SPEND THE NIGHT

December xxxx

NUKA ISN'T PERCEPTIVE. HE will be the first to say. He can't read people's ulterior motives. He takes what they offer, what they say at face value.

That is why he hadn't realized his ex-friends deliberately alienated him. That was why when his ex-Pack called him naïve, they weren't speaking to his childlike innocence.

Nuka isn't perceptive. And the North Star aren't actors. They say what they mean and act accordingly. Like the Alpha, they take their promises seriously. Nuka isn't perceptive. But he isn't blind.

Unlike his ex-friends, Nia didn't alienate him. She wasn't unfriendly, unkind or cold. She had ignored him blatantly like one avoids a virus carrier.

When he'd confronted her, Nuka had expected her to boff him off, beat around the bush or snap at him to leave him alone.