Afire Love- Paladin Danse x Reader (COMPLETE)

liberty, reprimed

"Soldier? Wake up. We have orders to speak with Proctor Ingram."
You blinked your eyes open. Paladin Danse towered over you. "Did you hear me? Time to get up."
You rubbed your puffy eyes and stood up, making eye contact with him. He looked the same as the night before- cold face, betrayed by soft eyes. What was going on with him?
"Okay," you said plainly, walking past him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself.
"What is it?" you asked.
"What?"
"You were going to say something. Say it."
"I have nothing to say. Keep moving, soldier."
You continued shuffling forward, questions flying through your mind. You went down the ladder, Danse not far behind, and onto the Flight Deck. You rode the vertibird down to the airport.
"This way," Danse commanded. You followed him through the airport and onto the yard. Proctor Ingram was waiting for you. A woman in a white lab coat stood with her.
"Paladin, Knight, this is Professor Scara. She'll be working with us for our project."
"What project?" you asked.
"Really? You don't know?" Scara said in surprise. "Here. Follow us."
Scars and Ingram turned and walked up a set of stairs to a walkway on the side of the barricades. They turned into a sort of control room.
"Now, you're probably wondering... what the hell is this going to do?" Ingram said, pointing through the window.
On the other side, two huge metal posts were driven into the ground, connecting at the top. That was familiar. What wasn't familiar was the massive robotic torso, with a head on top and one arm dangling off its side. You stepped closer to the window to see the colossal thing better.
"This is Liberty Prime, and we're going to use it to take the fight to the Institute. The Brotherhood in the Capital Wasteland used it to take down the Enclave a while back, but it was... retired. Blown to bits. I've spent the last few years piecing if back together, and now, it's almost ready. But we're missing something."
"What is it?" Danse asked, getting right to the point.
"Oh, right. Sorry. Well, remember when we had you two dive into the most dangerous place in the Commonwealth? Yeah, you're going back," Ingram smiled. "We've received the location of a stockpile of Mark 28 nuclear missiles, and you'll have to do the dirty work of finding them. Without them, Prime's got no firepower."
"We're using nukes? You're kidding."
"Not at all. Whenever you're ready, take a vertibird to Waypoint Echo- it's on the edge of the Glowing Sea. You'll get full intel there. Ad Victoriam, Paladin, Knight."
"Ad Victoriam," you both echoed. Scara and Ingram went back to what they were doing while you and Danse went back up to the Prydwen.
"This is crazy," you said. You knew he wouldn't respond, but you tried anyway. "We're arming it with nukes. I think that's a bit much."
He didn't even acknowledge that you had spoken.
You jumped from the vertibird and followed Danse up the catwalk and into into the Main Deck, where you found your power armor and suited up. You had plenty of ammo, stimpaks, and other supplies, so you waited for Danse to restock himself.
"Ready to go?" you asked when he had finished.
"Affirmative. Let's head out."
He led you back the way you had cane and to a ready vertibird. You climbed in after him and took your seat behind the minigun. The vertibird detached from the ship and started its flight. Normally, Danse moved to sit with you after you cleared the airport. This time, he didn't.

The sky started to become blotchy the closer you came to the Glowing Sea. The ground began to level itself out, and the trees started to thin. You landed close to a small outpost lined with sandbag barricades. A Brotherhood of Steel flag hung from a rusty pole. Two soldiers dressed in power armor paced around, keeping watch, while a scribe was typing at a computer. You slipped out of your seat and approached the outpost.
You came closer and realized the scribe was Scribe Haylen.
"Hey, Paladin. Hey, Knight. It's been a while." She hummed with satisfaction. "You've come a long way since you stumbled into the Cambridge Police Station, huh, Knight?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Anyways. We don't have time for small talk. Here, we've found the location of the stockpile. I'll mark it on you pip-boy, if you don't mind."
You lifted over your arm to let her play with the device.
"Alright, and that's done. Here, you'll need this. It'll put out a signal once you've found the bombs. We'll follow it and grab 'em. After that, report back to Ingram for your report." She picked up a distress pulser from the table her terminal was sitting on and gave it to you. You tucked it into your pocket.
"Thanks, Haylen. We'll be heading out," Danse spoke up. He had put his helmet on to protect him from radiation. "Let's go."
"Ad Victoriam," she called after you.
You followed Danse through the desolate wasteland, keeping a steady pace and watching for the silhouettes of the creatures. Every so often a random lightning bolt would strike, illuminating the darkness and allowing you to get a good look around for a split second. You kept an eye out and avoided patches of water, where stingwings liked to stay. Soon enough, a huge pyramid loomed over the horizon.
"This is it," you said to Danse, checking your pip-boy to see where Haylen had marked it. "Sentinel Site Prescott..."
Just then, the ground rumbled, and three radscorpions burst out. You had your rifle pre-loaded and shot continuously at one of them. They circled you, putting you and Danse back to back. You held them off, keeping them a good distance from you. One of them dropped. For a second, you had to reload your gun, allowing to creature to crawl closer. It swung its tail at you, but you jumped out of the way, the barbed point tearing the surface of your armor. The momentum carried you to the ground. You heard Danse grunt as he shot down the scorpion.
The firing stopped, and Danse stomped over to you. He held out a hand to pull you of the ground.
"Next time, instead of taking your time reloading, switch to a different gun," he said harshly. You looked to the ground in shame, but brought your head back up. "What is going on with you? Why have you been acting this way?" you asked, raising your arms.
"There is nothing wrong with me, soldier," he said, taking a step closer, but just as soon stepping back. You sighed and continued on into the pyramid.