Style: Wholesome, Family Bonds (Non-Incest), Polyamory, Resisting Temptation, Slow Burn, Sweet
Note this story does NOT contain sexual acts between family members, however there are scenes where characters openly discuss and derive pleasure from vicariously experiencing the exploits of their loved ones. If I have done my job right, this will all make sense in the story, but if you find those themes to be particularly 'icky' then this story is probably not for you.
*****Chapter 1*****
It was clear to everyone that Georgia and I would be partners for life. We met at university and were both down-to-earth, reasonably athletic, and shared just the right amount of interests to always have something to do together, without needing to be constantly in each other's company.
It helped that we were utterly besotted with each other. Georgia had missed a lot of school when she was young, and never got a chance to experience the 'lovey-dovey' early phases of a teenage relationship, so she liked to make up for lost time by doing all the cutesy things she had missed out on. She found boundless joy in randomly handing me little love notes, sitting in my lap, and making playlists of songs that reminded her of special moments we'd shared. I secretly loved these cutesy moments, and openly loved how much joy Georgia got from them. So I made it my mission to give her all the experiences she had missed, like going for late night walks through the suburbs together, carving love hearts into tree bark with our initials inside, and finding secluded spots at night to fog up our car windows.
Georgia and I had been together for 3 years when we graduated from university and moved into her parent's house. We had both managed to land jobs in Perth, near her hometown of Two Rocks. Her parents were quite well-off and were frequently away on month-long sailing trips, and Georgia was worried her younger sister Tamsyn would get lonely living in such a big house by herself, so it made sense for us to move in. Tamsyn had just started university locally, so was living at home to keep costs down. We all considered ourselves very lucky.
I fell in with her family straight away, and over the next 2 years I became the son/brother they never had. Tamsyn often joined us for a surf or a game of tennis, and had a similar personality to Georgia so we were natural friends. Her parents were pretty liberal and the house was big enough that privacy wasn't an issue, so Georgia and I never really had a reason to move out.
I could see why Georgia had been worried about Tamsyn being left on her own. She was pretty responsible (especially for a uni student), but she seemed to have terrible taste in men and was constantly getting her heart broken by hunky idiots who would ditch as soon as things started moving beyond 'casual'. Her latest boyfriend was probably a record-breaking 6 months together, but Georgia and I privately agreed he was a dickhead. Somehow Tamsyn was able to look past the fact that he had shown no interest in getting to know us or any of her other friends. Still, Tamsyn had confided in us how much it meant to her to finally have a relationship with someone that seemed to be going the distance, so we bit our tongues and hoped he would mature into whatever Tamsyn saw in him.
One evening, Georgia and I were snuggled together on the couch when Tamsyn came back from a night out. I turned to look as Tamsyn crossed behind us to the stairs, and saw her face twisted in despair as she made a beeline for her room. I sat up quickly and moved Georgia off me.
"Hey Tam, are you alright?" Bit of a dumb question in the circumstances, but it was enough to make Tamsyn hesitate as she put her foot on the first stair. I rose to my feet and took a step towards her.
She choked back a sob and then surprised me by whirling around and falling into my arms, burying her face in my chest and letting the tears flow. I lowered us to the couch and held her thin frame as she was racked by sobs, Georgia joining us for extra support. It was unspoken that Tamsyn needed some time to have a good cry before we'd be able to get any information out of her, so we sat there holding each other as her wet tears started to soak through my shirt.
Oddly enough, what was going through my head at the moment wasn't wondering what had happened - I had a pretty good idea already. Instead, it was a weird sense of gratitude that she had chosen my arms to fall into for comfort, instead of running to her bed or her sister. Sure, I was the closest, but normally the 'comfort me while I cry in your arms' role was reserved for Georgia or her parents, and I felt honoured to now be held amongst their esteemed company.
As I sat there rubbing her back I realised I loved her. For the first time in my life I had a sister, and a comforting wave of certainty washed over me that I would do anything for her.
"Josh cheated on me," she eventually let out.
Georgia and I shared a look of understanding, neither of us surprised. "Oh, honey," she said, giving Tam's knee a comforting squeeze.
As her brother, I felt an expectation that I would go and punch him to defend her honour or something. But I'm not the largest guy, and punching people was never really my strong suit. If I couldn't protect her honour I could at least protect her heart, by making sure she knew she was loved. I sat with her curled in my arms and put my chin on her head, focusing on pouring my love into her, letting it radiate from my chest into the warmth of her body against mine. She tightened her grip on me in return.
I opened my eyes and saw Georgia watching us with a tear in her eye, looking like her heart was going to melt.
"I'm such a fucking failure," Tamsyn uttered in despondence, our attention moving back to her.
I didn't like how she was turning to self-loathing already.
"How do I always manage to push away every guy I want a relationship with? It's like as soon as they get to know the real me they realise I'm not worth keeping around."
We gave her the usual words of encouragement - that it wasn't her fault, he doesn't know what he's missing, etc. While she appreciated our support, the words seemed to fall on deaf ears. To be fair, she had heard them all before.
Instead, she insisted on blaming herself. That she wasn't desirable enough, that she couldn't tell the good guys apart from the bad, that she kept letting herself fall for assholes, that she always rebounded by finding another asshole. It wasn't easy to listen to but there wasn't a lot more we could do except let her get it out. Eventually she worked herself into silence by running out of things to hate.
"Sorry for making your shirt all wet," she said despondently.
"That's okay, I'd rather you cry into my shirt than your bedsheets. That way I can at least hug you back."
That just made the tears flow again, and it was a while before she tired herself out. Eventually she had no more tears to give, an empty husk all that remained of her usual bright self. The dead girl let go of me and stood up.
