Chapter Text
A spring storm churned to life outside the ruined building where RJ and David decided to take cover for the night. For now, they are warm and dry. But that will only last until the rain starts. Mindful of his partner's dislike of being wet and cold, David pulled RJ toward him. The chilled, humid air seeped around the broken walls, pushed along by the heralding winds. RJ curled himself against David and sighed contentedly.
"RJ? We should get going. If we can make Diamond City before the storm hits, we can save time and stay dry."
The clouds blocked the morning light, but RJ knew the time instinctively. He's excellent at judging time and distance because that's how you survived. But damn, if he knows where he is right now. Somewhere between The Castle and fuck-if-he-knows. He thought he knew every inch of the Commonwealth. But this latest mission led them farther away from the city than he cared to be.
"In case you haven't noticed, it is raining. So, what's the hurry?" MacCready asked, his mouth scraping over David's three-day-old beard.
David deliberately stopped RJ's hand from drifting down his body. The shiver RJ's teeth invoked was beyond his control, but there wasn't time for this or to indulge RJ in his constant need for reassurance.
"RJ?"
RJ shook his hand free of David's and used it to squeeze the muscular chest under his cheek.
"You're a tease, and you'll pay for that. Now, get up, and let's get moving. You'll have plenty of time to suck my cock once I return from Nuka World."
"You're such a romantic," MacCready said, wincing at David's choice of words. Occasionally, it was fine in the throes of great sex, but unexpectedly, and first thing in the morning. Not so much. An alarm bell went off in MacCready's head. What had David just said? RJ rolled out of bed.
"What did you mean when you got back from Nuka-World?"
David rolled his eyes and crossed his arms behind his head. "RJ, we talked about this. It's settled."
Robert Joseph MacCready muttered a curse and tossed the tattered sheet from his legs. A second curse bounced him off the narrow bed, where he grabbed a pair of army fatigues from a nearby crate and yanked them over his lean hips. One minute, he listened to David snore and planned an inventive way to say good morning, but now he's mad as hell. The rage churns and grows right along with that storm. He doesn't like being left behind, and David needs him.
The man remaining in the bed silently watched MacCready dress. Experience taught him it was better to allow RJ to vent before attempting to reason with him. He'd watched RJ's mood shift from weary passion to anger in the space between rolling away from their sleepy embrace and pulling on his pants. This disagreement, and there was no way around it, came with consequences and fallout.
"Don't screw with me. What happened to your lead, and I'll follow?" RJ emphasized his words by kicking a nearby enamel bucket, which rattled against the wood frame shack and rolled to a stop by the door.
"RJ, leave it alone. I need you here," he murmured, trying and failing to appease the angry merc. Take my power armor if you want. Go to the Castle; it's safe there."
"Are you kidding?" Lightning illuminated the room, revealing David stroking his dick. Thunder followed, adding fuel to RJ's insecurities. "I don't need safe. I don't need your power armor. I need you. No. The hell with you. I go where I please. Isn't that what you're doing? What happened to the deal we made?"
"Life happened."
RJ cleared the top of a littered table. "Sounds like one of those sayings that I read from your time. Life happens. Take life as it comes. You only have one life. If the stories we've heard are half as bad, you need someone. You need me at your back."
"I'll be fine, RJ. Come back to bed. Please?"
Butterflies or death claws or whatever they were flooded RJ's stomach. The handsome, courageous, and damnably stubborn man watching him had walked into this fucked up world two hundred years late. He marched in, swallowed his grief, and dug right in. That he chose RJ to walk this world by his side humbled him. That he'd found love with David made him happier than he could remember. He loved Lucy, of course. But David was a sexy mixture of passion and strength that he couldn't resist. Lately, David had revealed a cruel and often selfish streak RJ hadn't known existed. Life was brutal and violent in the Commonwealth. But he knew that if they stayed together, everything would be all right.
RJ threw his hands in the air. "Get out of bed. I can't fight with you while you're lying there naked, and…never mind. Just get up!"
The man in the bed raised an eyebrow, "I am up. That's why I want you to come back to bed."
"David, we can't solve this with sex, and I'm not backing down. What happened to 'let's get going?'"
Swinging his legs off the bed, David reached for the merc and sank his nails into RJ's neck. Pulling RJ forward until their foreheads touched, he said, "I know. But I can't risk losing us both, and we don't know what's going on out there."
RJ pulled away, his anger flaring. "You're very careless with your own life. Do you ever think about those of us who live for you? The ones who count on you, look up to you, and rely on your guidance."
"I never asked for any of this, RJ."
"That's a fucking cop-out, and you know it." RJ's anger turned to a lump in his throat and trembling hands when he realized David had placed him in the 'any of this' category. The words that lived in the corner of his heart where nothing good ever happened to Robert Joseph MacCready poured out before he could stop them. "Everyone knows your tragic story, home, wife, kid. You never expected to wind up in bed with a man, either. A man with bad teeth and so many axes to grind on some days doesn't know how to take a breath."
David tried to place his hands on RJ's shoulders, but he shrugged him away. "RJ, stop. Going to Nuka World alone is one thing, but you're overreacting..."
"…I'll get out of your way. 'Cause I'm sure as fuck not gonna watch you kill yourself." RJ laughed, and David winced at the hollow sound. "It'll be worse than that, won't it? I'll never know if you're dead or alive. Or find your body." RJ stuffed his feet into boots and shrugged on his duster. Overreacting? No, that's not it. No, this was gut-boiling fear. David proved that he could survive whatever the Commonwealth threw his way. He'd survived too much of his brand of terror and more loss than any three people. "Wait. That's it, isn't it?" RJ dropped on the bed and scrubbed his hand through his hair.
"What? RJ, I'll be back in a few days. I thought we understood each other. So much here needs watching over, and you're the only one I trust."
"You want to die!" RJ shouted loud enough to push David back a step. "You've talked yourself into some bullshit fairy story where if you die, you'll be with Nora again. Know what? Never mind. But let me say this one more time, 'cause I don't want to say it to a headstone or your mangled body. I love you, David, and I'm here with you. Right here. Remember that when you head off into the sunset to play out your romantic death scene."
"RJ, wait." David swallowed hard and moved to stop him. The door rocked on its rusted hinges when RJ fled the small wooden house. David blinked hot tears away as he watched RJ march down the road in the general direction of Goodneighbor. He knew RJ would go straight to the Third Rail. When he returned, that's where he'd find him. David dressed, gathered his gear, and secured his weapons. Then he stepped into his power armor and headed west into the storm.