Notes:
HrmghurnghFINE, so I got impatient and wanted to write smut; sue me. Except, y'know, don't. Unless you wanna take over my mortgage.

For reference, this is in no way related to Moments in Time. Both of our leading ladies are going to be different from their counterparts in this one, and I'm swapping to past tense since it feels like an age since I last used it and I'd rather not get any rustier.

Warnings:
For alcohol use, angst, smut, drunk sex, semi-public sex, and miscommunication unbecoming of a journalist.

Enjoy.

Intoxication

The first time was at the Dugout, in the wee hours of a Diamond City morning where Blue had been flush with well-deserved pride; with hope and a belief that she could find a place in this unfamiliar world, and with enough caps that way too many people had crowded around Vadim's bar to share in excitement and moonshine. Nick Valentine and his residency tended to divide opinions, but everyone could at least agree that the market was cold while the inn was warm. Hot, really; humid with the press of intoxicated bodies and loud with a thousand conversations trying to drown out both each other and the radios that played as hard as they could to be heard over the din.

Piper, for once, was not at the center of the chaos, but instead standing in a corner where everything was a little less loud and she could talk to Blue without either of them needing to shout in the other's ear. She was also reasonably sure that she was the most sober person in attendance; having had a large enough sample of Bobrov's Best to know her limits with it.

She didn't mind. There were plenty of highly entertaining, drunk people to watch, and someone needed to make sure that the visiting vault dweller didn't finish out the party passed out in a corner.

That, among other things, was what friends were for - even new ones earned chiefly through surviving danger together - and Piper spent a lot of time hiding a smile behind the neck of her beer bottle because Blue, apparently, was a very cute drunk.

"I found him!"

"I know," she repeated for the Nth time in the past fifteen minutes, and tried really hard to not laugh at the wide, astonished eyes. "Why do you keep sounding so surprised by that?"

"Because I found him," Blue whispered – or it was probably supposed to be a whisper – and gave Piper's arm a little shake as if the importance of that fact wasn't coming across. "In a vault."

"That you did, Blue."

"I mean, how many people do that?" Blue's voice had a definite slur to it – one that matched the gentle sort of inattentiveness in her eyes - but at least not enough of one that Piper couldn't understand her. "'S a lot more room to hide people below ground than above, so sir- seriously. How many?"

"Not nearly enough," Piper easily agreed, since that was the simple truth. Very few people would risk life and limb for the sake of a stranger. Nick, in fact, had been one of the few to do that, which had left him rather down on his luck in terms of rescue until Blue had turned up.

"'M proud of that," Blue told her. "Y'know? Feels kinda like 'M bein' full of myself, but I am."

"Full of yourself?" Piper teased, and had to hide another grin behind a swallow of beer at the glare. "Or proud?"

"Last one."

"And deservedly so." She held out her beer, and waited until Blue's glass clinked against it with perhaps a little more force than needed. "For the record, I'm proud of you, too."

Blue frowned at her for a few seconds, and then grinned; her head lolling to the side until it was resting against the wall they were both leaning on. "I want that in writing."

"Har har." More than halfway to shitfaced and Piper still found her charming, even when she was being a smartass. "I take requests, you know. But you have to pay me."

"In what?"

"Useful things." She wasn't too good at holding that gaze for long periods of time - Blue's eyes were too vibrant; too intense - so she lit a cigarette because it let her focus on that for a second. "Smokes, cola or caps are usually safe bets where I'm concerned."

"'S a seven day wonder you're still here, with that diet."

"Right." Piper returned the dry look with one of her own, but took care to blow the smoke away from Blue. "Because those are literally the only things I eat or drink, and I physically ingest a handful of caps at least three times a day." She waited for the other woman to scowl, and gave her a light jab with one elbow. "Seriously, Blue; relax. I appreciate the concern and all, but I'm also guessing you've been around here long enough to figure out that most people don't exactly die of old age."

"You're not most people," was the response; said in a tone more serious than Piper had expected her to be capable of in her current state. "And you're my friend. I worry."

It was sweet, and Piper kind of hoped that she'd end up wrong in expecting those sorts of things to become more common the longer they knew each other. She doubted it, though. Blue just cared – for everything and everyone – and maybe that had been normal back before the bombs, but it sure as hell wasn't normal now. In fact, it made her new friend stick out like a feral in the middle of a super mutant hive, and Piper would have worried a heck of a lot more about her in return if Blue wasn't as capable as she was of taking care of herself. And anyone in a ten mile radius.

"Well, don't," she therefore told her, but softened the words with a smile. "I'm fine. Alright?"

"Hrmph." Blue obviously wasn't convinced, but took a gulp from her glass and seemed willing to let sleeping mongrels lie. For the moment, anyway. "If y'say so." She nodded for four seconds straight, and then started like something had bitten her. "Oh! Requests!" The hand holding the glass shot out and spilled a few sloshes onto the floor while Vadim's booming laugh - at least for a few seconds – could be heard above the low roar of the crowd. "How much for 'n article about me gettin' ol' Nicky out?"

Piper was doing her damnedest to keep a straight face. "Gee, 'Woman Out Of Time', I'da thought you'd already had your fifteen minutes of fame."

"That is not the same thing," was the impervious answer; complete with an accusatory index finger that would have jabbed her in the nose if she hadn't jerked her head back. "All I had t'do for that was get conned 'nto an icebox an' come back out."

Eh, good point. One Piper was kind of relieved to hear, too, since it wouldn't have been the first time someone got addicted to what small level of fame a mention in the Publick could grant. McDonough needed a support group all his own, it seemed. "True," she agreed; taking a swig of her beer and peering out across the jovial crowd. "Getting Nick out was something you chose to do."

"Right." Another four seconds of nodding, and Piper had to hide another smile – seriously, how did this woman make her smile so damn much – as she reached out and put her hand under Blue's chin to still it. "Couldn't pick an' choose with the vault, y'know?"

Go in, or get burned alive by nuclear radiation. "I guess not." She let the beer bottle dangle between two fingers and took a drag; watching from the corner of her eye as Blue peered into her own glass and her expression – just for a scant second – dropped into the one that she wore when she was thinking about exactly what had happened to her. "Hey." Piper hated that expression, and had long since decided to do what she could to get rid of it when it showed up. "Was that a serious question? Because you know that's already an article in the works, right?"

It worked. Blue's features cleared and then scrunched in mild incomprehension, and she spent a few seconds quietly watching Piper as if she wasn't entirely sure what to make of her.

"Really?"

"Uh, yeah?" Piper didn't hide the grin this time. "I mean, come on, Blue; complete stranger heroically saves Diamond City resident, and before the very eyes of the city's very own reporter?" She waggled her eyebrows, and let her grin widen when Blue chuckled and flushed all at once. "I'd get lynched if I didn't write it, especially since this story actually comes with a happy ending."

"Well, thanks." She got a smile out of that, but it was all too soon replaced by a sigh as Blue rubbed at her forehead. "An' now I feel stupid for askin' in the first place."

"Why?"

A longer sigh, and Blue took a healthy swallow of her own drink before training her eyes firmly on the stained ceiling. "Feels dumb to ask for that sorta thing, y'know? Like... I shouldn't feel the need to ask for praise for doin' the right thing." A second mouthful, and Piper watched quietly as those eyes dropped back down to meet her own. "'S the right thing to do. Anybody woulda done the same."

Sometimes, Piper mused, it was very, very obvious just how new Blue really was to the Commonwealth. "If that was the case, don't you think Nick would've been out of there long before you showed up?" She waited for Blue to shrug noncommittally, and watched her head drop forward this time. "Blue, doing the right thing takes the right person, too, and there honestly aren't a whole lot of those around. In fact, the Great, Green Jewel is home to a grand total of one." The cigarette found a hold between her lips, and Piper held up a single finger in demonstration. "Nick himself."

"Two," was the quiet correction; followed by an elaboration when Piper cocked her head. "Nick and you."

Hrm. Piper felt the flush crawl up her neck, and did her level best to force it back down. "Yeah, okay. So right person and right time," she amended. "I'd been away, remember? I only even got back into the city because of you." She got a bordering-on-illegally-cute nose wrinkle for that one, and leaned over enough for their shoulders to bump. Lightly, just in case anything harder would send her new friend sprawling. "Don't sell yourself short, Blue. Right person, right place, right time, and you did the right thing at the risk of your own life. No crime in wanting your efforts recognized."

"Ah." Blue only nodded for two seconds this time. "So 'M not bein' a self-important ass?"

Piper almost snorted her beer. "Hell no!"

"'Kay." Another nod – just one – followed by a hesitant look and a slight, almost shy duck of Blue's head. "Can I hug you?"

The simplest answer was to pull her in, and so Piper did just that; at least after setting aside their respective drinks and stubbing out what was left of her cigarette. A hug in and of itself was simple – a common gesture of affection between friends, family, or particularly excited strangers – so there really was no reason for how right this one felt; for the sheer peace that stole over her when Blue's arms curled around her shoulders or for how every worry in the world just seemed to vanish in an instant.

Maybe that was just the effect Blue had on people. God above knew that she had a gift for inspiring confidence in others; that she was all at once sweet and fierce and kind and dangerous; vulnerable and powerful and sensitive and protective, all dependent on whether you were someone she cared about, or someone who threatened those she cared about.

Piper counted herself at least nine different kinds of blessed to be counted among the former. Ten now, really, since hugs like these should rightly be a blessing all their own. Blue was so unbelievably special in ways she didn't even realize; someone who stood up for others who couldn't stand on their own; who didn't wait to be asked for help, but gave it freely and wanted nothing in return, simply because it was the right thing to do.

Who, for all that Piper tried not to think about it – which was a whole hell of a lot – was someone that she could very, very easily fall very, very hard for.

Bad idea, she reminded herself as Blue pulled back enough for their eyes to meet. She didn't need to fall for a straight woman, and certainly not for a straight, newly widowed woman who wasn't even sure of her place in the world she'd woken up to; of who she was or should be or wanted to be, or anything else that wasn't directly related to finding her kidnapped child. Bad, bad, bad idea, and while her head was completely on board with that fact, it was clear from how Blue hadn't moved – hadn't been asked or nudged into moving - that convincing her body was going to take a little more effort.

Words were her specialty, though, so she chuckled even under the slightly hazy, calculating look and fished for something flippant, and found the whole thing dying in her throat when Blue kissed her.

It was downright embarrassing, the sound that escaped her; low and breathy and wanting, and Piper wasn't sure if she pulled or Blue pushed, but the concrete wall was cold against her back while Blue was suddenly, intimately, scorchingly hot against her front. The softness of a woman stretched across the wiry strength of a survivor in every sense of the word, and everything was filled to overflowing with Blue, from the sweet-sour taste of Bobrov's Best right on down to the scent of the wasteland that mixed with the odd, faintly plastic smell of the vault suit.

Fuck, she needed to stop this. Blue was drunk, for God's sake, and they were only barely hidden by loud voices and poor lighting in this little corner.

She's not thatdrunk, some insidious part of her mind interjected; apparently the part that was in control, because Piper just could not make herself push Blue away or even break from that warm mouth. Clear-headed enough to hold a conversation, isn't she? To saywhat she wants? Why wouldn't she be aware of what she's doing?

That- well, that was... sort of a good point, she decided fuzzily; her mind swirling harder with every press of those lips and pretty much going all the way down the drain from as little as the slip of a hand onto the skin of her waist, because even with the alcohol thick on her tongue Blue tasted fucking amazing and felt even better; her hair like silk between Piper's fingers and her rasping exhales hot against her skin.

They did break, though, if only by a breath; Piper flushed and kind of shaky and probably looking like every last thing she was thinking, and Blue just... close. Panting, a bit, with her cheeks a little redder than normal and her eyes...

Christ, those eyes. Piper had to close her own because if she'd thought them to be intense before, that was nothing compared to now.

Blue didn't pull away, though. Instead, the tip of her nose was the faintest caress over Piper's cheek as those soft lips traced her jaw; slow and oddly hesitant, just like the thumb that moved in gentle strokes across the skin above her navel. Waiting, almost; to be pulled away. To be stopped.

It would be so easy to. All she'd have to do was fold her fingers around Blue's wrist and tug, or give the front of her shoulder a little push. Simple, really, and probably smart, because while Blue clearly wasn't as straight as she'd originally thought, she was drunk. Not enough to not know what she was doing, but enough that things like consequences were probably pretty easy to ignore in favor of actions. Enough to just go with what felt good right now, and not worry about what it would or would not mean further down the line.

Even teeth scraped lightly over the skin behind her jaw, and Piper cursed roundly in her own head for all of one second before giving Blue's hair a firm tug and claiming those lips again.

Fuck it; life was short. Smart people learned to take the good parts where they found them, and this was definitely a good part. Even if it never became anything other than drunken fumblings in a dark corner, this was Blue; fresh-faced and determined and absolutely crackling with a thousand legends in the making, and if she'd decided to aim that laser focus Piper's way, then Piper wasn't going to be foolish enough to deny her. She knew, at least, that Blue wasn't thinking of an ex, because the obvious choice among those had been unequivocally male, and she really doubted that that memory would have made that knee – that thigh – slip between her own and press until there was hot skin under Piper's nails and Blue could swallow the hitching groan with her own mouth.

Blue's eyes were open, too. Heavily lidded, but open and dark and sharp as steel; as if Piper's face right in this moment was the most desirable thing she'd ever seen. Still a little hazy, sure, but it was a haze of want much more than one of alcohol, and Piper met that look for as long as she could; wound her fingers tighter in soft hair and only lost the battle with her eyelids when gentle teeth closed around her lower lip while a firm hand curled around her hip and tugged.

"Fuck, Blue..."

"Shh."

Shit. Right; other people. Something that should really serve as incentive to stop this – or at least move it somewhere else – except the crowd was roaring louder and everyone was facing away from them; probably due to what sounded like fist fight developing because people and booze was a dumb mix that way. Not that Piper had a lot of room to talk since Blue was more intoxicating than any amount of moonshine; from the taste of her breathing to the heat of her exhales all the way down to the steady grasp at her hip and the feathery brush of warm fingers over her ribs.

It took a pathetically short time, honestly. Mere minutes of this; of the heat of Blue's body holding her against the wall while her hand guided her into slow, steady motion; of the repeated, firm-but-not-enough-but-really-enough press of her thigh and the slow, light tugs of her lips and teeth against the side of Piper's throat while puffs of hard breathing warmed her skin, and all Piper could do was hold tighter to that sturdy back until her nails and teeth were both catching on Vault-Tec blue and she had to almost choke on her own breathing.

"Just like this," Blue husked against her ear; her breathing hot and her lips warm and wet when they closed around her earlobe and Piper shuddered against her. "Let me feel you."

Jesus fuck. Piper forced back one moan after the other until her throat ached from the effort; her lips pulling back in a half-snarl and her teeth pressing into the vault suit while her fingers clawed at Blue's back because the inseam was right there. Just a few more seconds. Just one more press of Blue's thigh against her; one more brush of that thumb against her breast; one more drag of those teeth over her skin. Just... one... more.

"Sh- ngh!" The crowd howled at the fighters and Piper whimpered into Blue's shoulder; grasping at her back and shoulders and hair while the coil in her belly wound tight enough to snap and her entire body stuttered. Once, twice, with Blue's scent filling every gasping breath and Blue's warm weight holding her shaking form steady while Piper bit her lip until she almost tasted blood from the effort to keep quiet.

"I've got you," Blue whispered. "I've got you."

Yeah, she sure did, Piper wryly agreed; feeling her own hands twitch before loosening and her breathing begin to settle in her aching chest. That was kind of the problem.

"Shit." The slow sigh warmed her cheek, and the hands that had been so sure and steady and welcome now suddenly grew uncertain. "Jesus, Piper; I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"- finish the night off that way?" She took care to keep her voice light and twist her lips into a smile, and reminded herself that she had expected this, even if she had also perhaps hoped differently. Actions and consequences. "It's fine, Blue. Not like I was stopping you."

"... no." Halting and soft as Blue pulled back; face red and eyes down. "But-"

"But nothing," Piper told her firmly. "We're drunk," she reminded her, and felt more sober than she could ever remember being. "Shit happens in that state."

"Yeah." There was another low sigh, as well as a wry little twist of Blue's mouth as her hands retreated. "I guess it does."

"There you go." Keeping a joking tone wasn't exactly easy, but it was at least doable, and the best thing she could think of to do when faced with the odd sort of tightness in those eyes and the way they kept flitting off to one side instead of meeting her own. "So relax, okay? Let's just call it a fluke and table it."

"Sure." Blue bit her lip and nodded, and Piper secured her dwindling beer bottle and tried to look as unaffected as she sounded. "So... no weirdness?"

"No." She chuckled against the mouth of the bottle and drained it. "But I do need to go sleep this off. Once I'm sure my legs can hold me long enough for the walk home, anyway."

The reaction to that was interesting. Blue turned red enough to rival Piper's coat, and her expression ran a marathon starting from shock through suspicion, all the way via consideration and past sheepish into pleased. And smug. Not overtly so, but definitely smug, and Piper would have wanted to slap that look right off her face if it hadn't been so damned cute.

This whole 'no falling for a (not so) straight woman' thing would be a lot easier if the (not so) straight woman in question wasn't so fucking adorable.

"I-" Blue started and then immediately stopped herself; her lips pursing even as she shook her head. "Y'know what? No. I'm just gonna quit while I'm ahead," she decided; running a hand through her hair and favoring Piper with a crooked, little grin. "Pretty sure anything I can think of to say to that would just make things weird."

"Probably," Piper conceded and folded her arms; the corner of her mouth quirking upwards even as her stomach twisted with disappointment. "So don't push your luck."

"Nope." Blue gave her head a firm shake and held up both hands. "No luck-pushing happening here. No, Ma'am." Much to Piper's amusement, she even backed away as she spoke. "In fact, I'm gonna go find Yefim and get a room to pass out in before I end up saying something stupid anyway. G'night!"

"Sleep tight," Piper called after her; watching the bright blue of the vault suit wind its way through the crowd until she could no longer see it, and only then letting her eyes slip shut and her head fall back.

Actions and consequences.

She lit another cigarette once she made it out of the Dugout; not because the walk to the Publick was even a remotely long one, but because something about the glow of the ember and the swirl of smoke helped her think. Her head was spinning; not because of alcohol or stories or the adrenaline that came with trying to not get killed, but because she felt so many things all at once that she could barely keep them straight.

Elation.

Disappointment.

Resignation.

Frustration.

So close. She'd been so fucking close to just maybe getting something she wanted; so fucking close that she'd been able to taste it, right there on the minute lines in Blue's lips. For a brief, breathtaking second, she'd even believed that maybe she'd actually get it, too.

That was the worst part, and she privately swore at herself as she found a worn bench at the side of the abandoned road and dropped to a seat there in the pre-dawn light. Damn it, she knew better. That sort of thing just didn't work out in her favor, and she was too fucking smart to lose sight of that hard-earned lesson; even - especially – in the face of those eyes and that smile, because even if Blue had been in a state of mind where she could consider maybe moving on from her husband and his murder, she sure as hell deserved better than some loud-mouth, pushy reporter who couldn't even figure out when to get off her goddamn soap box.

Guilt, too, settled heavy in her stomach, because in spite of the disappointment, she couldn't quite manage to make herself regret. At least not anything other than the fact that she hadn't gotten the chance to see what that vault suit did such a poor job of hiding.

Piper let her head fall back against corrugated metal, and blew smoke at the waning stars.

Flukes and missteps.

Actions and consequences.