"You know I don't believe anything happens for a reason, so I can't really figure out what's wrong with me. I mean, I'm not exactly the romantic sort. Never have been, even with Lucy. Now look at me! She's got me writing love songs."

"Is this really the time to be talking about this MacCready?" Piper grunted, hefting all her weight against the door that was barely keeping the synths at bay.

"Just let that thought sink in for a bit," MacCready continued, jamming a chair under the doorknob and releasing a clip into the gen3 synth face that had dared peek through the hole in the door, "Me. I'm writing love songs."

"What are you talking about?" Piper huffed as they beat a hasty retreat down the hall. She launched herself over the dilapidated handrail and onto the back of an unsuspecting institute lackey, firing a single shot into its cranium. It collapsed underneath her and she raised her pistol into guard position.

MacCready was making his way down the steps with a recently stolen laser pistol hanging loosely in his hands.

"Behind you Romeo."

He dispatched the half-functioning synth with a lazy pull of the trigger. "I mean. It's crazy, really. She makes me feel things I've never felt before."

"Are you talking about that shit you scribbled on my notepad last night?" Piper scoffed. "That wasn't a love song Mac, even Strong could come up with something better than that drivel. If you're going to impress Nora, you're going to have to come up with more than some cheap lines comparing her the blast of a radium bomb."

"Well I know it's not Shakespeare-"

"It's not even Dr. Seuss." Piper didn't bother to hide her grin as MacCready looked butthurt. "But hey, if you keep trying, maybe she won't feel like you're throwing away words just to convince her to sleep with you."

"I'm not trying to-" he unholstered his sniper rifle and fired a few shots over her shoulder with practiced ease.

Piper could hear the rounds hiss as they passed her head, waiting until MacCready slung the rifle back over his shoulder before turning to observe the pile of sparking machinery only a few steps behind her. Footsteps several floors above prompted them to keep moving towards the exit, MacCready jogging to match Piper's pace.

"I think I might actually love her."

"You're going to need a little bit more than 'think' to convince Nora. But keep at your half-baked lyrics and you might finally come up with something good. She won't buy it though."

"Why not?" He grunted as he body slammed a broken door and they crashed into the open air.

"Besides the fact that she's a skeptic? You flirt with every female you see. I'm sure you can imagine how your 'star-crossed lover' shpiel will look to her after all the times she's seen you goggling Magnolia in that red getup."

"Alright alright, point taken." He answered sullenly, taking out a knife and stabbing a bloatfly to the side of the building.

"She's not your typical waste woman," Piper wiped at a fleck of goo on her coat and searched for an escape route, "Blue's a real broad. She won't accept anything unless she feels she can absolutely trust you."

MacCready was silent as they hiked across the Commonwealth, back towards Sanctuary. Nora was expecting them in less than a few hours, and she wasn't one to be kept waiting. He wiped at a bead of sweat, mind buzzing. Piper was right, Nora would take one look at his sorry attempts at wooing and laugh.

And he probably would deserve it.

"Well I can't give up now," MacCready said with resolve, "I think I really do love her!"

"Alright Mac, but don't say I didn't warn you."

It was dusk at Sanctuary, and most of the settlers were happily settling inside their half rotted homes after a long day of work. Nora was sitting in a lawn chair above the recently constructed meeting house, sipping a quantum nuka-cola and contemplating the irony of life. Before the bombs fell she'd never have been caught dead holding a glass of nuka-cola, but now it was one of her go-to's. The pop and fizz got her pulse racing, infecting her system with a heady buzz.

"You really shouldn't drink those before bed boss, they can really get your gears turning."

Nora didn't bother to greet MacCready as he flipped open a lawn chair of his own and dropped his slim frame next to hers. Of all her friends, MacCready was always the first to open a conversation with annoying advice.

"I once downed a bottle before an overnight job, and I ran for two days straight. Literally couldn't keep my feet still. I almost messed up the job since I couldn't settle down long enough to take the shot."

She shrugged and took another sip. "It's not like I'm chugging it. Besides, I like the way it feels."

"Like a teenage hormone overdose?"

"Like I'm invincible."

"You already are invincible boss. I'd have thought you realized that by now."

Nora turned with eyebrows raised to look at MacCready, who had a beer dangling in his left hand. "Wow Creed, I didn't realize you harbored those kinds of feelings for me."

She felt him stiffen beside her.

She took another swig. "I'd expect Danse or Curie to idolize me, but you? High praise from a fellow asshole."

It was a common joke they often shared in order to dispel tense situations, and MacCready released a hollow laugh. He'd hoped to charm her with his compliments, but apparently that tact was not going to work tonight.

Unfortunately it was now or never. Him and Piper had made a bet that he would tell Nora how he felt tonight, or else he owed Piper a debt, and nobody wanted to owe Piper a debt. She wanted them paid back in the most humiliating ways imaginable, and he didn't plan on subjecting himself to that anytime soon.

He took a hasty swig of his beer, accidentally catching Piper's eye underneath a nearby awning. She raised her eyebrow at him, tapping her watch, and he scowled.

"So, how'd things go with Piper today? Sounds like you ran into a bit of trouble."

"Piper? Oh yeah, sure, some of your Institute lackeys showed up and we were forced to send them back to cyber-hell, but it all turned out alright."

"You guys seem like a good team."

"Sure. But we don't get into nearly the same amount of trouble that you and I do boss."

She chuckled. "That's because we spend way too much time arguing."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Is that two compliments in one night?"

He mumbled something that Nora couldn't catch before tipping his bottle back and draining half the bottle.

"Woah there Creed, you alright? You're acting kind of funny."

His cheeks were flushed, although whether it was from the beer or the tint of the sunset she couldn't tell. "Me? Na, I'm perfectly fine. Never better."

She watched him suspiciously as he pulled another bottle from a side pocket and immediately took a drink.

Something was definitely off.

Now that she thought about it, he'd been acting funny for the last few nights. He'd been sneaking looks and sticking close whenever they went into town. Then he'd smiled-actually smiled not grimaced- at her when she asked him to help her with this mission.

"What's going on Robert."

"Gah, she's calling me Robert." He muttered. "I love it when she calls me Robert."

Now it was Nora's time to turn pink, although she knew it was probably the beer that was talking and not MacCready. She leaned over to pluck the beer out of his hand. "Maybe that's enough for you for one night..."

He let her tug the bottle free, but not before sighing deeply. "And you always smell nice. How do you do it? We live in the fu- freaking Commonwealth for heaven's sake. You smell like... it's almost like..."

"Soap."

He snapped his fingers. "It's nice on you."

"What the hell is going on MacCready?" Nora asked, getting increasingly alarmed by MacCready's abnormal behavior. Either he was very drunk and was confusing her with someone else, or-

"I think I love you." He blurted out.

Someone nearby attempted to cover a laugh as Nora's mouth fell open.

"I really mean it," He continued earnestly, "I haven't felt this way about a girl since my Lucy."

"You said that the last time we had a few drinks at the Third Rail."

His cheeks were definitely red now. "I didn't mean it. I mean I was was drunk, alright? Any girl looks good when I'm drunk, but you gotta admit that Magnolia's a good looking gal. She's got hips that can make a grown man cry-"

He quailed as her eyes sparked, and he bolted to his feet as she rose to hers.

"What I mean is that she's not you! She's not you Nora, and she could never be you. You're special. You're beautiful and smart and can kick more ass than any man I've ever met, including me."

The glare wasn't gone, but it had softened a little.

He released a pent up breath and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I like running around with you. Sure we fight, but that just means that we respect each other enough to disagree sometimes. Please boss... Nora. I'm not a romantic. I don't believe in fate, but I think this... us... is as close as it gets to perfect."

There were a couple of tense seconds as he stared down at the ground, hoping beyond hope that his sorry excuse for a love confession would somehow be accepted.

When she spoke, her voice was a hard as granite. "I'm sorry Creed, but it'll take a lot more than tossing a few drunken compliments to get me to believe you love me."

She stepped around him, and he let her. He should have realized it wouldn't be enough, but he was buzzed and living on desperation. It was like an itch that demanded to be scratched. But he wasn't about to quit now. Just because she didn't believe him didn't mean he should stop trying. What he needed now was a way to prove himself.

He stood there for a few seconds, then turned and slowly made his way off the roof.

"Well, looks like you're in my debt lover boy."

He looked at Piper, and her small smile sparked his ire. "What do you think about double or nothing?"

"You trying to get out of your debt Mac?"

"Give me a week. One week to convince her I love her, and if at the end of a week I fail..." He swallowed hard. "I'll go with you on that trip to the Glowing Sea to interview Doc Virgil."

She didn't even blink. "Deal."

As he shook Piper's hand, he felt his resolve momentarily slip. He had one week to work up the nerve to tell her again, and if he didn't he might just end up as a snack for some glowing radscorpian in the Glowing Sea.