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If you never lived in a small town, you'd find it hard to fully appreciate the charm of coming home from a larger city to a place where hustle and bustle simply didn't exist.

When you lived there, it was easy to take the quiet streets and serene backdrops for granted, but after such a long time away from home, Askim couldn't have been happier to see the snow-covered fields and icicles dangling from the branches of trees in Great Falls.

With so many complications flooding his life, he desperately needed the simplicity of a day in his old life.

"Can't believe it's taking mom and dad this long to answer the door," he muttered. His car was parked in a messy driveway, his paws were wrapped in an extra layer of warm protection, and his body was starting to shiver as the snow continued to fall around him. "It's not like them to be more than a few steps from the living room."

The explanation for his quandary came rushing to the door a few moments later, with a quiet thok of the deadbolt turning. "Askim? It...it's really you, isn't it?"

"You sound like you've seen a ghost or something," Askim replied, his lips unable to curl into a proper snicker. They stopped at a genuine, joyous smile as his sister jumped from the doorway and wrapped her arms around him, ending a drought of distance that she didn't realize would strike her as hard as it had. " Jeez! Y-yes, it's still me, sis!"

Perhaps Asker should have been more bashful about pouncing her brother in such a way, but she was unapologetic in her actions as she embraced him in the doorway and held him close. "You're the one who ran off to college! It's not my fault that I have to check your identity every time you come home!"

Askim chuckled as his arms settled delicately upon her upper back. "So mom and dad just keep you around because they needed free home security?"

Everything was the same: his snark, his smile, his scent...Asker curled right up into his chest and embraced all of it as she whacked him on the arm. "You're such an asshole sometimes."

"Hmph. I missed you too, sis."

Asker and Askim had their own unique dynamic, as so many siblings did. From an outside perspective, someone would have understood Askim being offended at his sister addressing him in such a way, but there was something familiar in the way she treated him, and in that moment, it was something he needed more than he could properly voice.

He needed to feel like he was truly home, and few people could bring that sensation better than a sibling.

"I know you did," Asker claimed, even after her seemingly venomous jab. "And I know you're about to freeze your ass off out here. Come on in already, would you?"

"Says the one hanging off my neck like an albatross..."

"Oh, you could handle carrying me if you really wanted to," Asker claimed, but she released her brother all the same, sure that he was exhausted from his long trip back across state lines. "But I'll let you off the hook, just this once. Let's get inside and get you warmed up."

Askim wasn't wrong to think that his sister was being a bit more affectionate than usual, but he was sure that she'd reveal her reasons to him in due time. They were the kind of pair that never kept secrets from each other, no matter the severity or the subject matter.

For her to be this bubbly, he wondered if she'd just dipped into the eggnog a little bit early.

"Does that mean Mom has some of her famous cocoa on the stove?" Askim watched as Asker sauntered into the kitchen. He closed the door behind him and shrugged off the snowflakes from his jacket, coating the floor around him with a ring of fresh powder. "Or are you just getting my hopes up to dash them?"

"Well, it is her recipe," Asker replied, "But I'm the one who made it, so I'm sure you'll still complain that it's not up to your standards."

"Well, with an attitude like that..."

"Hush," she interjected, slipping back from the kitchen with a cup in each paw. "After being out in the cold for so long, I'm sure you'll find it's quite to your liking."

The rush of warmth upon his digits was instant and gratifying; he nearly forgot that there was a storm blowing around outside as the heat of the cup, the soothing glow of the lights in the living room and the friendly smile of his sister brought him back to a time and place when life was a bit easier.

With just one sip of the chocolate treat, the time warp was complete, and all of Askim's stress melted away, even if only for a moment.

"Not too bad, Asker. Mom finally taught you how to do something right," he teased, knowing that she wouldn't dare to spill her cocoa for the sake of jabbing him again. "Speaking of, where are Mom and Dad, anyway? I thought they were gonna be home for dinner tonight?"

"They're still stuck out west," Asker explained. "You beat the storm into town, but their flight got delayed by it, and a bunch of people are using their status to jump on earlier flights. They decided to sit back and take a travel voucher and a free night in a hotel. Can't say I blame them."

"That's a shame. Was really hoping to see them tonight."

"They should be in tomorrow afternoon, as long as the storm moves quickly. I know I'm not the cook that Mom is, but I'm sure I can whip something up for us if you're hungry."

"I'd hate to make you work on a day off, but I don't think we're gonna be heading back out on the roads anytime soon," Askim claimed, knowing the plows wouldn't be getting to a back country roadway with any sort of haste. "Otherwise, I'd say we could just pick something up."

"Nonsense. You haven't been home in ages...and when was the last time that fiancé of yours cooked you a fresh, homemade meal?"

The warm, heavenly glow of the living room shattered as quick as it came. Setting his mug down on the knick-knack table by the front door, Askim shrugged out of his coat and set it on a hook before taking his mug once more and slumping right into the forbidden comfort of his father's easy chair.

"I know you didn't mean to twist the knife, sis...but you sure managed to."

The pleasant glow of rekindled joy faded from brother and sister as their brief reunion came to a sour note. "Askim, I...I didn't mean to offend you. I'm sorry."

"You didn't offend me," Askim shook his head. "It's just a tender subject, still...one I thought mom and dad would have made you privy to."

Asker's teeth gnawed timidly at her lower lip.

"...Did you already know?"

"They, uhm...they might have mentioned it once or twice recently," Asker confessed. "I didn't know that everything was so bad as that, though."

"Basically just waiting to see if she's going to give the ring back or not. If it's sold before I make my way home, I wouldn't be at all surprised."

Asker frowned, her thumbs idly twiddling over one another as she tried to think of a positive way to spin the problem. "I'm sorry, Askim. I know that she really meant a lot to you."

"Life happens, I guess."

"But at least you're home and around your loving family now, right?"

The dry response was met with a warmer answer than Askim was expecting. His sister's optimism never failed to impress him. "I guess that's true. I've never met a problem that mom's cooking couldn't fix."

"Hopefully the imitation will be up to your standards, then."

"I'm sure it will be."

Tiny though it was, a smile was cracking the edge of Askim's lips. Asker's ears perked right up at the sight of an improvement in her brother's mood, and for a moment, she debated heading right into the kitchen and getting started on dinner.

Hearing straight from his mouth that his engagement was broken off, however, put other things on her mind.

"I don't know if it would make you feel any better, but for what it's worth, things aren't great between me and Thomas, either."

Askim cocked a brow and looked up from his lap. "Really? You two are always on good terms, far as I've ever seen."

"That's...heh. That's because he's really easy to placate, and he knows how to keep his mouth shut."

"Keep his mouth shut about what, exactly?"

Asker was given literal years to prepare for this moment, and until only minutes before, she thought all of that mental preparation was going to go to waste.

Now that the hour of her destiny was at hand, confidence faded from her lips as they withered, her throat dried, and her paws refused to settle.

"About the fact that our relationship is a total farce."

Askim's eyes went wide, his face riddled with panic. "W-What? You're serious?! Do mom and dad know about this?"

"They don't have a clue. I haven't said anything to them about it yet, and I don't think I ever will. Thomas is happy to keep the charade going for as long as I offer him my company."

"I just...I don't get it, sis. Thomas is a nice guy and all, but why would you keep stringing him along like this if there's no next step?"

Asker closed her eyes and sighed regretfully; this wasn't going as she'd planned. "I'm not stringing him along, Askim. He knows exactly what he got into, and he could break things off anytime he wanted. We're both doing this to keep up certain appearances."

"Huh," Askim calmed down a little as he leaned back once more in his chair. "So, what? Is he gay and trying to appease his folks?"

"No, he's straight...we had a fling and found that we weren't really compatible beyond that, but in the meantime, we're pretending to stay together so his parents stop pushing him toward a relationship, and so no one will ask me what I really want."

"And what you really want is...?"

Asker wanted to gulp, but her throat was so dry, she could hardly manage the word. "You."

Her brother's ears twitched with the single syllable, as if they didn't believe what they heard. His expression was blank for a perilously long moment, his mind unable to process the concept any faster.

"Asker, if this is about that time when we were younger-

"It's not _just_about that," she cut him off, as if she knew that he'd turn back to their forbidden fling as youths. "Falling for someone doesn't happen just because you had sex with them one time...just ask Thomas."

A familial love was always strong between the canine siblings, and though Askim could appreciate the natural beauty of his sister and that she would be quite the catch for the right man, he never once considered himself to be in the pool of candidates.

He was terrified at himself; in the back of his mind, he thought he should have dismissed the idea right away, but those words never left his muzzle.

"That was an amazing night, and...yeah, I had some thoughts about it too," Askim admitted, "But...we're siblings , Asker. Even if there was something more between us, that's where it needed to stay."

"Why?"

"Because it's wrong? Because it's illegal and we'll definitely get caught?"

"You didn't say it felt wrong at the time," Asker reminded him. "As I recall, you were quite enamored with the idea of sticking it to your sister every night."

As she bent further to the lust that had been building inside of her, Askim tried to cling to the last straws of reason that he could find. That they'd take advantage of their privacy that night seemed inevitable, but this time, it seemed his sister wasn't content with a sample of the wares.

She was ready to own the store.

"...How long will mom and dad be gone?"

"At least through the night," Asker reminded him.

To end his dry spell, he'd happily revisit their incestuous coupling, but he couldn't help a gulp as Asker stood up from her seat and sauntered right over to him, the same way she had the very first time they fooled around.

"W-We...we can't do this here," Askim stammered. "They'll know."

With surprising force, Asker gripped her brother by the wrist and yanked him out of his seat. "Did you forget how big mom and dad's property was, Askim?"

He was just starting to heat up from being out in the cold, but Asker's body would keep him plenty warm through a roll in the snow.