Butch hated the library. It was cold, dusty and filled with books that always smelled weird but it was a necessary evil whenever he really had to buckle down and get an assignment done.
The other Tunnel Snakes never thought to look for him there so he was never distracted by their dumb ass antics and once he planted himself down with a variety of snacks and drinks he usually had no reason to leave.
He'd already been there for over an hour and had only stumbled through a few chemical equations that he was only half sure he had right. He was alone, seated at a table behind a bookshelf with a scattering of half scribbled pages and open books in front of him. He closed his eyes and let his head fall into his hands for a second.
That's it. I'm gonna call it a night, he sighed. Not even due for a few days. Fuck this responsible shit. I'll try again later.
He nodded to himself and stood to start collecting his things.
The only door to the library wooshed open. Butch cocked his head as a pair of familiar voices came closer, a light giggle rang through the room and the thump of what must be books hit against the table on the other side of the room.
"I just don't get it, Jo! Science has never really been my thing."
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, sweetheart. Science happens to be my speciality!"
Butch snorted quietly to himself at that. Of course Vault 101's medtech was a huge nerd. It was his job. A couple of chairs scrapped against the floor as the pair settled in, still chattering away which gave Butch a minute to have an internal battle. Jonas does know his shit, but do I wanna play third wheel to the most nauseatingly affectionate couple/not couple in the Vault?
He glanced back down at his 'progress' and sighed. He stuffed everything into his arms and headed for the other room. Sure enough the pair were seated close enough that the Vault doctor's daughter was practically in the man's lap and Jonas had an arm draped loosely around her shoulders with a hand playing with the exposed skin of her neck.
Ugh.
Luckily their backs were to him so he got some satisfaction at the way they jumped when he let his shit fall carelessly on the other side of the table. Jonas practically fell out of his chair, funnily enough, but all Butch did was give them a raised brow as he snagged a free chair and dropped himself into it.
"Butch!" the teen girl squeaked. "Um! Uh, how's it going?"
They both looked at him nervously. Jonas slid his chair until an obvious couple of inches was between them. Butch didn't know why they were keeping their relationship a secret. He honestly didn't care but now he could use it to his advantage.
"It's not going," he replied. "Science sucks and you two nerds are going to help me with it."
He's never had anyone agree with him so quickly in his life.
Amata looked around at the mess in front of her and wanted to cry.
Why, oh, why did she have to insist on baking a cake for her home ec final? What kind of person who can barely boil water on a good day thinks that a three layer cake would be a piece of, well, cake?!
A masochist, she groaned. That's the only explanation. I'm going to have to have myself committed. The worst part was that she needed to nail this in order to pass because she was absolutely terrible at everything else too.
Laundry? Put enough soap in to break the washing machine.
Housekeeping? Got the vacuum stuck on a rug.
Childcare? She stuffed the fake baby in a closet with enough pillows to drown out the crying until the thing ran out of charge.
A housewife she was not and she was more than okay with that even though her father insisted that as the next Overseer she would eventually have to learn all of that. That was a problem for future Amata though. The Amata right then needed to bake a cake come hell or high water.
I need reinforcements, she decided. She swiped her flour covered hands carelessly against the front of her uniform and left the mess behind to leave the home economics kitchen.
She consulted the time on her Pip-Boy and figured her best friend would be in one of two places: her bedroom or the Reactor Room. She checked the girl's bedroom first but the bed was unmade, the blankets pushed down and the pillow on the floor.
Amata sighed and turned on her heel to make the trek down to the Reactor Room. If she knew her friend then the other girl was probably practicing with her air rifle for the millionth time. Amata had never really gotten into it, figured that she would never have a reason to hold a gun, nevermind shoot one but her best friend was addicted to it.
So she was more than a little dumbstruck when she opened the door and encountered something straight out of a romance novel.
Music blared loudly from a record player tucked away in a corner of the room and candles were scattered around to cast a soft, warm glow for the couple embracing in the middle of the room.
Dancing, she corrected. They were swaying gently from side to side, eyes closed and not an inch of space between them. Jonas had both of his hands placed on the teenager's lower back and her own arms were wrapped intimately around the man's neck. Jonas was whispering something in his dance partner's ear that had the girl leaning up for a chaste kiss.
Amata smiled at the picture they made, at how happy and safe her best friend looked in the arms of the man who loved her. She didn't know why they weren't more open to the rest of the Vault, all of whom knew that something was going on between the two, but she tried to leave it alone.
They would tell her when she was ready and she would respect that.
Amata was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that the song had ended until the pair came to a stop and Jonas opened his eyes.
Oh, shit.
She shifted only slightly from her leaning stance in the open doorway but it was enough to have a pair of bespeckled brown eyes to turn her way. His lips parted then clamped shut which had the girl in his arms turning to look at what Jonas was staring at. Amata could see the panic start to take hold of them so she simply straightened her back and tried to appear unphased.
"So," she started, looking pointedly at her best friend. "In the interest of the continued livelihood of Vault 101 I need your help before I start a fire in the kitchen." She paused for a beat. "Again."
Relief flooded their faces as they carefully extracted their hands from each other and Amata's lips twitched at the embarrassed flush on their faces. The two shared a glance which held an entire conversation that Amata wasn't privy to before her best friend moved to loop an arm through Amata's to lead her back through the door.
"I told you a cake was a bad idea, Mata."
"Yeah, well, I was a different person a couple of days ago. A person that could bake and conquer the world."
Playful eyes looked up at her. "And how did that work out for you?"
"Still working on conquering the world," Amata admitted. "But the baking part might have to be scrapped."
An elbow nudged at her side.
"Good thing you have me then!"
"Yeah," she smiled. "Good thing…"
James had seen it coming from the start.
There wasn't a definitive moment that he could point to where he realized that his mentee and darling daughter had fallen in love but there were a lot of little moments that had James thinking, hm, and had him considering the spider's web of a future that lay out before them all.
Having spent a considerable amount of time with Jonas, James had seen the man in all manner of situations and there was no one he trusted more. If his daughter was going to build a life with someone then she couldn't have picked a better person.
The age difference had given him a bit of a pause and he'd considered intervening for that reason alone but he waited and watched. It mollified him somewhat as he saw Jonas hesitate as the man slowly came to the realization of the eighteen year old's feelings.
The hugs that lasted a few seconds too long.
The extra lunch that she would shyly present to him with a little note of encouragement tucked inside.
The list of obviously more than platonic affection could go on and while every protective instinct in his body demanded he do something, James held it at bay as he considered the medtech's every reaction which was always sincere fondness.
What Jonas must have forgotten, however, was that James was perceptive to a point many of the Vault residents considered unsettling. It saved his hide more times than he could count while he lived in the Capital Wasteland but hadn't had much use in his current home.
When Jonas walked into the Medbay one day with an overly casual walk and bright, "Good morning!" though, had the doctor looking up from the file cabinet he had been rifling through to take in the other man with a considering look.
His white coat was buttoned up a bit which was new and one of his arms was held up with a notebook against his chest. Feeling threatened. Defensive? His other arm had his hand tucked into a pocket which was fiddling with something. Nervous behavior.
"Good morning," he said easily. Jonas met his eyes for only a moment before darting away as he made his way to his desk. Silence descended between them. James plucked the file he was looking for free then shut the drawer with a click. He wandered over to where Jonas was settling himself in and tapped the file against his palm to get the man's attention.
"What's up, doc?"
James gave a noncommittal hum, taking in the other man's posture once more to solidify his suspicions.
Ankles crossed, fingers playing with a pen, head slightly bent and… Jonas' Adam's apple bobbed before he gave a slightly shaky grin.
"Doing alright, doc? Need anything?"
"No," he said. "Not a thing."
He walked away, leaving a confused Jonas behind as he wandered into his office and sat down at his own desk to press his fingers together and think.
It wouldn't be for another couple of months before he would actually have to acknowledge anything and he would have been happy to go another couple of more if they hadn't been canoodling right in his own workplace.
He'd left the Medbay to check on one of the other residents which was routine enough and typically took at least 20 minutes but said patient had had to reschedule for a later time so he'd made his way back much earlier than anticipated. James had been looking down at his appointment book when he entered through the doors of the Medbay and had only set one foot inside as he took in exactly what he had walked into from the corner of his eyes.
His daughter was planted firmly on Jonas' lap, mid nose nuzzle and arms wrapped around his shoulders. Jonas had his own arms wrapped around the girl's middle to hold her protectively close. They both froze as if they could turn invisible if they held still long enough and James briefly considered just walking past them and ignoring the whole situation altogether but it was immediately brushed aside because there was a lot that he could push under the rug but he knew this couldn't be one of them.
So he shut his book closed with a snap and met eyes with his long time friend. "Jonas, when you have a moment, I think it's time that we had a conversation." He held up a hand as his daughter opened her mouth in what would have undoubtedly been a protest. "A private conversation that you, young lady, will also be having with me later tonight."
James continued to his office as the two had a quickly whispered conversation that he willfully tuned out. He settled behind his desk and said a quick prayer for strength until Jonas slinked into his office and settled in a chair opposite him.
"James," he greeted and the doctor tamped down the smile that threatened to break across his face at the use of his name. The man in front of him sat with his back straight, eyes level and mouth pressed into a firm line. He looked determined and any doubt was chased away by the strength he saw in Jonas' eyes.
James was a naturally imposing man with his height and broadness which was something he actively tried to stifle in order to integrate into Vault 101 but, as a majority of the residents knew with only the most recent generation being unaware of, he was raised in an environment that relied on strength, manipulation and ability to do what needed to be done or else.
So he considered his next words carefully and settled on the honest truth.
"I just thought I should remind you that I have a very particular set of skills, skills that I have acquired over a long period of time," he drawled. "Skills that can make me a nightmare for people who hurt my daughter." As he spoke he stood and moved until he was right in front of the lightly sweating medtech to clamp a hand on the man's shoulder. "Are we clear?"
"Crystal!"
"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page." His grip tightened a little to get his point across then the doctor returned to his seat and turned to his computer. "Let me know when my 11 o'clock arrives please."
"That's all?" Jonas asked and shoved a hand over his mouth as if he couldn't believe himself. "I-I mean-"
James gave him a look. "Do I really need to tell you anything more?"
"Nope! Not a thing!" Jonas scrambled to his feet then paused to access the other man. They didn't need words to understand each other but he still said, "Thank you," then left with a whirl of his coat.