Hello readers! This is something I've been working on for a while. It's a 30 day writing challenge I saw on tumblr and I thought I'd give it a shot. So, this will be a series of one shots with my two favorite couples, Benny/F!Courier and Butch/F!LW.

beginning.

I hate her, Butch DeLoria thought as perfect, little Ana Parker gave her report on the side effects of rad poisoning to the class. She had the one thing he had always wanted. No, not a first edition of Grognak, but love. Love from a father. Hell, her mom was dead but she still had her love.

Butch wasn't loved. He had no father to love him. His mom was still around, but she wasn't really there thanks to the bottle of vodka permanently in her hand. She couldn't give a shit less about her son.

He was only sixteen years old. Old enough to handle himself, but still too young to be alone. He had Wally and Paul, but lately something had changed within the Tunnel Snakes. Wally was spending all his time with Christine Kendall and Paul was focusing more on taking the damn G.O.A.T. So, since his friends and his family were all too busy for him, he spent most of his time picking on Ana. The girl who had everything.

Butch hadn't realized he was staring at her until Mr. Brotch shouted his name.

"Mr. DeLoria! If you're done ogling Miss Parker, we will continue with your presentation."

Butch could feel the color in his cheeks rising. He was not ogling her. If he had to admit it, he did consider her to be pretty, but she was still her.

When the bell dinged signaling classes end, Butch practically ran out of the room. He couldn't handle those people anymore. He had discovered a door in the reactor room that opened up into the vault's entrance a few years back. This was his place. No one could bother him here.

He paced back and forth in front of the enormous, steel door, kicking up dirt as he did so. He had enough of this place. It was suffocating him.

"Butch?"

Oh no, he thought, how the hell did she find me out here, of all places?

"Hell do you want, Noesbleed?"

He turned around to look at her. She was standing in the doorway from the reactor room. She looked...cautious? Afraid, even? Butch couldn't really decide.

"I just...you just ran out of class so quickly...I, um...I guess I don't really know why I'm here...I just thought you might need...someone to talk to..."

Butch shoved his hands into his pockets and made his way towards the stairs. He sighed and gestured for her to come and join him. He plopped down onto the top stair and looked at her expectantly. She hadn't moved an inch.

"Are you gonna stand there all day or what?" Butch snapped.

"Oh..sorry," Ana mumbled as she quickly made her way to the stairs and sat down next to him.

Well...this was certainly...different. Maybe he didn't hate her as much as he thought he did.

A minute of awkward silence had gone by. Butch felt like he was being drowned by it. He needed to say something.

"I wasn't "ogling" you."

Ana laughed. She actually laughed at him.

"Butch, I had stopped talking for a good two minutes. Mr. Brotch had said you're name at least six times."

That surprised him. He could feel his cheeks heating up again. Dammit.

"Well, still. It wasn't on purpose."

Ana smiled at him, a genuine smile. She didn't hate him. Yes, he made her miserable, but she didn't hate him. She had noticed that Butch hadn't been acting like his usual tool self, and that bothered her. Something was definitely off with him.

"So...what's the matter with you?" Ana bluntly asked. There was no beating around the bush with her.

"'Scuse me?"

"You've been acting weird, distant, I guess. Did you lose all your friends when they found out how much of an ass you really are?" Ana laughed. The look on Butch's face made her stop that immediately. He looked...defeated.

"For your information, Nosebleed, I have lost my friends. But not for the reason you think."

"What happened then?"

"And why should I tell you?"

Who was she to talk to him like this? Who did she think she was? She's reaching out, a small voice in the back of his mind said, she can help you.

"Because...there's no one else," Ana said quietly.

Butch took in her words and realized how true they were. She was right. There was no one else.

"Look at that door right there," he said, pointing towards the massive, steel door in front of him.

Ana looked at it, confused. Was she supposed to be seeing anything special? Had Butch gone crazy? Maybe he was hallucinating.

"Butch...what am I supposed to be seeing?"

"That right there is the one thing separating us from the outside world. Just one door. Don't you ever think about what could be out there?"

"Of course I do, but the war destroyed everything. There's nothing left for us there."

"How do you know that? Just cause the Overseer says that, it doesn't mean it's true. There could be a whole world up there just waiting for us to rejoin it again. There's no way the war could've killed everyone left out of the vaults."

"Are you saying you want to leave the vault?" Ana was taken back by that. Leave the vault? He truly had gone insane if he wanted that.

"Yes, yes I am. There's nothing for me here. My ma is always drunk. Wally's always with Christine. Paul cares too much about the G.O.A.T. My dad left us. There's nothing. You know, I bet I could leave and no one would ever notice."

So that was why he had been so withdrawn. It all made sense now.

"Butch...people care about you. Don't think otherwise."

"Yeah, and how do you know that? Everyone loves you. You don't know what it's like being me. You have no god damned idea," Butch stood up from the stairs and began to pace back and forth in front of the vault entrance.

"Have you tried to talk-"

"Who would listen?!" Butch exploded.

"I would," Ana whispered.

Butch stopped in his tracks and looked down at her. How could she be like this? He was horrible to her and she still had the patience to sit here and listen to him complain. She was something else.

"Why? I've been nothing but horrible to you for years. Why are you even here right now?"

Should I tell him? Ana thought to herself. Why was she here? Well, it was simple really. She was in love with him. She had been for years. Yes, he was mean to her. But she looked passed that. All she wanted was for him to love her back. She had to tell him. It was now or never. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, this could lead to something more.

"Butch...I..."

Butch sat back down next to her on the steps.

"Spit it out, Nosebleed."

He's right, just spit it out.

"I'm in love with you, Butch."

Shit, she thought, that's not how I wanted to say that. Ana hid her face in her hands. Could this get any worse? And why hasn't he said anything? God, this is so embarrassing...

Ana stood up and moved back to the reactor doors. She needed to get away from him.

Butch watched her leave into the first reactor room. He needed to stop her. She can't just say something like that and not give him more than a minute to react.

"Wait!" Butch yelled after her as he ran into the reactor room. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm to stop her. She wouldn't face him, though, so Butch himself in front of her.

She had tears running down her face, reflected by the purple glow from the reactor. She wouldn't meet his eyes, too embarrassed of herself. Why did she think that he could possibly feel the same?

Butch studied her face. She really was pretty. Even with the tears.

"You didn't exactly give me a chance to say anything before you ran off," he said. He wanted to wipe the tears from her face, but he just couldn't bring himself to. After what she just said, he wasn't too sure where they now stood with each other.

"I shouldn't have said anything. Now, please, just let me go wallow in my embarrassment alone," Ana made a move to pull herself from his grasp on her arm. He wouldn't budge.

"Why are you embarrassed?"

"You're seriously asking that? I shouldn't have said anything at all. It was stupid," Ana tried to pull away again but Butch just tightened his group. He really wasn't making this any easier for her.

"It wasn't stupid," Butch said so quietly she didn't think she heard him correctly, "I don't feel the same way...now, but...maybe I could. I don't know what else to say, Ana."

Ana. He had called her Ana. That was the first time he had ever done that. It sounded nice to hear her name coming from his lips. She finally looked into his eyes. He wasn't fooling around with her. This wasn't a game, and he knew that. This was so...unexpected.

"Look, I don't want you to say that because you feel obligated to, you don't and never will feel the same, so let's just forget I ever said anything."

"No. I don't wanna forget that. Ana, no one in this damn vault cares about me...except you. I'm not gonna forget that."

"Butch...please just let-"

Butch cut her off with an unexpected kiss. Ana didn't realize he was even kissing her until everything clicked in her mind. His arms snaked around her back, pulling her closer to him. Her heart was beating so fast she was sure he could feel it. Ana had never kissed anyone before, and now, Butch DeLoria, a man she had come to love was kissing her with so much care that she could have melted.

The reactor next to them sparked and startled them apart. Ana's cheeks were flushed and Butch was slightly out of had kissed many girls in his life, but none of them ever felt like that. When he kissed Ana, he did it on an impulse, just to see what she'd do. He didn't expect to feel so drawn to her. It was like the kiss changed something in himself. He didn't know what to think, all he knew was that he wanted to kiss her again.

And so he did just that. Butch grabbed Ana's hips and pulled her close to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he began to kiss her again, this time with more passion.

This was the moment then. The moment that would begin a love that neither of them expected.

Reviews are much appreciated! Thanks for reading!