Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

> Reader: Investigate nookworm listing.

> Scroll down to reviews.

> Consult Grubipedia page on nookworms.

> Karkat: Get propositioned.

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

TA: hey KK, let'2 paiil.
CG: EX-FUCKING-SCUSE ME?
CG: MY GANDERBULBS MUST BE DECEIVING ME, BECAUSE FOR A MOMENT THERE I COULD SWEAR MY BEST FRIEND SOLLUX JUST SENT ME A MESSAGE ASKING IF I WANTED TO PAIL.
CG: BUT SINCE THAT WOULD BE COMPLETELY DERANGED, HOW ABOUT WE START THIS CONVERSATION OVER, THIS TIME WITH BOTH OF US ACTING LIKE THE SANE AND RATIONAL TROLLS I BELIEVE IN MY PUMP BISCUIT WE'RE CAPABLE OF BEING.
CG: HERE, I'LL START US OFF:
CG: HELLO, SOLLUX. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT.
TA: what ii want ii2 two put my bulge up your hot liittle nook.
CG: OH! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT. I'M STILL FUCKING HALLUCINATING. BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY EXPLANATION FOR WHY YOU WOULD DOUBLE DOWN ON THIS HOOFBEASTSHIT!
TA: wow are you beiing even more riidiiculou2 than u2ual toniight.
TA: all ii'm a2kiing ii2 iif you want two fuck. ii2 that 2o hard two beliieve?
CG: UH, YES, IT'S EXTREMELY FUCKING HARD TO BELIEVE!
CG: OR HAVE YOU SOMEHOW FORGOTTEN THE VERY BASIC FACT THAT WE AREN'T IN A QUADRANT, FUCKWIT??
TA: damn you are 2o uptiight. get your antiiquated a22 iinto the 612th century and dii2cover the wonder that ii2 friiend2 wiith benefiit2.
TA: ii'm not a2kiing you two be iin a quadrant wiith me, ii'm ju2t fuckiing horny and fiigured my bulge and your nook would get along liike a hiive on fiire.
CG: GEE, HOW ROMANTIC! YOU'RE REALLY SWEEPING ME OFF MY STRUT PODS HERE.
CG: QUICK, LET ME BREAK OUT THE RECLINING PLANE TO CATCH ME AS I SWOON!
TA: holy 2hiit, 2top beiing 2uch a goddamn drama queen and come paiil already.
TA: or at lea2t giive me a 2traiightforward no 2o ii can fiind 2omeone el2e two wet my bulge wiith, FUCK ii am 2o horny iit HURT2.
CG: OH, SO YOU DON'T EVEN GIVE A SHIT WHO YOU PAIL? I'M JUST A PROSTITROOPER YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR, IS THAT IT?
TA: oh my god you are readiing way two much iinto thii2. ii ju2t 2AIID ii wanted two fuck you!
TA: ii'd thiink iit would mean 2omethiing that you're the fiir2t one ii turned two iin my tiime of need, but iif you're not down two help a bro out, FIINE. ii'll ju2t 2croll down my chumproll two fiind 2omeone who wiill.
TA: ugh, fuck, who the hell here would be de2perate enough two paiil my 2orry a22. half the2e a22hole2 are two good for me and the other half wouldn't pii22 on me iif ii wa2 on fiire.
TA: fuuuuck, ii gue22 iit'2 gonna have two be eriidan?
TA: he'2 alway2 whiiniing about how he can't get any hoe2, he'2 gotta be down, riight?
CG: ARE YOU KIDDING? YOU CAN'T STAND ERIDAN!
CG: WEREN'T YOU JUST SAYING THE OTHER NIGHT THAT YOU WOULDN'T GO PITCH FOR HIM IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT?
TA: yeah, well, turn2 out ii liied. ii WOULD 2ettle for hiim iif my liife depended on iit. whiich ii 2wear two god iit feel2 liike iit doe2.
TA: ii'm 2o fuckiing hot and heavy, iit'2 liike my nook ii2 on fiire. iif ii don't get laiid 2oon ii am liiterally goiing two explode, ii am not even kiiddiing.
TA: ii2 that what you want? for me two blow up and 2hower my hiive wiith two miilliion na2ty liittle chunk2 of 2lurry and vii2cera, all becau2e my be2t friiend wouldn't do me a 2oliid and paiil me?
CG: FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR MELODRAMATIC BULLSHIT.
CG: IF YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD GUILT TRIP ME INTO PAILING WITH YOU THIS WAY, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR THINK PAN REPLACED, BECAUSE IT'S CLEARLY CORRODED BEYOND REPAIR.
TA: fiine! fuck me for thiinkiing you miight be down two have a liittle fun wiith me! ii won't make that mii2take agaiin!
TA: now leave me the hell alone 2o ii can wallow iin the 2hame of what ii'm about two do iin peace.
CG: I WILL! AND FUCK YOU!
carcinoGeneticist [CG] blocked twinArmageddons [TA]

Grubshitting fuck, the nerve of that guy! Pretending like there's something wrong with him to guilt you into pailing him? You always knew he was an asshole, but you never thought he'd be THAT bad. What the hell has gotten into his pan tonight? Acting all weird and slutty like this is so unlike him. And that's not even getting into all that batshit talk about how he felt like his genitals were on the verge of combusting.

Wait. Fuck. Is there something wrong with him? ...Oh shit there's something wrong with him.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] unblocked twinArmageddons [TA]
CG: WAIT. DON'T MESSAGE ERIDAN, OK?
TA: two late. he'2 iin my other chat wiindow a2 we 2peak.
CG: FUCK. PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU HAVEN'T ASKED HIM OVER YET.
TA: not yet. he'2 two bu2y goiing on about all hii2 hii2triioniic bull2hiit for me two get a word iin edgewii2e.
TA: FUCK ii can't 2tand thii2 guy. ii TOLD hiim thii2 wa2 urgent and he'2 2TIILL wa2tiing my tiime on all hii2 petty whiiniing.
CG: OK, WELL, THANK GOD FOR SMALL MERCIES.
CG: NOW CLOSE THAT WINDOW THE FUCK OUT AND TALK TO ME INSTEAD.
TA: ii CAN'T. you don't GET iit, ii NEED two paiil 2omeone A2AP, and he'2 the only per2on ii know who'2 enough of a whore two go for iit.
CG: YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I'M SO WORRIED ABOUT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU TONIGHT??
TA: what'2 wrong ii2 that ii'm 2o horny ii'm gonna DIIE, my be2t friiend gave me the run-around for half an hour iin2tead of ju2t comiing over for a booty call liike ii a2ked, and when ii triied two fiind 2omeone el2e two get my bulge wet wiith iin2tead, 2aiid "be2t friiend" deciided two fucking paiil-block me!
CG: ARE YOU EVEN HEARING YOURSELF? SINCE WHEN ARE YOU SUCH A SLUT??
TA: and what the hell ii2 wrong wiith beiing a 2lut? maybe ii'm 2iick of paiiliing my own frond2 all the tiime and want two have 2ome fun for once iin my godfor2aken liife.
TA: ii cannot 2top thiinkiing about how fuckiing good iit would feel two 2iink my bulge iinto a tiight wet nook. iit'2 all ii've been able two thiink about for day2. ii NEED two make iit happen.
TA: 2o iif you'll excu2e me, ii've got an iin2ufferable 2eadweller two propo2iitiion.
CG: NO!
CG: DON'T DO THAT. I'LL COME OVER, OK?
TA: !!
TA: really? you'll do iit? you'll let me get my bulge all up iin your 2weet nook??
TA: iif you're 2tiill jerkiing me around ii 2wear ii'm never gonna talk two you agaiin.
CG: YES. I'LL DO IT.
CG: JUST. HANG ON FOR A FEW HOURS WHILE I GET MY ASS OVER THERE.
CG: AND DON'T GET ERIDAN INVOLVED! YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY IN A COMPROMISED STATE RIGHT NOW, HE COULD FUCKING KILL YOU.
TA: eheheh, damn KK, ii had no iidea you were 2uch a jealou2 lover.
TA: ii'll try two 2ave my 2lurry for you. but no promii2e2. better go fa2t.

twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," you mutter as you rush out the door to catch the train to Sollux's place.

You're not going to pail Sollux. Fucking obviously. But he's clearly in trouble, and you would have to be a grade-A douchesteak not to help. All you have to do is get there, figure out what the fuck is wrong with him, and snap him out of it. Somehow. Maybe you can bring him to a mediculler? Ha, as if both your mutant assess wouldn't be culled the moment you stepped into the clinic. No, that's out. But whatever, you've got the whole trip there to figure something else out.

Three hours later, you're on the escalation pod to Sollux's block and still have fuck-all idea what to do for him. Fuck it, you'll just have to improvise.

Once you're at Sollux's door, you reach out to knock. But your knuckles have barely even brushed it when it swings open on its own with a flash of psionics. "Took you long enough. Get in here already," Sollux calls from inside. You steel yourself, step over the threshold, and recoil as a veritable wall of pheromones hits you right in the sniffnodes. It's a sweet, musky reek that suffuses the whole room and clings thick to the insides of your nostrils.

"Blistering fuck, why does your block smell a whole herd of musclebeasts in the deepest throes of heat? And where the hell are you, anyway—oh god!" you yelp, because as you round the corner into the respiteblock, you see Sollux.

He's reclining saucily on a concupiscent platform, and you don't even register the shit-eating grin he's giving you because dear lord is that a lot of skin. He's nude from head to toe, skin flushed yellow and glistening. The only thing keeping all his goods from being on display is the pail in his lap that hides his crotch and abdomen from view in a perverse parody of modesty.

You're still boggling when you hear Sollux lisp, "Come here, hot stuff." Without warning, flashing psionics lift you off your strut pods and fling you bodily over to Sollux. You barely have a chance to cry out before your mouth smashes into his at full speed.

"Ow!" you cry, flinching away. "What the fuck are you—mmph!" Sollux's lips cut off your objection, mashing into yours once again, though this time thankfully not at projectile velocity. You flail to get away, but Sollux's limbs are everywhere. His fronds tangle through your hair and his legs hook behind your knees and the pail gets wedged into your crotch in a way that's simultaneously painful and painfully erotic. As his lips devour yours, you can taste the pheromones on him, heady and maddening. It takes an undignified scramble before you finally break free and throw yourself off the platform, and the pail clatters to the floor in the struggle. But you've only just gotten out of range of Sollux's amorous attentions when you feel his psionics tug at you again. "Stop!!" you shout.

Sollux blinks, then scowls, but the flashing aura fades away and your feet return to the floor. "What gives?" he says. "You said you wanted to pail!"

"Of course I said that, it was the only way to stop you from inviting a genocidal seadweller into your hive! Sollux, what the hell is wrong with you tonight? Why are you acting so goddamn slutty? And—and holy shit, what the hell is going on with your abdomen??"

Because yeah, now that the pail is out of the way, you finally have a good view of his whole body, and the sight is fucking unnerving. Never mind his bulge already fully unsheathed and writhing against his thigh—the real surprise here is his gut. Sollux's lower abdomen is swollen to all hell, jutting out distended and lopsided between his scrawny hips. The sheer bulk of it forces his thighs apart and puts his dripping nook on display.

Sollux groans. "Can we not talk about that?" he says. "It's kind of embarrassing."

"No, we are going to fucking talk about it!" you say, storming closer to jab at the distended mass. "Why the fuck do you look like you're holding in two bucketloads worth of slurry? Don't tell me this whole goddamn sex emergency is because you've been edging yourself so long you've got months worth of geneslime backed up in there. Do you need me to teach you how to fondle your bulge?? Is that what's going on here???"

"It's not my fault," Sollux whines. "I've been jerking myself raw, but all that comes out are these pathetic little dribbles. I swear it's like I'm cursed or something, ever since that nookworm bit me I haven't been able to get off at all."

You jerk away like you're the one who's been bitten. "Oh fuck! That's a nookworm?!"

"What? No, that was a couple weeks ago. I don't still have it in, what sort of freak do you think I am?"

"Sollux, you cretinous moron! Nookworms are parasites! That means they infest trolls! When it 'bit' you, that was it piercing your gene bladder and squirming its way in!" You scrutinize Sollux's bloated belly with mounting horror. Did something just move in there? You swear you saw something move.

Sollux rolls his eyes. "Dude, it's not like I went out and snatched up a wild nookworm from some festering swamp. I used one of those special bred ones they're selling these days, they're harmless."

"They don't just HATCH harmless, shit-for-brains! They have to be modified to remove their piercing organ. So if you buy them from some shady-ass seller that doesn't bother, they can infect you just fine! Fuck, haven't you ever seen Troll Grey's Anatomy? They had a whole storyline about nookworm infestations in season 62."

Sollux tenses up anxiously, but shakes his head. "No, but, the stupid thing fucking died while I was using it. Its headless corpse slid right out of my nook after it bit me, it was nasty."

"The part that came out was just its discarded exoskeleton! The rest of it is STILL INSIDE YOU, and it's made itself real fucking cozy fertilizing its eggs on your geneslime by the looks of it!"

"What?? No, no, no. This isn't funny, KK. Tell me you're joking. Oh fuck, I never did find its head, it really is still in there, fuck fuck FUCK." He shudders, prodding in revulsion at his distended midsection. "What am I gonna do? How do I get it out of there?? I can't go to a mediculler, they'll fucking helm me the moment they see me."

Your acid sac twists with worry, but you grit your teeth and power through the fear. "Ok, ok, calm down," you say. "I'm pretty sure there's a treatment for nookworm infestations that doesn't involve surgery. Some sorta nasty shit you can take that dissolves its body or something. Or was that a different parasite? Fuck is it hard to think with all these pheromones around. Shit, that must be the nookworm too, hooking into your system and ramping up your sex drive." You pace around Sollux's cluttered block, scrubbing at your head with your claws as if you could scour the pheromones away.

"Ok, I've got it," you continue. "I don't trust any of the pharmapods in this stemcluster not to cull me on sight, but there's one near my place run by this fucking stoner who doesn't ask inconvenient questions. I'll head back there and find... whatever the hell treatment there is for this. It can't be that hard to find, right? I bet they've got a whole damn shelf for this shit, there's gotta be all sorts of morons out there buying shady sex bugs who need meds to bail their idiot asses out of their own self-inflicted messes. I'll pop over there and get it for you, so, just, hang in there for a little bit, ok?"

You turn and make for the door, only to be stopped by arms wrapping around you and tugging you back. Sollux's gangly body presses against your back, and oh god you can feel the curve of his infested gene bladder pressing into you.

"Wait, you can't go," he says, voice tight with desperation. "You don't understand, I feel like I'm gonna fucking explode, I need to pail." His feverish breath gusts into your hear ducts with every word. At this range, his pheromones smother your think pan with lust. Your skin flushes, and you can feel a gush of receptislime leak from your nook.

"Come on, it'll only be a few hours," you say, trying to convince yourself as much as him. "I'll get your nasty mediswill and be back before sunrise."

Sollux heaves a sob and clings tighter to your body. "Please, KK," he breathes.

The anguish in his voice snaps your last thread of resistance. You sag back against him with an aggrieved sigh. "Fuck. Fine. I'll... I'll help you get the nookworm's eggs out, at least. Then once you're not so full of eggs you look like you're gonna pop, we can figure out how to get the rest of it out of you."

"Oh fuck yes, thank god. You're the best, KK," he says, pressing little nibbling kisses into your neck, and you really wish you could say it wasn't making you weak in the trot hinges. But you're you and it is, so you turn in his arms and capture his mouth with your own. Sloppy makeouts are absolutely not what you should be wasting time on right now, but screw it. So sue you for wanting to wring some semblance of romance from this debacle.

Fat lot of romance you're getting, though, because while you're tangling tongues with Sollux, he's tugging at your clothes, shoving your shirt halfway up your torso as he gropes at the chub below. But when you feel his hands go to your waistband, you panic. You shove yourself out of Sollux's embrace, nicking your lips on his fangs as you go.

"Wait wait wait," you say. "Before you go stripping me down to my wriggling day suit, let's get one thing clear. You might see something down there that shocks you. But if you do, stick it up your squawk blister and choke on it. You knew going into this that I'm a mutant and anyway YOU'RE the one who's out of your pan with a self-inflicted nookworm infestation, so if you freak out for even a single second, I am walking right out that door and never coming back. Got it??"

"Oh my god, is this about your blood?" Sollux asks, closing in to hook his prongs in your waistband again. "KK, I do not give one single shit. You could bleed Tab and come Faygo for all I care, so just get your goddamn pants off already."

"Fine, fine," you grumble, shooing his hands away. You strip your shirt off first, then, with a shaky breath, undo your fly. You shove your pants and underwear down to your ankles, glaring daggers at Sollux as if daring him to take issue with your candy-red junk.

But far from freaking out, Sollux drops to his knees and reaches out to trace the outer folds of your nook reverently. "Fuck yes," he moans. "I don't know why the hell you were so shy about this, this is the hottest nook I've ever seen."

Oh. He actually is ok with it. Your pump biscuit pounds double time in your thoracic cavity. "Well, glad to know something about me isn't a total disappointment," you grumble, only to realize that your attempt at gruffness has been totally undermined by the pleased chirr starting up in your thorax. You give an embarrassed cough to put a stop to it. Sollux chuckles, and your face goes hot. It goes hotter still when the tip of Sollux's tongue flicks out to lap at the soft skin of your seed flap. You close your eyes with a wavering sigh and run your fronds through his hair. The shudder that runs through him when you brush the bases of his horns carries through to his tongue and this feels incredible, and wait weren't you supposed to be doing something?

You push Sollux's head away with more than a touch of reluctance. "Wait, we got off track somewhere. I'm supposed to be helping you get the eggs out, not get my nook eaten out."

Sollux huffs in annoyance. "God, KK, can't you let yourself have a little fun for once in your life?"

"No. I'm allergic to fun. Jocularity makes me break out in hives. So unless you want to break out the elation epi-pen, let's get a fucking move on."

Ignoring Sollux's grumbling, you tug him over to the concupiscent platform and push him down on it, then clamber onto it beside him. You pause to look him over for a moment. The twinge of worry that twists through you at the sight of his distended abdomen sobers you up a little, though it doesn't stop the throb of heat running through your crotch.

"So, what's the plan, Doctor Vantas?" Sollux says.

"Hell if I fucking know. It's not like I've ever milked nookworm eggs out of someone before," you say. "...But, uh, I'm pretty sure I remember reading that they come out through the bulge somehow?"

You both look down at Sollux's bulge with some trepidation. It looks more or less normal for a yellow blood, you guess. You can't imagine how the hell eggs are supposed to squeeze their way through this thing.

"Well, fuck," Sollux says. "That's freakish as all get out. But what the hell, my whole existence is freakish, so I guess that's par for the course. Let's just do it."

You frown down at his bulge for another moment. "Ok, I guess I'll just... just sort of reach over and..."

You just sort of reach over and touch it. Huh. This sure is Sollux's bulge you have in your hand! You run your fronds over it curiously. It feels weirdly lukewarm compared to your own body, but in a pleasant kind of way. You scoot closer and enclose your hand around it, rubbing your palm against the base and letting the tip curl freely around your fronds.

"Fuck, that feels good," Sollux moans as his bulge explores your hand. "Hell yes. ...Wait. Wait fuck that feels weird oh shit what the hell."

You let go of Sollux's bulge in alarm and—oh god, there's something inside of it. Just barely visible through the translucent yellow flesh, a thread of something dark is squirming its way through Sollux's slimetube. His bulge convulses against your palm and you close your fingers back around it to... you don't know. Soothe Sollux? Coax the thing out? His bulge stiffens in your grip as the thing pushes its way through until finally, an inch of something bright blue and vaguely bulge-like pokes out through the tip of Sollux's bulge, waving gently around as if searching for something.

"Oh fuck, that's the same color the nookworm was," Sollux says. "It really is still inside of me, shit. What is it doing? It had better not be trying to haul its whole damn body out through my bulge because that is NOT gonna work."

You stare at the appendage poking out of his bulge with a discomfiting mixture of dread and arousal. There is nothing about this situation that should be attractive, and yet your pheromone-addled pan is reacting like this is the hottest thing you've seen this side of a quadrant-smearing porno. "No, I think... I think that's its ovipositor," you say. "It's looking for somewhere to lay its eggs."

Sollux shudders, sucking in startled breaths at each twitch of the ovipositor in his bulge. "Fuck, well, I guess that means we're on the right track, at least? Holy hell is this freaky."

You can't help but concur. You stare as the ovipositor bends this way and that, carrying Sollux's whole bulge stiffly along with it in a motion that's as unnatural as it is freakishly hot. Your nook throbs at the sight.

Tentatively, you start moving your hand around Sollux's bulge again. He whimpers and bucks his hips up towards your fist.

"Ok, now to get the eggs out. Somehow," you say. Motion from under Sollux's skin draws your attention back to his distended gene bladder as its gravid occupant shifts around inside him. "Fuck it, maybe we can just squeeze those suckers out of there?"

You put your hand on the lump in Sollux's abdomen and kind of pet at it, hoping that'll encourage the nookworm to start laying. When nothing happens, you press down harder. Sollux flinches.

"Ow, fuck! Stop that, I really am gonna burst if you keep that up, it hurts."

You snatch your hand away. "Ok, fine. No squeezing. Maybe it'll just lay the eggs on its own if we encourage it enough, I don't fucking know."

You turn your attention back to Sollux's bulge, running your fronds from base to tip in a motion that you hope will tell the nookworm, Hey! It's time to start laying, asshole! You even thumb at the protruding ovipositor, which has started oozing some sort of fluid that makes your skin tingle. When you return your now-sticky hand to the base of Sollux's bulge, it thrashes stiffly and Sollux gasps.

"Fuck, do that again," he pants.

You do, squeezing gently at his engorged bulge as you go. Fuck, it feels so thick with the ovipositor running through it, plump and firm beneath your fronds. You get into a rhythm, stroking up and up his bulge until your palm brushes the ovipositor, then returning the base of his bulge to repeat. The motion feels almost hypnotic, and soon your nook is pulsing with need in time with the strokes. Warmth flushes through your skin, spreading from your fronds through your chest and down to your own throbbing bulge.

You lose track of how long you spend fondling Sollux's bulge, until the electric shock of fingers brushing against your aching nook jolts you back to awareness and you realize, suddenly, that your nook is drenched with arousal and Sollux is pawing at it and babbling feverishly.

"God, KK, I need your nook so bad. Please, please, please let me put it in."

There was some reason you weren't supposed to let that happen, you think distantly. But between the pheromones coursing through your veins and the fat girth of the bulge in your hand, you can't remember what it was. "Fuck yes," you pant. "Do it already." The moment you let go of Sollux's bulge, it, or the ovipositor inside of it, strains down toward your nook as if magnetically attracted. You spread your legs and lean back on your elbows. Sollux reaches down to guide his bulge in, but the nookworm's way ahead of him, pressing its ovipositor into your seed flap the moment you're close enough for it to reach. You suck in a breath as the nookworm's fluid lights your nook up with tingling heat. Sollux pulls your hips closer.

"Holy shit, you're so warm. This is the best thing my bulge has ever felt in its sorry life," he pants, voice breaking with need.

His bulge squirms deeper into your nook, shoving you open with its girth and inflaming every nerve it touches along the way. You feel like your whole nook is on fire. You scoot yourself even closer until your seed flap is flush with Sollux's skin and his swollen belly presses into your own soft gut. The ovipositor wriggles tantalizingly in the deepest recesses of your nook.

Suddenly, Sollux gasps. "Oh fuck, I think one of the eggs is coming out." Sure enough, his bulge swells wide against your seed flap, wider than what feels like should be possible. "Shiiiit, my bulge feels like it's gonna split apart."

"It's fine, just let it happen," you grit out, and—what the fuck?? what about this is fine??? some tiny part of you is shouting deep in the recesses of your think pan. But the heady fog of pheromones smothers your internal protests with scorching static, and all you can focus on is how much you need your nook stretched even wider. So when the egg in Sollux's bulge shoves through your seed flap, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to clench your nook down around it and draw it deeper inside of you. It slides through the passage of your nook, a thick lump carried along by pulsing contractions from Sollux's bulge. Then, finally, it reaches the tip. Sollux's bulge gives one last thrash inside of you, and you feel something round and squishy pop free of the ovipositor and settle itself deep in your nook.

Sollux sags against you, but then almost immediately tenses up again. "Fuuuck, there's another one coming already," he pants. "How the hell many are there?"

You look down at the bloated belly pressing into yours. Judging by the size of it, the answer is "a lot". "Just keep them coming," you say. "We'll get them all out of you." And into you, but the alarm you ought to feel at that thought quickly gives way in the face of the contented warmth blooming in your belly right around where the egg settled. When the next egg squeezes past your seed flap, all that's on your mind is how good it feels to pull it into your nook.

Soon the eggs are coming in twos and threes and fours, pushing your nook walls to their limits in an obscenely satisfying stretch. Sollux is weeping from the intensity, yellow tears dripping onto your chest, but even so he keeps babbling about how incredible your nook feels.

More and more eggs pile into your nook, and now it's your belly that's starting to swell, ballooning out to fill every inch of space that Sollux's belly cedes. The growing mass squeezes against your gene bladder, making you squirm with need, until one particularly hefty deposit shoves you so full that your muscles contract alarmingly.

"Oh fuck, wait, I need the pail—" you gasp, but it's too late. Your gene bladder gives in under the sheer mass of eggs and disgorges itself through your bulge, sending hot slurry spilling all over you and Sollux. The intensity of the orgasm sends tears spilling out of your eyes. Slurry pulses out of you in waves, coming and coming even as eggs continue to pour into your overloaded nook. Sollux is half laughing, half crying above you, twitching every time the nookworm forces another egg through his abused bulge.

Finally, the fountain of slurry peters out and the flow of eggs starts to slow. You feel two more pop out inside you, cramming themselves in beside their fellows, then one more... then nothing. You catch Sollux's eyes.

"Is that it?" you ask.

"I... I think so," he says.

The both of you wait for another moment, your heaving breaths the only sound that breaks the silence. Nothing happens. Finally, Sollux's bulge slithers out of you, jostling the mass of eggs inside you as it goes. You both watch as the ovipositor retreats back out of it and into his body. It's over.

Simultaneously, the two of you break into exhausted laughter.

"Fuuuuuuck," you say, flopping wearily back against the cushioned platform.

"No shit," Sollux replies as he keels over beside you, chest heaving.

You look down at yourself to assess the damage. Now you're the one whose belly is bulging out obscenely, straining to contain the mountain of eggs inside you. Sollux's abdomen, meanwhile, looks nearly flat again under the sheen of slurry. But as you watch it, you see the occasional motion from inside. The nookworm is still in there, ready to fertilize itself on more of his genetic material. It'll be whipping up its next batch of eggs in no time.

It occurs to you, vaguely, that you haven't actually solved anything. All you've really done is add yourself to the problem. But that, you decide, is an issue for Future Karkat to deal with.

Besides, maybe this whole nookworm egg thing isn't so bad, you think, running your fronds over the stretch of your belly. There's a warm flood of hormones trickling up from your nook, slackening your limbs and putting your pan at ease. Really, what were you so freaked out about earlier? It's so obvious now that this is the best thing that could have happened to you. Every hormone receptor in your body is singing that you were made to carry these eggs. It's fine.