Not Gonna Say Sorry
Seems like Lucy’s hopeful thinking worked out as they once again woke up cuddling. She liked it, it was warm and comforting and she had never felt so safe despite being tucked between two people who she was pretty sure had engaged in cannibalism (although she knew for a fact that Cooper had). God what would her hom- her vault say about this? Would they commend her bravery and strength, or would they condemn her companions?
Despite Lucy being awake, she just laid there with her eyes closed. While she had slept well, she still wanted to take advantage of any rest she could come upon before having to work her tush off for the foreseeable future.
Sev and Cooper stirred at similar times, not moving much as to not shake up Lucy. Lucy was about to speak before Sev spoke quietly instead, “have you and Lucy got something going on?”
Cooper huffed a little laugh at that, “Nah honey, don’t think she’s much of a ghoul fucker,”
Lucy was going to respond to that, but Sev beat her to it, “I don’t know Coop, she might be interested or becoming interested.”
Cooper let out a little growl at that, “now Seven, you might be a ghoul fucker, but yur also willing to stomp in heads if ya gotta. Lucy got all that vault teaching bouncing in ‘er head bout being polite.”
Lucy was a bit upset at that, but once again, Sev came to the rescue, “you got all that pre-war teaching in your head but ya didn’t pull out my chair before you came home with me,” okay maybe that was too many details for Lucy but she’d take it.
“Even if we were bumpin’ uglies, wouldn’t you be upset?” Cooper deflected, moving around a bit.
“We both know I wouldn’t give a molerat's ass, what’s the real reason?” Sev pressed forward, her ability to read people really shining.
Cooper was getting a bit agitated at all this questioning, “what about you huh? You seem to like ‘er as much as me,” was Cooper's agitated response.
“She’s got to figure that out herself, ain’t going to deny that I think she’s pretty,” Sev responded. Lucy thought that her face would ignite. She felt like she should tell them she was awake, but she figured they wouldn’t have this conversation without knowing that there was a risk of her hearing them.
“You think a pretty lil thing like her would wanna get down and really ugly with an old bastard past his time?” Cooper responded, moving more. While Lucy had her eyes closed, she was almost certain that Cooper’s face was in Sev’s.
“You’re just going to tell yourself over and over that it will never happen cause you can’t accept that a non crazy smoothskin would want you.” Sev whispered back harshly.
“You don’t know shit.” Cooper responded, getting out of the bed roughly, leaving the room with a slam of the door.
“Lucy I know you’re awake, Cooper ain’t mad at you, he’s mad at me,” Sev spoke, forcing open the glass window next to the bed to smoke a cigarette. She tried not to smoke too often, but she was upset so it seemed like a good time for a smoke.
“Why were you talking about me?” Lucy asked after Sev had already started toking on her cigarette.
Sev mulled over how to answer for a minute. “Lucy, I’ll tell you something, just once. Coop ain’t a fairytale prince, he never will be. He’s a man who does bad things for a reason, who hides himself behind his brashness and ghoulified skin. You’re starting to feel something for him, I can tell. He ain’t gonna believe you though, he’s gonna push you away anyway he can. If you really want him, he’s got to feel like it’s true.”
Lucy looked at Sev for a moment, seeing an almost sad look on her face as she rested her elbow on the windowsill. “How did it go for you two,” Lucy asked, moving to sit closer to Sev.
Sev let out a huff of a laugh, “he’s convinced himself that I have a ghoul fetish, he’s never seen me with someone other than him, so that’s how he’s protecting himself.”
“But doesn’t that make you mad?” Lucy questioned, wanting to know more about Sev.
“Course it does, but I like him too much. Maybe one day he’ll realize that people can like him for him. With you being a vault dweller and new to the surface, it’s gonna take him a while to even consider that you might be into him,”
“How did you know that I’m confused by my feelings towards Cooper?” Lucy asked, already having an idea of how.
Sev ashed her cigarette, tossing the butt out the window, “Cause I felt the same way you did, but that was about 3 years ago, when I first met Cooper. I know my feelings now, but Cooper still doesn’t really get his.”
Lucy felt bad for Sev. She’d hate being dragged along for so long. Lucy didn’t know how her and Cooper would go, but she had already decided that if he hadn’t gotten his feelings together by the time she was back in front of her vault door, that would be it. She liked Sev, but Lucy didn’t want to feel like Sev does over Cooper. “Is he good at having sex?” Lucy asked, still unsure how uncomfortable wastelanders are about sex.
Sev was a bit startled by the girls' forwardness before laughing, “oh yeah, real good,” was Sev’s answer. “Now let’s get our packs and head out before Cooper decides to take Maria for a whirl.”
“Maria?” Lucy asked with a confused look on her face.
“The gun that shot my dad in the head,” Sev answered, walking out of her room and leaving Lucy there a bit bewildered.
~~~~~
They were an odd sight, a ghoul in a full cowboy outfit, a vault dweller, a woman in NCR combat armor with the helmet dangling from her belt, and two dogs one of which was half robot with its brain on full display. What an odd bunch they were. Cooper was still ignoring them, but it made the trip very quiet beyond the occasional talk between Lucy and Sev.
Sev had hoped to get some work done on the way there, but she knew that was a long shot. There wasn’t much in between her house and Jacobstown, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when they hadn’t seen any work yet in the hour they travelled.
~~~~~
Seems like maybe Sev should take up gambling again, because she just got super lucky after another hour of walking. Stumbling on a caravan wasn’t shocking, but stumbling on one that was in need of guards and willing to pay for it was.
The caravanner had waved them down, and sweet and very naive Lucy just walked on over to talk to him. Despite the tension between Cooper and Sev, they both looked at each other with a bit of disbelief at their traveling companion.
“Lookin’ for work?” the caravanner's rough voice spoke, looking at Lucy’s figure. Lucy would have noticed this if her attention wasn’t on the cart attached to a brahmin.
Despite Cooper’s annoyance at both women, he also wouldn’t stand for someone looking like that at someone who was his. He made sure to saunter up, throw an arm around Lucy, while also keeping his hand on his gun. “Now we got a problem friend?” Cooper spoke with a bit of a cocky smirk on his face.
“Should’ve known she’s a ghoul fucker, just need guards till Jacobstown,” The caravanner spoke.
“What company are you with?” Sev asked, walking up to the gathering ground.
“Crimson Caravan,” was the caravanners answer, and before he could say another peep, Sev had pulled out her snakeskin gripped handgun, putting a bullet between his eyes.
Lucy gaped at the woman standing next to her, confused at the aggressive behavior that was so sudden. “Crimson Caravan stopped sending caravans through here 5 years ago. Whatever he was planning, it wasn’t good,” Sev explained, walking up to the brahmin to look through the wares.
“But he seemed nice,” Lucy spoke in a questioning tone.
“Darlin’ he was lookin’ at you like a Fancy Lad Snack Cake” Cooper responded, removing his arm from Lucy’s shoulder.
“And what’s so bad about having sex with a ghoul?” Lucy questioned, looking at Cooper who had been reluctantly answering her wasteland questions thus far.
Cooper looked at the woman like she’s crazy, “Darlin’ have you seen us?”
“Don’t listen to that Lucy,” Sev spoke while digging through one of the trunks, “some dumbasses think that ghoulification is contagious. And before you ask, no you can’t catch a case of the ghouls.”
The chatter died a bit while Lucy and Cooper waited for Sev to get what she was looking for, “ah I was right,” Sev spoke after another minute of speaking, “the man was a slaver,” she finished saying as she held up multiple bomb collars. She looked at them for a second before tossing them onto the sand and covering it with more sand.
“See Lucy, Sev knows more about the Mojave than I do, it’d be in yur best interest to listen to what she says,” Cooper spoke. While he wasn’t happy with Sev, he knew that her knowledge about the Mojave was worth gold.
“Okie dokie,” Lucy said with a bit of a sad tone. She liked some of the wasteland, the sky and stars, Fancy Lad Snack Cakes and such, but was it worth some of the horrific things happening up here? Maybe she should have tucked her tail between her legs and went back to the vault. She knew she wouldn’t do that, not until her dad faced justice.
“Well, let's drag this brahmin to Jacobstown and sell it, ain’t a job but it is caps” Sev spoke, grabbing the rope tied to the brahmin. Lucy was excited, as much as she wanted to see a normal cow, a brahmin was the next best thing, plus she could pet it.
God they were only two hours into this trip and they had already stumbled into a slaver, hopefully that will be all that they have issues with.
~~~~~
It was not all that happened. Not even close. All of them were covered in cazador blood and radscorpion parts. Exhausted and running low on bullets, when they reached Jacobstown, they decided to stay the night and work tomorrow. Only selling the brahmin and getting Cooper vials. When Sev was less tired, she was going to try and convince Lucy that a bright blue suit was not helping them stay hidden.
Lucy on the other hand, was trying to not stare at the nightkin, although all she wanted to do was ask them a bunch of questions. She had heard about super mutants from Cooper, and while he did touch on there being some peaceful super mutants, she never expected to be in a town full of them.
Cooper was glad they had a good supply of vials, allowing him to buy a good month's worth using some of the caps from selling the wares on the brahmin. He felt a little bit like an ass for how he stormed out (he wasn’t torn up about it). Sev was his girl and he wasn’t so foolish to believe that she wasn’t upset with his behavior.
As they all tucked into the same bed to save money on getting a hotel room, Cooper kissed Sev’s forehead. Sev knew that was his ‘sorry for ignoring you but I’m not gonna say sorry’ apology. She’d accept it, Sev also recognized that she pushed Cooper to talk about something he wasn’t really comfortable with. Sev kissed his cheek before going to sleep. All of them exhausted found sleep pretty quickly.