"Not enough, though," River snarls, unfurling her limbs with a speed that leaves him breathless. Suddenly Simon is enfolded in her legs and arms, an embrace that feels more like an attack. He laughs uncertainly, breathlessly, and she makes a frustrated noise almost like a growl. "Stupid. Stupid. Thicker than water. You're clinging to outdated paradigms, trying to hold on to the wrong thing. Spinach. Stupid." Her breath is hot on his neck. He wraps his arms around her uncertainly and pats her on the back like a colicky infant. "No! Not like that," she says, and her wet mouth closes shockingly over his earlobe. He jumps, and yelps, and she bites down hard.
"River! River, I – what do you think – stop it! Stop it right now!"
She pulls her head back far enough that she can look at him. His eyes meet hers, questions and protests bristling unspoken between them, things he doesn't know how to say (surely he has misunderstood this?), and then she darts forward and kisses his mouth in a way that will not allow any misunderstanding at all.
Desire uncurls somewhere inside, all the more tempting for being utterly forbidden. His body, he finds, really does not care what is acceptable.
He pushes her away. He is shaking.
"No," he says unevenly. Her fingers are still tangled in his hair. She is hurting him. "No. No. This is wrong." Simon's voice is stronger now. She snorts, looking at him with that same pitying look she would always use when he made some assertion that she, his precious, precocious pain of a sister knew to be nonsense – even though all the books confirmed his ideas – and it is all so familiar and so intimate, so hideously, impossibly right that he feels exhilarated and sick to his stomach.
"Stupid," she says, pulling away from him slowly. "You'll see. I know, you dummy. I'm right." She sits back on the table and cocks her head, studying him closely. He stares at her, lost for words. She smiles, and offers him her arm. He looks at it blankly, and against all expectation she laughs. "Blood," she says. "It's what you wanted."