Okay for the kiss fic prompt we’ve got “forcefully,” and “out of envy or jealousy.” Glad you gave me a little more perspective here because taken out of context that could go very dark. That said enjoy some more Sean Drake with the lovely Courier Six. I’m sorry this prompt ran away with me and became more than I’d planned.
Their first week on the Strip was relatively uneventful. The group of four spent most of their time relaxing after the journey and getting gear together for the next battle to come. After Boone had gotten too drunk and shut himself in a room at the Tops alone, for whatever reason, Seleyna had turned her attention to him. Maybe it was to make the sniper jealous, Sean didn’t know, but at the time he wasn’t about to question it.
It had been a few weeks since then, and things were beginning to come to a head. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his head and it was beginning to piss him off. Especially when she still seemed more interested in getting Boone to give up his self-imposed celibacy than she was in exploring feelings he knew she had to be feeling too. He understood getting lost in passion, but the kiss they’d shared afterwards as they lay in the master suite of the Lucky 38… that wasn’t just being lost in passion. He couldn’t accept that.
“Drake, pay attention.” Boone quipped at him from the folding chair a few feet to his left. Sean waved a hand at him dismissively and returned his gaze to the floor. Seleyna would put him where she wanted him whenever the NCR official was finished. Didn’t matter to him what they were doing.
Sean returned to his brooding, easily blocking out the rest of the world. After a while Sean noticed other rangers leaving their chairs, and he looked up to find a very unhappy look on Boone’s face. Cass was staring daggers at Seleyna, who was still in conversation with Colonel Hsu.
“What?” Sean groused at the sniper. “Somebody kick the stick you’ve got wedged up your ass?” Boone sneered at him but didn’t answer, just jerking his head towards the other two.
After a few minutes, Seleyna approached the pair. “Alright, you two ready?” She asked with that cocky smirk of hers that was starting to grow on him.
“Ready, right, of course I am.” Sean replied with a firm nod.
“You weren’t paying attention were you?” Boone answered for him with a shake of his head, and Seleyna heaved a sigh that spoke of long suffering - rather than the month and a half they’d actually known each other. “Okay, you better be paying attention now. You and I are going to be tracking down a Legion raid party to see if anyone they took is still breathing. Boone is providing covering fire for an assault on Cottonwood Cove.”
“Wait, why am I going with you and not a ranger? I’m an alright tracker, but wouldn’t they be better?” Sean couldn’t believe his luck, and he couldn’t believe he was saying this since she might change her mind, but he felt it necessary.
“I trust you over an NCR soldier, and Boone’s a better shot than you at longer ranges.” She replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Boone’s scowl deepened almost imperceptibly, and Cass rolled her eyes before leaving the room after the rangers.
“Right. Okay.” Sean nodded. “We should get moving then. The longer we wait the lower their chances get.” Seleyna nodded and leaned over to give their grumpy sniper a kiss on the cheek. Boone was surprised by it, and it showed. Seleyna walked out and the man turned to Sean.
“Keep her alive, merc.” He said in his typically gravelly voice, the barest edge of a threat hidden in the timbre.
Sean snorted and bumped shoulders with the ex-soldier as he followed Seleyna out. “As if you could do better, soldier boy.”
“A few males are alive still, but I doubt they’ll survive their injuries. They’ve taken a hell of a beating. Looks like they killed the women last night, probably looking at their punishment.” Sean lowered the binoculars from his eyes and put them back in his pack.
As Sean looked back at Seleyna, he saw her angrily fingering her assault carbine. “Our mission is a bust. We still gonna take the risk or should we pull back?” He questioned lightly, already knowing the answer.
“We’re killing them. If we don’t, they’ll keep raiding, killing, enslaving, until someone else does. And all the lives between then and now that are lost would be our fault.” She always spoke with such conviction, like a leader should. “Get close stealthily if you can. Don’t attack until I’m firing, want their attention on me when those forty-fours of yours start barking.”
Sean nodded and moved towards the camp silently, not allowing his mind to wander to their trip here - where she’d treated him like nothing had happened. It made his blood boil, perfect for this job.
At almost the exact time Sean reached the nearest tent, Seleyna’s assault carbine started firing. He heard one legionnaire shout in pain before a commanding voice began barking orders. Sean listened to the sounds of frantic men getting battle ready for a few seconds before turning the corner with his shotgun in hand.
The first blast blew off the right arm of a legionnaire who’d just drawn his blade. The second and third both caught the Decanus in his chest. Sean was lost in the carnage until he felt a searing heat on his ear. He spun around to see a legion recruit fall with blood spurting from a wound in his neck, and he sent up a silent thanks to his boss before switching to his matched pair of revolvers and continuing to fire.
The sounds of shouting and gunfire eventually quieted, leaving only groans and the occasional bark as Sean executed the wounded. Seleyna had given Med-X to the men after determining their internal wounds to indeed be fatal. It was a wasteful comfort, but it said something about their dynamic. Him roaming the battlefield killing anyone still breathing while she eased the passing of the slaves.
Eventually all the dead were really dead, and Sean moved into the command tent where he’d seen Seleyna go after her part in the carnage was done. He found her there, still bloody from the fight, and he couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds. He’d never met a woman who could match him, but here was Seleyna, ready to do everything he could - and do it better too - just to prove she could. Not even to prove it to him either, but to prove it to herself. Maybe that was why it actually impressed him.
“What’s that bald bastard got that I don’t?” And thus, Sean let out what he’d been dying to say this whole trip. “He’s still in love with his wife, who is long dead and gone by the way, and yet you pine after him. Then I’m standing right here, right the fuck beside you whenever you need me, and a better fit for you for that matter. So what the fuck is it? Is it the beard? I’ll shave it I don’t care.”
Seleyna’s mouth had dropped open at his first sentence, but it had quickly shut as she pursed her lips. Sean knew before she opened her mouth, she was pissed off. Unfortunately, he was still too slow to dodge the slap that caught him in the ear, which still stung. Reaching a hand up, Sean found his fingertips bloody. She’d nicked him when she saved his life.
“First, you have no right to talk about his wife that way. You’ve hardly made an effort to get to know him. Second, you don’t know what a good fit for me is, so don’t try to tell me. And finally, no, the beard is fine. Because we aren’t together, and we won’t be.”
Sean was still reeling from the slap, so her words felt like a punch in the stomach. He scowled, turned, and flipped over the table upon which had sat the Legion’s radio. He couldn’t stop himself at this point and everything that flowed from his mouth was raw and unfiltered.
“Why, Seleyna? Why won’t we be?” As he spoke, Sean slowly closed the distance Seleyna had put between them after striking him. “Because I know you felt it. You hide it so well even I can’t see it, but you can’t fake a kiss like that. You felt it too, but somehow I’m still not enough.”
Sean wrapped an arm around Seleyna’s waist and pulled her to him for a kiss where he tried to say everything his words couldn’t. She kissed him back, for a moment, and then she pushed him away.
“Fuck!” Sean swore as he kicked at the dirt. “Fuck, Seleyna. I love you, you fucking asshole.” Sean reached into his pack as he stormed outside and fished out a cigarette.
The sun set on a silent plain. Sean spent the evening chain smoking among the corpses, and Seleyna spent the evening in the tent. He didn’t know what she was doing, but every now and again he would feel eyes on him. When he’d turn, the flap of the command tent would quickly flutter closed.
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