Nora sat on her bed in the settlement she made in the ruins of the old Starlight Drive-In. Of all the settlements she founded, she favored this one, even though she knew she shouldn't favor any town over the others. But this place, this old drive in was special to her, even before she built the town. It was where she and Nate had their first date, around a year before the bombs fell. He had taken her there to watch some science fiction movie, but Nora couldn't remember anything about the movie; at the time, she was too focused on his hands exploring her body that night. As embarrassed as she was to admit it, that was the night Shaun was conceived.
But now, over two centuries later, Starlight Drive-In became even more important to Nora. Sitting on her bed, her eyes closed, she recounted the events of the previous day.
Nora had woken up, the day before, in that same bed. She crossed town to gather MacCready and her weapons. It was just supposed to be an errand day: run to Red Rocket and fix up some armor and weapons, collect caps from and check-up on some settlements, then do an ammo run through a few merchants. Nothing serious, Nora did this kind of errand day every Sunday, the same way she used to spend her Sundays cleaning and going to play dates and grocery shopping before the war. You know, with some slight differences.
MacCready was already awake when Nora arrived to his cabin, which wasn't unusual for him. Nora was just hoping that he would be asleep, so that then she would have an excuse to not bring him along. Errand days were usually boring, and the companions took the quiet time to talk with the Sole Survivor about their griefs. MacCready, though…well, Nora didn't know how to feel about MacCready. She felt like he understood her better than the others. He had told Nora not too long ago about his ill son and deceased wife. After that, how could she not agree to help him search through that old hospital for a cure for his son? Nora would want to – and does - do anything to save her own son, she had to help MacCready.
But seeing MacCready that way, watching him fight so passionately for someone he loved, made Nora feel…she didn't even know. But it was a feeling she had never felt before, not even with Nate. She just knew that MacCready, with how passionate and caring he was, she knew that he would protect her until she stopped breathing. And then she just felt guilty for wanting MacCready in this way. She should be grieving over the death of her husband but…she wasn't. She had all but forgotten Nate just weeks after walking out of that vault. MacCready wasn't helping, either, with the way he was so gentle when he spoke with Nora, how he listened to her talk so intensely, how he genuinely seemed to care.
After finding the cure with MacCready and having the ghoul in Good Neighbor send it off, Nora has pretty much avoided MacCready until she could figure out her own feelings. This errand day was MacCready's turn to hike around the Commonwealth with the Survivor, but Nora was hoping he would sleep through the five o'clock wake-up time so she could take someone else.
"Hey," MacCready said in his smooth voice, a welcoming sound to Nora's ears.
"Oh, hey." Nora responded, avoiding eye contact. She reached into a dresser near the door of the cabin and grabbed an assault rifle and the last couple of cases of ammo. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake." She lied. "I was going to go to Cait's and see if she wanted to go. Figured you'd want to rest after the hospital the other day."
"No, I'm alright." MacCready said coolly and casually, watching Nora as she moved slowly around the cabin, grabbing empty ammo boxes and just generally stalling time. "I'm ready when you are."
"Great," Nora sighed as she lifted up a third metal ammunition box. "Grab a couple of these and we'll head to the Red Rocket."
The journey was not a painful walk to the gas station Nora used to be a regular in back in the day. She remembered picking up cigarettes for Nate just the day before the bombs fell, sharing a joke with Stan, the main cashier of the Red Rocket. He was a nice kid. He wanted to be the owner of the company one day.
MacCready placed the five ammunition boxes under the counter Stan used to stand behind for hours every Monday through Saturday. He walked to the filing cabinet in the office where Nora kept parts for her power armor and carried the supplies to her. She tinkered in silence, happy to focus on something that wasn't so guilt-wrenching. MacCready wandered around the perimeter of the building, waiting while Nora painted another coat of Minutemen paint to the torso of one of the other suits she'd found somewhere on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Silently, the two crossed the commonwealth to the Castle, stopping by settlements and merchants.
Nora thanked the Castle doctor for trading with her. She turned to MacCready. "You ready to head back?"
MacCready looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, which was unusual for how long it normally takes to cross the Commonwealth. "Well, I guess I am. We leave now, we'll get back to Starlight in time to get maybe three hours of sleep."
Nora checked the time. Because of the travel time between Starlight and Castle, not to mention raiders and greenies along the way, Nora usually didn't get to sleep on errand days. For some reason, today went a lot faster than it usually did. "Well, we won't if we just keep standing here."
MacCready sighed, defeated. "Hey, are you ok? Somethin's been…I don't know, off, I guess, about you this week."
Nora shrugged. "I guess I'm just sick of you. Spent all week with you, not much else to say." Nora joked pathetically. MacCready sighed again, but didn't say anything else. "I'm just…tired, I guess." Nora lied.
The two travelled on, not feeling the weight of the now full ammo boxes, making great time across the darkening Commonwealth. MacCready was right; the two arrived in Starlight with only a few hours left of moonlight. "Hell, MacCready, we did good today." Nora said awkwardly. Despite how quiet the two had been all day, she wasn't ready to part ways just yet. "Come help me organize these cases."
MacCready followed Nora to her house. He'd been there before, but with the town this silent it was so different. It was still and quiet, like he could say anything and nobody would hear him. "Nora," he said, "what's goin' on with you?"
Nora didn't look up, just kept organizing the cases of ammo. She shoved two of the boxes in some drawers of her cabinet. "Here, one's for you, one's for Cait, and one's for Piper. They're probably asleep right now, so just keep theirs in your cabin for tonight and give them to 'em tomorrow. I'm going to Sunshine tomorrow and getting Deacon for the week. Actually, if I leave now, I could probably get there by five and not lose any time –"
"Nora." MacCready said softly. She looked up at him, into his eyes for the first time in days. Her breath caught, the world around her melted. "Nora…" MacCready said again, his smooth voice barely above a whisper. "It's ok."
Tears broke when he said that. No one has told her that, no one has thought she needed reassurance this whole time. It was her job to tell people that everything was ok, she's the Minutemen General for fuck's sake. She has no time to be vulnerable, no time to cry. But MacCready's voice in this quiet, almost dead night made her feel like she could be vulnerable, she could be sensitive. MacCready cupped his hands on her cheeks, ignoring the quiet tears falling onto his rough, cracked hands.
"I know you feel guilty," he said calmly. "I do, too. My wife, she…I loved her. But she's gone. I can't spend the rest of my life grieving. This week, after all that you've done for me and Duncan, I just…" he hesitated, not knowing what to say. Nora stared at him, crying harder until she couldn't look at him anymore. She threw herself into his chest, sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, grabbing her waist and holding the back of her head. He held tightly to her until she finally stopped crying.
She realized then how relieved she felt. She didn't have to feel guilty. She knew Nate would understand, and she knew life went on. That moment of weakness, in MacCready's arm made her realize she had her closure with Nate. As sad as she was about it, she knew in that moment that there were many more people to love, and she was allowed to love them.
And one of those people was right in front of her.
She sighed shakily and pushed away from MacCready. "MacCready…" she whispered.
"I love you, Nora." MacCready nearly mouthed. Without letting her respond, he pulled her face toward his and kissed her. He kissed her deeply but with a passion almost as fierce as she'd seen back at the hospital. She kissed him back, with no hesitation or regret. Tears rolled down her face again but the lovers ignored them as MacCready picked Nora up and placed her on the bed, his hands resting on her inner thighs as he kneeled on the floor in front of her.
He used his left hand to pull her toward him by the small of her back. She kept kissing, deepening their connection, never wanting to move from where they were at that moment. MacCready's hands grabbed Nora's face as he continued kissing her with the fiery passion she so longed for. His hands slowly slid down, down, down until she realized he was resting them on her chest, sitting atop layers of armor and her General's uniform. There they stayed for a moment, and then MacCready began slowly removing the first layer of her outfit…
And then the second…
And the third, until she was sitting in front of MacCready in her flimsy pre-war slip. She blushed, her cheeks getting hot in embarrassment that she still wore the centuries-old thing. MacCready chuckled warmly, showing his rotten teeth. He was above her now, his left arm at Nora's waist, his right arm holding himself up. Nora smiled nervously up at him, realizing that she had only been with one man in her life. She'd hardly lost her virginity by the time the bombs fell, MacCready was definitely far more experienced than she was.
"Hey," MacCready whispered. "You ok? Do you want me to stop?"
That was the last thing Nora wanted. "N-no, I…I just…I'm not very…"
MacCready waited, concern on his face.
Nora looked back at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you. I want nothing more right now than you…and me."
MacCready relaxed then, and kissed her. His left hand travelled to the hem of her slip, his surprisingly cold fingers startling Nora as they lightly landed on her inner thigh.
"Muh-muh…Cready…" she panted. His fingers crawled up her naked body under the slip, finding her left breast. He froze completely, pulling away from Nora's face slightly, his hand resting on her breast. He looked down at her cute blushing face and quickly and skillfully slipped her undergarment above her head. He stood up and removed his own clothes, then returned to the bed, holding Nora close to him as he kissed her again.
Again, his hands found her now exposed chest as she reached her hand lower to his now exposed manhood. Her hand surprised him, and he gasped, but deepened the kiss further as they laid back down on the bed, until he was atop again. He brought his mouth from Nora's mouth, to her neck, to her collar bone, to her breasts. He licked her nipples lovingly, slowly swirling his tongue around the perimeter of her brown areolas, loving the sound of her small little gasps. His tongue travelled further downward, tasting as much of her as he could. Her stomach, her waist, her hips…he hesitated between her legs, then slowly began licking her button, teasing a bit before slowly exploring the rest of her vagina with his tongue.
Nora moaned quietly, pulling on MacCready's hair between her legs. She loved this new experience of a tongue inside of her, but she needed him to go deeper, deeper than his tongue could go. "Please…" she whispered so softly she thought MacCready couldn't hear him.
He must have, though, because he finished eating her out, then climbed clumsily back on top of her. He shared the taste of her with her tongue, then broke apart to stare lovingly down at her, before firmly placing her legs on his shoulders and slowly, almost torturously, sliding his dick inside of her.
Almost immediately she felt the euphoric feeling of his passionate member. They stared into each other's eyes for the long duration of him feeling her womanhood around himself. He pushed as deep as he could go, then pulled back just as slowly until he was almost out. Just feeling him was enough for Nora, but it wasn't enough. It felt like enough but she wanted more, she needed more of him in her. Feeling this desperate need from his partner, MacCready picked up the pace, making each thrust faster and harder than the last, consequentially making Nora moan louder and louder until she was in danger of waking the neighbors through the thin metal sheets that acted as the walls of her cabin.
Faster and faster MacCready pumped into her, until neither he nor she could take anymore. "Nora…" he panted, "I'm…I'm gonna…" he grunted as he finished inside her, pushing farther than he did before, finding closure in the sex. She yelped and nearly screamed as she reached her climax, tightening her legs around his waist, digging her nails in his back. They laid like that for a while, until finally he pulled out and lay beside her.
"I love you, Nora." He whispered to her as she cuddled up into his bare chest.
She said nothing. She could hardly move, especially her legs. She realized how much colder tonight was. Thunder rumbled lightly and she knew a radiation storm was brewing. She didn't want to move, didn't want him to move, wanted to stay in this exact spot for the rest of their lives. But she felt MacCready move from the bed and cover her with her heaviest layer from her uniform as a blanket, heard him take some pills, probably Rad-X, and then crawl back into bed with her as she fell into a sleep better than she had since the night before she entered that vault.
And that's how she got to this morning, sitting on her bed and now staring at her beautiful lover that she just didn't know what to do with. What could they possibly do? She can't get hitched; she had to focus on the Minutemen, finding Shaun, fighting the Institute, aiding the Railroad. She didn't have time for this, and MacCready didn't deserve to have his time wasted, especially by somebody as unworthy as her.
MacCready stirred, then propped himself on his elbows and looked around groggily, slightly confused. He found Nora and smiled with his rotten teeth. "Good mornin', sleepyhead." He said cheerfully. Nora smiled sheepishly and then began putting on her uniform. MacCready frowned. "Ugh, is it that time already?"
Nora paused, looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued getting dressed. MacCready stood up smoothly and crossed the small cabin over to Nora. He grabbed her face and kissed her, then stared into her eyes. After a long time, he kissed her again, sighed and said, "I'll take these crates to Piper and Cait. I know it's late and you got a looong week with Deacon ahead of you." He moved around the cabin, fetching his clothes and talking while Nora finished dressing and watched. He finished gathering his things, then came very closely to Nora and said, "But this weekend…you belong to me." He grinned, and Nora couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Now don't let Deacon get to you like you let me get to ya." MacCready winked and walked out Nora's door across town, likely going to visit Piper first, since he favored the journalist over the former cage fighter. Nora grinned, and found herself unable to stop grinning even after MacCready'd left her home.