Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except my characters. Which are quite a few this time around. Let's try it this way: I don't own any Marvel characters that happen to show up in the upcoming chapters and which I'm sure you'll recognise without any need to name long lists.


My Irbis Saga is divided into two cycles: the Irbis Cycle proper, and the 'Taming of the Hearts' Cycle. This story is set in between them.

You do not have to read the first cycle, just be aware that Creed met his match (sort of) in this Irbis OC. Also, keep in mind that there was a traumatic event for the OC at the end of the first cycle that has a strong impact at the beginning of this tale

Warning!

This was never supposed to be a real story so it doesn't have any real plot. It originated as a set of scenes that were supposed to set in stone some events and to help me flesh out the relationship between Creed and the OC (from now on called Isabel). But as the relationship got more and more fleshed, more and more chapters came to me. I also needed to have a clear picture of their future relationship in a way that would cut down on plot holes within my second cycle. So, from half a dozen chapters, it grew into a monster. My sister talked me into posting it all, but this is still just a character study.

The chapters were written randomly at first, which means that some chapters present events that eventualy ended up having a chapter of their own. I did not erase the repetition from the already written chapters, though I made sure they did not contradict each other.

Another very importat warning concerns the nature of the relationship I portrayed in this collection of sketches: it starts out as abusive. Victor Sabretooth Creed is not a nice guy, and there's only one type of relationship that's going to emerge where he is concerned. It will become less abusive as time goes by, but it is abusive. Even the OC has no illusions of the mutant having a soft spot for her, and I strongly advise you to follow her lead.

Having said that, I hope you'll enjoy the ride.


1. Alberta: Not Fine

"Não!"

Creed aborted the movement to touch Isabel and sat up on the mattress.

"Don't touch me," she hissed in Portuguese, her face a mask of pain and determination. "I'm fine. I am fine."

Down in Mexico, she had avoided sleeping, afraid to get sucked into the painful nightmares. But the moment they'd left Mexico that had changed. And once they'd arrived in Canada, four days before, she hadn't even wanted him comforting her.

"How the fuck you're going to go about, fixing my new fucking identity, if I can't go through a fucking night by myself, huh?"

He'd also learnt she possessed a hell of a dirty language in Portuguese. It was a string of heavy curses from end to start, when the unabating nightmares and pain fueled her into a powerless fury.

"Fuck if I'm not getting over this shit all by myself," she groaned fiercely to herself. "I am no fucking dead-weight to no one."

She had been getting better though. She was down to one or two nightmares a night, if you didn't count the naps. And she had stopped throwing up too, although dreaming of the time they'd ripped her heart out still got her dry heaving. Creed glanced at the watch: four thirty.

"Ya wanna eat?"

Isabel opened her eyes, breathing hard, and glanced at him. Then she sat up with a grimace and hissed as she opened and closed her hand. She had probably been dreaming about having her hand skinned and then the flesh peeled off her fingers. The torturers had started that up once the telepath had discovered she enjoyed playing the piano and the guitar.

"No, thanks," she said in English, her voice soft and low. "I'm fine."

Creed got up and got a packet of snacks, then he got himself a beer. He watched her as she forced her fingers to exercise through the pain, her lips in a tight line. She had never been queasy about facing pain before, he knew that; but her resistance to pain had grown to a whole different level.

"I'm fine," she repeated, getting up and getting a glass with the hurting hand. "I just need some water."

She got the two-gallon bottle of water, always stubbornly using the hand that was obviously still hurting, and poured some into the glass.

"Everything is fine," she kept saying, either in Portuguese or in English. It irritated him to no end. "Perfectly fine. Fine, fine, fine."

"Will ya knock it off?" She glanced at him, mildly surprised. "Ya're far from fine."

He grabbed her hand and she breathed in sharply, painfully.

"See? Not fine."

He let go of her and downed the beer, then went outside.

It was early March so temperatures hardly went above the 40º, and nights easily slid down to 10º. Isabel spent most of the time inside the cabin, trying to keep warm, day or night. He hadn't realised before that the girl was not used to such low temperatures. Still, if she could get used to pain, she could get used to snow and ice. He leaned against the cabin, the freezing logs biting the naked skin of his back, and breathed out.

Three weeks. He had rescued the woman three weeks ago. He was getting tired of…

"Hey."

Creed started and glanced at the door. The woman was wrapped up in a blanket and smiling brightly.

"No pain anymore. I'm fine now," she said as her teeth started chattering. " Huh… I mean, I was fine. Now I'm too cold to be fine. Come in?"

Well, it was a bit cold to be outside naked from the waist up. Creed walked back in and found her standing by the stove.

"Anoder beer?" He shook his head and she sighed. "I'm sorry I waked you again. Listen, you said you have to go and prepare me my papers… Why don't you go now so you can sleep widout have me wake you? I have certain de nightmares are gone when you return. I have certain."

He hesitated a moment, wondering how serious she was about it.

"Fine," he ended up saying. "I'll leave tomorrow mornin' an' should be gone fer about a week or so."

"A week," she said weakly, but then she nodded resolutely. "A week is great. No more nightmares when you return and… good night sleep. Right?"

She forced a smile on and obviously waited for his reaction. Creed shook his head.

"I'll try an' make it shorter," he said. "Ya'll probably go trough all the wood I've piled in three days."

She giggled, the wide smile genuine now.

"I'm not dat bad," but her tone betrayed her statement.

"Or ya'll burn the cabin down," he teased. "Whichever happens first."

She stuck her tongue out and then let the blanket fall to the floor as she bounced up to him. She hooked a finger over the elastic of his pyjama bottoms and looked up at him.

"Now I need to compensate you because I waked you."

He grinned.

"Damn right ya do."

She got on the tip of her toes and answered his kiss with eagerness, her hands sliding under the bottoms to grope his ass.

He had been wary about the whole sex thing. He'd raped enough people to know you don't get over it overnight, after all. Especially if you coupled it with serious physical and psychological abuse. Isabel, though, had asked for it the very first night of their journey north. She had explained that she wanted to have great sex with him so she could forget all the… bad stuff. Her euphemism.

Creed broke the kiss and nibbled her earlobe gently. He was still being as gentle and careful as he could, trying to make sure he didn't trigger bad memories, but every now and then the woman showed a wilder streak that made it worth it. Like now: as he pulled her down onto the mattress, she bit his shoulder without any provocation. The first time, he'd told her to cut it out, but now he just answered in kind, though careful not to actually break skin, even if she didn't show him the same consideration.

"Wait, let me…"

She didn't finish, but she didn't have to. Creed gave her the time she needed to peel off her pyjamas as he got rid of his own bottoms.

"OK, now," she gazed intensely at him, her hand sliding across his chest. He liked the heat burning in those brown eyes, the way her fingers pressed demandingly against his body. "Do your thing and make de entire world go away."

Creed kissed her and she kissed back, earnestly. He couldn't wait for the whole 'getting over it' period to end. He was dying to send all control to hell and fuck the woman for all he was worth.


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