"You're sunlight, smoke rings, and cigarettes..."
"Wanderer."
She was staring at him again. She almost always stared at him, during downtime, stealing glances during missions, even talking face to face. He thought the first few times she was trying to size him up, but eventually it began to make him... Uncomfortable? No, that's the wrong word...
"Deacon," she responded, catching herself and her hazel blue eyes jolted down to her bowl, her cheek resting on her fist. The folded piece of paper sat next to her bowl, untouched. She had been too afraid to open it.
"Don't use the code unless you absolutely have to," Deacon had told her hours earlier, "It'll wipe my memories. I'm not sure how much of me will even be left." Artemis had this nagging feeling that Deacon was playing her for some gullible little girl. She also had this pit of fear growing in her stomach, if this was the one time he wasn't messing with her she could screw up everything.
"So... Are you gonna eat that?" Deacon asked her, for a moment she thought he was going to ask if she had read his "code" or not.
"No," Artemis decided, pushing away her nearly untouched noodle bowl.
"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?" The Protectron dubbed Takahashi waddled over to her, mistaking her gesture as wanting a second helping.
She ignored the Protectron, standing from her seat and pushed the damned piece of paper over to Deacon. "I decided I don't need this," she told him. The solution was simple, real or not she no longer had to worry and already felt relief. She wasn't risking loosing her best friend anymore, even if her best friend was an extremely attractive, lying, asshole.
"Wanderer," Deacon sighed as she walked away towards Piper's house, where they were crashing. She was halfway to the front door before Deacon caught up to her. "Did you even read it?" he asked her, moving into her path so she wouldn't continue into Piper's home.
"I don't need to, Deacon," she placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head at him. Her shinny black hair shifted as she did, glinting in the lights above Diamond City while their glare caught in her glasses. "You're lying to me. I'm not that gullible."
"Alright," he threw his hands up in surrender, "You got me. Don't take it personally, I lie to everyone."
"And here I thought I was special," Artemis said flatly, hiding her immense relief in the fact that Deacon couldn't be deleted with some random phrase.
"Look, if you'll believe anything I tell you, believe this; I'm in your corner. Always have been." Deacon tried to sound honest and sincere, however Artemis only bought it as another one of his lies.
"Right now," her hands fell off of her hips, "you're just in my way," she pushed past him and continued on to the door of Piper's home.
"But it's early," he whined. He was exhausted though, they hadn't had a full, restful night of sleep in almost five days while on their last run, planting a few MILAs for Tom and securing some DIA caches for Pam. After twelve years of mostly sitting on his ass deciphering Law textbooks and reading fiction like Proust, Shakespeare, and the monster that was War and Peace (only because Artemis had done a book report on less than a quarter of it her freshman year of college), Deacon wasn't used to the amount of trouble he and Artemis found themselves in. She was just over half his age, plus two-hundred-ten years, and she was exhausting.
"You don't wanna... Run the bases?" Deacon asked, his mind failing to find anything entertaining to do in Diamond City besides watching drunks in the Duggout Inn.
Artemis' hand was on Piper's door handle when she looked back to him with an eyebrow raised and her breath caught in her throat, until she realized he was speaking in a literal sense. "Run the bases?" she asked, her eyes peeking out from between the rim of her glasses and her thick bangs.
"All the kids are doing it," Deacon shrugged, unfamiliar with the colloquialism.
Artemis wasn't sure if he was playing dumb or if the "bases" have actually faded from everyone's vocabulary in two-hundred years. It was impossible to tell when Deacon was lying or hiding something, however she had a sinking feeling in her gut that he genuinely didn't know and wasn't intentionally hitting on her.
"That's a horrible idea, Deacon," She said and turned around, walking through the door.
"I know," Deacon muttered to himself. He just wanted any excuse to not be berated with questions from Piper.
With a sigh, he walked forward into Piper's home. "No comment," he said immediately as he saw Piper and Artemis chatting in the entrance.
"I wasn't saying anything to you, ass," Piper quickly retorted, raising her voice. Deacon stifled a chuckle, only to hear Artemis' own laughter. "Why do you even bring him here?"
"I don't," Artemis said with a smile, watching Deacon plop down onto one of Piper's couches. "He just follows me around like a lost dog."
"Aww man," Deacon screwed his face up as if he were displeased. "At least name me a lost... Yow gee... Yow genie... Yo guy."
"YAU GUI?" Piper over enunciated the words, looking completely shocked. Artemis continued to laugh, the main goal of the conversation. "Why do you travel with him?" Piper asked, turning back to Artemis.
"Because he's choice entertainment," Artemis smiled, watching Piper roll her hazel eyes.
"C'mon. Let me show you what I've been working on." She turned heel and started for the stairs, her red coat she always had on twirling around her body. Artemis threw a glance at Deacon, half expecting some witty comeback, however she only received a flash if his pearly white, shit-eating grin and her own reflection slightly obscure and warped in his shades.
"So is this what pre-war cooking was like?" Piper asked standing next to Artemis, watching her scramble up Radscorpion eggs for breakfast.
"Hardly, for one we used stoves not hotplates. And scorpions were smaller than your hands. Most of them," Artemis answered, feeling the itch to add something, anything, to the frying pan so that the insect eggs wouldn't be so... Insect egg-like.
"Piper, your curiosity is showing," Deacon chided from the couch, lounging next to Nat who was proofreading some of Piper's work.
Piper looked worried for a second before realizing he had said "curiosity" instead of something actually embarrassing. "It's not like you have anything interesting to say," Piper turned her back to him and intensely focused on Artemis, who was dicing up a tato to add into the eggs.
"It's called investigative journalism," Nat told Deacon without lifting her eyes from the paper she had her nose in.
"More like nosey journalism," Deacon mumbled, noticing the smile cracking on Artemis' face. He wouldn't have to try too hard to get her to laugh.
"More like boring journalism," Nat said next to him and Deacon realized he wasn't far off from laughing either, chuckling lowly. It wasn't a true statement, however. Since Piper's first article featuring Artemis and her heart-breaking tale of becoming a human popsicle and losing her family, Diamond City loved her. Anything Pre-war, even cooking eggs, was fascinating. Deacon had gone through that phase for a while. When he was doing his research on Artemis' life he had become engrossed for months in how her regular daily life would have looked like. The pre-war phase he went through had a steep incline almost a year in actually, as he was reading through a federal law textbooks that Artemis would have studied the year the bombs fell. Abruptly, Deacon had realized that the words he was reading made no Goddamn sense, and that realization led him to another: he could hardly retain anything from the text books he had read. The fiction however, that was a different story.
"Hey beautiful," he would stroll into the vault sometimes, thinking that just being around her could help him understand the law text better. "You're crazy for trying to get this stuff. I mean, how the hell is this supposed to tell you if someone deserves to go to jail? Just use common sense..." he would pace around, holding those heavy books for hours, re-reading the same pages over and over.
"Hey beautiful, what does it mean when-"
The memory was interrupted by Artemis holding a plate of Radscorpion eggs and fried tatos under his nose. "Thanks, beautiful," he said quickly and nearly dropped the plate when he realized what he said. The lazy smile on his face didn't falter but his heart stopped.
Artemis didn't respond verbally, instead an adorable blush crept across her cheeks and she turned around quickly to get herself a plate.
"Nat, food," Piper said, two plates in either hand. She plopped one down in front of Nat's feet on the coffee table and the other remained her focus as she sat next to her younger sister. Nat quickly set down the paper she was engrossed in and started eating the food as quick as Piper.
"So Deacon," Piper started, already half done with her breakfast as Artemis returned with her own plate and two dinner forks.
"No comment," he said quickly, not bothering to face her. He took one of the forks from Artemis as she squeezed herself onto the couch next to him.
"So is the Railroad concerned at all about the Institute-"
"No Comment," Deacon said again and quickly filled his mouth with food. Unsurprisingly it was good. Artemis insisted she wasn't a good cook but whenever she made real food, it was amazing. Compared at least to stale over processed junk-food.
"-Using Synths to infiltrate the Commonwealth's food supply?" Piper persisted.
"No comment," Deacon managed through a mouthful of food. He had avoided all of Piper's questions up until now, half an hour before he was free from her house.
"They could possibly be poisoning hundreds," Piper persisted.
"Are we talking about this while we're eating breakfast?" Artemis came to his aid.
"I don't know, are we?" Piper asked back but she was looking at Deacon. With his mouth full, Deacon shook his head "no". He managed to dissuade Piper until it was finally time to pick up and leave.
"Thanks again, Piper," Artemis hugged her friend as they stood outside the home.
"It's no problem, just... Try to ditch baldy next time," Piper grimaced in Deacon's direction and he would have laughed if he didn't feel folded up paper being shoved into his relaxed hand.
He looked down to see Nat standing next to him, looking nonchalant. Deacon imitated her, even going so far as to whistle inconspicuously as he shoved the paper into his jeans pocket. Nat and Piper left then, heading for the school house.
"That kid doesn't need school, she's too smart already," Artemis mused, turning to Deacon. "What did she give you?"
"You saw that huh?" Deacon asked. "Thought it was pretty sneaky."
"Either that or you gave her something," Artemis leaned against one of the posts holding the awning up in front of Piper's home. Deacon reached back onto his pocket and felt another piece of paper there, pulling it out and giving it to Artemis instead. He only hoped she wouldn't get mad at him.
"You can't trust..." Artemis read aloud as she unfolded the paper. Her hazel blue eyes shooting up to him over the rim of her glasses. Deacon felt his stomach twist at the sight of her stony face, watching as she balled the piece of paper up and tossed it into the street before walking away from him, towards Diamond City's exit.
"Wanderer," Deacon sighed, watching her leave before his feet picked up and automatically followed her. "Wait," he called after her, catching up to her as she reached the top of the stadium stairs, leading to the box office. "Artemis, hold up." He never used her name, and she took notice, finally stopping to turn around, both of her hands on her hips. The look she was giving him made Deacon think that she would have been a damn good mom, despite how young she looked.
"Why should I trust you then?" She asked him.
Deacon swallowed, feeling his mouth dry out. Maybe you shouldn't. I'm just some asshole who's stalked you for twelve years. "Did I have you going?" He asked instead, and Artemis rolled her eyes, but didn't walk away from him. "Don't take it personal, I lie to everyone." Deacon took a chance and took a few steps closer to the angry woman before him. "Maybe I'm just a human that has people back home he wants to protect. Then again," his voice changed into a terrible impression of a robot, hoping to get that magical sound out of Artemis, "maybe not."
She didn't laugh, but a smile had almost broke the straight line her lips were pressed into. "You scared the shit out of me, Deeks," she told him honestly, and it was genuinely confusing to him.
"My relationship with the truth rubs some people the wrong way. But believe this one thing: I'm in your corner," he continued anyways. It was the whole point to this "recall code" anyways. "I always have been. Not everyone can say that. That "code" I gave you is a hard truth. You can't trust everyone. Even if someone sounds sincere, they could be a Synth replacement, working for the Institute."
He was next to her now, speaking quieter. "The bitch of the problem is recognizing the ninety percent of the time someone's on the up and up and the ten percent of the time you're being played."
"Fine. But you could have just told me all that," Artemis shrugged, one of her hands falling from her waist as her head tilted slightly.
"Wouldn't have gotten the point across as well," Deacon smiled at her and she returned it, her pearly whites beaming and Deacon felt better about the whole thing.
"So what did Nat give you?" Artemis asked him, all of her anger now completely gone.
"Dunno," Deacon pulled the paper out of his pocket and unfolded it to find a fairly well drawn cartoon of an angry Yao Guai and a bald man running away screaming "Yow Gee!"
Laughter erupted from his chest as he handed the paper to Artemis and her laughter entwined with his. "Oh damn that's great!" She quickly composed herself. "This is getting framed and put up in HQ."