Officially edited

Dezra was glad to be rid of Sabretooth's presence. He was a very intimidating man and just being near him made her feel inferior. She hurried down the stairs, eager to escape his welcoming scent. There was something about him that was undeniably enticing. She knew that unless she treated him coldly, she would cave to his very sensual nature. The way he moved was delightfully feline; he had an unnatural grace. She heard him shifting around in her bedroom. His uncharacteristic loudness told her that he was warning her. He wanted her, she could taste it in the air. She instinctively breathed deeply, her body reacting to his very masculine scent.

Shaking herself out of the trance, Dezra threw open the front door and stepped out into the snow. She had changed when Sabretooth was in the shower, so instead of prancing around outside in her pajamas, she was wearing blue jeans and a black tank top. The frigid temperature froze her for a moment before her internal body temperature regulated again. There were perks to being a mutant.

"Or something else..." Her thought trailed off as she started sprinting towards the clearing she had found Sabretooth in. She leaped smoothly over rocks and soared between trees; her instincts commanded her moves before thoughts formed.

She was in the clearing in a few brief moments. The snow was still soaked with blood, but she watched in amusement as curious creatures slipped back into the trees to avoid contact with her. She breathed deeply of the freezing air and felt her lungs choke for a moment. She then crouched down and reached into the bloody snow. Her thoughts directed into the palms of her hands as she pulled warmth from her body and pushed it into the ground. Heat built up until she knew she could set water to boiling in a few brief moments. The snow around her let the heat spread as it began to melt. The bloody water then seeped into the ground and was lost.

She let her thoughts drift away and was consumed by the heat inside her.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Victor trodded down the stairs of Dezra's house, his long legs taking large strides that helped him reach the bottom floor so he could have a good look around. Her house was pretty plain; there were few decorations scattered among the necessities of life. His eyes were drawn to a shelf that was packed full with pictures. Curiosity piqued, Victor walked over to the shelf to take a closer look at them. In the largest framed picture, there was an unusual amount of people other than Dezra. Children both young and older were scattered around her. Hair colors varied from Dezra's scarlet name sake to the purest blonds and darkest blacks and browns. The variety alone made his eyes burn. Victor turned his gaze from the large picture to the smaller ones only to find them all filled with pictures of the children seperately, or in groups of three.

He turned his blue eyes back to the first picture he had looked at and marveled for a moment. He slowly counted all the children in the picture until he came to a grand total of twelve children. That wasn't even counting the adults. Victor found it eery how similar some of the children were to Dezra. Gold eyes cut through him from the picture. He fought the urge to smash the picture against the wall. He heard something hit the floor from another room, so he took the opportunity to explore the rest of the house.

Despite outside appearances, the house was much smaller on the inside. When he found the room where the noise had come from, he found an open window tapping against it's frame with the rhythm of the wind. He snarled at the distraction, but left it to continue. His trip around the house took less time than he expected, but he wasn't seriously searching the house anyways. It was just a courtesy glance to make sure she wasn't secretly planning to set him up and to make sure she wasn't connected with the X-Geeks. The last thing he wanted was Xavier's cronies wandering around his territory.

His last thought stopped him abrubtly. His territory? Since when did he consider Dezra or any of her affects his possessions? He couldn't think of a specific moment, but if she kept snarling like a barely trained house cat, he might just bite back. The thought made him grin. The idea of biting into her pale flesh more than slightly tempted him. His mouth watered at the thought until he shook off his increasing lust. He found a door that he had yet to open when he finally regained his composure. The door was locked, but when had that ever stopped him? Victor fussed with the lock for a moment before he managed to open the door with minimal damage to it. He doubted Dezra would ever know he had been in the room.

As soon as he opened the door, he knew he should have just walked away. Nostalgia hit him hard as he breathed in deeply. The lingering scents in the room threatened to choke him with carefully hidden memories. Unconsciously, he had closed his eyes against the strain of memory. He forced himself to recover however, and when he opened his blue eyes once more, he recognized familiar objects. He stepped into the room and took a deck of cards into one large hand. The dark blue cards were worn with use, but were covered in a light sheen of dust. A thin rubber band kept the cards from scattering across the table when he dropped them. Memories bit into his mind in a rush as he recalled the people who used to use the cards every day.

Flashback

He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, watching in amusement as two boys played cards with the familiarity of old friends. The dark haired one slapped his partner's hand after sharing a smile with a red haired girl at the table with them. He held back a laugh when the lighter haired boy opened his eyes at the physical reprimand.

"Ah, ah!" The dark haired youth paused as he waited for the other boy to fully recover from the telepathic to physical change in thought, "No cheating ya lil sneak." The other boy grinned broadly before pulling his hand back and looking at the newest addition. The first boy held out a hand for the girl to shake and started to introduce himself.

"Name's..."

Victor was brought out of the memory with a jerk before he could catch the boy's name. The sense of familiarity between himself and the two boys was undeniably powerful. Even now in the wake of the strong memory, he was fighting back the urge to chuckle at their ridiculous antics. He grabbed the deck of cards again and stroked it fondly. It was the same deck of cards that was used in the memory. He struggled to remember the two boys names, but he knew that his quest was just as futile as the Runt's attempts to remember his own past. He pocketed the cards and exited the room. He carefully locked the door behind him and went back to the living room.

He breathed deeply to clear his mind and scented Dezra. Her peculiar smell of burnt wood and faint cinnamon let him know she was approaching. He quickly made himself comfortable on her couch as though he had been there the whole time. She entered the house via the front door in a whirlwind of motion. Her red hair was disheveled and her gold eyes were wide. He took another breath and could smell used power drifting off of her slowly. When mutants used their power it left an aftertaste in the air that he could taste. The smell usually faded quickly after the mutant used their power, so the fact that she still smelled like exhausted powers told him she had either used her powers just a few moments ago or she had used a large amount of power.

The woman sat down on the edge of the couch arm and stared down at him with a curious light in her gold eyes. They remained silent, no words were necessary. A vulnerable expression slipped across her face before being chased by a blank facade. His training told him he should pursue the look in her eyes, but he knew that he would get no good reaction from her if he asked about something so personal. He did wonder if her thoughts had anything to do with the locked up room though.

"Have fun searching the house?" She questioned sarcastically, breaking the quiet mood.

"Yup, got to knock down a locked door n' all." Her eyes widened dramatically, leading Victor to believe that his original thought was accurate.

"How dare you..." Her voice trailed off as he smirked. When she realized he had only been teasing her and he had succeeded in getting her irritated, she sighed before entering the kitchen. "Are you hungry?"

"Starvin'." He answered truthfully; his stomach was growling better than he could.

To Victor's utter delight, Dezra was a fantastic cook, and somehow knew exactly how he liked his meat. At the end of the meal, he was satiated and felt like a cat ready for a nap. Seeing his contentedness, she gestured to the couch. He simply nodded and went to lay down. His eyes drifted closed as he stretched himself out on the couch. He was well on his way to a brief rest when she placed a blanket over his lounging form. He fought the urge to grab her hands as his training dictated. He doubted that she realized the threat she was under. When she wandered away, he let himself relax again. He doubted he'd ever truly relax in the presence of another person, but he could, at least, let himself relax enough to drift off to a restful sleep.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Victor awoke to the sound of dishes clinking together and to the soft swoosh of sloshing water. The sound, when combined with the smell of cinnamon wafting through the archway from the kitchen, lulled him into a pleasant state of mind. Pulling the blanket off of himself, Victor stood and wandered over to the archway. Dezra was standing at the sink washing dishes as he had expected. Blue jeans conformed to her body like they were painted on and her black tank top was just as tight. Her luxurious red hair was braided tight to keep disobediant strands out of her face. Mustard yellow gloves covered her delicate hands, wrists and forearms. She turned to look at him in the archway and gave him a soft smile; her gold eyes glinted brilliantly in the artificial light.

When she turned away from him to continue washing the dishes, he approached her. He wrapped his large arms around her so he could cup her hips with his hands. He pressed himself tightly against her leaned down to kiss the back of her neck. His sudden arousal seemed to surprise the woman in his arms. She froze when he nuzzled her neck and admired the view down her shirt. His tongue slipped out and licked her ear lobe teasingly.

"Ya smell good," He whispered against her neck, letting his hands stray up her hips to wrap around her waist, "I wonder if ya taste as good as ya smell."

"Unhand me." She hissed. Her rigid stance was betrayed by her unconscious shiver as his hands rose further. His grasp was just under her breasts now and he didn't seem prepared to stop.

"Just want a little taste frail," He gently tipped her head back to rest against his chest so his lips could explore her jaw, "Just a little one." His lips found hers and he captured her in a passionate embrace. She began to relax in his arms for the briefest moment before she regained her sanity. She bit his bottom lip sharply and pulled away to whisper back as he licked the blood off his lip.

"I warned you." Her gold eyes flared with intensity as her touch began to burn. Her superheated skin burned the hair off his arms until the skin underneath began to sizzle. He snarled his defiance and continued to hold her close to him. His hands cupped her breasts despite her actions until she increased the heat. When his already scorched skin began to burst with vicious blisters that popped open to reveal a crispy underneath he finally removed his hands from her. Dezra was not prepared to stop however. Her anger at being manhandled flared as she held his forearms in a hard grip.

"Stop." He commanded. His normally deep voice had risen to an almost high pitch.

"Give me a good reason." She gave him a nasty smile as the fire began to spread up his arms to his shoulders. He cried out as the third degree burns spread across his body.

"Damn it!" He snarled before grabbing her head in one large paw. His hand immediately sprung into flames as well, but he was determined. He slammed her head against the cabinet as they fell to the floor together. The touch of the cold tile against his blisters made him roar in agony. Blood seeped into his wounds as it dripped from her head. The distraction seemed to be enough however, because the fire ceased it's ravaging work.

"Did you have to do that?" She mumbled as she sat up and pushed away from him. He watched as his blackened skin began to peel away from him only to be replaced by fresh, pink skin. Dezra's sharp laugh made him snap his eyes to see her.

"What?" He asked gruffly, sore from the quick healing.

"I thought I was the only one who could do that." She whispered. She turned her head so he could see the wound he had inflicted. The bludgeoned area was pulling itself together as he watched it. He frowned and waited for her to turn back to him before he spoke.

"Thought you were a pyro. Seemed apparent from my stand point." She laughed at him before nodding slowly.

"It's hard to explain and I don't think you would believe me anyways." He raised an eyebrow and leaned against a cabinet.

"I've got time." She shook her head and started to stand up. He reached out quickly, grabbed her foot and yanked her back to the floor. He released her before she could set fire to him again.

"Look, it's a long story, you brute." She pulled her legs away from his grasp before she started to rise this time. He let her and followed behind. Victor reached out and stroked her braid as he passed by her to head back to the couch.

"Yer mine frail." His enticing statement sent a shiver through her spine as she remembered their embrace earlier. She licked her lips lightly and tasted him on her lips still. She shoved him onto the couch and he allowed her. She leaned down to his face and kissed his lips lightly before pulling back and walking out of the room.

"I belong to no one."