Hancock sucked the smoke deeply into his lungs and stared hard at the wall of his office. It held no answers for him and he growled, frustrated. He had to tell her, just how. She had gone with Ikke to collect the caps for the job, he had stayed behind, feigning some bullshit excuse about catching up on paperwork. In actual fact he couldn't give two flying fucks about the ledgers right now.
Fahrenheit sat across from her friend. "The wall didn't do nothing to you John, why you growlin' at it?" When he didn't answer, she sighed, "Come on John, out with it, what's wrong?"
He looked at her thoughtfully, "Have you ever met something that surprised you Fara? Like - you meet this person and at first you hardly pay any attention to them. You may not be at all attracted to this person, but as you get to know them you notice yourself falling. This person who was once nothing to you has suddenly become everything. All of a sudden they're the most beautiful person you've ever met. It's funny looking back. You never saw it coming, it just kind of - happened."
She blinked, he was either really high and sprouting bullshit or he was serious. The clearness of his eyes told her it was the latter, "You're in love with Edi." It wasn't a question, she could see it in his face. It was the most vulnerable expression she'd ever seen and it made her teeth ache. "Shit." She toyed with the Jet inhaler in her pocket. "Have you told her?" He shook his head. Hearing a laugh in the stairwell she turned her head. "Well now's yer chance ol' boy, here she comes." She smirked. "Don't fuck it up." She pushed herself up, patting him on the shoulder as she passed, "You deserve this John." she said quietly, "I'll see ya later stud."
Edi entered as Fahrenheit was leaving, "Edi."
"Hey Fahrenheit."
"Gunna go for a walk, I'll take yer dog if you like?"
Edi gave her a surprised look, "Oh, sure. Ikke you wanna go for a walk?" The dog woofed happily around a ball in his mouth. "Go with Fahrenheit then, maybe she'll throw that ball you got, huh?"
Fahrenheit smirked, she'd always had a soft spot for dogs, "Sure, come on pup."
Edi threw herself down next to Hancock, oblivious to his inner turmoil. She dumped a large bag on the table.
"5000 caps." She was grinning madly, Hancock gave her a half smirk. Caps didn't matter, not if she walked out of his life, she was a drifter, how long would she stay here if there was nothing - no one - to stay for. He stood up abruptly. Edi frowned, "Hancock?"
He turned holding out a hand to her, "I got something to show you doll."
She took his hand, "Uhh - ok?"
He led her through a back room she'd never been in before, the one he came out of when she'd first come into his office looking for work. She smiled to herself, it seemed like such a long time ago now.
He took her to a ladder, "Mind you step toots."
She climbed up behind him, wondering where the hell he was taking her. He opened a hatch and clambered out offering her his hand again. Edi was pulled up off the last rung and onto the roof of the Old State House. She looked up into the early evening sky, "Wow. Hancock this is beautiful."
He shrugged, looking at his boots, "I come up here to think sometimes." There was a bedroll laying a few feet from where they stood. She imagined nights lying up here and just staring at the sky. Peaceful and quiet. She sighed happily. "Liston doll I -" She stopped looking at the sky and trained her eyes on him. It was the first time she had ever heard him be so - hesitant.
He sighed heavily rubbing a hand across his face. She waited patiently, obviously whatever he had to say was important. "I spent my whole life runnin', I ran from m' life in Diamond City, I ran from m' family," he snorted humourlessly, "hell, I even ran from my own damn skin." She took a step towards him, "The drug that made me like this, I - I knew what it was going to do. I just couldn't stand to look that asshole in the mirror anymore. He was the one who sat by while ghouls were thrown from their homes in Diamond City and he was the one who just stood by while Vic's men slaughtered innocent people. I was just as bad as the people who did those things."
She was right in front of him when he looked up, "You did what you did. That's the past. What you're doing now? Giving people a place to go. Helping the little guy? That? That's who you are. Those things are what makes you the man I fe- uh - I admire."
If he noticed her slip, he didn't say anything, "I guess what I'm tryin' to say rather inexplicably is that - what we got? This - partnership, it's the first thing that's felt right in a fuckin' long time. I - you're a good friend Edi."
It's now or never Edith. Man up girl.
"Hancock - John -" she placed a hand on his cheek, "have you ever felt we are more than just friends?"
His eyes widened, then he scoffed, "Am I that obvious?"
NO. I had no idea, you felt the same!
"Look I'm - it's -" he sighed, "who'd want to wake up to this mug every day?"
Me! I do, you big idiot.
"I would. I love you Hancock."
He searched her eyes with the most openly hopeful look on his face and her heart melted, "W-what?"
She smirked, "You heard me."
His eyes clouded over with something she couldn't quite describe, but it was heady, "Say it again." His voice was like sandpaper on her skin, it sucked the breath out of her lungs.
"I love you."
His lips were on hers in an instant, a textured hand roughly fisting in her hair. She almost collapsed, it was just so fucking perfect.
Finally. Fucking finally after years of wandering she found that place she fit - that person she fit with. His tongue hesitantly licked at her lower lip and she moaned, allowing him entrance. She gripped his hips pushing him backwards towards the bedroll. He dropped to his knees bringing her with him, she pulled at her gloves, throwing them carelessly to the side. She shrugged out of her jacket leaving it behind as he pulled her on top of him. She settled herself over his hips and he thrust upwards roughly.
She gasped pulling her mouth away, "God, this is - like the one time crushing on someone actually turned out in my favour."
He chuckled, "I want to hear those stories later." He kissed a line up her neck, "You were sweet on me?"
She blushed, "Yeah."
He reached up to her shirt, unbuttoning it slowly, "Since when?"
"Since -" she sighed softly as his fingers traced across her ribs, "since that day in the radiation storm." He pushed the shirt off her shoulders, reaching for the tie at the front of the wrapping around her breasts.
"That was the day we first met."
"Officially anyway, I think I was probably sweet on you from the first speech I ever saw you do." He unwrapped her breasts, kneading them gently. "I'd-" She sighed again, "I'd only been in town a few days." She lost all train of thought when he tweaked on of her nipples. He leaned up kissing her stomach, then mouthing at her tits.
Edi reached for his jacket, pushing the red coat off his shoulders, he reluctantly let go of her for the minute it took to wrestle off his shirt. She pushed him back down exploring his torso with her hands, she traced the muscles and remaining patches of skin. Kissing him gently she removed that infamous hat, tossing it to the side. Her hands slid down his chest to his belt, undoing it.
Hancock somehow got her hair out of its tie and her auburn locks cascaded around them in a curtain that smelled faintly of melon flowers. She felt him toe off his boots, which he never laced up fully. She remembered telling him he'd kill himself with those laces, to which he'd smirked and replied that he'd take his chances. His fingers ran through her hair, bringing her back to the present. She pulled away from him for a minute to undo her pants and remove them.
She positioned herself over him again and at the feel of her wet heat dragging over his aching cock, he squeezed his eyes shut. She held herself over him and waited, he opened his eyes - onyx meeting chocolate, "I love you John."
He smirked, eyes filled with wonder, "I love you more Edi."
She lowered herself down onto him. Feeling that heat inside of her was like an instant burst of pleasure so intense she nearly lost it right there. His eyes were filled with love as he began to move beneath her, she kissed him passionately, throwing everything she couldn't express into words into that one kiss.
They moved as one in the most indescribable experience she had ever had. Every sensation had such emotional intensity she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. They reached that beautiful place where you momentarily loose your body together, gasping into each others mouths, sharing air in the most intimate of ways.
She rolled to the side as he arranged the blankets around them Edi stared up at the stars, "At the risk of sounding like an utter sap - I know what my novels mean by 'making love' now."
He chuckled, smiling serenely, "New experience for me too love."
She'd been sister, toots, doll - but never love, that was new. Edi smiled happily, "I love you John."
"I love you more Edi."
She grinned cheekily, "How do you know?"
He stared up into the sky, eyes contemplative, "When I say I love you more, I don't just mean I love you more than you love me. I mean I love you more than the bad days ahead of us. I love you more than any fight we will ever have. I love you more than the distance between us. I love you more than any obstacle that could ever try and come between us. I love you the most. You're my world Edi."
She blinked back the tears, "Ditto." She replied, kissing him soundly.