Skittering

As the Greyan saying goes: "You can trust a brain slug, but protect your neck."
—Anaïs Nineveh, The Exodus: A History, Chapter 8

"Okay," 'stasia said. "Well, I need to go write some of that down before I forget. Mel, you don't mind if I ask you some questions later? I want all the details on your experience."

"Sure," Mel said. "Anytime."

"Right on," the dark-dressed young woman said. She looked at Rachel. "Ready?"

"You head on over," Rache said, moving next to Mel and sliding her hand into his back pocket. "I'm going to relax here a bit."

A look crossed Anastasia's face just then, clearly visible to Mel and Rache. Not quite a hunger, but a yearning, or maybe a flash of jealousy. A hint of color rose on 'stasia's face, and her lips tightened. She nodded, curtly.

"I won't wait up," 'stasia said, and she pointedly didn't look left or right as she rose from where she sat on the arm of the couch and went straight toward, and then through the door, closing it with a quiet and determined click behind her.

Rache sighed and sagged against Mel a little as soon as 'stasia was gone. The blonde looked at the naked brain slug hosts and Béibhinn, who was consolidating what was left of the pizza into a single box. She pointedly didn't look at Mel, but he saw the pensive set of her blue eyes, the way she bit her lip. Her hand was warm in his back pocket, but it felt like she was leaning on him for support.

"What's wrong?" Mel asked.

"Noth—" Rache began, but Jordan held up her right hand, palm extended outward. The ASL for "Stop."

"Something's eating at you," Mel said. "I can tell, and Jordan knows you. What is it? Are you upset about the changeling? Do you think it's influencing your sleepwalking?"

"I don't know about that," Rache admitted. "But no, what's got me is—well, the look 'stasia gave us just now. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's not the only time she's looked at us like that."

Mel hadn't noticed, exactly. Yet he knew that 'stasia had seen them in the act more than once. He felt obscurely embarrassed as he remembered the time during the ceremony, when he and Cara had been at the center of attention. There had been no way for him to see 'stasia's reaction to that, but Rache would have seen it.

"She's your roommate, right? I know she's doing research into brain slugs. Do you think that she's concerned about you hanging out with a bunch of aliens? Like one day she's going to wake up and find her roommate is possessed by a brain slug?" Béibhinn asked.

"Anastasia is the sister of Antonio, who attacked Jenny," Mel explained. "And she's been here almost as long as Rachel has. She's seen . . . a lot of us. Even went with us to the integration ceremony with Cara."

"So, she's seen you fuck," Béibhinn summarized.

"More than that," Rache said. "She's seen me with Jordie and Jenny, heard us through the walls, seen me sleepwalk naked and try to mount Mel, and that whole scene with the improvised gloryhole . . ."

"Wait, what?" Béibhinn's eyes went wide, showing the yellowish whites.

"Show you later," Rache said, with a sweeping gesture of her hand. "The point is, I've been aware of her more often lately. Wearing less around the apartment. Leaving her door open. I've been tying my leg to the bedpost lately to keep from walking over here in the nude, and when I wake up she's sort of . . . hovering over me, giving me this look."

"So she's a threat," Béibhinn analyzed aloud. "Going to try something."

The ghola smashed fist into palm for emphasis.

"No!" Rache said. "I think she's . . . horny. And maybe jealous. She hasn't had a date in more than a year, and she has to hang around with us who have sex what seems like every other day, and she's seen a lot of it, and I think . . . I think she feels left out. Maybe she shouldn't be."

"Rache," Mel said. "Are you saying you'd like her to be on the sex friend list?"

The tall blonde's jaw worked. Then she gave a little nod.

Béibhinn studied Rache's face.

"So, is this about you wanting to see Mel slip her some dick, or because you want to play with your roommate's pussy?" the ghola asked, then held her hands in front of her chest. "Or is it a boob thing? I know I'm currently in a mammal body, but I still don't have the instinct for these big potential food sources."

That made Mel grin and Rache snort.

"Kinda both?" Rache said. "I mean, I know we first made the sex friend list to simplify things, because the other brain slugs need occasional doses of vitamin Mel, and Amelia is his friend—she texted me the link to that video, by the way—but 'stasia's our friend too, and if she's willing to abide by the whole sexual safety requirements, I think—I think we should at least offer."

Mel scratched his nose. He looked at Jordan and Jenny. The two naked brain slug hosts were holding hands, and the small black heads of their slugs were poking out from behind their necks. Their expressions gave away nothing, but their eyes were both focused on Rachel—and then on Mel.

He felt that the decision was on him. Jordan and Jenny would vote as a bloc, and Rache had suggested it, so Mel was really the third. The one who could tip the balance.

"Obviously, health and safety has priority," he said. "Even if 'stasia hasn't been sexually active, we'll want to use protection, and maybe ask her to get an STD test before doing any kissing. But if you're okay with it—I don't have any problem with adding her to the list. Is it okay with you?"

Mel still couldn't read their expressions, yet Jenny's left hand rose in a thumb's up.

Rache gave Mel's ass a squeeze.

"Okay. We'll still need to ask her, of course. Make sure she's cool with it. And do we actually have condoms or dental dams left?" Mel asked.

Jordan, Jenny, and Béibhinn all shook their heads.

Mel let out a breath. "Okay. So, no sexytimes tonight, at least not the touching variety. Still, that maybe takes some pressure off, gives her time to think, process it, decide if and how she wants to have fun, right?"

"Right," Rache said. She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. Then she gave him a little look. "I know I said we would do some stuff tonight, but I kinda feel like it wouldn't be fair to drop this on her while reeking of sex. And I do need to go to sleep because I've got class tomorrow."

Mel smiled and kissed her on the mouth. She opened her lips and let their tongues touch. Not a hard, long, lascivious kiss, but soft, intimate, and Mel found himself up on his toes as Rache lifted his butt a little and clutched her to him. He went to full staff, rubbing against her stomach, the kind of aching intensity and spontaneity that he always seemed to feel around his girlfriends. Whether that was just from the memory of their prior encounters or some deeper part of himself reacting to them, Mel didn't know.

"It's okay, Rache," he said, when they broke apart. "We'll find time, maybe tomorrow after I get back from dinner with my sister and her mom."

Rachel slipped her hand out of Mel's pocket to go kiss Jordan and Jenny tonight—kisses that were, Mel noticed, just as intimate: Rache's hands on their hips, or sliding down over the lower back to grab handfuls of ass and squeezing gently.

Béibhinn, for her part, rearranged the magnetic letters on the fridge to spell BUY CONDOMS.

"Sorry," Mel said, immediately apologetic. He hadn't considered how displays of intimacy might affect their new roommate.

"It's fine. Just, you know, remember I have needs too," the ghola said. She blew him a kiss. "Maybe letting your balls rest tonight will mean tomorrow's feast is a little richer."

Mel gave a nervous smile at that. Yet he had to admit, as Rache gave a final wave, that he felt a bit of relief. Jordan and Jenny seemed to get the idea and pulled him toward the bedroom to peel off his clothes and snuggle against him on the bed, their breasts resting on his pectoral muscles.

He lay there in the dark for what felt like a long time, unable to get his mind to settle. A part of him wondered what 'stasia looked like naked, what she might get up to with Rache at night in their apartment across the way. The stubborn erection, which had never gone away, throbbed and pulsed inside his fundoshi as the breathing of Jordan and Jenny deepened. The light in Béibhinn's room went out, and the whole apartment became as dark and quiet as it ever was.

Mel's chest rose and fell, his breath coming slowly, deeply. Maybe Rache would show 'stasia that new video. They didn't have to touch each other. They could be sitting side by side, knee against knee, watching those brown, milky tits squeeze around his staff, Amelia's hot lips slurping on the top, playing things up for the camera.

There was the softest, almost inaudible skittering from the living room. A sound so soft, Mel wasn't sure he heard it or imagined it; whether it was his actual ears that reported the noise or some incoming dream.

Then it came again, and a dark shadow seemed to rise at the foot of the bed.