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“Are you really sure that everyone does this?”
Coralie’s known, ever since their first battle together, that Helia was never meant to be here. Not in this godforsaken outpost. She’s too anxious to make split-second decisions, too insecure to follow through on the decisions she does make, and too compassionate to ever leave someone behind. Coralie knows these traits are not conducive to a good soldier, or even to survival. It’s her first time meeting someone this earnest before the world inevitably destroyed or remade them. On this doomed planet, Helia is a remarkable curiosity. Unfortunately for Coralie, such uniqueness is horribly endearing. Her ridiculous good looks don’t help either.
At least, that’s the rationale she’s giving for her behaviour right now. For shoving her hand down the newest rookie’s pants.
“You know, you’re really showing your greenness right now.” It’s a dirty tactic, playing into Helia’s insecurity about her “battlefield” inexperience. No one’s ever accused Coralie of being too honourable for dirty tactics.
Helia flushes with shame and anger. It travels down her face, towards her chest, like some inexplicably appealing rash. But Coralie’s not about to let her dwell on those emotions, lest they fester into an outburst. She slips her fingers inside.
A switch flips. Helia sighs, and her body relaxes. She avoids eye contact, cheeks still flushed, but her voice softens. “This will improve my performance in battle?”
Coralie fucks into her, and the way Helia gasps drives her to the point of disbelief. She’s so cute, so easy. It’s a wonder that Coralie is the first to sink into her.
Well, actually, not really. Coaxing Helia to this point has been a frustrating, time consuming ordeal, like trying to get an especially timid cat to come out for pets. Coralie’s not good with cats.
She seems to be good at this though, judging by the pleasant sounds that Helia’s making.
“Coralie… Coralie…”
Ah. Music to her ears. The satisfaction of defeating a super-challenging secret boss, of smashing out a new speed-run record.
“My… battle… performance…”
“Yes, yes.” Coralie replies nonchalantly, fucking her harder. “Your performance is excellent.”
It’s a tragedy, really, how the beautiful and innocent are doomed to die young. Coralie mouths over her breasts, sucking marks into them. She curls her fingers, and revels at the way Helia trembles.
By the time it’s finished, Coralie’s feeling unexpectedly tender. Maybe it’s the satisfaction of achieving a goal she’s worked towards for so long, a goal she actually had to try for. Or maybe it’s just that Helia’s breasts are really that comfortable to rest her face on. It’s a shame she’s expected back at the lab in about five minutes.
She gets up to leave, and Helia’s voice rings out.
“Wait! What about…?” She gestures at Coralie vaguely.
“About?” Coralie looks back at Helia, wrapped up in her blanket. Her hair, usually tightly tied back, to the point that Coralie gets a tension headache just looking at her, is loose and mussed around her shoulders.
Coralie wants to go back and mess it up some more.
“About… your performance.”
Coralie laughs. Only Helia can make her laugh like this. It’s slightly worrying, but Coralie chooses not to think about it too much.
“Seriously? You think a super-soldier needs that to boost battle performance?”
Coralie walks back over to Helia, tucks her in, and plants an exaggerated smooch! On her forehead.
“Sweet dreams, rookie.”
Even if she doesn’t manage to fully prevent her tail wagging on her way to the lab, no one dares to comment on it.
----
Two months later, they’re in a military camp. One tent in a sea of hundreds.
Helia’s worried about someone overhearing them. It’s enough to make Coralie wonder, really, if Helia ever actually bought her previous lines about “everybody’s doing this.”
Not that it matters now. Not compared to the sensation of stretching Helia around three fingers. It’s safe to say that Coralie has developed a habit.
Too comfortable, Coralie thinks. I’ve gotten too comfortable.
It’s the only way she can explain why she lets herself fall asleep in someone else’s warmth for the first time.
----
Six months later, an abandoned building. A makeshift barricade stands, precarious, between them and certain death. They’re absolutely surrounded by calamity, with no squad members left, no way out, and no hope.
In other words, they’re doomed
Coralie’s already on top of Helia, pulling at her clothes.
“We can’t do this now! Eliza’s still out there!” Helia protests.
“No she’s not.” Not after being impaled by a spike that size. “We can’t go out there.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Helia’s beautiful face is marked by fury, tarred by despair. “Are we supposed to just stay useless, here, forever?”
“Until reinforcements arrive.” If they do. For once, Coralie hopes her market value as a military asset remains high. She never wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, but the prospect of slow starvation seems even worse.
Helia turns her face away, avoiding looking at Coralie.
“It’s my fault, isn’t it?” Her desperation for reassurance pours out in rush. She’s still fixated on the deaths of their squadmates, even after all this time. Unlike so many others, Helia’s compassion has yet to run out.
It breaks her heart, just a little. Just enough for Coralie to be honest, for once. She leans in.
Helia’s mouth tastes like shrapnel, and gun-smoke, and blood.
It’s wrong. Coralie wants to lick inside until those tastes are all gone, until its just her, and Helia.
Sweet Helia.
Coralie pulls away and looks into reddened eyes tenderly, cupping her face. “You were never meant to be here.”
“What are you talking about?” Helia’s voice cracks, and Coralie moves to kiss her throat until it heals. “I worked hard. I earned my place here.”
Coralie looks into Helia’s eyes, admiring the shape, the shade. “You shouldn’t have.”
When tears rise there, it just turns her on even more, maddens her further. Only Helia could make her feel like being a freak, a monster is worth it. Coralie wants to consume her.
“My family needs me.” Helia’s glare is laughably weakened when she lifts her hips for Coralie to remove her underwear. They’ve done this so often that half their actions have become unthinking, automatic, like those training drills Helia puts herself through over, and over.
“Your family should have protected you.” Coralie drags her teeth teasingly across Helia’s collarbones, eliciting a shudder. “Who knows what shady characters might have taken advantage of you in our famously corrupt military, if I wasn’t there to look out for you?”
“You’re the shadiest character in the whole damn place,” Helia bites out, pulling her closer anyway. It drives Coralie crazy, always. She needs to be closer, even closer. She reaches down with her hand, just like she did all those months ago, just like she’s done as often as she can since.
Helia’s so wet - she sucks four of Coralie’s fingers in easily, with barely a hitch in breath. So well trained, Coralie thinks, her whole body on fire. The wails and screeches of the calamity beasts outside feel like nothing compared to the hammering of her heartbeat.
And when she moves, drawing out and snapping back into place like a bowstring, Helia gives way with a gasp.
“This is how you’re supposed to be,” Coralie whispers into her skin, into the crook of her breast, licking at beads of sweat as they form. “Helia.”
There’s no chance for a response, with Coralie setting a brutal pace, trying to prove something to Helia, to herself. Helia’s arms and legs lock around her, crushing, bruising, and despite everything, it’s the safest, the most secure Coralie’s ever felt.
“I love you when you’re like this,” Coralie breathes out, twisting her wrist roughly. Her lips curve into a smile. “You can’t even respond, can you?”
“I. Can.” Helia grits out, never one to back down from a challenge. Coralie tests her thumb against her entrance. “Fuck.”
“Uh-uh, it’s unbecoming for a model student to swear.” Coralie roughly pinches a nipple with her other hand. She traces their joining with her thumb, feeling the give, evaluating. Helia whines, and it makes Coralie reckless.
“Take all of me.” Despite the rough words, it sounds like a plea. Helia holds her tighter.
She pushes in.
Helia’s heat is crushing, squeezing, and it’s the best thing Coralie’s ever felt. The calamity beasts could swarm them right now and Coralie would die happy. She can feel every intense wave of Helia’s orgasm. She can hear it. She fucks her as she trembles through it. When Helia paws at her to pull out, she does, but it feels like a loss. She buries herself in Helia’s arms, her chest, to make up for it.
---------
They don’t talk when the helicopter comes to evacuate them. The charged, nebulous thing between them has swollen to oversize, threatening to crush them. But when Coralie shifts her hand closer to Helia’s side, Helia grips it, tight in the way she knows Coralie likes.