Vinnie pulled himself free, and for, the first time in his life, he glowed from both ends. When he swallowed, he glowed so hard that light shone through his thorax.

"You shouldn't eat that stuff."

"What, like I can't metabolize my own biochemistry? You go ahead and eat his leg! Go on, chow down, you've got the fangs for it!" Vinnie opened his wing-cases. His back glowed straight through the veining of his wings. He glittered all over. It felt completely sublime.

"I couldn't possibly eat my own species," Dolores said primly.

"Oh, come on, I won't tell! I bet I'm the first Photinus to devour a Photuris in about a million years." Vinnie burrowed right in and began to glut himself. "I haven't had a serious meal in ages! This is giving me my appetite back!"

"I've lost my best perch. I'm going to starve," said Dolores, bursting into sobs. "I'll never reproduce. I'm an evolutionary failure!"

"Quit fussing," shrugged Vinnie, wiping bright goo from his jaws. "I did my own bit for posterity. So what? It's not like we ever live to see posterity." He groomed his damaged leg, licking his own seeping juices. Maybe he would heal, if he swallowed enough protein. Fireflies were quick to heal.

"I'm totally disillusioned, Vinnie. Because I now know that there can be no true sincerity between a woman and a man. We can never have a genuine meeting of minds. Language fails us."

Suddenly Vinnie disgorged. "Oh, dear. Oh, that was just too rich to keep down."

Dolores examined the brightly glowing pile of masticated paste.

"That's interesting … Now that you ate this and barfed it up, it smells just like a Photinus smells."