#again this wasn’t planned. though. the luztoye fallout au is 100% planned

[disastrouscanasta]

did the BoB fallout universe within my brain accidentally expand to include a clegan drabble, yes, yes it did

i actually wrote this for my dear friend @krakerjaksstuff, for not only her unwavering and very much appreciated support, but also to feed her interest in clegan and mota >:3

~

John had still been asleep when the bombs dropped. If it weren’t for Gale dragging his ass out of there the moment things had gone to shit, John would have been another one of the folks obliterated in their own home. He wouldn’t have even known what hit him, he thought.

Instead, he was granted the joy of sterile smelling bed sheets in his carefully furnished bedroom, thick metal walls and a stiff, uncomfortable jumpsuit.

“Suits you, at least.” He told Gale. They’d all gotten issued their things quickly and without much hassle. Not everyone who’d gotten a reservation through Vault-tec’s American Veteran plan had made it to the shelter. John was sure that the empty housing units would haunt him, once he got more familiar with the underground floor plan.

“Yeah, well, it’s better than nothing.” Nothing was what they’d shown up with. Gale had packed a small kit, though it was hiding in the linen closet, wedged between the wall and the lowest shelf. It was just precautionary, supposedly. But neither of them had thought to grab it on their way out.

John had gotten out of there with the skin on his back, barely having enough time to slip on the shoes he’d left out next to the coat rack. Normally Gale would have been on his ass about putting them away with the others, this time he didn’t say a word. Hardly mattered, anyway. They didn’t get to keep their clothes. John would have been hard pressed to miss the pair of boxers and t-shirt he’d walked in with.

“D’you think they’ve got a bar here?” John said. He sat on the sofa in his unit. It was stiff, he was sure the leather had never been sat on before. He could almost smell the factory-freshness of it cut through his stuffy haze.

Gale stood in the kitchenette, pulling open John’s cupboards and drawers. John hadn’t even bothered to look.

“No clue.” Gale shot him a look. “Get a soda.”

“It’s the goddamn apocalypse, Cleven.”

“Get two sodas, then.” Gale crouched down, fiddling with the knobs on the oven.

“You just want me to get you one.”

John didn’t move from his spot on the sofa. He slouched back, laying his head against the back of it. The bright fluorescent lights above his head were glaring. He wondered if there was a way to fix that.

“Y’alright?” Gale asked, still crouching. His knees rested against the dull grey concrete. John wondered how thick the metal beneath it was.

John hummed. He wasn’t sure what he was or what he wasn’t. With every inhale and exhale he felt the stretch of his jumpsuit, he hoped he could break it in fairly quickly. Maybe the old military tricks to soften his boots could help with this thing.

“Just thinking.” He said. “Whole lot to think about.”

“And a whole lot of time to do it.” Gale told him. John heard the patter of his boots as he crossed the room, coming to stand at the arm of the sofa. “Don’t gotta do it all right now.”

“Could have been us dropping those bombs, Gale.” John said anyway. “Could have been us.”

“But it wasn’t.” Gale dropped a hand to his shoulder. “We’re alright.”

“Wonder what happened to the pilots.”

“Maybe the Reds have their own vaults. And I bet they’re drinking Red Colas instead of thinking about some Americans hiding in their own hole in the ground.”

“You’re really caught up about that, huh?” John turned, looking Gale in the eye properly. Everything about the deep set of his light eyes was telling John that they shouldn’t go on with the conversation, that Gale was giving him the easiest outs he could take. “Glad we ended up in the same damn hole in the ground, Buck.”

“Like you wouldn’t have found your way in through some ventilation shaft, maybe you’d dig right through the walls.” Gale squeezed his shoulder. “C’mon, there’s gotta be something that’s more fun than staring at the ceiling.”

“Gonna have to get used to the ceilings in here, might as well start now.”

“Wise-ass. You’ve got time, you can do that later. Isn’t that the whole point of these things anyway?” Gale held out a hand, which John took, letting himself be pulled off of the sofa. Gale gave him a pat on the back, “C’mon. Maybe they’ve got smokes in this joint, just make sure you do it next to the vent or something.”

Gale made good points. Though they were solid reminders that John wouldn’t feel the wind through his hair for another, what? Ten, fifteen years? When they opened the doors back up, he wondered if there’d even be planes out there to fly. More likely than not, the America he knew was gone.

He’d joined the military for his country, at first. He’d stayed for men like Buck. For Buck, he thought sometimes. Well, if he couldn’t have America then by god he’d keep Gale.

~

#playing fast and loose with fallout canon and mota canon for my own personal gain #again this wasn’t planned. though. the luztoye fallout au is 100% planned #and 75% likely to be completed #conceptually multiple BoB ships fit within it but they’re not interconnected #so uh. yeah #feel free to chit-chat about fallout. hbowar. hbowar fallout ‘verse #mota #clegan #john bucky egan #gale buck cleven #fallout au