Chapter Six - One Family

Devi burst into tears.

It was her initial reflexive action. Her face pointed down into my chest, her body shook, and she cried. Minutes stretched on as I held her, uncertain of anything else I might do. What are the standard guidelines in this situation? I wonder.

At long last, she let out a damp giggle and said to me, "Well, this is very near Goddamned perfect, isn't it?"

"Sorry?"

"I spend all this time and effort on you, grooming you to be someone I can trust and share myself with. We were building a life here, weren't we? And then we have to think just a little too hard, drink a little too much wine... and unearth a trifling fact that would have best stayed buried."

I absentmindedly caressed her hair. Inwardly, I knew she wanted me to be the first to say it aloud, to acknowledge what we discovered. Alas, I couldn't. The words were sour on my tongue, and I couldn't force them out. No way in hell was she...

"After all these lonely years, I finally find a man who isn't quite as selfish as the rest, who might stand a ghostly chance at being a fine example of a human being... and it turns out there's a reason. He's already family. 'One family', right? Isn't that what the Ruh say? How appropriate."

Funny how I could be simultaneously disgusted and warmed by the same speech. We had blindly entered into a love that dare not speak its name, and it had been bright and honest and full of purity. Before, that is. Before we knew.

"Gods," she gasped with sudden realization as she backed away an inch or two, hand at her mouth. "How many times have we... and the whole while you were my-"

"Don't go down that road," I warned her. "Whether once or a thousand times, it won't change anything. We had no way of knowing."

"Yes we DID!" she growled, punching me in the shoulder. And I had just grown accustomed to being bruise-free... "It should have been readily apparent from the hair, the eyes, from the way we both look at life! You never found it odd that we've been getting along so well? Most people who try living together are sick to death of their roommate within the first day, and yet here we are three or four span later, happy as pigs in slop!"

My frown was somewhat resigned, even though the knot in my stomach refused to come untied. "There ARE a few red-headed folk out there in this great big world of ours; we aren't all related."

"No." That quickly, I could already sense her closing off to me, trying to distance herself. "No, this is simply what happens when I get too involved in my work. First time I let down my guard, the next thing you know I end up tupping my brother."

Despite her brave attempt to rationalize, we both flinched when she said it. BROTHER. Half-brother, more precisely, but blood all the same so one's as odious as the other. That was also the exact second when we both became painfully aware of our state of undress and the nonexistent space between our bodies.

"I'm sorry," I apologized without thinking. "Here, I can move out from under if you just-"

"Wait, don't!" she pleaded, fingernails gouging into my flesh. "Stay!"

"But... but you're my..."

"You can't even say it." A bleak little laugh came out of her, sputtered in the air and died. "So brave when giving one of your teachers a hotfoot, but you can't confront my being a sibling?"

"Half-sibling." Even that much was too much. "Tehlu anyway, this can't be true. It's felt so right the whole time, as if..."

"As if we were destined to have met? Yes, I'd say so. It's a shame to go through life unaware that you still have family."

"We ought not be in bed like this. Why don't you let-"

"NO!" When I pushed her back enough to gape openly at her face, she averted her eyes, unable to meet my own. "Kvothe... if we can't ever... if this is the last time, then I..."

My hands released, and she lowered herself onto my chest and stayed there. She wanted to remain this close for as long as we might get away with it, and I could not fault her. Even though the touch of her skin burned mine in a way far removed from how it had previously. After my arms had wrapped around her naked back, I breathed in her hair again. Strawberries this time; she'd really made scent match sight. "You smell wonderful."

"Do I, now?" she laughed. "Perfect indeed. I... I bought this perfume for you. Because we spent so much time without any elbow room, I thought it would be nice if you could smell something better than sweat and body odor."

"You've never smelled like either of those." I reconsidered. "Maybe sweat, but I've never minded the smell of that - and certainly not yours, Devi."

"Devi, Kvothe... sounds like our mother had a fascination with the letter 'V' in names. Isn't that uncommon?"

"Uncommon enough to set us apart. Or link us together."

"So the V's have it. Why didn't I see it in you the moment you walked through my door? Moreover, why didn't YOU see it in ME? Surely I must look like her in some small way."

My stomach churned anew as I looked at her. Maybe a touch, when hunting for it... but I decided not to hunt for it, and not to tell Devi, either. "N-no, not so much as you might think."

"I'm jealous, now," she told me softly. "You got Mother all to yourself for your entire life. I only have a few memories of her from when I was a baby."

Somehow, it brought all the weight down on me right then, when she said it. I missed my parents, I missed my old life. I missed having someone with whom I belonged. Maybe for a brief moment I thought I could belong with Devi, but there was a stark possibility that we would no longer be able to stand the sight of each other after this putrid scene had played itself out.

"She's dead," I told her without preamble or embellishment. "Both my parents. Happened three... almost four years ago."

A light nod from the moneylender. "Guess I'd have liked to meet her if she were still alive. For once. Don't know what else I might do about it either way."

"I'm sure she loved you," I attempted, having no way to know if I spoke the truth. "Even without being around, I'm sure." After a brief hesitation, I dropped my voice until barely audible and told her, "I know I do."

There was a slight pause as we held completely still. My body ached to enjoy the touch of hers, but my heart wouldn't let it anymore. It was sheer torture. "Love how? Like one loves a stray cat? Like one loves a finely ripened cheese?"

"Devi-"

"Like one loves a sister, Kvothe? Eh?" The anger in her words was not directed at me, but it stung all the same. "Because that's the brand of love you should hold in your heart! Not like what I hold in mine, oh no, that's altogether revolting!"

That utterly shocked me. "By God and all, what are you saying? You were the one who insisted this was going to be a 'bit of fun' and little else! How can you change your tune now?"

"Because it was never a bit of fun and you know it." A high-pitched noise issued from her throat for a moment before she sucked in a breath and said, "Kvothe, you have to feel it too. Even if we are... what we think we might be, it's too late; I'm already-"

She had to be stopped! "DEVI, NO MORE!"

"I am!" she sobbed. "Tehlu's scourging wheel, I'm already in love with you!"

Cursing, I looked away from her, tensed all over as if to flee. So vibrant and irresistible, and yet the true nature of our preexisting relationship should hold her outside my reach. Then she opens her mouth and says she doesn't care; that she's going to reach out anyway, Tehlu damn us with lightning and hellfire. Which He might just do.

To Be Continued...

NOTE: So yeah, I'm sorry if anyone wasn't expecting that twist and got freaked out, but it wouldn't be worth doing if I announced it ahead of time. Where's the fun in that? More torture ahead for our kissing siblings.

And I don't want to hear a bunch of "EWW INCEST", not when there's so much Twincest (HP) and Wincest (Supernatural) out there. Grow up.