Scars
Piper had always liked scars.
While most people would cringe away from puckered, freshly healing skin. Piper would study them with the eyes of a writer, would badger the owner of them for the story behind each one. In all honesty, it kept her from being bored whenever she was on the move pursuing the real story, there was never an absence of scars on the people of the Commonwealth. Hell, even the land around them bared scars. From the crumpling skyscrapers to the gutted out grocery stores and long abandoned schools the whole landscape was one long gash. Still healing. Still striving to get better.
Sure, there were infections that wrought havoc on the Commonwealth that never fully went away. There was always large groups of raiders roaming around, filling up decaying apartment buildings and shopping malls. Supermutants lined the streets of old suburban paradises and factories and ferals just tended to ramble anywhere that wasn't already filled. They would tear apart anything in their path, striving for more chems, more power, or a meal.
As heavily scarred and irradiated as the land around them was, there was always something to fight the infections. Albeit for different reasons. However, just like any type of infection there was always something out there that could fight it. It just so happened that in this case it was someone.
Piper shivered slightly, reaching behind her blindly for a warm body that just wasn't there. The journalist sat up, rubbing her eyes in the moonlight, she should be used to this by now. It was months since their moment on the literal precipice of her bedmates life, she'd be lying if she said that this was a new situation. Even the first night they were together Blue hadn't been there the morning after. Having left to pursue another lead for the Railroad or as Cait put it "off gettin' her ass beat with Shades". Piper smiled in her bed at how she chewed Deacon and Blue out when they had eventually came back to Sanctuary. Deacon for being Deacon and Nora, in private and much quieter when she saw how heavily bandaged her torso was. How Nora just waved it off and said that she would let Curie poke at it tomorrow.
Turns out she had gotten several scars from more than a few bullets. She didn't tell her what she saw, or how she got them. Piper had tried not to be too hurt about that. It was rare that Nora wouldn't tell her the story behind a scar. She had several scars running jagged down her left eye from a deathclaw out in Concord back when she helped out Preston. A larger, smoother, scar down the middle of her face from busting several merchants out of Raider territory and a few small scars on her lips. "From the Abernathy's cat." She had said dryly and Piper had snorted at that wondering why she had the cat that close to her lips in the first place before deciding she'd rather not know.
But there were other scars Nora had. Ones that weren't carved into her face or etched into her back. They were deeper and not quite as obvious, hidden from view until the moon rose. When she would get up like clockwork and walk the perimeter of wherever they were at. Sanctuary, the Castle, even Diamond City. Checking for hidden enemies that just weren't there. Checking turrents that never stopped working, checking to make sure that there were no holes in the wall that were only being patched up by bookcases. Nora avoided telling her about those scars the most. In fact the few times Piper had brought it up the Vault Dweller brushed it off the same way she brushed off the bullet wounds.
Piper let out a small sigh, stretching in her spot before reaching for her bedshirt which laid forgotten on the floor of her house. She knew where she would be once she was done doing her rounds and opened up the door leading to the roof of her little spot in Diamond City. Sure enough, there she is dressed in the Railroad coat with her rifle sitting across her lap. Shoulders tensed she's surveying the streets like a hawk, pink lips pulled into a tight line. Piper could write sonnets on how the moonlight looked dancing off her pale skin. She could write poetry about how beautiful and deadly she looks. Like a tigress waiting to strike. But poems don't sell as well as the truth does. So instead Piper picks a spot next to her and sits down, resting her cheek against Nora's shoulder. She can feel her flinch before the Vault Dweller looks down at her, she can feel a pair of lips press lightly against the top of her head and she smiles.
"How's it lookin' out there Blue?" The Journalist asks focusing her sights on the streets, trying in vain to see if she could see the same potential threats that Nora could. She can't, and she doesn't know whether to be thankful for that or not.
"Beautiful." She hears Blue whisper and Piper curses herself when she can feel her cheeks turn pink. Nora isn't the first person to compliment her. Being one of the few women in the Commonwealth with a full set of teeth and hair that wasn't cropped painfully short will garner that sort of attention. Piper moves her head back just enough to look at her and seeing the dopey smile on Nora's face chuckles and rolls her eyes.
"You know, you might want to go get your eyes checked tomorrow. All that saving the world stuff is doing terrible things to your vision." She hears Nora laugh but it's hollow, empty and she doesn't know just what to do with that.
"Is that what you think? That I'm saving the world?"
"Aren't you?" Piper questions incredulously, gesturing towards the rifle that sits across her lover's lap. "Keeping Diamond City safe for all? I know you probably don't think about this much, but you're a hero. You're doing more for this city than the guards and that idiot McDonough have ever done. Although, I don't really know if that's saying a whole heck of a lot, all things considered." She can feel Nora stiffen slightly and she pulls away again, looking up at her. "What did I-"
"I'm not a hero." Nora says plainly, blue-green eyes growing dim and she watches as the Vault Dweller, usually so self-assured and confident shrinks a bit in the moonlight. She looks away from Piper. "I have my own motives for keeping this place safe." There's that look again. The one that tells Piper that there's more to this woman then just the scars on her face, her back, her arms. Nora adds quietly, "Keeping you safe." Piper feels the corner of her lips twitch at that and she slides her fingers through hers.
"Ya know, I wish I knew why you felt that way. I can handle myself pretty well." Piper looks at her then, really looks at her and for once she seems so ungodly human, with her shoulders hunched up and her eyes haunted. She sees the bags under her eyes and slides her fingers through her's. "I'm sure you'll tell me one day."
"One day huh? That's awfully understanding of you." Piper lets out a huff, hazel-green eyes narrowing but she can't help but grin as Blue slowly comes back from whatever headspace she had been sulking in.
"I'm plenty understanding. And super giving, one might even call me compassionate." Piper's grin turns sly and she nudges Nora's stomach with her elbow, "even you can admit to that."
"Whatever." Nora mumbles.
"C'mon Blue, let's go to bed. Maybe...if you're ready...you can tell me a little bit about why I always need to wrangle you back to bed every night." Nora nods, stifling a yawn before standing up, helping Piper to her feet as they walk hand in hand back through the doorway of Publick Occurrences.
The sun is creeping in through the cracks in the doorway when Nora finally tells her. Piper traces her fingers over the circular shaped scars of Nora's back as she tells her about Nate, about Shaun, about the Institute that she helped destroy. All of that advancement, all of those people. Dead and cold and deep underground and it's all her fault. Nora tells her that she stays awake at night terrified that one day Death will take the last person that actually means something to her. That keeping guard over this city isn't for the city's benefit but for her's. Every night she spends in Piper's arms without having to fire a shot is one small victory in a lifetime of losses and that she has a lot of catching up to do but she's scared. She's so scared that one day she'll lose her. Piper holds her as she breaks down, body shaking and she shushes her, kisses each tear and tells her it's okay. That she won't be going anywhere. That she know's she'll keep her safe.
And Piper will keep her safe too. Even if it kills her.