I felt something hot near my cheek and then a hot steam waft into my nose. I blinked slowly a few times before my eyes fully opened. I sat up and rubbed my neck. I had a horrible crick in it from sleeping on the chair all night, I just couldn't bring myself to sleep in that dirty bed. Who knows what Colter did in that thing?

"Morn'n, Boss." Gage's mono-toned southern drawl filled my ears. I sniffed the ceramic mug he held in front of me and my eyes grew wide.

I graciously accepted the cup with two hands, never taking my eyes off of it. "Is this… coffee!?" I couldn't believe it, it had been forever since I had a cup. I sipped it slowly, closing my eyes, savoring the taste. The hot liquid streamed down my throat. "Mhm."

When I opened them again Gage was looking at me, half of his mouth curled up in a smile. When he registered that I was looking back at him he turned and cleared his throat "Alright boys, bring it in."

I sat up straight, still cradling the coffee cup. My eyes wide again as I waited to see what was happening. The back door opened and two Operators were bringing in a clean mattress, well, as clean as a Common Wealth mattress could be. I blinked twice, my mouth hanging open in a perfect "O" shape. "What's this…?" I watched Gage pick up the two old mattresses of Colter's and toss them by the door. The two raiders each took one and left.

"The perks of being Overboss" Gage said as he adjusted them on the bed frame. Then he stopped for a moment and let out a piercing whistled with his fingers "Boys!" there was silence for a second and then the door opened again "the pillow" he stretched out his hand motioning to hand it over with his fingers. They threw it to him and he fluffed it before putting it on the bed. "Whelp, there ya go."

I smiled at him, the stupid grin never leaving my face "How did you know…?"

He shrugged "Well, you're a lady and I figured you would want some better accommodations…also the way you eyed it the first time you toured the place gave it away. Also…" he pointed to the chair "You breaking your neck sleeping in that chair is another indication."

"Where did you find it…?" I walked closer.

"Leave it to the Operators to find neat and clean furniture." He huffed, clearly disapproving of their fluffy living. "Hell, any mattress would be fine by me." He uncrossed his arms and headed for the door "Now get ready, I'm going to give you a quick tour around the town before we head out."

I nodded, taking another sip of my coffee. When he left the room I set down my cup and ran to the bed, jumping on it. I buried my head in the fresh comfy pillow and smiled. Was I spoiled or what?

The elevator lowered right in front of Gage. He had his weapons strapped to him, ready to start our journey. "All set, Boss." I actually really enjoyed being called Boss.

"Yeah, we are taking a tour?" I said as we walked along side of each other. It was hard to walk close to him with his large yellow armor on.

"Yes, ma'am." He paused "I'm sorry about your first day. I know you didn't get much of a chance to look around." I nodded in silence. "Well, come on then." He walked faster in front of me "First stop is the market."

When we walked in to the large shopping area in the middle of Nuka-town I felt a pain in my stomach. The first thing I noticed were the blinking collars around the necks of the traders. "What are those?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Gage scratched his head "just take a look around and I will meet you back here."

I walked slowly around the circle greeted by the shop sellers. Some were nice, some were fearful and others spiteful. They were salves. I was their slave owner. My heart was beating fast as I felt the throb of my temples again. I squinted my eyes and went off in the corner by the Brahmin pen.

I fought my inner demons of good and evil. My conscious telling me to leave this place, my brain telling me I deserved to rot here. They all stopped when Gage approached. He didn't say anything, he was a man of few words. Instead, he just looked at me and turned to the exit. I followed, biting my bottom lip and avoiding eye contact.

The next stop was the café, which was blood soaked. I felt sick again. We left shortly after. Gage eyed me from a side glance as we made our way around the giant bottle statue in the middle of Nuka-town. It made me wish I could read his mind. I didn't look like a leader. I looked and felt like a coward and he was probably regretting his decision to make me Overboss.

We stopped and I saw his mouth open. I was ready for a verbal lashing, a banishing from the park but instead he directed me to a building that read Nuka-cade and said "Here is something, you'll enjoy."

When we walked in the place had tons of working arcade games. We talked with the guy who ran it. He gave me a few free tokens as a welcome and then I looked at Gage. He gave a small nod of approval as I smiled and skipped to the first game. I popped my tokens in the machine and started to shoot hoops. Three baskets in I started laughing like a maniac. I was having…fun. It had been so long since I had laughed. I turned my head towards Gage as my shoulder length brown hair fanning around my head. "Come on, Gage! I bet I can beat you!"

He motioned his head to a different game "Nah, let's try a real challenge." I followed him to a moving target shooting game. "This is more my style" I starred at it "You ready to lose?"

I looked to the side of me, resting my chin on my shoulder. A cat like smirk spread across my face. I saw a different side of Gage. He enjoyed these games as much as I did. "You wish!" I drew my gun, as he did the same.

The targets went down one by one as our score was recorded. I won by 200 points. I jumped up and down doing a happy dance. I stuck my tongue out at him. "HA, beat ya!"

He smiled and turned away from me, swatting his hand "Yeah, yeah, did you really think I wouldn't let the Overboss win?"

I smacked his arm playful "Yeah, right."

We spent a little while longer playing games and I handed in my tickets for a prize. Gage gave me whatever tickets he won so I could get something nice. When we left the arcade my cheeks were sore from laughing so much. "That was fun!" I said as we stood in the late afternoon sun.

Gage fought back a grin "Yeah, it wasn't a bad time."

We were looking at each other again and his eyes were a bright amber color in the light. "Thank you, Gage."

He looked at me, his express hard to read "For what, Boss?"

I shook my head and looked down at the purple sloth and spiked paddle ball I was holding and scoffed. Boss…that's all I was. He was so nice to me because he fought for me to be in this position and he needed me to stay because it was his word on the line. I felt stupid, burying any weird and exciting feelings that may have bubbled up. "…just thanks..." I managed to choke out. There was a short silence "Well, we better go, it's already late and we have a lot of ground to cover."

We dropped off my prizes at Fizz Top and then out the front gates we went. I walked a few paces a head of Gage. Lost in my thoughts as usual.