While the Paint Dries

If I was being honest, and I tried really hard not to be when it came to Kylie's body, I was more annoyed with myself.

I'd never wanted to be one of those pervo little brothers who discovered that his sister was, in fact, a girl, and so therefore had all the interesting parts that other girls had, which in turn meant I should try to sneak peeks of said parts. If I had been that kind of brother, Kylie would have made an ideal sister. She was careless with covering up and had never once gotten mad merely because I'd seen something I shouldn't.

And now here I was, brand new images of Kylie in my head, feeling like I should be punished for it, yet having no source of punishment available. She was just as likely to show me more if I asked as to get annoyed and hit me with something.

I kept glancing at her, and sometimes she'd glance back, one eyebrow slightly raised in invitation of a question. I needed to say something more, just to get my feelings out somehow, but I didn't want to try arguing again. It would be just as doomed as my first attempt.

"You shaved it," I said out of nowhere. I was pretty sure the statement surprised me more than it did Kylie.

"Yeah. I did."

Easy, calm acceptance of fact. I wished I could do that as well as she could sometimes.

"Was that for a boy?" I asked.

She looked at me like I was stupid. "How many boys do you think ever see it? Not counting you, obviously."

"Not that obvious," I grumbled. "It was only an accident."

Kylie waited for an actual answer.

"Ok, fine," I said. "I don't know. I just thought maybe..."

"Maybe I was finally seeing someone for real?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "No such luck. I'm terrible at that stuff. And even if I wasn't, you probably would have met by now, if he was around for long enough to be seeing me like that."

"Don't act like you're that shy. You're definitely not."

Kylie actually seemed surprised. "You think I'm the same around other people as I am around you?"

"Well... kinda. Not really, but kinda."

"Tyler, you're my brother. You're you. I'm more comfortable with you than I'm ever gonna be with anyone else."

"So you're saying if someone else walked in and saw you naked-"

"First off, how'd they get in? You and Mom have the only other keys. So yeah, I'm probably panic like crazy and start throwing paint cans or something."

"Assuming you knew them?"

"Then maybe... I'd have to yell at them to get out until I dressed. That's what people do, right?"

I gave her a look. "That's precisely what I've been trying to explain to you for years."

"No, you've been trying to tell me that's how I should react around you specifically. And when it's you, I just don't mind that much."

"You know that's backwards, don't you?"

Kylie cocked her head. "It's not, I don't think. I get why you'd think that. But, like, I think most girls don't want to be seen naked by most guys. Most people generally. There's just a select few they'd maybe be ok with, or even like." She shrugged. "You're in my select few, is all."

I leaned back and closed my eyes. "Is it because you think I wouldn't think inappropriate things about you?"

"I've never really thought about it that way, one way or the other."

"Oh."

There was a silence, broken only by the music and sword-clangs of an action scene emanating from the tv.

"Do you think inappropriate things?" Kylie asked.

"I don't want to answer that."

Another pause. "Do you try really hard not to?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Her fingertips brushed my cheek. I opened my eyes again. She had an odd look on her face, like she was examining my soul.

Abruptly she turned forward again and settled back into her seat. That was it. Nothing else from her, no further statements either accepting or condemning me.

I waited a bit longer, then rose from the bed. "I should probably go."

"The movie's not over."

"Ky, I've seen it almost as much as-"

"The movie's not over!"

Kylie grabbed my arm and dragged me back down. She curled up against me in a way she didn't normally do, just to hold me in place, I assumed.

It was an acceptance of sorts. That was the way I took it. Maybe she didn't have the words, but she wanted me to stay. Maybe just wanted to make sure I didn't take off to never return out of embarrassment. She'd have to be the one to invite me over in that case, and she'd hate that.

I put my arm around Kylie and held her loosely. We'd never really cuddled much, and if not for the mildly sexual thoughts still bouncing around in my head, I probably would have enjoyed it immensely. As it was, it was still nice.

I noted that because of the way she'd moved to latch on to me, Kylie's shirt had hitched up in the back. Part of her butt was visible. Once I'd noticed it, it was hard not to look.

Gently and carefully, I grasped the edge of Kylie's shirt and tugged it down. The way it was caught under her, it didn't really go anywhere. My gentle hold slipped, and all I really accomplished was to brush her ass with my fingers.

Kylie gave me a curious look.

"Your shirt's pulled up a bit," I said.

"Oh."

She turned back to the movie. I'd hoped for at least a token attempt at covering herself, but apparently not.

Her butt taunted me. I knew it was there, uncovered, with nothing stopping me from looking except my own sense of propriety.

Kylie was oblivious to what she was doing to me. That, or she just didn't care. I was actually leaning toward the latter, since she hadn't done anything about her shirt when I'd mentioned it.

"You're a pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?" I said.

"Rude."

"Well you are."

Kylie shrugged and nestled more snugly against me. Her butt got just a little more uncovered in the process.

I was helpless against the allure of her bared bottom. I'd seen it before, in brief flashes and glimpses, but never had to deal with her so flagrantly showing off like this. It could be considered a minor thing, I supposed, but it wasn't minor to me.

I wasn't sure what made me do it. It was most likely a mixture of wanting to startle her, and giving in to the pervy side of me that Kylie never helped to repress the way I would have liked. I was only human, after all. Morals and decency only went so far.

My hand slid down easily to Kylie's ass. I cupped her soft little bum and gave it a tender squeeze. To my mild annoyance, she didn't even flinch.

"Still nothing?" I asked.

"Enh. It's fine."

"I'm groping you."

"I know. You enjoying it?"

"I... honestly don't have an answer for that."

"You don't?"

"It's complicated."

She nodded slowly against my chest. "Yes. I s'pose it would be." She breathed out slowly, her eyes closing partway. "I kinda like it."

"Oh god." I pulled my hand away. "This has backfired really quite badly."

"Trying to annoy me again? Make me call you names?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"And get a feel in the process?"

I flushed. "Maybe."

Kylie chuckled softly. "Ever think that maybe you're hoping I'll punish you because you think you deserve it? Not because it's, like, normal or whatever you keep babbling about?"

"That's certainly a possibility."

Kylie stayed where she was. So did I, though it was hard to say how much of that was because she was pinning me down, and how much was because I didn't want to move.

She felt nice against me. I moved my hand back to her ass, and that felt nice too. Even the soft scent of her hair added to the bewitching coziness, despite its habitual disarray.

We remained entangled until the movie ended. I thought we might not move even then, but midway through the credits Kylie finally groaned, stretched, and rolled off me. She straightened out her shirt as she stood, then padded away without looking back.

I watched her go, eyes fixed in the hem of her shirt in the back. There were no more flashes of butt cheek to reward my efforts, however. Just Kylie wandering around with the bare minimum of modesty, as per usual.

It annoyed me that I was half hard and had to adjust myself slightly before tailing after my oblivious seductress of a sister.

Kylie was right back to painting. She'd set aside her nude self-portrait and hadn't taken her clothes off again. Which just meant she was still wearing her barely adequate shirt.

"I should probably take off, I guess," I said.

"You don't have to," Kylie said.

She didn't look at me, but I didn't take it personally. She was eyeing a fresh canvas, and I understood the sort of distraction that entailed in her head.

"You're just gonna be working again, right?"

"Yeah, sorry. I had an idea for a piece. Wanted to at least get a start on something, see where it goes. We could do something after that if you wanted to stick around."

I smiled to myself. "Ky, I know you have difficulty with time, just generally, but you know you're gonna be hours before you come up for air again, right?"

"I... well... but..." Kylie turned and offered an apologetic expression. "You're probably right. Sorry."

"No worries. It was nice to hang out a bit anyway." I nodded at the canvas. "What's it gonna be?"

"A sexy pirate ship."

"A sexy... pirate ship? Like, with naked ladies on it?"

"No, silly. The ship is sexy. Not the crew."

"Oh. So it's got boobies?"

Kylie laughed melodically and shook her head. "It's a good thing you never tried to be an artist, Ty. You just don't get these things."

"I'd like to be offended by that, but you're basically correct. I truly do not get a lot of this stuff."

She turned back to her unstarted painting, still picturing things in her head. I watched a moment, and was just about to leave when she called out again.

"Hey, Ty?"

"Yeah?"

Kylie said nothing, but reached down and flipped up the back of her shirt, giving me a quick, tantalizing flash of what lay beneath.

"Pain in the ass," I said loud enough for her to hear.

She giggled like a school girl.

I had to drive home with that last image of my sister's butt stuck in my head.

****

Kylie texted me about a week later. I immediately assumed that something was wrong, but she assured me that everything was fine, she just wanted to take me up on my offer for clothes shopping after all. I continued to assume something was wrong.

I drove to Kylie's place right after work, still questioning what could have possessed her to seek out human contact. It couldn't just have been a whim. She wasn't good at those, unless they involved paint.

"Ok, what's wrong?" I asked as I barged in to Kylie's studio.

She gave me an annoyed look and kept working for a moment. She had on a long button-up shirt, with panties flashing from beneath when she stretched. It was modest enough clothing for her that I didn't give the outfit a second thought.

"Nothing's wrong," Kylie said.

"You texted me."

"I'm allowed."

"Out of nowhere. To do a thing. In public."

Kylie glared at me, then relented. "Fine. I need pants."

"You need... pants?"

"Yeah. I need more. I only have one good pair left."

"What do you mean 'left?'"

"I mean I had two pairs with hardly any paint on them, and then..."

Kylie grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor and held them up. She poked a finger at the crotch and it went right through. One of her 'good pairs' of pants had worn out to the point that unsightly holes were developing. That sounded about right.

"Ah," I said. "I see. So it was something."

"Yes, alright. I didn't just decide I wanted to go shopping with you, ok?"

"Very ok, actually. I'm much happier knowing you're just being pragmatic and not spontaneous. You had me worried there."

"Laugh it up. Let me know when you're done."

Kylie picked up her brush again, but I could tell she was only pretending to get back to it. Her rhythm had been broken, and she was only staring at her half-painted canvas rather than actually working on it.

"I'm ready to go whenever," I said. "Though traffic's kinda rough right now. I wouldn't have come right away if I'd realized it wasn't anything critical."

"I told you it wasn't-" Kylie sighed. "Nevermind. I give up." She brushed her hair back over her shoulders, inadvertently leaving a streak of white through it in the process. "I'll get my other jeans and we can go. We can walk to the mall. It's not that far."

"The mall on the other side of town's better."

"How much do you honestly think that matter's to me?"

I bit my lip and considered. "Somewhere between very little and not at all?"

"Bingo."

I watched Kylie's teasingly half-covered butt as she left the room. "Might want to grab a quick shower," I called after her.

"Why?"

"Check the mirror."

I waited, just in earshot, then smiled as she noticed the amateur highlight she'd given herself and let out a vehement, "Goddammit!"

****

Helping Kylie clothes shop was an interesting experience. I didn't do it often, and as far as I could recall this was the first outing the two of us had taken specifically for that purpose.

Kylie walked close to me on the way there. She didn't just stay by my side, but actually right up next to me depending on how crowded the sidewalks were at the time.

I tried to help by taking her hand and squeezing it reassuringly, but then she refused to let go afterward. Still, it got her focusing on me rather than people getting in her personal space, so it kind of worked.

Once we arrived at the mall, we ended up having to abandon the first and second stores we tried on the basis that Kylie thought there were too many other people in them. She accepted the third option, though it took some convincing.

As long as I stayed close, Kylie seemed basically fine to pick things out on her own. I tried to check out some different racks and help speed up the search, but she wasn't having any of it.

I'd known that I'd essentially be moral support, but somehow I'd still hoped for more. Kylie was the only person I knew who actually valued moral support as a valuable and precious resource. For her, it could easily be the difference between functioning normally in public, and deciding that it was too much of a hassle and bailing on a moderately important errand.

"I might try these on," Kylie said, holding up a pair of jeans she'd been carrying around, and another she'd only just spotted.

"Uh huh."

She frowned and looked in the same direction I was staring. "Are you checking out that girl?"

I smiled sheepishly and averted my eyes. "Her boobs were jiggling while she was rifling through that rack."

Kylie's eyes shot daggers. "You're s'posed to be here with me."

"I am. And as soon as your boobs start jiggling like that, you'll have my undivided attention."

It was a risky thing to say, in some ways. Our recent interactions had pushed some boundaries, and I wasn't quite sure where the new lines were. Still, I was quite correct in assuming that Kylie wasn't about to make a scene.

"You're an ass," she informed me.

"Yes, I know."

"Come hold my things while I change. Be the unlucky sap of a boyfriend you're playing at."

"You don't have any things to- oh."

I nodded in belated understanding as Kylie shoved an armful of clothes at my chest. Things she had no interest in, of course, but she'd make me hold them anyway, just to get back at me a little.

I had some time to muse while Kylie busied herself in her changing room. The 'boyfriend' comment had struck a slightly odd note, even though I knew what she meant. What I was doing was essentially the job of the archetypal hapless boyfriend; 'helping' to shop, waiting around, getting bored, checking out other girls, getting reprimanded...

Yeah. I could see it.

I hoped there was nothing more behind what Kylie had said. I didn't think there could be. She was still just my sister, and I was just her brother. A little inappropriate dressing and touching didn't change that. We were weirdos, that was all. We had a different sort of relationship. But it was still far too sibling-y to be anything else.

"I like these ones," Kylie said as she stepped out. She did a slow half-spin, so she ended with her back to me. The jeans she had on hugged her ass like a second skin. "What do you think?"

For a moment, I considered answering snarkily for the sake of a more 'little brother' kind of response. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The pants looked amazing on her, and I was pretty sure she knew it. I didn't want to be petty about my reaction just because I wasn't quite sure where we stood.

"They make you butt look awesome," I said.

Kylie's smile made my doubts disappear instantly. "You think so?"

"I know so." I stepped forward and gave her a smack on the ass. "Get changed again, buy 'em, and let's get out of here."

Kylie flushed and bit her lip. I thought she might chastise me-and honestly I deserved it-but she didn't. "I think I want a looser pair too, though. Something comfier. 'Cause these might look good, but I don't think I'd want to wear them all day."

"Sure. So, what, same pair a size up?"

"Maybe."

She insisted on trying on a few more pairs, none of which hugged her ass nearly so well as the ones she'd first modeled, but she kept showing off how they looked anyway. Like she was trying to make me stare at her bum.

What the hell were we even doing?

I thought we'd almost escaped when Kylie decided on a second, comfy pair. Then I had the same thought again after she'd opted to get a backup of the 'nice ass' pair, because she feared she might not find something like them next time.

We were on our way to the register to pay when she took an abrupt detour toward the underwear section. I resigned myself to some silly ploy being attempted, and/or yet further attempts at keeping my attention firmly on her, and not on boob-jiggle girl.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking at underwear. Duh."

"Yes, but why? Is it just to torment me?"

"Would that work?"

"I don't know, really. It depends on what you're planning, I guess."

Kylie shook her head, but a small smile had crept onto her lips. "I just decided maybe I should pick some things up. I haven't gotten any new stuff in a while. Usually I don't care too much, 'cause no one else sees them anyway."

An odd feeling hit me, and I tried to push it aside. "You're expecting me to see you in your underwear more?"

"I don't know about expecting it. But if you do, I'd like to have something a bit nicer."

Only a slight flush of Kylie's cheeks gave away that she was being anything other than purely practical. Her reasoning had a certain logic to it, but I wasn't sure that I entirely liked it. That said, I couldn't help wondering and picturing what sort of panties she might pick out, and how they'd look on her.

Why oh why did I have to get the sister that accommodated me seeing her in her underthings? It was way too complicated.

I got lost in my own thoughts to the point where we were headed out of the store, and I belatedly realized I didn't even know what Kylie had purchased for underwear. I didn't ask. I'd probably find out sooner or later.

Kylie slipped her free hand into mine as we made the return journey. I didn't fight it. It was kind of nice, and arguably wasn't even that weird for siblings to do.

"Thanks for going with me," she said.

I shrugged. "You didn't really need me."

"Nuh uh. You know I did." She playfully bumped her shoulder against mine. "'Sides, I might not have bought the jeans that make my butt look so nice if you weren't here."

"Well hey, maybe that'll encourage you to actually wear pants when I come visit."

"Yeah, maybe."

And now my thoughts were on Kylie's ass again. Goddammit. I probably needed to stop worrying about it. It was her fault as much as mine. Probably more than mine, really. And she didn't seem concerned.

I slipped my hand out of Kylie's grasp. She frowned at me, but it faded almost immediately when I grabbed her butt. I cupped my palm over her ass cheek for a moment, then retook her hand.