Currently obsessing over Fallout (TV) and how wonderfully adapted it is to the game (imo). Since I’ve got it bad for the hot melted ghoul, here’s a little period/comfort fic since my uterus has it out for me. Happy new year :p
notes: yeah Sooo hello yap city! This is lowkey a self insert… but hey! My page, my blog, my fixation, my fic.
Cooper had run around with you for about two months: never settling, almost dying every day, and finding comfort in your presence. You were born topside but hadn’t traveled until you received word that you had a brother. Long story short, no one would go with you so you started the solo trip. You ended up ‘hiring’ the ghoul for protection from the deadly creatures you’d had the pleasure of not experiencing.
You’d found him, met him, and decided you were not interested in staying with him. By then, a week and a half had passed and the ghoul let you hunt bounties with him as long as you kept getting him discounts on RadAway and RadX.
But you’d convinced him to play house for a couple days at a pretty well maintained residence… and so he did. Go out during the day and do whatever it is he had to do before coming back and bringing you materials to make food. For two days, you convinced him to stay.
Two days of asking him about the life he led before the war, playing cards, sleeping in a bed (dusty as all get out, but it was still a mattress!), and getting further past that wall you knew he had up. It was the evening of the second night you had reluctantly agreed to leave: you stood up and stretched as violently as always before ambling to the window and peeking out the cracked glass over the sink.
“Part of me hates how much I hate my life when I’m more able bodied than half them people,” you spoke aloud, words aimed at nobody in particular.
You heard his footsteps come up behind you and felt… odd. A bizarre feeling, truly, to feel eased at the mere presence of someone who would trade you for a pot of stew. He peered out the window too before leaning against the counter saying “Lead a life of hatin’ yourself, sweetheart, ‘n you’re gonna kill yourself ‘fore anyone pulls a trigger.” He must have seen the quirk of your brow even though it was dark. He sighed and tried again. “I’m not good at this no more, darlin’, but… all we’re going to do is die in the end. You sure as shit are too nice in a world like this, but in the end, everyone is gonna end up like that dust out there. So you can survive and lose sleep over what people can and can’t do, or you live ‘n do everythin’ you can do put some kinda meaning into your life. Or whatever. Hell. Go to bed,” he cursed, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.
You glanced at the ghoul and found that a small smile had pulled at your lips while he did his best to comfort you. “Good night,” you murmured tiredly, patting the ghoul’s jacketed arm twice as you yawned and made your way upstairs. Sleep had turned you so bleary, you missed the way Cooper blinked intently at the spot your hand has been moments before you walked away.
The next morning was a nighmare. You woke up to a pain in your stomach— sharp enough to wake you from some dream about an actual non-radiated beach. It wasn’t light out yet so you stumbled carelessly to the bathroom and slid to ground in front of the unused toilet. You rested your forhead against your forearm that was on the toilet seat. You were still dreary when a sharper wave of pain terrorized your stomach: sharp enough to elicit a choked exhale from you.
“Fuck’re you doin?” Came a voice from outside the open door.
Wet dribbled down your cheeks as you pushed your head into your forearm and gritted your teeth. “Hurts,” you choked out, rigid body unmoving.
“Sick? Shot? Constipated? What the hell is wrong?” The ghoul asked again as he stepped closer.
You were damn well awake now: breathing slowly so you didn’t hyperventilate. Biologically, you were usually under enough stress with insufficient sustenance for your period. Now, though, you would go as far as to assume your body figured it was safe enough to get those eggs out of you. Boy were you paying for all those months you missed. “I can’t move,” you said, cramps easing for now. “It- fuck, it hurts.”
“What hurts?” He asked again, more confused than he had ever been with you. The ghoul approached your shaking form with caution.
“My stomach. It- can you-“ you swallowed a sigh of relief as the pain eased slightly further- “pick me up and take me back to the room? Please?”
“Course I can, princess. Let your obedient servant escort you to your room at once,” he muttered sarcastically. Though his usual snark and annoyance was noticeably absent. He slipped his hand under your knees and over your back. When Cooper pulled you up, your eyes screwed shut and you almost squirmed out of his hand. Cooper felt useless and annoyed and confused because what the hell was wrong with you when you were just find the night before?
You practically melted into the bed when you came in contact with it again— falling to your side and curling into yourself like a shrimp. You could have rolled your eyes at the ghoul’s dry “you’re welcome” as he turned on his heel.
“Stay.”
The ghoul stopped. Silent.
“You have warm hands. I need heat. I’m sorry,” you rushed, back facing away from him. “I just… I think it’s my uh… cycle… and I don’t have any stuff and I-“
Cooper watched your curled up form shake with tears and embarrassment and pain and felt a little dumb that he didn’t assume earlier. Menstruation cycles sure weren’t a problem for him, and after so much time being a male in a world of isolation and other males and women that didn’t talk about their cycles made him forget about that. But he remembered now: how Barb often gravitated toward the warmth of the house (usually Copper because he did run hot) and became either emotionally blunt or incredibly sensitive. Yes.
Cooper found his chest meeting your back as he situated his legs comfortably behind your own. He rested his arm against the dip of your side to position in a way that eased the pain in your stomach. Despite the hot climate, your hands were cold and Cooper could only assume that meant you were a cold person as well.
After a stretching moment of silence, you shivered slightly as you exhaled deeply leaned into the ghoul’s body heat. Both of your hands pressed your makeshift heating pad close to your body as you started to calm down. “Thank you.”
Cooper felt you relaxing into him— physically leaning into him and curling your fingers around his larger hand— and he let himself breathe. “Good night, princess,” he murmured quietly.