Fic: Ulterior Motives
Title: Ulterior Motives
Rating: PG
Pairing: Toast/Slit, background Nux/Capable
Word Count: 2,284
Summary: Toast suspects he has ulterior motives when Slit offers to help keep her warm.
Toast was shivering despite her jacket and scarf and despite the blanket she’d wrapped around herself. When she looked up at the night sky, she could see the vaguely scorpion-shaped cluster of stars. She’d learned even before the vault and Miss Giddy that that constellation appeared as it grew colder. But it was the books in the vault that had taught her why, had explained that as the earth moved around the sun, this part of it tilted away and caused winter. And for someone on the other side of the world, it was summer. She wondered idly if the other side of the world was now just a wasteland too.
Laughter broke out among the War Boys and some started catcalling. Toast looked towards them warily. They appeared to be reacting to the rhythmic rocking of Nux’s truck. Well, at least Capable was keeping warm, she thought wryly. Still, it made her uncomfortable to be out here alone with War Boys in the suddenly sexually-charged atmosphere.
Not that they paid any attention to her. They’d resumed their conversation, with just a few envious glances occasionally thrown the truck’s way. A pair of them slipped away to their own vehicle, and it wasn’t long before it, too, began rocking rhythmically. Geez, hadn’t they ever heard of foreplay?
It occurred to her that none of them were shivering despite the fact that most of them were bare-chested. They didn’t even seem to feel the cold. But then they’d worn nothing but a pair of trousers and boots since early childhood. They were used to it.
Toast had never been able to become used to being cold. She’d rather be hungry than cold. The warmth had been the third best luxury of the vault, after the water and the books. Its glass walls had made it a hothouse, always comfortably warm. Of course, the price for that luxury was suffering Immortan Joe.
She pictured him dead and bloody, his face torn away, to brighten her mood from the dark memories thinking of him had brought. The Citadel belonged to everyone now. And if the women formerly imprisoned within the vault chose to control it still, no one faulted them for it. Most people saw them as leaders, with War Boys choosing to think of them as imperators and a few wasteland wanderers referring to them as queens. Toast chose to think of herself as a guardian, safe-keeping both the people of the Citadel and the irreplaceable knowledge and artifacts contained in the vault.
“You sick?” asked a War Boy slowly approaching her.
There was no concern in his voice, just disbelief and perhaps revulsion. Ah, yes, she was a ‘healthy, full-life prized breeder’ - she wasn’t supposed to get sick.
“No, just cold,” she answered.
They still insisted on painting themselves bone-white and smearing grease on their faces, which made it difficult to identify them as individuals, which in turn made it difficult sometimes to remember that they were individuals and not an anonymous, inter-changeable mass of battle fodder. Toast had taken to memorizing their scars to help identify them. This one was easy. There was only one Citadel War Boy with deep scars cut into his cheeks like a gruesome parody of a smile. Slit.
She still wasn’t sure whether he was Nux’s friend or Nux’s arch-enemy. He seemed to be both. She didn’t know whether that was how friendship was between War Boys, or whether it was just because of Slit as an individual. She was starting to believe the latter though. He was meaner and ruder than the average War Boy.
And ambitious. He always hurried to be the lancer riding on her car. Apparently it gave him status, if only in his own head.
“How can you be cold?” he demanded, gesturing to her blanket and jacket.
Her blood iron was probably low, the Vuvalini had told her, and in the old days she’d have been given vitamin tablets to raise it.
“Blood loss,” she told Slit. “I bleed every thirty days or so, you know.”
But he hadn’t known. War Boys had had little interaction with women other than Furiosa and they’d only learned about menstruation after Nux’s emotional meltdown when Capable’s period started a dozen days after Fury Road. They were equally horrified and impressed by the knowledge that women bled for days without being any worse off for it.
“Oh. I could help keep you warm.”
There was nothing suggestive in his tone. He sounded as casual as if he was offering to help change a tire. Toast was flabbergasted. She could only stare at him.
“You’re going to have to take off all those clothes. Organic said bare skin to bare skin is best for sharing body heat.”
It was the mention of the Organic Mechanic that helped Toast make sense of Slit’s offer. He meant it literally - he was offering to cuddle her to help her warm up, like War Boys did for their sick friends. She was impressed by this evidence that Slit might not be that terrible after all. Though she was slightly insulted that he wasn’t sexually propositioning her.
It was fact, not ego, that she was attractive. It boggled the mind that this War Boy was proposing to cuddle naked without expecting sex. Though maybe she wasn’t his type. Toast had to laugh at herself. No ego, yeah right. There was no point in shivering all night when it seemed safe to accept Slit’s offer.
“Thanks. My clothes are staying on, but you’re getting under this blanket with me.”
She found a good spot and laid down, holding up the blanket for Slit to crawl under. Any hesitation she still had disappeared as she felt the warmth of his body beside her. Greedily, Toast began to consider him a second, living blanket. She turned her back to him and tugged his arm to urge him to put it around her, then she bent her legs, drawing up her knees slightly, and reached behind her to grab at his belts. He got the hint and spooned her.
He was almost twice her size and able to keep all of her warm curled around her like this. It was wonderful. She was thinking of topics they could make conversation about when she realized her War Boy cuddle buddy had fallen asleep. He didn’t snore, thankfully, but there was no mistaking his slow, even breathing. Again, she was more astonished than relieved that a War Boy had her in his grasp and he’d just fallen asleep like it was nothing.
She guessed she really wasn’t Slit’s type.
She was awoken too early by a hissing voice demanding, “Slit, what are you trying to do to Toast? She’ll shoot you if she wakes up and catches you.”
It was Nux. His hissing was an attempt to be quiet.
Toast pretended she was still asleep, curious to hear what they’d say.
“I’m keeping my driver warm,” Slit hissed back. “She’s a better bunkmate than you. She doesn’t turn and shift all night and keep me awake like you.”
“Did she say you could?”
“‘Course,” Slit answered. “I know the rules.”
Nux must have walked away because Slit clutched her tighter and grumbled wordlessly. Toast opened her eyes just enough to confirm that it was still dark and therefore she could go back to sleep. But she didn’t fall asleep, she just sort of basked restfully in the comfort of her new cuddle buddy’s arms.
It wasn’t just the warmth that felt good, it was the solid feel of his arms around her and his body behind her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been held by a man like this. She tried to remember - sometimes her life before the Citadel felt like it had no more connection to her than something read in a book. Then she forced herself to stop. It was no use thinking of people she’d never see again, people who might be dead by now. This was her life now.
She realized she’d been using Slit’s arm as a pillow and slid her head aside so he could take his arm back. He didn’t move. Toast turned to face him and wrapped her arm around his middle, getting as close as possible. Who would ever have thought she’d let a War Boy get this close to her, or that she’d like it.
Then Toast began to feel guilty. She was taking advantage of Slit, somehow violating him, or so it felt. He’d offered physical warmth and only that, not emotional comfort or intimacy. This, the way she felt now, it was something meant to be shared between lovers.
She didn’t remember falling asleep, just waking up when her War Boy disentangled himself from her.
“Sorry, Imperator,” he whispered.
Toast groaned. She didn’t hate mornings so much as she hated waking up and finding herself in this world. Maybe if the wars and great catastrophes had never happened and the world was still as it was in the books and in the memories of elders, she would have awoken early and eagerly each morning. But in the real world, waking meant leaving behind any sense of security and serenity.
The day proved to be boring. It passed as a long drive across empty wasteland. They encountered not a single soul.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Capable asked Nux quietly.
They’d stopped for the evening, and Toast, Capable, Nux, and the much-too-old-to-be-called War Boy Furiosa had put in charge of the other War Boys were huddled over the hand-written map spread out on the hood on Nux’s truck.
“Yeah,” Nux replied, nodding excitedly. “We should reach by noon tomorrow if we leave at dawn tomorrow.”
Ace nodded too, but more solemnly. “You’re wondering why you haven’t seen more people. Immortan Joe kept the location of this mall a secret. There’s a crew permanently stationed there to kill anyone who reached it without one of these-” he gestured to the flaming steering wheel brand “on them.”
“Makes sense,” Toast admitted reluctantly.
After rations had been distributed and consumed, when people began to break up into smaller groups and pairs, Toast’s cuddle buddy presented himself for duty. He joined her atop the hood of her car, where she’d been absorbing its lingering heat, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders like a living shawl.
The stars had begun appearing in the sky, and they were beautiful enough to fool you into thinking the whole wide world might be beautiful too. She had the prospect of discovering new and interesting artifacts tomorrow. And she was warm. She felt content, almost serene.
Then Capable and Nux started to make their truck rock, and Slit offered casually, “I could warm you like that, too.”
What a sly, cunning War Boy. He’d lulled her into a false sense of safety, tricked her into thinking he was harmless.
But he sounded casual, uninterested, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other. His hold on her had not changed either. He wasn’t propositioning her, he was offering to service her. Toast was insulted. Any of those others would beg to fuck her, she didn’t need to be one of his chores.
She considered shoving him off her car. But he was very warm and comfortable.
The next night there was the roof and walls of the buried shopping mall to keep the wind’s chill away. But not-cold wasn’t the same thing as warm, and there was no reason to reject a luxury that came without a price. She allowed Slit to make his bed beside her and accepted the warmth of his arms around her.
They called her the Knowing, but Toast had no idea how long it might have taken her to catch onto Slit’s scheme if not for the murmurs she overheard the following morning between Furiosa’s trusted elder War Boy and the garrison captain.
“So Furiosa took down Immortan Joe and his wives took common half-life War Boys for husbands, not even Imperators?! What a world, brother.”
Husbands plural.
Toast looked to where her helpful, self-appointed lancer and volunteer cuddle buddy was loading the things she’d chosen to take back into her car. She was incredulous for a moment. Then she had to laugh. What grand ambition he had. He didn’t even care if he wasn’t her lover, just that other people thought he was. No, not lover, he’d elevated himself to the status of a husband, if only for the duration of this trip.
What a silly, ridiculous man. Then her amusement faded as she thought of the way the ranking War Boy had said common half-life War Boy. Sometimes she thought it was her curse to be unable to stop thinking. Because when she thought about it, she understood how a common half-life War Boy might be so desperate to distinguish himself from the other common half-life War Boys.
She figured she owed him something for his wonderful body warmth and cozy, comfortable arms and chest. So when she went to check that he’d finished loading up the car, knowing that the War Boys garrisoned here were avidly watching her, she slapped Slit’s arse casually.
“Ready to go home, husband?”
He didn’t feign confusion or ignorance. He just tossed a smug smirk in the direction of the other men and leapt onto the lancer’s perch with that strange grace of his.
Toast couldn’t keep from smiling as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She understood Nux’s and Slit’s friendship better now. It was Slit. You had to slap him upside the head or laugh with him, or sometimes maybe both.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Toast/Slit, background Nux/Capable
Word Count: 2,284
Summary: Toast suspects he has ulterior motives when Slit offers to help keep her warm.
Toast was shivering despite her jacket and scarf and despite the blanket she’d wrapped around herself. When she looked up at the night sky, she could see the vaguely scorpion-shaped cluster of stars. She’d learned even before the vault and Miss Giddy that that constellation appeared as it grew colder. But it was the books in the vault that had taught her why, had explained that as the earth moved around the sun, this part of it tilted away and caused winter. And for someone on the other side of the world, it was summer. She wondered idly if the other side of the world was now just a wasteland too.
Laughter broke out among the War Boys and some started catcalling. Toast looked towards them warily. They appeared to be reacting to the rhythmic rocking of Nux’s truck. Well, at least Capable was keeping warm, she thought wryly. Still, it made her uncomfortable to be out here alone with War Boys in the suddenly sexually-charged atmosphere.
Not that they paid any attention to her. They’d resumed their conversation, with just a few envious glances occasionally thrown the truck’s way. A pair of them slipped away to their own vehicle, and it wasn’t long before it, too, began rocking rhythmically. Geez, hadn’t they ever heard of foreplay?
It occurred to her that none of them were shivering despite the fact that most of them were bare-chested. They didn’t even seem to feel the cold. But then they’d worn nothing but a pair of trousers and boots since early childhood. They were used to it.
Toast had never been able to become used to being cold. She’d rather be hungry than cold. The warmth had been the third best luxury of the vault, after the water and the books. Its glass walls had made it a hothouse, always comfortably warm. Of course, the price for that luxury was suffering Immortan Joe.
She pictured him dead and bloody, his face torn away, to brighten her mood from the dark memories thinking of him had brought. The Citadel belonged to everyone now. And if the women formerly imprisoned within the vault chose to control it still, no one faulted them for it. Most people saw them as leaders, with War Boys choosing to think of them as imperators and a few wasteland wanderers referring to them as queens. Toast chose to think of herself as a guardian, safe-keeping both the people of the Citadel and the irreplaceable knowledge and artifacts contained in the vault.
“You sick?” asked a War Boy slowly approaching her.
There was no concern in his voice, just disbelief and perhaps revulsion. Ah, yes, she was a ‘healthy, full-life prized breeder’ - she wasn’t supposed to get sick.
“No, just cold,” she answered.
They still insisted on painting themselves bone-white and smearing grease on their faces, which made it difficult to identify them as individuals, which in turn made it difficult sometimes to remember that they were individuals and not an anonymous, inter-changeable mass of battle fodder. Toast had taken to memorizing their scars to help identify them. This one was easy. There was only one Citadel War Boy with deep scars cut into his cheeks like a gruesome parody of a smile. Slit.
She still wasn’t sure whether he was Nux’s friend or Nux’s arch-enemy. He seemed to be both. She didn’t know whether that was how friendship was between War Boys, or whether it was just because of Slit as an individual. She was starting to believe the latter though. He was meaner and ruder than the average War Boy.
And ambitious. He always hurried to be the lancer riding on her car. Apparently it gave him status, if only in his own head.
“How can you be cold?” he demanded, gesturing to her blanket and jacket.
Her blood iron was probably low, the Vuvalini had told her, and in the old days she’d have been given vitamin tablets to raise it.
“Blood loss,” she told Slit. “I bleed every thirty days or so, you know.”
But he hadn’t known. War Boys had had little interaction with women other than Furiosa and they’d only learned about menstruation after Nux’s emotional meltdown when Capable’s period started a dozen days after Fury Road. They were equally horrified and impressed by the knowledge that women bled for days without being any worse off for it.
“Oh. I could help keep you warm.”
There was nothing suggestive in his tone. He sounded as casual as if he was offering to help change a tire. Toast was flabbergasted. She could only stare at him.
“You’re going to have to take off all those clothes. Organic said bare skin to bare skin is best for sharing body heat.”
It was the mention of the Organic Mechanic that helped Toast make sense of Slit’s offer. He meant it literally - he was offering to cuddle her to help her warm up, like War Boys did for their sick friends. She was impressed by this evidence that Slit might not be that terrible after all. Though she was slightly insulted that he wasn’t sexually propositioning her.
It was fact, not ego, that she was attractive. It boggled the mind that this War Boy was proposing to cuddle naked without expecting sex. Though maybe she wasn’t his type. Toast had to laugh at herself. No ego, yeah right. There was no point in shivering all night when it seemed safe to accept Slit’s offer.
“Thanks. My clothes are staying on, but you’re getting under this blanket with me.”
She found a good spot and laid down, holding up the blanket for Slit to crawl under. Any hesitation she still had disappeared as she felt the warmth of his body beside her. Greedily, Toast began to consider him a second, living blanket. She turned her back to him and tugged his arm to urge him to put it around her, then she bent her legs, drawing up her knees slightly, and reached behind her to grab at his belts. He got the hint and spooned her.
He was almost twice her size and able to keep all of her warm curled around her like this. It was wonderful. She was thinking of topics they could make conversation about when she realized her War Boy cuddle buddy had fallen asleep. He didn’t snore, thankfully, but there was no mistaking his slow, even breathing. Again, she was more astonished than relieved that a War Boy had her in his grasp and he’d just fallen asleep like it was nothing.
She guessed she really wasn’t Slit’s type.
She was awoken too early by a hissing voice demanding, “Slit, what are you trying to do to Toast? She’ll shoot you if she wakes up and catches you.”
It was Nux. His hissing was an attempt to be quiet.
Toast pretended she was still asleep, curious to hear what they’d say.
“I’m keeping my driver warm,” Slit hissed back. “She’s a better bunkmate than you. She doesn’t turn and shift all night and keep me awake like you.”
“Did she say you could?”
“‘Course,” Slit answered. “I know the rules.”
Nux must have walked away because Slit clutched her tighter and grumbled wordlessly. Toast opened her eyes just enough to confirm that it was still dark and therefore she could go back to sleep. But she didn’t fall asleep, she just sort of basked restfully in the comfort of her new cuddle buddy’s arms.
It wasn’t just the warmth that felt good, it was the solid feel of his arms around her and his body behind her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been held by a man like this. She tried to remember - sometimes her life before the Citadel felt like it had no more connection to her than something read in a book. Then she forced herself to stop. It was no use thinking of people she’d never see again, people who might be dead by now. This was her life now.
She realized she’d been using Slit’s arm as a pillow and slid her head aside so he could take his arm back. He didn’t move. Toast turned to face him and wrapped her arm around his middle, getting as close as possible. Who would ever have thought she’d let a War Boy get this close to her, or that she’d like it.
Then Toast began to feel guilty. She was taking advantage of Slit, somehow violating him, or so it felt. He’d offered physical warmth and only that, not emotional comfort or intimacy. This, the way she felt now, it was something meant to be shared between lovers.
She didn’t remember falling asleep, just waking up when her War Boy disentangled himself from her.
“Sorry, Imperator,” he whispered.
Toast groaned. She didn’t hate mornings so much as she hated waking up and finding herself in this world. Maybe if the wars and great catastrophes had never happened and the world was still as it was in the books and in the memories of elders, she would have awoken early and eagerly each morning. But in the real world, waking meant leaving behind any sense of security and serenity.
The day proved to be boring. It passed as a long drive across empty wasteland. They encountered not a single soul.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Capable asked Nux quietly.
They’d stopped for the evening, and Toast, Capable, Nux, and the much-too-old-to-be-called War Boy Furiosa had put in charge of the other War Boys were huddled over the hand-written map spread out on the hood on Nux’s truck.
“Yeah,” Nux replied, nodding excitedly. “We should reach by noon tomorrow if we leave at dawn tomorrow.”
Ace nodded too, but more solemnly. “You’re wondering why you haven’t seen more people. Immortan Joe kept the location of this mall a secret. There’s a crew permanently stationed there to kill anyone who reached it without one of these-” he gestured to the flaming steering wheel brand “on them.”
“Makes sense,” Toast admitted reluctantly.
After rations had been distributed and consumed, when people began to break up into smaller groups and pairs, Toast’s cuddle buddy presented himself for duty. He joined her atop the hood of her car, where she’d been absorbing its lingering heat, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders like a living shawl.
The stars had begun appearing in the sky, and they were beautiful enough to fool you into thinking the whole wide world might be beautiful too. She had the prospect of discovering new and interesting artifacts tomorrow. And she was warm. She felt content, almost serene.
Then Capable and Nux started to make their truck rock, and Slit offered casually, “I could warm you like that, too.”
What a sly, cunning War Boy. He’d lulled her into a false sense of safety, tricked her into thinking he was harmless.
But he sounded casual, uninterested, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other. His hold on her had not changed either. He wasn’t propositioning her, he was offering to service her. Toast was insulted. Any of those others would beg to fuck her, she didn’t need to be one of his chores.
She considered shoving him off her car. But he was very warm and comfortable.
The next night there was the roof and walls of the buried shopping mall to keep the wind’s chill away. But not-cold wasn’t the same thing as warm, and there was no reason to reject a luxury that came without a price. She allowed Slit to make his bed beside her and accepted the warmth of his arms around her.
They called her the Knowing, but Toast had no idea how long it might have taken her to catch onto Slit’s scheme if not for the murmurs she overheard the following morning between Furiosa’s trusted elder War Boy and the garrison captain.
“So Furiosa took down Immortan Joe and his wives took common half-life War Boys for husbands, not even Imperators?! What a world, brother.”
Husbands plural.
Toast looked to where her helpful, self-appointed lancer and volunteer cuddle buddy was loading the things she’d chosen to take back into her car. She was incredulous for a moment. Then she had to laugh. What grand ambition he had. He didn’t even care if he wasn’t her lover, just that other people thought he was. No, not lover, he’d elevated himself to the status of a husband, if only for the duration of this trip.
What a silly, ridiculous man. Then her amusement faded as she thought of the way the ranking War Boy had said common half-life War Boy. Sometimes she thought it was her curse to be unable to stop thinking. Because when she thought about it, she understood how a common half-life War Boy might be so desperate to distinguish himself from the other common half-life War Boys.
She figured she owed him something for his wonderful body warmth and cozy, comfortable arms and chest. So when she went to check that he’d finished loading up the car, knowing that the War Boys garrisoned here were avidly watching her, she slapped Slit’s arse casually.
“Ready to go home, husband?”
He didn’t feign confusion or ignorance. He just tossed a smug smirk in the direction of the other men and leapt onto the lancer’s perch with that strange grace of his.
Toast couldn’t keep from smiling as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She understood Nux’s and Slit’s friendship better now. It was Slit. You had to slap him upside the head or laugh with him, or sometimes maybe both.