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Hancock couldn’t believe it. After all the time spent at his side, he’d finally pried open the steel coated pages of the elusive Sole Survivor. Now he knew the truth, the one he had hoped for, beyond hope, but been petrified to actually ask about, almost certain that he wouldn’t like what he would hear. But, as per usual, Sole seemed to surprise him.
It had been over a month since that fateful day, and he and his companion had never been closer. They trusted each other without abandon, adored one another’s company, and valued it over damn near everything else in their lives. They talked deeply, they laughed unabashedly, even went so far as to unload emotionally with one another on a level Hancock had only ever dreamed of reaching with another person. They were together in every sense of the word, ‘cept one. Physically, there was a distinct lack of progress for the pair. Though the mayor of Goodneighbor had less than no qualms about showering his partner in affection; verbal, physical, or otherwise, Sole’s distinct lack of reciprocation was worrying at him like an old bone between a starved dog’s teeth.
It’s gotta be cuz of what I am. He thought, No smooth skin can be expected to just look past this kinda condition, least of all one from before the war.
He didn’t know what he expected. But he wasn’t angry. Least, not at Sole, anyway. Finally, somebody comes along that Hancock can really get behind, the first one he’s ever told he loves, and meant it. And damn, they’d hardly ever even kissed yet. Hancock’s no fool, even he knows he’s got it bad for this vault dweller. For the first time since his transformation, Hancock was starting to regret it.
If that’s the only thing holdin’ us back…
He sighed out loud, twirling his pocket knife amidst his staring competition with the pack of mentats on the coffee table. Hancock wanted to talk it all out with Sole, get the truth of it, straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were; but damn it, was it hard to bring that shit up. If the conversation went south, it could mean the end for the pair, for the nature of their relationship, and any god out there would know that that’s the last thing Hancock wanted.
He drove the tip of his knife into the coffee table, ripping his gaze from the mentats as he stood up.
Much as I wanna calm my nerves, I’ve gotta have a clear head for this. Hancock headed back towards the bedroom of the Old State House, peeking his head through the doorway before stepping in fully. His companion was sprawled out on the bed, clad in his undershirt and a pair of shorts as he perused a copy of Publick Occurrences.
Ahh, a sight I could never grow tired of.
A smile touched Hancock's mouth, and he nearly backed out of what he was gonna say; but the part of him that wanted so desperately to crawl into bed next to his partner, to hold him tightly all through the lazy afternoon, was the same part that knew Sole would only flinch away if he tried. He took a deep breath.
“Hey, Sole, you got a second?” He asked him reluctantly, forcing the words out of ruined lips as his hand rubbed away at the skin on the back of his neck.
“Always, what’s up?” Sole shifted to lie on his side, propping his elbow up so his hand could support his head, turning to give Hancock his full attention. The ghoul made his way to the bed, sitting with one leg bent under him on the mattress and one dangling down over the edge. His leg swung back and forth, toes brushing over the floor as he considered his next words carefully.
“There’s just something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
“Oh no, what’ve I done this time?” Sole sat up so he could better face his partner, smiling goofily at his own sarcastic question.
“Heh, same as always, you’ve gone and swept me off my feet again.” Sole brought a hand up to his mouth as he let out a pink-faced giggle, vibrant eyes crinkling at the corners as his cheeks squished up against them.
How the hell can I go through with this when he’s lookin’ at me like that?
He couldn’t help himself, Hancock leaned forward just so, pressing his lips to the side of Sole’s mouth that wasn’t covered by his hand. The man froze, the smile slowly fading from his eyes as it was replaced by something else.
Shame? Disgust? Apprehension? Fear?
Hancock’s own gaze was slightly obstructed as his brow wrinkled upwards involuntarily.
“I’ve gotta know,” his voice croaked out, the strain in his throat coating his words in uncertainty, “What’s goin’ on with us?”
“What?” Sole asked quietly, his eyes fell to the floor in a brief moment of thought, before they returned to meet Hancock’s darkened gaze, this time, with an unmistakable emotion swirling in their depths.
It couldn’t have been fear I was seeing before, no. Cuz this? What I’m seein’ now? This is fear.
“What do you mean, John?”
The trepidation in his voice… He’s as nervous as I am. Maybe he can’t stand the thought of this being over, just the same as me.
“I… I wanna try somethin’. You got any issues with it at all, you just tell me, and we stop. No hard feelings, alright?”
Sole’s eyes narrowed, but he gave a small nod.
“Sweetheart, I’m gonna need a verbal confirmation from ya, okay?”
“Okay, I’ve got it. You start, if I say stop, we stop.” He could see the way Sole tried to gulp down his apprehension, but his voice had been steady. So, Hancock pressed on.
He started slow, easing the pressure onto his partner as gently as he could, simply shifting closer to him on the bed, turning his body to face Sole more deliberately. A smile tugged at his mouth as he saw Sole mirror his adjustments.
Reaching forward with one hand, Hancock allowed his thumb to brush lightly over his partner’s cheekbone, before easing it down to guide his chin upwards, giving him direct access to Sole’s semi-parted lips. His eyes were already half-lidded as Hancock leaned forwards, and he took that as a sign to press on.
When Hancock reached him, he barely allowed his marred lips to graze over his partner’s mouth, lingering at this distance until he felt Sole press forward of his own accord.
They’d kissed before, just little things though, none had lasted all that long. Not like this, not like what Hancock had in mind. When Sole pressed to him, Hancock tilted his head to the side, pushing deeper into him, before pulling back just a bit. A steady kneading pace formed between the two as, for the first time Hancock could recall, Sole seemed to melt into their shared contact.
Hancock steadily brought his hands up to his partner’s chest, the same process as with his lips, letting the tips of his fingers graze lightly over Sole’s body before ever putting pressure on him. No, Hancock held at this distance until Sole was practically writhing against him, his own hands coming up, Hancock would’ve guessed unwittingly, to grab onto the lapels of his iconic crimson coat.
The feeling of his partner’s hands grasping at him so desperately had Hancock’s heart booming in his chest as his previous misgivings melted away under Sole’s heated touch. He hadn’t planned it in quite this way. None of it. This was meant to be a discussion about their comfortability with one another, about their future together. It was meant to be hypothetical in nature, and yet, here they were. This was anything but figurative.
Sole’s fingers flexed over Hancock’s collar yet again, and so the ghoul pulled his hands from his partner, shedding his coat without breaking away from their kiss. The cooler air crashed onto his skin, sending goosebumps over his jagged complexion. Or was it the way Sole’s hands grazed over his flesh? Maybe that was the culprit of these chills of his.
He’s not holding back. Hancock's mind reveled at the thought. The feeling of my skin… He’s not repulsed by it.
Hancock couldn’t contain himself. The gentle push and pull of his lips turned into a series of hungry collisions. A composition of tongue, teeth and lips, expertly applied to the object of his fervor. You’d think the ghoul was starving, with the way he tried to consume his partner. Sole made no complaints, he only gasped slightly as Hancock’s teeth grazed over his lower lip, but the way he responded, dragging his tongue over the sore spot before letting it linger partially in Hancock’s mouth, told him that he didn’t have a problem with his partner's aggressive affection.
The material was smooth and silky between his fingers as Hancock reached at the hem of Sole’s t-shirt, tugging it upwards to bring it over his head. This whole process usually tended to go much faster for the ghoul than it did this time. He let the backs of his hands drag up Sole’s body unhurriedly as he pulled the shirt off of him. When he discarded the garment, he brought his hands back to Sole slowly, deliberately landing in a neutral zone at the tops of his shoulders, rather than somewhere more expressly intimate. And again, to Hancock’s delight, through it all, his partner made no move to stop him. Even when Hancock let his hands fall to his partner’s waist, his fingers grazing over his sensitive sides, reveling in the warm, smoothness beneath his roughened touch.
The kiss had broken briefly as Sole’s shirt had gone over his head, but Hancock had taken the opportunity to show appreciation for a few of Sole’s other features, returning his phantom lips to Sole’s cheek instead, then to his jaw, littering kisses further downwards until the ghoul could run his tongue up the side of Sole’s neck.
Hancock heard Sole gasp in surprise at the breathy moan that escaped his lips in response to the ghoul’s contact. He paused his movement.
“All good there, Sole?”
“Yeah,” he let out a little chuckle. The hue of his face rivaling that of Hancock’s coat. “Just, nobody’s ever done that to me before.”
“Runnin’ with the wrong crowd then, I’d say.” Hancock quipped, pulling his hat from his head and placing it onto the bed beside them. Sole hadn’t even seemed to hear him.
“You wanna keep going? Or–-”
“Yes. Yeah, I do.” Sole cut him off enthusiastically, still looking flustered, but if he was good to go, Hancock wouldn’t let himself fall behind.
The ghoul smiled at his partner, bringing a hand up to press at the center of Sole’s chest, pushing him down onto the mattress as Hancock crashed his lips to him once again. He moved quicker this time, his confidence slowly being restored with each reciprocated gesture and word of affirmation that Sole gave him. Hancock sat back and wrenched his own button up and undershirt off in a few swift motions, as Sole looked on with half-lidded eyes. Not once did they widen in disgusted shock, or crease together in a sickened grimace. Sole didn’t even flinch as Hancock unveiled his scarred chest and torso to him for the first time.
He didn’t give him long to look, though. In the next moment, Hancock slunk down to join his companion on the bed, sneaking a knee between Sole’s legs as he rested his bare chest atop his partner’s. Once more, the ghoul’s lips found their way to the less obvious portions of Sole’s body, pressing wetly to his clavicle and shoulders, going further down to litter his heaving abdomen as his partner’s hands guided him, smooth fingers running over Hancock’s head, the back of his neck, and his shoulders.
Hancock got to the hem of Sole’s shorts, and paused, bringing his smokey gaze up to meet his partner’s wide eyes. Still making eye contact, Hancock brought his mouth to Sole’s stomach, grazing his lip over the seam of his pants.
Asking.
Nothing in Sole’s glazed expression told him to halt, so Hancock brought his fingers to the button, tracing over it briefly, before moving to unfasten it.
Sole’s body jerked suddenly beneath him and he heard his breath catch in his throat.
“Wait.” Sole said quietly.
Hancock looked up at him, pulling his hands from the button to instead brace on either side of Sole’s legs.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I’ve… Well, it’s just... I’ve never done this before.” Sole couldn’t meet his gaze anymore, turning his head to the side to hide the shamed expression that revealed itself at his confession. Hancock shifted up into a sitting position, still between Sole’s legs, trying not to let his surprise leak through his own facial expression.
Sole was a catch. Nothin’ short of striking gold in the personality department. He had a damn good heart, a knack for compassion, he was smart as hell, and Hancock could never get tired of lookin’ at him. How’s it that he’s never been with anyone else?
“That’s okay." Hancock smiled at him reassuringly, "We don’t have to do any more tonight if you don’t want to. I don’t wanna pressure you into anything. We can just take it slow, you know?”
“No, it’s not that. I’m actually, well, I’m as comfortable as I’ve ever been with any of this. But I just… I want to… I just want to be good. For you.”
“Ya already are good for me, Sunshine.”
Hancock climbed his way back up to lay beside Sole on the bed, shifting over to kiss him softly before settling at his side, one arm draped over Sole’s chest.
“Trust me, you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’m hooked on you, Sole.” He told him, “I ain’t goin’ nowhere. And, well, I got time.” He pressed a kiss to Sole's shoulder, laying his head on the spot after his lips left it. “Afraid you’re stuck with me.”
Sole chuckled lightly at that, bringing his arm up to rest over top of Hancock’s, and the pair laid against one another, their bodies still tingling with the elation of their earlier contact.
Hancock closed his eyes, and breathed his partner in, finally glad to be rid of the dread that had him believing Sole could never accept him for what he was. He idly wondered how many mentats it woulda taken to get to the same conclusion Sole had brought him to in less than an hour. Looks like other folks got insecurities too, even ones as perfect as my Sole.
“Y’know...” The vibrations rattled through Sole’s chest as he spoke up, “I didn’t really mean that… well, that we had to stop.“ His hand stroked over Hancock’s forearm, "I just wanted you to know. The truth. I’ve never been with another guy before, so this… well, this is all pretty new. That’s all. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to try though.”
Never been with another guy… Hancock hadn’t really considered that. But hell, that fact pretty much explained away everything he’d been worried about all this time. He grinned at the thought.
"Oh, that so, Sunshine? Then allow me to pick up where we left off.”
He turned just in time to catch Sole’s toothy little smile, and he matched it with his own in response, refusing to make good on his promise until after he’d kissed his partner again.
Then, then he would really pick up where they left off.