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‘I’ve gotta hand it to you, friend,’ Nick said. ‘You sure picked an excellent day for it.’
For once, Valentine wasn’t deadpanning. The sun had been scorching since midday, and now that it was setting, left a pleasant warmth and sweet orange glow hanging over everything. Ideal conditions for eating outdoors.
‘I figured we could all use a celebration,’ Nate said cordially. ‘It’s been so hard… and it feels like we never have anything positive to celebrate. But the downfall of the Institute? We did that. We fucking did that, and now a lot of people’s lives are going to be the better for it.’
‘Hear, hear!’ cried Piper.
‘Well fuckin’ said,’ added Cait.
‘Throughout my time in the modern-day Commonwealth I’ve come across a few old world treasures… and they can’t be saved forever, so I thought this would be a good chance to share them. We’ve got some delicious food, and a case of sparkling wine from almost three hundred years ago! Mac, if you’d like to do the honours…’
‘Way ahead of you, babe,’ MacCready said, holding the first bottle in front of his body and prising the cork out with both thumbs.
‘Everybody duck,’ Deacon joked. Preston and Piper actually did.
The cork popped out and flew the length of the table, mercifully not taking out any unlucky eyes or teeth. It would have been a shame, Nate mused to himself, to have survived the siege on the Institute only to die like this.
They cheered, and MacCready set to filling everybody’s glasses. Codsworth approached Nate, not sure whether or not this was his cue.
‘Mister Nate! Am I to bring the platters to the dining table, now?’
‘Yes, thank you Codsworth, that would be great.’
‘Excellent!’ he chirped, and floated away to the cooking fire. He returned with a number of dishes and platters, humming My Country ‘Tis of Thee to himself.
‘This looks great,’ Preston commented sincerely as the food was presented to them.
‘You oughta thank your robot butler for me, guy,’ Cait said to Nate.
‘I am right here,’ Codsworth said pointedly.
‘Uh, right. Well. Thanks I guess,’ she said awkwardly, and started eating without waiting for anyone else.
‘This isn’t poisoned or anything, is it?’ Deacon asked as Codsworth set food down in front of him. ‘It’s just I have a very sensitive stomach sometimes, and I’ve tried robot cooking before…’
‘I can assure you it is prepared to the highest possible standard given the facilities I had available to me,’ Codsworth said with only the barest hint of humour. ‘Just be careful you don’t choke on it,’ he added quietly as he floated away.
Hancock looked at Deacon and grinned. ‘You sure you have the table manners to behave yourself at an event like this, Deacon?’
‘I think dining etiquette might have had a few updates since you picked it up in the 18th century, Hancock,’ he fired back.
‘Come on now, boys,’ Nate said, glaring at them both. ‘I know some of us have our differences, but today isn’t about that. Let’s just have some food and have fun, yeah?’ He took his place at the head of the table, with MacCready on his left. He picked up his knife and fork, ready to begin eating, but MacCready nudged him gently with one elbow. He was indicating at Nate’s champagne flute with his eyes.
‘Oh, right,’ Nate said aloud, and replaced his knife and fork. Picking up his glass, he tried to begin a speech. ‘So, uh… I guess we made it? I want to thank you all, for… for everything you did to help, um…’ God, he was no good at this sort of thing. ‘Not just for the direct action and extra firepower, I mean. Though obviously I’m grateful for that. It’s just…
‘After I was woken up, finding Shaun and avenging my wife were the only two things occupying my mind. And neither of them turned out to be as simple as I had hoped. It turned out I’d accidentally gotten swept up in this whole plot, so much bigger and scarier than me… and after I saw the state of the future? I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually think I’d survive this long. And now that my past is resolved… I was worried for a while that if I got to this point, there’d be nothing keeping me alive anymore. Everything, everyone else I knew is gone. But now that I’m here, on the other side of it all… there’s you. There’s all of you. I might have started out in a wasteland full of strangers, but I haven’t ended up in one. So, thank you. For that.’
The faces of his friends were warm, smiling with admiration. He raised his glass, and they followed suit. ‘To friendship,’ he toasted.
‘To Nate!’ Preston corrected, louder. The others cheered, and they drank.
The food was exquisite, as far as post-war cuisine went. It was definitely the best meal Nate had enjoyed in over two hundred years.
‘So, Nate,’ Piper asked after a minute of silent dining. ‘You said we were all helpful in taking down the Institute. Who was the most helpful?’
Deacon scoffed. ‘Not you, sweetheart.’
‘Hey!’
‘I’m just saying, I provided some pretty key intel on the Institute that helped us get inside…’
‘But it was the Minutemen who actually stormed the place,’ Preston pointed out.
‘Lots of us did,’ Cait added. ‘An’ I reckon my kill count was highest, thank you very much.’
‘Look, look, I wasn’t being serious,’ Piper said, laughing, as she saw the potential for this to get raucous. ‘I mean, we all knew who Nate was going to pick, anyway.’
Nate blushed and MacCready preened as the others murmured in agreement. All of them except for one, anyway.
‘Who do you mean?’ Danse asked.
Everyone looked at him. He continued to chew his food, oblivious.
‘Uh… I meant…’ Piper nodded towards MacCready.
Danse looked over at him, and back again. ‘The mercenary? I’m sure he’s good with a rifle, but so are most of us. I’m not sure of your point.’
‘Hey, I was with him every step of the way!’ MacCready piped up, defending his honour.
‘Providing plenty of moral support, huh?’ Hancock asked suggestively.
‘You know it,’ MacCready teased with a shit-eating grin. ‘Sometimes twice a day.’ Nate buried his face in his hands while they laughed good-heartedly.
‘Yes, but we have all offered our moral support on this difficult journey,’ Danse said, and everyone fell silent again. MacCready was practically glowing with delight as he realised that Danse didn’t know.
Piper, who was sitting opposite Danse, decided to broach the subject first. ‘So, ya know, when we say “moral support”… we weren’t actually talking about moral support, right? We meant…’
She waved her hand vaguely, hoping Danse would catch on without her having to spell it out. He stared blankly, waiting for her to finish her sentence.
‘We meant he was takin’ him up the arse,’ Cait filled in. Nate spluttered, choking on his food.
‘I love you, Cait,’ MacCready said with a beam.
‘Back at ya, handsome,’ she said, and they linked fingers for a moment over the dinner table.
‘I understand,’ Danse said. ‘I was not aware that the two of them were romantically involved.’
‘I can’t believe you didn’t know,’ MacCready chuckled, spearing some more omelette onto his fork.
‘How did you not know?’ Preston asked Danse.
Danse looked around the rest of the table. ‘Was I the only one not aware of their relationship?’
There were more murmurs of agreement. ‘I’ve known since Nate told me, quite a while ago,’ Piper said.
‘I knew by how keenly they insisted on not having separate beds when they were staying at the Hotel Rexford,’ Hancock said.
Nick, who was smoking rather than eating, stubbed out his cigarette. ‘I’ve known since I walked in on them being a couple on my desk once,’ he said with a sour look.
‘Again, very sorry about that…’ Nate said quietly.
‘I knew from their terms of endearment?’ Deacon said. ‘He calls Nate “babe” all the time. He’s called him that, like, ten times so far tonight.’
‘I assumed it was an in-joke,’ Danse rationalised, and Deacon rolled his eyes.
‘Well I knew from the moment I saw ‘em,’ Cait said, not one to be outdone. ‘First met ‘em in the Combat Zone. Jesus, they were absolutely stinkin’ o’ sex.’ Nate choked on his food again.
‘Sorry, sir-captain-sir,’ MacCready grinned at Danse. ‘Looks like you were the only one who didn’t find it obvious. Oh, hang on, that technically isn’t everyone. Hey, Codsworth!’ he shouted across the Starlight Drive In to the hut that Codsworth had retreated into.
‘Oh God, please no,’ Nate moaned into his hands, but it was no use.
‘Sir?’ came the response.
‘Did you know I was sleepin’ with your owner?’
‘But of course, sir! You don’t spend a year living with a man and his family without learning what puts a certain kind of smile on his face.’
The others laughed again, and MacCready seemed satisfied. One final thought occurred to him – he shouted: ‘Dogmeat?’
From somewhere, there was an affirmative bark.
‘I guess that settles it,’ MacCready said. ‘Literally everyone.’
‘Alright, alright,’ Nate insisted, putting his foot down. ‘That’s enough talk about my sex life while I’m trying to enjoy this very rare and expensive dinner that I put together.’ He glared at each of them in turn, daring them to challenge him.
‘Our sex life, babe,’ MacCready corrected with a smirk.
‘Not for much longer if you keep it up,’ he sneered, but it was an empty threat and they both knew it.
After a few moments of returning to silent dining, Danse spoke again. ‘I am sorry if I disturbed the mood with my questioning. I merely found it surprising that I didn’t already know. But now that I do know, I won’t make the same faux-pas again.’
‘That’s alright, Danse,’ MacCready offered. ‘I know you don’t know too much about inter-personal relationships, but I’ll fill you in on the details after dinner if you like.’
Danse nodded gratefully, apparently unaware that MacCready was being glib.
The rest of the meal was finished at a gentle pace, none of them wanting to spoil the rare food and drink by eating too fast. The sun was finally setting, their shadows stretching the whole length of the old parking lot.
‘That was just as good as it looked,’ Hancock said.
‘You’re tellin’ me. Jesus, I’m stuffed,’ Cait said.
‘I’m glad you all liked it,’ Nate said happily. He looked over their contented faces, and stopped on Danse, whose expression was harder to read.
‘Danse?’ he asked, worried he hadn’t enjoyed the food.
Danse snapped out of his train of thought and looked over at him. ‘Oh, yes. I was just wondering – which one of you is the top?’