#fluff bomb

He laughed as he crossed through the tattered first floor seats, headed towards the back staircase when he realized she had made no move to come down. When he arrived on the second story, the floorboards creaked beneath his feet and he moved swiftly away from the edge, sitting down in the pew next to her.

He glanced down at the time on her wrist. “Can’t sleep?”

“Can’t sleep,” she confirmed with a nod, leaning back into her spot. “I’m starting to think I got all the sleep I’ll ever get in that damn vault.”

Deacon frowned, though he hid that from her when she glanced at him. He knew her struggles—had seen them firsthand in their travels over the last several months—even though she wasn’t always so keen on divulging every little trauma she was suffering through since waking up. She was always cold, always tired, and despite his best efforts to make her laugh, there was a certain kind of sadness to her eyes. He knew Charmer missed her old life, missed her husband, her child—but he couldn’t, and would never blame her.

He wanted to be a good partner, a good friend—more than friend? Shit, it was complicated. He wasn’t going to think about that right now. Instead he offered a small grin, patting his shoulder. “I make an excellent pillow.”

“Is it because you’re full of yourself?” she teased, still moving to rest her head against him.

Deacon let out a quiet chuckle, slightly adjusting the two so she was situated more comfortably against him. The light on Charmer’s Pip-Boy dimmed and Deacon thought about the last time he had sat in such comfortable silence with anybody. He was used to being by himself, it was easier that way, alone in his sniper perch until he spotted that blue vault suit crawling its way through Concord. When she exhaled, he glanced down at the top of her head.

“You asleep?” he asked, just above a whisper.

She snuggled closer against his shoulder, a few strands of her strawberry blonde hair catching against his mouth. “Mmmyes.”

“Oh,” he pulled the hairs away, tucking them back into place. “So you’re just talking in your sleep now?”

“I’ve always talked in my sleep,” she responded groggily, not bothering to open her eyes. Though, she did ever so slightly tilt her chin into his touch.

He softly laughed. “You should confess your deepest desires to me, this could be the perfect opportunity to blame it on your loose lips.”

Charmer hummed in thought, taking a little bit longer to reply. She placed her hand against his chest and sighed. “I want…chocolate.”

Deacon made a mental note of that, wrapping his arm around her to tuck her closer as her breathing evened out, body going still against him. It was a more than welcome weight, and a much-needed comfort. He hesitated, not wanting to wake her as he tilted his head against hers, taking a selfish moment to inhale the sweet scent of her.

“Asleep now?”

Charmer didn’t respond. Good, he thought. There were worse places to fall asleep in the Wasteland—less dusty ones of course. But in that moment, Deacon couldn’t think of any better place to be but there.

x - x

She began to smile into the pillow, because she was starting to wake up enough to realize what he was doing. "Hmm. Remind me?""

"Because it's our wedding day!" He leapt off the bed and did a shimmy around the room, singing, hey baby, I think I wanna marry you

Since he wasn't jostling the mattress anymore, she rolled over and smiled at him.

He finished the verse and dropped down to rest his chin on the edge of the mattress. "Hi," he said softly.

She cupped his face in her hand. "Hi back."

"You excited?"

"Of course. I'm just still half-asleep, too."

"Coffee's almost ready."

"When did you do that?"

"Uh, somewhere in the second verse, I think?"

She leaned over and kissed him, lightly because neither of them had brushed their teeth yet. "I'm so excited," she said. "This is going to be my life. You waking me up at an ungodly hour of the morning, jumping on the bed. How am I so excited about that?"

"Not every day," he said, climbing over her to sit on the open space of the bed again. "I know how much you like sleeping in. Just special occasions. Christmas morning, the first day of vacation, opening day of all the Star Wars movies, the kids' first day of school - "

"On the kids' first day of school, you'll cry so hard you'll barely be able to take pictures," she said.

"Probably," he acknowledged, and crooned, Just say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, and we'll go go go go go

She reached up and grabbed his raggedy sleep shirt, tugging until he collapsed next to her on the bed, and kissed him deeper, unbrushed teeth be damned. Their arms wound around each other.

My husband, she thought, giddy, tangling her fingers in his hair. This man is going to be my husband.

"Hey, baby," she whispered.

"Hmmmmm?" he said, nuzzling noses with her.

"I think I wanna marry you."

GIF couldn’t handle all this fluff so I made it a video. Ruined some of the timing, but it’s still decent. Enjoy everyone! Belated happy holidays to all the BillDip fans out there!

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