![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
falloutkinkmeme_backupWelcome to the Fallout Kink Meme, Part IV! Please assume the position.
- Fallout Kink Meme posting guidelines
- Read something? Love something? No matter how old the story is, please let our amazing authors and artists know that you enjoyed their work with a nice comment, and share the love by recommending your favorite fills!
Stronger than death itself 10a/?
Date: 2012-05-23 06:48 am (UTC)A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. ~Jean de La Fontaine
During the next few days they established a solid travelling routine, something that took none of them too much effort since they all were used to travelling. All they needed was to get used to each other, and as they made their way up north and west, mthings like making and breaking up camp were accomplished with little effort, time, and almost no words at all.
It was little more than a week after they had left Rivet City that they hit a small town called Hagerstown. The town was big enough to have several bars and inns and after choosing one, Amanda went to find the trading post. Their journey had been mostly uneventful, in terms of adversaries and spoils, so she didn’t have a lot to sell.
Steve and Frank had, in the meantime, taken care of their baggage and the brahmin and were now sitting in the taproom, nursing a peaceful afternoon beer and looking forward to a night in a bed for a change.
They had, the night before their departure from Rivet City, debated about this hire, about the possibilities of finding another job, of getting away from the girl who seemed to have all but bewitched them, but as the time had passed on their journey, none of the two had mentioned that again.
The fact was that despite everything else, they couldn’t just leave Amanda to her fate. In addition to that, another unspoken fact was that they didn’t want to leave Amanda to her fate, no matter what.
They could have seized some of the unemployed mercenaries up, check if they were the decent sort, and broach the subject with her.
They didn’t.
Amanda came to join them somewhat later, entering the bar with the pleased and satisfied air of someone who had made a good deal. As she was just about to order a drink, she was approached by a tall man wearing well to-do clothes. He obviously wanted to stand her a drink and Amanda obviously declined, trying to be polite about it. The man, however, didn’t want to take no as an answer. He was trying to chat her up, trying to be charming, but to Steve and Frank, it was clear that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. They needed no more than to exchange a single look and both of them slowly got up and sauntered over to the bar, weapons loose in their holsters.
Amanda cringed when she heard more steps but visibly sagged with relief when she realised they belonged to her guards. She again faced the man who might have been a merchant or a wealthy farmer. “I said no. Please just leave me alone.”
The tall merchant crossed his arms and glared a few daggers at the men beside her. “I see. Those your fuck-buddies?”
“They’re my guards. Now get lost before I let them lose on you.”
He cast a look at the two men again, and following his glance, Amanda realised that she had never seen them look so dangerous and menacing. Each had a smoke in the corner of his mouth, their hands hooked into their belts close to their guns, and both bore the bored, low-lidded expression of a man just waiting for the order to shoot and not giving a shit about why or whom. Their whole demeanour seemed to beg for him to give them the tiniest excuse for redecorating the taproom with his guts.
After a few moments of silent stand-off, the merchant emitted a soft snort and left the bar, followed by two men who had to be his guards. Amanda let out a breath of relief when the doors had closed behind them.
She ordered herself a drink and, as the three of them settled down at the table where Steve and Frank had left theirs, Amanda took a sip of beer and shook her head.
“I was thinking of staying a few days”, she said. “But suddenly I feel like a bed’s not worth the hassle in this town.”
“Could be you’re right”, Frank replied and tapped off his ash with a thoughtful frown. “He doesn’t seem like a guy who’s used to being turned down by a girl.”
Amanda gave the door a worried look.
“Don’t you worry.” Steve leaned back in his chair. “As long as you keep us around he won’t be able to lay a finger on you, kid.”
When Amanda looked at him, a slight flush on her cheeks and a tiny smile on her lips, he looked away, seemingly a little embarrassed. “That’s what you’re paying us for”, he muttered and busied himself with lighting up a smoke.
Stronger than death itself 10b/?
Date: 2012-05-23 06:51 am (UTC)When he had failed to return after a solid ten minutes, Amanda began to be slightly worried, but Steve seemed relaxed and unperturbed, so she just toyed with her empty bottle. After five minutes more, Steve was just about to cast a look to the door when it opened and in came Frank, an expression of grim satisfaction on his face.
“You got stuck in the John, man?”
Frank sat down, lit a smoke, exhaled a long, bluish cloud, and leaned back. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Amanda noticed that his knuckles were scraped and slightly swollen.
“What the fuck happened to your hands?”
Frank looked at his right hand with raised eyebrows and shrugged. “There’s men who can’t leave another man to have a piss in peace and quiet.”
Amanda felt her eyebrows rise.
Frank chuckled. “Well, he stared at my dick like it was a brahmin on display and asked if you were paying us in caps or in kind.”
“In kind...?” It took Amanda a few seconds to get the implication of this and her face suddenly burned. “And what... what did you say?”
“Say?” Frank took another drag of his smoke. “I didn’t say anything, girl. What the fuck should I say to something like that?”
Steve leaned forward and folded his elbows onto the table. “But...”
The door opened and someone stumbled in. Steve, who was sitting with his back to the wall and faced the door, suddenly snorted and upon hearing that, Amanda followed his look, noticing a man heading for the bar with heavy steps. He had a black eye, a split lip and by the look of him, had very recently been bleeding from his nose. He also walked slightly doubled over. Upon spotting Frank sitting at the table in the corner he shot him a venomous look, but simply ordered a drink and vanished upstairs.
Amanda looked very slowly back at Frank who was smoking with a slightly amused expression as if thinking about some private joke.
“You... you didn’t by chance have anything to do with that shiner, did you?”
“Some insults are best answered without words, girl”, Frank gave back with a small smirk on his face.
Amanda shook her head with a self-conscious smile and leaned back as well. “Thanks for defending my honour, Frank.”
The contents of the ashtray suddenly seemed very fascinating to Frank who just replied: “Yeah, whatever, girl.”
After a few moments of silence, Amanda sighed. “I think we’d best hit the road tomorrow morning again. I don’t know... I don’t like this town.” Then she looked back and forth between her guards. “I was almost never harassed while travelling with my parents. Is it because my father isn’t here to glare at anyone giving me a look?”
“Could be”, Steve replied cautiously. “Back then, you were a merchant’s daughter. Now, you stand up for yourself. To most men, that spells out an invitation to at least try.”
“I see.” Amanda crossed her arms. “I guess it doesn’t really matter whether I’m ugly or not if I’m a piece of free meat.” With that she got up and avoided both their eyes. “I’m gonna hit the sack. See you tomorrow, guys.”
Both men watched her disappear up the stairs and only after she was safely out of sight and earshot did they dare to look at each other again.
“She doesn’t honestly think she’s ugly, does she?”, Steve asked, shaking his head.
Frank tapped off his ash. “Wouldn’t put it past her old man to make her believe that, so he’d have less of a job keeping her under control.”
“But... I mean, surely she’s had a look in the mirror every now and then?”
“I guess she only saw what she expected to see. What she’d been told to see.”
“But...” Steve broke off with a huff of frustration.
Frank shrugged. “I guess she’s gotta deal with a lot of things from that time of her life.”
“I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Neither do I.”
x-x-x-x-x-x
Stronger than death itself 10c/?
Date: 2012-05-23 06:54 am (UTC)“What happened to you guys?”
Frank cast a look over his shoulder back into the direction they had come from. “Just an asshole giving us shit.”
Amanda finished strapping a buckle on a crate and cocked an eyebrow.
“He must’ve been waiting for us. Or looking for us.” Steve took a good grip on the brahmin’s halter as Frank picked up the first crate to strap it to the creature’s back. “Said he had a hire for us.”
“Offered us a ridiculous amount of caps”, Frank said after heaving the crate up and tying it down, cigarette clamped firmly into the corner of his mouth. “I’d say someone is set to get rid of your guards.”
Amanda felt her legs go a little weak as she got up and dusted off her knees. “What did you say?”
“What the fuck should we say to that?”, Steve replied and spat out. “We already have a hire, kid.”
“And those caps?”
Both men cast her a long look under lowered eyelids.
“I mean, you are mercenaries.”
“Yes. And we already have a hire.” Frank shot her a look over his shoulder and busied himself with the crate again. “Unless you want to get rid of us?”
Amanda opened her mouth to say something but the words got stuck in her throat. She just mutely shook her head and Frank nodded. “Thought so.”
In mutual silence they finished loading up and as they were about to leave, Steve lit a smoke and unclasped the holster of his gun.
“Where to?”
Amanda looked down the road they currently faced. “Do you know where this road leads?”
Steve narrowed his eyes in thought. “Up north, then west... New York. But you don’t want to go there; the whole city is one giant, irradiated crater. Without heading straight west, Boston. Down that way lies Pittsburgh, but with the things we’ve heard about the place, we’d better give that a wide berth, too.”
“Fancy going back to Boston?”
“What would you want in Boston, girl?”, Frank fell in.
“I don’t know.” Amanda adjusted her pack. “One destination is as good as any other.”
“If you think so.” Frank puffed his cheeks and exhaled a cloud. “Will take us about a month to get there.”
“Are you okay with that?”
The tiny smirk appeared on Frank’s face again. “You’re the boss.”
“Right.” Amanda took a deep breath and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Let’s go.”
Neither Frank nor Steve ever thought about the issue of finding themselves another hire again.