Declaration: All participants in sexual activity in this story were above the age of eighteen at the time of engaging in sexual activities.
Cousins
It all started when all of us twelve cousins got together after a long gap, twelve years ago. The occasion was the wedding of our youngest aunt, who was finally getting married to her beau of six years. Simran and I were the oldest of us twelve at nineteen, and our aunt who was getting married was eight years older than us. Our moms were sisters, and the aunt getting married was our moms' youngest sister.
Simran and I were meeting after six years, we had last met when we were thirteen. After that, we had never met up together - exams, schools, and later my career kept us apart. I had applied for and joined the National Defence Academy at age sixteen, and I was in my final term at the Air Force wing of the Academy. Once we join the Academy, furloughs home are few and far between until we graduate. Since this was a special occasion, I managed to wangle a week away.
Simran was completing her 12
th
grade (equal to A levels in UK) from the Indian State of Tamil Nadu - she had appeared for her qualifying examination and was awaiting her final result. She was sure of clearing the certification with spectacular results, enough to get her into medical school with a scholarship. She had already applied to her favoured medical school, pending the results of her qualifying examination.
All our other cousins were younger; the next two in line being sixteen, two others fourteen, and the rest even younger, the youngest being ten years old. Simran and I were supposed to be role models for the rest of the brats. This includes her brother and my sister. While it was a bother to be on our best exemplary behaviour, both of us managed. She kept the five girl cousins younger than us in line and I did the same with the boys. Being a strapping sub-adult with a military background, and a budding fighter pilot for the Indian Air Force to boot, it was easy to do so. A word from me usually was enough to keep the peace.
As is usual at weddings in large families (mom was the eldest of eight siblings - five women and three men), a large house with a large kitchen and many rooms was hired temporarily, and my grandparents, relatives from across the country, all my aunts and uncles with their spouses and us cousins were allocated rooms for each married couple. The kids ten and younger stayed with their parents, and those older were separated by gender into two of the larger rooms. Simran ruled the girls, I led the boys. "Ruled" was the appropriate way to describe Simran's handling - her word was law and any infractions were dealt with swiftly and sometimes harshly. I was more lenient with the boys - having already earned their respect, it was more of leadership role.
While the adults got on with the numerous ceremonies (anyone with a basic knowledge of Indian weddings will know how exhaustive they can be for everyone involved), us teens and below were more or less free to explore the city. The wedding was taking place at Mysore, an ancient city in Southern India with a history of thousands of years, so there were several points of interest. There were several royal palaces (one was the grand palace, another was converted into a five star hotel, another was an art gallery with several valued paintings and ancient artifacts, and so on). There was a zoo with exotic fauna from across the world, there were several historic buildings and ruins, and there were at least five primordial forests (now turned into wildlife sanctuaries) with wild tigers, leopards, elephants, bison, deer, wild boar and more. Being of an adventurous bent of mind and Mysore being my home town, I had already been to all of them. My grandparents had a large house in Bangalore, where they were based, and the bridegroom was from Mysore. Hence all ceremonies and festivities were to be conducted here. Movie theaters exhibited several flicks (not of interest to me, but some of the "kids" had their wishlists). I was given a small hatchback car with fuel paid for from the wedding exchequer, and I happily ferried the kids around.
For the purposes of relating this story, I'm going to exclude the non-necessary "adult" events and ceremonies and stick to events that affected us cousins and kids. Though this happened years ago. I remember every detail, every odor, every feel like it was yesterday.
The first day was mainly setting up "camp", as I thought of it, and getting together again. All of us, adults and kids alike, slept late, catching up with each other. It must have been two a.m. by the time everyone was asleep, and I surreptitiously snuck out onto the streets for a cigarette. I had started smoking a few weeks ago, courtesy of life at the Academy, and once I had snuck out a couple streets away, I stood under a tree and lit my cigarette. I smoked deeply, the nicotine relaxing me after the long, tiring day. Once I finished, I ground out the butt, sprayed a gentle perfume and stuck a mint in my mouth. I walked back, entered the house and was on my way to the boys' room to sleep when Simran met me in the corridor, she was on her way to the girls' room next door from the toilet.
She accosted me, asked me where I had been. She must have smelt the traces of tobacco on my clothes, for she asked me when had I started to smoke. I made a guilty face, a finger on my lips and asked her to keep the secret. I didn't want anyone to know yet. She came closer to my chest and sniffed deeper. "Classic?", she asked, naming a well-known Indian brand.
Me: "How do you know, cousin?"
Simran: "You aren't the only one who has secrets, buddy", she replied, grinning.