Fic: Darkest Before Dawn (2/?)
Title: Darkest Before Dawn (2/?)
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Morsov III
Elvis was already fucking Toast the Knowing, but Morsov had yet to touch Cheedo the Fragile. Every time he reached for her, she cringed away from him. The look of fear on her face made him feel bad in a way he didn’t understand. He wanted to hold her and whisper soothing things like he would for a very small pup who needed comforting.
But that wasn’t going to get her pregnant. There was only one way to do that. He should just do it and get it over quickly. But the way he felt with her looking at him teary-eyed and afraid rendered him unable to breed. He rubbed his scalp, frustrated at his dilemma. He wished the Ace was here so he could ask his advice.
Morsov didn’t know know what to do. In desperation, he asked, “How can I make you stop being so afraid?”
“Promise you won’t touch me.”
He was surprised. “How can I fuck you if I can’t touch you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to.”
If he didn’t fuck her, Organic would send another War Boy to her after he left. Maybe that was what she wanted. Maybe she didn’t want him to sire her pup.
“I’m a real good lancer,” he told her earnestly. “My pups will be strong, I know it.”
“I remember you. They said you’d killed the most Buzzards and that’s why you were first.”
So she did remember him and that was why she was afraid.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I tried not to.”
“You did hurt me, and your friends hurt me too.”
“We weren’t trying to hurt you, that’s the only way to grow a pup in you.”
Tears began to brim in her eyes again.
Morsov looked around helplessly. The Organic Mechanic wasn’t watching, but he was there and didn’t show any indication of leaving. “All right,” he whispered desperately to Cheedo. “What if I promise I won’t fuck you today?”
“I don’t believe you,” she said.
He held up his right hand solemnly. “May the gates of Valhalla be closed to me forever if I break my promise.”
She looked wary.
“I won’t try to breed with you today, but you have to let me get close to you so Organic thinks I did.”
She considered this and then nodded.
Morsov carefully stretched out beside her and then gently pulled her against him. She stared at him and he stared back. He felt he should say something, but he realized he had no idea what to say.
“Do you dream?” she asked.
He blinked in surprise. What a strange question. “Of course, I dream. Doesn’t everyone?”
“What do you dream about?”
He dreamt about her sometimes, about the day Imperator Furiosa turned traitor and the Immortan gave three of his wives to the War Boys of the Citadel. He’d awake from those dreams with the same bad feeling he felt when he saw her afraid of him. But he didn’t think he should tell her that.
“Sometimes I dream I’m flying in the air like a bird and looking down at everyone, and sometimes I dream of doing war. Once I dreamt I was sent to Gas Town and had to follow the People Eater everywhere and scrub his feet, that was a nightmare.”
“Oh.”
Her hair felt soft and nice where it rested over his hand, and he wanted to stroke it, but he didn’t want to frighten her.
“What do you dream about?” he asked her.
“About green things covering everywhere, like in the pictures.”
Morsov had never seen pictures like those. He wished he could.
“I dream of it even when I’m awake,” she added. “About finding some place where there’s still green all over.”
He was puzzled. There was plenty of green at the top of the Citadel, where she’d lived when she was one of the Immortan’s wives. “There’s green here, why’d you have to dream of somewhere else?”
“Here I’m a breeder,” she said sadly. “There must be some other place where nobody will force me to breed if I don’t want to.”
It was such a strange idea. Bizarre. He’d seen women among the Wretched baring their breasts and begging to taken into the Citadel as milkers or breeders, and the breeders he’d fucked before had seemed content. He’d never have imagined that the prize breeders hated breeding. He tried to imagine what it must be like to be one of them.
A blasphemous thought occurred to him and he felt terrified to even think it. He put his lips to Cheedo’s ear. “Is it breeding you all hate, or breeding with the Immortan?”
“He never… I was too young, but the others hate it. They hate him. We hate him. Angharad’s his favorite, but she hates him the most.”
For a moment, he could only worry what might happen if anyone heard her talking like this and him listening. Then he realized the implication of what she’d said. He felt pride at having been the first to have a prize breeder not even the Immortan had had, but he also felt ashamed. And he was disturbed by the knowledge that the Immortan had considered her a pup but had still sentenced her to breed more war pups and like that. Gangbanging a War Pup was unthinkable, so it didn’t seem right to do to a breeder pup either.
“Morsov, I’m getting bored. I’m done and this breeder refuses to talk to me. If you’re going to stay here and cuddle yours all day, just say so, so I stop wasting my time waiting for you.”
He hadn’t realized Elvis was finished. Part of him wanted to stay and keep holding Cheedo like this, even though she said terrible things and made him think disturbing thoughts. But he knew better than to do anything that would draw attention to them and maybe raise suspicions.
He got to his knees and pretended to fasten his trousers before rising to his feet. He held his hand out to Cheedo, to help her up. She hesitated for a moment, but then she gave him her hand and let him pull her to her feet.
“What a gentleman,” the Organic Mechanic called, laughing.
Capable IV
Sticks was shivering.
Capable went over to the cell. “Cheedo, please hand me my blanket.”
Cheedo picked up one of the blankets and passed it through the bars of their cell.
Toast was staring at her in disbelief. “Capable!”
Capable mouthed ‘remember the plan’ at her before making her way back over to the dying War Boy. She draped her blanket over him and laid her palm on the top of his head.
He tried to pull the blanket off. “No,” he said weakly. “It’s for you, so you and the pup don’t get damaged when it gets cold.”
Capable firmly tucked the blanket around him. “I’m not using it at the moment. I’ll take it back before I go to sleep tonight.”
“So maternal,” the Organic Mechanic commented. He chuckled.
Capable ignored him. She hurried to Riker, who’d prodded the ‘feral’ captive with the electric stick.
“You don’t have to hurt them more than necessary,” she admonished.
“It’s necessary,” he protested. He swung the cage and released the latch, causing the captive to fall out and dangle upside down. “He broke free while we were branding him and it took a dozen Boys to catch him and put him down. ”
Capable considered this information. If she could manage to release this captive, then maybe… But no. There was no way to get down from the Citadel and flee to relative safety without a vehicle and there was no way they’d be able to get one.
“Capable!” The blue-eyed War Boy she’d spared Cheedo from smiled at her and leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek.
Capable blinked in surprise, momentarily at a loss for words.
The War Boy sat on one of the smooth rock benches and Riker inserted a needle into his arm, beginning the process of transfusing the ‘feral’ captive’s blood into him.
Finally, Capable said, “I don’t know your name.”
“Nux,” he stated happily.
He seemed so happy to see her that it made Capable pity him even though she felt sick every time she looked at those blue eyes. She had to do the best she could for everyone’s sake, though, so she forced herself to sit beside him.
“How are you, Nux?”
He looked like no one had ever asked him how he was before. Then he grinned at her. “I’ll be great when my top-up’s done. This blood bag has real high octane blood.”
Capable cringed. “He’s not a bag, Nux. He’s a man.”
Nux simply stared at her like she’d spoken a different language.
She took one of his hands between her hands, noting absently that his hands were twice the size of hers. “He’s a person, just like we are.”
“He’s not like us,” Nux said, sounding puzzled. “He’s a feral.”
How could she explain to him and to the others the horror of what they did in hunting down strangers and keeping them in cages to drain their blood regularly? But even if they could understand, maybe they’d prefer not to, since that stolen blood prolonged their own short lives.
She sighed. “How would you like it if a Buzzard caught you and kept you in a cage like that?”
He shook his head. “Wouldn’t happen. I’m the best driver in the Citadel and my lancer’s real shine at lancing.”
She grimaced, both at the reminder of his lancer who’d raped poor Toast twice in one morning and at his lack of empathy. She was contemplating how to get him to understand what it was like to be a victim when he tried to kiss her.
Capable jerked back. “No,” she said, louder than she’d intended.
Riker hurried over to them and jabbed the electric stick at Nux threateningly. “Don’t try that with Capable. You know she’s already got a pup in her belly.”
Capable squeezed Nux’s shoulder in a silent warning before he could say anything that would give away that she’d let him have sex with her. “He’ll behave from now. Won’t you, Nux?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking very confused.
When Riker was satisfied that Nux wouldn’t try to attack her again and had moved on, she leaned in close and whispered, “It’s our secret, Nux. Just you and me.”
She stood up and forced herself to kiss his cheek. “It was nice to see you,” she lied. “But I promised to tell the Pups a story.”
Toast V
Capable was chewing her lips, which Toast had learned meant that she wanted to say something but at the same time, didn’t want to say it.
“Just spit it out, Capable,” Toast said to her. She scooted over to sit beside her. Cheedo was on Capable’s other side, lying with her head in Capable’s lap.
“Maybe you should try talking with the War Boys and not try to grab their weapons and injure them.”
Toast restrained herself from uttering aloud her initial reaction. Capable did know exactly how it felt to be raped endlessly. Instead, she asked coldly, “Was the one I stabbed this morning one of your new friends?”
“No,” Capable replied. “But hurting them doesn’t do any good. We have to get them to stop seeing us as things to be ‘bred’ and get them to care about us. Unless Joe has a change of heart, the only thing that’s going to save us from War Boys is themselves.”
She understood what Capable meant, but Toast refused to accept it. She might not be able to stop them from raping her, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to befriend her rapists.
“Or death,” Toast said darkly.
“I think maybe you’re right, Capable,” Cheedo spoke up. “Maybe some of them might be nice to you if you talk to them.”
Toast felt her jaw drop. “Talking doesn’t stop them from raping you, does it?” she demanded.
“It did with one of them,” Cheedo confided. “Morsov.”
Toast couldn’t have been more shocked. Morsov visited the Blood Shed every day to come stare at Cheedo; Toast couldn’t believe that he’d passed up his chance to rape her again. But it made sense that it was why Cheedo would go stand close to the bars and whisper to him. Toast had assumed she was doing her part to aid Capable’s plan.
“How come?” she asked curiously. Cheedo must have spoken some magic words.
“He said he wanted me to stop being afraid.”
“Oh.” Toast rolled her eyes. “You killed his boner. At least it has a conscience.”
“Toast,” Capable said, in a reprimanding tone.
Toast sighed. “Cheedo, keep saying whatever you say to them. And I will keep doing what I do.”
Feeling that she was being watched, she glanced up to see the Organic Mechanic looking at them and frowning. That didn’t portend anything good.
“Conspiring again?” he asked them.
“Yeah,” Toast replied sarcastically. “Conspiring to cut off your cock and feed it to you.”
He didn’t reply, which was unusual for him. He just gave her a nasty grin.
He wore the same nasty grin the following morning when he appeared with the War Boy with the extra scarred face and another one she didn’t recognize.
“It can’t possibly be his turn again already,” Toast exclaimed indignantly.
“After you nearly killed Block yesterday, I had to get a Boy who can handle you, didn’t I?” the Organic Mechanic replied. He pulled Cheedo out of the cell. “Chip, make sure no one but you touches this one.”
Scar-face stepped inside the cell and the Organic Mechanic locked it behind him.
“Have fun, Slit, but don’t do anything to her that won’t heal in a few days.”
Toast felt pure terror at those words. Still, she tried to be brave. “I take it you’re here to punish me for wounding your friend.”
“Block? That mediocre excuse for a War Boy? Not my friend. Still can’t believe he let a breeder stab him. Immortan should cast him down among the wretched. He doesn’t deserve to be a War Boy.”
He was being unfairly harsh to the other War Boy, as Toast had waited until he was mid-orgasm to grab his knife and stab him. She doubted it would work with this one. This one knew to expect her to try it. He moved towards her, and Toast darted to the other side of the cell.
There was nowhere to run and it wasn’t long before he seized her. Toast tried to gouge his eyes, but he protected his eyes with his hand and let her claw at his face. He made a wordless exclamation of delight.
“You’re almost as fierce as a feral even though you’re so tiny,” he said, and it was clear he meant the words as a compliment. “I wish I could chase you through the whole Citadel and give you a blade.”
Toast growled in frustration. Her attempts to defend herself was foreplay to him. In fighting back against him, she might as well be stroking his cock. It went against her instinct, but Toast stopped struggling. She let her body go limp.
“Tired already?” He sounded disappointed.
Toast just glared at him. She didn’t resist as he removed her clothes and laid her on the ground. It was difficult to do nothing when he drew one of his knives and place the tip of the blade at the hollow of her throat. He moved the knife down her chest, tracing patterns over her skin. She could feel how sharp the blade was, but he had impressive dexterity and he wasn’t slicing her skin. Not yet anyway.
Eventually he seemed to grow bored by her lack of reaction. He sheathed the knife and just stared down at her for a moment. Toast held her breath, fearing what he’d do next.
What he did wasn’t what she’d expected. Her nipples had reacted to the cold steel of the knife, and he drew one into his mouth and sucked.
She gasped in surprise at the sudden pleasurable sensation.
He released the nipple. “Nux wasn’t lying, least not about this,” he said, pinching her other nipple. “You breeders like having your teats sucked like they were cocks.”
He grinned at her, making his face look even worse.
Toast raised her hand to slap the smile off his face.
“Ready to play again?”
She put her hand back at her side without hitting him. Bastard.
His mouth latched onto her nipple again.
Toast had always loved having her lovers use their hands and mouth on her breasts, but this was not a lover. She hated that a War Boy - and not just any of them, this particular one who was extra terrible - was causing the jolts of arousal shooting down her belly like there was some direct line between her breasts and her cunt. She tried to shove his head away, but he pinned her wrists down and kept on sucking her nipples, alternating between them.
Toast had never begged War Boys, or Immortan Joe, for mercy, because she knew they had none and her words would fall on deaf ears. Begging them not to inflict pain and humiliation on her wouldn’t have spared her a second of pain and would only have increased her sense of humiliation. This one wasn’t hurting her, not physically. Yet it somehow seemed worse.
“Stop.”
He glanced up and met her gaze to show that he’d heard her, but he didn’t stop. No, of course not.
She was starting to wonder if her body could orgasm from just this. It felt like it might. She decided to try using his name. “Slit, stop please.”
“Stop and I’ll suck your cock,” she offered in desperation.
He did stop at that. “Shiny breeder, you think I’d trust your teeth near my cock?” He laughed. “You should try that on Morsov, though. You could probably bite that mediocre idiot’s cock clean off.”
He resumed tormenting her.
Toast wrapped her legs around him, silently urging him to fuck her. He’d have to leave her breasts alone then; he was too tall to keep his mouth on her breasts and keep their groins together.
It seemed like it had worked. He stopped - finally - and took his cock out of his trousers. But then he put his hand between her legs. She didn’t catch the words he exclaimed at discovering how wet she’d gotten. She was already so aroused, the slide of his fingers over her clit pushed her over the edge.
“Fuck,” he said. “Shine as fuck.”
Toast came down from her orgasmic high angry at herself and wishing she could kill him as he began fucking her. Even though he was fucking her too hard, she was experiencing it as pleasure rather than the pain it should have been. Her body traitorously wanted her to rub her clit and help it to another orgasm. Toast needed to express her rage.
So, even though she knew he’d probably like it, she put her hands around his throat and squeezed as tightly as she could. He didn’t stop her. She was still choking him when he climaxed and collapsed on top of her.
At least he was conscious of his much greater size and weight and surprisingly considerate enough to roll off her immediately. Toast shifted away, trying to put some distance between them, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her, pinning her to his chest.
“Where are you going?” he murmured. “Organic’s given me all day with you, shiny breeder.”
Morsov IV
“Hello, Morsov,” Capable said to him, and she smiled.
Morsov smiled back at her. She was sitting on the ground, with one of the smallest War Pups in her lap and three more sitting around her. The Pups had told him that Capable told the best stories, that she told stories they’d never heard before. The Ace had gotten a funny look on his face when he heard a Pup telling some Repair Boys one of the stories Capable had told him.
Toast the Knowing was pacing back and forth in the cell. She looked angrier than usual. Morsov was pretty sure why too. The Organic Mechanic was letting that asshole Slit breed with her every couple of days. Plenty of Boys had complained at how unfair it was, but Organic claimed Slit was one of the few who could fuck her without getting himself damaged by her. Boys had suggested that he restrain her before having them breed with her, but Slit and Throttle and the others who liked being hit and bitten by her had argued that a War Boy who couldn’t handle one breeder didn’t deserve to breed.
Morsov had to admit that was hard to argue against. Besides, he’d been afraid that if Organic decided to chain down Toast the Knowing, he might do the same to Cheedo even though she never even tried to damage anyone.
“Morsov,” Cheedo greeted him. She was trying to smile, but she looked sad.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
Her eyes started getting teary. “The War Boy with Joe’s brand all over him…”
She was talking about Bolt. “What did he do?”
“He said I was like sticking his cock in a warm corpse and he pinched me. And when I started crying, he said to stop crying or he’d really give me something to cry about.”
Morsov was outraged, then enraged. He was going to beat the shit out of Bolt. He stroked Cheedo’s hair. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do that ever again,” he assured her.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He wished the bars of the cell weren’t there. He wanted to hold her. But he’d asked the Organic Mechanic before if he could, promising he wouldn’t try to breed with her, but he had said no. Morsov wasn’t one of Organic’s favorites. Organic liked a certain type and he didn’t match it.
“Is it tomorrow you’re leaving on that four day trip you told me about?”
Morsov nodded. Ace had said they couldn’t capture the depot from its owner without destroying it and everything inside, so the Immortan had decided to trade a whole tanker of Aqua Cola for what he wanted. “I’ll miss you,” he told her.
“I’ll miss you too,” she said. She put her hand on his chest, and he felt a strange warmth there.
He could still feel it later when he headed down into the fighting pits. Throttle and Slit were arguing. Slit had started bragging recently that he’d made Toast the Knowing come dozens of times - though Morsov noticed he didn’t offer any details as to know exactly he’d accomplished the supposed feat - and now Throttle was calling him a liar to his face.
Slit’s driver, Nux, meanwhile was admitting that he was a liar and saying he was sorry he’d lied and told everyone that Capable asked him to fuck her. Morsov liked Nux, but he couldn’t imagine why Nux had made up such a ridiculous lie in the first place. No one had believed him.
“She’s as shine as the sun and I’m so sorry I said that about her.”
“You should be,” someone said.
“If I’d thought it was true, I’d have kicked the shit out of you. If you’d really done it, you could have hurt my pup.”
“It might be my pup,” Nux replied.
Morsov didn’t stop to talk with Nux’s group. He strode past several of his crewmates too, not stopping until he spotted Bolt. He jabbed a finger in Bolt’s face. “You and me.”
He didn’t wait for Bolt’s response. He drew back his fist and smashed it into Bolt’s face before tackling him to the ground and pummeling him. Bolt managed to throw him off. Morsov kicked him in the face and then stomped on one of his hands.
Bolt stopped fighting. “Ow, fuck, that’s my throwing hand.” He looked at Morsov bewilderedly. “Did I do something to piss you off?”
“Yeah, you hurt Cheedo and made her cry.”
One of Bolt’s friends was examining his hand and shot Morsov a nasty glare. “She’s always crying!”
“That is true, Morsov,” Sprockets said, though he’d come to stand next to him in case Bolt’s friends ganged up on him. Elvis was making his way over too.
“But he pinched her! And he insulted her and threatened her!”
“One pinch wouldn’t do any damage,” argued one of Bolt’s friends.
“Well, Immortan did name her the Fragile,” somebody called, “So it might have.”
“Don’t any of you hurt her or be mean to her,” he said loudly. Not only was he a pretty good fighter, but he had backup from his crew. And everyone knew he was the Ace’s favorite - though not like Organic had favorites.
Capable V
“Got a nice surprise for you girls today,” the Organic Mechanic announced one morning. “You’re going to get to take a nice bath.”
He opened the cell door and ushered them out. “Come on. You, too, Capable.”
He lead them out of the Blood Shed and through a series of corridors and open caverns. Repair Boys who’d never seen them before gawked and War Boys who spotted them began congregating into an entourage. Toast seemed annoyed at the unwanted company, but Capable knew she was paying close attention to everything despite it. Cheedo was looking around curiously, too, though she’d clutched Capable arm fearfully once she realized how many War Boys were following them.
The destination turned out to be a huge natural pool underground. A group of younger War Pups were in the water, looking rather glum. “Are they making you bathe too, Capable?” one asked.
She couldn’t help smiling. “Yes.”
Toast stripped with rough, angry movements and climbed into the water immediately. Cheedo undressed more slowly, clearly wishing she didn’t have to in front of an audience. Capable waited until she was finished before removing her own clothes and getting into the pool. She almost yelped when she felt how cold the water was.
But it felt good to be able to get thoroughly clean again. Since their re-capture, they’d only been given buckets of water and a cloth to wash themselves. She tried to ignore the War Boys watching, but more of them kept streaming into the cave, as if word had spread.
The Organic Mechanic had stopped War Boys from following them into the water when they’d first arrived. But now he seemed to have changed his mind.
“Hey, Nux,” Capable heard him call. “Get in and I’ll wash your back.”
The speed with which the War Boy multitude got out of their boots and trousers was amusing. A few tripped and fell. It was less amusing when they surrounded her, each wanting to help her bathe.
She heard a yelp of pain, then heard Toast say, “I’ll break all of your fingers if you try again. I don’t want your help.”
“Boys, no touching them,” the Organic Mechanic shouted. “Or I’ll make all of you leave.”
Nux forced his way to the front of her group of War Boys. “Capable.”
“Nux,” she greeted him, trying to look at him without having to look into his eyes.
But he seemed to realize it and stuck his face even closer to her, trying to catch her gaze.
Capable gave in and looked at him fully. She watched his look of worry transform into joy. There was an almost childish sweetness to him, a strange innocence that somehow coexisted with the evil of raping women and kidnapping men to keep in cages for their blood. Capable kept looking into those big, blue eyes, looking for something to help her understand.
“Our Nux has very pretty eyes, eh, Capable?”
His eyes would have been the most beautiful she’d ever seen if she didn’t associate them with fear and pain and unrelenting horror.
He glanced at the Organic Mechanic briefly and she saw his eyes flicker with irritation and dislike and something she recognized but hadn’t expected to see in a War Boy. She looked at the Organic Mechanic and saw him looking at Nux the way Joe would look at Angharad. It raised a new set of issues to figure out, foremost among them how Nux could have done what he’d done to her knowing fully well how it felt to be victimized that way.
He probably didn’t see it as the same thing, she concluded, like with his blood slave. She’d been a stranger to him, just like the captive he called his blood bag. People he didn’t know weren’t people to him.
“Organic!”
Capable recognized the voice of Joe’s Prime Imperator.
“You’re about to cause a riot down here.”
“Aww, Prime, I’m just letting the Boys take in a nice show.”
The Prime Imperator was not amused. “War Boys,” he shouted, “Out of the water! Back to your duties!”
He stood waiting with his arms crossed as the War Boys scrambled out of the pool and back into their trousers. Some of them just gathered up their belongings and ran out naked. It would have been funny if Capable’s heart wasn’t still beating too fast. She hadn’t realized how true it was until the Prime Imperator had appeared to stop it.
The Organic Mechanic enjoyed his power over the wives and the War Boys alike. He’d enjoyed getting the Boys worked up into a sexual frenzy, confident he could control them and keep them from acting on their desires. Over-confident, apparently.
Cheedo hurried out of the pool and raced after the Prime Imperator as he left. She caught his arm. “Prime, how’s the Dag? Tell me, please. Please.”
“She has not been harmed,” the Prime Imperator said gently. He touched the top of Cheedo’s head briefly. “Rictus misses you.”
The Imperators and Rictus had been fond of Cheedo, despite knowing that she was there to be raped by the vile old man as soon as he deemed her old enough. Cheedo, in her innocence, had been fond of them too. The Dag and Angharad had tried to teach her not to trust them, that Rictus, despite his childish simplicity and sometime sweetness, still had the body of a man and was the reason Joe kept the chastity belts on them.
And, sure enough, they’d done nothing when Joe had that sweet young girl they were so fond of gangraped by his army.
Capable was in the darkest mood she’d been in since the earliest days after the failed escape. She tried to identify what had gone wrong. But it just seemed to be a matter of luck. Bad luck that Joe hadn’t taken longer to realize they were missing. The good luck of that innocent monster in catching up to the war rig and telling its crew that Furiosa had betrayed their Immortan and stolen his prize breeders.
The Organic Mechanic had been sulking at having his fun ruined, but as they approached the Blood Shed, he started grinning. “Time for the surprise, girls.”
The cell was gone. Instead there were now three cells, spaced well apart. The cells had cots, so they would no longer have to sleep on the ground. But Capable would have slept on the sharpest pebbles if it meant remaining with Cheedo and Toast. They were being separated.
“Can’t have you girls hatching another treason, can we?”
Toast VI
He lifted her up and held her pinned between the wall and his body. Toast hated that her legs had wrapped around him seemingly of their own accord. She put her hands on his shoulders briefly, just to steady herself, before sharply jabbing her thumbs into his throat. He retaliated by biting her neck.
They were both on the edge of orgasm, when the hum of everyday noise was pierced by a panicked male shriek.
“I DIDN’T HURT HER, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO DAMAGE HER!”
The Organic Mechanic, his War Boy assistants, and Capable were rushing to Cheedo’s cell.
The War Boy who’d just finished raping Cheedo was loudly insisting that he hadn’t done anything, that he’d used lube and he’d been gentle. He sounded as if he was about to start crying.
Toast craned her neck, trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on.
The War Boy Slit must have heard the commotion, too, but he didn’t seem to care. He didn’t let it distract him from finishing, nor from his post-coital routine. “Shiny breeder,” he was murmuring, nuzzling her. He’d dropped to his knees, taking her down with him, and turned to sit with his back to the wall, pulling her into his lap.
Toast struggled against him impatiently. “Let go. You’re done.”
“Not done,” he replied, nipping her ear.
The Organic Mechanic was laughing. “Aww, Chip, she’s not damaged, she just isn’t knocked up.”
Toast realized what must have happened. Cheedo’s moon bleeding must have started and the War Boy must have thought he’d damaged her. The relief she felt at realizing Cheedo hadn’t been badly hurt was replaced by a weary hopelessness. Cheedo wasn’t damaged, but she’d continue to be subjected to rape daily for at least another moon cycle.
She dug her fingernails into Slit’s arm. Surely his penchant for fucking her multiple times a visit had increased her chances of getting pregnant. It had to.
He was running a hand up and down her thighs, causing her body to remember she’d interrupted it before it could get off. She was tempted to shift her thighs apart and hope his hand found its way between them, but she refused to give in to the temptation.
“I’d love to work on your skin,” he murmured.
Considering the state of his own skin - with drawings carved into his flesh - Toast had a very good idea of what that meant. For a moment, she was thankful to Joe for at least limiting what his War Boys were allowed to do to her.
Then Slit added, “Thought about doing it when Organic said Immortan said to lightly damage you for stabbing Block.”
He was tracing patterns only he could see, but with his fingertips instead of the knife he usually used. It felt like her skin was straining for more, wanting increased intensity. She didn’t understand how it was possible to still be aroused despite knowing what he wanted to do to her.
“But you’re already perfect, shiny breeder. It’d make you less chrome, not more chrome.”
Toast was wondering at his failure so far to ‘lightly damage’ her as he’d been instructed to do. He was probably just waiting until it suited his mood.
“Sorry to interrupt the cuddling,” the Organic Mechanic said, coming over to Toast’s cell. “Toast, you bleeding too?”
“No,” she answered.
“Hmm, you could just be late due to your stressful situation and all,” he mocked. “A few more rounds of breeding won’t hurt, until we’re sure there’s a war bun in the oven.”
Morsov V
Morsov had already spoken with Cheedo, so when the Organic Mechanic was done checking over the war rig crew, he started to leave with the others.
“Morsov, Elvis, you two stay for breeding.”
He’d finally get to hold Cheedo again. He wasted no time in getting to her cell. But Organic didn’t come to unlock it.
“Which one of you fucked which breeder last time?”
“Morsov fucked his beloved Cheedo, of course,” Elvis answered Organic, giving Morsov a teasing grin.
But Morsov had a bad feeling about this.
Organic muttered to himself and used his fingers to count something several times. Then he said, “Switch this time. Elvis, you take Cheedo.”
“Why?” Morsov demanded.
The Organic Mechanic looked annoyed. “To improve the chances of conceiving a pup.”
“But you’re letting Slit breed with Toast the Knowing almost every day! It’s not fair!”
“That’s none of your concern. Shut up and go fuck Toast.”
Elvis patted his shoulder. “I’ll be real gentle with her, okay?”
Morsov nodded. He stared at Cheedo, who looked just as disappointed as him. Then he made his way across the Blood Shed to Toast’s cell. The door was already open. Morsov approached Toast the Knowing warily. She’d once almost killed a War Boy who’d been breeding with her, and she’d left gouged eyes and broken fingers on lots of others.
“Please don’t hit me,” he said.
Toast looked astonished. Then she laughed. But she didn’t sound amused, she sounded bitter.
She was very shiny and chrome, and he would happily fuck her if he could be sure that she wouldn’t stab him while he was doing it.
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” she said. She pulled off her clothes. “Get it over with.”
Morsov touched her breasts, half-expecting her to head-butt him or kick him in the balls at any moment. But it was the Organic Mechanic who startled him.
“Hey, Toast, Morsov here was your girl Furiosa’s best lancer. But our boy Slit says he’s the best lancer. Let us know which of them is better at lancing, would you?”
The Organic Mechanic was leaning against the bars, leering.
Morsov really wished he wasn’t watching. But being reminded of Slit and his pathetic insistence that he was the best lancer kindled enough competitive fire to give Organic a good show.
Toast seemed furious when he was done, but fortunately she seemed angrier at Organic than at him.
“Well, Toast,” Organic said. “What’s the verdict?”
Toast didn’t say anything, she just glared at him. Morsov had no doubt that if he gave her the little pistol from his pockets, she’d empty the whole clip into Organic. He was almost tempted to do it. But they only had the one Organic Mechanic. They needed him even if he was an asshole.
Toast VII
“She’s as mediocre as you, Morsov! All that sniveling. I’ll make her fucking scream.”
Toast recognized the War Boy Slit’s voice before he strode into the Blood Shed along with several others. Cheedo’s Morsov was trying to lunge at Slit and being held back by two other War Boys. Behind them came the Organic Mechanic and the old War Boy who’d killed Furiosa.
Capable had been sitting in her unlocked cell, having her hair braided by one of the War Pups. She sprang up and hurried to place herself in front of Cheedo’s cell. Toast would have done the same if she could.
“No, you will not,” Furiosa’s killer snapped at Slit. “You are forbidden all contact with the wives.”
“No, he’s not,” the Organic Mechanic contradicted.
“He drew a blade on another War Boy,” the killer said. “He tried to kill Morsov. Denying him breeding privileges is the least of the punishment he deserves.”
“Fight just got a little too heated, that’s all.”
Toast could see that both Morsov and Slit looked battered, and Morsov was bleeding from a deep cut across his torso. From the look of it, Slit had been trying to slice him open instead of trying to stab him, luckily for Cheedo.
The Organic Mechanic finished cleaning and stitching up the wound. “Off you go, Morsov.”
“Ace,” Morsov said pleadingly, to Furiosa’s killer.
The killer and the Organic Mechanic stared at each other. It was clear they loathed each other.
“War Rig crew, get out of here. Go cool off,” the Organic Mechanic said. “Let me deal with Slit.”
“I’ll inform the Prime Imperator about this,” the killer said to Slit. He shot a final look of contempt at the Organic Mechanic before he helped Morsov’s friends drag him away.
The moment they were gone, Slit rounded on the Organic Mechanic. “How could you let him stick his mediocre cock in my breeder?!”
“Just wanted to check that you weren’t going soft.” He tried to put his hand on Slit’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
He was practically vibrating with rage. “You know what a mediocre piece of Buzzard-spawn filth he is. He’s defiled her!” He snarled into the Organic Mechanic’s face, “How could you do that to me, Organic?!”
“Watch it, Slit,” the Organic Mechanic said warningly.
“You owe me, Organic,” Slit said, less aggressively. “Let me fuck his weepy breeder and see how he likes it.”
“Fine,” the Organic Mechanic agreed.
Toast didn’t understand how Slit could feel so possessive of her and be driven into a jealous rage over a War Boy he hated fucking her. But she couldn’t let him take his anger out on Cheedo. Cheedo wouldn’t survive it unbroken, and Toast knew she could.
“No!” she shouted. “Leave her alone. Come to me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
He hesitated, stopping halfway to Cheedo’s cell.
“I’ll fight back. If you want me to pretend to like it, I’ll do that too.”
“She’s as mediocre as Morsov anyway,” he said dismissively of Cheedo. He strode back to the Organic Mechanic and held out his hand.
The Organic Mechanic looked at him for a long moment.
Slit didn’t say anything, just glared at him.
Toast didn’t know what passed between them in silence, what history they had, but the Organic Mechanic gave him the key to her cell.
He let himself into her cell and then he just stood there, looking at her.
“Well?” she said, waiting to be told what he wanted her to do. His anger seemed to be dissipating, but for the first time she was having difficulty reading him.
His voice was uncharacteristically quiet when he asked, “Why didn’t you damage him? Why’d you let him fuck you? He’s too soft to get you pinned down like me or Throttle, so you must have let him.”
Toast punched him, without having made a conscious decision to do so. She belatedly remembered that he had permission to ‘lightly’ damage her, and her hand probably hurt more than his face did. Still, she couldn’t believe he’d dare say that to her.
“I haven’t let any of you,” she hissed.
Slit’s mood seemed to improve instantly. He pulled her against him, and that was familiar, but the almost hesitant way he touched her hair wasn’t. He forced her onto her back and hovered above her, but then he was pressing his mouth to hers almost tentatively. Toast was astonished. He was already pulling back before she realized he’d expected her to kiss him back.
She grabbed his head and leaned up to kiss him. It was a lot less tentative and a lot more forceful when he kissed her this time. It left her breathless. But it wasn’t unpleasant. Quite the opposite.
When it stopped, she thought he was going to tell her what he wanted. But he didn’t speak.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
“I don’t want you to just lie there, but I don’t want you to fight me either if you don’t feel like fighting.”
“You want me to pretend I like it?”
“No.” He frowned. “I want…”
He didn’t seem to know how to articulate what he wanted. Toast was anxious he’d become frustrated and turn violent again. She rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him.
“I want you.”
“You have me,” Toast replied, puzzled.
“Not like any War Boy can have you. I want you different than the others can have you.”
Toast thought he meant that he wanted to fuck her where it wouldn’t lead to pregnancy. She prepared herself mentally to endure it. “Okay.”
But Slit didn’t move. He was still frowning. “Capable likes fucking. She begged Nux to fuck her even though she already had a pup in her.”
Capable had done that to protect Cheedo, same as Toast was trying to do now. Toast had asked him if he wanted her to pretend to like it and he’d said no. She was confused. And then she realized: he didn’t want her to pretend.
“You want me to want you,” she stated. It was such a shock, she didn’t even know what to feel.
“Yeah.” He’d stopped frowning. There was a much softer look on his face. The scars on his face made it difficult to identify at first. It was the same look she’d seen on the face of Cheedo’s Morsov and on the War Boys who came to talk to Capable.
He was infatuated with her. She’d never have guessed. Up until a few moments ago, he’d certainly never acted like she was anything but his favorite thing to fuck. Except, she realized, that wasn’t quite true. She recalled his odd compliments and his habit of addressing her as “shiny breeder” in a way normal people uttered endearments. Today had confirmed her suspicion that he was a bastard even by War Boy standards, so she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that his version of romance was twisted.
She knew what Capable would advise her to do, and she knew that he was very likely to go hurt Cheedo if he couldn’t get what he wanted from Toast. And she might be able to find some advantage later in keeping him infatuated with her. She just had to do something that made him think he was getting what he wanted from her. She kept stroking his back. His skin was pleasant to touch; even the horrid scarifications added an interesting texture.
“I’ll try,” she said. “Give me a few moments. Let’s just lay here like this for a little while.”
“It’s better after fucking.”
Toast wondered if that was why he always fucked her at least twice each visit, if it was so he had an excuse to linger and keep touching her after he finished fucking her the first time.
He shifted his weight and scooted lower, settling his head on her breasts. “But this is shine too.”
It was bizarre to be holding a War Boy like this, like he was her lover instead of one of her rapists. Toast closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was somewhere else and he was someone else. But she just couldn’t do it.
She simply couldn’t pretend she was anywhere else or that he was anyone but a War Boy. So she tried to pretend he was just a random War Boy, one who’d never touched her before. But that was no good either. The best she could summon for a random War Boy was indifference. Slit, at least, goaded her into antipathy. He was easily the most exciting thing in this miserable and boring life forced upon her.
“Just kiss me,” she said, trying to keep the weariness and frustration out of her voice.
His mouth was on hers before she’d even finished the words. She focused on just the physical sensations, analyzing them. She realized that he was, objectively speaking, a good kisser. And she already knew he’d be a good sex partner; he’d taught himself how to get her off and he loved doing it. But as he kept kissing her and began squeezing her breasts, Toast realized that as pleasant as the sensations were, the excitement he normally elicited from her was missing.
Toast felt like crying at the realization that she’d enjoyed being raped by him more than she could enjoy the pretense of normal sex. No.
No.
It wasn’t the illustration of consent that made this different; it was the lack of violent foreplay. She would have to analyze what it meant that Slit was apparently willing to forgo his twisted foreplay for her sake, but later, not now. Now, Toast let herself resent him for causing his twisted version of foreplay to become hers as well.
Unbeknownst to him, he’d already gotten what it was he wanted. She’d wanted him against her will. All she had to do was stop hiding her reaction to him from him.
He was nibbling at her neck. Toast grabbed his head with both hands and brought his ear to her lips. “It’s better the way we usually do it, isn’t it?” she whispered. Then she bit him.
Part 3
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Morsov III
Elvis was already fucking Toast the Knowing, but Morsov had yet to touch Cheedo the Fragile. Every time he reached for her, she cringed away from him. The look of fear on her face made him feel bad in a way he didn’t understand. He wanted to hold her and whisper soothing things like he would for a very small pup who needed comforting.
But that wasn’t going to get her pregnant. There was only one way to do that. He should just do it and get it over quickly. But the way he felt with her looking at him teary-eyed and afraid rendered him unable to breed. He rubbed his scalp, frustrated at his dilemma. He wished the Ace was here so he could ask his advice.
Morsov didn’t know know what to do. In desperation, he asked, “How can I make you stop being so afraid?”
“Promise you won’t touch me.”
He was surprised. “How can I fuck you if I can’t touch you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to.”
If he didn’t fuck her, Organic would send another War Boy to her after he left. Maybe that was what she wanted. Maybe she didn’t want him to sire her pup.
“I’m a real good lancer,” he told her earnestly. “My pups will be strong, I know it.”
“I remember you. They said you’d killed the most Buzzards and that’s why you were first.”
So she did remember him and that was why she was afraid.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I tried not to.”
“You did hurt me, and your friends hurt me too.”
“We weren’t trying to hurt you, that’s the only way to grow a pup in you.”
Tears began to brim in her eyes again.
Morsov looked around helplessly. The Organic Mechanic wasn’t watching, but he was there and didn’t show any indication of leaving. “All right,” he whispered desperately to Cheedo. “What if I promise I won’t fuck you today?”
“I don’t believe you,” she said.
He held up his right hand solemnly. “May the gates of Valhalla be closed to me forever if I break my promise.”
She looked wary.
“I won’t try to breed with you today, but you have to let me get close to you so Organic thinks I did.”
She considered this and then nodded.
Morsov carefully stretched out beside her and then gently pulled her against him. She stared at him and he stared back. He felt he should say something, but he realized he had no idea what to say.
“Do you dream?” she asked.
He blinked in surprise. What a strange question. “Of course, I dream. Doesn’t everyone?”
“What do you dream about?”
He dreamt about her sometimes, about the day Imperator Furiosa turned traitor and the Immortan gave three of his wives to the War Boys of the Citadel. He’d awake from those dreams with the same bad feeling he felt when he saw her afraid of him. But he didn’t think he should tell her that.
“Sometimes I dream I’m flying in the air like a bird and looking down at everyone, and sometimes I dream of doing war. Once I dreamt I was sent to Gas Town and had to follow the People Eater everywhere and scrub his feet, that was a nightmare.”
“Oh.”
Her hair felt soft and nice where it rested over his hand, and he wanted to stroke it, but he didn’t want to frighten her.
“What do you dream about?” he asked her.
“About green things covering everywhere, like in the pictures.”
Morsov had never seen pictures like those. He wished he could.
“I dream of it even when I’m awake,” she added. “About finding some place where there’s still green all over.”
He was puzzled. There was plenty of green at the top of the Citadel, where she’d lived when she was one of the Immortan’s wives. “There’s green here, why’d you have to dream of somewhere else?”
“Here I’m a breeder,” she said sadly. “There must be some other place where nobody will force me to breed if I don’t want to.”
It was such a strange idea. Bizarre. He’d seen women among the Wretched baring their breasts and begging to taken into the Citadel as milkers or breeders, and the breeders he’d fucked before had seemed content. He’d never have imagined that the prize breeders hated breeding. He tried to imagine what it must be like to be one of them.
A blasphemous thought occurred to him and he felt terrified to even think it. He put his lips to Cheedo’s ear. “Is it breeding you all hate, or breeding with the Immortan?”
“He never… I was too young, but the others hate it. They hate him. We hate him. Angharad’s his favorite, but she hates him the most.”
For a moment, he could only worry what might happen if anyone heard her talking like this and him listening. Then he realized the implication of what she’d said. He felt pride at having been the first to have a prize breeder not even the Immortan had had, but he also felt ashamed. And he was disturbed by the knowledge that the Immortan had considered her a pup but had still sentenced her to breed more war pups and like that. Gangbanging a War Pup was unthinkable, so it didn’t seem right to do to a breeder pup either.
“Morsov, I’m getting bored. I’m done and this breeder refuses to talk to me. If you’re going to stay here and cuddle yours all day, just say so, so I stop wasting my time waiting for you.”
He hadn’t realized Elvis was finished. Part of him wanted to stay and keep holding Cheedo like this, even though she said terrible things and made him think disturbing thoughts. But he knew better than to do anything that would draw attention to them and maybe raise suspicions.
He got to his knees and pretended to fasten his trousers before rising to his feet. He held his hand out to Cheedo, to help her up. She hesitated for a moment, but then she gave him her hand and let him pull her to her feet.
“What a gentleman,” the Organic Mechanic called, laughing.
Capable IV
Sticks was shivering.
Capable went over to the cell. “Cheedo, please hand me my blanket.”
Cheedo picked up one of the blankets and passed it through the bars of their cell.
Toast was staring at her in disbelief. “Capable!”
Capable mouthed ‘remember the plan’ at her before making her way back over to the dying War Boy. She draped her blanket over him and laid her palm on the top of his head.
He tried to pull the blanket off. “No,” he said weakly. “It’s for you, so you and the pup don’t get damaged when it gets cold.”
Capable firmly tucked the blanket around him. “I’m not using it at the moment. I’ll take it back before I go to sleep tonight.”
“So maternal,” the Organic Mechanic commented. He chuckled.
Capable ignored him. She hurried to Riker, who’d prodded the ‘feral’ captive with the electric stick.
“You don’t have to hurt them more than necessary,” she admonished.
“It’s necessary,” he protested. He swung the cage and released the latch, causing the captive to fall out and dangle upside down. “He broke free while we were branding him and it took a dozen Boys to catch him and put him down. ”
Capable considered this information. If she could manage to release this captive, then maybe… But no. There was no way to get down from the Citadel and flee to relative safety without a vehicle and there was no way they’d be able to get one.
“Capable!” The blue-eyed War Boy she’d spared Cheedo from smiled at her and leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek.
Capable blinked in surprise, momentarily at a loss for words.
The War Boy sat on one of the smooth rock benches and Riker inserted a needle into his arm, beginning the process of transfusing the ‘feral’ captive’s blood into him.
Finally, Capable said, “I don’t know your name.”
“Nux,” he stated happily.
He seemed so happy to see her that it made Capable pity him even though she felt sick every time she looked at those blue eyes. She had to do the best she could for everyone’s sake, though, so she forced herself to sit beside him.
“How are you, Nux?”
He looked like no one had ever asked him how he was before. Then he grinned at her. “I’ll be great when my top-up’s done. This blood bag has real high octane blood.”
Capable cringed. “He’s not a bag, Nux. He’s a man.”
Nux simply stared at her like she’d spoken a different language.
She took one of his hands between her hands, noting absently that his hands were twice the size of hers. “He’s a person, just like we are.”
“He’s not like us,” Nux said, sounding puzzled. “He’s a feral.”
How could she explain to him and to the others the horror of what they did in hunting down strangers and keeping them in cages to drain their blood regularly? But even if they could understand, maybe they’d prefer not to, since that stolen blood prolonged their own short lives.
She sighed. “How would you like it if a Buzzard caught you and kept you in a cage like that?”
He shook his head. “Wouldn’t happen. I’m the best driver in the Citadel and my lancer’s real shine at lancing.”
She grimaced, both at the reminder of his lancer who’d raped poor Toast twice in one morning and at his lack of empathy. She was contemplating how to get him to understand what it was like to be a victim when he tried to kiss her.
Capable jerked back. “No,” she said, louder than she’d intended.
Riker hurried over to them and jabbed the electric stick at Nux threateningly. “Don’t try that with Capable. You know she’s already got a pup in her belly.”
Capable squeezed Nux’s shoulder in a silent warning before he could say anything that would give away that she’d let him have sex with her. “He’ll behave from now. Won’t you, Nux?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking very confused.
When Riker was satisfied that Nux wouldn’t try to attack her again and had moved on, she leaned in close and whispered, “It’s our secret, Nux. Just you and me.”
She stood up and forced herself to kiss his cheek. “It was nice to see you,” she lied. “But I promised to tell the Pups a story.”
Toast V
Capable was chewing her lips, which Toast had learned meant that she wanted to say something but at the same time, didn’t want to say it.
“Just spit it out, Capable,” Toast said to her. She scooted over to sit beside her. Cheedo was on Capable’s other side, lying with her head in Capable’s lap.
“Maybe you should try talking with the War Boys and not try to grab their weapons and injure them.”
Toast restrained herself from uttering aloud her initial reaction. Capable did know exactly how it felt to be raped endlessly. Instead, she asked coldly, “Was the one I stabbed this morning one of your new friends?”
“No,” Capable replied. “But hurting them doesn’t do any good. We have to get them to stop seeing us as things to be ‘bred’ and get them to care about us. Unless Joe has a change of heart, the only thing that’s going to save us from War Boys is themselves.”
She understood what Capable meant, but Toast refused to accept it. She might not be able to stop them from raping her, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to befriend her rapists.
“Or death,” Toast said darkly.
“I think maybe you’re right, Capable,” Cheedo spoke up. “Maybe some of them might be nice to you if you talk to them.”
Toast felt her jaw drop. “Talking doesn’t stop them from raping you, does it?” she demanded.
“It did with one of them,” Cheedo confided. “Morsov.”
Toast couldn’t have been more shocked. Morsov visited the Blood Shed every day to come stare at Cheedo; Toast couldn’t believe that he’d passed up his chance to rape her again. But it made sense that it was why Cheedo would go stand close to the bars and whisper to him. Toast had assumed she was doing her part to aid Capable’s plan.
“How come?” she asked curiously. Cheedo must have spoken some magic words.
“He said he wanted me to stop being afraid.”
“Oh.” Toast rolled her eyes. “You killed his boner. At least it has a conscience.”
“Toast,” Capable said, in a reprimanding tone.
Toast sighed. “Cheedo, keep saying whatever you say to them. And I will keep doing what I do.”
Feeling that she was being watched, she glanced up to see the Organic Mechanic looking at them and frowning. That didn’t portend anything good.
“Conspiring again?” he asked them.
“Yeah,” Toast replied sarcastically. “Conspiring to cut off your cock and feed it to you.”
He didn’t reply, which was unusual for him. He just gave her a nasty grin.
He wore the same nasty grin the following morning when he appeared with the War Boy with the extra scarred face and another one she didn’t recognize.
“It can’t possibly be his turn again already,” Toast exclaimed indignantly.
“After you nearly killed Block yesterday, I had to get a Boy who can handle you, didn’t I?” the Organic Mechanic replied. He pulled Cheedo out of the cell. “Chip, make sure no one but you touches this one.”
Scar-face stepped inside the cell and the Organic Mechanic locked it behind him.
“Have fun, Slit, but don’t do anything to her that won’t heal in a few days.”
Toast felt pure terror at those words. Still, she tried to be brave. “I take it you’re here to punish me for wounding your friend.”
“Block? That mediocre excuse for a War Boy? Not my friend. Still can’t believe he let a breeder stab him. Immortan should cast him down among the wretched. He doesn’t deserve to be a War Boy.”
He was being unfairly harsh to the other War Boy, as Toast had waited until he was mid-orgasm to grab his knife and stab him. She doubted it would work with this one. This one knew to expect her to try it. He moved towards her, and Toast darted to the other side of the cell.
There was nowhere to run and it wasn’t long before he seized her. Toast tried to gouge his eyes, but he protected his eyes with his hand and let her claw at his face. He made a wordless exclamation of delight.
“You’re almost as fierce as a feral even though you’re so tiny,” he said, and it was clear he meant the words as a compliment. “I wish I could chase you through the whole Citadel and give you a blade.”
Toast growled in frustration. Her attempts to defend herself was foreplay to him. In fighting back against him, she might as well be stroking his cock. It went against her instinct, but Toast stopped struggling. She let her body go limp.
“Tired already?” He sounded disappointed.
Toast just glared at him. She didn’t resist as he removed her clothes and laid her on the ground. It was difficult to do nothing when he drew one of his knives and place the tip of the blade at the hollow of her throat. He moved the knife down her chest, tracing patterns over her skin. She could feel how sharp the blade was, but he had impressive dexterity and he wasn’t slicing her skin. Not yet anyway.
Eventually he seemed to grow bored by her lack of reaction. He sheathed the knife and just stared down at her for a moment. Toast held her breath, fearing what he’d do next.
What he did wasn’t what she’d expected. Her nipples had reacted to the cold steel of the knife, and he drew one into his mouth and sucked.
She gasped in surprise at the sudden pleasurable sensation.
He released the nipple. “Nux wasn’t lying, least not about this,” he said, pinching her other nipple. “You breeders like having your teats sucked like they were cocks.”
He grinned at her, making his face look even worse.
Toast raised her hand to slap the smile off his face.
“Ready to play again?”
She put her hand back at her side without hitting him. Bastard.
His mouth latched onto her nipple again.
Toast had always loved having her lovers use their hands and mouth on her breasts, but this was not a lover. She hated that a War Boy - and not just any of them, this particular one who was extra terrible - was causing the jolts of arousal shooting down her belly like there was some direct line between her breasts and her cunt. She tried to shove his head away, but he pinned her wrists down and kept on sucking her nipples, alternating between them.
Toast had never begged War Boys, or Immortan Joe, for mercy, because she knew they had none and her words would fall on deaf ears. Begging them not to inflict pain and humiliation on her wouldn’t have spared her a second of pain and would only have increased her sense of humiliation. This one wasn’t hurting her, not physically. Yet it somehow seemed worse.
“Stop.”
He glanced up and met her gaze to show that he’d heard her, but he didn’t stop. No, of course not.
She was starting to wonder if her body could orgasm from just this. It felt like it might. She decided to try using his name. “Slit, stop please.”
“Stop and I’ll suck your cock,” she offered in desperation.
He did stop at that. “Shiny breeder, you think I’d trust your teeth near my cock?” He laughed. “You should try that on Morsov, though. You could probably bite that mediocre idiot’s cock clean off.”
He resumed tormenting her.
Toast wrapped her legs around him, silently urging him to fuck her. He’d have to leave her breasts alone then; he was too tall to keep his mouth on her breasts and keep their groins together.
It seemed like it had worked. He stopped - finally - and took his cock out of his trousers. But then he put his hand between her legs. She didn’t catch the words he exclaimed at discovering how wet she’d gotten. She was already so aroused, the slide of his fingers over her clit pushed her over the edge.
“Fuck,” he said. “Shine as fuck.”
Toast came down from her orgasmic high angry at herself and wishing she could kill him as he began fucking her. Even though he was fucking her too hard, she was experiencing it as pleasure rather than the pain it should have been. Her body traitorously wanted her to rub her clit and help it to another orgasm. Toast needed to express her rage.
So, even though she knew he’d probably like it, she put her hands around his throat and squeezed as tightly as she could. He didn’t stop her. She was still choking him when he climaxed and collapsed on top of her.
At least he was conscious of his much greater size and weight and surprisingly considerate enough to roll off her immediately. Toast shifted away, trying to put some distance between them, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her, pinning her to his chest.
“Where are you going?” he murmured. “Organic’s given me all day with you, shiny breeder.”
Morsov IV
“Hello, Morsov,” Capable said to him, and she smiled.
Morsov smiled back at her. She was sitting on the ground, with one of the smallest War Pups in her lap and three more sitting around her. The Pups had told him that Capable told the best stories, that she told stories they’d never heard before. The Ace had gotten a funny look on his face when he heard a Pup telling some Repair Boys one of the stories Capable had told him.
Toast the Knowing was pacing back and forth in the cell. She looked angrier than usual. Morsov was pretty sure why too. The Organic Mechanic was letting that asshole Slit breed with her every couple of days. Plenty of Boys had complained at how unfair it was, but Organic claimed Slit was one of the few who could fuck her without getting himself damaged by her. Boys had suggested that he restrain her before having them breed with her, but Slit and Throttle and the others who liked being hit and bitten by her had argued that a War Boy who couldn’t handle one breeder didn’t deserve to breed.
Morsov had to admit that was hard to argue against. Besides, he’d been afraid that if Organic decided to chain down Toast the Knowing, he might do the same to Cheedo even though she never even tried to damage anyone.
“Morsov,” Cheedo greeted him. She was trying to smile, but she looked sad.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
Her eyes started getting teary. “The War Boy with Joe’s brand all over him…”
She was talking about Bolt. “What did he do?”
“He said I was like sticking his cock in a warm corpse and he pinched me. And when I started crying, he said to stop crying or he’d really give me something to cry about.”
Morsov was outraged, then enraged. He was going to beat the shit out of Bolt. He stroked Cheedo’s hair. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do that ever again,” he assured her.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He wished the bars of the cell weren’t there. He wanted to hold her. But he’d asked the Organic Mechanic before if he could, promising he wouldn’t try to breed with her, but he had said no. Morsov wasn’t one of Organic’s favorites. Organic liked a certain type and he didn’t match it.
“Is it tomorrow you’re leaving on that four day trip you told me about?”
Morsov nodded. Ace had said they couldn’t capture the depot from its owner without destroying it and everything inside, so the Immortan had decided to trade a whole tanker of Aqua Cola for what he wanted. “I’ll miss you,” he told her.
“I’ll miss you too,” she said. She put her hand on his chest, and he felt a strange warmth there.
He could still feel it later when he headed down into the fighting pits. Throttle and Slit were arguing. Slit had started bragging recently that he’d made Toast the Knowing come dozens of times - though Morsov noticed he didn’t offer any details as to know exactly he’d accomplished the supposed feat - and now Throttle was calling him a liar to his face.
Slit’s driver, Nux, meanwhile was admitting that he was a liar and saying he was sorry he’d lied and told everyone that Capable asked him to fuck her. Morsov liked Nux, but he couldn’t imagine why Nux had made up such a ridiculous lie in the first place. No one had believed him.
“She’s as shine as the sun and I’m so sorry I said that about her.”
“You should be,” someone said.
“If I’d thought it was true, I’d have kicked the shit out of you. If you’d really done it, you could have hurt my pup.”
“It might be my pup,” Nux replied.
Morsov didn’t stop to talk with Nux’s group. He strode past several of his crewmates too, not stopping until he spotted Bolt. He jabbed a finger in Bolt’s face. “You and me.”
He didn’t wait for Bolt’s response. He drew back his fist and smashed it into Bolt’s face before tackling him to the ground and pummeling him. Bolt managed to throw him off. Morsov kicked him in the face and then stomped on one of his hands.
Bolt stopped fighting. “Ow, fuck, that’s my throwing hand.” He looked at Morsov bewilderedly. “Did I do something to piss you off?”
“Yeah, you hurt Cheedo and made her cry.”
One of Bolt’s friends was examining his hand and shot Morsov a nasty glare. “She’s always crying!”
“That is true, Morsov,” Sprockets said, though he’d come to stand next to him in case Bolt’s friends ganged up on him. Elvis was making his way over too.
“But he pinched her! And he insulted her and threatened her!”
“One pinch wouldn’t do any damage,” argued one of Bolt’s friends.
“Well, Immortan did name her the Fragile,” somebody called, “So it might have.”
“Don’t any of you hurt her or be mean to her,” he said loudly. Not only was he a pretty good fighter, but he had backup from his crew. And everyone knew he was the Ace’s favorite - though not like Organic had favorites.
Capable V
“Got a nice surprise for you girls today,” the Organic Mechanic announced one morning. “You’re going to get to take a nice bath.”
He opened the cell door and ushered them out. “Come on. You, too, Capable.”
He lead them out of the Blood Shed and through a series of corridors and open caverns. Repair Boys who’d never seen them before gawked and War Boys who spotted them began congregating into an entourage. Toast seemed annoyed at the unwanted company, but Capable knew she was paying close attention to everything despite it. Cheedo was looking around curiously, too, though she’d clutched Capable arm fearfully once she realized how many War Boys were following them.
The destination turned out to be a huge natural pool underground. A group of younger War Pups were in the water, looking rather glum. “Are they making you bathe too, Capable?” one asked.
She couldn’t help smiling. “Yes.”
Toast stripped with rough, angry movements and climbed into the water immediately. Cheedo undressed more slowly, clearly wishing she didn’t have to in front of an audience. Capable waited until she was finished before removing her own clothes and getting into the pool. She almost yelped when she felt how cold the water was.
But it felt good to be able to get thoroughly clean again. Since their re-capture, they’d only been given buckets of water and a cloth to wash themselves. She tried to ignore the War Boys watching, but more of them kept streaming into the cave, as if word had spread.
The Organic Mechanic had stopped War Boys from following them into the water when they’d first arrived. But now he seemed to have changed his mind.
“Hey, Nux,” Capable heard him call. “Get in and I’ll wash your back.”
The speed with which the War Boy multitude got out of their boots and trousers was amusing. A few tripped and fell. It was less amusing when they surrounded her, each wanting to help her bathe.
She heard a yelp of pain, then heard Toast say, “I’ll break all of your fingers if you try again. I don’t want your help.”
“Boys, no touching them,” the Organic Mechanic shouted. “Or I’ll make all of you leave.”
Nux forced his way to the front of her group of War Boys. “Capable.”
“Nux,” she greeted him, trying to look at him without having to look into his eyes.
But he seemed to realize it and stuck his face even closer to her, trying to catch her gaze.
Capable gave in and looked at him fully. She watched his look of worry transform into joy. There was an almost childish sweetness to him, a strange innocence that somehow coexisted with the evil of raping women and kidnapping men to keep in cages for their blood. Capable kept looking into those big, blue eyes, looking for something to help her understand.
“Our Nux has very pretty eyes, eh, Capable?”
His eyes would have been the most beautiful she’d ever seen if she didn’t associate them with fear and pain and unrelenting horror.
He glanced at the Organic Mechanic briefly and she saw his eyes flicker with irritation and dislike and something she recognized but hadn’t expected to see in a War Boy. She looked at the Organic Mechanic and saw him looking at Nux the way Joe would look at Angharad. It raised a new set of issues to figure out, foremost among them how Nux could have done what he’d done to her knowing fully well how it felt to be victimized that way.
He probably didn’t see it as the same thing, she concluded, like with his blood slave. She’d been a stranger to him, just like the captive he called his blood bag. People he didn’t know weren’t people to him.
“Organic!”
Capable recognized the voice of Joe’s Prime Imperator.
“You’re about to cause a riot down here.”
“Aww, Prime, I’m just letting the Boys take in a nice show.”
The Prime Imperator was not amused. “War Boys,” he shouted, “Out of the water! Back to your duties!”
He stood waiting with his arms crossed as the War Boys scrambled out of the pool and back into their trousers. Some of them just gathered up their belongings and ran out naked. It would have been funny if Capable’s heart wasn’t still beating too fast. She hadn’t realized how true it was until the Prime Imperator had appeared to stop it.
The Organic Mechanic enjoyed his power over the wives and the War Boys alike. He’d enjoyed getting the Boys worked up into a sexual frenzy, confident he could control them and keep them from acting on their desires. Over-confident, apparently.
Cheedo hurried out of the pool and raced after the Prime Imperator as he left. She caught his arm. “Prime, how’s the Dag? Tell me, please. Please.”
“She has not been harmed,” the Prime Imperator said gently. He touched the top of Cheedo’s head briefly. “Rictus misses you.”
The Imperators and Rictus had been fond of Cheedo, despite knowing that she was there to be raped by the vile old man as soon as he deemed her old enough. Cheedo, in her innocence, had been fond of them too. The Dag and Angharad had tried to teach her not to trust them, that Rictus, despite his childish simplicity and sometime sweetness, still had the body of a man and was the reason Joe kept the chastity belts on them.
And, sure enough, they’d done nothing when Joe had that sweet young girl they were so fond of gangraped by his army.
Capable was in the darkest mood she’d been in since the earliest days after the failed escape. She tried to identify what had gone wrong. But it just seemed to be a matter of luck. Bad luck that Joe hadn’t taken longer to realize they were missing. The good luck of that innocent monster in catching up to the war rig and telling its crew that Furiosa had betrayed their Immortan and stolen his prize breeders.
The Organic Mechanic had been sulking at having his fun ruined, but as they approached the Blood Shed, he started grinning. “Time for the surprise, girls.”
The cell was gone. Instead there were now three cells, spaced well apart. The cells had cots, so they would no longer have to sleep on the ground. But Capable would have slept on the sharpest pebbles if it meant remaining with Cheedo and Toast. They were being separated.
“Can’t have you girls hatching another treason, can we?”
Toast VI
He lifted her up and held her pinned between the wall and his body. Toast hated that her legs had wrapped around him seemingly of their own accord. She put her hands on his shoulders briefly, just to steady herself, before sharply jabbing her thumbs into his throat. He retaliated by biting her neck.
They were both on the edge of orgasm, when the hum of everyday noise was pierced by a panicked male shriek.
“I DIDN’T HURT HER, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO DAMAGE HER!”
The Organic Mechanic, his War Boy assistants, and Capable were rushing to Cheedo’s cell.
The War Boy who’d just finished raping Cheedo was loudly insisting that he hadn’t done anything, that he’d used lube and he’d been gentle. He sounded as if he was about to start crying.
Toast craned her neck, trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on.
The War Boy Slit must have heard the commotion, too, but he didn’t seem to care. He didn’t let it distract him from finishing, nor from his post-coital routine. “Shiny breeder,” he was murmuring, nuzzling her. He’d dropped to his knees, taking her down with him, and turned to sit with his back to the wall, pulling her into his lap.
Toast struggled against him impatiently. “Let go. You’re done.”
“Not done,” he replied, nipping her ear.
The Organic Mechanic was laughing. “Aww, Chip, she’s not damaged, she just isn’t knocked up.”
Toast realized what must have happened. Cheedo’s moon bleeding must have started and the War Boy must have thought he’d damaged her. The relief she felt at realizing Cheedo hadn’t been badly hurt was replaced by a weary hopelessness. Cheedo wasn’t damaged, but she’d continue to be subjected to rape daily for at least another moon cycle.
She dug her fingernails into Slit’s arm. Surely his penchant for fucking her multiple times a visit had increased her chances of getting pregnant. It had to.
He was running a hand up and down her thighs, causing her body to remember she’d interrupted it before it could get off. She was tempted to shift her thighs apart and hope his hand found its way between them, but she refused to give in to the temptation.
“I’d love to work on your skin,” he murmured.
Considering the state of his own skin - with drawings carved into his flesh - Toast had a very good idea of what that meant. For a moment, she was thankful to Joe for at least limiting what his War Boys were allowed to do to her.
Then Slit added, “Thought about doing it when Organic said Immortan said to lightly damage you for stabbing Block.”
He was tracing patterns only he could see, but with his fingertips instead of the knife he usually used. It felt like her skin was straining for more, wanting increased intensity. She didn’t understand how it was possible to still be aroused despite knowing what he wanted to do to her.
“But you’re already perfect, shiny breeder. It’d make you less chrome, not more chrome.”
Toast was wondering at his failure so far to ‘lightly damage’ her as he’d been instructed to do. He was probably just waiting until it suited his mood.
“Sorry to interrupt the cuddling,” the Organic Mechanic said, coming over to Toast’s cell. “Toast, you bleeding too?”
“No,” she answered.
“Hmm, you could just be late due to your stressful situation and all,” he mocked. “A few more rounds of breeding won’t hurt, until we’re sure there’s a war bun in the oven.”
Morsov V
Morsov had already spoken with Cheedo, so when the Organic Mechanic was done checking over the war rig crew, he started to leave with the others.
“Morsov, Elvis, you two stay for breeding.”
He’d finally get to hold Cheedo again. He wasted no time in getting to her cell. But Organic didn’t come to unlock it.
“Which one of you fucked which breeder last time?”
“Morsov fucked his beloved Cheedo, of course,” Elvis answered Organic, giving Morsov a teasing grin.
But Morsov had a bad feeling about this.
Organic muttered to himself and used his fingers to count something several times. Then he said, “Switch this time. Elvis, you take Cheedo.”
“Why?” Morsov demanded.
The Organic Mechanic looked annoyed. “To improve the chances of conceiving a pup.”
“But you’re letting Slit breed with Toast the Knowing almost every day! It’s not fair!”
“That’s none of your concern. Shut up and go fuck Toast.”
Elvis patted his shoulder. “I’ll be real gentle with her, okay?”
Morsov nodded. He stared at Cheedo, who looked just as disappointed as him. Then he made his way across the Blood Shed to Toast’s cell. The door was already open. Morsov approached Toast the Knowing warily. She’d once almost killed a War Boy who’d been breeding with her, and she’d left gouged eyes and broken fingers on lots of others.
“Please don’t hit me,” he said.
Toast looked astonished. Then she laughed. But she didn’t sound amused, she sounded bitter.
She was very shiny and chrome, and he would happily fuck her if he could be sure that she wouldn’t stab him while he was doing it.
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” she said. She pulled off her clothes. “Get it over with.”
Morsov touched her breasts, half-expecting her to head-butt him or kick him in the balls at any moment. But it was the Organic Mechanic who startled him.
“Hey, Toast, Morsov here was your girl Furiosa’s best lancer. But our boy Slit says he’s the best lancer. Let us know which of them is better at lancing, would you?”
The Organic Mechanic was leaning against the bars, leering.
Morsov really wished he wasn’t watching. But being reminded of Slit and his pathetic insistence that he was the best lancer kindled enough competitive fire to give Organic a good show.
Toast seemed furious when he was done, but fortunately she seemed angrier at Organic than at him.
“Well, Toast,” Organic said. “What’s the verdict?”
Toast didn’t say anything, she just glared at him. Morsov had no doubt that if he gave her the little pistol from his pockets, she’d empty the whole clip into Organic. He was almost tempted to do it. But they only had the one Organic Mechanic. They needed him even if he was an asshole.
Toast VII
“She’s as mediocre as you, Morsov! All that sniveling. I’ll make her fucking scream.”
Toast recognized the War Boy Slit’s voice before he strode into the Blood Shed along with several others. Cheedo’s Morsov was trying to lunge at Slit and being held back by two other War Boys. Behind them came the Organic Mechanic and the old War Boy who’d killed Furiosa.
Capable had been sitting in her unlocked cell, having her hair braided by one of the War Pups. She sprang up and hurried to place herself in front of Cheedo’s cell. Toast would have done the same if she could.
“No, you will not,” Furiosa’s killer snapped at Slit. “You are forbidden all contact with the wives.”
“No, he’s not,” the Organic Mechanic contradicted.
“He drew a blade on another War Boy,” the killer said. “He tried to kill Morsov. Denying him breeding privileges is the least of the punishment he deserves.”
“Fight just got a little too heated, that’s all.”
Toast could see that both Morsov and Slit looked battered, and Morsov was bleeding from a deep cut across his torso. From the look of it, Slit had been trying to slice him open instead of trying to stab him, luckily for Cheedo.
The Organic Mechanic finished cleaning and stitching up the wound. “Off you go, Morsov.”
“Ace,” Morsov said pleadingly, to Furiosa’s killer.
The killer and the Organic Mechanic stared at each other. It was clear they loathed each other.
“War Rig crew, get out of here. Go cool off,” the Organic Mechanic said. “Let me deal with Slit.”
“I’ll inform the Prime Imperator about this,” the killer said to Slit. He shot a final look of contempt at the Organic Mechanic before he helped Morsov’s friends drag him away.
The moment they were gone, Slit rounded on the Organic Mechanic. “How could you let him stick his mediocre cock in my breeder?!”
“Just wanted to check that you weren’t going soft.” He tried to put his hand on Slit’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
He was practically vibrating with rage. “You know what a mediocre piece of Buzzard-spawn filth he is. He’s defiled her!” He snarled into the Organic Mechanic’s face, “How could you do that to me, Organic?!”
“Watch it, Slit,” the Organic Mechanic said warningly.
“You owe me, Organic,” Slit said, less aggressively. “Let me fuck his weepy breeder and see how he likes it.”
“Fine,” the Organic Mechanic agreed.
Toast didn’t understand how Slit could feel so possessive of her and be driven into a jealous rage over a War Boy he hated fucking her. But she couldn’t let him take his anger out on Cheedo. Cheedo wouldn’t survive it unbroken, and Toast knew she could.
“No!” she shouted. “Leave her alone. Come to me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
He hesitated, stopping halfway to Cheedo’s cell.
“I’ll fight back. If you want me to pretend to like it, I’ll do that too.”
“She’s as mediocre as Morsov anyway,” he said dismissively of Cheedo. He strode back to the Organic Mechanic and held out his hand.
The Organic Mechanic looked at him for a long moment.
Slit didn’t say anything, just glared at him.
Toast didn’t know what passed between them in silence, what history they had, but the Organic Mechanic gave him the key to her cell.
He let himself into her cell and then he just stood there, looking at her.
“Well?” she said, waiting to be told what he wanted her to do. His anger seemed to be dissipating, but for the first time she was having difficulty reading him.
His voice was uncharacteristically quiet when he asked, “Why didn’t you damage him? Why’d you let him fuck you? He’s too soft to get you pinned down like me or Throttle, so you must have let him.”
Toast punched him, without having made a conscious decision to do so. She belatedly remembered that he had permission to ‘lightly’ damage her, and her hand probably hurt more than his face did. Still, she couldn’t believe he’d dare say that to her.
“I haven’t let any of you,” she hissed.
Slit’s mood seemed to improve instantly. He pulled her against him, and that was familiar, but the almost hesitant way he touched her hair wasn’t. He forced her onto her back and hovered above her, but then he was pressing his mouth to hers almost tentatively. Toast was astonished. He was already pulling back before she realized he’d expected her to kiss him back.
She grabbed his head and leaned up to kiss him. It was a lot less tentative and a lot more forceful when he kissed her this time. It left her breathless. But it wasn’t unpleasant. Quite the opposite.
When it stopped, she thought he was going to tell her what he wanted. But he didn’t speak.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
“I don’t want you to just lie there, but I don’t want you to fight me either if you don’t feel like fighting.”
“You want me to pretend I like it?”
“No.” He frowned. “I want…”
He didn’t seem to know how to articulate what he wanted. Toast was anxious he’d become frustrated and turn violent again. She rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him.
“I want you.”
“You have me,” Toast replied, puzzled.
“Not like any War Boy can have you. I want you different than the others can have you.”
Toast thought he meant that he wanted to fuck her where it wouldn’t lead to pregnancy. She prepared herself mentally to endure it. “Okay.”
But Slit didn’t move. He was still frowning. “Capable likes fucking. She begged Nux to fuck her even though she already had a pup in her.”
Capable had done that to protect Cheedo, same as Toast was trying to do now. Toast had asked him if he wanted her to pretend to like it and he’d said no. She was confused. And then she realized: he didn’t want her to pretend.
“You want me to want you,” she stated. It was such a shock, she didn’t even know what to feel.
“Yeah.” He’d stopped frowning. There was a much softer look on his face. The scars on his face made it difficult to identify at first. It was the same look she’d seen on the face of Cheedo’s Morsov and on the War Boys who came to talk to Capable.
He was infatuated with her. She’d never have guessed. Up until a few moments ago, he’d certainly never acted like she was anything but his favorite thing to fuck. Except, she realized, that wasn’t quite true. She recalled his odd compliments and his habit of addressing her as “shiny breeder” in a way normal people uttered endearments. Today had confirmed her suspicion that he was a bastard even by War Boy standards, so she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that his version of romance was twisted.
She knew what Capable would advise her to do, and she knew that he was very likely to go hurt Cheedo if he couldn’t get what he wanted from Toast. And she might be able to find some advantage later in keeping him infatuated with her. She just had to do something that made him think he was getting what he wanted from her. She kept stroking his back. His skin was pleasant to touch; even the horrid scarifications added an interesting texture.
“I’ll try,” she said. “Give me a few moments. Let’s just lay here like this for a little while.”
“It’s better after fucking.”
Toast wondered if that was why he always fucked her at least twice each visit, if it was so he had an excuse to linger and keep touching her after he finished fucking her the first time.
He shifted his weight and scooted lower, settling his head on her breasts. “But this is shine too.”
It was bizarre to be holding a War Boy like this, like he was her lover instead of one of her rapists. Toast closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was somewhere else and he was someone else. But she just couldn’t do it.
She simply couldn’t pretend she was anywhere else or that he was anyone but a War Boy. So she tried to pretend he was just a random War Boy, one who’d never touched her before. But that was no good either. The best she could summon for a random War Boy was indifference. Slit, at least, goaded her into antipathy. He was easily the most exciting thing in this miserable and boring life forced upon her.
“Just kiss me,” she said, trying to keep the weariness and frustration out of her voice.
His mouth was on hers before she’d even finished the words. She focused on just the physical sensations, analyzing them. She realized that he was, objectively speaking, a good kisser. And she already knew he’d be a good sex partner; he’d taught himself how to get her off and he loved doing it. But as he kept kissing her and began squeezing her breasts, Toast realized that as pleasant as the sensations were, the excitement he normally elicited from her was missing.
Toast felt like crying at the realization that she’d enjoyed being raped by him more than she could enjoy the pretense of normal sex. No.
No.
It wasn’t the illustration of consent that made this different; it was the lack of violent foreplay. She would have to analyze what it meant that Slit was apparently willing to forgo his twisted foreplay for her sake, but later, not now. Now, Toast let herself resent him for causing his twisted version of foreplay to become hers as well.
Unbeknownst to him, he’d already gotten what it was he wanted. She’d wanted him against her will. All she had to do was stop hiding her reaction to him from him.
He was nibbling at her neck. Toast grabbed his head with both hands and brought his ear to her lips. “It’s better the way we usually do it, isn’t it?” she whispered. Then she bit him.
Part 3