“With how you like falling for people at birthdays, don’t ever become a birthday clown; it’ll end poorly,” I grinned at her. She seemed to be having a moral crisis and I was trying to use humor to help.
Remmi moved to the bench and sat down.
“OK, question game aside, can I trust you, Ash?” Remmi asked me.
I came over and sat down next to her. “Of course, you’re my–”
“No, I mean it, Ash. If I told you something so bad, something I couldn’t possibly tell someone else… like if I told you I murdered someone for real. Could you keep that a secret?”
I didn’t hesitate because I didn’t have to. “Where do you need me to hide the body?”
“I’m serious Ash!” Remmi said.
I looked at her for a long, long moment. She wanted to tell me something, but it was so serious to her that she was afraid to.
“Rem, I’ve been fucking Dad for the last two weeks,” I told her, one of my darkest secrets. Somehow, I got it out without putting any inflection on it other than the truth.
Remmi just looked at me. She didn’t smile, she didn’t gasp, she showed no signs of emotion. She just read my face, looking for something. When she didn’t find it, she nodded.
“OK, Thomas and I have… screwed around,” she said.
“Let me guess, 18th birthday?” I grinned kindly. When she nodded, I continued, “Yeah, stay away from being birthday entertainment for sure.”
Remmi chuckled once before saying, “I’m serious, Ash.”
“So am I,” I said, having one last poke at her, and then I sighed. “Rem, I just told you I’m fucking our dad. We’re pretty much on an even keel here,” I shrugged.
“Well, we never actually had sex. We just did everything else but… the deed,” Remmi said and exhaled loudly. “I’ve never told anybody that before. Thomas and I pretend like it never happened.”
I chuckled softly.
“What?” Remmi asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I had a dream that Thomas came into my room in the middle of the night and I blew him. I guess we’re more alike than I thought.” I stopped chuckling when I saw her face. “What?”
“Thomas sleepwalks, Ash. He tried to join the service before he went to college and they turned him down because of it,” Remmi said.
“He does? I didn’t know that,” I frowned in confusion at the memory now. Had it been real?
“Yeah, it’s not severe, but enough so that it disqualified him from service,” Remmi said.
I pushed the troubling thoughts to the side. “I’m guessing you telling me your secret has something to do with me?” I asked.
Remmi nodded. “Initially, Thomas and I started messing around as two adults simply exploring. The fact we were related made it kinda hot. Neither of us had really had a steady boyfriend/girlfriend, and I wanted to try some… stuff… safely, you know?”
“So, you tried it out on Thomas?” I asked.
She was blushing and not from the steam of the shower. “Yeah. It was never anything serious, just I dunno, screwing around?”
“OK. Has Dad ever told you the reason Mom and he started hanging out? No? It was something similar, I’ll tell you later. Go on,” I said.
“Well, that all stopped when I moved out. I buried it, planted a tree on top of it and watered it till that tree hid all trace of it,” she said.
“Long way of saying ‘it never happened,’ but OK. What does this have to do with me?” I asked.
“Last winter break, the one I came home and stayed for. You remember that?” Remmi asked.
“Yeah, it was like one of the few times you ever came back and stayed with us,” I said.
She nodded, “Yeah. Do you remember how I stayed in your room because Mom and Dad had turned my room into an office? Remember how I slept in your bed with you?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a big deal; we just slept. Nothing happened,” I said.
“I didn’t let anything happen,” Remmi said. “You’d hit your hotness spurt when you turned 18, and I thought you were rather… tasty.”
“Well, I had been going to the pool a lot,” I grinned.
Remmi shook her head. “What I’m saying is… when I saw what you’d become–”
“Wait. That was before I became a futa and got my current body. You liked me back then, before all of this?” I indicated my current body.
“Yeah. I started getting ideas that were too similar to what I’d had with Thomas. I tried to bury those thoughts as well, but… when I woke up that first night, I had my hands down your pants. I hadn’t planned on doing anything; I’d done it in my sleep. Regardless, there I was, groping you in your sleep.”
“I don’t remember that,” I said honestly.
“You remember me sleeping on the couch the rest of the time?” she asked.
“Yeah, I thought that was kinda weird,” I said.
“I didn’t trust myself anymore,” Remmi said.
“So, what changed since then?” I asked.
“You did, or at least seeing you with Terri did. I figured if you were doing that with your best friend… maybe you might want to do it with me, too.” Remmi glanced at my naked form. “Speaking of your body, it’s grown into something straight out of a porn video. Was that more of your magic, too?”
I nodded.
“Huh. Anyway, after watching you with Terri, I couldn’t stop thinking about the two of you. It was too much for me.”
“So, you decided to blackmail us into coming over here?” I asked, suddenly not so happy with this story.
“Blackmail you? What are you talking about?” Remmi looked at me.
“The note, at the burger place. You let us know you knew all about our secret venture. I figured you wanted something from us, or else you’d tell.”
Remmi stared at me with shock, dismay and hurt. I immediately regretted saying anything. Had I really misread the situation so badly?
“You thought…” Remmi shook her head before rubbing her face. “Ash, I’d never… NEVER do something to hurt you. Throw out everything else I’ve told you and believe me when I say that I’ll always protect you. You’re my blood.”
I was staring at the water swirling down the drain, unable to look up at her.
“Rem… you’ve always… acted so weird around me. I mean, we pick on each other a lot, like sisters are supposed to. But, sometimes, you scare me. I can’t tell what you mean by some of the things you say and you have a way of talking sometimes that sounds like a supervillain.” I said to the floor.
Her hand on my back made me jump.
“I act weird because I don’t trust myself around you, Ash. I sometimes say things that I really shouldn’t say to you, and then I have to backpaddle to try and take them back or cover them up as a joke. But… I kept saying them, trying to see if you might have an interest… in me.” Remmi said.
Then I looked at her and her expression… yet another one I didn’t know. “Rem… I’ve always looked up to you. You’re gorgeous, smart, funny, and you have a way with words that I’d kill for. I’ve idolized you for as long as I can remember. I’ll be honest, I hated you when you moved out, but that was only because I couldn’t spend time with you anymore, and I desperately missed you.”
“Is that why you wouldn’t leave me alone when I’d come by to visit?” Remmi asked.
“What? You didn’t like your baby sister AND her best friend begging for your attention all the time?” I laughed.
Remmi looked at me.
I took a deep breath and stared back into her eyes.
“And I won’t turn you down now if you ask me to be your first.” I wasn’t 100% sure, but I had a feeling this was what she was leading up to.
“You sure you can’t read MY mind?” Remmi asked finally.
“Nobody can read minds stupid,” I smiled.
We just looked at one another in silence for a while.