"Poison if you would believe it." She muttered to him as they walked. The desert before them barely differed from the hours past, save for the slight wind in the road and occasional building dotting the horizon. The leathers against her skin, though welcome in the cool evenings made her miss her tunic as the afternoon sun beat down on them. "They started forcing me to take it when I was about twelve years old. The priestess who looked over me told me it was to help me sleep but it had the opposite effect."

"It was a stimulant?" he asked.

"It made me sick. Not in the dramatic sense, but in that it made me purge my stomach for hours on end." He looked at her from the corner of his eye, her focus on the horizon as they walked. "I barely slept, barely ate, what little I could stomach didn't last long. Water was the only thing I could keep down, but only if I drank straight from the river. The slaves would bring pots full to my bedside as I writhed in discomfort but it would be too warm by the time they reached me. The Legate would punish them until he finally realized it couldn't be helped. I was moved to the priestess tent in the lower hill to make it more accessible."

"But your father—"

"Stayed in the upper ring. He had to. How could he serve Caesar, otherwise? So I stayed with the priestesses, drinking the potion until I finally bled for the first time." Her gaze didn't leave the horizon, her jaw clenched, her brow dropped. "And then the one looking over me increased it. It only began as nettle root, but she began to add cazador venom. I didn't find out until years later." Vulpes nostrils flared. "I took it for several years until the Legate noticed it was stunting my growth, I was old enough to understand what I was hiding, so we lessened the doses."

"Fifteen?"

"Fifteen." She confirmed.

"You had quite the appetite, I recall."

"It was the first time I was able to keep anything down. I didn't realize food could taste so good. At the beginning, I ate myself sick and didn't realize it wasn't the venom causing it. It was just so nice to experience being full, I couldn't fathom there being consequences." Vulpes bristled. "A few months later, I began receiving the treatment again, but only once a week as opposed to once a day. It eventually became once a month, and by the time I was 20, the bleeding stopped all together. It could have been sooner, I only noticed because my supply ran out. After the legate passed and the priestess was gone, there was no one to procure it for me. For all I know, I had been unnecessarily ill for years."

"So, when you would be bed ridden for injuries in training…" He broached.

"The wounds still required bandaging and were necessary, all the same. The recovery time had little to do with them, though." He prompted them to stop.

"One day, when you're more comfortable, I intend to place my lips upon every single one of those scars. In the meantime" He pulled down the sleeve of her leathers. "This will suffice" without breaking eye contact, he leaned down and kissed her fox shaped burn. The Mojave heat would never be able to contend with her blush.

Maximus raised her eyebrow as she read a sign bearing the name Goodsprings as they passed it. Vulpes chuckled lightly at her expression.

"You had to have passed this town dozens of times during your conquests, yet you never stopped here?"

"I can't say that it was ever within my focus." She muttered.

"You're bound to find it charming. Even before they accepted Legion reign, there was something special about this place." He mused.

"I feel like I've seen it in a report before, but can't recall anything about it." She stated, her brow pinching in recollection.

"This is where Tabellaria was reborn." Her eyes widened in recognition. She whipped her head up, her focus falling on the water tower above the town.

"She was buried on the hill, was she not?"

"Indeed. The doctor who managed to revive her and repair the damage to her head was certainly talented."

"Was?"

"He passed. Complications from a bullet wound when the town was attacked by Powdergangers. I suppose nobody ever planned for their only physician to require medical attention."

"That's unfortunate. How long has this town supported the Legion?"

"Shortly after we took Nipton." His face was sad for a brief moment. "I traveled to New Vegas to offer Tabellaria the Mark of Caesar at our Lords request. In exchange for accepting, she implored aid be sent to this town due to the powderganger activity. I suppose her loyalty to the Legion blossomed from there. The town shortly followed."

"Will they recognize you?"

"Only as Mr. Fox and his neutral alliance. I'd like to remain anonymous for the short while we have left."

They fell into a companionable silence as they walked up a slight incline into the town. Maximus took stock of the small crops lining the perimeter of each home. A small selection of metal trailers appeared to be converted into greenhouses in the center of town opposite a saloon. A handful of bighorner, healthy and fat resided in a corral, their pin in the process of being shoveled clean by two men. A school house stood to the left, its exterior replicating a legion training yard, made more pleasant with a white picket fence, clean enough to indicate it had been painted recently. A modest general store sat next to the saloon, the front porch being swept by a man in legion garb—the only man in legion clothes, actually. Maximus squinted her eyes ever so slightly at the observation.

"That's Chet, the general store owner. He may have been a touch overzealous with his support of Legion rule." Vulpes whispered. "He's…an interesting one. Was all too happy to relinquish ownership of banned materials, even when given a time period in which to liquidate them for profit."

"How did the saloon handle that request?" she asked, her voice equally low.

"Surprisingly well. Their owner merely negotiated the time frame. She had already been planning to pack up and leave after the doctor died, decided to stay once we guaranteed their safety and has been working towards converting the bar into a small dining hall. I believe they still have a month or so before all vices are banned from the town entirely, to which I hope has been lucrative to her. She's the town matriarch and I believe it will remain strong with her present." Maximus nodded in understanding as they passed by the saloon and then the store. Chet paused his sweeping to wave enthusiastically at them before resuming, earning a small smile and nod from Vulpes. Maximus simply observed. They continued on the dirt path past the crops and up a hill towards a surprisingly sturdy looking house. A flag of the old world flew upon a mast in the front yard. "They will bear our flag soon, but for now, we've asked them to keep the good doctor's in place. I feared any passing NCR would spot it and make the town a target for those fleeing to the east." He led them to the front door and pulled out a key, unlocking it and leading her inside.

"If they don't know you're Legion, how did you manage to secure the nicest building in town?" she asked, impressed as he locked the door behind them. He hummed lowly as she slowly stepped further inside, her boots knocking a steady rhythm into the wooden floor as she went.

"You could say Mr. Fox can be a very persuasive man." She could hear the smile in his voice as she made her way further inside. The room opened up and she saw the remnants of medical equipment tidily packed in a corner, the only unidentifiable piece, a large machine with hand grips. She gave it no further thought and turned to Vulpes when she heard him setting his pack on a shelf.

"If we intend to rest here, we should review the routes to make sure we leave on time. I have our closest checkpoints marked at Red Rock or Black Mountain and I feel ridiculous for saying both in the same breath."

"Fair enough." He gestured to her in agreement before moving a small dining table to the center of the space. Maximus lowered her pack to the floor next to it and shed her jacket before retrieving their maps and laying them out.

"Oh, we're in luck!" she said, pointing to a spot on the map. "We can stop in the quarry and be devoured as to avoid any colorful rocky formations." Vulpes chuckled lightly beside her. The sound traveled down her spine as she repressed a shudder.

"Would you believe me if I said it's actually a viable option?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder, his body caging hers in.

"I've heard less feasible things ring true from you, before." She turned her head to the side to look back at him. "Don't tell me you've managed to sway the deathclaws to our side?"

"The deathclaws were eradicated months ago." Pride gleamed in his eyes, a smile gracing his lips. Maximus' eyebrows shot up in disbelief before furrowing in question. "I used the powdergangers as bait, strapping the dynamite they relied so heavily upon for their terror to their bodies and told them to run. I placed a small team of sharpshooters on the ridges surrounding the quarry and one by one they exploded as the deathclaws reached them. It felt poetically merciful compared to what the beasts would have done to them." He was outright smiling, now. She stared back at him in awe. "It is only rumored that they still live because we have spread as much. We have a recording of their roars playing from the caverns occasionally, to keep up the illusion. We didn't want the NCR staking claims to the resources nor the more direct routes opened up before we established ourselves. Nobody outside of those involved in the operation know." She stared back down at the map.

"If the quarry no longer threatens the route, we would be able to make our trip in half the time!" he pressed himself against her, his warmth seeping through her shirt.

"Precisely why we will be settling in here until tomorrow night." He spoke against her neck as he trailed his lips along it. He reached her ear, tracing the shell of it with the tip of his tongue before whispering. "Do you find our change in plans agreeable?" he teased, causing her back to arch, pressing against him without thought. He ground back against her, still trapping her against the table.

"Yes, Dominus." she responded, causing him to release a light gasp. His hands shot back to grab her hips.

"Say it again." He growled as he tightened his grip.

"Yes, Dominus!" she moaned at his command, feeling how ridged he was even through her leathers. He quickly moved to unbuckle them and pushed them down to her knees.

"Why do you only now use that name?" He questioned with the same raw edge to his voice. "Was it not sufficient when it truly was my title?" She could feel him working at the fastenings of his own clothes, only pulling away from her as necessary.

"I willingly accepted the punishment for not doing so, the alternative would have been torture."

"And why's that?" he asked, licking his hand and transferring it to the head of his cock.

"Because it made me want to serve you on my knees!" she gasped as he entered her, folding her body forward to lay over the table. He following with long and heavy strokes that cause the table to scoot forward with each one. To counter the movement, Vulpes grabbed the opposite end of the table, pulling it back towards him with each thrust.

"Would you have liked that?" he bit out. "Your Dominus punishing you in front of the prime Frumentarii to teach you a lesson in insolence?"

"Yes!" she screamed.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, Dominus!" He thrust into her faster effectively fucking her into the table, it's legs creaking in protest.

"Again!" he shouted with a rare urgency.

"Yes, Dominus!" her voice cracked, her breaths now following as short cries every time he entered her.

"Maximus, I can't last!" he moaned. "Say it—say it again!"

"Yes—Dominus—" he slammed into her with a shout, burying as deeply as he could, his teeth latching into her shoulder as he spilled inside of her. She shuddered as she felt him continue to flex inside of her. Vulpes groaned on every exhale, sounding simultaneously sated and hungry.

"Well," he breathed out. "That's certain new." He rested his lips over the bite mark he had left, soothing the tender flesh that had thankfully not broken due to her shirt. She whimpered at the contact. "Gods, you're amazing…"