I woke up late. It had been a week since Halloween.
Rina had gone back to LA, the downstairs had been cleaned up, and Leah and I had returned to something resembling normal domestic life.
I’d had two in-person interviews by now. One of them had already called to say they wanted to move forward, so I suspected an offer might be coming.
Project Coordinator at a small digital-media agency.
Could be interesting.
Leah had taken to her new role at TEG NY with considerably more enthusiasm than she’d shown when it was first offered.
VV had also gotten a sudden surge of applications.
Apparently Leah’s company had become the main topic of gossip among the monsters in the break room. The lower commission, combined with not having to build your own costume, had resulted in almost the entire group emailing Leah applications to join VV’s roster.
Which had created another problem.
Leah was doing considerably more VV work in the evenings than she’d expected.
She’d started talking about expanding the company properly. Dedicated staff for talent management, bookings, contracts and all the other shit that seemed to multiply whenever somebody paid Leah money.
She hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.
Mostly because she really didn’t want more people reporting directly to her.
Weekends were either Leah cooking or us going out.
But today we were focusing on one thing: my birthday.
I had turned the grand old age of twenty-six yesterday. Leah had brought home a cake, but promised me a dedicated birthday day today. Part date, part excuse to disconnect from how hectic work had gotten.
I grabbed a robe and headed downstairs.
Leah was already there in one of hers, making breakfast.
“Had a good lie-in? It’s important for old people to get their rest.”
“Careful. I’m only a few bad birthdays away from you becoming a grave robber.”
“Gonna have to start working if I’m going to have anything to rob.”
I barked out a laugh.
“I am perfectly fine being a sugar MILF for the foreseeable future. I’ll be weighing any job offers against this very seriously.”
I sat down at the kitchen island and got started on the eggs, bacon, and ham-and-cheese sandwich. All my favorites.
“Big breakfast. What’s the plan for the day?”
She looked at her watch.
“Dan should be here in half an hour, and once we’re ready, we’ll head to the tattoo shop.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You finalized the design?”
“Yes. I had a burst of inspiration a few days ago, and I thought your birthday could be the perfect time for it.”
“Can I see it?”
“Of course.”
Leah grabbed a folder from the coffee table, unzipped it, and pulled out a piece of paper.
The design was simple. A circle in the center, split down the middle, one half red and the other blue. A thin elliptical line ran around it like an orbit, with a smaller black circle sitting on the line.
“This is an atom diagram!”
“I always saw it more like a solar system,” she said. “But I suppose it works either way.”
She showed me another sheet, this one focused on the center.
“Needs to be big if you want that detail.”
“No. I booked us with a very qualified artist. She said the smallest she could make the centre was about the size of a five-cent coin. The whole thing should be around thirty millimetres.”
Leah made a circle with her thumb and finger.
“I know how big a nickel is.”
“Sorry. American coins still require translation.”
“Okay, and where is it going?”
She pointed at her crotch.
“You said somewhere hidden, where only we would see it.”
“Pussy tattoo?”
“Crude, but approximately. High on the mons pubis. Yours slightly to the left of centre. Mine to the right.”
“Is this another one of those cases where you push me into a weird situation where I need to be naked in front of people?”
“You won’t need to be naked. She’ll only expose the area she’s working on. I know you’re uncomfortable with that, so I booked a female tattooist at a studio that specialises in privacy. It’s appointment-only, no walk-ins, and I’ll be there with you. Mine’s right after yours.”
“Will it still hurt, though?”
“All change does, Mia. But I’m also somewhat shocked you made it to the ripe old age of twenty-six without getting any tattoos.”
“It’s a costly affair. Could never justify my full-body tentacle tattoo dream.”
I shrugged.
“Also, you don’t have any tattoos.”
“I am only twenty-three, and my culture frowns on tattoos.”
“Your culture? You’re British, Leah. You’re only Japanese through your anime and J-pop obsession.”
“I’m sure my mother will be delighted to hear you’ve resolved my cultural identity.”
“I’m sure Keiko will agree. I’ve got you completely figured out.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll get a tramp stamp with the West Ham crest worked into it somehow. Finally embrace my London upbringing.”
The elevator doors opened, and Dan walked into the apartment. By now he’d been here often enough that the doorman knew him.
“Did you get it?” Leah asked.
“Sure did.”
He came over to the kitchen island and sat down, piling some eggs and toast onto a plate.
“So where did you get it?” Leah asked.
He turned his left wrist over, showing a small medical bandage.
“Goes under my watch.”
Leah looked at his wrist.
“You want it hidden?”
“Most of the time.”
“Why there?”
He shrugged.
“Easy to hide. Easy to show.”
“Can I see it?” I asked.
He peeled back the tape holding one side of the dressing and lifted it enough for me to see underneath.
There was a clear plastic film over the tattoo, but I could still make out the symbol. It was slightly larger than a nickel. The small divided circle at the center was bright red and blue, and the ring around it was green.
“Did you ask for that circle to be green? The version Leah showed me had it in black.”
“Yeah. They asked what color I wanted, and I said green.”
I looked at Leah.
“Is that allowed?”
“Dan is his own person. He can do his own take on it. Ours are, as you put it, a symbol of a union, so they should be similar. They should mirror each other. His is a mark of belonging. He can tweak it.”
Dan shrugged at this.
“I thought it sounded like a cool idea. I never found anything I really wanted to express via a tattoo, but this was something I could get behind.”
“See, I asked Dan if he wanted to be part of this. The tattoo is for us, Mia, but Dan wanted to take part. Show a bit more agency in this thing we have.”
Leah looked at him.
“I thought that was something we owed him.”
I looked at Dan.
“So you down for this long term?”
“Already told you I was, Mia.”
“Fine. You can have a custom version of our most private tattoo.”
He smiled at that.
“I won’t let you down.”
Leah looked at her watch.
“Okay, you have ten minutes to eat that, then get dressed. The car is here in twenty-five. I’ll put out some clothes for you.”
She went upstairs.
“Seems bossy?” I asked Dan.
“You know Leah and plans. It’s gonna be a good day for you. Trust in the system, Mia.”
I nodded.
“Trust in the system.”
We arrived at Haven Tattoo Studio. The place was drenched in pink. Leah gave our names to the woman who let us in, and a few minutes later we were shown into the room Sofi was using.
“This place seems very LGBTQ+ coded,” I said, looking around.
“Mia, you are in a lesbian relationship.”
“We are bi!”
“You and I are individually bi. We are in a lesbian relationship.”
“That doesn’t make me a lesbian.”
“No. But it does put our relationship rather squarely under the first letter.”
I grunted.
“I still feel like I’m culturally appropriating something I don’t have a right to.”
The door opened and Sofi came in. Shaved sides, dark hair pulled back, a septum ring and stretched ears. Weirdly, she didn’t look particularly tattooed herself.
“We cater mostly to women and LGBTQ+ clients. You’re not appropriating anyone’s culture.”
She looked us both over.
“Especially not if you’re getting what you asked for.”
She looked over at Leah.
“I assume you’re Leah?”
Leah smiled. “Yes, and this is Mia. We’re here for the same tattoo, but in slightly different locations.”
“Both on the mons?”
“Yes, but opposite sides.”
“Ah. So they mirror. Smart. Who’s first?”
“I can go first,” I said. “If Leah takes it poorly, I’m afraid I’ll wimp out.”
“Cool. Underwear off, up on the chair.” She gave the tattoo chair a slap.
Leah had laid out a skirt for me today, and she had worn one as well.
I took off my underwear, handed it to Leah, and got on the chair.
“First tattoo?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She put some disinfectant on a gauze pad and wiped the area down.
“Okay. People say it hurts a lot, but it’s more like it stings. Try not to tense your muscles. It’s easier if you relax. This one’s small, so it won’t take long.”
She showed me a little sticker thing.
“This is a stencil. It’ll show us where the tattoo is going. You tell me when it looks right, okay?”
She positioned it over me, and I had her move it slightly farther to the side.
“There, I think.”
“Okay.”
She pressed the stencil down, rubbed over it for a few seconds, then peeled the paper away.
“You ready?”
I nodded.
The machine buzzed to life, and she started on the outline.
“I did this one earlier today on a guy named Dan?”
“Yes. I booked his appointment,” Leah said.
“Yeah, it’s rare we get a guy in here.”
“I thought it best that we all get it done by the same person. Keep the look consistent.”
She nodded.
“So, Dan’s the third in your triad, or is it more of a Vee?”
I stared at her.
Leah sighed and scratched her forehead.
“Mia and I are nesting partners, I suppose. Dan is more of a secondary partner.”
“Ahh,” Sofi said.
“But we don’t identify as a polycule. Not really the language we use around it.”
“I always thought of Dan as a friend with benefits,” I said.
“That’s a fair description of a secondary partner,” Sofi said.
“That’s what I thought.”
The pain actually wasn’t that bad. It stung a little, like someone pinching me over and over.
She worked on it for around an hour before finally declaring it done.
Sofi wiped the area down one last time, then held up a mirror so I could see it properly.
The red-and-blue center was tiny but sharp, with the black orbit running cleanly around it.
Okay.
I liked it.
“Looks good.”
“Good. I’m putting a second-skin patch over it.”
She covered the tattoo with a clear adhesive film and smoothed the edges down.
“Leave that on for a few days unless it starts leaking badly or comes loose. Shower is fine. No baths, swimming, or soaking it. Try not to wear anything tight over it, and once the film comes off, wash it gently and keep it clean.”
She looked between Leah and me.
“And because of where you decided to put these, avoid anything that’s going to rub against them while they’re healing.”
I looked at Leah.
“She means sex.”
“Really? I thought she meant our recreational wrestling career?”
“We probably need to pause that as well.”
Sofi laughed and started changing everything over for Leah.
A few minutes later, Leah was on the chair with her skirt pushed up and her underwear in my hand.
“Your turn. First tattoo as well?”
“Mm.”
“She’s worried about offending her mother with a tattoo. They’re very frowned upon in her culture.”
Leah gave me a look.
“Oh. Well, your mother is unlikely to see this tattoo, so you should be safe.”
Sofi cleaned the opposite side, transferred the stencil, and had Leah check the placement.
It mirrored mine almost exactly.
Then the machine started.
Leah flinched.
I looked at her.
She stared straight ahead.
Sofi made another short pass.
Leah’s hand tightened against the edge of the chair.
Oh.
“You okay?”
“Yes. It was just a surprise.”
Another pass.
Her jaw tightened.
I held out my hand.
Leah looked at it for half a second before taking it.
“You can squeeze.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry.”
She squeezed.
I smiled.
“So this hurts?”
“Shut up.”
“Just checking.”
Sofi kept working, and Leah kept squeezing my hand.
After a while, I stopped teasing her about it.
By the time we left the studio, it was just after two.
“We have two hours before Dan,” Leah said. “Coffee?”
“And food.”
“Snack. We’re eating at four.”
“You underestimate me.”
“I don’t, but you will really like the place we are going to, so save space.”
We found a café a few blocks away. Leah picked a small open sandwich from the display and looked at the menu.
“Gingerbread already? It’s only been seven days since Halloween. No, pumpkin spice latte, please. Whole milk. Extra shot.”
I gave her a look but said nothing.
“Can I have the chocolate muffin and a tall americano?”
We sat by the window.
“It’s weird how normie you are with your coffee, but so strict with your tea.”
“Tea is default. Default needs to be high quality and consistently good. Coffee is a treat. It should be exciting, special, not default.”
“Pumpkin spice is special?”
“Not as special as an Americano, clearly, but it’s a seasonal thing. It’s like putting on a scarf or a summer dress. The drink is part of the feel of the season.”
“My Americanos are practical. Coffee is caffeine delivery, with tweaks for easier consumption.”
“So like my tea.”
I thought about this.
“Yeah. Before you, my tea was problem-oriented. Sleepy time, tummy hurts, need energy.”
“Tea for situations. Coffee is seasonal and theme-oriented for me. I had coffee with my friends at coffee shops when I was a teenager. It was a social event, not a workhorse.”
I let the topic drop and looked out at the fall leaves blowing across the pavement. I put a hand over where my tattoo was healing.
“Okay. What’s next?”
Leah looked up.
“Next for what? Today? Late lunch at four with Dan?”
I shook my head and pointed at where my tattoo was.
“About us. This is sort of a bonding thing, right? What’s next for us?”
That got her attention.
“Nothing.”
I stared at her.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing new, I mean.”
She took a sip of her latte before going on.
“I think we should just do this for a while.”
“Do what?”
“Live together. Work. Eat dinner. Watch things. Have sex. Be social.”
She shrugged.
“No need to change anything. No need to grow into something else. I think existing comfortably for a while would be good.”
I looked at her.
“Not worried about getting bored?”
“God, if only. If we achieve boredom at any point in the near future, I will flag it as a successful part of our plan.”
“I hope I don’t get bored.”
“Let me know how you plan on handling Anna on Tuesday. We’ll see how boring that is.”
“Fuck. I had forgotten about that. Yeah, boring might be the goal after all.”
Leah stirred her coffee.
“My mother asked me something yesterday.”
“Oh? What does Keiko want?”
“She wants to know if she can bring everyone over for Christmas.”
“Everyone?”
“Dad and Aiko, most likely. I don’t think there’ll be any work people if it’s over Christmas.”
“Why Christmas? Why not Thanksgiving?”
Leah looked at me.
“Mia. We’re British.”
I blinked.
“And?”
“Thanksgiving is not something we do.”
“I thought it had spread. Like Halloween. Everyone does that now.”
“Halloween is Irish, Mia. You stole it from them.”
“I thought it was more like pizza. We made it good.”
“Most of the world eats Italian-style pizza, not American-style. I need to bring you over to Europe at some point. Clean some of these Americanisms out of you.”
I took another bite of my muffin. It had chocolate chips too. Good muffin.
“Wait. What are we doing for Thanksgiving?”
Leah paused.
“I assumed nothing.”
“You want to come to my parents’?”
She looked at me properly then.
“Are you asking me to meet your family?”
“I mean, feels like something you should do?”
Leah laughed.
“Yes. I’d like that.”
“No you won’t. But it needs doing.”
We sat for a while longer before Leah asked,
“What are your Thanksgivings like? What should I do?”
“I think my mother will freak. She has no idea I’m dating a woman.”
“Sounds problematic?”
“Dad won’t care, though. He’s a diehard liberal. He’ll ask why I didn’t come out of the closet earlier. Ask if he put too much pressure on me to be heteronormative. If he pushed Barbie on me and delayed my awakening.”
“Sounds like a good dad.”
“Yeah, he’ll embrace you for sure. Not only a minority, but British. Oh, he’ll have a field day.”
“Lovely.”
“My mother, though. She was certain I would carry on the bloodline. She doesn’t trust my brother to settle down, so the family legacy got put on me. Me being ‘gay’ will break her worldview. She loved that I was dating Dan.”
I paused for a while.
“We absolutely cannot tell her about Dan and our relationship. At all costs.”
Leah smiled.
“That’s sad. I was hoping to impress your dad with our polycule diagram.”
“God, he would love that. But please don’t.”
Leah looked at her watch.
“Okay, I should get a car. We need to get across town, and traffic might be bad.”
She pulled out her phone.
“Ten minutes.”
“We could take the subway. It would be cheaper.”
“Not really. We pay the car company a fixed amount per month. We might pay more if we go above the usual number of trips, but we’re well below that right now.”
“Wait, Private Uber is cheaper than the subway?”
“For us, yes.”
“Vimes would be outraged.”
“Who?”
“It’s a Discworld thing. Poor people keep having to buy bad shoes because they break, while rich people can pay a lot once for good shoes and then not worry about it for years.”
“Not a bad analogy, but we pay this car company a fair bit every month, so it’s not really cheaper. It’s just that you and I can’t save anything by not using it.”
“That is a technicality. We are privileged.”
“True in more than one way.”
The car arrived, and as always, it was a big, black, expensive SUV.
We drove across town and ended up at Empire Diner, a small stainless-steel diner that looked like it came out of a ’50s movie, or something like Back to the Future.
“What’s this?” I asked Leah.
“It’s an upscale American diner. Classic diner food, but a bit more refined. Quite retro, and close to where we’re going next.”
“It’s good?”
“I reviewed the menu. You’ll have a lot of choices to make.”
Dan was already inside and waved us over.
“Good timing. I arrived like five minutes ago.”
“What have you been up to?” I asked.
“You’ll see later.”
I gave him and Leah a look.
“What are you guys planning?”
“You’ll see later,” Leah repeated.
The waitress came over and gave us menus, and Leah was right. Almost everything looked good.
I had to restrain myself. Burger, herb fries. I could go for the ribeye, or the pasta, or the lobster. But we had plans after, so burger and fries felt like a good middle ground.
Leah got the fish and chips, and Dan got the ribeye.
“What are we doing after this?”
“You’ll see later.”
“Well, I was wondering if it had food, or if I should order extras.”
“There will be popcorn,” Leah confirmed.
“Are we going to a circus?”
“We’re going to a special showing.”
“Special showing? Of what?”
“Eat. You’ll see.”
Dinner was excellent. I had a taste of the ribeye and the fish and chips, and they were as good as my burger. Leah had, as always, made a great choice.
We had dessert and decided to walk over to our next destination, SVA Theatre.
“Movie?”
“Yes,” Leah said.
“Dinner and a movie. Is this just a date?”
“This is not a date movie. Or maybe it is, for us.”
We walked through the doors into a lobby that immediately felt less like a movie theater and more like somewhere that held premieres. Clean, polished, screens and posters along the walls, but no giant concession counter or smell of nacho cheese.
There were only a handful of people around.
I looked at Leah.
“This is a weird movie theater.”
“It’s mostly screenings and events.”
“So where is my promised popcorn?”
She pointed.
A small table had been set up near the entrance to the auditorium with bags of popcorn, bottled water, and a few other snacks.
“Okay. Promise fulfilled.”
I grabbed a bag.
Dan looked at me.
“You just ate.”
“It’s movie popcorn. Different stomach.”
I took a piece of popcorn with my tongue and chewed it. It was nice and buttery.
“So, what are we watching?”
Leah looked around and pointed.
“In there.”
We walked into the auditorium and immediately I knew something was not right.
There were students everywhere.
College students. A few people were already talking about movies in that very specific way where you could tell they had opinions about color grading and lens choices.
I looked at Leah.
“What is this?”
“You’ll see.”
That answer had officially stopped being cute.
We found our seats near the middle. Dan sat on my other side, looking far too pleased with himself.
“This is my birthday?”
“Yes,” Leah said.
“You brought me to a lecture?”
“It’s not a lecture. You’ll understand soon.”
A man walked out in front of the screen holding a microphone.
I looked at Leah again.
She smiled.
Fuck.
“Good evening, everyone.”
A few people clapped.
He introduced himself as Professor something-I-immediately-forgot from Hunter, thanked SVA for hosting the series, then started talking about Japanese animation in the eighties.
I sank slightly lower in my seat.
This was my birthday. Leah had dragged me across Manhattan to watch some obscure Japanese cartoon while a professor gave us homework.
Uncool.
“Tonight is the final screening in our series looking at the growth of adult-oriented animation in Japan during the nineteen-eighties and early nineties.”
Adult-oriented.
Okay.
Maybe.
“The rise of the home-video market created an unusual environment for animation. Productions no longer necessarily needed a theatrical release or a television broadcaster. They could be made directly for video and sold to a much smaller, much more specific audience.”
Okay, lost me again.
“That freedom also meant creators could explore material that would have been difficult, or simply impossible, to broadcast on television. More extreme violence. More explicit sexuality. Horror. Material aimed very specifically at adult audiences.”
Okay.
Sex and violence.
Maybe Leah hadn’t completely lost her mind.
He kept going.
“One of the more interesting influences on adult animation was censorship itself. Japanese obscenity laws placed very specific limits on what could be shown directly. Rather than simply avoiding sexual material, artists often designed around those restrictions.”
A couple of people around us nodded.
Nerds.
“So what emerged was not simply censorship, but a visual language built in response to censorship. Suggestion, substitution, exaggeration. Artists finding increasingly elaborate ways of depicting material that could not legally be depicted directly.”
Eighties porn. I’m not sure it was as interesting as he was making it sound. Like, I have the internet.
“Tonight’s film began as part of that direct-to-video environment and later became one of the works that shaped Western perceptions of adult Japanese animation during the early home-video boom.
“Tonight we’ll be screening the restored Blu-ray version from Discotek Media, a release I had a hand in restoring and for which I provided revised subtitles.
“But without further ado…”
The title appeared on the screen behind him.
Urotsukidōji
Legend of the Overfiend
Never heard of it.
There was more applause.
Actual applause.
The lights dimmed.
I leaned toward Leah.
“This better have been worth a lecture.”
“It will be.”
Dan laughed quietly beside me.
Traitor.
The movie started with a crawl, then some violence and demon sex.
Not the worst start.
Then for a while it was mostly exactly what I expected from old anime.
A guy jerking off. Looking into a girls’ locker room. Girls getting undressed.
Great.
Japanese Porky’s.
Very educational.
I ate some popcorn.
There was some fighting. Some blood. Some basketball.
A girl was being dragged toward the nurse’s office. I guess she had done something.
I sighed.
This better pick up.
Then all of a sudden, the nurse turned into a tentacle monster.
Tentacles went everywhere. Pulsing. Inserting into every orifice.
Ohhh… I see why Leah picked this movie.
I looked over at Leah.
She was already looking at me, smiling.
By the time I was seeing girls being pumped full of demon seed from all sides, and sex that made you glow up and explode, I was fully on board with this movie.
Why had I not seen this before? It was like finding the Ur-text of all my fetishes.
The movie ended and I wasn’t really sure if anything had been resolved. The plot was hard to follow, and some characters seemed to be there just to have sex and explode.
That didn’t bother me much. The scenes were visually interesting, and it had opened my mind to where so much of my tentacle porn had come from. I had new insights and wanted to revisit old favorites just to see if this perspective worked there too.
“Liked it?” Leah asked.
“I…” I did not know what to say at first.
“Thank you for doing this for me.”
“Oh?”
“You have filled in a puzzle piece in my brain. I see more clearly now.”
“That was more than I expected.”
I kissed Leah.
“Best birthday ever.”
“It’s not over yet. Come, the car is waiting for us around the corner.”
The car dropped us outside the apartment.
Both Dan and Leah were quiet as we headed back upstairs.
Ominous.
The elevator opened upstairs and I immediately noticed the light.
Everything was red.
Not bright red. Low, dark red from the lamps and the strips around the room, just enough to see where I was going.
There was fog across the floor.
I stopped.
“What the fuck?”
It moved slowly around my shoes, maybe six inches deep, spreading out through the living room and disappearing under furniture.
I looked at Leah.
She smiled.
“You did this?”
“That is for you to find out.”
“Dan?”
“Go upstairs.”
I looked toward the stairs.
The red light continued up there.
“You’re being extremely creepy.”
“Let’s hope you don’t do anything stupid then.”
I started climbing.
The fog thinned as I went higher, but the lighting stayed dark. By the time I reached the bedroom, I could hear something playing quietly through the speakers. Not music exactly. Low tones. Wet noises. Something moving.
Jesus.
The bedroom door was open.
The bed had been completely stripped and covered in black latex.
I stepped inside.
There were straps attached to the frame.
Not subtle ones either.
I stared at the bed.
Then at the small table beside it.
Oil. Lube. Towels. Wipes. A couple of things covered with black cloth.
“This is elaborate.”
No answer.
I turned around.
Leah was gone.
“Leah?”
Nothing.
I walked closer to the bed and ran my hand across the sheet.
Latex.
The lights shifted slightly darker.
I looked up.
“Dan?”
His voice came from somewhere downstairs.
“Happy birthday.”
“That does not answer anything.”
I heard the bedroom door move behind me.
I turned.
Leah stood there.
For a second, I just looked at her.
She had changed.
Naked except for black boots, long dark gloves, a pair of horns and a harness wrapped around her hips and thighs. Her makeup was darker too.
Attached to the harness was a thick purple tentacle.
“Oh.”
Leah smiled.
“It looks like you wandered into a dangerous place, and got trapped.”
The tentacle moved.
Not much.
Just a slow flex upward, then a pulse that traveled down its length.
My brain stopped.
“Oh.”
“Best you prepare yourself.”
Leah stepped into the room.
Another pulse moved through it.
I stared.
“That looks dangerous.”
“I did not buy it because it was romantic.”
I looked at her.
Then back at it.
“That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
She laughed.
Behind me, the lights dimmed another step.
I looked toward the doorway.
Dan was naked and standing behind Leah.
I looked between them.
“You two planned this.”
“For several days,” Leah said.
I looked down at the tentacle again.
It flexed.
My mouth went dry.
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
Leah’s smile changed.
“Yes.”
“How much more?”
Leah walked toward me.
“Time to find out.”
I took one step back toward the bed and my calves hit latex.
“Oh.”
Leah walked forward. The harness sat high on her hips. The tentacle hung heavy between her thighs, already glistening like she’d oiled it before she came upstairs.
She stopped close enough that I could feel the heat off her skin.
“Clothes off.”
I stripped. Fast. The second-skin patch over my new tattoo pulled a little when the air hit it. I didn’t care.
Leah looked me over.
“Good girl.”
She nodded at the bed.
“On your back. Legs open.”
I climbed onto the black sheet. It was slick under my ass.
Leah moved to the mattress and got between my legs. The tentacle dragged across the latex with a soft, wet sound.
She ran one gloved hand up the inside of my thigh and stopped just short of where I was already wet.
“You’re dripping and we haven’t even started.”
“It’s the movie,” I said. “And the fog. And you looking like you crawled out of it.”
“Well, I’ll do my best to put it to good use.”
She picked up the oil, poured a thin stream into her palm, and worked it over the tentacle. Long, slow strokes. The thing pulsed once under her fingers, a deliberate squeeze that made the tip flare.
My stomach flipped.
Dan climbed onto the bed behind me and settled against the headboard, pulling me back between his legs until my shoulders rested against his chest. His hands settled on my ribs.
Leah pushed my knees wider.
“Hold her open for me.”
Dan’s hands slid down, hooked behind my knees, and spread me.
Leah smiled and pressed the blunt, slick head of the tentacle against my cunt.
It was thicker than I’d expected up close. Warm. Slightly textured.
“I think we should get Dan in place before you get this.”
Leah picked up the lube, slicked two fingers, and worked them carefully into my ass. I closed my eyes and pushed toward her fingers.
Dan lifted me and slid underneath. Leah squeezed lube onto his dick and started stroking him with her other hand, her fingers still working inside me.
Leah pulled her fingers out and guided Dan into place.
I slowly sank down on him. Once the head passed through, I moaned as he bottomed out.
“Good girl, you ready for the tentacle?”
I nodded.
Leah moved closer. She didn’t shove. She just pressed, let the oil do the work, and watched my face while the tip stretched me open.
“Fuck, that’s tight.”
“Breathe.”
I tried. The first few inches went in smooth and then the next ones made my thighs jump. Leah kept the pressure steady, eyes locked on mine, until the harness met my skin and the whole length was buried.
I was full. Immediately, ridiculously full.
The tentacle pulsed.
Once.
A slow wave traveled from base to tip and pressed outward everywhere at once.
My head dropped back against Dan’s shoulder.
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah, I could feel that too,” he said.
Leah’s gloved hand stroked my hip.
“Still with me?”
“Barely.”
“Good.”
Leah started moving.
Short, controlled rolls of her hips. The tentacle dragged and pressed and pulsed to a rhythm she controlled completely. Every few strokes it flexed harder, like it was tasting me.
Dan stayed still. His hands never left my legs. He kept me open so Leah could watch every inch of the tentacle disappear and reappear, shiny with oil and me.
I was already making stupid sounds.
Leah leaned over me, horns framing her face in the red light.
“You are such a good little slut.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no…”
She reached down, found the control on the harness, and the pulses got stronger. Deeper. The kind that made my toes curl and my mouth fall open without permission.
Dan’s breath was hot against my neck.
“She’s close,” he said quietly.
Leah’s eyes flicked to his, then back to me.
“I know.”
She fucked me harder. Not frantic. Precise. Every thrust angled so the thickest part dragged over the spot that made my thighs shake. The tentacle pulsed in time with it, a rolling pressure that felt like it was trying to crawl deeper.
I grabbed at Dan’s arms. Useless.
“Leah—”
“Not yet.”
She kept the pace exactly where it was. Edge. Hold. Edge. Hold. My whole body was tight and trembling and I could feel how wet I was, how the oil and lube and everything else was making a mess between us.
Leah’s voice stayed calm.
“When you come, I’m going to pump you full. And you’re going to take it.”
I nodded too fast.
“Yes. Fuck … yes.”
She smiled, small and mean, and hit the second button.
The tentacle swelled. Something moved up the shaft and dropped inside me.
Then another.
Then another.
Leah was laying eggs in me.
That did it.
I came hard enough that my vision went narrow and my whole body locked. The eggs made it worse or better or both. Every clench caught everything at once. The eggs. The moving tentacle. Dan still buried in my ass. The orgasm just kept rolling instead of peaking and dying.
Leah didn’t stop until I was shaking and making broken little sounds against Dan’s chest.
Then she slowed. Eased out carefully. The eggs stayed.
Dan slid out from under me, and I felt hollowed out, but still full of eggs.
I lay on my side, feeling them jiggle inside me.
Every small movement shifted them inside me. Solid. Heavy. Wrong in the best way.
Dan was still hard. Still breathing a little too carefully.
I looked at him over my shoulder.
“You haven’t come yet.”
Dan glanced at Leah.
I nodded toward her.
“Finish in her.”
Leah’s eyebrows lifted a fraction.
“Sure.”
I smirked, still full, still shaky.
“Do her ass. I have something I’ve wanted to repay her for.”
Dan blinked.
“Sure.”
Leah turned her head toward him. The horns made the movement look deliberate.
“What are you repaying me for?”
“A good time?”
She smiled, slow.
“Oh…”
Dan moved behind her. Leah stayed on her knees for a second, then dropped forward onto her hands, the tentacle harness still strapped around her hips, the purple length hanging wet and spent between her thighs. I slid over to her and took off the harness.
“You won’t be needing this.”
Dan had the lube. Fingers first. Careful. Leah’s breath stayed even, but I watched the way her shoulders tightened when he added a second.
I stayed close to her, on my side, one hand resting over the low curve of my stomach where the eggs sat.
Dan lined up.
The head pressed. Leah exhaled through her nose.
“Slow.”
He pushed.
The stretch showed immediately. Her thighs tensed. Her fingers curled into the latex sheet. A small, sharp sound escaped her before she cut it off.
I watched every second of it.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
Dan stopped halfway.
“You okay?”
“Keep going.”
He did. Inch by careful inch until he was fully seated. Leah’s head dropped forward. Her back was tight.
I could see the effort in her arms.
“Dan, lay her sideways, and lift her legs. Like you did with me when she was taking photos.”
Dan’s eyes lit up. He seemed to understand what I was doing.
He rolled Leah onto her side beside me, lifted one leg, and held it open.
I smiled at Dan.
“Now fuck her like this, slow. Let me see the drag.”
He smiled back.
I cupped Leah’s cheek and looked her straight in the eyes.
“Leah, touch yourself.”
She saw what I was doing and smiled.
She put her hand between her legs and slid one finger inside.
“Oh, I think you can do more than that?”
“Greedy?”
“Composition,” I said in a mocking British accent.
She added another and moaned.
“I think you can fit one more… for me?”
She licked her lips and added a third finger.
“Very good.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Dan, hand on her throat, please.”
Dan placed his hand on her throat and added slight pressure.
“You close?” I asked Leah.
She stared at me.
“What do you think?”
My hand slid down her stomach and between her legs, fitting around the hand she still had inside herself.
And then I found her clit.
“Oh, fuck,” she said as I started to massage it.
I matched Dan’s rhythm.
Her legs started shaking. Her eyes closed. Her arms trembled, and I felt a wet rush over my hand. I kept rubbing until she went still.
She was breathing heavily.
I looked over at Dan, who was still inside her.
“Still not?”
He shook his head.
I looked down at Leah.
“Can you take more?”
She nodded.
I moved behind Dan.
“Go hard.”
I started massaging his taint and slipped a finger into his ass. Like magic, he came a few minutes later.
After he was done, Dan pulled out carefully.
Leah stayed still, breathing.
The eggs shifted again when I moved closer.
She looked at me, still a little wrecked and wearing the horns and the boots.
I reached out and poked the side of her hip.
“Okay, now we are square.”
The red light stayed low.
I could still feel every egg.
Best birthday ever.