the story in which Alex Seattle Geer is right for hating enclosed spaces,

[doubletap]

and Neil Park is blamed for his knowledge of vaults.

---

Terminal Entries:

1st Floor, Vault Entry-Room Computer:
- Data Entry 1: Year 20XX, Month XX; There's no escape.
- Holotape Entry 1: Y#4@ SDhig^8705 H98 [data corrupted]; This is hell and I want out of it.

1st Floor, Cafeteria Luncheon:
- Holotape Entry 2: Private Recording; I've had better?

1st Floor, Cafeteria Supply Room:
- Inventory List: Inventory List; A list of food....
- Data Entry 2: Shift Notes; Maybe I should tear the walls down.

1st Floor, Broken Cave:
- Data Entry 3: Preparations; Everything's fine.
- Data Entry 4: Near the End; I'll tell you the truth, but I won't give up my soul.
- Data Entry 5: Finally, the End is at Hand.; This is far enough.

1st Floor, Office:
- Data Entry 6: Vault-Wide Public Service Announcement; Get back to work everyone.
- Data Entry 7: Locked Administrative Reply; You're reaching for straws.

1st Floor, Administrative Secretary's Office:
- Data Entry 8: Drama Hoes; It is sort of funny that people aren't able to lie, though.
- Holotape Entry 3: Bill Self-Log; Byron's access still works everywhere.

Comments

Some time later...

[doubletap]

They stay like that. Close and entwined, and honestly, not saying a word. It's personal, and intimate, and far more powerful than Alex could have guessed. Their hands move, but to nowhere sexual--just for touch, for contact. There's nothing lustful in this embrace, but Alex thinks this is the best thing they have done. Eventually he opens his mouth to say just that, in the midst of nuzzling the side of Neil's face. Instead--

"--Shit, ow, ow, ow!" He rolls to the side off of Neil, to flop on his side leg outstretched. His hands press into a muscle spasm. "Cramp, fuck."

Probably shouldn't have stayed straddling that whole time.

[goodfight]

It is quiet. They are locked in an embrace that's unlike the norm, a step beyond their usual affair with the physical, and it is quiet in the confines of his brain. Neil thinks he would much rather this--warmth, contact, and an absence of words. Rather all this than the rest of existence.

At least, until Alex starts with the ow's. When the man rolls off, Neil becomes startled. His dark eyes widen in alarm, and he moves to question and perhaps correct the scenario--

Then breathes out in a groan, thoroughly disappointed by the anticlimactic development. "Geez," he says, hands reaching to Alex's leg, to the affected area. All with the intention of massaging out the affliction, of course. "Let me have your leg."

[doubletap]

He whimpers without dignity or manliness, allowing Neil to do what he would.

[goodfight]

One leg gained, Neil proceeds to carefully knead the hard muscles. "Probably should have had you shift," he speaks lightly, lips holding a ghost of a smile. "Straddling's harder than it looks."

[doubletap]

Here's a difference. The "you would know" normal response passes through his brain easily, but Alex, just as easily, pushes it aside. Jokes were the norm, and this was decidedly not. And Alex wanted to keep it this way. For now at least. Just for now.

Neil works out the cramp in his leg without being asked, and Alex's face heats pleasantly. Watches Neil, and that slight smile. This kindness. "I love you," he says, from nearly nowhere. "I think I love you more than anything in my life."

[goodfight]

Here is Neil, minding another's leg. He's being quite thorough, as the next few words entirely escape his hearing.

Until they catch up to him with a vengeance, causing Neil to nearly drop the limb in his hands. "You--" The man swallows, his tongue catching. "You what?"

[doubletap]

And Alex smiles at him genuinely. Thinks that he would have said what he did in this situation even without the forced truth. He stretches out an arm, lightly touches the hand touching him. "I think you heard me," he says gently.

"I love you. More than anything."

[goodfight]

Is Alex serious? Yes, they currently lack the ability to lie, but that qualifier-- That smile. These are aspects that could make or break everything. Everything to Neil, at least.

He watches the other for a long minute, absorbing the roughness of Alex's fingers. His expression wavers between two extremes--something of hope, something of despair.

"Didn't think you'd be the type," he confesses. "To love one over others."

[doubletap]

His eyebrows raise. "Didn't think I'm into monogamy, then? I didn't think I came off as a polygamist at all. More of a hedonist, really," he continues with a grin.

Which drops a second later. "Seriously? You didn't think I would focus on one person?"

[goodfight]

There's a quiet that overcomes Neil Park, whose countenance reads as stilted and unnatural.

"I wasn't thinking of just...people, actually," he says, stumbling over the words. Neil removes one hand from Alex's leg to cover his mouth in embarrassment. "Or, ugh, romance. There are things you love. Places. Life, I guess."

[doubletap]

Oh. That makes more sense. There are different levels--values, really--and he opens his mouth to say just that--

"I think you're becoming my life, though. You're the aspect that gives me hope at least. And the courage to actually try my hardest to fix the things I can, and do what's right."

...Or... Or that, maybe. Alex flushes brightly, a color not yet seen. He averts his gaze.

[goodfight]

Becoming another's life, giving hope and courage to that other-- These are truths that should lessen the load hanging overhead. Instead, they threatened to squeeze his chest to bursting.

Neil turns, prying his eyes away from the pleasant sight of Alex blushing. "...It's hard to get why I'm such a great guy to you," he mutters. "Feel like I'm going to fuck that up somehow."

[doubletap]

"It's not... not about you being a great person or being held to these amazing standards," he murmurs, still a little off balance. "People--friends, family, whatever--they're good for you if they make you want to better yourself and the world around you. It's how they affect you as a person, not just they as themselves."

He glances up, the look almost shy. "...Make sense?"

[goodfight]

Ah. Phrased like that, the explanation has that ever-present ring of truth to it. Vault or no vault.

"Yeah, it does," Neil replies, practically thinking aloud. "Good relationships basically make you want to thrive. Think Dad was that for me. Once upon a time."

He coughs at the slip before glance back to the other man. "You really don't have anyone else who affects you like that?"

[doubletap]

"Friends or not," Alex starts, a small quiet smile on his lips. "Do you think I'm the type to get close to people?"

[goodfight]

Point taken. "No, but I have thought that someone would mean that much to you. Someone not me."

[doubletap]

And here Alex grins. There is strain around his eyes, but the smile is genuine. "ED-E?"

[goodfight]

The relief on Neil's face is nearly palpable. "Oh, geez," he mutters. "I'm dumb. How did I just forget your kid?"

[doubletap]

"My one and only," he gives in a happy tone. "Though I gotta ask why you seem so comforted by that?"

[goodfight]

He blinks, taken aback by the question. "Well," Neil begins carefully, "because you should have more decent folks in your life. The whole 'bearing the entire Mojave thing' would probably feel less lonely that way."

[doubletap]

...He blinks.

"...You're comforted by there being good people there to support me?"

[goodfight]

No, no. Neil's not turning beet-red. He doesn't even know what beets are.

"...Yeah," he admits with a mutter.

[doubletap]

Alex exhales loudly, something shifting in his chest. "God damn," he says. "You're a really good person, do you know that? Not a fucking brat or a kid or anything of the sort. You're just a sincerely kind and caring guy."

[goodfight]

Wait.

Neil stares and stares and just fucking stares, his expression stuck firmly in disbelief. "Kind and caring, wha--" He blinks. "No? Absolutely not?"

[doubletap]

"Stop being an ass and just accept it." He sits up finally, leans close to Neil. Then raises a hand to press a finger against Neil's nose.

"I can only tell the truth, remember? And it's fucking clear as day that you've always tried to do what's right. All of it."