I Married a Heptapod

So Ziggy and I, we just went back up to Level One and found a quiet Café, and I sat next to Ziggy with his tentacles around me and my head resting against his whatever it was, but it was comfortable, gazing up through the transparent bubble at the stars, and he really smelt nice, sort of a little like fresh seawater and ozone and it reminded me of walking on the Beach with Granddad and Grandma, back in New Shanghai, when I was a little girl, and we talked about us, and he told me all about growing up back home, and what it was like to be a young heptapod, drifting in the sea when you were little, and then following the adults onto land to go to school and be socialized and everything.

That was when I sort of turned and took two of his tentacles in my hands and I looked him right in the eyes, and I asked him if he'd be my Prom date, and he asked what a Prom date was, and it took us about two hours to work through all of that, and then he said he would, and I was so happy I cried, and he just hugged me with all his tentacles, because he knew I was all emotional, but he wasn't quite sure what about.

"It's a bit weird to bring a Heptapod to the Prom as your date, Stardust," my bestie, Amanda Chan, said, when I told her.

"Manda," I said. "You know Ziggy and I've been dating for, like, weeks now."

"That's just weird, Stardust," Manda said. "What're your oldies gonna say?"

I shrugged. "I'll have to ask, but I don't think they'll say no. They've already met him."

"What about the after-Prom party?"

I thought about that, and I was, like, "No, I don't think so. He wouldn't get it. I'll just take him back to Mom and Dad's. They're all shipping out soon, and I want to spend all the time with him I can."

"It's your life, Stardust," Manda said, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Your life, Stardust," Security-Major Chu said, when I checked in with him. "Pass on anything you pick up on the heptapods though. We know a lot about them but it never hurts to know more. And I'll add to the file that you have official permission. That what you wanted?"

"Thanks, Chewy," I said, and he laughed, and hung up, and all I needed was Mom and Dad's okay.

"Mom," I said, right after I walked in the hatch. "You know the Prom's coming up, right?"

"Yes," my Mom said. "I know, I saw the price of your prom gown and shoes on the credit account. Who's your date? You're going to have to bring them home for approval first, Stardust. You are NOT going with anyone inappropriate who'll embarrass your Dad and I."

"Uh, you already met him, Mom. I'm going with Ziggy."

"Ziggy?" my Mom said, sort of thinking, and then she squealed, and it wasn't, like, an approving squeal, not at all. "That heptapod? You're not serious, Stardust!"

"Mom!" I said. "You're being species-ist. Ziggy's a really nice guy, you know that."

"Yes, Stardust," my Mom said, but I knew she really meant, No, Stardust. "I'm sure it is, but you only get one High School Graduation Prom in your life. You should go with a nice boy, like that son of Mr. and Mrs. Wu. Such a lovely boy. So handsome, and he doesn't have a girl to go with. His Mom's so concerned, and his Dad's well connected in the Party. You two would look wonderful together."

"Mom!" I said. "Of course he doesn't have a girl to go with. He's, like, gayer than a box of crayons. And I'm not going with someone that looks like a girl. If I wanted to do that, I'd go with Manda."

"Stardust!" my Mom said, and she looked hopeful again. "We could find someone who doesn't look like a girl. I'm sure if I asked my friends...."

"Mom!" I said. "I don't have any problem finding guys for myself."

"I know you don't, Stardust," my Mom snapped, and that was my real Mom, back again. Hi, Mom. "But they're all completely unsuitable."

"How do you know, Mom," I said, completely reasonably. "I've never bought any of them home."

"Of course you haven't," my Mom snapped. "You wouldn't dare! I saw you in the Peoples Glory Mall two months ago with that Second American fascist of that ship of theirs. Why on earth you have this thing for those blonde fascists I have no idea, it's disgusting. And Rebecca Wu was with me. I was sooooo embarrassed. I mean, can't you at least date a nice boy from a good Party family every now and then, Stardust? Just to give your Dad and me a little face."

I looked at her. "I've dated Chinese guys, Mom."

"I know you have, Stardust," my Mom said. "I've seen one or two of them. Horrible brutes off of the spaceship docks and manufacturing yards." She shuddered. "Just this once, Stardust, can you please just do something for your Dad and I? If you go with that octopus thingie, everyone's going to know. I mean, I know Ziggy is very well behaved..."

"What's this about Ziggy?" my Dad said, floating in and spinning to land at the breakfast bar.

"Stardust says she wants that octopus thing to go with her as her date for the High School Prom, lo-gong..."

"Ziggy? Good idea, Stardust," my Dad said. "The Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Jūnshì Wěiyuánhuì is really big on doing everything we can to bring the heptapods on board, and I know Ziggy's only a Tentacle Leader, Stardust, but at your level and age, that's a highly appropriate gesture of hospitality, and I must commend you on your sense of civic duty and responsibility. I'm impressed." He was serious, too.

"You're not going to let her are you, lo-gong?" Mom looked like she was going to cry, and I felt almost bad, until I thought about dancing all night in Ziggy's tentacles, and my heart just pittered and pattered all over again. "She's only ever going to have one High School Prom, and she should go with someone who she's going to look back on and sigh happily over, not some octopus who can talk. I mean, I know what they call that Space Marine unit of theirs that it's with..."

"The Spider-Killers?" I said, real helpfully, because I was getting a bit annoyed now. She was being rude about Ziggy, and as far as she knew, we were just friends.

"Yes!" Mom said. "I do read the media, Stardust, I knew what they call that bunch of tentacled thugs. They're as bad as our Space Dragons."

"Mom!" I said, getting upset. "They're heroes, they're fighting the Spiders at our sides to preserve humanity and heptapod alike, and keep us all alive, sacrificing themselves for us civilians in the greatest tradition of the heroic soldiers and workers of the Peoples Liberation Army from as far back as the Days of the Revolution."

"Yes, yes, yes," my Mom said. "I know the Party line better than you do, Stardust. Your Dad writes the damn stuff."

"Lo-paw," my Dad said, taking her hand. "I know you don't like the idea, but Stardust's been in enough trouble with Security that a gesture like this will go a long way to rehabilitate her, and improve her social credit score rather dramatically. She'll get a lot of points for this."

"I will?" I said. "I hadn't thought of that." I hadn't either, but what a cover story. Yes!

Mom hadn't thought of that either, but she knew what my social credit score would've been if she hadn't hacked the system half a dozen times and made some adjustments. I knew too, and I knew that really, the only reason I'd gotten away with everything I had was because of my Dad and my Mom. And Chewy, but that was because Chewy thought I was useful, and I was, to him. Some of those fascists were really talkative.

"I don't like it, lo-gong," Mom said, but the way she said it, I knew I'd already won.

"Do you think we could at least get him into some sort of a custom made tuxedo," my Mom said. "I mean, we know he can look like he's walking. Maybe one of the Scottish skirt things those men wear."

"A kilt?" I said.

"Yes, that's it. A kilt," my Mom said, and she was looking a little bit happier.

Prom Night, except, well, later afternoon, and my Mom was freaking. Me, I was dancing on air, just waiting for Ziggy to arrive, and I'd told Mom I didn't want to go to the after-prom party, and she'd been really relieved, even when I'd asked if Ziggy could sleep over, because I guess she didn't have too many illusions about me. Which made me a bit sad, because I was eighteen and I really had never shamed the family or betrayed the family's honor.

"Ziggy likes to sleep in water, Mom," I said. "If you're okay with him staying over, I figure he can sleep in my bathtub. I've been saving my water allowance." I had too, mostly I'd been using the sterilizer unit, because I was environmentally conscious, and on Luna, water was precious. Most of my friends didn't even have a shower, let alone a bathtub. And the sterilizer unit actually cleaned you more effectively anyhow, and lasered body hair, and everything, all at the same time. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually used my bathtub.

"What about if you need to, you know, use the washroom at night?" my Mom said.

"Ziggy's an alien, Mom," I said. "Besides, I can use the guest washroom if I need to."

"I'll ask your Dad," she said, and okay, she hadn't said no. We were good, and when Dad came home, he looked at me and shrugged. "Ziggy's safe, lo-paw," he said to Mom. "He's an alien. Not like she's going to..." but he cut off whatever it was he'd been going to say, and all he said in the end was, "I hope we're not making a mistake agreeing to this, but I can't see what could go wrong."

Ziggy actually looked rather debonair in that black and silver kilt, and his black and silver formal weapons harness, without all the weapons and ammo, thank goodness, and Mom cried when she saw me in my little back formal dress, and Ziggy was a big hit at the Prom, and we danced together all night, and wed been practicing. He actually danced rather well, and he'd learned to keep his tentacles quiet, so we didn't damage anyone while we were dancing, and we looked really special together.

Mom was sort of right. I was going to look back on those images of my Graduation Prom, and just sigh, because dancing those slow dances, held in Ziggy's tentacles, was just divine, and the fast dances were fun to, because Ziggy was one cool hepcat, and he had a few moves that were, like, completely original on the dance floor, and we were kind of the stars of the show there for a while.

"Let's go early," Ziggy," I whispered, and he flashed agreement, and we headed off, hand in tentacle, walking slowly back to my parents through the tunnels, one of his tentacles around me, and he was sleeping over, and I was really looking forward to that.

"Goodnight Mom, good night Dad," I said, a little later, after I'd told Mom all about the Prom, and she was still a bit disappointed I hadn't gone with a human date, but she didn't make it to obvious, and Ziggy was really happy.

"I better sort out Ziggy's bath for him," I said, leading him out and down towards my hatch, and into my room, and I made sure that hatch was locked and sealed behind me, because I already knew that when Ziggy started to make out with me, I made a lot of noise, and tonight, I was really looking forward to making a lot of noise.

Ziggy was looking forward to it to, because his tentacle tips kept dilating as we walked away from my parents, and as soon as that hatch was shut, all seven of his sexual organs extruded, and I knew he was really eager, because his tentacles flew as they stripped my little black dress from me, and then my little black G-string panties, and Mom hadn't said a thing about me not wearing a bra.

"You are beautiful, Lady Stardust," Ziggy said, as I unfastened his harness and kilt, throwing them across the room and we were both naked as I led him into my bathroom and filled my bath with rose-scented water, because I'd discovered Ziggy loved the scent of roses, and he was totally into flowers, because I discovered half a dozen big bunches of hydroponically grown red roses there, that he must have had delivered to Mom and Dad after we left, and I just melted into his tentacles.

"Ohhhh, Ziggy," I sighed, and then I did a bit more than sigh as he flowed into my bath, carrying me with him, and it was a good thing I'd persuaded my Dad to have that extra-large Jacuzzi installed, because it was only just big enough for the two of us, and Ziggy's tentacles massaged me everywhere, my body, my breasts, my arms and my thighs, my butt, my back, my neck and face and then, last, teasing me the way only Ziggy could tease me, my sex, and I moaned as one tentacle kissed me, and the tip of another caressed my labia, brushing my clitoris with a delightful delicacy that could morph into remorseless strength at any moment, and I hovered there on the edge of ecstasy, knowing my body was giving him that sensual pleasure he desired as much as I did.

"Stardust..." his vocoder said, and his skin rippled those colors of love and desire that I was coming to know so well, and my own skin was flushed pink, and tingling and then burning with pleasure. So much pleasure. So much love, and I loved him so very much, and he was half in the water, holding me in a cradle of tentacles, and my hands each clasped one tentacle extrusion, and his suckers flowed over my breasts, my nipples, and other suckers tasted my sex, teased around my clitoris, and I knew what I wanted.

"Ziggy," I moaned, my back arching, shuddering with the ecstasy of that continuous full-body massage. "Oh Ziggy, please, I want one inside me, inside my sex... please Ziggy... I want you inside me, Ziggy..."

"Stardust," he said, and his colors rippled with excitement. "Are you sure?... I am not a human male... I do not wish to hurt you, Stardust..."

My hands stroked two of those sexual organs, and he was big, but not that much bigger. "You can make your tentacles thinner, Ziggy, can you do that?"

"Yes," he said. "I can do that." One tentacle waved in the air before my face, and it thinned a little, shrank, and I knew.

"Yes," I moaned. "Like that, please." I watched as it slid down my body, and now his tentacles adjusted flowing, two wrapped around my legs from knee to thigh, twined around me, spreading my thighs apart, the tip teasing my sex, and two were under me, supporting me, while a fifth brushed my face, and the sixth and seventh slid over and around my boobs, and that one tentacle, the thinner one, it joined the two tips already teasing my sex, and those suckers, they parted me, exposing my entrance, and that thin tip probed gently.

"Ohhhhhhh," I moaned, arching in mid-air, my head arching back, and that tip eased into me, thin enough that it slid into me without resistance, thick enough that the friction was exquisite, and my body rippled with sensations as he touched me, his tip turning, pressing, tasting, touching, exploring.

"Stardust, are you alright?" Ziggy asked, and his tentacle tip ceased its movements.

"Yes... yes... please, more," I moaned. "Go slow, Ziggy, I'll tell you if you need to stop."

"Yes, Stardust," Ziggy said. Then, "Heptapod females prefer this," and he began to move a little, in, out, in a little further, again and again.

"I like that too," Ziggy," I moaned, and he didn't stop. He kept in and on, and there was a sudden sharp pain, and I bucked and gasped.

"Stardust... did I hurt you?" he said, and I felt his tendrils exploring me inside. "There is a membrane of skin, it is very thin and I have broken it. You are bleeding."

"It's alright, Ziggy," I moaned, shuddering because it felt so good, even if it still hurt a little. "All human females have that, it's alright to break it, that's supposed to happen when it's your first time to have sex. Don't stop."

"If you are sure, Stardust," Ziggy said.

"I'm sure, Ziggy," I moaned, my sex dancing on him where he was inside me. "Can I have more in me?"

"Yes," he said, and his tentacle resumed its movements, and it was kind of weird to look down and see his tentacle easing in and out of me, slowly, and I could feel it inside me as well, and his other two tentacle tips there continued to tease, and suck, and passage, and it was better than I'd ever imagined.

"More," I moaned, watching him, and I wasn't sure how much of him was inside me, but I could feel him there, and it felt like he could go higher, and he did, very slowly and gently, until he hesitated, and something almost tickled me high inside.

"No more room inside," he said.

"That is my cervix," I said. "My eggs are higher up, but that's as far as you can fit. If you try to go further, it will hurt me, Ziggy."

"I understand," Ziggy said. "What do we do now, Stardust? If you were heptapod female, I would move sex organ inside you in rhythmic in and out movements, and sensation of friction would give me pleasure and bring me to point of ejaculation, after which I would release semen with which to fertilize your eggs."

"It is the same with humans, Ziggy," I moaned, and it was really hard to talk, feeling his tentacle all the way up inside me, and it was rippling a little. "My... my vaginal channel is designed to provide slippery friction for the male sexual organ, so that a human male will ejaculate inside me."

"How do you receive pleasure from this, Stardust?" Ziggy asked. "Is it from release of semen, and fertilization of eggs as with heptapod females,"

"No," I moaned. "It's the friction of your movements where you enter me, and feeling you move inside me, and from my clitoris where I showed you..."

"Here?" Ziggy asked, and one of his tentacles sucked at my clitoris and I bucked and moaned because yes, there. There there there...

"Yes," I moaned. "Yes, do that and move in me, Ziggy. I want you to keep going until you ejaculate inside me...."

"Yes, Stardust," Ziggy said, and he began to move, his tentacle sliding in and out, not far, a couple of inches out and then in again, on and on, and it felt so good, but I wanted more.

"Can you make it thicker?" I moaned.

"Yes," he said. "Like this?"

It seemed to swell and thicken inside me, eight inches of rigid sexual extrusion moving in me, stretching my channel walls around him, and I could look down and see where it slid into me, stretching me around his girth like a rubber band, as thick as my wrist, filling the juncture of my thighs.

"Oh yes... yes... no bigger... that's good... that's good," I moaned, and it was right at that limit where you know you have everything you can take and it's perfect, and he was thrusting, sliding, moving, filling me right to my cervix each time, and I was so close, and he could take me there whenever he wanted, and my mouth worked, trying to tell him that, but a tentacle tip found my lips and slid into my mouth, stretching my jaws around that tentacles sexual extrusion, and I moaned around it, holding another one in each hand, and oh yes... yes yes yes oh yes...

"Mmmmmglugglugglug..." I swallowed as his tentacle tip ejaculated into my mouth, overwhelming my tastebuds with the taste of his thick creamy semen, and inside me, his tentacle tip spurted, and I felt that ejaculation high inside me, semen jetting out against my cervix, and he teased my clitoris just right, and I climaxed, my sex milking that sex organ inside me as it flooded me, and I was moaning and swallowing as one left my mouth, and empty as the other one left my sex, and it was over, and I wasn't a virgin, and we'd done it, except...

I'd forgotten something.

I'd forgotten there were five other sexual organs there, and that one that'd been in my sex was replaced by another, which slid up inside me as quickly as the first had withdrawn, filling me, thrusting up high inside me, thick and hard, and I bucked and climaxed in that thickness, sobbing my excitement as his tentacle moved, giving me that sweet thick friction that I desired, that I wanted, that I needed, and when that one ejaculated, there was another, and another, and another, and it was endless bliss until at last he was satisfied, every one of his tentacle tips with empty semen reservoirs, and my sex knew what had happened.