Cass's are pretty short, too. Drat.

Also, yes, the courier is terrible at using guns.

I-15

In retrospect, it was kind of funny that Cass, of all people, was being called upon to teach Li how to shoot. They barely got along on most days, mostly because the smaller woman was extremely leery of any alcohol stronger than wine and, as such, tended to avoid Cass as though she was a deathclaw. With that in mind, it would have made more sense to ask that sniper she'd been dragging around since before Cass had ever met her.

Well, maybe if he hadn't decided to nearly drink himself to death the previous night. Veronica was making sure he didn't get any further than one foot in the grave, so that left Cass to be the new teacher and make a mental note to test Boone's tolerance for whiskey later on.

"You use both hands for a shotgun, you know." Cass said dryly, watching Li hold the gun like an idiot. "Otherwise that gun's gonna knock your arm out of joint."

"Thanks for the tip." Li muttered, repositioning the 12-gauge shotgun so the butt was resting against her right shoulder.

"Crouch if you need to keep it steady." Cass added, watching the tip of the gun waver like it might have if Boone had tried shooting while blind drunk. Cass, having never had that problem, just thought it looked sloppy.

Li did so. The barrel did lazy figure-eights in spite of it.

Cass sighed. "What, you never used a long gun before?"

"Not really." Li admitted, still trying to aim at the billboard advertising Nuka-Cola and proclaiming that Caesar was going to get a boot up his ass at some point in the near future, courtesy of the NCR. "I've always been a knife person."

Cass, who had seen Li whip a ceramic kitchen knife out of a jacket sleeve and immediately start disemboweling the nearest Freeside thug without pause, decided to ignore that. "Well, now's a great time to learn."

Li sighed, glancing back at Cass, who was crouched slightly to her right. Then her mouth quirked into a sad half-smile. "You kind of remind me of my oldest sister right now."

"Huh. Kinda weird—I never had any, you know." Cass remarked. Her dad had been a widower not long after Cass had been born. But it wasn't all bad—Cassidy Caravans would never have gotten as big as it did with too many mouths to feed. Before the entire operation had been destroyed, at any rate. She still owed Li for gathering all the information about the conspiracy between the Van Graffs and Crimson Caravan Company.

Li chuckled. "Yeah, well, growing up with three big sisters and two big brothers made me a little sensitive to that kind of stuff. Hell, I think the oldest is a older than you, now. Just had her first kid when I left the NCR five years ago."

Kind of a kick in the head, but Cass shrugged it off. "What's it like growing up with three older sisters?"

"It was okay, I guess." Li said. She readjusted her grip on the shotgun. "They were all five to eleven years older than me, though. They were always going off to party without me. Even Emmy, and she went blind in one eye after a Brahmin kicked up a rock at the wrong time."

Cass whistled. "Ouch. You know how they're doing now?"

"Everyone's married and settled down." Li said mildly. "I think Vinny—youngest out of the boys—got married first, since he's got a little girl who just got started walking. Then Josie—oldest sister, obviously—had a girl, too. Kathy got married after I left. So did Emmy and Vance. That just leaves me."

"So you went out on this courier job to get married?" Cass asked, trying to avoid sounding too annoyed. She was trying to distract her from the fact that, frankly, Li sucked at shooting.

Li shook her head. "I joined up with the Mojave Express so I could finally do something different. The NCR pissed me off a lot while I lived back there, so I guess it was as much to get away as to find some adventure." Her smile became rather twisted. "Guess I found it."

"No kidding." Cass said. "So, are you gonna stop skirting around the issue and actually get to shooting anytime soon?"

"Don't rush me."

"A radscorpion would have you for lunch by now."

"Oh, shut up."

CRACK.

"…How the hell do you miss a billboard at a hundred feet?"

"Shut up already!"