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acapelladitty · 2 months

Text

make ourselves like clay (from someone else's dream)

Pairing: Cooper Howard/Lucy Maclean

Summary: Lucy discovers an old movie poster in a decrepit bar and happens to notice something 'interesting' about the main actor (AKA Lucy discovers Cooper's past as a film star). (2.9k words)

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Link to AO3

As far as negotiations went, Cooper had been more than reasonable, given the circumstances, as he attempted to exchange some caps for the chem he needed. Hell, he was even offering a fair enough price as his stash ran low and the constant irritation of having to source new shit pressed at his attentions like a tick burrowing under his skin.

"It's a good deal, boys, and I ain't some fucking housewife who's gonna forget the value of a thing just because some handsome fellas like yourselves are talking to her."

"Listen, mutant-"

"Oh, I listen much better when we're all being respectful now." Cooper interrupted, his voice airy in a very dangerous way. "My associate and I are being nothing but gracious in these here talks."

Having quickly learned it was better to shut up when Cooper was leading a deal, Lucy instead focused on the second dealer as he pulled his attention from the ghoul to focus on her instead.

Since entering, his attention hadn't ever strayed too far from her; flitting beyween her face and her chest as he stared her out. It was repulsive and, given her recent troubles, the focus made her skin itch with discomfort as ghostly memories of harsh hands washed over her.

"Hey!" The dealer spoke to her, voice low and conversational but still loud enough for the other parties to hear him clearly enough. Reaching across the table, he flashed a smile in Lucy's direction as he reached for her arm with a grime-ridden hand. "Just so you know, whatever the mutant here is paying you for a fuck, I'll pay double, and you can enjoy the feeling of a real man agai-"

A sharp scream cut the dealers words off in his throat as a flash of movement saw Cooper introducing the heft of his knife into the back of his approaching hand, pinning the offending limb to the rickety wooden table as only an inch of the blade stood free of his patchy skin.

Chaos reigned for only a few precious seconds as the lead dealer pulled his own weapon free of his pocket - the small, rusted pistol not a patch on the enhanced gun which Cooper was pointing back at his head, accuracy unmistakable as his fingers held still and didn't falter in the slightest.

His hand mauled and bleeding profusely as scarlet dripped freely to the floor, the offending dealer appeared to almost be in shock as his screams died to quick-fire profanities and sharp gasps.

"You fuck! Danny, he fucking stabbed me! Look- look at this shit! My fucking hand, man. Ain't no stimpacks here to fix this, Dan!"

Hand never leaving the hilt of his knife, Cooper tutted out his disapproval as he twisted the blade slightly to draw a fresh cry from his pinned prey.

"The way I see it," Cooper spoke calmly over the screams as his attention never strayed from the leader he were standing off with, "you can tell your man to apologise to the lady or I'll twist this knife until his hand is so mangled even the mutts won't want it. Then I'll cut what's left of his fingers off and shove them down his fucking throat."

Dan, the leader, took the open threat in stride as he held up his palms in a vaguely placating way, a smile not covering the panic in his eyes.

"Okay folks, let's not let things get out of hand. If you let him go, I'll agree to the terms and give you what you want."

Satisfied with that, Cooper pulled the knife free with a raised browbone as he passed it off to Lucy - allowing her to hold the bloodstained blade while his other hand extended out to receive his much needed chem.

"See that, vaultie." Clicking his tongue against his teeth as the vials were gently placed into his palm, Cooper tilted his head enough to the side to catch Lucy's eye. "That's how we deal with dumb fucking manners up here."

More desensitised to the violence than she would like to admit, Lucy rolled her eyes at him as a secret pleasure blossomed in her gut that he had been so quick to defend her. Since their run-in with the human traffickers, his attitude hadn't shifted much - staying as dry and unforgiving as ever - but she had noticed a slight improvement in his rougher edges when it came to any physical touch between them as his hands were noticably more gentle.

And by more gentle, she meant that if he needed her to move he would pull her sharply rather than his previous choice which felt more akin to trying to rip her arm out of its socket. But, improvement was improvement and she respected that by playing her part in moments like this.

He never spoke about the incident, never asked any follow up questions, but the violence he had enacted towards the other half of the traffickers as they descended on their small camp had frightened her as much as it pleased that hateful voice inside her that wanted them to suffer.

She got her wish, that much was clear, and whatever guilt she would have felt was swept away as they later stumbled on the corpses of the 'product' they weren't able to shift. Rotting corpses, some with their hair still intact, all piled nude in a makeshift grave a short walk away from their camp.

Cooper hadn't commented, aside from a slight downturn of his lips, and Lucy was too busy retching off to the side to notice anything else.

That's how we deal with dumb fucking manners up here.

Because of course it was.

x-x-x-x-x

Deal concluded, exploring what remained of the little abandoned town was the last port of call before Cooper demanded that they both moved forward with their goals. The dealers, having slunk off on their merry way, didn't seem to pay them any more mind and Lucy was thankful for it as she entered the swing doors of a building, immediately seeing a bar-like setup.

"Hello?"

Allowing the word to float across the room and recieve no answer, Lucy quickly stepped inside and started looking around. Dust covered almost everything, spreading a thick mat of filth across the various bits of broken furniture, and her mouth settled into a line as she headed straight for the bar. Looking below the shelves, broken bottles littered the wood, the alcohol and liquids within having long since gone rotted or evaporated away so she ignored them for now.

Glancing at the floor, a shattered poster lay, half-tucked beneath a snapped floorboard and her fingers snatched it up out of sheer curiosity. Blowing a plume of dust free, she cleaned what remained with the sharp point of her elbow.

It was a movie poster, framed and practically preserved. The top half almost spotless - the lower half was torn away, the shattered glass having allowed it to weather with time and take any information about the image with it. Looking at the upper part in more detail, it showed a man sitting atop a bale of hay and Lucy peered closely at it.

A tan cowboy hat sat across his head, tilting up towards the sun in the background as a pistol hung lazily between the actors fingers. The words "High Noon Rodeo" were the only pieces of writing visible and they blazed across the top of the poster in a curled red font. A cowboy film. One that she hadn't heard of or seen before, not that the limited showings of old movies that her vault showed as entertainment gave her any kind of general understanding, but she knew well enough to know it was a cowboy film.

Eyes falling to the main actor again, Lucy hummed quietly as she brought the poster closer to her face. He was handsome, that was for sure. Dark hair spilled from a proud forehead, and while his expression was very serious and foreboding, there was an intenseness to his gaze that enthralled her. The clothing was fitted and muted, the colours matching the dusky background well, but her attention kept slipping back to the man's face - a tickle of something familiar knocking at her thoughts.

"Whatcha got there, vaultie?"

Startling with a yelp, Lucy whirled in place to find that Cooper had snuck up on her; his impressive size apparently not that difficult to conceal as he slithered around like a cobra, ready to strike.

"Movie poster." She answered with a smile, excited to share her findings. "Look." She held the poster up between them, careful to splay her fingers to avoid the worst of the shattered glass.

Cooper may have been good as hiding his feelings, but he wasn't completely immune to the odd slip, and surprise widened his eyes and slackened his mouth before his brain caught up with him and he settled his features into a familiar scowl.

"And?" He asked, tone short and irritated. "What good is that shit to us? Came to find you in a bar and I was hoping you were gonna show me a bottle of something I could throw down my throat. Fucking useless bit of tat you have there."

Crestfallen at the sudden aggression in his attitude, Lucy thrust the picture closer towards him as she silently entreated him to look again.

"He's handsome."

A hot discomfort trailed across Cooper's skin as Lucy unwittingly appraised him, a familiar feeling of the world being a giant practical joke on him settling across his shoulders while he rocked on his heels.

"Like I give a fuck about that, but sure, in a way. They don't make 'em like that anymore."

"Have you seen this before? I know you've been around since the bombs went off and you know more about this stuff than I do." Excited, Lucy couldn't hold back her enthusiasm as her wide eyes and batting eyelashes did everything they could to entice him into spilling some knowledge of which she was utterly ignorant. "C'mon, please?"

With an annoyed growl, Cooper met her gaze with his own, holding her eye to show her just how serious he was as he exhaled slowly, as though speaking to someone with mush for brains.

"Put that shit down."

Stupidly brave as ever, Lucy held his eye but Cooper was quick to realise his mistake in allowing her to do so as her brow furrowed for a moment before dropping to the poster and then back to him.

A horrible feeling of realisation trickling down his spine, Cooper visibly flinched as a pitched cry slipped free of Lucy's lips and her hands raised the framed poster so it sat by his face.

"Oh my goodness!" Blinking rapidly as her body seemed to vibrate with her discovery, Lucy grinned. "Holy moly! It's you! This is you! Cooper! The eyes are the same."

An intrusive thought pushed its way into Cooper's considerations as his minds eye conjured up images of just knocking her flat out with the butt of his pistol and leaving her to awaken. When out, he could hide the poster and do his best to convince her that the radiation was finally getting to her head. But, knowing Lucy Maclean, that dipshit brain of hers wouldn't let it go, even under trauma.

"Quite the insightful little vaultie." He countered with an unpleasant smile. "Where's all these brains been hiding at?"

"What was it like?" Still positively thrumming with joy, Lucy couldn't sense the danger in the air as she continued on. "I've seen pictures of the old days, before the war, and it all looked so pretty and bright. You were a movie star! Wow! And so handsome."

Babbling, Cooper waited for her to finish before catching her chin between his thumb and forefinger. The touch steadied her, stalling her words as those big eyes rounded on him.

"It was a miserable fucking experience." He offered, voice so low and intimate that Lucy visibly held her breath to make sure she didn't miss a word. "Nothing but shit and lies. Traitors ready to stab you in the back at the first chance, their knives always out and ready to take another shot as you got back up to your knees. Nothing but a flock of circle jerkers ready to fuck you over at the first get."

The delight in her expression dimming with every passing word, Lucy's eyes grew - if possible - even rounder as she held her ground and let him speak.

"You think this life is bad, sweetheart? You still got so much to learn and I aint a teacher."

His mind lost to the echoes of a previous life, one filled with pain and betrayal - the moments of joy soured by what was to come as he lost everything from his career to his family - it wasn't until Lucy whimpered that he realised just how tightly he was gripping her chin.

Releasing her without apology, Cooper took the poster from her hands and dropped it to the floor; taking great satisfaction in the sound of smashing glass as the last few shards splintered off and skittered across the floor like insects. He turned from her then, a heat in his chest making him angry with himself as he feared he had said too much, and he started to storm off, ready to leave this shithole of a town behind.

"I'm sorry." Her apology were soft, the words carrying despite how small her voice sounded, and he turned to face her once more.

Standing amongst the debris, Cooper felt his irritation spike once more as he took in the sight of her. Even just holding her ground there, her clothing stained and as grimy as his own, she shone like a beacon - her goddamn naive innocence making her stand out from the shit and decay that had rotted and engulfed everything else it touched.

He had been cruel to her. That innocence, amusing at it was upon first meeting, made her a prime candidate for being torn to shreds by the new world she had entered. So necessity had dictated that he be cruel, using her for his own gain as he antagonised her with a sick curiosity; a wicked desire to see just how far the vaultie could be pushed before she either broke under the pressure or adapted to survive.

She was a lost cause until she snapped his finger off with her teeth. There he saw it. That little spark of steel that would see her do what she needed to survive. If she hadn't inadvertently fucked his entire supply of drugs, then he might even have been tempted to keep her for longer until something more pressing came along.

But no, he had sold her and he didn't regret it.

Not even when he lay in his stupor and watched as she dropped the vials of chem by his side, keeping as true to her golden rule as he did to his own.

Lucy Maclean.

A vaultie who wasn't afraid to rip a man's tongue out with her teeth or split his throat when necessity asked for it.

And here she was, apologising for asking him a few questions, the guilt on her face making the small voice within him that still criticised his more monstrous actions feel like shit for grabbing her so roughly.

The Ghoul would treat a woman like that, Cooper Howard, not so much.

"Sorry for what? Asking some questions?" He tilted his head at her, regarding her once more before continuing to leave. "Save apologies for the things that matter, sweetie." He shouted over his shoulder.

Allowing him a slight headstart as her mind whirled with what the hell had just happened, Lucy pushed down the guilt she felt at how badly he had reacted to being reminded of his former life. She hadn't thought about it. About how painful it must be to have something nice and then end up...well, end up like him.

Dropping to one knee, she carefully pulled the poster free of the now-fully shattered frame. Her finger were dexterous as they ripped the paper, a ragged line tearing across the poster until all that remained was the image of the cowboy.

Cooper.

Lucy folded the paper carefully and slipped it within her pocket, a wicked sense of naughtiness making her smile as she kept her little secret away from her grumpy companion.

Maybe one day she'd ask him more about it.

Especially since, despite the mutations and the attitude that was utterly grim, she could still see the lingering handsomeness in his face. The missing nose was easily looked past and his face, as pitted and marked as the rugged landscape which held true on every nearby horizon, still held much of the same shape.

And the eyes.

She'd asked him for sex once, hasn't asked since, and one of the leading factors in that choice had been his eyes - the intensity of them having left her a shuddering mess on more than once occasion as she found herself pinned by his glance alone.

Staring at the exit which Cooper had recently vacated through, Lucy attempted to shove the thoughts from her mind as she made a quick start to scarper after him - not trusting the ghoul to wait for her for too long.

Links to the rest of the series:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

#hes a little bastard but man am i fond #fallout #lucy maclean #cooper howard #ghoulcy #ghoucy #vaultghoul #cooper x lucy #ghoul x lucy #cooper howard x lucy maclean #fallout 2024 fic #cooper howard fic #lucy maclean fic #ella purnell #walton goggins

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