Gifted

The longest day in my life started out with clear signs of being the shittiest.

Getting a call at 3AM from a distraught family member is pretty much a guarantee that everything is about to go downhill. Maybe subterranean.

Arriving at the source of the disturbance, tired and holding two coffees to find your sister sitting by in a shock blanket watching as people spray water at the smouldering wreck of her apartment is kind of stomach twisting. She didn't look like someone who had their entire life and career on track anymore. Just a twenty-something year old woman in shock.

"Here, Jaz. You probably need this."

She took it and looked at me like I had three heads, "You stopped for coffee?"

"Drivethrough." I said and sat down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing. "Sorry, I was exhausted. We didn't need two accidents today. Any ideas?"

Jasmine took on a kind of glassy-eyed look and I regretted bringing it up. I didn't know how to talk to someone who had woken up with their apartment on fire. Somewhere she'd been living for five years, just... Gone.

"I've still got the spare bedroom." I said quickly, trying to pretend I hadn't just deep-throated my foot, "Do we need to talk to anyone before getting you out of here?"

She shook her head silently, "I can... Cop told me to call someone. That's why I called you. I didn't... Know what to do."

"We'll sort it out tomorrow." I said sensibly and stood up, holding out a hand. "Least you don't have to crash on a couch."

The blanket slipped from her shoulders as she stood up, and I kind of felt my mind go blank for half a second. Her pale skin highlighted in the mix of moonlight and crackling fire. Her silk pyjama top falling off one shoulder, buttons only haphazardly done up.

I tried to bury that thought before it became even more embarrassing and shameful. Just because we were brother and sister didn't mean I was incapable of noticing she was a grown woman.

"Ow." Jasmine said, hopping on the rough gravel road. She was barefoot, of course. Stopping for shoes or slippers wouldn't have been the first thing on her mind.

I sighed, "Want me to carry you?"

"No!" Jaz snapped, way harsher than was called for. She flushed red for a moment, and bit her lip, before whispering. "Sorry. No. That'd be... Embarrassing. We're not kids."

"You're walking down the road in your sleep clothes." I pointed out, "Besides, I had to park around the corner. You're not going to hobble that far."

"I am not being carried. Deal with it." Jasmine snapped.

I put up my hands defensively, "You're the boss. Fine. Uh... Wanna walk on my feet, like when we were kids, then? Still embarrassing, but then everyone will just assume we're drunk."

She burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the suggestion, "Drunk. So much better than newly weds. Fine, I'm too tired to argue. But if you drop me, I'm dropkicking something else."

I hadn't actually been serious.

Jaz positioned her feet atop mine, clinging to my wrists tight enough to hurt, and we tried to awkwardly walk passed all the emergency services to where I'd parked.

More than one or two people laughed at us, but like they thought it was sweet, and not crazy. Brother swoops in to cheer up his sister after her world burns down. Or something.

A hundred meters later, I couldn't agree.

There was nothing sweet about what was going on in my head as Jasmine was trying and failing to keep her waistband up. She kept catching the pants under her foot, yanking down to reveal her flawless skin.

Which, I would have been able to cope with, if it didn't ride down low enough to show that her hips were bare, and the top of her asscrack. There was no way she was wearing so much as a g-string.

The thought that it was only a matter of time before she ended up flashing the entire street might be a fearful one, but it involved my vivid imagination, and that picture was not one that could be shaken easily.

I stopped walking, and Jaz glared back at me, "What, now?"

"Yep. Screw this." I said and picked her up in my arms, yanking up her pants as I did, and holding onto the waistband to keep them up.

Jaz squealed in surprise, and put her arms around my neck to steady herself. She glared at me as I started walking at a decent pace, "I said no!"

"Sorry, but I did not like waiting for the wardrobe malfunction." I replied, waiting for a slap, "But, hey, look. We got to the car."

I put her down gently, whilst she glared daggers at my back.

I circled the car, unlocking it and climbing in. The car was an utter shitbox, the passenger door only opened from the inside. It was enough to get by in the city, though.

I leaned over and pushed open the door, and put the coffee I had not failed to spill several times into the console. Jaz put hers beside, our hands brushing gently. Not something I would have noticed, if she hadn't jerked away.

I thought that she'd been embarrassed.

Now, I was thinking I was her last resort and that maybe I had missed that my sister hated my guts.

She pulled the belt on and crossed her arms, "You waiting for a signal? I'm cold and tired and stressed. Let's go to your place already."

"Want to grab anything on the way?" I asked, "Could pick up some comfort food or something?"

"Warm bed, Caleb." Jaz said firmly, with a tone suggesting that if I even responded she was going to carve out my eye with a rusty spoon.

The car sputtered for a moment before the engine turned over, and then clattered as I pulled away from the curb.

---------------

I became utterly convinced that Jaz hated my guts when we got back to my flat. Upon getting in the front door, I pointed out the bathroom and her room.

She stormed into said bedroom without talking to me and slammed the door. Talk about flashbacks to when we lived under our parent's roof. I didn't know a grown woman could be just as terrifying as a teenager with as few words.

So, I collapsed into my own bed for the three hours I might be able to sleep before I had to head out to work. Except, I couldn't sleep.

I kept seeing her as she stood up. Her skin really had been flawless. With her blank expression, she had felt like something ethereal, otherworldly.

Jaz had always had a fae-like quality to her.

Back when we were both teenagers she had a crowd of people who had followed her around, waiting on her hand and foot like she was a princess. She'd never asked anyone to do it, but people were drawn to her.

She also never seemed to get mad at anyone. Defusing fights and arguments with a cool voice, and somehow managing to convince the other party that she was right just by opening her mouth. Every single time.

Well... She never got mad at anyone except me.

I, on the other hand, had got into more screaming matches with her than we'd had actual conversations. I always seemed to do the wrong damn thing, then things would get heated, and I would find myself saying something I knew I regretted even before I finished.

Not that there wasn't give and take. We were siblings. Jaz had picked her own share of fights over the years, and hurt me in ways that still stung to remember.

I sat up as I realised that she might have crashed into the bedroom for now, but when she got up we were both going to know she had no clothes.

No clothes, and no underwear.

I quickly dug through my wardrobe for a bunch of things that should fit without looking ridiculous. I couldn't solve the panties and bra problem, but I could give her something more than silk pyjamas.

I picked up the pile of clothes and walked next door to the closed bedroom door and went to knock. I paused as I heard her voice, quiet and shaking.

Shit. She was probably crying.

It wasn't my fault her place had burned down, but I still felt some guilt about it. Her entire world had disappeared and something I had done had made her feel like I couldn't be there for her.

I leaned my head against the doorframe, disappointed and hating myself, when I heard the pitch of the voice change.

I listened curiously at first, confused and not understanding. Which very quickly turned to embarrassment as I realised that she wasn't sobbing. She was moaning.

Her voice was quiet and husky as she was probably trying to keep it down, for my sakes.

"Oh... Oh... Uh... Mmmm."

I couldn't exactly knock on the door to deliver the clothes, now. I should probably quietly walk away and pretend I hadn't heard any of this, but... Her voice had me transfixed.

There was something that went beyond merely being sexy to her sultry moans. It was like the song of the siren, leading sailors first into temptation, and then danger. Unable to resist it.

"Oh, f-fuuuuck!" Her voice grunted loudly enough that I would have heard it if I weren't listening for it.

I spun on my heel and back to my bedroom, making sure to quietly open and shut the door.

I leaned against it, breathing hard, as my cock twitched excitedly. Knowing that I had just heard my sister orgasm, and knowing what she had been wearing, the vivid image was rock solid at the front of my mind.

Begging me to get off.

Unfortunately, as I was still weighing the pros and cons of maybe masturbating over my sister, my phone went off.

"Hello?"

"Uh, sorry to call you so early, Caleb, but everything is on fire down here." My boss's voice came through with the worst phrasing. "Some prick pulled a cord, no one noticed, and the backup servers went flat. And now, we just got knocked offline. No backups."

"Fuck." I swore, and rubbed the back of my head, "I wouldn't usually... But, uh, is there anyone else who can handle the rebuild? My... Uh... My sister's apartment actually burned down. She's at my place."

"Well, shit. Now I hate the way I spoke on the phone." His boss said awkwardly, "But... Unfortunately nobody else knows how the Mars server is supposed to build stuff."

Considering Mars wasn't the builder, but just the deploy, that much was obvious.

This was going to be incredibly tedious to put all the moving parts back together, and measuring the data loss was going to suck even more.

"Fine. I'll head in, and head out." I stated tiredly, "I get overtime for this, right?"

"Overtime and a half. And I am sorry about your sister's place." His boss said with a relieved sigh. "I'll be here when you get in."

With that, I didn't have a choice. At least it had completely killed my boner.

But with those two major crises, the rest of the day was going to go so much worse. Guaranteed. When lightning strikes twice, duck and cover. Zeus be throwing bolts.

I knocked on the bedroom door, and heard a tired groan.

Jaz whipped it open, glaring at me. Her face was still flushed red from her earlier efforts, "What do you want?"

"I, uh... Got you some clothes." I offered them, "So we can pick up a new wardrobe later or something. But, also... I know shit just happened, but it looks like someone left the fan on. They need me to go into work early."

"I'll be fine." Jaz said angrily and snatched the clothes. Her voice switched to one telling me not to respond, "Anything else?"

I winced, "Uhm... Did your phone make it out? Got a way to contact me?"

"No. Caleb. I lost everything." She snapped.

I put up my hands, "Sheesh. I'm not trying to be an ass, Jaz. So, there's a spare phone in the kitchen. Second drawer down. It'll be flat, but it has a sim card in there. My number is programmed into the contacts."

She crossed her arms, showing off way more skin than she realised through the uneven buttoning of her top that she hadn't seemed to find time to fix yet. "So you're straight up abandoning me. I get it. I'm just a lonely kitten you found on the street."

"Jaz!" I exclaimed, as she slammed the door into my face.

Lightning rod. I was a goddamn lightning rod.

"Fucking shit!" I cursed, walking to the kitchen and holding my head back as blood ran from my nose that had broken. I grabbed more than a handful of tissues and tried to sort things out.

The door reopened angrily, "Shut up! Oh. Oh, shit. I didn't mean to!"

I brushed her off as she ran up and tried to help. I didn't have time for this. "It's fine. It's fine. Even you don't have the precision to turn a door into a weapon. I don't know when I'll be back, Jaz. Call me if you get hungry and I'll get a pizza sent over or something, okay?"

I left her with her shoulders hanging as I walked out the door.

---------------

You know how sometimes you take a shortcut, knowing it is going to bit you in the ass further down the track? I had offered way too many apologies to tomorrow-me when I had put together the server architecture for work.

And now that present-me was looking back, I really, really, hated the original me for taking shortcuts and failing to properly document them.

Having to scan for ports and IPs and a million other nerdy things just to put back together the duct tape of the build servers had me documenting absolutely everything.

By midday, I was utterly exhausted, and had three quarters of a working system. Enough that clients probably wouldn't immediately notice that something was off, letting PR do damage control.

However, Jaz hadn't called yet.

Going through my contacts I discovered another oversight. Whilst my emergency phone had my number, the opposite wasn't true. Without a clue as to whether Jaz was even awake, I booked a pizza delivery to the flat. At least I remembered what she used to eat when we were kids.

"Hey, Caleb. It's been seven hours. Any idea how much longer this is going to take?"

I ran a hand through my hair, "Nope. I've done the easy part. Now comes the hard parts. Data recovery. Passwords nobody remembers. That crap. I've got sending email up as my next priority. You should already be able to receive, and make calls."

My boss wasn't impressed, but he had hired me to keep him as distant from the technology stack as possible. He saw it as nothing but a cost sink, despite the fact we sold access to software.

---------------

It took three more hours.

I filled out my time sheets, and crawled into my awful bastard of a car, turned the key and... Nothing happened at all.

I may have lost my temper at this point in the day. Punching the steering wheel and screaming in frustration. The behaviour of a child out of the way, I found that the battery was flat.

And that my phone was also flat. I hoped that had only just happened. Ignoring Jaz right now would probably involve something sharp tossed at me. Or worse.

I got the office to call roadside assist, who took forever to arrive and jumpstart the shitbox. The sun was actually setting by the time I headed back to my flat.

Headed for the door, I was wondering how much worse the day could get.

As it swung inwards the sound rolled over me and I froze like a deer in headlights. I couldn't see her, she was probably in the spare bedroom, but I could hear her.

Loud and clear.

"Fuck me! Oh, yes!"

Walking in on my sister getting comforted by her boyfriend was not something I wanted on the cards, and turned to leave, stepping out again.

"Caleb! Ugh, yes!"

In the shock of hearing my name, I let go of the door, and to follow along with the theme of the day there was a gust of wind and it slammed shut with a deafening crash.

There was no way.

I mean, earlier that morning I might have been thinking about her the same way. The guilt had made me hesitate, but if work hadn't exploded in my face, I might have ended up whispering her name to the air.

I was the terrible one, though. That wasn't her. She was the picture perfect woman who could have anybody that she ever wanted.

The door creaked open behind me, and I heard a timid voice, "Eh... You out... Caleb?"

I shook my head and turned, "Sorry about that. I uh... Thought you might be with someone. Didn't mean to slam the door."

"Uh, nope. Nope." Jaz said in embarrassment. Her face was a ruby apple red, but that was probably because it couldn't get redder than the effort she had been putting in.

She was absolutely, stunningly, sexy.

Hair in a messy bun, threatening to fall apart. Cheeks not just bright, but shining. Standing there in one of my hoodies, hanging low enough that I couldn't tell if she were wearing anything else.

The only thing that ruined it was the way she looked like she was about to burst into tears.

I smiled sheepishly, "So... Can I come in, then? And forget I nearly caught my sister with her hand in the cookie jar?"

Her jaw dropped in shock that I'd dared to speak it. She moved aside silently and I walked in, thinking that maybe it had been a bit much. I was still in shock that I'd heard my name.

It had to be a mistake.

I fell onto the couch, rubbing my temples, "So... How has your day been?"

"I text you." Jaz said accusingly.

I looked at her tiredly, "Sorry, my phone went flat. Right when the car did. Did you want me to grab something for you before I got back?"

"I... No." She said and sat down awkwardly on the couch beside me. "I was feeling really guilty when you left. Then... Then I got mad. Because you did leave, without a conversation. You really couldn't have given me five minutes to say sorry?"

I winced, "Oh. I guess I made you feel pretty shit. If it's any consolation, I'd pretty much forgotten about that. Today has... Sucked. For both of us. You more than me. Hasn't made me that sensitive."

"You're an ass."

I nodded in agreement, "Sorry. Really. How can I make things up to you? Dinner and a movie? De-stress and forget everything?"

Jaz looked tempted by the offer, but she still clearly had something on her mind. Something that I didn't want to talk about until I had my own answers. "Caleb. Before... How much did you hear?"

"No idea what you're talking about." I used my best poker face.

She punched my arm, "I'm serious! What did you hear?"

"I heard that my sister is going to make someone very happy one day." I gave a half-hearted response, "Can we not do this?"

She seemed to visibly relax at the answer, "Sorry. Sex and stress go together for me, and I thought I had the house to myself..."

"Everybody masturbates. No shame." I tried to cut off the conversation, "So, for dinner, there's two ways it can go. Depending what you're up for. We could get something in, have a quiet night. Popcorn and blankets. Or... Or we could go out. I could get us some seats at the restaurant type thing at the movie theatre."

Jaz pulled at the jumper, looking down, "I've got nothing to wear. No make up, jewellery."

"It's not a date." I laughed at her, and then shrugged, "But like I said, your choice."

She bit her lip, thinking hard, and then sighed. "I really want to go out. That sounds like fun, but..."

"Too awkward to hang out with your brother?"

Jaz glared, "No, you ass! Ugh... Can I go through your wardrobe?"

"Sure." I shrugged, not really understanding what she was trying to get at but couldn't bring herself to talk about.

I stood up to head to my bedroom, "You can find some clothes whilst I book us some tickets."

"What are you doing, Caleb?" She suddenly asked in a panic.

I turned back to her, "My laptop is in the bedroom...? I was going to bring it back here. You can try on whatever, without a repeat."

She went red again, and I saw her throat bobbing nervously. Her eyes moved shiftily from me to the bedroom and back, and I could see her trying to say something, but at a loss for words.

I didn't exactly know what it meant. "So... I take it I don't want to walk in there right now?"

Her bright red cheeks really were one of her best features. Somehow both adorable and sexy at the same time. Maybe it was just seeing the perfect princess feeling uncertain.

"Okay. Do you mind fetching me the laptop?" I asked, and sat down on the couch. "No questions asked."