7 Fight

Capable

The days fly by while Nux recovers in her bed. She sleeps beside him, touching him. Ensuring that he is not just a figment of her imagination. He refuses to talk about being a leader. Instead he talks about working. Cars. Raids. He is not well enough yet but soon she's going to have to figure something out. He's practically bouncing off the walls in the room.

Now she glares at him, trying to look stern but terrified he will fly into a wild state. She has her hands full trying to keep the Boys from murdering each other now that there's no one else to turn their violence towards. She knows he wants to be a good War Boy, but she's afraid of what the others will do to him. But now he's turned his frustration towards her. She's seen the way War Boys settle disagreements and even in his weakened state, he could hurt her if he isn't thinking clearly. For the first time since they met, she was scared of him. Of what he might do. He's covered his body in white clay from Dag's garden and is intent on going back to his duties.

"You aren't well enough yet!" She snaps at him, planting herself between him and the door to her room. She won't lose him now, not after all they've been through together. He does not remember the past week when she's almost lost him to fever. Or the night he stopped breathing. He doesn't remember and she won't speak of it. The memories are too painful and raw.

"Never well enough! I'm wasting away my half-life! Do you hate me so much that you'll make me still and idle?" His words are sharp and sting at her heart. He paces back and forth like a caged animal. "Is that the leader you want? Soft and placid? Too afraid to actually do something but wait?"

"No! I don't hate you. But you aren't well enough for duty." She's afraid the other Boys will damage him. Tear him apart for his hand in killing the old god. She's doing her best to teach the young ones better ways, but the older ones cling to their tattered beliefs. She looses more and more to the cliffs. She needs him to bridge the gap, but it won't work if he looks too weak.

He stalks up right to her face and jabs a white finger at the lumps at his neck. "Dying already." He's so mad he looses words. He grabs her hand in a painful hold and forces her to touch them. They are killing him slowly. He shoves his pants down and pulls her arm so she can feel the small lump near his inner thigh. "Why am I being punished? Denied Valhalla. Denied work!" His words are angry and desperate. His blue eyes are wide and wild. The door is closed behind her, but in the silence she can hear Furiosa and the others outside. He finally lets her go and she stumbles back against the door. He clutches at his head, his arms, his pants are pooled around his ankles and tears make tracks in the fresh clay. "Let me goooo…" He wails and collapses in a pile of bones on the floor.

The door bursts open and Furiosa is there, a gun in her flesh hand. She looks from Capable to Nux on the floor. "Nux. Fix yourself up and report to the Shop. I need a car of my own and I want you to take point on it. Bring me a first draft tomorrow."

Nux jumps up and hikes his pants up and wipes at his face. He rushes past them and is out the door before Capable can protest. She turns back to Furiosa, redirecting her anger at the new leader.

"You can't keep him here anymore, Capabe. You've worked with the Boys enough to know they can't keep still." Furiosa's stern, but quiet words make the anger fizzle out like a doused fire.

Since she found Nux alive she's been hesitant to let him go. She wants to protect him from the world. Protect him from himself. Keep him to herself until his time runs out. "He's different."

"He isn't that different. You can't just coddle him and keep him in your bed." Furiosa's tone was stern. "You haven't screwed him, have you?" It isn't any better than what Immortan did to her and that thought slaps her in the face. Shaking her to her core. Her eyes start to water and she backs away from the older woman.

"No!" She's mad at herself now. She's treated him like a special thing. Maybe that is why he only holds her. That one cheek kiss is all she will ever get.

"He's not a thing you can keep. You want him to lead the Boys, then you need to let him get back to them. Teach them what he's learned." The gun gets holstered and Furiosa looks around the room. The mess that the fight had made.

"I… I know. I just can't help it. He's dying more and more and there's nothing I can do." She picks up the folder from the Organic Mechanic. It's been added to lately.

"Give him the choice. If he cares about you, he'll fight to stay alive. You can't force him into what you think is best."

Furiosa leaves and Capable throws herself on the bed. She curls up in the space Nux had woken from and waits. She doesn't know how to fill her time, though she should check on Crux and the pup training. Instead she goes out to Dag's garden and helps her sister set up wires for the baby plants to cling to. Dag doesn't bring up the yelling and neither does she.

When the sun starts to set, she washes off and goes inside. She isn't hungry so she just changes her clothes and slips into bed.

"Capable." He name is whispered and she wakes to shaking. Nux hovers above her, a large grin plastered on his face. His face is free of clay, which means he's scrubbed himself off before waking her.

"Hi." She looks out the window, only seeing the black sky and stars. "I didn't think you'd be back."

"Why wouldn't I?" He climbs over top of her and settles under the blankets as if this morning never happened. He's naked again, but it is only now that she realizes how warm it is in the room. "Brought you something."

She sits up and lights a lamp so she can see. "What is it?"

"Found my stash of sugar sweets. Been saving them a long time." He opens a small box and peels one of the small balls off the others and presents it to her. It is an odd brown color.

"What do I do with it?" She's never seen such a thing before, but Nux seems so excited. She wants to make him happy after their fight this morning. She should have just listened to him days ago.

"Put it in your mouth and let it dissolve. Don't bite it." He nods and takes one for himself and sets the others aside. He settles back down on the bed and looks up at her.

She's shocked at the sweetness. Not even mother's milk is this sweet. She wonders what it really is, but it doesn't matter. She's lost in the new experience and lets Nux pull her down to lay beside him.

"Where did you get these?" She asks around the treat.

"Rewards for salvage runs. Successful raids. Trade them for favors. Been saving them for a long time." He wraps his arms around her and she snuggles close. He's warm but not feverish and his breathing is steady and strong.

"Thank you." She leans against his warm chest and sighs. She's quiet until the sweet is dissolved, only leaving the lingering taste. "I'm sorry about this morning. I didn't mean to keep you like that. It was hurtful."

He looked at her strangely. Boys don't apologize. They fight. They forget. They move on. His silence seems to beg her to change the subject and she does.

"Did you have fun today?" She clings to him a little tighter, savoring the feel of his natural skin. He's missed some spots in his bath, but she finds it more endearing than annoying. He was trying to fit into her world.

"I did! Furiosa's will be a glorious car. Drew up some fine plans. Very fine. Found my sugar sweets. Not many of us left." He rambles and can't seem to lie still.

"Maybe when you're done with her car, you can make one for yourself." She runs her fingers along the engine block scarring on his chest.

"Really? You mean it?"

"My leader needs a very shiny car. The Green Place must be protected by brave and honorable Boys." He is different than the other Boys. He's changed from that fanatical young thing that tried to kill them. He's so much more now.

He nods and settles down. He sighs deeply and finally lays still. "Valhalla has been barred to me." He voice is but a low whisper in her ear. "When my time is up, I will find a dark corner."

She breaks from his embrace to look at him. "No! No… Nux no… no dark corner. When you die, I will be with you. I will witness you." Her breath hitches in her throat, her voice raw and tinged with fear. Was he really going to just disappear and die alone and cold in the caves?

"Why?" His voice is a hushed whisper.

"Because… because I care about you. I want to be with you." All her feelings spill from her eyes and her lips. "I love you." She kisses his scarred lips softly, leaning into his frame.

She pulls back when he freezes. His eyes are wide and uncertain. She's done it again, hasn't she? "Sorry." She loosens her hold on him, giving him the choice. She wants so much, but she doesn't know how much he has to give.

He scoots back away from her, his expression closed for the first time. He mutters something unintelligible and turns over, curling into himself.

She gets the hint and it hurts. He wants to be alone. She scoots away from him and sleeps on the other side of the bed. She lets her tears soak through the soft pillows on her bed.


Nux

He waits until she stops moving and her breathing evens out. Only then he allows himself to slip out of the bed and make his way out of the Vault, grabbing his pants on the way. He makes his way down to the catacombs, traveling down through the lit areas and into the tunnels below. He stopped in the slurry pool and dove in, coating himself with the white gunk and tried to stop thinking about Capable's words. Toxic. Poison. What's a little more time stolen?

If he's condemned to a death in the Dark Places, only to have his body tossed out in the desert for the birds to eat, then… then he's not going to be tamed. Not by Capable who loves him. What is this love but a weakness strangling his heart until it drags them both down to the dark places. He is not a stud for breed stock, he is a War Boy. A Fury Driver. A Black Thumb. He is all those and nothing now that he has been cast from the Gates of Valhalla. But he doesn't want to be nothing. Not anymore. He has to be more to be worthy. Worth of… immortality. Worthy of her.

He's still drying when he pulls on his pants and stalks down the darkest tunnels. He will never be big but he's always had Brass. He gets silent, questioning looks from other Boys and he hisses and growls at them. Dominance is a game he can play. He may be small, but he's had to fight for everything he's ever had. He will fight. He was born to fight.

He thumps his chest and stalks down, down, down into the bowels of the Citadel. Down to the fighting pits. He's never been in the Band, but every single one of the Boys is drilled with the drum calls of battle. The drums in the pits aren't as big as the ones on the Doof Wagon, but they are big enough to make the lower catacombs rattle. He picks up the heavy sticks and experimentally taps the drum. It is strangely satisfying. He pounds out a challenge cadence and pauses, then repeats the motions with more confidence. He does not have to wait long before curious Boys stream into the large cavern.

He jumps down into the middle of the pit and lets out a war cry. His first challenger steps up and answers, then the fight begins. Challenges are usually non-lethal, but sometimes things get out of control. Nux funnels his frustration and rage at being denied his immortality into his fists and feet. He makes the first yield to him and takes on the next. He fights and fights until his whole body aches and his arms feel like they're made of led. He lost count of how many challengers he's beaten. He's never been this good in the pits before, but he usually saved his best for the road. Now he's giving it all he has, taking down bigger opponents than he ever. Capable wants him to lead. She doesn't understand that this is how. Dominance and strength. He needs to climb to the top of those he's betrayed.

His vision wavers, blackening along the edges. His movements are getting clumsier and other fights are starting to break out on the edges of the arena. He howls and pushes his last opponent down. The others in the room answer him back and he is enveloped in the press of hundreds of bodies. Someone starts playing the drums again and it turns into a full-on doof. Someone picks up a guitar and starts clumsily blaring chords. It isn't Coma's driving beats, but it works enough for the Boys as they thrash together. They are life. All their half-lives pooled together into something massive and healthy. Something greater than each of them alone.

Nux has missed this. He gets his fill of contact and pulls away from the others and climbs up onto the band platform next to the shrine of the V8. He shouts again and the crowd answers him. He grabs a pipe and pushes it the shrine over. The crash is deafening. The silence is thick, filled only with the beat of his heart pounding in his ears.

"I am Nux Banned from Valhalla! I will not worship a dead god!"

The crowd mumbles uncertainly, but they are paying attention. He has proven himself through challenge.

"Together we are strong! We are the War Boys! We are the Repair Boys! Our Half-Lives were meaningless to Immortan Joe!" He hears some noise of agreement, he has to be fast, clever.

"Furiosa the Iron-Hand, the Protector of Mothers, the Killer of Gods, the Keeper of the Green Place asks for our loyalty and Time. She will not lead us to Valhalla, but she will find each of us a Purpose!" He has nothing else to offer them. Furiosa has nothing more to offer. She will not be a god, but she will be a leader.

"We will have more water and food, better vehicles and bunks. She wants to stop the Sickness and help the Wretched. She asks for the Repair Boys to build and support this new Citadel. Will you do it?" The roar is louder than he expects, but he's sure it's because there are more Repair Boys left now.

He lets the hush fall back over the crowd again. "She asks for War Boys to defend this new Citadel! Strong boys with deadly aim! Will you do this?" Again, the entire cavern fills with noise.

They need something to cling to as much as he does. They need to spend their half-lives well. Change is hard but they are willing to embrace new orders. His name is chanted and the drum starts again. The guitar joins in and he leaps back into the crowd. Hands catch him and he is passed among them, pulled down into the warm embrace of his brothers.

When the morning horns sound, he pulls himself out of the pile of bodies. He feels like he's been thrown from the rig again but his thoughts are less dark. His body finally gives out at the foot of Capable's bed.


Capable

The bed is empty when she wakes. She is disappointed, but not surprised. She slips out of the bed and nearly trips over his gray body. He breath catches in her throat as she kneels down beside him. He is covered in war paint, blood and sweat. His head is hot with fever but he breathes steadily. She cradles him in her lap, several questions fighting for dominance in her head.

His eyes flutter open and lock on her face. "Good morning," she whispers.

"How long?" He rasps, but doesn't pull away from her.

"I just woke up and you were here. Not long." She runs her thumb along a deep gash in his forehead. "Where did you go?"

He grunts and tries to sit up, but ends up leaning against her shoulder instead. "The Pits. Fighting."

"Why?" She doesn't understand, but she needs to.

"You want me to lead." He says simply and he drapes himself over her. He sounds more tired than he had when she found him in the wasteland.

"What did you do?" She helps him up and sit on the edge of the bed and gets a basin of water to clean him up.

"Challenge." He drifts off sitting up, his eyes still open but unfocused. She washes the paint off him and cleans his new wounds. She lays him down in bed and inserts the needle into his arm. She's not used to the sting of it, but it is a pain she will bare if it means she can keep him strong.

She sits on the bed beside him and strokes his brow. A thin layer of stubble is starting to sprout on his head. She kisses his forehead. "I love you, Nux."

He smiles in his sleep.