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After eating supper and then settling her father into the room they were staying in, reassuring him that she would be fine, she got this far, and wasn't doing more than going to peek out of a window, Cort finally got James placated enough to sleep. Since he had been in a padded chair for months without moving, she decided he needed all the help he could get and gave him both their blankets to use.

Charon had still said nothing more, wordlessly handing Cort her armour as she reached for it and had stared neutrally back at James whenever he had happened to look at him. Leaving Dogmeat behind on guard and locking the door to prevent one of the robots from entering after her father was completely out, both of them headed upstairs to the garage and outside a moment later, Cort blowing out the klaxon speakers first with her silenced pistol. Charon rasped quietly from behind her as they slowly circled the garage, looking for movement.

"I thought you were staying inside the building."

"Heey there's your voice! And whoops, I slipped and fell out of it." Cort poked at her Pip-Boy, looking for life signs. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, I really, really needed to get out under some real sky again. I like having sky." Dimming the display on the Pip-Boy, she looked up at the stars and smiled at the expanse, tracing out her favourite constellations with one hand. "This is worth getting shot for. Maybe not eaten, but definitely a fair trade-off for being shot."

Charon rolled his eyes and grunted, continuing to make his way around the perimeter. The ghoul was still feeling uneasy and unsure of what to do, partly because he didn't know what Cort wanted to do with him now that she had completed her goal and clearly no longer required him. She had barely even looked at him since waking up, and when she did it was in an indirect and distracted manner, like she had forgotten he was there. The rest of it was due to the state of himself, which by now he had had ample time to think about in ever expanding circles of uncertainty, sitting alone with the dog while the other two had talked. Discovering that he wanted her only made the idea of being discarded again hurt even worse. Completing his circuit, he headed back to Cort, who was finishing up with her area. "Nothing."

"Whoof, lucky for once. We can get some sleep then and head out first thing in the morning. Sound good?"

"As you wish." Cort flipped back to the the biological detector on her Pip-Boy to keep an eye on it, and turned to face the ghoul directly, hands on her hips.

"What the hell is up with you."

"Nothing." Cort crossed her arms and stared up at him blandly, clearly not buying it.

"Like hell nothing. You've hardly said anything all day. I understand that with Dad, but why aren't you talking to me anym-" Charon cut her off as a concerned note started creeping into her voice, straightening himself up while he did so.

"I need to know what my orders are. And what you intend to do with my contract now that you have achieved your objective." Blinking, Cort didn't answer right away, momentarily confused by the question and the delivery. She had learned by now that if he defaulted to his more formal, much less profane manner of speaking, it meant that he was nervous about something. Something this time sounded an awful lot like apprehensive insecurity.

"I intend to keep it right where it is, unless you tell me different. And your orders are the same as they've always been. Kill things, do what you want, don't ditch me. Wait. Did you think I was going to...get rid of you when I found my Dad? When I finished my objective?" Cort winced when he nodded, not looking at her. She really hadn't clarified with him what she would be doing after finding James, and had been too preoccupied with her father afterward to even really acknowledge him. All she had told him, aside from her personal desire to get him out of Ahzrukhal's employ to make herself feel better about leaving Gob behind, was that she was inexperienced, lonely, and just looking for her father. Admittedly she hadn't even known what she would be doing afterward, but she did know that she didn't want Charon to leave her now no matter what, even if her initial motivations had been selfish.

Cort looked down at her feet as a new thought struck her, making her feel sick. She had been selfish. Had used him. As genuinely fond as she was of the ghoul now, as much as she was starting to care for the man, she had started out using him as something to make herself feel better. She looked back up to him, and watched his eyes instantly dart away from her again. Oh hell, oh no. What did I do to him.

"I'm sorry Charon. I'm so, so sorry." Charon jerked his head down to look at her as she came over and hugged him, her helmet clunking against his chest plating. The apology jarred him partially out of his melancholic formality, not understanding the reason for it.

"For what?"

"For being a selfish asshole."

Blinking slowly, he tried to parse that particular statement and then gave it up as a bad job. "Just how fucking hard did you hit your head last night?"

"You know what just never mind, don't worry about that. Don't worry about anything. I'm keeping your contract, I want you. If you want to stay with me."

Charon's anxieties over the expected abandonment and rejection slowly began to bleed out of him even as new ones rose up almost immediately to replace them over Cort's admission, not daring to believe he had heard it. There was no way she could mean it in the same way he thought he did, still struggling to understand it himself. Brutally pushing down the feeling of fear swelling up in him, he asked for clarification as he would have for a vague new order, solidly cursing himself when he couldn't keep his voice steady.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

Cort let go of him and backed up, suddenly puzzled. Charon did not stutter. She spared a glance for her Pip-Boy and then motioned him back inside, not wanting to get into the detailed conversation she felt was coming while exposed. Shutting the door to the garage she removed her helmet and set it down, the ghoul mimicking her a moment later as he usually did. Running a hand through her hair she let out a long breath and looked at him before finally replying.

"I mean what I said. What don't you understand?" Charon considered disseminating into the other parts of her last statement to delay answering and then dismissed it, just wanting to get the entire unpleasant business over with. Steeling himself again, he asked her directly.

"What do you mean you want me. How."

Cort froze, mentally and physically. Oh. Ooh. Oh my. Oh my God. Oh God. What did I mean. How do I even say what I mean. Say something, idiot, he's staring, and it's an unhappy one. Just be honest and spit it the fuck out.

"I like you, a lot, and I want you around. I'm happier with you here and it would hurt me, in here, if you weren't." Charon looked visibly relieved as she tapped at her chest, and Cort belatedly realized how much it really would hurt if he wasn't with her. She thought about the previous night, something she wanted to know now occurring to her. Something she desperately needed to know. She twisted her fingers together, suddenly nervous. "Do. Do you want me?"

This he knew the answer to, if not the details, and so he answered immediately. "Yes."

"How?"

Charon flinched, reflexively turning away from her as an impulse to obey clashed with other facets of his eroded training. Oh fuck. Fuck. How do I even fucking say this. I don't know how. I can't say it. Fucking say something, she's probably still fucking staring.

She piped up from behind him, firmly insistent. "Well, how do you want me?"

"I-I don't know how to-" Charon stopped talking and snarled, frustrated.

Cort spoke to him in soft, measured tones, still wringing her hands. "You don't know how to tell me that?"

"...No."

Cort walked over and carefully sidled around in front of him. "Can you show me?"

"...Yes." Charon suddenly snapped out his hands and grabbed her, rough palms on the sides of her jaw and long fingers worked into her hair, his thumbs lightly resting on her cheeks. Cort jumped, then caught herself and stilled, watching his chalky eyes move over her face. She closed her own and tilted her head back as his fingers started to move like they had last night, slowly and deliberately raking through her hair and down, finally tracing over her throat. Opening her eyes when he paused, massive hands stilled at the base of her neck, Cort found him looking down at her hesitantly. She swallowed, feeling her skin press out against his thumbs where they rested.

"What, Charon?"

"Am I...am I doing it wrong?"

Cort looked into his worried face and sighed. Oh, no, it's right, so right. Oh God, what am I going to do about this. Christ, HE should know more about this than I do, he's at least four times my age...oh, oh God. Swallowing again she answered, her voice roughening. "No, you're not doing it wrong."

Immediately Charon resumed his actions, fingertips stroking behind her ears before thrusting his hands back up into her hair, gently tugging at it as he stared at her intently. Cort made a soft hitching noise somewhere between a whimper and a sigh, and giving her a pained expression, Charon stopped his movements again. "Then why are you unhappy."

"I'm not, Charon. I'm very happy." Happy doesn't even begin to cover it. He's lighting me up like a Christmas tree, and I'm not even sure he gets it. She focused her attention back on the ghoul. He was slowly taking his hands away, clearly not believing her and getting ready to disengage entirely. Oh God, what am I doing to do about this...oh fuck it. What I want to, that's what. The hell with it, the hell with all of it. Cort placed her forehead against his chest and sighed as she slid her own hands up and around his sides where she could reach, working them around to push her fingers into the center of his back under the armoured spine protector. Grumbling and getting annoyed when her knuckles kept scraping against the strips of plating, she backed up and froze when Charon suddenly began unclipping the top portion of his armour, dropping it on the floor after he jerked it loose. She stayed still as he carefully did the same thing to hers, setting it next to his and then pulling her back.

"There." Having taken her frustrated movements and sounds as an unspoken set of commands, Charon had followed them. He started moving his hands over Cort's body where she had indicated with his own, slowly and carefully pressing his fingers in around the base of her spine. Grunting contentedly when she brought her arms back up and hugged him hard against her, he began stroking over the grooves and planes of her back as she did the same to his. This felt much, much better. She wasn't irradiated but was still feeling warmer every second, her breath wonderfully hot against his ruined chest even with the shirt in the way. Still not understanding what was going on inside of himself, he was reassured by the fact that Cort knew exactly what to do and was showing him. Charon smiled slightly, rubbing around her sides and searching for each rib in turn. Of course she fucking would, shithead. She's your employer.

Cort weirdly felt like she had the day she lost her hair. Heat was exploding up her in a wild flush as the ghoul moved his fingers higher, only increasing the burning sensation as he repeated the motions over and over, and she was definitely starting to feel like making some noise. She twisted her hands around on his back, fisting his shirt up in both of them as she leaned in. Dragging in the leathery and wet copper scent of him, Cort started taking in long, measured breaths to get more of it. Charon frowned, remembering this from the night before, not wanting to stop but realizing he had to for her if she was tired.

"You're getting sleepy. We should go back downstairs, there's a lot to do tomorrow." He paused. "You're a fucking idiot when you're tired."

Cort groaned in protest, cutting it off when recent memory hit her. Downstairs. Dad was downstairs. Oh, good God. Definitely not sleepy, but willing to take his misunderstanding as an excuse to end the mortification she was now feeling, she reluctantly pulled away and started picking up her armour. "Yeah, okay." Clattering down the stairs with him following behind, Cort thought about what it was she wanted to do next. She was involved with someone. At some point, she wasn't sure quite when, gradually or all at once, she had ended up getting involved with Charon. Abrasive, abusive, violent, morose, fussy Charon. Cort pondered on whether or not it was a good idea to become emotionally attached to the ghoul.

Pausing inside the Vault entryway, she chastised herself. Romantically attached, you moron, you were emotionally attached the moment you heard his story. 'To thine own self be true' and all that bullshit if you're going to try and figure out something this important. Fumbling with her armour, Cort jabbed a series of buttons to lock the door up again for the night, then skirted around one of the Robobrains whirring by. Making a mental note to search the rest of 112 for supplies before leaving in the morning, she continued her brooding as they went back up to the catwalk and quietly into the first room. Re-locking the door here and turning around, she stared at her father. James was now sleeping with Dogmeat next to him, both in exactly the same position. Cort blinked a few times and gave her head a shake, then moved to get ready for bed. He spent way too much time in there with the wrong genome.

Removing the last of her armour and sitting down on the floor to take off her boots, she surreptitiously watched Charon remove his own and neatly pile everything together from where she had scattered it. She couldn't remember when he had started looking after all of their armour, but he did. He also made sure she ate, and slept, and did all kinds of other little things to look after her. He had started taking care of Dogmeat as well, even if he still couldn't figure out when the dog wanted his ears rubbed. Cort smiled. The animal had tried everything short of writing him a note that said 'scratch here, stupid'.

Cort smiled again. It was pretty silly if Charon could figure out how to rub her behind the ears by watching the dog and not- Oh. Right. That. She swallowed heavily. They had been touching each other for practically as long as they had been together with increasing frequency and ease, getting to the point where it was nothing more than a matter-of-fact behaviour for either of them. Cort had found all of it entirely platonic up until what she was now referring to as 'the Petting Incident', when it had taken a decidedly different turn. Turned into turned on, to be precise. Very, extremely, wonderfully, ragingly-okay holy Christ, down girl. Jeeze. Cort tipped over on her right side and pressed her temple against the cold metal floor, dearly needing to drain some of the heat out of herself. Tucking her hands between her knees, she softly clunked her head around, trying to find the best position for it. She was interrupted a moment later when Charon dropped behind her and neatly placed his right arm between her head and the floor, wrapping the other around her waist.

Oh crap. Crapcrapcrap. Cort frantically tried to decide what to do as the ghoul pulled her in closer, his breathing making it obvious he was starting to drift off. She had two options as she saw it; push him away now and explain why he couldn't do that anymore or wait until he was entirely asleep and slip loose of him. She was working out which one would be the best course of action to take when Charon bent his right hand back and loosely tangled his fingers into her hair. Cort sighed and closed her eyes, stretching her legs out as she wrapped her left hand around his.

Fuck it. I'm not going to push him away, I never have before. He wouldn't understand why unless I told him, especially after this evening's shenanigans, and if I told him he might think it's because I'm ashamed. Because of who or what he is. Fuck that shit. I'm not going to roll over for anyone ever again, not even Dad, no matter what he thinks. Which I'm totally going to find out what is really really shortly. Deciding to cross that bridge when she came to it, Cort gave an experimental shrug. She was rewarded with a gentle squeeze and fingertips brushing her scalp. Besides. I like it here.