Now or Never: Elder Maxson x Reader - Part 2

11 - Worst In Me

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The sun has just finished rising when Uri and Danse reach Starlight Drive In. The Paladin had begged Uri to find somewhere to stay for the night, but she had vehemently refused. When the settlement guard finally lets them through the main gates, the duo stumble over to a cabin Danse can only assume belongs to her. There is a bunk bed pushed into the corner of the main room, and it is here that he collapses in an exhausted heap.

"Go with her," Arthur had commanded. "Keep her safe."

It is this that eventually drags the Paladin out of sleep. He immediately notices that the sun is beginning to set, and curses. He slept the entire day away.

"Your bodyclock will fix itself. You needed to rest."

He turns to the source of the voice, and quickly forgets his frustration. Uri is sat on an old, worn couch in the centre of the room. On the coffee table before her stands a silent radio, a half-drank bottle of wine and her holotags. She has wrapped herself in a blanket, but Danse can see that she is no longer wearing her Brotherhood uniform. He immediately wants to reprimand her, but he remembers Arthur's words. Keep her safe . He never said keep her subordinate, and Danse hardly thinks that will help his primary objective.

"Have you slept?"

She shakes her head.

"Would you... Do you want to talk?"

Uri turns to him, now, though her expression is fairly hostile. She looks exhausted, but he knows that she will refuse to sleep. As she studies him, he wonders whether she has at least eaten.

"There's nothing to really talk about... Maxson made his views quite clear, and for some stupid reason I ignored that. I enabled it. Me. Someone who has experienced racism before. Sure, it was over a lifetime ago, and people don't judge difference based off of skin colour anymore. But that isn't an excuse. I just watched someone who thinks they are superior to another execute them for their race alone. I cared about him, Danse," her voice cracks at the admission. "Hell, I might have even trusted him... What a stupid mistake."

The next few days are challenging. The Paladin is not used to being in a single place for so long. Not after Cambridge. He volunteers to lead hunting-gathering expeditions, but the settlers are wary of venturing too far. He misses the Prydwen, but Danse knows that Uri is not at all ready to go back. Not yet.

A week passes before he plucks up the courage to speak to her again.

She has just finished reading an old comic book when he enters the cabin. Their hunt was clearly a success, as Danse is carrying an enticingly large slab of radstag steak. It is the first time he has seen her eyes light up since before the synth... So, as she prepares the vegetables and he seasons the steak, he clears his throat.

"Uri, I... I wanted to address something with you. About what you said regarding synths, the other day."

"If you're going to lecture me on how I acted you can sleep outside--"

"No! No, no lecturing. It's more of a curiosity of mine. You mentioned a certain term... and I wanted to ask you about it."

"A term?" She pauses her peeling to throw a glance his way. "You mean racism?"

"Yes. What is it?"

Uri almost drops the knife, at that. Danse spins as she curses, then relaxes as he sees she is alright - though she looks completely bewildered.

"Are you serious? Did the damn term not make its way through history?" Danse shrugs, and she scoffs, "Of course it didn't. Alright. So, before the war, elitism was extreme. Like, imagine the snobs in the upper stands of Diamond City - except they had millions of dollars stored away in banks. You with me?" He nods. "Great. So, money wasn't the only thing that gave people power. There were a whole bunch of labels we used to group people, from gender to class to race. The superior race was considered to be white, because ya'll colonised the shit out of everything - imagine raiders pillaging settlements. Only other races didn't stand a chance."