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“Did you hear that? F-fu” MacCready almost curses, jumping up and into a laughing sole when something heavy scrapes against the ceiling, big clouds of dust falling with every huge footstep. “Screw you!” He scowls, pressing a hand to his chest, presumably to try to calm his hyperactive heart. “How are you not absolutely scared sh-witless?!”
A smile spreads wider across her lips, and just before she starts to respond, still walking backwards, whatever is upstairs growls, dropping a dismembered body, blood still dripping from the flesh through a hole in the roof, MacCready actually screaming in terror when a bloody foot hits him in the face. Sole practically howls with laughter, ignoring how a roar thunders through the building something above them almost bending the floor boards.
MacCready slaps a hand over Sole’s still laughing mouth, face far too pale, yet it makes her just laugh harder. After a few moments, she starts to regain herself, resolutely not looking at her companion’s scowl, which would most certainly cause her to start laughing again.
“I am not scared because there is nothing to be scared of.” She finally says, sparse, muted chuckles slipping past her lips occasionally, and she bites her lip to keep her from laughing when MacCready looks at her, absolutely scandalized. “No really. Whatever’s upstairs, we know it’s there, so we’ll have no problem dealing with it.” She reasons.
“And all the dead gunners?!?!” He whisper screeches.
“We know that something killed them. And that that something is probably still upstairs. It’ll be fine, RJ.”
“The places I go with you.” MacCready mutters after a moment of silence, then tenses up again when something brushes up against the ceiling above them. “We should get out of here.”
“NoPe!” Sole pops the P, smirking when he groans, already walking around the corner to the next room, immediately doing the quick search for danger, followed by the slow search for loot, bending to pick up a still-good lightbulb off the ground, and wrapping a cloth around it before stuffing it into what must be an infinite bag of holding.
“Can we not do the whole kick-down-the-door and search-the-room thing, please?” He practically begs, already knowing it’s no use. If she’ll explore a library simply because she feels like it (and because Daisy wanted a book dropped off), then absolutely nothing would stop her from exploring this much smaller Museum of ‘Witchcraft’.
“You know that answer to that, love.” She smiles back. “Help me look, or guard the door.” She turns to him with a mischievous look, causing him to immediately take a step back, looking at her warily. “Or you could go say hi to the resident of the broken down relic upstairs, you if so want?”
He shakes his head, cutting a hand through the air across his chest, every act vehement as he almost yells a “NO!”
Sole bursts into peals of laughter, this time biting her bottom lip to keep in the laughter, though she bends over, laughter slipping into the stale air when MacCready glowers at her.
“You love me.” Sole laughs, picking up the last thing - an overdue book, before turning to her companion, sidling up close and wrapping her arms around his neck, a smirk still on her lips as her hands lock at his nape.
He sighs, but a begrudging smile lifts his lips when she presses her own to them in a quick peck. “I do.” He says, wrapping his own arms comfortably around her middle, pulling her closer and giving her another kiss. “Unfortunately.” He teases back, before tickling her waste, laughing when she tries to scramble away uselessly, gasps and laughs leaving her lips.
“Wait- MacCready! I swear! Eek!!!” She laughs, trying to pull away from his relentless attack, but he only pulls her closer, ignoring her pleas for mercy - and the stomping coming from upstairs.
“What’s the matter Sole? Don’t like the reaping of what you sowed?” He laughs, but finally gives her a break, laughing again when she scrambles out of his arms, breathing heavily, eyes wary, but a smile on her lips.
“You’re a horrible person and I love you.” She laughs lightly, still keeping out of his reach just in case he decides to attack again. He smirks, and feints a lunge towards her, laughing when she squeals and skips out the door and out of reach.
Another dismembered body falls out of the ceiling, bloody parts landing right in front of Sole, and she immediately sobers up, shooting a glance toward the ceiling, gun immediately in hand, a soft click behind her telling her MacCready’s also is out.
“We should probably get to the welcome party.” Sole shoots a small smile to MacCready, who only nods, sighing in aquisesce.
Sole creeps up the stairs, keeping half-crouched to make her steps light. A door is at the top, a medkit nailed to the roof next to it, and for once, she ignores what it is sure to be a good cache. She turns her head around the corner of the next door, disappearing for a few seconds before coming back, coming back down the stairs to where she told MacCready to wait.
“Give me all of the mines you have. Frag, Cryo, Plasma, everything.” She says, voice serious, eyes already showing the cold, calculating edge that makes her so dangerous, that shows that she’s planning something.
He reaches into his pack, pulling out the ballistic fiber, carefully lined up mines in every fold. “Be careful.” He warns.
She doesn’t respond. Her plan isn’t careful in any use of the word. “Stay down here. Cover your head, and take the mattress off that bed to hide under. Take a Rad-X too.” She lists, before turning to go back up the stairs, only stopping when MacCready grabs at her elbow again, causing her to turn back around.
He leans forward, lips meeting hers in a rough, but quick kiss. “Don’t get hurt.” He pleads.
The coldness recedes from her expression, love filling her eyes instead, and she leans forward to kiss him again. “I don’t plan on it.” She says, then she goes upstairs, leaving him to complete her prior instructions.
There’s a metal clink, then the sound of a mine activating. Then another. And another. And another. His blood ices over as he counts. 12. 13. 19. 20. ROAR. The ground shakes, and yet the clinks continue, rushed, everything’s rushed now, and he turns to head up the stairs, worry creasing his face, and causing him to pale.
“Come get me, you overgrown lizard!” He hears her holler, and a yell is on his own lips, fear causing him to shout her name, her real name.
A roar. The floorboards thunder. The mines activate. Then the balcony to the staircase breaks as Sole barrels through them, icy green fire behind her as her leg gives a sickening crunch, her own whimpered cry overshadowed by the splat of blood and the pained howl of the now-identified deathclaw above them, an albino claw flying over their heads.
Sole curses, and with a sickening lurch he realized that there’s a white SOMETHING - not a bone, no, couldn’t be a bone - protruding from her elbow, the arm at a just as sickening angle.
She picks up Overseer’s Guardian , cocks it one handed, and runs upstairs without looking back, not using her left hand because her left arm is- is- oh god. MacCready finally comes to his senses, scrambling up the stairs after her, for once not scared at the terrifying, pained growl that comes out, the door slammed shut as the shotgun goes off once, twice, thrice. The deathclaw finally falls to the ground, dead, when MacCready bursts in, immediately falling to his knees in front of Sole, who’s arm is bleeding, who is kneeling in front of the deathclaw, blood on her face.
“The plan worked.” She smiles up at him, dazed, the blood in her teeth making her look crazed.
“Sole- your arm-” He gets out, choking on his words. “You need to- need to set it. We need a stimpak.” He says, voice oddly high, as he scrambles to open her backpack, rummaging hurriedly in search of her ungodly amount of stimpaks.
She glances at it, finally, and immediately lurches forward, throwing up the meager contents in her stomach. “Gods. That looks so much worse than I thought-” She coughs, the sick still sticking to her lips.
He presses a water into her good hand. “Drink.” She does. He presses a piece of leather to her lips. “Bite.” She does, preparing for the new pain.
She screeches, arm feeling like it’s on fire as he jerks the bone back into place, stimpak pressing into it a moment later, mending the bone, and causing the pain to get ever worse. Flesh and bone knit back together, a nasty scar replacing it as she cries out into the hide between her teeth. He pulls it away, and she bends over into her lap, panting heavily, each breath sounding painful in the way it scrapes, rasping against her throat.
MacCready moves slightly, pressing his entire side against her, wrapping his arms around her, one hand in her hair, one around her waist. “It’s okay, we’re okay.”
They lay there for a few minutes, before eventually she rights herself, and presses her face into his shoulder. “Let’s… let’s go back to the Castle after we finish this.” She rasps.
“Okay, Sole.” He says quietly, pressing a kiss to her forehead before standing up. “That idea with the mines…” He starts, as he helps her stand. “Was pretty damn good thinking. Would have taken forever to finish it off if we had to keep ducking behind the door for cover from it.” He smiles. “Even IF the plan was stupid and depended on you being bait.”
She smiles back at him, looking much more tired than when they walked in, before kissing the hand that helped her up. “Thanks for the glowing praise, darlin.”