Extrapril

"Lemme see your hands."

Macey, chosen as the least intimidating of the four, raised an eyebrow at the ridiculous man in front of her. He was wearing a black plastic raincoat, on an unforgiving summer day, silver shades, and three watches on his left wrist.

He crossed his arms grumpily, and loudly thanks to the coat, "Not sayin' shit agin."

"Ya shit if ya think ya intimidating, man in black." She rolled her eyes and turned to go, "If you're not serious about this, I'm out."

"Serious! I'm serious!" His entire tone of voice dropped an octave and he grabbed quickly at her elbow. "Totally serious. Just... Haven't met a lot of people, before. People who know stuff. Of course I've met people."

Macey did not like how he amended that statement, but turned back and shrugged, "Fine. I know I'm not batshit, but this stuff is. I saw something yesterday, something I can't explain, and I wasn't alone."

"You... Saw it?"

She frowned, "Why am I not surprised that you didn't?"

"I look fa things like this, all de time. None of it ever pans out." The man completely missed that she was referencing that these things always happened outdoors, and he seemed quite inexperienced in that concept.

Macey shrugged, "Well, you've got the news footage. Video crap. But I was there. I was right in the middle of FedSquare when the alien popped up, and it was no art exhibition."

She didn't really think of herself running through the square as an art thing. She wasn't intending to be some speech about the human condition. She was just being a gag. A laugh.

"How would ya know? An artist, is an artist." The man replied aloofly.

Macey raised an eyebrow, "Trust me, I know the difference between art and an alien invasion. And this was definitely the latter."

The man's shades dropped to hanging around his neck, eyes wide and excited, "An alien invasion? And you were there?"

Macey nodded, trying to believe in what she was saying, "Yeah. Wasn't the only one. There were others there too. We need to figure out what really happened, before the government covers it up or some shit."

The man nodded slowly, his curiosity piqued, "Okay, I'ma in. Let's figure dis out together. But first... Show me ya hands."

Macey rolled her eyes, but extended her hands towards him. He examined them closely, muttering to himself, looking for who knows what. He was just someone desperate to believe in aliens, and she was the one ruining his life by giving him just that.

He looked up at her curiously, leaning back, "So ya touched on da gateways, then. That's some serious shit. The Ebens ain't gonna be liken ya know about dat."

"The Ebens?" Macey said doubtfully.

"The aliens with the equivalent of a patent on the interplanetary gateway technology." He said knowingly and then made a dismissive gesture, "Nah, donnae be worry much 'bout dat shit. Gateways are bullshit. Too hard to guide the bastards, too much power needed ta slingshot through the Plejaren galaxy."

She didn't ask him for details on that one.

"Forget the Ebens. It's been on the news, and people are... Believing it." Macey shrugged, "I don't know what I saw. I just hoped with your background -"

"It be bullshit. Ya instinct be right." The man gave a small grimace, "Donnae worry. I can help ya on this one. Gimme... Twenny four? It'll be done and ya will be feelin' fine-like."

She really didn't like the way he phrased that. Made it sound like he might work for a group behind cover-ups. Aliens... Weren't real. Not space aliens. Macey was certain of that, there was... No way.

*GNoYW5nZWQgaW50byBhIHRvcmNoLiAtIFBsa*

"That... Doesn't sound hopeful." Tristan said cautiously, trying to avoid the glare he knew he was evoking from Macey.

Caleb jumped in, trying to smooth the frazzled emotions of the friends, "That's the thing with all the biggest stuff though, yeah? They've got no follow up. People just left confused trying to work out if it happened or not."

"We didn't happen." Delilah said firmly, rolling her jaw, "This was all supposed to be a joke. It was hilarious. Thrilling. Now we have to make people throw it aside like a Saturday Funny."

"Saturday home videos? Christ, how old are you?" Caleb stared.

Macey looked down and coughed a warning quickly. Tristan also suddenly found the fairly blank walls of the library they always hung out in to be absolutely fascinated. He might have spent years learning every crack and chip in the paint, but he had never been as interested as he was in that moment.

Delilah took two very shallow breaths to steady herself, "Do you want another go at that, Caleb?"

He flinched, "Did the age thing completely kill me? Or did the blasphemy bury me, too?"

"Didn't help." She crossed her arms, "I'm with everyone with the swearing. Whatever. Emphasis. But there's no need to bring Jehovah or Allah into it, is there? So cool it, Devoted One of God."

He winced, "Yeah. Kinda betrayed my own name there, didn't I?"

"Wait!" Macey suddenly perked up, "I've got a way to fix this!"

Tristan looked at her in surprise, but still didn't dare to speak up.

Delilah rolled her glare of death over to focus on Macey, "You're usually as delicate as your namesake in a shop full of china. You're a weapon Mace, so shut the fuck up. Before I forget how much I love you."

"But you do love me." Macey said with a bright grin, "I mean... We all do. Finally darn well admitted it. We all fuckin' love each other. So... We should make up, like couples do. Neither Tristan nor I will get pissy at sharing. Promise."

Tristan's mouth opened and closed soundlessly. It took Caleb a few moments longer to process and comprehend just what Macey was suggesting that the innocent four of them do.

Delilah frowned, "Well... I can't say... I hate it. 'Cause I used to love it. But seriously, Mace? What are we, some sex cult?"

"I would never suggest a sex cult." Caleb offered a little too eagerly.

Macey rolled her eyes, "Well, obviously I'm trying to break down the barriers, so we're not all shitting on each other for liking each other. Pretty damn obvious that I love all of you, but I mostly love Trist. Sorry, all. He's my man. I just love you, too."

"That's... That's actually something we should talk over." Tristan said thoughtfully.

His girlfriend rolled her eyes, "No, Trist. Fuck no. Talking it over will get us all shitty with each other, and depressed. We'll let the heat of summer, and the stress of study, get to us all. We'll just be fuckin' upset about the alien shit. We'll only get depressed. Only. We need to break the boundaries."

Delilah looked thoughtful as Macey's fervour, but kept her mouth shut.

Caleb held up his hands, "I'm pretty sure anything I say at this point will get me thrown in the slammer. I'm already in the piss bucket for a couple weeks."

Macey looked directly at Delilah, not glaring, just pointedly. Expecting her to take the opportunity that was being provided and turn it into something... That Delilah wasn't actually certain that she wanted for her future.

She didn't hate the idea. She didn't love it. It came with shouted warnings of Shenton's Family, but it also came with reminders of just how much all four of them did actually love each other. That there would be balance, and caring.

The current conversation just let them talk about what they had been doing in the shadows.

Macey's phone interrupted the moment with a simple and upbeat melody with the so-expressive titling of *Alert Tone 2*. When she glanced down at the message, Delilah saw all the colour completely drain from her face.

Tristan was first, "Mace?!"

"Did someone die?" Caleb blinked.

"... Us." Macey croaked, turning her phone around to display a streaming video. A news footage reel, only fifteen seconds or so, on repeat. Showing APCs and tanks rolling down Canberran streets, with a politician proudly speaking in the foreground about defending the home and family from the horrible outside influence of the GateShifters.

"Christ above, they named us." Caleb whispered.

Delilah smacked him over the back of the head for the repeated blasphemy, but it was half-hearted. She was too busy staring at the phone, as it screamed silently that the four of them needed to make an urgent sacrifice before things truly, awfully, came apart.

Tristan was the one who said it out loud, first. He groaned and leaned back, rubbing the back of his head, "How the fuck do we get them to give up? That spy guy hasn't helped. Tossing some statement of it being a joke doesn't look like it will make the media give up. They love the attention. Shit. Why is..."

"... Everything so motherfucking complicated as a bitching gangly fuck-knuckle twat greasy haired cuntbag!?" Delilah suddenly snapped.

Everyone had an inch, something that they couldn't give, until it was ripped away. In that moment, they were no longer themselves. No longer predictable. They became... Nothing but a ghost. Something that could strike out with impunity and drag down those they cared most about, into the quagmires below.

Macey tossed her phone aside onto the couch, and stood up wordlessly. She could see everyone falling apart, panicking. They weren't thinking straight - not that she really was, either.

However, just because the media were in a frenzy and the military were acting under some politicians who had been looking for an excuse to flaunt a little dictatorial muscle, did not mean that the whole world was about to end. Irrational people do irrationally stupid things.

She reached a hand down to the bottom of her t-shirt, each to the opposite side, and swept it up and tossed it backwards and against the wall.

All three of her friends jerked and stared at her in confusion. Caleb was the only one to speak up, to her surprise. "What the hell ya doing, Mace?"

She'd expected he'd be the most receptive. His arrogant and manly exterior was an effective cover for a man who cared. He'd do anything, for any of them. Probably why his rough edges were put up with.

Instead of giving an aural answer, she reached behind herself and unclipped her bra. Showing off her flexibility a little bit, as she did. Macey never could just do a thing. She had to show off, it was just who she was.

"The hell you doing?" Tristan stared, insulted that his girlfriend was stripping off in front of her ex.

Boundaries, that Macey had to make him let go of.

She wasn't as smart as Tristan. Macey knew that. He understood words and arguments that made her head just about explode. There was a reason he could read *Henry's*, and she ran from the bloody books. So she didn't speak. She couldn't argue her way with the wordy words.

She did, however, have a pretty pair of tits. Delilah, Caleb, and Tristan, all admitted that. Admitted that they liked them, and were even curious about sharing them. So that was the way she was going to play out this particular debate.

Macey wasn't particularly proud of this hamfisted approach to things, but she did know it was effective. Tristan would try and play the righteous card and float above it, but she knew exactly how to make him dump his high thoughts and rev his motor.

She tossed her bra in his face, and then turned aside to Delilah and smiled coyly, "Want to show the boys how you really kiss a woman?"

"Mace..."

She ignored the hesitance and stepped forward, both hands grabbing the neck of Delilah's dress and planting a firmer kiss than she generally liked to. One that spoke more about desire than technique. Declared an intention.

The firm and upright woman instantly melted. Delilah could never resist the kiss, not of her best friend. She even let a little gasping purr into Macey's mouth - an opportunity she used to dive inside her friend's mouth.

"I... Should leave." Caleb said weakly, as diplomatically as possible.

Macey pointed an accusing finger at him, as she continued to make out with her friend, coaxing and bending Delilah not just to stay, but to bring the others into the moment.

With her tongue dancing and probing around Delilah's, she then turned her finger to her boyfriend, and jerked a thumb towards the dumbfounded Caleb.

Tristan hesitated, of course.

However, the woman he found entirely sexy, was asking him to screw the man he found entirely sexy. It did not take long for Tristan's overly logical brain to see all the positives, and how few negatives there were.

Especially as resisting would grant him a lot of pissed off negatives.

He cupped Caleb's cheek, twirled the man's red hair briefly between thumb and forefinger, and then dove in. Unfortunately, Caleb was a little more resistant than Delilah and pushed him back.

Tristan sighed, "We're at mine and Macey's place. No one's going to catch us. No one to be puritan about a little foursome. The girls are into it. No reason not to, Cal."

"Cal-eb isn't going to be your superhero in this moment." Caleb disagreed and shook his head slowly, "We already regret listening to me on the alien shit. There is no freaking way that we will not regret fucking each other. You and I were already trying to break it off for the girls."

"Caleb."

The two turned to the women, and where Delilah had gasped out his name, as Macey proceeded to kiss all over her neck, leaving a tiny bite after each one. Nipping playfully away at her woman.

Delilah swallowed weakly, "If... You don't fuck him... I will."

"Well, shit." Caleb blinked.

Tristan laughed, "Not a bad deal."

Caleb glared at him momentarily, and then shrugged, "Ah, what the hell. Not like we haven't all wanted this in one way or another for years."

"Never... Thought about it." Delilah moaned, as Macey slowly began to descend, kissing down the woman whilst flexing her knees to keep it smooth and showing far more strength than most people should actually have.

Tristan lifted Caleb's chin just a little, so that their lips could meet. Kissing him wasn't like kissing Macey. Her lips were so soft it almost felt as if they weren't there. That you were joining to a whole. Caleb, on the other hand, was as male as they came.

His lips were chapped, firm and hard, and unforgiving. The raw fire of Caleb left something burning in Tristan's chest. He found himself falling forward, rather than being the strong tower. There was an electrical spark that seemed to flow through them.

It moved through all of them. Instead of the kiss blanking out the world around them, it made Tristan hyper aware of the two women. Delilah's shivers almost becoming his own, as she sat back into the couch, Macey descending onto her knees, and kissing along her thighs.

There was a dizziness in that, one that had Caleb's hands at his back, holding Tristan upright and in the moment.

Tristan gave into it entirely, his hands going behind Caleb's head as he kissed him fiercely. Showing passion that he felt for each and everyone in that room. There was no other way to say it, really.

He loved them.

Delilah's breathless shivers and gasps suddenly gave way to a grunting moan, a sound that ignited every fibre of Tristan's being. Every hair on his arms stood on end as he heard her giving way to her own passion.

"Caleb. Stop kissing my boyfriend, and get over here." Macey suddenly instructed.

Tristan stared, but Caleb wasn't one to disobey Macey when she was ordering him about. If she wanted something done... There wasn't one of them who would risk her wrath by ignoring her.

Macey winked at Tristan, reassuring him, and then pulled Caleb down onto his knees and gently planted his head into Delilah's snatch. He didn't need much encouragement at all. Macey stood up, brushing down her skirt as the sound of Caleb's tongue started flowing out into the room.

She lightly skipped over to Tristan, and then dropped down, and dropped his pants faster than he thought strictly possible. His belt hadn't come undone, but his pants were around his ankle, and her warm fingers were already wrapping around his semi-solid.

A descriptor that rapidly changed as she alternated between kissing and licking just below the head. Tristan looked down at her, and the grin that was spread right across her face, and he just breathed out quietly, "A friggin' love you."

Delilah looked over, speaking with a slight confusion, "So... We're just hooking up with our lovers? Just in front of each other."

"Mmm... No." Macey replied, still kissing away, "I thought I'd blow my boyfriend, and then let him fuck yours. What do ya think?"

"I uh..." Delilah went completely red in the face, more than what Caleb was responsible for, "I think I maybe... Want to... Hold your hand? As... You know..."

"Caleb creams ya." Macey's nose crinkled, before she looked up, "What do you say, Trist? Wanna dump in me as I makeout with Delilah?"

"Fuck yes." He groaned, and as he said it, Macey took the opportunity to take his length completely down her throat in a spectacularly smooth and singular motion.

Her nose nuzzled against his groin, balls to her chin, and Tristan's eyes just about rolled back into his head. He tightened his knees, feeling like he was about to drop in that moment. Macey just began to bob her head, taking him in and out of her throat, swirling her tongue, and back down again at a pace that no one else had ever done to him.

Her tongue ran back and forth underneath him, slicking him as Macey showed off just how much control over her gag reflex she actually had. Meanwhile Caleb was demonstrating a skill that was just as appreciated by Delilah. As he licked and kissed, he continually darted black to her clit.

Never dwelling on it, never touching or pressing more than a fleeting moment. He showed just how much he cared for her, licking and kissing, rolling and rubbing his chin - though she might have stopped him once or twice from that. He did still have a beard.

All four of them were lost to each other, when the news cut to a new scene on the TV. "Good evening, I'm here with Australian Defence spokesperson Andie Speed to clarify recent reports of alleged alien sightings. Miss Speed, can you please explain what exactly happened?"

Macey felt Tristan begin to get distracted. He was always infuriatingly clear headed. It may have saved her a number of times when she had acted out of raw emotion, but this was not one of those times.

She quickly pulled off him, making sure to let a little drool join her bottom lip to his cock as she did. Then she spun around and knelt down beside Delilah, looking over her shoulder and winking at Tristan, before turning back to kiss the woman.

"I want to assure the public that there were no actual aliens involved in this incident. It was all part of an April Fool's joke."

"A joke? Can you elaborate on that?" The reporter cut in quickly, with more than a little tone.

Caleb didn't slow down for a single moment. Delilah found herself more giving little gasps into Macey's mouth, rather than actually kissing her with any appreciable skill.

Not that Macey cared at all - she was holding her breath with her thighs shuddering. Tristan was easing himself into her particular hotpocket, the man completely distracted by the opportunity to show her just how much he really did love her.

Caleb's steady and slow pace with his tongue allowed Delilah and Macey to fully immerse themselves in their passionate moment with Tristan. Delilah's gentle, breathy exchanges with Macey only added to the intensity of their connection.

Macey's anticipation was palpable through her held breath and trembling legs. Tristan, deeply focused on expressing his love for Macey, became oblivious to anything else around him, making their shared experience all the more meaningful and intimate.

Speed continued, "Yes, it was a coordinated effort by various government agencies to create a fake alien sighting and generate buzz on social media. They never intended for it to be taken seriously. It was not undertaken as any kind of official action."