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On their first patrol together, Vi spent five minutes arguing about mangoes while Caitlyn stood beside the stall with her rifle case and a route sheet already damp from the morning fog.
"These are bruised," Vi said, turning one over. "Give me both for that price."
"They're ripe. You planning to eat them or keep them?"
Vi put the fruit on the scale and leaned against the counter. Her new badge was pinned crookedly to her jacket, where it had caught the vendor's attention twice already. The joint office had issued them to officers from both cities after the accords, along with instructions about cooperation that Caitlyn suspected Vi had left unread.
Caitlyn stepped closer when the vendor began counting out the weights.
"That one is marked incorrectly."
The woman looked at her uniform. "Is it?"
"The stamp says a quarter pound. The weight underneath your cloth has the same marking, and it's nearly twice the size."
Vi stopped reaching for her money.
What followed took longer than buying two mangoes should have required. Caitlyn examined the second weight, explained the discrepancy, and remained at the counter while the vendor fetched another set. Beside her, Vi gradually abandoned any attempt to look uninterested.
By the time they left, Caitlyn had a mango wrapped in paper and the unpleasant suspicion that her liaison had spent the entire exchange enjoying herself.
"You could have said something," she told Vi.
"You were doing fine."
Vi took the route sheet from her so she could put the fruit away. Standing that close, Caitlyn caught cedar beneath the street smells, along with something that reminded her of rain striking warm pavement. She had taken her suppressant before leaving home. It seemed unreasonable that she should still notice.
Vi held the paper until Caitlyn looked up.
"Ready, cupcake?"
"Caitlyn."
Vi glanced at the name printed on the sheet, grinned, and set off before Caitlyn could decide whether the nickname merited further discussion.
~*~♡~*~
During their first week, Caitlyn injured her ankle in a stairwell behind an illegal shimmer dispensary. The lower steps had partly collapsed, and she landed on a loose piece of masonry while trying to keep her rifle clear of the wall.
Vi looked back at the sound. Caitlyn straightened before she could offer a hand.
"I'm all right. Keep going."
For the rest of the afternoon, Vi found reasons to stop. She questioned a shopkeeper who had already answered them, checked the address on an empty building, and took them around a block rather than over the footbridge. By the time they reached their last checkpoint, Caitlyn's ankle had swollen against her boot.
"We could have finished twenty minutes ago," she said.
Vi glanced at the steps ahead, then toward a bench outside a repair shop.
"Sit down a minute. I'll get the clerk."
"I can manage the stairs."
"I know you can."
Vi went inside while Caitlyn remained beside the bench, annoyed at having been observed so closely. Eventually she sat. When the clerk came out to speak to them, he brought his paperwork with him.
At the end of their shift, Caitlyn found a cold compress wrapped in a clean cloth beside her report. Vi had already left. Caitlyn waited until the office emptied before loosening her boot and putting her foot on the neighboring chair.
The cloth smelled faintly of cedar.
Powder arrived the following week to help inventory a weapons cache, carrying a case of tools Vi had assured Caitlyn they would need. She introduced herself while searching her pockets for a pencil, found three, and spent the next hour identifying components Caitlyn would otherwise have had to send away for examination.
She was close to Caitlyn's age, with long blue braids and oil worked into the creases of her hands. Her attention moved quickly, but she remembered everything she had already inspected. Whenever Caitlyn hesitated over an entry, Powder supplied the missing term without looking up from the next item.
It was only when Caitlyn laid her rifle on the table that she became distracted.
Powder examined it from the opposite side, tilted her head, and tried to return to the cache. A few minutes later, she was looking at it again.
"Is something wrong?" Caitlyn asked.
"The scope mount. Has it always sat like that?"
Caitlyn brought the rifle closer. "It was fitted at the armory."
"Right. I thought it might have been." Powder leaned forward, then stopped with her fingers just above the stock. "Could I look?"
Caitlyn nodded.
Powder handled the weapon with enough familiarity that Caitlyn let her continue. She described a small fitting error, becoming increasingly absorbed in the explanation until she noticed Caitlyn watching her.
"Sorry. I can write it down for your armorer."
"You seem to understand the problem perfectly well."
"I could fix it. I'd need it for a few days."
That would mean checking out a replacement and explaining why her service rifle was elsewhere. Caitlyn considered the inconvenience while Powder carefully returned it to its case.
"All right," she said. "Tell me when you can take it."
Powder smiled before remembering to answer, and Caitlyn found herself smiling back.
A week later, the rifle arrived at the joint office with a page of notes tucked beneath the lid. Powder had included a tin of the oil she preferred and drawn several unnecessary explosions around the explanation of her work. At the bottom, in smaller handwriting, she had asked Caitlyn to tell her how it felt at the range.
Caitlyn tested it that afternoon. She wrote back before going home.
By their sixth week of working together, she had become accustomed to Powder appearing whenever equipment needed inspection. She was therefore unprepared for the woman who came around a stack of crates during a checkpoint inventory and took the pen out of her hand.
"Powder, I need that."
"Jinx."
The correction came easily. She wrote the name across the unused corner of the log, then returned the pen.
Caitlyn looked from the page to her face. The braids were familiar, as were the smudges along her knuckles, but she held herself differently. Powder tended to lean toward whatever interested her. Jinx lounged against the crates and watched Caitlyn work out what she had missed.
"Powder didn't tell you about me?"
"No."
"She gets distracted."
Caitlyn put the pen down. "Then I owe you an apology."
That seemed to surprise her. Jinx tipped her head, studying Caitlyn for another moment before picking up a loose cartridge case from the table.
"She liked your note. Kept reading it."
"The rifle handles very well."
"Yeah, I heard."
There was a sharper edge to her scent, something scorched beneath the sweetness Caitlyn associated with Powder. She noticed it when Jinx stepped closer to inspect the log, then became acutely conscious of having noticed.
"Be nice to her," Jinx said. "Break her heart and I'll put a bomb in your glovebox."
Caitlyn looked up from the inventory.
"Was that a threat?"
Jinx returned the cartridge case to its tray. "You can put it in your report."
She wandered off before Caitlyn had decided whether she was joking. For the rest of the inspection, Caitlyn kept looking toward the place where she had last seen her.
Later, on a rooftop above the checkpoint, she asked Vi.
"Powder and Jinx," Vi said. "They share the body. You can ask who's around if you aren't sure."
"Does Powder know what Jinx says?"
"Usually. Sometimes I get an apology later."
Caitlyn considered the exchange at the table. "She said Powder liked me."
Vi rested her forearms on the parapet.
"Powder's been trying to find a reason to see you every day for a month. Jinx keeps coming along to find out what the fuss is about."
"And you're all part of the same pack?"
"Four of us."
It took Caitlyn a moment to adjust the count.
Vi let her think. Below them, someone was closing a shop, dragging a display through a doorway too narrow to accommodate it. Caitlyn watched the struggle longer than necessary.
"I hadn't understood."
"You've got time."
~*~♡~*~
Sevika was harder to get to know.
She sometimes accompanied their patrols and occasionally appeared at the joint office with information that saved them hours of work. Her manner toward Caitlyn was civil, though Caitlyn could rarely persuade herself it was anything warmer.
Then a drunk alpha caught her by the upper arm outside a checkpoint.
He had been speaking to her for several minutes, growing more familiar each time she asked him to move along. When he stepped into her path, she shifted her grip on the rifle and prepared to drive the butt into his stomach.
Sevika caught his shoulder first.
"Let go."
He turned, recognized her, and released Caitlyn quickly enough to lose his balance. Sevika waited while he found something to say, then watched him stumble toward the stairs without offering him another opportunity.
"I had him," Caitlyn said.
"Looked like it."
Sevika glanced at her arm. There would probably be bruises beneath the sleeve.
"Know his name?"
Caitlyn gave it to her. Sevika repeated it once, then continued down the passage.
After that, Caitlyn began noticing how often Sevika's route brought her past the checkpoint near the end of Caitlyn's shift. On cold nights she sometimes left a thermos beside the paperwork. The first time Caitlyn opened one, expecting coffee, she found properly brewed tea.
She returned the thermos clean the following morning.
"Thank you. I was glad of it."
Sevika took it from her with her mechanical hand. "Figured you would be."
The next week, there was enough for two cups.
By then, Caitlyn had been invited to dinner several times. Powder asked while returning equipment, usually with an explanation of what they would be eating and who had agreed to cook. Jinx preferred to tell her where they lived and imply that a competent investigator could manage the rest.
Vi was more direct.
"You could spend some time with us outside work, Cait."
"I've been busy."
"All right. Come when you aren't."
A little later, while they were waiting for a lift, she added, "The pack's interested. Thought you should hear it without Jinx making it sound like a dare."
Caitlyn kept her eyes on the indicator above the doors.
"I'm not looking for a pack."
Vi nodded. "I know."
At twenty-four, Caitlyn had already declined enough introductions to become familiar with the disappointment that usually followed that answer. She had expected Vi to ask for reasons.
Instead, Vi let her enter the lift first and reminded her that Powder wanted the empty oil tin back when she was finished with it.
Caitlyn began taking longer over the replies she wrote.
~*~♡~*~
The chemworks collapsed on a Tuesday, almost three months after their first patrol.
They had gone in to investigate reports of squatters. Most of the ground floor was empty, though there were recent footprints in the dust and a makeshift stove beside a loading door. Caitlyn was examining a stairwell when the floor shifted beneath her.
She heard Vi call her name. Then the railing came away in her hand.
When she regained consciousness, there was dust in her mouth and a weight against her side that made breathing difficult. Sevika was crouched above her, mechanical arm braced beneath a tangle of steel. Blood ran from a cut near her hairline.
"Stay where you are," she said. "Vi's clearing a way through."
Caitlyn tried to answer and coughed instead. Near her hand lay the remains of her injector case, flattened beneath a piece of concrete. She could see broken glass through the split leather.
"My medication."
Sevika followed her gaze.
"We'll deal with it. Keep looking at me."
Caitlyn managed that for a little while.
The next time she woke, she was in a bed.
A lamp stood on a crate beside it, turned low. Her rifle case leaned against the wall. She recognized Vi's voice somewhere nearby and tried to sit up, which brought enough pain through her ribs to stop her.
"Easy."
Vi put down the basin she was carrying and came to the bedside. There was dust in her hair, and one sleeve had torn at the shoulder.
"The medic says you've cracked a couple of ribs. You're going to feel it when you move."
"Where am I?"
"Above the Drop. Our spare room."
Caitlyn looked toward the window. A shutter covered it, secured from inside.
"Fog came down while we were getting you out," Vi explained. "The lower lifts are closed. Could be a couple of days before anything moves."
"My injector case was broken."
"We found it."
"I'll need a replacement."
"Jinx has been asking around. Nothing so far."
Caitlyn closed her eyes. Her next dose was already overdue, and she had brought the rest of the month's supply because she had expected to stay late at the office. She could picture the case on her dressing table that morning, still open while she checked the contents.
Vi waited until she looked at her again.
"When the lifts start, I'll take you wherever you need to go."
"It may begin before then."
Vi moved back from the bed a little, giving her space. Caitlyn noticed the effort she made to quiet her scent, though the room already carried enough of it to make the gesture largely symbolic.
"You can stay here," Vi said. "We'll help you through it."
Caitlyn pulled the sheet higher. It smelled of their household, and she disliked how reassuring she found that.
"I wouldn't know what to ask of you."
"You can start with water. After that, we'll work it out."
Vi poured a glass and held it while Caitlyn found a position that let her drink without putting too much pressure on her side.
"This doesn't have to mean joining the pack," she added. "You can use the room, let us help, and go home when you're ready. No claims. Nothing you haven't asked for."
"I'd only be staying for the heat."
"All right."
Vi accepted the empty glass. Caitlyn watched her set it within reach, then adjust the lamp so the light fell away from her face.
"Do you mind leaving the door open a little?"
"Of course."
Through the gap, Caitlyn could hear someone in the kitchen asking where the clean towels had gone. A cupboard shut, followed by Powder's voice from farther down the hall.
She fell asleep listening.
~*~♡~*~
By morning, the room was too warm.
Caitlyn pushed the blankets aside and lay in the shirt they had found for her, waiting for the discomfort to settle enough that she could go back to sleep. Her ribs hurt whenever she changed position. Her skin felt oversensitive, and the familiar scent in the bedding had become a distraction she could scarcely escape.
She drank the water. She washed her face. Eventually she moved to the far end of the bed, where she could sit against the wall with a pillow supporting her side.
The door was closed now. She had managed that much before retreating.
At home, there would have been medication, clean rooms, people paid to be discreet. She had become good at following a schedule and allowing nobody to see how difficult the worst hours could be. Here she could hear Vi moving around in the next room, close enough to call.
Caitlyn pressed her palms against her knees and waited.
Powder knocked around noon.
"I brought lunch. Is it okay if I leave it here?"
Caitlyn tried to answer, but the effort required to sound composed made her hesitate.
"It's soup," Powder continued. "I made it. Sevika helped. There's bread too, and I'll put a cloth over it so it stays warm."
A dish touched the floor outside.
Caitlyn heard her shift, apparently preparing to leave, then remain beside the door.
"Your hands were shaking yesterday. I thought they might still hurt, so I left a different spoon. Bigger handle."
The footsteps finally moved away.
Caitlyn sat for another minute before getting up. The tray had been placed where she could reach it without opening the door fully. Beside the bowl was a spoon with cloth wrapped securely around the handle.
She brought everything inside and ate most of the soup.
Jinx came in the evening.
Caitlyn recognized the pause outside her door, followed by two deliberate knocks. Then something scraped against the wall as Jinx sat down in the hallway.
"Powder wants to know if you ate."
"Most of it."
"Good. She was about to make something else."
Caitlyn rested her head against the wall. She could smell burnt sugar beneath the familiar oil on the other side of the door.
"Tell her I appreciated it."
"Tell her yourself later. She'll want to hear you say it."
For a while, Jinx stayed quiet. Caitlyn listened to her tap something against her knee.
"Your scent's coming through the door, princess. You know that, right?"
Caitlyn closed her eyes.
"It's driving my sister absolutely up the wall," Jinx continued. "She's trying very hard to leave you alone."
"Then perhaps you could try as well."
"I could."
The tapping resumed. Jinx remained where she was.
Caitlyn drew the sheet over her knees. She had thought she wanted the hallway empty, but the possibility of Jinx actually leaving made her reluctant to repeat herself.
"I'm not used to this."
"Having a heat?"
"Having people outside the door."
Jinx took a little longer to answer.
"We're going to be up for a while. Come out when you get tired of staring at the wall."
She left without waiting for a reply.
Later, Caitlyn opened the door to find a basin of cool water, folded cloths, and a fresh pitcher. There was a small tin of salve beside them, with the lid loosened so she would not have to struggle with it.
Sevika was at the other end of the hall, taking her mechanical arm out of its shoulder harness. She looked up when Caitlyn appeared.
"Need help carrying that?"
Caitlyn began to refuse, glanced at the basin, and stepped aside.
Sevika brought it in and set it on the crate. She put the pitcher beside the bed, tested its balance, and moved a loose book beneath one corner.
"The medic will come back in the morning," she said. "Try to get some rest."
Caitlyn watched her go. Then she picked up one of the cloths and held it over her face until the coolness began to ease the headache.
There was a trace of smoke in the fabric.
~*~♡~*~
By the second day, Caitlyn could no longer persuade herself that being alone was helping.
She had spent most of the morning half asleep, waking whenever someone passed the door. The room had become familiar enough that she knew where the floor creaked and which pipes sounded when water ran downstairs. She wanted to hear voices closer than the hallway.
Getting to her feet took some effort. She used the bedpost, waited for the dizziness to pass, and opened the door.
The private sitting room was lit by lamps, the shutters still closed against the fog. Vi stood beside the stove with a mug in her hand. Sevika was at the table, and Powder had been sitting cross-legged on the sofa with a piece of fabric in her lap.
All three looked up.
Caitlyn's attention went to the floor beside the stove.
They had moved the low table and arranged a nest along the sheltered wall. The blankets were layered over cushions, with heavier quilts around the outside and clean furs across the center. Vi's red jacket lay over one side. There was a soft workshop cloth Caitlyn recognized from Powder's bench, and Sevika's scarf had been folded near the pillows.
A drawing protruded from beneath one of them. Even from the doorway, Caitlyn could recognize Jinx's handwriting.
Powder set the fabric aside, then looked at Vi as though afraid of moving too quickly.
Vi put down her mug.
"Cait?"
Caitlyn held the doorframe until Vi reached her. Her whole body was trembling. Slick was hot on her thighs, and the smell of it filled the room.
"I'd like to come out."
"Okay."
"With you. I mean, I'd like to be with you."
Vi glanced toward the nest. "We made you somewhere comfortable."
"I can see that."
Her voice had begun to shake. She was tired enough to be upset by the kindness itself, by the thought of them carrying all these things into the room while she sat alone trying to decide whether she was entitled to ask for anything.
"You offered," she said. "All of you. Please, I don't want to do this by myself."
Vi offered an arm, then saw how much effort Caitlyn was making to remain upright.
"Let me carry you."
Caitlyn nodded.
Vi lifted her carefully, keeping the injured side supported. Powder moved the pillows while Sevika drew back a quilt, and a moment later Caitlyn was being lowered into the nest.
The scent closed over her like warm water, and she moaned aloud.
"Easy." Vi helped her settle against the furs. "We're going to take such good care of you. That what you want?"
"Yes," Caitlyn gasped. "Yes."
~*~♡~*~
Vi kissed her first, and it was nothing like the teasing. It was slow and deep and devastatingly sure, one big hand cradling Caitlyn's jaw like she was something precious.
"Been trying not to want you since the mangoes," Vi murmured against her mouth. "You standing there in the sun with your rifle and your stick up your ass, looking at me like I was a problem to solve. God. Knew you were ours right then."
"Yours," Caitlyn repeated, dazed.
Clothes came away in layers, with patient hands and shaking ones. Vi stripped her down with a focus that bordered on reverence, pressing kisses to every new inch of skin: the hollow of her throat, her cracked ribs with a murmured apology, the trembling plane of her stomach. When Caitlyn lay bare in the nest at last, flushed from cheeks to chest, thighs slick and parted, Vi sat back on her heels and looked at her.
"Prettiest thing I've ever seen," Vi said. "Come here."
She laid Caitlyn back against the furs, settled between her thighs, and put her mouth on her. Caitlyn's back came up off the nest like a drawn bow.
"Aahh! Vi- ah, ah, ahh—"
The alpha's tongue was hot and broad and relentless, licking long stripes through her slick, circling the aching bud of her clit with a confidence that said she'd been thinking about this, planning it. Caitlyn's hands flew to her hair and held on.
"Oh … oh, fuck. Nobody's ever … nnnhh—"
"Nobody's ever what?" Vi lifted her head just enough to grin against her, chin shining. "Nobody's ever eaten the great Caitlyn Kiramman like she deserves? Their loss, cupcake. My gain."
She sealed her mouth over Caitlyn's clit and sucked, and two thick fingers slid deep into the molten heat of her cunt and curled. Caitlyn came sobbing, thighs clamping around Vi's head, her whole body seizing in wave after wave while the heat barely paused.
"More," she heard herself beg, raw-voiced, shocked at herself and past caring. "Please, more. Don't stop. Don't you dare stop."
"Wasn't planning on it."
Vi rose over her, shoving her own pants down, and Caitlyn's hazy eyes found her: the heavy, flushed length of her, the swell already forming at the base. Her omega hindbrain sang, alpha, alpha, knot, yes.
Vi sank into her in one long, steady stroke, and the stretch punched the air out of her lungs and put stars behind her eyes.
"Oohhh … oh, oh, you're … hahh … so—"
"Shh, I know, sweetheart. I know. You're doing so good."
Vi bottomed out and held there, trembling with restraint, her forehead pressed to Caitlyn's.
"Fuck. Fuck, Caitlyn, you're squeezing me like—okay. Okay."
She started to move, deep and rolling, every thrust knocking a little moan loose from Caitlyn's throat.
"Ah, ah, ah … Vi, please—"
The nest smelled of sex and cedar and rain on stone, and Caitlyn never wanted to smell anything else again.
The knot caught on the third crest. Vi ground in deep and it swelled, locking them together. The pressure against that spot inside her sent Caitlyn over with a wail.
"Vi … ahh, ahhh!"
Her cunt fluttered and clamped in helpless pulses while Vi groaned into her neck and spilled, hips jerking, growling low and possessive.
"Ours," Vi panted against her throat, half a reflex. Then she caught herself and lifted her head. "Shit. I didn't … we said no claims."
"Say it again," Caitlyn whispered, and pulled her back down.
~*~♡~*~
They untied eventually, and the heat redoubled.
Caitlyn was on her hands and knees in the center of the nest, floating, wrung out and greedy, when blue braids swung into her vision. A familiar face tipped her chin up with delicate fingers, and Caitlyn knew who was there.
"Hi," Powder said, barely audible. "Hi, Caitlyn. It's me. Jinx and I talked, and we both want … can I? Please? I've wanted to touch you since the scope. Since before the scope. Is that okay? Tell me it's okay."
"Powder." Caitlyn reached up and cupped her face. "Come here, sweetheart."
Powder made a small, broken sound and kissed her, clumsy and eager, pouring her shy devotion into it. Oil-stained fingers mapped Caitlyn's body.
"You're so warm. You're so soft. You're the prettiest thing in both cities. I've thought so forever. I built you things, did you know? Little things. I never gave them to you because I was scared …"
"Show me later," Caitlyn breathed. "Right now I need you to fuck me, Powder. Please."
Powder whined, high and desperate, then lined up and pushed in. She was longer than Vi, narrower, and the angle of it made Caitlyn see God.
"Aahh! Oh, oh, good. You're so good."
"You're good," Powder sobbed, hips stuttering, all that nervous energy turned to frantic sweetness. "You're perfect, you're perfect. I love … I like … I … oh, oh no, I'm not going to last. You feel too—"
She came with a broken moan, her knot swelling small and urgent. Through the haze, Caitlyn felt the change shiver through the body locked to hers: the shoulders loosening, the grip on her hips going from reverent to possessive. When the knot eased and the voice came again, it had smoke in it.
"Aww. Powder made a mess of you already."
Jinx pulled out, flipped Caitlyn onto her back, and loomed over her with that sharp grin.
"My turn. You going to be good for me too, princess? Or do I get to make you?"
"Make me," Caitlyn said, grinning back.
"Oh, I like you."
Jinx slammed home in one thrust, and Caitlyn screamed.
"Ahh! Ah, ah, ahh—"
It was a different world entirely, hard and deep and relentless, Jinx fucking her like she was trying to prove something to both cities. Sharp teeth pressed at her throat while Jinx spoke into her ear.
"Look at you. Big, bad Piltover enforcer, legs spread in a Zaunite nest, drooling on my cock. You love this. You were made for this. All that pride, and you're just a sweet omega who needed somebody to take her apart."
"Yes! Yes. Harder, please. Harder."
"Please, she says."
Jinx's hand slid to her throat, holding without squeezing, and her hips snapped as the heat rolled Caitlyn under again.
"Powder wants to marry you, you know. She's in my head right now screaming because I'm being mean. But you like mean. I can feel it. Your cunt's gripping me, princess."
The knot caught, slammed deep, swelled.
"Fuck, there it is. Take it. Take all of it."
Caitlyn came with Jinx's hand on her throat, overwhelmed by being full and held, by being wanted so differently by the people sharing that familiar face.
"Thank you," she babbled, and meant it so much it scared her. "Thank you, thank you. Please—"
~*~♡~*~
Somewhere in the small hours, wrung out and still burning, she ended up on Sevika's lap.
The big alpha had been at the nest's edge, silent and watchful. When Caitlyn's eyes found hers and held, Sevika opened her arms.
Now Caitlyn straddled her in the furs, sinking down onto her with a long, broken moan.
"Ohhh … oh, oh, you're so deep …"
Sevika's flesh hand cradled the back of her neck. Her mechanical arm wrapped slowly and carefully around Caitlyn's waist, the plates warm.
"I've got you," Sevika said. Her eyes were soft. "Take what you need. I'm not going anywhere."
"You brought me tea," Caitlyn gasped, rolling her hips, tears sliding down her cheeks. "All those nights. You brought me tea, and you guarded my checkpoints, and I never … Sevika, I never thanked you."
"You're thanking me now."
Sevika pressed her forehead to Caitlyn's.
"Stop talking. Feel."
Caitlyn moved on her, slow and deep, beyond speech. When the knot locked them together, she came apart quietly this time, a long, shuddering crest with her face buried in Sevika's neck, breathing steel and smoke.
Sevika's low voice rumbled through her chest.
"There you go. There you go, little omega. We've got you. All four of us."
~*~♡~*~
Caitlyn woke thirsty, with the worst of the heat finally past.
The room had been tidied while she slept. Fresh linens covered the pillows, and the basin near the stove had been emptied. Someone had left water close enough that she could reach it without sitting all the way up.
Vi lay behind her, an arm resting across her waist. Powder was curled against her front, one hand tucked beneath her cheek. Sevika had dozed off beside the sofa, her mechanical arm resting on a folded towel.
Caitlyn drank slowly.
Beside her pillow lay Jinx's drawing, rescued from wherever it had spent the night. It showed a bomb with a heart painted on its casing. She studied it until Vi stirred.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
Vi lifted her head enough to check, then settled again. Her hand remained at Caitlyn's waist.
Caitlyn put down the glass.
There were practical questions to ask. Her uniform was somewhere in the building, and she would need to send word to the office as soon as the lifts reopened. Eventually her mother would hear an account of the collapse and expect to know why she had not been taken straight home.
She could deal with all of that later. What troubled her now was the possibility that everyone around her would assume the original arrangement still applied.
"Vi."
"Mm?"
"When the fog clears, I'd like to stay."
Vi became still behind her.
Caitlyn looked at the drawing rather than turn around.
"I mean after I've recovered. I'd like to be part of the pack, if the offer is still there."
Powder opened her eyes.
For a moment she appeared to be working out what she had heard. Then she pushed herself upright, knocking a pillow aside.
"Yes! Caitlyn, yes!"
Vi caught the pillow before it struck Caitlyn's side.
"Easy, Pow."
"Sorry."
Powder took Caitlyn's hand between both of hers. She was smiling so hard that she had to stop before she could continue.
"I made a shelf. For you. It's by the window upstairs, but we can move it if you don't like where it is."
"A shelf?"
"For your things."
Caitlyn looked back at Vi.
"How long has there been a shelf?"
"A while."
"And the nest?"
Vi glanced toward the blankets. "We've been putting things aside."
Powder began explaining where several of the quilts had come from, then paused. Her grip eased, and she sat back a little.
Caitlyn waited.
"Jinx?"
"She wants me to say she knew you'd ask." Jinx glanced toward the shelf Caitlyn could not yet see. "She was getting pretty worried about it, though."
"I had no idea."
"Yeah. We got that."
Caitlyn looked at the drawing again. Jinx followed her gaze and reached over to straighten its bent corner.
"That one's yours too."
Vi's hand moved slowly over Caitlyn's sleeve.
"I should have been clearer," she said. "I thought I was, but then you'd thank me and go home."
"I thought you were like that with everyone."
"Not quite."
Caitlyn turned enough to look at her. Vi's ears had gone pink.
"The mangoes," Caitlyn said. "You really meant that?"
Vi rubbed a hand over her face.
"You were standing there arguing about the weights like you had all morning. Didn't care who was getting annoyed with you." She glanced away, then back. "I liked watching you."
Caitlyn remembered how long Vi had held the route sheet while she put the fruit away.
She reached for her hand.
Sevika was awake now, watching them from beside the sofa. Caitlyn held her gaze until she shifted forward and came to sit on the open side of the nest.
"And you?"
Sevika took a moment to make room for her arm.
"Realized I was walking past your checkpoint after my shift was over. Kept doing it."
"You could have come in."
"Didn't want to interrupt."
Caitlyn smiled and moved closer. Sevika helped adjust the quilt around her without being asked.
The conversation had begun to feel real enough that Caitlyn could imagine the room in daylight, her things on the shelf, breakfast requiring no explanation beyond asking where they kept the cups. She wanted more than a place to recover. She wanted to return from work and find them here.
"I'd like to be claimed," she said.
Vi looked at her for a long moment, then touched the side of her face.
"We can talk about that after you've recovered."
"I know what I want."
"I believe you. Ask me again when you're feeling like yourself, and I'll still be here."
Caitlyn exhaled, frustrated less by the delay than by the fact that she understood it.
"You aren't saying no."
"No. You can stay without having to settle everything tonight."
Jinx settled against the cushions beside her.
"Powder's going to need time to show you the shelf anyway. There's a whole explanation."
"There usually is," Caitlyn said.
"You're encouraging her."
Caitlyn reached for Jinx's hand before she could move farther away.
"Yes."
That left Jinx quiet for a few seconds.
Vi pressed her lips to the unmarked skin of Caitlyn's throat.
"But we can do the next best thing tonight," she murmured. "Going to smell like us, cupcake."
Caitlyn tipped her head back, giving her room.
Vi scented her slowly, a long drag of jaw and gland that left Caitlyn weak against her. She reached for Vi's arm and held on.
They took turns with her after that, slow and unhurried, with scenting, hands, and the occasional slide into something deeper when the embers flared. Powder's sweetness pressed against her sternum, Jinx's sharp teeth left a possessive sting at her shoulder, and Sevika settled close enough to hold her when she grew tired.
By the time they finished, Caitlyn could no longer distinguish her own scent from theirs.
Jinx remained beside her, chin hooked over her shoulder, one arm across her waist.
"You should know Powder takes all the blankets."
"I've noticed."
"Vi kicks."
Vi made an indignant sound behind her.
"And if you snore, princess, I'm putting a bomb in your glovebox."
Caitlyn opened her eyes.
"You've already threatened that."
"Still got a glovebox, haven't you?"
The laugh escaped before Caitlyn could prepare for it. Her ribs protested, and Sevika steadied her while Vi told Jinx to give her a chance to breathe.
Caitlyn caught Jinx's hand before she could withdraw it.
Somewhere downstairs, a door shut and someone called that the fog was beginning to lift. Vi answered, then settled back against her.
Caitlyn had intended to stay awake long enough to ask about the upstairs room. Instead she listened while Vi and Sevika discussed breakfast, her hand still resting in Jinx's.
By the time they agreed on what to make, she was asleep.