Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the fan fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do not belong to me unless stated otherwise.

A/N: Hello again.

It has been a bit longer than I would like, but that's okay.

Now this chapter is getting closer to the length that I fancy.

Translations are on the bottom, and there will be a few other important-ish notes.

Get cracking.

Chapter 6

She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).

With a heavy sigh Vaas stepped out of the jeep and slammed the door closed, his eyes scanning the forest. This was the last place Vaas wanted to be. Hidden between the trees was the entrance to a Rakyat temple. His home, or at least the place he grew up.

Vaas pulled a small bag of white powder out of his pocket, took some of the substance onto the tip of his blade and snorted it. What he was about to do was idiotic, extremely idiotic.

"We don't have enough ammo to storm the place, we cant risk open war. So I'll go alone. Alright?" Kidd suggested.

Vaas shook his head, whatever plan the old man had in mind it wouldn't work. "You will be dead before you reach the fucking stairs."

Kidd was nervous and furious. "Then what the hell do you suggest? We can't leave her there!"

Vaas said nothing.

This only fuelled Kidd's anger. "We are not fucking leaving her, Vaas! Scarlett is family, the only family I have."

Vaas laughed and shook his head. "You are angry Kidd. You, are angry. I get that. I get it." Vaas took a big swig from a whisky bottle. "I mean without family who the fuck are we? There was a time when I would do anything for my sister." Another swig. "You see the thing about our loved ones, right, our fucking loved ones. They come and they blindside you every fucking time."

Kidd resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he was getting impatient with his boss. "Vaas, we have to go get her! Plus I think Hoyt might not be very happy to hear of her death."

Vaas cocked his head to the side a bit.

"Think about it." Kidd continued. "Scar must have paid him a shit-ton of money to hide here. Hoyt knows that Scar makes real fucking high profile kills, so she might need to hide again. You wouldn't want to rob Hoyt from that possible amount of money and risk angering him, am I right?" It was far fetched, Kidd knew, but it seemed to work.

With a heavy sigh, Vaas spoke. "I have to go."

"I'm coming with you."

"No." Vaas shook his head. "Citra will take it as an act of war, I have to go alone."

As he walked toward the temple, two men standing guard pointed their guns at him. Vaas held up his hand, showing a grenade in it and shook his head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Vaas spoke in the native language.

He had no problem with speaking it usually. The only person he absolutely refused to speak it to was Citra. Usually that wasn't much of a problem because he perhaps saw her once a year, if even that.

"Hola, bitchachos!" Vaas shouted as he casually strolled into the temple.

He hated this place more than anything. He knew every corner, every rock and every piece of dirt in here. Memories flooded his mind as he looked around.

"Vaas, why are you in my temple?" Citra shouted, coming out into the main courtyard. The Rakyat men, now noticing him all pulled their guns up, pointing them at him.

"Because fuck you, that's why!" Vaas laughed, shaking his head. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Citra questioned, tilting her head to the side.

Vaas sighed. "Please do not waste my fucking time. Okay, bitch? Give her to me or I will have two-hundred and thirty-fucking-seven men storm this temple right fucking now." He grabbed his walkie-talkie from his belt. "All they are waiting for is my command. My fucking say so. So where is she?" This, of course, was a lie. However Vaas knew that Citra wouldn't risk an attack on the temple.

"You would not do it." Citra said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wouldn't I?" Vaas smiled. Citra had never been good at calling his bluffs.

A moment later Citra motioned her men to lower their guns. "You must really love her."

Vaas' eyebrows shot up just a little bit and then he realized, that's why she had taken Scarlett. Citra never liked when Vaas had girlfriends, or any sort of crushes. Vaas's smile grew. "Where. The Fuck. Is she?"

Citra turned around and walked away, Vaas followed her. Citra held Scarlett in one of the small rooms not far from the entrance of the temple. Before Vaas stepped through the doorway, he heard Scar murmur, "Vaas...Gareth. Father."

Scarlett was sitting on the ground, her arms tied above her head. She was dirty and bloody, the stitches on her chest had opened, he could tell because there was a little bit of blood seeping through the shirt. His shirt.

Fuck, Vaas thought.

Scarlett was murmuring things, twitching and shaking. All the while hitting her head against the stone wall. "Jesus motherfucking Christ, you drugged her?" Vaas wasn't surprised, Citra had always liked to poison things. He walked over to her, took his knife out and sliced the rope holding her hands. "Is that any way to treat a fucking guest, Citra?" Her hands fell down lifelessly, Vaas caught her before her whole body fell onto the cold floor.

He picked her up and Scarlett knotted her hands in his shirt, the one he was wearing, all the while muttering about a fire. He walked out of the room back out to the courtyard, before he made his exit he spoke. "I would kill you but my hands are full." Motioning to the shaking Scarlett in his arms. "Don't try to kill us on the way, it won't fucking work."

He strolled out of the temple, leaving behind a bunch of confused Rakyats, looking at Citra in disbelief. It was raining heavily, soaking both Vaas and Scarlett in a matter of moments. Vaas put Scarlett into the passenger seat and then got in himself, when he turned the key music started blasting out of the speakers. As he sped away from the temple, he bobbed his head along to the beat, he couldn't help but think that taking a roofless car had been a mistake. As they drove the wind picked up, violently throwing around the tops of the trees.

Scarlett screamed and Vaas glanced over. She was scratching at her face, her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, then she scratched her arms. "No, no, no, no, no." Her breathing was erratic.

Scarlett was dying.

Vaas lit up a cigarette, which got soaked by the rain immediately, as they drove along the shore. The sea was at turmoil, which worried Vaas in the slightest. Before they reached the river that flowed through Bad Town into the sea, the car started to give out grey smoke.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Vaas swore as the car pulled to a stop. "Fucking hell!" He pulled the key out if the ignition and got out of the car. He popped open the hood, on first look there was enough damage that he wouldn't be able to fix it right now. He didn't even have the necessary parts. He took his walkie-talkie, but there was no sound. Not even static. A radio tower nearby must've gotten damaged.

He stood there for a moment, weighing his options which there were several of. He could go to Bad Town and take shelter there, but there were more than a few people there who wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet into his head upon seeing him. Usually he didn't have a problem with that, but he had a dying girl with him, so going to Bad Town was out.

Vaas knew there was an outpost, Tequila Sunrise, near by, but not near enough. It was more likely that they would get killed, by the weather or by animals, before they reached it. So that was out.

There was a cave a little bit back down the road where they could take shelter, but as long as Vaas had known about it, it had always been infested with alligators. He had better things to worry about than getting eaten, so that was out.

Swearing, Vaas slammed the hood of the car back down. Scanning the trees, he remembered that there was an old army bunker there, dating back to World War II when the Japanese occupied the island. The bunker was closer than Tequila Sunrise, but still far. So far it seemed like the best option, so Vaas opted it was their best chance.

Working fast, he opened the trunk. He grabbed an old plastic bag, filled it up with the things they might need, including a knife, a few water bottles and of course alcohol, among others. He started walking with Scarlett over his shoulder and the plastic bag in hand.

About an hour later Vaas reached the bunker. His legs were burning and he was tired. The storm made being outside hell in itself, so constantly going up a hill was very tricky. He set Scarlett down next to the door, dropping the bag in her lap. He then pulled out his gun and went to check if any animal had decided to take shelter from the storm here.

When the place was empty, he carried Scarlett further inside. Laying her on the ground, he saw she was still trying to tear at her skin all the while muttering. He took a long drink from one of the bottles of rum and then set it back into the bag. He was so fucking tired.

"Don't go anywhere," Vaas said to Scarlett and then chuckled, realizing his pun. "I'll find something that will help." He stood up and started walking. Before he left the room he turned around, taken slightly off guard when he saw Scarlett looking at him. "I'll check for fucking tigers before I go."

Vaas walked out of the bunker back into the rain and thunder rumbled in the sky. He looked toward the direction of Tequila Sunrise and with a sigh he started walking in the opposite direction.

_x_

Scarlett gasped in a deep breath as her eyes flew open. She felt like she had been underwater and has just broken the surface. Her heart was drumming and her breathing turned erratic. She felt dizzy and nauseous. She felt like she couldn't get enough oxygen into her lungs.

"Marino, wahine taitamariki. Marino. Inumia." A voice, deep enough to shake the earth itself, was speaking to her. "Drink."

There was a wooden bowl placed into her hands and she quickly drowned the bitter liquid in it. She started coughing as she finished off the last of it. She looked up from the bowl.

The man infront of her had a wide nose and a strong jaw, covered with a neatly trimmed beard. His dark eyes were half closed, he almost looked bored, and sat under thick, mean looking brows. The set of his mouth and the look in his eyes gave away that he was wise beyond his years. His hair was in dreadlocks which reached his muscular shoulders. A red long strip of scarf-like fabric was wrapped around his head and his neck, finally falling on his shoulders. He wore no top, but a pair of leather shorts and a black wrap around his waist. He had a necklace with all sorts of different rocks on it, big silver earrings hung from his ears and he had many more pieces of jewellery around his wrists and biceps.

"You will live, wahine taitamariki." The mans voice was heavily accented and very deep, it sounded almost nonhuman.

It felt like her insides were burning and her body shook as the aftermath of drinking the liquid. She leaned back down to where she was laying before. Her body was on a cold stone floor, but her head hit something warmer and higher up from the ground. "What...?" Her throat hurt as she spoke, she turned her head slightly. She saw a smirking Vaas and realized her head was in his lap. "How... But..." She coughed. "Citra."

"You look like shit, white cookie." Vaas exclaimed.

Scar felt sick and sat up again, leaning her head between her knees. She felt like she was going to empty her insides.

"Koe e rongoa. Kikokiko me te wairua." The man said. "Lift up your head."

Scarlett did as she was told, she didn't know who this man was and why he was feeding her weird liquids but she didn't care. She wasn't tied up and Vaas' sister wasn't here, so her chances of living were better than before.

The man leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, by instinct she did the same. The man started saying something in a completely different language to which he had been speaking before.

"You will live," The man repeated his words. "It will get worse, before it gets better." He spoke slowly and carefully, making sure he pronounced the words as well as possible.

Scarlett nodded. "Your name?"

The man did not smile, but his eyes turned warm. "Dalle Wombe."

Scarlett gave him a small smile despite her nausea. "Scarlett Vincent. And thank you."

"Rest. Focus on reality, do not let the poison in you drag you deeper."

Scarletts heart-rate picked up again. "Poison?"

Dalle nodded his head. "I have done all I can. I must take my leave." The man stood up, he was taller and much more muscular than he had seemed when she was crouching down. He said a few last words to Vaas and handed him a bowl.

Scarlett felt like she was going to throw up again, her mouth was filling with saliva and her throat felt like it was clogging up. Her head was spinning. She took deep breaths through her mouth.

"You really do look like shit," Vaas said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Scarlett coughed. "Thanks..." She was going to continue but she broke out in a violent coughing fit. "What the fuck did she give me? What did he give me?"

"Citra poisoned you." Vaas said and Scarlett squeezed her eyes shut.

Her body was shaking, as if it was trying to tear itself apart. That's when the pain began. Scarlett screamed, her hands flying to her throat. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

I'm going to die, Scarlett thought in panic, repeating the sentence over and over again.

"You're not going to die as long as you don't give into the poison." Vaas said, when she said nothing he grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around so she was facing him. He looked deep into her eyes before he spoke, "Scarlett, you will hallucinate. Citra's poison will tempt you, you must not fucking let go. Okay, hermana, I need you to focus on reality."

Cold sweat had covered her face, she was pale and shivering but she felt like she was on fire. "How?" It seemed to her like Vaas' eyes were glowing, brighter and brighter as she kept staring.

"Fight it." Vaas said.

When Vaas blinked his pupils changed into a cat-like shape. Scarletts mouth fell open just the slightest bit.

"Fuck me." She muttered in disbelief.

Her breathing quickened as did her heart rate. Shaking her head, she tried to avoid his eyes but she couldn't.

Everything turned black.

_x_

"Hey! Wake up." A familiar voice said. "Wake up, you fuck!"

Scarlett was cold again, shivering. Her head was elevated from the ground, like the first time she came about. She groaned as she opened her eyes.

"What the...?" She murmured, her hand going to her throbbing head. When she opened her eyes she could see blurry outlines of concrete walls, a stubbly jaw and on her right was... The stubbly jaw moved, distracting her, and Scarlett shifted her attention. Her hand immediately shot up and her fingertips touched the dark hairs.

Vaas grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face. Scarlett struggled with her hand as she tried to move her hand back, her fingers stretching toward his jaw, but Vaas' grip was strong enough that her hand didn't move at all.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Vaas demanded, and took a swig of something in a bottle.

Scarlett was quiet for a while, it took her a few moments to understand that he was indeed speaking to her. "You... You have blood in your beard."

"And?" Vaas asked, he was pretty sure that it was rare that he didn't have blood in his beard. Or anywhere really.

"And it's fuzzy."

He swore in a language she didn't speak and leaned his head back against the wall. Vaas let go of her wrist, making her arm topple onto her chest.

"Vaas." Scarlett spoke. "Why is my head in your lap?" She paused. "I think I can hear colours." She poked his thigh with her index finger, feeling the amount of muscle underneath his jeans. "You have muscly legs."

Vaas grabbed her hand once more, with a sigh he spoke, "Your head is on my lap because you wouldn't stop hitting on the fucking floor. And I swear to the fucking Heavens if you poke me one more fucking time, I will cut off your motherfucking fingers." He paused, his mouth going into a hard line. "And muscly is not a fucking word."

Scarlett frowned. "You're mean."

Vaas leaned his head back and let out a breath. "Tired." He took a long drink from a bottle.

A few minutes later Scarlett spoke again. "How do you do it? How do you live with the knowing that you've killed?" When Vaas didn't answer, she spoke again. "Do you ever feel remorse? Do you ever regret it?"

"A little hypocritical of you, no? You murder too, you should know."

"Yes, but the people I murder deserve it." She poked his thigh again, this time softer. "Your victims are innocent, for the most part. Tourists and stuff..."

"No." Vaas said.

"No what?"

He sighed. "No, I don't regret it. I don't feel bad."

Scar was looking at him but her eyes started unfocusing slowly. "Me neither. I mean, first two... three kills. Yeah then. But no... Perhaps because I have good outlets for all of that now." Her eyes focused again. "Your outlet seems to be more murder."

This woke curiosity in Vaas. "Outlets?"

Scarlett nodded and her mouth curled into a small smirk. "Yeah. Sex, for one." Vaas opened his mouth to speak, but Scar kept talking. "Sex is great. Given your partner is good, y'know?" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Do you know what pisses me off?"

"What?" Vaas took the bait, amused.

"When people say sex is a sin and that it's dirty. Like... Go fuck yourself. Those people just haven't been fucked properly." She felt like she was spinning. "Excluding asexuals and the like, but y'know. Sex is great. And it's only dirty when it's done right. Am I right? Of course I'm right."

Vaas was incredibly amused at the woman's rant, true she was only ranting because Citra had poisoned her in an attempt to extract information and eventually kill her, but it was amusing none the less.

"I think we would have great sex." Scarlett said, opening her eyes.

"We?"

"Yes, we. You and I. Us." She dragged out the 's' in 'us'. "Jesus fucking Christ, you're not that big of an idiot."

Her insulting him woke anger in him and his lips pressed into a tight line, but the topic they were at was far more rewarding than shouting and swearing at her. At least that's what he told himself.

"Do you? You've thought about having sex with me, huh?" Vaas asked, his hands still balled into fists.

Scar trailed her nail on the bottom of Vaas' jawline. This time Vaas didn't move her hand away. "Not sex per se, but close. I know you have, otherwise you wouldn't be so fucking suggestive all the time. Anyway, I think we will have good sex."

"Will?" Vaas didn't even bother hiding his smirk.

"We'll end up having sex at one point or another." Scarlett nodded, her eyes were closed again. "I mean, half or your pirate buddies think were fucking already so... Have you ever raped anyone?"

"No." It was the truth, he hadn't.

"Yeah, we'll definitely fuck." She said, putting an end to the conversation.

Scarlett looked away from the Pirate King, her eyes finding something that she had not seen in a long time. Her mouth fell open, her hand reached out, but stopped millimetres before they would touch skin.

"Mum?"

The last time Scarlett had seen her mother in front of her was when she was five years old. A sob broke from her chest. Her mother was beautiful, with shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes. Scarlett was a spitting image of her mother. Vaas looked down at the sound of her crying and realized that Scarlett was hallucinating.

"Scarlett, what ever you see it's not real."

Scar shook her head. "No." She didn't want to believe it, her mother looked so real. She had to be real.

"Remember what I said." Vaas spoke, but he sounded like he was far away. "Focus on reality."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks when her mother spoke. "It hurts darling, doesn't it." Her eyes were sad and Scarlett nodded vigorously. "Come with me and I will take the pain away."

Scarlett clamped her hand over her mouth, trying to hold in the sobs. She wasn't sure what hurt more, the pain from the poison and the antidote or the fact that her mother was there.

"You father will be happy to see you too." She spoke again, she sounded like an angel. Her voice clean and ringing through the air.

"Scarlett, talk to me."

Scarlett took a deep breath, her eyes still glued to her mother. "It's my mum." When she started talking, she felt like she couldn't stop. "Her name is Antonia Penelope. She's so beautiful and she sounds like an angel. I... I don't remember much about her, nor my dad. They died when I was five." She started to reach out for her but Vaas caught her hand.

"Don't give into the poison," Vaas said and Scarlett didn't give any indication that she had heard him, only her arm relaxed.

"She played piano, she was really good too. She was so kind and selfless, it's not a wonder my dad loved her. My God she is beautiful. I wish... I hate it that she wasn't there while I was growing up. I didn't have a mum, I only had Gareth."

Scarlett wanted to go to her mother so bad, Scar wanted to hug her and know what she smelled like. She wanted to know her favourite colour and her favourite song, she wanted to hear her play the piano again. She wanted to have a Christmas with her parents.

"I love her so much, even though she wasn't there." She paused. "Why can't I go with her?"

"You will die."

Scarletts lower lip trembled. Dying to be with her parents seemed a good option.

"Are you coming, darling?" Her mother asked her.

As more tears rolled down her cheeks, Scarlett slowly shook her head. "I have work to do, mum." She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, she didn't open her eyes.

She's not real, Scarlett. She's not real. Her inner voice reminded her.

It was a while before she spoke to Vaas again, her eyes still closed."Citra said you killed your father."

"Her father," Vaas said and the smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. "I killed her father."

"Why?"

Vaas hesitated, he didn't want to open himself to her. Yet he was strangely tempted to do exactly that. Perhaps he was just that tired. "She asked me to."

"But she said-"

"Yeah, Citra does that. She is a wolf dressed like a sheep." Vaas said and Scar wiped the last of her tears away.

"Did you know you father?"

Vaas shook his head. "No." He lit up another cigarette. "He was an Argentinian pirate, who ended up on the island for a couple of weeks. Him and mother fell in love. After he left mother found out she was pregnant and said it was from her fiancée, the leader of the Rakyat." He paused. "When I was fifteen, the leader of the Rakyat, the man who I believe to be my father found out. I didn't look like him anyway. Mother came to me and told the whole story. The leader killed mother, I wasn't in the camp when he did it. Then Citra convinced me to kill the leader... and I fucking did."

Scarlett kept staring at him, focusing on him as he spoke, because if she didn't she would start to focus on her hallucinations.

"The thing, about our loved ones is that they fucking blindside you any chance they fucking get. My sister is a crazy fucking bitch. If I had known that then my life would have been so much fucking easier." Vaas shook his head. "I will kill her, I will put a bullet into her pretty little head for all of the fucking shit she had done."

She never had siblings herself so sibling rivalry was fairly foreign to her. She was certain this this however was far beyond any basic sibling bickering. As Scarlett focused on her breathing, she couldn't help but wonder if this was all a dream. Perhaps she was knocked out during the Rakyat attack... Perhaps she was still in bed and there had been no attack at all. She wondered why she had come on this island. She would have been fine without the money, she just got greedy. It seemed too good to be true anyway, a half a million dollars for an easy job. It turned out to be the compete opposite. She had been cut, beaten, poisoned and tied up and she had close to none of the information she needed.

"Why don't you have any tattoos?" She blurted out. "The rest of the Rakyat do."

Vaas took a swig from a bottle. "I was going to have. The Rakyat start getting tataus after they make their first kill. For the boys there is a ceremony at fifteen, the girls can participate if they wish. After you come back to the camp, you get a tatau. Then you will get tataus based on age and achievements. I did the ritual, when we got back to the camp... This was after he killed mother, we got back to the camp and I was seen unfit to receive a tatau." Unconsciously Vaas' hand went to the jagged scar along his head, his fingertips trailing it back and forth.

"Is that how you got the scar?"

Vaas didn't say anything, instead he picked up the bowl from the ground. He gave Scarlett a little nudge with his knee, he took her arm and helped her sit up. "Drink."

"Again?"

"It will knock you out for a moment, but after that you should be back to normal. You might experience a bit of memory loss, nothing permanent."

Scarlett, with shaky hands, grabbed the bowl from his hand. She made the mistake of smelling it before she drank it, which made her want to throw up.

One, Two... Three. She counted in her head and gulped down the whole bowl. Having swallowed the last of it, she dropped the bowl and coughed violently. It was burning her way down into her stomach, much like alcohol but the burn was different. She felt her torso getting heavier and her breaths came in slower. She tried to form words but her lips felt glued shut.

Everything turned black... Again.

_x_

Shaking. That's what Scarlett felt.

A moment later she opened her eyes and a blurry figure was in front of her.

Shaking.

"What?" She spoke, or at least she thought she did.

Her mind was fuzzy and it hurt. It felt like she was waking up to a hangover. She tried to make her eyes focus but it didn't work. Taking deep breaths, she tried to remember.

Flashes of Citra and a temple came back. Then a room with concentrate walls... Vaas' stubby jaw. Confused, she tried to push her brain to remember more but she couldn't.

"What the hell?" She spoke, this time definitely out loud.

The shaking stopped.

"Can you remember anything?" The blurry shaped asked, Scar recognised the Spanish laced voice as Vaas'.

Slowly, her eyes focused. "I... I... There was a temple and Citra... your sister." She looked around. The room she remembered, with the concentrate walls, was the one she was in right now. "I... Where are we? What the hell is going on?"

"You'll remember everything in a couple of hours." Vaas stood up and Scarlett sat up against the wall, head in her hands. "Long story fucking short, Citra poisoned you. I rescued you. We got caught in a storm, you got an antidote."

None of it seemed it familiar. Scarlett's eyebrows pulled together. "Where are we?" Looking at the concentrate walls, it seemed like a bunker of some sort.

"A bunker built by the Japanese during World War II." Vaas said, grabbing a bottle from the floor and heading for the door.

"The Japanese?" Scarlett stood up, wavering slightly, but able to follow him. She was shivering slightly, she was cold and damp clothes clung to her skin. "I honestly know nothing of this place do I?"

Vaas was leaning against a doorway, looking at the rain. He shrugged, but said nothing.

"How long are we going to be here and wha-"

"Jesus! Hermana!" Vaas spoke, his voice louder than when he normally spoke. "You ask a lot of motherfucking questions. Please, shut the fuck up."

"I just-"

"No." Vaas looked over his shoulder. "Shut up. Listen to me, okay? Hmm?" He turned around and took a swig of whatever he was drinking. "The clouds are thinning, the storm should calm down soon. We'll be able to make to Tequila Sunrise by then."

"Te-" Scarlett was cut off.

"An outpost." Vaas said, slowly walking toward her. Scarlett only now, in better light, noticed the tired stance his shoulders had and the dark circles under his eyes. His eyes roamed her up and down, and mouth circled into a smirk slowly, and Scarlett recognised that as a sign that his mood had done a 180. "You might want to get out of those wet clothes." Vaas said, "Don't want you to catch a fucking cold, do we?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes while turning her head to the side, at the same shaking her head in disbelief. She folded her arms, the goosebumps on them giving away how cold she really was. Vaas' eyes travelled from her eyes to the hollow behind her ear, briefly wondering if that was her sweet spot, then down her neckline. Scarlett was in fact a remarkably beautiful woman. Vaas' eyes snapped back to hers when she spoke.

"Stop trying to intimidate me." She hissed, holding her chin high while she tried not to squirm under the intensity of his gaze.

"But I get such enjoyment out of it." He stepped closer, trapping her against the wall. She could feel the heat of his body in their close proximity, but she refused to break eye contact.

"I wish you'd stop."

"Why?" He breathed, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"I don't like it." Scar said, in a rather matter-of-fact voice, trying to sound convincing. Her breathing becoming heavier and heavier.

The corner of Vaas' mouth pulled up in a crooked grin, his eyes burning. "Liar." Vaas knew that she didn't remember the things that had come out of her mouth not long ago, but she would. She would also remember this. The tip of his tongue darted out and wet his lower lip. "Voy a hacerte gritar, cariño."

She narrowed her eyes slightly and swallowed. "What does that mean?"

"It means I will make you scream, mina."

The static from a walkie-talkie broke the moment between them. When Vaas turned from her she let out a sigh of relief, however there was a part of her, a part which she refused to acknowledge, craved the heat from his body.

It's just because you're freezing your ass off. She tried to convince herself. It it's just that.

It turned out that the storm had indeed knocked out one of the radio towers, but as soon as it was back up again Vaas was able to notify his men of their location. When the storm had calmed down enough, two pirates came to get them. It felt like in no time to Scarlett that they were walking off the small boat that took them to Vaas' private island.

Gareth had been worried sick. As soon as the vehicle stopped, the passenger side door opened and Gareth pulled her into a bear hug. Gareth said a 'Thank you' to Vaas, to which Scarlett didn't hear an answer.

After a quick trip to Monroe, she was all stitched up and checked out. Gareth escorted her tired frame into her room and she climbed under the covers. She managed to shimmy off her jeans before her body relaxed into the uncomfortable mattress, which at that point felt like heaven. Scarletts breathing was heavy. It seemed like days she was there, staring at the ceiling. She did not know if it was day or night, she felt exhausted but she could not fall asleep. She stayed in a a half conscious state, until she finally dozed off.

_x_

Scarlett was completely mortified. She had woken during some point of the night with the moon still high in the sky. Sadly by that time, she remembered every single word that had come out of her mouth since she got the antidote to the poison Citra had injected into her.

Perhaps I could pretend not to remember, she played with the thought as she layed awake on her bed.

She didn't know how long she was awake for, but she snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone walking, with what she logically assumed to be some sort of a stereo, and blasting out loud electronic music.

It was an hour perhaps, after that when she decided to go after the music. Figuring it was Kip, because he was the only one who blasted that genre, or music in general, without a party and it definitely didn't sound like a party out there.

She changed into her jeans and threw on a clean tank top, making a mental note to ask Gareth about the laundry system here.

She walked through the deserted camp. It was eerie at night, with only a few men up and about. They silently eyed her from their rooftops as she passed by. Scarlett wrapped her arms around herself as the harsh chill of the night made itself known. She ended up in the middle of the camp, finally finding where the music was coming from. It was coming from the biggest warehouse in the whole camp.

However instead of finding Kip, she found Vaas. The scarred man stood next to a big piece of broken off metal, it almost three times and high as him and perhaps five times as wide, with his back facing the warehouse entrance. Moonlight was shining through the holes in the ceiling, though he had made a barrel into a fire pit casting a soft orange glow over the place. The fire pit reminded Scarlett of Citras temple and goosebumps, that had nothing to do with the chilly air, rose on her skin.

Vaas was surrounded by three dozen buckets of paint, and upon a second look Scar realized that he was painting the large piece of metal in front of him. The Pirate King was splattered with paint and blood. His lips held a half gone cigarette and his head bobbed along to the electric beat.

"Hey." Scarlett said, in the moment of silence when the song changed.

Vaas looked over his shoulder and lazily waved at her with a paintbrush. "What the fuck you doing here?"

She shrugged. "I thought you were Kip." A moment later Scarlett walked toward him, stopping at a table which was covered with paint buckets. "I didn't think you were the artistic kind."

Vaas turned around and switched the bucket in his hand. Scarlett caught his eyes and his pupils were smaller than she had ever seen. Her lips parted in shock as she realized that Vaas was on some hard drugs.

"You're high."

Vaas' eyebrows shot up in surprise. He looked at her like two dicks had just grown out of her head. "Mina, you have never seen me sober."

"Never?" Scarlett was shocked. "Honestly not once."

"Never." Vaas shook his head.

_x_

She'd had some rum and a few cigarettes. The two had been hanging out for a few hours. Scarlett found out that she had been asleep for a solid 24 hours. She'd also found out that Vaas only painted when he couldn't sleep, and also that he didn't sleep very often and when he did he only slept a few hours.

Scarlett sat on the table, handing Vaas different paints and giving her opinion on the piece. At certain points she even got up to take the paintbrush from him and paint herself, when he didn't catch onto the idea of what she meant and suggested.

The slight buzz from the rum made even her bob along to the electronic music, that she never was fond of. Nothing was spoken between them about what happened in the bunker, though the memories burned both of their minds.

"Fucking hell, I need to kill someone." Vaas' hands were twitching and he drew back the glass of liquid in his hands.

Scar took that as her cue to get the fuck out of there. "I'll leave you to that."

"Wait a fucking moment mina." Vaas said and grabbed a hold of her elbow, spinning her around to face him.

Before she could register anything else, Vaas had pulled her lips onto his. His hand was twisted in her hair at the nape of her neck, the other went to her waist to pull her into him. By instinct one of her hands went to his chest, the other to the back of his neck and she raised onto her tiptoes.

He kissed her like he was a starving man and she was food - ravenous, almost ferocious. His rough lips moved with skill and Scarlett, by instinct, responded to him. It felt like her soul was on fire, her senses heightened and pure, raw lust was coursing through her veins. When Vaas' tongue entered her mouth she let out an involuntary moan and as a response his hand tightened on her waist, crushing her tightly against his hard chest.

He tasted like cigarettes and rum. A shiver ripped it way though her spine as the tips of Vaas' fingers slipped underneath her tank top and touched a silver of a skin on her back. Both of Scars arms went around Vaas' neck, but all too soon he pulled away.

Her knees were weak and if she were able to focus on anything else than his lips and how they felt, she would have been thankful that his hand was on her waist because otherwise she wouldn't be standing up. She was out of breath and panting slightly, when she opened her eyes she saw a smirking Vaas.

He winked at her, pulled out his handgun and strolled out of the warehouse like the cock of the walk, while shouting something about rejects.

The reality of what just happened came crashing down to her.

She couldn't believe that she had let him kiss her, albeit that it was pretty much one of the best kisses of her life... if not the best, but she would never admit that. It bought up every single kind of attraction she had felt, that she had tried to bury.

She was losing control and that scared her. She wasn't good with things she couldn't control. She had to have a good amount of control in every aspect of her life, mostly her work and partners. This contract with Hoyt was nothing like she had ever done before. Usually she just put a bullet into someone after having a couple of drinks with the victim. She had gotten distracted and lost control, her curiosity toward Vaas being one of the main causes.

Anger started boiling in her and she grabbed a bucket of paint and threw it all onto the large slab of metal, leaving a red streak throughout Vaas' painting and pretty much ruining it.

"Fuck you, Montenegro."

A/N:

Marino, wahine taitamariki. Marino. Inumia. - Calm, young woman. Calm. Drink. [Maori]

Koe e rongoa. Kikokiko me te wairua. - You will heal. Flesh and the spirit (soul). [Maori]

If the translations are wrong (I'd be surprised if they're right), then feel free to message me about it.

What else did I have to talk about? Oh yes.

The bunker that they were in is the one where you get Swinji's Letter (Co-ordinates - X:784,6 Y:746,8).

Another thing. I made an 8tracks playlist for Vaas and Scar (Who have been given the ship name of 'Vaaslett' by a certain group of people). The link is on my profile, because once upon a time you couldn't put links here and I'm not bothered to see if you can now or not.

Last thing, I hope. Is that is anyone at all interested to see ScarxVaas AU's?

Review. Add to favourites and alerts. And again, review.

Reviews are definitely not better than kissing Vaas, but we'll have to get by.

Adiós amigos.

-Max