~ Black Sick Spider ~
- Chapter 3: Firewhisky Kisses -
Even when she is sleeping within her white knight's embrace, she is never truly at peace, never safe from the contents of her own mind.
Her brother's mocking voice, sarcastically commending her strategic retreat to Uncle Arcturus's library, for the books and magical artifacts here are surely better company to her than their female relatives who do nothing but pester her about getting married and carrying on the bloodlines.
"As if they don't know that Father can't find anyone who's willing to take you," he sneers. "Not that you aren't beautiful, of course, but that personality of yours-" He lets out a low whistle. "-turns men right off. Not gonna lie, Sis, you'd make a shitty wife."
He laughs, loudly and for a long time, as though he thinks he's told a rather amusing joke.
He pours them each a glass of Firewhisky from the bottle he brought with him. He is probably already drunk, although when sober and not in public, his manners are nearly as terrible as this, so she can't be sure. He sips his drink slowly. She downs hers in one go, and he chuckles as he refills it for her without being asked.
"Cheers!" Cygnus calls out, raising his glass.
She finishes her second glass as quickly as the first, wondering idly when he will get bored of teasing her and go away.
"Aw, don't look at me like that, Sis," he says, after catching sight of her expression. "I wasn't telling you those things to be mean."
The words "but they're true" hang in the air between them unspoken and he doesn't have to say them for her to understand what he's implying.
"You are beautiful, you know," he says, no hint of sarcasm or teasing in his tone this time, but it may well be narcissism that compels him to say it, for they are brother and sister and (aside from being opposite genders) they look almost exactly alike.
As he leans over her to refill her glass again, he dips his head and captures her lips with his.
Her reactions are slowed by the alcohol - she doesn't normally indulge in more than a single glass of wine, and the Firewhisky is strong. After a moment she manages to push him away.
"What in the hell was that, Cygnus?"
"Just a little brotherly affection, Sis, nothing to get worked up over," he brushes it off with a shrug, and refills her glass.
She sips her drink slowly this time. Cygnus does the same, chattering about the things their relatives did and said tonight at the party.
When the third glass is empty, he refills it again. Once the fourth is down, he kisses her again. She is repulsed, not only because he is her brother and this is wrong, but because the kiss is rough and sloppy, and even if she were not closely related to him by blood she is certain she would not be attracted to him - and not because of his looks.
She wakes with tears in her eyes and Orion's name on her lips. He tries to comfort her, as always... and oh, how she wishes her white knight had arrived earlier when he saved her that fateful night - because she thinks that she could have endured remembering her brother's Firewhisky kisses, if not for what had come after.
~to be continued~