January wasn't even half way done and so many important things had happened. First and maybe most importantly, I finally figured out how to patch the fission battery into the power systems from the Workshop. In the end, the answer was hidden in plain sight. I think I mentioned before that the Workshop had an entry in its catalogue for a fusion generator. I didn't have anything close to the resources needed to replicate it, and I had some doubts about my ability to safely assemble the kit, but it was there. What were also there were a series of repair kits to keep the generator up and running in the face of normal wear and tear.

 

One of those kits had replacement power adaptors, and I noticed that several of those parts listed Department of Energy standards as their part numbers rather than a proprietary Robco parts number. That got me thinking: are those DOE parts universal parts that'll work with any atomic power source? Well, I took a chance and replicated the kit and... the answer was yes. With some very minor adjustments, I was able to screw that adapter right into the fission battery and hook it into my house's little power grid. And just like that... lights, power, heat, all of it working again without having to burn down my increasingly shaky chemical battery cell.

 

 

Getting reliable long-term power started a cascade of solved problems that - after a little tree-climbing to nail connectors into place and then fixing a broken street lamp - led to me also hooking up power in what was eventually going to be Winter's house. Winter was actually due to do a shift down in the neighborhood the following day, so I focused on getting the living space there up to a level where she could operate comfortably. To tell the truth, I was increasingly starting to feel like what had seemed 'good enough' before in my old home wasn't good enough anymore. I knew I needed to come up with something better than just patching up and retrofitting the shells of the damaged houses, but I didn't have a good solution yet. 

 

 

Still, having electricity in the old Rosa house was a huge victory, and I set about using the Workshop to furnish the inside into a livable condition. The house wasn't going to be perfect still - there were some areas where the damage was just too severe for me to get new framing into place, so her kitchenette was going to be a bit 'open plan' and there were a few areas where the old interior walls were visible, but it was an incremental step up in quality compared to my first effort. 

 

When I was done, the new house had a nice bedroom and bathroom, a fully functional kitchenette and a comfy living room. I had working lights in the interior, though the lack of windows still left it kind of gloomy. That was something I'd have to overcome once and for all with the next house I redid, since there wasn't much purpose in coming out of the vault just to live in shadowy, above-ground bunkers like this. 

 

 

Despite my misgivings, Winter was delighted to see what I'd done with the Rosa home. After she helped me out of the power suit, we shared a meal and talked about what to do next. We both agreed that the wall was what we needed to do next. With two houses repaired, we could probably move everyone out of the vault if we had to - even if it would be a tight fit. But without a wall (and ideally, some other defenses like guard towers), we'd be sitting ducks for the next threat to waltz into town. On a lighter note, Winter pointed out that my hair was still growing fast. At this rate, she observed, I'd start having trouble getting the power suit's helmet on pretty soon. She helped me pull it into a pony tail to get it at least somewhat under control, but I accepted that I'd have to decide soon if I wanted to grow it out further. The helmet was very useful, and keeping my hair short might be the price I had to pay for that protection. 

 

 

After I took a moment to shower, we got to switching out who was wearing the suit. By this point, Winter had already done a few shifts out in Sanctuary Hills already, and we were all used to the process; what had started out as uncomfortable we both found a little bit enjoyable by this point, and we took our time getting her suited up. While I was hooking up her lymphatic sensors to the medical system (oh, how she'd squealed when it was my turn to put in the probes for the first time!), Winter stopped me.

 

"Oh, that reminds me," she said, "remember the references to biofuel that we keep seeing? I looked it up in the manual and I figured out the problem."

 

She pulled up the body sock a bit and showed me the small metal plates that sat on my nipples. "Here, let me unscrew the service cover and show you the inside." She looped a finger into the ring on the right side and turned it clockwise a few times. The cover came off pretty quickly, revealing the inner mechaism.

 

"See, at first I thought this was just a contact plate for a sensor, but look at this," she pointed out a set of grooves on the inside. "You know how this spot gets sore when you first power up the suit? And how you get some beads of milk there after you take it off?"

 

I nodded in affirmation. "The lymphomammary probe is mostly flexible - the sensor tape that runs through the mammary gland and axillary lymph node and comes out through the armpit - but there's a small rigid part at the end that sits right behind your nipple, and its got thin, retractable needles in it."

 

"Mmm, hmm, I think I follow you so far." I'm always impressed with how Winter can just absorb mechanical information. She would have made an amazing engineer or mechanic in the old world. 

 

"When the suit powers on and does its initial health check, the needles push out and mate with the front plate. This holds the plate tight to your chest, but it also forcibly opens a route from your milk ducts to those grooves, and the suit wicks away any discharge into a storage tank. The suit also recaptures some waste products from its own machinery and blends it with the, well, with the milk it collects."

 

"That's the biofuel?" I prompted.

 

"Almost... but we missed two parts of the process. The raw biofuel is too concentrated to use safely - it has to be diluted, and the system uses purified water to do that. There's a reservoir the system uses to brew the diluted biofuel, and we never filled it. Also, we aren't creating all that much concentrated biofuel. Remember how the front plug is supposed to balance your hormone levels? One thing its supposed to do is raise your prolactin levels so you produce more milk. Even for male operators, by the way."

 

"As long as they have those needles stuck in their balls," I observed.

 

Winter giggled, "that's right. I can't wait until we get to help a guy wear the power suit. That's going to be an interesting experience."

 

"Interesting for us, I think. He'll be using a different word to describe it."

 

"For sure. But the reason the prolactin stimulants aren't working is because there's another chemical reservoir running on empty. That one's trickier, because it calls for some organic compounds that I have no idea where to find. I think we'd need to find a trained botanist, or some organic chemistry textbooks if we can raid a school. For now though, we need to do without on that one."

 

"Well," I said as I resumed hooking up her sensors, "we can at least fill up the purified water tank. I'm surprised the system doesn't just use the drinking water reservoir."

 

Winter pulled the body sock up over her shoulders then shrugged, "you'd think that, but the 'purified water' in the drinking system isn't really pure - the suit adds a lot of electrolytes and other things to it that would mess up the biofuel. But yeah, here, help me with the helmet then let's fill you up."

 

I finished getting her dressed then and used the still in my garage to prepare some purified water, which I fed into one of the storage tanks on the backpack. A moment later, Winter confirmed to me that the reservoir was now full.

 

 

"Okay," she said, "we'll check back at the end of my shift in the suit, but hopefully we'll have some usable biofuel by then. I'm really curious to learn what exactly it does."

 

With Winter on the job outside, and with heat no longer a very limited luxury, I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I never replaced my old couch, and even after all these years the feel of it was familiar and comfortable. I sat down planning on a little nap, but soon I found my hands wandering and my mind revisiting the fun I'd had with Nate on this same couch when we'd first moved in. I took things slow, enjoying the sensation and forgetting about the problems of this new world for a while. Perhaps more importantly, in a moment of clarity after I reached my climax, I realized that I'd been able to get aroused by thoughts about Nate and the love we'd shared.

 

I hadn't wanted to think about it much before, I'd refused to think about it, but I'd been afraid that Vault-Tec had changed me so that I wouldn't want men anymore. They'd definitely changed me so I wanted women, and especially I found women with penises - transgendered people or hermaphrodites - especially exciting, but they hadn't erased the part of me that found Nate achingly sexy. It was one little plank on my Ship of Theseus that Vault-Tec hadn't been able to replace, and the realization of that filled me with relief and happiness in equal measure.

 

 

That warm swell got me all hot and bothered all over again, and my hands found their way back to my clitoris to resume their massage. And Winter had been right before - my clit was definitely a lot larger than it had been before Vault-Tec got their hands on me. Indeed, when I was hot and bothered like this, it felt positively huge, straining against my poor hood and so, so sensitive. 

 

Before I could get completely lost in my senses though, I heard a noise from outside. Turning, I saw that my masturbation had apparently drawn Winter's attention, and she was clapping her hands in delight while watching me.

 

 

"You like that?" I asked.

 

Winter laughed, challenging me, "I do... but if you were horny you should have told me before I got all suited up."

 

I shooed her away then, telling her to get back to work. Much as I would have liked to my amusements, the shock of being watched had snapped me out of the mood. It's strange, actually, I felt a real thrill when I realized I was being watched, but then after all I could think about was how the Vault-Tec scientists would watch, clinically, while I did all sorts of degrading things for them. I wonder if they'd tried to brainwash me into enjoying being watched, or if to the contrary they'd been the reason for my feelings of discomfort. Or perhaps both... or neither. To this day, I wish I'd been able to read my own case files, but the bastards deleted them before they abandoned me in the vault. 

 

Winter stuck to her work for the rest of the day, and when we met back up at her house in the evening I had to spend some time convincing her that she hadn't made me angry by watching.

 

"I'm really sorry, Charley," she said, "I though you'd be into it if I took a peek."

 

"Don't worry about it. If anything, I owe you an apology for being so pushy in getting you to leave me alone. I... I like spending time with you, Winter. I like how fearless you are to try anything new. I like how sharp your brain is and how kind you are. I like how you manage to make something like the power suit... something I should hate putting on, I like how you make it like a kinky game. And I like when I put it on you, how smooth and soft your skin is, how your breath catches a little when I touch your sensitive spots and how warm you are when I put my fingers inside you."

 

Winter was still suited up and I couldn't see her face, but her body language told me she was probably blushing.

 

"Charley," she said. "It sounds like... you're trying to say you, um, that you more than just like me."

 

I thought about that for only just a second, using my dinner plate as an excuse to look away momentarily, then I nodded. "Yeah, Winter, I think that's right. Its weird... I think I've told you before that I wasn't into women before they froze me. And..." I realized I was fidgeting with Nate's ring, "and I still miss Nate. But I love you too, and I'm glad you found my vault."

 

Now Winter gave out an especially awkward laugh, adding after a moment, "Jeez, Charley, at this rate I'm going to have to get this suit off if you're going to start talking like that."

 

I hugged her and patted her on the back. "Plenty of time for that later," I promised. "For now, what do you say I take out that air filter and share my dinner with you."

 

"Oh, I wish," she whispered, "but even with the filter out I can't chew with the mouth guard."

 

"Don't worry," I explained, "I'll chew it for you. All you have to do is enjoy the flavor and swallow."

 

"Oh, I like that idea," she said. With some help from me, Winter got the air filter out and laid it down on the bar. Then I took the next forkfull of my dinner and carefully, thoroughly chewed it until it was almost - but not quite - paste. Drawing close to her, I embraced Winter and brought my mouth to the open front of her helmet. Bit my bit, I refed her the chewed meal of jerky and mushrooms, making sure the paste laid down on her tongue so it could contact all her taste buds. When she was done and had finished swallowing, I leaned in and ran my tongue against hers, holding her closer as her body shuddered a little. 

 

"Was that good?" I asked. With her mouth pinned open by the ring, she could only answer with grunts and groans, and I started chewing up my next mouthful of food.

 

 

We continued this game at a leisurely pace until all the food was gone. After some more tongue kissing and a long hug, I looked over to the air filter. 

 

"Well, unless you need me to wash that down for you, I think its time we get your tubes back in. Ready?"

 

She paused then, before leaning in for another kiss and then pushing me back to arms length, her hands on my shoulders. Glancing towards me in what must be to her an effort to meet my gaze, she nodded slowly and then sunk down to her knees. I smiled at her, reaching for the air filter. It seemed that she wanted to take a bit of a submissive posture for this. 

 

A bit to my surprise, she stopped me, shaking her head. She mumbled something unintelligible, then ran her tongue around the mouth-ring of the helmet.

 

"Oh?" I asked with a laugh, "you want me to wash down your meal after all? I was just joking you know... but I might be able to muster up something if you're sure."

 

She nodded vigorously, and I put the filter back down on the table. I approached her, petting her head and shoulders as I got into position over her, pulling my pussy close to her open mouth.

 

"Last chance," I warned.

 

"Mffft uouo dt" she mumbled in response, and I used my fingers to spread open my labia as I relaxed my pelvic muscles. A moment later, I could feel a liquid gurgle as my piss started to run into her mouth in a stream. Certainly not the strongest flow I'd ever mustered up, but definitely respectable on short notice. Winter didn't swallow right away, holding the fast expanding golden puddle in her mouth and running her tongue back and forth, as well as occasionally pushing it past the ring to lick at the inner parts of my vulva. The mouth guard wasn't well suited for cunnilingus, but she was definitely giving it her best effort. 

 

When I was completely empty, she rolled her tongue around in her mouth a little longer, then finally swallowed the mouthful of steaming piss. Her heavy breathing told me that she was finding this just as exciting as me, and I managed to squeeze our just a little more for her before I retrieved the air filter and started pushing the tubes down her throat.

 

"Ohhhh," she sighed as the vocoder started picking up her voice again. "That was... I've never... That was amazing. God, Charley, you have to do that every time I suit up from now on. Oh, I can still taste you. I think my mouth is coated."

 

"I had no idea you were into that," I laughed. "No promises, but I'll try to keep that in mind. Though I'm happy to share my dinner with you like that any time you want. Was it still good all chewed up?"

 

"It was... perfect," she whispered. "Is it weird to say that the taste of your tongue is a perfect pairing with red meat?"

 

I shrugged. "Well, a little weird maybe. But I like your kind of weird."

 

"That's good, because I like your weird too. But to answer your question, I don't know if I'd say its what I'm into, but I'm into you... the way your skin tastes, the way your body smells... and when you filled up my mouth, it was like having your scent, the smell of your sweat and your pussy, all over my tongue and up in my nose. And I can still taste it. That's what I'm into. You're what I'm into."

 

I didn't end up going back to my house after that. We spent the rest of the night cuddling on her couch and then sleeping entangled on her bed. For a powered suit, her covering was surprisingly soft, and it radiated a warm glow that almost let me forget she was suited up and pretend I was just snuggling up with her skin. It made me look forward to spring, and to a time when we could put away the power suit most of the time and just enjoy each other's company. 

 

I wondered how Stef and Fred and Holly were doing, and I hoped everything was alright in the vault, but I was also glad to have some time away from them, just time for me to spend with Winter.