Chapter 1 Remote Control: A Tantalizing Discovery(1)

• Introduction:
• In the soft glow of a family dinner, Erik's usual task of grabbing his twin sister Elayne’s grades takes an unexpected turn. Amidst the familiar chaos of her room, he stumbles upon a sleek, enigmatic remote—a gadget that seems to hum with untold possibilities. As his fingers glide over its buttons, a wave of curiosity and a hint of forbidden excitement wash over him, setting off a thrilling game of temptation. What starts as a lighthearted impulse quickly evolves into a heated dance of secrecy and desire, as Erik realizes he holds the power to unravel Elayne’s composure with just one click, igniting a spark neither of them can ignore.
• Enjoy..
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• "Congratulations on finishing your first semester of college!" my dad declared as my mother placed the potatoes in the center of the dining room table before taking her seat next to him, across from my sister and me. "We're both very proud of the two of you."
• My mother nodded her head in agreement. "Before we dig in, however, we'd like to see each of your grades, as we agreed on at the beginning of the school year."
• Elayne groaned at my side. "Seriously? Can't it wait until after dinner? It's not like they're going to change at this point and I left my printout upstairs on my desk."
• "So is mine," I said, pushing my seat back. "Don't worry, sis, I'll grab yours too."
• My sister's eyes widened fractionally, but before she could respond I was already up and out of my chair, racing for the stairs. Like her, I just wanted to start dinner, but I knew this was something our parents weren't going to budge on, making the easiest solution to just do as they asked. While it was mildly annoying to still have our grades matter so much even though we were now in college, the fact that our parents were paying the entirety of our tuition made it hard to complain. The agreement we'd settled on was that as long as we stayed over a 3.5 GPA then they'd continue to cover the full cost--otherwise, we'd be expected to start paying a portion of it ourselves.
• Reaching the second floor of our house, it was only a short distance down the hallway before I was standing in front of the door to my room. I pushed it open and hurried inside, making my way over to my desk where I'd carelessly tossed my backpack onto my chair when I'd gotten home earlier. It took me a moment to riffle through the papers inside to find the one I was looking for, but once I found it, I spun around and quickly entered the shared bathroom between mine and Elayne's room.
• Sharing a bathroom with my twin sister was at least partially responsible for our relationship drifting apart over the years. Not that we didn't still get along well, but when all you wanted to do was jump in the shower and relax, only to find it already occupied by your twin, it was impossible not to get frustrated. To be fair, I liked long showers just as much as Elayne did so we were both very much at fault in that regard.
• Oddly enough, the light in the bathroom had been left on, which was unusual since that was the way we signaled for the other not to enter. For some unfathomable reason, the doors to the bedrooms hadn't been installed with locks so any sign of light shining along the edges of the door frame was as good as a "do not enter" sign. Knowing Elayne was downstairs at the moment, I didn't worry about entering. I caught a glimpse of myself in the wall-length mirror as soon as I was inside--short, faintly curly brown hair with blue eyes and a, let's be honest, fairly average body. Not that I was ashamed of it. I worked out on occasion, but I'd much rather sit around playing video games than spend time playing sports.
• As I reached the opposite side of the bathroom and grabbed the handle of the door leading into Elayne's room, I paused. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been in her room, and I knew for a fact I'd never entered through the bathroom before. Pushing the weird feeling away, I slid the door open. With the light in her room off, the first thing I noticed was the smell--a gentle, floral note that I vaguely recognized as her perfume. Not wanting to overly invade her privacy, I decided to leave the lights off and use what was coming from the bathroom to guide me. I made my way across the room to where her desk sat against the far wall and immediately saw the printout she'd mentioned lying on top of it. At first, my eyes were captured by the large 3.9 circled in the bottom right, showing that she'd beaten my 3.7 which I knew I was never going to hear the end of. But then my eyes shifted slightly over to the object sitting next to the paper, almost hiding in the shadow of her chair--a remote.
• I blinked several times, caught off guard and not entirely sure exactly what I was looking at, although I had a sneaking suspicion. It was clearly not a television remote since she didn't have one in her bedroom, not to mention the fact it only had three buttons: power, plus, and minus. Between the plus and minus buttons were five LEDs, only one of which was currently glowing softly. I'm not sure what insanity came over me in that instant, but before I knew it, I'd grabbed her grades with one hand while shoving the remote into one of my pockets with the other.
• Fleeing her room, I closed her door behind me and crossed the bathroom in an instant, flicking the lights off as I returned to my room. Taking a deep breath, I tried not to think of the remote control I could feel sitting in my pocket, almost like a hot coal. What the fuck was wrong with me? Why the hell had I just taken it like that? I almost turned around to go put it back, but by this point if I was gone for any longer the rest of my family would start to wonder what was taking so long. Besides, if I was being entirely honest, if this was what I thought it was, then I could play the most amazing prank ever on my sister as we ate dinner. It would even be worth the inevitable ass-kicking it would earn me.
• Decision made, I left my room and headed back for the dining room. "Elayne nearly got a perfect score!" I shouted as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
• Her head snapped over to look at me as I rejoined my family, causing her ponytail to flick over her shoulder as her crystal blue eyes seemed to pierce through me. "You better not have messed with anything in my room," she snapped.
• "Like what?" I asked, giving her my best confused and innocent look as I handed the papers off to our parents. "I was in and out in the blink of an eye since it was exactly where you said it was. You left the bathroom light on, though."
• She blinked in surprise, the tension clearly draining out of her as she settled back into her chair. Taking my seat next to her, I couldn't help but think of the remote in my pocket and what exactly it might control. The fact that my sister of all people had it, and that, given by the glowing light, she'd apparently worn it to the dinner table of all places. The thought completely shook my mental picture of her. Assuming I was correct, at least, and there was only one way to find out.
• In the background, I could hear our parents praising us as they served dinner--steak, potatoes, asparagus--but the words flowed in one ear and out the other. I nodded and smiled at what seemed like the right times, all while my left hand slowly, ever so slowly, crept its way into my pocket. I was so wound up I nearly jumped out of my seat as my finger brushed against the cold metal of the remote.
• "Everything okay, Erik?" my father asked.
• Cursing internally, I nodded. "Yeah, I just can't believe how good this steak always is." It wasn't a lie, Dad made a killer steak.
• Thankfully, no one questioned why one of my hands was under the table, and I'd made sure to cut the steak into chunks in advance specifically for this exact reason. Finishing its journey, my finger reached the plus button, the symbol gently pressing into my skin. This was the deciding moment. Once I pushed this button there would be no going back, no way of pretending that I had no idea of what was going on.
• On the plus side, there was no way Elayne would be able to immediately confront me about it, not without giving everything away to our parents. There was also the chance that I was completely off base here, that this remote wasn't what I suspected and that pressing it would have no impact whatsoever. I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted that or not.
• I pressed the button.
• The reaction was immediate although, to Elayne's credit, I'm positive that our parents didn't notice since they weren't focused on her like I was. Her body stiffened and I could hear her legs shift together under the table. She also inhaled, and I realized my timing hadn't been the best as she'd just taken a sip of water. Coughing loudly, she set her glass down heavily enough that some of the liquid sloshed over the lip, spilling onto the table.
• "Careful," my mother chided, shaking her head ruefully. "I always tell you that you eat too quickly for your own good."