Disclaimer: I don't own HHE. Just the plot and my OCs.

More for you chickadees. Hopefully this one will be better than the last chapter. I am so so SO sorry for the ridiculous gaps between updates! Really, I never meant for this to go on for this long, rusting and collecting dust. Forgive me! To make up for it, I will stand on my head and recite Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" backwards and in French... I know you can't see it, but I am doing it right now.

Read on, lovees! 3rd person POV, One month time skip

Warning: M for smuttiness later in the chapter. Nothing too detailed. Also, potty mouth.

"The heart is sometimes the hardest battlefield." - Unknown

"Never. Again." The low grumble was barely audible through the pillow. The poor girl had chosen to plant her face in the fluffiest cushion she could find and she breathed in a labored manner due to her nose and mouth being covered.

"Tryin' ta kill yerself, now?" A voice reached her ears and made her groan loudly.

"No..." Was her lame response.

"Then you should probably take yer face outta the pillow. You'll suffocate." It was a fact. She knew it.

With another long moan, Rory tipped her head to the side to stare at the speaker. The mutant was hovering in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest and dark hair slipping idly over one shoulder. An amused grin was attempting to cross its way over his lips as he watched her.

"Don't laugh at me." The young woman whined at him, pouting.

"Ain't. Yer just bein' silly."

"Ain't." Rory copied him, stuffing her face back into the pillow. "I'm hurting and I'm tired and it sucks so bite me." As she spoke, the mutant walked across the distance to the side of the couch. He knelt beside her and watched her with silver eyes. The woman laid still, whimpering into the furniture. The mutant reached out to touch her back, but stopped himself just before his fingers met her shirt. He felt foolish; he should not be so timid as to hesitate and balk at physical contact with a woman, especially not her. 'You share a bed with 'er, for heaven's sake!'

Steeling himself, Stabber laid his hand flat between her shoulder blades. He could feel her nearly vain attempts at drawing in air and shook his head.

"Rory." He spoke gently, leaning forward to speak in her ear. "You really need ta breathe."

"I am breathing." She replied, though it came out sounding more as 'Ah mmm brrfn'. The mutant sighed through his nose and removed his hand from her back in favor of cupping the base of her head. He tipped her head to the side so that her tired face was exposed once more and he stroked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Thanks." Rory purred. Stabber swallowed the lava hot emotion that crawled into his throat and nodded in return.

"No, don't touch it!" Rory cried, minutes later. Now sitting up on the couch, the woman was pouting and pulling her arm away from the attentions of the larger person. Stabber shook his head and gently pulled the appendage back towards himself.

"I hafta look at it or it ain't gonna get better." He explained calmly, eying the bruises dotting her skin. The woman pouted and let him work, hissing at his touches. The "training" she had been doing was harsh; the tender purple marks spoke that much. For the last two months, Rory had been dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn by two insistent women and one tired and equally pissed off mutant to practice in the yard. Some days, it was hand to hand combat with Letch, where she would learn for maybe a minute how to hold her hands before the mutant would attack her. Those days were the ones where the pain was the worst. Other days, it was survival training. Rory learned how to find water in cacti, how to climb up a rock face, and how to bind a wound with torn garments. Every day, the young woman worked hard and learned and at the end of the day, the shimmering rays of sun blinking behind the houses, she would crawl back into the house and fall asleep, sometimes without eating.

Today was one of those days. Letch had fought her from the moment she set foot outside to the moment the sun set. Newer darker bruises now covered old yellowing ones and they spanned all over her body; her face and neck were the least damaged, with her torso and legs being the worst.

"I'mma talk with Letch about these beatings he has been givin' you." Stabber grumbled, more to himself than to her. "Yer gonna get seriously hurt one of these days."

"He hasn't been beating me THAT bad." Rory pouted, "I have been winning sometimes."

"True, but not often enough ta avoid the injuries. Wiggle yer fingers." The mutant instructed. She did so, wincing as the muscles in her forearm and hand strained painfully. Stabber, kneeling between her legs, rested his arms on her knees and met her eyes. His gaze never wavered, the silver of his own eyes catching the dying light and gleaming.

"Whatcha staring at?" Rory asked, nervously licking her lips but unable to look away. Instead of shying away from her words like a timid schoolboy, the mutant chuckled and sighed through his nose.

"A woman who don't know her limits."

"Hey!"

"Teasin', Rory." There it was. That silky smooth word growled in his gravel-on-cement voice. Her name. It made the tips of her fingers tingle as if she were touching metal that was too hot. Rory knew her cheeks were sprinkled with poppy red and she ducked her head to hide from his cool stare.

"O-oh." Her voice cracked. This made Stabber exhale through his nose, which she had come to realize was a laugh. The large man removed himself from his crouch and stood, offering her his hand. Without a word, Rory accepted, holding back the little whimper at the aching in her joints. She tried, and failed, to ignore the pleasant feeling of his calloused palm against hers.

Together, they walked through the house to their shared den. In the month or so that had all but flown by during Rory's training, they had fixed up the room so that it felt more like a home and not just a living room. The mattress was still on the floor, now pressed up against the wall due to the woman's nightly tossing. Cyst had been nice enough to let them hammer a curtain across the entry way so they could have more privacy. It was cozier now, to say the least.

Lifting the curtain out of the way, Stabber allowed Rory to walk ahead of him into the space. The absence of her hand left his feeling cold and he flexed his fingers, eyebrows drawing together. The woman, oblivious to his inner turmoil, was now sitting on the mattress, struggling to remove her boots. She was cursing, as she often did at menial tasks.

"Sonuva Siamese, shoe-wearin', slick dick, subterranean salamander…" She muttered, eyes slipping shut in exhaustion even as she gripped the boot and pulled. "Staaaaaaaabber!" Her whine brought him out of his thoughts. He hummed at Rory questioningly.

"Halp."

"That ain't a word."

"Neither is 'ain't'. Heeelp me." She warbled. The poor woman was now laying on her back with her left leg sticking straight up in the air. The jeans she wore were filthy and, with her leg posed in that way, he could see the dirt on the back of her pants. His eyes lingered there, not on the dirt, but on the curve of her ass. The way her thigh and buttock melded perfectly was enough to make his mouth water. For a moment, he was transfixed and he let himself enjoy it for a short moment before shaking himself out of his reverie.

The mutant approached the mattress, slowly, deliberately. Rory's foot sat at stomach height and he gently grabbed a hold of it. The woman did not budge; her eyes remained closed and with a stillness so finite it was as if she was dead. He slipped the shoe off of her foot, careful to be as gentle as he could. It came off with relative ease and he kneaded at her arch, begetting another long moan from the woman. The other leg came up slowly, extending out to him.

"What am I, yer servant?" Stabber spoke softly, but the mutant was already removing the other boot. Rory smiled ever so slightly.

"No, just my sweet mutant prince who… appreciates me enough to do this for me." Stabber chucked her socks away with the boots and gripped her ankles in his hands.

"Sweet?" He asked playfully.

"My favorite flavor." Was the response.

"Prince?" He kissed her Achilles tendon.

"You're royal to me." Rory answered.

"And I noticed ya said 'appreciate', not the other word."

"Y-yeah…"

The mutant knelt on the edge of the mattress, bringing her legs to either side of him. He rubbed at her calves and watched her face. Her cheeks were darkening in a slight blush but her eyes were still closed.

"Why?" Stabber asked, wiggling his own boots off. Rory sighed and bit her lip before answering.

"Well, I… I don't know. That word is scary." The mutant leaned forward, bracing his arms on either side of her hips, still staring the woman down.

"Scary? It's a word."

"I know that! But it's a word that means a lot!" Her voice was quiet, but her muscles were tense, betraying her emotion. Stabber let his silver eyes drift away and he leaned down towards her. He placed a very light kiss on her jeans' zipper, painfully aware of how close his mouth was to her most tender area. The touch of his mouth made the woman stiffen, legs squeezing his sides ever so slightly.

"S-stabber?" She asked, voice so soft that he barely heard her. Pausing for only a moment, he looked back at her face, into her now open eyes.

"Let me show you that you mean a lot."

Stabber laid down on his stomach, freeing his hands to toy at the hem of her jeans just below her hips. He slipped two fingers under them, touching her heated flesh and rubbed her hips with his thumbs. This brought an appreciative little mewl out of Rory. One of his hands moved to unzip her pants, ever so slowly; he knew he was teasing her. She didn't seem to like that and she moved herself closer to him, as if to say 'hurry up'. Smirking to himself, he finished his task and nearly ripped the button off in his attempt to remove her pants entirely. Once the jeans were discarded by the boots, Stabber laid his lips on her skin and breathed in her scent. He could smell the heat of her want and he nearly grinned from ear to ear. The panties, dark blue and lacy, hugged her dark skin in such a way that the mutant wished to merely stare for a long while. He found he could not as his lover writhed under him with another sound much like a kitten.

"Stabber… don't tease." Rory whined.

"Mah apologies." He murmured against her skin, reveling in the way his breath made her quiver. Deciding to explore her reactions, he chose a spot on her thigh, a spot very close to her cunt, and licked. He dragged his tongue as slowly as he dared, almost unable to stop himself from tearing her panties off with his teeth. Rory was outright trembling, now, and she put a hand on his head, twisting her fingers in his hair.

"Oh God, I… please-. " She couldn't finish as he sat up quickly and covered her mouth with his. The kiss was harder than his last, but it still held all the passion and, dare he say it, love that he wished to convey. Her lips were so soft and she parted them without any hesitation to allow him in. Leaning over her, knees now on either side of her stomach, he felt a rush of dominance flood through him. Here they were, finally coming together as one and she wanted it. He was not taking it from her. He was being given this gift. It was more than he could have ever asked for.

For a moment, they pulled away from one another, gasping softly. Stabber looked down at her, his woman, and felt an ache low in his stomach. It was a pleasantly uncomfortable feeling, one that he knew but had not felt in some time. He captured Rory's lips once more and let his hands roam over her. The mutant slipped the strap of her bra down her shoulder to her arm and lifted her tank top up to her neck. The cup of her bra gave way to his hand easily enough as that, too, was slid out of the way. His palm found her breast and his fingers were soon dancing over her nipple. She gasped against his mouth and made a sound somewhere between a cry and a hiccup. It drove him a wild and the mutant rolled his hips against hers, needing to be as close to her as he could be.

Soon, he was wrestling his own clothes off as the woman slipped out of her shirt, both of them fumbling and cursing. Once all articles of damned clothing were gone, the two practically dove for each other. Their mouths met, hot and fierce, and Stabber used his weight to pin the woman down under him. The smooth feel of her breasts against his bare chest was ecstasy and he broke the kiss in favor of suckling one of them. Her thick dark thighs pressed against him once more, as if she was riding a prized stallion. Her soft belly brushed against his own muscled abs and the woman cursed and blushed, stopping her motions beneath him.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, obviously feeling embarrassed at the size of her belly. Stabber watched her carefully before leaning down and placing a warm kiss just above her belly button. Rory whimpered and gave him a curious look, one that asked of his intentions.

"Yer fine, Ro. Yer perfect just like this. I would never want ya any different." With that, he kissed her mouth again, as gently as if he was laying his lips on a rose. The woman melted once more, returning the gesture and Stabber swore he could taste the salt of tears on her lips.

Their movements synced up once again, the dry grinding of their hips creating a friction that neither could get enough of. Stabber was painfully aware of how hard he was, his shaft pressing against his stomach as he held himself against Rory. She was gasping, now, little breaths escaping her and hitting his cheek. Every so often, she was muttering his name but it was so soft that he barely heard. His left hand was gliding over her curves and down to her smooth rear; a voice in the back of his mind as whistling in appreciation. But, damn, she was beautiful. Stabber dragged his nails from her lower back to her thigh, over the round expanse of her ass. This elicited a small yelp and a wriggle from the woman. In return, she arched her back so that her heat was flush against his thigh and her breasts, perky and wanting, were near to his face.

The sheer willing nature of the motion gave him confidence and he took her gift without hesitation. He bit down on the side of her right breast, growling as he bruised the skin. Rory gasped loudly and her teeth clamped harshly onto her lower lip to stifle the sound. Never before had she felt this raw, this animalistic, with a lover before. Sure, she had fun literally rolling in the hay, but this was unlike anything she had experience before. The feeling of this large man taking her body and working it like putty and causing molten waves to roll through her like a tsunami's tidal force was ecstasy. She could already feel the tightening of her muscles as a climax threatened to swallow her whole. Stabber seemed to sense this and obliged her by dipping a hand down to her heat, teasing her with his fingers.

It was agony and it was perfect. The calloused digits slipped between her petals, the feeling of them enough to make her shiver.

"Oh fuck, Stabber." Rory whispered, licking her dry lips when he pulled away. The silver eyes met hers briefly before he dropped his head to kiss and lick at the space between her breasts. His fingers were now dancing just barely on the edges of her opening, already slick with her juices. His free hand was toying with the woman's ear lobe and his thumb was rubbing the groove behind it, which was both painful and arousing.

There were so many sensations at once that Rory nearly lost it, caught up between moaning, wriggling, and trying to think. Words were failing her now; the mutant's name died on her lips by the first syllable. Now, she merely hissed her way into squeaky huffs of breath, loving the way she was feeling.

Stabber was feeding off of her sounds and movements like a vampire off of human blood. Every tiny spasm she had made his heartbeat quicken and his limbs feel as though they were on fire. As he continued to gently kiss and tease her, he slipped a finger ever so slowly into her and her reaction was instantaneous. Rory threw her head back against the mattress, biting her lip to suppress the sharp gasp that abruptly came to her lips. Her hips rolled, inviting him to plunge the digit deeper. He did so, but with aching slowness, testing her. She was so glossy already that the mutant ventured a second finger within seconds, an action which was rewarded with a shudder and a soft 'o' sound from his partner.

Exploring her insides, Stabber strummed his fingers as if he were playing a bass guitar, flicking against parts within her that were both hard and soft. Every time his index finger caught and slid a certain crevice, Rory yelped quietly and her whole body jumped into him.

"Oh, what was tha'?" He murmured in her ear, smiling a shark-like grin to himself, "You like tha', do ya?" Rory did not reply; the woman merely nodded her head vigorously. Stabber stopped his fingering, instead leaning up and away.

"Come on, Ro. Don't ya like it when I play with ya?" Another nod from the woman. "Use yer words."

"Y-yes." As if to reward her, Stabber skimmed his finger over that sensitive spot once more. Rory moaned appreciatively.

"Do you like the way I treat ya?"

"Uh-huh." The fingers stilled.

"Real words, dearie."

"Yes! I like it." One single snap against that glorious spot. Another jolting shiver.

"Of course ya do."

The mutant moved to slip another finger into his lover when she dropped her hand over his, stopping him. He looked at her, gray eyes searching and curious.

"Ro…?" He asked, confused.

"No more fingers." Rory met his gaze, her own eyes glazed and half lidded. "I want you."

Stabber's gaze hardened and he removed his fingers from inside her.

"Are you sure?" The question was oh so quiet.

"Of course I am. I have never been so sure." She kissed him, stealing his next question with her lips. That was all he needed. He leaned back a bit, taking in the sight of her once more. Her copper colored skin, her large eyes, and classically rubenesque curves were almost too much for him. That voice in his head once again began to doubt, telling him that a wrecked monster like him did not deserve such a beauty. Never had anyone so mentally capable nor so physically appealing ever shown him anything remotely like kindness and yet, here he was, about to bind himself body and soul to a woman that clearly loved him so sincerely. His eyes stung, but he shook them away as he positioned himself before her entrance. She looked ready, lying back and smiling angelically.

"I love you, Stabber." She said and it was her permission. He choked and hesitated. For a brief second, he was overwhelmed. Then, he spoke.

"I love you, too, Rory."

Hours later, the two held each other, the larger of the two curled into the embrace of the smaller. Her hands were in his hair, stroking across his scalp in a soothing way while his own fingers trailed over her belly.

"You okay?" Rory asked, chin resting on his head.

"Better than okay. You?" His breath tickled over her ribs. She giggled.

"Perfect. I really enjoyed that."

"You did?" Stabber asked, looking up at her face. The woman's eyes glowed as she nodded, scooting away from him to look at him fully. They were on their sides, facing each other.

"It was the most amazing experience, Stabber. Really, I have never felt more connected to anyone. We've been through a lot, together. Pain, fear, sadness, loneliness. But, also happiness, comfort, and pleasure. You have come to mean so much to me. I can't… can't actually imagine my life without you now."

"Because o' the sex?" That earned him a playfully gentle slap on the forehead.

"Because of the way you make me feel all the time. It is like a drug; I feel high and grounded all at once. I want nothing more than to be with you. Forever." She kissed him again, this time on his mutated cheek. Her hands came up to hold his, her warm palms melding perfectly into his cooler ones.

"You want the same, right?" Her eyes begged him to answer. Before he responded, he placed his lips upon her brow, tasting the sweat that still lingered there.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

And voila! What did you think? I'm actually pleased with this one. So sorry for the wait! R&R! Love ya, chickadees! More coming soon (I hope)!