Bright Skyes

Part 2


Lana looked at the newspaper spread across the dinner table and tried to focus. Her eyes were scanning the job ads, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. She'd been living with Ema for a week now and she'd spent much of that time cleaning the apartment, stocking the fridge, cooking dinner and overall made sure Ema lived a much healthier life than before. She'd also spent most of that time, or least, most of that daytime, not thinking about Ema. Not in the way she inevitably found herself thinking about her sister during the night.

Lana blinked a few times and focused on the ads again. There were plenty of jobs for well-educated, intelligent young women. Unfortunately, there weren't nearly as many jobs for well-educated, intelligent young women with a criminal record. Of course, she didn't need to find a job. Ema's apartment was small and cheap, her tastes were simple. From a purely financial viewpoint, Ema's job at the forensics department paid more than enough to support both of them with ease.

And that was a thought that bothered Lana, as well as making her secretly joyful. It meant that when Ema had landed that job at forensics several years ago she began living below her standards so that she would be able to support Lana once her prison sentence was up. Way back then, Ema had already planned to take in Lana and live together with her for as long as it took. Of course, Lana had no real proof for this suspicion, but she felt she knew her sister well enough to come to the right conclusion.

Ema wanted her to live with her.

Sometimes Lana thought that nothing could possibly make her happier than that simple little fact. And sometimes she thought nothing could make her more depressed.

It was wonderful being around Ema, talking to her, being hugged by her, seeing how happy she was that her sister was back. But always Lana had to bite back the impulse, the desire, to take Ema into her arms and kiss her. And every time Ema smiled or giggled or just said something to her, Lana's longing increased. More and more she yearned to fall on her knees and declare her undying love. The only reason she hadn't done so yet was that, whenever Ema was in the same room as she was, she securely locked that part of her away. She was good at hiding herself from her sister. It was art she had perfected years ago. She wondered if Ema had noticed that part of her switched off when she was around. After all, Ema had also had years to perfect the art of recognising her inner anguish.

And if Ema did recognise her big sister's anguish, would she be willing to help her? If Lana told her what she wanted, would Ema take her as her lover, share her body with her during the night? She probably would, at that. But would she do it because she wanted to or because Lana wanted her to?

Did it really matter?

Lana growled and shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts away. She stared at the newspaper, noticing idly that her hand had gripped the paper so hard that the left page was torn and crumpled. Fortunately, she'd already read that page. But she still needed to read the right page. She was determined to find a job there. Any job. As long as it paid enough to get her out of her sister's apartment, and preferably out of her life as well, she would take it.

She had to.

-----

Lana ate calmly, looking mostly at her plate, her knife and her fork. Above all, she did not look at Ema enjoying her dinner.

"It was a pretty calm day today," Ema said between bites.

"That's good to hear," Lana said in a voice that was almost monotonous.

"Just a burglary. Looks like the perp cut himself breaking the window and he left fingerprints all over the place. I think we'll have him pretty soon."

"Good," said Lana calmly.

"So what's bothering you today?"

"Nothing."

There was silence around the table until it was broken by a small, soft, "Lana..."

Lana looked up to see Ema staring at her, her eyes wide and vulnerable, her expression hurt.

"Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" Ema asked.

"Because there's nothing wrong," Lana replied.

"You really think you can still fool me?" Ema said. "I've suffered through years of you acting like... like this. And, OK, you had your reasons, but... Lana, what's wrong?"

Lana looked at Ema for a moment, screaming on the inside only. Then she directed her attention back at her plate.

"It seems I'm falling back into old habits," Lana said, calmly cutting herself a bit of meat and eating it.

"I see," said Ema and the sadness in her voice broke Lana's heart. "Well, if... if that's... I guess won't ask any more."

Lana, her face perfectly without expression, said, "I am sorry."

"Sure," said Ema. She put down her cutlery and stood up. "I'm not hungry. See you."

Lana kept studying her plate as felt her sister walk behind her and away. She breathed out slowly only to suddenly find Ema's arms around her waist, her sister's body pressing against her own, Ema's head on her shoulder.

"I do love you, sis," Ema said.

Lana felt her heart beginning to soar, felt her whole body filling with pleasant heat. She fought with herself to keep herself from leaning into Ema's embrace and won just barely.

"I... care about you as well," Lana said, her voice hardly trembling at all.

"OK," Ema breathed.

Ema pulled away and turned around. Before she fully knew what she was doing, Lana had reached out and put a hand on her younger sister's shoulder. Ema turned around and looked at Lana. There must have been something in Lana's expression that she recognised, because her eyes grew wider and her mouth opened.

Lana took away her hand. "I'm... I'm sorry. I... sorry."

Lana looked the other way, but Ema was next to her again and put a hand on Lana's cheek. Helpless, Lana turned and looked Ema's face again, which was now much closer. Ema's brown eyes were big, seemingly going every detail of her face.

And then she kissed her.

There was only one thing Lana could do and that was kiss back. Right now there was nothing, nothing that really mattered, except the soft touch of Ema's lips. Lana put an arm around her sister and Ema sat down in Lana's lap, never once allowing their lips to break contact.

Their eyes closed, the sisters kissed as around them the world apparently stopped moving or ceased to be at all. Lana wasn't thinking at all right now, for once wasn't screaming quietly or locking parts of herself away in little dark corners of her mind. The only thing she did was hold her sister close and kiss her as if it was the most important thing in the universe. Which it was.

Ema's left hand rested on Lana's thigh and moved up until it cupped her sister's breast. Lana moaned softly when Ema began caressing and squeezing her breast.

Then Lana's eyes flew open and she tried to pull away, but this was difficult since they were both sitting in the same chair and the resulting confusion left them both lying on the floor, Lana on her back, Ema on top of her. Ema grinned and leaned down to kiss her as her hands began to move to undo her sister's clothing.

"No, stop," said Lana.

Ema pulled back, looking confused. "What?"

"This is too fast," said Lana. "It... we haven't thought this out properly."

"What's there to think about?" said Ema. "I love you, you love me, that's it."

"No, it's not. And we shouldn't," Lana said, realising it was probably a very stuid thing to say after just kissing her sister for perhaps a few minutes.

"But we do and it's all," said Ema. "When you weren't there, I wasn't happy. I couldn't be happy. Not really. You make me happy and I've never met anyone else who makes me as happy as you do."

Lana wanted to smile, but didn't. "Have you looked?"

Ema grinned. "Of course I did. I was a hormonal student. But none of them were you."

"I... admit I feel roughly the same," said Lana. "But we still-"

"Don't," Ema interrupted her. "Don't say it. Give it a shot, please. I want you, you want me, we can make it work."

"You truly believe that, don't you?" Lana said.

"Of course. If... if the Goodman trail taught me anything it's that maybe there really is such a thing as happily ever after."

"It would be nice if you were right," Lana said.

"Wouldn't it? So what do you say?"

Lana reached up to brush her sister's hair, then pulled her down to kiss her again.