Chapter Text
“And you thought New Vegas was the worst?”
Six words came in perfectly timed with the sound of the shattering glass of an empty bottle beneath the sole of her boots. Quite the representation of their worsening first twenty-four hours in New Reno. They literally couldn’t head down a street without being showered with a variety of chems and gradually shadier services.
“Vulpes?”
The previous evening, Six had been asked multiple times to pose or “perform” in one of their numerous depraved studios, while he, had been offered samples of substances whose names themselves suggested your brain already had to have been subjected to an inhumane amount of drugs prior to even consider injecting those into your body. They made the FEV seem like a friendlier option.
“Snap out of it, my guy.” The courier laid a hand on his shoulder. “I know this place is shit and it’s probably sending you down a spiral but hey – Sit down.”
The very loud creaking door closed behind them, and while Six quickly swept the broken glass out of their way with her feet, they eventually sat down on the dirty sidewalk, exhaling as their backs rested against the building’s tarnished bricks. They stared up at the dark night sky, omitting the lively noise of the city coming from down the street.
“You know…” Vulpes trailed off. “Despite all we were taught, the propaganda about the profligates to the West… We all had our doubts at times. If all we were told was true.”
“If it was that bad?” Six shot him a glance.
“And it is.” He remarked. “I would dare say it’s worst.”
The courier giggled, leaving him lost to his absurd realization.
“I never got robbed blind in a room on the Strip… Not even Freeside.” she approved. “Well, at least we still have our weapons and the clothes on our backs.”
“What a relief.” he retorted.
“First night in town, one room with undoubtedly hidden peep holes only to wake up with all our caps gone… Hell, I used to sleep with one eye opened alone on the road. Courier life and all that. Part of the job.”
“Until you get shot twice.” Vulpes took a quick glance at the scar by her brow. “And somehow live to tell the tale.”
“You would think a ghost and a psychopath would do a better job at watching their backs but hey...” Six laughed. “We had worst predicaments.”
In the months they travelled together after the second Battle of Hoover Dam, he quickly learned to discard such comments toward him. It’s not as if she was wrong, by profligate’s standards. It remains as ironic that she chose to drag his dying ass back to safety considering the outcome of the battle. The lunatic chose to condemn it all and render the Dam… Inoperable. A smart move, even if it meant betraying Caesar. Playing literally every fucking one in the end. Not that he never considered choking her in her sleep while she cared for him. A stupid move, really. But she had always been the wild card. Even when she worked for him as an agent, down to dealing with the Omertas and sabotaging the monorail… If not for his ability to read people’s intents and his wits, Vulpes wouldn’t have lived up to this day nor been promoted to a frumentarius. And from the very first day in Nipton… He had this feeling about her, which he couldn’t shake. How he had eyes and ears on her comings and goings.
He knew she would play her part. And he ended up unfortunately, right.
Before anyone knew, she played her own cards. And all the big players were robbed of their prize.
A masterful move that rendered him obsolete and yet… Here they were.
“Not gonna lie, I’m quite hungry.” she sighed, backed up by her stomach growls.
“I can fetch us some rat somewhere, probably…” Vulpes proposed, recalling the locals improvised barbecue down an alley they went by earlier.
“You do have a way to make it extra crispy.”
She squeezed her body in her leather jacket, tightening the scarf on the lower side of her face as to make herself more comfortable. This wouldn’t be the first night they would end up sleeping on the sidewalk.
“Considering what happened in a locked room, I dare not set any expectations of what sleeping in the open streets here might be…” he pondered.
“Wake me up if someone’s poking at my kidney, will you?”
Six bundled up, faking a moment of silence. Then she opened one eye.
“Or again – We can sell our bodies while keeping all our organs.”
Mercenary work in New Reno was too risky. With all the families… Even playing ears easily guaranteed your remains ending up on the market. Not that Vulpes doubted his skills. But to make it this far down in his… Given, old line of work, you know when to trust your instinct and lay low.
So what building was it? That they had just left and planned to sleep by? A porn studio. Classical New Reno stuff.
Vulpes’ gaze lowered onto her eager look.
“Again… No.”
He would spell it out as long as she asked. Upbringing, values and all, she could spit it all out again – But no. Ex-Legion or not, he wasn’t about to fucking whore himself out.
“You heard the lady in the studio.” She closed in mischievously. “You have what it takes!”
“Do not make any mention of my stamina and thighs again.” Vulpes bluntly stated.
“That physique, those eyes, haven’t seen an albino like you in years – her words not mine.”
“Legionaries eyed down sought slaves the same way.”
“Karma acts in weird way, hum?” Six sighed. “Your face was priceless, though.”
The lady did an excellent job ignoring his frown and voluntarily long awkward silence, before he merely refused. Then Six had tip toed after him as he simply showed himself the way out. The fact he even followed her in there after she thought to offer their services to perhaps, find them “some talents” like she had once done at the Atomic Wrangler… Only to be the one solicited.
“Years of acting and pretending on your resume…” she added.
“I do take the compliment Six,” he uttered. “But I am offended you would consider these tapes to require quality acting.”
“…And you probably did it in front of others many times!”
This one earned her a curious, if not severe glare. Not that she wasn’t flashing her lashes at him, with her chin resting against his shoulder at this point. Not a first in proximity, why she did not budge as he rose a finger to twist a wild strand of her hairs behind her ear before giving her a foreboding look.
“Are you implying what I – might- Have done in the past, was porn?”
Careful, Six.
“I’m not.” she grinned. “I’m saying what you did was probably worst than that.”
He closed in further, barely a few inches away between their faces. Her eyes gleaming under the streetlight, housing familiar but growing playfulness. Provocative. His, beyond their earned shiftiness, did not hide his tested temper. She knew how to get to him and he knew what she wanted out of him. Digging graves. Answers he wouldn’t give. Answers she knew, yet did not shy away from.
“Fuck, this is easy money, Inculta!” she urged. “Is it ego? Conditioning?”
How he hated that word.
“If we have to question whether it is better to do it one time with one person and be seen by many or do it with the many I’m down to, even sober!”
“Keep giving me those eyes Six and I might just be able to sell you out for your own tape too.”
She burst into laughter, crushing her face deeper into his chest and dirty flannel shirt.
“Now that is the hedonistic degenerate courier of old.” he smirked.
“Was I that bad?” she finally inquired.
“We both have our reputations.”
They stared pensively at each other in silence for a moment.
“That scar is not exactly fap material.” she pointed out.
“I’ve yet to see someone without a scar in the waste.” Vulpes added. “And look around you, Six. You know better about the potential degeneracy and tastes of the distinguished individuals there is out there.”
“No need to bring up Clanden’s snuff tapes again…” her thoughts took a turn. “But hey, I could make us a few caps as a fluffer.”
Vulpes froze.
“…A what?”
“…Fluffer.” she promptly answered.
Seeing how his state of confusion perpetuated, the courier raised a brow.
“You do know what it is, right?” she hesitated. “As in that woman, when we went in there who hum – Helped the gentleman before another scene.”
“Oh.”
It oddly snapped, but did not break the awkward exchange.
“Maybe in the Legion you just called those the relief team.” she jabbed. “But I’m sure I can fetch us enough for a few meals.”
Before she could get up, he seized her by the arm and did not let go as she nonchalantly attempted a few more times to get back on her feet.
“It was another one of my brilliant ideas Vulpes,” she pushed. “I’ll assume the position.”
“Please do not bring up that robot either.” he swiftly sat her back down. “You’re not putting another man’s cock in your mouth or even these hands.”
The courier looked flabbergasted but couldn’t withhold her surprise.
“My, my, Vulpes!” she chuckled. “I can’t settle whether you Legion lot were a bunch of prudes or free-for-all orgy goers now… I’m really left in the dark here. Or maybe everyone was and you were the shy one… Or you’re the type with a specific secret fetish which just appears as so. Yeah, I’ll go for that.”
“I don’t have high expectations – But let’s see what you do without a leash.”
She stopped in her track.
“Those were your words, courier.”
“You were half passed out after some leftover Stimpak I had.”
As he thought, she did not expect him to have even heard her say it then.
“If I am truly free then I can say no.”
“Yeah…” she agreed. “And that is why I’ll do it instead.”
Despite the firmness of his fist closing again on her arm, it felt more careful as he motioned her up alongside him. The ex-legionary found some amusement in her struggle to read the situation.
“I have weirder in my resume than jacking off some guy, Vulpes. Remember the nuke thing?”
“I’m also free to tell you not to, am I?” he tilted his head, expectantly.
Funny, how she now avoided his gaze.
“That’s not exactly how it works, but we’re getting close to something here I guess…”
“I’ll jack off the guy.”
Her face dropped, leaving him long enough of an opening between her reaction to let go of her and press towards the door.
“Wait – WHAT?”
She bolted in his steps, her tone infused with confusion as her yelling echoed dimly into the street, the door slowly closing behind them.
“You will do what?? VULPES!”
Had he known back then how petty baits could have gotten her faster to the Fort.