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Soren was suddenly woken up by the sound of loud knocking outside of his room. He rolled over his bed, glaring daggers at the door as if that could make the noise stop and help him fall back asleep. What was so important that it required bothering him this late at night?
Before Soren could even attempt to sit up, the door was suddenly opened and a very alarmed Claudia walked into his room.
That's when Soren realized something was really wrong.
"Soren," Claudia said, her tone lacking the usual enthusiasm he always knew to associate with her. "I need you to wake up, please-"
"Hey, hey." Soren got up from his bed as fast as humanly possible. All of a sudden, he didn't feel tired anymore. "Is everything okay? What happened?"
"I-" Claudia stopped herself, looking down at her feet. Her hands began to shake and by pure instinct, Soren took them between his own. A hopeless attempt to comfort her.
"Hey, it's okay," Soren spoke in a soft voice, even though internally he was slowly getting more and more anxious with each second his sister remained silent. What could've possibly happened to disturb her this much? A nightmare, perhaps? Claudia used to get them a lot when they were younger and she always ran to her brother's arms for comfort. He'd never seen her this distressed over one, though. "Do you need dad?"
"No!" Claudia was quick to reply, and Soren could swear the sheer mention of their father had worsened her anxiety. "Please, he's the last thing I need right now."
"Okay! Okay, I won't call him, I promise."
Claudia sat down over his bed and wrapped her arms over herself. Soren was now sure this wasn't just a simple nightmare.
"Could you lock the door, please?" she asked him, and Soren immediately nodded. He took a quick look down the hallway to make sure their father wasn't there to see them and after closing the door returned to his sister's side, wrapping one of his arms around her.
"So," he started, rubbing circles against her arm, "will you tell me what happened now or…?"
"Soren." Claudia looked up at him, revealing her watery eyes. "I think- I think I'm pregnant."
Oh.
Oh, no.
"What?!"
"Keep quiet! You'll wake him up!"
"How-how could this happen, we were always so careful-"
"We didn't use a condom last time," Claudia reminded him. "I took the pill but- I guess it wasn't enough."
"Well- okay, why do you think you're pregnant?"
"My period is late. It's been a couple of days… and usually this wouldn't alarm me but considering we didn't take all of our usual measures last time, I- I think there's a good chance I might be. I was going to wait a few more days but I can't- I can't deal with this on my own, Soren, I need you with me."
Soren got up and started pacing around his room. She couldn't be. She just couldn't be. They would be in so much trouble if she was.
"What are we going to do?" Claudia asked, and after Soren didn't reply she continued, "I could- I could get an abortion but I'm a bit anxious about that, honestly. But keeping the baby would be insane! I mean, I could- I could lie and say I'm not sure who the father is, and dad will still be mad, but not nearly as much as if he realizes it was you. But then… then if the baby starts to look like you, then…"
"Then we're dead," Soren completed for her and then laughed, completely humorlessly. "If dad finds out his son and daughter have been screwing each other behind closed doors and that they had a child, we're both dead."
Right after finishing his sentence, Claudia burst into tears. Immediately, Soren threw himself at her and wrapped her in his arms. Claudia sobbed against his chest, muffling most of her noise so at least their father would not hear them.
"Claud… I'm sorry, I know you already know that, I didn't have to say it."
"This is fucked up," she cried. "We-we should have been more careful. We were so stupid, we completely fucked this up."
Soren cleaned the tears off her face and then kissed her forehead.
"No, we haven't. Dad isn't gonna find out and we're not- we're not having any kids. We'll figure out what to do. But first, we have to make sure you're actually pregnant, okay? You'll take a pregnancy test tomorrow."
Slowly, Claudia nodded, her sobs getting quieter by the second.
"Can I stay here tonight?"
Soren smiled at her and kissed her on the lips.
"Any time, love."
*
"Soren! Soren!"
Next morning, Soren was woken up by Claudia practically yelling on his face. She looked… happy.
"Wake up!"
"I'm awake, I'm awake. What's going-"
"I got my period!" she exclaimed and then started giggling like a child who was just offered the most wonderful of presents.
"Oh. Oh, shit, you're not pregnant!" Soren sat up on his bed, feeling more relieved than he ever had.
"I'm not!"
Both siblings looked at each other, incredulous, before immediately bursting into laughter and dropping on the bed.
"Jesus," Soren said after the excitement had passed. "That was so close."
"It was," she sighed. "But I'm so glad we're okay."
They remained quiet for a few minutes, silently celebrating their salvation until Soren decided to speak up.
"You know," he started, turning to look at his sister, "I had a weird dream last night."
"Mm?"
Soren cleared his throat. "I dreamt that we were parents. We had a child- a boy. We were older. But we were just… like a regular family, y'know? And we were really happy."
Claudia stared at him, her mouth half open.
"Oh, Soren-"
"Don't say anything! I didn't- I didn't want you to be pregnant. Jesus, we're just kids. How are we gonna have children when we haven't grown up ourselves? And dad… he wasn't gonna like that. But it got me thinking and- if we were older-"
"No," Claudia replied, firmly. "You know why it can't happen, right? It's too dangerous, we could get in some really big trouble for that. Even adopting is out of the question. We can't risk people… suspecting."
"I know, I know. You don't need to tell me. And things are fine like this, just me and you. I just couldn't help but wonder how it would be if we could have a family, you know?"
Immediately, Claudia chuckled.
"Oh, silly. We already are family."
Soren couldn't help but laugh back.
"Right, how did I miss that?"
"Well, I've always been the smarter one."
"Hey!"
"I love you, dummy." Claudia gave Soren a soft but loving kiss on the lips. "Now, please be a good brother and get me some pain meds, will you?"
Soren groaned.
"Pleaaase!"
"Fine, fine," Soren said as he got up. It was the least he could do after how terrified she had been last night.
Before leaving the room, he turned to give his sister one last look. An unconscious smile formed on his lips as he watched her nuzzle against his covers. And in that moment he knew Claudia was the only family he would ever need.