#Johan x Valentina | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

charomiami · 7 years ago

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Part 5 Continuation of Confession co-written with @helloaschefire who started with Farewell.

Thank you, Ash for giving me such a good platform.

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

SUPER LONG STORY POST! And I’m not sorry. I am just happy we were able to get this done before Christmas. Y’all... I had a meltdown over my own deadline. and @helloaschefire put up with me... she’s spectacular. BUT DONE DONE DONE YAY!

A dream of home, the family cabin in the alps, slowly faded while the rhythmic chopping of wood grew louder. Valentina wasn’t sure if her head was what was actually being split open or actual fallen trees. The pillow she tried so desperately to shove against both ears was worthless. (continued below the cut)

But then it came to her. 1) Angel was supposed to be gone today. 2) Even if Angel had stayed, Angel wouldn’t be chopping wood knowing Val was sleeping. As painful as it was she patted around looking for her gun, a gun, any gun and found none to be within reach. As she flung her limbs to wrap the blankets around her, she realized she was dressed. Valentina knew that if Angel were around, she would not be clothed.

Slowly she crept to the camper’s back window and peeked out to where the sounds, sunlight, and the vision of Johan’s bareback came pouring in. A short bit later, and two cups of coffee in hand, she braved the hangover and opened the camper’s back door.

Johan looked up with an expression hard to read thanks to the goggles he wore to protect his eyes, but there is a smile beneath them, brief but true. He leaned the axe against the pile and wiped his brow with the back of his bare arm. "She lives."

"Barely, but..." she was going to ask what that means, did he see her knocked out? Was she snoring? Was she drooling? Oh gods, please no sleep talking! She pleaded with herself.

"What are you doing?" She took the trailer steps carefully until bare feet hit the cool autumn ground. Her arm stretched out to present a cup of coffee just for him.

He reached for the cup, fingers brushed against Val’s. "I am chopping wood."

"I can...see that" She waited a moment keep the silly girl inside in check at his touch. Her cheeks felt hot but she was hungover so she hoped she just woke up that way.

"But, why? And why here?" Hair fell into her eyes as she sipped her coffee. She didn’t bother to fix her bed head as she watched him. Dog and Cupid sped by, chasing a rabbit. "I am sure Angel appreciates you cutting firewood for her, but..."

"She needed woodcut." He shrugged before taking a sip of the coffee. "Dad always said, you stay a place, you take care of it."

The smirk growing on her face faded as she started to blink. She was about to say something clever but his words robbed her of wit and blew the fog from her mind.

"Stay at a place, but you don't..." You don't stay here, did you stay here, what you don't stay here. None of these made it past her lips. "I don't understand."

He unbuckled the goggles. As they pulled free, their presence lingered in the indentations around his eyes. He grabbed his shirt off the wood box by the trailer. "It's all right. You're still full of fog. Let's go back inside."

She still had no clue or maybe she did and she didn't want to admit it. The truth was scarier than any dream.

He held the door for her, squinting at Dog who yawned in response before cavorting with Cupid once again. The pair would keep an eye on the place while Jo and Val were distracted with each other.

She took as big a drink of her coffee as the temperature would allow and slowly turned to go back inside. As she crossed the threshold she caught her reflection and knew she needed to get right, inside and outside. Shamelessly she stopped in front of the mirror but made enough room to let him get by.

She at least had the decency to apologize, "I'm sorry, I look awful." She whipped her hair up into an old ballet bun that had been second nature for most of her life. "But a shower will have to wait I suppose." she half mumbled to herself.

"I don't think you've ever looked awful." Ducking, bobbing and weaving his way through the tiny space to the kitchenette. He would get her to a shower once she was awake enough to pay attention to their surroundings. "You want something to eat? Tato? Mutfruit? I think there are some beans."

She did a double take in his direction, as discreetly as she could anyway, with fingers pushing up loose strands and trying to wipe bits of makeup she left on. She was again about to say something but he beat her to the punch with an offer for breakfast?

She peeked around the little corner cut off, "You really don't have to but, I am hungry to be honest. Angel keeps some breakfast things in the cubby." Right where he was at. "There. But you have to let me help. You already did too much this morning."

She tried to secretly sniff her shirt collar and could smell she'd been sitting next to someone smoking those cheap cigarettes last night. The gag face was there and thankfully Johan could NOT see that!

While he was in the other area she quickly pulled off her shirt from the night before and was happily grabbing something clean she kept around Angel's for spares.

His shirt was draped over one shoulder. The goggles and coffee cup set aside on the counter. He found the cubby and the breakfast things. Cakes and bread, and butter? Score. "I don't mind. I used to do this for No..." He turned around just in time to see a bareback.

She pulled the shirt over and tightened her bun one more time before turning around and seeing Jo, in a domestic kinda setting with his shirt. She bit her lip and smirked, a mental slap given and received before she tried to slink by him. He couldn't feel her eyes on his chest could he?! She gave herself another slap. Why god why? why do you do this I'm a good girl.

She grinned her best grin at Johan trying to play cool. She didn't hear him about to say Nora, nope nope. Lordy, Nora was a lucky girl. Yes, she heard it and it didn't bother her at all.

"You sure? You don't want help? I mean you've never been here," she offered. Her headache was growing smaller and smaller.

"It's a big place. I will need your help not to get lost," he joked and gave her another smile that brightened his face and was suddenly gone. He laid out things for her to eat. "Sit. You're not feeling well."

She hadn't seen him smile, well a true smile, this many times in such a short span. Why did she love it so much? She sat down the chair on the other side of the table that would allow her to face him. She watched him as he kept putting things in front of her.

"I... feel better but" yes it was still there, but she was distracted enough to forget until she moved or looked a certain way. "Please, you will join me, raring, won't you? Don't forget to eat since you were working so hard. I can restock her stores later."

"Please?" She felt bad as it was, she put extra pout into that please to make sure he ate something for her.

"All right," he agreed. He poured more coffee before settling down opposite. Just the two of them. Again. The place was just as crowded as Home Plate but cozier. He felt more relaxed than he had in months.

Valentina tried to focus on her breakfast and coffee instead of him. It was torture. She started talking about breakfast they would have back home when she was little. She missed those days. She never told anyone a lick about home. Her mother, her sister, her father. Those moments. But they were just as out there as the fruit on the plate for Jo. She actually laughed telling him a story about her sister laughing milk out her nose, as she picked at the best parts of a mutfruit.

She liked the way he looked in the halo of sunlight coming in from the camper's cheesy bubble dome skylight. Why did he have to be so...

"Oh your coffee ..." She went to pick up the kettle thinking she'd been going on and on and it was time to stop.

He enjoyed hearing her stories of home more than she might ever know. He'd been homesick ever since he woke up and chatting with the Good Neighbor ghouls only went so far. They'd been changed by the war. Horribly so and their memories were fading. His and Valentina's were right there, on the surface. Every day they spent in this future became a comparison of what they left behind. It was unhealthy. They both needed to look forward, but here in this place. "It's all right. I've had enough." He reached for her hand, to keep her there. To hold her hand.

"Oh, okay." She was stopped in her tracks by such a simple motion. She forgot all about the kettle, all about home, all about everything but his hand on hers. She couldn't take her eyes away. She was scared to look up at him, to look him in the eyes, but she did.

"Johan," she was also scared to ask him what she should have asked him from the beginning. Even though he kind of dodged her question in the most charming way. What is going on? Are you okay? Why are you really here? is everything okay?

"How did you know to come up here this morning?" She laced her fingers in his, just this once before he would pull them away. How do you explain a touch that starts at the tip of a finger but touches your heart? She was going to suffer for this later and she knew it. She didn't care.

The thought of pulling away was as distant as their pasts. Their fingers in knots than laces. He took a deep breath and squeezed. He would not let her go. "I've been here since yesterday before you got here."

"Yesterday?" She didn't blink her amber eyes this time, instead, they grew slowly wider and wider. She was now a deer in the headlights. Before you got here. She started to put pieces together. She tried to withdraw her hand but it wouldn't budge.

Why the door was open to the camper

Why she smelled his scent in her dream.

Why she was still dressed instead of her usual.

Why he knew she wasn't well.

He heard it all? No no, she wouldn't cry. She said that was over. But the embarrassment was long-lasting. She put her head in her free hand and confessed, "I'm so sorry Jo. You weren't supposed to..."

"I know. Angel wouldn't let me leave. I'm sorry." He relaxed his grip enough that she could pull free if she wanted. He hoped and wished and prayed so hard she wouldn't untangle their fingers. "and then, it wasn't right to leave you like that, alone." He paused, brows furrowed because this was hard. He was taught not to be so expressive. Be the rock. Be her rock. But how could he if she did not want him to know how she felt?

She wished Angel would have stayed out of it, but it was still her own damn fault. Valentina didn't move her fingers. Instead, without looking, she ran her thumb slowly over his knuckle.

"I just didn't think it was fair with everything going on and, then you and Piper and I got the wrong idea. But then at .." she looked up... "Was that a safe house or a warehouse?"

The question came out of left field and made him blink and look up from what she was doing with her thumb. "What? Oh, a little of both. I used it for a while when I was still tracking Kellogg, but now, seemed better used by the Minutemen."

Her humor was trying to kick in as a secondary. She nodded thinking about his answer. His expression made the tiniest of grins appear in the corner of her lips and in her eyes.

"Well, General." she shrugged softly. "What else can I do. You know my secret now. You have me at a very big disadvantage." She knew it wasn't too big. He was still holding her hand, and he had smiled. She could still feel his arm about her even if it was so brief a moment. He hid her for safety not out of fear. But now what? Did he know how close she was to daring him to kiss her or worse?

"I've known for a while, but I couldn't do anything about it. I...wanted to do something. I did. I should never have been with Piper,” he said.

"Awww... wait," Just how many aces does this man have up his sleeve? "What do you mean, you've known a while?"

This would be the last ace. All the cards laid on the table. "Did I ever tell you that my grandmother came from Stockholm, raring?" He would likely take a hit for this ace. He braced for it, turning his head so he could watch her from the corner of his eye.

She did pull her hand away. She pulled her whole body away from the table though briefly. She moved around to his side of the table and rabbit punched him right in the shoulder in a torrent of words and phrases she was SURE he understood now. Each comparing him to a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"How, why you didn't tell me?" She jumped on his lap and punched his shoulder once more! "You let me make a fool out of myself, and you...." now there was a full-blown pout of all time and she would stay there with a hot glare until he had an answer.

“If I told you, you would have stopped. Right?”

“Well, yes. But...”

“But,” he cut her off gently. “Hearing that made this whole terrible world somehow, better.”

Each word from Johan’s mouth knocked down the last bricks in the wall Valentina had built, and all the words she never wanted to say came right out. It must have shown in her eyes as Johan’s hands rose up and cupped Valentina’s face drawing it closer to his.

“I’ve loved you for so long, Jo.”

“I’ve loved you even longer.”

Time seemed to freeze for Valentina, hearing Johan’s words. She fell to him and his lips with a kiss she’d held back for an eternity. He didn't hesitate and never would again. Warm mouths, soft caress of their lips, it was finally the moment they once only imagined.

Thank you YAY They are OFFICIAL now! YAY I am so happy! I’ll do a headcanon bullet-pointy thing for them later. I am slammed today with a commission and real life.

MY BALLERINA HAS HER GINGER GENERAL!

#long post #my fallout ocs #fallout oc development #storytelling #valentina x johan #helloaschefire #valstory

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