In Between Dreams Ch 01 04

Prelude

It was the summer of 2018, July to be exact and I was slowly waking up as the first rays from the rising sun hit my face. Still half asleep and rubbing my eyes I took a deep breath, the fresh warm air coming from the open windows smelled of lemon and Jasmine flowers and the olive grove in the garden. I checked my phone, it was only 7 in the morning. The open window blinds, which I must have forgotten to close last evening, might have cost me a full night's sleep, but the view of the rising sun flooding the valley outside my window in golden light reflected on the open sea in the distance more than made up for waking up earlier than I normally would during my well deserved vacation.

I have never been the kind of person who gets out of bed immediately after waking up, instead choosing to snuggle up in the warm comfort of my sheets for a while whenever possible and that day it was too perfect not to just stay lying there for a little longer. The heat of the day had yet to arrive and the air was still fresh from the night and so with the sunlight gently warming my face I stayed.

By the time I checked the time again, "a little longer" had turned into well over an hour of half-slumber and by the time I finally found the willpower to stand up it was well past 8.

I slowly made my way to the kitchen, started the espresso machine and cut some bread, cheese and ham. Once the coffee was done I took my humble breakfast to the roof terrace.

After finishing my meal I picked up the book I had left next to the deck chair and spend another hour reading, pausing every now and then to admire the view from up there. I had been coming to this house on the Italian rivera almost every year since I was a baby but the view was still breathtaking every time. The old stone-build house was narrow and tall, 3 floors divided into three apartments it had been the family vacation home since my grandfather had bought and renovated it in the sixties. From the roof you could see the valley stretch out with the mediterranean sea to the south and the rising mountain slopes of the Ligurian alps to the north.

This house that I could well and truly call my second home was sitting right at the end of a 500 soul village with a large garden and it's own olive grove. I loved it, everything about it. From the steep stairs and narrow doors to the unclad stone walls it made coming here feel like you entered a different world. Life here wasn't as hectic and chaotic as the cities I had grown up and lived in my entire life and don't get me wrong, I love living in the city, but getting to escape it from time to time to disappear into this comfortable, slowed-down world with it's friendly inhabitants was priceless. And the basically non-existing phone reception only helped to further this feeling.

By the time noon came around it had gotten way too hot for someone from northern germany to stay out in the sun without quite literally melting to I went back inside, took a refreshing shower and then went about cleaning up the house. I was expecting guests in the evening after all.

After spending most of the afternoon in the garden except for a short walk through the narrow alleys to the little shop at the center of the village I got in my car and started making my way to the closest airport. It was a little over an hour's drive to Nice, the next larger city just across the border in France, they would be landing around 8 so i had more than enough time.

Chapter 1: Good People

Damian was my brother in everything but blood. He moved in with my family when he was nine years old, had already been my best friend through all of elementary school before that and quickly became an integral part of the family. Born in the small town of Eureka, California, he had moved to the Germany with his father after his divorce when he was five while his older half-sister and mother stayed in America, the result of a messy divorce proceeding. His father had german roots and got a job in the Hamburg offices of an American shipping company, taking Damian with him.

Then a few years later his father passed away and with no other family on this side of the Atlantic, my parents took Damian in and adopted him. At that time he'd only had very little contact to his mother since leaving and it was agreed with her that it would be best for him to stay in his familiar environment in Germany. From that point on he'd been my brother.

Sitting in my car, driving on the coastal highway with it's constant flow of tunnels and bridges as it crossed valley after valley, giving me one stunning view after the other, I reminisced about the last time I'd seen Damian. We graduated high school two years ago and while I stayed in Hamburg he went to the US to study in California and reconnect to his family. After his father's death he'd started visiting his mother and half-sister regularly and while he never wanted to leave his new family in Germany it was clear that he missed them. Every year he'd visit for a few weeks, something my parents and his mother made possible despite their limited income and in tenth grade he even went on a 6 month semester abroad at the same high school his half-sister Jasmine was a senior at.

We hadn't seen each other in person since he left only weeks after our graduation. He was always an exemplary student and immediately started at highly regarded college in LA while I took a year to "find myself" which had meant lazing around and working the odd job here and there to pay for my travels around europe and save some money until I had moved out of my parents apartment and started studying at the university in Hamburg last summer.

Now, two semester into my bachelor in political science I was on a long-awaited and well deserved vacation in my extended families old vacation home. And I was on my way to pick up Damian from the airport. He too had spend many a summer there and it felt like the perfect occasion for his first trip back to Europe to spend two weeks here in Italy together.

My parents had long wanted to arrange an intercontinental family meeting with Damian's mother and half-sister and they too would be joining us for the second week of our vacation. But Damian and I had quickly agreed that we needed some time for ourselves and so he had decided to fly over a week earlier.

After parking my car I went to grab something to drink and got comfortable in the arrival area of the airport terminal. It was a hot day and despite the air conditioning I was sweating quite a bit. I'd only been in Italy for two nights and hadn't fully acclimatized. My body still being used to the rather chilly and rainy weather in northern Germany.

I was early already and of course Damian's flight ended up being delayed so by the time he had finally landed I was tired, sweaty and ready to had back to the house. Waiting by the arrival area, scanning the faces of people spilling into the terminal hall, my mood immediately changed when I saw Damian's familiar face. He was nicely tanned, wearing a college sweater and looked taller, no maybe buffer? Definitely changed. It seemed California had treated him well. But his face and the stupid grin when he saw me was something I would always recognize in an instant.

We both tried to play it cool as he walked towards me, but once in reach as we hugged our welcome I had to hold back a tear. We'd still talked regularly over the last two years, at the beginning often playing video games until deep into our relative nights but as our studies started taking up more and more time we had gone from spending hours chatting and playing games to mostly texting with a video call every other week.

And now he was back and everything was just like it used to be. Finally, my brother was back.

"Hi," she sounded friendly with an effortless confidence and the aura of a movie star, "you must be Felix!"

I stared at the girl that was now standing next to Damian, my mind going blank from confusion and being awestruck by the sight before me. The girl was now casually leaning on Damian's shoulder and smiling at me patiently as my brain slowly regained it's senses. She was tall and dark skinned, though light enough that she could've been either Afro or Latin American. Her slender form with small perky breasts under a white crop top gave her a young appearance but her athletic physique, defined stomach and piercing blue eyes made her strength and confidence unmissable.

"Yes I a-, I mean. Yeah, hi I'm Felix" I stuttered and held out my hand. Still smiling, she tilted her head in a curious kind of way and tentatively reached out to shake it. "And you are?" I managed to get out. Instead of replying she just turned to Damian who looked back at her dumbfounded for a second before turning a bright shade of red and breaking out in laughter.

"Oh god, I totally forgot to tell you!" He slapped his forehead, "Felix, this is my sister Jasmin. She decided to come a week early with me instead or with our mom and I totally forgot to tell you."

Jasmine and I looked at each other, then started laughing as well. "What an idiot she mumbled under her breath."

"Jasmine I swear I would've never recognized you." In fact I realized I probably hadn't ever seen a picture of her above the age of around sixteen. Back then she'd had the appearance of an awkward, gangly teenager with untamable hair, braces and a wild, if not crazy, smile. Now her hair was long and curly in a shiny dark brown, tied back into a sloppy ponytail. Her statue was elegant and conscious, every movement silky smooth and precise but causal. She was nothing like the annoying older sister Damian had described when he came back from his trips during the summer holidays and the one time I had gone with him to the states Jasmine had just gone of to college making this the first time we saw each other in person.

"And I thought you were being weird the way you looked at me." she laughed "Oh come here, you're my brother's brother after all." And with that she all but jumped into my arms and pulled me into a hug and held me there.

"Judging by how he turned out," she shot a deathly glare at Damian who was still chuckling in embarrassment, "You must be the nice one in the family. Who would've guessed, now I have two little bros." she joked.

When she had finally let me go we made our way to the car, exchanging some meaningless small talk on the way. In the way that is typical for Americans, she asked me about every little every so insignificant detail of my live and telling me how "amazing", "soo cool" and "fantastic" all of it was. I barely got any questions in but was perfectly fine with her completely bankrolling the conversation. I did notice however, that Damian had indeed changed in the two years he'd lived back in the US. While nowhere near her level, he was no longer the grumpy and reserved German my parents had made sure to raise.

The drive back was a little calmer, Damian and Jasmine were both tired from their almost twenty hours of non-stop traveling so i just put on a relaxing acoustic playlist and we enjoyed the view as we took the highway east into Italy. Not long into the drove they were both nodding off. Damian in the passenger seat next to me and my newfound sister, I had never thought about it that way but there was something comforting in the idea that I had finally met my long lost sister, was stretched out across the bench in the back. The car was small and so we had to put one of their bags in front of each backseat. Jasmine had assured us it didn't bother her and proceeded to stretch out across the bench until she was comfortable. Lying on her side I got to admire the subtle but perfect curvature of her body. She was wearing sweatpants but I could still get a sense of her slender legs and smooth hip.

I woke the two up when we arrived at the house and we carried the bags inside. "It's good to be back." Damian exclaimed as the door swung open. Carrying the bag up to the top floor apartment I realized we had a bit of a problem.

"Damian, you know that the first floor apartment isn't ready yet, right?" I asked. The middle apartment in the first floor was being renovated, getting a new bathroom and kitchen and wouldn't be finished until shortly before the rest of the family was scheduled to arrive.

"You told me, what's the problem?" He asked.

"You know the upstair apartment doesn't have two separate bedrooms, right, where is Jasmine supposed to sleep?"

The upstairs apartment was the nicest one with a large living room, modern kitchen and bathroom, large windows to the valley and direct access to the roof terrace. But it had only a master bedroom with a king sized bed and a small second bedroom leading off from it. The small bedroom had two single beds and was only meant for children to sleep in. It had been partitioned off some years ago to allow families with kids to use the apartment. To access it from the living room, one had to walk through the master bedroom and it didn't even have its own wardrobe.

"What's the problem?" Damian asked. "You know I always sleep in my loft over the kitchen." The loft he was talking about was nothing more than a small wooden gallery in the kitchen that used to be for food storage. But at some point in our teen, Damian had realized that throught the window in the gallery that led up to the terrace, he could see the stars. From this point on he had slept up there every year, often sneaking up onto the terrace at night and even sleeping out in the open from time to time. As nobody else ever used the gallery he had turned it into his little private space full of his stuff that stayed in the house when we would head back home at the end of the holidays. In a house that was used by my entire extended family, he had managed to create his own little place that went completely unchanged and untouched by the others and he'd grown very fond of it.

"And you have your bedroom and Jasmine can take the second bedroom. You don't think she'd mind that, do you?" He added distinctly unworried.

I was flabbergasted. Did he really think his sister in her early twenties wouldn't mind having to walk through the bedroom of what was realistically a total stranger every time she wanted to get into or out of her bedroom? Not to say that the wall between the two rooms was so thin you could almost here the people across from it breath in their sleep.

But as it turned out, Jasmine in fact wasn't bothered at all. I had thought about offering her my bedroom but that would've meant me constantly walking through her bedroom. Instead she assured me that it was no problem at all and that it was so cute of me to worry about her but I was her little Bro now and didn't have to worry. So I cleared out half of the wardrobe in my room, it was way to large what little clothes I had with me anyway and she moved in. Jasmine and Damian went to bed soon after and I spend another few hours with a cool bear on the roof terrace star gazing. Though I caught my thoughts drifting off to the surprise guest every so often.

Chapter 2: Belle

I had remembered to close the blinds that evening and so the next morning I was awoken not by the sunlight hitting my face, but instead by the quickly rising temperature in my room. It would be another very hot day.

Expecting my jet-lagged guests to still be sleeping I took a quick shower and made my way up to the roof with a fresh orange juice. I stepped out onto the small terrace, blinded by the bright light I stopped and took a deep breath, stretching my still sleepy bones.

"Good morning, sleep well?"

I looked down and there she was. The most stunning sight I had ever seen. Jasmine lay in a deck chair in the corner wearing a dark red bikini, her hair falling free around her perfect face. Her legs now on full display I had to stop myself from gasping loudly. Perfectly shaped, butter smooth long legs flowing into the subtle but perfectly proportioned curve of her hip. The rest of her was just as perfect as yesterday but to an even greater effect. The defined muscles of her abdomen, her breasts just large enough to fit in the palm of a hand and the long neck leading into her face with naturally full lips forming a wide smile, and her slightly round face with the ability to transform from young and innocent into that of a confident, fully grown women in the blink of an eye.

"Hello, earth to Felix? Are you awake or just sleepwalking?"

"Huh, no no I was just surprised to find you here. Would've thought you'd still be sleeping after the long day you guys had yesterday." I tried to stop myself from staring.

She asked me if I wanted some get some breakfast, I agreed and showed her the way to the kitchen. walking in we could hear Damian softly snoring in his "loft". We grabbed some fruits and a pot of greek yoghurt, I offered her a coffee but she declined and we went back up to the roof. During our little breakfast we told me about their life in California. Damian was studying aerospace engineering and she had been studying literature but got bored of it and put it on hold. Now she was taking some college classes in creative writing and working the odd job on the side, though she didn't seem to want to go into details about her work. Her college and his university were fairly close to each other, at least for LA standards, and so she had moved in with him when he'd come to the states. they were sharing a small flat near his campus. Damian had received a generous scholarship which had helped make living outside of the dorms possible for them.

She was considering finishing her degree, but her true dream was to become a writer, preferably screenplays.

As an avid movie geek I found this to be the perfect opportunity to get more involved in the conversation and soon we were deep into a discussion of our favorite films, writers and directors.

By the time Damian had woken up it was late afternoon and Jasmine and I had retired to the deck chairs where I was reading while she was dozing off every now and then, the jet lag finally getting to her as well.

He stuck his head through the window connecting his little gallery to the roof terrace, asking what time it was and if I could borrow him a charger for his phone, in typical fashion he had lost his somewhere between the transfer in Paris and being picked up in Nice. He'd slept a good 16 hours straight but at least he seemed to be refreshed and full of energy now. On the contrary Jasmine was really starting to crash now and even fell asleep in the car on they way down to the small town by the beach where we wanted to go eat. But she powered through and soon we were sitting on the breakwater that sheltered the beach near which we had eaten, watching the moon rise and listening to the waves crash into the massive stones piled into a long pier reaching out into the sea we had gotten comfortable on.

These mediterranean evening with their mild temperatures as the day's heat subsided and a light sea-breeze set in, were my favorite But my companions, used to the relentless California heat were soon starting to get chilly.

Jasmine, sitting in between Damian and me, without warning put an arm around each of us and pulled us closer until the three of us were huddled together. She had put her arm around my shoulder and Damian his around hers so I ended up awkwardly slinging mine around her waist and midriff, trying not to get too handsy. She however quickly took hold of my waist and pulled my arm all the way around her waist, my hand coming to rest on her exposed stomach. I could feel the heat of her skin against my palm contrast with the cold wind.

When after a moment I turned my head to look at her, she was leaning hers on Damians shoulder and looking back at me, her eyes piercing as ever and again her warm but ever so mischievous smile gave me the feeling that everything happening around her was somehow part of and elaborate plan of hers. She had an aura of control and almost omniscient awareness.