Tommy
“Kazumi! Oh. My. Sweet. Fuck!”
I just pulled Laura tight against me, holding her with one arm while pulling her towel around her with the other. I kissed her and let her shake through her orgasm. When I looked up, Kazumi was standing just in the entrance to the kitchen, with her mouth open.
“Hi, Kaz. Excuse us, come in. Help yourself to a drink,” I said, tucking Laura’s towel in properly.
“Tommy! What the fuck?”
Kazumi spoke, “I am sorry, Tommy said dinner, I forgot he calls the midday meal lunch. I will leave.”
As Kazumi bowed, both Laura and I jumped up, it was then that I found out my towel had come undone as well. As I was fumbling with it, Laura had reached Kazumi and put her arm around her and pulled her back.
“No, if anyone should leave, it should be my oaf of a brother,” Laura shot me daggers from her eyes.
I had not noticed the pair of them looking at me as I struggled to gain some decorum but at the same time trying to hide my erection under my towel. When I heard Kazumi giggle, I looked up at them.
“I’ll go and get dressed,” and left them to it.
As I left the room, I heard both almost in unison apologising to the other. A couple of minutes later I walked into the kitchen and they were sat at the table deep in conversation. They were both holding both hands and their entire body-language was telling me they were fully focussed on the other. I coughed as I entered and asked if they wanted drinks, attending to the forgotten cups and getting a third for Kazumi. Laura turned to me, coughing a little when I looked up her towel before looking at her.
“It’s your fault.”
“Beg pardon?” I asked.
“Our embarrassment, it’s your fault. You know Kazumi has dinner in the day and supper at night. You should have been clearer. More importantly, you should not have unlocked the door so soon. Apart from anything else, anyone could have walked in.”
“Kazumi’s the only one we know well enough to allow to do that.”
“Anyone, Tommy!”
“Okay, yes, I’m sorry. We’ve… I’ve made today awkward enough for Kaz already if we are going to row about this, can we do it later?”
Laura turned to Kazumi and said, “We were right, he’s not bad, just a little thoughtless at times,” to which they both giggled.
“Hold my coffee, please Tommy. I’m going to get dressed.”
As I went to help her, she stopped me and grabbed her crutch. She limped over to me, she was walking easier, up on her toes. She smiled and kissed me on the cheek.
“Back in a bit,” trying to be as graceful as possible, she left us.
I turned to Kazumi and asked if she wanted to go into the living room and so we adjourned. I settled into my chair and Kazumi sat on the end of the couch closest.
“Tommy-kun, I am disappointed with you,” she started and obviously got the required reaction from me as she continued. “You did not protect our sister, you let her come to harm.”
“Sister?”
“Hai. When I was here last, I told Laura how you have always been like a brother to me. You took me under your wing when I started and always offered me help and guidance. Later I made a comment about ‘our brother’ and Laura agreed. If you are our brother, then we must be sisters.”
“Some would ask if you really want that. You pick your friends; you’re stuck with your family.”
“Ahh, but this way I have the best of both, I am picking my family,” Kazumi laughed.
“If by protect, you mean her foot, please tell me how I’m supposed to protect her from a broken bottle, buried in the sand, under the water? Or was it something else?”
Kazumi smiled, “Well, brother, tell me what happened?”
I explained about the walk on the beach and how Laura had managed to locate one piece of broken glass on all the shore. I told her of everything that had been done to get her medical treatment and what that was. Just as I was finishing, I heard the click of Laura’s crutch on the floor.
“Laura, you really shouldn’t be so noisy with your crutch, people will hear you coming.”
After hitting my legs with the crutch, Laura joined me on the armchair and we told Kazumi most of what had happened on La Gomera, but it was almost like we had agreed not to mention the sex yet. Kazumi gave me some dirty looks at some parts, especially related to Laura’s date and Tel.
“Watching is nice, is it not?” She said when we told her of Stripe and Pink, which we both had to agree with her about.
When we had finished telling that part of the story I got up and went to prepare some lunch. Kazumi helped with that and refreshing our drinks. In the meantime, Laura was setting up her laptop and sorting out a few of her pictures.
After we had eaten, Laura started to show some of her pictures. Thankfully it was only some, she had told me she had taken several thousand including those from the shoot. She did include some from the shoot. My sister showed just how talented she is. By capturing the shadows on the models’ muscles or other areas she seemed to take the focus off them and bring it to the clothes they were wearing.
With simple landscape pictures, she would have the focus on a tiny spot leaving you to fill in the rest of the whole scene in glorious technicolour, almost dazzling. She had captured birds and insects, rivers and clouds. She had taken some of me which I was unaware of and there were even a couple of us. She told me that one of the models was a keen amateur and had taken those.
“I’m pleased Tommy-kun managed to fight off all that muscle and bring my sister home with only a small wound.”
“You remembered!” Laura beamed, “To tell the truth, some are nice enough, but once you get to know them, they are at best very plain. No matter how nice though, they all have issues with their egos. The one that nearly did come to blows, wimped out while looking down on Tommy.”
Laura went on to explain in more depth what had happened both having the date and on the beach. Which earnt me another look from Kazumi. She then told Kazumi about the dolphins and how I had only allowed her to watch the first time.
“I took this video the next day. I’ve not had a chance to look at it to see if there is anything that I can pull from it.”
The video started and showed the view over the sea from the balcony, you could hear background noises, the early birds, moving of chairs and then it settled down to the birds and someone breathing heavily. I looked at Laura, who shrugged.
“I usually record on mute if it’s to capture stills. Sound quality is crap without the mic plugged in.”
Then I heard my voice, “Did I say you could do that?” this had got Laura scrambling for the remote to stop the video.
She was too slow, “Piss off! Oh, fuck.”
Laura
I knew we were planning on telling Kazumi everything, but this started to let the cat out of the bag a little early and without the control, I would have liked.
“Does she usually need your permission to record dolphins?” Kazumi asked, with a smirk on her face.
As I was between them, I was sure they could both see me blushing, so I looked down. Kazumi reached out and took my hand.
“Onechan, do not be ashamed of your sexuality. The west and its cultures only squash what should be celebrated. You don’t have to go shouting about it, but you are with people who love you and have shared that with you.
“You are beautiful when you are like that, ane.”
I looked over at Kazumi and gave her hand a little squeeze, “Thank you. What are onechan and ane?”
“Both mean big sister onechan to address you and ane while talking. For a big brother, it is oniichan or ani. There are several other words that can be used too.”
I noticed the subtle difference in pronunciation, sister had an ‘ay’ sound and brother an ‘ee’ sound. So close but different, it made me smile. I took Tommy’s hand and looked at him, he nodded to me.
“Or you could just speak the Queen’s English, ya bloody foreign devil,” Tommy piped up.
I elbowed him hard and started, “What the hell, Tommy!”
“It is ok ane, our brother regularly proves he is an ignorant imperialist,” Kazumi was grinning, “he is so bad, that I think he could explain most of the words I slip into conversations without thinking. Isn’t that right tawagoto?”
Tommy burst out laughing, “Your... our newly adopted sister has shown her new big brother the utmost respect.” He paused, seeming to enjoy my confusion, “She just called me a shithead.”
“Hai,” I said, “you are!”
“The funny thing, I have noticed when talking to me at work sometimes, Tommy has started to slip in the odd Japanese word and phrase. It’s also nice that he knows some cursing too, especially when our customers think I’m being cute.
“Sorry, ane, we got distracted,” she finished.
“Well, there are several reasons I wanted to see you today, first, I missed you while we were away,” I looked back at Tommy who just squeezed my hand and smiled.
“As I missed you, both.”
“While we were away, Tommy and I grew closer,” I held Kazumi’s hand tighter, I don’t know why I felt she needed reassurance. “After my date, we realised what we really meant to each other and what we wanted.”
“Hai,” Kazumi looked happy, but sad, tinged with confusion. A real mix of emotions.
“I…” I paused and looked at them both and down at the ground.
“No shame,” Tommy said, he leant forward and kissed my ear.
“Tommy mentioned you in the lead up to it…” I paused again, checking them, “I… I wish you could have been there.” I quickly started backtracking and trying to explain, “On the trip, so we could tell you straight away, so you could celebrate with us.”
“Breathe,” was all Tommy said to me. “What I believe my sister is trying to explain to you, is that she thinks of you as not just her sister, but one of her closest friends. Someone she can turn to when I’m not the right person to talk to. Someone to share everything with.”
I looked sharply at Tommy, what was he saying? I know I had a confusion when it came to women; had he read my mind about my feelings toward Kazumi or was he trying to plant some seeds for something else.
“Laura, I do think of you as my sister and I would be honoured to call you my best and closest friend. Yes Tommy, closer than you. You are a man and my superior, there are certain things I can’t share with you,” Kazumi kissed the back of my hand.
“Oh, fuck! I’m doomed,” I heard Tommy mutter and we both laughed at him.
“Another reason was for me to have dinner, were there any other reasons?”
“I have had a couple of dreams,” I explained the first one. I had investigated that a little and all the symbolism was around incest first Oedipus Rex and then the golden fist and throne of swords should have been obvious. I took the cobra to be me being captured by Tommy, rather than poisoned.
“The second dream was last night,” after I finished telling Kazumi about it, we sat in silence.
“And those six? All are aware, or you think will be comfortable with your relationship?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I think you see us as people that will protect you and help you. You are correct with me. Your parents are your conscience, I would agree. I think it is also telling you, you want to give your friends a chance to accept your decision.”
“That all makes sense,” piped up Tommy, “maybe we should get our neighbours round for a drink or something and we can have a chat? We can think more about your friends. As I said before we can always split into the two rooms if they are here and we need to.”
Suddenly a grin spread across Kazumi’s face and she jumped out of her chair and also sat on Tommy’s lap. She threw her arms around us both and pulled us in close. As we were just about to bump heads, I noticed a tear in her eye.
“I am so happy you have found each other. I am so happy to have you both in my life and thankful for the kind words you have said. I think Tommy knows, but I am not sure you understand my culture enough yet Laura, but you have done me two huge honours today. Accepting me as a sister is one and asking my advice as the youngest person here is another.”
Tommy kissed her cheek and I followed suit.
“Now tell me about this foreign devil business, how the hell did that start?”
Tommy
I had to smile as I started to explain my apparent attack of racism to Laura, “This is a long-standing thing between Kaz and me, which goes back to the very start of our friendship. If I had to say, I would even say it’s a foundation stone.
“Soon after Kaz joined the company, we were working with a client, just trying to get an idea of what they were after. Some would call it brainstorming but it really was little more than throwing words out and seeing what stuck.”
I looked over a Kazumi, who took up the story, “Hai, it seemed to be going well. I was quite nervous, but Tommy was his usual encouraging self. When I get nervous, or totally comfortable, I find I use a lot more Japanese words. That day was no different, but nothing that could stop our progress.”
“Well we broke for lunch and Kaz excused herself, she bowed at the door before she left, and I bowed back. Neither of us expected anything from the client, it was just what I had picked up working with her for a few weeks. Well, the client turned to me and said, 'Wow, you pander to that foreign devil’s customs here? Don’t expect it from me!' Needless to say, I was flabbergasted and just told him, 'No, nothing is expected,' then it hit me. I took a breath and turned square to him. I had not noticed that Kaz had returned to the room.”
She smiled as she carried on, “Tommy said to the client, 'Except general good manners, that is both to and from my staff. I don’t give a damn what race, creed, colour or whatever else someone is and if any of them have an issue, they had better keep it to themselves!' The client replied that Tommy could not speak to him like that and when questioned it was because he was a customer. Tommy took the plate and cup from his hand and put them on the table, picked up his papers and jacket and handed them to him and said, 'It’s a good job you are no longer a customer then. Please leave or I’ll call security.' That was the first time I saw some of the real Tommy and I was so thankful.
“He sat me down and called Horace, his boss, sort of our boss now, to come to the meeting room. He told me that I might be getting a promotion and laughed that it was because he might get sacked. When he told Horace, Tommy used the phrase ‘ignorant imperialist’, which is why I say that back. Horace was fuming, but we later found out that the client, when telling the story to him, had used words like foreigner and gibberish when talking about me and some of the Japanese I said. That convinced him that Tommy had done the right thing.
“A few months down the line I cursed to myself while working through a problem and Tommy heard me. He asked what I had said, I asked if he wanted to know so he could prepare for the next ignorant imperialist. I thought I had made a mistake, but I was in such a bad mood trying to solve the problem, I didn’t think first. Tommy laughed and said we could make him think we were both foreign devils if he knew a few more words. He also sorted my problem out in two minutes. I knew from the first time we would be good friends; I knew from that second time we would be very good friends.”
“Yep,” I finished, “and it all grew from there. You’re the first person that we have ever done it in front of, though. Until now, it’s been a private thing between us.”
“Thank you,” Laura said, giving us both a hug, “it’s the little things that you share that often mean so much.”
“Now if you don’t mind, can I have my legs back for a minute?” I asked.
“What’s up dear, are you having problems?” Laura retorted.
“They’ve just gone to sleep a little, that’s all.”
“I could rub them better…” Laura paused, and I could see the minx in her eye. “Like this,” she finished, pushing her hand between my legs and rubbing my groin.
