QUARANTINING WITH MY BROTHER

Everybody had different experiences of the outbreak. There were those who died. Those who lost their jobs. Jenny knew she was lucky. For her, it was a constant stress, an inconvenience. But not everything that came out of it was bad...

Just before it hit the mainland, her brother Chris happened to be in town visiting. He stayed in a hotel for the long weekend, and Jenny took a day off work to spend time with him because he lived several states away, and they didn't see each other very often. They went out to eat, went out to bars in the evening. She showed him the sights of her city, because he'd never visited before.

Monday morning, the government declared lockdown. It was the obvious thing to do, and they should have seen it coming, but not everybody expected it to happen when it did. At least Jenny got to see her brother first, and have one more fun weekend. Jenny figured the lockdown was for the best, and she could handle it, with a bit of planning. She could work from home, even if home was a studio apartment. She typically got her groceries delivered anyway.

Monday evening, Chris called. His flight home had been cancelled. He tried to handle it on his own and get it rescheduled, but soon all the other flights were grounded too. His hotel was shutting down. Some of the workers were calling in sick, others were quitting or weren't showing up. Now Chris was stranded in town with nowhere to stay. Jenny knew her apartment wasn't ideal, but she had to offer anyway. It was the right thing to do. She couldn't leave Chris in the lurch.

He came over that night with his suitcase. It was freaking Jenny out to let anyone into her apartment by then, but it couldn't be helped. It was clear from the start that it was going to be a tight fit, for the two of them to stay in her essentially one-room apartment. At least the bathroom had a door. She figured it might only have to be a couple of days. Maybe a couple weeks at most. They could make it work.

There was just the one bed, and it was only a full. It would fit them both, but not with much extra room. Chris volunteered to sleep in the armchair. It was that or a small area of unused floor.

It had been a while since Jenny and Chris had lived under the same roof, and never in such confined quarters. But they quickly adjusted to it, making sure not to get in each others' way. Soon it was just routine. Chris was able to do his work remotely too. The two of them spent their days on their laptops. It was boring and lonely and nerve-rattling all at the same time. At least they weren't completely alone.

One night, Jenny noticed Chris scrolling through his phone.

"Is that...DateMe?" she said. She had an account on the app too, and recognized it at a glance.

"I know, I know. It's not like I can actually meet anyone right now. I just...I don't know. It's kind of a fantasy thing, I guess. I thought I'd kind of plan ahead for when this is over," he said.

"Huh. Can I see?" Jenny asked.

"What for?"

"Just curious, about who it matches you up with around here. There could be someone I know on your list," she said.

"Get your own account," her brother said.

"I have my own account," she admitted. "Come on, just for fun. How else are we supposed to entertain ourselves?"

With a resigned sigh, he got up and sat next to her on the bed, and let her look over his shoulder as he went through a few profiles.

"And these are women you'd be interested in?" she asked.

"Yeah, maybe. Why?"

"I'm just...surprised," she said, and saw that he was confused now. "How can I put this...I thought you pretty clearly had a type."

When they had been teenagers, it seemed like he was into the same kind of girl all the guys were into: thin, blond, conventionally attractive. The women who were coming up as matches now looked physically fit, but they were bulkier, curvier. They didn't all have perfect skin or perfect hair. They looked a lot more like Jenny, actually.

"I'm just saying, none of them look like Vicky," Jenny said. Vicky had been Jenny's friend first, before Chris made his move.

Chris laughed. "You know why I started dating Vicky?" Chris asked. "Because she was the first girl our age who went on the pill."

"Just to be clear, she was my age, a year older than you," Jenny said. "And she wasn't actually the first one on the pill. She was just the first one to talk about it in front of you."

"She really had no concept of TMI," Chris said, reminiscing.

"No, she certainly did not," Jenny agreed. Vicky had told her way more than she wanted to know about how Chris's cock made her feel. "She was indeed very vocal."

It took Chris a second to get the meaning, and then he blushed. "Oh my god. You overheard us together?"

"A couple times, I came home from school, and you two clearly thought you had the house to yourselves," Jenny said with a shrug.

"Oh no!" Chris said, covering his face with embarrassment, even as he laughed it off.

"It's no big deal, really," Jenny said.

As the days passed, they tried to find ways to cope with their situation. After work, they'd watch movies or read at night. The siblings shared cooking and cleaning duties. Jenny would do yoga on the bare stretch of floor. Chris would do push-ups and sit-ups and other calisthenics.

Sleeping in the armchair was okay for a while, but Chris started waking up with a sore neck and back. Eventually he asked for a turn in the bed. Jenny agreed to it, and spent a night in the armchair herself. It took her a long time to get comfortable enough to sleep, and she woke up early the next morning with a spasming pain in her shoulder, from the odd position she slept in. She was still exhausted from not getting enough sleep, and her whole day was skewed. She knew she couldn't do that again. The hard floor didn't appeal to her either.

She felt bad because she didn't want to hog the bed and make Chris be the one sleeping badly most of the time. She floated the idea of sharing the bed. It wasn't big, but she figured they could come to an amenable compromise, like they did most things by now.

One morning, Chris took a long shower. Jenny wasn't trying to pay attention, but she was anxiously waiting for the bathroom. Near the end, Jenny heard Chris groan uncontrollably. She laughed a bit to herself, knowing what that sound meant, from hearing Vicky accompany it years ago.

When he emerged from the bathroom, she remarked, "It sounded like that felt good."

He looked mortified. "Sorry. I guess it had been a while."

Not that long, Jenny thought. Not as long as it's been for me. "I get it. Did you scrub down the tub afterward?"

"Did I what?" he asked.

"Chris, if your swimmers are still in there and I go to take a bath, I could get pregnant."

He blinked, surprised. "Oh shit," he said. "I'll take of it."

"Look, while we're stuck here together, I'm not going to blame you for doing whatever you need to do, and there isn't a lot of opportunity for privacy in this place. You don't have to be embarrassed about it. Feel free to jack off as necessary."

Chris laughed uncomfortably, taking it as a joke.

"I'm serious. I don't care," Jenny said. "It's a totally normal thing for you to need to do sometimes. You don't have to hide in the bathroom to do it, either. After all, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Hang on. Have you really seen me...?" Chris asked, cringing.

"Accidentally," Jenny said. "You walked in on me too on occasion, it's just less...uh...obvious sometimes."

"Huh," Chris said thoughtfully. He did remember times when she'd seemed flustered and kind of irritated at him. He had wondered what she was up to. Now he knew.

"Anyway, you're going to have to empty your balls once in a while. I get it. I'd really rather not make a big deal out of it."

She noticed that over the next couple of days, Chris hogged the bathroom a couple of times. The walls were thin, so it wasn't very secret what he was doing in there.

Before they got ready to sleep, Chris got up to duck into the bathroom again, a hard-on tenting his shorts.

"Seriously, when I said it's no big deal, I meant it. We both know what you're doing. There's no point hiding it," Jenny said.

"I'm not going to sit right next to you while I do it," he said.

"Well I'm going to rub one out right now before bed," she said, slipping a hand under her waistband. The truth was, without much else to do, she found herself distracted and horny often throughout the day, more often than normal. As much as she wanted him to be unashamed, she also wanted permission to please herself without judgement.

For a moment, he stood there, unsure what to do, trying not to let his eyes be drawn to the movement of her fingers under the cloth. He didn't feel right about slipping into the bathroom anymore, now that she'd made an issue of it. He also didn't feel right about jacking off on the bed, with her sitting right there, doing the same to herself. Instead, he sat crosslegged on the floor.

He tried not to listen to what his sister was doing across the room. Instead, he kept his eyes glued to his laptop, where he pulled up some porn for a distraction. He couldn't believe they were actually doing this, masturbating in the same room. Desperate times, though. After he finished, he didn't feel quite right about it. Then Jenny reached her climax. It was hard to ignore her gasps, her involuntary groans, her heavy breathing, knowing what it all meant. It was hard not to imagine what she must have been feeling in that moment.

For Jenny, it had been even longer since she had last gotten off. Since before Chris came to stay. It all came crashing down on her at once, and she didn't mean to lose control as much as she did. It was bittersweet, to be going through that in front of Chris. But she didn't want to have to hide in the bathroom and quickly rub herself raw any more than he did. Plus, she had to admit to herself, the way his cock grew, the way it fountained all over his lap, it looked like everything Vicky used to tell her about.

Another night, they were both looking through profiles on DateMe, and judging each other's results, just for laughs.

"Hey look, you came up in my search," Chris said. "The app must not know we're related. 89 out of 100 match. That's pretty high."

"What do you think of my profile?" Jenny asked.

"Not bad," Chris said.

"Not bad??" She threw a pillow at him.

"Okay, okay. The pictures are fine, I guess. But they're not...they're not you.""

"What are you trying to say, Chris?"

"Just...you're hotter in person than you look on here. On here, you just look kind of average."

He thinks I'm hot, Jenny realized. "Oh, I see yours in my list too."

"After all that, you have to tell me what you think."

"Nice photo. Not a shabby description. I'd say you're solidly ahead of the pack, mister."

Chris laughed. "If most guys don't put effort into it, that isn't saying much. If I were some stranger, do you think you would match with me?"

"Yeah," Jenny said thoughtfully. "What about me?"

"Yeah," Chris said, a little too quick.

There was a quiet moment between them. Chris swiped on his phone, and Jenny's chimed.

"You matched me?" Jenny asked, surprised. "You actually did that??"

"As a joke," Chris said. "After all, who else am I going to meet right now? I did my part. Now the ball's in your court."

"Okay, just for fun," Jenny said, as she swiped on hers. Chris's phone chimed.

"Hm. Now I can message you. I wonder, what should I say?" he thought aloud. "How about, 'hey, what are you doing tonight?'"

Jenny received the message, and replied back, "Hanging out with my goofy little bro. How about you?"

Chris laughed when he saw it. They started messaging across the room on DateMe, pretending to be strangers on the app getting to know each other.

When she awoke the next morning, Jenny felt a hand cupping her breast, and her nipple hardening against it. An erection pressed against her from behind. For a moment, it reminded her of waking up in a boyfriend's bed. A sweet memory from back when she had a boyfriend. She felt herself getting wet and hot. Something in her jumped at the chance. Part of her wanted to roll over and take that erection deep inside her.

Then she remembered where she was, who it was in bed with her. She felt disgusted with herself. She gently moved her brother's hand back to his side of the bed, and scooted away from him. She needed to be more careful.

Jenny still felt a bit awkward masturbating in front of her brother, and seeing him doing it to himself. Watching him doing it and knowing that he knew she was watching. In time, she also grew to appreciate it, and even sort of look forward to it. It was something different, to have their small shared space flooded with their shared arousal. She wouldn't have expected it to enhance the experience, but it did, in a way, even if it was Chris. She told herself there was nothing wrong with it, especially when there wasn't anything else like it to be had. She felt more sensitive with herself, seeing the careful way he touched himself. She could better chart the plateaus and peaks of her own arousal, seeing him going through the same journey across the room.

But it was always from across the room. It had to be. They had to keep that distance. To get any closer than that, for their arms even to brush while they were each pleasuring themselves, would have been too electric. To risk being what put him over the top would have been too much.

One night, Chris asked, "So you're not on birth control anymore?"

"Yeah. Before all this, I was kind of thinking about having a baby."

"Whoa. What do you mean?"

"I mean, I felt like I was ready to start a family, one way or another, whether or not the perfect guy suddenly showed up," she said. "I kind of thought I would just arrange a one night stand through DateMe, and just...let it happen."

"That's kind of crazy," Chris said.

"It really is! Maybe that's why I've never had the guts to go through with it. Once in a while, a guy might seem like the right one from his profile, but then when I bring him back here, it just never quite feels right."

"Would you tell him?" Chris asked.

"If I was going to go through with it? Yeah. I've thought a lot about what I would say. Something like, look, you don't need to wear a condom tonight, because I'm trying to get pregnant. Don't worry, I'm not interested in child support or anything. I just want you to knock me up."

She could see a rise in Chris's lap. She had to look away before any thoughts came to her that she wouldn't be able to ignore anymore.

"I still think that's crazy," Chris said. "To let a one night stand change your life like that."

"That's not how I see it. Having a baby is a decision that I've kind of already made."

"I meant just the idea of doing all of that alone..."

For Jenny, that shut down her mood. "If a long-term relationship were on the table, that'd be my preference too. But for whatever reason, guys don't seem to be interested."

Chris shook his head in disbelief. "How selective are you trying to be about this? Like theoretically, if I weren't...me, would I meet your standards?"

"Yeah," Jenny said. "Hypothetically."

"I can't imagine telling mom and dad," Chris said.

The next night, before it was time to sleep, Chris was sitting on the floor, stroking himself. Jenny was on the bed, with her fingers on her clit. She could see his penis already shining with precum. Her pussy was soaked and needy, but what she was giving herself didn't feel like enough this time.

Too many times already, she had watched his hand slide up and down the length of his rod, seen the rise and fall of his passion. Too many times, she had watched it swell and burst with milky white fluid. Too many times, her breath caught when she saw it happen, and she caught herself wondering what that would feel like inside of her.

She harbored these thoughts night after night. She fought them for as long as she could. Tonight she couldn't hold herself back anymore. She pulled a condom out of the nightstand and threw it at him. Even as she did, she questioned what she was doing. This wasn't like her, not the Jenny she wanted Chris to see her as.

"Hey, put this on," she said.

"What?" he said, his concentration broken. Then realization dawned on him. "Whoa. Jenny, are you sure about this?" It wasn't the disgust that she was afraid of, and also counting on.

"Are you trying to talk me out of it?"

He didn't answer that. "We're brother and sister."

"No one's ever going to know," she said, getting up from the bed, and pulling her panties down to the floor. She couldn't quite believe what she was doing. It didn't feel right, it just felt inevitable somehow. Her legs were shaky but determined, with what she didn't want to label desire.

Chris tore open the packet and unrolled the rubber on his erection, still in disbelief himself. Jenny came over and straddled his lap. With one hand gently aiming his rod, she sank down on him, taking him easily deep within her.

He couldn't believe that this was really happening, that they were actively choosing to do this. Even as the flood of sensations proved that it was all so very real.

Even through the rubber, Chris could feel her pressing in on him from all sides. It had been too long since he'd gotten laid. His head swam with an intense mix of warring emotions. If only he could just relax and enjoy it on just a physical level, maybe he could make it through this without losing his mind. But he wasn't sure he could or should do that. His hands hovered around her waist, unsure of whether to touch her more than he had to.

"Oh my god, Jenny," he moaned, as she started to move. "I...I'm not going to last long."

"Me neither," she said, biting her lip as she rode him, conjoined only at the crotch. It was the first real fuck she'd had in months. It felt good, surprisingly good, too good. She could feel him nestled in her, moving within her. It was something vital that she had been missing on her own. She was headed fast for a steep cliff.

Before long, spasms rocked her body. She leaned on her brother's shoulders for support, shaking with her orgasm. Having held out as long as he could, he emptied himself into the rubber, holding her thighs tight to him as he moaned. Under his touch, the skin of her thighs felt innocuous and familiar, but also somehow brand new, transformed, charged with new meaning.

His erection didn't immediately soften after he came. Jenny had to resist the urge to ride him to new heights, or to rip the condom off and go again. But when she caught her breath, she recovered enough of her common sense to get up off him before it was too late.

Chris sat splayed out on the floor, still coming to his senses. That was intense. Brief, but intense. What had he done? What had they done? How...how could his sister have made him feel...that?

Afterwards, Jenny tried to act as if nothing significant had just happened. As if everything was still normal. They went about their nightly routines, getting ready to sleep. She was careful to keep to her side of the bed.

The next day, she felt awkward and ashamed about what they'd done. She could hardly stand to look at him, which was hard to avoid, alone in the small apartment. She had brought him to that complicated physical, chemical, biological reaction of orgasm. That was hard to reckon with. She was reminded every time she looked his way. Her own body betrayed her, viscerally recalling what that moment had done to her too. She would feel a tremble deep in her core, remembering that shudder of her whole body.

After that, whenever he cuddled up to her in his sleep, it was a lot harder to pull away. That impulse, to flip him over onto his back and ride him to oblivion, was no longer abstract.

Before, one thing holding her in check was the possibility that he'd be the voice of conscience between them. Now she knew she couldn't count on that to stop her. It was a lot harder to just masturbate across the room from each other, knowing what else they could be doing. Now their bodies felt a pull towards one another.

In the evening, Jenny was doing her yoga routine. Chris had a hard time keeping his eyes off of her, knowing now what her body was capable of. He half-suspected that she was putting on a show for him.

"Enjoying the view?" she asked teasingly, wiggling her butt in his direction.

He shook his head, but it was obvious anyway, from the tent in his lap. Now he knew now what her body felt like. What it was capable of. The parts of her that he knew he shouldn't be familiar with.

"Should we...talk about what happened?" he asked.

"Sure, if you want," she said, pausing the yoga video on her laptop and turning to face him. "If it's something you don't want to do again, I understand..."

"It's not that. Not exactly. This thing between us now, I'm worried about where it's leading. It's just...it's not a relationship, and it never will be, you know?"

"Yeah, of course," Jenny said.

"But when this is over, we've got to go back to normal somehow," Chris said, shaking his head again. It was already hard to imagine how that would work.

"So let's keep it as simple as possible. Whenever we need to do it, we do it, just the same as before, never anything different. And that's all we do, nothing else. Just here, just until this mess is over, and then never again. Okay?"

Chris nodded.

Later that night, Jenny got on the bed with her brother.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"This government health minister suggested that single people arrange designated sex buddies," he said with a laugh.

"Why are you laughing? That's pretty much what we are, isn't it?" Jenny asked.

"Kinda...I just think it's funny that he thinks it's so simple to find a sexual partner. Like, easier said than done," Chris said.

"Yeah. Hey, can you rub this muscle in my back?" Jenny said, guiding Chris's hand to where she felt sore and tight.

She sighed with relief when he started massaging her aching back muscle. Then she felt his erection pressing against her from behind. She felt his hands linger, unsure where to go next. She felt her own breath catch, now that every touch between them was erotically charged.

It seemed like a shame, to lose that ability to touch each other without getting aroused. She could have fucked him then and there, but she gritted her teeth and chose not to, to try to keep things uncomplicated, like they said.

She was still thinking about that, still a bit worked up, when they played a movie on her laptop, and Chris put his arm around her. It was so simple, so innocuous. Yet now there was this constant tension between them. She slipped a hand over into his crotch, gently caressing him until he was hard. It wasn't quite what they agreed on, but it wasn't quite against the rules either.

Neither of them had to say a word. He slipped off his shorts, and reached in the drawer for a condom, rolling it on. Meanwhile, she lifted her shirt up over her head and scooted out of her shorts and underwear, leaving herself completely naked.

She straddled him in the bed, sinking down on him. Jenny felt her brother's hands on her back, where he had been massaging her, now hungrily pulling her close. She fed him her breast, nearly losing it when he sucked on her nipple, as they ground against each other at the waist. This was starting to deviate from what they agreed to, but if he didn't care, then neither did she.

They lasted longer this time, settling into a rhythm, as their bodies brought each other to new heights. Chris reveled in the feeling of her. They sped to a frantic pace until her body convulsed with orgasm, in unison with his. Chris clutched her tight and moaned into her ear, as she tried to stifle her cries. He didn't need to hear those cries to know what was going on inside her. She clenched and shook around him, as he filled the condom with his seed.

As their bodies cooled together, they both knew they had to disjoin themselves, but they savored the moment while they could. Finally Jenny pulled herself off her brother's lap. This time, she felt less sick about what they'd done. It wasn't a new boundary being crossed. She suspected it was only going to get easier with repetition.

They got cleaned up and ready to sleep. In some ways, Chris's body felt more alive than ever. He skimmed through an article on his phone before showing it to Jenny.

"Look, here's one about all the married couples stuck inside together. The experts can't agree whether there'll be a baby boom, or a wave of divorces."

"Probably some of both?" Jenny guessed.

Meanwhile she wondered what it would be like, to be part of that baby boom. To be holed up with someone, and come out of it with a pregnant belly. Alas, it wasn't in the cards for her. Or could it be?

The next night, while Chris was in the shower, Jenny started looking up whether it would be safe for a brother and sister to have a baby. He came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, and she shut the laptop quickly. Later that night, they went to put on a movie. Chris noticed the tabs she had open.

"Reading about inbreeding?" he asked.

She blushed. "I just wanted to know what it would mean, if something were to happen, you know, despite the condoms we've been using."

"I have to ask. Are you pregnant right now?" Chris asked. "Please, just tell me if you are."

"No, I can tell you for certain that I'm not," Jenny said.

He sighed with relief. "So what did you find out?"

"From what I gathered so far, there's probably about a 25% chance of an inbred baby getting the same genes from both parents. That's typically what leads to problems. But it depends on how much genetic material the parents' parents share."

"Which ours don't. Mom and dad are from different races, different countries."

"They're still both humans though," Jenny said.

"75% odds is better than I would have thought, actually," Chris said.

The next night, Jenny was taking a long hot bath. They were still in the habit of pleasuring themselves most of the time, and she was getting aroused in the bath. She was thinking about that first time when Chris ejaculated in the shower, and she told him to clean it up because otherwise his sperm might get inside her. Now she was wondering how bad a thing that would be, as the tip of her finger danced across her clit.

Chris must have been wondering the same thing. He came into the bathroom, naked, stroking his erection. He stood with his cock over the edge of the bath, looking at her naked body under the water.

"Do want me to cum right here? Or would you rather take it somewhere else?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

Jenny thought about calling his bluff, letting him cum in the bath water, letting him potentially knock her up. The thought was more intoxicating than it had any right to be. But she wasn't sure she was ready for that yet. Besides, if she was going to get knocked up, she'd feel cheated if it didn't involve feeling a man cum deep inside her.

She got up on her knees in the bathwater, reaching out for his erection, and brought it to her mouth. This was a boundary they hadn't crossed yet, but somehow now her awareness of that boundary spurred her on. She replaced his stroking hand with hers, and tasted his precum as she took the head into her mouth. It gave her a little thrill, knowing even his precum could have sperm swimming in it. He ran a hand through her wet hair, and she took him deeper. When he shook with pleasure, her body echoed it.

Chris must have already been stroking himself a while to be already so hard, so sensitive. It didn't take long before she recognized the signs of his impending orgasm, signs that she knew a sister shouldn't know. So she wasn't surprised to feel him jet into the back of her mouth, to taste his semen on her tongue. She thought again of letting some drip from her mouth down into the bathwater, turning it to a baby-making broth, but she set aside that desire and swallowed it all.

When his throbbing ebbed, and he withdrew from her mouth, she wondered if they were done. Instead he took her by the hand, helping her up and out of the tub, and led her, dripping wet, to the bed. She laid back, more than ready for anything he decided to do to her. He explored her body with his hands and his mouth, and when he reached her pussy, she raised her hips to meet him. He lapped tenderly at her slit, and she pressed up against him, until the muscles of her hips gave out, leaving her a quivering mess.

She knew this was more than they agreed to. This was more complicated. More tender and intimate than the utilitarian fucks they were meant to be sticking to. For her own brother to give her orgasms of this magnitude, it was bad. How could they ever come back from this? And yet, she yearned for more. She saw him re-hardening and wanted to feel it deep within her.

She was tempted again to forego protection, to feel him rut her raw and naked, to feel his sperm pour into her, but she resisted the impulse, and pulled a condom from the nightstand. He put it on and leaned down on her, pressing into her, their faces inches away and set in concentration, distracted by the symphony of sensations from the interplay of their genitals. But Jenny couldn't resist feeling even more. She leaned up and pressed her mouth to his. As his surprise melted, and he groaned into her kiss, she slipped her tongue hungrily into his mouth.

They made out like tentative teenagers as their passion built, until they came together. It felt like one overwhelming orgasm shared between them, something more massive than either of them could have mustered on their own.

As the weeks passed, it got to a point where Jenny didn't feel ashamed of much anymore. She kissed Chris when she felt like it, ran her hands across his chest when she wanted to. If she woke up horny, she'd stroke his cock to hardness and roll a condom onto him before straddling his lap. It felt good. She felt loved and desired and appreciated. Her body felt awakened and used in the best ways, and she couldn't get enough.

This thing between them wasn't supposed to be a relationship, but it had become all but indistinguishable from one. There was just one crucial difference. If it was literally anyone else, she'd be letting herself get pregnant. Heck, she'd probably be swelling up with his child already by this point. But this was her brother. She knew she had to be careful, even if she sometimes didn't want to. Sometimes she wondered how bad it would really be, if she stopped being so careful.

Even so, it was a sobering moment, when she rifled through her nightstand drawer, and saw only a couple more condoms there. It was a reminder of how many they had gone through already. How many acts of incest they had committed, and how used to it they had become. And looking at the few that were left, she knew those wouldn't last more than a week at most.

Then what? She could order more in her next grocery box. It would be simple enough to do. But in a way, it would mean owning up to herself, about what she and Chris were doing. Accepting that they'd keep doing it.

Or she could just let them run out, and see what happened. She could easily see how that would go. They'd have to suddenly quit fucking. Maybe go back to just masturbating across the room from each other. Maybe she could be content to feel him tenderly lap at her slit.

But she wasn't sure if they could stop now. When she woke up with his hand on her breast, she'd have to pull it away, not flip him over and ride him. That would be hard to do. The temptation wearing away at her already, to just take him inside her and all that represented, might get the better of her. The mere thought of it made her short of breath. She knew she couldn't trust herself to resist that impulse. She had to keep giving herself a safer outlet for it. Ordering more condoms was the responsible thing to do. But she still felt ashamed for it, and a little bit reluctant.

Finally, the outbreak was coming to an end. The government got its act together and instituted full lock-down, and the case numbers plummeted. The end was in sight. It was a matter of mere days before the virus would be fully eliminated, and then life could go back to normal. There was even a countdown to the day it would be over. It was coming up fast.

Jenny and Chris were still occasionally chatting on DateMe as a joke, even though they were in the same room.

As a joke, Jenny messaged her brother, "So do you have any plans for Reopening Day?"

Chris replied, "Not yet. Wanna get together for dinner?"

Jenny glanced over at him and laughed. Then on the app, she answered, "Sure. I haven't had a date in MONTHS."

"How about at your place? I've been staying at my sister's, and I don't think she'd like it if I brought someone over."

Jenny looked up from her phone, and said, "This is all very funny, but are you sure you want to spend Reopening Day with me?"

"Absolutely sure," Chris said.

Even though it brought her a bittersweet joy to hear it, she still doubted him. She doubted that she'd be up to his standards, when every woman in the world was an option again.

"What about you?" Chris asked. "I don't want to get in the way of finding your baby daddy."

"Ha. I'm in no hurry. I've put it off for a long time already," she said. "And I've got plenty of time left to figure it out."

Reopening Day came, and Jenny awoke feeling melancholy. It was meant to be a big, joyous day for everyone. After this, everything would go back to normal. For the most part, that would be a good thing. But what she and Chris had together would have to go back to something normal too. She would be kind of sorry to see it end.

She still knew, intellectually, that what they'd been doing was wrong. That what had blossomed between them was wrong. Yet she would still mourn the loss of it. Sometime soon, he'd finally get to fly home, leaving her little apartment feeling oddly empty. Sometime soon, either one of them could meet someone else.

The normal laws of reality would be back in effect, and what they had couldn't survive in daylight. It's not like they could kiss or touch each other out in public, like normal partners could. They'd have to play their roles as normal brother and sister. They'd have to internalize those roles all over again. While he still slept, she slid a hand over his body, wondering if she'd get to touch him like this ever again.

After both of them signed out of work that day, they got ready for their pretend date. For the first time in months, Jenny brushed her unruly hair, and slipped into a dress of light, summery fabric. It clung to her in all the right places.

She was surprised at what she saw in the mirror, looking at herself the way she imagined a date would. Sure, she had put on a few pounds in those cooped up months, but it had accentuated her curves.

She remembered how she had looked coming out of college a couple years ago. Her lumpy, inactive physique. Her skin still splotchy with acne and freckles.

In the time since she went off birth control, her body had reshaped itself, widening in the hips, pushing the capacity of her bras. When she looked at herself now, what she saw was all woman, no girl anymore.

And her breath caught-she noticed how easily and how strongly she got aroused now. Part of that she could chalk up to being more sexually active than she typically had been lately. But maybe there was something more to it. That feeling of readiness, of potential within herself.

Chris cooked an elegant pasta dinner, and they sat together eating it in their date night finery.

"I'm still surprised you wanted to spend tonight with me," Jenny said. "Even when you don't have to."

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked.

"You spent months browsing the profiles of every single woman in the area. I'm sure you could have set something up if you wanted to," she said.

"Yeah, and I set something up with you," he said.

She laughed, thinking he meant it as a joke. "I mean, I know I'm not the best looking. I'm not relationship material. I'm...your sister."

"Jenny, what we have together, I've never felt anything like it before," he said. "And believe me, I've kinda slept around, so I know what I'm doing. There is no one I'd rather be with tonight."

It almost brought her to tears, hearing that from the last man in the world she would expect to. She didn't want to wait, didn't want to drag this farce out. She turned to him and kissed him hard.

All of the nice clothes they put on for the occasion just had to come off again, between desperate, breathless kisses.

"Look, you don't need to wear a condom tonight," Jenny began, muttering the line into his ear as he held her tight to him. "I want you to knock me up."

She could feel from the intensity of his kisses, and the throb of his cock in her hand, how he really felt about it. But a moment later he pulled away.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

She wasn't entirely sure, but she was ready to go through with it, if he was too. "Are you trying to talk me out of it?" she asked.

"Should I?" he asked. "It would be kind of crazy."

"Once I'm pregnant," she said, the word feeling heavy and meaningful and intoxicating. It wasn't an if anymore, it was a when. "I can get a test done, to know if it's the 25% chance that causes problems. If it is, I'll end the pregnancy."

Chris was still reeling, still catching his breath, even as his erection and the yearning in his eyes said otherwise. "But...what do we tell mom and dad?"

"That I had a stupid one-night stand with a stranger," Jenny said. "Don't worry, I don't need child support or anything..."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Chris said. "If we're really, truly doing this, then I want to be here for it. I wouldn't leave you to handle it alone."

"What do you mean, if?" Jenny asked.

"I just...I still don't know if it's a good idea or not," he said.

"Then...you don't have to decide right this second," she said, gently stroking him. It was a bit of a lie. She could see the precum welling up at the tip. There could be enough sperm in that drop to do it.

He kissed her again. Chris felt feverish and in disbelief again, like that first time. He felt his desire piloting him. Whether he laid her down on the bed or she laid herself down, he couldn't say. They were moving as one.

He pressed the tip of his cock into her, unprotected this time. The sensation of her flesh parting around him, welcoming him, was vibrant, and new all over again. Her vaginal walls drew him in and held him tight and pulsed around him.

He realized how much he was missing before, through the latex of all those condoms. He also wondered if it felt more intense this time because it was laden with another layer of significance. Yes, the first time they fucked, it had changed their lives. Now their lives could change again, even more drastically.

Jenny's first orgasm came on quickly, and Chris felt it from inside her, in the way she contracted around him. The sensation almost brought him to the same precipice. But he still wasn't sure if he should go through with this, or if at least one of them should be the voice of reason. He just barely managed to stay in control and ride it out, feeling her legs hook around him and hold him tight as her whole body shook.

When she came down from her peak, he started moving against her again, and she pressed her hips up to meet him, to take him deeper. He could feel her drawing him in. She was building quickly to another climax. He knew he wasn't far behind, and fast approaching the decision point.He bent his mouth to her breast, like a suckling baby. Her muscles suddenly tightened around him, her limbs holding him close.

"Jenny, what should-" he began, intending to ask her again what to do.

But the moment escalated quickly. She was holding him so tight, it would have been hard to pull out. Not just resisting the forces drawing him into her, but mentally willing himself to do it. He realized it was too late.

He lost control of himself. His misguided instincts pushed his cock deep into her, as close as he could get to her waiting womb, and he swelled up and poured forth his seed. Even though he still had his doubts about what they were doing, those doubts were drowned out by the sudden rush of everything in him towards this consummation.

Jenny felt it, the swell of his erection against her contracting vaginal walls, the warm pour of his seed deep within her, and it triggered another peak. Her hips bucked, and she felt herself drawing their combined, primordial fluids up and into herself, her muscles milking the length of him for every shot at offspring that he had.

This was something she had been missing, without really being conscious of it. As soon as she felt it, a desire that had been building for a long time was suddenly sated. All the orgasms they had shared already paled in comparison. With every aftershock in her, her contractions squeezed down on him and drew more of his cum deep into her, touching off more aftershocks.

They lay together afterward, still conjoined. She felt better than she had ever felt before, which made it hard to feel like they'd done anything wrong. Neither of them pulled away immediately. His cock was still inside her, still hard, still surrounded by the soup that might produce new life.

For once, they didn't have to pull apart right away. For once, Jenny didn't have to resist the urge to tear off the condom and go again bareback. Instead she just smiled, looking him in the eye, and clenched her muscles around him, coaxing his cock back to life. And then she did roll him over and take him back inside her bareback.

As she rode him, he put his hand to her belly. As much as she'd been working out, she still had a layer of fat there. She put her hand on his, and they exchanged a smile, both of them imagining her belly sparking with life and growing full and taut. His other hand went to her breast. She gasped, and she could tell that he felt that lightning spark through her.

It wasn't long until he gripped her hips hard to his lap, pushing himself, intentionally this time, deep up into her. She knew what was coming, and when she felt him flood her again, it touched off her own orgasm. Her instincts took over, her muscles spasming and squeezing around him, eager for more. She collapsed on his chest, sweaty and gasping for breath. If that hadn't gotten her pregnant, she didn't know what would.

Jenny didn't get to fulfill that dream of emerging from quarantine with a visibly pregnant belly. The bulging belly part came later, and they never could say whether it happened on Reopening Day, or the day after that, or the day after that, or the day after.

The genetic tests came back okay, which was a relief. She would've been ready to end the pregnancy if she had to, but she was already feeling kind of attached to the child growing within her. She could feel pregnancy reshaping her all over again.

Jenny took her account down from DateMe, at least for now. Chris was moving to her city. They weren't going to try living together in a cramped studio apartment, if they could avoid it. Besides, that might have been too suspicious. But Chris did want to help out with raising their child, to the extent an uncle could. They were going to have to go back to normal life someday. But maybe not just yet.