She pressed herself against him, whimpering at the friction and impossible need. Victor's hand slipped lower, testing, finding her heated and ready. He touched her slowly, watching her face, and she nearly sobbed at the pleasure. His careful fingers explored her most intimate places, his eyes studying every flutter of her lashes and parting of her lips as he found the perfect rhythm. Each deliberate movement sent waves of sensation through her body until she nearly sobbed from the overwhelming pleasure.
He growled, his powerful hands gripping her hips to position her exactly where he needed. "Mine," he snarled as he pressed into her in one forceful movement. Her body yielded to him, burning with delicious friction. She gasped at the overwhelming closeness and covered her mouth. Victor's voice roughened with desire. "You feel incredible against me," he growled, her vision blurring as he drew closer, claiming her completely. Her nails carved crescents into his shoulders as he moved with intense, possessive movements that left no doubt she had chosen him. Her inexperience revealed itself in undeniable proof that only intensified Victor's hunger.
Their bodies found a rhythm, fast and desperate, then exquisitely slow. He held her as if she might vanish, his eyes never leaving hers. Every time she tried to hide, to close herself off, he kissed her deeper, pulled her closer, until all the old defenses broke and she let him see her, raw and alive. Until she surrendered completely, her body trembling as she arched against him with a desperate moan. When her first release hit, it was tidal, burning away old shame and fear, leaving only wonder in its wake. He buried his face in her neck as she came, her name a benediction on his lips.
His peak followed soon after as he held her tightly, teeth gentle against her ear as he whispered with each pulse, "Mine. Mine. Mine." She did not care that the world was ending, that monsters outnumbered people, that nothing was promised. For a little while, the playground was a palace, and she and Victor were the only two souls left alive in it.
He tucked her in, drew her ear to his lips, and whispered, "Sleep, Felicity. I'll keep watch."
She sank into him, letting the wildness and warmth lull her, trusting for the first time that she could rest while someone else guarded the night.
She woke to the scent of something sweet. Pancakes. She smelled them in the air.
Victor was awake, sitting cross legged and bare chested, looking far too smug for a man who had spent the night marking her as his own. He held a spatula, likely a remnant from one of Finch's more ambitious backpack exploits, and was flipping more of his homemade pancakes over an improbable campfire, the flames of which he seemed to have scrounged out of the cold morning air.
At the edge of the slide, Rose and Finch hovered. Finch's hair stuck out at wild angles, and he blinked as if light itself were a new invention. Rose, coveting a pancake but too proud to beg, circled like a cat on the hunt.
"Where…" Felicity started, then faltered.
The playground was still ruined, the city still a nightmare on the horizon, but here was real breakfast, hot and waiting. She squinted at the site of the fire pit. There was no pile of foraged chestnuts, no animal bones from yesterday's kill. Only a dusting of white flour on the ground, a syrupy jar that looked like honey, and the pancakes themselves, steaming in the cold. Victor caught her gaze, barely moving his lips. "I have a space."
Finch sidled closer, eyeing the food with the desperate devotion of a starving raccoon. "You have a space pocket." Victor shrugged. "Call it a skill." Rose stared, skeptical. "You had pancakes this whole time, and you didn't share?"
His eyebrow lifted, mouth curving into a knowing half smile. "If I had told you everything from the start, would you be standing here now?"
Rose glanced at the pancakes, then at Felicity, then at Victor and his chest, mapped with bloody scratches. "Fair point." She snatched a pancake from the pile and tore into it with a ferocity that made Finch blink. He followed suit, cramming his mouth.
Felicity edged closer to Victor, the heat from the fire mingling with a different heat that still burned under her skin. "Thank you," she murmured, sitting beside him.
He slid a pancake her way, drizzled a careful line of honey, and watched her eat. She could feel his eyes on her, cataloguing every twitch and flick of her ears, every shiver of pleasure as she tasted real sweetness. "You're different today," Finch said through a mouthful of crumbs. "You look… I don't know. Changed. "Rose snorted, nearly choking on her bite. "You're an idiot."
Felicity blushed and looked down at her pancakes, her tail wagging. Victor smirked.
Rose turned to Victor, her eyes narrowing.
Victor licked honey from his thumb, his gaze unwavering. "She's mine." His eyes flicked to Finch. "I bet you feel the same way about Rose." Finch froze mid chew, his ears reddening. "We barely know each other," Rose said, her voice softer now. "The world literally ended yesterday." Victor's expression softened almost imperceptibly as he looked at Felicity. "Some things can't wait."
Felicity flushed, the attention sudden and overwhelming, but her tail wagged of its own accord, brushing his thigh. She looked down at her plate, the food turning to gold in the morning sun. She knew now that even in a world designed to kill her, she would be okay. Because she had Victor, and she had herself, and she had a place in this strange place. When the meal was over, Victor handed her his jacket, the leather still bloodstained on the sleeve. She shrugged into it, feeling the weight and the belonging settle around her shoulders.
They broke camp with a speed that spoke of years spent on the run. Finch and Rose bickered over who would carry the pack, and Rose let Finch win only when he promised to fix her favorite knife by sundown. Victor led, Felicity at his side, his arm slung lazily around her waist for no reason other than because he could. Before they left the playground, Felicity traced a finger over a scrawled bit of graffiti on the jungle gym.
YOU ARE HERE.
The ink was faded, the letters shaky. But it glowed in the early light, a promise that they were still alive, and still together. She smiled. Victor caught the look in her eye and pulled her closer as they set off into the ruins. The city awaited, and beyond it, somewhere not even monsters had touched yet, maybe, just maybe, a future that belonged to them.