The Island

"Kate," he said aloud, sliding over to where her body lay. He turned her onto her back. Her eyes were still closed and the small wound on her head was still bleeding but he could see clearly that she was breathing. "Kate," he said again, taking her face in his hands, "Katie, can you hear me?"

Her eyes fluttered and the small, weak moan that escaped her lips was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. He spun around to grab the first aid kid and pulled it open, looking for something to wipe the wound on her head.

"K-Kenny...?" she said weakly.

"It's OK Kate, I'm here, I'm here, you're OK, we're OK." He wiped the trickle of blood away as he looked down at his sister and smiled as her eyes fluttered open.

"Wha... what the fuck... what the fuck happened?"

***

Northern California. A Year Ago.

***

Kate felt alive in a way that she knew she hadn't for quite a while. Sarah and Molly had been her closest friends since elementary school, been with her, beside her through thick and thin. And they really knew how to party. That night, they danced, they drank, they laughed and they danced some more. They were young, hot and dressed to kill and they were having the time of their lives.

They were on their third bar of the night. Kate knew she was definitely north of tipsy but she was unconcerned. With Sarah and Molly beside her, nothing could go wrong.

"Oh my god, he's here," Molly said excitedly.

"Who?" Sarah asked.

"That guy, from the other bar, the one who kept checking Katie out, look."

"Fuck off Molly, he was not," Kate objected, feeling herself blush.

"Oh my god," Sarah agreed, "it is him. Damn Katie, he is really fucking hot."

Without deciding to, Kate felt her eyes drift in the direction her friends were looking. Of course, she knew who they were talking about. She'd noticed him at the other bar and she'd noticed him looking at her, smiling at her. She didn't disagree with Sarah's assessment of him.

She didn't really want it to but she had to admit to herself that his attention made her feel good. Although her friends insisted she was beautiful, they were her friends, of course they'd say that, and notwithstanding how good she'd felt about herself when she'd seen herself in the mirror before she left the apartment that night, it had always been something of a struggle for Kate to think of herself in that way.

She wasn't exactly a stranger to men, nor was she a virgin, but she never thought about herself in the same category as other girls she knew, like Sarah and Molly for example. There was no way, in her mind, that any man would see the three of them together and gravitate towards her. Red dress or no red dress, Kenny's red dress, as she was calling it in her mind.

"He's totally checking you out again," Molly noted, grinning at Katie who turned away and took a drink to steady herself.

"Shut up, he could be smiling at anyone."

"Gimme a break Katie, for fuck's sake," Sarah chimed in, "he's obviously hot for you. I mean, come on, look at you. Jesus christ. Every guy in here is checking you out. You gotta talk to him."

There was a strange internal struggle happening in Kate's mind. On the one hand, she enjoyed the attention as well as the playful encouragement of her friends. And she couldn't ignore that the guy in question looked right up her alley. But there was something nagging, something holding her back.

Kenny had always been the model of the protective brother but he'd never been silly or overbearing about it. He knew Kate had been on dates with guys, had even had a couple of very brief relationships, and although they'd never discussed it exactly, she assumed he was aware she wasn't a virgin. So she wasn't able to tell herself legitimately that she was worried what Kenny would think if she brought this hot guy home with her. He was more likely to make some kind of playful joke about it with her afterward than to be mad at her. But still, she knew the thing that was holding her back was Kenny, or the thought of him at least. She just didn't know why.

"Go for it Katie," Molly encouraged. "Just talk to him. If he can talk as good as he looks, then you can make out with him and if he can kiss that good then, well, then you should totally take him home."

"Yes! Definitely," Sarah agreed, "great plan Molly."

"Thanks."

"No, come on, I can't take him home. Kenny would kill me."

"That's such a load of crap," Sarah said, Molly nodding her agreement. "Kenny is cool Katie, and you know it."

"Yeah," Molly agreed, "there's no way Kenny would give you shit for bringing a guy home, right?"

"I... well... I just..." Kate hesitated. Uncertain as she was in her own mind why she was feeling reluctant to even talk to the really hot guy who kept checking her out, she couldn't really figure out a way to tell Sarah and Molly, the two people in the world, other than her brother, to whom she would tell anything, what she was thinking. "I just... I guess I wanted it to be just us tonight, you know? We're having so much fun and I haven't seen you guys in so long... I..."

Sarah and Molly both made the 'aww' sound and there was a spontaneous and brief group hug.

"OK," Sarah said, "just us girls tonight then. Bottoms up ladies!"

"Speaking of Kenny," Molly said, once their laughter had died down, "is he still single?"

"Huh? Oh, um, yeah, I guess. He and Marianne broke up a couple of months back, but, I don't think he was that bothered by it to be honest and they weren't really together that long. Wait, why do you want to know if my brother is single?"

Kate was conscious of Molly and Sarah sharing a knowing smirk.

"Oh come on Katie," Sarah said, "your brother is a fucking babe. Are you kidding?"

"Hot as fuck," Molly agreed. "And he's so sweet and kind and nice and... everything. And he's got his own place. Jesus Katie, he's like the perfect fucking guy or something."

Kate looked at her friends quizzically, unsure whether this was the build up to some kind of punch line. She'd been friends with Sarah and Molly forever and, as such, they knew Kenny well, as he did them. And nothing like this had come up before.

"Are you serious?" she said. "You're talking about Kenny? My brother Kenny?"

"Sorry Katie," Sarah observed wryly, "it's not our fault your brother is a dreamboat."

Sarah and Molly laughed and Katie did her best to join in but she could feel her mind churning. Shouldn't she feel great about the idea of Molly, or Sarah for that matter, getting together with Kenny? She loved them, and she loved him. Shouldn't she want to encourage it? Why was her reaction to even the thought of it so viscerally negative?

"So," Molly probed, "what do you think? Would he be interested?"

"It doesn't matter," Kate said quickly, "you're not... you're not doing anything with my brother."

"Why not? Come on Katie, I bet he's fucking amazing in bed. He's so sweet and gentle and..."

"Ew, fuck off Molly," Kate said and Sarah and Molly laughed.

"Ew my ass," Sarah replied, "he's your hot brother Katie, not ours!"

"Yeah," Molly agreed, "and all that manual labor he does? I bet he's totally fucking ripped. Have you seen him naked?"

There was more laughter and the topic was eventually dropped but it lingered in Kate's mind for the rest of the evening. Sarah and Molly were good enough friends not to dwell on a topic that Kate was obviously uncomfortable with but still, every time there was a lull in their fun, her mind drifted back to Kenny.

There was a fourth bar before they finally made their way home a little after 2am. They shared a cab and Kate was the last to be dropped off. Finally alone but for the aloof driver, she thought about the hot guy in the bar and how this part of the night might have played out differently. And that just brought her back to Kenny.

'...I bet he's totally fucking ripped...' she remembered Molly saying and she took out her phone to distract herself as she couldn't avoid the image of a topless Kenny, just out of the shower, filling her mind.

Kenny's night hadn't been nearly as exciting as Kate's but he had no problem with that. He was exhausted. He watched TV but it was just mindless stuff, nothing that kept his attention, or at least he couldn't seem to keep his attention on it. Every few minutes he'd find himself drifting back to the image of Kate in that dress, her sultry smile as she posed for him, the soft bulge of her breasts.

He swore out loud, went to his room and turned on his laptop. It had been a couple of months since his break up with Marianne and, although he was kind of glad when it had ended, he hadn't been with anyone since. So he convinced himself that whatever tricks his mind was playing, continually presenting these images of Kate, sexy Kate, desirable Kate, a Kate he'd never even seen before, were simply a product of the fact that he hadn't been laid in too long. He was just horny, that was all.

So he found some porn online, something he'd seen before, something he knew he liked, and started to jerk off. Despite his deep tiredness, he was completely hard unusually fast, before he'd even opened his jeans. And as he focused on the actress on the screen, moaning as she was taken passionately from behind, and as his hand pumped faster and harder around his engorged cock, for just a moment, the image he saw wasn't the well known porn actress he was so familiar with. It was Kate. Kate moaning. Kate asking, begging for more. Kate's firm, round tits bouncing as she was fucked. Kate's long blond hair being thrown back in passion. Kate announcing her orgasm. He heard himself start to make noise, grunting, growling even and his hand pumped harder and faster, totally automatically. On a conscious level he tried to shake it off, even to stop himself, but something else had taken over. He panicked a little for a second but his cock leapt and spasmed and the movement of his hand was frantic by the time he finally came, his whole body shuddering as he exploded.

All the time as he cleaned up and returned to the couch, he tried not to think about what had just happened, dismissing it with the thought that he must just be even hornier than he thought.

He hadn't deliberately decided to wait up for Kate but he hadn't gone to bed either. He had to be in work for 5.30 so he knew he really should have but he was half asleep on the couch in the living room of their apartment when he was awoken by the door rattling and Kate's unsubtle entrance.

"Oh my god," she said, slurring only slightly, "you're still up."

"I am now," he said, smiling at her.

"Fuck Ken, I'm so sorry, I was trying to be quiet but, um, I think... I'm a little bit... a little bit drunk."

"I think so too. So did you keep your promise?"

"Oh my god Kenny, we had so much fun. Wait a minute. I need some toast. Wait right there, I'll tell you all about it."

She'd kicked off her shoes but Kenny couldn't avoid noticing that she looked just as incredible in that dress as she had when she'd left earlier as she made her way to the kitchen and he physically shook his head to rid himself of the image.

When she returned, she was grinning widely as she pulled her long blond hair into a ponytail, making her way towards him, sitting on the edge of the couch.

"So where'd you go?" he asked, noticing that her grin, her glow hadn't faded.

"Everywhere, like four different bars or something. I missed Sarah and Molly so much Ken, they're so much fun."

"They're good people," he agreed.

The thought had never really gone away but, maybe it was mentioning them again that brought it to the front of her mind so that Kate found herself looking at her brother in a way that was new to her, in the way she'd discovered that her two best friends had evidently been looking at him for some time, the way her mind had drifted to on the cab ride home. She felt her eyes drifting involuntarily along his body and turned her head away quickly.

Oh my god, she said internally, and desperately tried to shake the thought of her brother as something physical, as an object of desire from her head. But her mind flowed all by itself into all the things he'd done for her, all the kindnesses, all the positivity he brought to her life. She shifted her shoulders a little, felt the dress she was wearing move with her body and thought about how happy he'd made her that very night, how comfortable in her own skin he'd helped her feel.

Even still, when she moved it wasn't a particularly deliberate action. Tiredness combined with affection so that moving to lie on top of him on the couch seemed, in her current state at least, to be a really good idea.

Kenny chuckled a little as he felt her climb on top of him and a part of his mind thought about having to be in work in like three hours but he didn't allow himself to get annoyed. Besides, he acknowledged internally, it did feel nice, laying with her like that, her firm body pressing against his.

"You know there's a perfectly good recliner right there Kate, and your bed is always an option," he observed playfully.

"Yeah..." Kate breathed, her head resting near his shoulder, "but you looked really comfy... and I really wanted to give you a hug so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone."

Now that she'd done it, now her body was pressed against his, even if she hadn't put any conscious thought into doing it, she was glad she had. It wasn't just that he was comfy; he felt safe, secure. She moved her hand to his chest and felt it rise and fall as he breathed and it occurred to her that she couldn't remember ever feeling so completely close to someone before, so completely connected and she sighed contentedly.

"Hug me for what?" he said.

"For being so amazing," she said, lifting her head almost reluctantly from his shoulder so she could look into his eyes. "For being so kind to me, for making me feel so happy. For... for everything Kenny. I feel so lucky that you're my brother."

That warm feeling was coming in waves now, the safe, secure, happy, contented warmth of his body underneath her, the connection, until she was almost light-headed, almost overwhelmed with the thought of him. And when her head started to lower slowly towards his, she couldn't remember deciding to do it, it just happened, like it was the natural, obvious thing to do. She was maybe half-conscious of a strange look on his face, like he didn't understand what was happening, but she didn't stop until her lips rested gently against his and she closed her eyes.

Kenny didn't know for sure afterward exactly how long it was that she kissed him but he did know it was too long. And just for a moment, he had to admit, he was kissing her too. Just for a moment, the images and the thoughts he'd been trying to ignore all night took over. Later, he told himself it was just his body's natural reaction to being kissed, that he'd just woken up and wasn't completely in his right mind yet, if he had, he'd have shaken her off immediately. But even he didn't know if he really believed that. What he did know for sure was that her lips were soft and moist and, despite having been out partying with her friends till 2am, she still smelled amazing.

Still, it wasn't more than a matter of seconds before the loud clatter of the toaster popping in the kitchen shook him from inaction and he moved his arm to her shoulder to move her gently away from him. With the speed of what was happening, he couldn't decide on what to say. Part of him knew he should be mad, should let her know he was mad, should demand an explanation but that instinct just felt wrong. As it was, she beat him to the punch of who spoke first.

"Oh my god," she said, her eyes springing open, a look he could only describe as shocked, even horrified starting to crawl across her face. "Oh my god Kenny... I'm... I'm so sorry... I... I..."

She sprang upright, climbing off the couch. Given that she was at least a little bit drunk, Kenny was impressed that she didn't fall over such was the speed of her movement.

"It's OK Kate," he said as he too stood up from the couch, his instinct to reassure Kate whenever she was worried taking over. He did his best to keep his expression neutral. He could see she was scared, confused and he didn't want to add to that by making her think he was mad. But he didn't want to smile either. This was going to take a little bit of time to figure out.

"I better get some sleep," he said, "I've got work in like three hours. And you should too Kate."

He looked at her a moment longer, noticed that she was unable to meet his gaze.

"Yeah... of course. Totally. Sleep," she said before starting to fidget and move around the room, picking up her shoes, her phone.

"We can talk about this tomorrow," he said. "Goodnight Kate, I'll... I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah... of course. Night... night Kenny."

Kate's mind was completely unable to make any sense of what was happening. To her, it had all happened by itself and when she'd felt Kenny pushing her gently, moving her lips away from his there was a moment when it was as if she'd been asleep or at least not fully conscious, that it had been someone else kissing her brother.

She watched him go, moving towards his room without looking back and wondering whether the reason she felt suddenly nauseous had to do with the booze or what had just happened.

It was several minutes before she could make herself move. She just stood there, confounded, her befuddled mind trying to piece together what had happened, what she'd just done.

Eventually she slinked slowly towards her room. She didn't bother removing her make up. Didn't bother brushing her teeth. She even gave serious consideration to not taking off the dress. It felt like if she could just get to bed, just get herself underneath the blankets, just fall asleep, maybe she'd wake up and it would all have been just a bad dream.

But as she lay there, forcing her eyes closed in a vain attempt to hasten sleep, she couldn't get him out of her mind. She could still taste him on her lips, still feel the safe, reassuring strength of his body against hers and when she wrapped her arms protectively around herself, felt the warmth, she couldn't deny that she wanted those arms, that warmth to be his. And when sleep did finally come, her subconscious mind had a field day.

Kenny had featured in her dreams before, but never like this. In the first of what was to be an ongoing series, in her dreams that night her brother worshipped her body, kissed her, touched her, made love to her, held her down and just took her until she was screaming her release.

In the apartment's other bedroom, Kenny didn't bother trying to sleep, he knew it would be useless. He lay flat on his back, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. Some part of him knew that he was actually afraid to close his eyes, afraid of what he would see in his head if he did. He did his best to convince himself that he hadn't actually felt the urge to wrap his arms around Kate when she'd kissed him, to embrace her, hold her, kiss her the way any other man alive would have, that his mind hadn't wondered what it would be like to slide that red dress from her shoulders, to feel the soft warmth of her bare skin against his, to feel the heft of her exquisite breasts in his hands.

"Fuck," he said aloud.

***

Somewhere in the Pacific. A Year Later.

***

"Well...," Kenny said, "I'm not totally sure really but, I guess the gist of it is the plane crashed."

"Oh my god." Kate tried to sit up and winced, moving her hand to her head. "Shit, my head hurts."

"Yeah, I think you got hit with a chair or something, you have a small cut but it's not bad. Take it easy, you might have a little concussion. Does it hurt anywhere else?"

Kate's eyes seemed unfocussed and Kenny helped her this time when she tried to sit up against the side of the raft.