Late Night Comfort: A Brother & Sister Love Story
by Andi's Taboo
Aiden woke with a start and sat up in bed. Something was wrong. He gripped his sheets and nervously scanned the room, looking for the hidden threat that he felt certain would pounce upon him at any moment. A loud piercing scream shattering the silence nearly caused him to wet himself.
"Noooo...get away! No!"
It was Chloe. Leaping from his bed, he raced through the door and, with a speed that was unhindered by his sleepiness, covered the short distance that separated their rooms. He pushed open the partially closed door and burst inside.
A muted nightlight cast shadows across a landscape still filled with dolls and the things of childhood. Chloe was writhing in her bed, the blankets twisted and wrapped around her legs like an unwanted invasive vine. Her arms flailed violently in an aggressive dance that was, no doubt, intended to keep some invisible intruder away. "No...Noooooooo!"
Aiden recognized the night terrors that had plagued her as a child and quickly, but quietly, moved toward her side.
"Chloe...Chloe...wake up," he said softly, as he carefully touched her shoulder, "it's just a nightmare."
Chloe's eyes opened widely, her pupils darting back and forth. She blindly swung at Aiden who deftly pulled back from the unintended attack.
"Chloe," he said calmly, "It's Aiden. Please...wake up."
Chloe's movements slowed and her panicked breathing slightly diminished. Waking understanding slowly replaced the panic that had filled her eyes. She lay back on her pillow and looked up at her brother.
"Are you okay?" Aiden asked, gently stroking her forearm with the back of his fingers, "it was just one of your nightmares."
"Yes," she responded, her voice filled with sleepy hesitation, "yes, I'm okay now."
Aiden looked down at her face, noting again how it had not changed much since their childhood. Although the little girl who had shared a bedroom with him had grown into a young woman, the innocence of her pink, soft lips, freckled cheeks and bright green eyes had remained virtually as he remembered them. Her appearance transmitted a heavenly purity that he felt certain invited others to take advantage of her. As her big brother, he had always tried to prevent that very thing from happening.
"I didn't know that you were still having them," he said, in a tone of undisguised concern, "I thought the terrors ended once you got to high school."
Chloe hesitated, her eyes fixed on an unfocused point in the corner, "They did," she said softly, "I hadn't had one for years." Pausing, she slowly turned her head to look at him, "but then you went off to college and they started again."
Chloe felt embarrassed. She always looked up to her big brother and dreaded the idea that he might still see her as a little girl. She was a senior in high school now and would soon graduate, but here she was, still scared of the dark, just like when she was a child. She had woken Aiden up with her terrified screams on far more than one occasion, but he was always a good sport about it and did everything he could to make her feel safe. Even when they were very little, he would often sit on her bed to comfort her after a particularly troubling event. On a few occasions, he even let her cuddle up with him. She didn't know what she would have done without him. But she was grown up now and, although she still longed for his soft soothing words on those particularly frightening nights when she was alone, she was hesitant to let him know it.
"I'm sorry about that," he said with warm sincerity, "I didn't want to leave you home alone, but it was way beyond time for me to grow up and move on. I thought about living at home, but knowing Mom and Dad, they would have never let me...you know...enjoy college life."
Chloe smiled and laughed gently, despite the sleepiness that still partially fogged her thinking, "so then, big college man, are you having fun being away from home?"
Aiden blushed and gently tugged at his sister's hair, "well, certainly not as much fun as I had picking on you." His hand flashed quickly to her belly where his fingers danced across her ivory skin in an unexpected tickle. Twisting abruptly towards the side, she made a failed attempt to avoid her brother's assault and suffered the consequences. His quickly moving fingers left her squealing. Emboldened by his success, he launched a new more aggressive attack. Swooping in with both hands, he sent her body into laughing convulsions and, despite her pleas for mercy, he pushed on, unabated. As she squirmed beneath him, the worn t-shirt that had once been his but was now her favorite sleepwear, slid up and, before either of them became aware, one of her breasts slipped from its cover. Aiden couldn't help but notice the soft pink nipple before pulling back and looking away.
"Ooops!" he said with an embarrassed squawk, "I'm sorry."
Chloe quickly pulled her shirt back down and started to laugh. "You ass," she teased, "you know how I hate to be tickled."
Aiden turned back toward her and, with a broad smile, responded joyfully, "Yep, I know."
****
Chloe tried but struggled to fall back to sleep after Aiden had returned to his room. Although she could not remember every detail of the dream which had caused her terror, it had left her far too unsettled to relax. This was the third nightmare she had been tormented by this week and terrors had been much more frequent in the weeks before her brother had come home for the summer. At one time, she thought that she had had the whole thing licked, but the stress of her brother's departure, and the strained relationship that she had with their parents, released the childhood curse with a new vigor. When she finally dozed off again, a noise woke her with a start and left her trembling. The shadows in her room suddenly seemed much more menacing.
Quietly, she got up from her bed and slipped into the hallway where she peeked into her brother's room. He was on his side fast asleep, the sheets pulled down below his knees. Carefully, she moved to his bed. He seemed so much older than when he left, even though it had not even been a year ago. His light brown hair still bore its gentle childhood wave, but the thick stubble on his face made him seem manly...and sexy. She shuddered. Did she just think that? She laughed at herself. How could her brother, the kindest person that she had ever known, be sexy? She couldn't even imagine him being intimate with a woman. But, he, she had no doubt, had been with many. Yet, he never really spoke about any of them which, for some reason, comforted her.
Chloe reached down to touch his side. He was so warm. There had been many bitterly cold nights where the warmth of his body under the covers helped to chase away her chills. Although she had many positive memories of their childhood together, the contentment that she felt when snuggled up to her big brother on those long winter nights was one of her favorites. She always suspected that her late-night intrusions upon his sleep were a bother, but, if they were, he never said it. No matter how bad the nightmare had been, she always felt safe as soon as she was secure within his arms.
She moved her hand gently along his side down to his hip. Why did he have to go away? Of course, she knew the answer, but the practical reality of growing up did not erase the emotional weight of the changes that adulthood brought. She wished that she could have gone with him, even if she had been forced to wait a year, but her application to his college had been rejected. She was forced to accept the inevitable conclusion that she would have no choice but to go it alone. It was a difficult prospect for her to face. Over the past year, she felt more alone than she had ever remembered, even though her parents were there at home with her. She could not imagine how horrible it would be to be alone.
Aiden stirred. Slowly, he rolled onto his back and, through squinting eyes, looked up at her.
"Chloe?" Are you okay?", he asked with groggy concern.
Lifting her hand away from him, she smiled reassuringly, "yes, I'm okay. Just having trouble falling back to sleep. Do you mind if I crawl into bed with you?"
Aiden hesitated. He loved his sister more than anything, but they weren't little kids anymore. He was about to explain how the bed was too small and how they were both too big, when her gentle face and soulful, loving eyes convinced him otherwise. How could he turn down his sweet little sister?
"Sure," he said reassuringly. Moving over to the side of the bed to give her room to join him, he said abruptly, "just don't snore...it's like a horrible monster got loose or something."
"I don't snore!", she barked with feigned anger, before laying down beside him.
There was far less room in the bed than when they were kids and only a few inches separated their bodies. Aiden crossed his hands on his chest, but Chloe kept hers at her sides, where her finger lay touching her brother's loosely hanging shorts. Although they had hoped otherwise, sleep eluded them and, for several minutes, they stared at the ceiling. Aiden readjusted a bit, causing Chloe's hand to push against him more firmly. The old clock, that had once been their grandmother's, ticked with a loudness that seemed beyond absurd.
"Do you remember when we went to the zoo when we were kids?", she asked softly, "I was so determined to see the lion, but when we got there, they were all asleep inside. I wanted to wait, but Dad said that we didn't have enough time. I was so upset. I cried and cried and didn't even notice that you had left. You went and bought me that little stuffed lion. It must have been all of the money that you had."
"It was," he said gently, "well, almost. I think I had about twenty-five cents left."
"That little lion meant so much to me," she continued, her voice spilling over with joy, "It didn't matter that I did not get to see the lions because my big brother had given me one that was all my own. I still have him, you know. Every once in awhile I will bring him down from the shelf in the closet when the night seems particularly empty."
