Rapidly leaving my temporary workshop behind, I arrived at the elevator shortly and hopped on it for a short ride up to the 5th level. The second it reached the top floor, and the doors opened wide, I exited it and made a beeline for the living space I shared with my two romantic partners that would soon become three if that rambunctious cowgirl had anything to say about it.
Approaching the entrance to my home, I briefly glanced at the whole suite of defenses I had implemented that ranged from the installation of numerous armored plates, the very same ones that now covered the entire exterior of the stronghold and many parts of the interior, to fully automated turrets and a squad of robots more than capable of handling most threats on their own.
It's not impossible, but I doubt many could get past these security measures, let alone make it past the plethora of defenses put in place across the entirety of this stronghold. Having said that, none of my defenses are really designed to handle the colossal sized creatures of the waste, so I think I'll be re-adding turret designing to the to do list again.
Although not entirely content with the current state of my defenses and security systems, I put the problem off for future me to deal with and opened the door to my home, which had been replaced with an armored and explosive resistant version, and strolled on in. What I found once I got past the entryway was Mary messing around with the large flat screen television in the living room.
Seeing she needed a hand, I offered my assistance. "Morning, Mary. You need a hand there?"
"Oh, good morning, handsome. And yea, if you wouldn't mind." She responded in her charming southern accent after her initial surprise.
Lending a hand, I waltz over to the TV and turned it on by pressing a hidden recessed button on the lower back right-hand corner of the panel. As soon as the screen came to life, I threw something up on the tele and showed her how to operate it on her own. That teaching of mine may have been unnecessary, but I had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to be living with us, hence I might as well get it out of the way now.
I shared a few more words with the dirty blonde haired stunner before we moved over to the large, although temporary, sectional couch we brought with us from the undercity.
"By the way, how'd you sleep? I hope it wasn't too bad." I inquired.
"Fantastic! I genuinely don't remember the last time I slept so deeply." She answered enthusiastically.
"What about you?"
"Pretty good. I got my two hours."
It took her a second to register what I had just said, but once she did, a stunned look made its way onto her pretty mug. As comical as I found that facial expression of hers, it didn't last long and rapidly transitioned to one of genuine concern and worry. "In what world is two hours' sleep good?"
As I was about to respond to her and explain why it wasn't such a big deal for me, in particular, Alice and Rei came meandering over. "If it was anyone else, I would be right there with you and sharing your same concerns regarding his extremely limited amount of sleep. However, Dom is not your typical man, as I'm sure you've seen."
Listening to what Alice had to say, Mary nodded her head at the latter bit and let her continue. "So the rules that would normally apply to normal humans don't exactly apply to him, hence why it's not a big deal nor something you should be concerned with."
She didn't look entirely assured just yet, so Rei stepped up to assuage her worries further. "You really don't have to be concerned about that. It's just one of the many quirks you'll discover as you spend more and more time with this big hunk."
Their combined words seemed to have done the trick, since she finally appeared relieved, so I moved things along and headed to the kitchen to prepare my girls a suitable meal for the events that will transpire today. Whipping up a large breakfast swiftly and efficiently, I set everything on the kitchen counter and called them over, much to their delight. When my two beauties and soon to be third beauty took their seats at the counter, I joined them and began eating, enjoying the scrumptious meal alongside them.
The four of us talked as we ate and before long, I drove the conversation to today's agenda. "Okay, it's time to discuss today's agenda."
"Ohh, has something changed? I thought we were supposed to be returning to the undercity so we could go furniture shopping." Alice asked.
"Well, I presume since Mary was kidnapped by a bunch of bandits out of the blue that she would like to pay a visit to her hometown so she can inform her family of her safety, right?" I replied whilst directing a question to the wild flower that anyone could figure out the answer to.
"Nm, I'm sure my mom and dad are worried about my whereabouts since I've never not returned home, so if you could give me a lift there I would appreciate it a bunch."
"Was already planning on it." I said simply before continuing on further. "So, since Mary needs to visit her home, we're going to have to delay our trip home till the afternoon. Are you two alright with that?"
"I don't have any issue with that, do you, Alice?"
"None, and we can use the extra time we've gained to do some more planning and see what we want to put where."
"Ohh, good thinking." Rei followed up excitedly.
We covered a few more topics before my lovers roped the cowgirl in and got her involved in the homemaking process.
Looks like I won't have to worry about them getting along.
Seeing them hitting it off, I left the cleaning to the Multibots stationed in our personal living space and departed from our portion of the top floor to see how gramps and the boys were doing and tell them the plans for the day. I stopped off at the boys' rooms first, gave them a down low on the situation, including my pickup of another flower much to their ire and told them to figure out what sort of furnishings they wanted for each of their individual spaces.
"Alright, I'm heading off to gramp's place next. Just be ready to go when I get back."
"Okay, will do. Have a safe trip, bro."
Finished updating Big Tom on recent events and our current situation, I waved him off and set off for the old man's domain. The moment I reached his door, I didn't bother knocking and went right in, since the old bastard wasn't much for pleasantries.
"How are things coming along, gramps?" I asked the young looking but old fogey once I made myself comfortable on his dark leather couch.
"Make yourself at home. Why don't you?" The old guy complained.
Fully aware he wasn't even remotely serious, I went along with his banter. "I will thanks."
The two of us shared a laugh before I began broaching the topic I wanted to enlighten him on. "I had quite the event filled day yesterday. You wanna hear about it?"
"Sure kid, I'm listening."
Getting the go ahead, I started retelling yesterday's story and after the old man heard every last bit of it; he said. "So, you stumbled across yet another pretty flower and plucked her all on your very first day out in the wasteland, huh?"
Silently nodding my head, he continued. "You are something else, Dom, hahaha-."
I let him have his moment and once he was done laughing boisterously; I added. "And due to the circumstances of our encounter, I plan on paying her hometown of Crystal Springs a visit, so she can tell her family that she's safe and inform them of what happened. After I'm done handling business there and have returned, we'll head off to the undercity to buy and pick up the furnishings and other miscellaneous items we need."
"Ohh, she's from Crystal Springs."
"Yup, she's the daughter of the mayor there."
"So she's one of Ron's kids. Damn, what a small world we live in!"
Surprised to hear my grandpa knew her father, I asked. "You know her father."
"That I do. I used to pick up a good bit of merc and hunting work from the town center's job board and had many an encounter with the man over the years."
"Hmm, you don't say."
"You want me to come along?"
I was about to answer but he continued before I could. "I'm only asking because that man can be quite protective of his own, if you know what I mean, and I imagine especially so given his daughter went missing."
Wholly confident in my own abilities, I waved his concerns off. "That's alright, gramps. I should be fine."
"If you say so, youngin... Oh, here, take this."
Seeing him trying to hand me some sort of medallion, I let him drop it into my hand. "That's something his old man gave me back when he was running things over there, so it should be of some help in preventing things from blowing up and going south."
"I'll be sure to use it from the getgo so unnecessary issues don't arise." I replied before stowing it away in my inventory.
I shot the shit with my gramps for about a dozen minutes after that and eventually got off my bum and headed on back to my home, away from home to grab Mary and set off for Crystal Springs.
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