Three

He vacillated on reaching for his phone. Victor Creed didn't do indecisive, but the truth of the matter was he didn't know what to do with the kid now that he had her out of the lab.

Victor briefly considered going back to Canada- after his early morning run through the forest, he'd found them a truck and drove vaguely north- but there was no way in hell he was taking on a cub full time.

The trouble was that there wasn't anyone he would trust to raise a mutant kid- especially one already trained for black ops.

Victor was still on fair enough terms with old bucket head, but the old man still had his agendas. And if Jimmy ever found out, well, that was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Not that Xavier was much better; his agendas were just more marketable, if the comic book bullshit was anything to go by. The only uptick was that Jimmy would be around to deal with his own kid.

Victor was prevented from further musings when the girl woke, reeking of terror.

She feigned sleep, keeping her breathing even and projecting an outward calm that might have fooled a regular human.

The suddenly rapid tattoo of her heart told him otherwise.

Normally, he thrived on fear, but today, the scent just served to piss him off. He attributed it to the fear's combination with rotting deer carcass and was abstractly glad this wasn't his truck to clean.

Victor drove for a couple of miles, and the girl's scent, such as it was, settled.

"You're safe. Or near enough," Sabretooth broke the silence.

He felt the girl's eyes on him; apparently, she'd given up the pretense of sleep.

"There's food," Victor nodded to the bag in between them, keeping his eyes on the road. "Eat it."

She sniffed delicately, but did not move to do as bid.

"It was better when it was warm, but a few cold fries won't kill ya."

The kid would come around or she wouldn't. Once he figured out what to do with her, it wouldn't be his problem, he resolved.

But for now... well, Sabretooth had never been known for his patience.

Right when he thought he would snap, the girl reached into the bag.

She pulled out a burger. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her turn it over and again, in confusion.

For fuck's sake, she'd never seen takeout before, and with his luck, the brat would try to eat it, wrapper and all.

He reached over to unwrap it, halfway accomplishing his goal, when he felt a sharp pain in the side of his hand.

"You little shit!" Victor shouted, dropping the burger.

He narrowly avoided swerving into oncoming traffic and reigned in his first impulse to rend the offender.

She had bitten him, hard enough to draw blood. His wound was already healing, as the girl shoved the newly unearthed food in her mouth- swallowing it nearly whole.

He should have known better than to get in between a half-starved cub and her food.

"God damn, kid, I wasn't taking it. Drink something before you choke yourself."

Luckily, cups with straws didn't elude the little feral and she eagerly downed the liquid.

Victor snagged the bag up, making quick work of the rest of the wrappers.

"You and me need to go over some ground rules. You can't just go around attacking people for no fucking reason," he shook his head at the incongruity of Victor fucking Creed being the one to say that.

"Now, you gonna bite me again?" He dangled the bag, enticingly.

After careful consideration the child slowly nodded, "I might."

Victor huffed, dropping the bag in her lap.

"'Least you're honest."