It was the first night I spent with Paladin Danse as my companion. I still didn't know why I took him with me. He was so passionate about the Brotherhood, a feeling I actually didn't share. In fact, I hated most of the things the Brotherhood stood for. I'd rather stay with the Railroad, I appreciated their ideas and I really wanted to help as much Synths as I could. Not that I would mention that in front of the Paladin. So why did I take Danse with me? Because I wanted to be a Knight of the BOS? Hell no. Because I wanted to infiltrate the BOS? Maybe. But to be honest, mostly because I was sure there was more to Paladin Danse than the loyal and honourable soldier. I wanted to get to know the man behind the Paladin. I've always had a thing for men like him. Nate… he had been quite alike. He had had a hard shell, but I expected a soft core. And I had been right about that. Maybe I'd find that soft core in Danse too.

Today, we had searched for a piece of tech for Scribe Haylen and marched on to the National Guard training yard. Knight Rhys not only wanted that place cleared of ghouls, he also thought it would be a nice quarter for soldiers of the Brotherhood. It felt kinda weird to bring Danse, who was technically our commander, to such an easy and boring job, but he didn't mind. At least as far as I could tell. Maybe he had been too long on board of the Prydwen. I had the feeling he enjoyed wandering around the Wastelands, fighting against raiders, ghouls and nature. Danse wasn't really talkative like Mac or Deacon or Nick, but his presence was still enjoyable.

After a rather hard fight with a glowing one and the fact that we would have to face the Commonwealth at night, we had decided to stay at the National Guard and prepare the place for coming soldiers. Cleaning out the corpses and setting up a turret took more time than I had expected, but Danse did a great job and was working with a faint smile on his face. It was strange to give him direct orders, strange to know that he was the one following me although he had recruited me and had a higher rank. I tried to reword my orders, I wanted them to sound like simple requests.
"Could you please bar the door?" was actually the last thing I had said to him like an hour ago. I didn't mind the silence between us, I mean, what should I expect? We've been travelling together for a day only, so… I had turned on Diamond City Radio on my Pip Boy and was humming to the songs while working. When the last dead ghoul was removed and out turret was quietly rattling on the roof, I was so glad to finally sit down. Sighing, I let myself fall into a well-worn but comfy looking armchair and turned off the radio. I really didn't want to hear Butcher Pete for the third time today. Danse was still standing, almost filling the room with his power armour. Looking into a broken mirror on the wall, he let out an annoyed growl.

"Ugh I got ghoul blood all over my armour and my hood."

"Oh wait, I've got something to help you out."

Searching my giant backpack for a can of purified water, I didn't see how Danse took of his hood. But when I looked up, I was quite surprised to see he had hair. Dark and clean black hair. Why was I surprised about that? I don't know. Maybe because he looked ten times better without the hood? And he had been quite a sight before. Anyways, I caught myself staring at him longer than I should have before I got up to give him the water.

"Thanks." Danse said, giving me one of his rare smiles.

He always seemed so serious and on duty that I was glad to see he was able to smile from time to time.

"You're welcome." I said, turning my back on him to go and look for the cleanest mattress I could find.

God I was tired. But whenever I had to sleep outsides of Sanctuary, I made sure to use a mattress without blood or dirt or whatever else on it. I know it's stupid and that I should get used to it, but well… I didn't grow up like that. I had had clean sheets and showers whenever I wanted to. Damn, that was something I really missed. A second later I felt bad, knowing that Nate and Shaun should be the ones I miss, not hot showers.

When I finally found not just one, but two almost clean mattresses, Danse helped me to bring them to the warmest, most welcoming room of the National Guard. Sighing again, I took of my armour and sat down on one mattress, resting my back on the cold wall, closing my eyes for a moment. A squeaking noise some moments later made me open them again. Danse was sitting down on the mattress placed opposite of mine. He was still wearing his freshly cleaned power armour. I had to chuckle.

"You should lubricate your armour with oil, you know."

"I'm afraid I don't see a reason why I should do that."

God, he was always so formal. Because it's creaking, Danse. I thought, but decided to let the matter rest.

"Don't you ever get out of your power armour?" I asked instead.

"Of course I do." Danse sounded surprised. "Why do you ask, soldier?"

"I just don't think it's very comfortable to sit down with a power armour on." I guessed that answer would've been better than to explain it was actually meant to be a rhetorical question.

Danse looked down, seeming surprised to see his armour on him.

"I might be a bit used to it. I only take it off for a shower or to sleep."

I smiled at him. A few minutes passed in silence before Danse got up again.

"This might actually be a good time to take the power armour off." He said, grinning awkwardly. It made him look a few years younger. With a loud, clanking sound he left his armour, placing it next to the entrance to our room. And this, this was the second surprise for me on this evening. Damn, Danse was buff! He wore this super tight orange BOS uniform underneath and you could clearly see his defined muscles. I was used to men being rather skinny than fat in the Commonwealth, but Danse? This was a perfectly trained body. I could feel the heat rush to my face, and, to be honest, to some other parts of my body. He sat down again, starting to clean his gun and obviously didn't realise I was staring like an idiot. Good for me, so I had plenty of time to set my eyes on something else in the room. The broken chair next to the barricaded window. Wow. The fan standing on the desk. I should take that with me. But yeah, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but glimpse at Danse every few seconds. For the first time, the silence between us bothered me. I started talking about the next day and the settlement I promised to help, and I even managed to hold the conversation. It was getting late while we were still discussing raiders, ghouls, deathclaws and other dangers, and with the time passing by, it got easier to chat with Danse.

"Proctor Teagan asked me to take supplies the settlements in the Commonwealth." I finally said.

It really irritated me. It was simply stealing if the soldiers weren't even allowed to pay with caps.

"Yes, the Brotherhood needs food and medicine on the Prydwen." Danse answered, not looking up from his gun, not noticing the anger in my voice.

"Sure. But don't you think it's just wrong to take supplies from settlers without giving them something in return?"

Danse hesitated for a moment and slowly looked up to me. Maybe he was trying to figure out if he should answer as a soldier or as a man?

"It seems incorrect to me too. But if the Brotherhood gives an order, we have to obey."

I grunted angrily. God, was he a loyal soldier. It really seemed like he knew nothing else besides the Brotherhood. Or maybe he just didn't care about anything else than the Brotherhood.

After this conversation, we didn't talk anymore. Or at least not more than a few words, including "Good night". I was lying awake for a long time this evening, thinking about Sanctuary and my friends there, where Shaun could be and if he was safe, if Danse would ever tell me more about himself. Pictures of him getting out of his power armour were floating through my mind. I tried not to imagine how he would look like without his BOS uniform… But I had to admit, I was getting curious how much of his hard shell I'd be able to break in the next time.