Chocolates for a Scorpion Ch. 03

He just smiled and nodded, "Thanks. Why don't you go looking for what you can find and I'll get this set up here?"

Scarlet felt another surge of relief. Thank God. All she knew about shelters and fire starting was that it wasn't easy if you were an expert and she wasn't even a novice. Not that she'd let on. "Tch, taking it easy, huh, Wolf Boy? Fine, but just because I don't need you passing out on me again." She pointed into the green, "I'm going to head that way. If you start feeling, I mean, if you need me or if something happens, just shout, okay? I'll come running."

He inclined his head, "I'll count on it. Thanks again, Scarlet."

Why did that made her stomach go all fluttery? She wasn't some smitten girl! ...Okay, maybe kind of, but still! She smiled anyway and walked past him, maybe putting a little more sway in her walk than normal. "You'll pay me back, hero. But you're welcome."

Hours later, Scarlet rested by the flickering light of the small fire Prowl had managed to get going. The island around them, for now they were sure it was an island, was wrapped in a deep darkness that Scarlet secretly found a bit creepy. She was a city girl and there was a certain level of background illumination she was used to. The deep blackness that lurked just beyond the dancing light of the fire touched on deep, primal human fears despite her powers. She hated feeling like that. She was the fucking Scarlet Sting, bad ass scorpion woman butt kicker, not some co-ed freaking out about the dark in a slasher flick!

She heard Prowl approaching with a deliberate shuffle to his feet, likely to announce his presence, and then just appearing out of the nightly curtain. The dark wouldn't bother him; she knew from experience that he could see in the dark just fine. "Well, we are on Earth for sure, somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere."

She tilted her head, "How do you know that? Did you get out a signal or something?" Her own communications devices were both useless; the earpiece fried by whatever brought them here and her cell phone had run out of charge.

He crouched by the fire across from her and shook his head. His eyes looked radically better than they had before and he'd taken the time to wash off the dried blood from his face and head. "The stars." She glanced up at the sky above; how he could see anything up there was a mystery, she'd never seen the sky so full. It gleamed with points of light, some bright, some faint, and there was the rippling looking band of the Milky Way, all of them brighter and clearer than she remembered seeing. It was beautiful but also so chaotic; in the city, you never saw this many stars at once. The ambient light drowned so many of them out. It was like a whole new sky. He pointed and moved his finger in a long line and then a bar across it, "The Southern Cross." The finger moved to trace another line of stars and a few other branching off of it, "Centaurus," and then to another part of the sky to move in a twisty line and then a vaguely pentagonal shape, "Carina. They're circumpolar constellations, visible all year round in the Southern Hemisphere. You can see some of them in certain latitudes of the Northern, but to see all three means we're pretty far south."

"Huh." She could see the cross he was talking about all right but the others were trickier. "How'd you know them?"

"Scouts," he answered before he could stop himself.

She perked up visibly, her eyes bright and her sweet mouth curving into a delighted smile. "Oh, my God. Really?" Scarlet laughed and her tail thumped against the grass in rhythm to the sound. "I mean, I know I've called you a Boy Scout before but that's just standard hero-villain name calling, you know?" He gave her a sour look and she grinned saucily back. "So was your Dad Scoutmaster? Help you with your merit badges?" She imagined him in one of those goofy uniforms with a sash of patches and snickered.

He gave her a hard look. "My parents are dead!"

Scarlet stiffened and felt her heart drop. Oh, shit! She was just teasing him, and now..."I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Prowl scowled and then winked, grinning, "They're actually not. That's someone else's origin story."

"You fucker!" She glared at him and snatched up one of the small rocks from the edge of the fire ring in a gloved hand, chucking it at him. He ducked to one side and let it sail past, laughing without malice and she couldn't help but smile a little and then sniffed, tossing her braid. "Everyone thinks you heroes are all nice and then you trick a girl like that. Jerk."

"Sometimes," he agreed. She glanced at him then stuck out her tongue and his grin widened. Then he sighed. "So...we should probably have that talk."

"I'd have thought you'd have learned about this in school. You see, Prowl, when a Mommy and Daddy love each other very much..."

He couldn't help but snicker and then made himself grimace, "Brat. You're sassier than normal."

"Likewise, hero," she lifted a hand and mocked shooting him with a finger gun. "Maybe you bring it out in me," she added with a faint flush on her cheeks.

"I can hope." He licked his lips, feeling the mostly healed splits from earlier as breaks in the normal texture. "Scarlet. What happened between us, it...it meant more to me than just that night." Prowl pulled himself up onto the balls of his feet, his knees closer together in his crouch, leaning forward towards the fire and towards her beyond it. "That morning, when I said I wanted to see you again, that maybe we could try going out...I meant it. And I should have gone after you, proved I did. I'm sorry."

The apology made her feel better. She thought for a moment of trying to play it cool and then shook the idea away. "I...yeah, when you didn't, I thought you just wanted to try and hook up again. And I was freaked out thinking about who we are and what we'd done, what could happen if people found out, and it was dumb, maybe, but that's why I ran. It wasn't because of you." Scarlet shook her head, "I didn't stop thinking about it after. Wishing I'd have stayed and talked, trying to tell myself it wouldn't work and that you couldn't have meant it. Then I ran into Galatea."

He nodded, "She told me about it."

She blinked and looked at him, her blush deepening, "Uh, all of it?"

He coughed and flushed a little himself, one hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah, she doesn't exactly have any...shame, really."

Scarlet sighed, "I'd gotten that about her." Then she smirked, "But I heard about your run-in with Weaver and Honey too, you know."

It was his turn to stare and blink in shock. "I...and you haven't stung me?"

She raised her brows, "I thought about it. But it wouldn't be fair. I mean, we didn't exactly promise anything to each other, did we? Besides, I'd just gotten frisky with your teammate so...tit for tat, you know?" She leaned back and shook her head, spreading her hands, "No hard feelings."

"Same here." Prowl was silent for a few moments. "Being with them, it made me realize that...what I felt then, with you, was different. That it was more than just Valentine's Day loneliness, general arousal and attraction, chemicals, all of that. That I wanted to be with you again, and not just like that."

Scarlet looked both satisfied and touched when he looked up to meet her eyes. "That's what I felt too."

"I'm glad. So."

"Yeah." She stood up, brushing off her ass with one hand, and he rose to his feel to match her. Scarlet looked over at him, "So. You want to go out with me?" Her heart did a little backflip as the words passed her lips. She'd asked him. She'd actually done it!

He took a deep breath and moved around the fire to stand beside her, the scorpion girl turning to face him. "I thought I'd have to ask you," he admitted.

She sniffed, "Scarlet Sting doesn't get asked out, Wolf Boy. She does the asking, and you should be grateful."

"Noted." He reached out and carefully, as if expecting her to pull it away, took her right hand in his. But instead she met him partway, her fingers entwining with his. His heart was beating faster and he felt an exhilarated thrill run through him. "Yes, I do." The two of them stared at one another, smiling foolishly in the orange glow of the flames, hands joined. He swallowed, suddenly nervous, and started to speak, "I don't know how it'll work when we're back, but-"

She was against him then, her body lightly grazing his as she lifted herself up and her lips pressed to his. He tensed for a surprised half second and then answered her; their kiss a long, lingering, sweet thing. It broke with a soft smack and she lifted her left hand to wiggle a finger, "Worry about that when we get back to the rest of the world, hero. Right now, we're here, just you and me. Let's call it a trial run, okay? See how it works, how it feels, all that."

He nodded, "Yeah. Makes sense."

"Good. Now that that's out of the way." She pulled her hand out of his to slide her arms around his neck and pull her lush body to his hard, strong form. She felt his strength encircling her waist, a hand stroking the small of her back, the other resting just at the base of her tail as she kissed him again. Oh. Oh, this was gooood. His lips were warm and strong but gentle, meeting the hungry press of her own with a fervor that was genuine but restrained, holding back his deeper passion. She liked that; liked knowing she made him feel he had to hold back.

The kiss broke only for another to begin. She moaned softly and wriggled against him, delighting in the shudder she felt go through his powerful form. His tongue grazed her lips and they parted, letting him in to taste deeper of her. Her hands slid up into his hair, pulling his head down as the two new lovers let their mouths and bodies speak more eloquently than words had of their feelings and their hungers.

After a few minutes, the parted enough to catch their breath. They both were breathing heavier, pulses racing, hearts singing. Prowl smiled and shook his head, "That...I've been thinking about that since you ran from me that day. It feels so good to hold you, to kiss you."

She smirked, "Great, not good." Scarlet turned her head to one side and lowered it to rest on his shoulder, "But I've thought about it too. So...even with the fight and teleportation to random tropical island with possibly little to no chance of rescue...good day?"

"Fantastic," he answered. He breathed deeply of the smell of her hair and his arms tightened about her, holding her closer. He sighed, "We should probably get some sleep now though. It has been a hell of a day and we'll need our energy tomorrow."

"Yeah." She still didn't move for another minute or more before her hands moved to press lightly against his chest and she stepped back as his arms loosened. "Let's get some shut eye." She walked over the raised platform he'd lashed together between two of the tree trunks; it was laid over with smaller sticks and a few palm fronds and was barely big enough to hold them both. "Nice bed, Tenderfoot."

He scoffed, "Tenderfoot nothing, I'm an Eagle-forget it." She rolled onto the bed and scooted to one side of it before plucking up one of the fronds off the bed and shifting it to lean against her to form a leaning green screen between them. "Uh, Scarlet? What are you doing?"

"This is my side of the bed, that's yours," she said as her tail swung over to point down at the area she was not occupying beyond the frond 'wall' and then back. "No hands on my side. Or anything else, you pervy wolf."

He blinked. Was she kidding? "Scarlet, I mean, we...we, you know. A lot that night. So why?"

She raised her head to look at him archly over the large screen, "Because we just started dating. And I'm not some hussy who sleeps with a guy on the first date," she said tartly, her eyes bright.

Prowl looked down at her as if he heard her words but they were from another language. "But we already have. Valentine's Day."

"Ah ah, ah." She shook her head, "That was YOU throwing yourself at me. You were the slut, not me. I've got higher standards, you tramp."

"...What?"

She grinned at him, "Not on the first date, Wolf Boy. But play your cards right and maybe soon." The idea had just occurred to her as she lay down, from where she wasn't sure. Oh, but the look on his face was priceless! "We're going out now, remember, this isn't just a hook up."

He shook his head and then shrugged, "Okay, Scarlet." Such a tease! God, what was wrong that he was liking this? "I don't like easy girls anyway," Prowl said as he slid into the bed on his side, facing away from her.

"That's not what Weaver and Honey say," she retorted. Then she leaned over the flimsy obstacle erected between them, her breasts pressing against his arm as she kissed his cheek. "Good night...boyfriend."

He smiled, closing his eyes. "Good night, my girl."

The next morning found Prowl feeling almost whole, well enough to accompany Scarlet in further exploration. They followed the small streamlet that the buxom young villain had discovered the previous day back to a wide, shallow pool that sat at the base of a broken ring of rock that was once the caldera of the volcano that had formed the island. Fresh water, seemingly fed by a stream from the rocks beneath, meant they would survive. At least if it held out, if it was fed by a spring and not just a pool that would empty from a few days' use.

Prowl brooded about that as they explored further. There was food here; coconuts that could provide their water and flesh and the sea could provide more with their raw physical abilities. But it was still a game played against time and the odds were not in their favor. No island had infinite resources, particularly not one used to having two large animals moving around and feeding on its' bounty.

"What's with you, anyway?" He blinked and glanced over at his long-time foe. She was leaning against the truck of a tall palm, tail slowly waving back and forth behind her, hands resting on the trunk. A fine green eyebrow raised, "Not having second thoughts, are you?"

He shook his head, "Not about you and me, not again." They had circled back around and their camp was in sight perhaps 50 yards distant. Prowl looked out from the shadows of the greenery they were lingering in to the beach and the sea beyond it. "I'm thinking about numbers, that's all. How much food there is on this place, how much water, how we might make it work, if we need to start trying to stretch it now or..." He gestured with one hand in a frustrated motion and then let it fall. Then he jerked forward as her tail swung around to cuff him across the back of the head, "Ah!" He turned to glare fiercely at her, "The hell?"

Scarlet just smirked, "You're borrowing trouble, babe. We can't worry about that now. We just have to stay alive and do what we can to increase the odds of rescue. Keep your head in the game, not worrying about what could happen."

He grunted in acknowledgment. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Prowl turned and looked out at the waves again. After a few moments he smiled and looked back at her. "You called me babe."

She fidgeted a moment and then shrugged, her cheeks flushing a bit. "...Yeah."

"Huh." Prowl turned his gaze back to the endless looking stretch of water. "I liked it."

She smiled and moved to stand next to him and her hand sought his. They stood together for a few minutes, just watching the roll of the surf, fingers entwined. Then Scarlet gave his hand a squeeze, "Why don't you head back to the shelter and beef it up a little? I'm going to go catch some fish with my ready-made harpoon here," she pointed at her tail with the thumb of her other hand.

Prowl looked at the bulbous head. "Will I be able to eat the fish you catch?"

"Hey, give me a little credit!" She pulled her hand from his and stepped out from the shadows into the sun, turning back to flip him the bird briefly, "I can sting things and not inject them, you know. " She turned back and murmured, "If I pay attention to it."

Prowl's superhuman hearing picked it up and he grinned, "I'll try not to distract you then."

That night they each ate the flesh of a coconut, drank its water, and used the halves as bowls to drink water from the serene pool they'd found. A quartet of cleaned fish hung on skewers over the low fore to roast, turned over now and then, their guts held in the hollowed out coconuts from lunch to serve as bait for tomorrow's fishing.

The hero and villain sat together by the fire. At first it had the two had merely sat close but after a time, Scarlet had closed the distance and now leaned against Prowl's lean but powerful frame, her mask discarded and sitting beneath the makeshift bed. One arm was casually draped around her waist, enough to touch and hold but so loose as to not create any illusion or risk to keeping her there if she did not wish to be. Prowl plucked one of the rough skewers from the pair of tall rocks that served to support them over the heat of the fire, now mostly low red coals rather than flames, and took a deep sniff. "They're ready." Scarlet paused long enough to drag her lips in a teasing caress along his cheek and earlobe before sitting up and snatching the largest of her catches, taking a bite from it with a faint growl. God, that was so cute. He chuckled and began to take bites from his own, chewing carefully, his tongue probing for any missed bones. "Careful, there still might be bones."

She tore off another mouthful of fishy flesh, chewing rapidly and letting out a soft happy moan, eyes closed. Then she swallowed and her eyes opened to look at him, "Your bone is the only one I need to be careful of, Wolf Boy. Not on the second date, you dirty hussy."

He laughed, "A man can dream." And had, if he were honest. It was hard not to after what had happened between them before and being both so close and alone on this little island. But good things and waiting and all that, right?

"That's all you better do," she approved with a firm nod and a smirk on her lips. They ate in a comfortable quiet after that; more out of knowledge that they needed to fuel their bodies than appetite or even enjoyment; the fish wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't exactly seasoned or expertly prepared. Tossing the remnants on the coals to burn away after, the russet haired man lay back with his knees bent and looked up at the patch of sky visible through the fronds of the trees that loomed over their shelter with a happy sigh. Scarlet cast the scraps of her own meal into the fire as well and then moved to cuddle up beside him, her head resting on his shoulder, one gloved hand running over his costume-clad chest idly. "Prowl?"

"Hm?"

"I'm not driving you too crazy with, you know, not being a slut like you, am I?" He could hear a thread of real fear in her voice and mingled worry of...rejection? Of pushing things too far, perhaps. Scarlet looked a bit abashed.

Prowl shook his head, lifting his arm to curl about her. "No. It's fun, in a way, and I...I shouldn't tell you this. I like you teasing me and I like you calling me "slut" and a "hussy" and the rest of it." He gave her a squeeze, "I won't say I'm not curious about the why. If it's just a game or if there's' more to it."

He liked being called names, huh? She'd remember that. She sighed, "Well, it is a game but there is a real reason too." She nibbled her lower lip, "It's just that...I want to be sure that it's not just physical, you know? That there's an actual connection and feeling between us. Especially being enemies for so long, and...there were times I really hated you, you know?"

Prowl growled in understanding. Then he nodded, "I get it. And it makes sense. It's not a bad idea to make sure this isn't just both of us grasping for something that might not be there or might only exist in sexual haze."