abstracts | the tower.

the tower.

It started in Novac, in that lovely Dino Dee-Lite Motel by the dilapidated gas station.

He had told her they could be found in the upper corner room, living the Post-War American dream. If not there, they had others: cabins, bunkers, safehouses, and the like. He gave her all the map points, confident in their future whereabouts. And above all, he was certain they would never be in the New Vegas, beneath the bright lights of the Strip.

The motel room had been empty. The Brotherhood safehouse and the cabin by Jacobstown also held no occupants. After traveling nearly the entire width of the Mojave Wasteland, moving from town to fucking town, she finally caught a whiff of him in Freeside.

The crier for Mick & Ralph's had seen a man matching Alex Seattle Geer's description lately, headed directly into the heavily guarded gates of the New Vegas Strip.

Judas, Sarah had thought. Blood betrayer. She then walked the road back to the Dino Dee-Lite Motel, to that cozy little upper room in the corner, and left Alex a very nice surprise.

Three days later, after finding the presidential suite of the Tops woefully empty, Sarah corners a man in the streets. Their exchange proves short, and with his pockets noticeably heavier, the guy walks the short distance to the center of the road. There, with the Vault Dweller looking on, he straightens to attention and produces a piece of paper from his pockets.

"Ladies and gentleman of New Vegas, may I have your attention please?" he reads, voice clear to the nearby bystanders and vigilant Securitrons. "It is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you a Very Important Person--" The man looks over his shoulder briefly, a quizzical look on his face. "Why is it capitalized?" he asks.

"Go on," she mouths, waving lazily at the gathering crowd.

He shrugs and continues as directed. "Someone who has traveled a great distance and sacrificed a good deal of time, bullets, and money to be here with you fine folks. She is the Champion of the Holy Thirteen, the Swan Song of the Master and His Most Unholy Unity, the Keeper of All Your Dogs, a Sometimes Friend to You and I... I present to you: The Vault Dweller!"

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Alex kneels in front of him, and it's just so goddamn hard. So utterly impossible to resist slipping into the guy's arms when Alex reaches for Neil. Alex loves Neil, yes, but Neil also loves Alex.

The younger man lifts his arms to curl around Alex's torso, holding tightly. "Sorry," he mutters, for the first time sounding broken as he feels.

You've got nothing to apologize for and It's okay are both lies, because Alex knows that Neil is blaming himself for leaving the dog to die alone, and it's really not okay, not in any way that matters. Alex hears ED-E's sad beeping, but right now is giving himself to Neil.

The kid clings on, and Alex holds him. "...It'll be okay. I'm going to be right here."

If this was anything else Alex asked him to do, ED-E would loudly demand a thank you, but Neil is so sad and it's making ED-E sadder, so he hovers a bit away, coasting closer to Sarah. You don't want a hug, too?

Child hugs child while the last child feels a little left out. Poor kids. All three of them, so fucking gay. It makes her sad and glad and awful somewhere in that heartless chest of hers.

Sarah fizzles out of stealth, her lips frowning beneath the plague doctor mask. "'Course I do, ED-E," she replies, stepping close beside the eyebot. "Boys, you've got miles of arms between the two of you. Make it a threesome."

Poor choice of words, but eh.

It's pathetic hanging onto Alex like this, feeling fucked up and like utter crap, and besides, Neil remembers. He was geared up to hug ED-E as a mourner might another, as a sad friend might another, before all of this. It'll be okay. Of course. I'm going to be right here. He wouldn't want it any other way.

But ED-E deserves what was promised. Deserves affection and gratitude for his care and understanding. Hearing that sad beeping has the man looking up at Alex, ready to tell him to wait a moment--

When for a second time today, Neil has a fucking heart attack.

The Holy Mother Vault Dweller appears out of freakin' nowhere (the static hinting at the cause being a Stealth Boy), saying the exact thing he's about to suggest. Neil stiffens in Alex's arms, cursing loudly.

To which Sarah merely says, "Hi, dearest."

Neil has a second heart attack, and Alex moves to sit, dragging Neil into his lap. "I brought mommy," he comments. "She finally came to visit."

Alex looks to ED-E who is hovers halfway between the pair and woman. Alex smiles. "Good job, kiddo."

The three talk and ED-E feels more like he's home. They are missing one person, and if for that, they would be a few states to the east, sitting around a campfire nursing bruises and laughing. He murmurs sorrow, then realizes Alex is talking to him.

Smiles genuinely and praising him. I tried, he explains.

"You did great," Alex replies.

'Mommy' smiles beneath her mask, eyes crinkling at the trio. Alex pulls Neil into his lap like his lover is also his bouncing baby boy and praises ED-E. Good, good.

"Came at the best time," she replies, "or the worst. It's all about that perspective."

'Mommy' says hi. Almost on automatic, Neil says, "Hey, Sarah."

He thinks to respond further by calling to Dogmeat, but timing's a mess. So is his head. Alex shifts Neil into his lap, and the latter attempts to smile at great-grandma. He mostly succeeds.

His words, however, lock on the topic of ED-E. "He was the best caretaker a guy could ask for," Neil confirms, signaling the eyebot to come closer. When ED-E complies halfway, still out of arm's reach, the man waves him over again. Until the kid's right there.

Then Neil reaches to hold him, as promised. As he, Neil Park, wanted.

The man in his lap reaches to hold his eyebot child without embarrassment, and Alex wonders for the first time what happened in the days they were together. Alex reaches to pat the top of ED-E's chassis, then wraps both arms around Neil's torso, marveling at how they always fit together.

And planning to grumble about the signs of weight loss. Later, though. Now isn't the time. "Always the best time with you," he says to Sarah.

ED-E returns to the pair when Neil waves, first with distance and then closer to the sitting men. When Neil reaches to him, he doesn't quite understand, and it's only when his arms close around the metal sphere of his body that ED-E comprehends. Alex is here, but Neil is still reaching to hug him.

He gives a quiet trill of surprise, resisting the urge to jolt away. He burbles confusion and affection, and when Alex reaches to pat him, ED-E thinks he understands.

It's family. And family is there for each other.

He lowers more, making it easier to reach.

Neil smiles like his dog got shot, and it's some kind of hell knowing how much of that is pretty spot on. Sarah inhales slowly in the warm confines of her mask, eyes taking in the tragic conglomerate of men and bot. This mismatched family minus one.

"All about perspective," she repeats.

They'd been close before, but it was never like this. They've exchanged kindness and concern, but there's nothing quite like holding your child's bestie when your child's dead and gone. It strikes Neil, straight to his damaged core, that the four of them have been family for all this time. That it took one of them dying alone for the realization to truly sink in is--

Neil keeps his hands steady, giving the ED-E enough room to separate at his leisure. Alex closes over his torso after patting the eyebot, allowing the younger man to breathe. Furthermore, ED-E buzzes closer, which prompts a small smile from Neil.

"See? You can totally hug back," he says hoarsely.

...From Neil's words, that had been the argument in progress, and it makes Alex wonder now, if ED-E wouldn't like a few further upgrades. Because he's never thought about it really; him being unable to touch.

Alex stays wrapped around Neil, but lays his cheek against the back of his head, staring at Sarah. "Well, then. Come make it a little better."

Join the group of sad mismatched family on a hill in the middle of the afternoon near Goodsprings. Why not.

To Neil, ED-E makes a shy series of beeps, quick and fast, and basically reiterating that he's not hugging back.

Alex is talking to Sarah again, and ED-E sees his arms around Neil, inches from ED-E, and he thinks this is how they should always be. This is how they should be if there was a dog at Neil's knee, head resting on his thigh.

Come make it a little better, Alex had said, and ED-E wonders how. How do we start to make it better?

The woman flutters her eyelashes at Alex's reply, as though he could see the movement beneath the mask. Without fanfare, she steps forward to kneel beside the trio and snakes her slender arms around Neil, sleeves brushing against Alex's arms. It makes her look like the fourth to a weird-ass orgy, but no one is honestly considering such things. Right.

She presses the mask against Neil's shoulder, nuzzling fiercely. Where Alex restrains himself from commenting, Sarah does not. "You're so skinny," she murmurs, reminiscent of a typical Asian mother. "Baby, you need to eat before you become stick-like and unattractive."

ED-E insists otherwise, and Neil runs a gentle hand across the smooth chassis. "In spirit," he clarifies, ignoring that they're continuing a conversation with two other people.

One of those very people even decide to do her overbearing mommy thing and comment on his figure. For any other, Neil would have stared outright. For Sarah Marks, he flusters, attempting and failing to hold to calm. "I only lost ten pounds," he returns, indignant.

Sarah comes over, and something in ED-E is pleased at that. At her comment though, ED-E wiggles in Neil's hands, rushing to defend.

I've been feeding him, he squawks, trilling into a beep. It's only been one day and a half. He'll gain it with the calories I've been providing.

He ignores Alex's laugh, indignant.

Sarah cuddles, and Alex fights the brief pang of jealously, replacing it with being able to share--his boyfriend and his mommy. She points out the weight loss, and Neil points out just how much, making Alex give a displeased sound.

ED-E however, rushes to defend Neil, which is new, and is adamant enough to make Alex chuckle. "Just what have you been feeding him?"

Ten pounds is ten pounds too many, but a defensive and caring eyebot somewhat makes up for the lack. Sarah peers over Neil's shoulder at ED-E, the sound of smirking in her voice. "Yeah, what?" she echoes.

The question is a trap. Neil had agreed some years ago to lay off irradiated crap from Pre-War America. Crap he's been shoveling into his mouth for the past day and a half, all to appease a worried eyebot. After ED-E rushed to his defense, which is new, how could the man not do the same?

"Stuff we found around Goodsprings," he replies evenly. "And the mutfruit I originally brought with."

The amused humans make him irritated, and he buzzes out of Neil's grasp to scoldingly burble at Alex. Alex holds up his hands in front of Neil, looking contrite.

ED-E buzzes, then returns to the conversation, listing off a bunch of pre-war foods.

ED-E is on edge and irritated at their attempt at keeping it light, and Alex realizes that ED-E is being defensive of Neil actively, not just because Alex told him to watch him. So he raises his hands, apologizing in that way, and when ED-E lists off food that was likely irradiated, Alex doesn't make any face at all.

Just returns his hands where they were, cuddling around Neil. "Yeah, I figured something like that. At least you were eating."

A-dor-able! Really. She could just barf from the show of genuine care and abject irritation, and as Alex offers his apologies and they return to their exchange, Sarah simply smiles, smiles, smiles.

Let them have this conversation. Let her listen for now.

...So ED-E goes off on Alex, which has Neil staring outright. Has him blushing lightly, a detail he cannot adequately begin to explain why. Finally, when Alex holds up his hands in apology and returns them to Neil, the younger man thinks to add his thoughts to the list of food.

"It was kinda nice eating Dandy Boy Apples again," he says. "Reminded me of old times." Better days.

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