Fallout!AU
Vaultie!Johnny who was among the first to volunteer when his Vault decided to open its door and learn about the outside. He was one of the first of his family in to step out onto the barren soil and irradiated air in 200-some-years. And he loved it.
He spends long periods away from the vault. Trading, exploring, maybe doing a little bit of killing and looting between it all. And of course, he shacked up with someone in just about every settlement he could find. His vault’s doctor did a valiant job trying to convince him to be celibate outside of the vault— what with all of the diseases those filthy waste landers might have— but his willpower lasted all of thirty seconds the first time he got propositioned.
The vault population was small, after all. And typically stuck-up. His options for action were limited.
But for all of his gallivanting, he knows that one day he’ll settle down, and it’ll be in the vault— same as his family has for generations. There’s no safer place, and he wants nothing but the best for his brood. Though, he’s not excited that it’ll likely be someone from his vault. The overseer might even put him in a match. It’s not like they’d ever let him bring some wastelander in.
That’s what he resigns himself to before he spots you.
Vault dwellers are a somewhat rare breed, for many reasons, but you have a knack for recognizing your own.
You’re not in your vault suit, like he is (he likes to take advantage of the fact that it makes people assume he’s soft-bellied and stupid). But you have that glow, and those curves, that hair— you’re someone who grew up with clean drinking water and a steady diet supplemented by pre-war fats, sugars, and carbs.
You don’t seem as happy as he is when he strikes up conversation, asking if you’re a vaultie, even though he knows the answer.
“I used to be.”
He thinks it must be fate, meeting you here in this dingy, ancient casino and bar. Suddenly he can see the future folding out in front of him.
You must miss the comfort of a vault. Even as much as he loves going out, he misses the ready access to a bar of soap and a hot shower.
And you look clean. You probably received inoculations, same as he did. His vault might not take in a wastelander, but another vault-tec citizen, radiation and disease free? They wouldn’t be able to refuse— they need the gene pool variety.
And if your hips are anything to go by… regardless of however long you’ve spent out in the wastes, you’re probably still fifty times more fertile than anyone else he could find topside.
The wasteland gave Johnny a lot of gifts. New seeds, guns, technology. New chems, alcohol, places for him to get his dick wet. But you might be the best present he’s ever gotten and will ever get from the outside world—
A wife.
You just don’t know it yet.