Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 37: Game Of Thrones

When Danse offered to escort Kelly to Maxson's quarters, she had thought he was just being gentlemanly and feeling full of chivalry after they had just renewed their partnership. But the next few moments proved that he had an underlying agenda, and that she had severely underestimated his level of social tact.

Kelly thumped her fist once on the hatchway. "It's Harper." She wondered why Danse was still hovering on her six.

"Enter," Maxson's gruff voice ricocheted out.

She let herself in, Maxson standing from his central table to turn a tolerant look on her, only for it to then divert over her shoulder to Danse standing in the hatchway, purposefully preventing Kelly from shutting him out. The Elder tilted his head with dry curiosity.

"Danse, this is a private meeting with Harper. If you would excuse us..."

Danse nodded along with his words until he could speak. "I came to offer my assistance, Elder, if this meeting is in fact in regards to the alliance with the Minutemen." When Maxson didn't deny the purpose of the meeting, Danse straightened his stance and secured his hands behind his back, much like Maxson did so often, canting his chin the slightest. "I believe my experience with both forces could be an assistance in negotiating the groundwork of strategic deployment."

Kelly gaped at him for a moment, then twisted back to see Maxson's reaction. He was carefully analyzing Danse, eyes faintly narrowed as he held the silence with his unearthly calculation. No wonder Danse had braced himself like that.

"Very well," Maxson eventually granted, albeit with a wary note. His eyes were still fixed on Danse even as he pivoted back towards the table, a gloved hand gesturing to usher Kelly over. She moved around the table to peer down upon an array of paper scrolls, leather clad notebooks, several small maps, and a much larger chart splayed beneath it all. It was titled REGION VP1D, presumably in reference to Vault Prototype: 1D. Upon closer inspection, Kelly spied a secondary title in fine print beneath: Rad Land. She bit down on a smirk. Maxson really despised the dub and had obviously protested against having it labelling everything in giant, obnoxious print. She decided not to tell him that the raiders themselves called the region the Blood Lands.

Instead of trailing her eyes across the lay of the region, her peripherals followed Danse as he quietly moved across the room, taking up position at the far end of the table. Part of her recognized this as a habitual move for him, allowing him to directly face the hatchway and have clear line of sight in the unlikely event they were attacked—he was just that hypervigilant. But the other part of her recognized his overall agenda of even being here in the first place.

All three of them knew that Maxson was hailed as a brilliant tactician and didn't need a 'strategic advisor,' as Danse had played himself up as to get in here. As far as Kelly knew, the Paladin was rarely involved in deployment analytics of this scale at all.

Yes, all three of them knew why he was really here: to try and keep the peace.

For whatever reason, he had decided to take it upon himself to mediate her and Maxson, and although Kelly felt a spike of irritation that she would now feel the need to censor her tongue, she also felt reassurance pooling in her stomach to ease her tension at simply being in the same room as Maxson. The Elder must feel the same way about her, because his tolerance of Danse butting in on their meeting was surprising.

Secretly, Kelly was impressed by how the well-disciplined Paladin had insinuated his way in here like that.

You slick devil.