Us Against the World

***

Standard disclaimer: All characters are eighteen or over.

***

My family is nothing close to what you might call, conventional, but the story of how that happened is, complicated. At its heart, it's about love. We've never been able to tell anyone how we came to be. The world at large can never understand, and while I'm certain that we're not alone in how we have chosen to live, we maintain our secret. We're not ashamed, and if there were no one else involved, we might have chosen to be more open, but we're not. There are people who could be badly hurt if our secret was exposed. Secrets weigh heavy though, and after a decade, we decided that we had to do something, to in someway let the world know about us. So, what follows is a true story, one that is still unfolding. We've changed our names and tried to generalise our language usage as much as possible, but I'm sure some of the more observant of you will manage to guess our general location.

This is our message to the world, we exist, we love and are, in turn, loved.

My parents had had, what my mother used to occasionally called an "oops", when she was forty, before my father died. It came as quite a shock to learn that after being an only child for over twenty years, I was going to have a sibling! It took a bit of getting used to, but as I had no choice in the matter, I got used to the concept of having a sibling. Life continued and in due course my sister, Danielle, arrived in the traditional manner.

I can't say that I paid much attention to her in the first few years. I continued to attend college, I graduated, I got my first full-time job, and after all that, her age could still be expressed with a single digit. Not long after her eighth birthday, my father was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer. In the space of half a year, he went from the energetic, cheerful man I had grown up with, to an empty husk. My mother did not take it well, when he finally passed. They had grown up together, living the cliché of childhood sweethearts. My mother had tried to hold herself together, for Danielle's sake, but she'd lost something intrinsic to her soul. No one could blame her for falling apart.

I'd stayed around home for a few weeks after the funeral, helping around the house and catching up on the routine maintenance that my father had once performed. My mother had been withdrawn, but seemed to be holding together, and once things had settled down to something close to normal, I'd gone back to work. A month later, a neighbour from home phoned. They were concerned. No one had seen my mother much, and when they did, she was very distant. My sister had been missing school and was starting to look somewhat wild. I thanked them, jumped in my car, and made the drive home.

It was dark when I pulled into our drive. I could see that there was a light on in the living room, but that was it. No sign of any movement. Stepping inside, I was shocked to see how untidy the house was. Growing up, Saturday had always been set aside for cleaning. My mother had dusted and polished, while delegating tasks to my father. As I'd grown up, I too had been enlisted, sweeping the floor, washing windows, or whatever needed doing. She'd been a house-proud woman, no doubt about it. Now though, I could see dirty plates and bowls on the small table in the living room. A glance into the kitchen showed more plates, bowls, and cups piled in the sink. I went back down the dark hall and saw that my little sister's bedroom door was ajar. I turned on the light and saw her peaking around the door, her dark eyes wide, as she bit her lip nervously. She hesitated for a moment, then she ran to me, threw her arms around my waist, and hugged me desperately.

I knelt down as she released me and hugged her back.

"Hey kiddo." I whispered. "Where's mom?"

"In her room." Dani whispered back. "She doesn't come out much anymore, since you left."

I winced at that. "Why don't we go say hi to her."

I stood up, and she took my hand.

My mother was little more than a shadow of herself, when I walked into her room. She was sitting in bed, wearing a ragged t-shirt that had been my father's. A mostly empty bottle of vodka sat on the bedside locker, with a grubby glass. The tv mounted on the wall was on, but I don't know if my mother was paying much attention to it. On her lap was a photo album. I recognised it as one of a collection that my parents had kept, of their younger days.

"Mom?" I asked, calmly.

I'm not sure how I managed to sound calm, my entire world was teetering.

She didn't seem to have heard me.

"Mom." I said again, a little louder.

She started, and the photo album slid off her lap and fell to the floor.

"Oh!" She exclaimed.

She moved then, leaning to the side, her hand darting out to retrieve the album from the floor. She picked it up and began examining it for damage, turning it this way and that.

"Mom." I said again, firmly this time.

Her eyes met mine and a ghost of a smile passed across her lips.

"Tom, you're home."

I nodded, and in that moment made a decision.

"I'm moving back in, if that's okay."

My mother's eyes welled up.

"I'm afraid I've been a little overwhelmed lately." She admitted, weakly.

I smiled. "That's okay. I'm here now, and Dani and I will help you."

I crossed the room and hugged her. She hugged me back, weakly.

"I'm very tired." She said, quietly.

"Try to get some sleep." I suggested. "We can talk in the morning."

I called my workplace after breakfast, the next morning, and explained that I'd had to go home. They understood, of course, and would be sorry to see me go. I thanked them and hung up. I checked the online listings for local jobs and went to a few interviews. The best fit was a desk job that I was wildly over-qualified for. The pay was a fraction of what I'd just left, but it was enough, and I was able to leverage my skills at programming to negotiate some extra benefits. While I was doing this, I also had my mother visit a doctor, who diagnosed her with depression and so she started seeing a therapist. I became something like a parent to Dani, and a friend. She'd suffered too, with the loss of our father and regularly had nightmares, where she woke up thinking our mother and I had left her too. She would leave her bed, creep into my room, to make sure I was still there, then crawl into bed with me.

*

Two years passed, and while my mother improved to the point where she could take care of herself properly, she was never again fully herself. She was a whisp of a person, just drifting through life. Dani, on the other hand, was a blazing fire of seemingly limitless energy. During the day, once home from school, she would help me with the chores, get her homework done as fast as possible, then she'd go out and spend time in the garden, climbing the old oak tree at the far end of the lawn, by the little stream. She fought battles too numerous to count, with a stick as a sword, against foes uncountable. Now and then, she'd have her friend Jessica over, or she'd go to her house, giving me something like a day off. They'd run around like lunatics, Jessica a little firebrand to Dani's dark looks. At least once a week, there was a prank. They once caught a squirrel and let it go in the house. I've still no idea how they managed it, or why, neither would say, and the squirrel wasn't talking. This was Dani's childhood, and she revelled in it. At night though, the nightmares ruled her, and each night she was driven from her bed, to end up in mine. Sometimes she cried, sometimes she was silent, but each night I became her knight in shining armour, her beacon of hope. I kept the terrors of her night at bay.

My mother died a few days after Dani's tenth birthday. She simply bid us good night and went to bed. The next morning, I found her. The post-mortem had found nothing unusual. There had been no drugs in her system, no sign of heart failure, no internal bleeding, nothing. At 51, my mother had simply gone to sleep and not woken up. In my mind, I think she just couldn't live without my father. She had clung to life long enough to make sure that Dani and I would be alright, and once she was sure, she'd left to be with him. Dani thinks it's romantic nonsense and as far as she's concerned, she abandoned us. She's definitely the more cynical of us.

Life returned to something close to normal for us, following the funeral. I returned to work and Dani went back to school. I became her legal guardian. It really was only the two of us. Our grandparents, on both sides, had all died by the time Dani was born, and both our parents had been only children. So, it was us against the world, with a little help from some of my friends.

Puberty was a difficult time for us, but we got her through it, somehow, without either of us killing the other. As a young teen, Dani was rebellious, loud, and fractious. All the energy that had once gone into fighting the innumerable hordes of evil, was now channelled into being contrary. The evenings were filled with the sounds of loud music and slamming doors. Her bedroom was her sanctuary, a complete boy-free zone, and the only other person permitted within was Jessica. I'm not sure I'd have survived those years without that little red-haired pixie. She was a calming influence on Dani, and the evenings she visited were relatively quiet. We had good days, and bad, I'm sure it was all as normal as we could manage.

Time moved on, and we remained close. By the time Dani turned eighteen, she had matured into a wonderful young woman. I had a little more freedom now, in my own life, and I dated a little, here and there. None of the relationships lasted very long, two months or so at best. I think they grew frustrated because they always played second chair to Dani, and I refused to compromise. Dani was the most important part of my life, and I learned to be honest about that, up front. I had no regrets though. My life was comfortable, and my sister was good company. We had our arguments of course, we were family after all, but still, even after all this time, the nightmares still came for her. No matter how angry she had been with me, during the day, at night, when the darkness rolled in, I was still her knight.

*

I woke up. Groggy, and decided that going on the ache in my head, keeping my eyes closed for another few minutes, couldn't hurt. I'd had far too much to drink last night. My latest girlfriend had dumped me yesterday afternoon, and I'd decided that going to the bar was as good a response to that as I could make. My relationships never lasted very long, two or three months at best. Usually, I'd figure out that they weren't what I was looking for and we'd break up. All very reasonable and dignified. Not so Clare. She had decided, before I had, that I wasn't who she was looking for and cut things off by text message. No face-to-face final meeting where we'd say our piece and move on. Just a simple This isn't working. Don't bother calling me again.

I remembered chatting to the new woman behind the bar, and we'd had a good time, discovering a shared interest in several rock bands and when she'd finished up for the evening, we'd hung out. The end of the night was a bit of a blur though. Her body moved against mine, her back pressed against my chest. With Dani gone to stay with a Jess for the weekend, obviously I'd felt fine with bringing someone home. I scratched my head and stretched as I tried to remember her name. Janice? Janet? No, Jennifer. That was it, Jennifer. As I stretched, I realised two things. I was naked, and I was very horny.

I reached over and put my arm over Jennifer and pulled her against me. I could feel her ass press against my hard dick as I slid a hand under a long, loose t-shirt. I cupped her tiny little tits, and buried my nose in her hair, as I teased her nipples. She moaned slightly and I felt her start to wake up. I pushed my dick firmly against her ass, as I nibbled her ear. She moaned sleepily again as my hand continued to tease her nipples. Neither of us was fully awake, but I'd always found that slowly teasing someone while half asleep was a pleasure all of its own. Jennifer moaned again, louder, and I stopped. That voice sounded familiar. I opened my eyes, and in the gloom, I recognised the recumbent form of my sister.

I pulled away from her, as though I'd been touching fire and pressed myself up against the wall, as far away as I could get.

"Jesus Christ!" I exclaimed. "Dani! What are you doing here?"

Dani took a moment to wake up, then realised what I'd just been doing.

Rolling out of the bed, she glared at me.

"Tom?"

"Oh fuck!" I stammered. "Shit, fuck! Dani, I, I thought you were someone else! You were supposed to be staying over at Jess's."

Dani's face fell a little, and I could see she was upset. Small wonder!

I groaned. "Oh, fuck. Dani, I didn't mean to..."

"Well obviously." She snapped. "Obviously you didn't mean to."

I brushed my hair back out of my eyes and held my head. "Oh fuck." I whispered.

I felt a ball of fabric hit me in the chest and I glanced down. A pair of my boxers lay on the bed.

"Put those on, for fuck sake. I can't talk to you while you're all..." She gestured at me. "... This."

I realised suddenly that in our rush to create some distance, the duvet had pretty much fallen to the ground. I was naked, and completely exposed. I rolled out of the bed and tried to pull on my boxers as fast as I could but ended up tripping and falling over.

Dani sighed in resignation. "You're fucking hopeless. I'm going to have a shower, while you pull yourself together."

I picked myself up, pulled on my underwear and sat on the edge of the bed. What had I just done? I felt disgusted with myself and held my head in my hands as my headache grew sharper, more keen.

I was still sitting there, staring dully at the floor in my underwear, when Dani came back. Her long black hair was wet, and she'd put on her warmest dressing gown. A fluffy thing with fake fur, that covered her completely from neck to ankle.

I stared at her for a moment, as my brain came back up to speed.

"I'm sorry Dani." I whispered, hoarsely. "I honestly didn't realise it was you."

She sighed, and sat on the bed, leaving a very obvious gap between us.

"It's okay. It was a mistake. You didn't know I was here, and you caught me by surprise."

"I should have known though, it's not as if I don't know what your shampoo smells like, and it's not like we don't regularly share a bed. I should have known it was you. I don't know how to make this right Dani."

She reached out then and took my hand in hers.

"You don't need to make it right. You made a mistake, that's all."

I snorted. "A mistake. It's not like I spilt some milk or something. I touched you."

"Don't remind me." She replied, embarrassed. "Look, you've said you're sorry, and I accept your apology. That's enough about it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She replied.

I breathed a soft, sigh of relief and stood up.

"I'm going to have a shower, and then I'll make us some breakfast."

"Make it a quick one. I'm hungry."

*

The quick shower helped to clear my head somewhat and as soon as I was dressed, I made a fry, the perfect hangover food.

We ate in silence at the table for a while, until I got up to make myself another cup of coffee.

"Do you want another?" I asked.

"I'm okay." Dani replied around a mouthful of egg and sausage.

"How come you didn't stay over in Jess's?" I asked, as I waited for the water to boil.

"We had an argument." Dani admitted, looking a little awkward.

"Oh? Nothing serious, I hope. You've been friends since you were what, seven?"

"Five. No, nothing serious, just stupid stuff. She won't talk about anything other than men. Nothing but sex on the brain."

"And you didn't want to talk about that?"

"I've better things to be doing."

I shrugged. "You argued because you didn't want to talk about boys?"

Dani kicked her feet under the table. "No, she was talking about men, older than us. I didn't like what she was saying, so I said so. We argued a little and I left. That's it."

I poured the hot water into my cup and added some milk.

"Nothing too serious then."

"No, just stupid. I'll message her later and say sorry. She knows what I'm like."

"What do you want to do for the day?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know. Maybe go to the beach?"

"We can do that. Forecast for the afternoon looks great. What beach do you want to go to?"

"The small one up the coast that no one really knows about?"

"You sure? It'll probably just be the two of us. If you want, you could invite Jess. It'd be a nice way to apologise. I could bring a cooler with some beer, and we could stop off at the shop and get snacks."

"I don't know. It might be nice with just the two of us."

"Go on." I urged, with a smile. "You'll be glad you patched things up."

Dani sighed. "Fine, but if she starts going on about "men" again, you can deal with her."

"Deal." I replied, with a grin.

"Not like that, you fucking pervert." Dani growled.

I held up my hands. "I'll be good."

*

I parked the car a little way down an old, grassy lane, that led from the road to the cliff top above the beach. The beach wasn't a long way from home, little more than a ten- or fifteen-minute drive. We'd stopped off on the way to buy some snacks and then swung by Jess's parent's house. I carried the cooler down the narrow cliff path, while the girls went on ahead. Dani led, as she knew the way much better than Jess, who'd only been here a few times. For two girls who'd grown up together, their choice of clothes couldn't be more different. Dani was wearing her usual jeans and a hoody, over a pair of battered boots, while Jess was wearing a pair of shorts, a tiny t-shirt, and barefoot, preferring to carry her sandals in one hand.

As I lugged the cooler and a small backpack down the path, I couldn't help but admire Jess's nicely rounded ass. Those shorts couldn't be tighter if they were painted on. She had a wonderful pair of long legs, that went all the way up. She was barely five foot three, which put her four or five inches taller than Dani, but most of a foot shorter than me. I licked my lips and imagined her beneath me, her long red hair contrasting her pale skin. I shook my head. She was less than half my age. I needed to get laid soon. I wondered what had happened with Jennifer. I'd evidently not taken her number, as there were no new numbers in my phone. Maybe we hadn't hit it off as well as I'd thought.

We got down to the beach and Dani had already spread the blanket out on the sand. The beach was long and narrow, especially now, with the tide out. It was protected by high rocks on either side and hidden from the road. The only way to get here was either down the cliff path, if you could find where it started, or by boat. I set the cooler down beside the blanket, dropped the backpack, and kicked off my shoes.

"Swim?" I asked.

"Race you." Dani replied, grinning as she kicked off her boots.

I cursed and pulled off my t-shirt before starting on my belt buckle.

Dani had her oversized hoody off before my belt was even open, and her baggy jeans slid off like they'd only been held up by hopes and dreams.

Jess laughed at the two of us. She dropped her sandals, pulled her tiny t-shirt off in a smooth motion and slipped out of her barely there shorts. I cursed again and managed to strip off my jeans. I dropped them to the sand and sprinted after Jess, with Dani only a second behind me.

Dani couldn't have won. Of the three of us, she was by far the smallest and would have needed a head start in a race against me to have a chance of winning. She likes to cheat though. I felt her foot clip mine and I stumbled to one side, trying not to fall, as she raced past me, laughing. I recovered my balance and raced after her. I caught up to her just before she got to the water's edge and scooped her up into my arms. She shrieked in surprise as I carried her into the gentle surf. The beach drops sharply just after the low water mark, going from knee deep to chest deep very quickly and as soon as I felt the sea floor start to drop, I dumped her into the water.