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“Wait, hold on a second,” Lucy calls after Cooper as the pair continue their seemingly endless and torturous trek through the desert under the hot, unforgiving sun.
“Uh uh, sweetheart, no more pit stops,” Cooper replies, though his pace slows as he turns back to her and Four. “If you wanna catch up to yo’ daddy, we gotta keep movin’.”
Lucy stoops down on one knee, beckoning Four toward her, scratching her behind the ear before gazing back up at Cooper. “We can afford one tiny break. She needs to cool down. You know dogs can’t regulate their temperature like we can…or I can anyway,” she finishes with a shrug. She’s not exactly sure how the anatomy of ghouls work. At least not about that .
“As matter of fact I do know. A helluva lot more ‘an you do, vaultie , seein’ as how I’m the only one of us who’s ever had a dog,” Cooper replies as he watches Lucy take some water out of her pack, pouring it into her cupped hand, allowing the dog to lap it up.
“Good, then you know we need to take a break,” Lucy says, smirking up at him.
“All right, fine,” he drawls, dropping his things, kicking up a cloud of dirt as they hit the ground. He, too, then stoops down, grabbing his canteen before he stands again. Looking around at the wide, expansive desert around them, he takes a small sip of his water, not wanting to use too much.
It might be beautiful, he thinks, if it weren’t so goddamn hot. Even as barren as it is, there is something to it. Something to be admired. Just what that something is, he doesn’t figure out before he sees a flash of rope in front of him, then feels it tugged taught around his body, his arms pinned to his side.
“I can’t believe that worked!” Lucy nearly shouts, a touch of amused glee in her tone.
Coop looks down at the rope around him and feels a heat rise in his face and neck and not out of anger. A warmth pools in his belly that he tries to quiet as he turns within the rope encircling him to face her with a smirk.
“Real nice, sweetheart but usually that’s used on a movin’ target, not someone just standin’ around,” Cooper says, his accent thick, smirk growing as she tugs on the rope, tightening it and reeling him in slowly. He plays along, taking a slight step forward.
“So you’re saying I caught you off your guard?” she asks, giving the rope another gentle tug. And she gives him a smirk right back.
She likes her power trips, this one , Cooper thinks as he lets her pull him in some more. “While I was standin’ here, mindin’ my own business? Yes .” Not exactly a difficult feat when he hadn’t even been looking her direction.
“Just like sneakin’ up on a wild filly,” Lucy says, even going so far as to make an attempt and mimicking his accent. It’s passable at best. She tugs on the rope again.
Coop lets out a huff of laughter. “Not at all like sneakin’ up on a wild filly since they tend to be kickin’ and buckin’ by this point,” he says, still allowing her to tug him closer step by step.
She smiles at him, tugging again. “I’m almost surprised you aren’t.”
“Maybe I’m just tryin’ that whole ‘ be nice ’ bullshit yer always goin’ on about.” By now she’s reeled him all the way in, barely a foot between them as he grins down at her.
Now that he’s within arm’s reach, she takes her hands and finds the knot, pushing it to tighten the rope’s grip around him. With a wide grin, she looks up at him and says, “ Nice doesn’t always mean complaisant .”
“Well now, sweetheart, I never said I was any good at it.”
Lucy lets out a soft hum. “We can’t all do it like me. Takes years of practice.”
“Sounds like bitter work, not sure I’m up for it,” he quips, barely restraining a grin of his own. He’s enjoying whatever this is as much as she is.
“Nothing worth having ever comes easy.”
For a moment he’s at a loss for words, looking back down at her with a particular sort of hunger in his eyes. And he knows damn well she can see it, but there’s nothing he can do to hide that. She’s pushed all his right buttons.
“Guess I gotta be nice, now you got me at your mercy.”
“ Thee Ghoul is at my mercy? Kinda like the sound of that,” she says, looking back up at him, a particular look of her own in those big brown eyes of hers.
“Lucky for me then that you’re the benevolent sort.”
Lucy narrows her eyes playfully. “You think so, huh?” She tightens the rope a little tighter.
“Oh, I know so,” he says, now with a wide, unrestrained smirk. After all, she said that she’d never be like him.
With her grin still in place, she cocks her head to the side, taking the rope in her hands, moving the loop up his body and over his shoulders until it’s around his neck where she pulls it taught once again. Smirking, she replies, “are you sure ?”
“I ain’t much of a bettin’ man but I’d call on that,” he answers, a huskiness creeping into his voice as he smirks right back.
Lucy says nothing in response, only wraps the slack of rope around her fist, giving it an experimental tug.
“This is startin’ to feel a bit like payback, vaultie.”
“I think you bad guy types would call it revenge .”
“And I thought you good guy types were above all that.”
“That’s why we prefer to use the term justice .”
Cooper’s smirk widens. “And has justice been served or you got more for me, sweetheart?”
Again she remains quiet, smirking as she turns to gather their things, rope still in her hand. Then, just as wordlessly, she begins to walk away, tugging Cooper along behind her, rope slung over her shoulder. She’s not quite finished with him yet but they’ll need a place to camp first.