Alex woke up to a sinuous touch along her thigh, a few fingers swishing back and forth along the sensitive skin there. It'd been going on for several minutes—the feeling had intruded on her dreams, giving her very pleasant thoughts of Nikita. Her eyes opened and for a breathless moment she was worried… then she saw Nikita grinning at her and she smiled herself.

"Thought I trained you to sleep with one eye open."

"You never trained me for 400-thread count sheets. What are you doing here?" They were in the apartment Division had provided Alex, on the bed Division had given her, and Nikita was curled up in the sheets, same as her.

"I wanted to see you," Nikita said. "And now that you're on the outside, I can do it whenever I want."

"It?" Alex replied impishly.

Nikita brandished her smile again as she kissed Alex's arm. Alex was wearing a lace nightie she'd bought for an obscene amount of money, but suddenly she felt as if it were nothing more than tissue paper.

"I missed you so much, baby girl." Her lips skipped up Alex's arm, her neck, her face until they were kissing, Alex throwing her arms around Nikita and giving as good as she got. "I missed hearing your voice instead of some tinny computer." As if embarrassed by the intensity of what she was feeling, Nikita pulled herself away from Alex's gaze and buried her lips in the girl's neck. Alex moaned out loud.

"I'm here," she said. "I'm all yours."

Nikita growled and slapped her hand down on Alex's leg, forcing herself calm as she inched her hand upward, taking the hem of Alex's nightie up to. Alex felt momentarily exposed as the nightie came off her hips, then all she felt was hot. The cool sheets settling on her cunt were like another caress from Nikita, and another moan moved from her throat.

Nikita had always had an animalistic side. She kept it carefully concealed, but a part of her was pure lust, rage, affection. Alex thought it mirrored the part she herself kept locked up. But she knew that her being in danger made Nikita go all primate on the bad guys. And her offering herself to Nikita made her mentor shed all her inhibitions, show Alex the heart that'd been buried twice over, first by Division and then by herself. It was the only gift that mattered to Alex, and even if the sex sucked (as if it ever did), she would go through anything to see a Nikita who was so beautiful, so whole.

Nikita's teeth came out, nipping as Alex's shoulder, and the contrast, between the cool sheets on her overwarm body and the slight pain and the affection she could feel in Nikita's very presence, jolted Alex toward orgasm. Nikita must've sensed the overall effect, maybe even planned it, because she raised one amused eyebrow and ran her tongue up the column of Alex's neck to dip into her eye. Alex felt like she was boiling, especially when Nikita's callused fingers cupped her sex…

"No," Alex said, voice strained even though they'd barely started.

"No?" Nikita repeated, drawing herself back. Alex could see the old doubts flood her face—that Alex was too young, that bringing sex into the mix would complicate things too much, that she'd lose Alex like she lost Daniel.

Alex ran her hand over Nikita's beautiful face, putting her mind at ease. "I don't want it hard and fast. I want you to make love to me."

The last time they'd had sex was when Alex had become a full agent. She'd stopped by the loft, thinking about how she couldn't go home again… thinking how impressive all Nikita's tech had looked when she first got there, and now how it paled in comparison to Division. And Nikita had looked at her and suddenly Alex had felt like her clothes were suffocating her. They'd been able to focus on shoptalk for about two minutes before they stripped each other bare, throwing each other down on the nearest empty surface—a training mat—and fingering each other until they came almost simultaneously. It hadn't made up for all the months they'd spent apart. Without even pausing to catch her breath, Alex had rolled Nikita over and started again.

The last time they'd made love was before Division, the night before the robbery. Alex had thrown a towel over those stupid masks because it'd felt like they'd been watching her all day and stripped down to her bra and panties; the closest she could come to lingerie. Nikita had understood. She'd led Alex gently to the bedroom and cooed approvingly as Alex undressed her and told Alex over and over again how beautiful she was as she stripped the girl in turn. Alex had been fucked so many times that she'd thought this would be the same, maybe just a little nicer because Nikita cared if she hurt her.

It was nothing like what'd happened in the bordello. No drugs meant Alex had a warm clarity on every touch, every look, every word Nikita spoke. And since she'd gotten clean, since Nikita had trained her, her body had gone from a polluted, half-functioning thing to a finely-tuned instrument that Nikita had lavished with intimacy. Alex had felt worshipped as Nikita had seemed to memorize every curve and feature of her, studying every laugh and moan, and by the end they'd been smiling together as they went to sleep, curled into the same shape… such a long way from how Nikita had held her at the beginning, when detox was making her nightmares real and Nikita had embraced her not because it made it better, but because it was all she could do.

Now, Nikita looked at Alex, the animal lust in her eyes receding, replaced by something warm and soft. "Oh, Alex…" She lowered her face to Alex's chest, hearing the slow, safe beat of her heart. "I always make love to you."

"I know that." Alex petted her hair. "But I want you to take your time. We're safe now. We're winning. We don't have to treat this like it's something shameful to get out of the way."

"I could never think that. You're the only beautiful thing in this." Alex didn't know if Nikita meant the relationship, the mission, or the whole world. "But I can go as slow as you like… if you can take it."

Alex knew what the dare meant. Nikita could keep her poised for hours on the razor's edge, denying her orgasm and yet Alex had never wanted the pleasure to stop, even though she knew it had to. She'd always thought there was something special about those moments, like it was just the two of them in the world, and Nikita wasn't dragging the sex out because of some fetish, but because she didn't want that moment of sanctuary to end.

"Take all the time you need," Alex replied. "And talk to me. I love it when you talk."

"Only if you moan." Nikita pushed the nightie up Alex's body, for Alex to eagerly pull over her shoulders and discard. "And scream, and beg. I love all the sounds you make. And here, we can be as loud as we want."

"Give me something worth screaming about."

Nikita laid her hand on Alex's thigh, letting her feel the vibrations as it shook. The woman who'd been on a hundred missions, faced a thousand enemies, was nervous making love to her.

"My fingers are twitching," Nikita said. "They wanna go inside you so bad…"

Alex was nearly delirious as Nikita's fingers got their wish. Only one to begin with. It curled and shimmied inside her, and Alex dutifully expressed her appreciation—a softly drawn-out moan.

Nikita smirked at the first telltale sign of pleasure. "I forgot how warm you are. How tight. Lucky I have small fingers."

Another one inside her. Nikita's fingers weren't small. They were long and callused and perfect. And suddenly they were gone. Alex moaned in disappointment, pouting at Nikita's Cheshire-cat smile as the woman disappeared under the sheets.

A moment later, she felt a kiss against her exquisitely ready sex.

"But I could never forget how you taste."

Afterward, Nikita crawled up and sprawled next to Alex, humming contentedly as the girl mustered enough energy to nuzzle up to her like a kitten. Nikita didn't close her eyes, didn't truly relax as Alex fell into her warmth. She didn't dare fall asleep with Alex and risk discovery. But she could watch Alex rest, sated and loved, and take a few minutes before she slipped out the door to know that this was worth being apart, being brutalized, being corrupted.

Alex was worth being Nikita.