Falloutober day 2: Dream
I’m gonna be working on these prompts well into November, but I’m determined to get this October challenge done if it’s the last thing I do.
Prompts by @falloutober
***
The sticky feeling of the dough between her fingers was awful but it was easier with him. His own hands rest gently on top of her much smaller ones carefully guiding the heel of her palms into warm and fluffy dough. He prepared it that morning with her. She got to mix the yeast.
Fold, push, fold, push, fold, push…
“I’m so bad at this,” Haseya huffs in frustration. The chair under her creeks at the shift of her weight. The man behind her chuckles and squeezes her shoulders. She doesn’t hear him speak, it’s just noise to her, but she almost understands it.
Praise. Encouragement. A peck on the cheek. He holds her hands again and urges her to continue. A name is on the tip of her tongue, not her own but one that was special.
Push, fold, push, fold, push, fold…
Perfect. Mouse? Bird? What was the special name? The name of an animal.
He pulls her hands away from the counter. Hands at your side while the grown up cuts. He picked up the knife and chops the perfectly kneaded dough into the same sized chunks. She needs to be a little older to help with this part, for now he’ll do it.
Haseya can see him fully now. Deep golden skin and long black hair just like hers pulled back into a hair tie at the base of his neck. His face was blurry like his voice was static. ‘I know you. I don’t remember you.’ She thinks. How can something feel so familiar and so foreign at the same time?
‘Who are you?’
On a pan he places the dough chunks side by side and pushes them to the other side of the counter to her left where dozens of other pans just like that one wait to be baked in the small oven. Enough bread to feed the settlement.
The man scoops her up and squeezes her tight. She still couldn’t hear the words but he was happy with her. She did good. Haseya helped keep the people fed.
Her feet find the ground again and the man releases her with a few more peppered kisses across her face.
Bunny. He called her Bunny.
***
It was the pain that pulled her from the dream, so strong she cried out. Between her palms she squeezes her head, her eyes twist shut. The pills are in the bag right next to her, she could reach it but if she lets go her head might burst, fuck, fuck, FUCK-
“I got you, Haz,” Raul says softly, a careful hand on her back to let her know he’s there.
He digs into the pocket of her pack and pulls out an old mint tin that rattles with every motion. Medication gifted to her from Doc Mitchell to help her cope with the migraines. As carefully as he could Raul pushes one pill into her mouth and holds her canteen to her lips.
As she lay back down on her bedroll Raul draped his own coat, the one she helped him learn to love again, over her head to block out the fire light and maybe deafen the sounds of its crackle and Boone’s snores. Not a word was shared between them as Haz writhed in pain at his side waiting for it to fade again. Raul occasionally rubbed her back. Just a reminder to her that he was still there.
Raul knew the pain she was in. How hard it is to function when it was at its worst. There wasn’t much he could do to ease her pain, but whatever she asked of him he’d do it in a heart beat. Haseya would so the same for him.
Finally the pain subsided to a dull ache. It still hurt but at least she could sit herself up again and let go of her head. She handed back his coat and replaced it with sunglasses.
“You alright?” He finally asked, making sure to keep his voice soft.
“Better now. Thank you for the help.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
Silence fell over them again. The two watched the flames eat away at the wood just enjoying each other’s company. Raul didn’t want to ruin one of the few quiet moments the Mojave offered but he had to ask.
“What we’re you dreaming about?”
Haseya turned her head away from him. “Nothing,” she muttered.
“I doubt it was nothing. You were crying.”
“Just some old memories, tío.”
“Wanna talk about it?” She didn’t respond, retreating further into herself. “Whatever’s troubling you, I won’t tell a soul. This stays between you and me. At my age you learn it’s better to get the shit of your chest before it rots. Besides, you’ve heard plenty of my stories, it’d be nice to know some of yours.”
Haseya sighs and smiles, leaning to rest her head on Raul’s shoulder. She could never keep anything from him of all people. So she told him. Haseya recounted every detail she could remember from her dream while Raul sat there and just listened to her.
“Benny fractured my memories when he shot me,” she said, “Its not often but sometimes they come back to me in pieces except none of them fit together.”
“Not yet, at least,” Raul commented. “You keep getting pieces and eventually you’ll get one or two of them to match up.”
She hugs her knees to her chest, “Part of me doesn’t want them too. I wish the memories wouldn’t try to worm their way back into my mind. It’d just be easier that way.”
“And what happens to that part of you that you forget?”
Haseya tightens her fist. This wasn’t something she wanted to talk about. Those people in her past whose faces she can’t even remember are probably dead at best, taken by the Legion at worst. If they somehow have survived they’re waiting for her. Would they still accept her? Want her back? Haseya isn’t the same person she was, at least she doesn’t think she is. The Mojave is easier. The war is easier. Forgetting is easier.
Raul sighed, leaning his own weight into hers. “By the sounds of it, you had people. Maybe a family. The man you said was in your dreams, he might have been your dad. At the very least someone who took care of you. And when this whole Mojave war thing is done, if you want I’ll help you figure out what happened.”
At that she perked up, a look of surprise and a bit of confusion on her face. “You’d do that?”
“You kidding? Of course I would!” Raul said, playfully pushing her arm. “Mija, all the shit you got on your plate right now, the whole of Vegas riding on your actions, everything you’ve done for this little gaggle of assholes. I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked.”
With narrow eyes and a chuckle, she shook her head. “You’ll follow me to the ends of the earth but still make me pay you to fix my guns?”
“Eh, maybe I’ll offer you the friends and family discount.”
