Courier2234: Bless you for reviewing. As for the short chapters, as I said I need to fall into a rythm. This is actually my first fanfic and I'm still practicing long chapters.
She gets to sit beside Caesar some days.
On her own little throne, his prize on a shelf, just like her snowglobes back in the tower. Normally, she remains just like that. Still and pretty, either sewing or cleaning his displacer glove; it gets so damn messy, always ending up burnt or bloody. Maybe she should check the charges, it was obviously overheating.
But today, she felt like her snowglobe from the Sierra Madre. Old, cracked and polluted.
If she didn't have her sewing today, she was pretty sure he could see her hands shaking. She looks up when she hears a mutter echo, an approval. Two boys, probably twelve years old, had been showing their honed skills in front of their mighty Caeser. And one had made a pin. He panted, fingers secured tight around the other boys throat and the back of his head. He looked to Caeser with begging approval.
Gehenna looked over at Caeser watched him rub his chin thoughtfully. Then he nodded. Gehenna watched the boy snap the others neck.
"Well done," Caeser applauded. "Well done, indeed. Report to your trainers and begin your advanced training. Have the body disposed of."
Gehenna watched the young boy leave, followed by Vulpes entering with two of his lackies. Gehenna quickly sets aside her sewing, her bones tense. He gives the dead body a swift sideways glance, judging by the subtle shift of the skin on her cheeks. He doesn't take off his hood or goggles until he gets to Caeser. Gehenna takes his hood and goggles, holding them tight in her lap, every bit the good wife.
"M'Lord," he nods.
"Vulpes, I've been awaiting your arrival. What news do you have on Nelson?"
Vulpes hands Caeser papers. "Those are the listed dead, Dead Sea is a no-show. Same cause of death in all but three. Those final three had their skulls bashed in. Appeared to be a super sledge, or a ballistic fist. The last body exumed had burn marks in some of the opened wounds."
Caeser sits in silence, flicking through the papers until he huffed and passed them off to a masked face. "You've done well, Vulpes. You are dismissed," he looked over and gestured for her to stand, which she did. "Take her home, she needs rest. She's been shaking all day."
If Gehenna didn't know any better, she'd mistake that for care. But he just wanted the baby. And he would kill it. Then she'd make another. She was only there to breed.
Vulpes nods and looks to her. He says nothing but she knows by now. "Vale, Lord Caeser," she bobs her head.
He waves her away and she leaves, hands crossed over her belly and holding tight to her sewing and his hat. He helps her down the slopes and up them, all the way to their tent. Inside, she throws their things onto his desk, disturbing the papers, and forces him to look at her. There is a split above his brow and she knows there is bruising under that cuirass.
When he takes it off, she covers her mouth. Between the old scars are three gashes over his back, several bloody scrapes go up his right thigh and there are other marks up his arms.
Her jaw trembles and she looks at his face, see the obvious pain in his eyes. "I-I have to get Arcade," she whispers.
He snatches up her wrist and makes her sit down beside him again. "He is on his way," Vulpes mutters. "We have other matters to discuss."
Gehenna furrows her brow. "What do you mean?"
Vulpes shakes his head. "Later," he looks to the tent flap when it moves; its Arcade. "Took you long enough."
"Shut up," Arcade mutters. "All it take is one weak stitch and you die of staff."
Vulpes rolls his eyes but watches with steady eyes as Arcade unrolls his Doctor's Bag. Gehenna rubs her forehead, trying to calm herself. She could never stand seeing Vulpes come home ruined like this. But he had never been so damaged. And those cuts looked so familiar...cut with a familiar blade...
"Gehenna? I said I needed your help."
Gehenna blinked, seeing both Vulpes and Arcade looking at her with...dissapointment. "Sorry," she muttered. "What do you need me to do?"
Arcade rolled his eyes...and so did Vulpes, which made her giggle. "What," Arcade snapped, pushing his glasses up his nose.
Gehenna shrugged, pulling out dissinfectant; always a good place to start. "You two would just make such a cute couple."
"Gehenna," Vulpes spoke in a warning tone.
She scowled. "Sorry, again. Now, what did you need me to do?"
Arcade hummed, driving a needle through the skin of Vulpes upper right arm. "Get to work on his back. How did this happen?"
"That is what I need to discuss with you," he looked to Gehenna.
"Oo, juicy," Arcade muttered.
"Quiet," Vulpes snapped.
Gehenna chuckled and began to clean his wounds while Arcade tied off his stitches. Arcade stripped off his gloves and pulled more thread and a new needle from his bed. He set them out, sighing and watching Gehenna and Vulpes whisper to each other on the bed. Arcade never thought he'd see a domestic Gehenna. When he met her, she had been bloody and laughing, Veronica just as drunk but trying take care of her best friend.
"Hey Arcade."
He blinked and looked back over to Gehenna and Vulpes; Vulpes was staring at her belly, a blank look on his face. Not domestic, she was a prisoner. And she was looking at him.
"Y-Yes?"
Vulpes huffed. Gehenna chuckled and tossed the needle she had been using. "Care to take a trip with us?"