#or bounces his leg while listening to preston give a speech

[amazinglyegg]

Oh and another hc! Danse is autistic but has little problem with eye contact for the most part because the Brotherhood trained him out of it, but when he's emotional in casual settings his ability to maintain it falters. This is most notice by him always looking away when he smiles

Y'know I've always imagined him to have a problem with Too Much Eye Contact, like, staring-into-your-soul levels of eye contact, but I think both of our headcanons actually work...

Danse hears that "not looking someone in the eyes is considered rude/people will think you're lying or untrustworthy" so he starts just STARING all the time. Maxson's giving a speech? Staring out of respect. Giving orders to his team? Staring so they know he's serious and trusts them. He's the living embodiment of this meme:

He gets so confused when initiates cower away from him because he tries hard not to be intimidating, what is he doing wrong? Is it his power armor? His rank? Is he not friendly enough?

And it's not like anybody will call him out on it because god forbid neurotypicals talk about their issues because of his rank, so he just continues doing this for years thinking he's being polite.

Maybe it takes Sole pointing it out to him or maybe he starts to feel comfortable enough around Sole, but he'll start letting himself look away more. While laughing, or telling a joke, or having a serious conversation. It's way more comfortable to him and Sole doesn't seem to mind. Danse looking away while he's talking is an easy way to tell that he enjoys someone's presence even when he won't admit it

[temporary-fo4-blog]

What if Shaun was just a baby or toddler, and the companions are left at home to take care of him? How would companions take care of baby Shaun?

This was in the works for WAY too long, so I’m gonna break this prompt up into two. Featuring: Cait, Codsworth, Curie, Danse, and Deacon

Part Two Featuring: Hancock, MacCready, Nick, Piper, and Preston

Stay tune for part two! 

Cait: it would take a LOT of persuading and caps to get this feisty redhead to watch over the little tot. Even after Cait reluctantly agrees to take care of Shaun, she’d immediately regret the decision if Shaun’s particularly hyper that day.

 Cait has no idea how to hold babies or how to even handle them on that matter, she’s afraid she might accidently hurt the damn kid so she tends to hold him under his arms, arms length away from her; mostly because he vomited on her once. She’d get easily irritated and frustrated with the kid since he doesn’t seem to know how to stand still for one god damn second with him waddling around all over the place, climbing on top of literally everything, and putting anything he finds in his mouth. Cait also absolutely HATES it when the toddler gets sticky with his food and gets his nasty little baby fingers in her hair and there is NO WAY IN HELL even for all the caps in the world is she going to wipe Shaun’s dirty little baby ass when he shits himself(she’s done at this point).

 Cait reluctantly asks the assistance from Codsworth or that egghead nurse for help when she can’t handle taking care of the little shite, especially when he starts crying, desperately asking anyone to shut the kid up. When Cait actually does get the hang of taking care of Shaun, she starts to find him kind of cute from the way he bubbles with laughter at something she does like beating up his teddy bear, or how he swings his little arms around trying to imitate her, and how he can barely repeat the words she says in that adorable garbled gibberish of baby language(and thankfully he can’t since Cait doesn’t have the cleanest vocabulary). If Cait actually has time to sit down and watch the kid calmly play with his toys, she’d be engrossed by how innocent and uncorrupted he is since it’s such a rare sight to see in such a fucked up world, it just really has her reflecting on some things…at the end of the day, Sole would find them in Shaun’s room passed out with Shaun sleeping soundly in his crib, gripping one of Cait’s fingers with her passed out by his crib with wild (messier) hair with one hand in Shaun’s crib and the other holding his rattle.

Codsworth: He’s arguably the first companion Sole should go to, to take care their little “bundle of joy” since he is programed to care for children and infants. Nothing would make him more happy than to watch over his master’s child. It brings him absolute joy to watch the young lad waddle around with that adorable smile on his face, playing with his clean post-war toys, and attempting to say his name “Cads! Wahfff!” It’s innocents like baby Shaun that fills him up with glee considering how the whole world ended up so corrupt, broken, and in pieces. 

Codsworth is always sure be on alert when watching over the young boy, hovering close behind him, always making sure he’s well fed, pulling him away from places he wants to climb up on, keeping him away from something that can potentially be dangerous, knowing what to do when he starts acting up, and is always there to change him when he makes a stinky.

 Even though the world has ended, the feeling of family and community is lively in Sanctuary once again simply because of the innocent laughter of the Sole Survivor’s baby that brings a smile to all of the other residents in his presence. Codsworth is overall a great babysitter and Sole comes home with their baby sleeping soundly with the nearby Mr.Handy gently rocking his crib with one of his pinchers.

Curie: Like Codsworth, Curie was equally capable to care for the tot during his parent’s absence, that is until she got her synthetic body and is now capable of a more affectionate approach when he’s under her care. Curie is absolutely delighted to be in any contacts with the boy or any child really, she loves children and babies (or at least is fascinated by them), especially Sole’s little nursling and acts as a motherly figure when his parent is absent.

 She honestly doesn’t mind changing his diapers or cleaning up his baby vomit; babies will be babies, in fact she also tends to aid other companions who have been trusted to babysit Shaun quite often. Curie is always sure that the boy is in good health and regularly gives him a daily check up, she also recommends that he gets some sort of vaccination shots due to literally anything that can fatally make him ill(with Sole’s permission of course).

 Shaun is fond of Curie because of her sweet gentle nature and her soft motherly voice that’s very soothing for him to listen to which makes tucking him to bed a lot easier. Curie is very active in her babysitting duties by engaging in play time with him, being sure he doesn’t hurt himself, helping him walk by holding his tiny hands in case he trips, reading him stories, and attempting to help improve his speech “Cwoo ieeee!”(Curie). She also handles his hissy fits very well by asking and checking him if anything is wrong, then she’d gently cradle and sway him in her arms, softly singing to him until his crying fades to soft sleepy whimpers. Curie would put the boy in his crib then reward herself by resting in a nearby chair with a book in hand to occupy the time while awaiting Sole’s return.

Danse: The youngest child Danse has ever dealt with was an 8-year-old local Rivet City kid who was stealing from his junk stand, and he occasionally interacted with the squires, but BOS soldiers with children of their own are usually the more preferable mentors to work with the children. Babies on the other hand are completely out of his experience of expertise when dealing with children, and judging by what settlers and other fellow BOS soldiers who are parents have to say about dealing with toddlers are well…they’re quite the handful. 

Danse has no idea how Sole managed to persuade him into watching over their son while they’re gone or WHY out of anyone else would they put the care of their son in HIS hands, he’s a soldier not a babysitter. *Hancock, Deacon, MacCready, Cait, Piper, and maybe Nick all sit down and crack open some rum and Nuka Cola to watch the power armored asshat take care a hyper active toddler*. Danse had to remove his power armor, afraid of hurting the boy since he can’t necessarily be gentle in it, he had to hold Shaun’s tiny hand with his power armored thumb and index finger. Little Shaun had Danse always on edge when watching over him especially since he has so much energy. This kid was a nightmare, running around all over the place, he couldn’t keep still, the moment Danse took his eyes off him, he ran off sending Danse into panic mode whether or not if the kid is climbing on the power armor again or checking out the nearby mole rat hole. He wouldn’t even stop squirming around when Danse held him by the back of his onesie, arms length away to avoid the boy’s stench (Shaun made a stinky), watching the tot wiggle his little arms and legs around giggling hysterically (besides the poopy undies) he’s gotta admit it was pretty cute. 

Danse panicked when Shaun started crying and desperately tries to calm him down by bouncing him up and down in his arms resulting with Shaun vomiting all over the Paladin’s chest (Danse:*sighs forever*). Danse asks for help from Codsworth or Curie especially when it comes to cleaning up Shaun’s diaper. The boy does eventually settle down to play with his toys, giving Danse a brief moment to breathe and work on his armor and weapons while keeping an eye on the boy. Danse makes sure that Shaun’s well fed with what Sole has provided for him and even gives Shaun one of his fancy lads when he’s given those puppy eyes ruffling the young boy’s hair as he noms on his snack. 

Shaun also seems to like being held by Danse, always reaching up to him with his little hands asking for “up-sies”, which is the most adorable thing Danse has ever seen even though the tot touches his chest often thinking his pecs are boobs(really hard muscular boobs). Sole comes home to see both of them asleep on the couch with Danse lightly resting a large hand on the little tot’s back as Shaun peacefully sleeps on the Paladin’s chest with a children’s book sprawled out forgotten on the floor besides the pair.

Deacon: When he was trusted to watch over Sole’s kid, he briefly considered stalking Sole after they’ve left the settlement with the kid tagging along, but decided it wasn’t worth blowing his cover or potentially getting Shaun hurt. Deacon picks Shaun up to see what he’ll be dealing with. He’s dealt with kids before but he’s not super familiar with babies though. Shaun’s little hands reached out for Deacon’s glasses as Deacon happily complied holding the kid closer to him as Shaun removed his sunglasses and started gnawing at them, “yeah…How bad could it be?” he said to himself smiling, until Shaun burped up vomit onto the sunglasses and both their hands, “Oh boy”. 

Deacon surprisingly handles Shaun very well with the basics of child care all while trying to make the young boy laugh in the process. Changing Shaun’s diaper wasn’t much of a problem for him, he’s smelled worse before, but tries to make Shaun laugh by over exaggerating his disgust “HOOO boy little buddy!! That was a stinker!” If Shaun starts acting up it’s up to Uncle Deacon to calm him down by bouncing him in his arms softly while soothing his back until the little buddle has calmed down. Deacon luckily had just as much energy as Shaun since they both spent many hours of the day playing. The highlights of their time together consists of Deacon dressing up Shaun in cloths too big for the tot that had both of them giggling uncontrollably, they made faces and funny noises at each other causing Shaun to go into a gurgling fit of laughter as Deacon chuckled at how adorably amused the toddler was, playing with Shaun’s little limbs, making him do impressions of various wasteland animals, picking him up and making rocket ship noises, and having Shaun ride on top of his shoulders as the two rascals went around the settlement.

 After snack time as the sun went down, Shaun rubbed his eyes and softly yawns as sleepy time was near by. Deacon would take the little monkey to his room, rubbing his little back soothingly as the little tot slowly drifted into slumber, awaiting Sole’s return as Deacon silently wondered if he could have had a life like this once, with a kid of his own to play and bond with…maybe not, but he’s glad he had a moment to experience something like it.