Author's Note: As per usual, thanks to LizHaze for editing.
****
It was kind of strange how the snow affected us differently. As we walked home I spent most of my time watching where my feet were going and trying not to slip on a hidden icy patch. My sister, on the other hand, preferred to skip along cheerfully while occasionally trying to catch stray snowflakes in her hands and watch them melt.
The way Chrissy acted sometimes it was hard to believe she was a twenty year old adult, rather than an abnormally tall kid ten years younger. Granted, other times she feigned being a grown-up so well that she could pass for being the older sibling between the two of us. It was a bit of an odd dichotomy.
"How come you look grumpy?" Chrissy asked.
I didn't look up.
"M'not grumpy," I said. "Just watching where I'm going."
"But you're missing all the scenery."
"It's snow. Everywhere. I've seen snow before."
"What about the Christmas lights. And there's snowflakes. And icicles. And snowmen sometimes."
I raised my head and gave her a long eye-rolling stare. She ignored me completely and continued waving her arms around to point out all the things we were passing. I let her go on for another minute or two until I realized she wasn't going to stop on her own.
As we passed a decent sized snow bank I put my hand on Chrissy's shoulder and shoved hard. She almost went head-first into the snow, but managed to twist herself around enough before impact that her face stayed clear.
"You jerk!" she yelled.
I laughed to myself and kept walking. I looked back a couple times as she struggled to her feet, but didn't go back to help. Watching her flounder in the snow helped my mood more than admiring any of her 'scenery' did. Apparently the snow wouldn't support her arms as she tried to push herself up, which meant she eventually had to give in and roll her way back to sturdier ground. If she had been anyone other than my sister I might have felt bad for taking such enjoyment from her misfortune.
Once free, Chrissy hurried to catch up with me. I prepared myself for a verbal tirade of reasons why I was a horrible brother, realizing too late that the footsteps I heard behind me weren't slowing down. I started to turn just in time for her to run into me at full speed. She might have been smaller than me, but she still managed to hit me with enough force to knock me off my feet. Since I'd been turning I landed on my back looking up at the sky, as well as my little sister's smug face.
"Not as fun when you're the one getting knocked down, is it?" she said.
She brushed snow off of herself while I carefully tested the snow around me to see if there was any way to escape with some dignity. My options didn't look good.
"And here I thought you'd be trying to get a head start before I get back up," I said.
"Well maybe some of us aren't mean enough to leave other people behind in the snow."
Chrissy extended a hand to me to help pull me up. It was a nice gesture, considering I'd been the one to start hostilities. I probably should have just taken the peace offering, but I didn't.
I took my sister's hand and gripped it tightly. Her eyes widened a split second before I pulled and brought her tumbling down. In hindsight I probably should have tried to force her to the side a bit so she didn't land on top of me, but the effect was still satisfying.
"Ugh, I don't know why I trusted you," Chrissy said.
"Me neither. Wasn't very clever."
She tried to push herself up off of my chest, so I angled my body a little and let her hand slip off the front of my jacket. She made a second attempt, and again I deliberately caused her to fail.
"Okay, dummy. You realize that if you don't let me up, you're just gonna have to sit there and get a cold butt, right?"
"Be interesting to see how long I keep it up then, won't it?"
Chrissy put both of her hands on my shoulders and tried to quickly lever herself into a kneeling position. I grabbed her wrists and yanked them away so she fell back down on me. She struggled against my grip, but wasn't strong enough to break free. All she really managed to do was wiggle around a little and force us slightly deeper into the snow.
Unfortunately, my sister's attempts to get away from me led to her more or less grinding on my lap. I didn't pay much attention at first until it began to have an effect on me. I needed to get her away from my cock before I got hard. That would be far too embarrassing to even contemplate.
I let go of Chrissy's wrists and made no further effort to stop her from getting up. She pushed herself to her knees, still straddling me, and grinned mischievously.
"Letting me go, huh?" she said. "I knew it, you want to get out of the snow 'cause your butt's frozen. Told ya so."
"Whatever. You gonna get off or what?"
"Maybe."
She stayed where she was, practically daring me to make her hurry up. Normally I would have carefully considered whether or not I wanted to give her the satisfaction, but in this case I just needed to get her away from any potential contact with my partial erection. I moved to grab her again, and this time she hopped to her feet before I could get her. I struggled my way out of the snow bank after her, no longer concerned with anything other than making sure my pants didn't appear tented.
"Ha! You didn't just get a cold butt, you got a wet butt too," Chrissy said.
She examined the back of my pants while I brushed snow off of myself. I was perfectly okay with her taunting me about that. It was better than some of the alternatives. I was pretty sure it annoyed her slightly when I didn't respond the way she hoped.
"Alright, let's just get going," I said. "It's getting dark."
"S'okay. The streetlights should be coming on soon."
"They almost should be on already." I looked up, trying to figure out if it was dark enough that lights should on. "Anyway, let's just go."
"Why? You need to change clothes and warm up or something? Wouldn't want to get frostbite on your ass after all. Then you'd feel silly for not listening to me."
I faked a lunge at her and she danced away. I trudged onward and did my best to ignore any further attempts she made to bug me. She was right; my pants were damp and uncomfortable from the snow, but I wouldn't admit that to her.
"Hey, where'd all the Christmas lights go?" Chrissy asked.
I glanced at my sister and found her craning her neck around in various directions. Once I started looking, I also noted that the Christmas lights we'd been walking past seemed to have vanished.
"Maybe some people don't have lights up right now," I suggested.
"That doesn't seem right. I know some of these houses should have some on, and it makes no sense that none of them would."
"Guess you'll just have to live with no holiday cheer for a few minutes. Think you'll make it?"
Chrissy punched me lightly on the shoulder. It wasn't enough of a physical assault to warrant retaliation.
Shortly after that we arrived home. There were no lights on there either, not even inside. I thought that was a little strange until we got inside and I saw a note by the door. Probably from our parents telling us they'd gone out for a bit or something. I went to flick on a light switch so I could read more easily and nothing happened.
"Shit."
I flicked the switch up and down a couple times, then tried another one. Suddenly the lack of light around began to make more sense.
"Are you gonna turn a light on or what?" Chrissy asked from behind me as she pulled off her boots.
"Can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
"No power, dipshit."
"Hey! Don't be like that. How was I supposed to know?"
I shook my head instead of escalating the argument. We shed our jackets and footwear, then moved further into the house. I located a flashlight that had functioning batteries and took it upstairs with me. It wasn't quite dark enough to need it yet, but it soon would be. I swore under my breath as I made my way to my room to change out of my damp pants. I wasn't in the mood for a power outage of indeterminate length.
Chrissy tracked me to my room a few minutes later, just as I had finished changing and was headed back downstairs. She snatched my flashlight from me and marched back the way she came without so much as asking if I minded.
"What, you couldn't get your own?" I called after her as I followed several steps behind her.
"I couldn't find another one. If you can, I'll trade this one back to you."
"Hey, now you sound grumpy. How come you're allowed to be but I'm not?"
She paused and turned back toward me.
"I'm not grumpy, just slightly annoyed. Did you read that note mom and dad left us?"
"No. Why?"
"'Cause they're gonna be gone for the night. In the middle of a power outage."
"Oh."
"Yeah. And it's, like, minus ten outside already and we have no heat. How long do you think before we freeze to death?"
"Aw, come on, it's not that bad. We just gotta, like, light a fire or something. And the power probably won't be off that long anyway."
Chrissy sighed and kept walking.
"Right, of course. It's all so simple."
****
My sister and I were perhaps not quite as independent and self-sufficient as we should have been. We'd been through power outages before, but never without someone older around to take care of things. That may have been kind of sad for two people in their early twenties, but fortunately we both had enough on our minds that we didn't have to reflect on that.
Finding matches was a fair challenge for us. It turned out our parents kept them in a drawer in the kitchen. I had no idea what was wrong with keeping them next to the fireplace. Wood was simpler to locate since it was all stacked in the basement where it had always been. There was some newspaper in the recycling bin to help get a fire started.
I had started fires before, though not often, and never when my only source of light to work by was my sister holding a flashlight. It was a unique sort of challenge. It took a couple tries lighting crumpled up newspapers before I could get the wood to start burning. I was eventually successful, and we obtained a source of both heat and light in an otherwise darkened room.
Chrissy and I sat down on the couch and watched the fire burn for a couple minutes. It was somehow much more satisfying an experience when the flames represented a small triumph over adversity.
