Extrapril

She also smirked through the entire damn thing, and Delilah could feel every inch of that arrogant amusement.

Her knees clenched and she let out a little gasp.

Who was she kidding? She didn't give a flying damn.

Delilah's fingers tensed in her hair, and she whispered to the air, "Fuck me."

*hcHByb2FjaGVkIHRoZSBFYXJ0aCwgYW5kIGFmdG*

Lunchtime, on April the First, found the four friends absolutely nowhere near each other. Caleb was taking a tour of the clock tower, mostly to get in position above the central square. Tristan was down below, chilling with coffee and a sandwich - with his phone close at hand to record.

Delilah wasn't anywhere near the square. She was being a little bit more ambitious, and sitting near the old phone lines that the council were so happy to show off that they were still using with a bit of a tour. The half-dozen electromagnets that Caleb had built were sitting innocently enough in her pockets. A little nonsense to encourage the conspiracies.

Finally, there was Macey. She was sweating mostly from nerves, and not from the heat. The entire point of the prank relied on her getting seen, and then managing to disappear with all eyes directly on her.

She took a deep breath, adjusted her costume and then stepped out into the square.

There was a gigantic tearing noise, and the portal popped into existence against the wall of the building. Only a few of the crowd turned their head at the noise, so very used to the city lifescape. FedSquare always seemed to have some art happening.

Macey seemingly tumbled through the hole, rising up from a hidden box, and unravelling herself in front of everyone. Her movements went from chaotic to graceful in an instant, trailing white webs behind from her elbows as she danced into the centre of the square.

She spun back and forth, the large black eyes of the costume staring around in wonder, her skin glistening like diamonds in the midday sun. Murmurs of confusion spread through the crowd, as people started realising that their phone wasn't the only one misbehaving. Causing some of them to look up and notice her for the first time.

She opened her mouth, issuing forth a disjointed set of sounds that could not possibly be made by a human. "*01000111-00100111-01100100-01100001-01111001*."

"Oi! Stop right there!" A loud voice yelled out, and the whole crowd jerked their attention towards the police officer, who may have been told that Macey was a thief in cosplay.

However, as he jerked their attention, he also pulled the crowd into his way. Macey disappeared, as no one noticed in time that her outfit was entirely reversible, and she wasn't wearing any makeup. Just a mask that instantly became a beanie.

She was sitting down and chilling with Tristan before anyone even realised that the alien had vanished.

*VyIGl0IGJlY2FtZSBhcyBsYXJnZSBhcyB0aG*

Caleb's palms were sweating as he approached the library where he knew all of the others were already waiting. He could hear Macey laughing excitedly through the door.

The limits to their success were something that he wasn't about to sneer at. They really had successfully pulled the first step of their prank, and all signs pointed to them being able to pull off the rest, too.

Instead, Caleb was worried because he was convinced that Tristan was right. Whatever was going on between the two of them had gone on far, far too long. Delilah had been betrayed, Caleb had done the betraying, and Caleb needed to do the apologising, too.

Unfortunately, he half expected her to stab him and walk away.

As he walked inside, his gaze didn't turn to Delilah first. It went to her best friend, her lover, and absolute confidant. It went to the madly giggling Macey, who grinned over at him, saw his guilty expression, and plunged directly to all-out wrath.

She shoved by Tristan, who she had just been laughing and holding his arm, and pointed an accusing finger, "The fuck you do this time, Kale? You're as wholehearted as a dead man's cock, *Col Lev*!"

He flinched, but Delilah stepped up, grabbing one of Macey's arms and twisting it behind her back. "If someone is going to bully my boyfriend, it's going to be me, Mace. Or I'll take your freaking face."

"He's fucking finally admitting he's fucking Tristan behind both our backs!" Macey complained from her awkward position.

Caleb's heart dropped lower than his stomach.

Delilah rolled her eyes, "Exactly! So don't treat him like a piece of shit, Mace."

"You... Knew?" Tristan whispered.

Macey rolled her eyes, "As if you'd be doing it, if I didn't think it was fine. I'd have put red ants in your pants."

Caleb winced, "Dee... Can we... Go talk? Alone?"

"Absolutely." The woman released her friend's wrist and stalked out the door with all the wrath and rage that he had been fearing, and worse, knew that he absolutely deserved.

He followed immediately in her wake, and it strangely felt similar to the first time he had. When he'd forgotten about Macey, and found himself drawn to her best friend. The girlfriend of his own best friend, no less.

There was something about her that was... Inhuman.

As Caleb and Delilah stepped outside, away from the comforts of the library, the tension between them was palpable. Delilah stood with her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. Caleb swallowed nervously, feeling the weight of his actions bearing down on him.

He took a deep breath, "I... I have screwed up in a way that you'll probably never forgive. A way that I deserve to never be forgiven. What I've done is -"

"Exactly what I and Macey did." Delilah interrupted, and shrugged sheepishly, "I betrayed you, with her. I deserved to never be forgiven. Instead you decided to pretend I hadn't. To just tiptoe around it and pretend that everything was fine in the universe. But we can't pretend. Not anymore."

Caleb stared in absolute shock to hear Delilah admit any wrongdoing, let alone equating everything she had just to him. He couldn't find a single thing to say.

Delilah sighed, her gaze softening, "We both made mistakes, Caleb. We've both hurt each other. And we can't keep pretending like everything is okay when it's not. I'm the bitch cheating on you. You're the bastard cheating on me."

Caleb nodded slowly, the realization sinking in. Her honesty revealing just how terrible the both of them had been. Not just to each other. They had hurt each other for certain, but the people they had been cheating with were also hurt.

"I... I never meant this. I'm sorry." He croaked weakly.

She stepped forward, putting one hand on his shoulder, "I know. I didn't either, but we did. By... Hiding it. We need to discuss it. Accept or reject it. Find something solid... Together. We need this, together."

Caleb blinked, "You don't hate me."

"I'm sleeping with your ex." Delilah shrugged with a sheepish smile. "And... I..."

"All four of us." Caleb realised that it was exactly what he wanted, even as the words were still leaving his mouth. The way her eyes lit up, told him exactly what he needed to know.

He reached out to take her hand, and Delilah grabbed his wrist and dragged him in the direction of the carpark, and into the back seat of her own car as quickly as she could.

Caleb found himself confused as he ended up on the back seat, with Delilah quickly dragging his pants down to his ankles. "Aren't you pissed at me?"

"Was. Now... We're making up." She smirked up at him, before his underwear joined his pants, and her head was bobbing down onto him before he even comprehended what was really happening.

There wasn't another word from Delilah. She was quiet as her tongue slipped across everything that made him sensitive, and pushed his head from the space of being about to break up, to the space of being treated by Delilah's absolute expertise.

Caleb found himself grunting out a shallow sort of gasp before he even really understood that his girlfriend was telling him just how infallible their relationship was. Tristan or Macey, Delilah was happy enough to share them as long as she was the one to get his heart.

A different kind of heart was shared between them in that understanding. One that had a deeper sort of hunger, no matter how slow and delicate the sharing of it was at times.

It didn't stay very delicate.

Delilah gave a little gasp as she came back up, and dragged her panties to one side before planting herself into his lap. Her eyes meeting his with a desperate need, joining him without a word spoken. The two of them finding everything that made them so very close in that single instant.

Her moist warmness desperately dragging him in, driving him into her oven. Letting out a shaking breath as she found herself impaled upon him, joint to him in a way that was so far beyond the ordinary.

Caleb felt the jolt of each thrill pulse down and through every nerve, driving from hip to toe. Felt her hands around the back of his neck, her nails dragging desperately against him, as she rocked herself back and forth in a fluid arc.

Every inch of her softness rolled against him in ways he didn't quite comprehend. Delilah panting in his ear, before kissing briefly at his chin and neck, and then clenching herself against him without slowing her movements even a little.

She gasped out raggedly when she drove herself down on him finally, shaking and shuddering with a deep moan. Her fingers clawing at his back in that moment of her finality.

Delilah leaned back breathlessly, cheeks bright red, and grinned at him, "... Your turn."

With her legs still weak from her moment, Caleb rolled her onto hands and knees, her shoulders aligned with the top of the car seats, and drove himself back into her depths.

Delilah's knuckles cracked as she clutched onto the chair, grinning back at him with wide eyes. Caleb found himself driving with a speed and fluidity he hadn't known, matching that gorgeous hunger, the happy face that told him that she was his, and he was hers.

There was barely a moment before he found himself climaxing, driving her shoulders into the car, as his head fell between her shoulder blades and grunted out his finish.

Her knees shook around him, as his warmth spilled forward, before rolling back and slickly sliding out of her depths.

"F-fuck." Delilah whispered out to the air.

Caleb groaned and kissed her back, "I love you."

*UgTW9vbiwgbGlnaHQg*

Macey yawned and stretched, apologising as the palm of her hand knocked the bottom of Tristan's jaw. She sat up from the sweaty mess that was the bed, and flicked on the TV excitedly.

The news was usually just beginning, but not today. It was already halfway through an emergency report of not just an alien appearing out of a burning circle in FedSquare, but also another seen across town in the Docklands, one in South Bank, and even one in Parkville.

All of them mentioned burning gateways, aliens speaking in binary or octal, who seemed to disappear even whilst people were staring directly at them.

Macey's jaw fell a little, "Uh... We might have a problem, here."

"Huh?" Tristan groaned tiredly, barely sitting up onto his elbows.

She sat forward further, crossing her ankles and rubbing her chin. Watching the shaking handheld footage with more a perplexion than any sort of greater interest or fear. She knew that all of it was bullcrap.

"What is... That's not us." Tristan sat up a little further. "What the deuce?"

She shrugged, "Setting off Melbourne seems crazy easy. Everyone believes in aliens, apparently. Never woulda believed it."

"It's... Bullshit." Tristan stated the obvious.

Macey turned around, grinning at him before pushing him backwards into the bed by his shoulders. Positioning her naked hips over his and crinkling her nose as she looked down at him, "Now, that was a freaking April First."

"You did good, gal."

She shrugged politely, kissed her finger and tapped him on the nose, "Not too badly yourself, Mr. Secretly-Bi. Speaking of, is your boyfriend going to interrupt us?"

"Pretty sure that Dee is all over him, at the moment. Bit of a reclaimer moment." Tristan shrugged.

Macey's grin was toothy, "'Bout fuckin' time."

She didn't prep him before lowering herself. Tristan was her everything, despite how much she loved Delilah. Feeling him at her entrance was all it took for her to let down in a way that was incomparable.

"Eyewitnesses report a sudden appearance of a shimmering portal, followed by the astonishing sight of an extraterrestrial being stepping into our world."

As she came at his entering, Tristan pulled her down to bite ever so gently at her neck. Macey clenched and shivered, letting out a sound that her neighbours probably very much hated. He ripped it out of her with a shaking wall that crashed right through.

"Authorities are currently on the scene, attempting to maintain order and gather information. The alien, which appears to be humanoid but with distinct features, seems to be unharmed and has shown no hostile intent. It has been communicating with onlookers using binary."

As much as Macey had liked Caleb, she had to admit that Tristan was ungodly in everything. Little more than a touch could ignite her every nerve. His gentle bite was like the kiss of a devil in the way it pushed her through humanity, leaving her mind dizzy in a chasm above a world of the beyond.

The storm and the flood tore through her with his every approach, breaking down every dam she might have tried to hold onto. She had no need to cry out for a hero, the one beneath her looking up with a fierceness of gaze.

"Tonight, we bring you an extraordinary story that has left the world in awe and disbelief. In the heart of Docklands, an alien creature has been reported to have emerged from a mysterious gateway, leaving onlookers stunned and scientists intrigued."

"Authorities have cordoned off the area, and a joint task force of law enforcement and scientific personnel are currently on the scene, attempting to gather information and ensure public safety."

A bead of sweat appeared on her back, rolling down slowly, as she lifted and fell on top of him. Her hips speaking of a gentle pain that was such a tiny price to pay to get all of this from the man that she loved so very deeply.

Tristan gripped her tightly, pulling her closer they moved in growing synchronicity. The passion between them burning hot, fierce as they lost themselves in each other.

"The alien, which appears to be humanoid in form, has been observed interacting with its surroundings in a seemingly harmless manner. Authorities are currently on the scene, working to establish communication with the extraterrestrial visitor and ensure public safety."

"For now, Parkville residents and the world at large are encouraged to remain calm and allow the authorities to handle the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide you with the latest developments as they unfold. Stay tuned for more on this extraordinary news event."

Tristan whispered to her, kissed her, touching her with a love that ignited her soul all the more with every single iota that passed between them. Macey's top lip curled back as she groaned out their combined spirit.

Their bodies trembled in ecstasy, hearts beating as one.

Macey collapsed, spent and breathless broken completely by giving him everything that she possibly had. Murmuring incoherently as she kissed at the scratchy day-length sprouts along the side of his jaw.

*YmVnYW4gdG8gc2hpbmUgYXMgb24gYSBjbG91ZHkgZ*

"It's so crazy!" Caleb said through a mouthful of burger, looking around at his beaming friends. The entire city seemed to have gone completely nuts. Even the Golden Arch had an alien special on their kids meals somehow.

Not that any of them would be caught dead ordering a kid's anything. Well, except for Macey. Who was currently playing with a spinning top UFO, whilst chewing away on a tiny chicken nugget.

"Crazy dangerous, you mean." Tristan shook his head, "Whoever is behind this, has gone far enough. Should stop whilst they're ahead."

Delilah shrugged, picking up a chip and tossing it lightly into her mouth, "*41 73 20 64 61 6E 67 65 72 6F 75 73 20 61 73 20 41 64 61 6D 20 53 61 6E 64 6C 65 72*."

Caleb started, "Huh?"

"Translate for the boys?" Delilah rolled her eyes over at Macey.

She sniggered, "As if. That'd just be asking for trouble."

"Nerd jokes go way over my head." Tristan complained.

In some ways, Caleb wanted to agree with him, but Delilah hadn't glanced at her phone first or anything. There was no way she'd memorised something like that ridiculous string of numbers and letters, just for some one-off gag.

He was left completely hanging, not a single clue what was going on inside her head. Even the aliens on the TV in the corner seemed more realistic than whatever she had just dumped out.

Caleb just couldn't see the wondergirl sitting down and memorising anything for a gag. Macey, sure. She'd actually done that a few times before. Or just for fun. Macey had memorised the first hundred digits of tau, just to be a little different.

Delilah on the other hand, was about as arty as you could get, and in the classical sense. A lot of mathematicians and artists could be the same people, but traditionally the two fields were counties apart. Delilah wasn't a numbers gal. She was laughter, tears, and paint spraying about the place.

The woman looked at him, furrowing her brows, "What's that numbskull of yours so focused on, Caleb? Gag's done. You can relax, now."

"You better relax." Tristan stated firmly.

Caleb shrugged, "Yeah, yeah. I'm chill. Just wondering where the heck all these other stories come from."

"Wonder less, wonderboy." Macey rolled her eyes, "We're having fun. Laugh at the news..."

*GF5OyB0aGVuLCB3aGVuIHRoZSBvYmplY*

"... Don't go getting any big ideas." Macey stated something she absolutely wasn't feeling in that particular moment. She absolutely agreed with Caleb. There was something about yesterday that wasn't adding up for her, and it had only got worse this morning.

Tristan was currently acting like a grouch, laying back in his seat and telling everyone to chill from weirdness. Right as he arranged his chips across the tray.

She had no idea what it was spelling out, but it was spelling something. It was in repeating sequences, which meant binary or octal. Something that Tristan was every bit nerdy enough to think through, whilst Macey was more inclined just to memorise little gags instead of working out how it actually worked.

"Big ideas..." Caleb said slowly and then grinned, "I know we said it was the end... But what about... One last hit?"

"No." Tristan and Delilah said in the same instant.

Macey held up her hand, "Hear him out first. Or you're going to be kicking yourself that you've got no idea what the bad idea is, at midnight tonight."

"Fine." Tristan groaned, but with a little more anticipation than he probably should have. He was more interested in the idea, than even Macey was.

Caleb shrugged, "Let's... Compile the stories. Take 'em to a local conspiracy guy, and let him broadcast. We do nothin'. Just witness stuff. See how far it can launch by itself."

"Not a bad idea. A conspiracy going full ball might kill it, too." Tristan said a little hopefully.

Macey wasn't sure she wanted the story to be dead on arrival, but making the local news without handcuffs was already a dream come true. She didn't want to ruin that by inspiring some detective to get to the bottom of the tale, and put those silver bracelets on her wrists again.

"Kill it, breed it. Story lives itself." Macey said as casually as she could, noting that Tristan seemed far too excited to continue telling a tale he said he wanted to be dead on arrival.

*3Qgd2FzIG1vdmluZyBiYWNrIHRvIHRoZSBza3ksIGl0I*