Author's Notes:
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"Danny, is there something on your mind?" Miss Riley's voice interrupted the almost silence of the classroom.
My eyes darted to her, then down to the book I should have been reading, then where they had started -- on Raven on the other side of the classroom.
"No," I lied.
That's what a third grader does with their teachers when confronted about basically anything.
"Wouldn't it be a really great idea to have science on your mind instead of nothing?"
I shrugged, then pretended to read my science textbook, but looked at Raven out of the corner of my eye.
My eyes wouldn't even focus that close, but Raven's nose almost touched the page of the book as she read. My sister's entire head moved back and forth across the page instead of just her eyes.
####
I almost didn't see her before she disappeared around the corner of the school building.
The basketball coach wanted to talk to me about why I hadn't come to the try-outs the previous day, and made me late getting outside to meet Raven.
I couldn't tell if my sister struggled because the other girl led her by the hand too fast, or because Raven didn't want to be following her.
"Stop it!" Raven's voice reached me as I rounded the corner where I had last seen her.
I didn't see anyone, so I sprinted toward the outbuilding where they stored the groundskeeping equipment for the football field, nestled against the back of the football bleachers.
I probably imagined the swish of Raven's cane as she swung it in front of her, but the grunt the older boy made as he jumped away from Raven and my shoulder met his rib cage was real.
The hands that dragged me off the ninth grader under me were also real, so were the feet that kicked my ribs and the fists that followed up with punches to my face.
"Fucking seventh graders, they never know their place. This is a reminder, Boy Wonder."
I recognized the voice. It belonged to the ninth grader that had warned me of the consequences if I went to the basketball tryouts.
I assumed the other two boys I had seen before tackling that one were also basketball players.
I didn't know the girl, the one who had led Raven there, but assumed she too was a ninth grader.
I probably moaned in pain. My ribs, all of them, were throbbing, I felt one eye swelling closed and I tasted blood in my mouth.
"Stop touching me!" Raven demanded. The swish of her cane in the air definitely was not a figment of my imagination this time.
"Rae..." I moaned.
"Leave me alone!" she growled and I heard her cane cut through the air above me again.
"They're gone," I coughed through my swollen lips.
"Danny?"
I felt the gentle nudge of her cane on my hip, then the tentative touch of her hand on my calf.
"Get up, Danny. We're gonna miss the bus."
I rolled to my back and tried to sit up, but the sharp pain in my sides forced me to stop.
"What just happened, Rae?"
"It sounded like somebody got beat up."
I opened the eye that would, and looked at her. She was squatting next to me, staring under the football bleachers. Her fingertips barely rested on my shin.
My sides hurt even though I held my breath and clenched my muscles, but I managed to stand without much more fuss.
Raven turned her face toward mine as she straightened up to stand next to me. She looked scared.
"Are you okay, Danny?"
"I'm fine. Come on," I instructed her, then put her hand on my arm as I started back to the front of the school and the bus I hoped was waiting for us.
"If you're fine, why are you talking funny?"
####
"What?"
Raven sounded annoyed, and had stopped her fingers in the middle of the page she was reading.
Even in the flickering light from the muted basketball game I was allegedly watching on the television, I knew her tone was a ploy to goad me just a little.
"What what?" I asked her.
"I can hear you looking at me."
I had to laugh. She chose hear this time, but it was just as likely she might have chosen taste, or smell. She never said see. Everybody knew that wasn't true, and she almost never chose feel because that was the obvious choice.
My favorite, no matter what, is smell. "I can smell you looking at me" is so much funnier than hear. Taste would be pretty funny, too.
Honestly though, she probably could hear me looking at her. Boston's tail thumped lightly on the carpet next to her chair, just like it did whenever he was off work and thought he might possibly get my attention and a scratch behind his ear or a pat on the head.
"You know I hate people staring at me. They're trying to figure out what it's like to be the poor blind girl, but you already know what that's like, so I'm asking again -- what?"
I looked back at the game, our college alma mater against their archrival, and listened. Boston's tail was silent now.
Three years ago I played in that game. I came off the bench to score twenty-three points and we won by ten. This game didn't look like it would be such an easy win, if we won at all.
"Now you can't even look at me?" Raven accused me, but I could hear the implication of a giggle in her voice.
I looked back at my sister, and Boston raised his head and started with his tail again.
"I'm just trying to decide when I should tell you something that will change your mind."
"I'm dying to find out what you think is going to change my mind. Now is probably as good a time as any."
"You know it's time, Rae. He's old..."
"Don't say it, Danny," she whimpered.
Raven called me Danny when we were kids, but when we got to be teenagers she started using Dan almost exclusively. We never talked about it, but I learned that "Danny" was her safe word, only used now when she was terrified.
I didn't blame her for being scared. Boston was her first service animal, but he just turned eleven and a retriever's expected life span was only twelve years. His age showed, not just in his appearance, but there were times he struggled a little getting around.
"They have a home for him..."
"Danny, just shut up!"
Raven stood up and dropped her book in the chair. Boston groaned, but stood up beside her and looked up at her face.
No one would notice if they didn't already know it was happening, but Boston guided her with his side against her leg toward the stairway. He never stopped working, even after Raven had taken his harness and vest off.
"Raven, please, can we talk about it?"
"Not tonight, Danny," she told me softly without stopping.
She did stop though, on the second step.
"Boston?"
I was glad that Raven couldn't see her dog, stopped before he took the first step up, looking back at me with sad eyes. He was asking me to come and carry him up. He didn't ask every night, or even most nights, but the frequency had picked up the last few months.
The seventy-five pound dog was almost nothing in my arms, but nobody in their right mind would have expected my sister could ever carry him herself. She barely weighed more than he did.
Raven paused for me to catch up at the top of the stairs, and Boston licked the tears off her face when she took my arm and hugged it.
I put Boston down on the floor at her doorway while she waited. When I stood back up, she wouldn't raise her face.
"We'll talk about it tomorrow, Dan. I promise, but that wasn't what you were going to say to change my mind because it's the other thing you want to change my mind about. Isn't it?"
I heard the pain in her voice, and hoped it wasn't because of the other thing she knew I wanted us to talk about.
"Yes, it's the other thing."
I leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
"We can talk about that again tomorrow, too," she whispered.
"Good night, Raven. I love you."
"I love you more, little brother."
I heard her giggle as the door closed, and had to chuckle, too. I was happy that she could make a joke in spite of her having to make the decision tomorrow to give up her best friend.
Nothing about her wasn't little, and nothing about me was. My pretty, black-haired, fair-skinned sister was almost two whole minutes older, but she stood five foot nothing and tipped the scales at under a hundred pounds. Her "little" brother was six-six, two hundred twenty pounds, and just three years past a full basketball scholarship to a Division One powerhouse that almost won the national championship his senior year.
Our parents insisted she was born first because I refused to leave her in our mother's womb alone. To them, that also explained why I followed her into the world so quickly.
####
I sighed when Boston whined and licked my hand. I probably should have understood how he always knew when I was sad. His disability was that he's a dog, and mine was that I couldn't see.
He licked my face when I knelt and tried to hug him. He usually loved hugs, when he was off duty, but he must think if he licks away my tears, he's licking away the reason for them too.
"It's okay, Boston. You'll make somebody -- probably some old dude who smells like cottage cheese and tapioca pudding -- really happy the last few years of their life, and yours."
I was probably being selfish imagining he wouldn't be happy. I hoped I was wrong.
I tried to be angry to hide my sadness. Dan and I had argued earlier, but just briefly. I tried to convince him Boston could retire and stay with us.
I knew he couldn't.
Boston could never retire around me. He couldn't even take an hour off. He hovered, and reacted to any move I made, even when his halter and vest were off. He couldn't just be my pet; I would always be his responsibility.
The people who gave him to me, the same ones with my new dog, wouldn't allow it either. Most likely their reasons were the same.
I knew, in the next few days, Dan, Boston, and I would get on an airplane to California to give Boston back to the people who had trained him to be my eyes, and pick up a new dog, barely full-grown, to be my new pair of eyes. Boston would be placed with someone that needed less help than I did. They promised.
Dan didn't need to go; Boston could get me safely through both airports and any situation that came up wherever we went. Even at his age, he was as flawless in his performance as always, and that's why it was time for him to retire, before his performance deteriorated and risked my safety.
I would miss him, and that's why I needed Dan with me on the trip.
Mom had gone with me, the spring Dan and I were fifteen, to get Boston nine years ago. We would be there for three weeks. I needed to be trained, they said.
To me, and Dan, it was a last-minute thing. Mom and Dad sat us down and told us after dinner the day before we left. Dan was mad. Angry just doesn't say it well enough.
As far back as I can remember, Dan was my rock, my protector, my go-to. He never said "Sorry, Raven, I was" anything as an excuse for anything not going right or him not being there. He never needed to apologize for not being there because he always was.
Laying there in my bed that night, scared out of my mind almost, at the thought of having, depending on a dog instead of my brother, I thought Dan was right that he should be the one going. At least half my fear was him not being there with me.
I had never heard my family fight like they did that night. Their angry voices pierced the floor of my bedroom to reach me. I knew Dan, and his temper, especially when it came to something about me. He was already bigger than Dad, and had probably always been bigger than Mom, and I was terrified somebody was going to get hit. He had done it before, to other people.
I crept as silently as a blind girl shaking in fear, without her cane could, down the stairs. When I got to the living room, it was silent.
"Hey Rae," Dan greeted me, then Mom and Dad each said "Hi" in turn. They knew that would let me know who was where in the room.
I expected them to be standing in a small circle, screaming in each others' faces, but Dan was in the recliner, and Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch across from him.
"Danny? It's okay. I'm okay. You need to go to school. Let Mom take me. Please don't fight."
I hoped he couldn't hear the fear in my voice, or that it was a lie when I implied I was fine without him.
"See, Son?" Dad piped up. "Raven's okay with it. Throw your mom a bone and let her take care of your sister this one time."
I heard my brother get up and walk toward me. I wanted him to hug me, so I stood still so he wouldn't knock me down accidentally in the dark.
I always assume it's dark. I guess my mind has no reason to assume otherwise. Even at fifteen, light was just a vague memory and darkness was always with me.
"Mom, I'm sorry for yelling. Dad, I'm sorry for yelling at you too."
Sometimes I was still surprised at how far above my head my twin brother's voice was.
"Danny," Mom replied. "It came from a good place in your heart. There's no apology needed."
My brother's hand felt like it wrapped around my entire head as he smoothed my hair back then he kissed me on the forehead.
"You're leaving early in the morning. See you in a few weeks."
"I love you, Danny."
"I love you more, Raven."
He went up the stairs without me.
"How early do I need to be ready, Mom?"
Once in bed, my mind continued to churn in my head and drove sleep as far from me as I imagined it could be. I had been on planes before, but my brother had always been there to hold my hand when I needed him to. Of all my fears, not having him there with me wasn't the least.
Eventually, I gave in, and slipped across the hall to Dan's bedroom. This wouldn't be the first, not anywhere near the first, and I didn't think there was any reason it would be the last time I got in bed with him when I was scared or worried, had a bad dream, or was just lonely. I didn't remember ever getting in bed with Mom and Dad; I always went to my brother, even when we were small, we shared a room, and I could see.
He felt warm as I eased myself into his bed beside him, and he mumbled something. I felt better already, and quickly fell asleep with my forehead barely touching his chest as it rose and fell with his slow breathing.
I slowly drifted out of my sleep. I could feel my brother's knee across the back of one of my legs, and his warm breath slowly lapped against my cheek. I moved my face a little, and the tip of his nose touched mine.
I was fifteen, so of course my hormones were haywire. I'd daydreamed about kissing a boy, but no one particular boy. There wasn't one particular boy, but some I'd like to kiss. I hadn't kissed any though, but was certain it was high time I found one willing to let me kiss them.
Dan shifted, then sighed, and his breath felt hot against my mouth, so without thinking, my lips moved to his and kissed them.
My sparklers went crazy inside my eyes and I suddenly realized what I was doing, and what he had started doing. He kissed me back as I kissed him.
I hadn't ever thought about kissing him like that, but this felt good, and, again without thinking, I moaned into my brother's mouth, then slowly pulled away, reluctantly.
"Wow," I barely whispered, almost overwhelmed with the lights going off like fireworks in my eyes.
"Rae," Dan groaned.
I sat up and scooted to the side of the bed, then off.
I needed to go to my own bed before I did something worse, and I wanted to do something worse. I suddenly wanted to do something way worse than just kiss my brother on the mouth, and I wanted it in the worst way.
I wasn't comfortable, even in my own bed, under my own covers, alone, and lonely. I had a reason now to think that would be the last time I slept in his bed. I couldn't trust myself, and I definitely couldn't sleep with my sparklers going off like they were.
I call them sparklers, but the doctors had some term for them that even now I don't remember. My totally useless retinae were letting off phantom electrical charges, and there was nothing they could do about it. Normally there are only a couple most minutes, whether my eyelids were open or closed, but at that moment, starting when my lips touched Dan's, they were a constant stream. I hoped for relief soon.
Mom and I were leaving early in the morning. I probably wouldn't talk to Dan; he had already said goodbye. Maybe by the time he saw me again in three weeks, he'd think it was him, his dream that he had kissed his sister, and me getting up had woken him to cement that dream in his head.
Now he wanted me to move with him a hundred miles away from our parents. That's the thing he had vowed to change my mind about tomorrow. Boston retiring had nothing to do with it.
He had finished his masters degree in the spring, and spent the summer, like the previous two summers, doing a basketball camp for high schoolers with a former teammate at Ohio State who had gone on to the NBA. When that finished, he prepared for and passed his CPA exam, and now had found a good job in Cincinnati with a national CPA firm.
It had been nine years since I kissed my brother like that, on his mouth, in his bed. We had never talked about it, so apparently my wish came true. He thought it was his dream that he kissed me.
I knew I still couldn't trust myself with him though, especially if we lived together in our own place, just the two of us and my new dog.
At least I had kissed some boys that weren't my brother since then, but that just made it harder for me to trust myself with him. He will always be the first boy I ever kissed, and the only boy to bring on a sparkler storm.
Boston's whine brought me back to reality, in the present. I knew I'd acquiesce about Boston tomorrow, and that was bad enough, but the thing that really scared me was what Dan might say to change my mind about moving to Cincinnati with him.
I didn't even know if our parents knew he had found a job or wanted me to move with him. They left this morning for a two week vacation to Phoenix. I didn't know why they chose Phoenix for their first vacation without us since we were born. They just told me yesterday they were going.
I couldn't fathom my life with Dan two hours away, or what conspiracy was afoot that he had suddenly sprung this on me with our parents gone for two weeks and our imminent trip to California.
I moved Boston's futon cushion bed out of the corner to beside my bed, let him find his spot, then pulled my pillow and blanket off my own bed and curled up next to him on his. Tonight I needed somebody that loves me to sleep with, and I knew he wouldn't be able to get up on mine.
####
Bob and Avaritt Tipton, Dad and Mom to Raven and me, wanted a baby when they were first married at twenty-four and twenty-two years old. They didn't go into graphic details with us, but said they tried really hard for ten years. They even tried fertility treatments, but nothing worked.
Then, eight years after they quit trying and assumed it was impossible, the news they were expecting an oops baby thrilled them to no end. Dad was even more thrilled when the doctor revealed their oops baby was two. Mom was less thrilled, but they both always loved us.
They left it to me to tell Raven that they weren't on vacation in Phoenix. In their mid-sixties now, they were on a house hunting trip. After long, successful careers in insurance and nursing, they were ready to retire, and as soon as they found a place, they would be moving there.
They suggested I give Raven some choices, and let the decision be hers. She could stay in Columbus and live in the house they were keeping for when they had to get out of the Arizona summer heat, she could move to Phoenix with them, or she could live with me in Cincinnati.
Apparently the choice that she could live anywhere she pleased, with or without anyone else, didn't occur to them. I had no doubt that she could take care of herself, and I hoped she only pretended to be needy so that everyone would think that's why she still needed me.
Maybe she wasn't pretending to be needy at all, and we all just assumed she was.
I would give her the choices, but I couldn't think of anything on the pro side for the options that didn't include her moving to Cincinnati with me.
I fell asleep trying to decide if I would even take the job in Cincinnati if Raven wouldn't come with me.
####
I was used to the way my sister came down a flight of stairs. She was very methodical about it; each foot carefully placed, fully on the step, before the other foot came off where it was planted. I think most people would have been thrown off a little with her deliberate movements yet her face remained steadfastly forward.
This morning, that wasn't why I couldn't stop myself from watching her intently in the reflection on the mirror in front of me, in spite of my steady pace on my treadmill.
Raven's usual style would probably be described best as modestly casual. She wore skirts sometimes, but they were never more than an inch, maybe two, above her knees if not past them. Shorts, on those few occasions when she chose them instead of jeans or casual slacks, usually followed the same standard of length. Any tops she wore showed no cleavage and were never, ever tight, not even her tee shirts.
It didn't matter that she never wore anything tight, her obviously wispy figure was always easy to see in anything she wore.
When I noticed her this morning, her bare feet and calves were already in view, and with each step, more of her gazelle-like legs appeared. Her knees, then thighs, appeared, but when the hem of her shorts, barely below the bottom of her narrow hips, came into view, I stumbled a little in my stride.
"You okay, Dan?" Raven asked as she continued her slow, deliberate descent.
"Um, yeah, just...didn't sleep well," I threw together a feeble excuse.
At the bottom of the stairs, she sat on the bottom step and deftly pulled on a pair of socks and her running shoes that she had carried with her in the hand she didn't use to clutch the railing.
The shorts and tank top she had on weren't tight. They didn't need to be. I was used to her running with me most mornings, but in yoga pants and a long tee shirt that hid most of her figure. Her outfit this morning was a very fine, black mesh, matching short shorts and tank top. I could clearly see her black bra and panties through them.
"Where's Boston?" I choked out.
She never wore revealing clothing, but it had never occurred to me before that moment to wonder how she knew whether her clothes were revealing or not.
"Still outside. He would have wanted to come down with me, and, well..."
I regretted asking that immediately. That was her first acknowledgement that he had trouble with stairs, or anything.
I couldn't take my eyes off my sister, and should have felt guilty about it. I rationalized that if I remained silent, then she would never know and I wouldn't embarrass her. It wasn't like she had a wardrobe malfunction that she would notice later.
Raven put her wireless headset on and whispered something into the mic, then stepped onto her treadmill, next to mine, as it spun up to a brisk walking pace.
We ran together in silence, but I should have reprimanded my eyes. They wouldn't leave Raven's reflection next to mine in the mirror.
"There's coffee ready," Raven announced as her machine slowly ground down to a stop and she turned to step off.
I had less than thirty seconds left of my five-mile program.
I would have responded, but Raven was bending forward from her waist, legs straight, back side to the mirror, and her palms flat on the floor in a stretch. Her jet-black hair pooled around her hands and feet to hide them.
I could see her face between her legs in the mirror, and she looked relaxed, and beautiful. Her deep blue eyes looked like they were almost focussed on mine.
"I'll make eggs and toast while you're in the shower," she told me as she stretched her arms above her head and arched her back, still facing away from the mirror and my wayward eyes.
"Scrambled for me, please, Rae."
"You like over easy."
It was true, but she didn't understand the point of that was to have a runny yolk. I think she tried, but couldn't turn an egg over without breaking the yolk, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that. It would have been pointing out her blindness, and I wouldn't do that.
"Sometimes, but today I'm feeling scrambled, um, like scrambled."
"Okay. When are we going to California?"
I was momentarily dumbstruck. One of the things that had kept me awake most of the night was anticipation of the conversation we needed to have today about Boston returning to his trainers in California. It wasn't an option, and that wasn't going to be an easy conversation. That's what I thought last night anyway.
"Oh, um, Tuesday afternoon."
"Is it going to be another three-week stay like last time? You remember last time? I know you didn't have to go to babysit me..."
"Raven! I wanted to go, and it wasn't to babysit you!"
Raven turned around to face me, and I could tell she was struggling to look serious.
"I know. I guess you do remember. I missed you too. That was a long three weeks, but this time you get to come."
"This time we fly out Tuesday afternoon, check in Wednesday morning first thing, then fly back Thursday afternoon. You'll spend the day Wednesday and overnight in the dorm with Twister. If you have any issues, Thursday morning they can help you, and we fly back that afternoon."
"Twister?"
"That's his name. He's a black lab, almost two, and they said we'd understand his name when we meet him."
"I hope it's not a tornado reference, but I'm glad he's a he, and a Lab. I know some people wouldn't want a replica replacement, but I'm hoping Twister's as perfect as Boston is.
"Do they really think they can fix all my issues in one morning?"
"That's the plan, Rae."
"Good! 'Cause I think I'd really like to see again," she giggled.
"I think they meant with Twister," I laughed my correction.
"That's disappointing, but not as much as how you smell. Take a shower while I fix breakfast. Go."
####
My legs felt weak and rubbery as I listened to Dan bound up the stairs, but it wasn't from my run.
Dan had never seen me, before this morning, in an outfit from my secret stash of clothes that my best friend Karen had picked out for me. I had every reason to believe Mom didn't know about them either.
I was sure she would have had a conniption fit over the suitcases in the back of my closet that pretended to be empty.
Mom always picked out loose fitting pants and tops, and longish skirts without splits. She told me I didn't need any more problems, like dressing like I was easy. Sometimes I didn't mind, and I minded even less after the disaster that was my first and only boyfriend, my freshman year of college.
I thought he treated me right. That only lasted until I told him I loved him. He took the opportunity to inform me that I was beautiful, and great in bed, but I wasn't marriage material. He couldn't see himself married to a blind girl for the rest of his life.
He actually called me a blind girl, and used that as the excuse for not loving me.
I never told Dan about him, or how it ended. I'm certain that guy owes me a debt of gratitude for that fact alone. It wasn't because I wanted to protect him, but because I knew there was a good chance my brother would kill him, and he wasn't worth Dan going to prison over.
Nobody in the world would be worth that, ever.
A thank you would have been nice though, if not for that, then at least for my virginity.
He told me I'm pretty, but that was over five years ago and I was certain he only said it in hopes of breakup sex, so that would have to do.
Karen still helped me find cute clothes when she came to town, but I hardly ever got a chance to wear them. Today had been one of those chances, and since Mom and Dad were gone for two weeks, I'd have more. I might only take outfits from my secret stash for our trip to California.
I wondered if Dan would notice.
I made it upstairs, let Boston in from the back yard, and went to make breakfast for my brother.
I heard him coming and smelled him before he spoke. His shower did its job and he smelled fresh and clean now. Usually he would have come right in and sat down at the bar, but today he paused in the doorway.
I couldn't help but grin as I finished buttering the toast, but since I had my back to him, I knew he couldn't tell.
"Are you ready for a refill on your coffee?" I asked after several seconds of him not moving.
"Oh...um, yeah," he replied before heading for the breakfast bar.
I carefully found the handle to the coffee carafe, then turned and held my hand out for Dan's cup. He knew the drill. We all knew the ways we dealt with me so it was second nature for us. I extended his full cup back in his direction and he directed me with his hand on mine to successfully get it on the counter without either of us getting burned or spilling it.
I found our plates, and handed them to Dan before I made my way around the bar. As always, I found him with a hand, and used his shoulders to help me find my seat next to him. I played it off like that was my reason, and Dan never questioned or complained, but I really just liked the way his broad, muscular shoulders and back felt in my hands.
Dan could always kiss the top of my head or my forehead anytime he wanted, but this was one of the few chances I had that I could reach to kiss his cheek, so I lifted myself up on a rung of my stool and gave him a firm, just barely lingering kiss on the cheek before I sat down.
He smelled even better up close.
"Thanks for breakfast, Rae."
"It's my pleasure," I giggled. Cooking for him wasn't just one of the few things I could do for my brother, but my reply was absolutely the honest-to-god truth. I loved cooking for him.
####
I felt like a kid waiting for the Principal outside their office. I knew that feeling from experience. Raven had gone to shower after breakfast, and seemed to be taking forever.
Knowing she'd change clothes before she came back down made me a little sad.
Boston had parked himself at the bottom of the stairs when she left us with orders for him to stay. He took her very literally, but a few times he had looked up the stairs and thumped his tail. Apparently he had hearing as sharp as Raven's, and he thought she was on her way down instead of just crossing between the bathroom and her bedroom.
Eventually though, she started down the stairs. She descended much quicker with her cane, but she took my breath away again. Boston didn't even seem to notice she wore an outfit I had never seen, or imagined she would even have.
She had black tights on her legs, a black skirt that hugged her hips but flared out from there and stopped a little above the middle of her thin thighs. Her tight, fluffy, white sweater with a deep V neckline showed off her slender body, and she had Mary Janes on her feet.
She always looked cute, but she was stunning in that outfit.
Boston made no attempt to guide her, since she had her cane, and instead he just followed her, wagging his tail happily. He would be hard to replace. He knew when to do what, and never made mistakes.
"Hey, Rae. You look..."
I greeted her so she'd know where I was, but then couldn't stop myself from starting a compliment that I knew better than to give her.
She crossed the room and found a seat on the sofa with me, then smiled a big smile at me.
"I look what, Dan?"
It had been a while since I'd gotten one, but I felt a stern lecture about how she didn't even understand the word pretty coming.
"Sorry, Rae. I just..."
"Sorry? Am I ugly today?"
"Rae! Of course not. I know you don't like compliments about..."
Raven started laughing then, like I had told her one of my stupid jokes.
"Sorry," I mumbled.
"I know I told you not to call me names like pretty or cute, but that was when I was a little girl. I still don't like fake compliments from people who just feel guilty that they're not handicapped.
"I'm not a girl anymore, Dan. I'm a woman and I think I can tell a sincere compliment, and I think I want somebody to notice when I'm trying to be nice to look at, even if I don't understand what that means."
"Rae, you're..." I started, then we sat in silence for a few heart beats.
"Am I nice to look at, Dan?"
"Rae, you're the prettiest girl I know."
"Humph."
"You are," I stated like I could prove it.
"I'm not deaf, Dan. I hear things. I heard things: people talking on campus and at your games. I'm pretty sure all the cheerleaders were gorgeous. Ours and from the other teams. That's what they're known for, isn't it? From what I heard, you knew almost all of them. Some you knew better than others."
She was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"What I heard is you knew some of them quite well."
Her grin grew even wider.
"And often. Sometimes more than one at a time even.
"I always wondered how they managed not to pull each others' hair out when you were with one of our cheerleaders, one from Penn State, and one from Florida, at the same time."
I was happy Raven couldn't see my face, or feel the heat my embarrassment generated. We never talked about our love lives, and I felt shocked that she seemed to know quite a lot about mine, right down to embarrassingly accurate details.
It wasn't like any of them meant anything to me, it was just sex. I felt some relief that she hadn't mentioned my only serious girlfriend ever, in high school.
"What about Karen?" Raven continued, and burst that bubble of hope for me.
"All those cheerleaders and Karen? Are you saying I'm prettier than any and all of them?"
Raven had managed to iterate the entire litany of my love life in just a few sentences.
"As far as I'm concerned you are. I love you, Raven, and people say the ones you love are better looking than people you don't care about."
Raven looked thoughtful for a brief moment, though her smile didn't dissipate.
"I know you love Karen. You always did, and you always will."
Raven and I met Karen when we were all in kindergarten together. The two girls were immediately bosom buddies, and eventually I was drawn into the friendship.
Raven, of course, always had my first priority. We're twins, and I needed to protect her.
Nobody questioned it when Karen and I started dating in high school. We were practically inseparable anyway. After close to a year of dating, after our senior prom, she decided it was time.
She wanted to have my virginity, and give me hers.
I almost did the unthinkable though, and as I filled the condom inside her with my seed, I almost moaned the wrong girl's name, so I understood when she told me it wasn't right, because I had almost called my sister's name as I came inside Karen. She felt like she had just fucked her own brother, and she couldn't do that anymore.
That reminded me of the last time Raven had come to my bed for comfort, before she and Mom left to get Boston, I had moaned Raven's name while I had a dream about us and Raven sitting up in my bed woke me.
Raven had come to my bed while I slept that night because she was worried about her trip, and she was lying next to me, against me, when I had my dream.
I knew she must have felt it, and she had to know she was the one in my dream because I moaned her name as it happened. I realized what had happened when she stormed out of my room without a word.
I had three weeks to stew about how much she must hate me, but nothing changed when she got back from California. She was still the sweet, affectionate sister I had always known, except she never crawled into my bed again, no matter how scared, sad or lonely she was.
I missed that.
"Are you telling me I'm even prettier than Karen? She told me why you two quit dating. She thought it was like dating her brother. She thought it would be different after you two had sex, but that still felt like her brother, and she couldn't do it. I don't get that, but yeah, you still love her, so you must think she's prettier than I am because you love her and had sex with her."
In spite of my mind spinning out of control at the words "I don't get that", I managed the only response she deserved.
"You're the prettiest girl I know, Raven."
"I did notice you didn't deny how well or often you knew all those cheerleaders."
What could I say? I wasn't going to lie to her.
Her Cheshire grin melted into a sincerely pleased smile as she nodded her head.
"When I said I wanted somebody to notice, I meant you. Even if I could, I wouldn't argue with you about it. You really like the way I look? Is it this outfit?"
"I do, Raven. Is it new?"
"No, but Mom didn't pick it out so I'm taking advantage of having you to myself by wearing my cute clothes while they're gone."
I wanted to chuckle, but kept it to myself. That one sentence explained so much about the way my svelte sister usually dressed.
I was also pretty thrilled to get the opportunity to change the subject.
"So, speaking of them being gone, Raven..."
"We can't even bask in the glow of me telling you I want you to think I'm pretty and you telling me I am for a few minutes?"
"I thought it was a good time. I have your attention, and you're feeling good about being beautiful."
"Beautiful is a bit much, but okay, let's do this. Is this where you persuade me to move to Cincinnati?"
It was one of those rip-the-bandage-off moments.
"They're not on vacation, Rae. They're looking for a house to retire to, and as soon as they find one, they're moving there."
Raven giggled a little as she alternated between nodding and shaking her head.
"You don't believe me?"
"I believe you, Dan. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"They just told you yesterday on their way out the door."
"Yeah. So?"
"You probably knew you had a new job like a month ago. Not only have you picked out a place to live in Cincinnati, with me in mind, you did that long enough ago we could move in like today probably."
"I didn't want to..."
"Dan! I'm not done."
I had to laugh at my sister, even though so far she was spot on.
"You thought about it, and instead of giving me the choices they told you to give me, you're using them going away as the reason for me to move with you instead of anything else."
"Yeah, well, what does that have to do with me being an apple falling off the tree?"
"They pull that same shit all the time."
I couldn't remember Raven ever saying anything off-colored before.
"'We're going to California tomorrow to change your life'; 'we're retiring as soon as we find a house half-way across the country and you can't come with us'. That kind of shit.
"Now, you're ready to move today, and you're just now asking me."
"I get it, Rae," I sighed. That was something like our parents would do.
"All you had to do was ask, and I would've done anything I could to help. You don't need to do everything yourself."
"I probably should have known that."
"Why would you know that? You've never given me the chance to show I'm not an invalid."
She was right. I knew she could take care of herself, but I never let her.
"Dan, I could live anywhere I want. I could move to Europe, or Africa, or anywhere in the world, and be fine. I don't need anybody to take care of me."
"I don't know if your disability payment would..."
"Shut up, Dan," Raven laughed to stop me.
"What? I think you have to live in the US..."
"I don't get a disability check."
"You don't? Why not? You're, well, I think you deserve one."
"I don't like talking about money, but will you let it drop if I just say being blind doesn't mean I can't take care of myself?"
I thought I knew all about Raven's life, and how she spent it.
I thought I knew from observations when I was home with her and the conversations we had.
Her life seemed to be about what one could expect from a Beverly Hills housewife, except for living in Columbus, Ohio instead of Beverly Hills, and not being a housewife.
A few days each week, she would take Boston with her, get on the bus and go to a coffee shop, the mall, downtown, or a park. It was just to get out of the house, she told me. Sometimes she would go to an afternoon matinee movie that she would regale me with the details of later. They were usually chick flicks, so I was glad she made it known she didn't need company, besides Boston, watching them.
I always wondered if people thought it was weird for a solitary, blind girl to go to a movie and sit there by herself with her dog.
Most of her time she spent reading a Braille book, an actual paper Braille book, or on her Braille machine that was wifi-connected to the internet. With that machine she could type or read, and sometimes she would type furiously for hours at a time, other times she would sit quietly as the fingers on both her hands silently flew back and forth across the readout panel or the pages of a Braille book.
She was pretty amazing to watch while she did that, either typing or reading. She even won a national Braille contest three years in a row when she was in high school.
Apparently, I was missing something. She never talked about working, or having a job, or making and having money.
I was consciously glad she couldn't see my face and the skepticism I was certain it showed.
"Okay," I told her, despite my resolve to find out exactly what she was talking about.
"They're keeping the house, aren't they?"
She really wasn't asking.
"Yeah."
She looked like she was about to laugh, but was shaking her head slowly like she didn't believe that.
I had no idea how she knew. I assumed at first that they were going to sell our house in Columbus when they found one in Arizona.
"Europe is sounding better all the time."
Her face suddenly lit up with a big smile.
"Dan, let's move to Europe!" Raven whispered conspiratorially.
"Raven, we can't. Move to Europe? I don't know anything about accounting there except it's different than here."
"Come on. It'd be fun!" she continued with the same whispering.
"Are you serious?"
"Think about it Dan. What guy wouldn't want to move to Europe with the prettiest girl he knows?"
"Most guys wouldn't admit their sister is the prettiest girl they know."
"Most guys would have a girlfriend they'd claim was the prettiest girl they know even when their sister really is. I guess it's good you don't, cause you'd be in the doghouse with her, but that doesn't change the fact that you think I'm the prettiest girl you know and you don't want to move to Europe with me."
"I didn't say that, Rae. I said I can't get a job there."
My sister's expression changed. She looked serious now, and I was afraid she was going to say unless we were moving to Europe, she wouldn't move with me.
"Honesty, Dan?"
"Okay."
That was how we did an all-kidding-aside, brutally honest conversation.
"Am I really pretty? I mean, do people besides you think I'm pretty?"
"Honest, you're very pretty, Rae."
"What do I look like?"
I wasn't expecting that.
"Honesty?"
"Brutally, if necessary," Raven giggled.
I looked her over slowly before responding.
"You have the perfect name, Raven. The first thing people notice about you is your shiny, long, jet-black hair. Then your almond-shaped, deep blue eyes are more useful than you give them credit for, because they're so expressive and easy to get lost in. You have this cute button nose above pouty lips that just beg to be kissed."
She hadn't really reacted at all until the part about her lips. Her cheeks blushed bright red when I said that.
"I hardly ever pout," Raven whispered.
"You have delicate fingers that move like lightning when you're typing, and your tiny little feet are adorable. Your slender legs are amazing, especially in a mini-skirt like you have on today. Your breasts..."
"Dan!" Raven gasped.
"You said brutally honest, Rae."
"You don't have to tell me they're too little. I know that. Enough people have told me that already."
For everything I'd told her, I had studied each part of her as I described it, and now I watched as her nipples suddenly bulged into the material of her tight sweater.
"They lied, Rae. Your breasts are perfect, even without a bra on, or especially without a bra on."
Raven crossed her arms over her chest to hide her erect nipples, and blushed almost as much as she had when I mentioned her kissable lips.
"Whatever," she growled.
I watched my sister's blush fade slowly as we sat in silence for a minute or two.
She finally let her arms drop, then turned on the sofa to face me directly, one foot on the floor and the other tucked up under her.
I probably could have seen her panties under her short skirt if she hadn't been wearing black tights that blended with her black mini-skirt.
"What do you look like?" she asked me.
"Oh, um..."
"Do you still have bright blond hair, sparkling blue eyes and front teeth that are too big for your mouth?"
"What, um, are you talking about, Rae?" I laughed at her.
"That's how I remember you, but you didn't describe me like I remember me. I mean, I didn't even have boobs last time I saw me, let alone perfect ones, if that's even true. I was too skinny, and too short. I was skinnier and shorter than any of the other girls our age, and I wore very thick, black-frame glasses that made my eyes look like saucers. I definitely was not pretty then."
"Oh. I never even thought about..."
"I know, Dan. It's okay, we were probably eight or nine the last time I could see well enough to know what we looked like, and I wanted to let you in a little bit more on what it's like to be me. I mean, if we're going to be living together you're going to need to do things and know things you didn't before."
"Even in college we lived together, Rae. We still live together."
"No, we've always lived with our parents. Now we're going to be living together. Totally different things."
"Are we going to be living together, Rae?"
"Aren't you even curious about what might change for you if that happens?"
"Doesn't matter. Don't you already know what I'd do for you?"
"The list of what you won't do for me is way easier to recite," she giggled.
"What do you think I won't do for you?" I joked.
Raven looked at me with a blank expression on her face for a few seconds.
"That's everything I can think of that you might refuse to do for me."
She smiled sweetly, and I laughed.
"So what's it going to be?" I asked her.
"You didn't answer my question, Dan."
"What question?"
"What do you look like?"
"Um, my hair is sandy brown now, I'm not sure if my eyes sparkle or not, but they're still the same blue as yours and Mom's, and I grew into my front teeth."
"Hmm, it took you way longer to tell me what I look like. Are you leaving anything out?"
"Probably, but I think those are all the important points."
Raven pulled her knees under her, raised herself up on them, and moved closer to me.
"Let me feel you, Dan."
She didn't even wait for permission, but reached out and found my shoulders. Her feathery touch as her fingers played across my chest to meet in the middle almost made me shiver. Her fingers danced along my neck and found my ears. She took her sweet time there and stopped just short of sticking some fingers in them.
Her palms were warm and soft against my jawline then cheeks.
"Mmhm...stubbly," she murmured.
"It's the weekend; I don't shave on the weekends, but I can start if you want me to."
"It's kind of...sexy," she murmured her answer, but didn't say if I should shave or not on the weekends.
The thought occurred to me that Raven seemed more relaxed today. She said 'shit' twice, wore a see-through outfit to run in, was wearing a mini-skirt and tight top now, and had just said 'sexy' to and about me even though, in my mind, she deserved that description more than I did.
I was certain the see-through clothes were a mistake and she'd feel humiliated, and probably betrayed that I didn't tell her how much of her body she was showing if she found out she wore something like that in front of me.
I liked her new attitude though.
She moved a little closer and her fingers combed through my hair to the back of my head. Her sweater was just a few inches from my face, and I picked up just the hint of perfume for the first time today.
I pictured in my mind's eye my sister's supple fingers as they played across my forehead and around my eyes, down and around my nose, then slowed to almost a crawl as she lightly caressed my lips. She seemed to take more time there than anywhere else.
Her hands dropped to her knees, then she leaned towards me until I felt her hair brush against my face and her breath burned against my ear.
"Okay, you're the most handsome man I know, so I can move to Cincinnati with you, on two conditions."
"What conditions?" I asked as I struggled to breath normally.
"First, I'm not moving in with you; we're moving in together."
"Okay, and?"
"London, Paris, Milan," she told me very deliberately, like she was making an announcement.
She leaned back, sitting on her heels.
I waited for an explanation for a couple of seconds, but the grin on her face didn't look like any more explanation was coming.
"What?"
"Next summer, at least two weeks, you and me, London, Paris, and Milan."
"What? Really?"
"I've always wanted to smell, taste, feel, and hear those cities. Please?"
"Just you and me?"
"We'll call Mom and Dad from the airport, in London, and let them know where we are, and maybe how long we'll be gone."
She tried not to, and I tried not to, but we burst out laughing together.
"I would love to take the prettiest girl I know to London, Paris, and Milan, especially since she's you."
"I'm okay with being arm candy for you, but it's my treat."
"You don't have to..."
"Dan! It's going to be my treat, otherwise deal's off. You've done so much, you do so much for me that you don't have to do, you have to let me do this for you, for my favorite person in the whole entire universe."
I would have to start saving now for just the airfare for two to Europe, even with my new, well-paying, entry level job I would be starting the second week after we get back from California.
Raven told me she didn't like to talk about money, so I planned on letting her help, minimally, with the trip.
"Okay, Raven, it can be your treat."
"You better not just be saying that now to seal the deal, then change your mind later, or try to trick me. Cross your heart."
The last time she had demanded that I cross my heart was when she made me promise to not take the first swing ever again when somebody hurt or scared her, and that was in high school, after I bloodied up a football player because he slapped her butt hard enough to knock her down.
He wasn't the first guy I'd punished with my fists for hurting or mistreating her, but he was the last. After that, apparently, no one was brave enough to take that first swing when they deserved a good beating and I had to settle for using words and wit to punish them.
"Cross my heart," I told her as I did.
That meant I couldn't go back on my word, ever, for any reason.
"Good. Now, is there furniture in our new place?"
I didn't want to, but I laughed, right out loud.
"Was that funny?" Raven laughed with me.
"I didn't expect it. Why did it sound like an accusation, and how was your accusation right?"
"So there is?"
"Yeah," I replied, still laughing.
"Good. I want to smell and feel it, and since we're probably flying out of Cincinnati on Tuesday, we could stay until then."
"I can be ready in about ten minutes."
"It's gonna be a couple hours for me, Dan. Hmm, unless you wanna help me."
"A couple of hours to pack for less than a week? What's..."
"I can't just go to my closet and grab clothes, Dan. Seriously?"
"I'm sorry, Rae. I don't know what's wrong with me."
"It's okay. You probably don't even know it, but moving in with a girl for the first time in your life has got to be stressful, even if she is your sister. Add to that you just had the longest conversation you've ever had with her about her teeny tiny titties, and you have a good excuse for making mistakes."
"God, Raven! It's the only conversation we've ever had about...those."
Raven's eyes morphed into the saddest eyes I've ever seen and her bottom, pouty, kissable lip poked out in an exaggerated pout.
"I know they're little, but you could have picked them being teeny tiny to argue about instead of how often we've talked about them. By the way, that count is up to three now, so far."
"So far? What's..."
"Since they're perfect, your words, I'm sure you're going to want to talk about them a lot now."
"Totally not necessary, Rae."
"I'm totally fine with it, little brother."
"So, about packing? How can I help?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.
It's not that I didn't enjoy how her nipples got hard every time we talked about them, I just didn't want to make Raven think I was perving on her perfect little tits as much as I was.
"I need jeans and regular tops for the two days I spend picking up Twister, so three days I'll wear something for you that you pick out, plus Friday for coming back here from Cincinnati."
"You don't need to dress up for me, Rae."
"I think I do," she told me defiantly.
"The thought of wearing baggy old sweat pants and shirt around you now seems like such a waste of time, Dan."
"A waste of time? What's that even mean?"
"I just found out I'm pretty, and that it makes you happy that I'm pretty, so it would be a waste not to take advantage of the chance to not be all covered up like an old woman."
"That you're pretty doesn't make me happy, Rae. That you're you, and you're my sister is what makes me happy."
"I know you'd love me anyway if I weren't pretty, but you can't tell me you aren't even just a tiny bit happier with me in a mini-skirt and top that fits me like a glove."
I couldn't argue with her on that.
"I'm surprised at how it makes me feel to know I'm pretty."
"You're pretty whatever you wear, but if you want to wear pretty clothes, I'm not going to stop you."
####
"This is going to be a good introduction to something you're going to need to help me with from now on, Dan."
I was a little nervous about what was about to happen, and was getting a little annoyed with my nipples for getting hard again for the thousandth time today. That part wouldn't have been so bad if my brother hadn't basically told me it was obvious. It was fine that he might like it, but he didn't need to talk about it.
I knew there was some pervy part of me that did like him talking about that though.
We were standing in my bedroom, and apparently my nipples thought that was intimate enough for an excuse to get hard. I didn't disagree with them. We hadn't spent much time in each other's bedrooms since the last time I had slept in my brother's bed.
"Today you're going to pick out all of my clothes for the days I won't be getting my dog."
"I didn't pick out your clothes this morning, and you did an amazing job of it, both outfits you've worn today."
"You won't be picking them out every day like that, only when I buy new ones or if we need to pack in a hurry, like to flee the country or something."
I almost thought he wasn't going to have a response, but it wasn't negotiable. I needed him to do that for me.
"Don't they have salespeople for that?"
"They have salespeople for sighted people. I can't trust somebody I don't know. What if they're having a bad day, or just think it would be funny to get the blind girl to buy the ugliest outfit in the world, or something I really shouldn't be wearing in public."
Like my running clothes this morning.
"What if I decide you should buy something you shouldn't wear in public?"
"You'll warn me when you pick out something like that for me, won't you?"
I hoped he would, both warn me and pick something like that.
"You know I would, Rae."
"That's why it's your job now to go clothes shopping with me. And grocery shopping with me. I'm great at picking fresh produce, but I'm worthless for buying anything that comes in a bag, box, or shrink wrap, and I've never found a grocery that puts Braille tags on their shelves."
"You don't need me to pick out your outfits every day, just when we buy them?"
"Just when I buy them."
"Then how do you decide what to wear every day when you get dressed?"
"I put Braille tags on them when they're new, with a letter or two for color, a letter or two for style, and so on. I can recognize them by feel and that short description. I also have a database on my laptop with more detailed descriptions, and suggestions for what to wear together."
"The outfit you ran in this morning..."
I knew I was grinning a little before I answered his unfinished question so I turned my face away from him. I knew pretty much where he was going, and I was pretty sure hell is where I'm going for wearing that outfit for my brother.
"That outfit has NSFP on the tag because Karen told me it was when she picked it out for me."
"NSFP," Dan mimicked me slowly.
"Not Suitable for Public," I informed him.
I was probably blushing, but I was certain my nipples were hard again.
"I need to put tags on all your clothes, too."
I didn't want to give him time to think long about my running outfit. He'd get more chances to think about it at our new house.
"My clothes don't need tags, Rae."
"Somebody is going to need to do laundry, and since you're going to be working a real job finally, that'll be my job. You don't want all your tee shirts to be pink because I washed them with something red, do you?"
"Well, no, but I can do my..."
"Packing, Dan. We can talk about laundry later if we need to, but I'm going to win, and even if I don't, you won't be home to stop me, so you might as well give in. Plus, it's only fair that I get to...um, have to handle your undies since you're going to see and feel all mine when you pick them out for me."
"Okay, Rae. What first?"
I sat down on the foot of my bed facing my dresser, crossed my ankles, pulled them almost under me, and pretended I wasn't wearing a mini-skirt.
"The first big drawer on the right has my pants. Far left are jeans. They're all pretty boring and baggy, so it doesn't matter, just get a pair. Then the second row of little drawers, the one on the right, get two pairs of panties. Doesn't really matter which ones. Pick out ones you like. The drawer below that, get two bras, and again, pick out the ones you like cause it doesn't matter to me. Everything in my dresser is boring, Mom stuff, and you're not going to be seeing me wear that much on this trip. Or ever, since we're moving."
I had to grin a little because my brother seemed to take his time and actually picked out panties and bras he liked. It seemed like that, but he might have just been taking his time groping all my underwear.
That's what that little, pervy part of my brain hoped anyway.
"In my closet there are some sweaters. There's a dark blue one, and a tan one. Find those and bring them here."
I heard the click of metal hangers as they bumped each other, and wondered how my brother felt rummaging in my closet, and wondered if a little part of him felt like he was violating me.
I held my hand's out, palms up, when he returned, and he put a pile of sweaters in them.
The ones I wanted had almost the same texture, ribbed and not very thick, but the blue one the ribbing came in pairs with slightly more distance between the sets of ribs. He got this right, so I put them on the pile with my jeans and underwear.
"Rae, you only have one pair of jeans."
"I know, but Thursday we're going straight to the airport to fly home. I want you to have something that isn't a flight attendant to look at on the airplane, so those jeans are not gonna be some Mom picked out.
"In the back of my closet are two big suitcases. Bring those and put them on the bed. They're full, so don't expect them to be light. There's a leather carry-on bag and a small pull-behind suitcase that actually are empty, so bring those too."
I felt my secret stash of cute clothes move the bed when they landed, followed in a minute by what I assumed were the two empty bags we were going to fill up shortly for our trips.
"My jeans and stuff can go in the carry-on. When you're done with that, one of the suitcases has tops, skirts, and pants in it. The other one has dresses and underwear. Pick out a pair of jeans to put in the carry-on and what you want me to wear Sunday, Monday, and Friday."
"Yes, ma'am," Dan chuckled.
"When I find out what you pick for me to wear, I'll tell you what underwear I want to go with it."
"It can't be a surprise, Rae?"
Dan sounded disappointed, and not sarcastically disappointed, but for real.
"Okay, Dan," I had to giggle. "If you feel like carrying all those suitcases and my carry-on with us today, then it can all be a surprise for me, at home, our new home."
"Those suitcases are going eventually anyway, Rae."
My brother sounded triumphant, and I loved that tone in his voice, so I didn't even quibble about the fact that I hadn't agreed to move in with him. He probably knew as much as I did that was just a formality that probably would never happen.
####
"Do we have everything?"
We had just gotten situated in my car, parked in the driveway of our childhood home.
Raven half turned in the passenger seat and pretended to look in the backseat.
"Hmm, I don't see anything you've forgotten," she giggled.
I heard Boston's tail slap against the back seat in anticipation of getting a bit of attention. He wasn't disappointed.
"Of course you don't. If we forgot it, it wouldn't be back there, so you couldn't see it."
"Yeah, true, but I couldn't see it even if it were back there. We have both my suitcases and my carry-on, right?"
"Yep."
"Did you pack, and is it in the car?"
"Probably."
"That's helpful. I'm ready if you are, and if you're not, that's not my problem."
I glanced at the center console as I shifted into reverse. My insulated travel mug of coffee was nestled into the cup holder next to Raven's. She had Earl Grey in hers.
I felt giddy as I pulled away from the house and started our trip to Cincinnati. I didn't know if it was because my sister was with me and I was seeing her now in a whole new light, or if I was excited because she was coming with me to Cincinnati, or because moving and being an adult was actually happening.
Even wrapped in a knee-length, black wool coat, I knew she had changed from her white sweater, black mini-skirt, and tights while I was packing and loading our luggage into my car.
She still had on her Mary Janes, but the tights she had on were white now, and ribbed, and I recognized the brown, mid-calf skirt I could see covering her knees and half of her shins. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her black shoes didn't really go with her brown skirt, but since they didn't really look bad, she probably just liked them enough to not care.
Her coat and the white, fuzzy, stocking cap looked new, and I didn't remember seeing them before. I wondered if Karen had picked those out for her too, because the slim body beneath it was readily apparent, and she looked tiny in it, and very sexy.
We had only traveled a few blocks when Raven turned the radio on and found a station playing soft rock music. That's what she liked to listen to, but I liked stuff with more of a metal edge.
"I get to pick the music," she announced, then unbuttoned her coat and wiggled her arms out of the sleeves, but left it between her back and the seat.
I took the opportunity at the next stop light to get a better look at my sister.
I recognized not just the skirt she wore, but also the button up shirt. The way she had misused the buttons on both radically changed how they looked on her.
I quickly counted four unbuttoned buttons on her shirt instead of the normal none, or occasionally one. I could even see part of her caramel brown bra, including the band between the cups.
The skirt that I had seen her wear many times had buttons up the front from bottom to top, and came to about the middle of her calves. It was very modest, normally. Today though, most of the buttons had been ignored, and the skirt was split and most of it, now that she had her coat off, rested on the seat. What I thought were white tights were actually above-the-knee, white socks, and my view of most of her slender, pale thighs was completely unobstructed.
I think probably if just two more buttons had been left undone, I would have seen her panties.
She slowly crossed her legs and half-heartedly pushed one side of her skirt across a knee, but it didn't stay.
The quick beep behind us informed me the light had changed, so I accelerated away from the intersection.
"I would never dream of denying anything your heart desires, Dan, but if this is a problem, I can put my coat back on."
"What do you mean, Rae?"
"You need to concentrate on the road for the next two hours. What can I do to help you?"
"We could listen to something that isn't going to put me to sleep."
"I meant do I need to put my coat back on so you can watch the road?"
"No, Rae. I can behave."
"It's not going to be nearly as much fun living together if it's in the cemetery."
It kind of took the dark edge off what she said when she giggled afterwards, but I understood.
It was going to be tough to not look though.
I glanced back in the mirror. Boston was standing up, moving in a circle in the back seat. He had done that several times already, and I felt bad for the poor guy. He never really fussed in the car, but I could tell he didn't like it.
"Apartment or house?" Raven asked without slowing the movement of her fingers back and forth on her reader.
"Condo. Three beds, two baths. Typical."
"Condo? Does that mean we're going to own it eventually once the bank gets paid?"
"Um, well, Rae..."
"You're not trying to say you don't want me involved with that, are you, Dan?"
"No, but I hadn't really thought about it."
"I haven't given you a chance to think about it, have I?"
"I didn't even know you were going to agree to live with me until this morning."
"I still haven't."
I think my heart stopped, but then she laughed pretty hard.
"You never thought I would even entertain the idea of living anywhere but with you, did you, little brother?"
"I didn't know, Rae. You did make me promise to take you to Europe as payment for moving in together."
"Collateral damage, Dan."
"That's fair. As far as the bank goes, well, the condo belongs to one of the partners at my new job. He's been renting it out for years, but was thinking of selling it, so he offered it to me with owner financing. Three thousand down and three thousand a month, rent to own. At the end of two years I need to get financing and buy it. All the rent I pay over those two years goes toward the purchase as a down payment."
I could see out of the corner of my eye that Raven stopped reading and started typing.
She didn't type very long, then she put her machine on the seat next to her and turned her body toward me.
"That's perfect. When we buy it, it won't be a hassle to add me to the deed or loan."
It took all the concentration I could muster to keep my eyes on the road instead of my sister's bare legs, just across the console from me.
My phone alerted for a new text message, so I glanced down at it on the console between me and Raven.
The new text on my lockscreen said "Zelle: Raven Tipton sent you $3,000.00."
"Raven, what's that?"
"Three thousand a month is more than I would have thought, but since it's really like putting it in the bank I'm not going to complain too much about it. That was my half of the deposit and one month's rent."
"You know, to buy a house, the buyers need good credit scores. Right?"
I didn't know much about credit and getting loans, but had done a little research on home buying, so I knew that.
"Yeah. What's yours?"
"Seven hundred three."
I probably sounded a little proud of that.
"You're going to work on it in the next two years though, right, Dan?"
I know I scowled at that comment, but since she couldn't see me, I didn't think it was a big deal.
"I am. I have a plan."
I really thought that score was decent for a twenty-four year old guy about to start his first professional job.
"I can help," my sister offered, to my surprise.
"What's yours, dear sister."
I'm pretty sure my scowl was showing then, even without her seeing it.
"Last I checked, eight-ten to eight-twenty, depending on what credit bureau you look at."
"When was the last time you checked?" I asked incredulously.
"This morning. I check almost every day, to make sure nothing fishy is going on."
I hadn't checked mine since before I signed the lease on the condo, and I only checked then to see what my chances of finding a good rental were, and they weren't all that great with that credit score. In fact, that credit score would normally only get me a livable rental, not a nice one.
I didn't even know there was more than one credit bureau.
"Well, it's supposed to raise my score when I start paying rent and utility bills every month on time," I tried to defend my pathetic score compared to Raven's and prove I have a plan.
"You should probably get your own phone account instead of using Mom and Dad's. Or I could add a line for you on mine, but I have a really important question now," she sighed and rested the back of her head against the headrest.
The one about my credit score was stressful enough for me. I almost dreaded what a really important question would do for me, and the fact my sister has her own phone account kind of surprised me.
"Are we there yet?" she sighed, then giggled.
"You're in luck! I've been circling the block for an hour waiting for you to notice."
"Liar," she giggled at me.
"I, um, I think Boston needs a potty break."
Boston raised his head and thumped his tail on the seat at the mention of his name.
I didn't think Boston really needed a potty break; Raven probably needed one.
"Rest area coming up in..."
"Two miles," Raven interrupted me.
"Three," I corrected her.
"Slow poke," she insulted me with a laugh.
The fact that Boston's leash was on him and Raven had her coat and hat on at least a mile before the exit confirmed that it was, in fact, Raven wanting out of the car. Not that Boston didn't want out, because he always wanted out of a moving car.
I got out of the car and stretched. It wasn't warm outside, but for early December in Ohio, it wasn't bad at all. When I turned around, Raven and Boston were already making a beeline for the pet walking area, but as I watched Raven's cute little butt, I saw Boston slow then stop completely.
Two children, a boy and a girl about eight or nine, were approaching them, taking up the whole sidewalk. It looked like they were talking while they looked right at Raven.
I hurried.
"Is that your server dog, miss?" the boy asked just as I got within earshot.
"Service dog, dumb dumb," the girl scolded him.
I knew they were brother and sister by the sister's comment, but they looked really close in age.
"Service dog, whatever," the boy told his sister before looking back at Raven.
I was behind her, so I couldn't tell what her expression was, but she leaned down closer to them.
"Yes, he is. How did you know?"
"Can we pet him?" the boy asked.
Boston looked nervous. He seemed to know people weren't supposed to bother him when he was working. He put up with it if he had to, but I could tell he didn't like it.
"He's working right now, but if you let me take his leash off, it will be okay to pet him then," Raven explained.
Both kids nodded, which made me chuckle just a little bit.
"Boston, sit."
Raven found his collar and unhooked his leash.
"Boston, stay."
Immediately he was relaxed and his tail started wagging to beat the band.
The boy patted his head, then scratched his ears while the girl looked up at Raven and Boston covered the boy's face with licks.
"I'm Sarah, and this is Jimmy. We're twins."
"I'm Raven, and this is Dan. We're twins, too."
"Wow. Are you blind?" Sarah asked.
"I am, Sarah."
"Dan's not though. He was driving," Sarah announced.
"How did Jimmy know Boston is my service dog?"
"I knew too. I just didn't get to ask before he butted in."
"Okay," Raven laughed, "How did you two know about service dogs?"
Sarah was taking her turn petting and getting dog kisses from Boston, so Jimmy answered for his sister.
"Miss Richardson, she's the music teacher at our school and she's blind. Her service dog looks like yours, except hers is yellowish like colored, and Miss Richardson teaches everybody in her classes how to act around server, I mean serving dogs."
"Service," Sarah corrected him again, still petting Boston.
"I hope you two like Miss Richardson and are nice to her," Raven told her.
"I do. We are. She sings really pretty," Sarah responded. She was done with Boston now, and he sat quietly, except for his tail, at Raven's side.
"But Jimmy loves her."
"Do not!"
"Jimmy and Miss Richardson sittin' in a tree, k-i-s..."
"DO NOT!" Jimmy screamed, and Boston jumped a little.
Jimmy reached out and pinched his sister on the arm hard. She shrieked and ran off yelling for their mother with Jimmy in hot pursuit.
Raven got a good laugh out of that before she clipped Boston's leash to his collar.
"Can you get my cane out of the car, Dan? I really need to pee, and so does Boston. We'll meet you inside, then I can manage with my cane while you take Boston for a walk."
####
"Are you okay, Rae?"
We had ridden in silence for several minutes after we got back on the road, and she had simply leaned her head back against her headrest with her eyes closed.
"Mmhmm. How long's it been since you talked to Karen?"
I knew, in the back of my mind, that Karen and I weren't close like we were as kids. I knew Raven was though. She occasionally went out with her, mostly in the afternoons.
It wasn't as one would expect after the breakup of a year-long romantic relationship either. We drifted apart sometime in the middle of our college careers. I kind of assumed that a large part of that was because of the time taken with my basketball schedule, and maybe Karen's disdain for cheerleaders.
"I don't really know. I invited her to my graduation, but I didn't see her there, or get a response to the invite."
"Yeah, she was a little preoccupied at the time. She had her baby in June."
Maybe it's a guy thing when he hears that a woman he had sex with, even once, has a baby. His mind does the math, no matter how absurd it might be. Six years would either guarantee the baby isn't his, or it was the longest human gestation in history.
"She had a baby?"
"Yep. A beautiful little girl, they say. They say she looks just like her mom, too."
"I didn't know. Is she, um..."
"Yeah, you probably didn't know she got married the winter after we graduated from college. I was her maid of honor, but you said you were busy that weekend when I asked if you wanted to go to a wedding with me."
"She's married? Two years now? I had no idea. Maybe it's been longer than I thought."
"She lives in Cincinnati now, too."
"Really? With..."
"Yeah, of course, with her husband. Christian."
"Good for her."
"I'm thinking we should have them over for dinner, Dan."
"This week?"
"No," Raven laughed. "This week is a staycation for us, except for the going to California thing in the middle of it.
"You do realize we're going to be living in Cincinnati by next weekend, right?"
Part of me did realize that was probably true, but it felt so surreal to the rest of me.
"Before Mom and Dad are back from Phoenix?"
"I'll text them once we're moved in so they won't expect us to be there when, and if, they get back," Raven laughed.
I had to laugh with her.
"Are you really going to suddenly escalate this with them, Rae?"
"What are they gonna do? Kick me out?"
"Yeah, I don't see that ever happening, but especially not if you don't even live there."
Raven sat quietly for a few minutes, but she seemed to be thinking instead of just relaxing like she had been.
"I'm scared, Dan."
"You're scared? Of what?"
Of course, my mind made up a list of things she might be scared of.
"Finding out I'm really as boring and invisible as I think I am."
That wasn't on my list of possibilities.
"You're not boring, and definitely not invisible, Rae. Why would you even think that?"
"'Cause I am. You're my brother so you don't think that, but I know the truth."
"The truth, huh? What about those kids at the rest area? You weren't invisible to them, and they felt safe enough with you and that you might be interesting enough to talk to you even though you're a stranger. This new, secret identity you've let out today definitely makes you highly visible, and I really like it."
"I hope you're right, Dan."
She apparently didn't want to talk about it anymore. She leaned over, turned the radio up, then leaned back and closed her eyes again.
####
"So far, so good. It smells nice here. Are we there?"
We were in the lobby of our new building, waiting for the elevator to take us up to our condo.
"Not quite yet. We live on the fourth floor, so we're waiting on the elevator.
"Poor Boston. You're going to make him ride on an elevator?"
"Does he hate elevators?"
The bell dinged, and the doors opened. Boston didn't even hesitate; he moved toward the inside, but Raven looked reluctant.
"There's buttons on each side of the door," I told her as I reached for and pushed the 4 .
She reached out and grabbed a handful of my coat sleeve when the car started to move.
I could see her knuckles, clutching my coat, turn white.
"Okay, it's not Boston that hates them, Dan. I just haven't needed to ride in elevators very often and I'm not used to it. I'll get used to it though, I swear," she told me through clenched teeth.
Her grip didn't loosen until we came to a stop at our floor and the doors opened.
"Are the buttons Braille?"
"Of course. That was the first thing I looked for when I came to look at it. That was a deal breaker, or they would have had to install new panels if I really wanted to live here."
"You're such a thoughtful man, little brother. Why didn't you let me help decide on a place for us to live?"
"Um, I..."
"Is it because I'm invisible?" Raven accused me before she stepped off the elevator.
She only took a couple steps into the middle of the hallway, then stopped. Boston looked up at her face for some hint of direction from her.
"Sorry, Raven. I swear, you're probably the least invisible person in the world. You're just wrong about me being so thoughtful, but I hope it won't happen again," I told her as I gently took her hand to put it on my arm.
"Someday I'm going to be able to actually pull off a dramatic exit without getting lost immediately."
"We take a right out of the elevator, then another right right away, then a left almost right away again."
"Right, right, left. Right?"
I looked at Raven, and couldn't decide if her expression showed humor or frustration.
"Right."
"Right, right, right? Right?" she scowled.
"No, right, right, left, then it's on the left."
"Okay, so right, right, left, left? Right?"
"Right, right, left, and the door is on the left."
"That's what I said: right, right, left, left. Right?"
We were standing outside our new door, and I had a strong feeling she was doing this on purpose.
"It's right, then right, then left, and the door..."
"I get it, Dan. Are we there now?" Raven laughed a little, but sounded nervous at the same time.
"We're here," I told her and lifted her hand from my arm and put her fingers on the number plate on our door.
"I see they have our Braille plate installed, and they said they would do the rest of the floor as soon as all the plates came in, then do the rest of the building over the next few months."
"Four oh one," Raven murmured.
"They're doing the whole building with new numbers?"
"Yep. You know, accessibility and the ADA, Rae. I had to remind them, and explain why the entire building needed to be done."
Boston started to go in when I opened the door, but then sat down next to Raven and looked up at her. She made no attempt to move.
"Danny, I was used to no black holes. Living...at Mom and Dad's, all the regular places I went in Columbus. I didn't even think about it until we got here."
"Black holes, Rae?"
"New places, Dan. I've been in a black hole since we got out of the car. It's supposed to be home, but it's just a void to me. It's a little overwhelming."
"I'll help you, Rae."
"I don't even feel right teaching Boston a new place. He's only gonna be here a few days. It's so unfair to him."
Raven's chin started to quiver, then her pouty bottom lip joined in.
I knew she was fighting a losing battle.
I led her in, then wrapped her in a gentle hug and let her cry against my body.
"Sorry," she murmured when she pulled away from me.
"It's a lot, more than I thought. I know he needs to retire, but that doesn't mean I need to like it," she sniffled.
"I'm going to miss him, too," I tried to comfort my sister, still with my arms around her a little bit.
"Is that all that's bothering you?" I asked her.
"I wish! Moving in with a man is fucking hard!"
I was shocked, both by her language and the context.
"Am I really that bad, Raven?"
She snorted, then giggled, then moved right into a real laugh.
"No, but just 'cause you're the only man I'd ever consider living with doesn't make it a fucking walk in the park."
"You have a little bit of a potty mouth, Rae."
She grinned in my general direction.
"If I'm grown up enough to live with a man, I'm grown up enough to cuss. Saying 'fuck' once makes me a potty mouth?"
"It's three times now for 'fuck', and twice for 'shit'," I corrected her.
"Doesn't it fit me?" she shrugged.
"Not really, especially since you have to make the effort."
"Fine. Those words don't taste that good in my mouth anyway," she giggled.
"Good. Those pouty, kissable lips should have stars and rainbows, glitter and kittens coming off them to fit you."
"I guess it's true what they say. You really do know how to make a girl feel good."
She was blushing again, just as much as she had the first time I told her that her lips were pouty and begged to be kissed.
"You want to relax while I bring the luggage up, Rae?"
"Where's my bedroom? I want to feel it, and we might as well know where our clothes are going before you bring them up."
"That depends on which one you want."
"Is the invisible girl going to get to choose?"
"Rae..." I started to object.
"I'm not serious, Dan. You never make me feel invisible. You always make me feel like the most important person in the world, because you never let me forget that I'm the most important person in the world to you. It's the rest of the world that doesn't see me.
"I'm just acting like a whiny, little girl because my life is being uprooted. Get used to it."
"Okay, Rae. The invisible girl gets to choose."
"Thank you," she smiled. "Let's have the tour then."
I ended up giving her the in-depth tour of the whole place, all six rooms. She didn't even bother bringing Boston around with us. He kept tabs on us from the living room. He could watch most of it from there anyway.
"Which one do you want, Rae?" I asked after a mostly silent walk-through. Raven only gave me a few 'mhms' and 'okays'.
"Which one has the best view?" she giggled.
"The first one."
"The big one has the best view? Great. That one's yours. I don't need much room, and I definitely don't care much about the view. I'll take what's behind door number two, please."
####
I managed to get both of Raven's big suitcases, her carry-on, and my small suitcase in one trip, and managed to arrange it so I just had to put one of hers down in the hallway to open the door into the condo.
I noticed before I even had the door closed behind me that Raven's Mary Janes and white socks were piled in the middle of a sofa cushion. That was very un-Raven. She was so much more than compulsive about everything and anything being where it belongs.
I didn't hold that against her. She needed that, not just with her things, but everything.
I put everything I was carrying down right where I was and hurried toward her bedroom. I could only imagine she was hurt, or sick, or worse.
I skidded to a stop at the end of the breakfast bar between the living area and kitchen. Raven's little bare feet looked amazingly cute as she knelt on the floor with her head, shoulders and arms inside the refrigerator and her butt sticking out behind her.
"Raven? What's wrong?"
"Seriously, Dan? Unless I'm missing something, there's absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing in this kitchen!"
She sat up and pushed herself up, then stepped back and almost slammed the refrigerator door.
"You mean like..." I started.
"This is why you should have gotten me involved. I had to drink straight out of the faucet to get a drink of water."
"There wasn't..."
"Poor Boston! I had to let him drink out of the toilet!"
"He does that on his own anyway," I tried to defend myself.
"He does not !" she raised her voice.
She looked shocked and lowered her voice.
"Does he?"
"He does."
"Eww, but still, there aren't any dishes or cooking stuff. No food. Nothing. How did you expect us to survive?"
"There are these new-fangled things, maybe you heard of them? Stores and restaurants? They have them, even in Cincinnati."
"So you planned on us going out to eat this whole week?"
"Well..."
"I said 'planned'," she reminded me.
"No. But that will work, won't it?"
"Not really, but I wouldn't mind getting dressed up if you wanted to take me on a date tonight for dinner. Breakfast at one of those all-night diners sounds yummy for tomorrow morning, too."
She was grinning now, so I felt like I dodged a bullet.
"That doesn't mean we can manage until tomorrow though. We need toilet paper."
She scowled at me.
"I do anyway. We need to have something we can drink when we get thirsty, and something to drink out of."
"There's a grocery store right across the street behind the building. We can even walk, if you want."
Raven slowly leaned forward and her hands moved toward her thigh.
I watched as one heel lifted a little off the floor and her bare toes flexed against the floor as her knee slipped out of the unbuttoned front of her skirt.
Her hands slowly moved to each side of her naked thigh and caressed downward, over her knee, along her shin then around to the back of her calf.
"Mmhm," she whispered as she straightened up and grinned in my direction.
"I need a razor too. Stockings will be easier to put on for our date tonight."
I couldn't think of a reason to not watch her delicate hands finish their path back up the outside and inside of her pale thigh and lift her skirt at the last buttoned button to reveal the tip of some light brown, silky panties.
The benefits of having a hot, blind sister, I involuntarily thought to myself.
I felt a little guilty for thinking that, but not enough that my penis didn't notice and thicken a little bit.
"That's not my fault..." I started to shuffle some blame for not having things ready.
"I'm not perfect, Dan, but I didn't know we were moving in together until this morning."
"I didn't know..."
"Shush," Raven giggled as she took the two steps between us and raised up on her tiny toes to pinch my lips closed with her thumb and finger. She had to adjust her grip once because she almost missed my mouth the first try.
"I know you didn't know that when you find a woman to live with you, from then on, it's your fault any time she chooses."
Her grip on my lips slowly eased.
"But..."
Her warm fingers tightened on my lips again.
"It's exponentially more true when she's the prettiest woman you know, even when, I mean especially when she's your big sister."
She grinned as her hand lowered to my shoulder, then trailed down my chest.
"That's fair, isn't it?" she asked in a playful voice.
####
Dan was way more helpful doing the shopping than I thought he would be. I shouldn't have been surprised. Of everyone I had ever known, he was the one person who knew what I needed, almost instinctively, and it usually came without thought on his part or asking on mine.
I left him with instructions while I "freshened up". Normally, that usually would mean a shower and some lipstick, but today, it meant a bath so I could be comfortable and shave my legs. I was even going to go the extra mile and wear more than lipstick on my face, and do something with my hair besides brush it and let it hang down to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I wanted to look spectacular, and hoped I could pull it off.
I paused as I was finishing shaving the top of the leg I started on. My hand had brushed against my bush, and I wondered if it matched the hair on my head. Jet-black, as Dan had described it -- shiny and jet-black. I could tell by feel that it was long.
I tried to imagine it as I combed my fingers through it.
I hadn't bothered with it for a long time. I had no reason to bother with it. Nobody ever saw it since I stopped trimming it after I dumped my ex, and that was about five years ago.
I wondered if I could still do it. Scissors in the hands of a blind person near that part of the body would be scary to anyone, even the blind person wielding them.
The decision to leave that until a later date came easy, so I moved on to the other leg and wondered what Dan would pick for me to wear tonight.
Picking my outfit and making us a reservation was all he needed to do besides get himself ready while I was in the tub.
I finished with my bath, dried off with one of the towels we just bought at the grocery, then wrapped myself in my spare. They weren't that nice, or big, but they came from a grocery store so I couldn't really complain.
I wished I had thought to bring the big, fluffy towels that I had at Mom and Dad's.
I did double, maybe triple check to make sure I was covered enough though.
I was excited to see what Dan had picked out for me to wear, so went straight to my bed and felt for it.
I nodded to myself and grinned. I recognized, by feel, my little black dress, the one article of clothing every girl needs in her wardrobe.
That fact confused me. I had never worn mine other than when I tried it on at the store, with Karen.
Dan would be the first man to see me in it.
Like the sweater I had worn earlier today, it fit me like a glove, from considerably above the middle of my thighs, over my hips and butt, along my waist, and to just barely above my nipples. The shoulders covered just my shoulders, and there was a hook on the back, in the middle between them to hold them together over my bare back.
That hook was the only thing that held it on my body.
The fact that, from that hook at the base of my neck to just below where my butt cheeks start, my back was going to be bare meant I wouldn't be able to wear anything under the dress. I knew that was true when I bought it. Karen even tried to persuade me not to get it because she thought that was too racy, even for me.
This made my choice in underwear easy. I had a pair of stay-up, black stockings, complete with a seam up the back and lace trim at the top. Since I bought them just for this dress, I knew the dress would cover that lace at the top, but only when standing, and it would peek out when I sat down.
I started to pull the towel from around me, but then stopped.
"Dan?" I said softly.
"Oh, um...I'm here. What can I do to help?"
"Your sister is about to get naked. Can you close the door on your way out, please?" I giggled.
"Sorry, Rae. Yeah. I thought, um, you were going to tell me what underwear to get for you to wear under, with that. You said..."
"I know, I know, but that's not necessary. I got it handled."
Dan and I used to take baths together, when we were like three years old. I remember those times, but he hadn't seen me naked since then, and I had almost grown breasts and definitely pubic hair in the meantime. Him sneaking a look like this was not something I wanted to happen, even if he meant to sneak a look.
"Dan? Good choice on the dress," I told him before the door clicked closed.
####
Boston's tail thumped on the living room floor and his head raised to look at me a split second before I heard the latch release on Raven's bedroom door.
His eyes twinkled, and I swear he looked like he smiled at me before he stood up.
I looked over my shoulder when I heard Raven's cane tap along the wall from the hallway, and Boston made a circuitous path around her.
"Hey Boston," she giggled and bent down to touch his head.
"Where's Dan?"
Boston looked at me, still sitting silently on the sofa, then, as if to say "there", he barked a little, high-pitched bark.
"Oh, hey Raven," I announced as I stood.
The way she looked had made my intelligence level drop precipitously, apparently. My habit of speaking as soon as she entered a room had been driven completely from my mind.
She would have been bare-footed, except for the black-tinted nylons she wore. They were just barely tinted black, with the shadow of a fishnet pattern, and revealed her cute, little toes inside. With each step, a hint of the lace at the tops of the stockings peeked out from under her dress and told me they weren't panty hose, but actual stockings.
The black dress I had picked out made her legs look longer than usual, even bare-footed, because of how short the dress was on them.
If Raven wore any makeup, it was usually just a blush of color on her lips, but tonight those pouty lips were a deep red, and a hint of gray eyeshadow darkened her eyelids above her eyes.
She had her raven-black hair in a messy bun on the crown of her head, tied with a ribbon that matched her lips, and wisps of hair hung around her face.
People usually mistook Raven for a teenager, even at twenty-four, probably because she was so tiny, but tonight she looked every bit of the adult woman she actually is, and her smile beamed at me.
"Am I nice to look at, Dan?"
"God no, Rae, you're gorgeous," my mouth replied, ignoring my total lack of conscious intelligence.
With the help of her cane, she moved around the end of the sofa and came right to me before she stopped, folded her cane up and put it and the pair of black heels in her hand on the sofa.
"Let me have a look at you," she whispered, then reached above her to pull my shoulder down toward her.
The sweet, musky scent of her perfume filled my head as she cupped my cheeks in her hands.
"You shaved," she murmured. "You didn't need to. I like your stubble, at least on the weekend."
Her hands went to my shoulders and down to my chest, then she checked my throat.
"Thanks for wearing a tie. A little black dress needs to go on dates with a tie."
Her hand was warm against the back of my neck when she raised up on her toes and pulled my face down to hers. Our noses bumped right before her lips met mine. Her lips lingered on mine as she kissed me gently and my lips responded on their own.
"I forgot about our noses. Sorry," she giggled, then backed a couple of steps away from me.
Raven slowly turned in a circle, obviously wanting to give me the full view of her in her tiny black dress.
She paused briefly with her back to me, and her head turned as if she were looking at me over her shoulder before she finished the circle.
I didn't realize when I picked it out, without her in the dress, that it left her entire back bare. I learned that my sister has a delightfully cute, little dimple, nestled where the cleft of her butt begins, a couple of inches above where her dress hugged her cute, little butt.
I knew what she meant, that she had it handled to pick her underwear without my help. She couldn't have had any on. I would have seen some of anything she wore underneath her dress, and I didn't.
"So?" she begged for a comment from me.
"You make that dress beautiful, Rae."
My lips could still feel our kiss, so I was a little surprised that I could figure out to give her even that reply.
####
Dan drove us through downtown on the way to the restaurant. He explained the condo is two blocks from the business district, and pointed out a few places on the way. I hoped he wouldn't expect me to remember where they are, but I appreciated knowing there were some coffee shops, a bookstore, a few restaurants and an old-style movie theater within walking distance.
Twister and I would learn each one, and put them to good use once Dan started working and left us alone all day.
It wasn't like I could actually concentrate on anything right then. My sparklers were going crazy. I had kissed my brother on the lips again, and he had kissed me back.
"We're here, but wait, Rae."
I smiled and nodded.
"When you walk, the tops of your stockings show a little, but when you sit down, even a little of your, um, bare legs show."
That surprised me a little. Not what he told me, but that he told me, like I didn't know and wouldn't want it to be true.
I did know though. Well, not that my bare legs showed a little, but I suspected that might be true.
I wanted to look sexy tonight.
I hoped he only told me because he didn't want anybody and everybody seeing what he thought they shouldn't, and not that he didn't want to see it.
"I know, Dan. Is my dress too short? We're here, so it's kind of too late to change."
"Well, no, not too short, maybe. I just thought you should know."
"It's okay, though, right? I look okay? The dress is okay?"
"You're gorgeous, Rae, even if...I mean, probably especially showing a little leg."
####
"Would you like a Braille menu, ma'am?"
Raven looked surprised for a split second before her deep red, pouty little mouth turned into a grin.
"You have Braille menus?" she almost giggled.
"We do. They're pretty new," the hostess informed us as she put a plain white piece of heavy paper in Raven's hand. I could see the bumps on it.
Raven leaned toward me as the hostess left with a promise of Bernice being there soon to take our drink orders.
"This might be my favorite place in Cincinnati already. It feels so nice, and smells good, and they have Braille menus!"
"I hear their steaks are pretty good too, Raven," I grinned at her.
Raven's expression changed. She was reading the menu, and she looked puzzled.
"This place is called Hoosier Steaks , right?"
"Yep. There are a few of them in Indiana, and this is the first one in Ohio. Why?"
"Nothing really. Just wondering."
"Raven," I started. There was something I couldn't stop thinking about, and had been since we left home.
"Yeah?" Raven giggled at me.
"At home, you kissed me..."
Raven shrugged, but even in the dim restaurant lighting, I saw a flush rise on her cheeks.
"Dan, it's a little condescending to kiss your sister on the top of her head or on the forehead, even if it's a lot of work for you to bend all the way down to my face. You're finally an adult. We have our own place. You have a real job. We can kiss like grownups, can't we?"
"Sorry, Rae. I never..."
"You have before. I mean, um, I kissed you on the lips before."
"I was gonna say I never knew it was condescending, but when did you kiss me on the lips?"
"Oh." Raven murmured and turned her face away from me.
"The last time I was in your bed, and that's why I stopped sleeping with you, I mean in your bed. You didn't dream it; I kissed you."
"Hi, I'm Bernice. I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?"
Raven visibly relaxed and smiled toward Bernice, but the flush on her cheeks remained.
"Can we get champagne by the glass here?"
"Rae?"
"I want champagne to celebrate us finally moving in together, Dan."
"Congratulations!" Bernice giggled. "You two make an adorable couple."
"Thanks, Bernice," Raven chortled.
"We do have a house champagne, it's very dry though."
"Perfect. I don't like sweet champagne. Dan? Can we each have a glass?"
I didn't know my sister ever drank alcohol, and I had no idea what she was thinking. She had to know Bernice thought we had moved in together as a couple, not that we're brother and sister.
What was she talking about? She kissed me on the lips? That wasn't anywhere near what I remembered happening the last time she slept in my bed.
At that moment though, I was suddenly distracted, so I nodded and mumbled my agreement as my eyes locked with the eyes of a girl, a young girl, standing a few feet behind Raven.
"Bring us each a water, too, Bernice."
The girl's eyes instantly went to the floor and her face blushed bright red.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks. Congratulations, again."
The girl was very young, literally barely a teenager, if that. She had to be thirteen or fourteen, at the most. She was very thin, with a mop of brown hair in what would have been banana curls surrounding her head, except they would be better described as pencil curls, no bigger around than a wooden pencil, and they almost reached her shoulders.
The second our server turned to leave, she looked back up and our eyes met again.
I had seen that general demeanor, stance, and distance before. She wanted an autograph, but I hadn't been asked for one of those since the summer after college when everyone still thought I was on my way to the NBA, before it became public knowledge that wasn't going to happen.
I smiled at her.
She blushed some more, then shrugged and her eyes turned to my sister and she stepped forward.
"Sorry, excuse me, hi? Are you Raven Tipton?"
I saw she had what looked exactly like one of the Braille books that Raven was always reading in her hand.
"Yes, I am," Raven replied with a question in her voice.
"Oh my God! I knew it was you!" she squealed.
"Well, yeah, it's me. Who are you?"
"I'm Heather, and I love you. You're my hero, um, I mean my hero is Robin, but I love you!"
Raven's cheeks glowed bright red immediately.
"Um, well, nice to meet you Heather."
"You saved my life, Raven. That's why I love you."
She was literally bouncing, and I was as confused as I had ever been in my entire life.
"Will you sign my book for me? Oh my God! Nobody's gonna believe I met you!"
"I don't understand how I could possibly have saved your life, Heather."
Raven sounded a little confused, and still looked embarrassed.
Heather put her book on the table and pushed it in front of Raven. There was a small picture on the front, just like most of Raven's Braille books. The picture looked like a little blonde girl wearing a homemade Superman -- Supergirl, I suppose -- costume. The title was Robin's Great Adventures.
At the bottom of the picture I could barely make out the words "A story by", then in larger letters "Raven Tipton".
"I know it doesn't seem like you could, but you did. I was ready to give up on school and ever learning anything. I wanted to just die. I have dyslexia really bad, and I could barely read. Everybody was talking about Robin and how brave and amazing she is. She seemed to be able to do anything, and she was blind. I wanted to read about her, but I couldn't. I couldn't even read kindergarten books and I was nine years old."
"Sweetheart," Raven murmured.
"I asked Mom to read it to me," Heather whimpered. She looked and sounded like she was about to cry.
"Robin is so brave, and strong, and being blind has to be worse than just having silly dyslexia. If she could..."
Heather's voice cracked and she really started crying then. Raven was crying, too. I was just getting more confused the longer their conversation went.
"Robin's my hero, so I wanted to be like her," Heather moaned. "I decided to try Braille, like Robin. It was hard, at first, but I tried real hard. Mom noticed, and got a teacher to teach me Braille cause I was trying so hard, and Mom and Dad had tried everything to help me but nothing worked."
Heather paused to sniffle and wipe her nose on her sleeve.
"When I read Braille, I don't have dyslexia. I could barely read anything a few years ago. I was even in special ed classes, but now I'm an honor student because my school has to give me Braille textbooks. That's how you saved my life."
Raven sat there, tears streaming down her face.
"Heather..." Raven moaned.
"Would you sign my book? This is the only one I have with me, or I'd ask if you would sign all of them. I have all your books. I would have brought them, hardbacks and all of them, if I knew you were here."
Raven wiped her cheeks and under her eyes hard with her fingers and sniffled a little herself.
"Of course, sweetie," she whispered hoarsely and held her hand out toward the girl.
"It's..."
Heather pointed to her book on the table in front of my sister.
"Raven, are you blind, like Robin?"
"I am."
Heather wrapped herself around my sister and hugged her like there was no tomorrow.
"Oh!" Raven gasped, then returned the hug with as much enthusiasm as Heather was hugging her.
"Forget Robin, you're my hero. A blind author is the bravest thing I've ever heard of!'
They hugged for a long time, while I just tried to wrap my head around the fact that Raven, my sister, is an author. She hadn't just written a book, but enough books that Heather wanted her to sign all of them, and a famous enough author to be recognized by a fan in a restaurant more than a hundred miles from home.
"Heather?" Raven asked as they disentangled and composed themselves.
"Did you have anything to do with this restaurant having a Braille menu?"
"Yeah," she giggled. "I guess they got tired of me asking for one, so they finally made one."
"So that's why it says 'Heather's Menu' at the top?"
"Yeah."
"That's a pretty brave thing to do, Heather."
"That's not brave. I just wanted to be able to decide what I want to eat without anybody helping me or just looking at the pictures like a baby."
"It's also admitting you're not like everybody else, and that's very brave."
"That's not brave, not like you."
"Everything I know about you is brave, Heather. That's why you don't think getting a restaurant to make a Braille menu just for you is brave."
"I just do what I have to do, even when it's scary."
"That's what brave is. You do it even when you're scared."
Heather's face blushed again, and she giggled.
She looked over at me, then waved.
"Hi," she squeaked at me.
"Oh, this is Dan, sorry. He's my brother."
"Your brother?"
"Yeah, he's my brother."
"I thought he was your boyfriend."
"He's too cute to be my boyfriend, Heather."
I thought Heather was going to choke from laughing so hard.
"You said you guys just moved in together, so, ya know, I do know what that means, and you're having champagne to celebrate."
"Oh, you heard that," Raven laughed.
"I know I wouldn't want to 'live with' my big brother."
I knew Raven didn't know about the air quotes Heather used around live with.
"He's my little brother so somebody has to take care of him."
"He's way cuter than my brother, but I might live with my brother if he was gonna take care of me, but I don't think he'd do that. He's not very nice to me."
"How old is, um, what's his name?"
"Bruce. He's twenty. He's seven years older than me almost."
"Give it a few years, Heather. He'll grow up by then. You'll see."
"I kinda doubt it, but I'll give him a chance I guess. As long as I don't have to 'live with' him."
"Now, where's the book you want me to sign?"
"On the table."
Raven moved both her hands from her lap and quickly found the book.
"This is the first one?" Raven asked as her fingers scanned the cover.
"Yeah. I have them all, but between new ones, I read the old ones again."
Raven picked up the pen Heather had put down with the book and opened the front cover.
"I don't really write with a pen and paper anymore, Heather," she explained. She carefully wrote a capital R followed by a straight line.
"So I'm just signing my name."
She wrote a capital T followed by another straight line, then flipped the book over and opened the last page.
"Don't share this with anybody," Raven instructed her while writing something.
"You can use it whenever you want, and I hope you do."
"Your phone number? You want me to text you?" Heather asked hopefully.
"Text or call. Either works."
"You have to have millions of fans. Why do you want to be friends with me?"
Heather looked confused.
"You're the only person who's ever asked me to sign my book for them, and who wouldn't want to be friends with a brave girl who's going to change the world one day? You've already changed your little part of it. I get to use your menu to order tonight."
####
I didn't remember what I had planned, or even why or if I actually had a plan for keeping my career away from Dan.
The fact that he knew now filled my head and overwhelmed thoughts of whatever that plan might have been.
I figured I had two choices. I could pretend he didn't know and ignore the whole thing, hoping it would just go away, or I could give him the excuse I was a teenager when Mom and Dad signed my first two book deals because I was a minor and I never thought to mention it to him.
The first choice absolutely wouldn't work, and the second one was so lame that even Dan wouldn't buy it, even with it being half true, just not the half that I never thought to mention it. I did think about telling him, almost every day, but it had gone on too long for it to be excusable. I had even avoided telling him when he gave me the perfect opening today.
"Well, that cat's out of the bag, isn't it?" I muttered as I searched for my champagne flute that I knew was somewhere nearby.
I found my drink without a response from my brother. Obviously my hope for levity in the situation was fruitless.
"To our new future?" I asked with my glass raised, then held my breath.
"To our new future, in which my sister is going to spill the beans about everything she's been hiding from me."
He didn't sound happy. He didn't sound unhappy, but I was hoping for happy.
Our glasses clinked together, and I released my breath as I brought mine to my lips.
"Danny? Are you mad?"
He chuckled, and sounded sincere.
"I guess that thing about being invisible and boring was total bullshit, Rae."
"It's not like I do book signings or release parties. As far as I know, it's just me at home all day, and until just now, I've never actually met anyone who read one of my books, except my publisher and editors."
"With millions of fans all over the world?"
"I'm sure that was an exaggeration, and Heather didn't say 'all over the world.'"
I would have to take that last part back at some point, even though it was technically true. Heather didn't say "all over the world," but I knew my books were translated into Spanish, German, and French, both standard books and Braille.
I heard Dan's chair scrape the floor as it moved away from the table. Panic rose in my chest at the thought that he might be angry enough to leave me there.
I felt him next to me a second later though. I hoped it was him. Then his warm hand rested on the bare skin of my back across my shoulder blades and his soft lips touched mine in a light kiss.
"I have to use the restroom before the food gets here. Will you be okay?"
"I will be now," I whispered, my lips brushing his while a sparkler storm started again in my eyes.
####
As I made my way across the dining room headed for the restroom, I might have still shaken my head in denial of what I'd just learned even if my sister could see me.
Raven Tipton is an author.
I came up with an excuse for not knowing that -- she writes childrens' books -- just as I was about to make the turn to go into the hallway where the restrooms were located.
The male voice that drowned out the babble of conversations in the dining room rooted my feet in place.
"There's a fucking dog in here!"
I spun around, expecting to need to search for the source of the drunken yell. That wasn't necessary.
A stout man, dressed in a dark suit, his tie loosened at his throat, pointed at the table where Raven sat, and lumbered slowly in her direction.
I knew immediately that even at his slow, unsteady gait, he would reach my sister long before I could cover the distance, even at a sprint and without the tables, chairs, and people between us.
"Hey! Stop!" I yelled as I pushed myself to a sprint, and planned my route to Raven.
"Don't bite him, Boston," I exhaled with each breath.
I had no idea how Boston would react to this situation. As far as I knew, he had never been assaulted by a drunk person who intended to remove him by force from Raven's side.
I wondered if he had been trained for this.
"I'm gonna drag that mutt outta here!" the drunk bellowed.
I wasn't going to be able to stop him. He was already starting to reach under the table and I was only half-way there.
"Stop!" I screamed without slowing.
Raven's face was pale, and her hands were under the table in front of her. Her mouth was open like she was screaming, but the room seemed silent around me.
Suddenly a wad of brown curls bounced off the drunk's shoulder, and he staggered sideways. He almost went down, but stumbled upright as the curls rose from below him, and he pushed them.
The girl, I didn't remember her name at that second, fell backwards, half on the table, and half against Raven.
Skinny legs and arms flailed, then coalesced onto the top of the table. A hand grabbed Raven's arm as she teetered and toppled, then steadied her upright as her chair slid from under her and Raven dropped straight to the floor and the chair clattered away from her.
The bundle of curls raised her other hand, still holding Raven upright with an arm behind her, and something sprayed out of her fingertips and splattered against the drunk's face.
I was still a few yards away, and the man's scream of anguish echoed around me as he dropped to his knees and clawed at his face.
I dashed past him to get to Raven. My eyes caught a snapshot of the drunk and the girl as I passed. He was mashing his fists into his eyes. His face glowed almost beet red and his mouth gaped open with his sobs.
Heather stood over him. Her face grimaced and her lips stretched across her teeth in a scream as she continued to pelt his face with liquid from her fingertips.
She was in total control of that, so I could concentrate on Raven.
"Raven! Are you hurt?" I desperately asked as I slid to a stop on my knees in front of my sister.
She was sitting upright on the floor, her legs spread in front of her with one knee slightly bent. Boston lay across her lap with his chin on her raised thigh, and Raven's fingers gripped handfuls of his fur at his neck.
Boston turned his head and bared his teeth at me for a split second then relaxed and returned his chin to her leg.
"Danny? What's happening?"
"Raven, god, are you hurt?" I insisted.
She looked terrified.
"I don't think so, Danny. What's going on?"
She released Boston's fur and reached for me.
"I'll be right back. I have to take care of that man," I told her as I stood.
"No Danny! Please, you promised!"
I quickly scanned the nearby people.
"You!" I shouted and pointed at a stunned waitress standing at the next table.
Her eyes stretched and her mouth dropped open, but she met my eyes.
"Get a pitcher of milk and pour it on the asshole's face."
I turned my attention to Heather and the drunk.
He was still wailing, now supine on the floor, and rubbing hard at his eyes.
Heather was a few feet away from him, struggling to break free of arms around her waist holding her back. Tears streamed down her face and her eyes were rimmed in red.
The man holding her was probably in his mid-forties, and the woman beside him was about the same age, but the spitting image of Heather. She was talking desperately into her phone.
I took a few steps toward Heather and the couple who were obviously her parents.
"Are you calling 9-1-1?" I asked. The woman met my eyes and nodded.
"What should I do with this?" a voice asked behind me, so I turned.
The waitress was there with milk. I took it from her.
"Get another pitcher and pour it on his face," I told her with a nod at the drunk, then I turned back to Heather.
"Heather, you were too close. You got some in your eyes. Lie down."
She visibly relaxed and reached for her eyes with her hands.
"No! Don't touch anything with your hands."
"Are you her dad?" I asked the man as I reached the pitcher of milk toward him.
"I am," he nodded.
"Get her to lie down, then slowly pour this on her eyes and face. It'll help neutralize the pepper spray. Don't let her touch her face, and get somebody to bring you dishwashing liquid to wash her hands."
He nodded, so I went back to Raven.
"Raven, are you okay?"
I could tell she was still scared, but she broke into a huge smile.
"My hero," she cooed.
"Can we get you off the floor?"
"I think so. I don't think I'm hurt."
She scrubbed around Boston's ears and quietly asked him if he was hurt. He licked her face and his tail started wagging.
"I'm okay, Boston," she murmured and pushed against his shoulders lightly.
Boston stood and carefully backed away from Raven's lap and she raised her knees toward her chest.
Of course, I was on my knees in front of my sister, so her legs rising toward my face got my attention, and drew my eyes downward.
I immediately pushed her knees together then down to the floor.
"Danny?"
She still wasn't covered, so instinctively my hand grabbed the hem of her dress and pushed it down between her legs and I leaned my body forward to cover her.
"I think I should lift you up so you can keep your legs, um..."
"Dan..."
Raven's tiny hand slid over mine, and I suddenly realized my hand wasn't pushing her dress down to cover her. What I felt against my palm and fingers between her legs, wasn't her dress, but her hair.
"Now might not be the best time to touch me there."
I didn't know which was worse, the fact I had my hand on my sister's vagina and she was telling me to move it, or that we were the center of attention in a crowded room and I had my sister's vagina in my hand.
I tried to pull my hand away from Raven, but her tiny hand responded with equal force toward her.
I dragged my hand up, between her hand and her body. I felt her bushy, raven-black hair and the slit between her puffy lips beneath it against my fingers.
"Mm, oh, mmhm, okay," Raven sighed. "Pick me up. I think I'm ready."
I got her up and on her feet, but she cowered into my body as she pulled her dress down what little of her thighs it would cover. I felt every move of her hips against my thighs, and I hoped, but doubted, she couldn't feel my rock-hard erection against her belly.
"Are you okay, Raven? Do you want to sit down?"
She just nodded at me.
"Here's the table. I need to get your chair," I told her, and left her propped against our table.
I noticed her feet, clad only in her stockings, when I returned with the chair she had been sitting in.
"Rae, where are your shoes?"
She scowled down toward her feet.
"I don't know."
The floor was littered with the shards of broken glass and dishes. Only a miracle could have kept her bare feet from being shredded already.
I quickly scooped her up off the floor.
She shoved both her hands between her legs.
"Did you mean to show your sister's kitty cat to the world?" she whispered gruffly into my ear, then giggled.
"Sorry, Rae, but there's broken glass all over the floor," I explained while I kicked her chair away from the table and broken glass.
I gently sat her on the chair once I got it to a safe place, then squatted down in front of her and lifted one of her feet.
"Jeez, Dan. Did somebody miss getting to see up my dress?"
"Sorry," I mumbled again, but couldn't stop my gaze from rivetting to her hands wedged between her legs.
I ran the palm of my hand gently along the bottom of her foot, and her leg quivered.
"You're tickling me, Dan," Raven giggled.
"I need to make sure you didn't cut yourself."
"Stop!" she whined when I touched the bottom of her other foot, but I ignored her, and her whole body shivered.
"I'm done. You're fine."
"You're done? Does that mean nobody else gets to look up my dress?"
"I'm sorry..."
"Warn me next time you want a look, okay?"
"Okay," I agreed without really thinking about what she said.
"Or you could just ask."
My eyes snapped up to her face at the realization of what she seemed to be saying. Her smile looked like she was about to burst out laughing, which was a lot better than how she looked just a few seconds ago.
"I'm kidding, Dan."
Raven started giggling again, so I believed her until her face got serious again.
"You can just tell me to show you whenever you want a look."
"Are you two okay?" a female voice asked behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and found Heather's mom standing there, so I stood up.
"I think we're fine, just a little shaken up. How's Heather?"
"Finally settled down and not trying to claw that horrible man's eyes out."
I glanced at Heather, lying on the floor, and her Dad kneeling next to her, petting her head.
Her curls were piled on the floor, soaking in a puddle of milk. Her closed eyes looked swollen and red, her nose was running, and she coughed a little with each breath..
"She got some pepper spray in her mouth and nose?" I asked.
"I think it was inevitable, as much as she used on him. The police are on their way in, and an ambulance is right behind them. We'll have them take a look at her to see if she needs to be checked at the hospital."
I looked over at the drunk, still lying on his back, rubbing his eyes.
I didn't even care to tell him that rubbing only makes it worse.
Nobody was paying any attention to him, and the splash of milk on the floor around his head looked like the waitress had just thrown it in his face.
He couldn't say they didn't even try to render first aid.
"Yeah, I think he's probably going to end up in the hospital tonight," I said. He looked like he was struggling to breathe.
"Anybody that attacks a guide dog doing its job, minding his own business, then attacks a child, my child, deserves to be in jail with just the medical care they get there."
####
The police had come. An ambulance followed, then another. Dan was stressed out. I could hear it in his voice, but his focus and confidence impressed me. He had everything under control before I could even figure out what had happened.
I wished I could have seen him play basketball instead of just listening to it.
Then, as the descriptions of events that I had missed unfolded, I went from giddy to shaken to terrified.
By the time Dan insisted they let him take me home, they had taken away the man I was told tried to grab Boston and pushed Heather down. They took Heather, too. They wanted to keep an eye on her because they thought she inhaled enough pepper spray to be dangerous.
I didn't even get a chance to thank Heather, or her parents.
I wondered how I had managed to ruin what I wanted to just be a nice dinner with Dan, and how angry with me he must be as he helped me into the passenger seat of his car.
We had walked in silence the city block to where he parked before the disaster. I wanted him to carry me, but decided against even asking. Enough people had seen my naked crotch tonight, and maybe he had done enough for me for one day.
Dan was carrying the carryout boxes with our dinners in them anyway. The manager had refused to let us pay for anything, even the box with a raw steak for Boston.
Part of me wished I hadn't assumed I didn't need to do anything with my untended bush, but I knew I was just being vain.
"I'm sorry, Dan," I whispered before my brother started the car.
He shifted in his seat before I felt his fingers comb through my disheveled hair beside my face.
Between falling off my chair and getting manhandled, in more ways than one, by my brother, my hair had started to come out of the ribbon I had tied it in, so I took it out completely. I hoped it had looked sexy, but at that point I was sure it didn't anymore.
"What for, Rae?"
"Everything?"
Dan's finger brushed away the tear that I wasn't even aware of off my cheek.
"None of that was your fault," he chuckled as I felt his fingers slip between mine and gently squeeze my hand.
The backs of his fingers burned against the bare skin of my inner thigh, just below the hem of my dress that almost didn't cover me.
"Not even the book thing?"
I thought my sparklers were bad when he kissed me, but those were mostly just white. These, and those when I pushed his hand against my kitty cat, were filled with all the colors of the rainbow, plus some.
"You don't need to apologize for that, and we can talk about it later. If you want to, I mean."
"I want to, I just don't know how."
"I'll remind you," he gently promised.
I squeezed his fingers and pulled them tighter against my naked thigh when he tried to retrieve them.
"Can I keep this until we're home? Please?"
####
Raven must have thought I was trying to get my hand back from her when I tried to reposition it. I was concerned that I'd end up under her dress again with even a small bump in the road and I had probably felt her up enough for one night, or lifetime.
I'm almost certain she actually moved my hand closer to making contact when she tightened her vice grip on me.
Besides that situation, the short ride back through downtown to our condo was uneventful, and silent.
"Would you bring up Boston's bed?" Raven asked as she reluctantly released my hand and I struggled to get the car in park with my left hand.
I retrieved the futon cushion from the trunk while Raven got Boston out of the backseat.
Raven's grip on my arm was definitely stronger than her usual light touch as I escorted her through the lobby and up to the fourth floor.
"Are you hungry? I can warm up our dinner if you want me to," I finally broke the silence once we got inside our condo.
"You can eat. I'm not hungry. I just want to lie down and forget most of tonight ever happened."
I was worried that I had done something to contribute to my sister's trauma.
"Rae..."
I didn't know what to say to her. I just didn't want her to be upset.
"I'm sorry things went sideways, Danny. I just wanted to go out and have a really good time tonight. We haven't done that, just the two of us, for forever."
"Don't blame yourself. You're the most innocent of all of us involved in what happened."
"Dan? You're not blaming yourself are you?"
"Shouldn't I? If I had been there sooner I could have stopped all of it without you getting knocked down and without Heather getting in the middle of it. Nobody would have gone to the hospital or jail."
I was surprised when Raven started giggling, then laughing.
"You might look like Superman, Dan Tipton, but you're just a regular human like the rest of us. You can't blame yourself for not preventing bad things from happening."
"You're not mad at me?"
"Very little of anything you did tonight could have been done better."
"Very little? So there is something I could have done better? What?"
I really wanted an answer to that, so I could do better in the future, if anything like that happened again.
Raven smiled and patted the center of my chest.
"Don't worry about that, Dan.
"Good night."
"I love you Raven. Good night."
"I love you most, Dan."
Raven turned and headed for the hallway with Boston at her side, and I wondered why her last statement seemed different than usual while I watched her, my eyes focused on the dimple just above the few inches of her butt that showed above her dress.
####
I took Boston's vest and halter off, then hugged him and told him good night. As always, he went to his bed and took some turns before he found a spot for the night.
The television in the living room was already on. Dan thought the volume was low enough I wouldn't hear. He was always wrong about that, but I didn't care. He always considered me first above anyone else, and I actually liked listening to him doing what he thought was best for me even if he thought I didn't know.
Dan was in the kitchen, probably putting away what food he wasn't going to eat, and getting ready to nuke the food he was. I knew he wouldn't see me, so I snuck across the hallway to his room, found his suitcase with the help of my cane, and found a tee shirt inside it.
I brought pajama pants and top, old lady, flannel ones, but I just wanted one of his tee shirts to sleep in tonight. He might miss it, but I didn't care about that either.
My dress went on a hanger in my closet and I slipped the tee shirt over my head without taking my stockings off. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.
My hands slid down over my hips and along the top of my thighs. I giggled a little bit when I found out Dan's tee shirt was longer on me than my dress had been, but just barely.
I had to smile at the fact my naked body was inside the same shirt his naked body had been in.
The bed definitely wasn't mine, not the one I had slept in for years anyway. Being in a new room made no difference to me, but I knew I wouldn't be falling asleep any time soon; my mind was replaying what happened in the restaurant, imagining the parts I hadn't seen.
My reader on my nightstand told me it was almost eleven when I heard the television go off, then Dan's door close across the hall a few minutes later.
I giggled to myself when I wondered if my brother would agree to wearing a bell while he was at home. The floors at our parents' house creaked, and I knew each and every place they did, so I could always tell where people were moving around.
Apparently our condo has better construction. Dan's movements in the living room, hallway, and his bedroom were silent.
The minutes crawled by. I heard the shower come on, then stop. Dan's walk-in closet had opened and closed. My reader told me eleven-thirty had passed, barely.
My struggle to control my ragged breathing seemed to be a losing battle, so I gave up, twisted the knob and pushed the bedroom door across from mine open and stepped inside.
"Rae?" Dan whispered.
"Hey," I giggled.
"Is everything okay? What's wrong?"
"I can't sleep 'cause, um, I want to talk. Can we?"
"I can't sleep either, but even if I could, I've never been able to stop you from talking."
"Very funny. Do you mind?"
"I was sure I brought my favorite Ohio State Basketball tee shirt to sleep in, but decided I must have forgotten it."
"You sleep with the lights on?"
"I have a nightlight..."
"Superman has a nightlight?" I giggled.
"In the bathroom, yeah. So do you..."
"Like I'd even notice that."
I had hoped it would be dark so my brother wouldn't notice my rapid breathing and the blush I felt on my cheeks.
A certain part of me was glad for the light though. In my mind I couldn't imagine me looking more appealing to any red-blooded guy, in my fancy stockings and oversized tee shirt, even if it did say Ohio State Basketball on it. Maybe that made me look even better to a guy that should be in the NBA now.
"We can go in the living room if you..."
"I'd rather we didn't. Do you mind?"
"It's..." Dan started to answer, but I had found the side of his bed, and I didn't really care how he answered.
I pulled the covers down, crawled up under them and scooted over until I ran into Dan.
He was on his side, head propped up on his hand.
"I guess you want to stay here?" Dan questioned the obvious.
I rolled to my side and pushed my stocking-covered knees and shins against his thigh.
"Mmhmm, but I need a pillow, pretty please," I whispered against my brother's massive chest.
Dan's arm slid under my head and I leaned into him. I tried to imagine what his body looked like, but couldn't really. My shoulder barely reached the middle of his chest as we faced each other.
I felt so tiny against him, like he would crush me completely if he rolled over.
"Perfect," I murmured and cuddled even closer to him.
"You still have your stockings on?"
"Hold me?"
His free arm wrapped around my back, his elbow notched into the small of my back, his forearm warmed me through my tee shirt and his hand cupped my shoulder.
"I didn't feel like doing much work, so I just took my dress off and put on your...um, my new tee shirt."
"Why do girlfriends always steal guys' favorite tee shirts?"
I snuggled closer against his chest. I didn't want him to see me grinning at him accidentally calling me a girlfriend.
"Do you want me to take my stockings off?"
I wiggled my foot between his shins just below his knees.
"I can if you don't like how they feel."
"Mmm, Rae, it's fine."
There was no way I would be sleeping any time soon. The sparklers in my eyes would make sure of that.
"Danny? Am I still the prettiest girl you know?"
The hair on his chest tickled my cheek and lips as I whispered.
"That's what you want to talk about?"
"Um huh."
"I didn't meet anybody since this morning, so nothing has changed. You're the prettiest girl I know."
"You've seen more of me though, and I want to know if that changed your mind."
"Rae, you have a gorgeous back, so don't worry..."
"Not my back," I giggled.
"Even the cute little dimple right where your bottom starts? The top of your bottom is pretty freaking cute too."
He was avoiding talking about what he had to know I was asking about.
"You saw my, um, something way more intimate than a dimple."
"Rae, I'm sorry..."
"Sorry you saw me, or sorry you looked at me, like that, there?"
I tried to hold my breath waiting for a response, but couldn't.
"Sorry I looked at you," he whispered his response, finally.
"You liked what you saw? I mean, the first thing you did after looking at me, like that, was touch me there."
"Rae, the last thing in the world I would ever want to do is traumatize you, and your brother touching you..."
"Was pretty nice, Dan," I interrupted him.
"I'm your brother, Rae. You're my sister. I'm not supposed to want you like that."
"I've only had one boyfriend ever, Dan, so I don't have a lot of experience, but all the girl friends I've had, have complained about their boyfriends, and how selfish they are, how they ignore them, they could be better boyfriends, they just don't get us. Even the girls that ended up marrying the boyfriends they complained about had things to complain about."
"You had a boyfriend?"
"You say I'm the prettiest girl you know, so why shouldn't I have had a boyfriend?"
"I just didn't know. Who was he?"
"Doesn't matter. Would it surprise you to learn that Karen complained about you when you were her boyfriend?"
"Not really. I've always known girls I was with would complain because they would never come first. You always would. That's why it's been so long, for me."
"Karen told me she wished you would treat her like you treated me. She didn't even want better, just the same as me would have worked. You felt like her brother to her because you treated her like your sister, and me like your girlfriend. She wondered if she wasn't your first because you had been doing it with me."
"Did you tell her the truth?"
"Of course, Dan. She's my best friend, so I told her we weren't, but I didn't know why not. You're the best boyfriend I've never had or ever heard of."
"You're my sister, Rae."
"Danny."
I could barely get his name whispered.
He had moved so slowly, I didn't even notice until that second that his arm had moved. His elbow pushed against my butt and his forearm against the middle of my back. His hand burned against the base of my neck, and he held me tightly against his chest.
"Are you afraid, Rae?"
"I've always been afraid you'll reject me, too."
My arms had been in front of me, between his body and mine, with my fists balled up under my chin.
My fingers trembled and danced against his chest while the other hand snaked down between us and along the length of his erection between us.
"Rae," he moaned, "don't."
"Please don't reject me, Danny."
"I don't want to, but I think..." he groaned, then paused.
I held my breath.
"If you touch me, I'm going to cum in your hand and that's not where I want to do that."
I pushed myself up with my foot until I felt his delicious thickness against my knee and our noses bumped.
"Where do you want to do that?"
"Inside you...your, um, kitty cat?"
I don't even know who kissed who first, but we were kissing like nothing else mattered except to kiss the other with all the passion we could.
Nothing else did matter at that second.
I drew myself away from his lips and tried to steady my breathing with quick little kisses on his mouth.
"When you're about to put your cock in me, you can call it a pussy."
"Rae?"
"Now would be the perfect time to touch me there, or anywhere you want. Do it right this time."
I had no intention of discussing it any further, so I kissed him, hard, on the lips, and moved his arm that had been on my back, down.
Like always, he knew what I needed, and obliged me quickly.
"You don't have anything under your tee shirt?" he mumbled around my tongue in his mouth.
I only paused from kissing him long enough to pull my shirt off over my head.
"Less talking, more touching, please," I whispered against his lips.
I guess he took that to mean more than my pussy, because he immediately moved his face to my chest and started licking one of my hard nipples.
"Mmhmm," I whimpered.
I didn't care which felt better, his mouth on my breast or his finger as it parted my lips to release my pent up arousal behind them.
"Yes," I hissed as his thick finger slid inside me. His finger felt thicker, and longer, when he got it all the way in, than the only penis that had ever
been there.
"Da..an, uhh," I moaned when he pulled mostly out, then slid inside me again.
I really wanted to touch him. I could feel his heavy, thick cock against my thigh, but there was no way I was going to risk him cumming before he put himself inside me.
I almost couldn't wait to feel his cum inside me, and leaking out afterwards. I'd never felt that because I'd always made my ex use condoms.
I could wait to explore him, after he made love to me with his brother cock.
He almost hurt me when he bit down on my nipple as he thrust his finger inside me again and ground his palm against my clit.
Maybe I missed the build up in my belly, but even I was surprised when I yelped out my orgasm and my pussy squeezed around his finger inside me.
I had given myself plenty of orgasms, but until that second, nobody else had given me one, not even when I had gotten fucked all those years ago.
"Da-yan, God!"
Dan froze.
"Don't stop. Don't fucking stop until you're ready to put your cock in me!"
He pulled his finger slowly out of me.
"Mmhmm, Rae," he whispered.
I tried to kiss his mouth, but his hand was in the way.
"You taste better than I ever imagined a woman could taste."
"Fuck you, little brother," I cursed almost under my breath.
I thought it would be hard, but all it took was a touch from my hand on his hip for him to roll over on top of me, between my legs.
"Fuck me, little brother," I begged, not so much under my breath.
Dan reached down, between us, and his body shifted up. He felt like a tennis ball against my quivering, leaking, needy pussy.
"Are..."
"Don't make me beg, Dan. No more, not tonight."
I would though, if he made me. I'd do anything to get my brother's cock inside me.
I knew that was true years ago. Too much of me was afraid he'd reject me like everyone else for me to do anything about it until now.
The only movement I felt was my breathing and the cock head against my pussy slide, millimeters at a time, inside me.
"Wait, wait, wait," I wheezed.
I felt like I would rip open if he was even a hair's breadth bigger.
"I have to go slow, Rae. I want you so much that I almost came just from getting that much inside you."
"Slow is good."
I felt him move inside me, a little bit further.
"Wait."
He didn't, but thank god he reversed, then slowly pushed forward again until he was just past where he had stopped before.
"Dan, you're so big," I groaned.
He pulled almost out, then back inside, a little bit further again; his cock inside me was what I'd wanted my entire life.
"Stop!" I begged him.
He was against me, the bottom of me, the end of the world and the beginning of my soul. He couldn't go any further, no matter how much further I wanted him to go.
"Are you okay, Rae?"
I couldn't do anything but nod. I was so full of him, of my brother's cock, that I didn't think I could breathe.
I knew I couldn't think. Not straight anyway. The inside of my eyes looked like kaleidoscopes, a different one in each eye, with patterns and colors I'd never seen before, even when I could actually see.
"Fuck me, Dan. Fuck me, please."
He slowly pulled almost completely out of me, then just as slowly thrust back inside, and bumped against my cervix.
I squeaked at the pain.
"Sorry," Dan moaned.
"Keep fucking me with your hard cock," I insisted.
I reached between us and wrapped my hand as far around my brother as my fingers would reach, and squeezed when he almost bottomed out.
"God, Rae," He moaned above me.
I wanted to kiss my brother, but my mouth only came to just below the middle of his chest.
I squeezed him in my hand again.
"I'm gonna cum, Rae."
I reached between us with my other hand and pressed my finger against my clit to push it into better contact with the cock moving in and out of me. I squeezed him again, and his whole body rippled over, under, and inside me.
"Garrr, Rae!" Dan bellowed and my entire being exploded along with him inside me.
I think my brother filled my entire body with warmth as he jerked over and over inside me. I felt like I was flung miles into the sky, then floated slowly back to earth as my brother spewed out the last bits of his orgasm into my depths.
I tasted blood in my mouth before I could feel anything else besides my brother's warmth inside me and the waves of my own waning orgasm.
My teeth were still locked on a mouthful of my brother's chest, so I knew it wasn't my own blood.
We lay there, Dan on top of me, between my legs, my arms wrapped around him, and both of us struggled to breathe. I didn't want to ever move.
"Rae," Dan whispered before he rolled off me.
"I always thought it wouldn't be as good as my dreams, but I was wrong," I replied.
"Did we just make love, Rae? Or was that a dream?"
"I hope it wasn't a dream. I'm pretty sure I have cum running out of me right now, and I hope it's my brother's."
"What?"
"I finally got your cock inside me."
"Rae! Fuck!"
"Please don't tell me you wish it hadn't happened, Dan."
"I came inside you, Rae. We didn't use a condom."
"Danny, please don't tell me you don't want kids."
I don't know why I'm the way I am, but sometimes, when Dan is really serious about something serious, I just can't help myself.
"Rae! I don't think I want them now! You're on the pill? Right?"
"I haven't had a reason to be on the pill for six years."
Dan was breathing hard, but not as hard as when he had his hard cock inside me, fucking me so good.
"I wasn't on the pill then either. I didn't see the point, and I still don't."
"You understand where babies come from, right, Rae?"
"Of course. A man loves a woman and they get married and have a baby."
"Rae! They fuck, and they don't have to love each other or get married!"
At this point, I was probably having too much fun, but not as much as when my brother was fucking me.
"That's what Mom and Dad told us. You don't remember that?"
Dan didn't make a sound except for his heavy breathing, so I almost felt bad.
"Dan, do you want to have babies someday? With me?"
"We have to get the morning-after pill in the morning."
"Don't you want to have babies with me?"
"Someday, yeah, probably, I don't know, but I'm not ready to have them now."
"I want babies. Two of them."
I'd never even had a wet spot before, but now my butt was in one, and it was getting cold.
I rolled on my side out of the cooling puddle of my brother's cum and rested my cheek against his side.
"We can't have babies, Rae. Can we?"
My hand made its way across my brother's abs and found his cock.
"Am I still the prettiest girl you know?"
My brother chuckled, then groaned as my fingertips danced across his head and moved down his thick, soft shaft.
My only boyfriend, before Dan, had reached to the middle of my palm when my fingertips reached the base of his dick. I had measured my hand at some point in our relationship, without his knowledge, and decided he was about five and a half inches long and about half as thick as my wrist.
Dan had just filled my pussy with his cock, then his cum, so he was soft, and his head reached to the beginning of my wrist as my fingertips got to the base of his cock.
I felt him grow and thicken under my hand.
"Rae, god," he moaned and lifted his hips a little off the bed.
"Karen told me you were more than a handful, but I didn't know she meant this big," I giggled.
"What?"
My hand slipped as far around him as I could reach and I gave him a slow pump.
"Don't you want the prettiest girl you know to have your babies?"
"Raven," he moaned as I sat up next to him on my knees without missing a beat pumping his cock with my tiny hands.
"We can have kids," I moaned against his cockhead, then slid my lips around him.
My mouth had never been so full, of anything. I was afraid I wouldn't be good at this, with so much to work with. I only had a few inches inside me before I gagged a little.
I felt Dan's hot, giant hand on my butt cheek. His fingers slid into my crack and slowly drifted down and across my pucker.
I made a renewed effort to get more of him in my mouth. Both my hands were wrapped around his shaft to help.
"You've got the best ass I've ever felt, Rae," he growled.
My brother didn't seem to mind our combined juices I knew were still dribbling out of my pussy. He lightly tickled along my lips, spreading our moisture around and along my lips, then moved to play with my hard button at the top.
I couldn't get another bit of him inside me, so I started bobbing my head on what I could and double-fisted pumping the rest with my hands.
"Mmhmm."
I didn't know what proper etiquette for when a girl has her brother's huge cock in her mouth and he slides two fingers into her pussy is, but my moan managed to escape around my brother's cock when he rubbed my clit with his thumb.
"I love your body. The way you respond makes me want you even more, Rae."
My heart swelled with pride and love. I wanted him to be happy. I wanted to make him happy. I needed to be enough, and all he would ever want.
I knew where my G-spot was, but only because my vibrator could reach it. My tiny fingers couldn't, and neither would the only man, besides my brother, who had touched me anywhere near it.
I found out that Dan was a completely different story because he did find it, right then, and his fingers brushed across it. I sat straight up and arched my back.
"Oh fuck, Dan," I growled.
My vibrator had never felt that good.
"Found it," Dan giggled, like he thought I didn't notice.
I wanted his cock in my mouth. I wanted to taste him and feel his cum in my mouth and his warmth fill my stomach.
I just couldn't bend back down to him because he was molesting my G-spot, keeping my body rigid.
"Fu-uck."
The only thing I could do besides groan out my pleasure was pump his cock with my two little hands.
"How's this, Raven?"
"Wahah dom fukey, Da-ah-ah!" I wailed, realizing as it came out of my mouth it made no sense. I couldn't do anything about my gibberish at the moment though.
My brother's thumb gyrated on my clit and the two fingers inside me were taking turns thrumming across my G-Spot.
Black spots mingled with the kaleidoscopes in my eyes, and I was pretty sure I was going to pass out when a spasm of pleasure radiated from the tips of my brother's fingers inside me outward, across my body and out my fingers and toes, then repeated without a break between.
I had an arm wrapped around a thigh that felt like a tree trunk and my other hand was struggling to wrap itself around a big tittie that dwarfed my own and felt like a lump of steel when I regained just a little bit of my senses.
"Good God," I whispered between gasps for breath.
"Thank you cheerleaders for teaching my brother how to do that."
My brother only laughed until I swung a leg over his hips and sunk myself on him until my lips touched my hand, still wrapped around the base of his glorious cock.
"Let's make a baby, baby brother," I groaned.
He raised his hips, trying to push himself further inside me, and moaned.
I took that as informed consent, so started moving up and down on his throbbing cock inside me.
I had never been disappointed with my body's size, until that second. I wanted to please him. I needed him to be satisfied with me, but I couldn't get all of him inside my little body.
"I'm sorry I can't take more of your cock in me," I whispered through my ragged breathing.
"Not your...fault. I just need...to make you...happy," Dan mumbled.
Dan's hips shifted under me and he found it again, but this time with the huge head of his cock.
"Foo, sheets, Dahhh, helie crepes!"
Obviously, my G-spot had a function I wasn't aware of until then. It turned off any language skills I might possess.
I thrust myself down his length again, and my kaleidoscopes started to blotch and fade. I might have raised myself to thrust down again, but everything faded to black when I felt his body jerk under me and the waves of my orgasm spread through my body and warmth filled my insides again.
I could feel Dan's body under me, and my full weight, from my cheek on his chest to the spot I was impaled on him when I finally could make sense of the world around us. His wonderful man-meat still filled me, but less than when we fucked.
"I love you, Dan," I whispered against his chest.
"I love you more, Raven."
####
I slowly drifted out of my sleep, remembering my dreams of making love to Raven. That wasn't unusual for me, but it still made me smile.
"Morning, Dan," Raven's whisper sounded almost out of breath.
As usual, especially after dreams of Raven and I together, I had morning wood, but it felt different today. I quickly realized Raven's voice wasn't part of my dream, and neither was my erection inside my sister.
"Rae? You can't just put me in you anytime you want."
Her chin was on my chest and the full weight of her body, what little there was, rested on top of me as she ever so slowly moved herself along my erection inside her.
Her little grin turned quickly to a beautiful, kissable pout.
"Why not?"
"I don't know. It's just..."
"That's where you left it last night when we were done playing with it, so I thought it would be fine with you."
"I was inside you all night?"
"Mmhmm," she grinned and pushed herself up with one hand. "I could barely sleep with you inside me. Maybe I just didn't want to sleep while your cock filled me up so good."
I got my first clear look at my naked sister in the light.
My eyes roamed over her. Her pale thighs and hips flexed as she slowly rose and fell and my cock disappeared and reappeared between them. Her moisture glistened along my shaft and her obsidian bush clung to me.
Her stomach muscles rippled with her slow movement as if they were a neon sign directing tourists to the main attraction.
Her breasts were absolutely gorgeous. They moved like waves with her movements, top to bottom then back, with her nipples dancing along the crest. The tiny little spots of crimson, topped with nipples that looked like they would cut glass, were the most amazing breasts I'd ever seen.
My body reacted and I leaned up and took one in my mouth and flicked it with my tongue.
"Dan...you really do like my teeny tiny titties, don't you," she groaned without missing a beat along my cock inside her.
"Mmm," I groaned and tightened my teeth around the hard knob I was latched onto.
She had both hands wrapped around my cock, and as she smashed down onto me, that was the only thing that kept me from crashing into her cervix.
"God, give me your cum, Dan!"
I was already feeling the urge in my balls, and knew I would be filling her with my cum soon. It didn't help any when she went from the leisurely pace she had been using to a desperate crashing along my length.
"Rae! Can we talk..." I gasped out, before she shrieked and wailed above me and her body writhed on me.
"Jebus creeks! Feek may puddy won crook!" my sister screamed.
I raised my hips against her quaking body and came. It felt like I pumped even more than I had ever cum before inside her. I felt like I would never stop coming.
Raven collapsed onto my chest and her hair fell in waves over my chest and shoulders.
She didn't move, but I could tell she was breathing hard. That might have been me though.
"Rae?"
"Dan, I love you."
She still didn't move.
"I love you too, but Rae, we need to talk about this."
"I won't believe you if you say you don't want this ."
"I've always wanted this, Rae, but I didn't think you would want this."
"I've wanted this since I discovered kissing boys, Dan, and you were the first boy I ever kissed."
"Rae, you need to get on birth control. We can't have a baby."
"I don't need to, Dan," she whispered.
"You want to have a baby? Now?"
Raven slowly pushed herself up. She looked so sexy and hot with her disheveled hair hanging down around her face, but she looked sad.
"I want to have babies. I want to have your babies, but that doesn't mean we can make babies, Dan."
I was relieved. She was finally making sense with the baby issue.
"You can make all the babies you want, Dan, with somebody else, but I can never make a baby, and it doesn't matter who I try to make one with."
My sister went from making sense to making even less sense than before.
"I don't want to make babies with random people, Rae."
"It's probably Dad's fault."
I had no response for that, but not because I wanted to just let her talk. I was absolutely clueless what she was saying, or trying to say.
"I wanted to know why I'm blind. Mom and Dad, our grandparents, our great aunts and uncles and second and third cousins all have decent vision, but I'm blind. So I asked my doctor, the one I got for myself that wasn't 'cause Mom picked them out.
"He told me it was genetic, but not inherited. Dad was probably too old, and passed along faulty genes. Not his genes, but broken ones because his sperm was past their 'use by date'.
"They're not Dad's genes, but they're mine. It's all I have to pass on. I can't make little blind babies, so I got my tubes tied when I was eighteen."
Part of me was relieved that I wouldn't be getting my sister pregnant just because I can't stop myself from wanting her, but most of me was sad that my beloved sister wanted babies but couldn't have them.
"Rae, I'm..."
"No, Dan. Don't apologize. We can't make babies, but we can have babies. We can adopt. I want a boy and a girl. I want them to be blind. I don't want to make blind babies, but I want to raise blind babies. Who better to be a Mom to a blind baby than a blind woman, and what better Dad can a blind baby have than a man who grew up with and protected and loved a blind sister?"
"You're going to be a great Mom, Raven."
"Bachelor brothers and spinster sisters live together all the time. It's not even weird."
I had to smile at my sister even though I didn't really think at twenty-four we qualified for either of those terms.
"And they adopt kids with each other all the time too?"
Raven just shrugged.
"I hope I can be as great a Dad as you are a Mom."
"For our kids?" she asked hopefully.
"There's nobody else in the world I'd rather have kids with."
"Not even a big-boobed, blond cheerleader?" she giggled.
"Not even all the big-boobed, blond cheerleaders in the world."
####
"Are you expecting company, Dan?" Raven whispered, like whoever rang our bell could hear us all the way down in the lobby.
I almost laughed at her, but not because she was whispering, but because she looked so cute with my cum dripping off her chin.
I assumed I looked similarly, because her sweet pussy juices were still wet on my face, but I knew she wouldn't know that.
"Nope. Maybe it's Karen and Christian. It is Saturday night."
"They're going to know somebody was having sex in here. Maybe we should admit it?"
"I'm not sure I'm comfortable having people know my sister is having sex with her brother. Kentucky is all the way on the other side of the river."
"Karen never believed me that we didn't fuck in high school. She'd probably thank us for finally admitting the truth."
"I wish we had. I'd have liked sex with a sexy, young, nubile Raven."
"I know what you mean, old man. All those love handles and beer belly makes me wish I'd gotten to you when you were young and built."
I laughed at Raven, and she giggled back at me.
We had only lived together almost two weeks, but I'd already lost count of how often we had made love. I had always had a high sex drive, and those two years without almost killed me, but I just assumed my sister didn't have a sex drive ever.
I'm surprised she lived through six years without sex between her only boyfriend and when she coaxed my cock into her pussy.
"Put on some shorts," she ordered as she pulled my Ohio State Basketball shirt over her head.
That was what she wore to bed when she wore anything to bed, which was seldom.
I found some shorts and pulled them on while Raven went and pushed the button to unlock the security door without even answering the buzzer.
We waited in the living room. Raven in her tee shirt with nothing underneath, and I in a pair of gym shorts. As the door started to open, Raven stepped into me and pulled me into a passionate kiss.
I was fairly sure her shirt didn't cover her ass, since she was stretched up to kiss me, but if that wasn't bad enough, her hand in my crotch gave me an instant hard-on, regardless of Karen and Christian entering the condo.
"Kids?" Mom's voice squeaked out.
"Fuck!" Raven screeched and spun away from me, pulling her shirt down to cover herself.
I was speechless.
Mom looked like she was in shock, and Dad just had this weird, blank expression on his face.
I saw Raven turn and start to bolt toward the hallway, but I grabbed her arm. A blind person sprinting inside a building didn't seem to be a very good idea, no matter what the circumstances.
"Um, come in? Can I get you anything to drink?"
That was all I could think of to do.
Raven was still trying to get away from my grip on her arm.
"Kids?" Mom repeated herself.
"Yes, a drink would be good. Do you have any bourbon?" Dad asked.
I wished we had some strong liquor, but neither Raven nor I are drinkers really.
"Water, orange juice, milk, or Coke," I stammered.
"Coke," Dad replied, then turned to Mom. "Ava? You want some Coke?"
"Diet Coke, too," Raven moaned next to me. She had settled down slightly, but I could feel the tension in her body, like she would bolt again if I let go completely.
"Diet Coke," Mom whispered. She hadn't taken her eyes off mine, like I was to blame for something.
"Sit with them," I whispered in Raven's ear.
She nodded, but whispered harshly "I'm naked" at me.
"You're fine," I whispered back at her. "They're our parents, They've seen you in less."
"But not after fucking my brother ! It still smells like sex in here from us having sex in here!"
She didn't bother whispering that last part.
I looked at Mom and Dad, still standing just inside the door.
"I'm pretty sure that if there was a question in their mind about what might be going on, there isn't now."
"Oh, um, have a seat, Mom and Dad?"
"Do you want to put on some clothes, Raven?" Mom asked.
"OK, I can do that while Dan gets the drinks?"
I took that as my cue, and went to the kitchen.
I took my time. I didn't want to face my parents without my sister, not because I was scared, but because I wanted them to see how happy we are together, if Raven could manage any expression besides the abject fear she had on her face since their arrival.
Raven had her cane, and used it to navigate to the empty sofa across from our parents. I followed her from the kitchen with the drinks in my hands.
"So how was Phoenix? Did you find a house to retire in?" Raven asked as I divvied up the drinks.
"It was great. We found..." Dad started.
"Bob, our children are having sex with each other and you want to talk about Phoenix?"
"Oh, um...what?"
"Dan just had sex with Raven."
Dad looked at Raven, then at me, then back at Raven.
"They're kids. Kids are curious, I'm sure it wasn't..."
"They're twenty-four years old! They're not playing doctor!"
Mom sounded exasperated, but I didn't blame her. I thought Dad was probably in denial of the obvious. Raven wasn't very tactful about admitting our sexual relationship.
"Dad, she's right. We just got done making love, for the third time today. It's Saturday, so we'll probably have sex a couple more times before morning. We have sex all the time, like every day, several times," Raven corrected Dad.
"How long?" Mom moaned. She was crying now.
"However long it takes for me to have a few orgasms, then Dan cums. I don't know, maybe half an hour? Dan?" Raven replied.
Mom's eyes snapped up to Raven's face, then a little grin started to form before she squelched it.
"I don't know, Rae. I've never really paid that much attention to the time, so maybe half an hour is about right."
"Good God. You two! That's not what I meant."
"That's what you asked, Mom," Raven defended herself.
Mom looked down and started shaking her head.
"It's always been the two of you, in your own little world. You two versus the world. I don't even know why I'm surprised. When did it start? This, um, making love to each other?"
"Eleven hours and forty-three minutes after we walked into our own place, give or take."
Raven's response, and how quickly it came, surprised me. I probably would have thought about it a bit and come up with a day after we got here, but her answer seemed pretty accurate.
Mom looked surprised too, but it only took her a few seconds to start giggling, then laughing.
"Are you sure, Raven? I mean, the two of you acted like lovers a decade ago."
"Ava? What are you talking about?" Dad regained his voice.
Mom rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Bob, we talked about this. You said it was just the twins thing, but I thought it wasn't healthy to be that close, not a brother and sister, and especially not when they were fifteen and sixteen years old and slept in the same bed so often."
"That's just the twins thing. They're just close."
"I stopped sleeping with Dan when we were fifteen, Mom. I kissed him on the mouth and I liked it so much it scared me, so I didn't sleep with him anymore."
"See Ava, they're not sleeping together."
"Dad," Raven interrupted. "We didn't from the time we were fifteen until two weeks ago. Now we sleep together every night. We have sex all the time. We're together, like a married couple, like you and Mom."
"Except you don't make love to me for thirty minutes at a time," Mom mumbled.
"And we're going to adopt some babies together, some day."
Dad and I ignored Raven and stared at Mom until she looked up.
"What?" she asked. "It's true. I'm not complaining. We have sex enough, it's just not for that long anymore."
"Anymore?" Raven gasped. "Mom! Ew. Just ew. We don't want to hear about you and Dad having sex."
"But it's fine for you and your brother to talk about having sex with each other?"
"You asked, Mom."
"I don't believe us walking in on you and Dan half-naked making out is asking to know about your sex life."
"You asked 'how long' though. That's a little personal."
"I meant how long have you two been having sex!"
"See? You did ask."
"OK. OK," Mom groaned and shook her head.
"Are you two happy and ready to spend your lives with each other? I mean, who is going to want to marry a girl who sleeps with her brother and who is going to want to marry a man that sleeps with his sister?"
"We don't need to find people like that, Mom. I want Raven to live with me forever, and Raven wants me to live with her forever. We've already planned to adopt some kids and live happily ever after."
"Don't wait forever. We're already going to be eighty before our grandchildren graduate from high school."
Dad was finally onboard, apparently.
####
Mom and Dad had to be talked into spending the night at the condo with us. Dan and I had to promise they wouldn't have to listen to us having sex.
I wasn't certain the subject was finished being talked about. I wasn't absolutely certain Dad really thought we weren't joking around, messing with Mom and her sensibilities, and Mom seemed like she might still be hoping for two sets of grandchildren instead of just one set from Dan and I together.
My brother and I had been cuddled up together in our bed, listening to the amorous noises coming through the walls between the guest bedroom and ours, trying not to giggle, but mostly failing.
"I hope Mom's happy now," I told Dan.
"She sounded pretty happy."
"I mean, since I first heard them until that last, pretty loud moan from Mom, it was thirty-four minutes."
"You go, Dad," Dan chuckled.
"You got thirty minutes I can have, Dan?"
"We promised, Rae!"
"That was before they made us listen to them. They've never done that before, made us listen to them have sex."
"Maybe the thought that their innocent little girl was being violated by their ne'er do well scoundrel of a son got them a little hot and bothered?"
"If they only knew how I basically had to crawl into your bed and force myself on you," I laughed at my brother.
"You could have just asked."
I knew now that was true, but I wouldn't go back and change anything about my relationship with my brother.