It had begun to reach dusk by the time they got closer to the centre of the ruins. "We should find somewhere to camp." Charon remarked staring up into the rapidly darkening sky, Nora tried not to be fascinated by his glowing irises. She was failing, miserably.
"Diamond City is a few blocks away, we can get there before it get fully dark."
He nodded, "As you wish."
They rounded another corner and Nora almost ran headlong into a security guard, "Hey! Sole how you – woah!"
Nora turned to see Charon, shotgun raised. "Relax Charon, it's just the city's security." Turning back to the man she grinned, "Sorry about him Daniel he's never been this far into the ruins."
The guard chuckled, "It's alright, never seen a ghoul as big as him, sure puts off a menacing presence." He gestured with his head to Charon, "How tall are you man?"
Charon's eyes darted to Nora, who raised an eyebrow in question. "Six foot, seven inches." He growled out.
The guard gave a low whistle, "Damn that makes your six foot look short, eh Sole?"
Nora snorted, "Yeah, he's close to Strong's height."
"That mutant friend of yours? Damn! Anyways, I better get back to it, go on through, it's quiet tonight."
"Thanks Daniel." Nora pushed her hair under her fedora as they rounded another corner, "I didn't know you were that tall. You must've been the tallest in your unit before the war."
Silence met her ears and for a moment she thought he would fall back on his guarded answer. "Yes. I was." Came the grudging reply, Nora grinned widely.
Charon watched quietly from his place near the door. Nora effortlessly flipped another steak in the pan. She was the quiet type, didn't feel the need to fill long stretches of silence with words, so unlike his Morganna. He snarled internally, She is dead and you are not. You must continue to serve until this one tires of you or dies. The thought of Nora dying troubled Charon, she was like Morganna in that sense, incredibly kind hearted and selfless - too good for this world. He still couldn't understand how she was from his time, she wasn't a ghoul, nor did she have the look of someone who had been through extensive scientific experimentation, but why make up a lie that reeked of deceit? Seemed to him she might be telling him the truth. She was a paradox, something that Charon's mind longed to crack open like an egg. He disliked things he didn't understand.
"You can sit down you know, the furniture won't bite you."
He moved to the small table in the corner and chose a chair. It protested under his weight but held firm.
"What do you drink?" Nora asked as she placed a plate of food in front of him.
She cannot be serious.
"Whiskey, beer, vodka, what?"
"Whiskey, neat." As an afterthought he added, "Please."
Nora smiled, "Here." She slid the glass across the table and took a sip of her own as she sat down.
"Thank you."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the meal. Nora looked over at the ghoul, "Go ahead." She said.
"What?"
"You want to ask me about something. Go ahead."
Charon blink then stared hard at her, "How do you do that?"
"What?"
"Know what I am thinking?"
Nora smiled slightly, "It's a gift. I was a lawyer before the bombs. Ten years in the biz, you get to know when people want to say something."
Charon studied her face carefully, she was hardened from the wasteland, both eyebrows scarred, a slice across her chin, freckles dusting her cheeks and nose, but her eyes, they were different they had a light to them that the wastes hadn't snuffed out. Her lips pulled across perfect teeth as she smiled at him. He had to admit, even if only in the dark recess of his own mind, she was incredibly beautiful.
"How are you as old as me?"
The smile vanished from her face, it felt like a slap to his, like all the light in the room had completely disappeared leaving him in the grey, "Alright, I think you've waited long enough. My family was part of a Vault-Tec experiment that tested cryogenics. We were frozen for two hundred and sixty years. One year ago next week I stumbled out of that vault and into this - fraction of a world."
Charon inspected his fingers, the swelling had gone down finally, allowing him full use of his hand, he flexed it experimentally. He remembered dealing with emotions from his time with Morganna, it was those times that he drew on now as he spoke, "I am sorry, that must have been hard."
Nora shrugged a shoulder, "Never really had a chance to think about it much, sort of just - hit the ground running. Guess, I just adjusted gradually over time."
"What about your family?" Charon knew Shaun had survived somehow but no one ever mentioned a husband.
Nora smiled sadly, she reached over and squeezed Charon's hand gently, it took all his training not to flinch away from the contact, it sent his heart beating wildly a reaction he was trying very hard not to examine too closely, "I'm not ready to talk about that yet."
Charon nodded, swallowing thickly, "As you wish."
She leaned back in her chair, the loss of contact set his mind back on its axis. He took a deep breath, calming his heart rate.
"What about you Charon? Anything you want to share?"
He sipped at the whiskey, "What would you like to know?"
Nora lit a cigarette, tossing the packet over to him, "What do you miss most about life before the war?"
Charon paused, considering. He hadn't thought about the time before his training since Edi was a little girl. He smirked, "I miss my motorcycle, hamburgers, having all my hair."
Nora smiled, "Don't miss the nose?"
Charon raised a brow and replied dryly, "Not as much as the hair."
"It's so red," she reached over the table grasping a lock between her fingers. It was much longer than he usually kept it, he'd meant to get it cut by Snowflake but then the raiders came and - that was that. "I bet you kept it real long back then." Nora played with the ends, flicking them back and forth between her fingers as if in a trance. Charon held his breath watching her face, she noticed him staring and snapped out of her state. Blushing, she withdrew her fingers, Charon felt an acute loss, a feeling he pushed down roughly.
"I did." He replied, giving her a rare almost smile.
Nora beamed at him, "We should get some sleep, gotta make it to the next stop by tomorrow night. It's a hell of a hike."
Nora offered Charon the bed but he politely refused, knotting himself up like a pretzel on the couch downstairs. Before he drifted off to sleep he thought about Edi. He missed her bubbly presence, she was a light in his life that he thought he would never have again after Morganna was killed. She was his best friend, like a little sister to him and he hoped where ever she was she was safe. She was out here in the Commonwealth somewhere - maybe they would see each other again.
He closed his eyes as Nora wished him goodnight, being under her employ wasn't as bad as he had feared, protecting Nora was not just what he was made to do. It was something he was beginning to enjoy.