forbidden.

Braeson groaned as me moved his last box into his room. This house felt strange. The room was smaller than his old one and he barely knew the woman his dad had married. It figured that his mom's job would require her to go out of the country for the unforeseeable future. Now here he was, moving into a smaller house, with at least two other people he didn't know. He hadn't really spoken with his dad since his parent's divorce and now that he was having to move in with the man, his dad was pretty tightlipped, especially about his new family. Braeson didn't really care though. He didn't plan on being around the house much anyway. Between school and a littering of after school activities, the only reasons he should really be at the house was to eat sleep and shower.

He sat on the bed and looked around. The white wall were as bare as could be, the spanse of white only broken by the towers of boxes he had just finished building. He grabbed the nearest box to him and opened it, peeking inside. Clothes. Well, at lest he would be able to get something put away. He started pulling out the shirts, refolding some, and making pules on the bed next to him. When he had emptied the box, he flattened it and stood, grabbing a stack of shirts and moving to the closet. He had yet to unpack his hangers so he just set the shirts on the top shelf in his closet. He continued to unpack and put away his clothes, clearing a significant amount of room. The sound of a door shutting from downstairs earned a groan from him. He had been enjoying the time he had alone in the house. Well, not really, but it was better than having to deal with the people he now had to call family.

Living with a man was a new experience for Kaycee, though she was at least glad her mom was happy. Her birth father had died in an accident when Kaycee had still been a baby, so she didn't really know anything about how a father acted, but her mother's new husband was a good person, from what she'd noticed the past few weeks. Recently, though, he'd dropped a bombshell on them: his son would be moving in because his ex-wife was moving out of the country. It wasn't too big of a problem, but it was another thing that Kaycee knew she'd have to adapt to. She knew the guy would be showing up any day now, but she had honestly thought he hadn't even lived where they were, that maybe he lived in a new city, so she hadn't thought much about it.

As she arrived home from a girl's day with her mom - in which her mom dropped her off at home so that she could go meet up with her husband for a date night, - Kaycee went ahead to go inside the house. Upon entering, she could hear noises, though, so she assumed that meant her new step-brother was there aleady. With mild curiosity, she followed the noise until she got to the room her step-father had decided would be his son's. She hesitated for only a moment before she knocked lightly. "Hello?" she called out with curiosity, "Sorry, I guess you got here earlier than anybody really expected. I think everybody would have wanted to be here to welcome you. Should I call your dad and my mom to come home to greet you?"

Braeson tried to ignore his new step-sister but she apparently did not think the same say. "Don't worry about it," he called back. "I'm still trying to unpack anyway." He resumed unpacking his clothes and flattening the boxes, slowly but surely being able to regain sight of his floor. All-in-all it took him roughly two hours to fully unpack his belongings and get them situated in a way that he liked. He was still uncomfortable with the size of the room bu tit wasn't like he could do much about that. He gathered the boxes that he had broken down and made his way to the garage, where he deposited the cardboard before finding his way to the kitchen. He hoped that between his father, the new mom or the new sister, one of them could at least do some decent grocery shopping. His own mother was always trying the latest fad died which usually meant, no gluten, no by-products, vegan, or some other bull that he didn't want to deal with.

He managed to some pizza rolls stuffed in the back of the freezer. His mouth watered at the thought of them and he wastes no time popping them in the microwave. Sure, some of them would still be a little cold while others would burn his tongue so badly he wouldn't be able to taste anything for the next week but they were bad for him and tasted like heaven. He pulled the plate out of the microwave and sat at the table, hearing someone moving around upstairs. He assumed it was still the same person because he hadn't heard anyone else arrive home. Eventually he would have to stop being an asshole and go introduce himself but he decided to put it off until he had eaten his fill of mini pizza goodness. That was the plan anyway.

Upon hearing the guy's voice, Kaycee could have sworn she recognized it. It was muffled behind the door, but it was recognizable nonetheless. Still, since it seemed that her new step-brother wanted to be left alone, she ignored her concerns and headed to her own room, figuring that she could get some homework done while she was waiting for the day to end. Eventually, she felt her need for food grow and she realized she hadn't eaten since her and her mother first left that morning. Resigned to the fact that she definitely needed the food to stop the growling in her stomach, she headed downstairs, but she paused when she entered the kitchen. It hadn't been her imagination that she had recognized the voice, then; she knew this guy. She had hooked up with him a while back, before her mother and step-father even got together. "Braeson?" she asked, though she was hoping that maybe it was just a lookalike. Her lucky couldn't be this bad, right?

Braeson stopped mid chew to turn around and look at the girl standing in the doorway. He swallowed, almost choking it, the surprise evident in his eyes. "Oh, fuck. Kaycee?" He asked, his thought flashing back to the night they had spent together. He had enjoyed it. A lot, but there was no way his dad was involved with her mom. Not without his knowing it at least, right? He had done everything he could to avoid the dinners his dad had been inviting him to throughout his dating her mom but really? This nightmare was officially the worst he had lived through. "Please, god, tell me you are just here visiting. You are not the step-sister, right?" Before she even answered he knew that she was. If there was any way to make to make a family dinner awkward, it was definitely knowing every inch of your step-sister's body intimately.

(Ahaha, that last line has become my favorite all of a sudden!)

So, not a lookalike. In that moment, Kaycee felt a wave of dizziness when she realized that her luck actually was terrible. It didn't make much sense to her. Out of all the step-brothers she could have gotten stuck with, did it really have to be a guy that she had been super attracted to and had slept with? "Oh, man," she muttered before she pressed her hands over her eyes, rubbing them in hopes of avoiding a migraine from all of this. "This absolutely cannot be happening." She tried to think of anything that could be worse than this, but she came up empty. How was this even possible? "Yeah, the step-sister. Isn't that just great?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm but she tried not to seem too bitter about it. "Sorry, this is just a little - well, very overwhelming."

Braeson raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't say," he said, channeling is best Nick Cage meme. He sat back, staring at his pizza rolls for a moment before looking back at her. "Well, I guess its a good thing I didn't text you, seeing if you wanted to chill." He popped another pizza roll in his mouth and chewing it, focusing on his food. What else could he do? This was not a situation he ever saw himself in. Ever. God forbid their parents found out, not that he was planning on spilling the beans. "How did we not know? How did our parents manage to slip this past us?" He could not wrap his head around the logistics of it all, it just didn't add up to him.

Kaycee shot him a glare before she leaned against the wall. She decided against acknowledging his expression and scanned the kitchen, mostly to avoid having to look at him. "I don't know, maybe because you never showed up at any of the family gatherings your father set up?" she drawled out in response, "Though that probably wouldn't have been any better. Your dad would have been beaming, announcing, Oh, look, my son is here, I'd love to introduce him to you two now! and I probably would have been absolutely mortified. My mom would have known immediately that we knew each other." She wasn't sure her mother would have been able to figure out how well they knew each other, though. "Ugh, this is just great."

Braeson rolled his eyes and finished his food, setting the plate in the sink. He grinned as he walked by her, stopping to lean in and whisper, "Not as great as you were." With a wink and a chuckle he returned to his room. Maybe he could have some fun with this. Treat it as an inside joke between the two of them. Or he could just make a game out of it and see how long it would be before she snapped and went off on him. He cut some music on and sat down at his desk, deciding to catch up on some homework he had put off so that he could pack up all of his stuff just to unpack it again. His door was open, the hard rock filtering throughout the house and he tapped his pen rhythmically against the desk as he read through an excruciatingly boring passage in his anatomy textbook.

Kaycee's cheeks were quick to warm up when she heard his words and she huffed. "Say things like that when our parents are around and they'll catch on for sure," she called after him, though she wasn't sure that he had heard her when he was already heading to his room. With a sigh, she shook her head and moved to find herself something to eat, though she settled on making a sandwich because she didn't have the energy to deal with anything else right now. The past couple of minutes had completely exhausted her due to how overwhelming they had been and she wanted to get back to her room and attempt to relax as soon as possible. By the time she finished the sandwich, though, she heard the music coming through the house but made her way up to her room anyways. She stopped outside Braeson's room, glancing in for a moment, but she wasn't sure approaching conversation with him again so soon was a good idea.

Braeson soon gave up on the seemingly impossible reading. He hated anatomy with a passion and decided to move onto math. Luckily math was where he excelled and finished that in no time flat. Still avoiding the reading, he wrote up a terrible rough draft for his English paper on Homer. He went down stairs again, half expecting Kaycee to still be in there and shrugged when he didn't see her. He pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and drained it. What was he supposed to do in a strange, mostly empty house with the one person he was sure did not want to see him? After checking his watch he stood and went down the hall to Kaycee's room. He knocked twice before opening the door, popping his head in. "You know time they're supposed to be back?" He asked.

Kaycee had busied herself with reading a book and was sitting cross-legged on her bed when she heard the knocks. Glancing over when she spotted the door opening, she arched a brow and lowered her book a little to focus on Braeson's question. "Ah, I don't know. Usually, it's around 10 or 11, though it can sometimes be at midnight. It really depends on what they're doing," she said honestly before she shrugged slightly, "Since it's a date night for them, they're probably having dinner and will do something else to occupy them. They always spend as much time as they can together on nights like this because your dad has meetings in the morning. I guess my mom wants to avoid him overthinking or feeling pressured about work or something, so I'm sure they probably just try to relax as much as they can before they have to come back and he has to think about work more."

Braeson groaned, bored out of him mind. Raising his eyebrows he asked, "You want to do something?" He wasn't even talking about sex, he just needed something to occupy his mind. Back at his mom's, she was usually home in the evenings and they spent that time doing work together or watching reruns of their favorite show. He sighed, knowing that would be one of the things he missed most about staying with his mom. "Well, what do you say?" Raising his eyebrows he stepped fully into her room looking around. Huh, he thought. it matched her well. Or at least the well most people knew. He knew what she was really like a drink and some casual flirting.

Kaycee arched a brow as she eyed him, though she eventually shrugged and set her book aside. "Alright, what do you have in mind?" she asked, though she wondered if he had even come up with any ideas to begin with. "I think I have some board games set aside, but they're not really fun with just two people and I'm definitely not playing strip poker with you, so card games are out of the question." She tapped her chin as she thought a bit. "If you're into video games, I can kick your ass at Mortal Kombat," she hummed out with a small grin, "Or we can watch a movie, I think I have a variety to choose from." There, she'd offered up some options. That was better than nothing, especially if he hadn't thought of anything. And, besides, things were already awkward enough; there was no reason to make it even worse by avoiding him.

Braeson grinned at her suggestions. "You sure about strip poker? After all, it's nothing we haven't seen before." He teased, loving the way she reacted. He held up his hands in defeat. and thought over the options she gave him. "I would just love, to school your ass in Mortal Kombat," He said, grinning. He waited for her to turn the console on and took the controller he offered her. He went easy on her during the first couple rounds, and really let loose of the last one before he said, "You want to make this more interesting?" His mind was still on strip poker and he was sure she would say no but enjoyed teasing her about it. He found it cute when she was riled up. "Come on, you said they wouldn't be home until really late so we've got plenty of time." He waggled his eyebrows at her waiting for her response.

Kaycee's cheeks warmed at the suggestion and she glared over at him. "No strip poker," she said firmly before she got everything set up. When it came to playing the game, she honestly hadn't expected for him to be any good at it. She used Kung Lao for the most part, just because she thought the bladed hat was pretty awesome, but it was still hard for her to play against him. When she heard his suggestion, she looked over at him, eying him for a moment. "What? You want to turn this into a strip game, too?" she asked with surprise, wondering how in the world this guy had let his mind to wander to something so ridiculous. After a moment, though, she huffed and looked back to the game, staring at it for a moment. "Fine. Every time one of us loses, the loser has to discard an item of clothing," she decided, "But the winner gets to decide what item gets discarded."

Braeson grinned, having gained some leeway with her. "Sounds like the deal of a lifetime." He said and focused on the screen. It had been a while since he last played so he was not a good as he thought he was. Despite putting up a good fight, she still beat him. Looking at her expectantly he waited for his orders and removed the piece that she asked him too. He did not plan to lose this game. She had more to take off than he did, any way. "Yes!" He fist pumped the air when he K.O.ed her and have a goofy grin. "Lose the top, dollface." With a wink he turned back to the game, a smirk having found it's way to his face as he played with more confidence.

"Off with your pants," Kaycee drawled out without even looking over at him, her attention fully on the game. She worried that, if she broke concentration for even a moment, she'd lose more games than he would and that wouldn't be any good for her. When he beat her and told her to take off her shirt, she huffed and slipped it off, allowing it to drop to the floor, but returned her attention to the game. When she beat him the next round, she was blunt when she said, "Your turn to lose your top, dollface."

Braeson rolled his eyes at her, the smirk still on his face. Grabbing the back of it, he the the garment over his head throwing it on the floor next to his pants. He was impressed with how good she was which made him wonder how often she actually played this game. "I hope you're ready to show everything because I will not be losing this round," he said through gritted teeth, his thumb slamming down on the keys as if it would travel through to the system and affect the gameplay at all. By some miracle, he was able to with the next two rounds, asking Kaycee to remove per own pants and bra. Here it was, the winner-take-all round. "How do you feel? Think you'll be able to take the win?" He asked.