Piper was glad the morning was a bright one. She and Nate had been enjoying breakfast together for a fortnight now while she took a little time off to fully recover from her concussion, and he had been generously teaching her how to make his own personal brand of mirelurk omelettes. She hadn't exactly perfected them yet, but she felt like she was getting closer every day, and now she actively anticipated Nate's daily cookery lessons.

Making her way downstairs, she rummaged through her cupboards in order to find the pots, pans and various ingredients necessary for their morning repast before firing up her stove.

"You like him, don't you?"

Piper almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of her sister's voice behind her. She turned on her heel and folded her arms. "No, I don't," she said flatly. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Too early," Nat replied with a smug grin. "Gotta have breakfast first. Maybe I could have some eggs?"

"Maybe," Piper said, narrowing her eyes. "So why do you think I like Nate?"

"You're awake," Nat said. "You never used to wake up this early until he came along – now you can't wait to get out of bed to see him every morning." She clasped her hands together and held them up to the side of her face, leaning her head to her left and fluttering her eyelashes, cooing "Oooh, Nate, it's sooooo good to see you! Let's get married and have a million babies!"

"Interesting theory, kiddo," Piper began, "but you're wrong. Nate's just a friend. F-R-I-E-N-D, you understand?"

Nat chuckled. "Sure, sis, if you say so."

"I do say so," Piper said before setting a bowl, spoon, a box of Sugar Bombs and a bottle of brahmin milk on the table. "Now sit and eat your breakfast."

"But what about my eggs?" Nat exclaimed indignantly, holding her hands out in front of her in disbelief. "You said I could have some!"

"I changed my mind," Piper said, flashing Nat a smug grin of her own. "Maybe you shouldn't have been such a smart-ass?"

Nat muttered something unintelligible before pouring herself a bowl of cereal and grumpily crunching every mouthful with a sour expression on her face. That same expression stayed on her face until Piper ushered her out of the front door for her morning classes.

When she had the house to herself, Piper rested her back against the front door and took a deep, exasperated breath, rubbing at her eyes with her fingertips for a moment before resuming her preparations for breakfast. When they were all ready to go, she picked up her holotape of morning songs and slotted it into her player, skipping through the tracks until she found her favourite, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive. Then, without thinking she made a finicky adjustment to one of the hubflower blossoms she had put in a small crystal vase on the counter, straightening out its petals a little until she was satisfied with how it looked. She smiled briefly before she picked up a mirelurk egg and cracked it open on the edge of her mixing bowl.

Time to play chef, she thought as she grabbed her whisk.

Nate had to admit he was getting used to Diamond City's particular brand of organised chaos. He left his room in the Dugout Inn, throwing Vadim his daily bag of caps – which reminded him that he needed to check out the bounty board to replenish his funds. Running extermination jobs for the gentry of the upper stands wasn't exactly noble work, but it was steady work, and it helped to keep a roof over his head and food in his belly, so he had resolved to make the best of it – and besides which, he needed something to occupy his time when he wasn't checking up on Piper. Her recovery had been high on his list of priorities, and he had to admit he had enjoyed helping her to branch out from basic culinary habits as much as he could. Crossing the floor of the bar he grabbed all the posted flyers pinned to the board, rifling through them to see what was on offer. Today's offerings included one request to clear out a nest of molerats, one plea for help to find a missing person, one salvage contract for spare protectron parts and one demand for the head of a raider boss called Demo, who it seemed was hiding out in the old Hardware Town store a short hike from Diamond City – in other words, nothing too out of the ordinary. He stuffed all of the flyers into his pocket to sort through later before he ventured into the bright morning sunshine, blinking a little as his eyes adjusted to the light. Checking the time on his Pip-boy he realised it was almost breakfast time and he had an appointment to keep, so he headed over to Choice Chops to get some fresh ingredients, whistling softly as he went.

When he reached the shop front, Polly was standing with her arms folded across her chest. "What's with that noise, soldier? You trying to give everyone a headache?" she asked, theatrically cleaning out her ear with a fingertip.

Nate chuckled. "Just trying to accentuate the positive, Polly. Got anything new I should know about?"

"Oh, are we being daring this morning?" Polly said, a wry look crossing her face. "Trying to dazzle that reporter you've been spending so much time with?"

"She's just a friend," Nate replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm helping her out while she gets better."

"Sure, kid," Polly said. "Sure. Whatever you say." She hefted a box full of various cuts of meat up onto her counter, before hauling out a few large chunks of brahmin rump steak and mole rat bacon and then wrapping them in a large piece of cloth. "There you go, Casanova – best cuts of meat I can spare, on the house. Now go impress your lady friend or I'll come kick your ass for being an idiot."

"Not listening, Polly," Nate said as he walked away from Polly's counter, before striking up another whistle and walking towards the Publick Occurrences building. Knocking briskly on the door, he stood back and unconsciously adjusted an errant lock of hair on his temple, which seemed reluctant to smooth down.

A moment later, Piper opened her door and gave him an exhausted smile. "Hey Nate," she said, before she held up a wooden spoon which was already thick with greenish chunks of what he assumed was scrambled mirelurk egg. "Been getting ahead of myself this morning." Beckoning him indoors, she pointed to a seat by her table. "Sit, sit," she said, almost pressing him into the chair before excitedly placing a plate heaped with eggs, fried tatos and bacon in front of him and handing him a fork. "Try it."

As she watched him expectantly, Nate heaped a small mouthful onto his fork and put it between his lips, chewing it thoughtfully for a second or two and letting the familiar flavours fill his mouth.

"How is it?" Piper asked expectantly.

"It's really good," he said, taking another mouthful as he did so. "You're really getting the hang of this."

"Thanks, Chef," Piper replied, looking incredibly relieved. "I've been working on that for hours."

"Time well-spent, then." Nate gestured to the bag of various meats he had dropped by the front door. "I thought we could try something a little more complicated this morning – I could show you how to whip up a pretty decent lunchtime steak if you wanted to take a risk."

Piper smiled briefly. "I like risks," she said, before she held up a small flyer. "Speaking of risks… the Friday night talent show at the Dugout Inn is always fun. Now that I'm getting better, I was thinking about entering it tonight. Do you maybe… want to join me?"

"Nora always told me I have a singing voice like a cat being thrown against a wall," Nate replied. "I don't think it'd be fair to make other people suffer like that, do you?"

"Come on, Nate, don't be like that. I can't sing either, but I don't let that stop me," Piper retorted. "Anyway, you don't have to do that if you don't want to – you could just play your harmonica if you wanted. People love live music."

Nate sighed as he got up to put his plate and fork in Piper's sink. "You're not going to give up on this, are you?"

"Absolutely not," Piper said, crossing her arms. "You promised you'd help me get better, and I think this would help me get better. I want to dance and I want to sing, and I can't do that by myself. So are you going to help me out, soldier boy?"

"Fine," Nate said wearily, "but I'm not going to do a solo."

To his surprise, Piper threw her arms around him, enveloping him in an almost crushing embrace. "Thank you," she exclaimed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been going nuts being cooped up in here." She drew herself back after a moment, looking a little embarrassed. "So, um… how about that steak?"

"Now that's something I can do well," Nate chuckled. "Although if you like your steak well-done, I don't think we can be friends anymore."

"Should I be offended you thought my taste was that bad?" Piper replied, raising an eyebrow. "Medium rare at most, thank you very much."

"You have no idea how relieved that makes me," Nate said. "So, here's how you prepare a steak the right way…"

Piper leaned on the bar of the Dugout, nursing her second glass of vodka and Nuka-Cola and wondering where Nate was. She had been clock-watching for at least half an hour, hoping that she was not going to be left high and dry – especially since she had taken the trouble to buy herself an actual evening dress and purse from Fallon's Basement. Neither of them were anywhere near as practical as the trench coat and knapsack she usually used out in the wasteland, but they also didn't seem appropriate for this occasion so she had made the choice to change up her style a little. Predictably, Nat had teased her about it mercilessly, but she had chosen to completely ignore her sister and put any doubts out of her mind.

Then she saw him at the doorway of the bar, clad in a surprisingly well-kept suit and carrying a small case in one hand. She immediately waved him over and handed him the other glass of vodka and Nuka-Cola she had bought when she first arrived. "Looking sharp, soldier," she said with a small smile. "I'm impressed."

Nate gave her a little bow. "I try my best."

"You do, don't you?" Piper said, before she gestured to the case in his hand. "Planning to give us a harmonica concert?"

"Maybe," Nate laughed. "Are you going to sing?"

"Maybe," Piper said. "You have to sing with me, though."

Nate laughed. "We'll see," he said with a wry smile. "Ask me again when I'm drunk."

Piper opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't, a thudding in her skull immediately telling her that she had made a terrible mistake the night before. Opening her eyes gingerly, she saw that she was in one of the Dugout's boarding rooms, covered with a couple of blankets. Underneath it, however, she could tell that she was in fact very, very naked.

Then, as she heard loud snoring coming from the other side of the bed, she realised she was very much not alone. Hesitantly, she turned to face whoever it was that was sharing the mattress with her.

It was Nate.

He was also very, very naked.

Piper's eyes flared wide.

Oh, fuck...