Love Potions Don't Exist

"Yeah, but maybe it's one of those situations where if you ingest the right ingredients, she'll lose all interest in you and it will break the spell."

"I still can't believe we're sitting around talking about love potions and breaking magic spells," Preston said as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the couch. As if on cue, London immediately started rubbing his temples.

"Lemme go in your kitchen and see what I can whip up," Renardo said as he stood up. "I'll just combine as much shit on this list that I can find and we'll see what happens." Renardo turned to leave. Still looking at his phone, he turned back around. "Hey, you guys don't have any heroine, do you?" he asked seriously.

"No!" Preston shouted.

"Just checking! It was on the list."

Several minutes later, Renardo returned to the living room with a small cup of liquid. "Now you might want to just chug all this as fast as you can," he said as he handed a dark colored sludge over to Preston. "I'm thinking it's not going to taste very good."

Preston smelled the contents of the cup. "Oh that smells awful!" he said as he turned up his nose. "What's in there?"

"A little vegetable oil, some garlic-"

"Garlic?" Preston repeated. "She's not a vampire, Renardo!"

"It was on the list!" he protested.

Preston looked down at the cup once more. "I don't wanna do this," he said as he placed the cup on the coffee table in front of him. "It was a dumb idea anyway. There's no possible way it could work."

"That's what you said about the truffles," Renardo replied knowingly.

Preston looked from Renardo to the cup as London's hand began stroking his thigh, coming dangerously closer and closer to his crotch. "Fine!" he shouted as he leaned forward, pinched his nose shut with his fingers, and turned the cup up to his mouth. The moment the vile liquid hit his tongue, he gagged. With great effort, however, he was able to get most of it down.

"Blegh!" he exclaimed as he put the cup back down on the table and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"It's not that bad, is it?" Renardo asked.

"You wanna try it?" Preston replied. He looked over at London. She was staring at him lovingly with big doughy eyes. "Still want me?" he asked her cautiously. She scrunched up her face and looked away, hesitating for a moment. Just when Preston thought it was working, however, she snapped her head back to face him and quickly kissed his cheek.

"Gotcha!" she said, laughing maniacally.

"Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor in all this," Preston replied, sounding deflated.

"Yay, no cure!" London exclaimed as she lovingly kissed Preston's cheek once more.

"It was a crazy idea anyway," Preston said.

"Maybe it'll take twelve hours like the truffles did," Renardo suggested.

"Doubtful," Preston replied.

They went silent for a few moments. Renardo glanced at his phone, then back at Preston. "Well, that's it for me then," Renardo said as he stood up out of his chair.

"What do you mean?" Preston replied.

"I mean I'm sorry that this happened to you, but it's late and I wanna go home and go to sleep," Renardo said as he walked towards the front door. "I literally can't do anything to help you. I'm completely out of ideas. You're just gonna have to ride it out and hope for the best. Goodnight."

"Bye, Renardo!" London called out as he walked out the door. "Finally we can be alone!" she said as she faced him, straddled his lap, and laid her head against his torso. "So whatcha wanna do?"

"I want to go to bed," he replied. "Alone."

"Aww," London pouted as she buried her face deeper into his chest.

"Will you please just snap out of it, London?" Preston begged. She didn't move a muscle. "Fine," he relented. "But can we please just get up and go get ready for bed?"

"Bed!?" London repeated, pulling her head away from him and looking at him with a face full of excitement.

"Separate beds!" Preston replied. "We will go brush our teeth, then retreat to our separate rooms. We will NOT be sleeping together. Understand?"

London looked sadly up at him. "Okay," she said, poking her lower lip out. "I'll agree to leave you alone for the night."

"Thank you," Preston said.

"IF you'll carry me upstairs," she finished.

"Are you serious?"

Still straddling and facing him, London wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Yep!" she replied happily.

"You are such a chore," Preston said as he placed his hands on her lower back and stood.

"Oh my, so strong!" London said as she wrapped her legs securely around his waist. She stared into his eyes as he carried her across the living room and to the bottom of the staircase. Once he got on the stairs, he realized he had to support her a little better in order to get her up the steps, so he ended up having to place his hands underneath her butt.

"Like what you feel down there?" London asked teasingly as he climbed the steps. Preston chose not to respond.

"Here, that's far enough," Preston said, putting her down unceremoniously once they got to the top of the steps. After they finished brushing their teeth, Preston walked London to her room.

"Tuck me in?" London asked sweetly as they stood outside her door.

"No, goddammit!" Preston yelled, sounding angrier than he originally intended. "I've had enough of this shit, London! You are my sister, and I am your brother, and that's all there is between us." She genuinely looked hurt, but Preston didn't let up. "Now get the hell in your room and go to sleep," he continued, lightly pushing her through her open doorway. "We'll talk again in the morning when hopefully all this 'I'm in love with my twin brother' bullshit has left your system." He slammed the door in her face and marched down to his bedroom, making a point to slam his own door just as hard as he shut hers.

Once Preston was in his room, he stripped down to his underwear, turned off his lights, and laid down in bed. It didn't take long for him to severely regret treating London as poorly as he just had. They had had their fights throughout the years for sure, but he had never come close to talking to her the way he just had. He really wanted to apologize to her, but resolved himself to keeping his distance for the night. He desperately needed to be alone after having her hang all over him all day long.

Just then, his phone made it's usual knocking sound that it made whenever he received a text message. Sure enough, it was from London. It simply said "Sorry" and was accompanied by a sad face emoji. Preston laid there for a few more minutes, waiting for his guilt reach a high enough level before he would inevitably respond to her. "Fuck," he said angrily to as he threw his blanket off of himself and rolled out of bed.

He walked back down the hall to her bedroom. "Hey, London?" he said softly after knocking on her door.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"Can I come in for a minute?"

"Of course."

He opened her door and walked in. He approached her bed where she lay with her back to him and sat at the foot of it. "I'm so sorry I talked to you like that, London," he said softly. She didn't respond. "I just got really frustrated with how strange you were acting and how needy you were being. It's been a crazy day and I just want things to get back to the way they were with us. I should have told you all of this in the beginning instead of blowing up in your face."

"It's hard for me too, you know," she said quietly, keeping her back to him.

"How so?" he asked.

"Well I know it seems like I'm out of my mind, and in some ways I do feel like that. But I am aware of how I've been acting. It's like I...I just can't control it. All of a sudden I'm in love with you and wanna touch you and be close to you all the time, and I can't do anything to stop it. I know you're my brother and it's wrong, and I know you don't feel any of the things that I'm feeling, but I just can't control myself for some reason. Whatever's going on inside me, love potion or otherwise, it's like a monster that I just can't cage."

Preston felt horrible in that moment. He looked down and noticed that London's feet were hanging out of the bottom of her blanket, and without realizing what he was doing, he placed his hand softly on her ankle and gripped it firmly. "I should've realized how hard this is for you too, London," he said. "Moving forward, I'm gonna try and work with you a little better than I did today until this thing blows over."

"You did great today!" she said, flipping herself over to look at him. "I practically held your hand all day and you barely put up a fuss about it."

"Let you rub my shoulders and play with my hair, too," he reminded her.

"Oh, please, I could tell you loved that," she said with a smile.

Preston grinned and blushed. "Maybe a little," he admitted. "Anyway, I'm gonna do my best to be more understanding of your situation, but can you make a real effort to...I don't know, just ease up a little?"

"Oh, Pressy!" London exclaimed as she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around him. "Of course I will!"

"Could it start now?" Preston choked out as London's grip around his neck tightened.

London untangled herself from him and leaned back. "Sorry!" she said.

"It's fine," he replied as he stood up to leave.

"Preston?" she said.

"Hm?"

"Would it be so horrible if you just...could you maybe just lay with me for a few minutes?"

Preston sighed loudly. He really wanted to say no, but even in the dark room, her sad dough eyes shone brightly. He had no chance of rejecting her in that moment.

"I can do that," he said as he approached her bed. Suddenly, however, he realized that he was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. "But we need to face away from each other," he added.

"Can our backs touch?" she asked hopefully.

"That's...fine," he agreed reluctantly. He crawled under her covers with her. Her bed wasn't very big, and she only had one pillow, so he had to rest his head uncomfortably on one little corner of it. Even still, her bed was extremely warm and soft, way more cozy than what he slept on. He also wondered if maybe it was less the bed and more the girl that made it so comforting, though.

"You're not naked, right?" he asked suddenly, realizing that he had no idea what she was wearing...or not wearing.

"Nope!" she replied as she got herself into position. She pushed herself up against him as much as she could, as if she were hoping to bind with him and become one single entity.

"Okay, I can feel your shirt up against me," he said, feeling relieved. "Pants?"

"Who wears pants to bed?" she asked with a laugh.

"Lots of people!" he replied.

"Well, not me."

"Shorts?" he asked hopefully.

"Ummm...sort of," she replied.

"What does that mean?"

"Well they're kinda shorts. I mean, they do mostly cover my butt, but not much else. And they're pretty tight against my skin."

"You mean...underwear?" he clarified.

"Some people might call it that," she replied.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed.

"Well look who's talking, mister 'I came into my sister's bedroom in nothing but my boxer shorts'!" she teased.

"Whatever," he replied. "Anyway, I'll give you five minutes of this, but then I'm gonna leave. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" she exclaimed jokingly as she let her foot trace softly along his lower leg. Preston just laid there and took it, trying not to enjoy too much how wonderfully amazing he felt laying in his sister's bed as she stroked him lovingly with her toes.

"Five minutes," he repeated softly as he slowly began to doze off.

***

A very unfamiliar alarm woke Preston up the next morning. As he slowly came to, he realized that a warm body lay snug up against him, and also that an arm and a leg were draped entirely over him.

"Shit, is it already morning?" he said groggily.

"Yep," London replied, briefly lifting her arm off of him so that she could turn off her alarm. Once it was off, she let her arm fall back around him and began lightly stroking his chest. "Five minutes, huh?" she teased softly.

"I guess I fell asleep," Preston said.

"Obviously."

"I should probably get up now."

"Or we could lay here a little while longer," London suggested. "That was my first alarm. It's only 6:30. I usually don't get up until my fourth alarm goes off at 7:00."

"Interesting system of waking up that you have," Preston said.

"It's effective," she replied.

"Nonetheless," he said as he disentangled himself out from under his sister, "I think it's best that I get up now." He stood up and stretched, reaching his arms up to the ceiling and arching his back.

"Uhh...," London began.

"Hm?" Preston replied. He looked over at her to see that she was looking at his crotch and pointing, her eyes as wide as he'd ever seen them. "Oh, fuck!" he exclaimed as he fumbled to return his exposed hard-on back behind the thin material of his boxers.

"Was that from me!?" she asked excitedly.

"No!" Preston exclaimed, turning his back to her and folding his dick up into the waistband of his underwear. "Happens every morning, I swear!"

"Uh-huh," London said skeptically.

"It does!" Preston insisted. "Stupid underwear fly," he mumbled angrily as he rushed out of London's room and shut her door. "Well that's not gonna do much to subdue her advances on me," he said to himself as he walked down the hall to his bedroom.

After they were dressed, they went downstairs and ate a quick breakfast of cereal with bananas before heading out the door. To her credit, at that point London hadn't done anything over the top as far as her infatuation with Preston was concerned, just flashing him seductive looks and purposely brushing up against him a few times.

"Am I doing alright keeping the crazy in check so far?" she asked him as they got into the car.

"You are doing excellent, London," Preston replied honestly. "Thank you for making an effort. It makes all this a lot easier to deal with." He started the car and, without realizing what he was doing, reached over and placed his hand in hers, resting it comfortably on her lap. She looked at him and smiled.

"What?" he asked, completely unaware of what he had just done.

"Nothing," she said happily, turning her head to face forward. After they had been driving for a few minutes, London turned her head towards Preston once more. "You know," she began with sort of an awkward tone, "that was the, uh...first one I've ever seen."

"First what?" Preston replied.

"Your, um...you know. Your thingy."

"Oh!" Preston said with a tone of surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah," she said. "Well, I mean in person, that is. I've of course seen them in, like, videos and stuff."

"Videos?" Preston asked as he glanced over ar his sister with wide eyes. "Like...porn?"

"If that's what you kids are calling it these days, then yeah, porn."

"You watch porn!?"

"Don't you?"

"Well sure! But I'm a dude. I didn't know girls watched that!"

"Sure we do," London said with conviction. "I mean, I don't watch anything crazy, just your standard guy-on-girl. Preferably something with a little storyline to it."

"Storyline?" Preston laughed. "Who cares about storyline when you're watching people bang?"

"Girls do," London confirmed. "Makes it more, I don't know, relatable or something."

"I see," Preston replied as he tried not to picture his own sister sitting at her computer getting off to porn videos, her legs spread apart and her hand wedged down the front of her panties.

"Anyway, yours was the nicest that I've ever seen," London said nonchalantly.

"My...?"

"Penis."

Preston briefly swerved off the road and had to pull his hand away from London's to correct himself. Once he had saved the car, London immediately grabbed his hand and put it back in her lap.

"Sorry, but it is," she continued.

"I don't really need to hear anymore about this," Preston said as he pulled into the school parking lot. "But...thanks, I guess, as weird of a compliment as it is."

"Any time," she said with a wink.

Preston parked the car and turned off the ignition. "Now remember," he began, "no showing affection today. People might notice."

"There are literally thousands of students in our school, Preston," London said, "and neither of us are super popular to begin with. What percentage of people do you think are actually paying attention to us? Like two percent?"

"Still, not worth the risk," he replied.

"I'm still gonna hold your hand under tables and shit."

Preston cut his eyes at his sister. "Whatever," he said with a small smile.

As they walked down the hall on their way to the first period class that they now shared, London suddenly came to a stop and started looking at a poster advertising the upcoming Valentine's Day dance.

"What's up?" Preston asked, stopping beside her.

"Nothing," she replied. "Just reading...thinking."

"You know, this is the whole reason why we're in this perdicament to begin with," Preston said, pointing at the poster.

"What do you mean?" London asked.

"The whole reason Renardo sought out a love potion to begin with was so that he could get a girl to go to this dance with him. Well, that and a little more afterwards, I think."

"Again with this love potion talk?" London said. "I'm telling you, love potions don't exist!"

"I will gladly believe you when you can think of a more legitimate reason why my sister fell in love with me, literally overnight," Preston replied.

"Quiet now," London teased, "or all these people walking by will hear you and start talking about us." Preston rolled his eyes. London looked back at the poster for the dance and sighed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I wanna go. Will you take me?"

"You're not serious?"

"Am."

"London..."

"I've never been taken to a dance before. Could be fun."

"We can't," Preston said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

London looked back at him. "We'll see," she said simply as she started walking down the hall again.

"What does that mean?" Preston asked himself as he rushed to catch up with her.

School that day for Preston was quite uneventful, and strangely quite nice. While the day before he had found himself longing to get a break from having London around him all the time, today he found her presence extremely comforting and enjoyable.

When they got home from school, they cleaned up around the house a little, did their homework, and prepared dinner together, all the while continuing to be attached at the hip. After dinner, they decided to binge watch their favorite show for a while before bed. When he sat on the couch in the living room, Preston didn't say a word as London laid herself down so that her head was in his lap. Instead, he absentmindedly let his fingers trace softly through her hair as they watched.

"You're not asleep, are you?" he asked her after about an hour or so of them silently watching television.

"Nuh-uh," London said quietly.

"Good, 'cause we're not gonna fall asleep on the couch like this, you know?"

"Like what?"

"Like with you laying with your head in my lap."

"And with you sweetly running your fingers through my hair?"

Preston paused for a moment. "I'm...I'm just meeting you halfway," he replied. "I think when I show you a little affection back it supresses your crazy obsessive behavior."

"I see," London said. "So that's all that is?"

"Of course," Preston said matter-of-factly. A few minutes later, London got herself up and stood in front of Preston. She lifted her arms high into the sky and stretched, arching her back and pushing her tits out as she did so. Preston watched her all the while, trying to ignore the slight movement he felt from between his legs.

"Think I'm ready for bed," she said once she had finished stretching.

"Me too," Preston said as he stood beside her. London wrapped her arms around her brother and looked up at him.