Gabe hoisted his bag up over his shoulder, the weight had started to make him sag uncomfortably. The guards weren't ever especially rude to him, but it was always pretty apparent that they weren't interested in letting him in. Liked to make him wait like some kind of outcast even though they recognized him. They saw the people he associated with on the outside and they knew he was a whole bundle of trouble that they'd rather not get involved with. Fisher vouched for him though, and that meant a lot to the community, so while they hemmed and they hawed taking their time to open the gate for him, they never denied him entry.
They always tried to be extra thorough to check him for weapons, it was never quite thorough enough, but Gabe let them live in their happy oblivion without letting them know. He wasn't interested in starting a fight in this place anyway. It was nice to have somewhere that he could almost let his guard down in. Mostly his company was the type that you didn't blink your eyes around, sure they had an agreement when he took on their contracts, but it was never firm, caps had a slippery way of changing the rules.
He headed toward the café, not bothering to circle through town, he knew how he made them uncomfortable. He didn't really blame them, but if he kept his head down they didn't do much more than give him meaningful glares as he walked by. He had become a regular at the café, since that was where his home was, if you would call it that. Gabe couldn't be sure, but he had his suspicions that the town people had warned Fisher that it had to stay that way. They didn't like the idea of the freelancer being up in their homes in the cliffs, there were children up there after all.
His repeated visits had earned him a steady truce with the regulars in the café though. It was easy to distrust a man though rumors alone, but he seemed harmless enough when he came into town, so most people didn't let it bother them too badly when he walked in the door looking like a ruffian. A few gave him a nod from the porch as he walked up to the building. They had set up chairs and tables outside in an effort to keep the building itself less stuffy than it was likely to get in the high summer. They really only had two seasons now, Summer and High Summer. Fisher swore that they were starting to have a transition season, but Gabe hadn't really noticed. There were some days colder than others but he never really saw a pattern, though he didn't care much for the weather so it was anyone's guess.
He passed through the swinging doors and was immediately greeted by Heather wiping down the counter.
"Heya Gabe!" She half ran around the counter, a smile brightened up her face, she stopped just short of reaching him and stuffed her hands into her pocket awkwardly. "We were starting to wonder bout you." She smiled up at him anxiously.
"Yeah, I made it." He dropped the bag with a grunt, he hadn't really enjoyed much of the trip. Shipping human cargo to a settlement of slavers was a pain in the ass, and dangerous work. And his scavenging on the way back had been through a radiated bog, if there had been anything there of worth it had long since been sucked into the thick mud. He could still smell the stink of the bog on him, it had seeped into his clothes and hair. "You think you could cook me one of those amazing steaks?" He mustered up a polite smile for her even though he wasn't feeling especially friendly.
"Oh sure thing! I'll get that right up!" She seemed overly eager to have something to do, maybe the work had been slow that day. He collapsed into one of the booths sitting in a ring around the main dining area and started to unload the things he thought might be of use to Fisher.
Fisher finally did come out of the back room after a few minutes of waiting. He tidied up his shop shelves and moved some things to make it more presentable, it was something he did compulsively, before heading over to the table where Gabe sat.
"Had a nice trip?" Fisher asked absently while rummaging through the junk Gabe had brought back. He scratched his peppered beard, Gabe had noticed that all of Fishers black hair had started to go white. He didn't think Fisher wanted to hear that he was getting old, so Gabe decided to hold his tongue.
"Not really."Gabe grunted. "Got some batteries here, mostly just scrap metal though, and junk."
"Yeah, I see that." Fisher smirked at Gabe, he was an honest, if not wholesome boy. He reminded Fisher of himself in a lot of ways when he was younger. "And how did the slaving go?" His tone was harsher than he intended, they had become friends simply because of Fisher's noninterest in Gabe's doing. But he couldn't seem to help it now a days, he saw him straying down a dangerous path and he couldn't help but try and reach out to him.
"Servant traffic." Gabe corrected him sarcastically. "There's still just as many freaking muties out there as ever. And nothing to find on the way back. Think I might go up north on a scavving trip, just so I have something worthy of your attention to bring back." Gabe didn't seem to take notice of Fisher's tone, it was easy to fall into their same banter and forget what kind of trouble Gabe was getting into.
"Well, I'll certainly take these batteries off your hands,"
"You always do." Gabe said smugly, Fisher caught his eye and the boy seemed to be smiling suspiciously, but if he guessed anything he didn't say it.
"But the scrap metal is worthless. You might just take it to Rivet City. I hear that rusty science bucket might just sink this time." They both laughed at that, news of their 'research facility' had always made them laugh. They were both of the mindset that survival was just about as good as it was going to get any more, science was wasted in the wastes.
"Yeah, I'm sure the eggheads would get right to work repairing those holes. I heard they've only got one guy doing work on that thing. Seems ridiculous. I think I might fix her up and sail her right out to sea if I had the chance."
"Settling down? You?" Fisher teased him, in reality that was what he hoped Gabe would do, he saw how he turned harder and harder on these trips 'shipping cargo' he tried to pretend that it didn't eat at him to handle people like that, but it did, it was easy to see from the strained way he smiled now and from the growing lines on his face.
Heather interrupted them then with her smile and a plate full of food, she set down the steaming steak in front of Gabe and a set of silverware. "Here you go mr. adventure. And an ice cold beer complements of the house." She winked at him while handing over the brown bottle.
"Oh, thanks Heather," He almost managed a real smile. "This smells great." He immediately began to tear into the steak. He stuffed a big slice in his mouth and savored it. "God Heather, you know how to cook em. Squirrel stew was getting pretty old out there."
Heather blushed at the complement and smiled even wider if it was possible. "It's that spice those traders have been bringing in. Fisher laughed at me when I bought it, he said people still gotta eat. But we've sold twice as many steaks this month."
"Never argue with a woman." Fisher held up his hands in defeat. "I'm convinced."
"Anything else y'all need?" She twisted the towel in her hands nervously.
"Think we're good Heather. Thank you." Gabe tipped his beer bottle at her and nodded. She almost skipped away back to the kitchens, he took a swig of beer and nearly choked. "Jesus Fish, she wasn't kidding. You been playing with that freezer again?"
"Yeah, I might have gotten it working. If you leave the beer in too long the whole glass shatters though. Haven't figured out that one yet." Fisher watched Heather out of the corner of his eye, she hummed contentedly to herself while cleaning up the various messes other customers had left behind with a small smile still on her face.
"You know Heather is an awful sweet girl." Fisher nodded toward her while Gabe chewed on some more steak, he looked over his shoulder where she was cleaning, she caught them watching and waved excitedly. Gabe nodded and tried to smile around his stuffed cheeks.
"Umhm." He nodded in agreement while intently focusing on cutting off his next piece of steak.
"You ever think about really settling down?" Fisher asked, cautiously looking away from Gabe's face as he worked out what Fisher was really trying to say. He snorted.
"Oh come on, I mean, jesus she can sure cook, but Heather's just a kid-"
"Not more than a kid yourself, boy." Fisher raised his eyebrows at him, life expectancy was low, but 25 was still barely into adulthood. "As I see it, when two decent people find each other-"
Gabe cut him off with a stare, his eyes were very serious now. "I'm not 'decent people' Fisher. You know that." His tone was low and gave no room for argument. Fisher had never heard Gabe talk about himself like that, and with such malice in his voice, it was a little frightening.
"Forget I mentioned it." Fisher didn't want to pursue the topic any further, Gabe would come around eventually and find that survival was just survival, there weren't good or bad ways of doing it, just ways. He just hated to see Heather pine away for the man when he clearly wasn't ready, maybe never would be from the way he had reacted. Maybe he'd have a talk with the girl, try and convince her that there were other rocks in the wastes.
"Done," Gabe mumbled, already turning his attention back to the steak. "I've got something else for you if you're interested in taking a look later." That was their code for Gabe having come across, or commandeering an interesting weapon of some sort, something that always interested Fisher.
"Will do, will do. Why don't you head upstairs when you're done here. I'll come up a little later." Fisher lifted himself slowly from the chair, it was always an extra challenge to go from sitting to standing with his dratted leg. Gabe nodded in agreement and then was totally lost in the steak, Fisher caught Heather gazing over hopefully at the back of his head without being aware she was doing it. He sighed and decided not to interfere, he couldn't help that he had taken an interest in the both of them.
Heather had become a daughter to him from when she had first started helping him around the shop, she had been brought to town with her father but he was a drunken lout who worked nights at the water mill and got to spend most of his time drinking with his buddies. It hadn't taken much convincing to bring Heather out of her shell and to the shop to help him with sweeping, she had probably been ten when she started helping him out, it had been almost 9 years now that she had been there. Her father had passed away a couple years ago, probably from a rotten liver, but they hadn't been really talking at that point anyway. All she inherited from him was his empty bottle collection and a room that smelled like sour beer.
She was doing well at the café, Fisher found himself a little surprised at how well she seemed to pick up cooking when he himself knew very little of it. Perhaps it was something her mother had taught her before she came to be in Vertville. He hadn't wanted to ask. The café had even been her idea, he had always had the shop and a bar attached to it where some folk came to pour themselves a meal. He suspected that she hated to see them waste away just like her dad and that's why she had suggested the cafe. They had expanded into the building next door and had built her a proper kitchen with a refrigerator and everything. There were a few eateries around town but people began to show up immediately, it helped that it was the closest food to the front gate so any travelers who happened by would be caught by the smells of fresh cooked meat from inside. It was how they had snagged Gabe, that boy who had crept into Fisher's life like the ghost of Christmas past.
He had been gruff and uncommunicative initially, but he had brought lots of supplies, more importantly good supplies, so much that Fisher had wondered if he had really found all these things just laying around. But he knew better than to ask questions and that was probably why Gabe had come back again and again. When Fisher heard that he was sleeping out in the temporary camp with the rest of the homeless ruffians who came begging for handouts he decided to offer out the room above the café. Fisher himself usually slept above the store, but with their expanding for the café they had a spare room that just sat up there collecting junk slowly. He had accepted the offer, but remained wary of Fisher.
Fisher had come up for the night, maybe a week or two after inviting Gabe in, after a long day of hunting and found Gabe making a ruckus up in his room, he came storming up the stairs as fast as he could, swearing at himself for trusting some thug stranger. He found Gabe tinkering under the useless toilet that had been taking up room in his space for too long already. Gabe smiled at him, his first real smile as he pulled the string and the hunk of junk that had done nothing for years suddenly flushed.
"How the hell did you do that?" He blurted out, unable to help himself, he had also tried to get the toilet working by tinkering with it with no luck, and he thought of himself as a pretty savvy tinkerer.
Gabe's smile faded a little as old memories darkened his brow. Fisher knew that look, hell, everyone knew that look. "Used to know a guy." He said with a shrug. "Anyway, it's all radiated, didn't think you wanted me flushing drinking water, so you know, don't bathe in it."
Fisher knew he was a good kid then, just felt it in his soul. From that point on he couldn't help but like him, he had weeded his way in and was plumb stuck. He just wished Gabe could see what he saw. He grunted as he swung his bad leg over a step. Stubborn as a Brahmin, and twice as hardheaded. Fisher knew the type; he was that type. He knew there was a reason he liked him.