AN: Posts will be back to normal on Tuesday! Have a good weekend!
WARNING: SEXUAL THEMES

They walked all the next day, having only gotten a few hours of sleep he felt stiff and his head felt heavy. As they walked to the city they came across a few bloatflies, and wild dogs. Anne missed a few times, but after the 4th enemy, she started hitting her targets. He instructed her to stay crouched in front of him so he could shoot over her, not wanting to take a bullet to the back. He didn't shoot all the time, letting Anne get to practice, and she was doing better. The walk was quite though, mostly, with her radio playing music over the wastes. He listened with her, humming along to some of the songs that played sometimes quietly to himself, though sometimes he swore she seemed to glance at him with a smirk like she heard him. They were almost at Diamond City when they walked past an old clothing store. Normally he wouldn't look twice at those stores, they were useless. No money, nothing of worth, raiders didn't even bother with them. He'd noticed as they had walked how bright the blue stood out, how compared to the browns and yellows of the wastes the blue caught your eye. He let out an aggravated sigh and turned, making his way into the store. He heard her footsteps continue in the direction they had been walking before pausing.

"What are you doing?" She asked running to catch up with him, the dog paddling behind her.

"You stand out like a sore thumb in that suit boss. We have to find you something else. Your coat's fine but you need something to blend in, get the sucker sign off your back." He opened the door and put his arm out blocking her from coming in.

"Stay behind me," he said softly taking a step forward, his rifle raised. The dog was handy in these situations, with it sensing enemies before he did that it growled. He made his way slowly through the store, thankfully though there were only a couple of radroaches here and there, which he let her take out for practice. When he was sure it was clear he sat down and looked at her "Find something to wear, I'll wait here." he pulled out a cigarette. She looked at him.

"Any recommendations?" She said, a lopsided smile on her face as she looked around the room.

"Just don't wear a dress, they ain't practical," he said through a puff of smoke. She walked off, dogmeat sitting beside him. He patted the dog on the head and it let out a happy huff. MacCready liked dogs, he never liked killing them out in the wastes. Couldn't be avoided but he'd been around enough dogs to know that most of them were great. They had a dog for a bit in the capital wasteland. Duncan had found it behind their farm, a small puppy that had been abandoned by its mother. The runt was what people had told him, said it would probably die before the end of the week. MacCready remembered watching the little puppy, its eyes sealed shut and crying for its mother. He couldn't leave that small puppy. It took a lot of late nights, and a lot of patience but eventually that puppy had become the best damn dog he had ever had. Duncan had started calling it Og, and the name stuck. It'd been 9 months now and he wondered if Og even remembered him. Does Duncan even remember me?

He could hear where she was by the music playing off her pipboy.

It's all over but the crying.

He tried to think of something to do but quickly got bored and stood up stretching. Dogmeat looked up at him and cocked his head, one ear flopping slightly. He told the dog to stay and started walking around.

And nobody's crying but me.

Most of the clothes here were ruined, with holes and dirt in them. He considered maybe grabbing something but realized there was no point and just kept walking around. MacCready tried to stay far away from where the music was, knowing she would be over there changing.

Friends all over know I'm trying.

He walked for a bit before coming across a mirror, cracked and grimy. He stopped and looked at himself in it. His beard was probably the thickest it would ever get. It would only grow around his mouth, as much as he wanted to grow a full beard. His eyes were sunken in, and dark circles from the night before left their mark on his face. His jacket was tattered at the bottom and was missing a sleeve. He remembered buying this jacket when he first left little lamplight. The jacket represented him well. Worn, tattered, and grimy. He groaned running his hand over his face when he saw a flicker of movement in the mirror.

To forget about how much I care for you.

He moved a bit and saw what it was. It wasn't much, but he could see her bare back, just as pale as she was as she pulled her vault suit off. A rack covered the rest of her lower half but he could see her back. She was even paler underneath her vault suit. Her long auburn hair cascaded down midway down her back, and as she moved it moved with her.

It's all over but the dreaming.

He didn't realize his hand was wiping the grime off the mirror until it was all gone. He really wanted to pull away but it felt like if he moved she'd evaporate. He'd never seen anything as otherworldy as her. He stood frozen as a deer and she moved slowly, turning her body towards him. He didn't move just looking in the mirror.

Poor little dreams that keep trying to come true.

MacCready could now see her from the side. She wasn't deathly thin like other women in the wastes, but she wasn't large either. She looked fit, and he moved his way up her figure to her breast. Only a glimpse of it, but he could see that her breasts weren't large. They were a small size compared to most women. He quickly dragged his eyes away, moving to her face. She was mouthing along with the words, she turned again and MacCready realized what he was doing.

It's all over but the crying.

He felt hot all over. What the hell did he think he was doing. He quietly made his way back to dogmeat, who had curled up on the ground again. He took a seat and buried his hands in his face.

And I can't get over crying over you.

What the hell was that? Why had he stared at her for so long? God, he hated traveling with women.

His thoughts were broken by a whistle that came from across the store and dogmeat stood up and went running. He looked up. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, but now she wore a ripped pair of brown shorts, high combat boots that went a bit past her knee's, a belt holding her coat together and an oversized white shirt that had holes showing some of her skin through it. Around her neck was a long piece of torn fabric that looked like she could wrap it around her head. He tried to look at her in her outfit and not the image of the mirror in his head.

"Do I look like a proper wastelander?" she asked playfully, scratching Dogmeats ear. He didn't say anything he just nodded before quickly pulling himself up and saying something about how they should hurry too diamond city. He turned from her quickly and started making his way out of the store, ignoring her asking him what was wrong. He just kept walking, trying to push the image of her bright skin out of his mind until he saw the green security of Diamond city. They stopped him but Anne came up beside him, and the security seemed to recognize her. No questions were asked and both of them walked into the city.

Took an hour but they made their way to Diamond city with no problems. They walked down the stands into the marketplace when he heard a guard pull her aside, "You and your mercenary friend keep your gun in your pants? Capeche? She said some sort of reply and MacCready looked at her.

"Haven't been to Diamond city in years but I'll tell you, nothing's changed," MacCready smirked down at her. She seemed startled by that but said nothing. They walked through the market, her stopping at Diamond city surplus and selling extra junk she had picked up while they were traveling. He made his way over to the noodle stand and sat down, Anne walked up to him and looked at him.

"Have you ever had this guy's noodles? They're amazing." he looked back at the robot and started pulling caps out.

"I tried buying noodles from him before. He just said something to me in some weird language." she stood behind MacCready watching as he ordered.

"What's up Taka? Set me up with some of your shima...uh shimichanga...errr, whatever they're called."

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?" The robot said back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's the stuff." He pulled his caps bag out and started pulling out the 55 caps. Yeah, they were overpriced too hell, but he never came to Diamond city, and he loved these noodles.

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?" The robot said as it started scooping noodles from the pot that was on the counter into a bowl.

"You're damn right I'll take two servings." he smiled taking the first bowl as the robot started scooping a second. He looked back at up at Anne who looked confused.

"Just gotta know how to talk to him. Go finish selling your crap I'll keep the second bowl so you can try it," he said looking back at the robot and grabbed a fork the robot mechanically pushed towards him. He started eating, hearing Anne walk away. He looked around a bit before turning in his chair and looking around the market. People moved past him without even looking. Some little boy ran past him chasing a girl. Hearing kids laugh made him think of little lamplight. Of his childhood running around caves and pretending to be an adult by swearing all the time. What would Duncan have thought of me? What about Lucy? He looked down in his noodles. Probably that I was a jerk. He slurped some noodles up using the fork to hold them steady. Takashi pushed the second bowl forward.

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?"

"Yeah thanks, Taka," he said looking around for Anne. The noodles were already cold, but no need for her to make them colder by dicking around at the stores looking at things she couldn't afford. He found her at Chem-I-Care selling some of the jet they had found. She didn't know what jet was, but she had seen some of the jet junkies and hadn't wanted to try it, mumbling something about her brother. He hadn't bothered to ask. He'd tried Jet, psycho, mentants, and some stuff someone had sold him called rebound that came from out east. He didn't really care for it. The stuff just made him angry, he didn't want to be angry. He had tried this one thing though. Was like a cigarette, Hancock kept hidden in his office. He'd smoked one with Hancock, who said he got it when he went to down south a few years ago. Stuff had made MacCready feel light, like everything he was afraid of had just melted away. He'd asked for more but Hancock said he didn't have much and liked to save it. MacCready figured it was some pre-war drug. Maybe he should ask Anne what it was. He watched her talk to Solomon. He was standing and she was leaning against a small table, smiling at him. What's she doing? She laughed at something and when she did that she knocked something over, buffout? He could see her apologizing but he was laughing at her and bent over to pick it up.

He watched her other arm reach behind her, and wrap around something and slide it up her sleeve. Did she just? She smiled at him before pointing at MacCready. He quickly turned around looking back at Takahashi. Why do I keep looking at her?

He heard her footsteps behind him, and she took a seat beside him. He pushed the noodles towards her but saw her fiddling with her sleeve. He didn't move his head but glanced down at her. She was moving a couple of stimpaks from under sleeve now, opening her pack.

"I saw what you did there," he said picking his bowl up with his hands and tipping the last bits of juice into his mouth.

"Did what? I just had a friendly chat with Solomon." she pulled the noodles close and started eating. He could hear the mischievous tone in her voice.

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?"

"Didn't expect that from someone like you, being you could barely shoot a gun yesterday." he put the bowl down, pushing it forward, where Takahashi took it.

"I was a bit of a bad kid when I was younger. There's a lot of things you don't know about me." she winked at him and MacCready felt his ears start to heat up.

More then you think. He shook his head, the image of the mirror popping back in his head. He didn't want to think about that.

He could hear her beside him, eating some noodles and the sound of the radio playing between them.