Piper wasn't sure what she was expecting to find in Sanctuary; what could possibly have caused Blue to wait a week before seeking her out after her most life-threatening venture yet.
Whatever vague guesses she had managed to dream up were nowhere close to what she found, though.
It was obvious upon entry to the once-peaceful little suburban street: a new addition, standing rickety but firm next to the yellow house that was the center of all goings-on in the neighborhood. A house.
When Piper laid eyes on it, she stopped in her tracks. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Now that she knew what Blue had been up to, she marvelled that it hadn't taken her longer than a week to complete. She marvelled that she'd been able to throw it up without Piper knowing; without her hearing about it somehow. And yet she still didn't understand why.
"Blue," she said, at a loss, as the vault dweller noticed she'd stopped and turned back. "Why…" She spread her hands, waving at the two-story square structure with the two blue doors and the little balcony. She had an inkling, but she had to know: "What is this for?"
The vault dweller paced the few steps back to her, coming in close so the reporter had to tilt her chin up to look her in the eyes. And they were a sight to behold, those eyes: heavy, warm, rife with meaning. Blue reached for her hand, and Piper's heart sped up as she let her take it. Suddenly she was sure of the answer even before Blue gave it.
"It's for you," the vault dweller told her.
And Piper—fuck, Piper had been brought to tears more times in the past six months than she had in her whole life previous—got the sudden urge to cry. She held it back resolutely, swallowing down the ache in her throat and meeting those beautiful eyes in disbelief. "Blue, I—"
"Wait," the other woman interrupted, biting at her lip to suppress a little smirk and the excitement thinly hidden beneath. "Wait till you see it all, okay?" She squeezed Piper's hand, and Piper managed a consenting nod. The next thing she knew, she was being dragged behind her partner to the blue door closest the street, holding back a surprised giggle as well as the tickle of tears. God, she was so happy to be with Blue again. And the thought that this was all for her, somehow—
She was a little less mad about the wait, to say the least.
Blue led her into the interior of the modest plank house and released her hand so that she could freely gesture around in introduction. Piper followed her lead, looking around. On one side of the space was a row of steel picnic tables with a shelf of comics against the wall; presumably a common area for the Minutemen to relax (relaxing—what a concept!). On the other was a staircase leading to the second floor, and beneath the incline stood a TV cabinet, complete with TV and a couch to face it. All of the furniture looked like it had been pulled from nearby scrap heaps and the blown-out houses of Blue's old neighbors, which was probably exactly its origins.
While that was all thrilling enough, the real surprise came when Blue coaxed her up the staircase and Piper laid eyes on what the vault dweller must have been so excited about.
On the second floor lay another common room, this one more warmly decorated with potted plants and wall hangings in addition to the couch and TV, and on the far side, two walled-off areas with open doorways facing one another. Blue immediately led Piper to the spot between them where she could see into both and gestured to the doorway on the right. Here, she explained almost shyly, "Your bedroom. Our bedroom, if you want."
Heart rate climbing at the implications of such a privilege, Piper moved to peer inside. Indeed, against the inner wall there lay a bed big enough for two and a pair of footlockers tucked underneath. The room also boasted a windowed end cap that overlooked the yellow house beside it: the balcony she had seen from outside. Two comfortable chairs sat facing the view, with a half-moon table and an ashtray between them. Blue really had thought of everything. And acquired it, too, which was the most stunning part. How had Piper never noticed the absolute stockpile of scraps that it would have taken to put all this together? And how long had Blue been planning for it? How long had she intended to do this for Piper?
For me.
Holy cow…
"You like it?" Piper turned to see Blue smiling through her question, and wondered if she had accidentally spoken aloud. "Wait till you see this." And she turned Piper gently toward the second doorway, behind which lay…an office.
A desk complete with a rolling chair, a terminal, a typewriter, and a lamp was pushed against the interior wall. Beside it was a short file cabinet and against the wall behind it was a bookshelf waiting to be stocked.
"I figured you shouldn't have to put the paper on hold every time you go traveling with me," Blue said by her shoulder as she gaped at the sight.
And Piper… Piper felt full to bursting with absolute adoration for her companion. Of all the kind gestures Blue could have made, building her a whole fucking house had never even occurred to Piper as a possibility. How was she supposed to react to this? How was she ever supposed to thank her enough? She couldn't even find the words to express how she was feeling, which was rare for her. So, "Oh my God, Blue," she breathed, stumbling along, "I—this is—you—" She shook her head, totally at a loss. What the hell had she ever done to deserve this woman? Finally she just turned to her and tried to let the look on her face speak for her. That, and the hoarse, "You're amazing," that made it out of her throat.
Blue—perfect, beautiful Blue—just smiled at her. "I'm glad you like it."
Understatement of the century, Piper thought. "I love it," she corrected, and then realized that that didn't quite cover it. Before she lost her nerve, she plunged on, softer: "I love you."
Blue's smile widened, crinkling her silver eyes. Then, "Are you…" Her grin faded just a little as she caught her lower lip between her teeth. "…less mad?"
Piper let out a helpless laugh and shook her head. "I'm so fucking mad," she said, although she had no idea what she was feeling anymore except overwhelming warmth for this woman. Warmth, and…and something else. Stronger. Deeper. Despite her words, she threw her arms around the taller woman and hugged her tight. Blue returned the embrace, adding a feather-light kiss to her ear, and Piper positively shuddered. "God, Blue. You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days." She left it ambiguous as to whether she meant from worry or the electric current of desire now racing through her veins at Blue's attention. She felt ready to explode if the storm of relief and anger and love and excitement didn't find a route of escape somehow. So she gave it one.
"I'm so glad you're back," she rasped, tilting her head just enough that Blue's lips would have an easier time finding her mouth, if she wanted (Piper wanted).
"Me too," the vault dweller returned, gladly closing the distance to give her a single, lingering kiss; more than the sum of all their insufficient words. Then, mischievous, dark, with more feeling hidden behind it than she dared express, "Want to show me?"
Piper froze in something like shock, wondering if this was real or if she'd finally fantasized hard enough to make herself hallucinate, and when the scene didn't evaporate around her, she was able to breathe again—barely.
At least until she surged forward and pushed Blue against the wall and caught her lips with a breed of desperation she had never felt before—equal parts frightening and thrilling. Blue seemed surprised by the intensity at first, fumbling to catch up, but it didn't take her long. Once she did, she quickly turned the tables on the reporter, spinning them so Piper was the one with her back against the wall (the way she liked) and the younger woman could throw her arms around her neck and melt into her. Was that—oh, God—was that Blue's knee between her legs? That just fired Piper up all the more—Blue's effortless acquiescence, her confidence, almost convincing enough for Piper to forget the vault dweller's complicated past (almost) in the heat of her enthusiasm.
But she couldn't, and the inevitable guilt came back to slam into her all at once like a bolt of radstorm lightning. The impact made her jerk back from Blue with a gasp and search her eyes for the usual shadow that hung in them at times like this. But Blue looked nothing but raw and open and—and loving, making no attempt to stop her, and Piper was hit with the even more startling realization that mayhe Blue wouldn't this time. A shot of panic made her hand fly to the other woman's leg, pushing it away, and Blue pulled back.
"Are you okay?" the vault dweller questioned softly, roughly, and Piper almost laughed aloud.
"Me? I should be asking you that," she replied with just a hint of hysteria to her tone. She had no idea what she was going to do if Blue didn't pour her usual cool restraint over Piper's flame of desire. She knew what she wanted to do, obviously, but that's as far as she'd ever gone. Wanting. Longing. But making peace with never having, because, "You don't like this kind of thing, Blue."
Blue gave her a long, heavy look and, for the longest time, gave no answer but to lean in and kiss her slow and deep. Piper had almost forgotten she'd ever spoken when finally the vault dweller said against her lips, "But you do."
Why was that simple statement enough to send a bullet of pleasure racing through her from top to toe? Piper pressed herself into Blue's embrace; into the kisses the vault dweller was trailing over her neck, and tried not to moan out loud.
"We're in this together, Piper," Blue whispered against the side of her throat, and this time Piper couldn't stop the breathless sound that escaped her. "You matter too. What you want matters too."
Piper felt like she was floating six inches outside her body. No way this was real. No way Blue's hands were running up and down her sides, coming equally close to her breasts and her ass on each pass, but never touching—not yet. No way her hot breath was rippling over her, intensifying the burn already simmering below her skin; in her core. No way she was saying what Piper thought she was.
But she was. "So tell me what you want," Blue murmured, dark and low, and what little composure Piper had left flew out of her grasp.
"You," she gasped out. She gripped Blue's face in her hands and stared her right in the eyes and knew she must look edging on desperate, but she couldn't muster the mental awareness to feel embarrassed about it. All she could comprehend was Blue's warmth against her and the silver of her steady eyes and the offer she was making; one Piper had thought too good to be true. "Please." She leaned in for a quick, firm kiss, and there she found the courage to blurt out, "Take me." Then backpedaled. Shit. Too much. "I mean, if—"
Blue knew exactly what she was going to say and cut her off with another kiss, harder than the rest. "I'm sure," she answered the unfinished question. Then her grip loosened, and her expression grew soft. Always so soft with Piper. "Are you?"
Oh, God, this is happening. Holy shit. The reporter could only manage a nod—shaky, but certain.
Blue searched her eyes as she moved close again, planting one hand against the wall beside Piper's head and running the other over the collar of her coat. Her knee returned to nudge in between Piper's own legs, sliding forward painfully slow, severely impairing her ability to take a sufficient breath. "Stop me anytime," she said in complete seriousness. When Piper met her eyes, all she found there was care. Not lust, or—or greed, or any form of affliction that might drive anyone else to a haze of mindless taking. No; Blue was nothing but pure, and Piper was suddenly brought near tears at the realization that she did not deserve this woman in the slightest.
Yet here Blue was, running almost reverent hands over Piper's shoulders; back; ass (finally) as she slipped her coat off her body and to the floor, leaning in for a kiss so tender it was like she worried her partner might break. Like she was something delicate; precious. Like she mattered.
That alone was enough to make Piper's knees weak. She wound her now-bare arms around the vault dweller's neck to support herself, and as it turned out, it was good she did. She was not at all expecting the wave of crippling pleasure that swept over her the moment Blue gripped her hips and pulled.
"Oh," was all she could get out through a slack jaw, because Blue wasn't done. With every press of her leg against Piper's body it got harder and harder to think. So she didn't—she just let herself feel for a single precious moment and sensed all the reservations within her burn to a crisp.
Then Blue's calloused hands slipped under her shirt.
"Oh, shit." Piper scrabbled for a tighter grip on Blue's shoulders, panting. If something as simple as that was hitting her so hard, she doubted she'd last very long under any sort of further attention. That was partly thrilling and partly embarrassing, but she didn't have to dwell on that long, because just then the vault dweller's hands found her chest and her lips found her neck and all the points of contact between them erupted into flame and Piper could do nothing but let her head fall back against the wall and (poorly) stifle a moan.
She didn't even realize the noise had formed a shape until the vault dweller pulled back to look at her attentively. Oh, man. "Blue," she whimpered again, aware this time, the rising urgency in her tone more telling than any words she could have used. Her hands couldn't decide between pulling the other woman closer or pushing her back toward the bed
Blue kindly chose for her. She gripped the reporter around the waist and swung them around so that a single step backward brought Piper tumbling onto the mattress. She was reminded with a jolt of the first time they'd found themselves like this, one house over in the same haven of Sanctuary, so similar and yet so vastly different. Piper had had all her clothes on then, for one thing. She was quickly losing them now, as she yanked her shirt over her head and off and felt the mattress against her bare back.
She started to sit up, hungry for Blue's touch back on her skin—on more of her skin—but her partner didn't give her the chance. The vault dweller crawled smoothly onto the mattress so she was braced over Piper's body and in an instant their lips were crashing together again. Blue's hand came up and, in a tender counterpoint to their working mouths, brushed gently along Piper's brow to push away the straying strands of hair there. And—
It was moments like this that must have set them apart from all the other desperate couples in the Commonwealth. Moments where they paused in their wild pursuit of a temporary goal and simply paid attention to each other, cared for each other. Moments where they were allowed to catch their breath and look into one another's eyes and maybe break the silence with a nervous whisper of, "I love you," and share a stupid grin before they were losing themselves to the heat again.
Piper was intimately and agonizingly aware of the slow, slow descent of Blue's hand from her torso to her waistband. She growled and tried to shift to make it arrive faster, but Blue took the opportunity to be an ass and simply smirk against her lips instead of complying. Piper couldn't exactly retaliate in kind, so she settled for tiding herself over with a thorough exploration of that damned smirk and just what Blue was hiding behind it. She couldn't get enough of kissing Blue. The vault dweller was supremely lucky for that fact, or she would have been receiving a much less gracious response to her teasing.
Finally, finally, Blue got to her destination, and Piper was so lust-addled at that point that she fumbled her jeans open herself to grant easier access. She couldn't bring herself to go farther than that, though; feeling anxiety prick at her through the fog of desire. There was a point that being exposed became too exposed, but she wasn't exactly sure where it lay.
Blue seemed to understand, giving her a gentle kiss below the ear as she followed Piper's lead to the place she'd been aching for contact for so long. And—
At the first passing touch, Piper sobbed. She didn't realize she'd grabbed Blue's wrist in a grip of steel till the vault dweller paused and said gently, "We don't have to do this."
"No." Piper released her quickly, embarrassed. "It—it's okay. I'm just not—" She let out her breath in a shuddering huff. This didn't feel real. She didn't feel real. She shifted against Blue's hand, and that sharpened things into focus. "I'm not used to being this—vulnerable." And it scared her, to be absolutely honest. It scared her almost more than it intrigued her.
But not quite.
"Do you trust me?" Blue asked, barely above a whisper, and it made Piper's chest convulse again with the intensity of her emotion. How was this woman real? Surely no one this perfect could exist. She clenched her fists in the sheets, needing some sort of channel for the aching knot in her chest.
"Yes, Blue," was her raw, immediate response. "Yes. More than anyone."
Her partner hummed in pleasant acknowledgement and her breath breezed against Piper's ear so that her whole world narrowed to that single point. Well—that, and one other thing. Blue touched her again, and she almost missed the vault dweller's next words, whispered softly against her temple. "Then relax, sweetheart. I've got you."
And beyond that, Piper couldn't comprehend much except that Blue absolutely did.
…
Tuesday was sitting up in bed—their bed!—with Piper asleep beside her, head pillowed on her hip, which couldn't have been all that comfortable but was insanely endearing nonetheless.
The vault dweller was watching her passively, stroking her fingers through her hair as she slept. Normally she might have worried about waking the younger girl up, but Piper was out like a light. Tuesday doubted guiltily that she'd gotten much sleep during her absence. The reporter had been too anxious to sleep well even before she left, let alone while she was in the clutches of near-certain death. She probably shouldn't have waited the extra week before going to Diamond City, surprise or not. She'd just been so focused on making things up to Piper that she figured the sacrifice would pay off in the end. Her lips curled in a slight grin as she considered that. It had paid off, judging by the look of absolute serenity on the papergirl's sleeping face—plus her rumpled hair and rumpled sheets and current state of half-undress. Tuesday wasn't one for sex, but with Piper, she didn't have to be. She could do nothing but lavish attention on her dear partner and enjoy her enjoyment and leave it at that, and things were perfect. She knew Piper would never pressure her, and she would never leave Piper wanting. She wished it could have been that way with Nate.
The thought of him didn't hurt quite as much anymore. She had mourned him, and she had avenged him, and she had clung to the memory of him until the effort did more harm than good, and then she let him go. She wouldn't forget him, no. But it was better for her to live like this; free as she could be of the past.
All thanks to Piper. Tuesday watched her, now: the rise and fall of her exposed ribs with each steady breath; the twitch of her eyelids as she dreamed; the cascade of her dark hair threading between Tuesday's idle fingers. Piper was present and raw and real and Tuesday cherished the awareness of how alive she was. The warmth of her against the vault dweller's side was almost like she'd gone and woven the concept of love into a physical blanket and thrown it over them both. Simply being here together like this was love itself. That wasn't a betrayal to Nate, because she didn't love Piper instead; she loved Piper too. It had taken her far too long to realize that.
Tuesday let her eyes fall shut and breathed a long sigh through her nose as that transcendent warmth spread through her. She knew she should follow Piper into sleep soon; the more exhausted she was, the less sense her mind made. But she didn't want this moment to end just yet. She had missed Piper these past few weeks, and she was intent on soaking up every second with her like water to a sponge. Even if all she had to do during those seconds was feel her breathe and watch her sleep. These moments of peace were rare for them.
She drew a deep breath only to sigh it out again. If she didn't sleep tonight, she'd regret it tomorrow. She compromised with herself by shimmying carefully down the mattress until she was lying down, close enough to Piper to wrap her in loving arms and share the warmth that way.
"I love you," she whispered before surrendering to the weary weight of her eyelids. And though Piper didn't wake, she snuggled absently closer, and it was almost like she'd said it back.
…