Let her rest

Even with Sarah now asleep, you didn’t mind being stuck like this, letting her stay where she was if it helped her get some extra sleep. You wanted to lie as still as possible to not wake her but you still had to turn your head to check on how your other sister was doing, not knowing if she wanted to continue watching the show if Sarah wasn’t following along.

You turned and saw her quickly snap her head to face a different direction from you, clicking her tongue when she knew her reaction had given her away.

“She’s pretty cute when she’s asleep right?” you whispered, making sure you wouldn’t wake Sarah while you and Lucy spoke.

“You shouldn’t be calling your sister cute” Lucy curtly replied.

“I think you drawing the line at ‘cute’ is something we crossed a while back so no I’m gonna keep calling her cute. And besides, I think you’re cute too so I don’t plan on giving up that word for anyone” you explained, hoping to make Lucy more agreeable if you kept up the compliments.

“Oh please, you can’t honestly expect me to believe that” Lucy refuted, not thinking you were serious.

“Of course you’re cute. I know the goth look that you love so much doesn’t exactly scream ‘cute’ but I think there's bits and pieces that stick out under your thorny exterior. And before you ask, I love that look on you just as much as you probably do” you argued, giving her a scan up and down which lead to her turning away with a blush.

You turned back to Sarah in the silence but it felt like Lucy’s eyes were staring holes into the back of your head. You heard her mumble something under her breath and faced her when you couldn’t make out what she had actually said.

“What was that?” you asked.

“I said, give me an example” Lucy said raising her voice, looking sheepish as Sarah stirred slightly and nestled further into the crook of your arm.

Making sure Sarah was still fast asleep would have given you time to think of an answer but you didn’t need it.

“The way your cheeks have that dimple when you smile is cute. Especially after you insult dad. Your overprotectiveness of Sarah is cute. When you check your makeup using your phone screen when you think no one is looking. The way you blush when…” you listed, switching between her looks and personality to really drive home.

“Alright please stop…” Lucy interrupted, stopping you before you listed off anymore and showing that same blush you had wanted to talk about.

“I have plenty more. Even the more explicit ones I’ve learnt only recently” you added, seeing Lucy get ready to smack you on the shoulder before stopping herself for Sarah’s sake.

Putting Sarah in front of you as a shield wasn’t going to work every time but the idea put a smile on your face when you considered Sarah probably liking being treated as an object. Probably not as a shield though.

“Please don’t go there, you’ve already proved your point” Lucy admitted reluctantly.

“Good. Now, you wanna tell me what you and Sarah have been up to while me and Mom were gone? She said you had had a ‘talk’ and I just wondered if I should be worried” you asked, hoping to get more details from Lucy when Sarah hadn’t provided them.

“You do know that not every conversation we have is about you right?” Lucy scoffed, dismissing your question.

“So you didn’t talk about me then? At all?” you continued questioning only to be met with silence before Lucy looked annoyed.

“Well yeah you came up but we talked about other stuff. And I’m not gonna tell you why we talked about you. That’s between me and Sarah. Lucy replied, sticking with her overprotectiveness for her sister.

“What about the other stuff then? Anything about the career we picked out?” you enquired.

Lucy seemed to perk up at the mention of that but you stopped her before she could reply.

“Before you say anything. Would you mind leaning on my other shoulder? And before you say no, I promise not to do anything inappropriate it's just I’m worried about waking Sarah up if we keep talking like this” you interrupted, giving a fake reason you thought Lucy would accept.

You really just wanted to lay there like that with both sisters under your arms, not exactly one of your most exciting fantasies but all three of you being close like this did bring you some comfort.

Lucy did her best grumbling but with Sarah being the reason, she scooted closer and let you loosely wrap your arm around her, not as close as Sarah was but still within whispering range.

“So…” Lucy started with a quiet voice, keeping an eye on Sarah now that she had a closer view.

She started talking about the courses you had shown to Sarah and it seemed like Lucy had gone off on her own to do some more research which you didn’t know about. Sarah had seemed happy from what Lucy told you and while some of the new details Lucy gave didn’t seem that exciting to you, you knew they were right up Sarah’s alley.

It seemed the topics they discussed blurred together after that as Lucy started to ramble. You could just about make out where the connection for each was just when Lucy went onto the next and left you clutching at straws. The final few she did slow down for, apparently spending more time talking about these.

The first you recognised was an unnamed ‘friend’ of Sarah’s who she was having trouble with and while you knew who that was, Lucy kept it vague to avoid revealing any secrets. That led to talk about school and then prom but that was where Lucy abruptly stopped, taking a few seconds to come up with something that didn’t involve the topic turning towards you.

“It’s fine, I can see where that led so you don’t have to carry on” you suggested, giving her an out which she quickly took, talking a little further about Sarah’s plans to dress up for the evening before she ran out of steam.

Lucy by this point had settled closer towards you, if only from minor shuffles to get herself in a comfortable position. She seemed to only notice how close you were now that the silence started to settle in but she showed no signs that she was going to move.

You also didn’t feel the need to do anything and were happy to just rest with the two of them. What caught your attention was that your hand had unconsciously started to play with the hem of Lucy’s shorts and you were positive that Lucy must have noticed, turning to look her in the eye and seeing her stare straight back.