The sun above the Mojave was slowly setting. Veronica knew they were still at least twenty miles from Vegas – there was just no way they’d make it back to the Lucky 38 before night fall. Six, however, seemed oblivious to the time, as she kept trudging forward, a few steps ahead of her companion. Veronica jogged up to her, saying “Hey, so not that I don’t love aimlessly wandering around, but it’s getting late. Do you have a camp or something around here?”

Six turned to face Veronica, looking startled for a moment. She ran a hand over her recently shaved head, and then said, “Shit, you’re right.” She looked around for a moment, squinting behind her grime-coated glasses. “Uh, I think I can see a gas station, just over there.” She gestured at a location to their east.

Veronica nodded. She couldn’t actually see what Six was gesturing at, but she’d go with it anyways. Six knew the wastelands a lot better than she did, anyways. So she gave the other woman a thumbs up, Six grinned at her in that weird sly way she always did, and they continued walking in silence.

Twenty minutes and one radscorpion later, they made it to the gas station. It didn’t look like anyone else was using it as a camp – there were no fresh bloodstains, no corpses, no hint of smoke. Six looked back at Veronica, one hand already on her pistol.

“It looks fine, but we’ve been wrong before. Just…stay behind me, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Veronica suddenly felt her face get hot. Ignoring that, she started to say something about punching, but noticing how tired Six looked, decided against it. Instead, she just agreed.

“You’re the boss, boss.”

Crouching down, Six gingerly pushed open the gas station door. Nodding at Veronica, she went inside, gesturing for the other woman to follow her. They stood up seconds later, once it became clear that there was no way a raider was hiding anywhere in the small building.

The station had clearly been raided before – a couple of makeshift bedrolls were behind the cash, the register was open and empty, and virtually no stock was left in the store. Still, at least it was shelter. Six set her bag down next to the cash.

“It’s not much, but it’ll do. Come on, help me block the door.”

Six began pushing one of the empty shelves towards the door. Veronica scrambled over to her, and began pushing with her. She couldn’t help but notice how muscular her arms looked, how broad her shoulders were. She looked away. That was definitely not something she should be doing right now.

Soon, the shelf was in place. It was now almost completely dark in the gas station, with the only light coming from Six’s PipBoy. Six muttered something that was probably about getting a fire started, and then, seemingly without thinking, rubbed Veronica’s shoulders. It was only for a second, but it was enough. Veronica stood by the shelf while the other woman rummaged for something flammable.

Six knew Veronica was gay – that had been the subject of one of their very first conversations. But Six didn’t like to talk about herself nearly as much as Veronica did. So, while she assumed Six was gay – she’d seen her watching the girls at Gomorrah, and then there was that reward Red Lucy kept talking about – she didn’t actually know if Six was gay.

It didn’t really matter. Six didn’t seem like the type of woman who’d sleep with her fellow travellers. It’s possible this was because most of her current companions were either men or straight women, but still. Veronica told herself that nothing was ever gonna happen, and instead settled for those nights when it was too cold for them to use separate bedrolls, and those days when it was too hot for Six to care about wearing a shirt.

It was those days that Veronica was glad she usually got one of the 38’s bedrooms to herself.

“Are you okay?”

Veronica realized that she had been staring at Six, who was now sitting on a bedroll and looking slightly concerned. She nodded, saying that she was fine. On a positive note, Six had managed to start a small fire in an empty can while she’d been zoned out. She’d even arranged the bedrolls around the small fire. Six motioned for the younger woman to sit down, and after hastily removing her hood, she sat down on the other bed.

Six pulled out two boxes of Sugar Bombs from her bag, and a bottle of water. She held out one of the boxes to Veronica, who accepted it graciously. Six looked almost embarrassed, before admitting, “I didn’t think we’d be out here this long, or I would’ve packed some more food.”

Veronica, who had already poured about a quarter of the box directly into her mouth, shrugged.

“Honestly, I like Sugar Bombs. And I mean, I’m not gonna complain about spending time with my favourite ex-courier.”

“How many other ex-couriers do you know?”

“That’s totally irrelevant to this conversation.”

Six smirked, and popped a handful of Sugar Bombs into her mouth. Veronica smiled back at her. She felt her face getting hot again, and shoved more food into her mouth to deal with this.

They ate in silence, the only sounds coming from the crackling of the fire and the occasional dog barking outside. When they were both done, Six looked up at Veronica.

“I wanna get an early start tomorrow, so we should probably-“

“Do you like girls?”

Veronica had never had much of a filter, but she surprised herself with that outburst. She clamped a hand over her mouth, while Six’s eyebrows looked like they were going to fly off her forehead. Then she laughed, shaking her head.

“Jesus, Veronica, you really are something else. I’m gay as hell, I thought you knew that.”

“Well I mean I GUESSED, but I know you don’t really like to talk about your past, or really like to talk much at all, so I didn’t want to pry.”

Six shrugged. The room went quiet again. Veronica suddenly felt anxious.

“Well, you want to get up early so I guess I’m gonna hit the hay.”

She pulled off her boots, and lay down on her bed. After extinguishing the fire, Six did the same. They lay there in the dark. Veronica wasn’t sure if the silence was actually uncomfortable or if she just thought it was. She closed her eyes.

Veronica dreamt about scarred foreheads, and dingy grey tanktops, and small breasts, and rough hands, and rough hands moving their way up her thighs, and –

She was woken up by the sound of empty bottles clanking, followed by Six muttering curses under her breath. The older woman glanced over at Veronica, and frowned. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay, isn’t it almost dawn anyways?”

Six glanced at her PipBoy and nodded, saying “Yeah, sort of. It’s around 4:30, so I was gonna let you sleep for another half hour. But, if you’re up anyways, we might as well get started.”

Veronica agreed, and pulled her boots back on. After putting her hood back on as well, she began helping Six pack up.

She wondered if Six had forgotten about last night. She certainly didn’t seem to be acting any differently. Of course, she also didn’t know Veronica was attracted to her, and Veronica didn’t feel like making any outbursts today. So she packed in silence, moved the shelf back in silence, started walking back to Vegas in silence.

Eventually, Six realized something was up.

“Are you okay? You’ve usually attempted to make small talk by this point.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“That’s bullshit, you and I both know it. What’s wrong?”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“And I say that’s bullshit.”

Veronica stopped walking, causing Six to nearly collide with her.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Veronica?”

“I just, I hoped that if you were gay, that maybe you were gay for me. I mean that maybe you liked me, you know, like that. But I was wrong, and that’s totally okay with me, so if we could please just go home and act like none of this ever happened, that’d be great.”

“…oh.”

The early morning fog hadn’t evaporated yet, so the world around Veronica just looked hazy and grey. Six rubbed the back of her neck. She looked as uncomfortable and as unsure as Veronica felt. Then suddenly, she spoke.

“Well, I was gonna give some speech about how this is wrong ‘cause I’m kind of your boss, but fuck it.”

With that, Six wrapped one of her calloused hands around Veronica’s waist, placing the other one at the back of her neck. She leaned in, and kissed her.

Veronica hadn’t kissed anyone since her first and only girlfriend had left. She was glad kissing girls was just as great as she remembered. When they separated a moment later, Six grinned at her.

“You gonna stop sulking now?”

“I don’t know, I might need a bit more convincing.”

The older woman shook her head. “I can guarantee, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not something you wanna do in the middle of the wastes. Trust me.”

“Then I might need more convincing when we get back to the Lucky 38.”

Six chuckled, and extended a hand towards Veronica, who clasped it tightly. Hand in hand, they began the long walk down the highway, back to Vegas.