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Six took a lungful of her cigarette; something shitty, label long ago sun-bleached and unreadable, so she had no idea how to avoid them in the future. She figured the least Cliff Briscoe could do was carry decent cigarettes, but he was far too concerned with plastic fucking dinosaurs and useless ammo that hit like BBs. Still, it was what she had for now, so she took another drag.
"Courier-"
"F-Fucking Lord," Six coughed, cigarette dropping helplessly to the ground. She wheezed and quickly got her bearings - her eyes glaring down at her cig, then at the man responsible. She hadn't even heard the door open, nor his light footsteps.
"What ever happened to coming at me from the front?" She huffed, waving a hand in front of her face, "I don't want to die. Again."
Vulpes Inculta didn't say a thing; he was standing nearly behind her, in full Legion regalia, and she bristled immediately when she felt his hands pat at her sides.
"Are you armed?"
"Fucking yes, asshole!" She smacked at him, twisting, face growing cold; he retracted his hands - presumably when he felt the gun tucked under her coat - stoic as ever. She faced him then with her temper officially raised, but he beat her to the punch as soon as she opened her mouth.
"You're alone."
"So?"
"Don't get smart, Courier."
"Don't think I could if I tried," Six grumbled. Late afternoon light flooded through the cracked windows at her back; it illuminated the remnants of the ruined schoolhouse they stood in - the one Six had been scavenging through for the past hour or so.
The light filled up a portrait of Vulpes before her. The red of his uniform popping against the black, the color in his usually paper-white face. His slate-gray eyes squinted at her, but the gaze didn't wear his usual condescension, or even a lick of amusement.
Instead, he looked confused... quite frankly, he looked nearly panicked.
"I was just scavving," Six breathed, interest piqued, "I'm armed. What's the deal?"
Vulpes' hands twitched. "Usually your sniper has no issue putting down my men. You alone - even if you had the eyebot - I'm not so sure."
Six scoffed, "Yeah, me neither. Why? Gonna put me down? Now's your chance..."
"I know. So leave."
"What?"
"The mighty Caesar has put another hit on you. My group caught sight of you down the road. I've detached to... scout further, and... alert you."
Six could do nothing but gape, throwing her hands up, "Wha... thanks! Why didn't you fucking start with that?! No! Why didn't you make them not go after me?!"
Vulpes gave her a look - one insisting her aggression was pointless - and scoffed.
"Do you honestly think my affinity of you could redirect-"
The two of them were stopped short by sudden footfall; at least six adults, heavy and foreboding as it quickly gathered outside. Shouting, then, undeniably Legion - and Vulpes' eyes shot wide and worried. He leaned forward, grasping Six's arms almost to the point of pain and tugged her away from the windows.
The shouting outside insisted they weren't sure where to scout first; given that the schoolhouse was the only building in the area beside a one-room maintenance shack, however, Six was certain there wasn't much time. Vulpes Inculta was the first to move, tugging Six again across the room. Metal, pre-war lockers lined both walls, some jammed, or rusted shut and impossible to open.
They were narrow - far too narrow to fit inside - but in an instant Six was being crammed into an open one back-first, and she cursed in opposition as Vulpes shoved himself in after her.
Vulpes' chest was pressed to hers and he squirmed, turning just enough to pull the door closed. His elbow jammed her abdomen painfully as he fumbled around his side; finally getting his ripper free, he set it loose and sawed through the handle.
"What the hell?" Six hissed, pushing against the back wall as far as she could. Sparks flew as the blade met metal with a loud whir, and Vulpes caught the handle with a shaking hand when it finally detached. He crammed the remaining shrapnel in the gaps around the handle, effectively jamming the door.
"How are we going to get out?" Six asked weakly, irritated, and fumbled the shut off her pip-boy's light. Their limbs rubbed uncomfortably as he situated his ripper back in its holster, and he finally looked down at her just as they were thrust into darkness.
"We'll figure that out."
Six only grumbled, body tense with discomfort. Despite her efforts to stay cool, she could feel Vulpes' heartbeat pounding against her chest, and she knew he could feel hers racing in turn. It was true that Six had previously bested several of the Legions attempts at killing her; most ended with the scattered remains of the soldiers, but that was only when Boone or Cass was at her side. ED-E offered plentiful support, but when Six was alone he was better for no more than a distraction while she high-tailed it in the opposite direction.
As much as she tried to fight it, Six was scared that the day would end in misery. If they were found - which, honestly, they would most likely be - Vulpes Inculta would most certainly turn her over and claim he'd trapped her there.
He could still be trapping her; it was a thought that wasn't as prominent in her mind as she'd like it to be. The courier had no reason to trust that Vulpes wanted her alive, or safe, so she really ought to be pissing-her-pants scared right now. He cornered her, both with the locker and his own person. What's worse than being pinned by a Frumentarius while his men hunt you?
Even as she tried to dig the doubt in, the fear wasn't coming. She was scared shitless of a Legion death, sure, but she was no longer scared of Vulpes Inculta.
Idiot.
Six hadn't realized she'd been squeezing her eyes shut until they popped open. With a dragging rustle of limbs, Vulpes' cold hand found her face; his palm hit her jaw while his thumb pressed against her lips. It was a clear a sign as any to shut-up - one she might not have otherwise gotten, given the door had opened again, footsteps falling to the floor. Curses to that silent ass door.
"Sir?"
Soldiers talked over one another as they entered, though it was clearly not the whole bunch. Six's body froze as multiple sets of footsteps walked around the building, the foreign voice that had spoken before piping up again.
"Inculta, Sir? Have you located the target?"
"Why does he detach like that?"
Six looked up; the sun was doing them no favors, utterly flooding the schoolhouse with warm light as it set further. It was dark in the locker - nearly pitch black - save for three stripes of gold sliding in, through the slits of the metal door. Six was short enough to evade it; It was Vulpes Inculta she was worried about, his taller frame and stupid helmet clearly causing a silhouette against the light. From the outside - with the sun facing their way - it would be clear to see something was inside.
"We should look elsewhere," one of the soldiers continued, much too close for comfort, "Inculta is alone. He could have been caught by her - or worse."
"If he's dead, then he was too weak to survive. Keep searching."
Despite the fact that she was physically closer than she'd ever been - or would have liked to be - to the man in front of her, Six grit her teeth and snaked her hands up to his face. She felt him stiffen under her calloused touch; in any other scenario, he'd have pushed her away roughly, but both of them were at the mercy of each other in that moment.
As quickly as she could manage, Six guided his head forward. He stayed stiff at first, resistant, but eventually yielded; she pulled him low enough so that he was no longer blocking the light.
Uncomfortably, they were now much too close, with his face almost in the crook between her neck and shoulder. He seemed to understand her movements; Inculta moved closer - if that was even possible - his thumb still pressed to her lips, and his free arm compressed against her side. For fear that her elbows would bang against the walls, Six kept her hands up awkwardly, palms flat against Vulpes' cheek, and the back of his neck. His chest was flat against hers now, and she felt his breath just above her coat collar.
It was growing hot in the locker; Six squeezed her eyes shut again, Inculta's heartbeat quick and feverish against her chest, where her own thumped rapidly.
The footsteps outside grew louder and quieter quickly, heavy and determined as they searched. It seemed as of three of the men were present based on voice alone, and Six willed herself to stay calm as the odds grew significantly in Legion favor.
An overturned desk was scraped against the floor; "Inculta could have caught sight of her going another way. What if we were supposed to follow him?"
The second soldier - the one who'd previously called Inculta weak - responded from further away, "Or he could have expected us to follow him, going the wrong way on purpose. We're showing resolve and intelligence by going the way I know is right."
"And how would you know?"
"I know," the second soldier snapped. He was opening and testing the lockers on the other side of the building, "I've made it farther than all of you. Stop sucking up to Inculta... I'll be above him soon enough."
It was silent after that, only the loud footsteps and clamoring of metal as they looked around. Six felt herself quickly overheating in her large coat, and she squirmed, desperate to move it away from her skin. Vulpes' hand squeezed at her jaw.
She tried to shake her head, right against him, and he only squeezed her again. Stop moving.
Six fought the urge to sigh.
The soldiers seemed to be having trouble with the jammed lockers; they ripped the rest open without pause, hinges wailing and their guns banging the walls. Six squirmed again, ignoring Inculta, further uncomfortable by the way the handle of his ripper seemed to be digging into her abdomen. It hadn't bothered her before, but she must have rustled his belt her way with her movement. Shit.
Six didn't want the man she was currently clinging to dead, per say, but she felt herself grimace at their proximity. Despite their often awkwardly docile encounters, he was still Legion garbage, and she knew Boone would be telling her every minute spend not killing him was a waste of time. She wasn't sure why he hadn't killed her yet; she wasn't sure why he'd bothered to give her a heads-up about the assasins; she wasn't sure, and was horribly confused, as to why he risked his own neck to hide her from them.
Vulpes' hot breath tickled the exposed skin of her neck, and his grip on her jaw near painful. She hadn't noticed when she'd begun clinging hard to his stupid fox hat, or when his other skinny hand had come to grip at the waist of her coat.
The soldiers came their way, and his grip somehow tightened, sure to leave fingerprint bruises. She pulled, burying his face unwillingly in her neck - he grunted, luckily quickly muffled.
"Sir... I'm not so sure this is a valuable use of our time."
The so far hard-headed soldier scoffed in response to the former.
"Ridiculous... I saw her," He said, banging the locker in the first of their row open. The noise caused Six to jump, Vulpes to stiffen.
"The whore is small. She could be anywhere."
Six set her jaw.
"But sir, Inculta-"
"Enough about him," the soldier barked back, skipping the open lockers, and now just to the right of them, "He's throwing us off, or mistaken. This is a test of resolve."
Six felt sweat pooling over her whole body. He tugged on the door; it stayed put, but he seemed to grow aggravated, bringing the butt of his gun down on the lock instead of moving on.
Six's eyes squeezed shut painfully, her body both cold and hot, heart thumping so hard against her ribcage she thought it might burst. She felt Vulpes' heart, too, hard and fast in its rhythm. His palms became slick against her face, his own body shifting and his breathing ragged.
The door to the right of them came undone in a crash; Six nearly jumped when the legionary growled in anger, now moving onto the locker they were in. Just one tug on the door proved fruitless, and then down came the butt of his gun.
With each slam, Six flinched. Vulpes stayed much too still, his grip a dull pain in her face, his breathing still in her neck. Still, his heart betrayed him, thumping against her own fervently and erractically, her own threatening to stop.
The shrapnel Inculta had shoved in the door was coming loose - the soldier's aggression was growing, each hit harder - until a foreign voice rang out from far across the room.
"I've seen her! It must be the target, moving east!"
Silence. The slamming stopped; Six's pants were miraculously piss-free.
"I told you Inculta was fucking with us. Move!"
Then the footsteps - running outward, and leaving them both in silence as the schoolhouse door clammored against the wall. Still, they didn't dare move; not for at least another ten minutes, which was enough time for Six to grow sweaty and uncomfortable in her quasi-embrace with the leader of Caesar's Frumentarius.
As strange as it was to be there, amongst the darkness and the dusty, rust-ridden smells of the locker, she found herself curious while pressed against his lean body. Why would he keep her alive, and risk himself in the process? Why was she not more scared or distrustful of this sadistic man before her? Why did he smell clean, despite the headwear fashioned from a dead mutt? Was he always so cold to the touch?
Was that really his ripper pressed against her abdomen?
The last question posed such a pouring coldness within Six that she was moved to speak.
"Can we... can..."
"Yes," Vulpes replied, cool and calm as if he wasn't one shift away from nuzzling her throat.
With that, she released his head, and he moved backward to turn and release his ripper once more. He unleashed it upon the shrapnel, managing to saw most loose, but the door remained jammed.
In a fit of sore muscles and impatience, Six reeled her good leg back as far as possible and pushed against the door. Inculta followed up with his ripper on the hinges, the two working in only grunts and silence before the door came free, slamming to the ground with a finalizing crash. Vulpes was out of the locker before she could blink; Six stood still, chest heaving and face flushed as fresher air rushed around them.
The air, while initially freeing, was all at once thick with tension. The Frumentarius looked poised, rigid, though facing away from her - Six herself was still reeling, the only noise her thick soles against the fallen locker door as she stepped out.
She took her chance to break the silence and pulled at the collar of her coat, "This was kind of extra... if you wanted to cuddle, you could've just asked."
"Quiet."
Six shrugged, though Vulpes was still facing the windows. She walked up to his side, gazing up at his sharp profile.
"They shouldn't come back," He spared her a glance, though she hardly saw through the tinted goggles, "Finish what you were up to, kill time before you leave. Then, don't head out alone again."
Six scoffed, "Okay, mom."
This time the look he gave her burned even through the blacked out goggles, visibly a cold glare.
"I thought you were big on loyalty. Wasn't that the point of Nipton? Why defy your mighty Caesar?"
"I earned my station by defying orders," He answered. His tone became preaching, obvious, as if she was stupid to not have figured it out, "You pose a problem to Caesar, killing our squads and squandering our aim. However, that skill is worth more infinitely alive than dead; the assasins are a win-win: you are destroyed, or you continue to prove your mettle and worth by surviving. I see that your death is a loss of potential; I intend to see your skill utilized to the fullest."
"Aw," Six grimaced, "You like me."
"You sound disappointed."
"Perturbed, actually."