When Maccready would find Cecilia, he would find her sitting down in the back of the house with her back resting up against the wall. He stopped walked to take a moment to look at the girl. She looked peaceful with her eyes closed and her arms resting on her knees that were propped up. He wondered if he should really ask her that stupid question. If that was true then he wouldn't know what to say and if it wasn't true, he might have insulted the girl. Sighing softly, he decided that he would just go sit down by her and wait till she wakes up. Taking a step forward, his shoes stepped on a dead branch making a snap noise.
Cecilia's eyes flew open and before he could react to anything, he found himself staring at a gun aimed at his head. She was on one knee with her arms supporting her combat rifle that she named King. Her eyes were cold as death and her finger was already on the trigger, she was about to kill him. Her gaze softened when she realized who the hell she was pointing her gun at. Her eyes looked worried for a moment before she looked away from the short man. She took her finger off of the trigger and went back to the position she relaxing before in. Her gun was on her right side, the shadow made it hard to see it.
Maccready was still in shock so he just continued on what he was doing before. He went to sit down by the girl who was now looking at the sea instead of having her eyes closed. Wondering what the girl was doing here with her gun out, he was going to ask when she suddenly lifted it up and shot a random bird flying over the ocean. The bird had it's head shot clean off before it fell heavily towards the crashing waves below. Was she bored with nothing to do? Or did she not like birds? Cila placed her chin lazily on her knee, her eyes glancing at Maccready every once in awhile. 'Wow... At this angle he really does look like Dam-' Her thoughts were interrupted when Maccready asked her a question. She didn't hear him. "Wasn't listening. What did you say?"
Maccready just sighed heavily as he shook his head, his hat was in his left hand. "So, what are you doing over here? Bored or do you really hate birds?" He wasn't expecting an answer from her since most questions he asked her, she easily avoided. He looked at her and when he saw her surprised face, he laughed. "Why are you so shocked? I was just wondering if you really hate birds." Cecilia couldn't help but laugh a little, she sounded content with them talking for once. "So?" Cecilia just smiled at him before taking aim another bird, shooting it this time in its body. The animal just exploded in a burst of red and guts before it all fell down into the sea.
She put the gun back down next to her before she sighed happily. "Target practice," Maccready asked her if she was serious or not about this being target practice or not. "Yeah, why not? I mean, I can always use a little practice here and there. Everyone does. Birds aren't going to attack you." Cila lifted her gun to aim at a bird that was flying by when she decided to put the gun back down. "Actually, chickens will attack you." She was quiet for a moment before she quickly added, "Don't ask." She took aim at the same bird that she didn't' shoot before, it was sitting on a buoy minding its own business. She couldn't see the bird all that well but she knew it was there.
Sighing softly, she placed her gun on her lap with the barrel facing away from Maccready while she was messing with her pip boy. A gun materialized in front of her, it was something that she rarely used. The name of this gun was Queen, but he only knew that from the engraving on the right side of the gun. Looks crudely made, almost done with a knife. She propped the weapon on her knee and held the gun in her arms. Her leg was taking most of the weight, the gun really was too heavy for her to be carrying then why did she have it? She took aim into the scope and looked at the bird through it. She held her breath and her finger caressed the trigger before it clicked it. The recoil caused the gun to slam into her shoulder, the burst of wind send her bangs flying. Maccready was watching her and he finally managed to see the scar that she kept hidden. He saw it once before but it was a teasing reveal caused by a brahmin licking her face.
She tsked softly before sending the gun away, commenting on how she was off on her aiming with Queen. Looking over to where she shot, he didn't understand why she was complaining, the bird was missing its head. It was just standing there or rather slumped there before falling backward into the ocean. It was a pretty damn good shot, but it seemed like she didn't think so. Maccready then thought it'll be a good idea to show off his skills with shooting birds. The bearded man took aim a flying bird and flew the head clean off before quickly reloading a round into the chamber. With that round in the chamber, he shot the falling corpse through the middle right as it fell out of sight behind some rocks. Cecilia raised an eyebrow before shooting a bird without taking aim using her dot sight. She looked at him and her face said: "You're on."
An hour or so had passed with them talking about random things and shootings at birds. This is probably the most they ever talked to each other ever since they started their journey together. The pip-boy on her arm was playing some background movie so it wasn't so quiet when they weren't saying anything. Maccready was wondering just what station she had on, he never heard any of this songs. However, he couldn't help but tap his foot along with the beat, the word "Freak" keeps popping up, though. Cecilia tapping her finger against her arm as she had them crossed, watching the birds fly past them. No matter how many birds that they shot, more kept coming. She wondered if someone was cloning them or something, it was starting to get ridiculous.
Maccready cleared his throat in order to get her attention, and for once she was actually paying attention. She gestured that she was paying attention to him by waving her hand at him lazily as she was staring into the distance. "So... Are you impressed yet?" Cecilia just looked at him, not sure what he was getting at. "I told you I was a damn good shot." He seemed rather proud of himself, she wondered if she should mess with him a little bit.
The black haired girl uncrossed her arms and stretched a bit before resting her hands on her lap. "I dunno. I haven't really noticed." She said that last part with a yawn, the yawn was unexpected, she had to admit that. Maccready seemed puffed up when she said that, the yawn didn't seem to help either.
"Oh come on!" He exclaimed with annoyance, a smirk on his lips as he spoke some more. "You've got skills." He took a moment to let it sink in just to only give him some more credit afterward. "I'm sure you know talent when you see it." He had a smile on his face, trying to get her admit that he was, in fact, a good shot.
Cecilia just rolled her eyes, a smile almost on her lips. "Yeah, yeah. I suppose so."
"There you go. That wasn't too hard to admit, was it?" He asked her in a teasing tone, she seemed more relaxed. He sat up straight, almost like he was going to start bragging. She was right. "I'm completely self-taught, you know. Picked up a sniper rifle when I was ten and I never looked back." He slumped back against the wall, his hand was on his own rifle as he spoke again. "Always thought it was smarter to hit my targets at long range. I mean, why take chances, right?" Maccready just sighed softly as he leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the small flys flying around. "Besides, I had to come up with every trick in the book to survive the Capital Wasteland."
Cecilia turned her head to look at him, she heard about that place a few times. Even stole some guns from a trader who came from over there. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, "What were you doing in the Capital Wasteland?"
Maccready closed his eyes and started to let himself remember. "I was born there. Lived underground in a place called Little Lamplight with a bunch of other kids. Left there when I was around sixteen." He laughed to himself for a moment before saying what was on his mind. "We kind of had a policy there... No adults. When you were sixteen, you packed up and left." He realized how that would sound to anyone else. "I know it sounds crazy, but having adults around was something we couldn't trust."
She thought about it for a moment until "How could a bunch of kids survive without help?" She was really trying to wrap her head around it for a moment, she couldn't figure out an idea. She was actually interested in his story a little bit.
"Everyone pulled their own weight. Just like a colony you'd find anywhere, we all had our designated jobs and we watched each other's back." When she would look over at him, she'd see the biggest smile on his face, his voice had a hint of laughter in it. "Can you believe I was actually the mayor for a while? Me?" Cecilia shook her head to the question. "Crazy, I know."
She couldn't help but think that was pretty brave, she might as well tell him what she thought this time. "Pretty brave, a bunch of kids living alone like that." She wouldn't understand how that felt, at least for the most part.
He sighed softly and shrugged a bit. "I don't know. Looking back on the whole thing, I think we were just lucky." There was a slight pause for a moment before he continued on with his story. "Anyway, when I hit sixteen, I ended up wandering the Capital Wasteland for a while. I took the odd job here and there, but things were pretty hot with the Brotherhood of Steel running the show." It was like right on cue a vertibird just flew past the manor, shaking the building. Cecilia couldn't help but let out a snicker at Maccready's look of disgust. He ignored that little flyby. "So I hitched a ride with a caravan and made my way North until I ended up here. Made a pretty decent name for myself before I heard that the Gunners needed some extra sharpshooters. Biggest mistake of my life."
Cecilia didn't say anything, she didn't have the right. "They were animals. Killed anything that moved if it got in their way." That sounded a little familiar to her, a little too close to home. "I went with it for a while, because the caps were good. But, I dunno, I guess it started to catch up with me... So I quit." Cecilia understood what he meant by that, he did it for the money. Her story was a bit different. "Which pretty much brings us to now." Maccready decided to look at Cecilia. "So there you have it, my whole life in a nutshell."
She looked at him before looking a back at the ocean, the waves crashing loudly against the rocks. "Sounds like the road can be a lonely place... until you meet someone to share it with." Cecilia wasn't really thinking about how it would sound to Maccready. She had someone else on her mind when she spoke.
"Err. I... well, I never thought of it that way." He seemed almost shy for a moment there, stuttering a little bit. He was looking at her with a smile on his face, "Maybe that's why I feel so comfortable telling you all of this." Cecilia tensed up at the softness in his voice, she didn't enjoy that too much. "Look, I know I tend to be a pain in the a..." He quickly stopped himself before saying the word, "I mean, I know I tend to be arrogant and I come off like I want to be alone." He propped his arms on his knees, "Nothing could be farther from the truth. Being alone scares the heck out of me. Now that we've been traveling for a while, I'm beginning to realize how much I missed having someone I could depend on." Those words made her stomach tighten, she felt guilty. Why would she feel guilty? It's his choice to say this thing to her. "I just wanted you to know that I'm going to do everything I can to see that it stays this way. Well, that's all I had to say. Hope you got something out of all of that. I know I did."
Cecilia saw that Maccready was about to get up until she groaned softly. "Stay. I guess it's only fair to tell you my life since you told me yours." She sighed softly and rested her arm on her knee that she just propped up. Maccready wasn't expecting her to tell him anything after he told her his life. "I'll start when I woke up I guess."