Author's Note: All characters are over the age of eighteen at the time of sexual references. There are flashbacks and references to before, but absolutely nothing happened at the time.
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The rattle of keys brought Jack back to reality with a start. He blinked and yawned as the door cracked open slowly, and reached for the remote to turn off the TV.
He looked over blearily at the woman trying her best to enter the single bedroom apartment silently. She had her white heels in one hand, and her matching purse in the other. Little toes in silk pantyhose tiptoeing across the tiles.
Jack smiled over at her, "Hey, Krystal. No need for the walk of shame. That was kind of the point wasn't it?"
The blonde whirled to face him, her little black dress flaring out around her as she did. Wavy hair hiding her face momentarily, before falling back to reveal her red-flushed cheeks.
His sister smiled sheepishly, "I thought you might be asleep. Didn't want to wake you."
She skipped over and crashed onto the couch, and as she dumped her heels on the floor he noticed that one of them was broken. So she'd probably had to walk barefoot.
"You seem happy. So, I'll gladly not hear any of the details." Jack yawned, "Bedroom's set up for you. I'll sleep on the couch."
Krystal smiled at him lopsidedly, "Already trying to get rid of me?"
"No." He shook his head, "But... You did seem happy. And the whole point of this was to get you laid. And I am very uncomfortable hearing about that."
She rolled her eyes and laughed, which is when he realised that the redness in her cheeks was less a kind of tiredness, and more that she was tipsy.
Jack had never seen his sister drunk before. Seemed she was the kind of girl who got all bubbly and happy. Not that surprising, considering she wasn't far off that usually. Just a touch of dour pessimism hanging over her, as well.
"Actually, my date went kinda bad." Krystal said, "Seeing that you were up, waiting for me. All sweet and protective. That kinda fixed my mood."
"Oh?"
She sighed and waved at her shoes, "He broke my heel, shoving me against a wall for kiss... And then my head hit his chin, and he chipped a tooth."
"Oh." Jack struggled to keep his face straight. Was his little sister living inside a damned soap opera?
Krystal glared, "It isn't funny! It sucks. I like my shoes."
"That is very true. I'm surprised you let him off with just a chipped tooth. Aren't those your favourites?" Jack glanced at them.
She nodded, and stuck out her lip, "My favourite kitties. I know they're a little out of fashion now, but they were the first pair I bought."
"Have you seriously not grown, since then?"
"Ass." Krystal laughed and punched his arm lightly, "I haven't grown an inch taller since my sixteenth birthday. You know it, and I know it, and I hate always being the short one. And if you say your usual about guys liking short girls, I'm going to hit you again."
"Short girls are totally cute." He reworded it.
She still hit him.
Jack sighed, "So... That marks bad date number three, doesn't it? Want any more advice? I mean, I can't fix klutz. But... You know."
"It really shouldn't be this hard to get laid." Krystal pouted, "I'm nineteen. And I'm totally hot... And wow, I must be drunk to admit that. At least the drinks are nice."
He leaned his head onto the couch and shrugged. "Is it really that big a deal if you don't? It isn't like you're actually looking for a boyfriend."
"I know your opinion. Better with love." Krystal replied, and shrugged tiredly, "I dunno. All my friends lost their virginity. I'm the last one, and they're always teasing me about it."
"They also tease you about being short, but I don't see you wearing massive heels to compensate. You prefer the little ones." Jack shrugged, "Look... Why don't you have a night off from the hunt, tomorrow? Have a night in with your boring brother. I can even make you cocktails."
She yawned, and curled up onto the couch, resting her head onto his shoulder suddenly. "Mmm. Maybe I'm being a bit... Desperate about the whole thing. Losing the sense of fun. I guess I should actually like the guy who pops my cherry."
"Probably."
Krystal snuggled into him, "Where's the blanket?"
"If you're going to pass out, the bed's thataway."
She shook her head, "But it's cold and lonely by myself. Because I didn't expect to be alone. And you don't mind."
"Kinda do." Jack laughed at her and patted her head. She was already drifting off, regardless of his answer.
Krystal gave a final yawn, and half-whispered, "No... You... Don't..."
He really did mind.
Jack still remembered everything that the two of them had gone through because of their father, and everything that they had before that, and he never wouldn't.
You can't tear the memories out of your skull.
Krystal wasn't exactly Jack's sister.
She was his half-sister.
He was seventeen, and she was celebrating her sixteenth birthday, when the two of them had got up the courage to tell people that they were dating.
Jack had brought his bright and bubbly girlfriend home to meet his parents. He'd always tended to keep his dates hidden from them, because the two of them left a bad impression on every girl he'd ever liked.
His father was a lech. Checking out girls who were way too young, and didn't even seem to try and hide that he was doing it. Not even if they were his son's girlfriend.
His mother, for her part, was a drunk. He didn't blame her much for that, considering what she was married to.
Except, when Jack had brought Krystal home, his father hadn't checked her out, like usual.
The man had gone as white as a sheet, and issued a long and steady series of expletives.
Which was when his wife had learned that Jack's dad had cheated on her whilst she was still pregnant with Jack. He had slept with a pretty little blonde thing from his office on the regular, and eventually... She'd got pregnant, too.
The result of which had apparently been... Krystal.
Cue family implosion.
Krystal had practically vomited, before dumping him on the spot and running home to lock herself away for weeks. She hadn't come back to school afterwards, ever.
The only saving grace there had been that they'd never done anything more than makeout.
Jack's parents divorced.
His father had screamed something about wishing that Jack had never been born, and how the boy was the source of all the problems that had ever gone wrong in his life, and then disappeared.
Jack had never heard from him again.
His mother, for her part, changed. She did go through a huge period of self-destruction, but then she'd... Found a way out of it. She was far from perfect, but she was beginning to put the shattered pieces of her life back together.
Jack... It was only once he left the small town behind, heading to university in the big city that he stopped hating himself. Started beginning to find himself again.
As part of that, he'd reached out to Krystal to apologise for all the shit she'd gone through because of it, and she'd reached back to him.
