Felicity's Beast World Apocalypse

For a moment nobody in the room noticed her. Then Teddy’s nose wrinkled, his head turning, and every single baby in the room went still.

The scent must have hit them all at once, because the room went from busy chatter and small grunts to complete silence, four little heads swivelling in their cribs, wide eyes fixing on her from across the room.

"Mummy," Teddy said it first, syllables tumbling out fast and wet. "Mum mum mum umumumum." He abandoned the blocks entirely, planting both hands on the floor and hauling himself forward, his little legs kicking uselessly behind him before he found the rhythm and started to crawl.

"Oh!" Felicity’s chest cracked wide open at the sound of him, and she forgot her back, forgot the ache still living low in her spine, and lowered herself down onto her knees despite Dimitri’s hand hovering uselessly behind her like he wanted to catch her and didn’t quite dare.

Teddy made it halfway across the rug before his arm buckled and he went down in a small heap, and a wail started building in his throat, but she was already there, scooping him up before the cry could fully form, holding him against her chest so he could bury his face into her.

"Come here, baby. Come here, good boy," she murmured into the top of his head, breathing him in, milk and sleep and that particular warm smell that was just him. "You clever thing, you found me."

He shoved his fist into his mouth and gurgled at her, delighted with himself, and she pressed kiss after kiss to his hair, his temple, the fat curve of his cheek, laughing wetly at how hard he was working to climb higher up her chest like he could disappear into her entirely.

Beside her, Luna’s ears had gone flat, her small mouth pulling into a thin unhappy line as she watched Teddy get folded into their mother’s arms first. Felicity caught it out of the corner of her eye, the way Luna’s fingers curled tight at her sides, but before she could say anything, Frost had already let go of her hand and marched himself over to the nearest crib, chin lifted, spine straight as a soldier’s.

"Hi baby," he announced solemnly, peering down at whichever small face blinked back up at him. "I’m your big brother."

That seemed to break something loose in Luna, because she abandoned her sulk in an instant and scrambled after him, elbowing in beside the crib to get her own look. "I’m your big sister," she said, louder than necessary, like she needed to make sure it counted just as much.

Felicity watched them over Teddy’s head, her throat tight, and shifted him to one hip so she could shuffle closer on her knees, wanting to see. The baby in the crib, she thought it might be one of the little boys, though everything about him still looked new and unformed, stared up at Frost and Luna with wide, unblinking eyes, and let out a small experimental squawk.

"He likes you," Felicity said, and Frost’s shoulders went up an inch with pride.

They moved down the row together, the two of them, greeting each baby in turn with the same grave formality, and Felicity trailed after on her knees, Teddy still clinging to her like a vine, pressing kisses wherever she could reach him between introductions.

But the longer she lingered over Teddy, cooing at him, letting him gum at her knuckle, the more the other cribs began to stir with complaint, first one small grumble, then another, until a thin unhappy cry rose up from the crib closest to the window and set off a chain reaction down the line.

"Alright, alright." Felicity laughed, a little helpless, glancing over her shoulder at Ivan, who was already rising, unfolding to his full height with the easy patience of a man who’d expected exactly this. "I think that’s my cue."

Teddy’s face crumpled in response, his lower lip quivering with solidarity, but Felicity only held him tighter, planting one last kiss on his nose before she shifted him to her hip. "Alright, alright," she said, and the words came out as a watery laugh, equal parts delight and exhaustion. She twisted at the waist, looking over her shoulder for help, and caught Ivan’s eye. He was already halfway to his feet, stretching his arms out with the slow, deliberate patience of a lion waking from a nap, his gaze soft with the knowledge that this was always going to be his job.

Frost, who is usually quiet and never speaks, reached through the crib rails and gave a careful pat to the nearest baby’s chest. "It’s okay. Don’t be scared," he said, in a tone that suggested he’d been practising the line in secret and was proud to finally use it. Luna, meanwhile, had abandoned her post beside him and was now clambering up beside Felicity, arms outstretched, demanding to be carried too. The tide of little bodies threatened to overwhelm her, but Felicity braced herself, scooped Luna in, and planted her on her unoccupied knee.

"Mummy, that one’s hungry. See? She’s chewing her blankie."

Felicity followed the line of her daughter’s finger and saw the baby in question, mouth working furiously on a corner of cotton, face screwed up in frustration.

She let go of Teddy with one hand and placed him gently on the floor with his toys. Then she reached in, gently extracting Lottie and settling her into the crook of her neck.

The baby’s cries went instantly silent, as though she’d only needed permission to stop, felicity snuggled her a little.

Lottie latched with a tiny, indignant huff, like she was still annoyed it had taken this long, and then went quiet, her whole body softening against Felicity’s arm. She drank in soft, greedy pulls, one fist curling into the fabric of Felicity’s shirt, the other splayed flat against the curve of her breast like she needed to hold onto something solid while she worked. Little grunting noises came with each swallow, small and satisfied, and every few seconds her eyes would drift up to Felicity’s face and just... stay there.

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