Chapter Text
Vulpes was confused. It was as simple as that.
He had never felt this way before, and he never expected to, especially towards someone like… you. You were nothing more than a profligate, a woman who didn’t know her place, someone bound to be killed as a result of their own stubbornness… But despite all of that he couldn’t stop thinking about you for reasons he either couldn’t, or refused, to understand since he first saw you in Nipton.
It was since before he even talked to you, it was when he first saw you that these feelings that a man like him couldn’t possibly possess began to boil within him. The moment he saw your face, slowly passing through the destroyed town, observing the carnage with an expression of surprise and confusion, but not fear. Even- no- especially the moment when you looked right through those tinted glasses he wore without the slightest bit of hesitance or distress in your passionate (E/C) eyes and told him exactly what you thought of what he did. It was then, when you looked at him and spoke to him like nobody but the mighty Caesar himself would, that he knew you were different. You weren’t scared of him, but you didn’t hate him either. But at the same time you didn’t respect him or even like him, he could tell that simply by the look in your eyes. It’s not like that part surprised him though, Vulpes could pretend to be friendly and charming, and he wasn’t painful to look at, but he was smart enough to know that he was in no way likeable unless he had some sort of mask over he who was. And he also knew that somebody like him could never be loved, not even by the most ignorant, foolish person in any of the small surviving groups of desperate people left in the destroyed wasteland of a world they now lived in. Vulpes was in no way lovable.
That fact had never bothered him before, but now was different somehow. He felt almost like, for once in his life, he wanted to have that genuine sort of charm that some people seem to have that draws people towards them and makes them easy to love. But he knew he couldn’t, that sort of thing isn’t just given to people, it’s something that’s always there. Just like his apparent coldness was always there, until now at least.
So there he was, the leader of the Frumentarii, the fourth strongest man in Caesar’s Legion, a loyal follower of the mighty Caesar himself, confused, bewildered and downright upset over something he didn’t even completely understand. Luckily though, nobody else seemed to notice the slump he was in or the strange emotions stirring within him, because Caesar would never have given him the opportunity to be in your presence for a second time. He jumped at the chance, of course, but he didn’t let his anticipation show as his job was explained to him. All he had to do was find you, give you the mark of Caesar and inform you that the leader of the Legion requested your company. It wouldn’t be hard, considering the name you’ve made yourself across the entire Mojave in such a short time. So off he went, to find the source of his frustrating confusion and mysterious