X Reader One-Shots

{Fallout 3} Mister Burke

Note from writer: That's right, boys, I'm back. I kind of hate everything about my previous writings, but maybe I'll keep them up. Just to keep the, very embarrassing, memory alive. And, hey, seeing as I hate them so much, let's just crush them under the weight of new, terrible, awful, fanfiction, by me, a big loser. Only thing is, now, I'm no longer a weeb, I'm just a big ol' Fallout fanboi. I can't promise this book won't go completely Fallout fanfiction, but I'll try. So, let's see just how much readership plummets, hey?

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(Y/N) had been spending an awful lot of time getting drunk in Moriarty's Saloon, of late. Partially for drink itself, and partially waiting on a letter from the man that she'd somehow grown to love. One Mister Burke.

Now, at first, she'd only come back to the town of Megaton, after her first visit, to do odd jobs for people. She'd have delivered that letter for Lucy West's family, if not for that blue-suited wanderer going and doing it first.
'It was boring work, I'm sure. Probably not worth much, either. I'm no Courier, that'd be a waste of my talents,' (Y/N) tries to convince herself. Yes, of course. Nothing goes on out West in Arefu.
In any case, at least she had some semi-regular work in field research for the proprietor of Craterside Supply, Moira Brown. 

Moira was an eccentric woman, to say the least, but she was very friendly. (Y/N) could almost say that she liked working for Moira, and it'd only be a marginal lie. A lot of the jobs were pretty horrid: 'Get irradiated so that I can study what it does to the human body', 'Hide this monitoring device in a clutch of Mirelurk eggs, and try not to kill the Mirelurks while you're at it', 'Visit the library in the D.C. Ruins and bring me back some archives.' That last one doesn't sound too terribly tough, but one must remember the raiders with guns in the building. And the mutants with guns outside. And the odd angry robot, that also happen to have guns built in to them, just about the place, too.

(Y/N) wasn't new to the dangers of the wastes, but she was definitely used to avoiding them where she could. All of this running into danger wore her down, and she found comfort in the atmosphere of Megaton's bar. She also found a great deal of comfort in the drinks they served. She'd chat idly with the ghoul barman, Gob, hoping that Colin Moriarty, the owner, would hand her a letter from Burke.

The first time she'd received one of these letters, it caught her pretty off guard. She was only there to have a drink, maybe see if anyone was willing to pay for a job done, so she could get what she needed without going scavenging. Moriarty leaned over the bar to hand her this folded scrap of paper, and grumbled something about how he 'runs a saloon, not a post office.'

Ignoring the man's rantings, she'd turned her attention onto the paper. Admittedly, nicer paper than she was used to ever seeing out in the wastes, although it looked as though it had been unfolded and refolded a few times. Thanks, Moriarty, for probably reading it. 

As she read, her eyes widened. She'd thought that Burke would have just gone and disappeared, after he was persuaded to leave Megaton, but apparently no. Apparently he'd meant it, when he told (Y/N) that he'd send for her, once he'd taken care of some business. It began,

 "Beloved,

I must beg your indulgence a little while longer. I am not yet able to send for you."

In these past days, more than a week by this point, she'd never sent a letter back to Burke, though she'd written lots. Each one that she'd done was beautifully written, sealed with a kiss, all of that romantic nonsense that she'd thought fitting. Rather embarrassingly, she'd never learned where Burke lived, so how could she ever have sent a letter to him?

(Y/N) had spent a lot of time reading and rereading the full letter. When Megaton had grown boring, when she was out scavving and she'd gotten lonely, when she was in a tight spot and wasn't sure she'd make it back, she'd whip out the letter - or letters, as time wound on - and she'd fall just a little bit more in love. With Burke, or just with the idea of having someone to come back to, she wasn't really sure which. She barely cared, though, for now, it was him that she thought about.

The circumstances of Burke and (Y/N) meeting were unusual, to say the least, too. Lucas Simms, the town sheriff, had asked her to do what she could in disarming the bomb that had given the settlement its' name. She hadn't quite worked out how the strange doohickey would disarm the centrepiece of the Megaton township, so she was going to go searching for anything in the wastes that might teach her something about explosives. Well, she was going searching after she'd had a drink in the saloon and a good night's sleep in the communal house. 

As (Y/N) had entered Moriarty's, there was a strange man with a commanding presence beckoning her from his place in the comfy chair in the corner. He had a proposition for her, and, despite Megaton not exactly being her home, yet, she'd not quite wanted to blow the place up with a nuclear bomb, like this Mister Burke had ended up asking her. She tried to softly say 'no' without accidentally insulting him, but the man was persistent, and very much not the type that one would want to make an enemy of. 

Trying to think of anything that might dissuade him, (Y/N) had a terrible idea, that'd surely never work. She fluttered her eyelashes, and she began.

"Well, Mister Burke, I have a little proposition of my own for you. Would you like to hear it?" (Y/N) really hoped that this angle would work. Lo and behold, it seemed to. He was interested in what she had to say. He was careful about showing it, but she could see, just barely.
She continued, "Well, you see, my dear," a petname was a risky move, "I live here, and you surely wouldn't want to see me hurt, would you, now?"

Mister Burke seemed shocked, and (Y/N) stood there, barely daring to breathe. Finally, he spoke,

"Well, I- Of course not. I must admit, I've never met a woman like you. This changes everything," he then descended into some muttering about his boss and what he'd tell him, that (Y/N) didn't bother listening to. She was overcome with relief, and she'd really not want to be caught in a lie by this man.

Burke's voice dragged her out of her thoughts, as he walked past, and out of the bar. "You won't be waiting long, I shall send for you soon," were his parting words.

Remembering like this, (Y/N) takes a swig of beer and pulls out the letters again, three of them, and gives them yet another read. Each telling her to be patient and to wait for her lover, all worded in the sweetest of ways. She does stop and think that she must look like quite the lovestruck idiot, smiling at these battered scraps of paper with the flowery handwriting, but she decides that she won't worry about it. It's not like it's completely untrue, anyway.

All of a sudden, Moriarty's annoyed voice brings her back to the present, along with the slap of paper on the counter.

"Another of those damn love letters for you."

(Y/N) smiles and takes it, thanking Moriarty. She unfolds it, quietly hoping that this is the day that Burke will tell her that they can be together again. She takes an excited breath, and begins to read.

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Note from writer: RIP Main Character, died of a broken heart and some light radiation poisoning. 

I should probably give a resource as to where you can read the Love Letters from Burke, shouldn't I? Maybe you've never played Fallout 3, and maybe it's not really your type of game, but you enjoyed this short. Maybe you've played it a hundred times, and you love this interaction just as much as I do. Either way, a little read through can't hurt, can it? Apparently links are forbidden on Wattpad, which kind of sucks, so we're doing this like cavemen and we'll try a copy/paste job. 

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Love_letter_from_Burke

Thinking about it, if I were a good writer, this would probably be able to stand on its' own, wouldn't it? Really, I just want as many people to read the Love Letters as possible, because I don't want to be alone in my love of this character. That's my very flimsy excuse.

Good gracious, maybe I shouldn't do this right before bed.