Winter Holiday 2025
folder
Original - Misc › General
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
4
Views:
550
Reviews:
9
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Original - Misc › General
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
4
Views:
550
Reviews:
9
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
These are works of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Meaningful Gifts
Tags: HJ, Inc, MF, Oneshot
Meaningful Gifts
It was cold. That was the first thing Drew knew as he woke up. Under the blankets, he was wrapped in a little pocket of warmth, but the tip of his nose and the skin on his cheeks were freezing. Groaning, he pulled his head back down under the covers.
“Lexiiiii,” he protested, “you turned the heater off.” It was muffled a little by the blankets, but he couldn’t miss his sister’s laughter.
“Sorry, little Drew!” she called out from the kitchen. “You know how much money we save if we leave it off, though.” Drew went quiet then. He shouldn’t have complained like that; didn’t have the right to.
For a while, he just lay there under the blankets, unsure of what to do next. Then he heard the floorboards creaking. The sounds were faint at first, drifting in from the kitchen, but grew louder as they moved through the door and into the bedroom, and then Drew felt the bed shift as Alexia sat down next to him.
“It’s awfully quiet in here,” she said softly. “Is that silence the sound of a guilty little brother?” Drew nodded, then realized she probably couldn’t see it through the covers.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “You do a lot…you’re doing everything; I shouldn’t have complained.” The covers above his head lifted just a bit, and Alexia’s hand slipped in, reaching him and gently stroking his hair.
“I’m not doing everything,” she said. “You help me with laundry, clean and cook, and God knows I don’t have the energy to do any of those after a long day at the café. Don’t feel bad that you don’t have a job right now. I didn’t have one when I was in high school.” He almost argued, but knew she was right. He studied hard, kept his GPA up, and was on track for scholarships that would support him through his college career. Then he could help Lexi with money. Maybe she could even leave the café and focus on her art.
Until then, though, sometimes he just felt bad. Fragile was what he called it sometimes.
Lexi’s hand left his head, and a moment later the covers were pulled back, revealing her sitting there on the bed. She was dressed in her server’s uniform, albeit with the reindeer-themed sweater they were apparently wearing for December, and she hadn’t yet pulled her hair back into the standard issue ponytail. A trail of steam rose into the cold air, curling up from the mug of coffee in her hand. Looking at his sister, Drew felt his mood shifting, a smile creeping onto his face.
“I don’t know how you can drink that stuff,” he said, and Lexi broke into a mischievous smile of her own.
“Aw, come on, sweetheart,” she said, and then sang “it’s the best…part…of waking up!” Drew couldn’t help giggling. “It’s also good for warming you up on cold mornings.”
“You can keep your dirty bean water,” Drew came back, grinning wide now. “I will die with my honor.”
“The honor of someone who drinks soda for caffeine?”
“You’re damn right.”
Lexi giggled, her bright smile growing even wider, and then bent over and pecked Drew on the cheek.
“Okay, come on, sweetheart,” she said. “I got up first, so I’ve got breakfast ready.” As his sister returned to the kitchen, Drew finally managed to brave the apartment’s ambient temperature, sliding out from under the covers and letting his bare feet touch the—
MISTAKE, he thought, stifling an unpleasant noise as he made himself walk across the icy hardwood floor, out of the bedroom and across the little hall to pull clothes out of the closet. Next year’s Christmas gift was going to be slippers, warm slippers he could put right beside the bed so he didn’t lose his toes when they touched the floor.
A minute later, he was dressed, shielded from the cold by a pair of shoes, sweatpants and a suitably festive sweater, depicting a great white shark rising toward a woman swimming above, albeit with a red Santa hat draped over its snout.
Alexia was at the stove when he entered the kitchen, and turned around as he approached, holding two plates of scrambled eggs and bacon.
“So do you want ketch- oh, my God!” she laughed as she saw what he was wearing. “Santa Jaws is coming to town, I see.”
“Hey, don’t look at me,” Drew said as she set the plates down at the table. “You bought me this.”
“And it was one of my soundest financial choices,” Lexi replied proudly. “Now, ketchup?” Drew nodded and sat at the table, watching his big sister moving back and forth as she grabbed seasonings and condiments.
Lots of siblings had a pretty strong family resemblance, even across gender lines. Looking at them you’d just sort of know. Alexia and Andrew were different. Their eyes were the same shade of blue, courtesy of their father, and both had brown hair, even if Lexi’s was a little darker. Beyond that, though, the two didn’t really look similar. The height difference probably had something to do with it: Drew was short for a boy and Lexi was tall for a girl, so she was half a head taller, flipping the normal height difference between men and women. The facial resemblance was subtler too, not something you’d notice unless it was pointed out. Altogether, it went to the point that no one he’d met had guessed they were brother and sister.
In the past, he’d thought that was an especially good thing, given how he felt he looked; that his sister had escaped looking as “meh” as he did. He’d stopped thinking like that when he realized how Lexi talked about herself, and about him. She would tell him how cute he looked, which he loved to hear, but it wasn’t her views on him that had made the biggest impact. He knew Lexi undervalued her appearance too. She’d say she wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t model-caliber or anything; that her cheekbones were a little too big, her nose a little too pointy, and that guys liked shorter girls. Hearing her say stuff like that had made him realize that when it came to appearance, most people were probably their own worst critics.
Drew knew for a fact that his big sister was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She had smooth, fair skin, perfectly offset by her dark hair, which she normally let fall down her back, just to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her face bore sharp features and soft lips, accented strikingly today with deep red lipstick. She might have felt self-conscious about her height, but as far as Drew was concerned there was nothing like a tall woman, and Lexi didn’t even have to wear heels to stand as tall as most men. Her statuesque body was graced with beautiful curves, and even her modest work clothes couldn’t quite hide her long legs, the flare of her hips or the outline of her large, heavy breasts.
“I think my little brother’s staaariiiiing~,” Lexi teased, and it jolted Drew back to reality. She’d turned to face him some time ago, and seemed to have been watching for a while.
“Sorry,” he managed as she returned to the table and took a seat. “You just look amazing today.”
“Yeah?” she asked, dusting her scrambled eggs with salt and pepper. “Rudolph’s really working for me, huh?” She indicated the cartoon reindeer on her sweater, and Drew chuckled.
“I like the lipstick, actually,” he replied. “You don’t usually wear that for work, but it looks great on you.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” Lexi took a bite of her breakfast, smiling thoughtfully as she chewed. “It’s not really for work. I was thinking about tonight, and wanting to wear it then, and I guess I just figured, why not the whole day?” Before he could follow that line of thought, she reached across the table and tapped him on the shoulder. “You’re looking pretty damn good these days too. Did you get your hair done?”
“I did!” Drew briefly reached up and ran a hand through his recently trimmed brown hair. “I guess I wanted to look good for tonight too.” He cut it short there, before he could mention last year.
He stayed quiet, and Lexi didn’t ask anything else. The siblings finished their breakfast in silence.
Afterward, the two did the dishes together, side by side at the sink, shoulders touching as they worked. As his big sister set her plate in the drying rack, Drew searched her face for any discomfort. They hadn’t really talked about last year. He was pretty sure how she felt about it, but what if she didn’t? What if…
“Alright, Drew,” Alexia began, drying her hands and moving towards the door out of the apartment, “I need to be at the café in an hour, so—”
“Lexi?” She stopped where she was and turned back. She’d probably picked up on his tone.
“Yeah, sweetie?” Drew shifted nervously, trying to find the words.
“Was last year…did you like last Christmas?” He swallowed. “Because what I was thinking was, if you didn’t…um…if you don’t like my present this year, it’s totally okay. We can just forget about it and, you know…” He couldn’t quite figure out what to say, and his eyes were getting hot as he tried to put it into words.
“Are you feeling fragile again?” Lexi asked. Drew nodded, and she walked over to him, reaching out to cup his cheek. A tear had slipped from the corner of his eye, and she brushed it away with a thumb.
“Come here, baby brother,” she whispered, and he stepped closer. Lexi let go of his cheek and wrapped her arms around him, pressing a soft kiss against his forehead. Drew leaned up and kissed his sister on the cheek, just as gently, and then nestled his face against her throat, sinking into the warmth of the embrace.
Brother and sister held each other for a very long time, still and quiet, content to say nothing and simply be with each other.
At long last, Lexi brought her lips near Drew’s ear.
“I have to go now, little Drew,” she whispered. “Don’t be sad, and don’t be worried.”
“Okay,” Drew said quietly, hugging his sister one last time before the two of them pulled apart. Alexia snagged her purse before opening the door. She turned back just before departing.
“Alright, sweetheart,” she said, snowflakes swirling around her, “I took the next four days off, so we’re going to have a wonderful Christmas Eve…and that means I expect this apartment to be spotless by the time I get back.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” he replied with a sharp salute. Lexi giggled, and then the laugh faded and she smiled, a blush covering her pale cheeks.
“I hope you like my present too,” she said, and then vanished, the door swinging shut behind her.
******************
The Skyline Café was a nice place to work. Alexia knew this. It wasn’t what she’d gone to school for, but her coworkers were nice to her, the manager was good and the patrons were generally respectful. When she was on break, some of them would even let her sit and sketch them. She’d even sold a portrait or two for some extra money. There were a few problems, though.
First, a server’s salary wasn’t really expected to support two people, so she definitely wished the job paid more.
Second, while it wasn’t as bad as working in retail, working a service job around the holidays was the opposite of fun. If she didn’t have Drew at home, she was pretty sure she’d fall apart this time of year.
Third, it turned out there were only so many Christmas songs, and maybe half a dozen of them were classics. When you needed to craft a day-long holiday playlist, you could either repeat those few, or go for the ones that weren’t classics.
All of which led to Lexi and Julie, one of her coworkers, cleaning off a table for the next set of patrons while a version of “We Need a Little Christmas” played over the music system. The singer was probably trying for “peppy”, but the result…
“So do you think she’s singing this while on cocaine,” Lexi asked, “or does she have a gun to her head?”
“Honestly I’d buy either one,” Julie said, spraying down the table with surface cleaner. “It’s the vibe for work, though.”
“I hear that,” Lexi replied, wiping the table dry. “Fortunately not for much longer. I took the next four days off.”
“Nice! You going home?” Lexi must have made a face, because Julie held her hands up.
“Sorry. I kinda forgot.”
“No, it’s alright. Most parents are happy to have their kids home for the holidays, but…” Lexi shook her head, and then finished with “Some people aren’t meant to have kids.”
She watched as the new patrons, a family of four, took their seats. The two children, twin boys maybe five years old, with little mops of blond hair, were arguing about something, something about which character from a show was better, the sort of thing that was very important to children that age. Lexi couldn’t focus on them. Instead, her attention was riveted to the parents, who were tense. They weren’t yelling, or really arguing, but they were speaking to each other in clipped sentences, and to Lexi they looked like coiled springs.
It was probably just stress, nothing really significant. She was pretty sure all parents got like that, especially with small, energetic kids, and this wasn’t going anywhere bad. It was just very normal people coping with this stage of parenthood and there was nothing wrong.
But when Julie put her hand on Alexia’s shoulder, she jumped.
“Hey,” Julie said softly, “why don’t I trade you for table three? That family’s way more chill; won’t shove you down memory lane.”
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Lexi said, and Julie just shook her head and smiled. “You’d think I’d be over this by now. Yeah, I’ll swap tables.” As Lexi made her way to table three, she thought about all of it. Memory lane wasn’t a fun place for her, but in spite of her friend’s best efforts, she was going down it anyway, and as she took the nice couple’s orders, she reflected on how true what she’d said to Julie was.
Some people weren’t meant to have kids.
Alexia always figured she was on purpose. Her parents, she guessed, thought they wanted a child. If that was true, they hadn’t understood what went into raising one. The result had been that she’d grown up, at least at first, assuming her childhood was very normal. It wasn’t until later that she learned otherwise.
It turned out it was normal for parents to be nervous about helping with homework, but it wasn’t normal for them to be visibly annoyed most of the times their child asked for help. It was normal for them to want time to themselves, but not to leave a young child alone so often. It was normal for them to be stressed, but not for a child to be able to feel the tension between them building, stretching like a rubber band.
She knew her parents didn’t hate her, and it wasn’t that they ignored her. She wasn’t a houseplant. She did, though, feel like a low maintenance pet a lot of the time.
Lexi dealt with it the best she could. She became very self-sufficient around the house, so she wouldn’t have to bother her parents with chores. She stayed after class and asked teachers for help with homework, and she became very adept in school. She talked to other kids, but usually didn’t go out with them. She didn’t want to bother Mom and Dad about taking her somewhere or picking her up.
It never really occurred to Lexi that she was lonely. It was just how her life was.
Given how long it had been between children, she was pretty sure Andrew was an accident. For reasons she would probably never know, they chose to keep him, and when Lexi was eight years old, they brought her little brother home from the hospital. Again, looking back, Alexia should have been there right away, helping take care of her brother. She couldn’t remember when she’d been a baby, though, so she hadn’t realized how demanding they were. Beyond that, she’d gotten so used to navigating her parents, to learning what kind of mood they were in and how to manage and avoid them, that she just never thought of stepping in with her little brother.
But babies are a lot of work, and the rubber band stretching between her parents had barely handled one child. With two, it finally snapped.
And the screaming started.
Lexi knew that her parents had never hit either of them. To their credit, they never even yelled at them, just around them. The fights were between the two adults. She and Drew later decided that living like that had been better for them than being the targets of their parents’ outbursts.
But it was hard being a child in a place like that. It was like being in a warzone, and hearing bombs explode outside. It was loud and nerve-wracking, and every time it started you feared you were about to be caught in one of the blasts.
At first, Lexi kept going the way she had when she was younger. Avoid her parents when she could, be on her best behavior when she couldn’t. Receive praise when her parents were in a good mood and hide in her room when they started screaming.
But one day when she was fourteen, the bombs were going off again. She didn’t remember what started the fight. It never mattered anyway. What mattered was that she was hiding in her room, trying not to listen, when there was a soft, tentative knock at the door. When she opened it, there was her brother, six years old, shifting his weight back and forth, barely holding back tears. They’d call it “fragile” later, the way he was right then, holding himself together, but only just.
“Hey, little Drew,” she remembered saying. “You want to stay in here with me?” He nodded anxiously and she let him inside and shut the door.
“Is this…” he managed after a minute, wiping his eyes. “Is this because of me? Are Mom and Dad fighting because of me?”
The question caught her off guard. For all that she’d been aware of her little brother, had spoken to him every day, she hadn’t really thought about what this life was doing to him. And in that moment, Lexi made a decision: no more hiding by herself.
“No,” she said softly. “You didn’t do anything. There’s just something wrong with Mom and Dad.” She thought for a moment, and then climbed onto her bed and patted the spot beside her. Drew climbed up after her, and Lexi pulled the blankets up around them. They stared at the door for a while, still able to hear angry voices through it. She opened her arms.
“Come here, baby brother,” she said gently, and he curled up against her, burying his face against her chest. “Do you want to hear about my day?” Lexi asked. Drew didn’t look up, but nodded against her.
Leaning down so she was close to his ear, she started talking. She told him about what she learned at school, the teacher who had his wig on backward, the other students she’d talked to, even what she’d done since getting home, letting her voice flow over Drew and cover their parents’ fight. Slowly but surely, she felt the tension drain from her little brother, until eventually even she forgot the world outside the room, and there was only peace.
After a while, Drew drifted off to sleep like that, and Lexi made herself comfortable and joined him.
From that day forward, the siblings were a united front. Any time Lexi noticed her parents getting ready to snap, she would take her baby brother into a quiet room, and they would sit together while she did homework, or watch a movie. Sometimes Lexi would tell Drew about her day, the way she had that first time. At night, he would often knock on her door, and she would let him in to sleep next to her.
The partnership ran both ways. While Lexi was looking out for him, Drew was often looking out for her. He carefully watched what she did around the house and learned to do it himself. If she missed a chore, he would catch it, keeping his big sister out of trouble. When her growth spurt started and she felt like a giant freak, Drew told her she looked like a superheroine instead. A few times, when Lexi felt like she was being crushed under the weight she carried, her brother even began to talk to her about his day, and she held him while trying not to cry.
There were eight years between them. By rights, she should have been more like his mom than his sister. But they’d both grown up in ways they shouldn’t have had to, and while she was definitely the older sibling, they were closer than any brother and sister she knew from school, and both of them treasured it. Lexi had held it together for so long by herself, but now she wasn’t alone.
Neither of them was.
It was what made her leaving for college so hard.
They both knew it was coming, and that if they wanted to get away from their parents, to escape the warzone, they would have to be apart while Lexi educated herself and found a place to live. She just hated leaving her little brother with their parents.
“You can do this,” she’d told him that day, standing in the doorway with her hands on his shoulders. “I know you feel fragile, but I know you. You’re so much stronger than you think, so you hold on for me, and in four years I’ll come back and get you, and we’ll go away, far away from here.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Drew nodded, and stood there, carrying more weight than any ten-year-old should ever have to, and she couldn’t have been prouder. Lexi brought him close for one last hug.
“I’ll write a letter to you every week, so be sure to check the mailbox.”
“I will.”
They pulled apart, and Alexia left alone. It hurt to remember.
But what made Lexi smile, even now as she flitted from table to table, was remembering how that story ended.
She wrote to him every week for four years, each letter containing money to send a reply, which Drew always did. They stayed in touch while she worked her way through school, while she found a job and the apartment, and while they worked together on getting him signed up to start high school in the city with her.
All of it led to the day she went back to the house, one last time, and opened the door to find Drew there, fourteen years old now, his bag already packed. Lexi smiled and spoke the three words they’d both been waiting for.
“Let’s go home.”
******************
Lexi’s apartment—their apartment—was a wonderful place. It wasn’t perfect, of course. The rent for a one bedroom apartment was still painfully high, so it ate most of Lexi’s income, and there was no washer or dryer, so they had to do all their laundry at a local laundromat. Nonetheless, it was within walking distance of the café, which worked for Lexi, and Andrew could easily make his way to the bus stop for school. The neighbors didn’t talk to them a lot, but they were nice when they did, and it wasn’t so small as to feel cramped, even with the two of them.
But while all of that made the apartment good, none of it made it home.
What made the apartment home were the memories.
Drew was making his way through the place now, doing what called Stage 3 of cleaning. Stage 1 was, of course, just sort of straightening things up, while stage 2 was dusting and cleaning glass and surfaces. Stage 3 was a sweep and mop, which had to be done the right way, or he was going to mop himself into a corner.
Naturally, he started at the door and began making his way backward. It would be the first thing to dry, after all. Moving back, he followed the little hall that led straight back from the door to the main area. The bathroom was on one side of the hall, with the large closet beginning on the opposite side, and stretching along the wall past the bedroom.
He made his way through the bathroom first, sprinkling abrasive powder into the tub and scrubbing it down, then turning the shower on to rinse the stuff down the drain. A quick mop and the room was done, at which point he moved across the hall and slid the closet door open. He wasn’t about to mop the closet floor, of course (that would involve moving way too much stuff, and he had his limits), but he pulled it open to sweep any dust off the exposed wood. What he saw inside made him smile.
Hanging up in the closet were winter coats, a collection of shirts, Lexi’s spare work outfits, and a pair of Halloween costumes.
During Andrew’s first year in the apartment, he and his big sister had agreed upon a rule. Lexi’s rent consumed most of her income, so they couldn’t really afford to do anything expensive. They could go to the movies sometimes, but they had no streaming subscriptions. They could order a pizza every now and then, but they cooked most of their meals at home. The tight budget affected Christmas as well. Lexi and Drew both agreed early on that they couldn’t really have Christmas lists, so they came up with a different idea. Each year, each bought the other a single present, not too expensive, but one that meant something special.
One day during Year Two, Drew noticed his sister being…somber. When he asked, she had explained that some jerk at the café had made a joke about her height, something like how she would be hot if only she lost six inches. It had reminded her of how bad she’d felt about herself in her early teens, when her growth spurt had arrived and she’d shot up above all her female friends, and later some of her male ones too. Andrew remembered what he’d told her back then.
So, for that Christmas, he’d spent his holiday allowance from Lexi to buy her the most detailed Wonder Woman costume he could afford. She’d grinned ear to ear, and had tried it on for him that night, strutting around the apartment in all her superheroic glory. They were both too old to go trick-or-treating the following year, but she’d splurged and bought him a Batman costume anyway, and they’d simply walked the streets for a while, hand in hand, mingling with some of the other locals who’d ventured out in costume. Afterward, they came back home, ate some store-bought candy and watched a movie together.
Shutting the closet doors, Andrew grabbed the mop again and made his way back down the little hall and into the bedroom, where he began the sweep/mop process, making sure to cover all the exposed floor and get under the bed. He was also careful not to bump up against the TV. Before mopping, he made the bed and put all the pillows back in order. As he straightened them out, he picked one up, read the words on it, and chuckled.
That was a special memory too, a very special one.
When he’d first moved in, Lexi had taken a few minutes to give him the grand tour of the apartment, going over what was in each room. When they reached the living room, he found she’d set the couch up for him, complete with sheets and nice, warm comforter.
“Wow, Lexi,” he’d said, a wry smile creeping onto his face. “Didn’t even ask if I wanted the bed, huh?”
“Hah!” she replied. “I love you, but I don’t love you that much!” They both laughed. Of course, a moment later the inevitable question followed.
“I mean, do you want to take the bed?”
Drew had waved it off. He’d been prepared to let his sister sleep in the bed anyway; asking for her to switch felt rude somehow. They’d ordered a pizza that night, a celebration of Drew’s moving in, and later he’d settled in on the couch to sleep. At the time, he’d assumed it would work out fine.
Over time, though, he’d started having trouble sleeping. It wasn’t anything he could really explain, at least not easily. There were no nightmares, nothing that suddenly jolted him awake. He was just…uneasy, and it meant lying on the couch for hours, shifting and turning over, before he could finally drift off.
For months, he tried hiding it from Lexi, not wanting her to feel bad, or to sound like he was complaining, but the longer it went on the harder it became to conceal. Bags formed under his eyes, and his grades began slipping. Finally, he’d been forced to talk to his sister.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Lexi had said. “I’ve had the same problem on and off for…a while now. Sleeping pills work, but tonight I think I want to try something else.”
That night, Alexia invited her little brother into the bedroom for a movie night. Tron was one of her favorites—she explained it was both about how much of a period piece the movie was and the moments where it became weirdly prescient—so she threw it in the blu-ray player, and she and Drew lay back on the bed to watch. As the movie played, he found himself enjoying it, but he couldn’t help drifting in and out, eyelids heavier by the minute. At that point he started getting up, mumbling about how he should go out to the couch. Lexi didn’t stop him, but reached out and gently took his hand.
“You can go, sweetie,” she said, “but you don’t have to. This was what I wanted to try, so if you want, you can also stay.”
Drew hesitated for only a moment.
“Okay, you twisted my arm,” he said, hoping the joke would distract her from the blush on his cheeks. Lexi chuckled and pulled back the sheets for him. Switching the light off, she waited for Drew to settle in under the covers, and then wrapped an arm around him, drawing him in closer. Drew laid his head against her shoulder, and both of them fell into a deep sleep.
He’d tried going back to the couch after that, but a few weeks later he’d ended up asking if they could have another movie night. A third had followed. When Christmas arrived, Lexi’s gift for him had been a throw pillow, white with simple black lettering on it.
Being My Brother Is Really the Only Gift You Need
The words “Love You” followed in a significantly smaller font.
They’d gotten a good laugh out of that, and after Drew had thanked her, she’d told him that he could put the pillow wherever he wanted to sleep. His stomach had fluttered a little. Watching for any sign of disapproval from her, he’d cautiously walked into the bedroom and set the pillow on the bed. Lexi had hugged him, and together they’d taken the sheets off the couch.
They’d slept in the same bed ever since.
Smiling, Drew let the memory go, setting the pillow back on the bed. Getting back to business, he started at the far end of the room and mopped his way around it and back out into the hall. Past the bedroom the apartment opened up, with the kitchen area on the left, the wall lined with cabinets, the stove and the fridge. The living room was to the right, a cozy little area with the couch facing a currently blank wall, since the TV was in the bedroom at the moment. Their small Christmas tree was in the corner, pulled out of the closet and assembled for the winter season, and before he really got going on the room he went over and plugged it in, bright multicolored lights casting a subtle glow on the area even in daylight.
Almost there, he thought, half-smiling when he realized he was kind of thinking like a chef making a soup or something. We just need one more thing…there! Lexi’s laptop was sitting over at the small table in the far corner. He opened it to find YouTube already running, with the Tron: Legacy soundtrack on screen. Drew chuckled. It wasn’t seasonal, but also kind of was. The same year she’d bought him the pillow, Drew had gotten Lexi the movie in question on blu-ray, in honor of their first movie night in the bedroom. The siblings had curled up together in bed and watched Legacy, and needless to say the soundtrack had become a favorite as well.
About seasonal music, though…
Drew switched YouTube over to a Christmas music playlist and hit play. With the sound of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” filling the apartment, he set about sweeping and mopping the area, making his way through the kitchen and back into the living room, careful not to knock any ornaments off the tree, as song followed song.
At last, he was finished, and hadn’t mopped himself into a corner. He had mopped himself onto the sofa, but that was part of the plan. Now he could just sit there until the floor dried; easy enough.
When the playlist switched over to “Last Christmas”, he thought about getting up to change it. Partly it was because this wasn’t exactly his favorite holiday song, but partly because…
Last Christmas, our last Christmas, was…I don’t know.
It had been an accident. Well, it had started with an accident, a very simple one. He and Lexi had been here on the couch, and he’d given her his card, one he thought he’d read all the way through. As Drew let the memory play out, he found himself immersed in the same mix of powerful emotions he’d felt that night: anxiety, hope, and something incredibly powerful, something he was just barely too scared to name.
Drew realized his heart was beating fast. Putting a hand on his chest, he tried to calm down. He’d just have to see what happened tonight. He just had to wait.
******************
The wind had died down while she was at work, but it was picking up as Alexia made her way up the stairs to their apartment, whipping snowflakes into the air around her once again. The cold made her hug herself despite the protection of her winter coat. Arriving at the door, she did her best to brush the little ice crystals off of her clothes before entering, not wanting to get snowmelt all over the apartment her brother had spent the day cleaning. Finally, after mitigating the damage as best she could, she opened the door and slipped inside, out of the cold and into warmth and music.
“I’m home!” she called out, walking over to the closet and hanging up her coat. She slid the door shut just as the song that was playing sank in.
“For we need a little Christmas, right this very minute! Candles in the window, carols at the spinet…”
Alexia started laughing. Drew came around the corner, a bemused grin on his face.
“Yeah, I don’t know about this cover,” he said.
“Okay, serious question,” Lexi said. “Gun to her head, or cocaine?”
“Cocaine,” Drew replied without missing a beat. “Sooo much cocaine.” Giggling, Lexi pulled him into a hug, pressing his smaller frame against hers.
“How was your day?” he asked. Lexi inhaled, considering some kind of platitude she’d use at the café.
“Better now that it’s over,” she said, settling for reality. “Looking forward to a few days off. How about you?” Without releasing her, Drew pulled back enough to meet her gaze.
“Pretty good,” he said. “Apartment’s dusted, swept and mopped. I cleaned all the mirrors and windows, and while I didn’t sweep the closet floor, I did do a deep clean on the bathroom before the mop, so we should be good for…this is more info than you need, isn’t it?” Lexi chuckled.
“Maybe a little more, but I love how seriously you take stuff like this.” She smiled, then leaned down and kissed Drew on the forehead, the feeling so nice that she took a while to pull her lips away. He didn’t seem to mind, smiling bashfully and kissing her cheek the same way, his lips soft against her skin. She felt him shiver in her arms, ever so slightly, and he kissed her again, lips touching her jawbone this time. Lexi breathed a bit faster, her mind going back a year…
She swallowed, squeezed her brother a little tighter, and finally broke the hug.
After that, the siblings spent the next hour doing individual things. Well, Alexia helped her younger brother move the TV from the bedroom to the living room, but after that he settled in to play one of the Resident Evil games, while she made some more progress on a novel she’d been reading for the last week. When they sat down for dinner, reheating yesterday’s baked mac and cheese, she caught Drew glancing at her every so often, which she didn’t comment on, but which did make her smile a little. She was doing the same thing, after all.
She was sure they were both thinking about last Christmas.
They’d been sitting out on the couch, each with their gift for the other. Lexi had gotten her brother a new jacket, since his old one was sporting too many holes. The special part was what it was made to look like.
“You got me Leon’s RE4 jacket!” he’d exclaimed.
“Well, a cheap-ass version thereof, anyway,” Lexi responded. “I couldn’t afford any of the more accurate versions. Still, it’ll keep you warm when you walk to the bus or the laundromat around this time of year.” Drew’s grin told her he understood what it meant. The game had been one they’d played together. Well, he’d played it, while Lexi offered color commentary and ostensibly helpful tips. Drew had dubbed it the “Live Sister Reaction Cam.”
Putting the jacket down, he’d hesitated a bit before slowly reaching out, handing her a small box.
“This isn’t tied really well to any one thing that happened this year,” he said, “but it’s kind of for the nice dinner you took me to for my birthday, and I guess just for being you, and…I don’t know.” Lexi felt her eyes well up a little, but did her best to play it off.
“No idea why I did that,” she quipped. “I shouldn’t have spoiled you for your seventeenth birthday; I set an impossibly high bar for next year.” Setting the card aside for later, she peeled away the wrapping paper and opened the little box.
Inside was a striking little bracelet, its delicate links encasing a series of what looked like colored gems, green, red, blue…
“Oh, Drew,” she murmured, and then looked at him. “How much did this cost?”
“Well, none of those gems are real,” he said sheepishly. “Pretty sure they’re like tinted glass or something, so it didn’t cost much, but I thought it was pretty.”
“It’s beautiful,” Lexi said. Latching the bracelet around her wrist, she opened the card.
It wasn’t a Christmas card, but maybe something meant for a birthday or some other special occasion. It talked about how long they’d known each other, how much she meant to him, how she’d always been there for him, and how much of a privilege it had always been to have her in his life. Lexi felt her eyes welling up again, so deeply touched by what her brother had chosen.
When she reached the last line, she paused. She read it again, eyes lingering on each word, absorbing their meaning. Finally, she looked up to Drew. Her voice was very quiet as she repeated the last three words of the card.
“For my soulmate?”
“I…um,” Drew fidgeted, opening and closing his mouth as he stumbled for words. “I guess…the rest of the card was so perfect and so…it was all so true, and I guess…maybe I didn’t read all the way to the end of the card, or maybe…maybe I did but it didn’t seem wrong, for some reason, so…” His face was turning red as he tried to explain, and he shifted back and forth where he was sitting and, God, he looked so sweet. “Lexi I’m really sorry if I made you uncomf—”
She cut him off, pressing a finger to his lips to shush him. She was biting her own lip to hold back tears, so she said nothing, just shook her head and reached out, pulling her baby brother into a hug.
They held each other for a very long time, and finally, when they pulled back, just enough, Lexi kissed his forehead. A moment later, she pressed another kiss between his eyes, and then trailed her lips down to kiss the tip of his nose. Drew moved his head and kissed her cheek, then lower, kissing down to her jawline, then making his way forward to press his lips to her chin.
No words were exchanged, but the siblings moved as one, pulling closer together, curled up on one end of the couch, snuggled together as they spent what felt like hours kissing each other’s faces, the touch of lips on skin soft, slow and wonderful.
At long last, they pulled apart, breathing deeply, each watching the other. Their lips had never met; all they’d done was kiss each other’s faces, but both knew something big had just happened, and neither was sure what to do next.
In the end, they hadn’t done anything else. They’d held each other once more, and then separated, each beginning their individual nighttime routine, and then they’d climbed into bed and gone to sleep.
They hadn’t talked about that night in the year between then and now, but there had been subtle shifts in the way the siblings acted. During movie nights in bed, Drew would often lay his head in his big sister’s lap or rest it on her chest while they watched, and she’d find herself gently stroking his hair. They hugged a little more often, and their embraces lasted just a little longer. Kisses on the face lingered just that much more.
She was 99% sure she knew how her brother felt, enough so that she’d bought her gift for him with that very much in mind, but there was still a thread of anxiety woven into her feelings, because she couldn’t be completely sure. Not yet.
They would find out tonight.
******************
After dinner the siblings settled down by the tree. As they sat there, Drew took in the expectant smile on his sister’s face and tried to figure out what to say. He felt like he needed the perfect words, because if Lexi didn’t feel like he thought she did, then she had to know that was ok too, but if he said the wrong thing and messed this up, if he’d messed it up already with the gift and the card…
“Are you feeling fragile?” Lexi was still watching him, her expression sympathetic. Drew managed a nervous smile and nodded. Lexi smiled again, reassuring and warm. She leaned toward him slightly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Be brave, little brother.”
Drew took one last, deep breath and nodded. There would be no words. Reaching beneath the tree, he picked up the little box and offered it to his sister.
Lexi took it and started to open the card first, then closed it and began unwrapping the box instead. As she did, something caught Drew’s eye, a glint of reflection on her wrist. His heart beat a little faster as he realized Lexi had put on the bracelet he’d gotten her last year.
When she opened the box, her lips parted in surprise, and then the corners of her mouth turned up in a beautiful smile. Reaching into the box, Lexi withdrew a black lace choker with a red gem in its center. She turned it over in her hand, letting the light strike it from different angles.
“It’s real,” Drew said proudly, loving the way his sister looked at the precious stone. “The necklace itself was surprisingly cheap, so I spent the rest of the money on a real ruby.” His voice got a little quieter. “It’s your birthstone, and since we didn’t really do much for your twenty-sixth birthday…”
“It’s amazing,” Lexi said, and moved to open the card. Butterflies in his stomach, Drew watched the play of emotions on her face as she read it. There were only three words on the card. He had handwritten them, leaving no doubt about whether he meant them; no chance that they could be an accident.
For my soulmate.
Lexi looked up from the card, her eyes meeting Drew’s. Her expression was difficult for him to read. She set the card and the empty box down.
Then, without taking her eyes off his, she brought the choker up and fastened it around her neck, the ruby catching the light from the Christmas tree. She smiled, and Drew was overwhelmed with emotions, more of them than he could name.
“What…what happens now?” he managed, keeping his voice from cracking too much. Lexi sat there for a moment, likely letting her own feelings settle, and then smiled again. The look would have read as mischievous, but for the fire in her eyes. Sliding forward, she leaned in, bringing her face so close he could feel her breath.
“Now,” she said softly, “I want you to be good and wait here, and I’m going to go get your present.”
Drew swallowed, eventually managing to nod, and Lexi rose gracefully to her full height and disappeared into the little hallway. Drew heard the closet door slide open as she retrieved something, and then slide shut again. After that, light spilled from the bedroom into the hallway, and there were soft sounds from the bedroom, maybe a box being opened. Shadows moved as she went from the bedroom to the bathroom. Finally, the hallway went dark again, and a moment later Alexia emerged from the darkness. Drew pulled in a shaky breath.
Lexi had changed out of her clothes, and into a deep black chemise. The hem of the garment hovered around mid-thigh, sleek ebon fabric continuing up over her hips and belly. Near the top of her ribcage, just beneath her breasts, the fabric turned to lace, a floral pattern that adorned her body while hinting at the beauty beneath. Above a small, decorative bow, the top cupped Lexi’s breasts, lifting them and creating a tantalizing display of curves and shadow in the soft light. Finally, as his eyes traced their way up from her chest, Drew realized Lacy had reapplied the vivid red lipstick he’d responded to that morning.
Lexi knew how she looked. He could see it not just in the smile she displayed at his reaction, but in how she walked into the room, with that same confidence he’d seen when she put on the Wonder Woman costume years ago, standing at full height, shoulders back, her hips swaying ever so slightly as she walked.
As Drew watched, words began to surface, words that had always been there, but that he’d pushed away, keeping them in secret places barely outside conscious thought. Words that, tonight, were no longer off limits.
Erotic.
Sexy.
Sensual.
The last made heat flush beneath Drew’s skin, and he let it play in his mind again, admitting, embracing how captivated he was by his big sister’s sensuality.
Finally, Lexi stopped moving. Never taking her eyes off Drew’s, she sat down on the couch, and with teasing slowness patted the cushion next to her.
In wordless reply, Drew climbed onto the sofa beside his sister, settling in close, almost touching. Lexi leaned in again.
“Your turn, little Drew. What happens next?” He swallowed, eyes darting from one part of Lexi to the next, from the cool blue of her eyes to her deep red lips, the unblemished skin of her throat, her shoulders, her chest…
Drew looked back up, and felt himself smile as he decided. Inching forward, he tilted his face up and kissed his sister’s cheek, letting his lips press slowly against her cheekbone. He slipped down her face, kissing lower on her cheek, then her jaw, following that forward to her chin.
Lexi took hold of his shoulders, pulling him forward until he was nestled against her, pressing her own soft, slow kisses to his nose, his closed eyes, the corner of his mouth. The siblings covered each other’s faces, moving slowly but surely toward the inevitable.
Finally, their lips touched. Both gasped, and he briefly saw Lexi’s little smile, and then their lips came together again, molding to each other. The two of them lay against the nearby arm of the sofa, and Drew nestled against his big sister as they held each other and mouths opened, tongues slid slick and hot against each other, and the kisses became deep and slow and molten.
Drew was barely aware of the subtle shifting of their bodies, only knowing that now his sister lay atop him, her warm body pressing down on his, the softness of her large breasts resting so perfectly on his chest. He felt only the faintest hint of nerves when Lexi took hold of his shirt and pulled it up, breaking their lip lock just long enough to pull the shirt over his head and throw it away. Another indefinable stretch of hot kisses, and she pulled back enough to drink him in, to run her hands down his chest.
“I know I’m kind of scrawny…”
“Slender,” Lexi corrected. “Beautiful.” She lay down on top of him again, and thoughts faded away as her slow, firm kisses pressed his head gently back into the cushion. As she tilted their heads for a better, deeper joining, her tongue exploring more of his mouth, Drew’s hands explored Lexi’s body. The satiny fabric of her nightgown slid under his fingers as he ran his hands along her sides, feeling her body heat through the cloth. When his palms brushed the outside swells of her breasts, Lexi took his hands and moved them more firmly onto her cloth-covered flesh, her fingers guiding his, helping him knead the soft masses with just the right amount of pressure. Drew released a soft sound into Lexi’s mouth, and she hummed into his. Their hands continued to squeeze and caress, and she showed her baby brother just how she liked to be touched. As he massaged her breasts, she shifted again, sliding a leg over him to seat her hips atop his, slowly and firmly grinding down onto his trapped cock. Drew broke away from her mouth, burying his face against her neck, dragging his tongue along the smooth skin there as the fires within burned hotter and hotter. Lexi’s fingers tangled in his hair as he slid down onto her chest to lick and suck at her collarbone. As he kissed his way downward once again, she put a hand on his chest, gently pushing him down as she sat astride him. Another small sound escaped him.
“Shhh…” Lexi said, the verbal caress making Drew shiver. He listened, though, lying back and watching as she reached up and untied some sort of lacing behind her, and then pinched the straps of her chemise between two fingers, slowly, teasingly pulling them to the sides, until they slid off her shoulders and the gown slithered down her body and pooled at her hips, leaving her torso completely bare.
Lexi’s breasts were works of erotic art, the most perfect part of her perfect body. They rose and fell slowly, hypnotically, with her deep breathing, flawless globes of ivory flesh the size of her head, the faintest hints of blue veins visible in some places, and tipped with small, pale pink nipples that made them seem even bigger. Drew just watched them rise and fall on her chest, afraid to move, to speak, to break the spell somehow. As she watched him watching her, Lexi’s lips parted, and she whispered.
“I think my little brother’s staring.” Still unable to speak, Drew nodded. Lexi stayed silent too, cupping a hand behind his head and lifting, guiding him to sit up and bring his face to her chest. At the first touch, she gasped and Drew shivered with arousal.
Many times since that day twelve years ago, he’d nestled against his big sister’s chest, for comfort, for security, for quiet intimacy. Now he slid his face against the soft masses, nuzzling into the warm valley between them, and was struck by the true, wondrous depth of that intimacy.
Bringing his lips to the snowy flesh, he pressed kiss after slow, worshipful kiss upon the slopes of Lexi’s breasts, feeling the warm skin give tantalizingly under his lips. His sister breathed heavier, and her hand stayed behind his head, stroking his hair as he touched his lips to every inch of her voluptuous chest, down the side of each breast, underneath, along her breastbone, until at last he reached one peak and opened his mouth, sucking the hard nipple deep inside.
Alexia groaned, and Drew felt her grip his hair, pulling his mouth against her breast. He wrapped an arm around her waist and splayed his other hand behind her back, both of them desperate to increase the pleasure. Drew whimpered as more of her silky flesh filled his mouth, and Lexi arched her back again at the sound.
“Oh God, little Drew,” she breathed. “That’s such a hot little noise.” Drew flushed at the words, and he heard another soft, involuntary noise escape around the breast in his mouth. Lexi wrapped her arms around his head, cradling him against her bosom as he nursed, and for long minutes he worshiped his sister’s breasts, bringing his hands to them again to massage and caress as he switched back and forth between them, savoring Lexi’s moans as he filled his mouth with her again and again.
Finally, they pulled apart and Lexi dragged his mouth up to hers for another hot kiss.
“I’ll give them back later,” she promised, “but first I want something else.” Lexi crawled back along the couch, hands going to Drew’s pants. She dropped down and pressed her face into Drew’s abdomen, and his body jolted, the boy gasping as he felt her lick her way up his belly to one of his nipples, and take it into her mouth, turning it into a little pinpoint of pleasure. After a few blissful moments, she kissed her way across his chest and did the same to the other one. By the time she took her mouth off him and he could focus again, Drew realized she’d slipped his pants and underwear off and dropped them on the floor.
“Stay there, sweetie,” Lexi said, rose from the couch and grabbed the chemise, still hanging around her waist, to draw it up over her head. It left her naked save for the choker, the ruby glinting at her throat, the black lace band impossibly erotic against the pale perfection of her skin. As soon as the chemise hit the floor she was back on the couch, her full body on display as she crawled over Drew. She crouched low as she came up, and he panted as her breasts, still wet with his saliva, slid over his cock, and then dragged up his stomach to his chest. Lexi kissed him again, and as their mouths molded to each other again, Drew felt her wrap one hand around his cock and begin sliding up and down. The sudden spike of pleasure made him breakaway from her mouth, gasping for breath.
“Oh,” Lexi said, voice breathy. “My baby brother is so hard for me.” She kept running her hand over his length, keeping up the gentle pressure. The words came out again, now with something almost like awe. “My baby brother is hard for me…” Following her gaze down between their bodies, Drew saw her hand wrapped around his shaft, still gently pumping him. Just above where she was working him, he could see the shadowed delta of her thighs, and her smooth pussy, the pink lips already flowered open.
“Is this really, finally happening?” he asked, feeling the same thing his sister was. Lexi smiled, brushing her nose against his.
“It is, sweetheart. Now just lie back and watch.” She kissed him again, and then leaned back, lining his shaft up until the head was aligned with her entrance. Then, slowly, she lowered herself, and Drew took a deep, shuddering breath as he saw the lips of her sex part around him and felt himself sliding deeper and deeper into her wet heat. Lexi kept slowly lowering herself, until at long last her hips ground into his, and he was fully seated inside her. Then, leaning forward and taking hold of the sofa arm on either side of Drew’s head, she began to move.
Drew wasn’t sure how it worked; it was almost magic. Lexi undulated softly, slowly, and the wave of motion traveled down her body, rocking her hips so that he slid almost out of her, then was taken back in. She did it again, and again, slowly building speed, and the sensations built, electric currents of pleasure that flowed from where they were joined out through Drew’s body, and with each movement the pleasure became hotter, brighter. Drew put his hands on Lexi’s hips, squeezing involuntarily as the sensations heightened again.
Without thinking, he tried pressing his hips up, trying to get deeper inside her at just the right time. It didn’t work, and Lexi must have seen the frustration.
“Just relax,” she breathed. “I’ll do everything.”
“You…you-ah!” Drew spasmed as something inside Lexi squeezed him. “You shouldn’t have to do everything. Please let me help you.” Lexi’s eyes glistened, and she took one hand off the sofa and cupped his cheek.
“Ok, baby brother,” she whispered, and pushed herself upright. The hand on Drew’s cheek slipped behind his head and pulled. He followed her instructions, sitting up until they were flush against one another. Lexi wrapped him in a warm embrace, and he did the same for her. When they were settled, Lexi began to move again, but very slowly, letting Drew learn the steps of their forbidden dance. After a few tries, he synchronized with her, pressing his hips up into hers at the right time, and she squeezed him hard.
“Oh, yes!” she cried, dipping her head to kiss him. “Just like that, sweetie. Just like that…”
Long minutes passed as they settled into their rhythm, their bodies moving together in sensual harmony. Drew immersed himself in Lexi’s body, kissing and licking her neck, sometimes burying his face there to shelter from the storm building inside him. When she arched her back to offer her breasts again, he returned to them, sucking hungrily, drowning himself in their perfect softness. His hands ran up and down her back, caressing the smooth muscles, the immaculate curve of her spine. Lexi indulged herself too. She sucked at Drew’s earlobe, ran her fingernails along his back, and dragged his mouth up to meet hers, her tongue tangling with his for what felt like forever, before pulling away to let them breathe.
She was the elder sibling, and as they moved together Drew felt every second of the eight years between them in the best possible way. When the sensations were about to overtake him, she saw, and she slowed, allowing him to settle. When he wasn’t in danger anymore, she began the gentle climb again. Time and again she brought him to the edge before letting him pull back, each time drawing him closer to that wondrous precipice.
Eventually she must have decided she was ready, because now as they climbed together, moving faster, pushing deeper, she didn’t stop. When she saw him shivering with impending release, she pulled his face to hers for a devouring kiss, pulling him tighter against her as she suckled his tongue, fanning the flames to unbearable levels.
“Lexi,” he panted as their mouths separated. “Lexi it’s happening.”
“It’s ok, baby, it’s time now.” She dragged her tongue along his cheek, and then brought her lips to his ear. “Let it happen.” She shifted, and her embrace became impossibly both arousing and soothing, cradling his smaller body against hers. As her warmth enfolded him, she whispered into his ear, gently pushing him over the edge.
“Let go, little Drew. Your big sister’s got you.”
Andrew tipped over the edge, burying his face against her chest and sobbing as climactic fire rushed through him, the pleasure crackling up his cock to burst molten and rapturous inside his sister. As waves of bliss swept over him, he barely heard Lexi cry out as she convulsed, squeezing him exquisitely with her entire body, wonder and joy in her voice as she exulted.
“It’s hot. It’s so hot inside me…”
The orgasm arced from one sibling to the other, and then back again, and all they could do was hold tight to each other as it crashed over them, through them, all of their beings consumed by ecstasy. Gradually the waves retreated, each surge of pleasure slower and gentler than the last, until they settled back to Earth in warm contentment.
When the world came back into focus for Drew, Lexi and he had fallen onto their sides on the couch. She was still breathing deeply, her chest rising and falling, but he saw the same deep relaxation in her that he felt in himself. For a moment, he felt like he should say something, but he couldn’t think of what. When Lexi smiled at him, though, he knew he didn’t have to. He kissed her, and she kissed back, slow and warm and gentle. She tucked his head under her chin, and they lay like that for a long while.
Staying in that intimate silence, they rose from the couch and left the room, Lexi unable to avoid a soft chuckle when Drew grabbed their clothes off his carefully cleaned floor. They made their way to the bathroom, for a long hot shower before bed.
******************
“Lexiiiii!”
Her little brother’s voice woke Lexi up, and after a hazy moment she remembered where she was. Drew and she were both in bed, and she’d pulled her pillow down under the covers, which she must have done in her sleep, because…
“You turned the heater off,” Drew complained, pulling himself down under the bedding with her. Lexi chuckled.
“Sorry, little Drew, but you know how much money we save if we don’t run it all the time.” Drew grumbled in protest. Lexi smiled and cupped his cheek. Like she’d done the night before, she pulled gently and Drew moved over to her, and their lips met in a slow kiss. When their mouths parted, Lexi rested her forehead against Drew’s, the only sound their soft breathing.
“So…I…um…” Drew blushed as he struggled to speak, and Lexi smiled. She hoped her little brother knew how cute he was when he blushed. If he didn’t she’d be sure to remind him from now on. He took a deep breath and steadied himself. “So about last night…do you have any regrets?” Lexi smiled and shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Do you?”
“Well,” Drew started, then averted his eyes, smiling shyly as his soft features turned even redder. “Maybe I regret that we didn’t do this sooner.” Lexi chuckled.
“No, sweetie,” she said, “I think maybe we were both a little unsure after last Christmas, and the extra year was what we needed to be ready.” She brushed a thumb across his lips. “I think this happened exactly when it was meant to.” Drew kissed her thumb, then her lips for a second time. Then a third.
“So what happens now?” he asked.
“Well, I have today and the next three days off, and we’ll figure out what we want to do later. For now, there’s an upside to a really cold apartment.”
“What’s that?” Drew asked.
“You get to stay under the blankets and snuggle with your big sister all morning.” Smiling, Drew crawled over to her. Neither of them had bothered putting on clothes after their shower the night before, and in the twilight space under the covers their nude bodies settled together gently, Lexi savoring her brother’s bare skin, warm and perfect against hers. Drew brushed his lips against her chest, then glanced up and met her eyes, wordlessly asking her permission. She smiled, and he nestled his face into her cleavage. She wrapped an arm behind his head, letting him know he was welcome there.
“Lexi?” he whispered, tenderly kissing her breastbone, “can I keep my Christmas present?”
“As long as you want,” she whispered back.
“Is forever okay?” Lexi stroked his hair, and smiled.
“Forever sounds wonderful.”
My Profile: https://members.adult-fanfiction.org/profile.php?no=1296993638