Old Faces in New Territory

By Jack Manson

A/N: Well, seeing as how I'm dangerouly addicted to Fallout 3, I decided to take my obsession and channel it into a quick short story here. When I was writing it, I wasn't thinking of an LW/OC pairing, but you could look at it that way. I know I said there's a lemon in here, but in my oppinion, it's very, very mild, but just be wary if you don't like that sort of thing.

I'd love to hear reviews! I sort of wrote this pretty quick, so I'm not sure how good it will be, but I love to hear feedback.

Running into other people or topside ghouls in the wasteland was not an unusual event, especially when you were so close to D.C. The only issue was, it was hard to tell who was friendly or who was hostile from a mile off, so you had to be certain, before you turned into some trigger-happy fool, shooting at whatever moved behind those cars and rocks.

From distance, Maya couldn't tell if the figure on the horizon was another traveling wastelander or ghoul, a merc, a raider, or just some no-good mutant. She wouldn't be surprised, of course, if he or she was a scavenger of some sort. Maya tended to bump into those shady characters more often than not, and although she didn't particularly like them, scavengers were normally a blessing. They were almost always willing to trade or sell, as long as the caps were good.

Fearlessly, Maya clambered up onto the hood of a terribly burnt Ford, and brought the scope of her sniper rifle to her dominant eye. She couldn't quite make out the on-comer clearly, but she could easily determine he was male, and alone. That was good, at least, because raiders never traveled alone, and it was clear from his leather and tattered attire that he was neither Brotherhood nor Enclave. Maya couldn't see is face, however. Like her, he wore a scarf tied around the lower half of is head, exposing only his eyes and hair. This was quite normal. The wasteland was a dangerous place indeed, and included in these dangers were the smells, the radiation, and the constant pillars of dust that got blown into your face with a single breath of wind. Maya herself didn't just stop with a mask of some sort, she even wore goggles over her brown eyes.

She jumped down from the Ford's hood, making the whole car wobble, and shouldered her sniper rifle. She brought into both hands, however, from her other arm, a rather weathered assault rifle. Most likely, she thought to herself, he's just some wastelander. He hadn't appeared to be carrying much, which meant he wasn't a scavenger. Still, she felt it was in her best interest to go and speak with him, and see if he ad anything to sell. Her caps were good, and and she was low on ammunition.

He seemed to be further away than she had estimated, because closing in the distance to meet him took longer than she had thought. Maya weaved between the piles of cars and mounds of debris and pavement, and before too long, she found herself masked face to masked face with the stranger, and they were both aiming their guns at one another, their fingers positioned over the triggers. A common wasteland greeting.

"Well," said the man, his voice slightly muffled, "you didn't shoot me first, so I guess you're not planning on killing me?"

"Yeah, you guessed right," Maya confirmed in a pleasant voice, also a tad bit muffled. She noticed his left eyes had a scar beneath it, and he sounded familiar. "I wouldn't have bothered you normally, but I was wondering if you had anything for sale?"

"Like what?" He asked.

"Ammo."

He chuckled, "not for that piece of junk, no," he said, looking at her assault rifle with his gray eyes. Maya took notice that he used a plasma rifle, and it was in pristine condition. "But I have a few grenades, some medical supplies, and a pistol, if you're looking for another weapon." He was patting himself down as he listed off his goods, and his gun was lowered a bit. Maya kept hers up, however, not wanting to give him the chance of shooting her while her guard was down.

"No, I don't need any of that," she said, obviously disappointed and frowning. For some reason, he was giving her deja vu.

"Oh, and some whiskey." He added with grin and pulled a grimy bottle from his pocket. Maya smiled, though she didn't drink.

"No thanks." She paused and then asked, "you from around here?"

The man gave her an analytical look, and then lowered his gun, obviously feeling she was no danger to him. Maya did the same a second later. "I'm from Rivet City, but I don't go there that often anymore. I'm a bit claustrophobic."

Alright, Maya thought with a shiver, serious deja vu. Had she met him before?

"What about you?" He asked.

"Me?" She brought a hand to her chest and rose her brow. "Well, I live far and in between communities around the wastes, I have about five safe houses set up in and around the city." Maya paused, and then, feeling rather brave, added, "but I was born in a vault."

When the fact had been stated, the man's eyes widened slightly, and he gave her a very penetrating stare. "What's your name?" He asked her, his voice betraying his sudden curiosity.

"Uh, Maya." She said with a shrug.

The lines around his eyes crinkled in a smile, and he pulled down his mask, grinning widely at her. "That's what I thought."

Maya gaped at him, stunned. She knew now why she thought he sounded so familiar. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed right away. "David?" She breathed, unbelieving.

"Hey there, Little Maya," he said with a hoarse voice.

Maya felt a little dizzy, but now that she knew who he was, she recognized all the unique qualities about him. His dim but bright gray eyes, his fallow skin, and his wild black hair that was just a tad bit too messy. And of course there was his voice, deep and almost hypnotic, but gruff and in a permanent state of voice-loss. That was David all right, David from her vault.

Maya had been born in an opened vault, one of the few in the D.C. area that didn't brainwash it's inhabitants, shelter mad scientists, or refuse to allow anyone to leave. Maya's vault was strict, but not unbearable. People were able to come and go as they pleased as long as they were deemed trustworthy, and residents were allowed to leave as long as they were of age eighteen. Maya had been a trouble child in her youth, always fussing about being claustrophobic and bored. Hardly any young people remained in the vault after they became adults, and Maya was besides herself with anticipation for the moment she left seventeen behind her.

David hadn't been a vaultie to start out with. He'd been born and raised in Rivet City by his mother, who died when he was fourteen. However, due to a series of events Maya was not familiar with, he came to join her vault family when Maya was still very young. He never stayed too long during his visits, always complaining that living in a vault was like living on a boat. He came and went, sometimes bringing supplies, sometimes just stories.

That's how Maya and him became so close, those stories. She adored them almost as much as she adored the thought of that one, fateful birthday that always seemed so far away. He told her about fighting the Enclave, and helping the Brotherhood, about killing super mutants and meeting the ghouls of Underworld. They intrigued and terrified her to the point where staying cooped up in the vault became almost unbearable.

When she did finally turn eighteen, she left with rushed good-byes and an old assault rifle, and never looked back. She knew one day she'd return to visit, but for now she felt so free in this barren world that felt more like home than the pristine vault had ever been. Now, she was twenty-one, and she hadn't seen David in three, long years.

"So," he said, with smile widening, "you finally got out of that vault, and you seem to be doing well."

Maya didn't reply, at some point she had lowered her own scarf, and was smiling just as dazedly as he. She was nearly trembling with excitement, and without thinking, she leaped forward and embraced him tightly, laughing slightly. It didn't take him long to hug her back, and his grip was much tighter than hers.

"Oh, I missed you," she squeaked, "I kept thinking of going back to the vault and trying to track you down, but I guess I just... didn't."

"I missed you too, Little Maya, though you're not so little anymore." He wasn't just teasing her, it was true. In the vault, she had always had a babyish face underneath that head of hair, but the wasteland seemed to have carved her into something more tough, more capable. Her eyes were sharp and her chin less rounded, and she had cut her hair short, which made her look older. David was at least twenty years older than Maya, and even through the dust and grim covering both of them, the difference was quite clear.

Maya let go of him after a moment and was positively beaming with happiness. "You should come to my safe house and I could make you some coffee... or something," she added, eying the bottle of whiskey still in his hand. She then gestured with the barrel of her gun in the direction she had come from, near a cluster of old buildings.

David considered it for a quick moment, and then shrugged. "I suppose, I don't have anywhere I need to be right now, anyways."

"Do any of us?" Maya asked, shouldering her rifle and leading the way.

Maya's most recent safe house was across the river in DC, on the second floor of a reinforced building, one of the few that still had all it's walls, but not it's roof. She had guarded it with barbed wire, makeshift walls, mines, trip wire attached to bells, and other assorted booby traps. She led David carefully through them, and wrenched open the heavy steel door barricading the entrance.

"How long have you been here?" David asked.

"About a week," Maya said matter-of-factly. "I had to clear out some mutants when I arrived, and I had to set new traps, though nothing's bothered me since. I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning, to head up to Megaton and do some trading. Which means," she let out a heavy sigh, "I'm going to have to disarm all those bombs and traps, I don't want to waste them."

"I'll help you," David offered eagerly and quickly, "if you'd like."

Maya smiled, "yeah, okay, but now, let's just get something to drink."

They went up to the second floor, which was littered with chunks of wall and debris, and warmed by several barrel-fires, one of which stood next to her bed, on which David sat upon. Every shelf and corner seemed to be piled with stuff, ammo, medical supplies, explosives, and a variety of weapons.

"Wow," David muttered, standing up from the bed and moving to a table stacked with enormous equipment. "Flamer, missile launcher, heavy incinerator, fat man," he gaped at her. "You're packing some serious fire power here, why're you using that shitty assault rifle, then?"

Maya shrugged, "it's light, relatively accurate. I travel with a caravan, it's a big cart downstairs that Mammoth drives, my Brahmin." She nodded out the window, "I like to wander around a lot, and I don't like carting around a big gun if I am, so I use this. However, when I have my cart with me, I get attacked a lot, so I use some of the bigger weapons when that happens."

"I see," David said, looking away from her death pile and picking up the rifle. "This looks old, where'd you get it?"

Maya stared at him, "you don't recognize it? It's yours."

"Really?" He frowned and looked at the gun more closely. Indeed, in the old wood he found his initials carved into it, and then a tiny passage; 'To Little Maya, from Dave.' He smiled slightly, "oh yeah, I remember giving this to you the last time you and I were at the vault at the same time."

"Yeah," she grunted as she sat down on her mattress, and David mimicked the action. She handed him a chipped mug with very strong coffee dwelling inside. "I've put plenty of sugar in it, but I don't have any milk anymore."

"That's fine," he said, sipping it and grimacing. It was sharp and bitter, but oddly satisfying. Maya did the same, shivering as she did so.

"Ugh," she groaned, looking at the dark drink with regret, "they don't have good coffee anymore in Rivet City, I'll have to make sure I get good stuff at Megaton."

David watched her for a moment, carefully. In the light of the barrel fire, she looked very pretty, not at all like a wastelander. Her hair was short and choppy, and matched the chocolate brown of her eyes. Underneath the dirt he was sure her skin was still clear and fair.

"This wasn't what I had expected of you when you said you wanted to leave the vault. It must be lonely out here all by yourself, I would have thought you would have wanted to settle down in a town of some sort, or did what I did, coming and going from the vault as you please."

Maya gave him a sheepish smile, and he detected a bit of sadness in it. "Yeah, it's lonely, I suppose, but... well, you see, after leaving the vault I did settle down somewhere, in Megaton. I got involved with a guy there too. I'm sure you've heard of Colin Moriarty?"

David looked both surprised and angry at the mention of this name. "You got involved with Moriarty?"

"Yeah." She said with a look of repulsion and regret. "I thought he was great at first, got me a job in his saloon cleaning the place, but then I realized he really didn't like paying me for my troubles, and tried to pressure me into going into, well, prostitution."

David looked suddenly nervous, "geez, Maya, you didn't..."

"No!" She cried, "no I would never! I--Yeah, I left him, but no one else in Megaton would take me in, they all thought I was some con artist working for him or something. So I got fed up and left, and I didn't want to settle down anywhere else, so I just, I dunno, became a wastelander. It just happened."

He was quiet for awhile, considering her story. David knew Colin Moriarty all right, of the notorious Moriaty's Saloon. He'd been in a bit of trouble with the slime ball awhile back when it came to money, but he had felt sympathetic for the whore he had in his possession, and the way he treated his ghoul bartender, Gob, was terrible.

"But you're right," Maya said distantly a moment later, "it does get lonely out here sometimes."

Sporadically, David suggested, "you could always come back with me to Rivet City." Then he quickly fumbled to add, "or go back to the vault."

Maya smiled and let out a soft laugh. "That's nice of you and all, Dave, but I don't think I could do that. I sort of signed up for this life and I enjoy it. Maybe some day I'll go back to staying with people, but for now I think I'll just stay where I am."

They were still for a long time, in the heavy silence that was both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Then, quite suddenly, Maya's head fell against David's with a light thud. He glanced down at her, slightly baffled, but her eyes were closed and he took notice of the rings underneath her eyes and the lack of color in her skin, underneath the layer of grime.

"I really miss your stories," she said, "like the ones you used to tell me when you first came to the vault and I was really little."

David watched the floor, thinking, and then grinned. "I know one you'd really like."

He felt her smile against his shoulder, "then tell me it."

"Alright then," he shifted on the bed slightly so he was more comfortable with her weight thrown against his one side. "I was about twenty-one, so you were just a baby, and I stumbled against Paradise Falls, the slaving town. You know about Paradise Falls?"

"Yeah."

"Well, they invited me inside to check out their 'merchandise,' and I ended up talking to a small kid who was locked up in with the rest, no older than six, I'd say.

"It peeved me, and when they realized I didn't have the money to buy any of the slaves, they kicked me out. I had to spend three months scraping up enough money together to seem legit, and when I returned, they welcomed me back again. I ended up telling one of the men in charge that I needed a place to stay, so when most of the slavers were asleep, I snuck into the main terminal near the back of the complex.

"I had spoken to the kid earlier, told him I was trying to spring him loose. He told me some of the other slaves knew that all the collars that bound them to the cages were all controlled by the one terminal, and that I'd have to hack it in order to set any of them loose. I spent at least four hours trying to figure out how to get into the system, but after I did, it wasn't hard to shut off any of the collars.

"But that wasn't even the hard part. I had to get the kid out of the complex and escape with him, hopefully before morning, when the slavers were expecting me to pay and then leave. I picked the lock to the kid's cage and got him out, but we barely reached the gates when the guards noticed and sounded the alarm.

"We had to run for about a mile and a half non stop, with guns firing behind us until we finally managed to loose them. But we also knew the slavers were going to be tracking us down as soon as they regrouped. So we had to move fast, and the kid told me about his home, which probably wasn't far from Paradise Falls, because he'd been kidnapped out in the mountains behind where he lived. So he led me there, because I was in as much danger as he was, and when we got there, we were safe."

There was sort of an eerie kind of silence when David had finished speaking, and Maya didn't say anything for a moment or two, thinking. Finally, she whispered hoarsely, "where did he live?"

"Your vault," David answered, grinning at her. She lifted her head up and looked at him closely. "Your brother Max was my initiation into your family, I suppose, and he was eager to let me meet his baby sister."

"So it was you?" She inquired, "the one who saved Max from the slavers?"

David nodded.

"They never told me who it was," then she smiled, "but I suppose I should have known."

David felt something briefly tug at his heart, and wondered what it was. He considered it may be longing. It wouldn't have surprised him. He had always had an unusual bond with Maya's family, but it only strengthened when he was around her. The other Vault inhabitants had noticed the same thing, and it had only been Max and his parents who were not at all worried about David's love for her when she was a child. Of course, it hadn't been romantic love back then, no, it was something much more complicated. But had he ever considered the possibility after she had stepped out of puberty all those years ago? Of course he had. David supposed he should have felt disgusted with himself, but he honestly didn't.

Without really thinking of the consequences, David bent his head down and kissed Maya on the lips slowly, so he didn't seemed crazed. He felt her freeze as they connected, but it was more out of shock than out of repulsion. David would have laughed if she had told him she hadn't been expecting it.

Finally, seconds whipped by, and she melted into the same motion as he did. Both of them weren't quite sure what to do, however, and settled for refusing to break apart. Their hands hovered awkwardly over assorted places, and they could both taste the distinct flavor of cigarettes on each other's lips.

Then, as if he came to a sudden decision, David pushed Maya down onto the bed, her back hitting the old mattress with a loud thud, and she grunted slightly. He kissed her more roughly now, and she welcomed it, trying to kiss him back at the same time, while he overpowered her. David felt as if he were becoming dizzy, perhaps out of their sudden proximity. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to get enough of her, now that he had had it, and the fact that he hadn't been this close to another woman in almost two years only added to the exhilaration.

He squeezed her upper arms tightly, and she managed to dig her fingers through his hair manically. She moaned ever-so slightly, and he suddenly left her mouth, instead trailing chaste kisses down her less-than-spotless neck. Her hands were tightening with the sensation of his lips on her skin, and when he gave her a quick bite, she could hardly stand it.

With a sudden burst of strength, Maya shoved him backwards, so she could sit up slightly, and still have him over her. She began to fumbled with the straps and buttons of his leather clothes, while he mimicked her actions and began to unzip the layers of clothing she wore, which were tattered, and, at the moment, the most burdensome things in the whole wasteland.

Within seconds, they gave up trying to take off all their clothes, and only settled with the most necessary items. Still nearly fully dressed, David pushed Maya back down onto the mattress, and focused his attention on both of their centers . . . .

It was bliss for both of them. Maya inhaled sharply as David pushed into her, and smiled into his shoulder at the sensation. She hadn't been intimate like this since Colin Moriarty, and there was a magnificent difference between the two times.

At first David went slow, starting up a rythm, and Maya wrapped her arms around his neck as he went in, and out, in, and out. She bit her lip sometimes to stiffle long moans that were threatening tospill from her, but soon, as he quickened his pace, she didn't bother at all.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, an excited voice whispered into her ear that her old friend certainly knew what he was doing when it came to sex. She hardly considered denying it, because it was quite true. David seemed to be giving her as much pleasure as she seemed to be giving him, and he pressed a rough hand to her half-clad chest to keep her pinned down every time she threatened to arch her back.

In her own sea of moans and whispers, Maya could hear the uneven, erratic breathing that David emitted, and she tightened her fists in his partially unbuttoned jacket. By now, David was going much faster, and although prior to this there had been very little stimulation for her, his rythm was, in fact, making her quite light-headed. He sat up straighter to reach her better, and kept her pinned down, this time with two hands, instead of one. He began to thrust into her harder than before, and each time he went forward, Maya let out a short, uncontrollable cry.

"Damnit," he said suddenly into her ear, and Maya wondered when he had bent down again. "I don't think . . . ."

Whatever he didn't think, Maya wasn't sure, but she whispered back to him over his shoulder, "it's okay."

And it ended there, with a final thrust, and a release. Maya's senses seemed to flood back to her, and she found herself laying underneath David, a spring in her mattress digging into her back, although she didn't pay it any mind. He was hovering over her slightly, and they were both breathing hard, hot, and unsure of what to do next. The whole thing had hardly lasted more than ten minutes.

Maya breathed in deeply, her eyes half-lidded and even more tired than they had been before, and she exhaled with a smile. "...Well..."

"I'm sorry..." he mumbled, pulling away from her, "it's just been awhile."

"It's okay," Maya repeated, sliding her hands down so they rested over his shoulders. "You were much better than Colin."

David laughed softly, and then he looked unimaginably tired. He rolled over and lay on his back, his eyes closed. "I'll help you take down those traps of your's in the morning, if you still want want me too."

Maya leaned over and rested her head on his chest, staring down at the end of her bed. She nodded, not saying anything else, and listened as David fell asleep, and as his breathing became steady and even again, going up and down as his chest did. She herself wanted desperately to fall asleep as well, but she knew that she wouldn't. She'd wait until he was completely unconsious, and then she'd pack up and leave for Megaton before he awoke.

Maya had known this was going to be her plan as soon as they had kissed. She was no fool, and she knew what was coming. One of her greatest character flaws was her intimacy issues, and while she cared for David deeply, she knew that facing him in the morning and having to deal with the sudden change of their relationship through awkward conversations would be nearly impossible. In her heart, she knew it would be best to leave him then.

So an hour into the night passed while she loaded Mammoth and her small cart up with all her equipment, and went through the complex carefully and quietly disabling her mines, her tripwire, and her rigged guns. When she was sure she was ready to leave, she wandered back up to where David was sleeping, in a daze.

Maya watched him for awhile, half excited, half dissapointed, and with what, she was not sure. Perhaps it was because she was being selfish, leaving him without a word after what they had done, but she also knew that, when you were a wastelander, you had to look out for your own needs just as much as an ally's.

Gracefully, she bent down and kissed him on the cheek, smiling as she stood up. That was the last she saw of David, that evening. She went back down to her Caravan and led the way to Megaton through the night, guiding Mammoth with a hand on his burgundy neck. Maya didn't look back,and the further she went, the less regret she felt.

Maya would see him again one day. Maybe in a month, perhaps in a year, but either way, there was a place for David in her future, either as a friend, or a lover, or a comrade. But he was there.

The thought brought a smile to her face.

Fin