Dynamics Pt. 02

"That's really deep."

"For me?"

"For anyone, Mercy, really..."

There was a long pause after that, though it did not feel uncomfortable in the slightest. It was soft and it was something that he could sink into, something that honestly he had not had in too long.

"It's good to have you around again, Mercy," he said. "I want... I don't want to be so out of touch again."

"We won't be out of touch again, brother," she said. "Don't worry..."

He believed her, of course, because it was Mercy who said it. Mercy always meant what she said. So did he, though he was a quieter sort than she was. Maybe because his older sister had always been there to fight many of his battles for him, standing tall and proud, her shoulder blades pushed back as if she was charging into the fray, all at his stead.

"So, you ever done anything...you know..." Her tone dropped an octave and he could almost imagine just how her whiskers were quivering, becoming ever so slightly more suggestive. "Different? With the girls you were with?"

He gulped, blushing hard.

"Ah...well... No... There's a... I'm quite normal, really."

"It's alright to like different things, you know. It's about having fun with someone that you connect with, that you relate to. And there's a lot you can try too..."

He chuckled.

"Are you trying to give me sex advice?" He said, the darkness allowing the word to come out when he would have otherwise preferred to use other terms to say the same thing. "Sis, I'm good, really..."

He wouldn't have usually called her that, thinking that saying "brother" and "sister" too much could be overdone. But it felt right, at that time, for him to consider something a little more, a little rebuilding of the bond and connection between them that Mercy had mentioned. Just not, well, in a romantic context as she had been referring to.

But why was his stomach so hot, stirring and pooling, pressing his thighs together? He grunted, trying to cover the sound that he made with his arm.

"Did you..." He chanced a question, pressing into uncharted territory. "Did you do more stuff then? Like you're saying?"

"Mm... Yeah, I tried to have fun, try new things. You know how bored I get with the same old thing all the time. But, I guess, like combat, I found what I really like and stuck with it after a while."

There was a part of Mark that thought that he really should have listening to something like that. He shouldn't have been interested but...maybe it was okay. Maybe that was the sort of thing that they could have talked about earlier as brother and sister if they had not both fled the family home so quickly.

Things hadn't been great back then. They had pushed away from home and tried to cling onto one another to be closer than ever -- and it just hadn't worked.

"I did go...all out after leaving home," Mercy admitted, though her tone was soft with fond remembrance. "I did a lot, saw a lot, had more partners than I really should have had. I was lucky that I didn't get into a bad situation with casual sex but I had some fantastic friends back then. They always made sure that I didn't get into trouble and I had them to watch my back. I did for them too, but they weren't as closeted as I'd been."

Mark made a sound of agreement. He couldn't imagine being with so many others, however, not truly... He had been with those quick things and...that relationship. But it hadn't really meant anything and that was what had been missing from all except one.

Mercy was still talking, however.

"I'm kind of a top," she said, the sheets rustling as if she was turning and trying to check out his reaction, though the darkness of the tent secluded things from view. "I like being in charge, in control. But I like looking after a partner too."

"So..." He grappled with the idea, though it was not unfamiliar to him -- just in the context of his sister. "A top? A domme? Is that the right word?"

"Yeah, depends on what scene you're in, what you're thinking... There are different words for it, some guys like different terms and that's fine. I never felt right if I was just being passive. Safe words were pretty important though and that's good. I'm lucky too that I picked up on those things at an earlier stage in all that."

He took a breath. If she had confessed then...didn't it go both ways for a similar one, kind of to come from him?

They were being more open with one another, truthfully, than they had ever been before. The silence and the darkness, the softness of ease between them, just made everything come simply and easily, as if it was all supposed to be like that, just like that. He shook his head, catching the light wisp of her tail brushing against the edge of the cot. Even that tiny sound was soothing to his ears.

"You know... I wasn't entirely honest about the sexual experiences thing... Who I was with." He forced the words out, even though he didn't know why he felt like he had to confess. "I didn't really do much with anyone but...I... I had one fling, one longer one, which... Which was good, very good."

"Oh, yeah? Didn't it work out, brother?"

He sighed, brushing his fingers back through the fur between his ears.

"No... No. But...I liked her, like, a lot. We got into some things and she was really strong in the bedroom. She made me feel like I could do anything, though it was better when I was... When I was on my knees before her. I kinda found out...through roleplay and stuff...that I liked being told what to do."

"What, like being submissive?"

He blushed, glad that his sister couldn't see his face, even though his fur would have hidden most of his embarrassment anyway.

"Yeah... Yeah, like that."

There was a longer span of silence and he exhaled softly. It felt better now that it was out there, though he wondered if anything would ever again be said between them after that moment, on the sexual subject. He didn't even know how that sort of thing had come over them in the first place, for it was perhaps not the kind of thing that they should have been so open with one another about.

But they couldn't hide everything away forever, no, as much as he might have liked to. As much as Mark had held things close for so long, tucking away his fears where no one but him could find them.

Along with that came the vulnerability too. And he didn't quite know how to be vulnerable.

If only Mark knew just how that set the gears in Mercy's head turning, though he could never have been privy to that, no. Not unless it came from her lips, for it was not as if he could see into her mind.

"So...do you think that you would like a relationship like that again?" She probed lightly, though he could feel the intensity of her focus even then. "With someone like...her."

He had not, of course, revealed that name to her. That one was for Mark to hold close to his heart, for it had been important to him, for the things that the relationship had revealed to him.

"Hm... I don't know, I'm not sure if I could trust someone like that again," he said softly, as if he was afraid to raise his voice too much. "I really... I really liked her. Dunno if I loved her, we just couldn't find a way to work past other differences. It wasn't that long of a relationship, to be fair. Others that I just hung out with didn't click like her."

"And what if you could trust someone like that again?"

He sighed.

"I guess... Yeah, that would be really nice. I wanted to, y'know, click with someone in the bedroom too, as well as in other ways."

It seemed that that connection was important for them both, having someone that really "got" them and what they were all about, even though they were still in their early twenties. Truthfully, they still had plenty of time in which to figure it out.

But Mercy was hasty and impatient. Her mind had always worked so quickly, jumping from one thing to the next, and she was not the sort of cougar to be set aside even when others said that she was not all that smart. She was just as intelligent as Mark, if not even more so, but her mind did not quite work the same as his.

Which was why she led him down the path that she did, seeing just where things could go, step by step and moment by moment.

There was no other way to go, even if she saw a future that Mark could not.

He only felt the moment, the strange pull that was in his gut, tugging him closer and closer towards his sister. He wanted to be with her and he wanted to do more, to share more of his life with her. He wished that they had never had to move out and apart when they had.

"Maybe someone should take you in hand then, Mark," she all but purred, startling him with the rolling thrum of her voice. "And show you all that you're missing out on. You say you've done a few things, here and there... But maybe you need someone to really show you, someone experienced. Someone that can teach you."

He gulped and blushed hard, throwing his arm up over his face. His insides knotted up with embarrassment, though there was only so much that he could do, for there was nowhere for him to hide, not as he lay there, wishing that she had not put that tone on with him.

Heavens... It did weird things to him. Weird things that he had not felt in months. Not since he and...his ex-girlfriend had split up. That still hurt, even if it had been mutual. It had been for the best...

And now he was there in Mercy's tent sharing secrets and intimacy that he had never thought could be possible.

"Uh... I don't think... Sheesh, Mercy, we've probably gone..."

"Ohhh," Mercy chuckled, her amusement building into a sharp bark of laughter. "No, no, no, I'm not implying... Brother, you are ridiculous!"

Yet her tone did not imply as if it was ridiculous at all, for there had been that solid tone of conviction in it. There was a disconnect between them, in that moment, but it somehow felt as if it had been put there deliberately, as if it had somehow been manufactured. As if Mercy had interjected in just that way to make sure that nothing further could be said about it.

But it did kind of sound like she had meant that she should take him in hand...

No, no! That was not a line of thought that he at all needed to go down! Hell, she was his sister! That was crazy and he had misconstrued her tone. She was just being Mercy, the way that Mercy had always been, digging into topics that had been fraught before, all to see just what she could get into, what she could draw on to explore and experiment. It made sense -- especially with all that she had told him. Honestly, Mark still could barely even believe that Mercy had done so much. Even thinking of her topping someone made him blush and shove his head back under the sheets that had been given to him for that night, hiding just how his whiskers quivered and how badly he blushed.

"Unff..." He groaned, faking a yawn and leaning hard into it. "It's...really late... It's good to talk again, but..."

"Hah, yeah, I got it. That got weird, it's all good. Goodnight, brother!"

Was that a smile he detected in her voice? No, no... It could not be. He was being silly, genuinely so, and their words had just gotten ever so slightly fudged as they went back and forth between one another. That was not to be helped, not as the cougars worked out where they stood with one another once again, just where the lines of their relationship lay.

It was just a mishap, he was sure. Just a slip of the tongue. They shouldn't have been talking about stuff like that anyway and they just got their wires crossed. Not a problem -- everything would be back to their new normal, learning about each other and hanging out, in the morning.

Slipping into a fitful sleep, he didn't know that Mercy was hardly sleeping well on the cot either, tossing and turning when the cougar really could have used a good night of sleep before the show began.

But it was too late for that.

Continued in part three...