The following morning hadn't been any less confusing as Aerostolia awoke. She had been instantly greeted by two other raiders who then took her down to the Nuka Town USA and put her to work. She had been circling the main square repeatedly, having been told to keep tabs on the remaining slaves and report any that were missing. Aerostolia sighed as she made her second round, when two raiders, probably from the Pack by the looks of it, approached her. Aerostolia frowned and looked down, trying to pretend not to see the two larger males who approached her and quickly backed her into a wall.
"Well fuck, if you aren't something to look at." One of the grizzly men said, his eyes sloppily staring her up and down. The other laughed in a stupid manner and got close to Aerostolia's face, causing her to flash her gaze below them and onto the street. "What, can't stare me in the face?" the man teased, "How fucking rude.." he hissed, before shoving his leg hard between hers and up against her crotch. Her bones chilled as she stared blankly at the two, her eyes shaking and her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water and for those moments, she went blank.
"Are you okay?"
She glanced up, her eyes meeting his momentarily, before she shyly turned away.
"I'm so sorry.. I was.. I was daydreaming.."
That was a lie.
"Don't worry, I'm okay, Nicky.."
Another lie..
"I just worry because… Well because I love you, Aerostolia.. I want this... I want US to work... You're the only thing I've ever been able to truly call mine.. In this entire life, not one thing has ever been mine... Except you... The one thing I couldn't be more proud of in this world.."
I love you..
Aerostolia gasped as she snapped to, by then the second raider chuckled and leaned close to her, his hand grabbing her wrist. Out of fear she shut her eyes. She didn't know what else to do. She would either be beaten or raped for not staring these two idiots in the eyes.. How cruel and unjust this world was. Just then a loud thud was heard and Aerostolia's eyes shot open just in time to see one of the raiders drop to the floor, grabbing at his gut while the other kept his hands raised, trying to surrender to the now angered red head standing before them.
"W-We're sorry Gage. We were just playing around. We didn't know she was yours!" Gage only raised a brow at how stupid they sounded and quickly pointed them out of his sight. The one scrambled and bound off while the other struggled to catch his breath, before limping away. Once he was sure they had retreated, he glanced back to Aerostolia, gently pressing her into the building. Suddenly she wasn't so scared. She couldn't explain what Gage did to her, but around him, she felt… Safe.
Aerostolia exhaled quickly, then without warning thrust herself into Gage's arms, her own circling his waist tightly as she shuddered from each silenced sob. Gage stood still, not sure how to handle the situation at first. He stared up briefly at the wall, then slowly rose his hand to place upon her back, the other encircling her slender body. She gasped at his touch and quickly pressed into him. Gage then pulled her tightly to his body, his fingers sliding across her back which caused Aerostolia to relax and go silent. When her sobs had stopped, she slowly drew back, but just enough to look into Gage's eyes, while still remaining close enough to feel the heat emit off his body.
"Thank you.." she whimpered softly, unable to make the tears stop though her sobs had. Gage rose his hand and lightly slid his thumb down the tear streak that stained her ivory cheek. "You're my girl... No one's allowed to touch you but me." He hissed below his breath before softly biting into his lip, "Now do me a favour, I need you to go get something comfortable on. I need some help around the park." Aerostolia nodded, releasing Gage from her arms, a very unsatisfying feeling, before turning and heading towards the FizzTop Grille. Gage chuckled and let out a small breath, then walked to the front of the small town. He sat down on a crate beside the large welcome sign and pulled up his rifle, yanking a rag from his back pocket. He then tediously scrubbed at his gun as he waited for Aerostolia, his eyes only glancing up every so often to check his surroundings.
Aerostolia had made it back up to the top of the tower. She walked in a tad wearily, her eyes glancing across the room to the chest that sat at the foot of hers and Gage's bed. Really it was Colter's but he didn't utilize the space. She approached the chest and pulled the lid open before thrusting her hand into the chest. After digging around she pulled out her black tank top and a pair of cut off shorts, then made way to change into them. She lastly pulled on her combat boots, then bound towards the elevator. Normally she wouldn't be so thrilled about being captive. She usually planned escapes, but with Gage she felt scared to leave. Like if she did, she'd not only lose whatever protection she had but then she'd have no one. Yet again. Her confusing memories weren't enough for her to go on to piece her broken past together. All she knew was that now, she was in Gage's care and now, this was safest. She had no one else to trust anyways.
When the elevator had finally hit the bottom, Aerostolia sprinted off to the front of the town, where she was met with a goofy smiled Gage. He slowly stood up and holstered his gun, then gestured to Aerostolia's hair. "I'd put that up if I were you." She quickly nodded and pulled her hair up into a loose bun, before tying it off with a fabric she had cut up and made shift into a hair holder. When she had finished she gave Gage a thumbs up and bit her lower lip. Gage approached her quickly, yanking her by her collar to his face to steal a long, deep kiss. He groaned into the kiss, his tongue prodding across hers as she had easily relinquished to his dominance. His other hand reached up and tangled through her hair, gripping a small handful to push her deeper into the kiss. How he begged to taste her. To mark her. To make sure they all knew who she belonged to.
When he had finally pulled back, Aerostolia was gasping and panting for air, her ivory face sporting a deep crimson dust. "Mmm.." he smirked, sliding his thumb across her lower lip. Aerostolia gasped softly, the completely dazed look on her face tangible in every feature. "D-Daddy.." she whimpered, her hands lightly gripping at the fabric to his shirt. this name aroused a small content laugh from Gage. How the hell could he do this to her? How could she just surrender to him so easily? She didn't know and right now she didn't care. What she did know, is she'd follow this crazy fucker to the end of the wastelands. Aerostolia gently pulled back, her hazy eyes glancing up to the emerald hues of Gage. "That's my good lil girl. Let's get going, princess." She nodded and cleared her throat, then ran after Gage who went sprinting out into the wasteland of Nuka World.
Aerostolia stayed as close as she could get to Gage without getting in his way. She looked around, her electric blue eyes whirring at each small area. Gage would occasionally glance back, as if making sure she was still following and not trying to run. But she had no interest in running. Her eyes circled back to the taller red head, giving him a glance over once more. It was so unusual to her, that someone who seemed as normal as Gage, was in fact a cold blooded raider. Aerostolia only snapped to, when Gage yanked her back behind a large bush. "What?" she said quietly, her eyes searching Gage's inquisitively. He glanced down at her, a small grin over his lips at her curiosity, then pointed to a nearby run down Red Rocket truck stop. It wasn't bad and would make a great settlement for a group of people, if there wasn't so many feral ghouls surrounding it. Aerostolia only nodded at Gage, before she was handed a small .48 snub nose pistol. Her gaze locked onto Gage. The amount of trust this man put in her, was beyond her. The fact that he could so easily hand her a gun and not second guess that she could in fact try to put him down.
"May I ask, why you trust me enough to hand me this?" she asked softly, turning the smaller device in her hands. Gage's ears perked slightly before he looked Aerostolia over, his eyes eventually falling to the piece of equipment he gave her. "Because if you shoot me, especially here and now, without enough bullets you'll be ripped apart by feral ghouls." He said softly, to which Aerostolia glanced down at her chamber, realizing he had only sported her a total of 6 bullets. She grew slightly mad at this thought, that he'd give so little before shoving the thought to the back of her mind. 'I am a slave after all..' she'd think silently to herself, before turning her eyes. Quickly she looks back in Gage's direction, only to notice the man had vanished. Panic started to well and rise deep within her gut and spread through out her chest. She whimpered and pulled back into the bush, her eyes desperately searching the wasteland for the man who had decided to take her. She frowned, then quickly smiled at the silhouette in the distance, her eyes focusing and working hard to fix on the smaller shape. When finally in view, Aerostolia froze, her blood running cold and her bones sending a spine tingling chill down her body.
"You…" she had only managed to mumble to herself as her eyes focused desperately on the foreign silhouette of this man. Quickly she shut her eyes, her hands covering her ears as she repeated without fault, "He's not really here.." over and over below her breath. A small shudder had over come her body, but slowly Aerostolia opened her eyes and faced in the direction of him. As soon as her eyes opened the world spun into blackness and all she could see, was those pair of eyes and a hand reaching out desperately for her, until darkness consumed her vision and thought.
"Get up! Aerostolia! Get up!"
There was that voice again.. He was.. He was calling to her again. She stretched her arm out, fingers flayed as she reached and tried to vice herself onto this voice that had been poking in her mind.
'How do I get up?...'
"Run! What are you doing?!"
But maybe if she didn't run, maybe if this one time, she just sat here, then maybe it'd last longer. Maybe she'd be able to see him again. Maybe she wouldn't have to return to reality, or wake up to find herself alone in the wasteland.
"I'm begging you! Run!"
"I said run Aerostolia!" and quickly, just like that she was snapped back to reality, curled behind the bush only there was no mystery guy. Instead, standing in front of her, shooting his rifle off as warning to each ghoul was Gage. "I said fucking run! I won't say it again!" he hissed. Aerostolia gasped and glanced at Gage, then in a panic jumped up and bolted off in the opposite direction of Gage. She turned, just enough to see him trying to fight off a larger hoard. It hadn't been just the few she saw earlier. Her mind was racing as she tried to process everything that was happening. He had saved her. In that instant Aerostolia glanced up and holstered up her gun before shooting off 4 ear shattering rounds. Amazingly, per each bullet, two ghouls were struck and dropped like flour. Gage stared back in bewilderment at Aerostolia as she fired off her last 2 rounds, sending the ghouls scattering. Gage turned and took this as a chance to unload his first clip off into the remaining ghouls, who shortly after, dropped to the earth below.
Gage was panting wildly, before he shot his eyes back at Aerostolia, the look of anger, relief and bewilderment locked onto his features. "You.." he said quietly, almost like a hiss, his words spearing through her, "What in the fuck were you thinking?!" he bellowed, his eyes locked onto Aerostolia. Quickly she shrank down and whimpered, her eyes dropping to the floor like a child. "B-But I.." she started, which was quickly cut off by the sharp words from Gage's mouth. "You fucking sat there! You were going to be killed! I had to scream at you to fucking duck out of sight! Why the fuck would you allow yourself to be in such danger?! Do you not fucking care about your own life?!" he screamed angrily, though this caused Aerostolia to calm down after she had realized, he wasn't in fact mad at her for possibly messing up the mission, but was furious because he was scared she was going to die. Strings pulled at Aerostolia's heart as she returned her gaze back to Gage, her small shrunken voice coming out in the sound of a shrill. "I.. I am so sorry… Sir.." she frowned, her eyes dropping to the floor. Her hands lied to either side of her body as Gage slowly let out a few breaths, his face returning to its' normal stature. When he had calmed down enough he gently grabbed Aerostolia's shoulders and with ease pulled her up against his chest. She tensed momentarily before melting into his touch, her body pressing up against the taller built frame of the red head.
"I'm sorry.." she whispered again, which was met with a soft kiss to her temples. "What happened?" he stated, his eyes burrowing into her, "You froze Aerostolia.. What happened? Why didn't you run?" she quickly looked down, scared to answer this herself. She didn't want to burden Gage with her problems, but also didn't know what else to say. With a soft sigh, she managed to look up to Gage, her brows turned in dissatisfaction. "I… I don't know.. I keep having the flash backs.. These weird dreams of someone.. Another life maybe.. Maybe the real Aerostolia's memories.." she whispered unwavering. Yeah the real Aerostolia.. The one who died ages back and had since been replaced by a robot. Gage frowned, his brows furrowed as he looked at Aerostolia, trying to read not only her face but what she could've been thinking about. "Hey.. You're just as real as me." He said quietly, which had preceded to get a bewildered look of shock from the smaller synth.
"Y-You still think I'm real? B-But I'm a machine.. I'm not even the original.. I was a robot given her memories, her hopes, her dreams, her-" quickly Gage cupped her face and pulled her up to stare into his eyes, before retorting back at her. "You… Are JUST as real… as me and anyone here." He repeated. Tears welled in the corner of Aerostolia's eyes, as this had been the first time anyone had ever been so kind, let alone told Aerostolia, that regardless of her new mechanic body, she was still who she'd always been. The tears struck her face, leaving small trail stains behind which had been quickly wiped away by Gage's fingers. He leaned forward, gently pressing his lips to her forehead, before turning his back to her, his eyes scanning the nearby area. "Now get it together for me, princess," he cooed softly at her, "We still have to get this place running." He gestured to the Red Rocket, his beautiful green hue scanning over the entire facility. "Make a great little hold up," He chuckled, then glanced over to Aerostolia, "And I'm going to let you decorate her up."
Aerostolia only stared at him confused before glancing back up at the Red Rocket. "Why me?" she asked quietly, knowing it couldn't have been just chance that Gage brought her here. "Well," Gage started, "I could sense you didn't quite enjoy being surrounded by raiders, let alone having to sleep on that nasty bed of Colter's up in the Fizztop Grille." Aerostolia gasped and glanced back at the Red Rocket, her small body bouncing in place as she awaited the words, she was hoping he'd say. "So?" she pressed, her eyes lit up with delight as she stared at the Red Rocket. Gage only laughed and gave a small nod, before gesturing to the building, "All yours, princess. Fix her up however you'd like." Aerostolia squealed loudly like a child. She had never gotten a gift before, let alone her OWN building! She jumped in place then bolted over to the Red Rocket. A smile had taken over the gaunt course of her features as she ran about the area, mentally imagining what she could do to the place.
"I'll get you anything you need to put in there, Princess. All I ask is you have a bed set up that's large enough so when I'm not out on a mission I can come and sit here with you." She glanced back and nodded with a small smile. "So you'll get me furniture? And things I can decorate with?" she asked, a huge grin beaming. Gage again nodded, approaching her slowly before grabbing up her hand and planting soft kisses to each knuckle. "Anything my lil princess wants." He smirked. The remainder of the day had been spent with Gage traveling between Nuka World and back out to the Red Rocket, carrying random items and pieces of furniture. At one point he had gathered up a small group of raiders who had help him in carrying out items such as a larger queen mattress, also the cleanest, they had found, along with dressers, small tables, chairs, rugs and many other things she could spiff the place up with. For as long as she could remember, Aerostolia had never been this happy and how odd she found it that of all the people in the commonwealth, this home, belonging to vicious raiders, had become her happy spot. One of the raiders walked up to Aerostolia, followed by another familiar tall man. She quickly tensed as the two raiders from earlier approached her.
"We want to apologize." They said quietly. "Listen, we may be a bunch of idiots and considered the bad guys, but even we have rules." Gage added to the raiders apology. They both nodded, one holding out a small vase full of flowers, whilst the other held out a teddy bear. "We got you these for your place." Aerostolia softened and glanced from their faces to their hands. Even the RAIDERS could apologize to her, yet no one else could. She laughed at this thought then gingerly took the bear and vase. "Thank you." She cooed, her eyes glancing over the small worn bear. "I appreciate it.. And I forgive you." She added gently. The two raiders smiled, feeling proud of themselves then wandered off to continue helping move items.
"I don't get it.." Aerostolia started, "Humans… Ghouls.. Mercenaries… They all looked at me like I was a freak.. They ran and threw items at me.. treated me like.. Scrap…" she added, her eyes casting up momentarily, to see the sad look on Gage's face. "But you all just.. You got me this.. And brought me furniture and even apologized.. You guys didn't even scream when you saw me.." she added, almost curiously, "Why?" Gage looked Aerostolia over, his body unmoving as he carefully placed his words together in his head. "We don't understand synths ourselves." Gage started, "But we've also never encountered one ourselves to make heads or tails of it. We never had a reason to fear your kind, just like we never had a reason to hate you. Synths have never bothered us and we don't much take to boogeyman tales. To me, you're a human who just has a few extra pieces. That's it. I see nothing that differentiates you between human and Synth aside from those eyes of yours." He pointed, causing Aerostolia to glance down in embarrassment of her eyes which Gage retaliated by reaching below her chin to draw her face back up to meet his smiling one. "And they're the prettiest fucking eyes I've ever seen." He finished, causing a large shade of crimson to engulf Aerostolia's face.
Night drew soon enough. Most of the raiders had wandered back to Nuka Town, with the exception of Gage and a couple of his buddies who had started downing Gwinnette Stout before the sun started to set. Aerostolia had gotten most of everything done. She had cleaned the floors and walls to the best of her ability, utilizing the garage space as a bedroom and turning the old office into a bathroom. Between the two she had set up a small kitchen table with only 2 chairs, as she had known that she'd be sharing her small home with Gage, not that it was a problem to her. The bed had been made up as nicely as possible after Gage had found her some sheets and even a clean yellow comforter, her new bear sitting atop the bed. She looked around, admiring her work before wandering outside and down to the campfire that had been set up. She watched the raiders, their movements and listened carefully to how they spoke. So strange that these, very normal humans were raiders. If they hadn't been you'd think they were just typical boys. Talking about their kills, how they'd taken down ghouls or supermutants and surprisingly, even the chatter of women coming into play.
She wandered over to the fire and gently sat beside Gage, who had been laughing loudly, spilling bits of his drink on the ground. They didn't care though. They were all having a great time under the moon, laughing and drinking the night away. As the hours passed, the few raiders passed out. Gage had been lying on his back, his arms below his head as he stared up at the stars. Only when Aerostolia popped into his vision, just above his head, had he realized he wasn't the only one up. "Still up?" Gage managed to slur, in his mind very properly. Aerostolia snickered as his words practically mashed together, before lying back to place her head on Gage's chest. "I couldn't sleep. Sometimes I just try to avoid it." She added. Gage looked at her curiously, his mind booming with questions, though in his drunken state it was difficult to make light of them or even put them into a proper order.
"So... What's your past?" Aerostolia asked quietly. This wasn't something many people even asked Gage, let alone something he spoke about often. He sat there, as he thought on how to put his past into a short explanation. "Well.." Gage started, his eyes searching the sky unknowingly for answers, "I grew up in the commonwealth with my.. well I guess you'd call them my family.. I remember watching them cower and hide when the raiders would stroll through. They never hurt anybody, just passed through, grabbed what was owed and left." He mumbled as Aerostolia hung to his every word. "Well when I was 10 I made my life by taking odds and end jobs. Eventually I got into mercenary and caravan work, but after seeing those people still succumb to raiders, I had had enough. At 16 I joined my first raider gang. It was a strong gang, but none of them put that power to use. I had tried to talk to Harvester at the time-" Aerostolia quickly snorted, noticing Gage's expression which had turned from serious to a small joke. "Yeah yeah.. Funny name.." he laughed, "But anyways, Connor, or Harvester as he liked to be called seemed to like my ideas. After a year or so we tried to make peace with one of the other raider gangs. Connor sent me, thinking I could talk to them. I got there and not too long after realized I had been set up. He sent me there as a death sentence. Jokes on him though." He laughed, dropping his head back against his arms. "I ain't saying I made the best choices in life, princess… But in this kind of a world, it's step or get stepped on. And if you're as smart as I believe you are, then you and I both know, getting stepped on is a good way to get killed." He finished.
Aerostolia wasn't able to take her eyes off Gage. He had had just as difficult a life, making her wish she could just pull him to her and hug the memories away. She only turned enough to plant a small kiss into the crook of his neck, which was met by his hands stroking the back of her hair. "So may I ask.." she started carefully, as Gage turned his head to face Aerostolia again, "What... What made you want me?" she piqued. Gage only stared at her, his eyes then slowly meeting back to the sky as he thought on this. He had opened his mouth a couple of times, but would just quickly close it when he realized his wording choice wasn't right. "Honestly.." Gage started, "When Colter first told me he bought me a.." he cleared his throat at the words, "Sex slave… I had declined. I didn't want or need nobody. Then I walked up there to get you out and I saw you lying there in the dark. I watched you for a bit, watched the way your body moved.. Noticed the shakes from the crying you thought no one saw." He added which quickly caused Aerostolia to turn away in embarrassment. "Shit.. I saw you there and I saw myself.." Aerostolia glanced back at him, her eyes softening and aware as he continued to talk, "You looked just as broken as I did when I left home the first time. Lost. Not a god damned person in the world. You don't even know who you are or what you're capable of." He said, his eyes now staring at his own hand that was held in front of his face, "I thought… Yeah she's alone…. And I'm alone.. So.. why not be alone together." He finished before rubbing at his tiring eyes.
Aerostolia didn't want to press as she could see just talking was frustrating for him. She let a small smile befall her lips as she laid into Gage's chest, his heart beating in a sweet rhythmic pattern in her ear. Surely enough, Aerostolia fell asleep followed shortly by Gage, who kept his arms encircled around her the entire night.
"Please.. wake up.."
The voice?.. He's back..
"I'm begging you to wake up…"
But why? She was enjoying lying here. She was enjoying the warmth. She was enjoying just existing in that moment… A hand grabbed her shoulder, shaking at her to open her eyes, but she just.. She couldn't. Then if she woke up he'd be gone..
"If you… don't wake.."
This the first time the words were coming in so… cut apart and blurred. Confused, she sat up and glanced around at the darkness surrounding her.
"Please... wake….. Help!... Aero-."
Quickly Aerostolia shot awake, her body glistening with sweat as she gasped to catch her breath, feeling as if she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. Panic started to well inside her which quickly shut down as a pair of strong arms embraced her. Aerostolia glanced down at the bed she had been moved to. Beside her was Gage, lying under the blankets with his shirt off. He had awoken partially, but it was still obvious he was practically asleep. His arms tightened around her small waist as he fought back the urge to pass back out into his drunken stupor. "S-Sir.." she muttered softly. Gage glanced up at her from under his lidded eye, the sleep and exhaustion still apparent on his face. "You were crying... in your sleep.." he whispered below his breath, clearly too tired to think straight, form proper sentences or really get loud. She nodded and wiped at her moist eyes, her hands gently grabbing hold of Gage's. "Thank you.." she ushered as Gage had pulled her back into his grip. A small content sigh fell from his lips as she nestled into him, his eye once again falling shut with sleep. In that moment, Aerostolia knew, she'd rather be nowhere else, then lying in this bed with him.
(A.N)
Ahhh thank you if you're still reading. Keep in mind I don't write fanfics a whole lot but wanted to give it a go. I realize that I may have Gage acting a tad differently then in the game, but i'm also acting him out the way I perceive him being 3 I hope you guys enjoys ;3; I will try to update as much as possible. Here's the link to a drawing I got done of Aerostolia (Her hair is supposed to be much whiter) She also has tattoos. I will add more links later of her :D s/m5mf8un23ej9ic5/kelseyfallout_by_ ?dl=0 (ART IS BY MY FRIEND SPHINXLING AND IT BELONGS TO ME DUE TO IT BEING MY CHARACTER DO NOT USE OR REDISTRIBUTE.)
