Afire Love- Paladin Danse x Reader (COMPLETE)

the glowing sea, part 1

"Y/N, go back down. I'll work this out," Danse said calmly.
You opened your mouth to protest, but soon realized that you would rather be anywhere but here. You began to shuffle towards the hatch, but the girl stopped you. "You're staying here," she said blatantly. "I have a few questions."
You walked back to Danse's side awkwardly. He cleared his throat. "Haylen, what are you doing here?"
"They transferred me here to fill in for Knight Captain-Cade," Haylen said through gritted teeth. Your stomach turned.
"You're not even a doctor."
"I know a few things. More than some of you. Anyways, you're stalling. I have questions," she said, crossing her arms.
"Ask away," he invited her.
"What the hell were you doing?"
"We were talking. Is that a problem?"
"About what?"
Danse fell silent as he couldn't think of an answer. He told you to go back down again, but this time, you protested.
"I'm a part of this, too," you told him. "I should be up here." Mainly because you didn't want to be near Haylen again.
"Right. Sorry," he said softly.
Silence.
"You can't just do this," Haylen said finally. "You know how this will end."
Another pause. A weak gust of wind made you shiver.
"I can't believe this..." she muttered and walked off.
"Stop," you commanded. "I have a question."
She pivoted around.
"Where are you going?"
She scoffed. "Where do you think?"
"No," you mumbled. "No, no, you're not. Do you know why?"
"Why?" she asked, rolling her eyes like she was some bossy big sister.
"Because you don't understand. You don't understand that for two goddamn centuries, I had nothing. I had no one. Everything I knew was taken from me. I was wandering for five years, looking for the one person I had left. And then I found this. The day I found you at the police station, I forgot about everything. Everything that had happened. The Brotherhood helped me. The Brotherhood saved me. And then I realized it wasn't just them. It was Danse."
Haylen stood in silence. Danse stood in silence. Everything was quiet.
"Wow, Knight," Haylen remarked after a while. "I'll... let you two off this time." Her fist was balled in frustration. "But if I see you again, you won't get off so easy!" She disappeared down the hatch. "Also," she said, poking her head out, "Elder Maxson wants to give you your next assignment." She closed the opening with a loud thump.
You looked at each other. Danse was first to crack a smile, which turned into full blown laughter. "How did you do that?" he asked after you had quieted down. "Haylen's the most stubborn person I know."
"I have no idea. I just started talking," you explained.
"Thank God for that," he said. "That was..." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Wow. Are you ready to head back down?"
"Sure. We've kept Maxson waiting long enough."

You found him in the Command Deck in front of his glass window. "Elder Maxson?" You asked.
He turned around and cleared his throat. "Knight. Paladin. Your last assignment was more of a test. I wanted to see how you worked as a team, and you blew my expectations away. Now it's time for a more serious task." He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace back and forth. "Our scribes have picked up the trail of an Institute scientist gone rogue. All the evidence suggests he fled to the Glowing Sea. It's now your job to root him out from wherever he's hiding and interrogate him. Figure out all he knows about the Institute."
"That's all?" Danse questioned. "You're just dropping us into middle of the most irradiated place in the Commonwealth with no clues on where to look?"
"Not quite. There's a settlement down there. They call it the Crater of Atom. The people there might be able to point you in the right direction."
"Okay," you sighed. Better than nothing.
"Excellent. This will be one of our most important operations. You are advised to get some rest beforehand. Tomorrow morning, I'll be waiting at the vertibird to see you off. Dismissed." He brought a fist to his chest and turned back around.
"What's the Glowing Sea?" you whispered when you were out of Maxson's earshot.
"It's supposed to be the area around where the initial detonation was 200 years ago," Danse responded. "Remember what I showed you on the roof?" he asked, pointing upwards.
"Oh, right." The glowing spot.
"You should get some rest. I'll take you to your bed and get you in the morning."
He let you climb the ladder to the main deck before him. You waited at the top for him and watched him climb out in one smooth motion. You went up the stairs to where you and the other lower ranking members slept and tiptoed through the rows of cots to your bed.
"Good night, Y/N," Danse whispered.
"Good night," you said back, looking to make sure no one was around then straining your legs to kiss his cheek. He smiled to himself and bent down so you could reach him. Your lips finally contacted the stubble, making his cheeks turn up. He pulled away, mouthed I love you, and strode away. You watched him until he faded into a silhouette and tucked yourself into bed. You fell asleep smiling.
"Knight. Knight, wake up. You have a big day."
You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. That wasn't the Paladin. You turned over and saw, to your surprise, Elder Maxson at the foot of your bed. "Come on. Danse is waiting for you. Take a minute to eat something and grab your power armor. We moved it to the one of the power armor stations. And please hurry. We don't have time to throw away." He left the room in a hurry, heading back down to the Command Deck. You sat up from bed and finished the vine of mutfruit you started yesterday and made your way to your power armor.
The armor was right where Maxson had said. You examined it for a moment. A dent on the calf, a scratch here and there. Nothing you couldn't repair. You twisted open the lock the also housed the fusion core. The armor opened up for you to step in and shut itself behind you. Fully suited and ready, you stomped off down the hall to meet Danse and Elder Maxson on the Flight Deck.
The two of them stood side by side in front of the vertibird, their attention on you. They mirrored each other with crossed arms. "Knight, Paladin," Maxson said firmly. "All my trust is in you today. Be ready for anything out there. When you return, I want to know everything he knows about the Institute. Attaining this knowledge will end the war. Now go find that runaway bastard." He ended his speech by slamming his fist to his chest. You and Danse did the same. "Ad Victoriam," Maxson said softly as you boarded the aircraft.
Danse had stationed himself at the opposite side.
"Clear for takeoff," you heard over the intercom as the plane started to shake. The sound of the engines grew louder and louder. The vertibird detached from the Prydwen, and you were suspended in air. It shifted so it faced southwest and started flying higher and higher. The engines fell silent. As you began to lose sight of the airship, Danse stood and walked to your side to take a seat. Your head naturally swayed to rest on his shoulder. 
"I'm nervous," you admitted. "What about you?"
He hesitated to respond. "I guess I am. I've never seen the place up close."
You looked out to the horizon with him, watching the orange sun rise across the water. It made the ocean shimmer. You understood what Danse meant now, about how peaceful it was. Your nerves about the mission seemed to melt away. He reached across to take your hand into his. You squeezed it lightly. His head shifted to look down at you. You met his gaze, his warm brown eyes wrapping you up and telling you everything was okay. You sunk deeper into his shoulder and fell into a light sleep.
A sharp increase in humidity was what woke you. You blinked open your eyes and stared around. Your mouth dropped in shock.
The land around you was completely leveled. Whatever trees left were bare and leaning to the side, blasted back by the wind. Everything was tinted orange-green. Is this real? You looked down at your hands. They seemed fine. Not a dream.
"P-Paladin?" You stuttered. The air was thicc and heavy.
"Hmm?" he hummed. He had fallen asleep, too. His eyes opened slowly. You saw his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Wow. I didn't-"
He was cut off by the pilot over the intercom.
"Okay, Paladin, Knight. We'll have to drop you here. If we go any further, this bird won't be coming home. You should put your helmets on. It'll keep out the radiation." You nodded to Danse and threw on the helmet. He fit his over his hair. The humidity had hit it, making it frizzy.
The vertibird began its descent onto the dried out land. "Good luck, soldiers," the pilot said. "Ad Victoriam." It touched the ground, kicking up dust. Once you cleared the landing zone, it flew off. No going back.
"Alright," you said. "First we need to find out where we are..." you pulled up your Pip-boy and opened the map. You marker showed that you were- nowhere, really. You were in the middle of nowhere. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant."
"Except there's that," Danse pointed out. He was looking at a bright light. It was almost like the sun. "That must be the Crater of Atom, like Maxson was talking about."
"We should go that way," he added on. "The people there can help us. If the radiation hasn't burned their tongues out..."
You shot him a look, but remembered your face was covered. You started to walk toward the light. He followed you, looking over his shoulder every once and while.  You kept lookout in the front. It was too dim to see clearly, so you moved slow and looked for motion.
The place seemed pretty empty.
"Soldier. Where are all the mutants?"
You stopped. His question was a test, you could tell. He wanted to see how much you've learned since you joined up. They weren't hiding. You knew how hostile the wasteland was. So they were most likely dead. "They're all dead."
"Why are they dead?"
"Something killed them." Not a person. A person couldn't kill all of them. "Another mutant. There's a bigger fish," you murmured.
"Exactly," he whispered and pointed to his left.
At first, you saw nothing. It took a moment for your eyes to focus through the dust. Then you saw it, a silhouette against the red sky. It stretched out and waved its tongue around.
"That's a deathclaw," Danse informed you.
"Jesus, let's keep going," you whispered anxiously. "We shouldn't waste our time with it unless it sees us."
"Right," he mumbled. "Let's go."
"How did I do?"
"What?"
"You were testing me. How did I do?"
"Marvelously," he said with pleasure. You smiled to yourself and walked on, him bringing up the rear.
Pretty soon, you had reached a hill. Thanks to both of you being alert, you didn't have to shed a single bullet. You trekked up the terrain and over the sharp peak. On the other side, it was hollowed out into a pit. A few houses were scattered around the crater. "This is it!" you exclaimed. "We found it." You smiled at him even through you knew he wouldn't see it.
"Let's go," he said. "But be ready. Maxson said these people are friendly, but you never know." He staggered down the side of the hill to the bottom. You jogged after him. 
People soon gathered around to look. "They probably haven't seen one of us in years," he remarked. You nodded in agreement. "Let's ask around," you suggested. You split up to talk to the settlers.
"Have you seen anyone passing through?" you asked a man with dirt caked on his face. He just shook his head.
"Have you?" you asked a woman standing next to him.
"I can't remember."
"Soldier! Over here!" Danse yelled from across the village. You jogged toward his voice. He was standing with a younger woman outside a shack. "She thinks she knows who we're talking about."
"Yes," the girl began. "Virgil. He came a few days ago to trade supplies."
"Where did he go? What direction?" you questioned her.
"Oh, just south. Toward this old cave," she explained. "Be careful, though. People live in seclusion for a reason."
"Thank you ma'am," Danse said graciously. He looked at you. "Ready to head out?"
"Just say the word."