Daiyu sat on a bench in front of the LVB Station, smoking. She was wearing civilian clothes, a nice white dress. Bernard walks up and sits beside her. They sit in silence for a moment.
"Ya know," Daiyu takes a drag of her cigarette, "this reminds me of the first time we came here."
"Oh yea, we were on a date right?"
"If you call 'getting stupid drunk' a date, then yea."
"Yea," Bernard chuckles, "neither of us could hold our alcohol back then."
"I know you didn't come here to reminisce. My answer is still no."
"Heh, how'd you know?"
"If I had a cap for how many times you've mentioned that quote by your grandpa and proceeded to ask me to marry you, I could buy every implant from the clinic 10 times over."
"Shiiit."
"When I retire, we'll get married."
Daiyu inches closer and places her hand on top of Bernard's, they interlock fingers.
"For now," she places her head on his shoulder, "let's just watch the people walk by."
"That's fine by me," he places his head on hers.
Ronaldo was walking through the visitor center of the Hoover Dam, he talked to himself.
"Come on Ronaldo, it's not that hard. If Isaac can do it you can do it."
Ronaldo goes to the elevator to Power Plant 1 and continues down through the facility to the lower level.
"Just ask him out on a date but don't make it sound like a date."
He walked towards the pillar by N6. Here two engineers observed it, an older woman and younger man.
"Well damn this thing," the older gray haired woman said, banging a wrench against the pillar, "everything's fine in diagnostics but it still won't move."
"Maybe there's a fault in the system," the younger brown haired man said, pondering, "we'll have to get Melo to check it out."
"Hey y'all," Ronaldo walked up to the two, "hey Elise, Fong."
"Well if it isn't little RoRo," Elise, the older woman teased, "you want to use some of your explosive talent to rid this thing?"
"Oh come on now," Fong, the younger man said, "if we destroy it, we'll be traitors to the NCR."
"Hell it'd be better than having to fiddle with this damn thing!"
"Well I was here to talk to Fong actually," Ronaldo felt nervous.
Elise realized something was going on and decided to leave.
"Well alright, I guess we could call it a day. I'll tell the Colonel our progress or lack thereof," she walked away.
"Alright see ya Elise! What did you want to talk about Ronaldo?"
Fong and Ronaldo began to walk through the lower levels. Ronaldo was still nervous, trying to muster courage to merely ask him. Fong stared curiously, waiting for a response.
"Um Ronaldo you good? Hopefully you didn't become like that one friend you told me about. Ruff was it?"
Ronaldo swallowed.
"Uh no sorry and yea her name is Ruff. I was just wondering if you'd like to go out to a place sometime, like ya know just to hang out?"
"Ronaldo, are you asking me out?"
Ronaldo begins sweating and feeling hot in the face.
"I wasn't say- I mean well- I uh-"
Fong takes Ronaldo's hand, Ronaldo looks at Fong's smiling face.
"I'd love that!"
Ronaldo nervously smiles back. The two hug.
Albus and Octavius sat opposite of each other at a table, they were in the middle of a chess game.
"Are you ready to quit," Albus moved his Rook to take Octavius' Queen, "you've already lost."
"You may think that way," Octavius moves his Knight to take a pawn, "but that's the difference between me and you."
"I couldn't agree more," Albus moves a pawn forward' "my cunning tactics trump your wits."
"No that's not what I meant," Octavius moves his rook, "my calculating nature is better than your outward confidence. Check. Mate."
Albus checks the board and realizes he can't move his King, he was pinched between a rook and a pawn.
"It's been fun," Octavius stood, "but I still have the mission at The Strip."
"How long will that take?"
"It'll be tomorrow afternoon when I return."
Octavius leaves the tent, Albus flips the chess board to the ground.
"Bastard," Albus slicks his blonde hair back, "it's time for my own mission."
On a small cliff in the Wasteland, Ruff stood. She inhaled deeply and tried screaming, no sound came out. She laid on the ground disappointed, after trying so many times to make a sound, she couldn't.
She became lost in thought and worry, she sat up and realized she may never be able to talk again.
She looks at the cloudy sky, she thinks maybe that's alright. Isaac likes her without ever hearing her voice. She has plenty of friends who like her without talking.
She thinks, she knows, it's fine she'll never talk again.
Isaac sat at a table in his shack, he was counting caps.
"19,997, 19,998," he placed caps into a huge metal box, "19,999, 20,000! With the money from the jobs I've been doing and from the Vegas trip, I have enough to afford surgery for Ruff."
He sits back and relaxes, knowing he could finally rest with Ruff's throat getting fixed. He smiled thinking about hearing her voice. A knock at the door breaks his focus.
"Don't tell me Bernard forgot his key. Again."
Isaac gets up and goes to the door, he opens it to two Legionaries. Before he could react, they pounced, knocking him out and tying him up. They drag his body away, one of them stabs a note into the door.
Ruff was walking along the road back to Isaac's Shack. As she approached she felt something was off. She approached the door and saw the note. She reads it and becomes extremely angry.
-End… for now-
To whom it may concern,
You want your friend, come to our camp just west of Searchlight.
Albus Felix, future leader of the Legion.