Hancock traveled between Goodneighbor and Sanctuary often, Octavia realized as he passed beneath her balcony for the first time in three weeks. It was probably because the kingpin drug lord was besties with Nate, who had been leaving addictol on her doorstep anonymously. She made a point of selling it to Carla when he walked by, watching the frustration cross his features as she popped a mentat into her mouth and smiled innocently at him. It wasn't as if she had a problem – she wasn't like the junkies who clawed holes into their skins every time they couldn't get a fix. She just enjoyed the high; it helped her through the day.
"She's a feisty one, huh?" Hancock rasped with a low chuckle as Nate watched her walk towards the doctor's office to start working on more stimpaks.
"Hey, Tavs!" Shaun caught her attention and she gave him a grin as he tried to catch his breath. "Could you – maybe – if you're not busy – help me with something?" He said between pants, and she laughed at his dramatics.
"Sure, kiddo, what do you need?" She brushed her blond curls behind on ear, ignoring the curious eyes on her as she addressed the small boy.
"We found a truck!" Shaun blurted out excitedly, almost yelling at his eagerness and she suddenly understood why he was so excited.
"You were an engineer, right?! Do you think you could help us fix it? I think you'd like it more than helping Evee." His thoughtfulness made her heart swell with affection. It had been easy for her to take up the mantel of older sister with him. The kid was just so adamant about being involved with her, no matter what she was doing; it made it difficult to ignore even the simplest request.
"Well of course I'll help." Shaun beamed up at Octavia before taking her hand and dragging her towards the gate. She wondered briefly if Nate knew the kid had been wandering around outside the town, but decided she wasn't really in a position to be judging anyone on how well they listened to Nate.
Within the next couple hours of her stay at Red Rocket, she'd managed to get the old machine humming with life; Sturges had almost passed out when he realized they'd actually done it. Shaun had promptly run to get Nate, Dogmeat on his heels as she and Sturges discussed whether or not it would actually move. Come to find out, the ancient machine died as soon as they tried, and they were back to figuring out how to make it get from one place to another.
"We're gonna have to find an alternate fuel source." Octavia finally decided from her place under the machine and Sturges peaked his head underneath to hear her better.
"Like what?" She thought for a minute, looking stumped even as Nate approached with Shaun rambling about how excited he was that he'd be able to ride in an actual vehicle. She wondered if she should burst his bubble and let him know how unlikely it was the vehicle would actually take them anywhere significant, since most of the roads were blocked with other broken down vehicles these days. Then again, with the amount of people joining the Minutemen, maybe they could start scraping larger areas and cleaning up the old roads.
"Water? Maybe I could come up with some kinda chem that could work like gasoline if we mixed it in water…" She was mostly talking to herself as she crawled out from under the truck, feeling sufficiently flustered when she found everyone staring at her.
"You think you can get it running with water?" Nate finally asked, and she wondered why exactly everyone was looking at her like she had grown a second head. Glancing around a bit nervously, she responded without making eye contact.
"Uh… yeah? I mean, I could rebuild the whole engine if you wanted so it would run on pure water, but if I was going to do that I may as well just scrap the whole thing and start from the beginning, y'know? But I could definitely come up with some kind of synthetic gasoline or make, like, some kind of–" Hancock cleared his throat and her mouth snapped shut audibly, making the ghoul chuckle softly as she looked back at the group she'd been rambling to. Nate was staring at her with familiar blue eyes, apparently thinking things over as his eyes shifted to the rather large vehicle they'd managed to haul up to the Red Rocket.
"Could you make Sanctuary run on water?" He asked instead, and she shifted nervously, shrugging a bit.
"It would be a challenge, but I'm sure I could figure something out. The Institute mainly ran on water before they decided the nuclear reactor was necessary." Octavia smiled as Nate nodded slowly.
"I want you and Sturges to start working on alternate ways to power the settlements. Not all of them have easy access to water, so come up with something else you think would work for those. The generators are a pain to find fuel for, and if we didn't have to worry about sending scavengers out for that specifically, it'd make life a lot easier for everyone." Shaun gave her a thumbs up from behind his dad and Octavia tried not to laugh. So maybe he was cleverer than she gave him credit for, getting her a job that was actually going to be fulfilling for her. She gave Nate a two-finger salute, laughing finally when he rolled his eyes and bid them goodbye after reminding them about the celebration tonight. Apparently Preston and Lucy Abernathy were expecting, and the appropriate response was for everyone else to drink excessively and eat a hole in their supplies.
It wasn't until the sun had already set that Sturges and Octavia ventured back to Sanctuary; they were apparently late for the party. Nate approached her almost immediately, throwing an arm around her shoulder with a glossy look in his eye and she gaped at him, almost offended when he passed her an inhaler of jet. Hancock whistled to catch her attention and winked at her; she gestured to Nate with a raised eyebrow. The ghoul grinned with a nonchalant shrug as the dark-haired man posing as her father mumbled quiet apologies for judging her that were obviously high-induced. She just laughed, taking the inhaler from him and taking a much-needed hit.
After congratulating Preston and Lucy, she plopped down beside Hancock and offered him another mentat, smirking when he once again gave her a mildly impressed look.
"Chocolate flavor. Real chocolate, not the garbage you guys have left over." He put a hand over his heart in mock offense and she giggled, leaning back in the old lawn chair with a sigh of contentment.
"You're pretty good at this, sunshine." Heat ran up the back of her neck at the pet name, and she hoped he thought her blush was just the light of the fire dancing across her face when she smiled at him.
"I'm glad you think so. I've got big dreams." Her eyes wandered over to Evelynn. Her twin was cuddled up beside Danse and she couldn't help but be a bit jealous of the soft look of affection they were giving one another.
"You plan on selling these?" Hancock's surprised voice garnered her attention and she found herself momentarily mesmerized by his pitch-black eyes. Every speckle of light seemed to reflect back at her, and it took several moments before she could force herself to look away, a bit surprised – and flustered – by her reaction.
"Someday. I figure if I can come up with enough new products, I'll be rolling in it with all the people who are looking for a new kinda high." He was impressed, she realized, when he offered her a hit of his jet that she took gratefully.
"I've got more than different flavored mentats," Octavia hummed as the world slowed down. "But I haven't tested any of that yet. Not confident enough it won't kill someone, y'know?"
"I got dibs on first taste." They shared a grin as she passed him a pack of her chocolate flavored mentats, and spent the rest of the evening and into the morning talking.