Author's Comments:
All characters herein are 18+.
Big thanks to my editors Kenjisato and CraggyMike!
In a dystopian police state there is little wamrth to cling on to. For an orphaned pair of siblings they have only had eachother to rely on. However, as the realities of patriotic duty to the state threaten to tear them apart, a sister wastes no time professing her affection for her older brother. But Avery does not stop there, she must ensure to vex her brother entirely so he fights to come back to her.
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Conscripting A Brother's Heart
Jax knew Avery was scared-- her hand was trembling as it caressed his cheek; her other was fidgeting with the trim of her white blouse more so than her typical tic. While she put on a brave face, he knew that it was only skin deep. The girl he knew as his sister was frightened, more so than he had ever seen. Guilt overcame all other emotions for him, the uncertainty of their future together in limbo.
"Don't..." He knew as soon as he saw the tear fall from her eye, that she was forcing herself to hold back her truth. Avery wanted to tell him to stay, to stay with her and not go where she could not follow.
Avery had turned cold since the day he came home with her favorite treat in hand-- a box of two chocolate-covered cream puffs, and the words of his conscription on his lips. Where once he enjoyed the warmth and kindness of a sister's love, he now was hardly worthy of a word. The mere sight of him caused her to turn the other way.
Her condition seemed to worsen, too. Where once she had control over her emotional bouts, she now seemed frail and at the mercy of irrational fear. It burnt his soul to see her like this. Where once his strength held back the demons of her mind, now she drowned in them.
It was not until the day he was ordered to report did she open up to him again. Her embrace was something withheld for so long. Jax couldn't bear to think he was about to be without it even longer.
They both knew this would come. Too long had Avery held Jax back, never letting him grow for himself. His obligation to her kept him within the confines of that dusty and grimy block of housing, they had known for so long. But inevitability brought no comfort to Avery.
Her fingers grabbed, tugged, and rifled with her clothes, she would often do this till her fingers were raw. Having Jax near was her only coping mechanism. It was their citizen status keeping them from getting her to an actual doctor that could treat her. Instead, she lived with a stigma of being 'crazy' or 'mentally touched' in a world that was not understanding of people like her. While on the outside she was a beautiful girl next door; inside, she was just afraid.
Jax grasped her bare upper arm and caressed it, his rough hands prickling her skin. For all the years they grew up alone on the streets of the capital, absent their parents' guiding light, the two at this moment felt the ghetto walls grow steeper.
There were no guarantees in life in this day and age. War was now just another chapter in a boy's life in the Armed Republic. Either you became a soldier, or someone close to you did. Life did not make any promises that Jax would return to his sister again, nor did life in the sprawling slums of the capital promise Avery would be there to receive him. Poverty, disease, and crime, all lurking on the fringes to feast on Avery as her brother's protection departed.
"Hey..." He lifted her head, her soft cheeks moist with sweat from cooking the morning meal. He took a long pause as he reflected on their time together growing up, and how many times he had been there to protect her over the years. Whether she was being bullied by bigger kids in the park, or singled out by seedy characters in the dark alley between school and home-- Jax had always been there for Avery. He would be lying to himself, if he did not feel in the least bit worried. He held her softly with his hand on the back of her neck, watching the tears roll down her cheeks.
"Jaxy..." Her head found his chest as she sobbed. His dark-green digital uniform was wet with her tears.
He grabbed her hand away from its fumbling, holding her still there; trying to hold her in the moment.
Outside, shouting of some sort broke out. National Police fighting with disgruntled citizens, or even the common street brawl. The sounds of this city were mechanical and cold, with little warmth or kindness to them. Constant loudspeaker reminders of the duty of citizens to be loyal to their nation, yet Jax only wished to be loyal to his beloved sister.
Jax had hardly come to terms with leaving Avery in such conditions. If only he could bring her along with him to his station to live. However, they were both nothing but street rats to the government, wards of the state. Only by bribing the bureaucrat assigning them with money Jax pick-pocketed, did they get this government-furnished closet. Within the wardship program, who knew where they both could have been assigned? They may have even been separated to opposite ends of the city. Coupled with curfews, they would never have been able to see each other.
Letting go of her hand, she relaxed it to Jax's surprise. Perhaps, she had forgotten for just a slight moment that he was leaving that day. Her thin, petite frame pressed against him longingly. Jax ran his fingers through her strawberry-blonde hair, as she nestled in his chest. Bringing his face to the top of her head, he burned the smell of her perfume into his mind. It was the perfume he saved up money for months, as a birthday gift last year. She cried when he gave it to her, much like she did now.
"Remember the time Claire and her friends had cornered that dog... errr, the mangy-looking one in the part just down Block 23." He smiled, pushing her dainty shoulders back and looking into her striking green eyes.
Avery sniffled and nodded.
Jax recalled the day, it had been... maybe three years ago he found Avery in the park, barking loudly at the other girls. As small and frail looking she was, his sister certainly had a projection to her voice when she believed in herself.
"I remember you shoving that one girl... you know pox face..."
"Félicie." Avery whispered.
"Yeah, Félicie, I remember you pushin' her right into the mulch, after she hit that dog. I swear she was picking shit out of her mess of hair for weeks."
They both shared a small laugh.
"You're strong, Avery." He placed his hand atop her head. "You'll be fine. When they lift the restrictions, we'll be together again."
Her eyes darkened just then; somehow, Jax knew she didn't share his optimism about this situation.
"But, uh... I wanted to give you this." He pulled a small card from his chest pocket, wet from her sobbing. It read National Identity Card and had a thick, green band just under the bold lettering. Below all this was Avery's portrait from two years ago, when she first got a yellow NIC. Her face was much younger, and she had more of a baby face back then. He almost shed a tear, thinking about how she morphed from that into the woman before him now.
"A green...?" Avery's hands reached for the card, but froze as if she felt unworthy to hold it.
"Yes..." Jax blubbered a bit, the emotion of it hitting him. Clearing his throat, he tried to keep his composure as he placed the small plastic card in Avery's palms. For their entire lives they had been 'Yellows', the lowest class that were not some sort of criminals or degenerates. Orphans were just too high risk of a demographic to be allowed the freedoms that 'Greens' had. But with that, they also lived in worse conditions, with less security, and without the medical attention Avery needed.
"I made it a condition of my conscription." He held his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat again. "To have you promoted to a Green."
Avery's eyes welled up.
The noises outside subsided, restarted, and quieted again, all within the span of the disbelief Avery lingered. She leered at the thick, green band with her picture affixed under it, and then at her brother.
"You could prob get a better job than working at that dive." Jax referred to the dusty cafe Avery waited tables at on the corner. His eyes turned upwards to the stained ceilings and rusted pipes of their 'apartment'. "You could prob move out o'here, as well; get yourself to a better block, you're an adult now so you have more choices." He took in the sight of her, short and slender, with a girlish charm about her. "When I can, perhaps I can save up enough money to get you a permit to travel and come visit me sometime?"
Avery stepped backward silently, averting her eyes from the gift Jax presented to her. It was not quite the reaction he had hoped for.
"Don't go..." she said under her breath as she held onto the warped and cracking wood table next to her.
"Avery..."
"DON'T GO!" Her shrill yell echoed around their apartment. A stiff knock on the wall that adjoined Mrs. Durand's apartment reminded them how thin the walls were.
"I can't... I'll do anything!" The small girl began to hyperventilate, her body heaving as she looked at her brother dressed in that uniform.
"I have to... Avery, please; I don't want to!" He took a step closer, hand outstretched.
Avery's cheeks were flush red, her eyes meeting his. She looked over his tall frame, shoulders broad, and hands rough. Jax always looked powerful to her, growing up; now in his army uniform, he seemed even more so.
"I love you..." Her voice was soft again.
"Avery I love you, too--"
"NO!" Avery yelled again, stiff knocks on the wall repeating. Both looked to the wall in question, with guilty expressions. But Avery was shaking her head, eyes fixed on her brother.
"No Jaxy... I love you." She stepped back.
Jax was about to say something, struggling for words to convey his understanding. However, he could not understand, in the slightest, the graveness of his sister's tone.
"You don't get it, Jaxy; I'll do anything to get you to stay!" She poured her heart out with her words, her hands finding the waistband of her skirt. The thin, blue fabric fell to the ground, the soft sound of its impact all that could be heard between them. Jax was at a loss for words. His eyes fixated on his sister's lack of undergarments.
