"So, how do you feel about attending the Saviour's dance along with me this evening, Danse?" She asked the man sitting beside her.
"What? Wouldn't that break my cover? You know, with me being dead and everything? He asked. Alexei just seemed to slump her shoulders and look a bit depressed. Playfully pouting, she turned away from Danse and looked towards Shaun, who was playing with Dogmeat in the castle's courtyard.
Leaning forward, Danse whispered in her ear.
"We can have all the celebrations you want when you get back though."
This seemed to send a shiver down her spine and her mind started racing. A little over a year ago, she had met the man and he had been as straight as a piece of rebar, but after finding out that he was a synth and after being exiled from the Brotherhood, Alexei managed to destroy that outer shell, and permanently position herself in the centre. She loved him and he loved her. He even loved Shaun, who also returned the favour and he also seemed to loosen around Nick and Hancock, Two of Alexei's closest friends, but no one came as close as her best friend Piper. They nearly seemed conjoined at the hips. Danse chuckled slightly at the image growing in his head. Kind of like a Radstag, but of Piper's head up on Alexei's shoulder.
"What's so funny?" Alexei asked, trying to decipher the information from the look in his eyes, but her search seemed futile.
"Oh this and that. Remind me to tell you some other time." He said, rising from his seat. "Now though, it seems that you're wanted somewhere else."
Just as Alexei was about to ask what he was on about, she heard the familiar rumble of the engine of a vertibird. Looking up, she saw one coming in the direction of the Castle, painted a solid Black. She recognised it almost immediately as Maxson's personal transport, Excalibur.
As it began to descend into the castles main courtyard, (they moved the radio mast outside the walls, but kept the radio equipment inside the walls) Alexei dusted off her coat, ran her fingers through her hair and picked up her personal, over modified (In preston's opinion) Laser Musket, /The General's Embrace/.
The side door of the Vertibird slid open and an honour guard of Brotherhood Knights and Paladins disembarked the cramped shuttle before saluting to their Elder, the esteemed Arthur Maxson. Over her arduous campaign, What had first began as a simple tolerance of each other had turned into a close friendship between the two hardened soldiers.
"What's with the honour guard, Arthur?" Alexei asked as she extended her hand, in a polite handshake.
Accepting her handshake, he lifted his arm in the air, giving his bodyguards a signal. Immediately relaxing, every soldier dismounted their armour and seemed to be happy that they were outside the heavy metal armour, especially on a day as hot and humid as it was.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news, Coles" Arthur began. Alexei never knew why but while he never seemed to mind, her calling him by his first name, yet even by request he would never call her by her own first name, always opting for Coles or Sentinel. It used to bother her, but upon realising that she couldn't get him to do it, she just lived and let lived. Turning her attention back to the young Elder, She stood at attention and began to focus again.
"Well, I can't talk about Brotherhood matters out here in the open, so how about you join me on the Excalibur and we go back to the Prydwen? Kell's and the Proctors would also like to speak to you." He said, standing to the side, gesturing for Alexei to go first. "Don't worry, Team Sovereign will stand here and watch over things while you're gone."
"It's Ok Arthur. While I may be a senior officer in the brotherhood, I still have the chain of command to adhere to here in the minutemen as well." Alexei told him. Almost as if she had called him telepathically, Preston arrived out of nowhere, brandishing his cowboy hat and laser musket.
"Don't worry General, We have it all locked down around here." He said smirking.
"Well alright then. Lead the way then, Oh great Elder." Alexei said sarcastically. Trying to keep some modicum of composure, Maxson started heading towards the Vertibird. Only when he was out of immediate reach, did his rare sense of humour poke through and he gave a quiet chuckle.
"I do quite like your sense of humour, Sentinel Coles. May you never change, my friend."
And with that, they climbed into Excalibur and flew away to the Prydwen.
