"No." She wheezed. His eyes narrowed, tilting his head back in the slightest, looking down his nose at her in the most devastatingly haughty way that Vera almost lost it. She did, however, jerk her body roughly against his, making his grip on her throat slacken. "No more of that shit, I've got better things to do and dirtier profligates to fuck."
Vulpes narrowed his eyes and inhaled sharply, feeling a little worm of irritation burrow into his chest.
He released her throat altogether, only to slap his hand bluntly against her swollen cheek. The force of it knocked her cleanly to the ground, the chains sliding out of his grip.
Vulpes turned away from the Courier momentarily to remove the sheath hanging on his hips, tossing it onto the table unceremoniously as he sighed.
"Ira, whore, it consumes you." He explained casually, listening carefully to her labored breath behind him as he removed the breastplate of his armor. "Very unseemly. Tonight's lesson will-,"
He had once again turned back to face the girl when her hand slapped across his face with all the strength she could muster. Both the action and the force surprised him, sending him stumbling into the table behind him, blood immediately dripping from his lips and down the front of his red shirt.
The Courier watched as Vulpes lifted an unbelieving hand to his mouth, drawing it back to observe the crimson liquid that ran sluggishly down his fingers. Then his eyes, so absolutely livid with outrage that it actually frightened Vera to her very soul, raked almost roughly along her defiant expression.
It was tense for a moment in the silence that followed, making Vera feel as if she had committed a horrible atrocity or perhaps she had broken a priceless pre-war vase…
…Did she actually feel bad for slapping him?
That didn't matter, because he lunged at her then, the force of it knocking the chair behind him to the ground.
However, his movements were all brute force, all anger, and Vera's all-consuming wrath had been slightly cleared by the satisfaction in bitch slapping Vulpes Inculta across his smug-bastard face.
She danced out of his grip easily, bolting instinctually towards the tent entrance. Why? She asked herself that as she burst into the cold air, she didn't know, it was the only thing her primal instincts could think of.
Fight or flight, perhaps…
But of course… of fucking course there had to be a God damn Legion parade going on.
Well, not really, but Caesar was taking a stroll with a few of his Praetorian Guards, apparently out to observe the punishment of the three recruits who were assaulted by the Courier.
Vera had to push that out of her mind, Caesar was not her main priority at this point. The gate directly across from her was, however.
All she had to do was run across the training area where most Legion soldiers now observed the punishment, up the hill, past the guards at the gates, down the hill, and across the river.
Right. Yeah, that's a plan.
With the sound of the tent flaps snapping loudly behind her Vera took off once more. Where Vulpes was obviously stronger and sneakier then her, she was fast. Raul had told her so on many occasions; she had decided it wasn't merely because he was a 234 year old ghoul with arthritis.
Of course, The Courier sprinting across the Fort with Vulpes Inculta barreling after her was an odd sight, considering she had remained rather docile during her stay here. And because it wasn't really the usual that Vulpes allowed a prisoner out of his grasp.
She realized, with a smile, that she was probably humiliating him right now.
The punishment of the recruits halted immediately, Lucius looking up as the speed of the Courier dashing past him stirred a slight breeze against his cape. His brow furrowed in confusion, then rose in surprise as Vulpes all but knocked him out of the way in his pursuit of the girl.
Caesar was the first to comment, as was the usual with these sort of things.
"What the fuck is going on?" The older man narrowed his eyes as Vulpes caught up to The Courier, tackling her unceremoniously to the ground. "I thought that piece of shit was under control, Vulpes."
Sigh. I wanna bitch slap Vulpes.