Amber pushed her bed against the wall, allowing space for MacCready to pull his bed into the room.
"I can stay in another room, boss. You don't need to rearrange your life for me." MacCready said with a light chuckle. Amber stuck her tongue out for a second.
"Well what the heck am I paying you for, kid? Your my body guard. Guard my body, baby." She winked and laughed. MacCready pretended like he wasn't blushing, which just made her laugh more.
"Whatever you say, boss." He dropped into his bed and pulled the Silver Shroud costume hat over his face. Amber still hadn't relinquished his hat, so he took hers. No one seemed to mind.
Something hit him in the hip, and he glanced down to see Amber rummaging through a small footlocker she had pulled up onto his bed. She had her legs wrapped around the box like a small child digging for her favourite toy.
"Ah! Here they are." She pulled a stack of comic books from the box, dropping them onto his chest.
"Sweet! Where the fu- where the heck did you get all these?" Mac asked incredulously, flipping through the massive amount of Grognak issues he'd never even heard of.
"I told you, I was a huge nerd." She grinned at him, despite his scoff.
"Yeah...was." He muttered. Amber rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder. She started gathering the books back up.
"Fine, you don't get to read them now. You make fun of the nerd, you don't get to revel in the nerd spoils." She started to gather then together, but Mac grabbed them from her hands and stood up, holding the comics above his head.
"It's not often I have the height advantage. This is kind of nice." He said as she jumped trying to reach his hands. She laughed and sighed, jumping from his bed to her own.
"Fine, but you better not mess them up. They're ancient at this point." She plopped the footlocker onto her own bed, continuing to go through its contents.
She switched the radio on as they sat in a comfortable quiet, Amber going through her box, MacCready thumbing through the comics. The sun was sliding siren under the horizon, the heat finally dissipating into the darkness. It had been about half and hour before Amber made a strange, throaty noise, causing MacCready to jump. He looked over at her, and she had her right hand to her mouth, a piece of paper in her left hand.
"You all right, boss?" MacCready stepped over and took a seat next to her. In her hand was a photograph, Amber was grinning at the camera, her face red and sweaty, her wavy brown hair long, running down her chest. She clutched a small blue bundle to her chest, a scrunched red face peeking out. A large red haired with a broad smile and even broader shoulders had his arm around her shoulder. Her family.
MacCready pulled her to his side, letting her cry into his shoulder. No one said anything, she sat holding one of his hands while he rubbed get back with the other.
After what felt like an eternity, she seemed to run out of tears. Amber sat up, her hand still holding his, and let out a shuddering breath.
"I might have to start paying you extra for all these...episodes. Here's hoping I'll eventually be able to stop crying." She sniffled and looked into his eyes, which were big and surprisingly blue and followed her.
"I know you're going through a lot. I've been there." He squeezed her hand gently.
"You spent two hundred years as a popsicle, too?" She arched an eyebrow at him and he chuckled.
"No, I lost a spouse and my son isn't with me." He dropped his eyes to his lap while he told her the story of Lucy's death and Duncan's illness.
"Oh my goodness, Mac! What the fu-udge are we doing here?! To Med-Tek! She jumped off of the bed, caught her foot on MacCready's duster and face planted onto the floor.
"Oh my gosh, you damn nerd. It's two in the morning. Get into bed." MacCready laughed. He picked her up off the floor in one quick movement and sat her onto the bed. She rubbed her forehead with her hand and growled. Mac took her hand and inspected her head. When he didn't spot blood, he pressed his lips to her head softly.
"There, all better." He said in a low voice. She looked into his eyes and felt then like she could drown in their deep blue and not even care. She leaned toward him slowly, like if she moved too quickly she'd spook him, like a baby deer. He didn't pull away, so she leaned closer, feeling his breath on her face.
A shrill scream tore through the night, followed by an explosion and a deep rumbling voice calling into the darkness.
"Human time is done! This is the age of the Super Mutant!"
"Fuck!"