The Thunder Rolls
Thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, stabbing into the ground in a crazy zigzag pattern. The storm that had been promising to break all day, all but taunting them as Sabretooth had searched for shelter, had finally hit as they'd settled into the latest in a string of temporary camps. This time, they were hunkered down for the night in an abandoned filling station/garage somewhere between San Francisco and Reno.
Sabretooth sat by the station's garage doors, leafing through a weather-beaten atlas as he calculated their route for the next day. His nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of the musky reek of fear mixing with the cleansing scent of the rain.
His lips pulled back in a snarl, fists itching to backhand the source. Wild Child had been antsy and skittish for hours, even before the storm had broken. They'd lost time as Sabretooth had had to alternately cajole him to keep moving and drag him back to keep him from choking himself on his leash. Sabretooth suspected that if Wild Child had been alone, he'd still have been on the move, trying to out-distance the storm and only seeking shelter when exhaustion forced him to stop.
As it was, Sabretooth had only stopped because if he'd had to untangle Wild Child and his leash from yet another tree/lamp post/telephone pole/Sabretooth himself, he was going to finish what he'd started back in Alcatraz.
Not that he wasn't still tempted, since every flash of lightning and rumble of thunder sent Wild Child pacing frantically around the confines of the garage, whining and whimpering piteously.
"Relax, pup!" Sabretooth said, for the third time in as many lightning strikes. "It's just a storm; nothing but light an' noise. It can't hurt you; not in here."
Some of his disgust -- and the implied 'but I can' -- must've shown in his voice, because Wild Child mewled and slunk toward him on all fours, belly all but scraping the ground as he crawled to Sabretooth's side.
"Good boy." Sabretooth tousled his hair. In return, Wild Child snapped playfully at his hand, his jaws snapping together on empty air with a tooth-aching crunch.
Just as Wild Child spat out a broken tooth, the lightning flashed again. Like a shot, Wild Child was off, pressing himself into the corner of the garage as if trying to make himself as small as possible.
Sabretooth knew, deep down, that Wild Child wasn't a coward. He'd never have lasted as long as he had with Apocalypse if he'd shown the least bit of weakness. No, the problem was that to Wild Child's simple, animal-like mind, the storm was an all-encompassing, ever-present enemy that couldn't be seen, let alone hit. Teeth and claws were useless against the rain and wind and with Wild Child's enhanced senses, the storm had to sound like the advancing hosts of hell all one the march and ready to destroy one lone feral.
Still, as understandable as it was, this crud was getting on past old.
With a growl, Sabretooth stalked over and grabbed Wild Child by the back of the neck, hoisting him up and dragging him hissing and spitting, toward the front of the garage.
"No boy, this B.S. is endin' here an' now. You're gonna roll with me, you're not gonna hide from a buncha noise and light."
Wild Child twisted uselessly in Sabretooth's grip, raking his claws down Sabretooth's chest, tearing bloody furrows into the larger mutant as he struggled to free himself.
The temptation to double up Wild Child's chain and beat the fear of the storm out of him -- or at least beat the fear of Sabretooth into him, again -- was as strong as the scent of his own blood. But Sabretooth restrained himself, if only just barely, allowing himself to give Wild Child a relatively gentle open-handed slap across the face.
Wild Child's head snapped backwards and when he looked back at Sabretooth, his eyes were unfocused and groggy. Shaking his head, he snarled at Sabretooth only to be cut short by an answering growl. It was low and rumbled up from deep in Sabretooth's chest like thunder. The sound cut through Wild Child's own fury, leaving him blinking up at Sabretooth and mewling nervously.
"Good boy." Sabretooth kept his voice low and his grip on Wild Child's leash tight. Only a naïve fool would trust a panicked animal like Wild Child to give in this easily. And Sabretooth was neither. Well, okay, maybe he was a fool -- sometimes -- but he'd left naïve by the roadside a long, long time ago.
Wild Child didn't disappoint him -- thinking Sabretooth's guard was down, he jerked back, trying to pull away, but Sabretooth was ready for him. He spun Wild Child around so that he faced the storm, holding him in place with an arm around his neck.
"We made a deal, you an' me, back in that cell." Sabretooth leaned in, close enough that his lips brushed the top of Wild Child's ear. "I didn't kill you and you gave in so I didn't have to -- an' I really am grateful for that because not snapping your scrawny neck when I could have and I really wanted to means there's hope for me yet."
Outside, the storm was passing, the few last gasp flashes and rumbles still enough to make Wild Child tremble in his grip. Well, that the fact the kid was probably Infinite-murdering pissed at being jerked around like this.
Sabretooth reached between them, rubbing Wild Child's upper back in slow, easy circles.
"I'm done killing for the sake of it," Sabretooth murmured, feeling more tired than he had in weeks. He knew there probably wasn't a chance in Hades that Wild Child understood more than his tone but he wasn't saying this for Wild Child. He was saying it because he needed to hear it. "I'm tired of tearing through people like Kleenex, just to see how fast I can make 'em die. That's why I got tossed in with you; Holocaust --."
Wild Child growled, angrily, at the sound of Holocaust's name and Sabretooth chuckled. "You were supposed to break me, kid, but instead you showed me I could stay strong, no matter how provoked I got -- and believe me, you had me pretty damned provoked, especially when you were tryin' to eat one of my kidneys."
Wild Child made a noise that, from someone else, Sabretooth would have called a laugh. Not for the first time, Sabretooth wondered just how mindless his new partner was. He paused, scratching Wild Child's back as he thought, listening to him purr in response.
"There's a flipside to our deal, one I ain't too sure I like, that says now I gotta take care of you 'cause I'm the alpha. I ain't used to taking care of anybody but me, but I figure you might just be tough enough to stand it if I make a few mistakes. And I figure you know you can damn well trust me, right? 'Cause otherwise you'd be dead."
Wild Child grunted, his head jerking forward in what might have been a nod.
"Yeah, smarter than you look. Good. So, 'cause you trust me, know this -- there ain't nothing on this earth you need to be afraid of so long as I'm around. Not thunder, not lightning, not Holocaust, not Apocalypse himself, so this hidin' like a puppy from a little noise? It's ending here, now, or I'll show you something a whole lot scarier, you got me?"
Wild Child relaxed in Sabretooth's grip, whining plaintively as he struggled to nuzzle against the arm holding him in place. Of course, being Wild Child, he finished the nuzzle by gnawing on Sabretooth's arm in a way that seemed equal parts affection and snack.
"I'll take that as a yes." Sabretooth detached Wild Child from his arm and looked outside, where the storm had passed over, leaving behind an overcast sky with stars peeping out of the cloud cover here and there. Releasing Wild Child, who dropped bonelessly back to all fours and, yawned so hugely Sabretooth could see his tonsils. Sabretooth dropped down beside him as Wild Child curled himself into an impossibly small ball and drifted off to sleep.
Sabretooth watched him for a moment, then slipped his hands behind his head and settled back to watch the moon come out.