28. Kiss: It isn't the first time this has happened
Nora glanced at the sky. Green clouds rumbled and rolled overhead, threatening to release the wrath of the heavens down on the citizens of the Commonwealth. This was not optimal timing, however, as Nora was without any radaway, a hazmat suit, or power armor. "I think we need to find some cover," She mumbled.
Hancock glanced at her and then at the sky, "yeah, your skin'll probably rot off if we stay out too long in this mess." He agreed.
Two days ago Macready's contact in the Capital Wasteland warned them that a huge storm was headed their way. The way it was described reminded Nora of the hurricanes that used to sweep by the coast before the war. In preparation, Nora had sent out a 'hunker down' message to her settlements and warned her coastal settlements to make their way to Diamond City for safety. Nora had to get to Diamond City as well to stock up on stimpacks and radaway for after the storm, and to give the displaced settlers access to her home in the walled fortress. The storm rumbled closer. Thankfully they were close to Diamond City, so there were plenty of places to take shelter. Nora refused to leave Hancock out in the storm, even though he could have easily made it to Goodneighbor before the worst of the storm came.
Instead, Nora used her steel-toe boots to kick in the wood paneling over the door frame of a house two blocks from the remains of M.I.T. She tried not to think about how Shaun was directly under them, the Commonwealth's biggest boogeyman working snugly under the ground they walked on.
Thunder rumbled overhead and she felt queasy. Hancock gently pulled her away from the door before he tucked his fingers behind the top of the wood panel.
"On three. Pull." He instructed. Nora nodded and gripped the panel around waist height. "One. Two. Three!" The two heaved together.
A large chunk of wood broke off and Hancock stumbled off the porch with it in his hands. He practically glowed with the approaching storm. Nora turned back and worked on ripping the wood away, chunk by decayed chunk. She got down on her knees to keep tearing at the wood. The panel was down to where she could easily step over the threshold before Hancock spoke up.
"Easy, Sunshine. We need something to block the door up." Hancock laid a hand on Nora's shoulder. She looked up at him, her vision feeling fuzzy, but painful. "Easy there," Hancock had one hand under her arm, and the other tugging at her arm. Nora stood and swayed on her feet.
This was going to be a bad storm.
Hancock guided her inside and down on a decayed couch. She closed her eyes, but could still hear him working on sealing the room. Nora listened as the sound of rain and thunder grew louder and louder until a wall of storm hit the house and Nora nearly fell off the couch with a nauseated dry heave.
"Whoa, easy, babes." Hancock was by her side in an instant.
"This is going to be a bad storm." Nora voice aloud. Her stomach was churning, painfully distracting her from the downpour outside.
"Looks like it." Hancock agreed, but he was drawn to the window. The green clouds silhouetted his thin frame. He didn't face her, and Nora didn't have time to ponder what that meant before wind blew the irradiated rain inside. She rolled over on the couch to shield her face from the sting it left in its wake. Hancock closed the tattered curtains and secured them shut as best as he could. "Guess we're riding this one out." She could feel his body hit the couch, he leaned his head back, resting it on the small of her back.
With every roll of thunder Nora's stomach churned. She flinched and curled up on herself, using all her strength to keep herself from vomiting up what little food she ate. The sky grew darker, but Nora barely registered the time flashing on her Pip-boy. She had closed her eyes hours ago, and was trying to sleep through the storm.
"You alright there, babes?" Hancock's voice rattled Nora out of her half-asleep state. "Whoa, didn't mean to spook ya." He chuckled.
Nora rolled over, Hancock's head now resting on her stomach. He craned his head back to look at her. "Sorry, I was trying to sleep."
"Oh," Hancock raised his head and stared at the window once more. "This storm is lasting a while."
"If Macready's contact was right, it will probably last the rest of the night and tomorrow." Nora mumbled. Hancock hummed in response. Nora narrowed her eyes at the side of his head, "Is everything alright, Hancock?"
He hummed quizzically in response, "Whatchu figure?"
"You're just awfully quiet." Nora frowned.
"You were trying to sleep."
"You know what I meant." She shot back at him. Hancock leaned forward and spun around on his hands and knees 'til he was sitting and facing her. "You've been quiet since Nick left Sanctuary."
"Why'd you shut everyone out? I thought we were partners. What's he done? What are you two?" Hancock rattled off, his eyes were alternating between desperate and furious.
"John Hancock, are you jealous?" Nora sat up, her head spinning and vision blurring. No, just blurry. Her glasses must have skewed sideways while she was laying down and fallen off completely when she turned over.
"I don't know, should I be?" Hancock stood up, defensive. He took a step away.
Nora stared at him, then burst into laughter. "Hancock,"
"I'm serious."
She waved at him and shook her head, "No, I know, but." She sighed, her heart feeling heavy. "Come here," she reached out. Hancock eyed her up and down, but ultimately stepped forward and put his hands in hers. "I knew Nick before the war." Hancock said nothing, his face hard, "His fiance was my best friend." It hurt talking about Jenny, but she had to tell someone besides Preston and Mama Murphy. "He doesn't remember me, or Nate, or Shaun."
"Why not?" Hancock asked.
"Beats me." Nora shrugged, she gently pulled at him 'til he stood with his legs pressed to her knees. "Probably something to do with memory storage." She joked. Hancock cracked a small smirk before he quickly wiped it away. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. At first I had no idea it was the same Nick." Nora thought back to her first week, fresh out of the vault. She had barely scraped by her first encounter with a Deathclaw in Concord, when Mama Murphy foretold her meeting a man from the past with a bright heart. Nora had no idea it was going to be her childhood best friend's fiance.
"I thought 'there's no way this Nick Valentine is MY Nick Valentine,' I mean, what are the odds?" She gripped the lapels of Hancock's frock, a way of grounding herself in the present. She looked up at him, his face blurry without her glasses.
"Pretty slim, I'd say." Hancock answered.
"And then I met him in that vault." Nora remembered being shocked and a little disappointed that it wasn't her Nick Valentine trapped in the vault, but then he spoke. "He sounded different, but still so familiar. He spoke like Nick, acted like Nick, right down to how he lit his cigarettes." Nora took a deep breath and rested her forehead on Hancock's stomach. He took her hat off and set it aside.
"I tried mentioning things we used to do together," Nora closed her eyes tightly, pushing back tears that threatened to fall. "But nothing seemed to break through to him." Hancock said nothing. He ran a comforting hand through her hair. "I eventually came to the conclusion that the Nick I knew wasn't entirely the same Nick I know now. I thought I had accepted that. But a few weeks ago," She pulled back to look up at him, "When I met up with Nick to discuss a case he was working on, it really hit me that he had no idea who I was. All his memories were about Jenny...which I'm grateful for. At least I am not the only person alive who remembers her. But, I felt like I had lost my only friend from before the war. The last shred of my old life was finally gone."
There was a long beat of silence before Hancock spoke up again. "You still have Shaun," He tried to reason.
Nora let out a pathetic, dark laugh. "Shaun. My baby that was taken from me and raised to kidnap and kill without remorse." She shook her head, "No, my old life is gone. All of it." She leaned back out of Hancock's arms and leaned against the back of the couch. "Nate is buried. Shaun is a lost cause. Nick doesn't remember me. Everyone I knew is dead. I'm a stranger in a world that doesn't belong to me." Nora spotted her glasses to her right and grabbed them, replacing them on her face.
"You're the General of the Minutemen, single-handedly bringing hope back to the common people of the Commonwealth." Hancock argued.
Nora smiled at him, she sat forward and stood up. Hancock didn't step back, leaving her pressed to his chest, "Not single-handedly. I had help." she looked up at him.
Hancock looked at her puzzlingly, slowly his eyes widened with realization, "Oh. Well," He shrugged, throwing his hands behind his head nonchalantly, "You know, all in a day's work."
Nora nodded and hummed in response. "Help from the sweetest mayor in the entire Commonwealth."
"Considering there's like two of us, I'm not sure if I take that as a compliment." Hancock teased.
Nora laughed. She looked over Hancock's face, his eyes boring into hers. She looked down, grabbing the lapels of his frock once more. "You should. You're a good man." Hancock laid his hands on her waist and Nora ignored the surge of electricity that followed his fingers. Thunder grumbled over their heads and Nora closed her eyes in pain. "A crazy, stab-happy, jealous man. But a good one." she opened her eyes and looked up at Hancock. He was radiating in the storm, but in a good way. He seemed youthful, his true age showing through his decayed appearance. "Hancock?" He didn't look at her. "John?" She tried. Her heart was hammering in her chest. He turned to face her, his onyx eyes betraying no emotion. "I'm sorry I'm not open with what goes on. I don't mean to keep secrets. I don't like pushing you away."
"Then why do you?" He tugged at her hips. If the storm hadn't already made her nauseated her head would have been spinning.
"We're adults, John. We have our own separate responsibilities," she tried to ignore Hancock pawing her closer, rocking his hips into hers. "You have your town to look after. I have my settlements. We're both trying to fight the Brotherhood, not to mention—" she trailed off as Hancock bent his head low and raised one hand to grip her chin. Her mouth went dry.
"Not to mention?" Hancock urged her on.
"Not to mention how big a distraction you are." Nora swallowed. There was a heat building up from her waist. It shivered through her body and Nora's back arched causing her to press closer to Hancock's chest. She was suddenly aware of how intimate they had become.
"A distraction?" Hancock mused. Nora tried to nod her head, but Hancock still had a grip on her chin. His other hand snaked around her waist and pressed into her lower back. "How so?" He moved her even closer, her feet staggering with his. Hardly any space remained between them and Nora had to crane her head back to look at him.
"You're compassionate." Her voice came out barely above a whisper, barely over the storm. "You helped me navigate the wasteland, even though you're the mayor of a town and have people who rely on you. Your house is open to all who seek shelter." Hancock hummed, his eyes half-lidded. Nora realized he was gently swaying her in his arms. "You're strong. You've helped me build and rebuild settlements." Lightning flashed directly overhead immediately followed by a guttural thunder that shook the house. Nora winced at the release of flash radiation. Hanock released her chin, trailing his hand up her jaw into her hair.
"Go on." He urged her. Nora swallowed hard and suppressed a shiver. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes.
"You're smart."
"Ha!" she opened her eyes, "Now I know you're bullshitting me." Hancock chuckled. Nora's eyelids fluttered from the rumble in his chest she could feel under her fingers.
"No. Never." She insisted.
"I would have never done any of that without you." Hancock shook his head.
"Maybe." She shrugged and looked up at him, "or maybe you would have and you could have shown everyone that just because you look like a ghoul doesn't mean the human underneath is gone." Nora realized she was tightly gripping his lapels and tried to forced her hands to relax. Another flash and wave of thunder made her tighten her grip once more for fear of collapsing.
"You really think anyone wants to wake up to this ugly mug?" Hancock laughed.
"Hancock," Nora raised her hands to cup his cheeks, her fingers ran over his decayed scars. There was a beat of silence where Nora swallowed hard. She felt small and exposed as Hancock's pitch black eyes looked her over. Her heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest. Without thinking she whispered, "I'd love to wake up with you beside me."
There were a lot of things Nora had expected Hancock to do.
Hancock's other hand found its way to cup her cheek, the hair that was in her hair clamped down on a fistful of red locks. He tilted her head back and captured her mouth with his. It wasn't the first time they had kissed, but something about the storm made this one more electrifying. Something about the way Hancock desperately pulled her closer and closer, as if he was afraid of her slipping away—it all made Nora's head spin. But she responded in kind, pulling at his frock, running her hands over his chest and around his shoulders to lock her wrists behind his neck. Her fingertips tickled the base of his skull and his groaned against her knees went weak, but Hancock grounded her. He pressed her back against the couch and her knees finally gave out. Hancock grabbed her hips and spun Nora so she was laying down.
"Hancock," Nora breathed as he climbed over her. He hummed in response, slowly taking her scarf off. "Are we sure about this?"
"I've been sure." Hancock answered before lowering himself onto her neck, kissing, biting, and sucking at her skin. He worked his way up, kissing her jaw, her chin, and then finally her lips once more.
Nora breathed into the kiss, arching her back to press herself closer to Hancock. His hands worked to undo the strap of armor around her chest, flinging it open as the buckle finally gave way. Nora knocked Hancock's hat off, she took off her gloves before running her hands over his head, carefully tracing every scar. Hancock pushed her coat open and ran his hands up her sides, he could just barely feel her ribs under her shirt. Nora breathed in deeply, her head growing foggy. The storm continued to roar outside.