Fan: Ironclad

Ironclad is a fanfiction by ElectricFire 169. It is a sequel to Another Fallout Tale and a prequel to Starbuggers.

Characters

 * Cywren Caster
 * Sarah Lyons
 * Timebomb
 * Fawkes
 * Quasar
 * Bittercup
 * Oberon Geiger
 * Seneca
 * James Caster

One
Some days he could swear blind that she thought of him as nothing more than mere muscle.

That's not to say that they weren't any less affectionate towards each other - anyone could see it from the way they looked at each other. But he couldn't help feeling that she was focused less on their relationship and more on his body and how it could be useful. He seemed to spend most of the waking hours he wasn't resting moving objects, driving, or any other job that wasn't being done by somebody else.

He wasn't going to complain about it - he owed her a lot more than his life several times over - but it was becoming a bone of contention between them, it couldn't be denied.

Not that they talked about it. She was more busy, now. Focused. Single-minded, almost. Obsessed? He couldn't rule it out.

There was defninitely something going down, she had been spending a lot more time talking with the Council, the Paladin, and other people higher in the chain of command. A lot of planning was involved. Plot, organise, deploy. He knew he was being left in the dark on something big, but he didn't want to think about it. It didn't do him any good to think about it.

Was she leaving him out because it was a secret?

Or just because she didn't think he was smart enough to understand?

In any case, the word had got around, he'd noticed people looking now. He'd felt their gazes pierce the back of his head like tiny, scalding pinpricks. The thought of it made his blood boil. How is it any of their business!? It had taken all of his self-restraint not to whirl around and lash out at them, to yell at the top of his lungs that he was not simple-minded, that he could do it.

Because he could understand it, if she'd just let him.

He knew he couldn't hold it back forever. It was starting to get to him, and it was more than he could take.And he hoped she wouldn't be there if - when - he blew his top.