blue never left, but neither did her concerns for him.

Campfire

A Fallout 4 One-Shot

xXxXxXx

"Blue?" Piper said in a groggy haze after the sound of a closing door startled her awake. She rolled over, hoping to find her lover still beside her, but to her dismay, he was not. She sighed in frustration. "Dammit, Blue."

She was right in her frustration, this had become a habit of his lately. Blue, real name Russ Ryan, had been getting out of bed in the middle of the night, leaving Piper and Shaun alone and unprotected, save for the turrets and traps he set up all over the place. He never told her where he went when he'd come home, but judging by the way he looked and smelt, it was either drinking and shooting up chems, killing feral ghouls and raiders, or a combination of both.

She sat up and dropped her head into her hands, sighed and fell into thought. She then looked around the room. The third and top floor of what was an abandoned row house with a staircase leading directly to the floor below. It used to be one big room, but Russ had built a wall to separate a section of the room so Shaun had a room to himself. She pulled the covers off of her unclothed body and got out of bed. Beside their bed was a coat rack with two bathrobes hanging off the hooks. She grabbed one of them and slid it on, tied the belt, then slowly made her way over to Shaun's room, keeping her footsteps as light as possible since the floor creaked in some spots. She opened the door slightly and peeked in, finding him to be sound asleep. Piper smiled, then closed the door. She still couldn't quite grasp the concept of Synths sleeping, but gen-3s were designed to mimic humans in every way, so it made sense in the end.

"Piper, what are you doing up?"

That voice gave her chills. Piper turned around to find Russ standing by the top of the stairs with his right hand gripping the railing, dressed in a dirty flannel shirt and jeans, black boots and the trusty Pip-Boy 3000 on his left wrist. She made eye contact with him, then took a minute to examine his face. His masculine square jaw, thick bushy brown beard, thick low setting eyebrows and his scar riddled skin. Five visible scars, three of them were large gashes. The scar farthest left was a deep scar, starting just below his hairline and going all the way down through his eyebrow, below his left eye and down to his beard. The other two deep scars started in the middle of his forehead, crossing each other at the very top. One went down the left side just beside his nose, the other stopped just above the bridge of his nose. He had a lighter scar on the right side of his face similar to the one on the left, starting at his eyebrow and going down below his right eye. The last one was a small lip gash. It literally looked like someone tried to carve his face up with a steak knife and missed his eyes by some miracle. His hair was cut and styled as what the locals called the "waster cut", which Piper absolutely loved on him. It made him look like a fully functional member of society, aside from his love affair with murdering raiders and gunners. But Piper's heart always skipped a beat when she saw him. He was always so confident, so strong, so motivated, so sexy-

"Piper?" Russ said, snapping Piper out of her trance. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry I was just…" Incredibly turned on… she thought to herself quickly before responding. "worried..."

Russ cocked his head to the side curiously. "Worried? I'm sure Shaun's fine."

"No, not about Shaun." Piper said frantically before sighing. "About you. Ya know, it's just, you've been acting strange. The whole taking off in the middle of the night thing is a little unsettling."

Russ released his grip on the railing and slid his hands into his pockets. "Come on, you know I'll be fine."

"But I don't though." Piper insisted. She walked up to him, her barefoot steps causing the floor to creak, the very noise she was trying to avoid earlier but was now ignoring. "You wake up randomly, disappear for hours at a time and come back blood-soaked and high off your ass. I can only imagine how gruesome whatever you're out there doing is."

Russ pondered on Piper's words for a moment. "If it makes you feel any better, it's not usually MY blood I'm soaked in." Emphasizing and dragging out the word "my".

Sarcastic jerk. It was part of his charm though. That mouth of his was just as good at getting them out of trouble as an assault shotgun is in a small room full of raiders. But it was also good at getting them INTO trouble as well, which usually leads to use of said shotgun. Not quite as good as he is with his tongue but-

Piper cracked a barely noticeable grin, both at her naughty thought and Russ's smartass comment, then shook her head and buried her face in Russ's chest, grasping the fabric of his shirt. Russ wrapped his arms around Piper's upper back and rested his head on top of hers. "I'm honestly surprised you came back so early, you don't smell like a pack of ferals either."

"That's because I never left." Russ said. Piper looked up at him with her eyes narrowed and an a eyebrow raised. He could tell she was about to ask where he was, and then probably lay into him a little. "I was out back with MacCready and Cait, they're having a fire and I couldn't sleep. I didn't want to wake you."

"So you figured you'd have a party without me huh?" Piper joked, lightly punching him on the arm.

"Just a gathering of drunks." Russ replied with a wink. He turned around and started his way down the stairs. "Get dressed and get your cute butt down here."

Piper giggled as she watched him descend. Being with him made her feel whole, complete, full of purpose. But as Russ faded out of sight, she fell back into worriment. Truthfully, she wasn't convinced that Russ let all of his defenses down. Yes, he loved her, trusted her and cherished her, but she suspected there was more going inside of her "pre-war relic's" mind that he was letting out.

Now...

Piper didn't live with Russ full time yet, assuming they'd ever. No, she had been on and off traveling with the former vault dweller for six months, and it was too late to traverse the streets of Boston alone. It was late April, year 2288, and Russ had successfully managed to rid the Commonwealth of the Institute, and most of those Brotherhood of Steel bastards, and Piper had been tagging along for most of it.

At first, Russ rejected her offer. Figured it would be too dangerous for a simple reporter to run with an ex-soldier looking for revenge on the bastard that killed his wife and kidnapped his kid. His first mistake was calling her a "simple reporter" though, which he learned the hard way. He couldn't hang around Diamond City without Piper harassing him about tagging along, especially after the interview she asked him to do with her. She was too interested in this "man out of time" to let him face the Commonwealth alone, and eventually Russ caved. A companion couldn't hurt too bad, right? It wasn't like he had anyone to talk to up until now. Just him and whatever gun he happened to be wielding at the time. And sometimes Dogmeat.

xXxXxXx

One wide three story building split into three row houses sat mostly unscathed right on the Charles River. Russ came across it one day and deemed it a suitable place to shack up while traveling in the ruins of Boston. It was close to Diamond City and was in better shape than most places he'd scouted out. Of course before he could settle, he had to make sure the Super Mutants less than a block away were dead, and make sure that the HalluciGen building wasn't hiding any nasty surprises. Can't do anything about the raiders though. They're like cockroaches, you kill em', and more crawl out of the shit holes they shack up in. Though popping off raiders was more of an easy pastime for him. Plus, he felt he was doing the world a favor by killing them off. Raiders were the human equivalent of Rad-Roaches in his mind, and he felt that being the exterminator was the perfect job for him.

Two of the three homes were pretty empty and undamaged, the third was filled with old shit and Russ could be relatively lazy at times, and deemed cleaning the third home "pointless". MacCready took over the second home after Russ insisted on it. He had been a nomad for a while and Russ figured it would be nice to put a solid roof over MacCready's head. Also, having a skilled merc whose unrivaled with a sniper rifle as his best friend and neighbor was pretty solid insurance. Each section of building had a front and back entrance. There was a second building across the alleyway behind the house with a garage on the bottom floor. A perfect workshop for when Russ was bored as fuck. But his laziness was obvious there too because he hadn't bothered to clean out the crap that was left in there when he found the place.

Lazy, but very handy. Piper thought as she sat next to Russ on a makeshift bench, a wooden board held up by two stacks of cinder blocks stacked three high. In her hand she held a bottle of Gwinnett Stout. It was a chilly night, but warm by the fire.

A bunch of rocks, big and small, formed a circle in the middle of the street behind the building, and in the middle, a bunch of sticks and small logs stood in a teepee shape, engulfed in a bright orange and yellow flame. The wood's crackling noise and smoky aroma were relaxing, reminded Piper of the settlement she grew up in. Those memories were both comforting and painful for her considering the circumstances that her and her sister Nat left under.

She looked around at her company. Blue beside her with a beer cradled between his hands and a far off gaze as he stared at the fire. Another bench just like the one they were sitting on was set up on the right side of the fire pit. MacCready was also silently staring at the fire, wearing his ratty green duster coat with his hat sitting on the bench to his left. Cait, the newbie in the fold, sat way to the other end of the bench, a beer in her right hand, twirling a Jet inhaler in her left. She was filthy, a mixture of dried blood and dirt stained her orange jeans and her red corset. She'd been a pit fighter in the Combat Zone for years, entertaining a gang of raiders in exchange for her life, and a few caps on the side. And to be fair, Russ hadn't installed a shower or bath in either house yet on account of his laziness.

"I'm going up the coast next week, a place called Far Harbor." Russ said, breaking the silence. Piper looked at him. "Nick and I have a case. Missing person. I'll be gone for a few days, maybe a week." He rubbed his thumbs up and down the neck of his beer bottle before taking a sip from it.

"Missing person huh?" MacCready said without looking away from the fire. "Sounds bad but we should be used to that by now."

"You mean because of the Institute?" Piper said, glancing at MacCready.

"Yeah." MacCready turned his head to Russ and chuckled. "But that shouldn't be as much of an issue anymore since this tank destroyed the place."

"As if the Commonwealth needed more radiation." Piper joked, lightly elbowing Russ in the ribs. He chuckled a little, though still maintaining his serious demeanor.

"Place is a fuckin' hole, what's a little more radiation?" Cait said before taking a hit of Jet.

"More Children of Atom flooding the area." MacCready said with disdain in his voice. "Those lunatics actually believe the atom bomb is a god or something."

"And they think radiation poisoning is a gift." Russ said, then sat upright from his semi hunched over position and laughed. "And yet, gunfire kills more of them than rad poisoning."

"Then there's the chem heads like you and her." MacCready said, referencing Russ and Cait. "No wonder you hit it off so well."

Piper noticed a frown crawl across Cait's face, and knew what was coming next.

"No, we didn't 'hit it off', he barged into the Combat Zone and off'd every fucker in there." Cait was pointing at Russ, who had a wide grin across his face. "Then, Lonegan offers him my contract, the pock faced prick, and now I'm stuck doin' whatever this guy wants!"

Russ raised his right hand towards Cait, trying not to laugh. "No, no, no. You aren't stuck doing what I want. I couldn't care less about what your contract says. I'm not a slave driver, whether or not you leave is up to you."

Cait was silent for a moment, glaring at Russ. "Nah, yer how I get me chems now. Think I'll stick around for a bit."

Piper rolled her eyes. Chems, she thought in disgust.

"Speaking of chems, how'd Pembroke make out with his share of the loot?" MacCready asked before raising his bottle to his mouth.

"Dead." Russ said blankly.

"Pembroke?" Piper shifter her eyes towards Russ. "Paul Pembroke? When? How?"

"I found him dead outside Diamond City. Full of bullet holes." Russ shook his head. "I don't even think he made it back. Poor bastard."

"Jesus. Think Cooke double crossed us?" MacCready asked with obvious concern.

"Nah. Didn't seem to me like he'd be the type. Course, Diamond City Security left his corpse on the street… So that's a thing."

"Have any idea who could've killed him?"

"Nah. But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

"Hold on, stop right there." Piper demanded, glaring at Russ and MacCready. "What on Earth did you guys get into?"

Russ and MacCready shot each other looks that said "oh shit", and Piper was anticipating a long sigh from one of the two. Cait took another hit of Jet and grinned devilishly, a "this oughta be good" look. They were silent for a long few moments, longer than Piper could bare to wait, but right as she was gonna ask again...

"About a week ago, Mac an' I went up to the Colonial Taphouse." Russ said while again staring at the fire. "All I wanted was to drink without having to listen to Vlad's big mouth. Instead, we walk into an argument between Cooke and Pembroke which turned into a fist fight."

"And man did Cooke nearly knock Paul's teeth out." MacCready added with a few chuckles laced with his words.

"Paul leaves, I ask a few questions."

"Because you're nosy."

"I get it from Piper."

Piper side eyed Russ. She was a reporter, it was her job to be nosy. She didn't voice her thoughts but Russ got the message.

"Anyway, we drink, then leave." Russ continued. "Then, Paul confronts me in the street and asks me to go to the taphouse with him, like as a bodyguard while he confronts Cooke. Honestly, I didn't care about any of it until he offered me money."

"And that's a trait of MacCready's rubbing off on you." Piper said, glaring at MacCready, which only enticed a laugh from the merc.

"So we head up there, Paul pulls a gun on Cooke. I tell them both to calm the fuck down because honestly, I would have shot both of them if shit went south. But things settled down, and Cooke mentions this chem deal going down by the river later in the night. Cooke helps Paul make some caps as a way to make up for banging his wife."

"Paul's wife was cheating on him? Why?" Piper asked, appalled to hear such a thing.

"I think it was because he was broke?" Russ shrugged, then took a sip of his beer. "Didn't I mention that?"

"No Blue, you didn't." Piper said.

"I coulda swore-"

"Ya didn't tell us ya fuckin' drunk bastard!" Cait barked, cutting off the vault dweller mid sentence.

Russ looked at his bottle and cocked his head to the side. "I am a bit tipsy." Piper lightly punched him on the shoulder. "Right, anyway. So the four of us head to the river and scope out the deal. Four Ghouls near the crates, and Nelson Latimer standing opposite them. So I casually stroll up to the chem deal as if I'm just passing through, and Nelson Latimer pretty much says 'get the fuck out of here if you know what's good for you.' And I tried to keep my cool, but because his father's done nothing but give me shit every time I'm up there for something, I snap, threaten to take the chems and caps, and next thing I know, bullets are flying from all directions."

"Nelson Latimer? Jesus." Piper looked away from Russ and stared at the fire for a moment while taking a sip from her own bottle.

"At the end of it, three of the Ghouls and Nelson are dead. The last Ghoul gives us the info we need to rob Marowski's chem lab, Cooke shoots her, and Pembroke and I split the loot. Cooke leaves town 'for good' or so he says, and Paul takes care of the chem crates while Mac an' I go take Marowski's chem lab. I found Paul's body earlier today. Figured he didn't need the chems anymore, so I took them. Now they're upstairs in my safe."

Piper wanted so badly to snap. She knew Russ had a knack for getting involved in bad shit, but busting a chem deal run by Marowski's gang was like ASKING to be shot in the face. For the time being, while in company, she ignored her feelings. But as soon as Cait and MacCready disappeared, she'd speak her mind.

"Malcolm confronted me about Nelson's death today too. He accused me of killing him." Russ looked at MacCready.

MacCready had a nervous look on his face. "What did you tell him?"

"Well, I figured since Paul was already dead, I'd shift the blame a little…"

THAT added fuel to Piper's already scorching fire.

"Paul isn't the one that shot him though…" Said MacCready.

"No, YOU did. I wasn't exactly in a hurry to rat you out to a man with connections like Marowski." Russ shook his head and stared into the fire once again. "Besides, it's not like I don't feel bad. I do. Darcy lost her husband. Pete lost his father. I know EXACTLY what that feels like. I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone else."

A long silence followed. Pipers anger started to fade a little. Russ unintentionally played the dead spouse card, and that was an extremely sore subject. It often left Piper wondering how they even managed to form a relationship in the first place. Especially when you consider how short of a time frame they'd known each other, she knew how much shit Russ was dealing with in said time frame. They met just under seven months ago, but Piper had fallen head over heels for him in the neighborhood of three. Around four is when he started showing subtle signs of romantic feelings for her, but it didn't come to fruition until the middle of that fourth month. And while it made Piper the happiest she'd been in her entire life, she felt guilty. Like she was trying to replace Russ's late wife Nora. It wasn't her intention, that's just what she feared Russ thought.

The silence was killing her because it was giving her time to think, and the more she thought, the more she wanted to just talk to Russ. Thankfully, MacCready would be the first to break the silence with an obnoxiously loud yawn. Get any louder and you'll wake a Deathclaw she thought.

"Well guys, I'm calling it a night." MacCready said. He stood up and tossed his empty bottle into a wooden barrel set up by the building. "Later." MacCready grabbed his hat off the bench and headed towards his apartment.

Cait was dozing off sitting on the bench. A combination of Jet and alcohol in high quantities will do it. She too decided it was time to call it quits and headed inside.

It was just Piper, Blue, and a whole lot of silence. Aside from the occasional cracking from the now dying fire.

"I'm guessing you're upset with me." Russ said in a low tone, shifting his eyes towards Piper.

"Do you understand how reckless you're being?" Piper turned her head to face Russ. "Marowski used to be one of the biggest gangsters around. He was, and still is, very dangerous. You're gonna get yourself killed, Blue."

"I know."

"Are you trying to get to yourself killed?"

Russ didn't respond right away. Instead, he pulled out a tin of mentats and popped the lid off. Piper watched him as he pulled out one of the small red tablets and popped it into his mouth. After that, he closed the tin and put it back in his pocket, then pulled out a pack of Grey Tortoise cigarettes.

"Blue, what's going on with you?" She asked as she watched him pull a cigarette from the pack and set it between his lips. Russ pulled out a silver flip lighter and lit the end of his cigarette. One long drag, a brief moment to hold, then a long exhale as he tilted back his head and blew the smoke into the air.

"The chems drown away the pain." Russ said softly. "I jam a syringe full of Psycho in my arm and let it take me away for a while. I don't think much about anything."

"That why you're always wearing shades?" Piper asked snarky-like.

"Don't sass me." Russ replied. He was silent for a few moments, then opened his mouth. "No, they look cool."

"Even still, people can tell by your eyes, Blue. You need to lay off the stuff."

"I…" Russ said before choking up. He sighed, seemingly unable to find words. He huffed. "Fine. That's why. But you can't tell me they don't look cool."

"I won't deny it." Piper said with a slight grin before dropping it. "I'm serious though, you need to get off the stuff. All of it. Clean up before it kills you. Go see Doctor Sun."

"That won't help." Russ said instantly. "Trust me, I would have already done it if I knew it would help. And besides, Doctor Sun always seems so cranky."

Piper sighed and stared at Russ quietly for a moment while searching for what to say next. He looked at peace, but Piper knew that there was a war going on inside his head. All of this excessive chem and alcohol use started after he destroyed the Institute. Russ's wife was murdered right before his eyes, his son kidnapped. He traveled all over the Commonwealth doing whatever it took to find his son, and when he finally did, he found his son to be physically older than him by thirty or so years, and he was the director of the Commonwealth's boogeyman, the Institute. And because the Institute kidnapped and brainwashed Shaun, after all the crimes the Institute committed during their existence, Russ was forced to destroy it to stop all of the horrible things they were doing.

He was forced to kill his own son. That very fact was what Piper believed drove Russ into this dangerous lifestyle. And Piper saw Synth-Shaun as a constant reminder of that, even though Russ treated him as if he were actually his own son. Her biggest worry about that was the fact that Synth-Shaun was always going to be a child since synths couldn't age and grow. But Russ always said "we'll cross that bridge when we get there".

Piper sighed heavily, set her beer down beside her and slid her right arm underneath Russ's left arm and hugged it. "Blue, I don't want to lose you. Not ever, not for any reason, but especially not to yourself." Tears started forming in her eyes, wetting the fabric of Russ's sleeve. "Your self-destructive behavior is going to get you killed. I'm always so afraid that you won't come back, that you'll be dead somewhere because you couldn't hold it together. I don't want that, I can't imagine my future without you in it."

"Piper…" Russ said softly.

At this point, Piper was bawling into Russ's sleeve. She couldn't hold it together herself anymore because she knew what she was saying was all too possible. Now she was just expressing her feelings to Russ without much thought. "I love you, Blue. I love you so much. I know I can't replace Nora, I know I can't change anything that's happened to you. But I'm here now, and whatever happens from here on out, I'll be here. Please don't let the past kill you. Please… Piper started crying harder, unable to control herself.

As Piper cried into his arm, Russ looked down at the bottle he was holding, then down at Piper's head buried in his sleeve. Then, he set the bottle on the ground and turned his body towards Piper, forcing her to release her grip on his arm. He took her hands into his own and looked Piper straight in het tear filled eyes.

"Piper." Said Russ. "I don't want you to replace Nora. I love you. I love you for who you are. In some sick, fucked up way, I feel like everything that's happened to me was meant to happen. Because it brought you and I together. Yes, it's tragic, but I'm okay with it… because I have you, and I can't imagine my future without you."

Piper stared into Russ's eyes silently as her brain digested everything he just said to her. In the past, "I love you too" was the extent of him verbally showing his affection since he was so boxed up all the time. But this speech of his both pleasantly surprised and contorted Piper. "Blue…" she simply said.

"I never meant to get addicted…" Russ said as he rubbed his thumbs over the top of Piper's hands. "The moment addictol stopped working was the moment I knew I fucked up. And I've spiraled out of control from there…" Russ shook his head, then looked up at the clear sky, at the beautiful display of stars above. "I don't want to die because of it, I don't want to leave you because I can't control myself anymore. I want to get better so we can have a future together." Russ sighed heavily and shook his head. "I just don't know how to get off the shit…"

Piper sniffled a few times, then shook Russ's hands away, wiped her tears away and slid her hands up the sides of his bearded face. She smiled. "We'll find a way… together."

Her words enticed a smile from Russ. Then, Piper leaned in towards him, closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his. They shared a long, passionate kiss in front of the campfire. Russ then wrapped his arms around Piper and pulled her on top of him as he laid back on the bench. She snuggled right into his chest under his arms, and soon both fell sound asleep.

-Fin-

If you made it this far, thank you so much for checking out my first ever Fallout universe fic. I love Fallout 4 as well as it's predecessors, and I've always loved Piper as a character and a romantic companion to the Sole Survivor. This was just something I came up with while I stopped at the River View Row House (Mod by Mccx99). Piper, MacCready and Cait were all sitting around a fire pit I set up and I asked myself, with my current progress on this character, what kind of realistic conversation would they have around a campfire, and what would the dynamic be between my character Russ and Piper. And this is the result.

Again, thank you for reading this, and please leave a review and share your thoughts and feelings about this fic.