Standing Strong Forever

Call me as soon as you get this.

That was all I had written in the birthday card to my sister Misty. When she finally did call on the night of her eighteenth birthday, I could hear the curiosity in her voice long before she finally asked...

"Okay, so why exactly was I supposed to call my big brother?"

I smiled to myself, thankful that my college roommate was still in his night class, because I knew that if he heard what I was about to tell my sister, he would try to invite himself along. "Well..." I said slowly, purposely drawing it out, knowing how much she resented being made to wait for surprises.

"Oh, come on, Thom! Just tell me!"

I laughed softly, which earned me a loud frustrated groan. "Okay, sis, okay..." I finally said, relenting. "Unfortunately, I'm only able to get one present for you for your birthday and your graduation, but I think you'll agree it's a good one."

"Oh? That's okay. I know times are tough, Thom. There's no need to overextend yourself – really, just seeing you a bit more often is present enough."

I knew that she truly meant what she had just said, that she was not just saying that to try to make me feel better. Misty and I had been very close for years – for as long as I could remember, really. While not quite as close as the identical triplets who shared a large dorm room down the hall from me, I had known a number of brother/sister pairings, yet none of them seemed as close as Misty and I had been for such a long time. We truly looked out for each other, each of us always trying to ensure that the other was happy and comfortable. We had our fights, of course – bickerings, really – just like any other set of siblings, but those were always short-lived, typically over in minutes and put behind us with a hug or perhaps a friendly kiss to the cheek.

Given that I was two years older and attending a college a three-hour drive away, however, Misty and I had not seen too much of each other over the previous few years. Even during the previous Summer Break, I had remained on campus, working in the campus rec center in the mornings and at a hardware store a few blocks from the dorm in the afternoons and evenings.

This summer, I would be helping two professors with their research, but fortunately I would have about three weeks to spend at home between the end of the Spring semester and the beginning of the research. That was when the dual-celebration present would take place.

"What I have in mind is a getaway for us both," I finally admitted. "Just you and me, quasi-camping at a place one of my professors told me about a few months back. A place with a bunch of outdoor activities, like horseback riding and hiking and canoeing."

"That sounds wonderful!" Misty's enthusiasm was almost contagious, even via telephone. We shared a short laugh together, once again communicating on a wavelength unique to us. "How long?"

"About a week," I replied. "It's a nice campground about a twelve hour drive away, one way, but I'm thinking that we'd do the drive in two days each way, which would make it..." I had to glance up at the anime bikini babe calendar on the wall. "That would mean we'd leave on Saturday June 6 and return home on Sunday June 14."

"Wow... Long trip."

"Yeah, but I think it'll be fun. If we do the drive two days in each direction, I'll set up hotels for us. Just let me know what you'd prefer to do."

"Hotels, definitely. It'll keep me out of the house longer."

I laughed. "Good point, since you'll be there most of the summer."

"Yeah, but soon I'll be out of here in time for band camp at college with you."

I wondered if Misty could hear my smile. I would not have been surprised if Misty and I would were to be the only brother/sister pair in the college marching band come August.

But the important thing was that, at last, she had agreed to a single gift for both her eighteenth birthday and her high school graduation a few weeks later. This trip would cost me a fair amount of money, even with our father's assistance with the hotels, but for Misty, it was definitely worth the expense... and then some.

*****

For the same reason that Misty preferred to spend two days driving each way for the dual-celebration vacation, I stayed on campus, even though my last final exam was on a Wednesday morning. All the non-graduating students who would not be working on campus during the summer had to be out of the dorms by Noon on Saturday. Since I would be working during the summer, that allowed me to attend graduation on Sunday and see some friends from marching band one last time, then spend Monday afternoon moving my things to another dorm across the street, the dorm reserved for the students working on campus during the summer. Fortunately, I was one of the lucky winners of the room lottery, and I was able to select a single – for the first time of my college career, I would not have a roommate, although when Misty came to visit for a weekend about midsummer, I knew that I would be spending a few nights on the hard tile floor.

I finally made the drive home that Monday evening, arriving shortly after dinner. It was good to see everyone again, but especially good to see my little sister. Her eyes were just as bright as I remembered, and the way she bounced down the steps of the front porch reminded me of when she was younger, when she had spent a lot of time dancing before she decided to focus instead on her schoolwork.

Tuesday, Misty was awake early – earlier than I would have expected – excited that it was the final day of high school for her. The final day was really just a half-day: homeroom, then an assembly for the Seniors where they would be given a pep talk by several area alumni who had become business leaders and local celebrities, and then a graduation walkthrough so that the Seniors would know what to expect for their big night.

I had just finished cleaning the back yard pool – always my chore when I was home – when Misty returned from school. "Lunch, tan, and swim," she announced to me.

"I'll skip the tan," I noted. "I prefer the vampire look. Thus the reason why I spend my days in labs."

She groaned and rolled her eyes, but I saw the glint of amusement. Misty was one of the few people who seemed to appreciate my sense of humor.

After lunch, I spent some time in my bedroom with my laptop, looking for updated information on the science-fiction convention being held near campus in October, but soon I could feel the pool beckoning me, and changed into my swim trunks and headed outside.

The tall fence surrounding the small property afforded us plenty of privacy in the back yard, and Misty was using that privacy to tan.

...topless.

This was not the first time for me to see a topless or naked woman. In addition to occasionally enjoying some online pornography, I had dated several people on campus and had been fortunate to enjoy some good sex with them – and a few others on occasion when I was between girlfriends. I fondly remembered Katrina in particular: Her breasts were rather small, but they were also very sensitive, adorned with nipples which seemed to have a direct connection with her clitoris so that she could occasionally orgasm just from enough stimulation of her nipples.

Seeing my own sister topless was the first time that I thought of her as a sexual being. Certainly everyone is a sexual being on some level, but as I stood on the back porch, practically dumbfounded at seeing her breasts being bared to the warm sunlight, I suddenly wondered what Misty would be like in bed. I wondered how well she would perform. I wondered if she would spit or swallow. I wondered if she could squirt. I wondered if she would be a moaner or a screamer or perhaps just a heavy breather. I wondered if she would scratch me deeply during her orgasm. I wondered if she would enjoy being blindfolded and having her wrists tied to the bedposts during sex.

I wondered if I would ever know her sexual side.

Within the swim trunks, I felt myself starting to lengthen and harden. I had seen my little sister wearing a bikini on more than a few occasions, but never with the bikini top cast aside on the grass. Part of me wanted to go to her and untie the strings at her hips to peel away the rest of her scant covering so I could feast between her thighs before sliding down my swim trunks and making my way inside her. Part of me wanted to feel the heat of the sun on my back and the heat of my sister's body around me. Part of me wanted to know if having sex with Misty would be any different from having sex with Katrina or Alicia or some of the others from campus.

Part of me saw her as an available female in which to sow my seed to ensure the survival of the species.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and shook my head, trying to clear such illicit thoughts from my mind. No matter how high the fencing, the back yard was certainly not an appropriate place for having sex, nor was it a good place for my sister to be topless. Yet somehow, that made it all the more thrilling to see her laying on the towel on the grass when I reopened my eyes, to realize that I had not been dreaming or imagining things when I had first seen her breasts being bared to the warm sun.

I noticed a small alarm clock and a small bottle of something beside her, and presumed that the clock was so she would know when to turn over and the bottle was likely her tanning lotion. Slowly, carefully, I made my way down the steps of the back porch, my bare feet barely feeling the heat of the sun from above and the entrapped heat of the cement steps from below. My erection was still forming, and without looking down my front, I knew that, without question, it was solid enough that Misty would know that I was thinking inappropriate thoughts about her if she opened her eyes and turned her head in my general direction. Granted, I had previously seen Misty's nipples poking at her bikinis or her swimsuits, but that was different – that was somewhat expected, and had never truly drawn my attention past the initial thought of Wow, my sister does have nipples after all. This was quite different: This was the exposure of sexualized anatomy which clearly signaled arousal - my arousal – and she was most definitely the cause of the arousal.

I barely felt the many blades of grass poking at my feet as I approached her and made my way around the pool to where she was laying by the fence. Misty clearly heard my footfalls, because she opened her eyes and turned to look up at me, her eyes alighting for a moment on my swim trunks.

"Coming to tan with your little sister?" she asked.

"Um, no," I replied. "I just thought you should know..."

"Thought I should know what? That you like seeing me topless?"

I felt my face becoming a little warmer. Either the sun had suddenly redirected some of its rays at my face, or I was beginning to blush.

Or perhaps both. Given that I was standing over an adult female from my own family and the fact that she happened to be topless in my presence and fairly nonchalant about it, both could very well have been possible.

"Actually… You should know that you're putting on a show for those pilots up there."

She quickly turned her attention to the sky. "Huh? What pilots?"

It was a childish tactic, but it helped to dispel the blush as I laughed and knelt in the grass beside my topless sister.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." She was certainly not particularly amused, but the overall situation, the shock of having discovered her topless, had been diffused.

Then her alarm clock rescued me, its soft chime breaking the unusual situation with a sound of normalcy. Misty rolled to her side and reached for the alarm clock to start playing with it. As she was looking away from me, my eyes roamed her bare flesh, and I realized then just how well she took care of herself. Except for the scar from a surgery some ten years earlier, her skin was flawless. Even though she was no longer actively dancing almost every day, she was clearly still exercising somewhat regularly given that her muscles were still quite well toned.

"Good," she said to herself before setting the alarm clock back on the ground beside the towel. Then she rolled onto her stomach. She turned to look at me, fortunately looking up past the bulge at the front of my swim trunks. "Oil me up?" she requested.

With any woman on campus, I would have eagerly dived right into that situation. With my own sister, I hesitated, even though she and I had applied tanning lotion to each other more than a few times in the past. The difference was that on this occasion, she was not properly covered. Even though she was laying on her stomach so that I could not see anything inappropriate, there were no strings behind her neck or across her mid-back to indicate that she was truly decent as expected by society.

...or by our parents.

"Sure," I finally said as I tried to keep my voice as neutral as possible, stepping around her to kneel beside her and reach the bottle.

I probably spent ten minutes applying the tanning lotion. I kept telling myself that this was just like all the other times I had done this very same act in this very same back yard protected by these very same tall wooden fences, but somehow a part of my mind just would not believe it. Somehow, this was quite different.

It was so different that my erection never faded. Even worse, it was starting to become a bit painful.

As I worked on my sister's back and arms and legs, I wondered if she was starting to become wet, even just a little, from having my hands on her while she was topless. That was one clear advantage she had over me in that moment: If she was becoming aroused, I would not know, since her legs were spread only slightly and her nipples were pressed into the towel beneath her.

Finally, I could not stand to be so close to Misty any longer. "I'm heading into the water for a bit," I told her. She nodded, her eyes closed, and after I wiped my hands on the grass, I made my way to the pool as quickly as I dared. Once I was in the pool, the coolness helped to ease the erection, and the water itself seemed to wash away the visions and the memories of a topless sister.

I swam laps for a bit, then stood in the shallow end and leaned back against the wall of the pool, purposely keeping my eyes closed. I was almost afraid to look in my sister's direction, almost afraid to see her topless again – even if she was still laying on her stomach – and have the erection form once more while she was in the general vicinity.

But purposely not looking in Misty's direction caused my mind to wonder about her even more as a sexual being. Would she ever be willing to dance at a strip club? How would she react in a threesome, perhaps with my friend Jenni and me? What would she look like with some guy's cum splattered across her chest or maybe dripping from her face? Would she ever agree to try anal sex? How would she look chained to the wall of a mostly-dark bondage dungeon like in some of the porn I had seen online?

Of course, those inappropriate thoughts reinvigorated the erection.

I was far enough away from Misty that I did not hear her alarm clock. The first sound I heard from her was when there was a splash in the pool. A few moments later, I heard her surface near me as she inhaled air to refill her lungs, and a few seconds later I felt the splash as she threw water at me.

Suddenly, we were not adults. We were once again little kids playing in the pool, splashing each other, chasing each other in the water, challenging each other, and in the end hugging each other as we laughed loudly.

My erection had faded. Misty was once again wearing the bikini top. All was well. We were simply a close brother and sister once again – nothing more.

That was exactly how it should have been.

*****

Misty came downstairs somewhat late for breakfast Wednesday morning. Fortunately, I had made some extra coffee, because she truly needed it.

"Any plans for today?" I asked when she was finally able to hold a conversation.

"Yeah. Mom made a reservation for me at her favorite spa, so I'll be there all afternoon getting ready for graduation."

"Wow. That's an interesting graduation present."

"Yeah. She's coming home from work around lunchtime to take me. Then we'll be shopping afterward."

"Oh? Don't you already have a dress for graduation tomorrow?"

"I have a dress," Misty affirmed, " but Mom was saying a few days ago that it's time I get some..." She hesitated – just a moment, but clearly a hesitation, as if she was trying to decide whether or not to tell me what was on her mind. "...some female things."

"I see." That had long been Misty's slightly-embarrassed way of talking about tampons or gynecology exams or bra shopping or whatever, so I did not push any further on the topic.

Conversation lapsed. There was an unusual tension in the air, and I was almost certain that it was because of the previous afternoon. During the night, I had dreamed of that same scenario, of finding my little sister tanning while topless, but in the dream, I had been much more forward, approaching her cautiously and bending down to gently suckle a breast, eventually biting her nipple as she moaned and writhed beneath me, sliding a hand down the front of her bikini bottom and fingering her until she thrashed about beneath me, clutching me desperately until finally she gave in to the orgasm I had inflicted upon her...

The dream did not stop there, however. While she basked in the afterglow of her release, I had pulled the strings at her hips and rendered her completely naked before lowering my swim trunks to reveal my heavy length, and then I had fucked her – no slow gentle romantic entry, no measured pace to assure her pleasure, just a fast, hard, fierce, violent reaming.

I wondered if Misty had had a similar dream during the night, or had at least been giving a lot of thought to that small yet significant moment in the sun. If she had, then that was almost certainly the cause of the tangible tension between us. Our parents had both gone to work already – thank goodness – so we did not need to worry about one or both of them coming into the kitchen to recognize the stress encircling Misty and me.

I spread my arms wide, the only thing I could think to do in this situation, and my sister stepped forward, pressing herself against me, steadying her mug of coffee with one hand and using her free arm to hold me as I encircled her in my grasp. Even through my sleep pants and my favorite faded old Burn Up! t-shirt, Misty's robe felt soft and sensual against me, and her head resting comfortably on my shoulder reminded me more of Katrina cuddling with me after sex than my little sister sharing an chastely intimate moment with her older brother.

The tension between us eased, but it was still present, still tangible. For the first time in a long, long time, I was hugging my sister and also rather aware of the swells of her chest being pressed against me. The hug was rather brief, but it was apparently enough, for Misty soon stepped back, extricating herself from my grasp.

...to take another sip of coffee before setting the mug on the kitchen counter. Then she stepped forward again, using both her arms to hug me.

We remained like that for a long time, neither of us saying anything. It was as if this moment had been part of our destiny, as if she had lived eighteen years and I had lived twenty years specifically to hug like this. Thankfully, the hug did not arouse me, even though we had been through what was for me a rather arousing experience not twenty hours earlier, even though my mind throughout the night had explored the possibility of sex with this very same inappropriate woman.