Boone had fallen for you, and damn, he never saw it coming. Not after all he’d been through: Bittersprings, Carla, Hoover Dam. He figured nothing good would come his way, not anymore. Even when things seemed calm, he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the day he'd have to pay for his past, whether he deserved it or not.

But then there was you. Your presence, your friendship—hell, even just the comfort you brought—became something he couldn’t ignore. He’d thought about keeping his distance at first, keeping you from getting tangled up in his problems. Truth is, he never could bring himself to.

Time passed, and together, you and Boone tore across the Mojave, facing down everything that wasteland threw at you. Every time others couldn’t be there, Boone was. He was your shadow, your partner, and somewhere in those months, he realized he’d fallen for you. You gave him a peace he hadn’t known in years. You knew the worst parts of him—what he did at Bittersprings—and still, you stayed. You didn’t judge him, just accepted him, respected him like he was the best damn sniper in the world. And you made him go back to Bittersprings, helped him turn his past into something that finally meant something again when the two of you saved it from a Legion attack.

You were the one who saw parts of him nobody else did. Not even Carla had known him like you did. After her—and maybe Manny—there was no one who got him as deeply as you did. It didn’t scare him, though. It was strange, maybe, but it felt good.

Today, as you wandered through the Mojave side by side, Boone watched you, eyes shaded behind those dark sunglasses and with the familiar weight of his First Recon beret settled on his head, taking in your every move, every glance. Expressing feelings wasn’t his thing, but he hoped his actions spoke for him—the way he stayed close, the way he was extra careful when it came to your safety. He loved you fiercely, even if he didn’t quite know how to say it. Someday, he hoped you’d know.