Teaching a Robot to Love
-Notes-
I was going to do something with Covenant but I decided against it because it wouldn't really progress the plot at all. So I took that part out in favor of Deacon, everyone's favorite liar-pants. Oh the drama. Probably won't be much more inter-person drama after this but hey.
Please review!
Chapter 9: Snivel and Drivel and Deacon, Oh My!
The road back to Sanctuary Hills went fairly quickly. Sole and X6-88 didn't talk very much the whole way back. Breath, aim, shoot, reload, repeat. It was much easier to focus on killing once you removed verbiage from the mix. Sole definitely was the initiator of conversation because once she stopped talking, silence enveloped the both of them.
Contrary to the previous few days of blistering heat, the mercurial weather plunged the Commonwealth into a cold front. It definitely felt like December now, with the icy winds and crisp air. Within just a day's walking time, the pair had made it back.
Sole could feel X6 monitoring her every move from behind, watching, and wondering. She ignored him. Yeah her behavior might have been different but she really didn't feel like talking today. The illuminated common rooms built at Sanctuary were glowing as the dusty sky began to dim. A settler rang the bell as X6 and Sole crossed the bridge, alerting the town their general was back.
Cait rushed over.
"Ey you blokes, you got 'ere just in time. Today is Piper's birthday, Deacon brought mounds of alcohol. I dunno where he keeps the stuff! Come on" she waved at the two of them to follow.
Sole quickly glanced back at X6 to see if he was looking at her. He was. His disinterested face with his pretty-boy lips were staring straight at her. He was making it really hard to stay frustrated with him if he was going to keep giving her puppy dog looks.
"Come on" she said with a nod of her head as she began walking towards the common room. X6, as always, followed.
Everyone was there! Piper's cheeks were twinged pink from the wine as she chugged glass after glass trying to compete with Cait in some drinking competition. Settlers all around cheered them on, creating a merry clamor. Danse, Deacon, MacCready, and Nick all sat around them with languid smiles on their faces. When Sole walked in, cheers of recognition caused a chain reaction of faces to turn around towards them. Bottles of every shape and size were piled around Piper as she waved to Sole lazily. Deacon scooted over and patted the now open spot next to him.
"Hey hey look whose back, the wandering woman and her handy-dandy sidekick, X6! Come enjoy the fun boss!" He called. Sole could see a little wash of red under his sunglasses. Deacon hadn't struck her the type to get drunk.
"Happy birthday Piper!" Sole called over the happy crowd with a huge grin as she took up the spot beside Deacon. X6-88 retreated into the far corner of the room and sat in an armchair, all in view of Sole. Into the shadows as usual.
"Hey there birthday girl, don't be hoggin' all the good stuff now. Boss has got to get in on this!" Deacon grabbed a stray glass and scotch bottle from beside Piper and filled the cup to the absolute brim before muttering a whoops and shoving the glass over to Sole. The scotch sloshed all over the table. Yep, definitely drunk.
Sole smirked at him, "What are you playing?"
Deacon threw an arm over her shoulders and leaned in. Woah okay, no personal space. His breath smelled of alcohol. He was very very happy.
"Oh you should know this one Sole, it's toootally from your time. Never have I ever. There seems to be a bias towards the younger crowd," he said motioning towards Piper. "Between you and me, I think they're just targeting me."
"Alright happy pants, I'm in" she joked, grabbing the glass and taking a complementary swig to indicate her entrance into the game. Cait whooped. "So what's been happening while I was gone?"
Deacon glanced to the other side of the room towards X6 before leaning his face towards Sole's ear. Cait was saying something.
"Desdemona's wondering if you could get another dead drop. That crazy old coot Randolph still won't meet you in person but we're gonna need to secure a location soon. Feeling like leaving your boyfriend for a few days?" Deacon teased. Sole rolled her eyes.
"'Ey Deacon! Stop flirting with the ladies and take a swig. We all know 'ya wear a wig. Drink up!" Cait nudged him from the other side.
"You conniving little cat, Cait! I knew you had it out for me" Deacon chides. He kept his arm around Sole as he rose his glass with the other hand and downed the whole thing.
Sole chuckled, "He's not my boyfriend, and yes I have time for a dead drop."
"Uh-oh, trouble in paradise? Say it ain't so!"
"Shush you."
Another round. 1 shot, 2 shots, 3 shots, 4. Piper's eyes rolled around in her head, desperately trying to hold her own against Cait. Cait seemed to become more invigorated the more she drank as she got up and sang to any nearby settlers, dancing with them in the process. Danse's head was on the table, buried in his arm; he was out.
5 shots, 6 shots, 7 shots. The alcohol all hit at once as the room spun like a merry-go-round. Cait was declared the drinking champion. Sole's smile was a mile wide as she laughed at Deacon's lame jokes and Piper's failed attempts to try to string a coherent sentence together.
Another round of people took up some of the vacant seats around them for a new round of drinking games. Sole lazily watched the festivities, Cait the most amusing of all, as she dramatically danced from person-to-person like a drunken butterfly. Deacon's head lolled around on his nelk before finally crashing into Sole's shoulder. She momentarily panicked, eyes shooting up to X6, already starting to push Deacon off, but X6 wasn't even looking at her. He was watching the Cait whirlwind that was slowly encroaching upon where he was. Ugh.
The disappointed feeling washed over her jolly mood and she chastised herself for thinking that he would be watching.
"Y'know yerrr pretty awesome Sole" Deacon slurred against her shoulder. "Yer like, the Harriet Tubman of synths."
"Yeah yeah, thanks. Good to know you're the loving kind of drunk" Sole giggled, finding it strangely difficult to form her own sentences under the spell of liquor.
Cait broke away from her last partner, adding another one to her string of broken hearts. She stopped directly in front of X6-88 with her arms akimbo. A sinking feeling settled in Sole's stomach as she locked her eyes on the scene ahead of her. Deacon was slurring something, but she tuned him out.
"Well, well if it isn't Mr. Handsome Courser!" Sole heard Cait yell over everyone. The room was so loud! She strained her ears to hear what else she was saying but was only able to discern unintelligible syllables. Curiosity ate at her. Then the sinking little pebble she had felt turned into an anchor as she watched Cait climb on top of X6's lap, tossing her hair sensuously to the side as she began gyrating her hips against his.
Sole tore her eyes away, not wanting to see any more.
"Deacon, let's get out of here. I need a walk to cool off" She quickly demanded, cringing as she could hear the sting of jealousy in her own voice.
Deacon stopped mumbling and lifted his head up to look at her and nodded. He spun out of his seat with grace, as if his drunken stupor was all a fickle lie, as he lifted her from her seat by her hand. They exited the lively common room.
The frigid air blasted them sober as soon as they opened the door. Sole rubbed her hands over her arms to get warm as the two started their walk. Deacon pulled her over to the lit sidewalk and out of the pitch black sea of the night landscape. They walked in silence for a bit, before Deacon spoke up.
"It isn't her fault you know" he started.
Sole scrunched her eyebrows up in annoyance. "I know that!" she snapped. Then she rubbed a hand over her forehead. She needed to cool it. "I know… Cait is Cait, it's just…" she sighed in frustration and kicked an imaginary rock.
"Boss you're sounding pretty tense. I get it y'know? I once tried to get with this courser girl, but it was soo hard. You see, all the other little courser boys also had a crush on her, and so did the scientists. So it made it really really hard on us."
"Bullshit. There are no courser girls." She couldn't help but smiling at his stupid story.
"That you know of!" He added.
Sole sniffed. She wasn't quite sure if it was because of the chilly air or the imprint of Cait ontop of X6 in her brain. Deacon seemed to sense something was up as he rubbed a friendly hand up and down her back in comfort.
She sighed, "I don't know why this bothers me so much. One day I wake up to find my baby is stolen by some mercenary, and the next day I find out he's been taken to the infamous Institute. Oh did I forget to mention 60 years had passed and he is now the leader? Hah! Now I'm to replace him? I don't even know anything about the Institute. I don't know why they do the things they do: steal people, treat synths like slaves, and hoard all the technology to themselves. It doesn't make sense. Now I'm pretending like everything is okay as I take shots like a damn college student and get jealous over my robot bodyguard. Ugh what's wrong with me?"
"I don't know. I frequently feel like leaders always could use a little loosening up. I mean have you seen Maxson? Geez!" Deacon joked to quell the increasingly depressing vibe between them.
Sole chuckled.
"I don't know. I want to believe that synths are basically human just like you believe, but sometimes I just don't know. What if they are built differently? What if they aren't capable of empathy or…compassion?" She chose her words carefully.
Deacon looked off into the distance reminiscent, "Well I certainly hope that's not true. In any case, if you're thinking about who I think you're thinking about, then you don't have anything to worry about."
Sole looked at him confused as they strolled down the path. "What do you mean? Deacon I've tried everything. Physiologically, they seem very close to human. But, they have improvements, like being immune to radiation, and don't need to eat to survive. X6 anyway…he is truly the product of the Institute. He believes in its values down to his core. I'm just the pawn that needs to be moved."
Deacon grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him. He leveled his face with hers.
"Wait, are you telling me you haven't noticed?"
Sole blinked.
"Noticed what?"
Deacon slapped a hand to his forehead and leaned back. "Oh man! Sole for such a capable woman you sure are dense!" Sole's eyebrows knitted at the insult. Deacon continued, "you think that Mr. X doesn't treat you differently? Are you kidding?"
Sole broke away and turned around, walking back on the path they had just come. "What are you talking about? He treats me normally. Our relationship is very much a professional courser-human, bodyguard-client relationship" she asserted. "Though not for lack of trying!"
Deacon trotted up next by her side, "Listen! I'm only going to say this once because I value my life. If he caught me saying this, my life expectancy would be marginally thin, okay?" Deacon took a deep breath. "It's very obvious he treats you differently than everybody else Sole. Trust me, I've been around my fair share of coursers and synths. I know when they're feeling affectionate. You are the only one he is nice with. Other than recognizing our fighting ability, he is pretty much a dick to everyone else. He is ridiculously over protective of you; I swear if you come back hurt with anyone else one of these days, he is going to send them to an early grave. That's even if he does talk to us, which is rare. He pretty much ignores everyone except you. I noticed he talks a LOT around you. Plus, His eyes are always tracking you when you walk in the room, when you get back from an adventure, when I put my arm over you earlier in the common room…" He recounted, enumerating the reasons on his fingers.
Sole hunched up her shoulders. He was totally pretending to be drunk, he knew exactly what he was doing! Oh you sly dog Deacon, you.
"Yeah yeah" she dismissively said, starting to feel her face start to flush with embarrassment.
"I'm not done" he persisted. "He stands really close to you. Like super close. Like kinda almost stalker-y, smell-your-hair-as-I-press-against-your-backside, kind of close."
"Stoop, he does not do that" she laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. Her mind went back to think of all the times she had dismissed his closeness as intimidation to others.
"Seriously! People don't stand that close to strangers or 'clients'" he air quoted "I don't care what you say. Oh!" Deacon clapped his hands together as if remembering something juicy. "I got some inside intel from some of the synths we helped rescue a while back. I heard through the grapevine that he actually even brags about you to his courser buddies back at the Institute. Y'know synths are actually more perceptive than they think. Those Institute goons don't think that the one synth sweeping by the corner is going to bother listening to their conversations. Ha! Fools man. We learn a lot about the inside that way."
Sole's cheeks were brushed with rose at all the flattery he was throwing at her. "Ugh Deacon stop. Don't get my hopes up." The common house took shape in the darkness as they neared it. The memory of Cait grinding against X6 flashed into her mind again, making her sad. Stop thinking about it! Ugh.
"Mmhmm, are we getting a little shy now?" He joked, peeking his face around to stare at her.
She turned her head away from him, trying not to smile. As the shadows began to become figures from the glow of the house. Deacon spotted X6-88 leaning against the wooden wall of the front. He had heard Sole's giggle and focused his aviators on their approaching figures. He didn't look happy.
What Deacon hadn't told Sole yet was how, back at the party, X6 reacted to every move he made on her. His head would twitch in their direction every time he leaned in, or whispered in her ear. Sole was too pissed to see it before, but when Deacon threw his arm over Sole's shoulders as they left, he cast a glance over his shoulder to see if X6 reacted. He did. Deacon had to suppress laughter as he caught X6 literally shoving Cait off of his lap to chase them outside.
When they got a few feet closer Sole noticed him too and her eyes went wide as she froze when they locked eyes. Deacon smoothed his hands over his pants nervously. His identity as an agent of the Railroad was purposefully kept a secret from X6-88. He and Sole thought it best for him to keep a low profile so as not to risk exposure. Well that was about to go out the window. X6 kicked off the wall and strode over to them.
"Play along with me" Deacon whispered to Sole. She was about to ask him what when he spun her around so that her back was facing X6, leaned in and pressed his forehead up against hers. X6's footsteps stopped. Sole's eyes were wide with confusion as she tried to find the outline of Deacon's eyes through his dark shades. What was he doing?
Suddenly his shoulder was yanked back as X6 pushed him away from Sole, aggressively.
"I don't know who you are, but if any harm comes to this woman, I will find out, and then I will find you" X6 threatened calmly. Sole's worried eyes darted between the two men as she stepped up to push them apart.
Deacon threw his hands up, comically, "Me? Oh I'm nobody. But hey, don't you worry about a thing!"
Deacon knew his aloofness would only piss him off, but it was too epic not to. He was just so serious, it almost made it too easy. He backed away along the path, letting the darkness swallow him from sight.
Deacon was so mysterious to Sole. She never knew what he was thinking or what he was planning to do. Spontaneity was part of his wily charm but it still baffled her. She had only a moment to think about it before X6 tugged at her arm, snapping her out of her reverie.
"Come" he commanded, still as cool as ever.
He started walking back towards her old house. She reluctantly followed. His pace was brisk and he didn't bother slowing down for her. Was he…mad?
"Hey-" Sole started.
X6-88 cut in, "Ma'am before you finish, let me speak. I told you before that you were weak against men. I told you to rely on me before you put yourself in dangerous situations with strangers."
"What? Deacon isn't a stranger. He's my friend!" she protested, not knowing why he was upset.
"That man took advantage of you when you let your guard down. Never drop your guard. Unless it's around me" he continued to scold her. They reached the entrance to her house. Still a little confused, Sole tried to walk through the door but was blocked when X6 put his arm across the door-jam. Now she had to pretend like the closeness of their bodies didn't bother her. Why did Deacon have to go and say those things?
Sole folded her arms at him. Well now what did he want? "He didn't take advantage of me, I asked him to go for a walk because I needed to cool my head" she embellished, carefully choosing her words so that she didn't sound jealous.
"If you need to cool your head, I would rather you do so with me. Trusting surface-dwellers will get you into trouble."
She rolled her eyes, "Ugh stop calling my friends that! They're perfectly fine and trustworthy people. Besides, you looked like you were having fun and I didn't want to interrupt you!" She said rather rudely. Shit, she was starting to hear the edge in her voice. Ugh why did he need to do this now? HE was getting at HER for letting her guard down around the opposite sex? That was rich. The cold made her temper significantly shorter as her teeth clattered in her mouth.
X6-88 paused and dropped his hand from the door. Sighing, he moved his fingers together then separated them once again. It was a motion he often did when he was thinking.
"…I would have rather it have been me…" he added slowly.
Just like that, her anger melted away. Damn how could he do that? Making her want to choose him. She was so resolved to be mad at him and with just a few words she was all ready to forgive him. He was so honest. Deep down she knew he wouldn't like some random girl dancing on him, but the irrational part of her brain magnified the issue into something worse.
She let out a slow breath, "Sorry X6, next time I will ask you first okay? I'm going to go to bed now, thanks for walking me home."
Before she could take a step X6 grabbed her chin in her hands and turned her face towards him. Her eyes popped out of her head as she stared up at his tall stature. Was he…?
"Make sure you wash your mouth out with soap and water. Get rid of the filth that defiled you."
Sole blinked. What?
Then everything started clicking in place. From where he was standing, she and Deacon must have looked like…Oh that conniving devil!
"Ha ha! He didn't kiss me if that's what you're thinking. He just pressed our foreheads together is all" she snorted in laughter. X6 dropped his hand and frowned. Oh what a silly boy he was.
"Oh…" he trailed off, putting a hand behind his head. Was that…embarrassment? No, coursers didn't get embarrassed. Could they?
Sole thought back to what Deacon said about how X6 always followed her around. Even if she didn't fully believe him (he was known for lying after all), this most comical encounter with X6 rose her spirits up. She could act as childish as she wanted and he would still be there. He had done so a hundred times. A wave of comfort washed over her.
Maybe the alcohol was still in her system, making her bold for she took a daring step right up to X6 so that they were toe-to-toe. Then she stood on her tiptoes and planted a soft kiss right on his cheek as she leaned into him. She felt his arms wrap around her lower back, holding her against him. It was so warm. They stayed there for a bit in that tender moment.
"Goodnight X6" she whispered against his neck as she pushed out of his embrace and into the house.
She didn't know how much more she could take. While she managed to keep her cool, her head reeled and her cheeks were once again burning with a hearty fervor. In all of the times she had made a move on X6-88, this was the first time he ever hugged back.
