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gabriellerudessa · 14 days

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Compass (Norm Maclean x OC) - Part XXX

“Hey.” She stopped beside him, hand on his back and shoulder, and kissed his temple. “Oh, Andrea is walking you through their map of the Mojave. Good.”

“Yes. She also showed me a local map and I noted down the best path from here to the ranch.”

He would ask later if everything was fine. If they had time. His Pip-Boy’s clock indicated it was already nine p.m. God the time had flown and there was so much he hadn’t told her and he needed to before they went separate paths.

For some hours he thought he had more time.

PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE

Word Count: 6.007

Warnings: Feelings. Lots of feelings

XXX

Ed unhooked his own oil lamp from his belt as they got out, lightening it up as they moved towards the garden. Berta let out another pitiful sound of hunger as Ed put the lamp on the ground, close to the fence.

“Hey, Berta.” Marigold smiled at the Brahmin and approached, offering the palm of her hand for both heads to smell, scratching behind one ear.

Focusing on the animal and its antics searching for food and pets, instead of on the just gained knowledge that Lucy was going to the Mojave and all of its implications, otherwise she would crumble.

Ed opened one bag by the fence, taking out cut pieces of maize and offering one to each head at intervals, both in silence as they took care of Berta.

“You’re in love.” Ed suddenly said and Marigold winced.

“That obvious?”

“You’re my sister. You’re using the lipstick I gave you. You were never in love before. And I’m pretty sure he can be categorized as hobbit-sized and you and Mika were always talking about hobbits since you read The Lord of the Rings. So yeah. Very obvious.”

Marigold remained in silence, slowly moving around the Brahmin, mindlessly taking out the bugs and parasites trying to hitch a ride on Berta, squashing them, ignoring the burning of unshed tears.

“Mari-Mari-”

“What do you want me to say, Ed?” she cut him, quietly.

“You haven’t told him, have you?”

The sound of Berta chewing loud in the night, she stopped and looked at Ed. It was hard to say what face Ed was making, with the oil lamp behind him, and she guessed it was clear to him how her eyes looked.

Fuck. She was tired of having to keep herself from crying.

“Why would I? He’s going after his sister.”

“Have you tried to convince him to go to the ranch?”

“No and it would be hypocritical if I did.”

“Marigold-”

“Don’t you ‘Marigold’ me. Would you try and keep Willow from going back to her tribe if they were in trouble? Would you try and talk Andrea down to helping her flock if they needed? Would they talk you down from coming home if there was trouble?”

Ed remained in silence for long minutes, just the sound of Berta chewing. She still couldn’t see his face.

“So there’s more than just finding his sister. Do you know what?”

“Yeah and I’m not telling you. Those are his secrets to tell, not mine.” Marigold couldn’t see what expression he did, but Ed nodded.

“Thought about going with him?”

Marigold laughed, and it tasted of despair.

“I have to return to the ranch, Ed. I have responsibilities.” The word tasted like ash on her tongue, like it never had before.

A beat of silence and she went back to cleaning Berta, a loud sigh echoing in the night.

“So you kept him from one of your traps. What then?”

Marigold sighed. Why was Ed insisting on it?

“Took him home, Regina told Ma about the shot out and that a Vaultie girl was in it. We had things to sell to Ma June, so we both went. He asked about the Vaultie, Ma June told she sent her towards the Observatory and about the attack on it, and that’s it. We both started towards here.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake… You’re an idiot, Mari-Mari.”

She looked again at him, a self-deprecating smile in her face. Not her usual expression, but fitting.

“Tell me something new, Ed.”

“He met Ma. And I’ll pay you fifty caps if you tell me that she didn’t scheme in some way for you two to travel together, at least.”

“Well-” She couldn’t even finish trying to defend herself that yes, he was absolutely right, Ma had schemed, but still-

“I fucking knew it. How much you bet that Ma is already telling everyone she has a new son-in-law? Fuck, the twins are probably calling him uncle too.”

“That’s a little too much-”

“How Ma talks about Giselle?”

Giselle, caravan guard that Mika was making moon-eyes at and Ma was determined to have the two married by next year and yes absolutely called daughter-in-law when she wasn’t close.

“Motherfucker.” She blinked at the night air. “I hate when you’re right.”

“I’m your brother, I’ll always be right when you’re being an idiot.” She could feel her unimpressed face as she heard him chuckle, and if Berta wasn’t in the middle she would’ve tried to kick him. It always shut up his chuckles fast.

“All righty, all righty. Ma schemed. So what? It doesn’t void the rest.”

“Mari-Mari, sweet bane of my existence…” Sweet bane of my existence. That was how she knew they were good and it was all just worry from his side. “You appear without him, being in love, Ma will kick you out and say you can only come back if he’s with you.”

“She wouldn’t.”

“How do you think I finally talked with Andrea and Willow after chickening out four fucking times?”

Marigold blinked, snickered, and started laughing, leaning her back on Berta.

“Four times?!”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, that’s your future if you don’t grow your… I don’t know, your ovaries.” He said, but she could hear him chuckling.

She laughed harder.

“Oh my God, Ed, that was awful.”

“I know.” There was the sound of steps and his hand touched her shoulder and she made herself stop laughing so she could look at him. The light hit him just enough that she could see his small, fond smile. “You really should talk with him. And go together, if he won’t come with you now, the Mojave is dangerous.”

“My responsibilities-”

He knocked on her forehead with a knuckle, lightly, grinning.

“Earth to Mari-Mari. Think, dumbass. Catarina and Sarah are at the ranch by now, if everything is fine. Ma won’t let me or Willow or Andrea even think of travelling farther than the Observatory until the kid is at least three years old, you remember how she was with the twins and Lily and Moth.” She blinked, mouth opening, but he kept talking. “Between the five of us, I think we can share your responsibilities easily while you’re away for God knows how long.”

Marigold blinked again, and the burn of tears started to spill out without her consent. She pressed closed fists against her eyes, tight enough to make weird stars and lines burst behind her eyelids.

Fuck.

How… She was so. Fucking. Stupid. Right in front of her. Right in front of her.

The sound of steps again, and Ed was pulling her into a hug, not trying to make her lower her hands, leaning his head against her cheek, hands stroking her upper back.

“You’re right, I’m an idiot.” She managed to mumble, the wet feeling against her skin uncomfortable.

Fuck, Norm had really turned her into a crier. Not even on her period she was like that.

“Nah… You weren’t expecting us earlier. And you’re really bad at thinking about yourself first.”

“What?”

“It’s the fucking truth, Mari-Mari. You always put the family and the ranch first, a lot of times instead of you.” He sighed, hands stopping but hug tighter. “Try and think about yourself a bit? Please?”

“… I’ll try…” Marigold managed, voice small, feeling a teenage again and crying on Catarina’s lap over some stupid thing she couldn’t remember the following day.

“That’s the Mari-Mari sweet bane of my existence I know and love.”

She chuckled, tears slowing, swallowing away the tightness in her throat.

“… What if he doesn’t return my feelings?”

“You can cry on my shoulder, as long as we don’t tell Willow. We don’t want some Root-Curse on poor Norm.”

Marigold chuckled again, slowly lowering her hands, the faint light of the oil lamp hurting her eyes, and tapped his shoulder. Ed let go a moment later, and she tried to clean the trail of tears away.

“And… Really, Mari-Mari. I saw how he looks at you, how he relaxed with you close. The man is an idiot if he’s not at least considering it.”

“… And you still acted like that?” She raised an eyebrow and managed a weak grin, and Ed just shrugged.

“He’s clearly determined to go after his sister…” She noticed him biting his lip. “I didn’t intend to mention any Vaultie.” Marigold frowned.

“But Willow didn’t catch this and talked about it.” He nodded and she crossed her arms. “You were really willing to keep this a secret? You don’t even know why exactly he’s searching his sister.”

“But if he didn’t know, he could go to the ranch. And then you wouldn’t be brokenhearted.”

Fucking fuckty fuck it all. Ed sometimes was too protective.

“I’m glad Willow mentioned it then, because he really needs to talk with his sister.” She sighed and rubbed her face.

“Is it really so important that you were willing to just let him go?”

“I can’t dictate his priorities, the same way he didn’t try to dictate mine.”

“What do you mean?”

“We talked about this, about going separate ways and my duties in the ranch, Ed. He knew nothing of the Wasteland when we did, and not even once Norm tried to beg me to stay and go with him no matter where his sister may be. Fuck, there were moments where we were investigating clues about her and he clearly said that it wasn’t my responsibility to go with him, no matter the danger.”

Ed opened and closed his mouth, and something in him looked chastened. Good.

“… Does he know what Black Widow means?”

“Are you trying to find a reason to be annoyed with him?” She raised an eyebrow and Ed shrugged.

“You know each other for less than a month and he’s already taking you away for God knows how long, I want to be sure he won’t be a dipshit to you.”

For fuck’s sake.

“I can deal with dipshits myself. But yeah, he knows, had to talk about it after the Nip-Nip’s disaster. And before you ask, he was a fucking sweetheart about it all, Ed my dearly detested.” She pulled her annoying nickname for him just to make sure he knew she wasn’t pissed at him – not too much, at least – and uncrossed her arms.

In retrospect, she should’ve noticed her heart was in trouble that night. Not that she would’ve done anything different, but oh well…

“You promise he wasn’t weird or whatever, Mari-Mari?”

“He hugged me. He was angered on behalf of me and how some assumed I enjoy it. He was sorry it was something I needed to do to see my family again. How do you categorize it?”

Ed pressed his lips in a line for one moment then sighed, small smile in place, shaking his head and turning to the bag with Berta’s food.

“All right, I’ll take your word. But punch him if he gets weird.” She rolled her eyes and resisted the temptation to kick him. “C’mon, after this I better make sure I give your birthday present before you leave.” He closed the bag and raised his oil lamp, grinning.

“There’s still five months, Ed.”

“But I don’t know when you’ll come back and I really think you’ll like this.” He started walking, and Marigold just scratched Berta one last time before following.

---------

The maps were old, the edges fraying, but still full of notes and marks, latitudes and longitudes remarked along the years. The first, he immediately noticed, was of the region they were in, previously Los Angeles, nowadays “the Boneyard”, accordingly to Andrea. She started pointing the road Long 15, how to reach it from their location, and the safe settlements and inns along it; the road was dotted with them, which was a relief, considering how empty the Boneyard was.

Swallowing, he made himself ask the best path towards the Bear ranch; no way would he take too long to reach it once back.

As he added the important landmarks’ coordinates in his Pip-Boy’s map and watched Andrea’s explanation, three things became clear: first, the Agency was more to the west than Marigold though and they hadn’t needed to circle so much; second, Marigold and he had done one of the worst paths possible and they were lucky to have arrived at all; and third, he was pretty sure he found the coordinates from the Bounty paper, to the east of the Agency. He bet it was close to those God-forsaken bear traps.

Andrea thankfully was gracious in not mentioning how bad the path was as he mentioned the places they had passed through, just context and information to some of them, and dutifully marking the coordinates for Vault 4 in her map.

“This is one of the biggest places you’ll cross. Not a settlement, a city. I don’t know how many inhabitants now, but it’s in the thousands. The Hub. There’s a lot there and it’s easy to get lost. I don’t recommend spending too much time in it, unless you have evidence that your sister is in it. Keep to the Long 15 and, if you need to sleep in it, go for the Salty Men, it’s in the road and we know the owners, Gustav and Nicholas. They’re trustful, drop our name and you won’t have trouble with them.”

Not a relief anymore about the settlements. Thousands of people? And not blown up like Shady Sands? He was so fucked.

Before she started on the other map, she pointed where they had met Lucy and The Ghoul, a narrow and short pass in some close mountains around the Boneyard.

“It’s around one week and a half since we met them, but we travelled slow, with a Brahmin full of cargo and a pregnant woman. We needed to go slower and then circle the mountain to reach here, using a longer but more stable path.” Andrea traced the path they had done first, then the one he and Marigold had used. “With this one here, you’ll reach the place in three, four days. The last inn we stayed in the Long 15 had a radio and there was talk of radstorm in some parts of it, so there’s also the possibility of it delaying them. They may also have stopped in The Hub for supplies, it would be dumb of them to not do it with such an old ghoul. It won’t be easy, but alone you’re able to travel light and keep a faster pace than a caravan. If you’re lucky, you must be able to reach your sister at the Mountain Pass into the Mojave, maybe before… Supposing they kept to the Long 15. I recommend you ask at any settlement you pass, just to be sure.”

Her reassurance about how they, Ed, Willow and Andrea, were slower, made him sigh in relief. Not impossible, Norm. Not impossible.

The second map, the Mojave Wasteland, was messier in a way, and Andrea had a lot to tell about it. She started with safe settlements and places with NCR; she warned he best tread carefully in them, since they would probably have heard about the Observatory when he reached them.

Then Andrea talked about places he better stay away. The ones that stuck to him were everything east of the Hoover Dam, where one could find fragmented groups of legionnaires, not as unified as when under Caesar, but still dangerous. Norm needed some seconds to remember what Marigold had taught about the Legion, and he immediately got Andrea’s warning. West of New Vegas, where one still could find pockets of Fiends, which Andrea explained was a dangerous gang that had started to branch off towards the Boneyard but still remained mostly in the Mojave. And finally a place southeast called “Searchlight”, bathed in radiation because of the Legion some decades earlier.

“If you end up on the Mojave and need to cross or pass close by to any of these places, try to find a native of the Mojave to guide you.” Norm nodded, eyebrows frowning and finishing inputting another coordinate.

“What are these… I don’t know, sun with planets?” there was one of those markings at the Boneyard, and four in the Mojave, one close to Searchlight.

“That’s an Atom. And those are places where I was able to start the Church of Atom. Most of the members have a marking like this or similar interpretations.” She pointed the tattoo around her eye. “If you need to talk with one, drop a ‘Confessor Andrea Bear told me about the Church’ and they should treat you fairly.”

He blinked, looked at the map’s marking and again at her and the tattoo.

“So… You really worship the atom, as in one of the smaller parts of matter?”

Andrea smiled and shrugged.

“That’s a way to put it. It’s more related to the concept of Atom’s Division, and Atom as the force and divinity behind the creation of multiple universes through it. Radiation is the manifestation of his Light upon the world. If you really want to know, I can preach in details all about it.” Andrea raised an eyebrow and grinned.

What.

“I… Think I’m okay with that definition.” He squinted at the map. “You said you started it…”

“In the Mojave and the Boneyard, yes. I brought it from the east coast with my parents a little more than a decade ago.”

He opened his mouth to ask – “east coast? Is it even possible to still do this travel?” –, but the metal door opened and Ed and Marigold came inside, and while both seemed relaxed and smiling and she pushed his shoulder in a move he recognized as “sibling annoyance”, Norm still noticed that she had cried, eyes just red and bloated enough to warn him about it.

“Hey.” She stopped beside him, hand on his back and shoulder, and kissed his temple. “Oh, Andrea is walking you through their map of the Mojave. Good.”

“Yes. She also showed me a local map and I noted down the best path from here to the ranch.”

For some hours he thought he had more time.

“You’re going to the ranch, Norm? When?” He heard Ed’s voice, a brief look showing the man was messing with his own bags.

“After I find my sister and solve everything. I promised to Marigold… Unless that’s a problem?”

“No, no… Mari-Mari, come here.” Ed called, something in his voice sounding like amusement, already walking towards the other room.

Marigold squeezed Norm’s shoulder with a smile and went, and he looked back at the map. Andrea tapped a place in the north of it with a finger, the old name “Las Vegas” crossed out, “New Vegas” written under it.

“Finally, New Vegas. I don’t think you’ll reach it, but if you do, your best bet is to make friends with the Kings and the Followers of the Apocalypse in Freeside, they can easily get you up to speed on local events and help you out. The Kings may ask something in exchange, but the Followers won’t, it’s their whole thing.”

“And the Strip was dark when we were returning, remember, pumpkin?”

Willow came up the stairs, carrying Marigold’s books, and Thaddeus came behind, pouting, in jeans and flannel checked shirt, and carrying a giant pile of clothes.

“Yeah, but it must’ve been just some problem on the power distribution.” Andrea shrugged, folding the maps and nodding for Thaddeus to put the clothes above it. He did so with a huff and Norm raised an eyebrow towards him, pointing at the fabric. Thaddeus just shrugged.

“I hope so, there’s a lot of people there. Mari-Mari, you found all of these books?!” Willow let them on the counter and turned back to the clothes.

---------

“Yeah, in a place we had to take shelter from a radstorm last week!” Marigold called at hearing Willow’s voice, immobile with arms extended as Ed made last adjustments to his birthday gift to her.

Some kind of formal shirt, the type of thing she only ever heard about, deep crimson with delicate silver buttons, the fabric soft, hugging her body in a way that no clothes of her did, the collar high but leaving her neck exposed.

“Oh, they’re earlier in the season, Atom must be pleased! And you’re very advanced in the third book!”

Willow called back as Marigold looked at the long sleeves, their fabric sheer, red and billowing along her limbs, and Ed made sure the buttons in the wrists were firm. It was effectively one of the prettiest things she now owned and she didn’t understood how Ed always found these types of things or where he expected her to use… But she also hadn’t known much about where to use the lipstick and there she was, using it every day, leaving marks on Norm and clearly getting his attention.

Better not to admit that aloud, Ed would become insufferable.

But she was curious to see how it would go with the red skirt she had found.

“I’ve been reading aloud for her.” She heard Norm’s voice, and Ed stopped, looking at her with a grin and raised eyebrows.

“You’re worried about nothing, sweet bane of my existence.” He whispered and she aimed a kick at his shin.

Ed sidestepped and kept on making sure the shirt fit her, that annoying grin still in place.

“Sweetheart…” Andrea’s voice, loud enough to reach her.

“What, pumpkin?” Willow sing-sang and there was a sighing sound. Marigold could just imagine what face Willow had made at Norm’s admission about reading.

“Don’t.”

“Spoilsport.” There was no heat behind Willow’s voice.

---------

In the end Willow had sorted the clothes for Thaddeus – which she had already metaphorically wrestled into “you’re coming with us” logic, which explained his pouting –, for Norm, arguing that the Mojave sun was merciless and he needed both spares and lighter layers to protect his skin, and for Marigold, because “I can’t believe you have been using the same things the last weeks, that’s not healthy, Mari-Mari”.

A brief discussion about sleeping arrangements resulted in Willow and Ed sharing the double bed in the cave, Andrea in the lower bunk bed, a disgruntled Thaddeus in the upper one, and he and Marigold in the sofas.

Thaddeus was faking sleep and Willow had already retired, saying “her feet were grumbling about the day”, while Ed talked in low tones with Andrea in the kitchen. Marigold threw her blanket in one of the sofas – one with clear view to the arched door, he noticed – and turned to him.

“Hey, Norm-boy. Can… Can we talk?” She whispered, head nodding towards the metal door, hunting rifle slung over one shoulder, oil lamp in one hand, already lit.

Damn it. Damn it. That was it, and he wasn’t ready.

He dry-swallowed and nodded, trying to not let the slight burning of tears in his eyes bother him. He followed her and unlocked the door, feeling Ed and Andrea’s eyes on them.

They let the door slightly open and sat in the sand under the porch, sides pressing against each other, oil lamp in front of them, and Norm let himself watch the night sky and its multitude of stars, dry-swallowing again, not knowing how exactly to start, wondering if the stars would watch his heart break.

---------

She breathed deeply, watching his face upturned towards the night sky, noticing how his eye glimmered, a rock in her stomach at noticing it was because of unshed tears. Marigold swallowed and forced her hand to move despite her fears, holding his. She felt herself relax a bit with how he intertwined their fingers immediately, tightly.

“Are you okay, Marigold?” He asked before she could finish gathering her courage. “Earlier, it seemed as if you had cried…”

Oh. She squeezed his hand, and he looked at her, eyebrows frowning.

“I am, Norm-boy, thanks. Was just… Talking with Ed and things got intense.” Norm kept looking at her, nodding briefly. “This is… About what we talked, actually.”

It was his time to squeeze her hand, and if anything she risked saying he seemed more troubled than before.

“What… What did you talk about?”

That was it, Marigold. Just say it and try and grab your happiness.

“I… I can come with you towards the Mojave, if you’ll welcome me. Help you find Lucy and everything else.” Keep him alive, keep him close.

Norm’s frown melted and he blinked, and she easily recognized his shock and surprise.

“But… The ranch, your family…”

“That’s what I was talking with Ed. They will definitely need to stay home for the kid’s first years, Ma wouldn’t let them leave. And with Catarina and Sarah… There’s enough people to cover my duties.” She stroked his hand with her thumb, throat tight.

“If… If you’re sure… Then yes. I would like that.” A small smile pulled up the corners of his lips, and her heart stuttered at the way his eyes glimmered, something in them making her think of pure, unfiltered joy.

“I am. And…”

She swallowed, the other words she wanted and needed to say seeming stuck, her heart so fast it seemed it was going to get out through her mouth. Fuck Marigold, you’re plenty talkative with sex, grow your fucking balls. Or ovaries. Whatever the fuck you need to fucking talk, for fuck’s sake.

Norm leaned his head to the side, still watching her, still that smile, the warm light of the oil lamp giving his eyes a soft look as he waited her to keep going; they didn’t look watery anymore.

Marigold opened her mouth… And the fucking words wouldn’t come out, fear clogging her throat.

Fuck it.

She leaned down and kissed him, hard, something in it feeling like despair, and her free hand reached out to cup his face, thumb stroking his cheek. Norm leaned up, answering in a slower, soothing kiss, and she felt the moment he pulled slightly at her braid.

“… And I love you, Norm.” She mumbled the words against his lips, eyes tightly closed, ignoring and cursing how once the fuck again they burned with tears, even as she felt him freeze.

---------

“And I love you, Norm”.

It was so much better hearing it in person instead of in a dream, his heart beating not only fast, but hard, his ribcage seeming to shake under its strength.

Norm swallowed his shock, letting out a trembling breath. He wasn’t all alone in his feelings. He didn’t need to wait until he was back and in the ranch to discover if they had a chance. Thank God. Thank God.

“…I love you too, Marigold.”

He said, pulling tighter her braid, leaning harder into the kiss and licking her lower lip. She opened her mouth against his, their tongues meeting, the kiss slow and gentle and tender, in a way that hadn’t been before. A slight salty taste got mixed and he retreated.

Norm frowned and let go of her hair to instead cup her face, thumb cleaning the tears. The warm light threw her face in harsh shadows and lights, but still her eyes glimmered.

“Marigold?”

“… I’m not dreaming, am I?”

She whispered, voice fragile, and he swallowed, stroking her cheek, the look in her eyes a familiar one, just like when he had treated her normally after her explanation about the Black Widow thing, how she had said “Better stay casual” with a shrug. It was painful to see it again after how she had just declared herself.

All that, love, a relationship, even if they weren’t detailing it all yet, things she had crossed off from her life, never believing she would find someone with the needed courage and respect for her.

A bunch of idiots, letting her escape between their fingers – oh, now he was getting her indignation at how no woman from the Vault had tried to change his single status.

“This is real, Marigold.” He pecked her lips. “I love you.”

He kissed her again, and again, and again, whispering the words in between each kiss, the pecks becoming harder, longer, nipping on her lips. He wanted to imprint his feelings on her, reach out inside her chest and wrap it around her heart, so she wouldn’t ever have that doubt again.

She started returning the kisses, lips moving in a slightly desperate way, and he coaxed tranquility and calm from her, her grip on his hand painful. More wetness reached his hand, salt mixed in. He kept his eyes closed.

“I’m not going anywhere, Beautiful.” He mumbled against her lips, changing his angle a bit, and she laughed, short, but laughed, the sound beautiful as it echoed in the night air, her lips smiling against his, and he felt her arm against his relax.

“You have been waiting to use that, haven’t you?”

“A bit.” He grinned into her next kiss, her hand moving and playing with the hair in his nape. “… When did you know?” He asked, nose sliding softly against hers, her thumb stroking his hairline.

“When you read for me, that first night. Enjoying The Lord of the Rings was never… So effortless.” Marigold kissed him, slow and sweet, and his heart fluttered.

“Damn.” It escaped and he chuckled, warmth rising through his neck. “You know the funny thing, Marigold?”

“What?”

“I was never much for reading…” And oh, how he could see Lucy giving him crap about it the moment she discovered… “But I wanted to help you. And then I just wanted you to keep looking at me like you did that night.”

“How I was looking, Norm-boy?”

“With the most focus anyone has ever looked at me, actually seeing me, Norm, not the Overseer’s son or whatever.” He swallowed. “As if I had hung the stars and moon in the sky.”

Norm sighed into her, licking her lip, pulling her into another open mouthed kiss, languid and slow. His hand moved to her nape, feeling her heartbeat in her neck against his hand, as fast as his own.

---------

Marigold retreated and managed to scrounge a grin, pulling slightly on his hair.

“How could I not look at you? Handsome, smart, cute, respectful…”

“Small and not too talkative and easy to disregard…” He chuckled against her, thumb stroking her skin, the teasing clear, and she chuckled too.

“That seems like a bonus. I won’t have to fight too much to keep people from trying to steal you.” She retorted the teasing right back and he actually laughed.

“Believe me, I only have eyes for you, Beautiful.” He was grinning against her. Her heartbeat stuttered at the words, and Marigold retreated enough to open her eyes and look at him.

Norm had the gall to try and look innocent.

“Do you intend to use all of my lines back on me?”

“Well, I was told you’re one of the best at teasing and flirting…” He grinned, pulling her back down, pecking her lips as she resisted the will to chuckle.

“Well, you got that righty.” She pecked his lips back, sighing, the softness of his hair on her fingers grounding. “… And you, Norm-boy? When did you know?”

A moment of silence, Norm just breathing, lips sliding against hers.

“The morning after we first kissed… Just…” A sweet kiss. “We were cuddling and even while asleep… You pulled me closer. Trusting, despite… Everything.”

Marigold opened her eyes again, watching him, his eyes soft and moving across her face, a small smile in his lips, the thumb stroking her skin, and she squeezed his hand. Norm returned it immediately. Not a single moment his eyes dropped down.

“… You look at me as if I’m just human and still precious.”

She spoke after what seemed an eternity, and his eyes were watery as he pressed a sweet kiss to her lips.

“… I know how human you are and I’m terrified for your life.” She noticed his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I… I was half relieved when your brother arrived, because it meant you would travel back with company and through a safer path.”

Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

She kissed him hard and fast.

“Well, we’re even on that because I’m also terrified for your life.” Another kiss, his grip on her hand painful. “I’m fucking relieved I’m going together with you.”

“Oh.” He managed before she was kissing him again. It was almost as if he was shocked she was also worried about him.

---------

He loved her too.

Her brain couldn’t stop repeating the words, the moment, how he had looked at her after the shock – soft, gentle – and soothed her fears and everything else after.

Fuck, she had really reverted into a lovesick teenager.

Not that there was any other possible reaction after all that.

After that, there was no way they were sleeping separated, and sure, it wasn’t the most comfortable, her blanket folded under her neck as a pillow and his covering them, a good portion of her legs dangling above the armrest… But Norm was sleeping soundly with most of his body above her, arm and leg slung over her while she hugged him with one arm, his deep breaths against her neck a comfort she hoped to never lose.

Her other arm reached up out so her fingers could slide against his hair, her eyes to the dark ceiling. Sleep seemed far away from her, even with the sounds around: Norm’s steady breath, the ex-Brotherhood deep and loud snores…

Andrea’s too deliberate breathing.

“I know you’re awake, Dea.” The fake sleep breathing turned into a chuckle as Marigold whispered. “You and Ed were snooping behind the door, weren’t you?”

“He was worried.” Of course he was. “And I was curious.”

Marigold shook her head slightly.

“Curiosity sated?”

A low hum.

“Yes. He surprised me.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to surprise you.” It was her turn to chuckle.

“When you needed reassurance… He gave it, in a way that show he understands you. And his admission at not enjoying reading, but still doing it for you…” there was a brief pause and another low chuckle. “I’m happy for you, Mari-Mari. The two of you see each other and fit together. Now try to sleep.”

“On it, Dea.” Marigold turned her head and it was enough to feel his hair tickling her nose.

She breathed him in, and focused on the sandy smell.

He loved her too.

---------

Something awoke him and he blearily opened his eyes. Thaddeus, desperately lightening an oil lamp and walking towards the kitchen with a gait that he easily recognized as “someone desperately needing to relief themselves”, the sound of the door opening echoing one moment later.

Marigold still breathed deeply under him, her arm tight around him, and he smiled, burrowing deeper into it with a happy sigh, finding her shoulder and kissing it lightly.

They loved each other.

Norm hadn’t dreamt of this being a possibility in the Vault, finding someone he actually loved and that loved him back, hadn’t even tried. When he reached the surface, if seemed even less possible, even less of a worry. But it had happened, and he didn’t regret it.

What it would mean for them in the long run – dating, how he would fit with her family, how Lucy would fit and react, everything –, he still didn’t know, but he could tell he was enthusiastic to discover it all, as long as it was beside Marigold.

Hu.

Take that, Vault Council, he managed to think before slipping back into sleep.

#norm maclean #norm maclean x oc #fallout prime #fallout series #fallout #just to say #it will be 35 chapters total #I was editing the 32 and had to break it into 2 chapters because it was too big

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