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Description
The slivers of light falling across the Wasteland as the sun dropped off in the west made the ruined Capitol appear to be glowing from some sort of internal fire.  Long shadows cast down from the upper floors of Tenpenny Tower and moved back and forth as Kyle's legs swung gently when he stretched them between the rungs of the balcony.  His arms had also found their way through the rungs, and crossed to relax over his knees as he rested his cheeks on the metal poles, and lost himself in his thoughts as he kept a quiet guard over all that he could see.

He liked this spot.  With the exception of his favorite couch, it was here that he felt safest from the storm that had been seething through the building for the past few days.  Though the balcony was only accessible from Burke or Kaden's suites, and thus off-limits to the general population of Tenpenny Tower, and not even within the realm of imagination of any other Wastelander, there were still a fair number of people who could find him out here.  But at this time of the day, they were busy.  Busier than usual, especially with their newest resident.  And that suited him just fine; he needed some time to mull over his own thoughts.

Kyle scowled at the courtyard far below, where he could see the brown specks of guards practicing their marksmanship against the straw dummies set up on the wall.  His neck still ached from where Liam had grabbed him and threatened to choke the life out of him if Mack wouldn't let the other experiment leave the Tower.  Granted, it had been a moment of panic for Liam, who still thought that he had to flee back to Enclave as soon as he was able, and in whatever way possible.  He forgave him.  But it still hurt.

Now Liam's chip was burnt out, just like his was.  He was free to do as he wanted, and go where he wanted.  And he'd taken the advice of the residents and decided to stay at Tenpenny Tower, and help when they were finally ready to destroy the Enclave scientist that had created them both.  The thought of Wheeljack made him wince.  His creator was no father to either of them.  The last time he'd seen the scientist, the man had been mutilated and rebuilt, half-human, half-robot, and one red optic that stared down at him from where he'd been strapped down to a table, the orb constantly assessing, calculating, sneering…

"Kyle?"

Kyle snapped out of his imagination, and looked up from the rungs of the balcony and over his shoulder.  And jerked back so hard, his knees cracked painfully on the metal bars.  Wheeljack was there, staring down at him from where he'd emerged from Burke and Nicole's suite.  The red optic was conspicuously absent, and brown eyes widened in surprise at his co-experiment's reaction.  Liam hesitated before speaking again.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Nah, ya're fine," Kyle replied, though his voice lacked its usual energy, and he remained hunched-over less like someone caught daydreaming and more like a creature cornered by a predator and backed up against the wall.  He silently berated himself for mistaking the other experiment for the scientist he hated.  Or rather, that they both hated.  Liam had denounced any loyalties he'd had for Enclave and Wheeljack, or so he said.  But who in a Wasteland could be trusted?

"You mind if I hang out with you for a while?"

Kyle gritted his teeth.  His molars clashed together even harder when Liam didn't wait for a reply, and instead sat down with the back of his denim jacket up against the rungs a few feet to Kyle's left, and drew up his legs against his chest.  "It's warm up here," the 'younger' experiment commented as he folded his arms over his knees, and propped his chin on them.

"Yeah, well, it'll get colder soon as the sun goes down," Kyle said flippantly, and kicked his legs over the edge of the balcony with his toes pointed towards the ground.  "In fact, I'm goin' inside right now.  See ya later."  Grasping the bars with both of his hands, he started to pull his feet back from where they dangled at the world far below.

"I'm sorry."

Kyle paused.  "…'Bout what?"

"About scaring you.  Just now, and before."

The 'older' experiment turned his head to face Liam, and noted in surprise how pained the other one's eyes appeared.  Kyle's sudden panic at his arrival must have hurt him more than he thought it would have.  A week ago, Liam would have snorted at him, even have been entertained that his predecessor was shocked by his presence.  Now, though, shunning him brought about the same reaction that anyone else would have felt.

Slowly, Kyle's leg withdrew off the balcony, and lowered down to droop over the edge once more.  He could afford to stay another minute or so.  It truly wouldn't get cold for at least another hour.

"S'alright.  Ya wanted to get out of here, an' we wouldn't let ya.  I would've done somethin' the same.  'Cept try to go through Mack.  That's suicide."

"As I know now," Liam drawled.  "But I don't mean only that.  I know that I've got to prove what I said about staying here with you all instead of going back to Enclave.  And…I've got a lot to atone for already."

"Sorry ain't a magic word, Liam.  Ya tried to kill us!"

Kyle's infamous rage had flared up again before he'd realized it, and he glared at the co-experiment as his fingers curled tightly around the rungs.  Instead of countering, though, Liam pressed his chin down further into his arms, and looked down at the balcony's concrete floor submissively.  "It's what I was trained to do…"

"And ya could've fought it.  Ya did, eventually.  But not without scarin' the fuck outta us."  He rubbed the side of his neck, even though the red marks from his near strangulation were gone.  "I can forgive ya, but it's gonna be a while 'fore I can really trust ya."

"How long is that?"

"…Well, I ain't exactly puttin' a deadline on it."

"A month? Two?"

Kyle stared at him.  "…Whenever I damned feel like it," he growled.

Liam's eyes stayed on the ground, observing a slight darkening in the concrete where a chair had once stood day and night.  He wouldn't have known that this was the spot that Alistair Tenpenny's own chair used to reside in, now moved that the old man had passed.  That was long before his time.  Even Kyle showed little interest in the Tower's history.  All that they knew was that they considered the Tower as Safe.  Kyle took it one step further, and looked at it as Home.  To Liam, it was simply Safe, as it had become over the last twenty-four hours.  The next step would happen once he was truly accepted.

The sun had fallen several more inches down into the horizon before he spoke up again.  In that time, Kyle had turned his attention back out at the jutting sticks once called trees that were dotting the Wasteland, bidding his time for whenever Liam would become bored, give up, and leave him in peace to brood again.  But the other experiment wasn't ready to give up yet, it seemed.

"Want to know something?"

Kyle rolled his eyes.  "What?"

"You look a bit like him.  It still unnerves me."

That caught his interest.  He turned once again to his co-experiment, who showed no sign of attempting to mock him.  "…Ya…think I look like him?!"

"Well, yes."

Kyle couldn't help bark out a laugh.  "And that's comin' outta ya mouth!"

Liam furrowed his eyebrows, partially in a frustrated acknowledgement that he did share a resemblance to Wheeljack, partially in an embarrassed anger at being ridiculed when he was trying to reach out to the other experiment.  "We both share some of his DNA.  Wouldn't it make sense?"

Kyle's laughter stopped abruptly when realization dawned on him.  Sobering, he took a moment to gather his thoughts again as an idea wiggled and squirmed around in his mind.  "And ya're…ya're afraid of him, aren't ya?"

"Oh, why wouldn't I be?" he snapped sarcastically.  "He only managed to implant a chip into me that would've killed me if I disobeyed orders, brainwashed me into thinking that my moth--that Nicole was a monster, and tried to use me as a tool to drag you and Nicole back, kill everyone else, all under the premise that he'd stick me back into that tube! Not to mention that he and the Enclave were my entire world before I met you all, and now he might come after both of us once he finds out I've deserted him!  No, Kyle, I'm not afraid of him at all.  I'm fucking terrified!"

The outburst had been quite unexpected, and was as threatening and violent as Liam had revealed himself since agreeing to let his chip be disabled.  Yet, this time, Kyle did not reel back from him, unlike when he'd first walked out onto the porch and did nothing but announce himself.

He was afraid for the same reasons that Kyle had been avoiding him all this time.  Except in Liam's case, he could not escape from the co-experiment.  During his brief captivity in Tenpenny Tower, he had no balcony to run away to and block out the rest of the world.  He was forced to listen; he could come to his own decisions, but he had no choice but to listen to what he was being told about what Enclave truly was.  He had to listen, and to watch.  He could see what Nicole looked like, and that while he resembled Wheeljack, he also shared genes with her.  He could also see how frightening close Kyle looked like him, and thus, Wheeljack.  The times that Kyle was not in the room must have been blessed to him.

Yet here he was, tracking Kyle down to the balcony, and attempting to reach out to him.  But he couldn't reach the same conclusions that Kyle had come to, evident by the growing confusion etching across his face when his co-experiment stared at him in understanding.  Liam simply wasn't capable of it.  Not yet, anyway.

"Hey, Liam?"

Liam leaned forward, away from the metal rungs, and hunched his shoulders.  "What?"

"If it means anythin'…I was afraid too.  Still am.  I should be apologizin' to ya, not the other way 'round."

Liam froze up, and stared.  "…You thought…I was him, when I was coming out just now, didn't you?"

Kyle nodded slowly.  "An' ya don't just look like him.  The way ya were actin' 'round us, treatin' us like we were scum o' the Earth an' that ya could gun us down anytime ya wanted…that was Wheeljack.  Him to a pin, ya know?  I dunno how much o' Wheeljack's personality I got 'cause I was 'way from Raven Rock for a long time 'fore Burke found me.  But that's all ya knew, wasn't it?  How to…I dunno…live like other people's lives weren't worth a cap?"

The other experiment looked to be honestly shocked by this.  He opened his mouth to rebut it, and explain himself.  But he barely made any noise before his mouth shut again.  Once again, he tried, and once again, he failed.  At last, after much consideration, he changed his mind, and spoke softly when he found his voice again.

"But I'm not him."

"That's right," Kyle agreed, and relief washed over him, though he didn't completely understand why.  "Ya're not."

"I don't know if that's 'me' or not.  Maybe that was the old me.  Maybe that's who I am really, and buried.  But Kyle, I swear, I won't try to hurt you or anyone else like that again.  Not anymore.  I'm done with it."  He leaned backwards to rest the back of his hair on the cooling bars.  "Even if you never forgive me, I'm not going back.  I don't want it anymore.  The Enclave, the Wheeljack, the tube…"

"Bullshit.  You'll never stop wanting it."

"I…"

"Not Wheeljack, dumbass.  The tube.  Don't tell me that thing wasn't the most fuckin' comfortable thing ya ever slept in?!"

Liam blinked several times, confounded and bemused.  A few seconds later, the faintest of grins tugged at the sides of his mouth.

"Damn right it was."

"But there's stuff that's almost as good.  Ya seen that couch on ya're way in?"

"That one?"  Liam's body lost a good amount of his tension as he lifted a hand to point at the door, and where he thought the couch would be, though he couldn't see it.

"Yes.  Aw God."  Kyle shifted around and sighed, as if they were talking about a beautiful woman he was infatuated with, and not a piece of furniture.  "Go lay on it if ya get a chance."

"And Burke doesn't mind this?"

"He does.  Fact, he gets real pissy 'bout it."

"Then why would I…?"

"'Cause it's fuckin' comfortable!"

"I don't see why you'd risk Burke's wrath for a couple of cushions."

"A couple o' cushions?!"  Kyle twisted around to turn his upper half towards the chuckling experiment, and let his lower half keep dangling over the edge.  A single finger was pointed accusingly at Liam's face, and didn't seem to faze him at all, which worsened Kyle's ire.  "Now listen here, ya fucktard…"

The sun disappeared beyond two raised voices, and as the stars twinkled on across the sky, the co-creation became a brotherhood.  And Safe became Home.

Description
The slivers of light falling across the Wasteland as the sun dropped off in the west made the ruined Capitol appear to be glowing from some sort of internal fire.  Long shadows cast down from the upper floors of Tenpenny Tower and moved back and forth as Kyle's legs swung gently when he stretched them between the rungs of the balcony.  His arms had also found their way through the rungs, and crossed to relax over his knees as he rested his cheeks on the metal poles, and lost himself in his thoughts as he kept a quiet guard over all that he could see.

He liked this spot.  With the exception of his favorite couch, it was here that he felt safest from the storm that had been seething through the building for the past few days.  Though the balcony was only accessible from Burke or Kaden's suites, and thus off-limits to the general population of Tenpenny Tower, and not even within the realm of imagination of any other Wastelander, there were still a fair number of people who could find him out here.  But at this time of the day, they were busy.  Busier than usual, especially with their newest resident.  And that suited him just fine; he needed some time to mull over his own thoughts.

Kyle scowled at the courtyard far below, where he could see the brown specks of guards practicing their marksmanship against the straw dummies set up on the wall.  His neck still ached from where Liam had grabbed him and threatened to choke the life out of him if Mack wouldn't let the other experiment leave the Tower.  Granted, it had been a moment of panic for Liam, who still thought that he had to flee back to Enclave as soon as he was able, and in whatever way possible.  He forgave him.  But it still hurt.

Now Liam's chip was burnt out, just like his was.  He was free to do as he wanted, and go where he wanted.  And he'd taken the advice of the residents and decided to stay at Tenpenny Tower, and help when they were finally ready to destroy the Enclave scientist that had created them both.  The thought of Wheeljack made him wince.  His creator was no father to either of them.  The last time he'd seen the scientist, the man had been mutilated and rebuilt, half-human, half-robot, and one red optic that stared down at him from where he'd been strapped down to a table, the orb constantly assessing, calculating, sneering…

"Kyle?"

Kyle snapped out of his imagination, and looked up from the rungs of the balcony and over his shoulder.  And jerked back so hard, his knees cracked painfully on the metal bars.  Wheeljack was there, staring down at him from where he'd emerged from Burke and Nicole's suite.  The red optic was conspicuously absent, and brown eyes widened in surprise at his co-experiment's reaction.  Liam hesitated before speaking again.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Nah, ya're fine," Kyle replied, though his voice lacked its usual energy, and he remained hunched-over less like someone caught daydreaming and more like a creature cornered by a predator and backed up against the wall.  He silently berated himself for mistaking the other experiment for the scientist he hated.  Or rather, that they both hated.  Liam had denounced any loyalties he'd had for Enclave and Wheeljack, or so he said.  But who in a Wasteland could be trusted?

"You mind if I hang out with you for a while?"

Kyle gritted his teeth.  His molars clashed together even harder when Liam didn't wait for a reply, and instead sat down with the back of his denim jacket up against the rungs a few feet to Kyle's left, and drew up his legs against his chest.  "It's warm up here," the 'younger' experiment commented as he folded his arms over his knees, and propped his chin on them.

"Yeah, well, it'll get colder soon as the sun goes down," Kyle said flippantly, and kicked his legs over the edge of the balcony with his toes pointed towards the ground.  "In fact, I'm goin' inside right now.  See ya later."  Grasping the bars with both of his hands, he started to pull his feet back from where they dangled at the world far below.

"I'm sorry."

Kyle paused.  "…'Bout what?"

"About scaring you.  Just now, and before."

The 'older' experiment turned his head to face Liam, and noted in surprise how pained the other one's eyes appeared.  Kyle's sudden panic at his arrival must have hurt him more than he thought it would have.  A week ago, Liam would have snorted at him, even have been entertained that his predecessor was shocked by his presence.  Now, though, shunning him brought about the same reaction that anyone else would have felt.

Slowly, Kyle's leg withdrew off the balcony, and lowered down to droop over the edge once more.  He could afford to stay another minute or so.  It truly wouldn't get cold for at least another hour.

"S'alright.  Ya wanted to get out of here, an' we wouldn't let ya.  I would've done somethin' the same.  'Cept try to go through Mack.  That's suicide."

"As I know now," Liam drawled.  "But I don't mean only that.  I know that I've got to prove what I said about staying here with you all instead of going back to Enclave.  And…I've got a lot to atone for already."

"Sorry ain't a magic word, Liam.  Ya tried to kill us!"

Kyle's infamous rage had flared up again before he'd realized it, and he glared at the co-experiment as his fingers curled tightly around the rungs.  Instead of countering, though, Liam pressed his chin down further into his arms, and looked down at the balcony's concrete floor submissively.  "It's what I was trained to do…"

"And ya could've fought it.  Ya did, eventually.  But not without scarin' the fuck outta us."  He rubbed the side of his neck, even though the red marks from his near strangulation were gone.  "I can forgive ya, but it's gonna be a while 'fore I can really trust ya."

"How long is that?"

"…Well, I ain't exactly puttin' a deadline on it."

"A month? Two?"

Kyle stared at him.  "…Whenever I damned feel like it," he growled.

Liam's eyes stayed on the ground, observing a slight darkening in the concrete where a chair had once stood day and night.  He wouldn't have known that this was the spot that Alistair Tenpenny's own chair used to reside in, now moved that the old man had passed.  That was long before his time.  Even Kyle showed little interest in the Tower's history.  All that they knew was that they considered the Tower as Safe.  Kyle took it one step further, and looked at it as Home.  To Liam, it was simply Safe, as it had become over the last twenty-four hours.  The next step would happen once he was truly accepted.

The sun had fallen several more inches down into the horizon before he spoke up again.  In that time, Kyle had turned his attention back out at the jutting sticks once called trees that were dotting the Wasteland, bidding his time for whenever Liam would become bored, give up, and leave him in peace to brood again.  But the other experiment wasn't ready to give up yet, it seemed.

"Want to know something?"

Kyle rolled his eyes.  "What?"

"You look a bit like him.  It still unnerves me."

That caught his interest.  He turned once again to his co-experiment, who showed no sign of attempting to mock him.  "…Ya…think I look like him?!"

"Well, yes."

Kyle couldn't help bark out a laugh.  "And that's comin' outta ya mouth!"

Liam furrowed his eyebrows, partially in a frustrated acknowledgement that he did share a resemblance to Wheeljack, partially in an embarrassed anger at being ridiculed when he was trying to reach out to the other experiment.  "We both share some of his DNA.  Wouldn't it make sense?"

Kyle's laughter stopped abruptly when realization dawned on him.  Sobering, he took a moment to gather his thoughts again as an idea wiggled and squirmed around in his mind.  "And ya're…ya're afraid of him, aren't ya?"

"Oh, why wouldn't I be?" he snapped sarcastically.  "He only managed to implant a chip into me that would've killed me if I disobeyed orders, brainwashed me into thinking that my moth--that Nicole was a monster, and tried to use me as a tool to drag you and Nicole back, kill everyone else, all under the premise that he'd stick me back into that tube! Not to mention that he and the Enclave were my entire world before I met you all, and now he might come after both of us once he finds out I've deserted him!  No, Kyle, I'm not afraid of him at all.  I'm fucking terrified!"

The outburst had been quite unexpected, and was as threatening and violent as Liam had revealed himself since agreeing to let his chip be disabled.  Yet, this time, Kyle did not reel back from him, unlike when he'd first walked out onto the porch and did nothing but announce himself.

He was afraid for the same reasons that Kyle had been avoiding him all this time.  Except in Liam's case, he could not escape from the co-experiment.  During his brief captivity in Tenpenny Tower, he had no balcony to run away to and block out the rest of the world.  He was forced to listen; he could come to his own decisions, but he had no choice but to listen to what he was being told about what Enclave truly was.  He had to listen, and to watch.  He could see what Nicole looked like, and that while he resembled Wheeljack, he also shared genes with her.  He could also see how frightening close Kyle looked like him, and thus, Wheeljack.  The times that Kyle was not in the room must have been blessed to him.

Yet here he was, tracking Kyle down to the balcony, and attempting to reach out to him.  But he couldn't reach the same conclusions that Kyle had come to, evident by the growing confusion etching across his face when his co-experiment stared at him in understanding.  Liam simply wasn't capable of it.  Not yet, anyway.

"Hey, Liam?"

Liam leaned forward, away from the metal rungs, and hunched his shoulders.  "What?"

"If it means anythin'…I was afraid too.  Still am.  I should be apologizin' to ya, not the other way 'round."

Liam froze up, and stared.  "…You thought…I was him, when I was coming out just now, didn't you?"

Kyle nodded slowly.  "An' ya don't just look like him.  The way ya were actin' 'round us, treatin' us like we were scum o' the Earth an' that ya could gun us down anytime ya wanted…that was Wheeljack.  Him to a pin, ya know?  I dunno how much o' Wheeljack's personality I got 'cause I was 'way from Raven Rock for a long time 'fore Burke found me.  But that's all ya knew, wasn't it?  How to…I dunno…live like other people's lives weren't worth a cap?"

The other experiment looked to be honestly shocked by this.  He opened his mouth to rebut it, and explain himself.  But he barely made any noise before his mouth shut again.  Once again, he tried, and once again, he failed.  At last, after much consideration, he changed his mind, and spoke softly when he found his voice again.

"But I'm not him."

"That's right," Kyle agreed, and relief washed over him, though he didn't completely understand why.  "Ya're not."

"I don't know if that's 'me' or not.  Maybe that was the old me.  Maybe that's who I am really, and buried.  But Kyle, I swear, I won't try to hurt you or anyone else like that again.  Not anymore.  I'm done with it."  He leaned backwards to rest the back of his hair on the cooling bars.  "Even if you never forgive me, I'm not going back.  I don't want it anymore.  The Enclave, the Wheeljack, the tube…"

"Bullshit.  You'll never stop wanting it."

"I…"

"Not Wheeljack, dumbass.  The tube.  Don't tell me that thing wasn't the most fuckin' comfortable thing ya ever slept in?!"

Liam blinked several times, confounded and bemused.  A few seconds later, the faintest of grins tugged at the sides of his mouth.

"Damn right it was."

"But there's stuff that's almost as good.  Ya seen that couch on ya're way in?"

"That one?"  Liam's body lost a good amount of his tension as he lifted a hand to point at the door, and where he thought the couch would be, though he couldn't see it.

"Yes.  Aw God."  Kyle shifted around and sighed, as if they were talking about a beautiful woman he was infatuated with, and not a piece of furniture.  "Go lay on it if ya get a chance."

"And Burke doesn't mind this?"

"He does.  Fact, he gets real pissy 'bout it."

"Then why would I…?"

"'Cause it's fuckin' comfortable!"

"I don't see why you'd risk Burke's wrath for a couple of cushions."

"A couple o' cushions?!"  Kyle twisted around to turn his upper half towards the chuckling experiment, and let his lower half keep dangling over the edge.  A single finger was pointed accusingly at Liam's face, and didn't seem to faze him at all, which worsened Kyle's ire.  "Now listen here, ya fucktard…"

The sun disappeared beyond two raised voices, and as the stars twinkled on across the sky, the co-creation became a brotherhood.  And Safe became Home.