Sibling Psychic Detectives

"Looks like I kinda got you stuck here, huh?" Faith said.

She was curled up in her favourite comfy chair. Silas smiled from his seat across the living room.

"Yeah, kinda," he agreed. "Mom's insisting I stay the night now. Pretty sure she's making up my old bed as we speak."

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine." Silas glanced down at the small remainder in his glass. "I shouldn't have accepted a drink if I really wanted to get out of here."

Faith nodded. She was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Is your ghost friend still hanging around?"

"Aggie? Not right now. She was. Then..."

"Then what?"

Silas shook his head. He really wasn't sure he wanted to get into it. "We had kind of a dumb conversation. She went off to do her own thing. Far as I know, she's been gone since then."

"As far as you know? What does that mean?"

"She's a ghost. I can see her, but she's still super good at hiding and lurking and shit."

"Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense." Faith glanced around the room like she'd be able to spot a lurking apparition. "What was your conversation about?"

Silas snorted. "You don't want to know."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it's, like, pretty weird."

"Can't possibly be any weirder than this day's been."

"Well, you say that..."

"Look, Sil, if you really don't want to tell me, then don't."

Silas ran his finger around the rim of his glass. It wasn't that he didn't want to share, it was that he wasn't sure what reaction he'd get. He actually kind of wanted to discuss it with Faith just so he'd have someone to commiserate with. It wasn't fair having to deal with his deranged, deceased companion all by his lonesome. It could really wear at one's sanity after a while.

"She thinks we should fuck," Silas said aloud without quite knowing when he'd decided to do so.

"What, you and her?" Faith asked. "Doesn't that, like, not work?"

"You and me," Silas corrected.

"Ah. Yeah. That's kinda what I thought you meant. But just, like... wow."

"I know. Like I said, kinda weird."

The siblings fidgeted and avoided eye contact. Silas already regretted saying anything.

"Is it 'cause she's into that sort of thing?" Faith asked softly.

"She's not really 'into' much of anything, the way she tells it." Silas shrugged. "She's a little possessive of me. Seems to think I need to keep my social circle as limited as possible. As if that's not already the case."

"That may be a little too limited," Faith mumbled.

"Yeah. No kidding."

The tension remained unbroken as their parents returned. Silas learned, as he'd suspected, that his old bed was ready and waiting for him. He stayed and chatted until he could reasonably make an excuse to head off and settle into his room.

****

Faith had had a long day. She'd absorbed a year's supply of weird within twelve hours or so. She was pretty well ready for it to be over and done with.

However, lying in bed staring at the ceiling wasn't quite what Faith had in mind. She felt absurdly lonely. She was used to being alone to varying degrees, but somehow tonight in particular it hit her extra hard.

Maybe it was just because she knew Silas was so close. Cuddling with him had been... nice, to put it mildly. She found herself craving another chance.

Physical contact was just something people needed, right? It wasn't like there was anything wrong with desiring it after so many lonely nights. Except...

Faith sighed. She really wished Silas hadn't shared that story about his ghost friend's perverse fantasy. It made her question every thought she had about her brother. She hated second guessing her own intentions that way. Just because someone else thought that way didn't mean she ever had or ever would.

Fuck her brother indeed. What a stupid thought.

Faith stood in a fit of determination not to let anyone else dictate her actions or wants. She exited her room and padded silently down to Silas's room.

She paused just outside the door. There was a barely audible mumble from inside. Faith hesitated, then pushed the door open anyway.

"Talking to yourself?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Silas snorted. "You know I'm not." He propped himself up on his shoulder. "And whatever happened to knocking?"

"Nothing happened to it. I just didn't feel like asking." Faith concentrated and switched to looking in thermal mode with her robot eye. Just as with the angry husband-ghost from earlier, she was able to make out a weird distortion where the air was ever-so-slightly cooler than it should have been. It was arguably a girl-shaped distortion, but so vague that Faith wouldn't have guessed if she didn't already know. "Hey, Aggie," she said.

Silas tilted his head curiously. "She says 'hi.' Also some stuff that I'm not going to repeat." He sat upright. "Can you see her or something?"

"Only kinda." Faith crawled in next to her brother. She sat near him, but not so near as to touch. "I guess there's probably something I should explain."

"Yeah, probably."

Faith glanced in Aggie's direction, then raised an eyebrow. "Is Aggie staying?"

Silas waited a moment. "She wants to know what your deal is. She says she'll take off afterward." He sighed. "Also she's winking a lot. I think her mind's in a much different place from ours."

"For someone who supposedly has no sexual interests, she certainly thinks about it a lot," Faith grumbled. She nervously smoothed the sheet beneath her. "So, what I'm gonna say has to stay a secret. Like, for legal reasons. I'm not even supposed to be telling you."

"Oh? Well, you know you can trust me," Silas said. "You can't really trust Aggie, but luckily she couldn't blab to anyone important even if she wanted to."

Faith gave him a crooked smile. "I guess that's good enough." She took a breath. "So the past year or so, I've been engaged in some... experiments, I guess you'd call them. Some tech trials."

"With your new arm and all?"

"Yeah. Partly. There's nothing really special about it, even though it is pretty fucking sweet and cutting edge and all that. So yeah, I kinda got a beta test version."

"Nice. But how are you supposed to keep that a secret? Anyone can see it when you're just walking around."

Faith nodded. "Sure. But they won't see this," she said, pointing to her cyber-eye.

Silas frowned. "Your eye?"

"Right."

Silas leaned closer. "I don't get it."

"It's fake, Sil. Robotic. Or... actually not robotic exactly. I mean, kinda. They had fancy words for it. Biomechanical or something."

"But... there was nothing wrong with your eye."

Faith steeled herself. "No, there wasn't. I had to let them remove it anyway to make room for the test version."

"Fai..."

"I know, I know. It was pretty fucking risky. But Sil, the new arm I got, it's totally worth it."

Silas sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I mean, it's already done," he said.

"That's right, it is. And it's not your decision either way."

"All I'm saying is-"

"Don't. Just don't. I don't wanna hear how it was stupid, or I should have told you, or whatever you're gonna say."

Silas was quiet for several agonizing moments. Faith waited with something like patience for him to process.

"Is it at least super sweet?" he finally asked.

Faith smiled. "It's so cool. The things I can do with it... yeah, man. And no one can even tell. It's all the cool cyborg-y shit with none of the social outcast-y downsides."

"Nice." Silas leaned in close. He squinted and looked back and forth between Faith's eyes. "You can't even tell."

"I know. That's the only reason I agreed to it. I wanted a better arm, but not if it was gonna fuck up my face in the process."

Silas leaned back. "Well, that kind of explains a lot."

Faith arched an eyebrow. "A lot?"

"It explains some weird stuff. You can see way better with it than a regular eye, I assume."

"Sure. Different spectrums and distances and shit."

"So you're not actually psychic. Like, at all."

Faith smiled. "No, Silly. Not psychic. That's just you. Apparently."

Silas sighed heavily. "Trade ya."

"Oh, darling brother." Faith reached out and patted his head. "Would that it were so simple."

"Really though."

A moment passed. Faith chewed on her lip, unsure what to say next.

Silas cocked his head, then refocused on his sister. "Aggie's taking off, by the way. She says..." He stopped. "No, I'm not repeating what she says."

"Probably wise," Faith agreed.

"Aw crap. Except she says she's not leaving if I don't." He glared at the air above them. "Fine. She says 'just fuck already.'"

Faith snorted. "Does she?"

"Yeah. She does. And she's gone."

"Right." Faith ran her eyes around the room. "Do you think she intended to make things awkward on departure?"

"Honestly not sure. I don't think so. Probably more like she either thought it'd be funny, or she really thinks she's helping make her twisted desires a reality."

"Sooo... a total miss either way?"

"Basically, yeah."

Faith wasn't sure what to do now. She wanted to stay, but she felt like connotations had been imposed that she didn't much care to validate. On the other hand, she really didn't want to let some dead girl dictate what she could and could not do with her own brother.

Arriving at a decision, Faith stood. Silas eyed her as though surprised she was leaving. That wasn't what she was doing. Without asking, she flicked off the lights and crawled back into bed.

"Guess you're staying," Silas said.

Faith tried to pick out the emotion in his voice. She didn't have much success. She hoped it was ok. It didn't sound like he minded.

"I am," she said with more confidence than she truly felt. "Fuck Aggie's mind games."

"That's the spirit."

The siblings settled in under the covers. Faith lay on her back and smoothed down the blanket one-handed.

"This doesn't have to be anything gross," she said.

"No, of course not," Silas agreed. "It's just sleeping."

"Right. Exactly."

Faith knew, however, that it wasn't 'just' sleeping. She knew Silas knew it too. But damned if she'd let technicalities get to her now.

After waiting several long minutes so as not to appear needy, Faith rolled toward her brother. She found his shoulder and nestled against it.

Silas's arm slid around her and his palm pressed against the small of her back. She arched her spine in secure contentment.

"I could get used to this," Faith whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Silas replied in the same hushed tone.

Faith luxuriated in the warmth and love of her brother. She felt his heartbeat thumping faintly through his body. His breath was the softest of caresses on her hair.

It was exactly the sort of thing Faith had been missing all that time on her own. She'd never really expected to find it, let alone right back in her childhood home. She wanted to keep hold of it, forever if possible. And more than that...

"Hey, Sil?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not thinking about gross stuff, are you?"

There was a pause. "Why would you ask that?"

"Just answer me, please."

Another pause. "Well now I am."

Faith smiled faintly. "You were the whole time, weren't you?"

Silas shook his head. "No."

"Really?" Faith lifted her head. "Because I kinda was."

Silas traced the line of her cheek with his thumb. "You were?"

"I didn't really want to, especially since Aggie tried to make it all weird and shit." Faith nuzzled her cheek against Silas's palm. "But I totally was. Still am."

"Ah."

"I shouldn't. I think I'm probably just confused. Mixing emotions and thoughts and coming out with entirely the wrong result."

"Yeah, maybe," Silas agreed. He stroked her hair. "That can happen when you're alone too long. It's easy to get confused."

Faith nodded. "Maybe I should sleep in my own bed."

"Maybe," Silas repeated.

Faith had been hoping for Silas to make the decision for her one way or the other. She was disappointed at first that he remained so vocally noncommittal. That disappointment faded as he kept running his fingers through her hair. His touch was gentle, but pulled her inevitably back to him rather than pushing her away.

"Or maybe I could stay here," Faith said.

"I'd like that better," Silas concurred.

"I mean, just sleep though."

"Obviously."

"Nothing weird."

"Naturally."

Faith hesitated. She meant to just lie back down, settle in for some sleep. Something stopped her.

Partly, it was Silas's fingertips tracing down from her cheek to her neck, then to her shoulder. He reached the area when her robot arm would have been, except right now was just empty. It was unquestionably the part of Faith's body she was most sensitive about. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have let anyone touch it. Not even Silas.

Somehow, though, she let him. She let Silas's hand run over her shoulder and down her side. She shivered slightly at the feeling of being so intensely vulnerable with him. It made her anxious, instinctively fearful of rejection, but so intensely happy that she knew that rejection wasn't coming. Not from her brother.

Faith adjusted her eye to get a better look at Silas's face in the dark. There was adoration in his gaze, and a sense of wonder as he caressed the skin just around her empty shoulder. Fucking cyborg fetishist that he was.

"You better not be getting off on that," Faith said quietly.

Silas snorted. "Don't worry. I'm not that much of a nerd."

"Aren't you?"

He shook his head. "I just... I like that you're getting so comfortable with me. I know how much you hate when anyone tries to touch your shoulder."

"And yet you did anyway."

"I did. It was a bit of a gamble. I just wanted to know..."

Faith swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "Wanted to know what exactly?"

Silas slipped his hand under her shirt. His palm was warm against her tummy. "How much you were gonna be ok with."

Faith pushed herself up with her one good arm. Without really thinking about it, she gave her brother better access under her clothes.

His words forced her to think about what she was doing, however, and for a moment she wondered if she was making a mistake. Her indecision didn't last long. She didn't want to stop. Even if it was a mistake, it was one she was ok with making.

Silas pushed Faith's shirt higher up her stomach. Anxious butterflies filled her tummy as he neared her breasts, but he didn't quite go that far. Not yet.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered.

"Liar," Faith said. "You can't even hardly see me anyway."

"I don't need to." His fingertips just barely brushed the underside of her tits. "I've seen you plenty."

"You're still a liar."

There wasn't the force or accusation behind Faith's words that she expected. She realized that she wanted to be proved wrong. She wanted to believe that Silas truly liked the way she looked. She'd been waiting so long for someone to convince her. Admittedly, she'd made the task nearly impossible for most of her life.

"I wouldn't lie about that," Silas said.

"So you say."

Silas grabbed her waist with both hands. Faith squealed in surprise, but allowed herself to be pulled on top of her brother. She swung her leg across him and straddled his stomach.

His twin palms pressed softly against her tummy. They slid apart and up her sides. Her shirt went with them.

Nearly breathless with anticipation and nerves, Faith leaned forward and raised her single arm to allow her shirt to be removed entirely.

Faith had never been topless for a boy. Well, not counting accidents like with the towel earlier. Certainly she'd never let a boy take her shirt off. She was more than relieved to see Silas's happy smile as he gazed appreciatively at her.

Faith was glad of the dark to help shadow her perceived imperfections. Or rather, just the one imperfection. She knew she cared more about her obvious asymmetry than Silas did, and that he'd seen it practically his whole life already, but the lack of lighting let her pretend. Pretend that she was a whole girl, the way she always wanted to be. He could have his reality, she could have hers.

"You just gonna stare all night or what?" Faith asked after a moment of passivity.

"I'm thinking about it."

Silas reached toward his bedside lamp. He probably wouldn't have been able to reach it with Faith pinning him down, but she slapped his hand back anyway.

"No," she said. "No lights."

"But Fai, I want to see you better."

"You've seen me. You know."

"I do. And I want-"

Faith put a finger to her brother's lips. "Shush. I just... I'm not ready for that. I know it's kinda dumb..."

"No it's not." Silas traced a nail up the middle of her tummy between her breasts. "I get it. I'm gonna have to work on you. That's all."

"Yeah. Sure. Work on me."

Faith hissed a breath and arched her back. Silas had finally grabbed one of her breasts. His other hand was close behind on its sister. She felt gloriously wicked letting her brother feel her up like that.

Faith leaned closer to Silas. She balanced herself on her knees with her hand on his chest.

"You gotta lose the shirt," she said.

Silas wordlessly stripped his top off. Faith replaced her hand on his now bared chest. He went back to playing with her tits.

The two of them were down to their underwear. Thrills ran through Faith every time she thought about just how naughty they were being. She became less and less self-conscious all the time. Silas's constantly exploring hands were a symbol of acceptance and desire that was almost entirely foreign to her, and it felt amazing.

Faith realized she was grinding on Silas's tummy. She hesitated, jarring her hips to a quick stop, before deciding she was fine with it. What has started as an unconscious desire to stimulate her pussy became a deliberate effort. His smooth skin combined with the silkiness of her panties didn't make for much friction, but it was something.

A moment later, Silas grabbed her hips and started to push her back. Faith opened her mouth to protest, but it cut off before any sound came out. He wasn't pushing her away, he was pushing her toward his cock.

His hard shaft poked exquisitely against her pussy. Faith rocked her hips harder against her brother, and was rewarded with much better sensations than his tummy ever could have provided.

"Oh goddamn," Silas moaned.

Faith smiled as her brother verbally confirmed that he was feeling the same sorts of things she was. She should have figured that his repositioning of her was as much to do with his pleasure as hers. Probably more, really.

Riding her brother, grinding hard on his cock, was the sexiest experience of Faith's life. No amount of porn or self-service could compare to the sensation of being so in control of both her own and someone else's pleasure.

She felt wild and crazy, so far from her normal picture of herself. She was rubbing her pussy frantically on her brother's steel-hard erection. Her brother! How had that even happened? It kind of made sense to her, but also very much didn't. It didn't matter. She was there, he was there... and fuck did it feel good.

"Grab my ass," Faith whispered.

There was a slight hesitation, then Silas's fingers sank into her butt. He held her ass while she rocked against him. He started pulling and pushing on her in synch with her rhythm, helping her movements to be all the more forceful.

Faith loved the feeling of being manhandled by her brother while at the same time being totally in charge of the both of them. Sure he could have rolled her over and pinned her without a problem, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't dare risk her wanting to stop. There was a mutual power and helplessness combined in their illicit encounter.

One of Silas's hands left Faith's butt. It circled her hip and found the front of her panties. Carefully, working around her grinding, Silas slipped the crotch of her panties aside so that her bare pussy was now rubbing on him.