Heart and Claw Update

4k words. Sorry for the delay I'm feeling a little off these past few days. 

***

“Catch,” she chimed, Cooper raising his hands to catch the biggest slice of meat in the world. The steak was thicker than his wrist, and longer than Pearl’s claws, Cooper handling it like it was a bag of sand.

“You can have this one,” he said, hauling it onto the grill, the metal legs buckling under its weight. “How’d you like it done?”

“Blue,” Pearl replied.

“What’s that?”

“It’s lower than rare. Literally just sizzle each side for ten, twenty seconds, then it’s done.”

“Sounds a little raw for me, but suit yourself.”

He followed her instructions while Pearl built up a pile of cuts, Cooper picking up the smallest steak and cooking it until the skin was nice and crispy. “I don’t have much for you to sit or eat on,” Pearl began. “I have a desk and chair in my room, but I didn’t really want to go dragging a cow through those tunnels.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ll sit on my pack.”

He produced a hunting knife from his pocket, slicing the meat up into pieces and spearing one on the point. Pearl had been right, being as far away from the confines of the den was relaxing him, and the scent of cooked beef added a nice touch to the experience. Pearl grinned at him as he devoured the sirloin, eagerly digging into the rest. After rationing to and from the lodge these past few weeks, it felt nice to be able to stuff himself to fullness, and there was no lack of meat to go around.

“Nothing like gamey beef, right?” Pearl asked, bringing her portion to her mouth. He couldn’t see her devour it, as she brought up her sleeve to shield her face. It was probably on purpose, she knew the sight of her exposed maw would unsettle him.

He nodded, setting another steak on the stove as he chewed. “So where are you reallyfrom?” he began after he swallowed. “Hendrix told me you were his property, is that not the case?”

“Technically I am property, but not to that pompous prick,” Pearl replied. “Have you ever heard of a group called the Enclave before?”

Cooper scratched his brow in thought, then shook his head.

“Thought not, they only have a few outposts on the mainland, and the people who do know of them usually wind up going missing. Not the most pleasant bunch, but I was a part of their organisation, even made a few friends during our… collaboration.”

“Why’d you work with people like that?”

“Didn’t have much of a choice. They created me after all. See, the Enclave was doing experiments on gene splicing, trying to figure out a way to make deathclaws more docile, easier to influence. The Enclave had groups of deathclaw auxiliaries in their army, but they were just as likely to attack their own soldiers as their enemies. That’s when I came into the picture. This scientist, can’t remember his name, he came up with the idea of adding bits of the human genome into a deathclaw template to create a new breed that would see humans as fellow beings, rather than just food.”

“… How the hell does that work?” Cooper asked incredulously.

“That’s exactly what I said!” Pearl replied. “It was a long time ago – a decade at least, I stopped counting after that –  but what I remember was, they sort of… grew an organism in a tank of water, an embryo of a deathclaw, then injected human DNA into the mix during the artificial growth. I’m no biologist in case you couldn’t tell, but they found a way to make our DNA’s compatible, or else I wouldn’t be here.”

“So you popped out of these tank… organ… things?” he asked, Pearl nodding.

“Yep, mom was a glass tube through and through, but I wasn’t the only one. There were ten of us altogether, I was lucky number two. They ran us through some tests after our birth, making sure we wouldn’t start chomping on the first person we saw once we were let out of our containment cells, then they put us to work. My tasks usually revolved around smartening up the other ‘claws on the base, but sometimes they let me into the lab and engineering wing to help the workers out. Learned how to use my opposable thumbs to tinker, was pretty cool seeing their vehicles in action.”

“So you’re a… what, hybrid?” he asked. “Guess that explains why you look so different compared to your pack.”

“They’re feral deathclaws, their genome is completely different to mine,” she replied. “Well, maybe not so different, I do look more like them than a human, so the ratio is a little off-balance, but yeah, Pearl the Hybrid. Has a nice ring to it.”

“Is your human DNA the reason you can talk, and the ferals can’t?”

“It’s not that they can’t, it just takes them a really long time to pick up the skill. I did manage to get one of them to say pur the other day, though I’m not sure if she was trying to say pearl, or was literally purring.”

“So what changed?” he asked. “Being part of this Enclave doesn’t sound like it was all that bad.”

“For me, that’s true, but over time I started to see the cracks in the organization. I heard rumours from the other ‘claws that entire packs were being culled because they couldn’t be tamed, and that some of the more… invasiveprocedures to ‘fix’ these problems involved drilling headsets into our skulls. And it wasn’t just us who were being tested on,” she added. “The soldiers would bring in people, sometimes tribals, sometimes people who looked like they’d just walked right out of Vault City. I didn’t need human DNA to know they’d been taken against their own will. I never found out what exactly the Enclave wanted with them, but I do know that if someone didn’t cooperate, they got fed to the ‘claws.”

“Me and the other hybrids agreed we couldn’t support the Enclave for a second longer, as every day passed meant another claw or human would be a victim to their experiments. We planned this big escape, splitting into groups and rushing to the surface. A lot of us… didn’t make it,” she muttered, her mood becoming dour. “They had chain guns hidden in recesses on the perimeter, and they cut us down by the dozens. Everyone in my group was dying around me, but I didn’t stop, I just kept going and going even after the gunfire stopped and I had reached the ocean. Legs gave out shortly after.”

She placed her slice of meat on the ground, her appetite apparently gone.

“I was the only one in my group that made it, and that was the last time I saw my hybrid sisters, or any of the ‘claws from the base. I like to think some of the other groups managed to escape, but a part of me is convinced that… I’m the only one that made it. I searched for the next few years, but all I found was ferals. Gave up looking for them after I found this place.” She pointed a claw down the tunnel. “Lost hope, I suppose.”

“Must have been a lonely time for you,” he said, Pearl nodding as she rubbed one of her horns.

“For a while, yeah. It got a little better once I found the pack,” she continued. “Found them wondering out there one day, half-starved. They weren’t from the base and were more feral than what I was used to, but I eventually earned their trust, and now they sort of hang out here. They saw me as their alpha once they figured out that, although I smelled funny, I was bigger and tougher than all of them. We held up here in the den for the next… I don’t know how long, I stopped counting the days a long time ago. It was quiet for a while after that, until…”

“Until Hendrix?” he tried, and she nodded again.

“I watched him search that old lodge from top to bottom, thinking he was just a scavver or something and that he’d move on. I check back after a while, and what do I see? He’s got dozens of people building up those walls, setting up pens for his little trade caravans. If only I’d known he’d become such a thorn in my side, I’d have…”

She noticed she was snarling those words out and stopped herself, shooting him an apologetic look. “His goons started prowling the valley after he was firmly established, but they didn’t come so far north for me to worry about. That was, until he cornered me and my pack one day when we were out hunting,” she continued. “He slugged us with those tranquilizer darts one by one, took us to his lodge. You know the rest.”

“But my darts didn’t work on you,” he noted. “How’d you get captured?”

“I think my human DNA dilutes most of the drug,” she replied. “Doesn’t make me immune to it, though. I must have been plugged by like… eight or ten darts before I started to become drowsy?”

“Hendrix said you only needed half that.”

“I faked it,” she grinned, her usual boisterousness returning. “if I stayed on my feet any longer, they’d have shot me with actual bullets. So I played the part, then made my next grand escape. And by the way,” she said, her eyes meeting his. “did Hendrix ever mention how exactly he tracked me down?”

“Not really,” he replied. “just said there was a lot of money on the line if I couldn’t bring you back.”

“Interesting. Well, there you go, Cooper,” Pearl said, splaying her hands out to him. “That’s my story. Feels weird saying it all out loud, never had the pleasure of telling it to anyone before. Kind of glad it’s you who’s the lucky first.”

“Why’s that?”

She blinked innocently at him. “Well, you’re my friend, dummy. The first human ever to treat me right outside the Enclave.”

“Treat you right?” he echoed. “I hunt animals, I tried to kill you, hell I even knocked out your pack. How can you see me as anything close to a friend?”

“You did all that for the reward, out of necessity,” she explained. “You were forced to come out here, intent on saving your wellbeing, you didn’t do it out of hate, or for the thrill of killing an animal, not like Hendrix or his people do. You’re different from them.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Cooper muttered.

“Well I am. The Cooper I met by that river was generous enough to share his food with a stranger, and was kind enough to teach me how to hunt properly so I wouldn’t starve. You were even thoughtful enough to give me your most prized handbook, after I told you how much I loved books.”

“I didn’t know what you were at the time.”

“So? That doesn’t erase what you did.”

“You’re reading too much into it,” he said. “Anyone would have done the same in my shoes.”

“You’re wrong, Cooper. The few people I’ve come into contact with either try to rob me, or give me a wide berth. You’re better than them, a decent man who’s kind enough to indulge me in conversation, even after seeing me for what I am.”

He glanced down at the fire, mulling over her words for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for calling you an animal all those times before, Pearl. You got more reasoning than most people I know.”

“Would you say you’re starting to see me as… more, than that?”

“I guess so. Why?”

“Good,” she replied, ignoring his question. She asked him to cook her another slice, and he did so, the two going quiet as they ate their fill. By the time they were done, the sky had dimmed from white to orange, Cooper stifling a yawn with a hand as he put his knife away.

“Tired?” Pearl asked. “thought you might be, walking and fighting deathclaws all day would do that to anyone.”

“I think you ruining that power armour was a blessing in disguise,” Cooper said, giving his arm a stretch. “should be able to fit in my bedroll this time.”

“I have room in the den, if you’d like,” Pearl suggested. “There’re blankets, quilts, pillows, should be loads better than that little sleeping bag. If you’re comfortable sleeping inside, that is.”

It was flattering to see her considering his state of mind, she was likely thinking he wouldn’t want anything to do with the den after their whole ordeal. He was a little hesitant to spend a night in a deathclaw nest, but he was eventually won over as he remembered how warm it had been inside.

“Appreciate it,” he said, Pearl smirking at him as she began to lead the way back. “What about your pack?” he added. “are they… they won’t wake up in the middle of the night and eat me, will they?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you if they start poking around,” she replied. “From memory those darts can knock them out for two, three days, so it shouldn’t be a problem for now. But… maybe you should sleep close to me, just in case one of them is a light sleeper.”

Cooper gulped, hoping he’d hit them with enough darts, as he didn’t fancy waking up to find a pissed off deathclaw hanging over him.

***

Cooper struggled to keep up with Pearl’s long strides as she led him back to her lair, as she called it, which was the same room that she’d revealed her true form to him. With the lightbulbs on to provide light, Cooper saw that he’d missed a lot of details compared to when he’d first walked in, one of which being the bed. It wasn’t a traditional mattress with a few sheets, but about sixmattresses bundled up into a pile, with what appeared to be curtains plucked from a household draped over the top. There were pillows on top of that, arranged in a rough crescent shape to form the outline of a headboard in the otherwise nest-like sleeping pit.

“Don’t tell me you had your pack drag mattresses all the way out here,” Cooper muttered, watching as Pearl picked up a pillow and fluffed it out between her hands.

“There was a sleeping quarters deeper in the mine, full of bunk beds,” she explained, throwing the pillow back onto the pile. “What do you think? Better than that stupid suit, wouldn’t you say?”

Placing his pack aside, he knelt down, testing the firmness of the nest with his rump. She was right, his legs sank wonderfully into the soft sheets, or curtains, Cooper resisting the urge to flop down straight away.

“I’m just going to go check on the girls,” Pearl said, standing back from the bedding. “fingers crossed you haven’t OD’d them, or I’ll make you pay reparations. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be right back.”

He watched as she disappeared down the passage, Cooper feeling a twinge of apprehension as she left him alone. What if the pack was awake, and they started scenting him out like bloodhounds? He had to chuckle bitterly at the realistion he was counting on Omega of all things to protect him.

He looked around, spying his discarded weapons laying randomly on the ground around him. He was fairly confident by now that Pearl wasn’t out to hurt him, but would she take offence if she returned to see him stashing away his weapons?

He decided to collect them and place them next to his pack, out in the open so she wouldn’t miss them, close enough to the sheets that he could grab one without getting up. He turned his gaze to the ruined bits of metal that was his sidearm, the memory of Pearl crushing the handgun through pure strength flashing through his mind.

Slipping beneath the fabrics and placing his head on a pillow, he stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts turning to what his plans for the future were. What was he going to do in the morning? Return to the lodge, head back to NCR? His original plan was out the window, what was he going to do now? His fatigue willed these questions away, he’d just have to address them when he wasn’t tired and sore after everything that had happened.

His lidding eyes parted as he heard footsteps, Cooper sitting up and watching Pearl stride back into the room. “They’re sleeping like babies,” she informed him. “Which is what we should be doing, it’s been a long day for both of us. You want the light on? I have a dim setting if you’d like.”

“Dim?” he asked. Pearl plucked a drape hanging by the exit, the sheet suspended by a rubber cable, and pulled it over the bulb, the light going from a harsh white to a muted grey.

“Dim,” she chuckled, her body just visible in the new gloom. She seemed to absorb herself into the shadows, despite having a more pale complexion compared to the ferals.

“Where will you sleep?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

His eyes went wide as she pulled her robe off, casting it aside, her scaley body and thorny backside revealing themselves. Somehow, his body had momentarily forgotten her true form, a flash of concern coming over him as she stalked towards the nest.

“What do I mean?” he asked, but before he could protest, she shuffled into the bed by his legs, a giant hump in the sheets betraying her location as she slid up beside him.

“Cooper, we slept together yesterday, don’t be so naïve.” Her horned head poked out of the top of the sheets next to his face, Cooper staring accusingly into her amber eyes. “What?” she asked.

“We did that to share our body heat. Now we’re in a cave, we don’t have to worry about freezing anymore.”

“Maybe youdon’t,” she replied. “But deathclaws are cold-blooded, and besides, this is my nest you’re sleeping in, so what I say goes.”

“Whatever,” he muttered. “just don’t turn your back on me, I don’t want to get poked by your thorns if I start shifting.”

“Didn’t plan on it,” she replied, obviously smiling even though Cooper couldn’t see her expression.

She settled in on his right side, pulling the curtains over them, the sheets on her side of the bed rising like a mountain as she laid down on her shoulder. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t suspected she was a giant, scaly creature, she was covered in thorns and spikes, and that tail was huge. Perhaps she’d coiled it around herself to keep it from his sight.

He closed his eyes, sinking his head into the pillow as he willed himself to sleep. It was easier said than done, however, a primal fear he couldn’t suppress insisting he was way too close to this predator.

His eyes went as wide as plates as he felt something coil round his leg. It was long, thick with muscle and covered over in a pudgy layer of scale. He would have thought a snake had weaved itself into the bed if he didn’t know any better.

“Could you move your tail over to your side?” he asked, feeling his limb become encased in fine scales. It wasn’t quite as rough as he’d expected, the texture of her scales as smooth as glass.

“Cold,” Pearl chimed. “Your body’s putting out so much warmth, I can’t help it.”

He grumbled under his breath, turning onto his side and scooting towards the edge of the nest. There was roughly a minute’s peace, and then he felt Pearl drape an arm over his waist, tugging him back. She pulled him snug against her bosom, stroking his stomach through his shirt, the points of her claws tickling him through the fabric.

“Pearl,” he started.

“What?” she replied, as if his annoyance wasn’t obvious enough. “You try being cold-blooded, the blankets just don’t cut it sometimes.”

“Somehow, I don’t really believe you. You’ve been coddling up to me every night.”

“Then you should know why I’m doing it,” she cooed, Cooper holding in his breath as her claws trailed higher, her fingers tracing the outline of his pectorals, her touch making him shiver. Had he always been so sensitive, or was it the fact that he’d seen her claws cut through skin and steel alike that was making him hyperaware of how sharp her claws were?

“You were eyeing me up during our travels,” she muttered into his ear. “why shouldn’t I get to return the favour? People say look but don’t touch, but I can’t help it when I’m snuggled up against such a soft, warm thing like you…”

He felt her other hand plunge into his hair, his scalp buzzing with tingles as she began to stroke her fingers. Part of him wanted to recoil away, she was a giant nine-foot beast, but if he closed his eyes, he could almost convince himself he was in bed with a woman. A really big woman, of course.

“I checked you out from time to time as well,” she continued. “Especially when I saw you bathing just before. You’re lean, young, with a rugged, dashing face...”

“Dashing?” he asked. “I don’t have scales, horns, a tail… wouldn’t you be attracted to another deathclaw?”

“I guess it’s the human side of me that’s craving you,” she replied. “Didn’t you feel something during our walk too? Or am I fumbling through the dark here?”

“W-What about your pack?” he asked. “aren’t you and them… together?”

“We’ve had a few encounters from time to time,” she admitted, stopping her stroking to ponder. “but it feels… wrong. They’re feral, they can hardly talk, and can’t see me as anything but their alpha, someone to obey. But you, you’re different, you give me the kind of company I haven’t felt since my time with the Enclave, and you’re male to boot…”

Cooper felt his loins begin to shift, his body responding to her hands despite his conflicted thoughts. He’d gone almost a month now since his last encounter with a woman, and he was starting to feel pent up. And yet, Pearl was a deathclaw, a beast he’d been hunting just this morning, could he really see her in that kind of way?

He had admired her body through the robe, that was true, she possessed a slim waist, flared hips, stout legs. To top it all off, she had the voice of a mature woman, but could he even lay with her? She was so hard and spikey, an armoured killing machine that had been grown from a tank, designed to help deathclaws and humans coexist, which seemed oddly apt given their current situation…

“Say something, Cooper. Is my body putting you off? I could put the robe back on if you’d like. I could stay under the covers, or… or give you a blindfold! Do a bit of roleplay? Eh? I may have lied to you about my appearance, but I’m not lying when I say I covet your touch…”

He felt something warm trail across his ear, Cooper’s heart racing as she left his earlobe draped in her saliva. A part of him urged him to push her away, and she would probably get the message if he did, but the way she traced his muscles, the way her pronounced chest pressed against his back, the hard scales reminding him of the bosom of a well-endowed woman, it was starting to crack his resolve. He had needs, just like she did, and nobody would know if they fooled around a little…

“You’d… you’d stay under the sheets?” he mumbled. “You wouldn’t… mind?”

“Not at all,” she whispered, pausing her movements to wait for him to continue. “I work better in the dark anyway,” she giggled. When he didn’t move, she took that as a sign he wasn’t going to refuse, chuckling quietly as she pressed her snout into his neck, taking in his scent.

“Good boy. You just relax, and let me do all the work…”