the pier.

[doubletap]

Let him just say it now--the kid had a lot of problems.

I mean, not really a surprise or anything--Alex had found him dried out in a desert, for crying out loud--but god damn.

Let’s recap.

Alex Seattle Geer found himself in love with a Vault brat from the Capital Wasteland with a daddy complex the size of Hoover Dam. Said kid loves him back--sometimes. Said kid would probably rather put another bullet between Alex’s eyes rather than spend time with him, and didn’t this just go to show it. Neil leaves to check up a rumor, said he’d be back shortly--shortly became two days and by then Dogmeat was back, meaning Neil took off somewhere he was worried the dog would get hurt at. Two days turn into two weeks and counting, and by then, Alex has tracked Neil’s steps, found the fucking pier, the fucking tool of a woman looking for her child, and all of the pieces are too easily placed.

Neil left for Point Lookout. And Alex, ED-E, and Dogmeat are left hanging in the wind.

Alex has been fucking camping on the dirty sand and shit next to that pier, waiting for that stupid kid to come back on that stupid ferry the woman told him about. Tobar the fucking Ferryman, and Alex feels like shooting the asshole just for submitting to Neil’s request. Probably not the guy’s fault, but-- Hell. Yeah. He didn’t traipse all over the goddamn country just to be left in the dust. Is the kid even coming back? Who fucking knows.

Alex will just.

Wait here.

Until Neil comes back.

Yeah, that’s not pathetic at all.

Comments

[doubletap]

Alex expected the act to stop with that--at least from Neil. But Neil continues to touch him, and something in Alex responds to that.

Something in him realizes that it's not often that others offer him the affection that he so freely gives.

He would have thought about that, perhaps. Considered what that meant and what that would continue to mean. But Neil leans up, against him, and moves to kiss him.

Alex is surprised for a moment, enough that he lets it happen without responding. A second, a breath, then he kisses back, his arm tightening around the kid's back.

[goodfight]

Of all things, Neil has never offered such an act. One may call it abstinence, celibacy, lack of interest, or just plain unnatural-- He has never thought to give affection to another willingly. Love is messy. So, too, are its actions.

For the moment, however, as he kisses Alex and the other reciprocates, Neil thinks he might have been mistaken. At least with this act. At least with this man. It's as kind as anyone ever wants it to be. It's just too bad. Just really too bad that he's understanding it now.

He breathes in, taking in scent and sensations, before breaking. Before looking at Alex with an air of somberness.

[doubletap]

Alex's face is flushed. From a fucking kiss. He breathes out shakily, then gives a quiet laugh. "...That bad?" he wonders. "You look pretty serious."

[goodfight]

Bad? "Not at all." There is stark evidence of affect in the other man, and it's pleasing to the eye. "No, just..."

Neil remembers to breathe, to remember the traces of the other man in the shared air between them. "Thanks," he says, "for putting up with me." With his bullshit and his worthlessness. For waiting for him at that pier.

[doubletap]

Dismissing the thanks would come as easy, but that's not what is needed here. He reaches to touch the hand on his face, roughened fingers curling against Neil's own. "You're worth it," he says easily, smiling again. "Don't forget that."

[goodfight]

Alex smiles easily. He keeps to a repeat request as he places his hand against Neil's, and the latter doesn't know what to say. It isn't as if Neil will forget. It's more pride. Fear. All the negative aspects that might cause him to falter.

Still. "I'll try," he gives.

[doubletap]

This moment is nice, and he'd like to hold to it. He wonders, then. "The story I was going to tell you isn't a happy one," he says, off-subject. "Did you want to talk about something else? California? Energy weapons?"

Or do you want what I have to say? Alex half-wishes Neil will ask for something else.

[goodfight]

Neil thinks to retort that most of their tales lack that crucial component in all happy stories. There exists no need, however, for the observation. He needs only to give an honest answer.

"I would rather hear what you have to say." The nature of the story does not matter.

[doubletap]

Alex gives a small nod, then leans his head on his shoulder. "Remember before we left, back in Novac? I told you there were worse things than not eating well--or nearly at all. You learned that, it seems. Existing off of chems and meds. I did, too, once."

Remember me telling you that?

[goodfight]

Back in Novac, they had discussed lack while Neil drunkenly ate food. Of course, he would remember.

"I do," he replies, eyes again fixed on the ceiling. "You said you were trapped somewhere for over a week." Without the bare necessities.

[doubletap]

"Yeah." Good, the kid remembers. Alex gives a wry look from his position, knowing this would narrow the story down. "You still got that gold bar I gave you somewhere?"

[goodfight]

Wait. "That gold bar?" echoes Neil. He would raise an eyebrow if not for, well, you know. "Somewhere, yeah." Locked somewhere safe.

A pause. "This the same place where you got the gold from?"

[doubletap]

The expression stays. Alex sighs. "Heard a message coming in over the radio. Followed it to a bunker. Which gassed me and got me kidnapped and fitted with an explosive collar. In the city of the dead. Not so good to eat."

Yeah. A couple months later, but Alex reminds that conversation, too.

[goodfight]

A couple months later, but it confuses just the same. The circumstances do not exactly invite clarity. Might as well attempt to sort this through one at a time.

"Kidnapped?" Neil repeats carefully.

[doubletap]

"Uh-huh," he answers simply. "Not my decision to seek out the Sierra Madre."

[goodfight]

"Whose was it? For what reason?" It dawns on him too late that it might be best to just listen, but Neil kinda has to know exactly what would possess someone to kidnap people to take them to this Sierra Madre.

[doubletap]

Here is one of those patented expressions, ones that Alex Seattle Geer dons rarely, for only certain subjects. The edges of his lips curl up, but his eyes flatten into something dead. "To get the gold, of course. Don't you remember? The hard part is letting go."

[goodfight]

Down and down this rabbit hole goes, and where it might lead, Neil doesn't fucking know. But there's more and there's less, and a brief glance at the expression on Alex's face quiets him. Forces him to wait patiently for the next.

[doubletap]

"Elijah was the guy."

Neil has actually probably heard him mentioned. Either from random NCR still hanging around, talking about HELIOS One, or if Neil ran into any Brotherhood survivors, or even... Veronica. Her mentor, loving and supportive, who started to lose his way. Alex would let her speak, but look away.

Back to Brotherhood bullshit. Back to the reasons Alex can't stay still.

[goodfight]

Elijah. Elijah... The name sounds familiar, but it's not enough to jog his memory into remembrance.

Actually. Old Lady Gibson had talked about that solar power plant nearby: HELIOS One. They had discussed its brief foray between the NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel some years prior, and highly interested, Neil had questioned some of the NCR troops stationed at its entrance.

There, he had learned the name of the Elder who began the occupation of HELIOS One.

"Elder Elijah?" Of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel.

[doubletap]

The expression--the smile--Alex wears worsens. If one can read it, it can almost be seen as something else: Something rarer. Because Alex Seattle Geer rarely cares about something enough to inspire hate.

But Alex hates that man.

"One and the same."

[goodfight]

There's something in Alex's mien, and without thinking, Neil moves the hand that had shifted down to the other's shoulder up to dark hair. There, he stays, fingertips touching the strands.

"I thought he was dead." Either from the occupation, the kiss of destruction Alex had left for that bunker, or something else together-- Neil had assumed there hadn't been more to that man.

[doubletap]

The touch startles him out of the past, and he blinks, moves his hand back up to Neil's--touches skin, then lowers his hand again.

He shifts up to sit. Half wishes he was a smoker at the moment. Motioning at the bed and wall, he inclines his chin. "Shift a bit for me."

[goodfight]

The movement surprises him. The request more so. Not quite understanding the end result, Neil shifts as asked, pain pulsing in his skull each degree he elevates his head in the process.

He then looks up at the other man, wondering where he's supposed to ultimately settle.

[doubletap]

Alex crawls into the space Neil vacated, then gently pulls Neil's shoulders down to rest on Alex's thighs. Poor kid. He wishes they had better pain meds than what they got.

He drops a hand onto Neil's bare chest and settles the other one onto the ends of his hair, moving slightly. "...This okay?"