"I think…you should stay behind for this one."
As soon as the words left Blue's mouth, Piper felt her heart sink. She understood; she did, especially after Kent, but she still wanted to argue. She couldn't just sit down and shut up as long as Blue's safety was at stake. She wanted to be out there watching her friend's back like she'd promised. "And miss out on the next installment in the story of the century?" she countered weakly.
Blue didn't crack a smile. Her gray gaze was shadowed and almost sad, like she regretted having to make this call. "The Glowing Sea is hell," she said, facing Piper closely so the reporter had to look up to meet her eyes. "I won't ask you to follow me there."
Piper stepped even closer into Blue's proximity so the Diamond City passersby wouldn't hear her hoarsely whispered words: "What makes you think you'd have to ask?"
"Piper," Blue's voice almost broke on her name. She lifted her hands to Piper's arms and her grip was tight, a contradiction to her desperate supplication: "Please. You'll be safer here." Her gray irises were intense, almost painfully so as they pinned Piper's, like they were holding back what she really wanted to say. Piper wished she didn't feel like she had to.
"And what about you, Blue?" The reporter grabbed the front of her friend's chest armor and now they were all but clinging to each other on the stoop of Publick Occurrences, nose to nose. "How will I know you'll come back to me?" She hadn't meant to say that last part—those two extra words that made this so intimate—but now it was out there, and she could see the way it hit Blue right in the heart.
"I—" Blue choked on her words and stopped short. She blinked as if realizing for the first time how close they'd gotten. Her eyes roved over Piper's face, conflicted, before settling someplace distinctly lower than her own. A breathless pause hung between them.
A slight tightening of the hands on her arms was all the warning Piper got before Blue leaned in abruptly and kissed her on the lips—light, quick, but powerfully deliberate. Piper couldn't help the surprised noise that jumped from her throat at the gesture. Before she could gather her thoughts enough to decide whether to reciprocate, Blue's lips were gone and the vault dweller was looking at her with round eyes, her own surprise reflected back in them.
"Um—" Blue cleared her throat, cheeks tinged redder than usual, and hastily released her. "Consider that a promise."
Piper's brain was scrambling to catch up. She felt like all her blood had been replaced by a violent electric current. Blue's armor was still clutched in her hands. "O-okay," she managed after several blinks and a mental reminder to breathe. "I'll hold you to that, then." Holy shit. Did that really just happen?
"'Bye, Piper." Blue backed away with lowered eyes to join Nick Valentine on the steps by her suit of power armor. Nick, bless him, had respectfully looked away from the heartfelt exchange, but now he leaned close to Blue's ear to murmur something in his smoky drawl. Piper wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was.
She waved as Blue entered her armor and placed her foot on the lowest step, turning for one last glance to Diamond City and its trusty reporter before heading into the unknown. The vault dweller's eyes caught Piper's last, and her lips lifted in a little smile that sent the younger girl's heart stumbling all over again.
Then she was off.
Piper waited until she'd lost sight of Blue and Valentine before turning away, letting out a shuddering sigh through lips that still tingled from the vault dweller's touch. She couldn't help but wonder whether that kiss had been a one-time thing; a spur-of-the-moment reaction to the reality that this might be the last time they saw each other…or if it was something more.
She reached a reflective hand up to her own mouth, hesitantly hoping. And worrying already for Blue's return.
…
It was three days before Tuesday made it back into Diamond City, exhausted and irradiated but whole; the next step of her mission solidified in her mind. Virgil the intelligent Super Mutant had told her and Nick the secret of the Institute's location: it was underground, accessible only through teleportation, and the key to teleporting inside was in the hands—or the heads, rather—of the Institute Coursers. The prospect of fighting a Courser was daunting, but no less so than braving the Glowing Sea had been. Although she figured her Glowing Sea strategy of run until the monsters stop chasing you would not translate so well into this particular confrontation.
She'd worry about that later. Right now she was due a break, and walking into Diamond City filled her with such relief that her knees almost buckled on the spot.
Exiting her power armor and leaving it by the stairs like a haunting sentry (though taking the fusion core with her, because she wasn't a complete fool), Tuesday felt like hundreds of pounds of figurative as well as literal pressure had just slipped off her back. After thanking Nick for the hundredth time and releasing him back to his business, she strode toward the door of Publick Occurrences feeling like a new woman.
She only got a single knock in before the door was swinging open to reveal Piper's hopeful face. At the sight of the vault dweller, she broke into an absolute grin and practically surged over the doorstep to tackle her in a hug.
"You're back," she said into Tuesday's shoulder on a sigh of relief. Her fingers curled tightly into the back of her armor. "I know it's only been a few days, but goodness, Blue, I—"
The taller woman rested her hands against Piper's back as her words broke off. Her meaning was still clear as day. "Yeah," Tuesday agreed to the unspoken sentiment. I missed you didn't quite cover it, and neither did I was worried about you or I'm glad you're back or any variation of platitude that just seemed too weak to communicate what she meant. So they let it go unsaid and simply allowed the warmth of their embrace do the talking. "Me too."
Piper didn't let go for a long moment, which was perfectly fine with Tuesday. When they finally did pull back, though, the vault dweller noticed the slightest flicker of the reporter's eyes down to her lips, and suddenly the memory of their goodbye kiss rammed into her like a freight train.
Oh yeah. Oh, shit.
Tuesday hadn't exactly waited around to find out how Piper had felt about that, and she was at once regretful and relieved by that fact. Regretful, because of course she burned to know whether this…this feeling she had was mutual, and relieved because she didn't know if she could handle finding out. Piper hadn't scolded her or pushed her away that day, but she also hadn't reciprocated immediately, so Tuesday was left wondering where exactly the reporter's feelings stood. And of course there was the matter of her own feelings. She obviously cared for Piper—as more than friends—but part of her was still not ready to pursue that kind of relationship.
I have to move on, she reminded herself often, but she still couldn't shake the lingering threads of guilt for Nate from her mind.
Right now, though, the thought of Piper was so much closer; more colorful; more real that she was almost able to forget it, for an instant. Faced with Piper's brilliant, slightly bunny-toothed smile (the one that she knew the feeling of, now), she figured she could forget anything else.
She let a smile rise to her own lips and flicked the brim of Piper's hat playfully. She couldn't wait to get back into the thick of things with her. Nick had been a great companion, sure, but it just wasn't the same without a steady stream of sweets and banter to keep her spirits up on her travels. Now that they were headed into a slightly less sure death trap than the Glowing Sea, Tuesday felt better about bringing the reporter along.
"You up for a trip to CIT, papergirl?"
…
The Institute Courser was the toughest enemy Tuesday had fought yet. He seemingly absorbed whatever firepower she could throw at him, charging him two-on-one proved not just ineffectual but counterproductive, as it earned Piper a laser blast to the abdomen, and he apparently possessed a Stealth Boy just to make things as difficult as possible.
Tuesday ran out of bullets before the Courser ran out of life. She was forced to fall back to her last resort: a bladed tire iron she had picked off a raider way back at the Museum of Freedom almost a month ago. It was primitive, but it was sharp, and Tuesday backed him into the corner with it by swinging so relentlessly that he could hardly get a shot off between staggers. Once his back was to the wall he was done for. Tuesday almost felt bad for him as she pummeled him out of commission with the unlikely weapon, but once he was dead she felt nothing but relief.
She stood over his crumpled form for a moment to catch her breath. As the thrill of the battle faded, the sight of the relay chip glinting from behind his ear filled her with a whole different kind of rush. We did it, she thought, the realization sinking in slowly. They'd gotten their ticket into the Institute. They finally had an advantage. They were approaching the beginning of the end.
A muffled grunt from behind reminded her that Piper was still wounded. Tuesday let the bloody tire iron clatter from her hand to the boards and spun around to look for her. There, against the railing around the center of the room, leaned Piper with her arms wrapped around her abdomen. Tuesday rushed to her side and fell to her knees without bothering to exit her power armor first, afraid that that laser blast had done more damage than she'd thought.
"How badly are you hurt? What can I do?" she asked quickly, hands hovering over the reporter's form as her eyes tried to peer through the arms folded protectively over the wound. Then she took a closer look and stopped in confusion. "Piper?"
The younger girl was doubled over, her shoulders shaking, which was making Tuesday very concerned until Piper raised her head and revealed lips curled in a grin. She was—laughing?
Tuesday let her hands fall to her sides, totally befuddled. Why was she laughing? Had she taken a hit to the head? Breathed in too much Molotov cocktail smoke? Was she in shock? "Piper, what's going on?"
Piper was struggling to breathe through both her laughter and her wound. It was a moment before she managed, "Did—did you just kill that thing with a tire iron?"
Tuesday furrowed her brows. "I—yeah? I ran out of ammo." She pointed to her combat rifle, which she'd dropped in her haste to pull out her bladed tire iron and force the Courser into the corner where he now lay.
Piper shook her head and wiped her eye free of a mirthful tear as her laughter died to giggles. "You never fail to amaze me, Blue."
The vault dweller let out an incredulous breath of relief, still not totally convinced that Piper wasn't loopy. "Yeah, well, you either, papergirl," she returned, and then switched tack quick enough that her blush didn't have a chance to flare up. "Now do you need a stimpak or not?"
As if the words reminded Piper that she really was wounded, her smile morphed into a grimace. A look down at her abdomen revealed that she hadn't just been holding it for kicks and giggles, as it were; a wet red stain was growing beneath her hands. "Yes, please."
…