The cunnilingus isn't better when the woman is crying.

Brain slug hosts have feelings, too. While their faces often lack expression except for pain, brain slugs hosts still feel human emotions, filtered through the brain slug's own understanding. Rather than process emotions individually as humans do, they seek the support of other brain slug hosts to share the emotional load, to find comfort in unity.
—Slug Sutra, Chapter 5

". . . And I hope, I really hope, that you love who I become."

Rachel's lower lip quivered. It wasn't a sob, not yet. Her body shook. She reached out for something and found Mel's hand, as he sat on her left on the couch, and held onto it like a lifeline. The video ended, and then she said, very clearly: "Thank you."

She didn't sound well. Mel had seen kids like that at the orphanage, usually the first night after they were brought in. All the trauma unpacking at once. Some cried, some wailed, or thrashed. One had tried to cut herself. After that, the attendants became more observant. At least for a while.

"Can I do anything?" Mel asked. "Do you need a hug?"

Rachel closed her eyes. She didn't let go of Mel's arm. Then Soong stood between the couch and the TV, and bent over to tug at her black jeans. Pants and panties came down, all the way to Rachel's ankles. The tears started to fall down her cheeks onto the Hello Cthulhu shirt, face scrunched up as the damn, already leaking, was prepared to break.

Jordan grabbed Mel's free arm and tugged him up and over. He found himself kneeling before Rachel, her bare labia right before his face. It was, apparently, the only way their girlfriends could think to help. Mel wasn't sure they had read the room right, but Rachel didn't fight it as Mel leaned forward and gently nuzzled the labia. His tongue found her cleft, and she was definitely dry, not in the mood at all. He was about to pull back when her hands clamped tight on his skull.

The tears gave way to sobs. To an animal moan of loss and wounds reopened by the ghost of a sister who was not dead but forever lost. And all Mel could do at that moment was lick her slit and hope, somehow, that would help.

The cunnilingus isn't better when the woman is crying. Mel heard Jordan's voice; one of the brain slug hosts had decided to play the video again. His tongue lapped at the soft folds, and he felt the sobs rock through Rachel's body, the hands gripping his hair painfully as she pressed his face deeper into her crotch.

They let her cry. They let her wail and moan. Mel couldn't see what the other women were doing, focused on the task in front of him, but as his tongue lapped at Rachel's little clit, which slowly swelled, and her juices began to flow, he heard the video play a third and a fourth time. He heard the sobbing die down, replaced in gradations and hiccups by soft moans. Heard the shift of couch tissues and knew Soong or Jordan was on the couch with her, and then there was the sound of lips locked on lips, of people breathing and moving, and Mel felt his own ardor rise in aching stiffness between his legs.

Yet this wasn't about him.

They didn't play the video a fifth time. Rachel's nails dug into his skull as her body gave a little shiver that built and built in length and intensity as he focused on her clit, and then a little wet gush sprayed into his mouth, salty and oddly tangy. Then she relaxed and huffed for a few minutes, catching her breath. Mel took the reprieve to lick her pussy clean.

When she spoke, her voice wasn't sad or tired, but something else, something beyond grief.

"Mel, stand up. It's my turn now," Rachel said.

He pulled his face away and looked up. They had taken off the Hello Cthulhu shirt, and Rachel's breasts hung there, the nipples stiff. Jordan was behind her, petting her straw-colored hair with her fingers. There were wet tracks on Rachel's cheeks, but the blue eyes were clear.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Come on. I want to suck your dick."

He stood—and there was a little gasp, because he was already hard and ready. Rachel gave a little gasp, and suddenly there was a nervous, deer-in-the-headlights look, and Mel wondered how many men she had really been with. Then her face hardened with resolve, and she licked her lips and reached out a hand to grab him by the base.

"Fuck, you're so hard," she said as she bent forward to bring her lips down to the level of Mel's hips. "And it's so hot in my hand."

She let her other hand rise, palm up, and for a moment, Mel felt himself rest in her hand. Rachel gnawed her lip, just for a moment, as she stared at the drop that hung suspended on the very tip. Then she looked up at him, into his eyes.

"I know I didn't ask for that," she said, as she began to gently stroke him, two fingers along the back, the thumb running up the sensitive, swollen underside. "But I think right then, I really needed it. Would you have done that if they weren't here?"

Mel wasn't sure how to answer. So he said the only thing that came to mind.

"I'm never going to turn down eating your pussy, especially if you need it," he said. "That's what boyfriends are for, right?"

It was the kind of thing a horny 18-year-old would say if they were being honest, and Mel felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment at the admission. Yet in that moment, perhaps, it was just the right thing to say, because Rachel smiled, and though she looked about ready to cry again, instead she dropped her eyes and kissed Mel's tip.

Her lips were warm. Soft. Mel stood stock still, as her tongue played over his slit. First hesitantly, and then with increasing confidence. Jordan sat down on Rachel's right, Soong on her left, the two naked women rubbing their hands over her thighs and back. The brain slugs on their neck were bright green, like old glass, and pulsing in time. It seemed to Mel, who was only getting sucked off, that they were encouraging her. He could see their hands press into her inner thighs, though nothing else, because now Rachel had moved her face forward, to take his entire head into her mouth, still stroking and fondling him with her hands.

It felt like they were all working together, locked into a single project toward a common goal. Or maybe that was too much. Maybe the act was the goal itself. Being together, feeling good together, sharing the experience. Maybe that was enough.

Rachel didn't try to take Mel deeper in her throat, didn't try to gag on it. His hips began to quiver, buttocks bunching as he fought the urge to thrust. Swaying back and forth a little in place, trying not to pull himself from her hot lips as she sucked and slurped, hands clutched behind his back because the last thing he wanted to do was grab his crying girlfriend by the head and . . .

He felt the tension at the base of his prick. The slow-building anticipation, the excitement. Mel tried to hold off. Not just to enjoy the sensation but because he could see Soong and Jordan's nostrils flare, drinking in the scent. Rachel had closed her eyes, and then she did something neither Jordan nor Soong had ever done before—she moaned while he was in her mouth, a deep, primal vibration that seemed to make his whole being vibrate.

"I'm about to let go!" Mel warned.

Rachel opened her eyes and her mouth. Her blue eyes seemed demi-glazed, her lips wet, breath hot on his staff. Yet Jordan was there, her hand on his rudder, pulling Mel toward her own open and waiting mouth. The tension that had been building was released, the first shot spat at such speed and distance that it must have hit Jordan's throat like a super-soaker. Every subsequent shot held less power, and Mel and Rachel both realized that she was still stroking him, her fingers pressing down now to squeeze every drop onto Jordan's tongue.

Until Mel had nothing left to give.

Jordan and Soong met in front of Rachel and Mel, mouths open, to share the load. A display that left both Rachel and Mel red-faced and shocked. Rachel just shook her head and smiled as she backed deeper into the couch and left the two brain slug hosts to finish swapping sperm.

"Thanks," Mel said, and wondered if he should have been saying 'thank you' after every blowjob. In hindsight, it seemed the polite thing to do. "I, um, appreciate it."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't terrible," Rachel said. "I don't need the nutritional supplement, but I might do it again sometime. If I feel like it."

Then she asked the question.

"What are the other videos on there?"

Mel's answer raised another question.

"Soong did porn!? No fucking way. Show me!"

The two brain slug hosts had parted, licking their lips. Rachel was pulling her pants off her ankles. Mel stood there before the screen and realized that it might be a very long night.

"Let me brush my teeth first," he said.