On the road, dark and early.

Chapter 5 – Lake House Vacation.

Jason groaned when he heard his alarm going off. Normally he would have rolled over and reached for his phone, but that was difficult when his sister was sleeping on his left arm, not to mention his phone was halfway across the room.

But he heard the sound of the alarm coming closer, and opened his eyes to see Chloe rounding the partition with his phone in hand. “Damn thing’s been going off for five minutes.” She muttered, suppressing a yawn.

“Sorry.” He reached out, and accepted the phone as she handed it to him then turned away and disappeared back around the partition. He silenced the alarm and held his phone on his chest for a moment as he stared up into the dark room. “You awake, Cake?”

“Nnno.” Alex murmured against him. “Too early. Mmm up too late.”

“While I agree with the sentiment, we don’t have a lot of time. Why don’t you hop in the shower; that should help wake you up? I’ve got to start checking that everything is properly packed.”

“I showered last night. I’ll just splash water on my face.”

Jason waited for about 10 seconds. “Alex…”

His sister sighed, and finally **** herself to scoot away from his embrace and get to her feet, stumbling her way towards the door. She unlocked it and disappeared out into the darkened hall.

As soon as he heard the water running, he unlocked his phone and checked his app.

Alexandra Kelly

Relationship: Brother, Confidant, Secret **** Partner

Prominent Attitudes (out of 100): Affection 95 (+1), Love 73 (+1), Friendship 72, Playfulness 70, Loyalty 61, Protectiveness 49, Trust 46 (+1), Admiration 38, Worry 31, Lust 28, Submissiveness 16 (+2)

Special Traits: Fantasy Crush, **** Kink, Taboo Kink

Suppressed Traits: Secret Shame*

Active Effects: Suppress special trait (Secret Shame).

Temporary Traits: Lesser Protective Ward, Physical Exhaustion

A part of him felt he should get some kind of achievement or award for reaching 95 affection with his sister, but he guessed this app didn’t work like that.

Chloe Yazzie

Relationship: Boyfriend, Co-Conspirator, Gaming Buddy

Prominent Attitudes (out of 100): Loyalty 90, Friendship 74, Affection 70, Lust 64 (+1), Trust 61 (+2), Playfulness 46, Love 44, Protectiveness 42

Special Traits: Confidante, Partner in Crime

Hidden Traits*: Deeply Rooted Trauma, Self Loathing, Taboo Geass

Active Effects: Reveal hidden traits and details.

Temporary Traits: Lesser Protective Ward, Physical Exhaustion

Not as much change for Chloe, but he was glad to see some progress, however small.

It didn’t look like there were any other new changes for Heather or Kate, and he had no other messages or notifications, so he turned off the screen on his phone and got out of Alex’s bed.

He stretched, and yawned, and then moved to his closet to get changed, and double check that his bags were packed. He found Chloe sitting on his bed still in her night clothes, searching through her own bag. “Figuring out what to wear?”

“Kinda. I mean, I already picked it out, I’m just… kinda zoning I guess.” She admitted.

“Well, don’t take too long, we have to leave as soon as everyone’s up and dressed.”

She nodded, and pulled some clothes out of her bag, and got to her feet. But before she could drop her boxer briefs to change out of them, the door opened and Heather poked her head in. “Just checking you guys are up.” She said, glancing at Jason, currently unable to see a blushing Chloe around the partition.

“Shouldn’t you have knocked first?” Jason asked, perhaps a little more heatedly than he’d intended.

“Like you’d be fuckin’ changing with Chloe in here, Dick-Head.” She challenged.

“It’s the principle of the thing.” He looked to Chloe, who looked suitably chagrined.

She grabbed her clothes and carried them past the partition towards the door. “Well I’m changing in the bathroom, so Jason can change in here.” She informed Heather, and the two of them left the room, closing the door behind them.

Jason quickly changed into his clothes for the day before anyone else could interrupt him. Then checked his bags one final time, gathered his keys and wallet, and started out the door with two bags over each shoulder, carrying them down towards his car.

Kate met him in the living room, “Oh, let me help you get things loaded.” She offered, getting up off the couch and grabbing a couple more bags from next to the door.

“Looks like everyone is awake.” Jason observed as they trekked outside into the cold morning air. “Chloe’s coming with me, have you guys sorted out a driving order for Alex’s car?”

“Actually, Heather volunteered her own car, but is going to let Alex drive, though I may trade off with her once I’m more awake.” Kate explained.

“Didn’t think she wanted to take her nice car up into the mountains.”

The red-head shrugged, “I guess she changed her mind. Maybe she doesn’t think Alex’s clunker will make it.”

They deposited their bags into the car and started back for another set.

Everyone else was dressed when they got back, and they made short work of the remaining bags. Then they each went into their separate cars, Chloe with Jason, and the other three in Heather’s car.

“Have you checked the app this morning?” Chloe asked while suppressing a yawn.

“I checked everyone in the house, only you and Alex had any changes.” He informed her, pulling out of his parking space and onto the road, which was pretty quiet and sparsely trafficked this time of day. “More change on Alex’s profile than yours. Got affection up to ninety-five.”

“Mmm, nice!” She gave him a tired grin. “Anything noteworthy on my profile?”

“I think just your lust and trust went up.” He explained.

“How much energy do you have now?”

“I didn’t check that. We can try to find time to check it a little later.”

“Okay.” She smiled again, sitting back to watch the road go by.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon when their two sedans parked in front of Helena’s house – which used to be their uncle’s – where Jason and Alex’s older sister was loading a pair of bags into the back of her SUV. “Hey, Lena.” Jason called out as he stood up from the driver’s seat of his car.

Jason’s oldest sister was tall and leggy standing about the same height as Chloe, though he saw she’d filled out a little in the year since he’d last seen her, carrying just a little more weight around her waist and backside, though she was still too slight to be considered chubby, and her bust was nothing to write home about. Her hair was the same brown as his and Alex’s, but her eyes were more green than blue. He had to make a mental effort not to check her out after everything that had happened recently.

“Hey Jason.” Helena called back, turning to wave their way. “Percy and Leo aren’t up yet. You want to go prod Leo and his friend Tristan for me?”

“Is Eugene not awake yet?” Jason closed his car door then locked it with his remote once Chloe’s door was shut.

Helena winced, and Jason immediately knew something was wrong, “I kicked him out yesterday.” She informed him and Chloe, though Alex and her friends were close enough to hear too.

“What did he do?” Alex asked.

“I don’t want to get into it right now, but I’ve been picking up bad vibes and a few red flags for a while now.”

“I’m sorry.” Jason said, “Must have been a shock. You’d been dating for what, six years now?”

Helena simply nodded, “So you willing to wake up the boys for me?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Which room are they in?” Jason started towards the front door.

“They crashed in the den after I caught them playing that shooter game on Eugene’s X-Box last night.”

Jason nodded, and turned into the house, navigating through the familiar rooms to reach the den at the far end from the front door.

Leonidas and his friend were sprawled out on the foldout couch-bed, the blankets covering them haphazardly. Leo was an inch over six feet, and was every bit the athlete Jason had been at his age, even sleeping in a red basketball jersey and shorts.

“Come on, time to wake up.” Jason prodded him in the shoulder, then stepped back as he woke swiftly and sat up.

“We’re leaving asap, so get dressed.” He added, watching his younger brother rub the sleep from his blue eyes.

“I’m up, I’m up…” Leo mumbled, his sandy-blonde hair falling into his face.

“Jason!” Jason turned as his youngest sister dashed towards him from the doorway, throwing herself into his arms.

“Percy! No girls. Get the fuck out!” Leo shouted, grabbing the blanket to cover himself in his sleep clothes.

Persephone ignored the younger of her brothers as she and Jason shared a hug, her feet dangling off the floor. And once he’d regained his balance he carried the skinny girl with him out of the den, sparing his teenage brother the indignation of being seen in his pajamas by his younger sister.

“Have you been nice to your big sister?” Jason asked as he set Percy on her feet.

“Of course. She hasn’t seen our Skype messages. Promise.” Jason ruffled her long brown hair, still mussed from sleep, and examined her in her pajamas, covered in Transformers from the latest cartoon.

“Didn’t you used to wear more girly pajamas?” He asked.

She giggled. “I like Transformers. Plus these actually fit me.” Her blue eyes sparkled with playful delight.

“There you are.” Alex came into the laundry room from the kitchen behind Persephone. “I went to wake you and your friend Lucy up, and you weren’t in bed.”

“I heard Jason come in, and I wanted to see him.” Percy explained, turning to face Alex. It was almost comical seeing the two of them together these days, with Alex possessing a very curvy womanly figure and Percy having a slight boyish build despite standing a few inches taller than her older sister.

“Well, wake up Lucy and get dressed. We need to leave as soon as possible.” Alex insisted as she moved in for a hug.

Percy indulged her big sister, though the look she gave Jason made it clear there was more she wanted to say to him. Then she was heading back to the guest room, and Alex gave Jason a smile as she shook her head. “She adores you, you know. I wonder if I should be jealous.”

Jason offered his own smile in return, “I love you all, of course, but you and I have always had a special bond.”

Alex smiled and nodded, “Well, you should help Leo and his friend get packed up and ready to leave, I’ll do the same with Percy and Lucy.”

“Alright, sounds good.” He agreed, and Alex turned to go back through the kitchen as Jason turned back into the den.

It took them about fifteen minutes to get Helena’s SUV packed and all of her passengers ready to go. “Can I ride with you, Jason?” Percy asked. “I have some things I need to talk to you about.”

“I don’t know if I have room for you and Lucy, we’ve got bags in the back seat.” Jason replied.

“We can move them to Lena’s car, can’t we?”

Jason sighed but nodded, “Let’s ask Lena if she’s okay with that.” He agreed, moving to the driver’s side door of Helena’s SUV and motioning for her to roll down the window.

“What’s up?” Jason’s big sister asked.

“Percy wants to ride with me for a bit starting off, but in order to fit her in my accord, we’d have to move some things off the back seat. Can we stash them in your car for this first leg of the journey?”

“We’re already a little late getting going. Let’s wait until the first rest stop.” Lena suggested.

“Is that amenable to you, Percy?” He turned back to his baby sister.

“I guess.” Percy pouted, but she clearly didn’t have a good argument against it.

“Don’t worry; it’ll only be a few hours before we stop to rest.”

At that point Leo poked his head out of the window behind Helena, and asked, “What about me? Do you have room for one? I’ve got my permit, I could drive for part of the trip, right?”

“You’re not going to just leave Tristan alone in the car without you.” Lena said, turning back to look at Leo over her shoulder.

“He’ll be fine.” Their blonde brother insisted.

“I said no.” Lena tried to glare at Leo.

“Listen to your sister.” Jason added. “If you’re going to drive a bit, it’d be best to do it on the highway later in the day anyways.”

“Fine.” Leo sat back in his seat, not happy with the situation, but mollified for now.

“Everyone ready?” Alex asked as Jason passed her at Heather’s car on his way to his own vehicle.

“I think so, yeah.” Jason confirmed.

“Alright, remember to give Chloe your phone so she can answer for you while we’re driving.” She reminded him as she got into the driver’s seat of Heather’s Lexus.

When Jason got behind the wheel of his own car, he fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Chloe. “You know I can’t browse the app for you.” She reminded him.

“It’s for coms. If anyone in the other cars needs anything, the drivers’ phones get called, or texted, I guess.”

Chloe nodded, and had him unlock his phone before they set off, the three cars starting off to the freeway, and from there out of the city.