The trek back to Underworld was hitched with raider and scorpion attacks. Knox, for once, didn't feel the insatiable need to butcher, letting the dead rest. He just pressed his palm over their hearts and didn't feel it pulsing. Doc Barrows forced open another bottle of cola that Gob insisted on loading them up with. Enough to last till you come back, Knoxxie. Doc Barrows likes them more than I do, barkeep. Knox caught Doc looking at him like he was insane a couple of times. It was understandable. When Knox explained to him why he imprinted the contract on his skin, Doc Barrows just kept silent. There was no other way, was it? He didn't want a repetition of events. Now, he could travel knowing that no one could use Charon or had access to him. The contract was safe in Megaton and no one knew where it was.

Nurse fussed over Doc Barrows and his excitement. Win filled Knox in on what pipes were busted since Knox left. Charon kept a close eye on his employer as Win and he spent the day chatting in the converted Ninth Circle. When Win finally left, Knox stripped down to his shorts, flopped down on his mattress and fell asleep.

He awoke to see pale eyes staring down at him and rough fingers trailing over the carved contract. He recalled being in this position before but with a knife pressed against his throat. This time, there was a gentle roughness that spread warmth over his skin as hands grated over his marks. Knox swallowed. Charon stared down at him. He stared back. Unflinching. Charon grumbled something that he couldn't catch.

"Are you… reading me?" Knox asked, his voice rough. He let Charon idly trace the words in his skin. Charon nodded. Knox shivered because his touch was warm. "I added a lot of…stuff in." Charon nodded again. "Even the part about you calling me by name." The pale eyes darted up to his.

"What would you prefer me to call you?"

"Knox. Just Knox. No Mister. No Master. No Lord. Just Knox… Like the way you did when you were bleeding my life out." Knox ran shaky fingers through his hair. Those maddening scratches on his skin tugged at him.

"Knox…"

"Yeah. Fuck. Like that." His response sounded very needy. "Why haven't I told you to stop yet?" he growled at himself.

"You like that, Knox?" Knox let out a breathy moan when that question echoed in his ear and blew at his neck. His bodyguard was seducing him, wasn't he? Ghouls never did this before. Okay. He was lying. Once, Patches propositioned him, but Patches propositioned everyone. Then there were a couple of ghouls who touched him, his hair, his smooth skin. "How do you want me?"

"I… don't fucking know, right now." Knox hissed. He faced his bodyguard who stared at him all dangerous. With Charon-like agility, he stood up and slipped off the leather straps that held his armor together. Knox was silent as he watched his bodyguard strip. Part of his mind wanted to stop him but he questioned why he even wanted Charon to stop. Clearly, Charon was doing it out of his own…initiative. Knox encouraged it, even wrote it in Clause 4. So, if Charon wanted to strip he could damn well strip. Charon revealed his bare torso and Knox could see strips of smooth skin that hadn't been ravaged by ghoulification yet. He saw the ripples of strong muscles as Charon moved. Dangerously strong.

"What are you doing?" he found himself asking in what sounded like a bored tone. He was far from bored. His nerves were just frazzled at the moment. Charon never answered, just straddled him again and continued touching him. Knox laced his fingers through the tufts of red hair and relishing the feel of them in his fingers. This was very different from Burke and his very fast grabs, considering his fucking age. Fast grabby hands that pinned him and ripped him to pieces and …Knox shuddered at the rough hand cupping his chin. No. Charon wasn't fucking gentle. But he was…human. Not animalistic.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked. Charon stilled. He usually would just swoop in and bite the lips of anyone he wanted to. But Charon was like a bullet raring to go through your skull. For a long time they faced each other until Knox couldn't take it anymore. He brushed his own lips onto Charon's ruined ones. Feeling no resistance, he pressed chaste kisses onto the area, pulling his ghoul's chin closer. He was just warm all over; bordering on scorching. Knox tasted radiation on his tongue. So, maybe Doc was right; ghouls did radiate a little poison but not strong enough to be detected on the Geiger counter. No one would know for sure until they kissed ghouls and Knox was aware that he was sloppily kissing one now. Charon wasn't even responding back. Knox leaned back to look at his ghoul.

"Do I disgust you or something? I thought you …" Knox's voice trailed off as he unlaced his fingers off red hair. "Maybe this isn't consensual in the first place. Even if I want it to be…" he mumbled to himself. He stared at Charon and his lack of skin and thought him beautiful. Knox felt like he himself was a broken smoothskin. "It's cause I'm a dude isn't it? I don't have breasts or…" Knox coughed.

"I don't have them either. OR skin." Oh. Knox slipped into a grin and pulled Charon close again, landing kisses over his jawline, avoiding the lips until it seemed like Charon would respond back. Knox slid his palms over the torso, feeling the roughness, the sandpapery muscles. He closed his eyes and nuzzled the flesh, rubbing his cheek, stubble and relishing this…relishing another person, ghoul or not. Someone not pushing him away because he was always covered in blood or the crazy scars and the fact that he was just…Knox. He smiled against the skin and inhaled. If he inhaled deep enough, he could smell a tinge of toxic. Just a tinge. He swiped his tongue over the collarbone; fancy names be damned now and Charon shuddered against him. There. That tingling that signalled radiation. It was on his tongue, but just barely…as much as maybe three gulps of dirty water. And Charon tasted like skin and perspiration which was odd but Knox swallowed his taste and memorised it as Charon, his fucking bodyguard. …Well, that sounded wrong now.

After many moments of Knox running his hands over pliant flesh, Charon responded by pushing the both of them further into the mattress. He massaged Knox's abused skin, digging rough fingertips over the healing mass of words which tore deep groans from Knox's throat. It stung and felt amazing and Knox indulged in the touches. There were gruff whispers in his ear that made his heart beat fast.

How do you want me? I'm not taking advantage of you. Knox, I am merely carrying out Clause 4.

By that time he was so far gone to close the door, to prepare himself properly. Couldn't wait, especially when the throbbing hardness pressed against his entrance, his ghoul's face twisted into something like awe as he watched. He felt Charon rip him apart when he pushed in but it felt so fucking good and Knox whimpered and thrashed against the mattress like a corpse grasping at the last vestiges of breath.

The pulsing member in him was still in working order, brushing against his prostrate at every hard thrust. Knox gripped with everything he got as his mouth accepted the assault from another equally eager mouth. Charon's lips left his, making a trail on his skin as he grumbled continuously into Knox's skin. Knox realised after some time, that he was actually reciting the contract from memory like a mantra. That was the sexiest thing he ever heard. When white pleasure tore through him in waves, he jerked and screamed till his throat hurt and he lay on his back choking on breaths. In the dim consciousness, he realised that the fluid trickling out of him was cum mixed with blood, his blood. And that he was sticky and that session was…fucking awesome. He coughed as he lay limp, trembling when Charon pulled out of him. His body was still twitching. He was still hard and sensitised. He still wanted more.

"Knox?" Damn. He liked hearing his name from his ghoul. "You're bleeding." That voice blew into his ear and Knox chuckled. He coughed, pressing his own palm over his heart and hearing it beat at an erratic pace. He wasn't such an evil bastard was he?

"Hey, did you know I wasn't gonna shoot you?" he asked when he finally calmed down enough.

"No." Charon's heart beat had the same frantic pace. "But you aren't my former employers."