A Dump Truck Home
He didn't ask her what she was doing that night, and she paid him the same courtesy. He simply slid up the bar on the back of the dump truck so she could climb on too.
"Thanks."
"You're okay, kid."
She didn't tell him that she hated being called that. He didn't tell her that he could see the infuriation in her eyes anyway, without it being said.
They didn't speak when she slid off of the bar ten minutes later and let the truck amble away without her. Graverobber just watched her disappear off of the corner of the street and into back alley shadows.
He wondered how in the hell the godforsaken rock hadn't swallowed Shilo Wallace whole.
A couple of nights later, she climbed onto his ride home again.
She didn't speak, didn't make any expression towards him. She just ran a thin, pale hand through her cropped black hair and absently kicked out a tune against the metal plate of the truck behind her heels.
"I like your boots."
Was that a normal thing to say? He wasn't sure, but it was true anyway. He'd always been a sucker for a pair of monster boots, especially on a woman. And she was pretty, he had to admit.
Her black eyes flicked to him. "Thanks."
Graverobber felt his lips curl upward at one corner. "Did you find them?"
"Yeah, behind the Rockefeller Lounge."
"Someone just threw them out?"
"Mm."
He shook his head – some people.
She slid off of the truck without a word again, but as she curled around the same corner as last time he saw her black eyes looking back at him from the shadows.
It was a week until he saw her again, and her hair was visibly longer than he'd seen it last time.
"Wha–"
She cut him off. "It's been growing back quickly, now it's out of my system – my…medicine."
He measured the disgust dripping from the word as a 'fuck-load.'
Everyone knew the story of her sheltered life and her father's poison, but it seemed that no one had seen her apart from him in the year since the Opera. It would have been splashed over every paper and two-bit rag from one side of the city to the other if she'd been found.
Not to mention Sweet had one hell of a price on her head.
"How can you be sure I won't turn you in, kid?" He asked eventually.
She slid off at her corner again, shrugging. "You might, but I trust you not to."
She disappeared, and Graverobber asked himself if anyone had ever said they trusted him before.
The next time he saw her, it had been a month since the last.
She'd been a thought in his head like a splinter beneath his skin. He'd wondered late at night, between that yawning void of nothingness calling his name and the bare mattress beneath his back, what her hair looked like and if it had grown more or if she'd found a new pair of boots.
He wasn't to be disappointed.
As she lifted herself onto the bar back of the dump truck, he couldn't help but stare a little.
Her hair was long, made of soft ringlets with some pinned up and some falling down, and her face looked a little fuller. Her skin was still moon-pale, but there was a pinch of pink riding high on her cheekbones and her lips were painted pale red. She was wearing only a sleeveless black dress, made of three pinstriped pieces of fabric haphazardly sewn together into a design that flattered her figure – a figure which he had not noticed before.
What was she even wearing before?
He couldn't remember. He was just…stunned.
"Hi."
He coughed and looked away. "Hey."
He couldn't bring himself to add the 'kid.' She definitely wasn't a child.
"So… Evening out?"
He saw her nod out of the corner of her eye. "I'm meeting someone."
Graverobber didn't ask anything else. He could guess she was meeting a guy.
He had the pressing urge to tell her to stay safe, or use protection, or something along the lines of guys not respecting girls who put out on the first date.
"Hot date, huh?" He found himself saying instead of all the fatherly advice rolling around in his skull.
He looked away immediately, pretending to be interested in the passing buildings as he rolled his eyes at himself and his stupid fucking mouth.
"I need the money."
That made him turn back around. "What?"
"I need the money." She shrugged.
He was sure he blinked, but he couldn't actually tell. "Are you saying you're going to…"
Shilo's second shrug was enough of an answer.
Graverobber wasn't sure how he felt about that, because on one hand he felt pity that she was stooping so low, yet not as low as she could have stooped, and on the other he felt…rage. Pure, red rage.
"No one's gonna appreciate you, y'know," he told her suddenly, voice low. "It's not all fucking sunshine and roses. They'll fuck you, maybe pay you, and then you'll limp home. And there are some seriously sick people out there, Shilo. You might not even still be alive when they get to the first part."
She didn't comment on his use of her name, just proceeded to pull a long knife from the knee-high leather of her slim black boots.
"That's why I have this. I'm not even going to let them get to the first part."
A second later she was slipping the knife back into her boot and gracefully leaping off of the truck. She gave him a teasing smile and a little wave as she vanished into the night.
"Fuck."
He thought it accurately summed up everything about the situation of Shilo, hot and beautiful Shilo, robbing sick bastards of their cash with a silver blade. He was hard as a goddamn rock.
She pulled herself up like all the other times. Graverobber nodded at her and looked away.
He wanted to say something, ask her how it was going or something along those lines, but he knew if he opened his mouth at that moment all these things were going to come pouring out.
Things like he hadn't been able to sleep properly for two weeks, or if he did he woke up with the worst case of morning wood on the planet. Things like she looked beautiful, with her hair up in a loose ponytail and those leather hipsters riding low on her perfect curves. Things like he wanted to take her out on a date, see where it went, maybe steal a little sugar walking her home. Things like he wanted to be able to fall asleep beside her and then wake up to her the next morning, sleep-warm and blushing.
So he just didn't say anything.
It was Shilo who spoke, breaking the silence and shooting down his only hope that he wouldn't embarrass himself along with it.
"Are you hungry?"
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. His stomach was growling a little.
"What've you got?"
A little smile curled her lips. "Stew and canned carrots."
"A feast." He couldn't help but grin.
"You in?"
He gave her a single nod. "I'm in."
And this time, instead of watching her walk away, he slipped off the bar of the dump truck with her and walked into the shadows at her side.
The minutes ticked by quickly, and soon enough he was being welcomed into her small ground floor apartment in a dark and disused building.
"I've squatted here for a while now. Should probably move on soon."
Graverobber nodded in the darkness at her sense. The girl knew what she was doing.
Gentle fingers pressed against his right side, urging him through a shadowed doorway and into a dimly lit room. The ceiling shone bright blue, hanging jars above his head buzzing and tinkling with odd creatures that all glowed brightly.
It made him smile.
"Still catching bugs," he observed.
Shilo crossed the room to the battered circular table beneath the shining bugs, smirking a bit.
"Free light," she murmured. "And I enjoy the chase."
He absently wondered whether the same could be said of him, chasing Shilo as he was right now, stepping towards her and aching to kiss those soft-looking lips of hers.
"I'll get the food," she said, before he could step in, touch her wrist, press his nose to her face, any of the things he really wanted to do.
Graverobber watched as Shilo turned out of the room, into more darkness, before he turned back and slumped into one of the chairs at the table. He shrugged off his coat onto the back of the chair and then waited, just looking up at all the bugs.
Ten minutes later, he heard Shilo's footfalls before he smelt the scent of good food.
He made a small groaning noise, one which made her smile at him as she put the chipped dishes on the table.
"Smells good?"
He nodded. "Really good. Thanks."
He dug in with gusto – not so much as to lessen his chances with her, but enough for him to get a little of the sauce on his chin.
Shilo sniggered into her spoon as he swiped up the stray drop. "Nice."
Graverobber gave her a grin. "When it gets messy, that's when you know I've enjoyed it."
Her eyebrow gave a sexy little twitch. "Does that apply to sex as well?"
He raised both eyebrows back. "And, if it did?"
Shilo's smile was sinful as she finished the last in her dish.
"Well," she said, "I'd kinda like to find out."
Graverobber felt his heart give a hopeful thud as he set aside the rest of his forgotten meal with a soundless scrape of crockery on wood.
"Right now?"
She shrugged, licking her spoon. "If you'd like."
It was clear from the sparkle in her eyes that she was more than up for it, despite her cool reply. He knew she was going to be so fucking sinful.
Before anyone could change their minds, he leant forwards and pulled her face to his with a gentle grip beneath her chin.
Her lips were warm, soft as velveteen, and he smiled a bit when he realised they weren't covered in that sticky lip gloss crap that all the other women of his acquaintance seemed to insist on smearing all over their mouths.
No, Shilo was natural, soft and untouched, like clean sheets or that rare yellow sunlight that occasionally broke through the smog shrouding the city.
Her fingers trailed over his shoulders, his chest, pulled apart the buttons of his scruffy waistcoat and worn mock-silk shirt, and went to work building up a frenzy inside of him.
He groaned against her mouth as she tugged on one nipple, then the other, rubbing the pads of her thumbs beneath and over the tightening points.
Pulling at the hem of her tank top, he managed to get it over her head in a flash, disrupting the delicious things she had been doing to his nipples.
Graverobber paused once her tank was thrown across the room, appreciating her bare tits for the perfect size they were. Not out of proportion, and yet they were perfect handfuls for his rough palms.
The thought made him smile as he dragged them both down onto the cool bare floorboards and cupped her breasts while he licked at her lips. Shilo moaned, letting him inside instantly as she wound her arms around his neck and dragged her fingertips up his back.
Graverobber shivered, enjoying the electricity that coursed up his spine along with Shilo's hot sweet breath washing over his face as he kissed her hard.
Her nipples crinkled beneath his touch, her skin breaking out in goose bumps as he slid his hands lower, trailing over her stomach and down to the zipper on her pants. He dipped his fingers beneath the waistband as his other finger and thumb pulled down on the zip.
Graverobber found her panty-less and damp, and–
"Holy fuck," he growled against her mouth, rubbing his thumb over the smooth flesh.
Shilo writhed beneath him, panting. "I like it that way."
She wasn't the only one, he thought as he tugged the leather hipsters off of her long slender legs and spread her thighs before him.
Her cunt was hairless, pink, and smelt so damn enticing, and her thighs were firm and smooth and so welcoming as he kissed along them towards his goal. Shilo bucked as he closed in, pressing her clit to his lips, and Graverobber smirked against the hot, damp flesh as she cried out breathlessly.
He dove in without a word, his mouth eager and his tongue even more so. His fingers were soon encased in her tight heaven, gently drawing her up to her first orgasm as his tongue curled random letters around her clit.
When Shilo screamed, thrusting her hands in his hair and clenching around his fingers wildly, he couldn't wait any longer.
He unzipped his pants, freed his begging cock, and crawled over her blissed out body. He smiled against her cheek as he licked the skin there and thrust into her tight pussy.
Each thrust was accompanied by a thud as Shilo threw her head back against the floorboards and a groan as Graverobber felt her completely surround him, so tightly.
The sleepless nights and the incessant wonderings all culminated in one amazing sky-high moment, where Shilo cried out against his neck in a second orgasm and Graverobber thrust hard and randomly as he came apart hot and thick inside her.
Before he could roll off of her, maybe catch his breath and make a witty remark, Shilo tugged him down so he covered her body entirely. He sighed at the warmth, haphazardly painting kisses down her throat.
"Thanks." He grinned into the crook of her neck.
And Shilo's laugh pleasantly shuddered through his shaking body.
Author's Note: All reviews are totally welcome and appreciated by the Mini-Me inside my head who's a junkie for feedback.