Never Thought I'd Dance Again
Piper deftly sidestepped her way out of an impending brawl as a couple of grizzled mercenary looking types spilled out of an alley way, snarling accusations and insults at each other. Her career as an investigative reporter had entrenched in her a keen sense of impending danger. Right then and there, her senses were screeching at her to stay well away and keep her eyes occupied anywhere else.
"It's always really charming here, isn't it?" Blue asked at her side, smile as bright and sunny as ever, completely unperturbed by the first punches being thrown as they passed by.
"It's certainly something, Blue." Piper drawled, even as she felt her lips smirk a little. She couldn't deny that it was rarely dull just walking around Goodneighbour. A charitable soul might term it an 'adventurous' town.
It was certainly always an adventure of sorts just getting to the embattled settlement. They – that is: Piper, Nora and Cait too – typically had to fight their way to Goodneighbour tooth and nail. It was a good job that they were all more than familiar with firefights and not afraid of wild dogs, crazed ghouls and even super mutants. Even if it was always an effort, at least they'd usually come away with a decent mountain of gear as the spoils of victory.
Which was why Cait had gone to KL-E-0's to sell the small mountain of guns they'd collected. Nora and Piper meanwhile had gone on ahead to the Third Rail to relax.
"Here we are." Nora sighed in relief as they entered the bar. "Finally."
"You sound tired, Blue." Piper noted with a frown.
"It's just been a long day. I sure wasn't expecting that super mutant to last as long as he did, thought he'd never go down."
Piper merely murmured a vague "uh huh". Only Blue, the fabled sole survivor of Vault 111 and the last woman from the age before the war, could casually talk about an epic duel of bullets, lasers and 'small' nuclear explosions as though it was nothing. The only reason Piper wasn't in complete shock still was the fact that this hadn't been the first time that Blue had strolled right up against impossible odds and had come out the other side completely unscathed.
Nora meanwhile, made it sound like an average Tuesday.
They descended the stairs down to the bar proper. The ancient subway station had found new life as Goodneighbour's venue of choice. The velvety dulcet tones of Magnolia's singing drifted over them as entered. The singer even threw them a quick smile and a wink. It was probably just for Blue, she had that effect on people it seemed, but it brought a slight flush to Piper's cheeks all the same.
"What're you having?" Blue asked as they reached the bar. "My treat."
"I don't mind, whatever you're having, Blue."
"Beers it is then." Nora declared.
Piper chuckled but didn't complain. She wasn't much of one for drinking usually, but after the day they'd just had, she could certainly see the appeal in a little alcoholic therapy. Nora ordered three bottles from Whitechapel Charlie and the ladies wandered over to a free table.
"I really don't know how you do it, Blue." Piper began as they sat down.
"Huh?"
"Like with the mutants back there I mean." Piper gestured with her bottle in the vague direction of the street beyond, now littered with hulking green corpses. "How can you just go charging into a fight like that? Most people run away from mutants, not towards them."
Nora somehow shrugged and even looked a little bashful. "I don't know really, I just … I just do it."
"So I've noticed." Piper took a swig. "That doesn't make it normal, Blue."
"I mean, when the fighting breaks out like that, I just know what I need to do to survive, to make sure you and Cait do too, so … I just do it, hard to explain really." Nora flashed a smirk at the reporter. "What about you though, and Cait? You're both usually in the thick of things just as much as I am."
"Hey, I only do it because I don't want you to go and get yourself killed, Blue." Piper shook her head a little in disbelief. "I don't choose to go picking fights with super mutants you know, someone drags me into it."
Nora chuckled. "Hey, I don't force you into danger with me. You never have to come with me if you don't want to, you know."
"I know, but I could hardly let you come out into the heart of Boston on your own now could I?"
"I mean, I wouldn't have been alone anyway, I had Cait with me as well." Nora smiled another warm, pretty smile. "But I appreciate it, Piper, thanks."
Piper busied herself with her bottle again while she willed her cheeks to calm down.
It wasn't long before Cait found them lounging around and took a seat on the other side of Nora, throwing Blue and Piper their share of the caps earned before she scooped up the bottle left for her.
"Not a bad haul this time." Cait murmured as she took a hefty swig of her beer. "A few more days like this and we could retire like queens."
"Would you really give up adventuring if you had that kind of caps though?" Nora asked her lover with a knowing smirk.
Cait snorted. "Hell no, I'd be so fucking bored."
Nora chuckled.
"Would be nice to have the option though." Cait sighed, taking another swig.
"What would you even do with that kind of money?" Nora pondered, gazing up at the ceiling. "Not an awful to buy these days besides guns and ammo."
"Buy myself a new printing press for starters." Piper murmured.
"That it?" Cait chuckled, maybe more of a scoff. "Damn Pipes, you sure know how to live it up."
The reporter scowled. "Hey, I don't write the paper just to make a living you know. I try to let people know what's really going on in the Commonwealth." She would have probably gone on a bit of a rant from there, but it had already been a long day and she knew she'd probably just be wasting her time and energy on Cait anyhow. Instead, she gestured pointedly at the brawler with her bottle. "What would you do with millions of caps then?"
To her credit, Cait only needed a moment to consider. "I'd get me a house, a really big one, and I'd buy Nora here all the shit she could ever want."
"Aww, Cait." Nora smiled wide.
"That's … awfully sweet, Cait." Piper found herself smiling as well.
"And then I'd get me a fuck-ton of guns and bombs and shit to go kill dumbass raiders and super mutants with." Cait smirked.
"Ah." Piper sighed, that's more like it. Still, it brought a small smirk to her lips.
"Besides, having all that stuff will make it a damn sight easier to defend my shit." Cait nodded vaguely.
"Not thinking about your girlfriend at all are you?" Piper muttered, not entirely sure if it came across as humoured or bitter.
"Hey! Of course I'm talking about her!" Cait threw a glare the reporter's way. "Nora is mine, so when I say I'll defend my shit of course I'm including her!"
Piper blinked. She looked over to Nora who was running her fingers through red hair with an almost wistful expression. She seemed completely content with being deemed a part of 'Cait's shit'.
Piper wasn't all too sure what to say to the redhead. She opted to just return her attention to her drink.
"What about you then, babe?" Cait turned to ask Nora.
"Hmm, I don't know really." Nora pursed her lips as she considered. "Maybe get some cool new guns like you. Maybe I'd just bribe all the raiders in the Commonwealth to piss off somewhere else."
Piper chuckled. "Sounds like a dream come true."
"Really? Sounds like hell to me." Cait huffed. "What on earth would we get to shoot then?"
"There'd still be mutants and ghouls and things." Nora murmured. "Doubt they'd be interested in bags full of caps."
"True." Cait seemed appeased, taking another swig from her bottle. "At least they'll always be something for us to fight."
Nora gave Piper a humoured smile and Piper returned it. It was almost comforting to know that some things would never change.
They settled into an idle chatter for a while, just soaking up the relaxed atmosphere as they rested and drank. Cait flagged down Whitechapel Charlie for another round or two as the evening drew on. Piper made sure to go at a steady pace, while a few beers here and there generally didn't get her anywhere near drunk, the Third Rail's menu was stronger than most.
"Is this a new song?" Nora murmured after a while, leaning forward a little as she looked around Cait towards Magnolia on the impromptu stage set up besides the bar.
"Maybe? It all sounds the same to me." Cait muttered with a disinterested shrug.
Nora rolled her eyes and stood with something of a flourish. She looked to the redhead, one hand on her hip, the other held out expectantly. "Dance with me?"
"What?" Cait drawled. Her brain had clearly stalled. Her bottle froze halfway to her lips.
"Come up and dance with me." Nora flashed her eyelashes temptingly above a sweet smile.
If you don't dance with her then I will, Piper swore to herself, even as she knew that she could never muster the necessary courage to just stand up and take the blonde's hand herself.
Cait threw a dubious glare out across the bar. It was pretty quiet all things considered, only a half dozen or so souls present aside from the ladies around their table. Most were just staring lazily into their own drinks or had head together in hushed conversation, and then there was Magnolia singing on the stage of course and Charlie cleaning glasses behind the bar. No doubt the brawler was weighing up just how much of a fool she was willing to make herself look for love.
"Come on." Nora urged in a delicious tone, leaning down closer to Cait with a flutter of her eyelashes and an alluring sway of her hips. She was clearly bringing out the heavy artillery now. "You don't have to do much, just follow my lead."
Cait threw Piper a look next. It could have been a plea for help or a 'wish me luck' sort of look.
Piper merely shrugged with a smile that she supposed might have been reassuring in another life.
Finally, reluctantly, with a great roll of her head as an agonising decision was reached, Cait got to her feet. "Fine, I'll dance with you."
"Yay!" Nora enthused, entirely too precious and happy to be denied.
"Just don't expect any miracles or ought, yeah?" Cait warned. "You know I don't do this sort of shit."
"It's not rocket science, look …" Nora quickly pulled Cait around their table and into a little bit of open space on the bar's floor. Thankfully for Cait's embarrassment, it was hardly front and centre in the spotlight, more in the shadows near the back of the room. "Just hold me like this." Blue orientated the brawler's hands to her waist.
Cait found her smirk easily. "Ok, liking this so far."
"I thought you might." Nora chuckled. "Now all we do is move to the music, like this."
With that, Nora began sashaying back and forth in time to the melody, pulling Cait along with her into the rhythm. Piper was by no means an expert, but she didn't really think that Blue was properly dancing. 'Mildly enthusiastic swaying' might have been a better term. Still, that didn't seem to trouble either of the other women and soon enough, Cait was swaying along in tandem with Nora rather than being dragged along in her wake.
Piper drank deep from her bottle, feeling more and more like a third wheel at the Third Rail. She didn't begrudge her friends their happiness of course, but it was hard not to feel like it was being flaunted in front of her when they were literally dancing right before her eyes. She wondered if she shouldn't just go find a room to rent for the night and leave them too it. Surely that would be the tactful thing to do, right?
Before Piper could decide, Cait leaned in close to whisper something in Nora's ear. The brawler-turned-dancer then leaned back and flashed a grin at Piper. It almost froze the blood in Piper's veins solid.
Nora smiled at the reporter too. It was beautiful smile, as it always was, even in spite of that uneven scar that crossed her lips. Then, she stretched a hand out and beckoned Piper to them with a smile and a jerk of her head.
Piper swallowed the lump she didn't know had formed in her throat. Blue was smiling at her encouragingly, and even Cait's eyes didn't have the teasing malice she thought she might find there. Piper thought about running for it, making an excuse or just staying stubbornly put.
In the end, she knew that is was simply useless to try and deny Blue anything.
Piper found herself standing and hesitantly wandering over towards the couple. Her mind was a torrent of uncertainty and questions, yet that warm smile on Nora's lips and even that slight, soft smirk on Cait's gave her a measure of relief.
When she reached them, Piper was wrapped in close with the couple's embrace, and she was very much aware of Blue's arm nestled around her waist as Cait's had snaked around her shoulders. Swallowing a little thickly, she found her own limbs were hesitantly reaching out themselves, deliberating for an agonising moment before finally settling on the safe ground of their shoulders.
"Didn't think we'd leave you out, did you?" Nora whispered near Piper's ear, happy and serene.
Piper breathed a vague chuckle, keenly aware that every sound and minute expression she made would be picked up by the other women at such close proximity. "I didn't think this was a dance for three?"
"I didn't think this was a dance at all." Cait smirked.
Nora scowled and aimed a kick at the redhead's shins.
"Ow! Ok, ok, sorry." Cait grimaced, hopping just a little.
Piper couldn't help but snicker. She gave Cait a quick apology smile though.
"Just shut up will you and relax." Nora chastised Cait. She closed her eyes with a serene expression. "Just … let me have this."
Cait rolled her eyes softly but there wasn't any malice in them that Piper could see. She waggled her eyebrows at the reporter and they all continued to sway and swing together, the reporter being dragged into the movements whether she liked it or not.
They simply stood there in the bar a while, swaying from side to side in each other's arms, letting the music and mood take over them. Piper soon realised that she didn't really mind that she was dancing in front of a bunch of strangers, or that the three of them probably looked rather strange and ill-fitting together. She didn't mind that the 'dancing' was just a slow rocking back and forth. She didn't even mind those peculiar looks Cait sent her every now and then to try and get her to laugh that only worked some of the time.
Strangest of all, Piper found in that moment that she was simply happy.
"You know, I never thought I'd ever get the chance to dance like this again you guys." Nora chuckled as she opened her eyes once more, though Piper could have sworn that she saw a glint of sadness there.
"Blue …" Piper began but didn't know how to continue. Something deep within her urged her to reach out and comfort Nora somehow, but she didn't know what to say.
"Hey." Cait began softly, raising a gentle hand to caress her lover's cheek ever so softly.
Blue reached up to hold the redhead's hand. She turned her lips to the palm and placed a soft kiss to it. Her expression was a torrent of emotions: loving and sadness, happiness and loss.
It was a strange thing, Piper thought that she should have been embarrassed, to be so close to the couple – in their arms even – as they shared such an intimate moment. Yet it didn't feel that way at all. If anything, she was touched that they would share but a glimpse of their intimacy with her, even as her own heart pained with longing.
Then, Nora turned a strangely sad looking smile to Piper. She reached up to take the reporter's hand from where it lay on Nora's shoulder, before delivering a soft kiss to her palm as well.
Piper wasn't at all sure why she did that. Piper had done nothing to deserve that little affection, had she? All that she was sure of was the heartbeat ramping up another couple of notches in her chest.
Then, curiously, Cait leaned her head in, resting it gently against both Blue's and Piper's foreheads.
Piper was confused by that action as well, but she didn't complain. She couldn't help but be entranced by the slow, strangely tranquil breathing of the brawler. It was calming and seductive even. Perhaps that was the point, maybe it was to calm and soothe Nora somehow? Piper glanced at Blue and saw that the blonde now wore an expression of peace, so relaxed she was in the moment.
They stood like that for a while longer – it was difficult for Piper to be certain just how long it was – before eventually Nora, then Piper and Cait, pulled their heads back. The 'dance' was ended just like that, and Piper tried to ignore that small measure of grief she felt inside that it had.
"So, how about we call it a night?" Nora smiled wide.