Addicted

Do I Wanna Know?

Lila landed on her knees in the dirt and out of breath, lungs aching as they pulled air from the atmosphere. Her head hung between her shoulders as her hands skidded the ground. A heavy sigh left her as she battled to get oxygen back into her system. After a couple recovery breathes, she lifted her head back up quickly, surveying the surroundings. Her eyes darted back and forth before falling on the figure before her, but it moved out of sight again in a flash. She pushed herself onto her knees before grabbing at the box next to her to pull herself up. The skidding of her palms had ripped them open slightly, tiny dots of blood staining the metal. Her baseball bat rested on the ground about six feet ahead of her. She pushed her aching legs forward and grabbed it.

As her hands grasped the base of the blunt weapon she spun around. The bat made direct contact with the target, that had now snuck up behind her, with a loud metal clang, deafened slightly by the wood of the bat. She pulled her arms back again and served another whack to the bot, straight to its speaker in the front. The eyebot shuttered slightly, falling mere inches from its original floating height. Lila knew one more solid hit would do the bot in. The bat was hoisted over her head with both arms and came forcefully down on the top of the eyebot. It fell immediately to the ground, breaking into even more pieces as it hit the tarmac.

A small applause erupted nearby. Lila looked up and saw Piper clapping her hands in a fast, happy manner, jumping slightly at her success. Arthur stood a few feet away, his hands also clapped, just not as enthusiastically as Piper.

"Now, that is more like the Lila I know!" Piper commented as she moved toward Lila and gave her a hearty clap on the back. Lila couldn't help but chuckle. It was the first time she had felt more like herself in a long time. It had been about two weeks since the night on the flight deck. Cade had just given her permission two days beforehand to start leaving the Prydwen in short bouts to re-train at the Airport. They still wanted her to remain close, to ensure she was back to herself and her usual capabilities before unleashing her back into the Commonwealth.

Arthur had allowed her to use some old eyebots to train against, focusing back on her melee attacking. During her time on Chems and her time recovering on the Prydwen she had lost a bit of the muscle and attack-abilities she gained during her time in the wastelands.

"Thanks Piper," Lila smiled as she grabbed at the can of purified water she had left beside Piper as she trained. "I'm finally starting to feel more like me too. It's a weird feeling but...it's nice. I really missed getting into scraps," she finished as she consumed the whole of the can in no time.

Once Lila was allowed to have visitors the first person she reached out to was Piper. She missed her best friend and travelling the wastelands with her. She also missed hearing the outrageous stories of Diamond City that she was always investigating. Piper had shown up the next day after receiving the message on her terminal. They had plenty of time to catch up, but Piper couldn't stay long. After talking the whole day Piper had left on the promise that she would return when Lila was feeling even better. When the message came through two days ago that she was given clearance to begin training again Piper had leapt at the opportunity to help Lila get back into her best physical condition.

"You're getting there, Smith. Still a far ways to come but this is great for a start," Arthur entered the conversation as he handed Lila a towel to dry herself. Lila smiled at him and took the towel from his hands.

"Thank you, Elder," she nodded at him. He returned the nod and left, leaving Lila to alone with Piper.

Once he was out of earshot Piper crossed her arms firmly across her chest.

"Fess up, Smith." Lila rubbed at her brow with the towel, before giving Piper a questioning look with a raised brow.

"What? What are you talking about?" Piper flashed her gaze to Arthur's back as he moved away and back to Lila.

"You can't tell me there is no tension between you two. What happened while you were MIA? Did big, bad Elder Maxson whisk you off your feet? You two seem...different around each other." Maybe it was the reporter in her talking, but Piper did genuinely want to know what was happening between her friend and the Elder. By the blush that scoured Lila's cheeks and neck, she knew it was something.

"We have just been spending a lot of time together. You can't say it's weird that he cares about his newest Paladin when she suddenly goes missing and makes an ass of herself. He's just been making sure I stay out of trouble and get back on track. What is the harm in that?" Lila still didn't want to disclose details of her and Arthur to anyone. They were just getting back into a good, yet somewhat romantic, rapport. She didn't want to risk it.

Piper rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disagreement, but lets it slide for Lila's sake. She would wiggle it out of her eventually.

"Well, I should head back to the city and check on Nat, get some noodles, hit the sack. Keep up the training Lila, you'll be back to that spiteful, bloodthirsty wasteland dweller in no time," she said with a wink as she gave her friend a squeeze around the shoulders.

Lila couldn't help but laugh and smile at her friends attempt to get the scoop on her. "I'll see you around Piper. Say hi to Nat for me and stay safe. Try not to piss off too many people." Piper gave her a quick salute from her paper-girl style hat and headed off into the wasteland.

Lila turned back toward the Airport to catch a vertibird back to the Prydwen. When she was back on board, she headed to the mess hall. The clearance Cade gave her also allowed her to get her own food again and return to her old quarters, which was just Paladin Danse's old quarters. After filling up on food and grabbing a couple of snacks for later, she headed back to her quarters.

When she rounded the corner she saw Arthur was standing at her door, looking as though he was contemplating knocking.

"Good evening, Elder," she said as she approached him. He drew back slightly, looking between her and the door.

"Paladin Smith. I thought you had already returned to your quarters for the night." She shrugged her shoulders and looked at him.

"And yet, here I am. Did you need something?" she asked with a devilish smile hinting on her lips.

"Uh...yes," Arthur spoke, almost unsure of himself as Lila began to unlock her door, throwing it open for him to enter. She shut the door behind the two of them and set her stolen snacks onto the small table in the corner of the room.

Lila then turned back to Arthur with the same devilish smile, now making its appearance more and more apparent on her lips. She rejoined him in the middle of the room and wrapped her arms around his neck before allowing her lips to meet his. He returned her kiss with as much fervor as she was delivering. When their lips parted for a moment he smiled cheekily.

"You did great and you are getting better Paladin, but you still have some things to learn." She gave him a look that would say 'as if', if looks could speak. She threw his battle jacket off his shoulders at that point and stared at him coldly.

"Oh shut up Elder."