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The migraine had been growing all day, and Gordon hated it. His migraines were usually brought on by bright or flashing lights, excessive exercise without proper hydration, or by getting too much pool water in his ears - and for most of the afternoon they’d been swimming frantically through flooded corridors, surrounded by emergency lights that felt like they were being beamed in from the surface of the sun, fighting off soldiers and the occasional alien creature, and all without taking a break to rest or rehydrate.
So basically, Gordon didn’t stand a chance. Though, in retrospect, he maybe could have asked Benrey for help earlier. This whole symbiosis thing was still so new, and he didn’t know where the lines were or what he could ask for.
As if summoned by the thought of his name, Benrey’s consciousness stirred.
Whuh? Whassat?
“What’s what?” Gordon kept his voice low. They had settled in a break room which, in a stroke of luck, had enough couches for everyone. They were the kind that you sank into as soon as you sat down, but the Science Team was too tired to care. Gordon couldn’t even see Dr. Coomer over the cushions, and both Bubby and Tommy were just tangles of angular limbs protruding from their respective couches. At least two of them were snoring, and the asynchronous racket was not helping Gordon’s headache in the slightest.
Uhhh you started it. Said my name n’everything.
“Did I?” Gordon closed his eyes, but his pulse still pounded sluggishly at his left temple. He had tried to think at Benrey earlier, and nothing happened - so what was different about this time?
Yuh-huh. What’s wrong with your head?
“Migraine.”
Whuh? A faint wisp of what’s-that-want-to-know-more-want-to-know-everything crossed Gordon’s mind like the tail of a fish flickering in dark water. He twitched, but tried not to snatch at the thought that clearly wasn't his. He was getting better at this. He would get better at this.
“It’s a - like a really bad headache, but only in one half of the head, usually. Mine aren’t the worst, but they still suck. Last for a few hours.” He swallowed thickly as the left side of his head pulsed. His fucking eye socket was throbbing, what the hell?
Uhhhhhh that sounds dumb. How do - why’s the suit not doing anything? It fixed you before.
“Dunno,” Gordon muttered, bringing his hands up to pull his glasses off and cover his eyes. It helped, a little. “Don’t think it considers this an injury.”
But you’re in pain. Something stirred in Gordon’s belly, and he wasn’t sure if it was from Benrey or him.
“Yeah. Guess it doesn’t count. Just had to wait it out before, or push through it.”
...But you’re in pain.
“Yep.” Gordon squeezed his eyes tighter and winced at the sharp spike of pressure behind his left temple. He steeled himself for the potential ridicule, and took a deep breath before letting it whoosh out. “Can you - is there anything you can do about that?”
Benrey didn’t respond for a moment, but Gordon felt a prickling along his shoulders and neck. There was a hint of confusion-consideration-maybe-maybe-want-to bleeding through their connection, and Gordon let it wash over him again. Someone gave a particularly rattling snore, and he tried not to whimper when the sound speared into his eardrum and bounced around half of his skull.
Can I try to -? Benrey didn’t finish the thought with words, but Gordon suddenly got the image-feeling of Benrey sliding out of his pores and engulfing him to tear apart the soldiers earlier, paired with a questioning tone, like a dog tilting its head.
He swallowed again, both in reaction to the nausea and what he was about to agree to. What did this mean? Was he giving blanket permission for Benrey to take him over whenever he felt like it? But then again, he was asking this time, and they both knew he could easily do it without any word from Gordon, so...why the hell not.
“Sure,” Gordon said, and Benrey folded over his head like a Halloween mask.
Almost immediately, the pain eased a bit. Just being cut off from the room’s lights and the ambient hum of machinery was such a relief that Gordon barely noticed his limbs being moved as Benrey stood them up and walked them out of the room. He did notice the snores getting quieter, fading as Benrey padded down the hall, holding himself carefully to cradle Gordon inside, trying to be gentle.
Gordon would have twitched at the increased bleed-through of Benrey’s thoughts, but he was held fast and secured, surrounded by the dark velvet of Benrey’s form. He knew it looked oily and slick from the outside, but being inside the symbiote was like being wrapped in a cloud. Or what being wrapped in a cloud should be. Gordon was aware of how cold and wet and intangible an actual cloud was, and so -
“Hey, stop that please? Thinkin' too hard. Gonna hurt your head-bones.”
Gordon couldn’t talk like this, so he settled for thinking very specifically in Benrey’s direction. It had worked before. The pain’s not in my bones, it’s in the squishy stuff. Muscles and veins and...whatever else is up there. Membranes...? His words fragmented as he lost cohesion trying to think about what brains were made of. Brain matter? Migraines were from vasoconstriction issues, right? He hadn’t thought about it in years…
Light blazed suddenly and Gordon gasped in pain, clenching his eyes shut, then wincing from the pain of that as well.
“Shit, uhhh – sorry,” Benrey rumbled above his head, and the darkness returned. Gordon tried not to moan in relief. “Hang on, lemme...”
They moved again, but Gordon was counting his breaths and trying not to wonder what would happen if he threw up while Benrey was wrapped around him like this.
“Don't,” Benrey said in a warning tone, and Gordon huffed weakly.
More sensations of movement – bending, dragging something, shifting weight, walking. Gordon let it wash over him. Whatever Benrey was doing, he clearly had a plan, and it was a relief to let him get on with it without needing Gordon's input. He could just relax and let himself be rocked by the motion of the symbiote moving their body.
Benrey's form shuddered briefly, then he spoke. “Okay, you can, uh, try looking now.”
By the time Gordon got his eyes open, Benrey had mostly retreated back under the HEV suit, but he kept a hood of himself over Gordon's head, even though he'd also turned off the overhead lights in the room he'd found for them. It was another break room, and Gordon wondered how far they had walked to find a second one in the same hall.
“We're uhhh eight rooms down,” Benrey said, his head hovering over Gordon's shoulder, separate from the hood for some reason. “This is like some kinda...fancy lounge. I think the other room was, uh...for everyone else.”
This room did, in fact, look fancier. The couches were newer, and they matched the easy chairs scattered around the edges of the room. Benrey had pushed two of the large couches together – Gordon assumed they weren't like that before – creating a kind of nest in the middle, complete with some throw blankets, a pile of pillows, and also...
“Are those towels?” Gordon rasped.
“Uh. Yeah?”
“Why?”
“Aren't they like blankets?”
Gordon turned his head slowly, carefully, to stare at Benrey's creepy face. The milky eyes squinted slightly.
“Are they not...like blankets?”
“They're towels,” Gordon said.
“But they're soft?”
Gordon opened his mouth, then closed it again and turned slowly back to look at the nest. “Y'know what? You're right.”
A brief burst of smug elation pulsed through the back of his mind, and Gordon leaned forward and put both hands on the back of one of the couches, letting his weight fall more onto his arms. He eyed the back of the couch, then squinted around the rest of the dim room, looking at the polished counters with their coffeemakers and blenders, wood-faced cabinets with china handles, two entire fridges – then he forcibly relaxed his jaw muscles and sighed.
“This is really great, man, but, uh – I don't think I can get my leg over this thing. My head feels like...” Like it's made of glass, he thought. Like it'll shatter if I move wrong. The couch nest looked welcoming, but nearly unobtainable.
Benrey hummed, then the hood dropped over Gordon's head and he felt their arms thicken, their fingers lengthening as Benrey extended down his limbs, wrapping him up before gently tipping him over the back of the couch and easing him around to lay flat on the cushions, his head propped up by the pillows piled at one end.
Even that careful motion was too much, though, and Gordon gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut beneath the cover of Benrey's self, and whined helplessly as his head spun, throbbing pain setting up shop solidly behind his left eye.
Shit, hang on, Benrey said, his voice booming loud in both their heads. Gordon hissed at him, and Benrey's mental presence retreated briefly before creeping back again. Sorry, he said in a whisper like a chainsaw, I gotta just -
He pressed down on Gordon's mind, rustled around for a moment, and then the tension seeped out of Gordon's jaw and he was floating far above his body, far above the pain. The migraine was still there, but it wasn't touching him right now, and the relief was nearly enough to make him weep.
Better?
Yeah, he sighed. It's still there, but this is much -
Still there? Huh...
More rummaging through Gordon's mind, his brain, but he couldn't bring himself to worry about it. Benrey wouldn't break anything – and if he did, he would fix it. He was getting better at that. He hadn't even nibbled on any of Gordon's organs in days now.
Proud of you, he thought muzzily, in what he hoped might be Benrey's direction.
Huh?
F'r not eatin' any more of my guts, Gordon explained. You're...doin' so good, and bein' so good...good job, buddy. Great...doin' great at not eatin' me...
Uhhhhh okay, maybe that's too much, Benrey said, and Gordon was abruptly slammed back into his own head, which exploded in a starburst of pain.
He convulsed, then groaned through clenched teeth and tried to lay his head back down, but the pressure of the pillows on the back of his skull felt like sacks filled with gravel.
Shit, shit, that was wrong, Benrey was saying. Too – that's too far the other way, hang on –
And he was catapulted up into the stratosphere again, muscles relaxing, limbs falling limp to the cushions, head sinking into the soft cradle of the pillows. In the absence of the pounding pressure in his skull, his brain felt light and floaty, disconnected in the best kind of way.
Better? Benrey asked.
Gordon hummed in response. He could fall asleep like this. The migraine would probably be back when he woke up, but it might not, and that was worth looking forward to.
Why would it be back? What, uh, what made it happen in the first place?
“S'just a migraine,” Gordon slurred, eyes closed. “Headache. Happens.”
But why?
“Somethin' about the...blood vessels. Constriction. Not enough blood. Something like that. I dunno, man, don't make me think right now...”
Huh, Benrey said, then went quiet. But his focus seemed to intensify, and Gordon felt his eyebrows quirk in annoyance. He was realizing now that if Benrey was this twined in with his brain, he couldn't fully relax unless the symbiote did, too.
Gonna try somethin', Benrey said, and then gave no time for Gordon to answer before he twitched something inside them, and a burst of warmth flooded through their body.
Gordon inhaled sharply and opened his eyes. The drop-ceiling above him was no closer, so Benrey hadn't encased them in his form. But what -
Oh. Oh, shit.
“Benrey?” Gordon asked cautiously, suddenly tense again. His face felt hot – all of him felt hot, actually, and he could feel a damp patch of sweat beginning to form in the small of his back. “What's – what are you doing, buddy?”
Trying something, Benrey replied.
Gordon swallowed. “Okay, but what?” He really wanted to cross his legs, but doing that might draw attention to the fact that he was getting hard alarmingly quickly. Instead, he tried to flex the muscles in his thighs to redirect bloodflow.
Why – stop that, Benrey said immediately. I'm tryin' to open everything up to, uh, not be constricted anymore. If you do the same thing, it'll fuck things up.
“Okay, fine, I get the – the point of that,” Gordon stuttered. “But could you – maybe don't 'open up' everything, okay? Can't you just focus on the stuff in my head?”
S'all connected, Benrey said reasonably. Y'don't just have head blood. It goes everywhere. Fuckin' highways in here.
“Sure, yeah, all right, fine.” Gordon was a little frantic now, because the pressure was building, and how the fuck was he supposed to explain this? There was no way Benrey wouldn't make fun of him, or be disgusted, or both. “Could you just, uh, dial it back a little?”
But it's working, Benrey replied. I think. The – uh, there was some kind of block, and it's not as bad now.
“A – a block?” Gordon swallowed thickly again, his thighs twitching as he breathed slowly through his nose. Maybe if Benrey kept talking, it would distract him from what was going on with his dick, which was more than happy to be stiffening up with the increased circulation.
Yeah, it was – I dunno how to explain it. I'm not seeing anything in here. It just felt wrong, and that's where you said the, uh, the pain was, so it made sense...
As he went on, Gordon realized with growing horror that instead of distracting him, the internal drone of Benrey's voice was actually more arousing than his silence. What the fuck was wrong with him?
Wait, lemme try the other thing again, Benrey said, and Gordon didn't have time to ask him what that meant before he was overtaken by the floaty feeling once more. He'd experienced a similar kind of sensation in the past when he was drunk, but this was entirely pleasant – no sickening spinning of the room around him, no uneven feeling of waves moving under him. If he could just stay like this, stay disconnected, maybe his boner would go away and he wouldn't have to worry about it.
That's new, Benrey said.
“What?” Gordon yelped.
Sheesh, keep your voice down. Gonna undo all my work...
“What's new?” Gordon struggled to gain enough control over his body in this disconnected state to move his hands, to do...something. Anything to distract Benrey.
Huh?
“You said something was new.”
Whuh?
“I hate you,” Gordon groaned, dragging one hand up with monumental effort to flop it over his eyes. The palm of the suit felt nice and cool against his burning face. “Leave me alone.”
Hey, stop – stop that please. A slick-looking black tendril rose out of the HEV suit and looped under Gordon's wrist, easing his hand back down to lay by his side. Gotta – relax, man. How is it so hard to get you to relax?
“I wonder that every day of my life,” Gordon said, staring blankly at the dark ceiling.
We'll work on that next, Benrey said. How's the – uhhh your head?
Gordon almost asked 'which one?' but managed to stop himself at the last moment. The migraine was definitely diminished. There was still a faint ghost of pain wrapped around the back of his eyeballs, but it was fading as well. “Better,” he said.
Not there, yet, huh?
Gordon blinked. “What?”
Another burst of warmth bloomed under his skin, and he inhaled sharply, his knees drawing up involuntarily as his dick throbbed, blood pounding in his ears. Oh, this was not good.
Stop moving, Benrey's voice said faintly, and Gordon's legs slammed flat on the cushions. That almost did it – the harsh motion, the difference between his own body involuntarily flexing and the completely alien sensation of his body being moved under Benrey's power, the snappish tone and the increased pressure on the suit's groin from his legs being flat all led to Gordon shivering within an inch of coming untouched. The pulse of pleasure was intense, and that mixed with his horror at what was almost kind of maybe about to happen made him jackknife upright, his hands coming up to grip his knees as he gasped something at Benrey.
For a moment there was no sound in the room or in Gordon's head besides his own panting breaths as he struggled to come down from the edge of that precipice. But, of course, silence didn't last long around here.
Wait for what? Benrey asked, tone a bit annoyed.
“What?”
You said 'wait,' Benrey continued. Wait for what? I'm kinda in the middle of something, so –
“A minute,” Gordon panted, raising a hand to push mussed strands of hair out of his face. “Just – wait for a minute.”
His mind was racing. There was no way Benrey hadn't noticed there was something going on – that could have been what his 'that's new' comment was about. But he'd deflected when Gordon pried, so maybe he knew what was happening and was trying to ignore it? Maybe he didn't want anything to do with Gordon's dick? That was a thought that was both disheartening and relieving. But no, wait, that couldn't be right – the guy had been all about Gordon's dick being out (it wasn't; the codpiece just hadn't been fastened correctly because Gordon had been in a hurry) and about admiring his ass. There was no way he wasn't at least interested in the physical aspect. But did he know anything about...?
Now what? Benrey sighed. Can hear you, uh, spiraling.
“I'm not spiraling!” Gordon yelled into an empty room. Then a terrible thought struck him. “What do you mean you can hear? I thought you said you couldn't read my thoughts!”
Can't, Benrey said, with the sensation of a shrug. But there's still, uh, bits that bleed through. Feelings more'n thoughts, usually. We've been over this, anyway, you know how it is.
“Right, yeah.” This was true, but they hadn't encountered a situation quite like this yet. He wasn't sure how much of what he'd been feeling was getting through to Benrey, and he hoped it was too garbled for the symbiote to make sense of it.
Whatever. There's some new thing your, uh, brain-stuff's doing. Can you relax?
“Relax?” Gordon laughed hysterically, raising both hands now to push back strands of hair that had come loose from his ponytail getting crushed against the pillows. How the fuck could he relax like this? And how the fuck had Benrey not said anything about his dick yet?
Yeah, relax. Lay down, Benrey added, and black tendrils whipped out from his shoulders and latched onto the couches on either side of him, forcing him inexorably to his back on the cushions. His arms were drawn to lay at his sides, and he breathed carefully through his nose, trying not to think about how it felt to be manhandled like this from inside his own body. Though maybe that wasn't the right word. Alienhandled? Symbiotehandled?
There. Much better, Benrey hummed, and Gordon tried not to laugh hysterically again.
He also tried to pull his focus away from how fucking hard he still was, but as he shifted his weight in an effort to relieve his discomfort, he felt the shaft of his dick drag against the inside of the taut undersuit instead. He could almost see the spark of pleasure flowing up from his core to his head, racing along networks of nerves until it burst into a tiny firework, right in front of Benrey's face.
What was that?
“Nothing,” Gordon said quickly. “Don't worry about it.”
Worry? It felt...good. Benrey's presence stretched in his mind, like it did when he was feeling out a new sensation. Really good. Do it again.
The command was casual, but Gordon's reaction was immediate and involuntary. He shifted his weight, this time rocking his hips deliberately before he caught himself and froze, breathing out shakily even as a new wave of pleasure rolled through him. His dick, outright neglected in the last few days of terror and chaos, was jumping at the chance to get some attention, and normally Gordon wouldn't think twice about popping the suit's codpiece and pulling himself out of the slit that was built into the undersuit for more banal purposes to take advantage of having some alone time.
But nothing was normal anymore – and he wasn't alone.
What IS that? Benrey asked again, more pointed, his focus narrowing. It feels...
“It's – it's nothing,” Gordon stammered. “Just a boring human thing.”
It tastes amazing, Benrey said, and took control of the muscles that girdled Gordon's waist, using them to rock his hips, rubbing the head of his dick against the inside of the undersuit. His shaft, curved from the constraint of the fabric and the armor, pressed against the interior of the codpiece with each push, sending waves of heat and prickling sensation through his core.
Gordon's breath stuttered and he clenched his teeth again, this time to prevent any sound from leaving his throat. Whatever was working its way out was sure to embarrass the hell out of him.
Benrey, he tried mentally instead. I don't think this is a good idea. You don't know what you're doing -
Sure I do. There was a smirk coiled around Benrey's words, even thought Gordon couldn't see his face. Suckin' an' fuckin'.
A startled laugh burst out of Gordon's mouth, and he dragged his hands up to cover his face. He wasn't sure when he'd taken his gloves off, but his palms felt cool against his flushed cheeks.
“What?” Benrey asked petulantly, his head emerging from Gordon's chest with a tingling sensation to peer down at him. He'd seemingly forgotten about moving Gordon's hips, so Gordon quickly started tensing his thighs in another fruitless attempt to get his boner down.
“Sorry,” Gordon choked out between semi-hysterical wheezes. “You're not – it's just -”
“S'just what?”
“Not what I was expecting you to say.”
“I'm right, though, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Gordon sighed, hands still over his face. “Yep, you're – that's right.”
“So, uh...that's what dicks are for?”
“Kinda of? It's not what they're for, exactly, but it's – uh, it feels good to do that with them,” Gordon stuttered, sweat trickling down his neck.
“That's fucked up,” Benrey said.
“Wh-what?” Gordon jerked his head to stare at Benrey's milky eyes. Of course. Of fucking course this bastard would pull some bullshit like this and say he was gross or something –
“How're you supposed to get anything done?”
Gordon gaped up at him. “What...do you mean?”
“We don't do shit like that,” Benrey told him. “We bud off like, uh, normal people. But if you got somethin' that feels like that, why wouldn't you just...I dunno, do it all the time?”
“Because you'd probably hurt yourself?” Gordon said, conversationally adrift. “And also, some people kind of do? But they're not really – I'm sorry, did you say bud off? How is that normal?”
“Didn't get what the big idea was,” Benrey mused, completely ignoring him as more tendrils of black emerging from the suit. Something tingled low in Gordon's stomach and he twitched. He couldn't see past Benrey's big fucking head sticking out of his chest, but he was worried about where those tendrils were going. “But that taste...”
“Taste?” Gordon asked frantically.
“Like before. Like the laughing,” Benrey said. “It, uh, makes somethin' I can eat, an' it's way better than anything else so far.”
“What, like – endorphins?”
“Dunno about any dolphins.”
“No, not -” Gordon scoffed. “Not dolphins, endorphins. Serotonin and shit like that. Happy chemicals.”
“Yeah,” Benrey mumbled, his head lowering until his toothy mouth sank out of sight into the suit. Happy chemicals. Good chemicals. Tasty chemicals.
“Uh,” Gordon said, then clamped his mouth shut as his arms suddenly jerked up over his head, his knuckles brushing against the arm of one of the couches as his wrists were pinned by an invisible force.
Well, not invisible. The whole suit was black right now, so technically Benrey was as visible as he wanted to be. He'd puppeted Gordon before, and he would do so again – in comparison, this was a relatively minor case of using his host as a marionette.
“What're you doing, buddy?” Gordon asked shakily. He'd been distracted for a few minutes there, but now the sensations from the rest of his body were rushing back, and his dick was still very much a problem. At least the fucking headache was gone.
Exploring, Benrey said, and Gordon realized his whole face had vanished again. His voice was entirely in Gordon's head now. Tommy says it's, uh, important to know the ins-n-outs of a new host.
“Man, don't talk about Tommy right now,” Gordon whined.
Why? Tommy's our friend, Benrey said, as black tendrils emerged from the chestpiece of the suit to run across Gordon's cheeks, his lips, his throat. Others were moving to wrap loosely around his torso and legs, writhing shapes visible against the darkness of the suit itself. In the dim lighting of the room, they looked like coiling snakes.
“Sure,” Gordon nodded manically. “Yeah, he is, but – I don't wanna be thinking about Tommy right now, dude. That's weird.”
You're weird. Anyway, what is this? Why is there so much...uhh, Benrey's voice trailed off and Gordon felt that rummaging sensation behind his eyes as Benrey pawed through his memories in search of something. Stuff. Lotsa stuff up here about sex an' shit.
“Dude, don't look at that!” Gordon yelped, hands twisting in Benrey's hold. “That's private!”
How'm I supposed t'learn if you won't tell me, huh? You wanna give a lecture? A, uh, thirty-minute sixty-slide PowerPoint presentation?
“What the fuck are you even talking about?” Gordon snapped, trying to kick a leg up for leverage on the couch to get some slack on his arms and immediately feeling his muscles lock up as Benrey yanked the leg back down and shoved it flat on the couch. His dick throbbed again and Gordon literally felt the blood rush to his cheeks as Benrey's attention zeroed in on the sensation. He could feel the symbiote following the chain of reactions backward to their source, and closed his eyes tightly in hopes that this was some sort of fucked-up dream that maybe he would wake up from. “Where did you even hear about fucking PowerPoint presentations?”
You science people gotta do 'em all the time, Benrey said, with the air of someone casually holding back an angry combatant with one hand and reading an engrossing book with the other. Funding an' shit, I dunno. What the hell is hentai?
Gordon's eyes snapped open. “Where are you – stop looking at that! I got into some weird porn in college, okay, that doesn't say anything about -”
Oh, Benrey said, and then ohhhhh nice. Not just college, though, dumbass. Why're they all chicks?
“There's a – very specific subset of people,” Gordon panted, “who are into – y'know what, just – get out of there, man! I don't – I don't even -”
Would you relax?
“How am I supposed to relax when you're fucking Rolodexing through my porn habits?” Gordon screeched.
Like this, Benrey said, and suddenly Gordon's anxiety levels plummeted. It was like getting a bucket of ice water dumped over his head, but without the unpleasant chill factor, just the shock of changing instantaneously from one state to another. He sank into the couch again, his shoulders settling against the pillows, his spine straightening out as his chest inflated deeply, then deflated on a slow, forced exhale.
“That's cheating,” he tried to say, but his tongue had gone heavy in his mouth and he wasn't sure any words actually came out.
From far away, he felt Benrey flicking through information in his brain. Some memories brought shadows of sensation – a hand around his dick, the glow of a computer screen, lips wrapped around his shaft, someone giggling as she bounced in his lap a long time ago. Gordon would be the first to admit that he hadn't had a lot of luck with relationships, and that maybe he was in a bit of a drought right now. But he lived in the desert, so sue him.
Are you sure humans haven't met aliens before? Benrey asked. There's a lot of stuff in here about getting probed.
“That's hillbilly shit,” Gordon mumbled, shaking his head a little. “We don't...we don't claim them.”
Is 'The X-Files' supposed to be a documentary or a show?
“Uh...you tell me?” Gordon was coming out of the artificial calm now, enough to feel annoyed about it. “Are you just looking up shows I've watched?”
Some uh, pretty weird connections up here. You sure it's not the sex-files?
“Scully is hot as hell, don't try to – wait, fuck, what am I saying.” Gordon shook his head harder and yanked on his arms. “Are you done? You gonna let me go now?”
Not how this works, Benrey purred.
“What?” Gordon blinked and went still.
You started it. I've got plans for you now.
Gordon thrashed furiously. “I didn't – YOU started it, with your weird brain-chemicals shit!”
“Yeah? Maybe we both started it.” Benrey's head rose from his chest once more, the facets of the helmet-shape shining in the dark room, pearlescent eyes nearly glowing over his piranha grin. “Oh, uh,Tommy also says consent is important, or somethin' boring like that,” he said quickly, and Gordon's stomach swooped at the confirmation that this motherfucker knew exactly what he was doing the whole time. “So, uh, yes?”
“What?” Gordon wheezed.
“Yes?”
“Yes?” Gordon parroted back, and Benrey's grin grew.
“Cool,” he said, then his head melted back into the suit.
“Wait, shit -” Gordon started, but he was struck dumb by a bolt of pleasure so intense his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. His dick stiffened immediately to full hardness again, his mouth dropped open on a silent gasp, and every muscle in his body locked up, tense and quivering as he almost – almost -
Okay, so that's what that does, Benrey's voice mused in his head, and abruptly Gordon went slack, his muscles trembling, his peak held at bay once again as he cursed breathlessly. He was gonna fucking lose it. He didn't even care what Benrey thought at this point, because the asshole was obviously fully cognizant of what he was doing and clearly enjoying it, so fuck him. Gordon was going to get off with or without Benrey's help.
...But he could admit to himself that he would much rather do it with the symbiote than without him. He'd examine that thought later. Honestly, he was so fucked.
Don't wanna stop the party too fast, though, Benrey hummed, and Gordon dragged his attention back to the here and now. His arms were locked wrist-to-wrist, his hands loose enough to wiggle his fingers. He was flat on his back in a nest of pillows and blankets and towels that Benrey had made for him, which was actually strangely endearing. And his migraine was officially gone. That alone would have been cause for celebration, even beyond whatever was currently happening between Gordon and Benrey. And speaking of which...
“Oh fuck,” Gordon said, staring down the length of the jet-black HEV suit. His hands clenched into fists and he felt Benrey tighten his hold on Gordon' wrists momentarily, as if to remind him to keep them where they were, buried in the pillows over his head. There were several tendrils emerging from Gordon's hips and arching over the space between his legs, seemingly waiting for him to get with the program. They were just gonna dive right into this, weren't they?
Fuck? Benrey said conversationally, and immediately started moving. Black tendrils unlatched the codpiece and removed it completely, tossing it aside somewhere out of sight. The undersuit bulged obscenely as Gordon's cock stiffened further, still constrained by the dark fabric. The tendrils came back and hovered for a moment, then two of them laid themselves gently down, one along the crease of each of Gordon's thighs, before pressing inward until they were outlining Gordon's cock. The fabric near the head felt damp and sticky. A third tendril pressed firmly against that spot, and Gordon's back arched.
Please, he thought, or said – thought he said, and it didn't matter, because Benrey was inside his head and his tendrils were already slipping into the reinforced slit in the undersuit's dark mesh and then, finally, touching Gordon's cock directly. One immediately wrapped around the base of his shaft, working its way up and tugging it sideways as another pulled at the fabric, freeing him from its confines – then his cock sprang free, ringed tightly with dark mesh at the base but standing upright between the black bars of the HEV suit's thigh pieces. He was momentarily surprised that the tendrils were warm, then wondered why he was surprised. They were part of him now, after all – why wouldn't they be blood-hot as his own skin?
Distantly, Gordon realized his breaths were coming in gasps as he stared at the sight of his reddened cock wrapped in a single ribbon of black, Benrey testing the waters still, even though Gordon was thoroughly immersed in the flood.
“Oh fuck, please, Benrey, please,” he stammered, words tumbling over themselves – and then Benrey was there, tendril thickening, sliding down Gordon's length then slowly, slowly, back up the shaft. Gordon panted, open-mouthed and shameless, experiencing something that he was pretty sure no one on Earth – no one in the universe – had ever experienced before.
I'm getting jacked off by an alien, he thought wildly, and then just as wildly hoped that Benrey hadn't heard that. It seemed he was actually in luck, this time, and Benrey was too distracted with his new toy to notice Gordon's internal turmoil. His movements were so slow, so cautious, like he wasn't sure how anything would feel.
If his hands were free, Gordon would have smacked himself in the face. Of course Benrey didn't know how any of this would feel. He'd never been in a real human body long enough to explore anything like this. The guards weren't human; they were manufactured en masse and never set foot in the mess halls, so it was doubtful they had functioning digestive systems, let alone functioning dicks. And any other human Benrey had possessed had either died or been partially eaten by the time Benrey was done with them. This was all new to him.
Gordon should probably help him out more. Not least because it would help him, too – if Benrey kept this pace up, Gordon was going to either scream or pass out from the edging.
“Need some help, there?” he asked in what he hoped was an unaffected tone.
Whuh? No, Benrey said, and the tendril tightened sharply around Gordon's cock. He groaned before he could stop himself, and felt Benrey's triumphant purr building in his head. Oh, we like that, huh? Like a tight grip? Firmly grasp it?
“C'mon, man,” Gordon whined, flexing his arms uselessly in Benrey's hold. “Can't I just show you?”
No. You'll do it wrong.
“How the fuck could I do it wrong?” Gordon snapped waspishly. “It's my dick! I know exactly how to do it right, you need to – oh fuck.” He bit the end of the sentence off and clenched his teeth against the high-pitched noise building in his throat as Benrey tightened his grip again and began to slide the tendril up and down the length of Gordon's cock in earnest. Another tendril joined the first, this one oozing a clear secretion, because of course that was something the symbiote could do. The dry whisper of tendril on skin became a slick repetitive sound that was all too familiar to Gordon, who himself had once experimented with too much lotion. The only part of his cock he could see over the black coils of Benrey's tendrils was the head, flushed a dark red and dribbling precum with each pull. His cock twitched in reaction to his view of it, and Benrey hummed in his head again.
And we like watching, he said.
“Please,” Gordon gasped as Benrey continued to strip his cock, the heat and pressure building, slick sounds nearly echoing in the empty room. “C'mon, c'mon, lemme -”
Not there yet, huh? Benrey said, and Gordon just about had an aneurysm as he slowed his motions again. Hmm...what else could we need?
“I need you to not stop!” Gordon gasped, pulse pounding in his ears. “You're gonna fucking kill me, man, I'm dying of blue balls -”
Balls? Benrey said, and several new tendrils dove through the slit in the undersuit. As soon as he felt their feathery touch tickling through the coarse hair on his perineum, Gordon was overwhelmed with the thought of what they could do – what Benrey could do – penetration-wise. Apparently he could slick up his tentacle-things, and they could change shape and size, and Gordon hadn't done much but he could admit he'd gotten curious a time or two. His own fingers hadn't been a revelation or anything, just another sensation, but maybe, with Benrey, it could be different.
The symbiote must have been listening in, because Gordon felt a sudden rush of interest and excitement as Benrey's tendrils probed further back below the undersuit. What's that? he said, his voice suddenly very focused. Hentai's real? You, uh, holdin' out on me?
“That's not – I don't know what the fuck is happening anymore, man,” Gordon rasped, sweat trickling down his spine. He writhed as much as he could, trying to get those tendrils to move, though he didn't know where he wanted them, couldn't think about it, couldn't think about much besides please yes more there there there.
Oh, Benrey said, his tone sounding a little different, like he was turned away. This is new. Then he slid a slender, slick tendril directly into Gordon.
The only thing that kept him from coming immediately was the simultaneous pressure of a second tendril that shoved up under his balls, hamstringing him as much as any cockring was designed to do. This time Gordon couldn't hold back the high-pitched noise that burst out of him, but Benrey didn't tease him about it.
Fuck, the symbiote said, and his voice sounded shaky in Gordon's head.
“Yes – c'mon, please,” Gordon moaned, driven shamelessly wanton by the lengthy edging and the brand-new pressure of penetration. He'd never experienced anything like this – the tendrils were still wrapped around his torso and legs, banding his body in heat and compression. His hands being pinned was absolutely doing something to him that he would need to have a good long think about later, and the whole situation – Benrey using his body, their body, to explore what felt best for them both – was almost unbearably erotic.
...And Gordon had never even thought the word “erotic” before in his life, so he was definitely on the edge.
Faintly, he felt Benrey rummaging through his head again. There's something, Benrey was muttering to himself. Something about...yeah.
The grip on Gordon's cock tightened and tugged, pulling up at the same time the thin tendril penetrating him shifted and dragged itself against his insides until it hit a spot that made a bolt of electricity shoot up his spine.
Gordon jolted and made an inarticulate sound, and Benrey gave a low rumbling vocalization of triumph before thickening the tendril and pressing hard on that spot inside them. Another noise ripped out of Gordon's throat, a mix between a groan and a whine, and he felt a shivery exhale from the symbiote tremble under his skin in response.
Yeah. Fuck. Okay, Benrey said, and then everything started moving at once.
It was a good thing the rest of the team was eight rooms away, because if they'd tried this any closer Gordon would have woken everyone up. He was trying to be quiet, but Benrey clearly liked hearing him and kept changing things up to startle new noises out of him, grunts and yelps and sobbing cries that he would never dream of making in his right mind. But he was one thousand percent out of his mind right now, and it was way too late to try to play anything off as more than the absolute desperation it was.
That's more like it, Benrey was murmuring in the back of their head. Keep makin' noises. Whiny little – ah, ah, ah – yeah, didn't know I could shut you up like this. Fuck.
For once, his mimicking of Gordon didn't seem mean-spirited or playful – it felt like another way for the symbiote to explore, to figure out what worked for them, even if that was getting lightly mocked. But Gordon was never going to think of Benrey repeating his “bbbbbbb” noises back at him in a flooded corridor the same way ever again.
Gordon couldn't even see his cock under all the tendrils wrapped around it. They weren't moving together at all – some tugged while others pushed, leading to a riot of alternating sensations that kept him right on the edge of tipping over, especially with the uneven pressure inside him as the slender tendril probed around, looking for more pleasure points. Gordon tried to tell Benrey that as far as he knew, there was just the one, but he didn't think that message got through. That, or Benrey was too caught up in his exploration to care about what Gordon thought.
He tried not to examine what that idea did to him. He had already been coming to terms with the fact that he liked it when Benrey puppeted his limbs, and he definitely liked being inside the symbiote, safe and shielded, but the idea of Benrey piloting him around possibly against his wishes, with himself helpless to do anything about it...? Well, earlier the thought of that had been worrying. Right now it was something he thought he might want.
Almost there? Benrey asked, as if he hadn't been the one stopping Gordon from coming the entire time.
“Please,” Gordon slurred, his heart pounding so hard that he felt like it was about to slam right out of the chestpiece of the HEV suit, blood rushing in his ears. “We need to -”
Benrey shuddered, and Gordon felt it because it shook him, too. The tendril inside him abruptly thickened, pressure building as the symbiote seemed on the verge of losing control. Yeah, that's it, he growled. We need it. We need this. Let's -
“Fuck,” Gordon gasped, voice cracking as his body struggled around the intrusion, the increased girth of the tendril inside them a shocking stretch. But it wasn't an intrusion, was it? It was part of them, and in a moment their body remembered that, relaxing around it, welcoming the punching pressure of it ramming harder against that spot inside that made fireworks go off deep in their core, even as the tendrils around their cock all shifted together to create a wet suction from base to tip that sent a throbbing heat thudding deep in their belly.
C'mon, Benrey rumbled. Come for us. And he pulled away the tendril that had been keeping pressure against the base of their balls.
Gordon might have actually blacked out when they came. He certainly lost a few seconds to the white hot rush of it, and when he opened his eyes, panting wetly at the ceiling, his ears were ringing and his throat felt raw and ragged, like they'd screamed.
Didn't, Benrey said, his own voice shocky and faint. We just...wow. That was...really good. Better'n your dumb memories.
Gordon didn't want to admit it, but Benrey was right. He had never, in his life, ever, come that hard before. Their heart was still pounding, their muscles trembling, and little ripples of heat and pleasure kept radiating out from their – his – dick. Gordon looked down the length of his body and saw said dick lying red and limp against the black mesh of the undersuit. Somehow, it looked more satisfied than he felt.
Was it that small before? Benrey asked innocently.
Gordon gritted his teeth. “You fucking know.”
Did I break it?
“Shut the fuck up,” Gordon sighed, dragging his aching arms down and gingerly working his tender cock back into the slit in the undersuit. He hissed at the oversensitivity and felt Benrey zero in on that, as if the asshole was taking notes. Then Gordon paused and squinted in the dim lighting. “Benrey. Where did my cum go?”
Uh. Don't worry about it.
Gordon grimaced. “Dude, did you eat it?”
Uhhh no? That would be...weird? Benrey scrambled aggressively into Gordon's mind and he flinched. Wait...that's not weird at all, Benrey's tone turned accusatory. That's what you're supposed to do!
“Lucky guess,” Gordon muttered, levering himself up slowly into a sitting position. Something twinged in his lower back and he made a face. Did he come so hard he pulled a fucking muscle?
Your fault for locking all that shit up, Benrey grumbled. We coulda been doin' this before, but you gotta be all...“myeh myeh, that's private” an' shit. Lame ass.
Gordon rooted around for the codpiece, finding it under a pillow down by his ankle and clipping it back on. “It is private,” he muttered, still off-balance and trying to hold onto the afterglow, despite Benrey's best efforts. He noted that most of the HEV suit had reverted back to orange, with only a few sections of the chestpiece showing the obsidian black of Benrey's attention. It seemed to work like that – he'd fall asleep in a black suit and wake up in an orange one. He wasn't sure if the color reversion was due to Benrey getting tired or bored or some secret third thing, but he wasn't about to ask.
His shoulder tingled, and he looked over to see Benrey's face rising over his, those horror-movie fangs glowing in the dim light. “S'too good to keep private,” Benrey said.
Gordon blanched. “Dude, don't tell anyone that we -”
Something twinged in his stomach and Benrey's form shivered before the symbiote ducked his face closer. “No,” he snapped. “No one else. Just for us.”
“Yeah,” Gordon nodded, relieved, then blinked as his still-slow brain caught up. “Wait, no, not just for us. You know how to – you figured out how to stop the migraines? That's – that's fine, that's enough. You don't have to go through the whole thing if it happens again.”
Benrey cocked his head. “Why wouldn't we?”
Gordon tossed his hands up. “Because it's weird, dude! It's – it's fuckin' -”
“It is fucking,” Benrey interrupted, before Gordon could find the next bead on his string of thought. “An' it was good.”
“For you,” Gordon mumbled, sweat prickling on his skin again. They were dancing dangerously close to something he really didn't want to confront – at least, not before he got some actual sleep.
“For both of us,” Benrey corrected flatly. “Don't, uh...don't try to pretend. We know how we feel. We know what we want. We want to do that again – an' not just for some headache.”
“First of all, a migraine is not 'just some headache,'” Gordon said, using finger quotes for extra sarcasm, “and secondly, we are never doing that again.”
“Wow, you are a dumbass,” Benrey grinned, his face coiling around in front of Gordon, forcing him to turn his head to keep those pearlescent eyes in sight.
“I'm serious,” Gordon said weakly, tilting his chin back as the symbiote's head rose higher above him, dark tendrils thickening below it where it connected to Gordon's chest. “That was – that was a one-time thing, buddy, and now you know how it works, so you know what to stay away from.”
“Do you really want me to stay away from this?” Benrey asked, and Gordon's back slammed flat into the nest of pillows again, shocking a whimper out of him. Benrey's eyes glowed triumphantly overhead.
“Fuck you, man,” Gordon spat up at him. “I'm not – that's -”
“What about this?” A spot high on his thigh tingled, and suddenly the tendril that he hadn't even noticed leave his body was probing carefully back toward his hole. “Your pegs 'n' holes shit is still super weird, but I can get into it, I guess.”
“You,” Gordon growled, clawing at the cushions until his arms snapped flat along his sides, “are in no position to talk! What the fuck did you say earlier about 'budding off?' Are you all fucking – anemones or something?” He couldn't remember if those were what reproduced through budding, but he was pretty sure it was ocean creatures of some kind. Not his field of study, at all.
“Not fuckin' any enemies,” Benrey said, low and rumbling as he bent his head down over Gordon's face. “Just friends. Best friends.”
Gordon opened his mouth to retort something, and in the same moment, Benrey shifted position above him again. He felt his own hot breath wash back against his cheeks as a bundle of tendrils passed in front of his face just at the right time. Something flickered in the back of his mind, and he froze.
Benrey also froze. “Huh,” he said, eyes flashing brighter for a moment, then he slipped a tendril up Gordon's neck and along his cheek to the edge of his mouth. “Holdin' out on me again, huh?” he mumbled, then slid the tendril between Gordon's lips.
Driven by some twisted instinct, Gordon licked it, and Benrey's face dissolved away above him, the symbiote sinking abruptly back into his body. Gordon started to move and felt the tendril in his mouth thicken as the one between his legs shifted and an entirely new one wound around his dick, which was, shockingly, getting interested again in the proceedings. He bit down in surprise at the mix of sensations and felt Benrey shudder under his skin. The HEV suit once again appeared completely black.
“Benrey,” Gordon mumbled, but the tendril in his mouth thickened again, pressing down on his tongue. It was warm, but cooler than the inside of his mouth, and it tasted a little metallic, like licking a coin.
Shush – no talking, Benrey rumbled in his head. Gotta explore this, too, cause you, uh, you didn't tell me about this.
Gordon struggled not to snap back at that. Strictly speaking, he hadn't told Benrey about any of it – the fucking parasite had just gone and looked it all up himself.
Apparently that thought hadn't been quiet enough, because Benrey gave a vibrating growl and pushed Gordon's body harder into the couch cushions. Not a parasite, he snarled.
Since his mouth was full, he couldn't reply verbally, so Gordon settled for thinking at him again, even as he clenched his teeth on the tendril in his mouth. You're kind of acting like it, man, just taking what you want, he started, then gagged as Benrey lengthened the tendril suddenly and it hit the back of his throat.
Oh, whoa, what was that? Benrey sounded startled as Gordon coughed and swallowed, the tendril having yanked itself out of his mouth immediately. That's...new. Gotta – where's the button for that...?
“What the fuck, man?” Gordon wheezed. “Watch where you're shoving those things!”
Yeah, sorry, Benrey said, actually sounding a bit contrite. But uhhhh I fixed it? And without waiting for a response, he pushed the tendril right back into Gordon's mouth.
For a split second Gordon panicked, then he felt it hit his throat and – what the fuck – slide in further. It was a deeply alien sensation to feel something solid fill out his throat without tripping any physical alarm bells. Apparently, Benrey had turned off his fucking gag reflex. And – okay. Gordon had never given anyone a blowjob before, and he honestly probably couldn't compare it to this, because the thing in his mouth was for sure not anything like a human dick, but whatever this was, he was...kind of into it.
At least, until he remembered he still had to breathe and started panicking again.
Whoa – what now?
Need air, he thought frantically.
So? Gotcha covered, Benrey said, and Gordon realized that was true. He could still breathe through his nose just fine, though it felt like the oxygen took a detour on the way to his lungs. Probably best not to think too deeply about that.
Idiot, Benrey scoffed. Got too much explorin' to do t'let you pass out. Y'got so many, uh, holes, it's like fuckin'...cave diving.
What the hell are you even talking about? Gordon thought at him as the tendril pulsed in his throat and the one around his dick tightened beneath the increasingly-constrictive codpiece.
Spelunking, Benrey mumbled, and shoved the slick tendril in deep between his legs again. Pinned down and penetrated at both ends, Gordon went taut and quivered as Benrey cranked open the turnwheels in Gordon's brain that shot them both straight up into a sky full of fireworks.
It actually hurt a little to come twice in such quick succession. Gordon generally hadn't even been able to do so, in the past; he'd always a bit of a one-and-done thing going on with his dick. But today was a day of firsts. He was learning an awful lot about himself.
The tendril in his hole slipped out and dissolved back into his leg with a familiar tingle, along with the one that had coiled around his dick. There may have been more than one, there – Gordon didn't know, because Benrey hadn't stopped to remove the fucking codpiece and consequently, he may have sprained his dick. He thought this furiously as Benrey slowly drew the tendril out of his throat, a soothing coolness left in its wake before it flicked out from between his lips and whipped out of sight.
Didn't sprain anything, sheesh, Benrey grumbled. We wouldn't do that.
Gordon heaved for breath and yanked his hands out of Benrey's grip to fist them in his own sweaty hair. “This is insane,” he gasped. “I'm going insane. What the fuck.”
Yeah, that was too fast, Benrey mused, seemingly on a different track. Wasn't as good like that. We'll, uh, slow it back down next time.
“Next time?” Gordon barked as he sat up, digging his heels into the cushions to shove himself against the armrest of one of the couches. “No no no, that's – your privileges are revoked, it's – you're gonna fucking kill me, dude!”
Ribbons of orange showed through the oil-slick black as Benrey sank further into Gordon, pulling himself back from the surface of the HEV suit. We wouldn't do that, he said again, sounding miffed. Not gonna fuckin' hurt you. An' I didn't mean right now. M'full, anyway.
Full? Gordon wasn't sure he'd felt Benrey full since the shark incident, and even that wasn't like this. When he went looking, there was a deep satisfaction to the sensation, like some hidden tank had been filled up as well as the normal bottomless pit that was Benrey's appetite.
Yep, Benrey said smugly. Hits the spot. Should be good for a while.
Gordon snorted and found his gloves jammed between the cushions, yanking them on with quick motions. He wasn't sure how he felt about any of this, but he was absolutely positive that he needed sleep before he could figure it out.
“Well, that's good,” Gordon rasped, “because we are never doing that again.” His voice sounded unconvincing even to his own ears.
Are you stupid? Benrey replied. From now on, we're doing that ten times a day.
Gordon squeezed his hands so tightly into fists that the material of the suit’s gloves creaked under the strain. “I want to kill you,” he said, conversationally. “Come out here so I can make you dead.”
Uhhh...nope.
“Benrey,” Gordon sighed, then gave up. This conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere right now. “Forget it. We’ll talk about it later. Let’s get back to the rest of the group so they don’t think we got dragged off by headcrabs.”
He felt the now-familiar flutter of Benrey shivering under his skin at the use of let’s and we. He was starting to realize that it was genuinely important for Benrey to have Gordon see them as one entity. And he had to admit that, even with his frustration at the edging, for a moment there it seemed like they were one being, right at the peak. And that...well, it wasn’t a bad feeling.
Benrey agreed with him, apparently, because black tendrils seeped over Gordon’s arms as he went to crawl over the back of the couch, instead lifting him straight out of the makeshift nest and setting him carefully on his feet. He snorted and turned toward the doorway, but was stopped by a slender tendril rising up in front of his face. He paused, eyeing it warily, but before he could ask what the hell Benrey was playing at, the tendril darted forward and pressed against his lips in an unmistakable kiss. Then it whipped out of sight, vanishing back beneath the suit.
Gordon blinked for a moment, completely caught off guard. “Uh,” he said. “What?”
Benrey didn’t reply, and Gordon felt a sensation like the symbiote was curling in on himself somewhere under Gordon’s ribs. He also caught a faint echo of how he’d felt, a flush rising in his throat and cheeks as Benrey needled him about what was going on when he’d first started getting hard, and blinked again. A smirk twisted his mouth and he huffed.
“Seriously? After we – you just fucked me within an inch of my life, but THIS is what gets you flustered? A kiss? Are you twelve?”
Benrey hissed wordlessly at him, and he scoffed, somehow suddenly on firmer ground. As long as they were both off-kilter about what had just occurred between them, he was fine. He hadn’t liked the idea that Benrey may have been less changed by the experience than Gordon felt he had been.
“Whatever, man,” Gordon waved a hand and started walking again. “Goodnight to you, too, I guess.”
There was no reply as Gordon made his way back down the corridor, counting doors until he found the break room the rest of the team were still sleeping in. Bubby had contorted himself like a cat, the back of his head nearly touching his lower spine with one leg flung over the back of the sofa, and Dr. Coomer appeared to have somehow burrowed beneath the cushions completely. Tommy looked like he hadn’t moved a muscle since they left. Gordon wondered idly how long it had actually been, but quickly decided that glancing at a clock would probably show him he only had an hour until they had to get up, but as long as he didn’t see the time, he could pretend he had half the night left. Maybe he even did.
He crawled back onto his own couch, noting as he did how much lumpier this one was than the couches in the break room Benrey had found for them. He sent a pulse of appreciation at the alien, who uncurled just enough to send a hint of smugness back. Gordon rolled his eyes.
I’m no Princess Leia, he thought at Benrey, and you can’t pull off Han Solo. Don’t try any of that suave bullshit with me.
Don’t tell me what to do, Benrey’s voice said faintly.
Gordon sighed as he settled himself more comfortably and closed his eyes. Thanks, though, he added reluctantly, for getting rid of the migraine. It was – that would have sucked, so. I...appreciate it.
Benrey stretched further inside him, sending faint tingles to his toes and fingertips. I know, he said, and Gordon could feel the smirk in his voice.
That’s not even the line, he thought testily, but he was too tired to pursue the conversation. We still need to talk, he thought through a yawn. I have...dude, I’ve got so many boundaries to set up.
Lame, Benrey mumbled – but then Gordon felt the tingle of him seeping out of his right wrist and manifesting his weird clawed hand to twine their fingers together. Gordon couldn’t help smiling as he turned his face into the back of the couch and yawned again, squeezing Benrey’s palm and feeling Benrey squeeze back.
We’ll talk in the morning, he thought again.
G’night. Benrey’s mental voice was so quiet, Gordon almost didn’t hear him. As he drifted off, he thought he felt the ghost of a tendril’s gentle touch on his cheek – but he was asleep before he could be sure.
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