Charon slammed the shack door. He'd never been one for the slamming of doors, it generally being a good way to blow your cover and get your ass shot up, and he'd really never been one for throwing a temper tantrum either.
But… She'd called him zombie and hell if that wasn't an unwelcome surprise. The fucking saint of the Wasteland who loves everyone, skin flaking off or not, calling him zombie burnt good and deep and damn if it wasn't a first-fucking-class reason for Charon to do some door slamming for once.
She's drunk. She doesn't mean it he found himself thinking and simultaneously wondering why in the hell he was taking it so hard. Problem was, Charon having been a bouncer in a bar for the lousier part of sixty fucking years knew that there was a good chance she did mean it. The percentage of drunken people who got more honest far out-weighed the percentage who just said shit all the time. And screw all you Wastelanders who think that it's the other way around, thank you very much.
Charon knew that his employer would be following him up the stairs any second now. The girl did not take people turning their backs on her and refusing to speak lightly. Not two months ago Roy Phillips had slaughtered the entire Smoothskin population of Tenpenny towers after the four of them had spent a good portion of time and ammo hunting him down in a train station infested with ferrals to tell him Ghouls were now welcome in the damn place. When his employer had asked if he was proud of himself Roy had told the girl it was none of her business and that she'd get out if she didn't want to join the rotting corpses in the basement.
That Charon thought She could have handled. It was when the idiot made the mistake of turning his back on her that a .308 calibre bullet promptly liberated his head from atop his shoulders.
"The conversation is over when I say it's over, asshole." She had said coldly, slinging her Victory rifle onto her back.
The Victory Rifle was not an inside or close range gun and the entire room (not to mention Jericho and Butch, who'd not quite managed to dodge) had been painted with blood, brain matter and skull fragments. It was also a very loud gun and they'd had to run goddamn fast to get out before a rain of bullets hailed down on them.
Scratch that off the list of places we're still welcome… He thought grimly. His employer was not a bad person by most standards; one doesn't become the Hero of the Wasteland by blowing away every dumbshit who pisses them off. It's just that whereas most Wastelanders had tempers on the shorter end of the scale, his employer's temper was something akin to a frag grenade; once activated it could not be stopped, leading up to a particularly violent explosion.
In the time Charon had known her, they'd been run out of a number of settlements because Three Dog's "saintly" Lone Wanderer had snapped. In the Republic of Dave, it was the so-called president whose brain had ended up on the floor ("Chauvinistic bigamist") In Rivet City it was Sister ("They'll come around when they realise he was a filthy slaver") In Fort Independence it was Protector Casdin ("The only thing that compassionless fuck is protecting is his own future") and god-damn if they weren't on shaky ground in Little Lamplight. Luckily, there was no way his employer would snap hard enough to kill a kid but the little bitch in the pink dress was probably still displeased over her newly off-centre nose. Yeah, that particular incident had cost them a chunk out of their caps and more Buffout than they would normally have to trade for Lamplight's cave fungus, but MacCready had eventually said they could still come around to trade and what-not… Provided they handed over their weapons and didn't stay too long.
Thing was, Charon was fully unused to her taking her anger out on him. If she was angry, it usually wasn't a member of their party who bore the brunt of it, but a Raider, Slaver or particularly thankless Wastelander. It just so happened this time that he was the one dragging her drunk, unwilling ass out of Gob's that she'd come down on him.
It was lucky that she'd said what she did outside that piss-hole Charon thought, because while he was taking the "get your fucking hands off me, zombie!" comment badly, Gob would probably be putting a 10mm in his mouth and pulling the trigger. That kid worshipped the Lone Wanderer and considered her his rescuer even though it was never proved that it was her who Shady Sands Shuffled Moriarty down to hell.
Thinking about Gob got Charon wondering; maybe she didn't mean it after all. His employer had after all risked her home in Megaton to free Gob from that conniving Irish bastard and nobody would do that for somebody if they thought they were just some zombie. Maybe she didn't mean it… But it didn't mean she had a fucking right to go and say it anyway, drunk or not.
The heavy clang of his employer suddenly racing up the metal staircase brought Charon's milky gaze to the door which was promptly kicked open and as she stormed in. Her eyes were blazing with a look he'd seen in her eyes many times before. The look said; you have exactly five seconds to explain yourself.
"You walked away.' She stated "From me." Charon nodded and she took a threatening step towards the Sentient but he stood his ground.
"Without orders… You walked away.' She continued and he nodded again.
Step
"From me."
Nod, step. She now stood right in front of him.
"You know I don't like it when people turn their backs on me." She said and Charon scowled.
"And if you permit it mistress, I don't like it when people call me zombie." He grated out, aware of just how much he was overstepping his bounds with her but at that moment not giving a damn.
She glowered at him "Goddamn it, Charon I didn't mean it. If I cared what you looked like I wouldn't have fucking bought your contract.' She paused, flicking a lock of hair from her eye "I was pissed off and too shit-faced to walk. All I wanted was to make you angry."
"So you insult me because you are pissed off.' Charon said slowly "This does not seem reasonable to me, mistress."
"I don't care, Charon!' She yelled "Have you taken a good look at the world? Everyone has to vent their anger somehow, or we'd all fucking explode!'
"Perhaps.' He said gruffly "But one does not usually expect to be vented at by somebody they have spent the last seven months protecting and serving."
"For good or for ill, right?' She snapped "Hell, that's part of why I can't help but be a bitch to you too. All you ever do is that; protect and serve. It's like living with a statue half the time, Charon. You're like stone. And I don't want a stone. I want a goddamn human being!" She shouted the last part and Charon clenched his fists.
"You have two human beings downstairs probably wondering why you are being so loud.' He said from between gritted teeth. "Perhaps you should return to them?" Her eyes blazed.
"No! I want you to start acting… Acting real!" She yelled.
"And how would you have me do that… Mistress?" He asked. His gravelly voice was laced through unmistakably with venom, but she refused to back down.
"Get angry! Vent!' She snarled, pushing at him though knowing she may as well be trying to move a boulder "Don't walk away; show some real fucking emotion for once!" Charon swatted her hands away and looked down at the young woman, an unfamiliar look in his eyes.
"Is that an order?" He asked softly and quite dangerously. The girl either didn't notice his tone or chose to ignore it as she stepped closer, purposefully getting in his face.
"I've got a damn good mind to say it is." She hissed.
Two things happened then.
One, his employer suddenly found herself pushed roughly against the shack wall by her shoulders and two, she found her feet where no longer touching the ground, as all her weight now rested on Charon's knee where it was fixed firmly and unmovable between her thighs.
Startled and blinking, the girl's fear was soon replaced by anger "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She yelled, beating her fists against Charon's shoulders. He simply grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head before answering her calmly;
"Venting." He growled.
His head bowed to her neck and she gasped as his rough lips caressed her throat "You said to vent my anger, mistress.' He murmured "And since you are the sole cause of it, you must now face the fact that you are the one it is to be vented upon."
"Charon… This isn't what I…" She trailed off as his ruined fingertips traced down her spine and rested at the small of her back.
"What you expected?" He murmured and she nodded, but looked into his eyes, her own glazed with unmistakable want.
"But don't stop." She whispered. Charon's lips crushed to hers then because even if she had said to stop, he wasn't sure if he could anymore…
Hours later with his employer asleep beside him, Charon stared at the ceiling lost in thought. He couldn't call it calming her down, but at least she wasn't ranting and shooting him in the face.
The ghoul couldn't help but grin slightly.
"Hey…" Her voice, soft and thick with sleep made him look at her. His employer smiled apologetically at him, her half-lidded eyes threatening to close "I never said I was sorry for… What I said. Sometimes I just forget the world around me and more importantly…' her hand rested on Charon's chest "the people who mean a lot to me." His hand came to rest atop of hers.
"Apologies are not necessary, but thank you." Charon said and she smiled then yawned.
"Think Butch an' Jericho heard any of that?" She asked and Charon smirked.
"This house does not strike me as the most soundproof, mistress." He replied and she snickered softly.
"The day isn't done 'til I scar someone for life. Two in one go… Is pretty good." She said sleepily.
Charon watched his employer drift once more into sleep and brushed a strand of hair from her face.
She wasn't perfect. Oh no.
She was imperfection at its finest.
Warning! This chapter contains themes of ghoul porn- oh it's the end of the chapter. Hahahaha. Longest one yet. And probably not the only pornish one either. Since they don't really connect, the wanderer will probably not be thought of nicely in all the stories. We shall see, yes?
~KD