Jove didn't feel cold anymore when they finally made it back inside Termina's entrance chamber. From the way Aster and his mother reacted to the sight of him, he guessed that he'd transitioned into the state of inexplicable warmth that so many people with hypothermia report as they approach death.
"Eve!" Kira pulled her daughter into a tight hug. "I was so worried! Your skin is frigid. Come on, we need to get you into the sauna. Both of you."
"Nice work." Aster drew close to Jove, touching his cheek and picking bits of ice out of his hair. "If you'd stayed outside for even a minute longer…"
She trailed off, but it was easy for him to imagine how her sentence was going to end. He glanced toward his mother.
"Is the power back on?" he asked.
"It's been restored completely," said Kira. "Unfortunately, the communications array threw up an error as soon as it came back online. I'm going to have to do some debugging and it… might take some time. Andromeda hasn't come back online and I suspect it might be related."
Jove figured they could worry about that later. Aster helped him with his clothing as they came to the door of the sauna. He hadn't taken a close look at it earlier and was impressed by how nice it was. Most of Termina was beholden to its modular construction, but the sauna was all stained, smooth wood, cedar or possibly spruce.
Two benches ran the length of it, which was the approximate dimensions of all of the station's modules, minus the space lost to the wooden framing. The electric heater in the center was already hard at work and it was warm and toasty inside.
"Strip all of your clothing off," said his mother, as she pulled his shirt up and over his head. "Pants and underwear. Just wrap yourself in a towel or a robe. You're going in too, Eve."
"Mother, please," said Eve. "I'm fine."
"You're hypothermic. The two of you are still siblings. You can share a sauna together without coming to blows if you make the effort."
Eve turned away from Jove as she took her bra and panties off, but even a passing glimpse of her naked from behind was enough to jumpstart the warming of his blood. He heard Aster let out a quiet, teasing chuckle as Eve pulled on a small white cotton robe.
"I'll make sure your clothes are dry for you when you get out," said Kira. "Along with making you some cocoa."
Jove smiled at that. "Like when we were kids. You'd always have cocoa for when we came inside from the snow."
"No marshmallows aside from the freeze-dried ones in the mix, unfortunately," said Kira, with a smile of her own.
"Good enough for me," he said.
He stepped into the sauna and, taking care to keep his towel wrapped around his waist, took a seat on one of the wooden benches. Eve walked in barefoot, hair damp and still unfreezing in places. Their mother closed the door of the sauna for them, and the warm air and confined space created an unexpected air of tension.
Jove waited about ten seconds, a fair amount of time by his brotherly judgment, before giving in to the urge to gloat. "You're welcome, by the way. For saving your life."
"I wasn't in that much danger," Eve snapped. "I would have been fine on my own."
"A bold claim and a bolder claim."
"Stop sounding so smug," she said. "What? You think you're going to redeem yourself for accomplishing so little in life by playing the hero now? Don't make me laugh."
Her words held such surprising venom that Jove was momentarily stunned. A realization came to him, one that was somehow both cathartic and acidic.
"I always thought it was my fault for comparing myself to you," he said. "But no. The competitive dynamic clearly runs both ways."
"Hilarious." Eve kicked her legs up on the other bench. "You want me to thank you? Will you stop being so whiny if I do?"
"I'd prefer you being less of a bitch to saying thanks, to be completely honest."
She glared at him. Her robe had pulled open a bit and the cleavage of one of her breasts was clearly visible. Jove tried not to stare at it, tried not to notice how pale and plump the flesh was there. Eve's tits were mid-sized, smaller than his mother's or Aster's, but not by much.
"It started out as urban exploration," he said, surprising himself as much as Eve.
"…What?"
"We were just looking at the houses at first. Flying drones around them, confirming which ones were empty for months at a time." Jove shrugged his shoulders. "But then Andre and I started including more people. That's when it… shifted."
"A lot of things in life go like that." Eve leaned her head back. The edge of her nipple was showing now, pink just barely nudging out from the robe's fluffy cotton hem. "I still would have done what I did, regardless, just so you know."
"And I still resent you for it, just so you know."
"Hmm." She brushed her fingers through her hair. "…Thanks for saving me Jove. I was really scared for a second."
"So was I. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get you out in time."
"You did, in the end."
"I did." He smiled, feeling proud of himself and knowing that she was too, if only grudgingly. "Hey. Did you see anything weird while you were down there?"
"The craziest blue ice you could ever imagine. It was like I was on one of Jupiter's ice moons. Europa, or maybe Ganymede."
"That's sick, but I mean up above. Something like an animal or… I don't know. Something."
"Nope," she said. "Should I be concerned? World War 3 might have just broken out. Not exactly a good time for my baby brother to have a psychotic break."
She met his gaze and he was about to tell her that her tit was hanging out. A good brother would tell her that. It seemed like such a shame to have to tell her that.
"How was the virgin snow?" he asked.
She flashed a genuine smile that made her seem beautiful in a rather unsisterly way. "Like virgin anything. Pristine. Pliable. Perfect."
"Sounds like a good time."
"Mmm, it was," she said, leaning back. "Right up until my tumble in the crevasse. Nothing feels quite as exhilarating. The speed, the thrill, every little movement and reaction."
She let out a yawn and leaned her head back, eyes slowly closing. Jove could feel the warmth of the sauna now and was similarly sleepy. Eve shifted, getting more comfortable, not noticing as her robe fell all but completely open.
It was the first time he'd seen his sister's naked body, at least the first time he could remember. Eve was twenty-eight, three years older than him, a woman in her prime. He might have been ignorant of Andre's groping, but his friends had made their attraction to her clear enough with their words many times before.
She'd taken the world of women's cross-country skiing by storm. Sure, she'd never reached the heights of fame of her actress aunt, but Jove had watched a few of her races on ESPN before, heard how the commentators talked about her, observed the camera lingering on her body as she was getting prepared before the race.
He felt a somewhat unwanted stirring in his loins as he took in the view of her open robe. Her breasts were both hanging slightly sideways at odd angles. They were solidly middle ground in size, and there was something so inviting about them, as though each had "touch me" written in capital letters underneath.
He wasn't about to do that, even if his cock was starting to get a little hard. She wasn't that hot, he silently told himself. And even if she was, she was his sister.
He was already succumbing to the pitfalls of being trapped somewhere remote without any real women around. Well, Eve and his mom and Aster were real women, just not available women. Not to him. A bit unfair, but he wasn't about to linger on that frustration.
Jove decided he'd done enough warming up and more than enough perverted ogling. He stood and tried to quietly make his way toward the sauna's door, not wanting to disturb Eve and end up in a situation where she realized she'd been exposed in front of him.
He'd taken two steps when Eve suddenly snapped awake. Her robe fell even further open and Jove made the complicated discovery that his sister's crotch was perfectly clean shaven. Her eyes snapped up to him, narrowing with accusation.
"You fucking pervert!" she shouted, rushing to her feet and fixing her robe. "Don't tell me you were about to grope me like you disgusting friend Andre?"
"You wish."
Eve pulled her arm back, preparing to slap him. Jove seized her wrist before she could.
"It was a feint, you psycho," she said, yanking free. "I wasn't going to hit you. I was going to do this."
She suddenly grabbed his towel and yanked it free of his waist. Jove was too stunned to react. He felt a stirring of both heat and blood, his cock seeming to rise to moderate hardness like a memory foam mattress fresh from a vacuum sealed bag.
"Um…" Eve was staring at his cock, looking surprised despite having instigated the reveal. "Now we're even."
"No, we'll be even when you apologize for ruining my life." He grabbed the towel, unsure whether he was hot from anger or just hot and bothered.
"Never going to happen."
"Knowing you, I wouldn't expect so."
Eve fixed her robe and got in his face, seeming to forget that he was still naked. "I did the right thing and you're naïve if you can't see that, little brother."
"Fuck you, Eve."
"You wish."
They stared at each other for another second, primed to actually start attacking one another, or at least grabbing at each other. Jove was rock hard and beyond confused as he stormed out of the sauna.