Oddly enough, when Joesephine came to the store she was looking for (now with a faded sign that she could just barely make out the word 'Play' which made her stomach lurch. She'd never been fond of that use of the word.) there were no raiders lurking around it. No bags of moldy flour piled in a half circle around the door. The windows were boarded up, and the door had been nailed shut at some point, but for the most part it had been deserted. I guess kinks weren't on many peoples mind after the bomb dropped, she thought. Oh, what Hancock would say if he could see her now. Some part of her knew deep down that his leathery skin wasn't the only kind of leather he was familiar with. She shuddered, but pried the wood off of the door and went inside.

It was wasn't exactly well stocked. While there were a few things that remained in abundance, such as beads and lingerie, the particular... items that she was looking for were hard to find. More specifically, the items that were the right material. Sure, she could find other items that had elastomer in them-but the items that had it would most likely be unpackaged and not even the right amount. By actually going and collecting dildos she could be sure of everything; for starters, that the material would be clean and mint in package. She wasn't going to let Nick see this stage. It would most likely make him back out of this little arrangement due to sheer embarrassment, and she was certain that he was only just barely agreeing to it.

She had to make sure to set aside at least one dildo to coat in rubber cement - a mold for the final product. She already had a huge stockpile of circuitry and the right kinds of wire for Nick. After all, she got pretty handy with a sautering iron and needle-nose pliers over the years, and she needed to keep her boyfriend in tip-top shape, right? She already knew what she would be doing to make her little piece of art work.


He didn't know why he was agreeing to this. Well, that wasn't true; he knew exactly why. It had been... What? An odd 210+ years? It's not like he had agreed right away anyway; she'd dropped that bomb in his lap three days before. He'd given it a lot of thought.

Three days. Three, intensely nerve-wracking days of avoiding his girl like the plague. Ellie noticed. Ellie asked. Ellie got no answer beyond "We're arguing".

That wasn't quite right, but it'd get her out of his hair - so to speak.

When he thought back to that day, all he could think was "What the hell got into her?". He couldn't blame her for suggesting it, it was only natural that after so long together she'd want to be a little more intimate that just being kissed and held. Hell, he'd even thought about offering... services, before but she'd never seemed to want anything more than what they had. And now that it was sure that she did infact want more than that... He really didn't know how to react.

As a very, very drunk Ellie once said "He put the Nick in eunuch", and he had gotten used to that fact. It's not that he didn't feel the desire, or attraction at all - it's that there was no was he could act on it. He always thought it was strange that the Institute would include a sex-drive in his programming, but not give him the equipment to do anything about it. Maybe they felt that it would be too strange, or it went too far; but then, didn't they do that in the very beginning?

Perhaps it wasn't intentional; that in transferring Nick's memories and personality into his body, it was a part of the package. Still, years and years went by and he learned not quite to suppress it, but to not feel it. Not that he'd felt much of anything for the first 50 or so years. Not after Jenny.

Sure, after the first few months of rolling with Joesephine he'd started to fall for her; and they'd bonded at a deep level over the murders of their spouses. But every time he'd started to drift towards her in a romantic way, all he could think about was Jenny. It took him a long time to get to the point where he made that first move - and that was only because she'd got him so worked up that he couldn't think.

But now... The suggestion that he could have that level of intimacy again... The thought that, with just a little alteration and a whole lot of embarrassment, he could give Joesephine that...

Nick was a bit old fashioned in that regard. He'd never liked the idea of casual sex or one-night-stands. In his eyes, it was something special that should be kept between people who loved each other. He was modern enough to not need marriage as a factor, but love was the driving force behind it. And he did love Joesephine.

Still... This was something he needed to mull over. It would be stupid to immediately say yes or no.

So after three days he finally gave her an answer.

It was late at night, about 11 PM, and he knew that Joesephine would be home and awake. Perfect time to have a chat with her.

He didn't even knock on the door before entering - he never had before, anyway - and Joesephine was sitting at the kitchen table cleaning her rifle. She didn't look at him.

Nick walked over to her and pulled up a chair next to her, sitting down and folding his hands on the table. She kept her eyes on her gun and the rag she was using to polish it.

There was one way he thought of that would get her to look at him. He pulled a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out from his jacket, put one in his mouth, and held the lighter up to the end of the cig - hesitating on turning it on, giving Joesephine one last chance to look at him before he lit up. He stared at her, expecting her to stop him from lighting it - her biggest pet peeve was smoking in the house - and finally talk to him. No dice. He sighed and finally lit the cigarette, taking a drag from it and leaning back in his chair. How was he going to get her to talk to him, if even playing on her biggest annoyance didn't get her attention. He stuck the cigarette in his mouth to put the pack and the lighter back away.

They sat in silence, only the sound of Joesephine polishing and cleaning her gun, and the occasional puff of smoke and breath from Nick. Nick twirled the cig inbetween his fingers, watching the cherry slowly creep down the length of the cigarette. Two minutes passed, and he had already burned away almost half of it. He decided that if she didn't say anything - or even acknowledge his presence- then he would leave. But he would find her during the day, out in public - and she couldn't ignore him then. He pulled the cigarette up to his face, thinking about when and where would be the best place to corner her.

Joesephine finally smacked the cigarette out of his hand, startling Nick and making him jump. He looked over to her in shock, and she looked none to pleased to see him or his little tactic. Almost furious infact.

"Nick, why are you here?", she asked angrily.

"I want to talk to you. About what you... proposed", Nick replied.

Josephine sighed and rubbed her forehead, clearly trying to find in herself to talk to him calmly despite being so upset with him.

"I... I thought about it. And...", Nick had tried to push out the words. They sure as hell weren't coming out easy.

"And?"

Nick took Josephine's hand into his own and gave her his best brave-face.

"And..."- he sighed -"Look, Josie, you've gotta understand - It's not exactly been an easy decision. Sure there are some really great things that could happen, but there are lot of 'what-if's' too!"

"So you're saying no then?", Josephine asked, more disappointed than angry now.

Nick held her hand with both of his now, and gave her a solemn look.

"No. I'm saying... If it will make you happy, then let's do it."

Josephine looked at him with shock, then a delighted grin spread across her face. She set her rifle down on the table and scrambled to kiss Nick.

She stayed in his arms, half-leaning half-kneeling beside him, and wrapped herself around his torso with the top of her head resting underneath his chin.

"Nick, thank you! This means so much to me!", Josephine exclaimed.

She was almost in tears, she was so happy. Nick had had no idea how much sex must have meant to her.

"BUT! There are one or two things that I''l need."

"Sure, name it!", Joesephine asked excitedly, kissing him in between each of her three words.

"Just don't... Don't make it ridiculous, Josie. Hey! Don't shrug at me; you know what I mean! No weird colors or shapes or... Jesus, what else do they make those things with, glitter? ... I SAW THAT, DON'T YOU DARE!", Nick asked weak, holding back a grimace.

Joesephine laughed.

Nick gave her a nervous smile, and remembering how pissed she was when he first came in, wanted to know why.

"So... Why were you so mad when I got here? You know that kind of thing takes some time to think about", he asked tentatively.

"Yeah, of course; but avoiding me for three days? That was stupid, Nick. I didn't need an immediate answer from you the next time I saw you! I wasn't going to badger you about it - unless a few weeks went by without a yes or a no, of course."

"I guess that's understandable. I'm sorry, Josie. You kind of had me a little... How should I put it? Tense, about the whole idea."

Joesephine kissed him one more time on the cheek.

"Trust me - It'll be worth it!"


Joesephine chuckled at the memory as she decided on three elastomer dicks, two to make sure it went off without a hitch, and one for the mold. She had hoped that there would be at least one blue one there, since it would look kind of awkward if they were to use a flesh colored one. Fortunately, it looked like the realistic ones were the first to go, and she found a single blue dildo. She'd melt it down and make it stretch, thinning out the color to about match Nick's. She'd already had plans for what it would look like, how it would work; in another life, she probably could have made a living designing adult novelties, she mused.

As she finished up her task, she was more than happy to get out of there. As she headed for the door, she realized that there was just one more thing that she ought to get, something very vital.

The store had a whole shelf dedicated to lubrication, and there were more novelty lubes and edible items than there were actual KY Jelly. It took her a minute to find the normal tubes, and tossed them in her bag along with the penises.

She stood up and pondered exploring the store a little more; after all, they might have some other things that she might need. First and foremost - underwear. She'd been wearing the same two pairs of underwear and the same bra for almost four years now, and it was getting hard to patch up and clean without tearing a new hole. She'd noticed a lot of lingerie in there before... Maybe there were a few less risque items?

By the end of her adventure in dildo harvesting, she'd collected three dildos, two tubes of lube, and three bra and panty sets - a major win for her. She planned to burn her old ones the minute she got home. Sure, they weren't the most covering choice of underwear; but they were fairly sturdy fabric, and hot damn they looked good on her. Just another surprise for Nick when she finally got business done. She was going to do the actually work out by Red Rocket or Hangman's Alley - there were no settlements there, as she'd decided long ago to keep those two for herself. They were small properties, so it wasn't like she was being greedy anyway.

Question was; invite Nick along, or bring him the finished product?

Unfortunately for Nick, it wasn't much of a question; he'd need to be fitted. And Josephine was certain he would not like that.