#gotta get our favourite bit grumbleguts in there

[its-a-humanriot]

ooo for the drabble list... maybe 73--"You do have a stupid face."? XD

fvkgdfjy ahh thank you kindly for the ask! I have to say that was one of my favourites off the list 😁 I got a little bit carried away with this so it’s a bit more than drabble length...

prompt list here

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“Butch, would you settle down? I can’t clean this if you keep twitching like that.”

“Well maybe I would stop twitching if ya stop poking me! That stuff stings.”

Butch flinches away from the cloth in Billie’s hand, and she sighs. The cut on his jaw apparently originated from a broken glass in the brawl that had happened in the Muddy Rudder, and while she likes the establishment well enough she does not feel confident enough in Belle’s dishwashing to feel she can forgo disinfectant.

“Don’t be a baby, it’s just antiseptic. I wouldn’t have to use it if you hadn’t gotten yourself into a fight.” 

She didn’t really know it had happened either – they had just been enjoying a drink in the bar and Sister had started mouthing off in the background, and next thing she knew fists were flying and Charon was having to pull a bleeding Butch off Sister by the collar. Butch didn’t even have the excuse of drunkenness as he’d only been halfway through a single beer before everything kicked off.

“That guy was knocking our gang, Bills!”

“He was extremely drunk, and the worst thing he said to you as far as I heard was that you ‘had a stupid face’. You came up with more offensive things to say to me at age ten.”

A snort comes from behind them. Charon, who had been cleaning his shotgun in silence in the corner of their room at the Weatherly, raises his eyes to meet Butch’s as the young barber glares at him.

“You got something to say too, big guy?”

The ghoul’s face remains impassive as he holds Butch’s stare, but Billie sees the slightest quiver at the corner of his lip.

“Sister wasn’t wrong in that aspect at least.”

Billie tries – unsuccessfully - to control her own grin even as she holds Butch down in his chair while he tries to leap up and face Charon himself. Extending her leg, she shoves Charon’s knee playfully with her foot, and he snorts again.

“I thought you were supposed to be the adult here?” Laughing, she pushes him again. “Go on, go walk Dogmeat or something and let me work in peace without antagonising my patient.”

“Physical violence invalidates the contract.” The twitch in his lip has turned to the barest hint of a smile that gives away his amusement.

“Yeah, yeah. Go on, shoo.”

Charon does leave with Dogmeat in tow but not before ruffling her hair as he goes, and she blows an errant curl out of her eyes before turning back to her unruly patient. Butch is, for want of a better word, pouting.

“Are you going to let me clean that now?”

Butch huffs but complies, and Billie gets back to disinfecting the wound with little interruption other than the odd wince.

“Now are you gonna tell me what Sister actually said that got you all revved up? I’ve said ten worse things to you since breakfast, and I don’t catch you trying to break my face.”

Butch huffs again.

“Yeah, but that’s you, and I figure you get some for free cause of all the shit I did to you when we were kids.” He twitches again as she dabs at his jaw, but doesn’t meet her eye. “You get to talk shit about me and I get to talk shit about you, but some weirdo running his mouth doesn’t get to say nothin’ to me about a fellow Tunnel Snake.”

Oh. Her hand stills. This is about me. Billie had let slip to Butch once that she disliked being the wasteland’s new celebrity. Three Dog may have meant well, but now everywhere she went all eyes were on her and judging her without even knowing her, and sometimes it made her feel like shutting herself in her house and never coming out again. 

Even when she was a kid so many people in the vault had looked at her different because she was a wastelander’s kid without her even knowing the reason, everyone had expected her to become a doctor because she was Doctor Morgan’s kid. She found it less of a burden now, but the weight of other people’s perceptions weighed heavy on her.

She’d never had anyone fighting for her honour like that before.

Butch is still pointedly avoiding looking at her and her hand is hovering conspicuously in midair, so she drops it. The wound was cleaned well enough anyway. Instead she picks up a stimpak and gently injects a little of the solution at the edge of the cut. Butch hisses at the unexpected pain of the needle, and finally looks back at her.

“Ow! Was that necessary?”

Before her eyes the new skin starts to form over the cut. It was a bit of an unnecessary use of a stimpak, but she can’t bring herself to feel bad about it.

“Facial wounds get infected pretty easily, it’s better to get them healed over. You didn’t wanna have a scar there, right?” She hopes the deflection is enough to cover her terrible lying, and takes Butch’s chin between her thumb and forefinger to better examine his face. The new pink skin on Butch’s defined jaw has now covered the open flesh completely – by the morning it will look like nothing ever happened. It looks so delicate, and she gets a sudden urge to trace it with a finger before she gets a hold of herself. “All done.”

Butch seems to snap out of whatever stupor he was in and looks away as she lets go of his jaw. With a muttered ‘thanks’ he gets to his feet as she finishes packing away her med kit and pulls his jacket back on. As he opens the door out of the room, her mouth starts speaking again seemingly without her permission.

“For the record –” she says, placing the med kit back in her pack by the door, and Butch’s big blue eyes look surprised as he looks back over his shoulder at her “- it’s a pretty nice face, actually.”

Butch looks stunned for a brief moment before recovering himself with a sly smile.

“Aw Bills, if you wanted to get a closer look all ya gotta do is ask.” He cocks a eyebrow, and Billie can feel her ears burning red.

“It’s still a stupid face!” She blurts and pushes him by the face over the threshold, taking some comfort that his staggering to recover himself wipes the cocky grin off his face. “Goodnight!”

Face burning, she slams the door shut.