She ran her fingers along his lips, much like she had when they first met. Except now, circumstances were different. They were laying atop the great hightower of the Citadel, the stars clear and bright above him, greenery surrounding them though they were but gray silhouettes in the light of the lantern. The rocks orange beneath them, hot under Nux's body, hot where Capable's knees positioned themselves on either side of him, hot where his elbows lay propping his torso up to meet her touch.

The wind blew gently up there, high reaching towards Valhalla. Though Nux felt like he was there now, the blanket under them caressing his journey to the great chrome ribbons of his true destiny. She'd said he didn't need to worry about it, she'd said he needed to be here, that he needed to be with her to receive her butterfly kisses. But he didn't know for sure, he didn't know if Valhalla was here, right now, with her, or beyond this. Was this all there was for him? Did he live this halflife for nothing other than this, this warm body atop of him, caressing his lips and his face, breathing fire with every breath and every dusting of her hair?

Whether he did or not, he was pleased with it.

"You feel so different," she remarked, running her hand down his chest, his scars tingling from her touch, "when you're cleaned up."

Nux smiled, his eyes swapping between her hand and her eyes, green, the light flickering on her subdued features. Glory be, she was so beautiful, so beautiful. How could such a creature exist, touching him, making him feel this way?

"I liked those," Capable watched Nux's lips as he pronounced the words, admiring the way his tongue flicked between his teeth.

"Those what?" she asked, her hand trailing him upwards now, resting on his shoulder, firm and comforting.

"The showers," he answered, his voice raspy and soft, quite the antithesis to the harsh grate she'd heard as he cursed the women before they tossed him overboard.

Capable smiled, her eyes crinkling and her teeth peeking out from beneath her lips.

Glory be, her lips...

"I knew you would."

Their lids were heavy, exhausted after the day's events. Who knew what the future of the Citadel held? No one could tell, not even Furiosa who had been tirelessly working to guarantee some sort of order, some sort of leadership. For now, the women were situated in bedrooms throughout the hightower, the vault closed and locked for good.

"You don't have to go to the bunks tonight, Nux," she cooed sheepishly. Her strong demeanor, the shell she had grown from years of abuse, cracked with Nux's eyes meeting hers, strong and blue, pupils wide.

He furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"You could stay with me tonight, in my room," she smiled. Nux scanned her face for any elaboration, but there was none.

"It has to be more comfortable than the bunks, right? The beds are huge, they're..." she trailed off. She didn't want to finish that sentence. She knew why they were large, she knew why they would accommodate two people.

Nux did as well.

"I can't... uh..." he swallowed. "I'm not, uh. Do you really want that?"

"Want what?"

Nux looked down now, watching the way her leg muscles relaxed and then strained as she adjusted herself over him.

"It's just a bed, nothing has to happen in them," she tried to catch his gaze, but he avoided it.

Nux felt uncomfortable. He didn't want to breed Capable; she'd just gotten out of that situation and now she was asking him if he'd like to put her back in it? Not like he'd make a fitting mate anyway, he was just a War Boy, a half life, good enough only to sacrifice.

She leaned her head down to his neck then, her lips dragging across the sensitive skin there. He let out a breathy moan, her lips feeling his heightened pulse as she kissed him. His eyes fluttered closed, feeling what blood he had rush to his abdomen, a small knot forming there. He could smell her hair, clean, he could feel her hot breath as she released held breath onto his neck. The blood moved from his abdomen downward, the rush sending a tingle through his spine.

Capable smiled into his neck, feeling his reaction press into her inner thigh.

"Unless you want it to."

Nux's eyes snapped open. What did she just say? His eyes widened, his lips parted as she moved to look at him. She looked so calm, there's no way she said that. He must have made it up, mistaken her murmur. How could she suggest such a thing? Nux hadn't ever considered the possibility of children, they never were an option to him.

"Capable, I," he stuttered. "I can't do that to you."

She squinted then. "Do what to me, exactly? You think it's always just for..."

She knew the answer when Nux's confused face didn't change.

Her mouth turned into a wide smile.

"Glory, Nux, I'm not asking you to breed me."

He raised his eyebrows then, his eyes switching between her eyes, then to her smile.

Her smile, oh glory...

"It's not always that way," she continued. "Sometimes you just do it to... feel good. It feels really good, I hear, when it's like that."

She wouldn't know.

Neither would he.

But with his neck feeling cold, his hands gripping the blanket below them, he decided he would.

"Can you, uh," he swallowed back the tightness in his throat, for the first time in a long while not caused by Larry and Barry, "could you do that again?"

"On your neck?"

"Yeah."

She smiled, kissing his cheek, flushing his already blushing face. She trailed down to the other side of his neck now, her eyelashes brushing his cheek before she placed a kiss there. She smiled, feeling his chest push up into hers, seeing his knuckles whiten as he clenched the blanket. He was so new, she mused, pristine.

She wasn't.

She stopped kissing him then. His breathing slowed when she parted from his body and climbed off of him, sitting next to him with a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry," she choked out after her throat began to tighten, so many emotions coming to her at once. She'd felt herself get hot between her legs as she perched herself over him, she'd felt Nux's own reaction to her, she felt so glad to be safe, so happy to be here with him.

She also felt shame.

"Sorry?" Nux sat up further now, resting his elbows on his thighs. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked, looking down at his painfully obvious erection.

He heard her sniffle, then run her hand along her eyes before tears could fall.

Oh no, she's crying. She's crying. What do I do? What did I do?

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, she looking up to meet his gaze for a split second before breathing out. "No, Nux, you did nothing wrong."

Relief rushed over him, though concern still wracked his body. "What's the matter, then?"

Capable brought her knees to his chest. "I'm sorry, I really am. I can't offer you what you offer me."

Nux didn't know what she meant by that. What was he offering? He had only accepted her kisses, her touches. Admittedly, he was too scared to try much more. He'd wanted to badly to raise his hands to rest on her hips, so badly to feel her chest against his. Did he not respond enough?

Seeing that Nux didn't know how to respond to a comment he didn't understand, she continued. "Nux... look at you. You've barely been touched, you just barely learned what a kiss on the cheek meant a day ago. You're nothing like me, you're..." she paused, forcing back tears, "you're clean."

Nux's mouth lay agape as she spoke. She felt this way? She felt like she was dirty? How? He looked at her like a goddess, a real reminder that Valhalla was not his destiny.

"You're not clean?" Nux prodded, his voice soft. His arm was warm against her.

She looked up at him now, her eyes red, a deep contrast with the green irises that were usually so vibrant. She breathed deep breaths, searching his blue eyes for any sign that he knew what he was insinuating.

"I'm not," she choked. "I'm not. Not after..." she trailed off. "I'm not clean."

Nux was a bit behind on emotional matters, having grown up with no real understanding of how they worked or what he needed to do. He'd suppressed his emotions his whole life, having to in order to fit in with the rest of the boys. He couldn't be weak, he didn't want to, he wanted to be valiant, he wanted to die historic.

Now, all he wanted was for Capable to stop crying.

"I think you are," he ventured. "I think you're real shiny like that, actually. You're real brave, and uh, you're so nice to me, and you really kinda switched my whole life around, ya know? Well, whatever I got left of it."

She looked up at him. He wasn't really understanding. He offered a sympathetic smile to which Capable smiled back, knowing he was trying, how he wouldn't understand.

"How can you be dirty if you got a new life right now? You threw the old one behind in the rig, didn't you? You said you did. You said we'd come back and everything would be new. Aren't you new? I thought I was gonna be new with you."

He rambled on endearingly, Capable almost not believing what she was hearing. He had it in his to be that... introspective? Perhaps she'd underestimated him. She nodded, though, her growing smile silencing him, hoping she would respond more meaningfully.

"Thanks, Nux," Capable released her legs. "You're right. We're new, aren't we? Immortan is dead." He's behind me, behind us, behind this, she thought.

Nux's erection had long past subsided, seeing her cry forcing a dead-stop on that part of him. That part, very unexplored, very new, new like them.

Nux smiled, seeing Capable under the light of the lantern, peaceful now. They shared silence, the only noise the ruffle of the blanket against rock as Capable moved to nestle herself against Nux.

Nux wasn't Immortan, she reminded herself. She'd been battling her sexual desires since the moment the chastity belt was cut from her body, sometimes too overpowering to think about much else. She'd never let herself do anything about it, though, unable, the only touch she knowing being Immortan's. Dirty, painful.

But I am not dirty.

Nux rubbed her shoulder with his hand, looking down at her hair, so red, so vibrant. She was so warm against him, the cold desert air nipping them.

"Nux," she began, "what do you want?"

Nux was taken aback from both the sudden noise and the question she posed him. What did he want? He didn't know. What did she mean? What does she want?

"I'm... not sure," Nux looked away from her hair, "what you mean by that."

"What do you want, tonight?" she clarified.

She looked up to him, his gaze meeting hers. He searched her face for reassurance, any sign of direction.

"I liked the uh, the neck thing, you did... before, you know..."

She grinned, rising to rest on her knees, resting her chin on Nux's collarbone, breathing fire on the skin that Nux readily surrendered.

"If you want, ah," Nux shuddered when she began to lick and kiss at his neck, so warm, Glory... "can I try on you?"

She grinned, her teeth running across his wet skin. He was so curious, so excitable.

She mounted him, then, like before. Nux looked up to her, his palms supporting him behind him, his gaze unbroken until her eyes disappeared behind the horizon of his shoulder. Her neck was there, right before him, bared. Suddenly he was nervous, he wanted so badly to make her happy but wasn't entirely sure how, how she made him feel like that.

Slowly, though, he pressed his scarred lips to her skin, she was so hot, she was so soft. He mimicked her, kissing her skin like she had with his, gentle but forceful and sweet and hot. He'd felt her sweet vibrations as she moaned, breathy and intense. Nux closed his eyes, starting to feel Capable's body press into his, her breathing pushing her chest into his.

If this was Valhalla, he was glad to there.

If not, he wished it was.

"Nux,"she breathed, pulling her neck away from him, "do you know what happens to women, like when you get excited? When women get excited?"

Nux's gaze met her eyes, then jolted down to his erection that once again pushed against his canvas pants. He was embarrassed; only moments ago she'd been so upset, was he a bad person for reacting like this so soon?

He shook his head, answering her question.

"Have you ever seen a woman naked?"

He looked down. "Yeah," he nodded. Capable was confused and though she wouldn't ever admit it to herself or anyone else, she felt a tug of disdain at his answer."Yeah, Valkyrie crying for help before we found the Many Mothers."

The growing knot in Capable's gut settled. "I mean, up close. Like with me, how it is right now."

Nux reached up then, having been staring at the crease her leg made with her hip as she straddled him, and rested his hand on her. She was warm, hot under the linen clothes they'd been given when they settled in the hightower. It was a relief to be out of the cheesecloth rags.

"No, not like this."

"Here," she reached down, grabbing his hand from her hip and sliding it towards her belly. His eyes followed her orange skin against his pale, feeling her navel and the muscles there flex when she propped herself up, leaving space between them now. He felt an unusual chill.

Then she moved his hand lower, cupping it around her mound. Nux swallowed, his eyes flashing to her eyes and then returning to his hand. It fit so perfectly there, in his palm, so hot under the linen. Hot and wet, he noticed, wetness. His fingers dragged across her, Capable's breath hitching and with that he stopped.

"Is that okay?" he kept his hand there, though he did not move.

Capable nodded her head, yes, yes it was more than okay. For so long she had denied herself the feeling, for so long it had only been rough, pain. With Nux, he was so soft, scared, his innocence quivering his body as he touched her. It was different, she knew that, it was different and this was okay.

She felt his chest rise and fall with each burst of adrenaline that coursed through him, her hand on his chest.

"Women get, excited... just like you. But instead of anything getting bigger like yours, we get... wet," the word feeling strangely slimy in her mouth. So many days of prodding and manipulation, her body betraying her as he would growl out his approval at her wetness, you really want this, you can't lie, look at you, you're wet, how can you not want it?

She pushed the dialogue from her head, focusing on Nux's bright blue eyes that looked up to meet hers. She needed to ground herself, root her knees on each side of him, and stay there.

"It feels, ah," Nux breathed out, his breath having been held, "real nice, Capable. It feels nice."

She smiled, the linen around her body feeling constrictive now. She was so hot, so hot, he was so hot, too hot, both of them. He cursed himself for sounding so stupid.

"Real nice"? Really? That's all I could come up with? She's like a goddess sent straight from Valhalla and she's "real nice" like an engine block?

His thoughts were calmed as she leaned down to brush her lips against his, gentle, so soft against his rough ones. He didn't know what to do, was it like on her neck? No, no it wasn't. He copied her movements when she made them, his cheeks flushing sanguine. Her eyes closed, his closed. Her bottom lip moved, his bottom lip moved. Open, close, open, close. It would be so wonderful, he thought, if he wasn't so nervous and if his erection wasn't so tight in his pants.

"Capable, ah," he broke this kiss, his lips flushed and his lids heavy, "I gotta, I have to..."

Capable was patient as he collected his thoughts. He was so nervous, so new. It was humbling to her.

"Can I take my pants off?" he finally breathed out.

Capable's eyes widened. "I, I mean, yeah, but..." Capable shuffled herself off of him.

"No! It's not... no, it's... it's uncomfortable. It hurts a little."

Capable's gaze softened. Oh. Of course, she'd forgotten how sensitive it really was. He wouldn't try to be forward like that, it was just his ignorance. His pants were heavy, of course he would want to take them off; her linen wasn't as heavy and it still felt too hot.

He leaned down to unbuckle his pants, going too fast and shaking with his fumbling. Soon, though, he leaned back and thrust his hips upward, pulling them down and kicking them off, shoving them in a pile by his feet.

Relief.

Capable stared, his cock now swinging upwards towards his belly as he propped himself up on his arms again. He'd seen her eyes basically glued to his cock, suddenly realizing that he'd overstepped boundaries.

"I'm, uh, sorry, it's... for you being naked is this huge deal, I don't- I don't know why," he moved to cover himself with his hand.

"A huge deal?" Capable then broke her gaze with his dick to meet his worried eyes.

"Yeah, you're all real worried about- about covering yourselves all the time," he continued.

"Are you not?"

"The pants are mostly for protection, they're not some, uh," he didn't know how to finish that.

"War Boys, we, we're all real comfortable with each other like that. It's no big deal, we just, we clean together and we eat together, well when there's food, and the pants get real hot, and it's easier to just..."

Capable scanned his face as he rambled on, trailing off, embarrassed. She smiled then, placing her hand on his chest.

"Don't worry about it, then," she smiled. "You're right in that it's no big deal. Especially now, with me, right?"

Nux moved his hand away then, moving it behind his back as Capable gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head.

Glory be.

She must have noticed his staring, his breathing hitch, because she giggled and straddled him again, avoiding his dick. She hadn't wanted to overstimulate him.

"Did you do anything with the War Boys, then?" she asked, her arms wrapping around his neck. He still stared down at her breasts. Manners must not have been a thing for the War Boys. "Anything like this?"

"Some did," he confirmed. "I didn't."

This new information was very interesting to Capable. "Why not?"

"Just... didn't want to, I guess," he moved his eyes back up to hers now. "Slit would tell me about it- it never, I didn't want to."

Capable nodded. "What did Slit say about it?"

"He just... he talked about kissing, he talked about the- the things you're doing to me but with him, the feelings... In the bunks, you'd hear them sometimes, the other War Boys, no one was quiet about it, boys who wanted it, got it, and those who didn't, didn't."

"Didn't it sound appealing?"

Nux scrunched his face up. "Too sick to really care one way or another what Slit was doing with that sort of thing."

"You cared about him, though," Capable's eyes glistened in the light of the lantern.

A short smile. "Yeah, I mean... he was my lancer. That's the strongest bond ya get, you're gonna go to Valhalla together, you're gonna care for each other if they need it..." he trailed off, his smile following.

"What about the Wives?" he asked, his eyes perking to hers.

The question furrowed her brows. "Are you asking if we ever did things like the War Boys did?"

Nux looked away, his mouth opening to defend himself. She'd asked him, could he not ask her? Was that not okay?

"I'm sorry, it- you don't..."

"We didn't, no. We had those chastity belts, and for us, we're more like sisters than anything else," she answered.

Silence, then. Nux hadn't shared that part of him before, he didn't know what would be strange to Capable because everything seemed so normal to him.

"You can touch, you know," she continued, wanting to change the subject. The idea of having sex with the wives was indeed akin to thinking about having sex with her sisters.

"That's okay? You're sure?"

"Yeah, Nux, it's okay."

He raised one hand to cup her breast, grateful that she was indeed alright with it. Her nipple perked under his palm, his thumb moving to run over it. His calloused hands were rough against her soft skin, textured.

"Glory be..." he muttered, not really intending to.

She was so humbled by this boy under her who looked at her like a goddess and treated her like fine china. She ran her head along the back of his shaved his, prickly. He felt his cock twitch into her leg as he rubbed her breast, so lightly, don't hurt her.

Capable felt his hand trail down her side, resting on her hip. He was exploring her, he wanted to feel her, feel her skin, feel her hair, her hips, her musculature.

Capable swung one leg off of him, his eyes meeting hers. She slid her linen shorts down to her knees, Nux's lips parting as she came into full view of him, the Valhalla between her legs. She mounted him again, kicking the shorts aside, so close, so close, so warm. He could feel the wet hotness on his cock, so hot, so hot. She draped her chest over his, pulling him in for a deep kiss. It wasn't like the other one, Nux took note, it was more like the ones she laid on his neck, but open close, open close. He could drink her in for the rest of his days, aqua-cola be damned. He groaned into her mouth, though not fully intentionally, the vibrations coursing through her body and nestling in her lower belly.

"Hey," she was interrupted by a peck from Nux and a smile, "hey," she whispered, "lean against the wall there, it'll be easier."

Nux looked towards the direction her finger pointed, some rock edifices surfacing from the edge of the hightower. He nodded, Capable dismounting and helping him move the blanket against the rock. They hadn't anticipated doing this, anything like this, their intention only to watch the stars in peace and quiet away from the hectic bustle inside the hightower.

Nux leaned against the rock now, his hands free to grasp Capable's hips. She grinned into his neck, feeling his pulse against her cheek. It was unbelievable, really, how she fit so well into his body, how his hands curved perfectly around her hips, how her breasts pressed so perfectly against his chest, how her legs straddled him so perfectly. There's no way this is real, Nux thought, I have died. I have died and I'm not in this wasteland, I am somewhere else, somewhere with Capable.

Here.

"Nux," she breathed, "please... please..."

Nux looked to her, incredulous. What did she need? Nux didn't know, how could he? He didn't even know what he needed other than to feel her against him, to feel her warmth protect him from the desert night.

She groaned, the pressure inside her growing rapidly. It had been her first time, really, feeling this way without guilt, without shame, without pain. Her arms trembled as she placed one hand on his chest, and the other reached down to grasp the tip of his cock.

He cried out, breathy, feeling her fingers touch him there. No one else had except himself, and even then it was lackluster. Now, though, glory... he didn't know how to handle it. Her warm pussy so close to him, almost touching, her fingers wrapped around him like they were...

What do I do?

"Is—Nux, I, here, can I try?" she stuttered, watching Nux's face for any reaction as she pushed her hips closer to him, the tip of his cock resting between her folds. She was so wet, Glory, this isn't like water, it's better. This is better than water. He hadn't thought there was anything better than water aside from Valhalla; she really must be his Valhalla.

His hands squeezed her hips, his own involuntarily driving upwards to rub against her labia. She hadn't anticipated feeling him against her clit, letting out a moan with Nux, their voices mingling in the air, the stars lapping it up.

"Nux, ah- Nux, is that okay? Are you-" she opened her eyes to meet his, wide, pupils large with milky darkness. He nodded quickly, though, easing herself more into him, stroking him now, up and down, up and down, her wetness thick and burning.

"Capable, Capable..." he repeated, feeling her hips move over him, feeling her pussy glide over him, so warm, too warm, her hair rubbing against his face, so soft, her breasts, glory, glory, glory be...

"Nux, we can, we can do what you want," she murmured into his ear, the hot whispers sending more stimulation to his cock where he thought he couldn't take any more.

"I- I, Capable, it's... what do you want?" his toes curled.

She stopped gyrating, then, her breath catching up. What did she want? Did she really want this? Did she really want Nux at all? Did she want him like this? He was barely a man, so new, so nervous under her. Was she too much for him right now?

"I, I want you," she concluded, her doubts pushed aside by the rush of relief that accompanied her words. He smiled, she smiled, she was sure, he was sure.

"Tell me, if- if you need to stop," he told her, direct but nervous. The words reverberated in her mind- she was in control, she was able to stop. She was in control. She sat up straight against him now, his eyes meeting his cock almost at her entrance. He was so shiny with her wetness, so shiny, chrome, almost.

She was truly Valhalla, to be so shiny and chrome.

Capable sunk down on him, watching his head lean back into the rock, keeping his eyes on his cock pushing into her. She was so tight, so wet, he thought, his cock so thick, she thought. He wasn't ravaging her, he wasn't hurting her, it didn't hurt, it didn't hurt.

It felt amazing.

She lifted herself up again, drawing a slow groan from Nux, then sunk back down again, quicker that time. He reached up further inside her this time, kissing her womb, her head flying back, her hair following like a red river. Nux grunted, feeling bold and reaching up to grab one of her breasts, adrenaline coursing through him with every bah-bump, bah-bump, bah-bump of his heart.

He wouldn't last long, she knew, he was obviously new to all this and she didn't really want something that lasted too long. It was bursts of adrenaline, desire, deep human need that kept them going for as long as they did, sweat budding on their brows from the anxiety and sheer audacity of the situation. It was pure luck though, and thorough lack of activity aside from this, that led Capable to her orgasm, slightly scaring Nux with the sudden cries she made and how she felt so tight on him then, so tight, then she relaxed and everything was back to how it was, except she smiled wider and she went faster and she whispered his name under her bated breath.

Nux didn't know what he felt, almost like the need to urinate but different, deeper, lower, more primal than that. He wanted to warn Capable, he wanted to tell her, but his throat wouldn't let him, it was closed off, something was caught up there. Not knowing what to do, not knowing what to feel but having to do and feel something, he tapped her leg rapidly, gently.

Capable knew what it meant, especially with his furrowed brow and his pursed lips. He needed to release, he needed to do it now, and he didn't know what to do besides that.

"Nux- Nux, you, you're gonna..."

He let out a whimper, Capable pulling herself off of him quickly, almost too quickly, his cum spurting on her labia and dripping now, dripping and pooling. He watched it with amazement- he'd never done that before. Is that how you breed? Is that what breeding is? But he wasn't breeding, she had said that this wasn't...

"Nux..." she collapsed onto him, wrapping her arms around him. He closed his eyes, the brief euphoria that followed his release tiding over, replaced by exhaustion and the heat from Capable's body. He hugged her back, his arms weak, both with heaving chests and sweaty brows.

"You... you didn't say to stop," Nux whispered into her hair. She grinned into his shoulder, placing soft kisses there.

"I didn't want to," her head felt clearer. She felt clearer, cleaner. The fog that had taken over passed, rain falling but the sun shining after- but now it was dark, the lantern's light dimming, the stars overhead gleaming with the shared pleasure they'd come to know together.

They stayed like that for a while, their hearts slowing, the adrenaline dropping... peaceful.

"Come on," Capable slipped her body away from his, "we can go back to my room, you must be tired."

The look Nux gave her would be one she'd remember for the rest of her life.

Worship.

Though not unfounded, not based on a false platitude and hope for an impossible Valhalla- his look was of adoration, her womanhood a thing to revere, to respect. She had done so much for him, so much, too much, even, because he felt he hadn't given her much at all.

But he gave her everything.

Nux only nodded as she dismounted, trying to clean herself off before helping Nux up, his legs shaky and yes, he was exhausted. He had only known the bunks, the boards, stacked high, the Boys piling themselves onto to keep warm when it was cold. He'd known the rough shoulders and knees of fighting and biting Boys, but he didn't yearn for them, not anymore. He yearned for Capable, her hips and her navel and her breasts, he didn't want to go back to the bunks, he didn't want to go back.

So he didn't.

–

She hadn't been seen last night at all, neither had Nux, the wives respecting their privacy though the most primary concern was her safety. Was she asleep? Was she alright? What if Nux hurt her? Though they respected him, they were worried with him being a War Boy; they were pure turbocharged feral mutts, tamed only through oil and chrome. But Nux was different, Capable said. He was sweet and childlike, she said. So they listened.

The door was slowly opened to check up on Capable. It was closed slowly again as her chest rose and fell, Nux's chest contoured against her back, his arm around her and the soft bah-bump, bah-bump, bah-bumps of their hearts permeating the room.