"Sing me to sleep

Sing me to sleep

I don't want to wake up on my own anymore.

Sing to me

Sing to me

I don't want to wake up on my own anymore.

Don't feel bad for me

I want you to know

Deep in the cell of my heart I really want to go."

-asleep by The Smiths

"Never was there a tale of more woe then that of Juilet and her Romeo, huh? Well I sure as shit tried."

-me

Epilogue

Rehabilitation

It had been three years. Dib wasn't sure from day to day what to think or say. What to feel. She had left him here with these scars with these awful memories. With this perpetual taste in his mouth like salt water, and an insatiable addiction for a drug that no human could replicate, she had left him. But of all the terrible things she had done, she had left him alive. And for that he hated her most.

His hope was as fragile as the lights in the cityscape. He walked the darkened streets with no muse and no hope; he found life as meaningless as he did mundane. He was lonely and the roads seemed to project his mental state onto tangible reality. He pulled his long coat close around him. It was a chilly night and lightening was already tattooing the sky. It would rain soon and that was ideal to Dib. Only then would his plan come to fruition.

He moved faster. He could see the towering lights of the grand hotel in downtown Central Square. It was beautiful this time of year; its colors whirled to him like ash in a firestorm. Brilliant, but he knew as he got closer and closer the more fatal it's attraction. Its lights were like a runway leading him to his final destination. A few raindrops pelted the asphalt; a few graced his lips, landed in his hair.

He had never honestly contemplated suicide. Not seriously. There were a few times he would hold a razor to his wrist or a gun to his temple but it was all just fanciful thinking. Tak had promised to come back for him, she swore in a language more personal then touch. He had to stay alive just in case, because of course today could be the day she finally decided to honor her promise, to prove the words.

I love you.

But he was done fooling himself. Perhaps every other day he had put down the gun, replaced the razor to his shoe, but not tonight. He had to come to terms with the truth he had been wrestling, she was never coming back. She had tricked him and he had fallen for it. The words he had spoken in echo of hers brought embarrassment beyond reckoning.

I love you.

"AHHHHH!" Dib began sprinting at full force, his feet hitting the pavement at a joint busting speed.

You're lucky to be alive kid.

The hospital had smelled like plastic and nitrous and looked like lightening bugs exploding. So many cameras had greeted his from deep space arrival that the orderlies nearly had to beat them off with clubs. What a story he was, Membranes son found in an alien craft beaten and bloodied with no explanation to give. They had shot him full of morphine and general anesthetic, fixed his jaw, sold his information to the papers, and doctored him into a coma. When he finally awoke six months later with terrible muscle dystrophy and even worse tabloid articles, he spent three weeks of his planned six months in therapy.

"You're lucky to be alive kid."

As he wobbled out from the rehabilitation center to check out for the last time Dib was told this by the facility's' receptionist. Dib looked around himself at the swarm of paraplegics, drug abusers, and people insane with PTSD and flashbulb memories. Women beaten so badly they had a master in helplessness, and seeing himself as a cocktail with equal parts of all these people told the receptionist to kindly fuck himself.

Dib pushed his way through the revolving doors of the hotel, running past the confused people in the lobby.

"Hello Mr. Membrane…is there…."

"Nothing just get out of my way."

He ignored the following cries and continued running all the way to the elevator. Once inside he breathed a deep shuddering sigh. He was safe now, phase two initiated as he pushed the suite button sliding his conformation card to ensure a computer he was well off.

He looked out of the glass elevator and admired the height of what he was ascending. The other buildings were beginning to look like things he could use as toothpicks. The red mahogany doors swung open with a ding, letting him exit to his exclusive floor.

He swiped his card for a second time. This room was more then lavish, it was sinful. Some people lived in boxes on the streets and here he was with his down comforters and overstuffed pillows. His fifteen dollar miniature bottles of grey goose in his miniature fridge. None of it mattered anymore. It was only the balcony he needed. You see in hotels like these suicides were anticipated, no window opened higher then a few inches. The only way to the roof required a little bit of forethought and planning.

He sat on its edge, looked for the fire escape ladder, and when he found it, climbed to the roof.

Up there he felt invincible standing in the gusts of wind, his jacket completely off his body, sailing behind him like a kite. He had to steady his glasses on his nose for fear that they would float away. He stared down at the network of lights below him, listened to the rush of traffic, felt the fall of rain as it increased, and tasted powerful exhilaration as it rose to the surface in laughter.

He spun around arms spread wide to give himself balance as he laughed, the sound of a volcano erupting. When he couldn't stand anymore he let the gut-wrenching power of his vocal ejaculations overtake him. This is what freedom felt like, a kite whose string had been cut, a bubble that had been popped and not for the first time in his life did he feel small, but for the last.

He looked up at the stars and wondered how many of them were dead and if one of the dead happened to be God, that burst of light him burning out like a flashbulb memory. How many of God's memories? Dib had never thought about what God wanted to forget.

Now, he thought. Now or never.

He ran to the highest antennae on the building, peeling back the circuit breaker; he haphazardly began to tear at the wires laid bare there. He collected a handful of them all twitching with live electrical impulses. He gained a strong grip to keep them from whipping about wildly. He raised them to the back of his head. He would shove them directly into the socket there. He would go out like a raped fuse. He wanted to cum sparks from every pore, to shoot off like a dead star, to feel something after so many years of unrelenting nothing.

"I'm sorry Tak, but I can't wait anymore."

His hand shot up then lowered. His fingers fidgeted on the coils he held. His breathing was close to heaves and his eyes filled up with tears. he had mustered up the resolve to finish himself when he heard it,

"DIB DON'T."

That voice.

Euphoric. Elusive. Hers.

"Tak?" No he was hearing things. Better get on with it before she became another voice in his head. He raised the wires again.

"STOP IT GODDAMN YOU!" then there was something he couldn't write off as a hallucination.

Tak tackled him full force, knocking the snapping wires and the breath right out from him.

It was her, "Tak?"

She didn't answer instead she jumped on him. Straddling his waist the way she had so many years ago. Her lips exploded a different sort of supernova against his, and in an instant he was alive again.

There was no talking. Verbalization would have totally spoiled the moment. There was nothing to say that couldn't be communicated through touch and it seemed for hours they just lay there in the steadily building rainfall until it became unbearable for Tak.

Finally Dib said, "we have to get inside."

Tak nodded, "of course."

Barely keeping their footing they stumbled into the elevator. Dib mashed Tak up against the glass walls, pinning her with his groin, and mouth. Kissing her deeply and passionately enough to make his breath catch and her cheeks turn that lovely shade of lavender. Dib steadied her starting with the curve of her ass, and easing his way to her thighs cupped them in his hands, he urged her to wrap them around his waist.

"E-easy darling," he had gotten a little rough when biting her neck so he soothed the hurt with kisses. This was comforting but completely unapologetic.

Dib dropped to his knees, pulling down her stockings and kissing her exposed knees and inner thighs made his way to her core. He was delighted to discover that she wasn't wearing panties.

He tried his best, but he was impatient and so was she. There was no time for foreplay for two people who had been deprived of each other for so long. And to top it all off, Dib was hopelessly inexperienced.

Tak gathered him back up to her mouth and unbuckled his jeans while they were lip locked. Apparently Dib was as kinky as Tak and was likewise underwear free. She slipped her hand down into them to retrieve his member, gently situating it upright for stroking.

Dib's head came to rest on Taks shoulder where he practiced breathing in intervals and administering hickeys. His hands wandered down back where his mouth had been and he did the only thing he knew she liked.

Taks eyes glazed and she increased her speed on dib. Within minutes the two were moaning so loudly it might as well have been screaming. Consequently Tak exploded cum down Dib's fingers where it pooled into his hand, which he withdrew. He took a moment to undress from his coat and shirt. This interrupted his own stimulation, halting his climax.

"It's hot," he said stupidly.

"Not yet." Tak winked.

Dib liked her coy smiled and returned it with a crooked one. His member was so hard it was painful.

He moved back to her and like anything else it was falling into someone. A bit overzealous Dib slipped into her, but Tak was wet enough that the pain was well buffered.

The mirth and elation were nearly too much for poor Dib. Determined not to let their official first time be ruined by his inexperience he held statue still for a cool minute, while Tak licked and nibbled his earlobe. This sent huge pulsing waves of heat up and down his spine. When he felt ready to begin he drew slowly and jerkily in and out of her. But eventually his movements became deliberate and harder.

Tak hated the feeling of her ass ramming into the metal elevator bar. She implored, "Dib could we please move to the floor?"

Wordlessly he scooped Tak up in his arms and transported her to the carpeted floor, where he wrapped his arms around her and moved faster then he ever had in his life. All this he did without ever breaking penetration.

Tak clasped the back of Dib's head as her legs tightened their grip about his waist. He felt wonderful sliding in and out of her, their bodies making slapping sounds as their lovemaking intensified.

Dib to try and smother his own noises wrapped his mouth around Taks' sensitive antennae, a move she deeply appreciated.

"Oh, darling." Her back arched involuntarily as her body tightened and formed to fit the intrusion of her partner.

It was so warm and tight Dib lost it. Being completely unaware of the proper about to cum etiquette, Dib surprised Tak when he released inside her. He was gasping and tears were running out of his eyes, completely helpless to the feelings that were consuming him.

When he was finally done he rested his head down next to Tak's, "I'm so sorry." He was deeply ashamed of what had just transpired between them, and Tak knew why.

"It's okay darling, really you'll get better at this. We both will. We have lots of time to practice."

"How about right now?"

Taks' face was mischievous, "how about we get to the hotel room this time?"

Hours later Dib lay breathless on his pillow," wow." He turned over onto his side to face his lover, "thanks."

"For what?" Taks' composure was returning, but she was also a bit winded.

"For giving me a second chance."

Dibs' monotone is what made her question, "a second chance at what?"

There was quiet, "at everything."

His somberness nearly broke Taks' Irken heart. She leaned over to her lover and planted a very small but amorous kiss on his mouth, "ditto."

Dib yawned, "I'm exhausted. I really should get some sleep."

"Then why don't you?"

"I…I'm a bit scared."

"Of what? The monsters under the bed?" Tak teased the boy tickling him with her words.

"No there aren't any I checked." Tak knew that had to be true. "I'm afraid…that when I wake up…you won't be here."

Her blood felt corrosive. She was warm all over. The guilt seemed bigger then her body. A separate entity sapping her will to live, a parasite of the mind. A tumor.

"I'll be here Dib. I promise."

Dib curled up close to her, as close as he could manage without collapsing himself down into a negative of what he was. He wished he could bury himself in between her collarbones and live in the honeyed hollow of her throat. He wanted her to breathe him out matured and complete. He would never again be this whole in his life that he knew as fact.

"Sing me a lullaby."

"I don't know any."

"Then sing me our song."

"I don't know it." Tak looked disappointed with herself and her eyes were sorrowful.

"Here I'll start it. Hand in glove the sunshine's out of our behinds…"

Tak laughed at this a soft sound, more like a single shuddering exhale.

"No it's not like any other love. This one is different because…." Dib mouth filled with yawn and he was unable to sing out the rest.

But Tak heard it now, in Dib's voice. The song radiating out from his head like his thoughts were attached to a loudspeaker. She saw the words in her like an internal projector. "it's ours. Hand in glove, we can go wherever we please. And everything depends upon how near you stand to me. And if the people stare then the people stare…" she finished the lyric confusing Dib.

"I thought you didn't know the words?"

"I guess I lied…" she smiled and then continued on with the song until Dib was dead asleep. Curled up against her like a small child. His innocence rushed back into him.

He woke up a few hours later feeling unusually cold. He reached his hand out to the other side of the bed as far as it could reach and found himself to be alone.

His fingers curled as he flinched, shooting upright so fast his head spun. He clicked on the tableside lamp in a frenzy to find her. His heart raced manically as the room was illuminated, but she was no where to be seen. He jumped from the bed completely naked but uncaring, "Tak." He all but shrieked. He could not fathom loosing her again.

"I'm here." her voice came to him from the balcony. She moved through the curtains of it unveiled as if from a cocoon. She was naked also and so beautifully green she might have been made of jade.

He ran to her hugging her close, she smelled like pine needles, "God I'm paranoid."

She fit nicely under the point of his chin, "I have something to show you now. Something that will erase your fear."

Tak left him briefly walking back out to the balcony. When she returned she was carrying a black bag. She smiled at Dib before overturning it. Out with a thud something fell heavily from its belly. Dib had to hop a few inches to avoid it hitting his toes. It was round and pulpy. Dib dropped to his knees to retrieve it. Bringing it to his eyes he saw that it too had similar orbs in its skull. It was a head. Dib startled, dropping the horror back to the floor, but not before taking note of the green skin and the purple eyes.

He looked at Tak aghast, "what did you do?" The inflection of his voice rising to an unnecessarily high octave.

"I killed him. Purple."

Dib didn't understand. He hadn't run into Red's counterpart during his attack. He was unaware of what this all meant to him and Tak. Tak decided to clarify for him.

"The tallest are both dead."

Dib blinked.

"What this means is that Irk was without leadership, and in order to make sure those morons didn't tear each other apart some sort of structure needed to be established." Tak looked up at Dib making sure he was paying attention.

Dib blinked.

"I know you don't know this but, superiority is determined by height on Irk. The 'Tallest' Irken is normally 'elected' to power. It was then in that time of uncertainty, when Purple was still trying to maintain shaky rule, when I was still trying to make my way to you without drawing suspicion, that it came to me. I am undeniably the tallest Irken on the planet. I thought, all I would have to do is get rid of that idiot and all my troubles would be forgotten."

"What are you saying?" it was all starting to sink in.

"That I killed him."

"That's obvious," Dib motioned to the disembodied head. "And now?"

Tak smiled at the floor before meeting Dib's stare, "guess who's the new tallest?"

Boy howdy that was a long ASS story. I'm so proud of me for finishing it though, and I thank all those who suffered along with me.

Though vespertine is over, I've decided to start a series of oneshots about Dib and Taks' life on the massive and the challenges they face. Stay tuned for old rivals, scary siblings, explosive orgasms, immortality talks, demons from beyond, and red red revenge.