Chapter Text
“We have got to get him out of that Power Armor,” Hancock said.
Preston looked up from his rifle disassembled on the ground as Codsworth took to cleaning each part before neatly laying each piece of the ground between them. Curie looked up from the Stimpak ingredients that she was putting together to make the whole things for the infamous Sole Survivor’s adventures. Nick flick his cigarette to knock the ashes off, but was with Strong in ignoring the usually doped up Ghoul.
“Why do you want to get him out of it?” Preston finally asked after a long, grueling silence.
“Have any single one of you seen the man underneath?” Hancock asked.
There was another silence as the group mulled that question over, realizing the impact it had when they all realized that… no, they had not seen the General’s face once.
Preston, who seen him shortly after he de-thawed, had seen a man already bulked up with armor and a face hidden underneath a biker helmet. Curie had seen nothing but the Power Armor, along with Nick, Strong, Hancock, and the three other Companions that were elsewhere, MacCready, Piper and Cait. They had seen nothing but Power Armor of the man that they loyally followed. Just heard that warm and inviting voice and followed him for his various deeds.
“…no,” Preston muttered.
“And between you and me, Presy? Don’t you think the two guys that want to bang his brains out want should get to know what he looks like?” Hancock cackled perversely.
There was little secrecy about the affections the three men shared in this odd little triangle of theirs. While things were not as strong between Hancock and Preston, the General generally was very affectionate with the two men and they back to him. But that still did not stop the Minuteman from blushing ear to ear as Hancock chuckled at him.
“So what? You saying you’ve got a plan?” Preston snapped.
“I might… its risky and there might be repercussions though,” Hancock grinned.
“The last time you said that, you two of you came back higher than the Brotherhood’s goddamn air ship,” Preston quickly pointed out.
“I really don’t know what to say, I can’t fucking remember what happened, I was just as stoned,” Hancock said sheepishly “But I meant more physically… so we need Frenchy.”
“My name is Curie!” Curie snapped promptly, not fond of the nickname that the Ghoul was always trying to force on her.
“Hey, hey, alright, but we need your help. Don’t you want to see the man underneath the Power Armor?” Hancock grinned.
The robot hovered silently before muttering.
“Perhaps,”
“Alright, so we need you, and we need… the oil cans that the good old General has stocked in the workshop and… we need to move the turret by the river over like two feet and… Presy you need to be with me on this,”
A heinous sound drew Raymond’s attention from the bed he was putting together.
Standing up straight, and hearing the Power Armor that he was safely cocooned in shoot the compressed air and water to bend his legs, he stepped out of the ruined bedroom that he was trying to put together for more settlers, into the living room that he had just finished putting together, and leaned out the front door to see what that sound was. Hopefully it was not another Synth attack or Super Mutant raid, he just got back from slaughtering anything that the wasteland threw at him and just wanted to do something calming and not get shot at or struck with malicious force.
Looking around, he saw Curie zipping this way and that, humming some tune in that pretty voice of hers, sometimes flinging the arm with the buzzsaw attachment around.
“Curie? Curie!” He called, stepping out.
Curie almost crash into him in her wild maneuvers, but halted but a mere inch before him.
“Good afternoon!” She chimed… loudly.
“Curie, is something wrong? I could have Nick look at you if need be,” Raymond offered while the little robot bobbed before him.
“Hmm? Nothing iz wrong though! LOOK at ME fLY?” Curie said, drifting upwards.
“Curie?” He asked, more than a little worried.
“NOW!”
He heard the liquid flying through the air, and then heard it land on his armor, splattering it quite thoroughly as the smell hit him from the safety within.
“Hey! Is this…?”
Curie suddenly lit up her blowtorch.
“Did not think that it would be that flammable,” Hancock huffed as he and Preston ran towards the river, dodging the long trail of fire that lead there.
“If he’s hurt, you’re dead,” Preston snarled.
“Ah come on, the man’s can’t be hurt,” Hancock laughed breathlessly “He’s practically got a metal skeleton and is still wearing his power armor, remember?”
“That we lit on fire! How can I let you convince me to do this?” Preston snapped as they finally made it to the embankment.
There were glassy patches of sand where it looked like Raymond had stopped for several moments. Probably trying to get out of the armor, before dashing in where the big footprints lead to. They looked down the river where they saw the opened armor just underneath the bridge.
“Hey! Hey! Ray! You okay?” Preston called out as they ran down the river’s shore.
As they got closer, they heard heavy sputtering and coughing, like someone who just surface from deep swimming, and heard the General cussing softly along with the sounds of someone thrashing in the water.
“Shit, shit, that hurt, still stings like a bitch… what the hell got into Curie?” They heard him say as they walked around the other side of the bridge slowly, savoring the anticipation until they saw the man.
Preston hesitated just before he came into view, stiff and unsure, also anxious and nervous. So Hancock came up behind him, gripped his shoulder and shoved him forward with him so that they could see…
“Well now…” Hancock whistled as they looked at the man wading in waist deep water while prying bits of burnt clothing off himself “Presy…. Looks like we caught ourselves a bear of all things.”
Underneath that armor, Raymond was a thick and muscular man. Loose hair in a waterlogged and coming undone bun, pitch black even soaked, and a well kept beard. Where the clothing had been burned away or was being torn away from tender flesh, they saw that underneath Raymond was a hairy guy, and exceedingly well muscular.
“Hey, you guys,” Raymond said, shoving hair out of his face so that a pair of clear and youthful green eyes could see them fully, so oblivious to Preston standing there and blushing fifty shades of red and Hancock biting his lower lip eagerly “Can you go find Curie for me? She was acting weird and… guys?”
“I have a rather odd question,” Raymond said, stepping into a pair of spare pants as his companions ogled his brawny, muscular and hairy legs before they disappeared “Why didn’t you just ask to see me out of it?”
“And miss out on finding out your armor is flammable? Not a chance, love,” Hancock chuckled.
“Okay, but you nearly cooked me alive John, what would you have done if you cooked the flesh off my face?” Raymond asked while Codsworth fashioned together some leather into a new outfit for the man to wear.
“Well… there’s docs for that,” Hancock shrugged, “Plus with this face? You’d probably still be the handsome one in our little threesome.”
“Hey,” Preston snapped.
“…Have I just been that dodgy about showing people my face?” Raymond asked, taking the laborious task of getting the hair-band out of his hair to right the bun that had been wreaked with the escapade.
“Um, yeah,” Preston said “You had your face hidden when you met me…”
“I had already been exploring a week before I saw you,” Raymond retorted.
“No one sees you get out of the thing, not even to clean or repair it,” Hancock pointed out.
“Strong doesn’t like seeing me do anything with my Power Armor, so I take it out to the Red Rocket garage a bit away,” Raymond explained.
“Any subtle attempts to get you out of it fail,” Preston said.
“All those creepy attempts to get me out? You guys know I’m thick as a brick, you’ve got to be blunt with me,” Raymond pouted.
“Also, the plan may or may not be fueled by some Psycho,” Hancock confessed.
“John,” Raymond sighed.
“Just glad you’re alright,” Preston quickly covered, patting one of Raymond’s thick thighs.
“Alright? Man is damned fine, ufgh,” Hancock grinned perversely “Didn’t know we had our own resident bear crammed into that stupid tin can.”
“You keep calling him that…” Preston said.
“Its old world slang,” Hancock almost said proudly.
“For a rather hairy man that’s either muscular or really big or both and generally very gay,” Raymond said.
“…Weren’t you married? To a woman, though?” Preston asked.
“...I never said that my marriage was a happy one, or a willing one,” Raymond said pointedly.
“And besides? Two boy toys? That’s kinda really fucking gay,” Hancock cackled.
“Nah, just three guys being bi," Raymond chuckled shyly, face lighting up with a blush.
"Three dudes just being dudes," Hancock cackled while Raymond's face took on an adorable pink.
"I hate you both," Preston groaned, rubbing his face in exasperation at the two men.
"Ah come on Presy, I haven't said the line to pull out your respective junks yet," Hancock laughed.
It was here that Raymond's face turned red and he ended up walking away in embarrassment and where Preston soon joined him, shaking his head while Hancock laughed after them. When the Ghoul saw that they were really walking away, he jumped up and called out for them to wait, dashing after them and still cackling as the sun set on the wild wasteland.