"Oh! Someone new to play with!" The little girl exclaimed enthusiastically. "What great luck I have today!" The dog who had been passively laying down by the swingset now emitted a high pitched whimpering noise. Honestly, there was something weird about that dog. I mean, it was just a normal dog, nothing strange there, but... something about the way it looked at her was kind of disconcerting. Ruling the whimpering out as normal dog-behavior, she redirected her attention to the young girl before her. The Lone Wanderer crouched down and put her hand on the girls shoulder;

"Sorry, sweetie, I don't have time to play right now." she said with a warm, sympathetic smile. "I'm looking for my father. You haven't seen him, have you?" The girl batted her hand away like it was covered in rads.

"You can play a game with me, or you can stay here and find him without my help." The little girl turned back to her flowers. "Your call." she sang.

"Listen here, you little shit-" the older girl began, before Gob coughed loudly. She whipped her head around to give him a sharp glare. "What?" she snapped. He gave her a pleading look, as if urging her to handle the situation with care. Exhaling slowly, she turned back to the girl who was now standing with her arms crossed, a self-righteous smirk starting to appear on her face. Kids are such dicks. "Fine."

"Oh, joy! We're going to have so much fun, believe me. Your first assignment," the girl pointed towards a little boy by a lemonade stand, "will be to make Timmy Neusbaum cry."

"I hope you're kidding." the young woman muttered. "Please tell me you're kidding." Betty's face gave away no signs of comicality, and the wanderer realized that she was being serious. The woman slowly straightened her back, brushing her dress off with her hands. Gob seemed to be waiting for her to say something. "Let's get this over with." she sighed.

Timmy Neusbaum came into view as she strode across the street, Gob hesitantly following after. He was so baby-faced, there's no way he could've been over 8.

"Hi, m'am! I'm Timmy." he greeted innocently. "Do you want to buy some lemonade?" She fished a pre-war dollar out of a small coinpurse, handing it to him. He poured the lemonade into a drinking glass, eagerly handing it to her. She took an experimental sip, scrunching her nose up in disgust. Small shards of glass went everywhere as she threw it to the ground. He shrinked back in intimidation.

"This tastes like shit, what the fuck do you put in this stuff? Piss?" she barked. Maybe it wasn't necessary to be this cruel, but it seemed to be heading in the right direction. His eyes glossed over with unspilled tears.

"What?" he croaked, his voice small. "I...made it myself..." he tried.

"I can tell! Are you trying to poison me or something, you little twat?" she shot forward, threatening to grab him by his collar, but stopped herself. Timmy began choking up, rushing back to his house as he sobbed. Horrified citizens stared at the scene in shock and disgust. She wanted to say something, to tell them to mind their own business, but she knew she was in the wrong. With an exasperated sigh, she poured up some of the leftover lemonade that was still in the pitcher. Gob had been distancing himself from the lemonade stand, most likely not wanting to direct attention to himself or be associated with a 19 year old woman bullying a kid. Honestly, she couldn't blame him. Standing up, she made her way over the bench he was sitting on, rubbing her eyes with the palm of her hands. This was more exhausting than she'd anticipated.

"I can't believe I made an 8 year old cry." she mumbled in disbelief. "This...this lemonade is so good. I'm an asshole." Gob shifted uncomfortably, looking at everything besides her. It seemed like he wanted to say something but had decided against it. Growing slightly impatient, the Lone Wanderer huffed "Whatever. I'm going back to Betty." As she walked with rash steps towards the playground, it crossed her mind for a split second that she might've delivered that with more venom than intended, but quickly ignored it. Ends justify the means, right? And besides, as far as breaches of morality went, this was weak as fuck. It's not like some dumb kid hasn't had his feelings hurt before. "Hey- asshole! I made Timmy cry, where's my dad?" The brat let out a delighted giggle and clapped her hands.

"Perfect!" she chirped. When she spoke again, her voice no longer belonged to a child. "Not the wit I'd hoped for, but you have definitely exceeded expectations. Well done." It felt like an eternity had passed before the wanderer found her voice again.

"I'm sorry, what the hell?" she spluttered. "Actually, I don't care. Tell me where my father is." Betty's face had deadpanned, and the woman averted her gaze for a second before adding "..Please."

"A predictable question, I suppose. To answer it; your father is very much alive. Perhaps you've met Doc the dog?" she drawled. Bearing an expression of disbelief, the young woman turned to give the mutt the exact same look it had been giving her since she got here. With wary steps, she slowly approached him, kneeling down by his side and cupping his face in her hands. Heavy eyes looked into her own, eyes that unmistakenly belonged to her father. She wrapped her arms around the dogs neck and brought him as close as she possibly could manage, making sure not to squeeze him all too tight. A few seconds of silence passed before she swallowed calmly and whispered "I'm gonna get you out of here, you're gonna explain a thing or two to me, and then I'm going to leave, and you will never see me again. Are we on the same page, here?" The animal gave a low whimper, and regarded her with a pleading expression. She knew she wasn't going to leave him, not really. As much as she wanted to hate his guts, she couldn't bring herself to cut him off quite yet. But she wanted him to be scared. She wanted him to feel the same fear she'd felt the day he walked out on her, and left her in that god damn shithole to fend for herself as half of its citizens came at her with torches and pitchforks. She wanted him to doubt if he'd ever get to speak to her again.. Whether it was a promise she was planning to keep was currently irrelevant. What mattered was that she got through to him, and that the realization of what he'd done to her hit him with full force. It crossed her mind that he might not even be fazed by her leaving. Obviously, he must've been pretty cozy with the idea for him to ditch her like he did. A familiar feeling of rage registered as her as her attention flickered back to the girl nonchalantly watering her flowers in silence. The urge to strike her with the back of her hand was overwhelming, but she had to begrudgingly admit that she felt intimidated by all the possible consequences it could hold. Just curling up in a bed somewhere and forgetting about everything seemed appealing, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't considered the option on more than one occasion before. But her stubborn sense of pride wouldn't allow her, and she knew very well she was gonna have to get this over with.

.oOo.

Gob was stirred awake by the sound of cursing downstairs. She was still up. Slowly, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, shifting himself to put his feet down on the carpeted floor. He rested his elbows on his knees as he rubbed his temples. A string of foul language could still be faintly heard from the lower level. After what felt like years, he finally dragged himself off the bed to walk over to the railing. The woman was still sitting on the floor, frustratedly trying to figure out the failsafe whilst using the light of her pipboy as assistance. Her gaze landed on him, and her annoyed expression softened considerably.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" she remarked with a groggy smile.

"I could ask you the same question," he responded, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around the room. "You're still on this?"

"Yeah. That old lady was on to something, probably. I..I don't know." she stumbled over her words. "But it's better than.. doing that other stuff with Mabel and the..yeah." her words were slurred and lazy, like she couldn't even work up the energy to speak properly. He offered a sympathetic smile, and walked down the staircase to sit down next to her.

"Any luck yet?"

"Nah, not really.. I know it has to do with this..dumbshit gnome dude. And that soda bottle over there.." the womans eyelids seemed to occasionally flutter shut before she pried them open again to continue working.
"You sound really tired, kid.. I think you need to get some rest."

"I'm not tired, I'm just..exhausted. It feels like I'm going to be stuck here forever, and I don't..really know.." her words faded out, and she sat there staring into thin air. "I just wanted to see my dad, yknow? And he can't even talk, and I...I broke up a marriage.." Tears had started trickling down her cheeks, and in any other case she would've held back, but she seemed too exasperated to really care anymore. "Like..they were working shit out and I just kinda crashed the whole thing, I just.." She kept rambling on aimlessly like that for a while, her sobbing making it increasingly difficult to make out what she was saying. He hesitated for a good minute before finally leaning in to put his lips on hers. Her body tensed up immediately, and he nearly got a heartattack as he realized that this might potentially be the dumbest thing he could've possibly done in this situation. He was prepared to pull away until she melted into the kiss, bringing her hands up to entangle them in his caramel hair. He wondered for a second if he would've been able to do this had he still been a ghoul, but he was enjoying himself too much to really care. For months he had been imagining this moment, always writing it off as ridiculous. Seeing the way men and women would look at her was disheartening, even more so when she'd flirted back. But here he was. Sure, he was technically human right now, but it was happening. He wasn't sure how to continue, but she took care of it for him. The vault dweller seemed to have perked up a great deal as she had began wrapping her arms around his neck and straddling his lap. A tingle shot up his spine, and he averted his gaze in embarassment when he felt himself getting hard. The slap he was expecting never came, and instead she had begun trailing kisses down his neck and tugging at the collar of his shirt. The way her hips grinded into his crotch was nearly too much to bear, but he managed to hold back. It wasn't long before he was lying down on the floor, but just as soon as it had began, it stopped.

"Kid?" It didn't take too long for him to realize that she'd fallen asleep. He snorted - she really was tired.


I'm awkward with sexy scenes - and autobiography. D: Decided to kinda. chop it off right there before it got too serious/ and because I'm sosososososoooo shy x'D Another short chapter, I'm afraid u_u I need to stop doing that, seriously.