This one is quite short but fun to write. I wrote it at work today inbetween customers and it flowed like nothing else. If you haven't noticed, I do enjoy writing little scenes where they're together alone. That's my favourite part in a relationship, where you can sit and talk with a person and be cool with it.
Hippies is Punks - Wavves. Doesn't take long to youtube that. Come on guys.
Annie was shrieking with a shotgun in her hands, pumping the lever to take out an almost overly pleasant Mr. Handy. The bot slammed to the ground, the sounds dying in its artificial voice box with a slow growl. Handing the gun back to Boone (she had snatched it from his hands seconds earlier at the sight of the robot), she prodded it with a ginger foot before falling to her knees beside it.
"That could be considered overkill." Boone mumbled at her as she raided the buzzing monster. Her eyes were bright with fear as she warily snapped a keycard out of his metal pincers, eyes watering from the smoke fizzing from the miniature holes left by buckshot.
"It definitely was ready to attack." She huffed, tucking the keycard into a pocket on her armor. "I could see the rage in its eye." Staggering up, Annie let out a deep sigh of relief and rolled her shoulders. She floated over to the Sunset Sarsaparilla machine, kicking two clunky bottles free before popping the top off. "A toast to me, for saving your life."
"It said something about wanting to give us a tour of the factory..." He trailed off as Annie pitched a bottle his way. He caught it with one hand, cracking the top and looking blankly at the blue star cap.
"Never the less," she toddled over and clinked her bottle with his, smiling up at him cheekily "I just killed my first robot. Not that you can kill a robot, considering it wasn't really alive in the first place..." She got a funny look on her face. "Ugh... Creepy."
They wandered round for a few minutes, Annie staring wide-eyed up at the different types of bots as Boone secured the perimeter. They had fallen back into the old groove of Boone playing security guard while Annie breezed around without a care. It was comfortable that way – she knew he would always look after her and she didn't need verbal conformation for that.
The fact that he had stayed in Novac all week had confirmed it; Boone was not going to risk her disappearing on him, so he stayed where he knew she knew where he was. He was just as attached to her as she was to him – although he would never really say that to her. After all, she would probably just tease him about it if he did.
Pressing through the door to the solar system, the breath was sucked out of Annie's lungs. Boone stood morbidly behind her, even though he had never seen anything like it before. As a kid, his grandparents had told him of the old Repconn centres, but he had never really imagined them to be anything like their words.
"Aren't you glad you came with me now?" She ducked under the railings onto the spiral floor, setting up camp in the center of the circle. Her head rested on her back, staring happily up at the solar system with her dinner plate eyes, Boone watching on like a worried mother with folded arms. "Can we stay for a while? I have some food left over from the trip..."
He hesitated for a moment, not too sure how Annie would react if another robot happened to wander innocently past, but gave in all the same. It had been a while since he had seen the girl, and a little part of him wanted to grill her of all the things that had happened since they had been apart.
Sitting cross-legged beside her, Boone took a sip of his drink and stared at her from beneath his tinted glasses.
"So where'd you go?"
"I love that you're so subtle." She sniffed at him, bending her neck to stare right back. "I will tell you under the rules that you will not get mad or upset."
He gave her a flat look making her grin burst from between her lips.
"Well, since you promised... House needed me to go to that big Legion camp... Cottonwood Cove, it's called. Needed to go do some secret House business with his robots..." She trailed off with the look on his face. What scared Annie the most is that it did not change. Any person with a personal vendetta would have snapped her neck for not including them in her travels, and with the size of Boone's palms he could have done it one-handed... But he sat there and awkwardly chewed on the bottle's rim.
"Okay."
"I'm sorry," she rubbed her neck subconsciously "you know I couldn't risk it. Not that I don't trust you! It's just that if we went together and they found out who you were they would destroy you... And—yeah, I'm not too comfortable with that idea." She picked at the curling leather of her boots. "Besides, I just walked right in by myself. Some man slipped me a medallion one day on The Strip and apparently it's like an all-access pass to Caesar."
"When did that happen?" He asked, taking the pack from beside Annie to pull out some agave fruit.
"One morning when you were busy sulking in our bedroom." She clicked her fingers, trying to remember. "I think it was a couple of days after I killed Benny... Caught me right outside the 38." She caught his stare and rolled her eyes. "Sorry I didn't tell you that, I just... you know..."
He shifted his feet. "Did you see Caesar?"
"I did, and he's not as scary as I thought he'd be. Quite charming, actually." She stole some fruit from his lap, tearing into it hungrily. "The strange thing is is that he trusted me... A lot of faith in a stranger for a man with all the power."
Boone stayed silent for a while, contemplating things while Annie looked up at the rotating planets. The light from the sun was bathing them in a smooth yellow glow, softening the edges of their faces and turning it into a mellow mood.
"What would you say," Annie changed the subject, tapping him on the knee with the palm of her hand "if Veronica moved into the Lucky 38 with us. She's squatting at the 188 right now and I mean, she's a young girl who needs to bathe..."
He looked up, rubbing the marks on the bridge of his nose left by his glasses.
"I don't care." He sipped his drink, his fingers slipping with condensation.
"That's great. She's got her own things to do, so it's not like she'll be tagging along with us all the time. I know you'd like to keep me to yourself." She winked at him, his face falling deadpan. She grinned, slapping his knee once again before throwing herself onto her back. "I wish I had glasses right now, because I bet this thing is even prettier when it's not blurry."
"We'll look into that when we pass through Freeside." The fruit in his mouth was slightly soft, a couple of days old and warm from sitting in her backpack. He didn't mind though - food was food - and any food was better than canned beans or cram. Annie was back to staring up at the sky, the stars reflecting in her brown eyes like little flecks of something special. It was like she had never really looked at the night sky before - a childlike wonder floating around her head like a cloud.
"Do you reckon that Benny did all these things for House before us? Because this is hard work - and I can't really imagine someone like him trekking it through the desert in a suit like that..." She blinked herself quiet, a sour look planting itself on her face. "Well, I suppose he's done it before. Heh." She rubbed her stomach, the scar itching prematurely. "You know what? We never did take a look inside his suite. I'm sure Swank hasn't even touched the thing, the sad little man. Something about tribals and their superstitions..."
"You said he was a nice guy." Boone muttered, sipping his drink with a clink of his teeth.
"Huh? Oh I probably did. Post-sex jitters, maybe?" She ribbed him, watching his eyes slink away to the roof. "Something about a man in a suit doesn't sit right with me after I stabbed one to death a few weeks back." Annie pouted her lips at him and he let his brow quirk, blue eyes searching the stars for some sort of comfortable silence. He didn't like the way the conversation was going. "Can't trust a man in a suit. That's why I like you so much."
He nodded, watching her flat palm slap the glass floor below them. The gesture went unnoticed and she grinned at her lap, lying back down to stretch out. A week of walking and camping in sand pits had done a number on her feet. Her pipboy stuttered a tune lightly, the noise echoing off the walls eerily.
Boone sat sleepily beside her, having been awake all night. He was looking forward to getting home to have a quick nap in their bed - the soft pillows and warm blankets with the hum of an air conditioner - complete silence as Annie bathed a few doors down... He must have been tired if he was thinking so fondly of down-feathers. He could have laid back and taken a rest under the universe but she was there instead. And that would have been too much for him. Instead he dreamt of Novac.
It was a breath of fresh air to be free of that place once again. A week there had let him realize how he much he resented the town - the town where his wife once lived her very unfulfilled life - and it was his fault. He didn't want to go back and remind himself of his desolate failures, but once again Annie was the very heavy anchor that tugged his nose underwater.
"There's room here for two, you know…" She said softly, eyes trailing over him quietly before biting her lip. There was a rush of tension in the room once again and the hair on the back of his neck stood to attention. The look he gave her would have withered a cactus, and she shrugged. "A girl can try."