Jove saw the expected reactions on each of his family member's faces. Eve was frowning and rolling her eyes. His mother looked tired, concern etched into her furrowed brow. Aster was smiling gently, almost seeming proud of the way he was taking a stand, though a bit skeptical.
"You're not staying out here when we leave," said Kira.
"Great," he said. "Then it's decided. The cat comes with us."
He reached down to scratch Mango's ear. The cat swatted his hand unhelpfully.
"Nobody likes it when you act like a stubborn child, Jovian," muttered Eve.
"You picking arguments with him is far more childish, in my honest opinion," said Aster. "I don't know if I completely trust this cat yet, but having a pet doesn't sound so bad."
"Let's take a vote," said Jove. "All those in favor of me and the cat coming back to the station?"
He raised his hand, as did Aster, still smirking at him admiringly. Eve crossed her arms. Kira let out a sigh, and after a moment, waved her hand dismissively.
"Fine," she said. "But you are going to be in charge of watching that cat's every move."
"Sure," said Jove. "Not like I have all that much else to do."
"Along with feeding it, giving it water, and figuring out how we're going to handle its other needs," said Kira. "There is no handy supply of kitty litter within Termina Station, in case you were wondering."
"I'll figure something out." He tried to pet Mango's head again and earned himself a small scratch along the thumb.
"It's sleeping in your tent, not mine," said Eve. "And if it starts getting fur on my clothing back at the station, we're going to have problems."
"See, those are much more grounded and addressable concerns," said Jove.
"You really are something, darling," said Aster.
She crouched by Mango and started petting her. The cat seemed far more welcoming of the attention than it had for him, but that was all right.
Eve and Aster eventually went back to their tent. Jove went outside once more, confirming that Abacus's drone had well and truly departed. The emptiness of the surrounding area made the entire episode feel like a dream, but that had been an ongoing theme since the first days of the collapse.
His mother was already in bed when he came back into the tent, wrapped securely in her own sleeping bag and turned away from him. He set up his own, reaching down to pet Mango, who'd retired to her box. She swatted his hand again.
"Hope you're worth it," he muttered.
Jove slept surprisingly soundly through the night. He immediately noticed two things when he woke up. The first was that the propane heater had shut off at some point throughout the night, allowing the temperature to drop to an uncomfortably cold level.
The second was that Mango had curled up against his legs. A small victory, but somehow substantial. He stayed right where he was, listening to his mother as she pulled her clothes on and moved to restart the heater.
"Morning, Jovian," she said, somehow sensing his wakefulness.
"Morning."
"How did you sleep?" she asked.
"Pretty well," he said. "You?"
"About the same."
There was a pause where neither of them said anything. It felt more like a gap than the normal flow of conversation, a gap that they would have to somehow cross to make the events of the previous night fit in an orderly fashion.
He sat up partially, letting his bare chest show over the top of the sleeping bag. She watched him for another silent second, possibilities loaded like bullets in the chamber of a gun.
"Can you bring me my shirt?" he asked.
She stared at him for another second. "…Of course, Jove."
The shirt was right next to the cot, but a thin pretense was still a pretense. She came over, picked it up for him, and sat down on the edge. Jove held her gaze as she leaned in a little closer, eyes darting to his lips.
She kissed him on the cheek instead but kept her mouth near the side of his neck.
"Ready to start the day?" she whispered.
"Almost." He reached out with one hand, letting his fingers tease along the edge of her arm.
"Almost?"
She gave him an odd smirk, and the vibe felt like the slope of a hill, speeding them up, insistent with its descent. What was at the bottom? He shifted his hand onto her leg and her eyes did a tiny, telling flutter.
The tent flap swung open, and Eve stepped into their space without preamble. Kira stood up quickly and the cat, sensing the tension, jumped to the floor.
"The ice refroze overnight," said Eve, sounding annoyed. "Any ideas on how we're supposed to clear it?"
Kira cleared her throat. "Maybe just… pound it out with something hard a few times? That, ah, usually does the trick."
"I brought my crowbar," said Jove. "Long as the ice isn't too thick, it should work."
"Where is it?" asked Eve, impatiently.
"I'll get it for you, hold on."
Eve folded her arms and looked away from him.
"Just… give me a second." He took a breath, trying to will his erection downward before realizing that it hardly even mattered. The rules had changed, or at the very least, he'd acquired a taste for breaking them.
He climbed out of his sleeping bag in his boxers with a fairly obvious case of morning wood. Kira and Eve had reactions so similar that it was a true mother-daughter moment. They looked, glanced away with embarrassed reactions… and then looked again, longer this time.
"Hot enough last night?" he asked.
"Uh… what?" said Eve.
"Our heater went out," he said.
"Oh. Yeah, so did ours." Eve cleared her throat. "Would you hurry up and get dressed already, weirdo?"
"I'm not the one currently spying on my sibling in their underwear."
She rolled her eyes and left the tent. Jove got dressed, found his crowbar, and managed to revive both ice holes without too much trouble. Aster was still sleeping in the other tent, though she came awake right as he was clearing the last of the ice out of the second hole.
"Morning, darling," she said. "Did you come to bring me breakfast in bed?"
"Depends on what you're in the mood to eat." He smiled at her and came closer. "Eve is helping my mom get it ready."
"Should I have slept in a few minutes longer, then?"
She made to hold the sleeping bag to cover her nude body as she shifted upright, but clearly wasn't trying that hard. One bare breast slipped out in its entirety, full and pale and dotted with a perfect pink nipple.
"I think you woke up at just the right time," he said.
He came closer to her cot. He'd already taken off his jacket to keep from working up a sweat while icebreaking, and stepped out of his boots and snow pants. Aster shifted to make room for him, looking excited but also a little uncertain.
"I was so cold last night," she said, letting the sleeping bag slide lower off her nude chest. "Eve's too used to winter's chill. I bet if you'd been in here with me, you would have kept it nice and hot."
"You know it." He leaned in closer to her. "It would have been as hot as you could handle."
"Oh yeah?" She started leaning back, pulling the sleeping bag so the zipper came even further open.
"Yeah."
They kissed, and for a few blissed out seconds, he was on top of Aster on the cot, tongues dancing, bodies grinding. She touched his chest and buried her face in the nape of his neck.
"We'll never get away with it right now, darling," she whispered. "Your sister will come back any second. Or my sister, for that matter."
"We have time," he said, not really believing it himself. "Plenty of time. Come on."
"Oh, Jove." She rocked up into him. "I wish we did."
"You want it as bad as I do, Aunt Aster," he whispered against her ear. "That's why you slept naked, isn't it?"
"Oh, fuck!" she hissed. "Maybe. So what if it was?"
"I would have fucked you all night if I'd been in here with you," he said.
"I would have made sure you did."
Aster kissed him and he couldn't hold back, even though he knew she was right. Either Eve or his mother would soon come over to check on them. Maybe that was part of why it was so hard for him to resist, the thrill of playing with fire on a time limit.
He took his hard cock out and lined it up with her pussy. Aster's breathing took on a wild edge as she felt the tip teasing her folds. He thrust forward before he had time to think logically or hesitate, sinking deep into her hot, wet hole.
"Oh God!" hissed Aster. "This is so wrong! Go, go! Oh God, we don't have time for this!"
Her fingernails dug into his back.
"Then you'd better come quick," he said. "I bet you will, too."
"Oh God!"
He pumped into her like a wild man, her body warm and inviting beneath him. They were taking a huge risk, a stupid risk, but the thrill of getting caught along with the innate appeal of early morning sex was irresistible. Aster's moans and gasps were the icing on the cake, seduction against his neck and ear.
He was bottoming out on every thrust and wouldn't have had it any other way. Pushing up on his arms, he watched a delicious jiggle run through Aster's plump tits with each forward motion. Her hair was doubly messy from both sleep and sex, her expression as horny as any woman he'd ever seen.
"You like that, don't you?" he whispered, kissing her neck. "You love when I push your limits."
"Mmhmm!" She closed her eyes and nodded her head, biting her lip. "But… you're pushing you're luck, darling. You… you're… gonna…"
"I know," he whispered.
He pumped into her faster. Her legs were wrapped around him like a soft, sensual bear trap. They'd talked about how he needed to stop unloading inside her, but it felt good. They both wanted it. They both were horny and stupid and addicted to the wrongness of what they were doing.
Footsteps sounded outside the tent, crunching snow in the distance.
"Someone's coming!" Aster's whisper took on a lilting, climactic pitch. "Oh, oh… someone's… coming!"
She squealed and tensed as she came. Jove kissed her on the lips and hugged her into him tightly, pumping again and again until he'd flown over his own limit.
The first spurt went straight into her hot, tight lane. Then Jove pulled out, forcing himself to at least make the attempt at quasi-safe sex, though calling it that was a stretch. The pleasure was unreal, but the cold air was a far crueler mistress than his soft, horny aunt.
He yanked his clothing back into place and kneeled by the ice hole just as Kira unzipped the flap and entered the tent. She looked at both of them, perhaps sensing a strange vibe, but didn't seem to linger on her suspicion.
"I brought breakfast," she said. "Just granola bars, nothing too fancy."
"Sounds delightful," said Aster, voice still imbued with a pleasured afterglow. "Breakfast in bed. I'm a lucky woman."
"I think we've all lucked out, in a sense," said Jove.
Aster and Kira both laughed and gave him an odd look.