"Thank you." Selene left her chair, and the two of them hugged. There was a moment of silence, and then Selene broke it. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay. I'm just sorry. I was wrong to say some of the things I did." Kat admitted as they let go of the hug. "You were right. You're an adult. Who you do that kind of thing with and what you do behind closed doors is between you and them. But you're also my little sister. So I was a little overprotective, and given the whole situation - I freaked out. But, you are an adult. And it's your decision what you get up to with single guys in your own time. I just... I want you to be careful. And safe. Obviously."
"We are. Obviously." Selene smirked. Then, after an expression of realization, she said: "But you never answered my question about jealousy."
"I'm fine without a boyfriend. You know that." Kat shrugged.
"I know, but you'll run out of batteries eventually."
"Selene!" Kat sounded shocked.
"Kat!" Selene returned with a playful shove to Kat's arm. "Come on, Kat. You walked in on me offering to be someone's slave. The least you can do is admit you masturbate sometimes."
"Not all the time or anything." Kat sounded defensive again.
"It's okay." Selene assured her. "I wouldn't think less of you if you did. It's not something to be ashamed of. There's no shame in sex."
Kat shook her head and let out a deep exhale. "I'll let you get back to your... whatever it was you were doing. I'm sorry for interrupting." Kat said again. "I just needed to talk to you so that you knew it was okay for you to come home tonight. I didn't want you to stay over here out of fear of me or Mom."
Selene laughed, a genuine laugh, not a scoff or a polite chuckle. "Don't worry. I plan to stay here tonight, but it's not out of fear of you."
"Well, okay then." Kat shook her head as she began to leave her seat.
Silence fell between them for a moment after she stood. Kat finished off her water and then set her glass down as Selene picked hers up, and then they were both empty.
"You should talk to Arthur." Selene suggested.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Kat shook her head.
Selene sighed. "I just don't want you to be angry with him. I asked him to do this, not the other way around. He's a really nice person. I think the two of you would get along really well if you tried to hang out."
"I'm not angry at him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was mad at me. I don't expect he'll ever want to speak to me again." Kat scoffed.
"He would if you apologized to him too." Selene argued. "Who knows? Maybe he'd even be willing to do for you what he's doing for me."
It took Kat a moment to register and process what her sister said. By the time her mind caught up to the statement, her mouth was wide open. She recovered eventually.
"Oh, yeah, I bet he'd like that." Kat scoffed. "Not a chance."
"Why not?" Selene asked as if curious. "Didn't you like what you saw?"
Kat blushed and looked down. "It's not about that. It's-"
"It's only as simple or complicated as you make it." Selene argued. "And it wouldn't be like cheating or anything. He and I are just fuck buddies. It's casual."
Kat deadpanned at her sister and muttered something under her breath.
"What?" Selene asked.
"Nothing." Kat sighed.
"Kat... What did you say?" Selene asked again.
"I said: Oh yeah, it seems real casual." Kat came clean. "I think you're head over heels for him. You'd never forgive me if I stole him away from you."
Selene laughed. "First of all - I'm not suggesting you steal him from me. I'm suggesting that you also become friends with him."
"With benefits." Kat put the air quotations around the words.
"If you both want them? Sure!" Selene suggested.
"And you'd be fine with that?" Kat was shocked. "You worship that man, and you want to share him? You didn't even want to share a room with me growing up."
"Come on. I can put in a good word for you if you want." Selene smirked.
It seemed that Kat didn't have an answer for that other than, "I should go."
"No." Selene reached for her as Kat started to turn away. "You should apologize to him too, or things will be awkward."
Kat sighed. She knew her sister was right. She turned and looked behind her to the front door. It was unlocked but closed. Still, that was no obstacle. She could open it and dash through it before Selene could catch her. The only problem with that plan was that Kat wasn't the type to run away. She was tougher than that. She had a reputation for being tough, so what did it say about her if she ran away? She'd come here to apologize, didn't she? Why was it so much easier to apologize to her sister than to her sister's friend?
"He's just in the bedroom. Let's knock. I'm sure he's got some clothes by now. You can apologize, and then the two of you can have a conversation like civilized adults." Selene started walking out of the kitchen.
"I can come by tomorrow or write him an email." Kat protested.
"You have to look him in the eye, or it's just going to be awkward the next time he comes over to the apartment." Selene stood firm and crossed her arms over her chest as though she were the older sister in this situation.
"Ugh." Kat sighed. "Fine."
Neither of them moved.
"Well?" Selene asked and then made a shooing motion with her hands to shoo her sister toward the living room and out of the kitchen.
"Go get him." Kat shrugged.
"No." Selene shook her head.
"No? I thought you wanted me to apologize to him." Kat was clearly confused.
"I do, and you should, but he should know that it's coming from you and not something I'm making you do." Selene stated.
"You can't make me do anything." Kat said defiantly.
"We both know that's not true." Selene stood tall. "You might have a few pounds on me, but I know where you're ticklish." Selene's stern expression broke into a smile. "Just go knock on his door. He'll come out, you can apologize, and then you can go home, and things won't be awkward next time."
Kat didn't look as confident as Selene, but she made her way over to the bedroom door after a dramatic sigh. She stood up a little straighter, moved her shoulders back, raised her fist, and knocked twice.
There was no answer.
Kat looked back at Selene, who nodded toward the door encouragingly.
Kat made a face but sighed and knocked again.
Again there was no answer.
Selene started to worry that Arthur had fallen asleep or that he'd somehow left while they were in the kitchen, even though she was mostly in view of the front door the whole time. Except, she realized, for when she filled their glasses of water.
Selene moved forward and raised her hand with her finger raised to ask Kat to give her a minute. She opened the door a crack, and Kat took a step back and looked away, just in case. Selene suggested he would have put clothes on, but if she was going to apologize for barging in and seeing him naked, the least she could do was not try to immediately repeat the offense.
She needn't have worried. Arthur was sitting on his bed with his books laid out in front of him in a semicircle. He was bent over them with his back toward the door. He was dressed in a pair of baggy sweatpants and an old t-shirt that had an advertisement for Hadestown on the back of it.
Selene didn't notice the earphones in his ears at first, but she saw them as she approached, and the mystery of the unanswered knock was solved. She could hear the music of Beetlejuice the Musical coming from them when she reached the edge of the bed, and although she tried not to be too startling, he jumped as soon as she touched his shoulder.
"Jesus!" Arthur pulled the earphones from his ears and turned to look over at her.
"No, just me." Selene laughed.
"Everything okay between you and Kat?" Arthur asked. "I didn't hear any yelling, so I figured things were going okay. I tried to give you guys your privacy."
Selene looked back to Kat, standing on the other side of the open door as if to say: 'see?'
"What?" Arthur asked, not speaking the silent language of the sisters.
Selene smirked. "Everything's okay. Come on. Kat has something she wants to say to you, and I think she'll probably be more comfortable saying it in the living room as opposed to your sex dungeon."
"My what?" Arthur asked in momentary confusion as he realized that the location title was less about the accuracy and more about making Kat take at least two steps from the door and look at the carpet as though it might save her. Things must have been back to normal if Selene was willing to tease her sister like that, he assumed. Arthur moved off the bed and followed Selene out into the living room again.
"Do you want anything?" Arthur asked Kat. "We've got water, some beer, or if you're hungry, I've got some Chinese food in the fridge, some pizza, or..." He thought for a moment. "I should really go grocery shopping."
"I'm good." Kat waved his concern away. She looked up at him for a moment, and he looked down at her. He was much taller than Kat since she was even shorter than Selene. She couldn't help but notice his shoulders as she looked up at him, and he couldn't help but notice her eyes were a bit red around the edges.
"I uh..." She looked to Selene, who stood behind Arthur, and gave her a silent nod.
"I want to say that I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier and for barging in like that. And for threatening to taze you. That was wrong of me." Kat's eyes wandered from his shoulders to his face, back to his shoulders, and continued down to the floor as she spoke.
"Oh." Arthur seemed surprised, but he did his best not to show it. "No worries."
Kat nodded as if to say that she accepted his response.
Arthur looked to Selene, who smiled at him, and then back to Kat, who was looking at his feet. He wasn't wearing any socks or shoes since he'd been sitting on his bed, and he felt a little self-conscious since she wasn't looking up at him.
"Is everything okay then, between you two?" Arthur asked.
"Yes." Selene assured him. "And between you two?" Selene asked Arthur.
"Oh, uh... Sure." Arthur sounded uncertain, but he nodded. "I don't hold any of that against you." He told Kat. "You were just angry and looking out for Selene and probably a bit surprised. I assume she told you it was her idea?"
"She did." Kat nodded as she took another step back toward the center of the living room, turning so that the three of them could move a little. "I know you two are friends and that she trusts you. A lot, apparently." Kat looked toward Selene, who nodded while Kat's eyes lingered on her collar. "And I'm... happy, for you, I guess?"
Arthur laughed gently, taking some of the tension out of the room. "Thanks." He said with a slight smirk. "I'm not sure how much she told you, but we're being safe. We've established our safe words, gone over limits. I've got safety tools in the briefcase there with the toys-" He gestured to the briefcase leaning against the coffee table.
Kat blushed as she looked toward it and tried to shake it out of her cheeks when she looked back toward Selene and Arthur. She only partially succeeded.
"Sorry." Arthur corrected himself. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just wanted you to know that we're not just doing this without thinking about it first. I mean, granted, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to properly prepare for certain things, but we're still being very safe."
"Jesus." Kat shook her head with a laugh. "I thought safe sex meant condoms, not a briefcase full of safety tools. You and Selene seem to think safe sex means it has some kind of OSHA sign-off."
Even though she'd heard Kat make the joke before, Selene laughed to cue Arthur to laugh. It took Arthur a second to realize that Kat was making a joke, teasing him, but it eased the tension a little when he did. He gave a single silent chuckle and took a deep breath.
"And Arthur's always looking out for me. He had me out of those cuffs in a blink when you knocked." Selene added.
Kat looked to Selene with an expression of alarm and then quickly looked to Arthur and then to the bed just past him.
"No, I was tied up on the coffee table." Selene corrected her gaze by gesturing behind her to the rectangular low coffee table in the living room.
Kat shook her head, refusing to look. "Now you're just trying to make me uncomfortable." She accused her sister.
"Sorry." Selene said with a smirk that contradicted her words. "I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable. I'm just trying to assure you that I'm in good hands." She put her hand on Arthur's upper arm.
Kat wasn't sure if Arthur blushed a bit, but he had the decency to give Selene a small smile.
"Good." Kat said. "And I'm sorry I interrupted you guys tonight. I just wanted to talk to Selene and fix things."
"I understand. Your relationship is more important than what we were doing anyway." Arthur nodded.
Kat looked at him as though she were surprised by his statement but didn't say anything. Selene was the one who broke the silence as she stepped forward and patted his pec as if congratulating him on saying the right thing.
"So... are you gonna join us?" Selene asked with amusement as she watched both Kat and Arthur's eyebrows reach for the ceiling as they made eye contact with each other. She couldn't help the laugh that came out between her lips.
"I don't think-" Kat and Arthur started to say simultaneously. "Sorry, you go ahead-" They spoke in unison once more. "I just mean-" Again in unison. "Sorry." They stopped trying to talk, waiting to let the other go first.
Selene was too amused to break the silence. She tugged down the hem of Arthur's shirt a little, which had ridden up slightly when she reached over the bed to tap his shoulder and get his attention.
"She's teasing." Arthur assured Kat. "Right, Selene?"
"I think she's teasing you more than me." Kat assured him. "Just playing to every male fantasy - a threesome with two sisters."
"Have you?" Selene asked, looking at Arthur.
"Have I what?" Arthur asked.
"Fantasized about us?" Selene asked, knowing the answer perfectly well. "The two of us, having your way with us, using those muscles of yours to take us in hand and-"
"That's enough." Kat raised her hand with the stop motion. "You win. I'm officially uncomfortable." She said as she turned away and went into the kitchen.
"But I want to know." Selene said with a smirk.
"No, you just want to tease Kat, I think." Arthur shook his head and then walked forward to the side of the coffee table to see into the kitchen where Kat was putting the glasses in the sink. "Sorry."
"I'm usually the one apologizing about her to other people." Kat chuckled as she shook her head.
"Still. You didn't come here to be made uncomfortable." He said to Selene. "And Selene's teasing isn't helping anything. I -" Arthur seemed to search for the right words. "Thank you. For apologizing. And for clearing things up. I promise not to do anything that would make you want to taze me." He smirked, but Kat looked a little ashamed at his joke.
"Good." Kat said with a nod. "Selene trusts you. So I will too. For now. But-" And she turned her attention back to Selene. "Remember. I want you to check in with me regularly if you're spending more than an hour over here. Just to be safe."
Selene sighed and was surprised when Arthur chimed in.
"I think it's a good idea." Arthur said. "It might not be every hour on the hour, but I'll make sure she texts you to let you know what the plans are - at least in terms of time - and checks in."
"Thank you." Kat said after a moment and made an expression that told Selene she was slightly impressed, even if she would never admit it.
"Fine." Selene sighed. "For tonight, I was planning to spend the night here tied to the foot of the bed and then wake him up with a blowjob." Her total lack of shame resulted in a total presence of embarrassment for Arthur and Kat. They both looked away from each other.
Kat gave a slight cough. "I don't need to know those details." She shook her head to get rid of the blush. "I just need to know when to expect to hear from you next. You will be coming home eventually, right? Or are you just going to move in here together?"
Now it was Selene's turn to be embarrassed. "I'll be home tomorrow, after classes. I have a change of clothes here, so I was just going to go to campus in the morning for my classes. I might come home for lunch or just grab something in the cafeteria and then come home after my afternoon class."
"Okay." Kat nodded. "Text me in the morning to let me know you made it to class."
"Okay." Selene agreed. "Now, are you staying or going? Because we had plans. You're welcome to stay, but it's not going to stop me."
Arthur rolled his eyes, but Kat didn't seem to take Selene's statement for as much teasing as he did.
"Really?" Kat asked with a tone of surprise. "You'd really blow him right in front of me?"
"Sure." Selene shrugged. "I'm not ashamed of it. There's nothing to be ashamed of, we've seen each other naked plenty of times, and he's got nothing to be ashamed of." Selene slapped Arthur gently on his stomach as if to say, 'right buddy?' but he was too confused as to why they weren't laughing to comment. "As you saw."
Kat blushed. An honest, crimson, heated blush that Arthur could almost feel in his own face as Kat looked up at him and then looked down. She bit her lip.
"It would be a kind of repayment, I guess, for all those times you spied on George and me." Kat teased. Arthur didn't know what she was referencing, but Selene clearly did.
"You knew about that?" Selene asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm not an idiot." Kat shook her head.
"I didn't know you knew I did that." Selene frowned.
"And if I didn't know about it before, you just confirmed it." Kat teased.
Selene wrinkled her nose. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Well, because I thought if I did, you might tell mom about what we were up to, so I just did what I could to try and make it so you couldn't, but I guess I failed at least a few times." Kat shrugged. "And I thought, well, maybe I enjoyed making you a little jealous."
Selene looked embarrassed.
"What?" Arthur asked as if he weren't following the conversation.
"My high school boyfriend, George. Selene always had a little crush on him. We never really got to home base or anything in the house, but we used to make out and... do stuff in my room, and Selene used to try and watch and succeeded a few times, apparently." Kat explained.
"Oh." Arthur said with a slight nod. "I uh... I see."
A moment of silence hung in the air before Selene said: "So, do you want to?" And looked at Kat expectantly
"What?" Kat asked. "No, I'm gonna go."
"You can stay and watch if you want to." Selene assured her. "Make sure I'm safe, or whatever you need to tell yourself." She teased. "If you're a very good girl, maybe Arthur will tie you down and fuck you senseless like he did to me."
Kat and Arthur were both looking anywhere but each other.
"Stay." Selene's voice was softer now as she touched her sister's arm.
"Okay." Kat said determinedly. "I'll stay and watch, and if I like what I see, I'll join in."
"Really?" Selene asked, with a clear note of shock in her voice.
"No." Kat said flatly as she patted the side of Selene's face. Then she turned toward the front door. Neither Selene nor Arthur tried to stop her, but she paused after opening the door and looking at them. "Look, teasing aside, I'm glad things are back to normal. I'll see you tomorrow Selene." And with that, she was gone.
Arthur let out a long exhale and shook his head at Selene. "You are wicked."
"Incorrigible, Master. The word you're looking for is incorrigible." She smirked and started undoing the buttons on his shirt she was wearing.