Treading Lightly

It wasn't my best moment, I have to admit.

"Seriously, Aaron, what the hell?"

"I'm sorry!" I answered, yet again. "I didn't know anyone was down here. Especially doing. . . that." I waved my arms in circles toward her general direction.

"I thought you were training," she grumbled, holding her purple yoga mat in front of her.

"I was. I'm having an off day so I didn't finish with swimming like I usually do."

"Well, at least turn around." She spun her finger in a circle as she said it.

I turned around and listened as she huffed past me, rushing out of the basement lounge.

When did my sister start doing naked yoga? I wondered. I heard a woman's voice telling me to relax my breathing. It helped.

Until I realized Leah had left her laptop on the coffee table and it was just the instructor on the video continuing with the lesson. I turned it around on the table and noted that there were only a few minutes left, meaning I had come in during the cool down. I closed her laptop and carried it upstairs, setting it on the bottom step that led upstairs to the bedrooms.

I was slicing off a few pieces of cheddar cheese to eat with some crackers when I heard Leah bound down the stairs. Here comes the shitstorm, I thought.

"Hey," she muttered.

"Hey."

"Listen, I'm sorry I got so mad downstairs."

"It's cool," I answered, handing her a slice of the cheese. She thanked me as she took it and grabbed a cracker off my plate. "I need to be more careful. I was going to play Call of Duty, but I guess I should have knocked first."

"Why would you knock to go down to the basement?" she laughed. "That's shared space. I should have just been more careful."

"Yeah, maybe," I shrugged. "Either way, I'm sorry I walked in on you."

"Don't worry about it. I'll be more careful in the future. So," she said, taking a bite, "the basement's open now if you want to play your game."

"Yeah, thanks. Let me ask you a question."

"Sure."

"Why. . . I mean, why don't you wear anything when you do yoga?"

"Oh," she laughed. "Kim hooked me. Part of a good yoga session is not only stretching and stress relief, but self-awareness. Being naked is very freeing, just mentally if nothing else. Have you ever worked out naked?"

"What? No!"

"Not riding your bike or running," she laughed, "But stretches or body weight stuff. You should try it."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, rolling my eyes. I picked up my plate and drink and walked toward the basement.

"Or playing Call of Duty!" she called after me, laughing.

I played for a couple of hours before calling it a night and coming upstairs. Mom and Dad had left yesterday to take a cruise for their 25th anniversary, leaving Leah and I home alone. I'm 19 and Leah's 21, and we have another sister, Sara, who's 24. Leah is the fun one, short and lean with blond hair and blue eyes. Sara is taller with a curvier build with brown hair and blue eyes. I'm not especially tall or big, about 5'7" and 150 pounds. I'm in good shape, but I'm not totally ripped or jacked. My hair is a light brown and I have the same blue eyes as the rest of my family.

"Hey, dork," Leah blurted as she plopped down on the couch beside me. "Mom sent a selfie of her and dad leaving port a few minutes ago." She turned the phone toward me and showed me a picture of my mom in her sleeveless yellow shirt, visor and sunglasses, and my dad in his teal golf shirt and sunglasses. They looked happy. Leah said that Mom attached a text saying they were staying overnight once they got back into Port Canaveral, and would be back next Sunday. "How's it going?" she asked, nodding toward the TV.

"I'm getting my ass kicked," I muttered, ducking behind a wall as bullets smacked into the concrete behind my shoulder.

"That sucks," she said, watching me as I tried unsuccessfully to clear the area so I could move from behind my cover. I began getting frustrated at being pinned down while Leah looked on. I finally took a chance but took a fatal hit from a nearby explosion.

"Dammit!" I cursed, throwing my controller onto the couch.

"And this is supposed to be a stress reliever?" she asked with a smile, her eyebrow raised.

I just rolled my eyes, feeling pinned and under fire again.

"Come on," she said, popping up off the couch. "Let's go get a pizza." She pulled at my hand and I finally relented, standing up to follow her up the stairs after turning off the TV and Xbox.

She drove her Altima into town as I rode along. I had to admit she was fun. She had a way of relieving my stress no matter what she did. Right now she was just singing along with Gwen Stefani, mimicking her movements and facial expressions from the video, being cute, funny, and unintentionally sexy all at the same time.

Wait. Did I just consider my sister sexy? Maybe that wasn't the right word. No, it was.

As her head bobbed and she sang, I started laughing.

"There you go!" she laughed. "I knew I could cheer you up."

"Okay, okay," I relented.

We pulled into the pizza place and in a few minutes we were splitting a buffalo chicken pizza, without Sara, which she would never forgive us for if she found out.

"I have to ask," I blurted out, "Where did you hear about the yoga thing?"

"That didn't take long," she smiled before pinching a piece of chicken and eating it, sucking her fingers clean. As she wiped her hands on a fresh paper napkin from the dispenser on the table, she said, "It's one of the things we talked about in class." She was an exercise science major. "Because yoga is so popular, our instructor said it was important to learn how to do it right. Tons of people get injuries from doing yoga wrong, so she feels like we need to know the right way to do it so we can lead classes or help clients without hurting them.

"So, we talked about all the different kinds of yoga and we learn the basics in the intro class, which I took last year. This year I'm taking the next level up and we are getting into them more intensely. A couple of weeks ago we talked about the possibility of doing it naked and how it's so good for lots of things."

"Well, I can tell you one thing it's bad for: me. I don't need to see that."

"What?" she laughed, "You don't like seeing a beautiful woman naked and stretched out like that?"

"You're not a beautiful woman. You're my sister."

Her jaw dropped and she started laughing as she pelted me with wadded up napkins and her uneaten pizza crust. I laughed with her as I tried to deflect the projectiles, catching the crust and taking a bite from it with a smile.

"You're such an asshole," she laughed, shaking her head. "Seriously, though, you should try the yoga thing."

"I don't know," I mumbled.

"Come on. If you have someone who knows what they're doing to help you, it can be a huge benefit. Lots of athletes use it to help with flexibility and on their off-days as a replacement for a more intense workout."

"You think it would help?"

"Sure I do. Think of what a couple of extra inches reach on your swim stroke could do."

"Do you promise not to make fun of me?" I asked, eyeing her sideways.

"Scout's honor," she smiled, her right hand raised with three fingers extended.

"All right," I shrugged, "I'll give it a shot."

"Cool! We'll start tomorrow morning."

*****

As I sat at the breakfast table eating my last piece of bacon, Leah bounced into the kitchen and smacked me on the back of the head. "Morning, loser!" she said, dropping into the chair next to mine.

"Slut," I nodded in greeting.

"You ready to get your yoga on?"

"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes I am."

"Good. Meet me downstairs in a few minutes. I'll set it up." She stood up and I couldn't help but notice her hot pink boy shorts and black sports bra. She was barefoot and her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail.

"I don't have any yoga pants. Is that going to be a problem?" I smiled.

"You can borrow some of mine." She didn't even look back as she said it, but the tone in her voice told me she was smiling.

Leah burst into fits of laughter, collapsing on the couch when I walked into the basement lounge.

"These things ride like you wouldn't believe," I said as I dug the black lycra out of my ass.

"I can't believe you," she said, still laughing.

"You said I could," I smiled.

"You know I can see everything, right? It looks like you're smuggling fruit."

I looked down and of course I already knew I was showing my whole package, which just added to the humor, as far as I was concerned. "Well, I figured that I saw what you had, so. . ."

"Still not quite the same," she answered with a wry smile. "All right," she said, standing, "Let's get started."

"Wait. Let me go change." I turned to leave the room.

"Nope."

"What?"

"You had your chance to dress for yoga and that's what you chose. The lesson's starting right now."

"No way! I'm not wearing this!"

"Trust me, you don't want to miss the warm-up."

"What am I supposed to do, then?"

"I can think of two options." She didn't say anything else, but just looked at me. It didn't take me long to catch on.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me, Leah." She shook her head and tucked her thumbs into her waistband. "Come on. Not funny."

"I'm not laughing. It's either those," she said nodding at the yoga pants I was wearing, "Or nothing."

"Let me go put on some shorts. It was just a joke."

She shook her head and started pushing her shorts down slowly. She stopped and said, "It's very freeing. Come on, no one's gonna see us."

"I don't know that I want you seeing me like that."

"Okay, then, you can see me like this again and you can wear those." She shoved her shorts down and kicked them off, then yanked her sports bra over head and tossed it onto the couch. "There." She stood with her hands on her hips and I couldn't stop my eyes from roving. Please, God, don't let me get an erection, I thought.

"If you rip my pants, I'm going to be pissed," she warned, nodding at my crotch.

I should have known I couldn't have stopped it, but I also felt ashamed at developing a bone at the sight of my sister.

"Take 'em off."

"Leah. . ."

"Off!"

"Dammit," I muttered, shoving them down and pulling them off my feet, my erection bobbing in front of me.

"Very nice, little brother," she smiled. "Okay, let's get started." She turned and pointed to a green mat on the floor and she knelt across from me on a purple one. "Today we're doing couple's yoga. We're going to do moves that allow us to use each other as resistance and to assist in the moves and for balance." She reached over and clicked on the space bar on her laptop and the image on the television changed to a fit couple in spandex sitting back to back. "I want you to try to imitate the guy's position as we do this, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," I nodded, looking at the on-screen example. Ooh, sitting. I think I can do that, I thought sarcastically.

She ordered me to sit cross-legged on my mat with my back to her and I felt her naked back against mine a moment later. "Okay, keep your back straight so that your shoulders are back and our backs are touching all along our spines," she said quietly. "Hold it there and relax. Breathe with me." She showed me how to breathe and we sat like this for a couple of minutes and I was beginning to feel relaxed with my hands on my knees. Her ponytail lightly tickled the base of my neck and upper spine and I could feel her warm back against mine. It was surprisingly peaceful.

"Okay," she said, breaking the silence, "Arms straight out to the side." I did as she told and she wrapped her arms under mine, pressing her palms to the insides of my wrists since her arms were not as long as mine. With a light pressure, I could feel her stretching my chest open as my arms moved behind me slightly. She released the pressure and I did the same to her, pressing my arms forward only a few inches.

Next she had us standing up and she showed me various poses as I followed her, most of the names escaping me as I tried hard not to notice the perfect ass in front of me as we stood spread eagle on our mats before pressing forward with our bodies, bending my front knee while my back leg was held straight, foot flat on the floor. I tried to keep my focus on what I was doing, but her butt rounded out when she did it and it looked amazing.

She moved us back into an upright position again before directing me to follow her lead while correcting my form over her shoulder. I could tell she was getting more relaxed as we continued on. We did three or four positions standing up before returning to the mats. "Okay," she sighed, "These last couple will help us cool down, but we have to face each other." Her eyebrows were up as if she was looking for a response from me.

"Okay."

"Okay, give me your hands." I held them out and she took them. She spread her legs out wide to the side, keeping them flat on the purple mat, which was parallel to, and touching, my green one. I tried not to look, but I couldn't help it. I got a quick snapshot of her spread open before me, the pink of her lips splayed open, surrounded by sparse brown hair. I looked up at her eyes and noted she was smiling. "See what you wanted?" she asked.

"Sorry."

She shrugged. "Your turn. Spread 'em. You need to put the soles of your feet on my calves and keep your legs straight." I cleared my throat and uncrossed my legs nervously, knowing that this would be the most exposed I had ever been with her. I did as she said and felt the stretch in my inner thighs slightly, the same stretch I had been feeling in various parts of my body this whole time.

"Lean back just a little, pulling me forward until I tell you to stop, okay?" I nodded and leaned back as she asked, slowly reclining a little more until she told me to stop. I stayed like that for a few seconds and then she directed me to sit up straight and she would lean back. I became more excited as my face got closer to Leah's body and soon enough I was hovering about a foot over her mound. I could smell her and it was intoxicating. With my head hanging low I knew she couldn't see my face and I took the opportunity to notice the full pink lips of her pussy and the sheen of either excitement or exertion, and the musty scent accompanying it. I began to grow, just a little, but enough.

Leah smiled at me, looking down. "I told you you'd like naked yoga."

"What?" I smiled. "I can't help it."

"I get it," she said, letting go of my hands, "So it's cool."

My opinion of yoga had changed. Let me tell you it was not as easy as it sounded. Part of it was that this yoga stuff was harder than I imagined. Fortunately I already have good core strength and decent balance, but it still took a lot of effort. If it weren't for Leah encouraging me and sometimes holding me up, I wouldn't have made it through the first session.

The other part was even more difficult: looking at her naked while we were stretched out together, touching and pulling on each other. Fortunately my focus on the exercises helped me deflate for the most part, but I was still sitting here doing this with a hot, naked blonde college chick.

"Good job, Aaron," she smiled after our cool down. She disconnected her laptop from the television and continued to kneel on her mat, placing her hands flat on the floor. Her modest breasts dangled slightly, pointing at the floor. "Tomorrow you do your own thing and we'll meet back here again the next day. How does that sound?"

"Uh, fine, I guess." I was distracted.

"Good," she righted herself again. "Next time, come just like that." She hopped up and I got a quick look at her trimmed hedge before she turned away and picked up her laptop. I shouldn't have watched her walk out of the room, her laptop in one hand and her clothes, including the yoga pants, in the other. I did anyway.

******

The next afternoon I walked into the kitchen with my gym bag over my shoulder after a swim. I had noticed Sara's car at the curb and saw her standing at the counter.

"Hey, Sara," I said. She smiled and walked over, giving me a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"What's going on? Looking good."

"Thanks."

"I smell chlorine. Must have been a swim day," she said as she walked back over to the counter where she was making a sandwich. "Want something to eat?" she asked.

"Sure."

We chatted as she made our lunches and we sat at the table. "I understand Leah got you to do some yoga yesterday," she said, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah, she talked me into it."

"It's not as easy as it looks, huh?" she smiled.

"No," I laughed.

"I remember when Janine first invited me to her yoga class and I was like, 'How hard can it be?' It kicked my ass that first day and she laughed at me when I complained about being sore. I learned my lesson. I love it now, though."

"I bet Jonathan loves that you do yoga, too," I said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. "Jonathan's a dick," she huffed. "He just wants to get his. He expects me to perform like a porn star instead of making love to me and helping me get off."

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't—"

"No, it's cool," she shrugged. "I know. I don't see it lasting with him anyway. He doesn't seem to learn anything, doesn't want to invest in our relationship in any meaningful way, you know?" She just shook her head and ate another chip.

"That sucks."

She just shrugged and changed the subject. We talked about school and work and other stuff, just catching up. Leah came through the front door and dropped her bag on the couch. "Hey, sis!" she called.

"In here!" answered Sara.

Leah came into the kitchen and greeted us both before opening the fridge and pulling out a sports drink. She kissed Sara on the cheek and sat on my knee. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Just talking to Aaron. Mom and Dad made me promise to check on you a few times while they're gone, because apparently they still can't trust you to stay out of trouble."

"Oh, that's right," Leah rebutted, "They still don't know about your escapes late at night to go see boyfriend-of-the-week all those years."

"And they're never going to know about it," our sister warned. Leah just shrugged while looking at the ceiling innocently before taking a pull from her drink.

"So, how long are you staying?" I asked.

"I haven't decided if I'm spending the night yet. I don't have any big plans for tomorrow, but I'm meeting some of the girls for dinner tonight and I'll decide then."

Leah just nodded. "Cool."

"So, I was just talking to Aaron here about your yoga experiment. How'd he do?"

Leah busted up laughing and clapped her hands. "You should have seen him in my yoga pants! It was awesome!"

"What?" Sara laughed. "What were you doing in her yoga pants?"

"In my defense, she told me I could wear them," I said, straight-faced.

"You should have seen him trying to dig them out of his ass," Leah laughed. She stood up and started digging out a wedgie, standing on her toes, her back arched and face scrunched up.

She had Sara and I both cracking up. Finally Sara asked, "How did they do during yoga?"

Leah was still smiling, but said, "Oh, I didn't make him wear them for yoga. That would have just been cruel."

"Well, that's good," she laughed.

Leah hopped up on the counter and peeled a banana from the selection of fruit, eating it as we finished our lunch and talked.

At about 6 o'clock, Sara headed out to meet her friends and Leah jumped over the back of the couch, landing next to me as I watched television. I just laughed and shook my head.

"Just us," she said.

"Yep."

"So how are you feeling after yoga yesterday?" she asked with a smile. "Sore at all?"

"Not really, no. I mean, I'm already in shape, so that helps, but it was definitely a good workout."

"I'm glad you think so. Excited about tomorrow?"