Charon had just finished an issue of Grognak the Barbarian when a giggling Hel sprinted past his doorway. Dumbfounded, he sat up to call out to her when she came rushing back, a pile of clothes in her arms and a huge grin across her face.

"Kid? What-"

"Don't go up to the satellite dish okay?"

"Wh- okay, but why?"

She shook her head and laughed, "Just promise, okay?"

"Sure."

She turned and ran to her room. Charon was perplexed. Where the hell's lover boy? Then he remembered the pile of clothes Hel had been carrying and realization struck him. He laughed harder and longer than he could ever remember before.

…

"I'll fucking teach her," Burke got to his feet, his legs numb and tingling. He bent his knees and flexed his ankles until the pins and needles subsided. Furious, he stalked to the shower on the other dish. If she thinks I'll fucking wait around for that corpse to fetch me, she's gonna be awfully surprised. He wasn't going to wait, but he also wasn't about to parade past the ghoul naked and covered in sex.

The freezing water did little to cool his temper, but it cleared his mind. He couldn't very well ask her to teach him a lesson or earn her trust back, and then go after her for revenge. He turned the water off and sighed. He was going to have to wait.

"Fuck." He shivered. He left the shower and stood dripping in the sunlight. The morning was getting warmer but the breeze was still a bit fresh. He rubbed his arms and started pacing to keep warm. He hoped this was enough to get back in her good graces. He had to admit being her submissive hadn't been bad, but this added punishment wasn't something he wanted repeated.

He walked back to the tower where the hatch was. His cum on the metal glistened in the morning light. An image of Hel bent over, lapping it up, flashed through his mind and he chuckled. She thinks she knows exactly what I'm capable of.

She was wrong.

…

Charon grinned at Burke as he stood there buck naked atop the satellite dish, "Cold?" The ghoul asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck you," Burke grabbed for the clothes Hel had sent him with but Charon lifted them up over his head. The smoothskin's face went red as he fumed.

Charon smirked and lowered his arm. Burke snatched the clothes away and pulled the black long sleeve shirt over his head. "Where is she?"

Charon shrugged, "Dunno. It's a big tower. She could be anywhere."

Burke pulled the pants up and stopped to glare at him. He muttered something Charon didn't catch and fastened the pants. Running a hand through his hair he started past Charon to the hatch.

"Hey, lover boy."

Burke halted and glared over his shoulder.

"I dunno what happened up here-"

"War crimes happened," Burke muttered and glanced over at a section of the satellite dish, his hands clenching.

"I've never seen her happier. She was giggling like a little kid."

"I'll bet she was."

"I mean it, smoothskin. Whatever you did to make her laugh again… Don't go down there and mess it up."

Burke turned around and considered him for a while, eyes looking over Charon, "You said she bought you. Where'd she find a slave?"

"I was in Underworld, why?"

"Before that, where were you?"

Charon narrowed his eyes, "That's not really any of your business."

"What I do with her isn't any of yours."

Charon turned his head and spit. "Alright. It might not be my place to interfere with your relationship. But it is my place to keep her safe."

"You don't think much of me, eh Charon?"

"No."

"Can't say I blame you," Burke gave him a shit eating grin, "I'd hate the guy fucking the girl I loved too."

Charon didn't say anything. Shit. Burke was smarter than he gave him credit for.

"Thanks for the clothes," Burke waved and moved towards the hatch, "Try and ignore the noise when you come back down."

…

Hel sat on the edge of her bed and chewed a fingernail, foot bouncing as she waited for Burke to find her. She'd sent Charon up about a half hour ago. Burke should have already been back by now. Maybe he's angrier than I thought… At first she'd thought leaving him up there was funny, but the more time that went by, the more she'd started to worry. She imagined him doing the same thing to her and knew she would have been absolutely furious. He deserves a bit of a punishment for leaving you. But she didn't really believe herself. She'd seen the state he was in and Charon himself had commented on how torn up Burke had been. He might not have suffered as much as she had, but he certainly hadn't been enjoying himself either.

She sighed and laid back on the bed, teddy bears squished underneath her and toppled off the edge as she made herself comfortable. He can't be too mad, he got off. Besides, I had to mind him when he was in charge. The memory of being tied up brought a deep longing with it. She'd enjoyed being in charge for a bit, but what really drove her wild were the thoughts of Burke standing over her and making her bend to his every whim. She stretched her arms over her head and closed her eyes, remembering the feel of his tie around her wrists, his hand at her throat, and her completely helpless to stop him. She let out a sigh. Her body wanted to be dominated, owned, but somewhere inside her mind the fear still lingered. It seemed less than earlier that morning. Burke giving himself over to her had helped boost her self-confidence a bit. That had been the whole point, right?

She opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling and caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye before strong hands clamped down on her wrists.

"Hello, little bird," Burke's voice had an edge to it that was different than the last time he'd pinned her down, "Miss me?" He straddled her, pinning the bottom half of her body to the bed with his. His face bent closer to hers, his eyes dark and hard. Hel winced when his hands squeezed harder on her wrists.

"I warned you."

"Burke, I-"

"Shut up," he bared his teeth in an almost smile, "Making me your obedient little slave is one thing, but making me stay up there completely naked for hours and sending the ghoul to fetch me? You wanted to humiliate me," he leaned in further until his lips brushed her left ear as he whispered, "I can humiliate you, little girl."

She squirmed as heat slithered down to her belly. "Y-you asked me to teach you a lesson."

"Hmm," the sound was noncommittal and his teeth grazed her earlobe. "Do you feel better now? Trust me?"

God, I want to.

He straightened to look down at her, his features softened a little. He moved to hold her wrists with only one hand and caressed her cheek with the other. He traced the outline of her lips and sighed. "Do you know what you do to me? How hard it is to be patient?"

"What's stopping you?"

He grinned, "Oh now we're being coy? You ask me for time and now you're asking me why I haven't ravaged you yet?"

"I just…" she looked away, "I don't know what I want, Burke."

He nodded and sighed again, "You know I came down here with every intention of paying you back for upstairs? I was going to take you and make you mine all over again, but now," he slid down to lay on the bed next to her and released her wrists, "Now I think the best punishment for you isn't to fuck you. That's exactly what you want."

"What is my punishment then?" She tried not to sound eager.

He leaned in to whisper darkly in her ear, "I am going to do absolutely nothing to you," and he rolled out of the bed and got to his feet.

"Wh- I- You-" Hel spluttered despite herself and he turned in the doorway to grin at her.

"Come on," he held his hand out, "Let me fix you something to eat. You need more in your system than a couple of snack cakes."

She huffed but sat up and swung her legs over, "You're a tease."

"Oh, you're cute when you pout, love."

She rolled her eyes as she got to her feet and gave him her hand. He tugged her against him and kissed her, tongue sliding into her mouth.

He pulled back and winked, "I'll get you when you least expect it, little one."

…

Burke stared at the contents of the fridge, "This is all you have?"

"We find what we can," Hel said from behind him at the picnic table, "I'm sorry we don't meet your hoity toity standards, Mister Burke."

He turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "My standards are simply to have food. You barely have enough rations to last two days."

"Well it's just been the two of us and-" she cut off and cleared her throat as she looked away.

"She hasn't been eating," Charon came in and reached past Burke for a Nuka-Cola. "Thought there'd be more noise," he said so only Burke could hear him, "You that fast?"

Ignoring him, Burke watched Hel as she tried to look busy with her Pip-Boy. "You haven't been eating at all?"

"I eat!"

Charon grunted and twisted the cap off the soda.

"Whose side are you on?" Hel snapped at him.

"The side that gets you healthy," the ghoul replied. "Boy toy here is right, we need food."

Gritting his teeth at the new nickname, Burke closed the fridge and crossed his arms as he leaned against it. "Where's the nearest trader?"

Hel and Charon exchanged a glance and Hel tucked her head in, "Uh…about that…"

"She killed them."

Burke jerked his head around to Charon, then back to Hel, "All of them?"

She stared at the tabletop, "I…went a little crazy after you called everything off."

"That's an understatement," Charon sat at the opposite end of the table, "She was about as lucid as a feral."

Burke had to swallow several times. No wonder his intel had been spotty. She'd wiped out most of his information sources in the area. "Okay. So, where do you get supplies?"

"Mostly dead people," Charon watched Burke, "The closest people that would be willing to trade and not shoot us on sight would probably be Megaton."

Burke rubbed at his temples, "I am not going back to Megaton."

"What do you suggest then? That tower of yours?"

"Hardly." Burke shot Charon a hard look and turned to Hel. "Love, I need a suit of armor and a weapon."

"Why?"

"To go shopping."

"We'll come with you," she stood.

"Ah, where I'm going isn't friendly to new faces." He held up a hand. "It's best if I go alone."

Charon grunted, "Got a little secret, eh smoothskin?"

Burke ignored him and watched Hel. She glanced at Charon and back to Burke, nibbling her bottom lip.

"Alright," she finally nodded, "Come on, let's get you suited up."

…

Hel tried not to be nervous about him leaving. She especially wanted to keep him from knowing how worried she was. Burke had managed to find combat armor that fit him. It was maybe a little loose because of his weight loss, but it covered his vital organs. He'd chosen a Blastmaster helmet instead of the combat helmet.

"I'm not keen on broadcasting who I am," he explained when she asked about it.

"So why can't we go with you and just keep our faces covered?"

"The ghoul's a bit conspicuous, love. And if they do want to see my face, it won't result in my getting shot. If you've really been running around murdering everyone, you're not going to get a warm welcome."

That hurt, but he'd said it without judgment and when he looked at her and realized the impact his words had, he tossed the armor on her bed and went to her.

"I'm sorry, love, that wasn't fair." He folded her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

"Am I a bad person, Burke?"

"No," he pulled back and tilted her chin up, "Remember what I told you? You're a force of nature."

She gave a weak smile, "You might not be the best judge of character. You wanted to blow up a whole town, remember?"

"And you didn't. So of the two of us, do you think you're the bad one?"

"No."

He kissed her, his lips gentle. She sighed and he opened his mouth to slide his tongue in as her lips parted. One of his hands gripped her ass, the other curled into her hair. She moaned and melted into him. He broke the kiss first, "I should go if I'm going to get back by nightfall."

She nodded and pulled back to sit on the bed as he changed. She couldn't help but bite her lip when he pulled his pants down and revealed his cock.
He noticed and grinned, tossing his clothes at her head. "You're drooling, wipe it up."

Hel huffed and pulled the clothes off her head. She tossed the pants on the floor but wadded the shirt up into her arms and held it.

"Do you want me to bring back anything special?" He asked as he pulled the armor on.

She shrugged, "Can't really think of anything. Just not any mirelurk eggs. I can't stand the things."

"Fair enough. What about chems? Stimpaks?"

She shook her head and stood to help him with a buckle on his left, "We're fully stocked in everything else, just low on food. Although, if you're wanting something stronger than beer, I'd grab it. I know you like your scotch."

He nodded, "You're sure there's nothing you want?" He looked past her at her bed and raised an eyebrow. "One for the collection?"

She blushed, "That…would be nice… It'd be from you, so it would be special."

He smiled and scooped up the helmet before kissing her. "Alright, love. I'll be back before sunset." He picked up the shotgun and pistol he'd chosen from her extensive collection. "Please, eat something. For me? I'll make you dinner when I get back."

She nodded, "I'll try."

"No," he looked at her hard, "You will eat something. Even if it's only a quarter of a mutfruit. You have to eat." He grinned then, "How're you going to have enough energy for playtime if you don't eat?"

"Fine," she rolled her eyes but smiled back, "I promise, I'll eat."

"Good girl."

She followed him down to the tower exit. Charon was nowhere in sight. She pulled Burke's shirt on over her head, his scent was all over it. Burke hesitated one last time and kissed her again. "I love you. I'll be back before you know it."

"I love you too. Be careful."

He gave a tilted grin as he pulled the helmet down, "Always." His voice was muffled and he turned out towards the Wastes. She watched him until he went over a ridge and dropped from sight. She closed the door and sighed, her arms coming up around her. "Please come back," she whispered. Stomach in knots, she nevertheless made her way to the kitchen to fulfill her promise.

Sorry for missing last month's update! Baldur's Gate has basically taken over my entire life. What little free time I have I've been pouring into that game. I'll try to get another upload up this month, but no promises...