Shini takes the herb before they show up. It's plucked from the garden she's growing at the back of her little hole-in-the-wall, from which she runs a fairly successful business selling a wide variety of plants to New York's lower-class denizens. Almost no one asks for this particular kind of herb anymore, but she keeps growing it anyway.
She makes it into the special soup, humming one of the very old songs her grandmother taught her as a child. The taste is a little bitter, but not too bad with seasoning. Not very filling, either, which is good because it leaves her room for dinner.
Her ninja start creeping in not long after she's finished, slipping through her window on silent feet. Her serpent and her phoenix, pulling Shini into one embrace after another. April's lips are soft with a new gloss as they kiss, idly toying with a lock of Shini’s hair. Karai nips her neck with a hint of teeth and a devilish grin as she slips out of her jacket.
Karai's responsible for the meal tonight and she brings takeout from a new restaurant, as part of her quest to eat from as many different establishments as she can.
"I think I ate from the dumpster outside this place once," she admits, smirking impishly. She likes being able to talk with ease about her rougher serpent days.
They gather on the carpet, laughing and talking and snatching food from each other's plates. Her girls tell Shini about their days, about college and clan life, turf wars and Kraang sightings and the monster of the week. Normal things, at least by their standards.
They spend more time talking than eating, to be honest. But that’s okay, because the last course of the night is a big one, and they all want to leave room.
After dinner they curl up on the couch together, April on one side and Karai on the other. They've bonded over laughing at self-serious action movies, giggling at the swarthy men growling cheesy dialogue as they lumber across the screen. It'll keep them entertained until the main event.
The herb starts taking effect somewhere around the second or third badly shot fistfight, a small ache blossoming in Shini's chest. Or, more specifically, her tits.
It's always Karai who picks it up first. Her nostrils flare ever so slightly, gaze flicking to Shini's before darting away. Shini didn't know Karai had the capacity to be nervous until they started doing this, and she has to admit there's something kind of endearing about it.
April picks up Karai's feelings, the change in the atmosphere. She stiffens where she's curled up at Shini's side. Her hand reaches out to brush Shini's thigh, but she doesn't take her eyes off the screen as she lifts her head so that it rests on Shini's shoulder.
They wait, the both of them, extremely aware of the changes taking place in Shini's body. A fresh burst of gunfire erupts on stage and Karai casually reaches out to turn the volume down. Light from the screen reflects in her dark eyes, and she looks more beautiful than ever.
Her breasts are getting heavy now. The herbs work faster, especially when prepared and swallowed with a pinch of magic. In the old days, they were used for women attempting, for one reason or another, to feed infants they hadn't borne.
Shini has never wanted to have children, and she probably never will. But she has to admit that there is a certain pleasure in nurturing, a certain power, one that sends a soothing flow down her spine as the herb works its magic.
Before her bra and shirt can stain she abruptly slips them off, casually tossing them off the couch without looking at the others. She can practically feel their eyes snapping to her, looking at her full breasts with unmistakable hunger. April's hand tightens on her thigh, a lock of Karai's hair brushing Shini's shoulder as she leans forward.
They lunge at the same time, heads clonking when they lean over their chest. Shini chuckles, reaching out to rub their aching foreheads and planting little kisses to make them better. "Patience, girls," she chides. "One at a time."
They bob their heads, mumbling apologies. When they reach out again it’s with careful hands, their calluses rubbing soothingly against Shini's skin as each takes ahold of one of her tits. This time, their foreheads only brush together as they each take a nipple into their pretty little mouths and suck.
"Tawagoto!" Shit! Shini's hand snaps back at the one two punch of pleasure, her hands digging into the couch cushions. A hot wave swells between her legs as her girls suck merrily away, drinking down her milk. Karai flicks her tongue, abruptly turned long and forked, and Shini lets out an unabashed whimper.
"Your c-clothes," she grits out. "They'll get dirty." They both let out little huffs, but grudgingly sit up enough to scramble out of their things. Shini slips out of her own jeans and panties, slipping one teasing hand in with a sigh at the sight of their strong, perfect bodies.
"No, Mama," April says gently, reaching over to tug Shini's hand away. As she starts suckling Shini again her hand comes down to toy with Shini's clit, so that she moans and shivers, her breasts trembling in their mouths.
"So sweet," she whispers, stroking their hair as they work. "My sweet little girls." They let out soft hums of appreciation, the sound buzzing across Shini's tender nipples. She moans, scratching gentle fingers along their scalps.
As they feed they take care not to bite too hard, to bring only relief instead of discomfort. Their own breasts rub against Shini's skin, nipples hard and pert. Occasionally she'll toy with them, relishing how they sigh and moan without taking their mouths off her breasts.
When Karai finally lifts her head it’s with a low purr, glassy eyesflickering between brown and green. "Is it good?" Shini asks teasingly.
"So good, Mama." She kisses Shini hungrily, filling her mouth with the rich taste of her own milk. Then she's pulling away and April's kissing her instead, nimble fingers working away all the while. Finally Shini watches her girls kiss each other, swallowing each other's pleasure with needy little groans.
They've both got their mouths around her tits again the first time Shini comes. She can feel them sigh at that, relishing the way her body shakes with pleasure around their mouths.
They're grinding up against the couch, poor things, and when she gathers herself again Shini reaches out to tend them. She slips one hand between Karai's legs and the other between April's, feeding their appetites with a mother's care and understanding.
Karai's hands shift to snakes, and then she's pulling away so they can feed on Shini in her place. One laps at her breast, the other at her cunt, while Karai herself covers Shini's neck and faces with kisses.
Her girls look so flushed and relaxed, exposed in a way they hardly ever are. They have opened up for her, let her see the raw, secret places they keep well hidden from the rest of the world. It's an honor to see them this way as much as it is a turn-on.
"You're doing so well," she tells them. "Mommy is very proud of you." They cling to her more tightly as she says it, pushing up against her as they're afraid they'll all fall apart if they don't.
She makes them come, too, mouths tightenings around her tits just as their cunts squeeze her fingers. Karai collapses against her with a sob, trembling, while April's power drags threads of electricity down Shini's spine.
But they have strength in them to change positions once more. Karai falls back onto Shini's tits while April leans into her lap, eating Shini's cunt as eagerly as she did her breasts.
Instead of letting her touch them her girls are touching themselves, with Karai one of Karai's snakes slipping between her own trembling thighs. They gently fold Shini's hands behind her head so she doesn't have even the smallest distraction from how she's feeling.
As they devour her, taking turns with her shining breasts and damp folds, she talks to them in a gasping, but relentless babble. She tells them how strong they are, how much she loves them, how they're brave and special and unique and going to conquer the world.
"I'll never leave you," she breathes. And she means it both in the spirit of their dead mothers, the one who are both being channeled and not being channeled tonight, and as herself. She will burn the world down to stay by the side of her gorgeous, fucked-up girls.
The final time their bodies shake with orgasm, it's all at once. April rattles the couch frame, Karai's snakes let out hisses of triumph, and Shini feels her own magic roaring through her veins. She groans, loud and fierce, and yanks her hands free to squeeze her darlings close.
 
Afterwards they take care of her, as they always do, thanking her for taking care of them. They turn off the TV, the fake explosions a far cry from the heat still buzzing gently in their blood.
Karai carries a weak-kneed Shini to the bathroom where April starts the water, lowering her into the tub before climbing in after her. They bathe her with sleepy kisses as they clean her up, murmuring love and gratitude into her ears.
Back in the bedroom they settle down together, April rubbing Shini's feet while Karai brushes her hair. The effects of the herb will probably wear off on their own, but if she needs them again in the night they'll be here for her.
The three of them lie wrapped up in a messy tangle of limbs, filling in the smell of one another's bodies, of hair and sex and life. Shini pulls up the blanket, sealing their dark little cave away from the world.
"Good night," April whispers in her ear. "Sweet dreams," Karai murmurs into her hair.
"See you tomorrow, babies," Shini assures them. She wraps her arms around their shoulders and counts sheep to the rhythm of three pulses in sync, until she drifts off to dreamland.