13. LEOPOLD
thirteen
I looked at the three hivelings in the window seat, the blinds behind them drawn, the new shadows that mixed with the daylight making them appear mysterious.
“Let me get the floor cushions,” I said. One of them had put the popcorn bowl on the pile of cushions.
“We can do that. Please come sit with us, Leo.”
A hiveling had snuck up behind me and was deviously leaning close, the gentle press of his warm hands making me take a step toward the other three.
“Need to start the movie,” I said, pointing to the rocking chair that held my laptop.
“We’ll do it,” said the fifth. He had moved the small table I usually used for my laptop closer to put some of the food on there. They had the tea on a tray on the floor.
“Okay, just click on it.”
The moment I got within reach of the window seat, arms welcomed me and pulled me down. They shifted to make room for me. It was weird, though not uncomfortable. They’d started the movie too, but my attention was elsewhere.
One of them was behind me, the window seat deep enough to accommodate me leaning against him. He wrapped his arms around my middle, a hand coming to rest over my belly. Another one took my right hand in both of his, and the third pulled my legs into his lap.
That took some more shifting and adjusting, but in the end, a fourth of them crammed into the window seat, and the fifth had pulled up one of the floor cushions.
“Are you okay with this?” the one holding my hand asked. “With touching?”
To my own surprise, the answer was easy. “Yeah.”
“Good. Do you want to try the strawberries?” the one who had become my backrest asked.
“Sure. I don’t think I ever had chocolate-covered fruit.”
“Oh no.” “That won’t do.” “We need to make up for that, Leo.” “Open your mouth.”
I did. By the time the hatchling alien was wrapped around the first crew member’s face, I had been properly distracted, and I was enjoying it, leaning into the hivelings around me and letting them feed me.
“That’s all of them, all the chocolate fruit for you,” one of them said, speaking close to my ear. “Can we kiss you now?”
I thought about it. I was comfortable, sure, but my brain was still in the mix.
“Okay, but we’re just watching the movie, right? We’re not going to end up”—I took a breath before saying it—“having sex in front of the window. Right? That’s not why you were asking about the window and whether people could look inside earlier, is it?”
One—maybe two—of them hummed, cooed as if I were a feral cat they wanted to befriend.
“We asked because we didn’t want a human to see all of us and grow suspicious.” One of them kissed the back of my hand, and I flinched. “Shh. We are going to be very, very careful with you. Nothing you don’t want, ever. But we were thinking, if spin the bottle is your only experience, maybe you deserve a better one?”
I looked at one of them. And I nodded at him. Fuck, but he looked so trustworthy. All of them did, and they didn’t just jump on me either the moment they had the green light.
There was another kiss on the back of my hand, and hands started massaging my thighs and calves.
“Relax,” the one behind me said, and the one in front of me leaned forward, brushing his lips against mine.
I felt so utterly incompetent with my total and absolute lack of experience even as his soft lips brushed against mine. My mind was racing with the fear of being found out—almost thirty and nothing to show for it, living at home and spending my days online. I ticked at least some of the incel boxes, and I didn’t want the hive to see me in that light. Not quite sure why that mattered when it never had before.
“You’re tense, Leo. Should we stop?” the hive asked while another was teasing the corner of my mouth, building dread and desire both.
“No.”
I only had the one hand—my right one was still being caressed—and I hugged the hiveling in front of me closer. Doing that was even scarier than the kissing or the thought of what else might happen. The potential logistics of that still worried me. But touching him was…I hadn’t touched anyone like that. Not ever. Wanted, sure. Maybe I’d used the fear of talking about my almost death to cover that, in reality, I was simply scared of being physically close like this, and I wasn’t even entirely sure why such a thing needed hiding.
The hive was inescapable. Behind me, in front of me. His back was firm, and I could feel his warmth under my fingers. His kisses changed gradually, moving inward from the corners of my mouth, and the one who was holding my hand interlaced his fingers with mine, just like we had done back at the Moonlight.
“Leo,” the one behind me said, and I gasped when the other’s mouth fused to mine in what was undeniably a real kiss. “You taste of chocolate and summer berries.”
My eyes fell shut, and that had nothing to do with what was happening on screen. From the sounds of it, a chest exploded. Inside my mind, something else exploded too, except I didn’t know how to qualify it.
The hiveling explored me. I tried to be responsive, to let our lips play, tried molding my mouth to his. I had no idea whether I was any good, but they were sure tightening their hold on me. There were arms all around me, gentle touches through my clothes, and the little room that was left on the window seat seemed to vanish between us.
All in all, there was a lot of friction. It shouldn’t have been surprising that I reacted to it, because that was normal. The hiveling who was kissing me had to feel my erection, especially when I shifted in their hold.
One of them let out a low hiss, and movement ran through them. “Leo,” they said again. “Oh, Leo.”
A hand stroked my hair, and while my mouth was still busy, they kissed my forehead, my hand again, and my knee I was pretty sure. No, they were not fighting over me or tearing me apart between them, but it was as if each of them wanted me—hold, touch, taste.
I turned, broke the kiss. “S-stop.”
They did immediately, pulling back, loosening their hold. All their eyes were on me, wide, and I saw shock on their faces.
“Did we hurt you? We…we forgot ourself. We’re sorry. Forgive us.”
“No.” I reached out with my free hand to touch the cheek of the one who’d been kissing me, closed my other hand around the fingers that were slipping away from me. “The window seat is just a bit small, that’s all. And, uh. It’s like this? When you’re with someone?”
“We scared you.” The corners of their mouths drooped. It made their faces look hollow. I hadn’t paid much attention to the individual features because I’d been busy keeping track of who spoke to me, but now, this close, I realized they had such an expressive mouth, inquisitive round eyes that looked really good when they smiled. Warm and sunny, I wanted to see that.
I shook my head. “Well, maybe a little. You’re forgetting I had no social life to speak of until a few months ago, and making out with a bunch of guys—”
“We’re not!” “We’re not a bunch of people. We’re one.” “We want to give you all our attention because you deserve nothing less, but we are one.”
I spotted them holding hands again, the one sitting on the floor and the one who’d kissed me.
I straightened, looked at the one who was still allowing me to lean my back against him. “I’m beginning to understand that. But to me—oh. You remember saying you were small?”
All of them looked away from me. “We are. We know we are.”
“I’m smaller though. I’m just one, which definitely makes you bigger than me. And I need to get used to that.” I sucked the corner of my bottom lip into my mouth, and that got the attention of at least two of them. “I don’t know whether it’s the strawberries that charmed me or all of you, but I want to get used to it.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.” I wiggled my legs. “But it’s a really small window seat.”
They were smiling again, and my heart felt lighter. “Actually, our kind would say that a small space is good, especially if you are small. It’s comfortable.” Two of them looked around the room, maybe even looked at the screen where people were dying. “This place is very big for just one.”
“Yayyiiieee,” I squeaked when they lifted me, arms hoisting me up as if I weighed nothing.
“But we see why you would feel that way, not knowing anything else.”
The hivelings scurried, moving the floor cushions and arranging them to make a nest of pillows on the ground for us, one I found myself placed into gently.
“Oh, wow.”
“Is that better?” one of them asked. Moments later, all of them were back around me, one cradling my head on his lap and stroking my chest, another lounging next to me, a third coming to lie on my other side, the other two behind them, their hands touching me as if each body needed the contact.
“I guess. You’re not watching the movie anymore.”
“No. We think you are bad company for watching anything other than you. We could do it all day and all night. Maybe you’ll let us. We’re deeply hopeful that you’ll let us.”
“Ah.” I swallowed. “I have class later.”
“We have work. We won’t skip it. We want to provide for you. But can we come to class with you? You already invited us to meet your boss.”
“Uh, I don’t know if that’s allowed? During class, I mean. Headprinci-master Farrow said to bring you for cake. He was going on and on about cake and work and how I have a resting bitch face.”
That hissing sound again, and this time it didn’t sound entirely like normal people—like humans—might hiss. Maybe it was that there were more than one of them doing it.
“Your face is beautiful. We really like your face. You have a chip of emerald in your left eye. It’s so pretty.”
I giggled. “Gran used to say it happened when the stork dropped me on the lawn outside her door. My eye took on the color of the clover sprouting from the lawn. I mean, she told me that when I was little, way before sex ed.”
“We gathered. We’d never drop you, but we like the story.”
I looked around the pillow nest. “You proved that.” I wiggled my hips, relieved that my erection had gone down. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to maybe explore more, but there was nothing wrong with a speedbump.
“You said you made iced tea?”
They smiled. “With stevia and your withering lemon. Here, try it.”