the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos was trying to figure out what to do. When Hancock touched him a hand automatically went up to take one of Hancock’s and give it a tight squeeze. Carlos took a look around at the needles and empty canisters and he felt overwhelmed.

“Han, did you… did you take all this??” he asked seriously. He then spotted bottles among the items and, somehow, his fear grew. He mixed drugs and alcohol?? Hancock was a hearty individual, as a ghoul, but Carlos feared that not even he would sober up in one piece.

“I….” He didn’t quite understand the question, not at first. Once it processed, Hancock glanced over at the scattered needles and bottles and sniffled. “Yeah?” It came out more as a question than anything, his mind still struggling to follow Carlos’ line of thought.

“What––” He started again, eyes flicking back up to the other man’s. “A-are you….. gonna leave me….? I-I didn’t mean to–– please give me another chance…..”

Carlos couldn’t help but look at the other incredulously. “What? No! I’m not! But Jesus, Hancock!” Carlos shut his eyes and tried to think. Addictol. Would Hancock even have any?

“Han, do you have any Addictol? I can get you some water, but is there anything I can give you to help you with this?” If he didn’t have any Carlos was going to have to send a Watchman out to get some. Carlos was scared – he didn’t want to lose Hancock like this!

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos
smiled at him. “But you love me anyway.” He leaned in again to kiss his
mouth happily. “Same here, Han… I’m glad to have you. And you do
deserve me, I promise. I’m here, after all.”

“I do love you.” Hancock smiled, a little spark running through him at his own words, it was still a little weird getting used to saying, even if it was true. “How do you know I haven’t just tricked you into thinking I deserve you, hmm? Either way, I ain’t lettin’ go, so I s’pose it doesn’t matter much anyway.”

Carlos just hugged Hancock. “No, it doesn’t,” he said. “I won’t let go either. You should know… I love you too. And I do think you are a beautiful person. One of the best out here.”

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

“Yeah?” Carlos asked. “Yeah, uh… this, what we’re doing, is really out of the norm for me.” He chuckled again. “I… I”m not sure how you convinced me to do this with you. Usually, my work is ‘fun’ enough for me.”

“Just that Irish charm, I s’pose.” He snorted, giving Carlos a wink and a grin. “I got a way of gettin’ people to go outta their comfort zone a little to experience more’a life.”

“Irish charm?” Carlos asked with a smile. “Or maybe another sort of charm? How’s your wand-work with illegal spells? I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Heh.”

Food for the Soul (closed w/ selfmedicatingmayor)

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

“No, actually, a holotape driver isn’t necessary,” Carlos explained. “A lot of models come with them, but you don‘t necessarily need one for every-day function. It’ll just give you an error message that you can dismiss and continue on with the memory that’s already on the terminal.”

“That’s…… huh.” He furrowed his brows as he stared at the terminal, trying to figure out exactly how that worked. “So…. are there other things you can take out without the whole thing goin’ whacky? Is it safe to do that? I’m sorry, I just don’t get how you can take parts outta somethin’ and have it still work right.”

Carlos just smiled at him. “Don’t be sorry – it’s great to ask questions! Otherwise people wouldn’t learn anything new. There are a couple things that can be ignored and not affect the rest of the terminal’s main function. The ports for additional hardware, like for headsets or turrets aren’t strictly needed. Neither are the in-terminal speakers. It can even work without fans for a while, though it’d overheat and shut off without proper air flow.”

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos sighed softly through his nose and his hold on
Hancock softened a bit. He hummed, one of his hands sliding down to rest on
Hancock’s shoulder. He adored this man so much. He couldn’t really believe that
Hancock thought he was worth being devoted to, but… well, here they were.
Carlos was just going to have to learn to believe it, won’t he?

As the kiss dragged on, Hancock relaxed more, though not fully. His arms tightened around Carlos, encircling his waist in a hug as he stood on his toes to reach him better, deepening the kiss. After another minute or two, the ghoul hesitantly broke the kiss, lowering himself back down and smiling a little bashfully as he looked up to meet Carlos’ eyes. “That….. heh, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I know,” Carlos responded automatically. He cringed a little at that, wishing he hadn’t said that. “I mean… I do care about you, Hancock. Too. Er, a lot. I love you. I just, heh, I hadn’t expected this either and I wanted to make sure I didn’t ruin it with ruining your coat. I know you love that thing too…”

A Holiday Surprise (closed w/ selfmedicatingmayor)

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos shrugged slightly. “Well… honestly, I’m not sure. I know that pre-war it was everywhere and there were huge celebrations about it, but I lived in a vault. We did have a vault-wide party sometimes, unless food was short. But, uh… my dad always told us that it was family that was important. And… making sure that we appreciated each other.” He laughed softly. “God, that sounds so corny…”

“It does sound pretty corny, but…. nice. We never did anything like that, celebrated birthdays, but even then it wasn’t anything big or all that special, y’know?” He shrugged. “Whatever you want to do, I’m happy to do it with you, I just want you to be happy and I’d do anything to make that happen.”

Carlos smiled at him. He reached and pulled his arms around Hancock to hug him. “I want you to enjoy it too. I’m actually very happy with how this turned out. I’m glad you liked it…”

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Awe…. That made Carlos’ heart melt a little.

“You’re too good to me,” Carlos said softly, still clinging onto Hancock’s hand. He rubbed his thumbs over the other’s knuckles and the back of his hand.

“That ain’t possible, darlin’.” With a smile, the ghoul leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips then gave his hand a little squeeze as he pulled back again to look into Carlos’ eyes. “I’d give up anythin’ to keep ya around, sweetheart, you mean the whole world to me and I wouldn’t wanna do anything to screw things up between us.”

Carlos smiled at him. “I’m pretty sure you won’t,” he said. “I… I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’ve walked into.” Admittedly, Carlos didn’t expect any of this. But things just… seemed to fall in place. He wasn’t going to question it too much – not when he and Hancock have such a good thing going.

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos was startled and, and for an irrational moment he thought he might be pushed down the stairs. But, again, it was an irrational thought and Carlos felt guilty about thinking it. Upon realizing where he was being directed though, his stomach felt like it was sucked into a small, localized black hole.

Hancock probably told the Watch that he wanted to talk to Carlos. This was it. He was going to tell Carlos that this wasn’t working. Because it wasn’t – Carlos knew that. He wouldn’t blame Hancock for ending it… though it didn’t change the fact that this was going to hurt so much.

Carlos resigned himself. This was it, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it but… go and face the music. He could do that. He had to. Just stand there and agree with Hancock when he said that it was over.

He had expected, when he walked in, to see Hancock on the couch. Maybe playing with a jet canister or even his knife. Collected, calm, and serious. He didn’t expect to see the prone form on the couch with the mess of drug paraphernalia scattered around him. Carlos was confused at first, but as he cautiously stepped closer and started to put together what all the mess meant – that, plus the image of Hancock lying down motionless – Carlos’ mind jumped to conclusions and he suddenly panicked.

“HANCOCK!!” he screamed and he rushed forward. Carlos used his boot to sweep away the needles scattered dangerously at the front of the couch and he crouched down to take Hancock’s face in his hands and examine it. “Hancock! Han, can you hear me??”

The shout hardly registered, and the ghoul didn’t move, not until Carlos physically moved him. He groaned softly, dark eyes moving to his, unfocused and hazy. It took a few moments for him to register who was touching him and once he did, the tears returned. Choking out a sob, Hancock reached up with shaky hands and gently cupped his face, hardly believing he was even real.

“C-Carlos? You came back?” He breathed in disbelief. “You–– I-I’m so sorry. I fucked up, I-I didn’t mean to–– I didn’t want to m-make you uncomfortable, I–– please don’t leave me…..”

Carlos was trying to figure out what to do. When Hancock touched him a hand automatically went up to take one of Hancock’s and give it a tight squeeze. Carlos took a look around at the needles and empty canisters and he felt overwhelmed.

“Han, did you… did you take all this??” he asked seriously. He then spotted bottles among the items and, somehow, his fear grew. He mixed drugs and alcohol?? Hancock was a hearty individual, as a ghoul, but Carlos feared that not even he would sober up in one piece.

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

“Well, I had someone say to me that ‘if you do beautiful things, then you’re a beautiful person’. And you have been absolutely beautiful to me. There’s also another saying, that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. And I gotta tell ya, I’m holding a lot of bees.”

It took him a moment to process that last saying, the smile on his face replaced with puzzlement for just a moment as he processed that. “You’re ridiculous.” He chuckled as he pulled him in for a soft kiss, hands remaining on Carlos’ hips even as he pulled back. “Thank you….. for bein’ so perfect. You’re too good for me and I don’t deserve ya but I’ll be damned if I ever let ya go.”

Carlos
smiled at him. “But you love me anyway.” He leaned in again to kiss his
mouth happily. “Same here, Han… I’m glad to have you. And you do
deserve me, I promise. I’m here, after all.”

selfmedicatingmayor:

the-perfect-scientist :

Carlos laughed. “Well, I’ll be honest, seeing him date would probably
be too weird for me. He’s been single for such a long time.”

And they were right back to talking (flirting?) about Carlos, huh?

“And
well, you know, there’s a reason I’ve been single for a while too,” he
went on. “Intelligence might be attractive, yeah… until the workaholic
inventor misses too many dates. You know, like Robin Williams in Flubber. Though I haven’t missed my own wedding, thank God.”

“Heh, I s’pose I can see how that’d be an issue for some folks. You keep yourself pretty busy all the time then, huh? Never get out for a little fun? Or is it that ya just don’t have the right folks around you to drag ya away from your work for a little while? Either way, I can relate–– well, not with the inventor part, but bein’ a bit of a workaholic.”

“Yeah?” Carlos asked. “Yeah, uh… this, what we’re doing, is really out of the norm for me.” He chuckled again. “I… I”m not sure how you convinced me to do this with you. Usually, my work is ‘fun’ enough for me.”