Heart of Steel Turned Gold

Chapter 3: Danse the Not-So Wingman

Arthur:

"Close the door Danse."

Danse looked at me slightly startled but did it regardless.

"Alright Arthur, what's up."

I fiddled with the pen I decided was all of a sudden very interesting.

"I just wanted to talk to you Henry, is that such a crime?"

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Okay, what do you want?"

Jesus is it that obvious?

"Alright, you got me. I wanted to discuss the details of your mission."

"Ahh. Esmeralda, then."

I felt myself shrink in my chair.

"Yeah. Esmeralda."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

"Kell's said the two of you were quite the, uh, power couple."

Danse raised an eyebrow. Then his face melted into a smile, I've only seen a couple of times in my life.

"You're jealous aren't you?"

I looked down to try and hide the blush taking over my face.

"I just... wanted... ugh, I'm, uh... happy for you two."

It was Danse's turn for his face to change colour. Only the colour in his face seemed to drain.

"No! No, I mean, we're definitely not... No. We're not a couple, Arthur. Lucky for you." He added that last part with a wink.

"Okay, so maybe I've developed a little crush."

Silence came over the room. I wondered if he understood what I was asking him, so I didn't actually have to say it out loud.

"So you want me to help you out? Ask if she likes you."

"I'm pretty sure she likes me" At least I hope to God she did.

"I just want you to find out if she likes me, or my name."

Danse furrowed his brows.

"She isn't a typical Commonwealth woman, I doubt that's of any importance to her."

I opened my mouth to disagree when he cut me off.

"Besides, you really think she's gonna wanna talk to me, her commanding officer, about her feelings towards you, my commanding officer?"

"Come on, Henry, you spend more time with her than I do."

"Because we're a good team, and you make us go on missions together. If you want to hang out with her before we embark, she's usually at the mess hall doing some kind of stand up comedy to the soldiers. If not, she'd be in the power armour station. But she's only there late when most everyone else is sleeping. Usually she's talking to Ingram."

"Ingram?"

"Yeah, those two talk pretty often. If anything, you should ask Ingram to talk to her."

Before I could express any sort of gratitude, Henry cut me off... again.

"Or better yet, go talk to her yourself. Find out yourself if she likes you."

God, no.

"No. Not after the...ahem, interesting meeting we had just before you came in."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

"Alright then, I won't ask. But you better go and familiarize yourself with her."