Gloria rushed home as soon as her father let her have a break for lunch, almost knocking Amata over in her hurry.
"Woah, hey, what's the rush?" Amata laughed and Gloria caught herself on a metal beam at her side, her hands jittery with excitement and a look in her eyes that gave them life.
Gloria held up the taser after checking to make sure no one else was around, and Amata stepped back on instinct, "I hope you're not going to use than on anyone."
"Geez, you have so much faith in me," Gloria smiled.
Gloria smiled, Amata realized, and her heartrate began to race as she flushed. Shit, she always did blushed when she smiled.
It was a rare occurrence, and everything other than a permanent frown burned into Amata's memory to treasure forever.
She looked beautiful as she grabbed her hand, slightly sweaty and she could feel the other's heartbeat race, too, as Gloria led Amata to her home and set the taser at her desk, locked her bedroom door, and closed the curtains.
"Why do you need a taser anyway? You could get in trouble-"
"I've been busted for less, trust me. I need it to finish the gun I was showing you yesterday," She glanced over her shoulder at Amata, flicking on the desk light and removing her glasses to get a closer look at the taser.
"Hey, so, um... do you want to help me out?"
Amata tried not to blush. The way Gloria's eye shined was something she hadn't seen in a long, long time. "S- sure," She stuttered out.
"Awesome, take a seat," Gloria sat in her desk chair and Amata dragged the extra chair up next to her and sat down.
"Okay, well, give me the screwdriver."
Amata picked up one of the two lying next to each other, giving her girlfriend a confused look, and she laughed, "No, the flat one."
She picked up the other one and handed it to Gloria. Gloria took it out and unscrewed something on it, and a flap opened up.
"Okay, there's a magnifying glass under my bed, can you get it for me?"
Amata nodded, then laid down on the floor to look under her bed.
There were a ton of boxes, so she had to dig through them. She didn't mind too much, but Gloria still apologized about the mess.
They sat in silence while Gloria tinkered with her gun, trying to connect the taser to her already established gun and make actually work. She set the taser down and bit her lip, then pushed her bangs back and leaned back in her chair. Amata looked up from her desk and into her girlfriend's eyes.
"It's been a while since I've... you know... not wanted to—No, never mind. Sorry," She shook her head and continued working, accidentally shocking herself on something, cursing and waving her hand in the air to numb the pain.
"What were you going to say?" Amata knew full well it was something along the lines of "I don't want to kill myself" which was probably a strange and foreign thing for her to think, let alone say. Amata bushed a few strands of Gloria's hair out of her face and brushed the back of her fingers against her acne-covered cheek. Gloria froze from the contact, gripping her pliers tightly and trying not to flinch away.
"Amata," Gloria placed her tools to the side and faced her girlfriend, gulping and biting the inside of her lip, "Do you, um, are you, uh..." She sighed, "Do you really want to be with me?"
"What do you mean?"
"I- I'm me, and you're you! You shouldn't be wasting your time with me-"
Amata placed a finger on Gloria's lips, smiling gently, then cupped her face, "I love you, Gloria. No matter what. Even if you're suicidal, happy, depressed, whatever, I'll always love you."
Gloria's face flushed and her eyes shone with unshed tears, but she was never the one to cry. She blinked them away and relaxed, "I love you too."
Amata's smile widened and she rubbed her thumb over her girlfriend's cheek, wanting nothing more than to kiss her, but she wasn't sure if Gloria did so, she licked her lips and asked "Can I kiss you?"
"Yeah," Gloria smiled and leaned in to kiss her girlfriend, both of them smiling into the kiss.
The kiss didn't last as long as they wanted, but Gloria pulled away, checking her Pip-Boy.
"Fuck, shit, fuck I'm late. Holy shit I am late."
Amata giggled and helped Gloria scramble to get her belongings sorted, and walked her to the clinic, pausing briefly to give her a hug at a respectable distance, and wished her on her way.
Butch DeLoria had gotten into another fight with someone over something. All of his fights were petty brawls to show off courage or let his anger out or whatever bullshit excuse her father was going to give him. Butch wasn't too happy to see that Gloria was the one to patch him up, make sure he wasn't bleeding internally and whatnot.
Stacy Cole held his hand the entire time, staring at Gloria like the way she does. Gloria didn't mind, it was just the way Stacy was.
"So, who fucked you up this time?"
"Officer Taylor." He avoided eye contact and stared at his and Stacy's intertwined hands.
"Holy shit, really? The guy's like ninety," Gloria didn't mean to sound rude, but the mocking tone came out automatically. She shined lights in his eyes to make sure he didn't have a concussion, "What was the brawl about?"
"He got in my way, like you're about to be, Nosebleed."
"Cool it, DeLoria," She dabbed at the cut on his nose that was gushing blood, then she tapped it with a gloved finger and he hissed.
"The fuck was that for?"
"Revenge," She put a bandage on the cut and slapped him on the back, "You're done. Get out of here. If I see you again I'm cutting off your arm."
"Isn't that malpractice?" Stacy asked as she helped Butch up. Gloria smiled and nodded, "I was kidding, sorry about that. I won't cut off his arm." She explained. Stacy laughed as Butch huffed.
Sending Butch and Stacy on their way, Gloria slumped down in her father's desk chair, turning on the terminal and waited for it to boot up. The thing was over 200 years old, so it certainly did take a while. In the meantime, she picked up a familiar orange pill bottle standing a few inches away, running her hand over the worn label.
GLORIA HILL. ESCITALOPHRAM MG TABLETS. TAKE ONE TABLET BY MOUTH EVERY DAY. Do not consume alcoholic beverages while taking this medicine.
She hummed, setting the bottle back on the table, turning it so she doesn't see her name printed in all caps. The most worrying part about this was that she couldn't drink.
Whatever, when has she ever listened to directions?
She needed to get all this frustration out somehow. She was too tired to pick a fight with some random security guard, so the next best thing was shoot targets with her BB gun and pretend they were actual people. Yeah, that could work.
Her father returned with some crackers when he caught her trying to sneak out with her gun and some BB pellets.
"I'm going to practice. I'll be fine."
James sighed and said, "Okay, be careful."
Gloria gave him a slight smile, then headed out into the hall, making sure there were no security guards around.
____
Every time she hit the middle of the target, she would scratch a mark into the crate beside her. This tradition was started when she was twelve, back when she couldn't shoot for the life of her, but over the years she has gotten better.
There was no real reason she should be good at this. She definitely didn't want to become a security guard, and that was the only job she actually needed a steady hand. It could work with medicine, but she knew her dad wouldn't want her to perform any kind of surgery. Not that there were any to be performed.
She lined up the next shot and pulled the trigger, and the target swung in a complete circle.
She turned to scratch another mark into the crate, when she realized Butch was leaning against it, arms crossed and an ever-present smirk on his face.
"Pretty good, Nosebleed."
"Fuck off," She said through gritted teeth. He stared at her with a smug grin. She finally sighed in annoyance and walked over to the crate, picked up the blade resting on top of it, and carved in another scratch. Butch watched her, which made her uncomfortable.
"Can I ask you something?" He asked, and she ignored him again and walked back over to her gun and picked it up, lining up her shot, but before she pulled the trigger, he spoke again.
"No," Gloria stated, taking another shot. She missed, and she huffed in annoyance. Butch hummed, cracking his knuckles, "Fight me, Nosebleed."
"What the fuck, why?" Gloria glanced at him, her aim wavering, but she readjusted the gun and hit the target, barely, and scratched a mark in the crate.
"I just wanna fight." He sounded unsure, voice wavering. It was unusual for him to act this way, so Gloria assumed he needed an adrenaline rush to do whatever he needed to.
She set her gun down, leaning against the crate, and swung at Butch with a closed fist, hitting him right in the mouth. He retaliated with a punch to her cheek, throwing her glasses off her face.
"If you weren't a fucking dumbass," She repeated. He shoved her against the crate and held her in place by her collar.
They threw punches at each other for a while before they were too tired to move.
"Fuck, fine, you win," Butch said touching his split lip and wincing at the pain.
Gloria laughed, "You held your own. Come on, I think my dad's at the clinic."
She swore her dad was supposed to be working alone that night, so why was Jonas with him?
Before Butch darted inside, she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him behind the wall again, peeking her head out to see what was going on.
"What's wrong with you?" Butch whispered, and Gloria put a finger to her lips, then whispered, "I think they're talking shit about me."
He crouched down next to her, peeking over her shoulder, "You're so paranoid."
"Fuck off, I had a rough few days."
She glanced back at Butch, then nodded her head to the window so they could hear them better.
Pressing her ear against the glass, she could barely make out her father giving out a tired laugh, then a sigh, "I don't know Jonas, she doesn't seem like she would understand."
"James, come on," Jonas sounded... off. Not like his usual self, "The Overseer has threatened conversion therapy many times."
What... what the hell were they talking about? She glanced over to Butch who was as confused as she was.
"That doesn't mean she's... you know."
"What?"
"You know."
"You said you saw her kiss Amata, right? That's not completely-"
"Jonas." Her father sounded serious this time, but Jonas laughed nonetheless. "Still, even if Gloria knew about us, what does it matter? She doesn't need to understand."
She looked over at Butch again, who shrugged. Knew about them. What did she need to know about them?
"I'll still love you." She could barely hear her father's words.
"I love you too." Jonas replied.
Well. That's something new.
She turned to Butch who stared wide-eyed at the wall, and Gloria nudged him, "Are you okay?"
"I... Yeah," He said, although he did seem kind of out of it, like he had witnessed a crime or something.
"Holy shit, were you gay for my dad?"
"Fuck off," He pushed her over, and she fell onto the floor. She tried to kick at him but he retaliated and blocked her legs.
"You totally were! Oh my God," She laughed loudly, and then when she realized she shouldn't have been so loud.
"Is someone outside?" Jonas asked. Both Gloria and Butch quickly ducked under the window when Jonas pulled open the curtains, then closed them again. "I swore I heard someone."
Her father stepped up to the window this time, "Gloria, I know you're there. You too, Butch."
They looked at each other before they stood up, turning around to face the others. Her father nodded towards the door, and they slumped over to it, waiting for it to unlock before walking inside.
Jonas looked mortified, and her father scolded them for eavesdropping, but went easy on the stern language because they had obviously been in a fight.
"Hold still," James told Butch as he tried to disinfect his lip, while Jonas only had to hand Gloria a bag of ice to hold against her eye. Butch flinched away from James, but sucked it up and held still long enough for James to dab some disinfectant on his lip and cheek.
"So, how much of that did you hear?" Jonas asked Gloria. She shrugged, "Enough. How long have you been with my dad?"
Jonas sat down in the chair next to her, "Since... you were born."
Gloria stared at him, then at her dad, then back to him, "Really? That long?"
"We've kept it a secret." 17 years was a long time to keep a secret like this.
"I... Yeah, you have. You also mentioned something about con..." She stopped herself from saying it out loud.
"Conversion therapy?"
"Yeah, that."
Jonas leaned back in his chair, sighing, "You better talk to your dad about that one."
"Okay," Gloria mumbled.
When her father finally let Butch go, he and Gloria walked back to their respective houses without a word.
"Why'd you want the shit beaten out of you (again)?" Gloria finally asked. Butch shrugged, "I was restless."
"Usually people'd go for a walk or fuck or whatever."
"Stacy was busy with her work."
Gloria grimaced, "Gross."
He rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Whatever. It's not like I can even go anywhere in this shit hole."
She hummed in thought. He was right...
You were born in the Vault, you die in the Vault. The phrase was repeated over and over until it subconsciously played in your head all hours of the day.
But Gloria never followed the rules, not even a rule like this.