Forgot to take the "Re:" out of the title line for 1b. Blah.
-----
No, 'a bit sleazy' isn't right. In fact, after she'd left he'd felt like just about the biggest ass in the Capital, and the little Behemoth ambush in the plaza down below had shown him just how big the wasteland could grow its asses for comparison's sake. Not that it matters much, because he'd only got halfway into his little show of playing hard to get when she'd sweet-talked him into forking over the info anyway. And then she'd still gone out to fix his relay, coming back before she'd even headed to Rivet City to check his story and continue her search. More holes in her than he'd remembered and still with stars in her eyes like he was the greatest thing since Johnny Cash (still doesn't make sense to him, Cash of all people being her favorite; a kid that bright and sunny getting her musical kicks from the solitary man in black is a novelty all its own). She'd marched - okay, limped, and he winces guiltily at the memory - right in to tell him she'd finished his insane errand with this hopeful look like she needed his approval.
"It was my pleasure," she says, managing a distinct blush even under the aching sunburn, "I mean, now I can hear you at my house in Megaton!"
If he were in her position, just about the last thing he'd have wanted on his down-time licking his wounds would be the ramblings of the very man who'd sent him out to get pummeled and shot at, but a girl who walks into Paradise Falls with just a shotgun, a dog, and a big, dour ghoul is obviously crazy. Crazy in an effective way, as evidenced by the stampede of freed slaves and the eerie silence she left behind, but still crazy.
Crazy in a way that suits him just fine.
Sometimes he curses James for not telling him what she's like, somewhere in the midst of shooting the shit together over a bottle of scotch. Just in case she ever did climb out of that hole, he could have warned Three Dog. Kindness, generosity, courage, and justice incarnate -- he's always just been doomed to fall head-over-heels for a girl like that, a girl who embodies all of the values he's been trying to hammer into his fellow wastelanders' heads for the past half a decade.
Realizing that and doing something about it are obviously two very different things, when it comes down to it. For one thing, although a single (admittedly long) conversation with James does not exactly his best friend make, the good doctor was still a respectable man who did have a lot of heartfelt reminiscing to do during that chat about how beautiful and intelligent his daughter is. Wanting her and acting on it feels like it'd be a betrayal. Then there's the age difference, which granted doesn't count for shit to most people in the wastes and, granted, even if they were still going by Old World rules she's legal, but she's still so young.
He's not even halfway through his thirties yet but he still feels like a dirty old pervert.
He tries looking at her like a goddaughter or something instead, but honesty has always been his only policy, and the way his heart broke when she left and leapt when he heard she'd come back definitely wasn't very familial in nature.
With any luck, she won't acquiesce to his request for a visit. Remove temptation from his path. She's a busy girl.
Doesn't really stop him hoping she'll show anyway.
-----
Attempting to re-post this segment so I can remove the one where I accidentally un-anon'd.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Since When, 1c/3
Date: 2012-06-18 07:19 pm (UTC)-----
No, 'a bit sleazy' isn't right. In fact, after she'd left he'd felt like just about the biggest ass in the Capital, and the little Behemoth ambush in the plaza down below had shown him just how big the wasteland could grow its asses for comparison's sake. Not that it matters much, because he'd only got halfway into his little show of playing hard to get when she'd sweet-talked him into forking over the info anyway. And then she'd still gone out to fix his relay, coming back before she'd even headed to Rivet City to check his story and continue her search. More holes in her than he'd remembered and still with stars in her eyes like he was the greatest thing since Johnny Cash (still doesn't make sense to him, Cash of all people being her favorite; a kid that bright and sunny getting her musical kicks from the solitary man in black is a novelty all its own). She'd marched - okay, limped, and he winces guiltily at the memory - right in to tell him she'd finished his insane errand with this hopeful look like she needed his approval.
"It was my pleasure," she says, managing a distinct blush even under the aching sunburn, "I mean, now I can hear you at my house in Megaton!"
If he were in her position, just about the last thing he'd have wanted on his down-time licking his wounds would be the ramblings of the very man who'd sent him out to get pummeled and shot at, but a girl who walks into Paradise Falls with just a shotgun, a dog, and a big, dour ghoul is obviously crazy. Crazy in an effective way, as evidenced by the stampede of freed slaves and the eerie silence she left behind, but still crazy.
Crazy in a way that suits him just fine.
Sometimes he curses James for not telling him what she's like, somewhere in the midst of shooting the shit together over a bottle of scotch. Just in case she ever did climb out of that hole, he could have warned Three Dog. Kindness, generosity, courage, and justice incarnate -- he's always just been doomed to fall head-over-heels for a girl like that, a girl who embodies all of the values he's been trying to hammer into his fellow wastelanders' heads for the past half a decade.
Realizing that and doing something about it are obviously two very different things, when it comes down to it. For one thing, although a single (admittedly long) conversation with James does not exactly his best friend make, the good doctor was still a respectable man who did have a lot of heartfelt reminiscing to do during that chat about how beautiful and intelligent his daughter is. Wanting her and acting on it feels like it'd be a betrayal. Then there's the age difference, which granted doesn't count for shit to most people in the wastes and, granted, even if they were still going by Old World rules she's legal, but she's still so young.
He's not even halfway through his thirties yet but he still feels like a dirty old pervert.
He tries looking at her like a goddaughter or something instead, but honesty has always been his only policy, and the way his heart broke when she left and leapt when he heard she'd come back definitely wasn't very familial in nature.
With any luck, she won't acquiesce to his request for a visit. Remove temptation from his path. She's a busy girl.
Doesn't really stop him hoping she'll show anyway.
-----
Attempting to re-post this segment so I can remove the one where I accidentally un-anon'd.