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Fic: Don't Confess (Wizards Of Waverly Place, Justin/Alex)
Title: Don't Confess
Fandom: Wizards Of Waverly Place
Pairing(s): Justin/Alex
Word Count: 5132
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Alex and Justin are forced to tutor Max. It doesn't exactly go smoothly.
Notes: Spoilers up to episode 2:22 - My Tutor, Tutor. Written for this prompt at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
omgjustinalex.
They end up getting two pizzas - one thick crust, one thin, and they bring home a doggy bag for Max. Alex would like to say that it's their way of making things up to him, that they felt guilty about sabotaging his wand quiz and chasing off Tutor, but really, they just had leftovers.
"We saved these for you," she says as she hands over the bag, and Justin looks like he might crack. Again.
So she elbows him, just in case.
"Thanks," Max says, smiling like there's nothing in the world he'd rather have than half-cold pizza, and apparently he's over the whole Tutor thing. So they're probably in the clear.
(There's a catch, just wait.)
-
"What happened to Max's tutor?" their dad asks when he gets back, and Alex looks at Justin, almost guiltily. And to make sure he isn't about to confess.
"Um," she says, before Max or Justin can answer. "She left."
Their dad looks happy, so obviously he's jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Max passed his wand quiz?"
Okay, happy and surprised. And still wrong.
"Not exactly."
He narrows his eyes, and, okay, now he's getting there. "What did you do?"
Yep, he's there.
"Me?" she asks, and this rarely works, but it's still worth a shot. "What makes you think I did anything?"
"Tutor came very highly recommended," their dad says, and Alex slouches down in her chair. She can't help it; she still misses Tutor, a little.
Damn elves.
"She wouldn't just leave without finishing her job unless you had something to do with it."
"It wasn't just my fault," she says, and if she's going down for this, she isn't going alone. "Justin was responsible, too."
"Justin?" their dad asks, like he doesn't quite believe it, but Justin's poker face has never been very good.
Their dad's face falls, but he looks less surprised about this than he had about Max passing his quiz. (Which, she thinks - with actual guilt, this time, and she doesn't like this feeling at all - he probably would have done if it hadn't been for them. So maybe Tutor's right, and they are a little dysfunctional.)
"I'm very disappointed in you two," he says, and Alex stands up, readying an apology. "So since you caused this, you're going to have to fix it."
"Wait," she says, apology forgotten. "Fix it how?"
Their dad smiles, and, okay, she does not like that smile. "You guys can tutor Max."
"What?" Justin asks, but their dad looks resolved, like there's no way they're getting out of it. Not even if they make breakfast for dinner. "Dad -"
"We can't afford another tutor."
"Why does Max need a tutor at all?" Alex asks. And then she glances over at Max, who's waving his wand at the chair. And holding it backwards, again.
So, they're probably not getting out of this one.
"Look at it this way," their dad says, over Justin's continued protests. "Maybe this will teach all three of you a lesson."
Yeah, Alex definitely misses Tutor.
-
"This is all your fault," Justin says. And, okay, it's the same thing he's been saying for the past five minutes, but Alex still bristles.
"My fault? You're the one who kept trying to date Tutor even after you knew I wanted to be her friend."
"Yeah, well, you're the one who kept trying to be her friend after you knew I wanted to date her."
"Justin," Alex says, and settles down on the arm of his chair, resting her arm along the back of it. "Seriously, think about it. What are the odds a cute girl would actually want to date you?"
Honestly, is it her fault she wasn't expecting a competition?
"Hey," Justin says, but he only manages to sound half indignant. Because she's totally right, of course. "I date cute girls all the time."
Alex snorts. "All the time?"
"Well," he says. "There was that goth girl -"
"Who dumped you after your first kiss."
"And the centaur girl -"
"Who you dumped after you found out she was a centaur."
"And the werewolf."
Alex doesn't really have to say anything about that one, so she just laughs, and after a second, Justin turns away.
"Fine," he says. "Whatever. This is still your fault."
"Hey," she says. "I'm not the one who confessed everything to Max."
"And I'm not the one whose idea it was to mess with him in the first place."
Okay, so this is officially going nowhere.
Luckily, that's when Max chooses to get there for his first Alex- and Justin-sponsored lesson, and Justin jumps to his feet, like, even after complaining (unfairly) about how everything is all Alex's fault, he's actually looking forward to this.
It figures.
"Max," he says, and, god, does she really have to listen to him like this for the next few weeks? This must be some sort of cruel and unusual punishment or something. "Are you ready to start your first lesson?"
"I'm not ready to start his first lesson," Alex mumbles, and Justin turns to glare at her as Max takes a few tentative steps into the room. She thinks about warning him to make a run for it while he still can, but then, well, she'd still be stuck here alone with Justin, so what good would that do?
Instead, she rolls her eyes, and sits back on the bench. If Justin is so excited about this, let him lead the lesson. She can probably zone out for an hour or two until it's time to leave.
Unless, of course, Justin is intent on making her participate. Which of course he is.
"Alex," he says, and stands there, tapping his wand against his thigh, until she reluctantly stands up.
Fine. She'll help. But she isn't going to be excited about it.
"Much better," he says, and if Max weren't standing in her way, she swears she'd hex Justin into next week. Which she considers doing, anyway. "Now, Max, why don't we start with my Merlin flash cards? I'm sure even Alex will be able to handle those."
"Funny," she says, and Justin smirks, like he thinks it is.
"I'm sorry, are these too advanced for you? I can lend you my training wands, if you like."
"At least I don't need training wheels," she shoots back. And, okay, Justin hasn't needed those for, like, three years, but, still funny.
"Do you need a training bra?" he asks, flicking the strap of her tank top, and, hey! That's a low blow.
"I'm surprised you know what a bra is," she says, "since you're never likely to see one."
"And I'd be surprised if you knew how to spell it."
Alex glares at him. "Do you have to be so -"
"Condescending?" Justin finishes for her, like she wasn't going to get there on her own. Which, okay, maybe she wasn't, but that's pretty much her entire point.
"Exactly," she says, and Justin's standing right in front of her, so close that she doesn't notice when Max moves, or when he starts to wave his wand. "You're such a -"
And then she feels a weird tug, low in her chest, that pretty much makes her forget everything she was just saying.
By the look on Justin's face, he felt it, too.
"Max!" they both yell in unison, and Alex would be annoyed about that, except Max is still standing there with his wand out, pointed at them, so maybe they should get to the bottom of that, first.
"Um," Max says. "I didn't do it?"
"Didn't do what, exactly?" Justin asks, and as much as it pains her, Alex is on Justin's side, this time.
"Max," she says, in her most threatening tone. (Which, okay, is not very threatening, but this is Max.)
"I just ..."
Alex waits. Seriously, is she the only person in this family with any talent for lying?
"Dad told me to do it."
Okay, she wasn't expecting that. "What?"
"Max -" Justin starts.
"I'm serious," Max says. "He told me, if you two kept fighting, I should stop you."
"I don't think he meant you should use magic on us," Justin says. "He probably meant you should try using words."
"Oh," Max says. "Would that have worked?"
No, probably not.
"Max," Alex says, because they're getting a little off track, here, and if it were up to Justin, he'd probably be happy to keep lecturing Max on the improper use of magic until dinner. "What spell did you use?"
"I don't know," he says, and, okay, that can't be good. "It was, like, a meditation spell or something."
"I think you mean mediation," Justin says, and even their current situation can't stop him sounding 'condescending.'
"Yeah, that," Max says. "It was one of the ones Tutor taught me."
Okay, so maybe he did learn something from Tutor, after all.
But not, you know, anything good.
"What exactly does the spell do?" Justin asks, and maybe he's feeling as ... weird as she is, right now.
"And how do we reverse it?" she adds.
Max looks blank. So, pretty much his usual expression.
"You have no idea," she guesses.
"Um," Max says. "Sorry?"
Well, this is just great.
"Wait," he says, and Alex waits. Not exactly hopefully, but still. "I think it's supposed to wear off."
"When?" she asks, at the same time that Justin asks, "How?"
"Um," Max says, looking from her to Justin. "I think ..."
Alex's hands bunch up into fists by her sides; she's trying really hard not to rush him right now.
"Once you work out what's bugging you, the spell's supposed to end."
What's bugging them. Great. Between her and Justin, this could take roughly forever.
"There's got to be another way," she says.
Justin looks at her, carefully, and then back at Max. "Seriously, dude."
Max shrugs. "Sorry. That's all I know."
Well, maybe this won't be so bad. After all, it's not like -
"I was jealous of you and Tutor."
Oh, great.
"What?" Justin asks, and she doesn't want to say anything else, she really, really doesn't -
"That's why I was mad at you," she says, and seriously. "I was jealous."
Yeah, so maybe this is going to be a problem, after all.
"And I really didn't mean to say that," she says, but Justin is looking at her oddly, almost like -
"It wasn't just your fault," he says, and he looks like he's as surprised at the sudden confession as she is. "I wanted to mess up Max's wand quiz, too."
Okay, so, that was weird. But ... maybe that's what's supposed to happen with the spell?
So it should have worn off now, right?
Except that weird feeling is still there, and somehow, she doesn't think -
"No, it was totally my fault," she says, and this is so not happening.
Except, yeah, it totally is.
"Max," she growls, and he takes a step backwards. Smart kid. "I'm going to kill you."
"Um," Max says again. "Bye!"
Well, at least his self-preservation instincts are intact.
"We need to fix this," she says, as the door to the lair slams shut again. "Like, right now."
"Agreed," Justin says, and, wow. Maybe this spell does kind of work, after all. "So, I'm going to stay here and look up mediation spells to find out which one Max used."
"And I'm going to go not study in my room," she says. Somehow, it seems like a good idea right now to put as much space between her and Justin as possible.
Only, that seems to be part of the spell, too. She doesn't get more than half a step out of the lair before she's pulled back in again, almost like something's tugging at her.
So, this is pretty much the worst spell ever.
"Can't leave?" Justin asks, like he's not exactly surprised. Which, of course he isn't. He might have warned her, first.
"Nope," she says. "This sucks."
He shrugs. "Maybe it'll go faster if we're both looking."
She snorts. "Yeah, like I'm going to be any help in that department."
"You're smarter than you let people think," Justin says, and he's looking at her in that weird way again.
Alex stares for a minute. "That was part of the spell, right?"
"Oh, yeah."
Of course. Like Justin would actually compliment her on anything if he wasn't being forced to.
"Well, there's a reason for that," she says, hefting a book that must weigh about a thousand pounds. "It stops people asking me to actually do stuff."
But, well, she's here now, and maybe having something to occupy her might stop any more ridiculous confessions.
An hour later, she still hasn't found anything, and even Justin is starting to look frustrated.
"No luck?" she asks, and he shakes his head.
"You?"
"Nothing," she says, and closes the book. They're getting nowhere, and she's pretty sure they're just wasting their time, anyway.
"I was sure I'd be able to fix this," he says.
"I was sure you would, too," she says, and god, this confession thing is getting so old. "You always do."
Justin looks happy, like she complimented him willingly (okay, so maybe it goes both ways), and seriously, how many more nice things are they going to have to say to each other before the spell wears off?
"Come on," she says. "I'm hungry, and I can't leave here without you."
He looks like he's going to argue, for a second, but she's guessing he's hungry, too, because he gives in without a fight.
She misses fighting with him. Like, already.
"Alex," Harper says, as soon as they exit the lair, and Justin takes off at a run up the stairs.
Alex waits, tapping her foot.
Justin doesn't get halfway there before he turns around.
"Right," he says, and she rolls her eyes. And he's supposed to be the smart one.
"So," Harper says, "what are you doing tonight? Because I thought -"
"Actually," Alex says, cutting her off, "I can't tonight, Harper."
Well, technically she could, but she doubts Justin would be willing to tag along with her and Harper all night, and it's not like she can go without him.
Worst. Spell. Ever.
"Oh," Harper says, and great, now Alex actually feels guilty about disappointing her. "Well, okay. How about tomorrow night?"
"Tomorrow night sounds great," she says, because if the spell hasn't worn off by then, she'll probably have thrown herself off the balcony.
She wonders if Justin will have to follow her down.
"Hi, Justin," Harper says, like she just noticed him, so maybe she's getting a little better at this. "You look good. I mean, not good. Not that you look bad. Or that I even noticed. Because I don't notice you. I mean, I don't care. Well, I -"
"He always looks good in that shirt," Alex says, and oh, god, she is just going to die now. Even if Harper's looking at Alex like she just saved her.
Because Justin's looking at her like he knows exactly how much she didn't just want to say that, and that's way worse.
"Thank you, Alex," he says, smug. And he doesn't even try to run away from Harper again, so her comment must have really distracted him.
"I'm just going to go," Harper says quietly, waving goodbye to Alex, and Alex buries her head in her hands.
She wonders if she could get Harper to sew her lips together, just for tonight.
"So I look good in this shirt, do I?" Justin asks, and of course he's incapable of letting this go.
"Better than you usually do," she says, and manages to put as put scorn into the words as possible. "Whatever, can you just make me a sandwich?"
And Justin does it, which is weird, but it's not nearly the weirdest thing that's happened today, so she lets it slide.
-
"Can you pass the salt?" Justin asks, and -
Okay, so it's not like she usually spends a lot of time thinking about stuff, but Alex has a theory.
So she tries not to pass him the salt.
And does it anyway.
"Damn it," she says, and Justin looks at her oddly (no change, then), but she doesn't bother to elaborate.
After all, if she's right - which is usually unlikely, but right now, it seems possible - she's hardly going to let him in on the secret.
"So what are you kids doing tonight?" their dad asks, and it sounds like exactly what it is, one of those awkward, silence-filling questions.
Alex shrugs. "I was going to go out with Harper tonight, but -"
Okay, so maybe she shouldn't tell their parents that part. She's sick of researching this stupid spell, and she knows that's exactly what their dad would insist they spend all night doing, if he knew.
"- she's busy. So I figured I'd watch the Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster marathon I taped last week."
"I taped over that," Justin says, and then clamps a hand over his mouth.
She turns on him. "You did what?"
Even using both hands, he can't stop himself. "I taped over it. There was a documentary on robotics I wanted to watch, and I couldn't find a tape."
"Justin," she says. "Didn't you look at the label? It said 'Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster, do not tape over.'"
He's shaking his head, but what he says is, "Yes. I thought you'd forget about it, and you wouldn't find out."
"I can't believe you," she says, and then, oh, no -
"Yeah, well, I stole your Captain Jim Bob Sherwood lunch box," she says. "Again."
Damn it.
Justin gasps, and, really? He's surprised?
"I looked in your room and everything," he says, and now their parents are kind of staring at them, which, okay, is probably not that surprising. "Where did you hide it?"
Oh, no.
"In my closet," she says. "In a box with all my old clothes. It's where I keep everything I don't want you to find."
Yeah, so, this is just getting worse and worse.
"I knew it!" he says. "Well, not 'knew it' in the sense that I actually knew anything, but I knew there was somewhere I didn't look."
"That's because you're terrified of my underwear," she says, and seriously, if they could stop talking about this in front of their parents - like, right now - that would be great. "So I put that on top."
Justin mutters something that sounds suspiciously like 'evil genius,' and then asks, "Can you give it back, please?"
"Okay," she says, and when is this going to end?
Justin looks surprised, but he follows her as she gets up from the table, leaving their parents behind in stunned silence. At least, until she hears their dad ask Max, "Did you do this?"
Yeah, so this was probably never going to stay a secret for long.
Justin follows her closely all the way up the stairs, like he still doesn't trust her, and if he knew what she knows -
"You don't have to follow me," she says. "I have to give you the lunch box, anyway."
Oh, whatever, she's beyond being surprised by it, at this point.
"What do you mean?" he asks, and she manages to get all the way to her room and shut the door behind them before she answers him.
"I have to do what you ask," she says. "I mean, I think I do. I haven't really tested it. I'm pretty sure it's part of the spell."
And before he gets any bright ideas -
"It works both ways."
"Oh," Justin says, and he looks a little less excited at the prospect. "Prove it."
"Sit down," she says, and he sits down on her bed almost immediately.
And then tries very hard to look like it was a coincidence.
"Maybe I wanted to do that," he says, and, fine, if he wants to do this the hard way. She can totally beat him at this game.
"Take your shirt off," she says, and -
Okay, so she's not really sure why she started with that. Except she's pretty sure it isn't something he would do, if the spell didn't make him.
He does.
And, okay, maybe she looks, a little.
"Okay," he says, slowly, and then his suspicious look is replaced by one she really doesn't like. "You, too."
Oh, she is so going to kill him for this.
But she takes off her shirt, anyway.
At least, she takes off one of her shirts. Hey, maybe there's a reason she wears so many layers, besides it looking cool.
(Okay, so it's not like she actually ever expected something like this to happen, but whatever.)
"Sit down," he says, and she tries - really, really tries - not to move.
A moment later, she's sitting beside Justin on the bed.
"This sucks," she says, and it almost feels nice saying something she isn't forced to by some stupid spell.
"Yeah," Justin says, but he doesn't sound so sure about that.
But she isn't going to -
"No, it doesn't."
Alex isn't sure which one of them is more surprised by what he just said, but maybe, if she doesn't push -
"What part of this doesn't suck?" she asks. So, apparently she's completely lost control of her own vocal cords.
Justin shrugs, and gestures between them. "This."
Oh, this. Yeah, that isn't vague at all. So, what? This, the spell? This, the fact that they can't get more than a few feet away from each other before they spring back like one of Max's bouncy balls? This, their complete inability to keep secrets from each other any more?
Because that all kind of sucks, if you ask her.
"I kind of like this," he says, almost apologetically.
Silently, she begs him to shut up. Only, maybe her sense of self-preservation isn't as strong as Max's.
"Like what?" she asks. "Being half-naked in my bedroom?"
"No," he says, and raises an eyebrow. "I mean, the bit where you have to do whatever I say."
Okay, so that doesn't exactly surprise her.
"And the other part," he adds, so quietly she almost doesn't hear him. (She wishes she hadn't.)
"What?" she asks, and maybe she should stop talking, right now -
"Come here," Justin says, and she slides closer, until her thigh is pressed against his.
And if her chest feels kind of weird, tight and constricted, that's just the spell.
"Justin," she says, "what are we -"
"Tell me the truth," he says. (Like she can tell him anything else.)
She kisses him, instead. Mostly just to prove that she still has some control left. Maybe.
Justin kisses her back, and she's not sure if that's even a surprise, at this point, but whatever, she's pretty sure neither of them are thinking clearly any more. And then he's reaching for her, pulling her closer, and this is crazy, it must just be the spell, there's no way -
"Alex," he says, and, okay, so that's her name.
Not that she, like, forgot it. Or anything. Not like her head is so full of Justin she can barely remember what they're even doing in here any more. Or where 'here' is.
"Do you -" he starts, and it's okay, she's kid of having trouble forming complete sentences, too. "Is this okay?"
She's almost surprised when she says, "Yes."
(Right, she can only tell the truth.)
"Okay," he says, and then she's sliding onto his lap, her legs falling to either side of his, and Alex doesn't know if she's doing it, or he is. Not that it matters, probably. His hands move up her thighs, pulling her skirt with them, and settle on her waist, dragging her closer (like it's even possible; she's pretty sure they're kind of fused together, at this point), moving up underneath the fabric of her shirt.
And then she leans back, a little, and he takes care of that, tossing her shirt to the floor, and, okay, so she was wrong about him never being likely to see a bra. And about him being terrified by them, evidently.
(It still takes him a couple of tries to get it unhooked, but she's being patient, really. And she only makes one, tiny, impatient sound of protest.)
She expects Justin to say something, to make some smart comment, but he's just staring at her silently. And really, if she'd known that this is all it would take to render him speechless -
Well, okay, she probably still never would have done this. But she's doing it now, is the important thing.
She's not really sure how far they're going with this, and it's not like she's trying to push it along. And she swears her hands find their way to his pants all by themselves. But Justin doesn't exactly seem to mind, so.
She's only managed to get them halfway undone when he grabs her, twisting her and laying her back on the bed, and her head doesn't quite hit the pillows, but it's a soft bed, so whatever. And then Justin takes his pants off the rest of the way all by himself, points for initiative (she has to make this funny, okay, or she's going to actually start thinking about it, and that would probably be bad), and kind of lays down on top of her.
The weight of his body on hers is warm and solid and not entirely unwelcome, and she pulls him closer, hooking one of her legs around the back of his knees, her hands resting on his shoulders. He kisses her, again, and his hands run up her sides, giving her goosebumps. And then he palms her breasts, squeezing gently, and it gives her more than just goosebumps.
"Alex," he says, and his voice sounds weird, almost not like Justin at all. But only almost, not enough so she can pretend he's someone else.
(Right now, she's not even sure that's what she wants.)
"Take off -" he says, and then stops, and Alex realises, a second after he does, that, okay, maybe neither of them should be giving orders at this point. At least, not without talking things out beforehand.
Which they're probably not going to stop and do now, so.
"I mean," he says, "can I -"
He doesn't actually finish the sentence, but there aren't really a lot of things she could be taking off right now, and she's pretty sure she gets the picture. And she's not sure she really trusts herself to speak - for a lot of reasons - so she nods, instead.
Even - maybe especially - now, Justin seems to exist purely to torment her, and he takes his time as he traces his fingertips up the inside of her thigh, then peels her underwear down so slowly that Alex swears she's about to burst. Once they're down to her knees, she wriggles the rest of the way out of them (seriously, it's like she has to help him with everything), and she takes care of her skirt, too, while she's out of it.
So, now she's naked, and Justin ... isn't.
But, okay, she can fix that.
She doesn't bother asking (because, realistically, it's not like he could probably say no), just reaches for his boxers, and all it takes is a few seconds before they're both naked, and he's back on top of her, and this is kind of terrifyingly scary, but also kind of not scary at all.
"Are you -" he says, and god, does he have to be so deliberate about everything? Only Justin, she thinks, could possibly suck the fun out of sex.
So she curls her hand around him instead, guiding him to where he needs to be, and for this, they don't need words.
Only action, and it turns out, when it comes down to it, Justin isn't so bad at that.
Or at, you know, other things.
Still, Alex has never liked being out of control for long, and when she flips them over, Justin goes along with it, grasping her hips as she rocks, slowly, back and forth on top of him, and then he's gripping her harder, and if he can just hold on a minute -
"Wait," she says, and it must be, like, impossible or something, but he does, and then a bunch of things all happen at once, but mostly, she doesn't notice any of them.
At least, not until a few moments later, once she can catch her breath again.
"Wow," she says, and she's still on top of Justin, but his grip has relaxed, now, and so has the weird tightness in her chest -
"Bark like a dog," she says, and Justin looks at her like she's lost her mind. And, sure, as far as post-sex small talk goes, it's not exactly standard, but she's trying to prove a point here, okay?
He doesn't say anything, like maybe he's just writing it off as a byproduct of his sexual prowess or whatever (which, she's pretty sure was mostly her sexual prowess, since she was doing most of the work, but maybe she can try not to deflate his ego, just this once), and lets his head fall back on the bed.
And, most importantly, he doesn't bark.
So she climbs off him, and sits, and waits.
"Alex," he says a minute later, sitting up, and she knew he'd get there eventually. "I didn't have to do what you said."
"And I don't have your Captain Jim Bob Sherwood lunch box," she says, and -
Nope, that's it. She can lie again (and, okay, it's a little ridiculous how much not being able to do that bothered her). And they don't have to take orders from each other. So.
"The spell's worn off," she guesses.
"Not worn off," Justin says. "We made it wear off."
"The difference being?" she asks.
And then tries to remember, Max, and something about -
"Wait," she says. "That's what was bugging us?"
"Um," Justin says. "Something like that."
And she'd almost rather believe that, because the alternative is that this was one massively screwed up spell Max cast on them. And, weirdly, this might actually be easier to explain.
(Well, not all of it, obviously. But, the family-safe version.)
"That's kind of weird," she says. But, okay, she's currently half-snuggled up to her brother while they're both naked, like, after they just had sex, so maybe she shouldn't really have the final say on what is and isn't weird.
"A little bit," Justin agrees, but then he pulls her closer, so that she's kind of wrapped up in his arms, and, whatever. She can deal with weird. Their family is nothing but weird.
So, she can probably deal with this.
Fandom: Wizards Of Waverly Place
Pairing(s): Justin/Alex
Word Count: 5132
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Alex and Justin are forced to tutor Max. It doesn't exactly go smoothly.
Notes: Spoilers up to episode 2:22 - My Tutor, Tutor. Written for this prompt at
omgjustinalex.They end up getting two pizzas - one thick crust, one thin, and they bring home a doggy bag for Max. Alex would like to say that it's their way of making things up to him, that they felt guilty about sabotaging his wand quiz and chasing off Tutor, but really, they just had leftovers.
"We saved these for you," she says as she hands over the bag, and Justin looks like he might crack. Again.
So she elbows him, just in case.
"Thanks," Max says, smiling like there's nothing in the world he'd rather have than half-cold pizza, and apparently he's over the whole Tutor thing. So they're probably in the clear.
(There's a catch, just wait.)
-
"What happened to Max's tutor?" their dad asks when he gets back, and Alex looks at Justin, almost guiltily. And to make sure he isn't about to confess.
"Um," she says, before Max or Justin can answer. "She left."
Their dad looks happy, so obviously he's jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Max passed his wand quiz?"
Okay, happy and surprised. And still wrong.
"Not exactly."
He narrows his eyes, and, okay, now he's getting there. "What did you do?"
Yep, he's there.
"Me?" she asks, and this rarely works, but it's still worth a shot. "What makes you think I did anything?"
"Tutor came very highly recommended," their dad says, and Alex slouches down in her chair. She can't help it; she still misses Tutor, a little.
Damn elves.
"She wouldn't just leave without finishing her job unless you had something to do with it."
"It wasn't just my fault," she says, and if she's going down for this, she isn't going alone. "Justin was responsible, too."
"Justin?" their dad asks, like he doesn't quite believe it, but Justin's poker face has never been very good.
Their dad's face falls, but he looks less surprised about this than he had about Max passing his quiz. (Which, she thinks - with actual guilt, this time, and she doesn't like this feeling at all - he probably would have done if it hadn't been for them. So maybe Tutor's right, and they are a little dysfunctional.)
"I'm very disappointed in you two," he says, and Alex stands up, readying an apology. "So since you caused this, you're going to have to fix it."
"Wait," she says, apology forgotten. "Fix it how?"
Their dad smiles, and, okay, she does not like that smile. "You guys can tutor Max."
"What?" Justin asks, but their dad looks resolved, like there's no way they're getting out of it. Not even if they make breakfast for dinner. "Dad -"
"We can't afford another tutor."
"Why does Max need a tutor at all?" Alex asks. And then she glances over at Max, who's waving his wand at the chair. And holding it backwards, again.
So, they're probably not getting out of this one.
"Look at it this way," their dad says, over Justin's continued protests. "Maybe this will teach all three of you a lesson."
Yeah, Alex definitely misses Tutor.
-
"This is all your fault," Justin says. And, okay, it's the same thing he's been saying for the past five minutes, but Alex still bristles.
"My fault? You're the one who kept trying to date Tutor even after you knew I wanted to be her friend."
"Yeah, well, you're the one who kept trying to be her friend after you knew I wanted to date her."
"Justin," Alex says, and settles down on the arm of his chair, resting her arm along the back of it. "Seriously, think about it. What are the odds a cute girl would actually want to date you?"
Honestly, is it her fault she wasn't expecting a competition?
"Hey," Justin says, but he only manages to sound half indignant. Because she's totally right, of course. "I date cute girls all the time."
Alex snorts. "All the time?"
"Well," he says. "There was that goth girl -"
"Who dumped you after your first kiss."
"And the centaur girl -"
"Who you dumped after you found out she was a centaur."
"And the werewolf."
Alex doesn't really have to say anything about that one, so she just laughs, and after a second, Justin turns away.
"Fine," he says. "Whatever. This is still your fault."
"Hey," she says. "I'm not the one who confessed everything to Max."
"And I'm not the one whose idea it was to mess with him in the first place."
Okay, so this is officially going nowhere.
Luckily, that's when Max chooses to get there for his first Alex- and Justin-sponsored lesson, and Justin jumps to his feet, like, even after complaining (unfairly) about how everything is all Alex's fault, he's actually looking forward to this.
It figures.
"Max," he says, and, god, does she really have to listen to him like this for the next few weeks? This must be some sort of cruel and unusual punishment or something. "Are you ready to start your first lesson?"
"I'm not ready to start his first lesson," Alex mumbles, and Justin turns to glare at her as Max takes a few tentative steps into the room. She thinks about warning him to make a run for it while he still can, but then, well, she'd still be stuck here alone with Justin, so what good would that do?
Instead, she rolls her eyes, and sits back on the bench. If Justin is so excited about this, let him lead the lesson. She can probably zone out for an hour or two until it's time to leave.
Unless, of course, Justin is intent on making her participate. Which of course he is.
"Alex," he says, and stands there, tapping his wand against his thigh, until she reluctantly stands up.
Fine. She'll help. But she isn't going to be excited about it.
"Much better," he says, and if Max weren't standing in her way, she swears she'd hex Justin into next week. Which she considers doing, anyway. "Now, Max, why don't we start with my Merlin flash cards? I'm sure even Alex will be able to handle those."
"Funny," she says, and Justin smirks, like he thinks it is.
"I'm sorry, are these too advanced for you? I can lend you my training wands, if you like."
"At least I don't need training wheels," she shoots back. And, okay, Justin hasn't needed those for, like, three years, but, still funny.
"Do you need a training bra?" he asks, flicking the strap of her tank top, and, hey! That's a low blow.
"I'm surprised you know what a bra is," she says, "since you're never likely to see one."
"And I'd be surprised if you knew how to spell it."
Alex glares at him. "Do you have to be so -"
"Condescending?" Justin finishes for her, like she wasn't going to get there on her own. Which, okay, maybe she wasn't, but that's pretty much her entire point.
"Exactly," she says, and Justin's standing right in front of her, so close that she doesn't notice when Max moves, or when he starts to wave his wand. "You're such a -"
And then she feels a weird tug, low in her chest, that pretty much makes her forget everything she was just saying.
By the look on Justin's face, he felt it, too.
"Max!" they both yell in unison, and Alex would be annoyed about that, except Max is still standing there with his wand out, pointed at them, so maybe they should get to the bottom of that, first.
"Um," Max says. "I didn't do it?"
"Didn't do what, exactly?" Justin asks, and as much as it pains her, Alex is on Justin's side, this time.
"Max," she says, in her most threatening tone. (Which, okay, is not very threatening, but this is Max.)
"I just ..."
Alex waits. Seriously, is she the only person in this family with any talent for lying?
"Dad told me to do it."
Okay, she wasn't expecting that. "What?"
"Max -" Justin starts.
"I'm serious," Max says. "He told me, if you two kept fighting, I should stop you."
"I don't think he meant you should use magic on us," Justin says. "He probably meant you should try using words."
"Oh," Max says. "Would that have worked?"
No, probably not.
"Max," Alex says, because they're getting a little off track, here, and if it were up to Justin, he'd probably be happy to keep lecturing Max on the improper use of magic until dinner. "What spell did you use?"
"I don't know," he says, and, okay, that can't be good. "It was, like, a meditation spell or something."
"I think you mean mediation," Justin says, and even their current situation can't stop him sounding 'condescending.'
"Yeah, that," Max says. "It was one of the ones Tutor taught me."
Okay, so maybe he did learn something from Tutor, after all.
But not, you know, anything good.
"What exactly does the spell do?" Justin asks, and maybe he's feeling as ... weird as she is, right now.
"And how do we reverse it?" she adds.
Max looks blank. So, pretty much his usual expression.
"You have no idea," she guesses.
"Um," Max says. "Sorry?"
Well, this is just great.
"Wait," he says, and Alex waits. Not exactly hopefully, but still. "I think it's supposed to wear off."
"When?" she asks, at the same time that Justin asks, "How?"
"Um," Max says, looking from her to Justin. "I think ..."
Alex's hands bunch up into fists by her sides; she's trying really hard not to rush him right now.
"Once you work out what's bugging you, the spell's supposed to end."
What's bugging them. Great. Between her and Justin, this could take roughly forever.
"There's got to be another way," she says.
Justin looks at her, carefully, and then back at Max. "Seriously, dude."
Max shrugs. "Sorry. That's all I know."
Well, maybe this won't be so bad. After all, it's not like -
"I was jealous of you and Tutor."
Oh, great.
"What?" Justin asks, and she doesn't want to say anything else, she really, really doesn't -
"That's why I was mad at you," she says, and seriously. "I was jealous."
Yeah, so maybe this is going to be a problem, after all.
"And I really didn't mean to say that," she says, but Justin is looking at her oddly, almost like -
"It wasn't just your fault," he says, and he looks like he's as surprised at the sudden confession as she is. "I wanted to mess up Max's wand quiz, too."
Okay, so, that was weird. But ... maybe that's what's supposed to happen with the spell?
So it should have worn off now, right?
Except that weird feeling is still there, and somehow, she doesn't think -
"No, it was totally my fault," she says, and this is so not happening.
Except, yeah, it totally is.
"Max," she growls, and he takes a step backwards. Smart kid. "I'm going to kill you."
"Um," Max says again. "Bye!"
Well, at least his self-preservation instincts are intact.
"We need to fix this," she says, as the door to the lair slams shut again. "Like, right now."
"Agreed," Justin says, and, wow. Maybe this spell does kind of work, after all. "So, I'm going to stay here and look up mediation spells to find out which one Max used."
"And I'm going to go not study in my room," she says. Somehow, it seems like a good idea right now to put as much space between her and Justin as possible.
Only, that seems to be part of the spell, too. She doesn't get more than half a step out of the lair before she's pulled back in again, almost like something's tugging at her.
So, this is pretty much the worst spell ever.
"Can't leave?" Justin asks, like he's not exactly surprised. Which, of course he isn't. He might have warned her, first.
"Nope," she says. "This sucks."
He shrugs. "Maybe it'll go faster if we're both looking."
She snorts. "Yeah, like I'm going to be any help in that department."
"You're smarter than you let people think," Justin says, and he's looking at her in that weird way again.
Alex stares for a minute. "That was part of the spell, right?"
"Oh, yeah."
Of course. Like Justin would actually compliment her on anything if he wasn't being forced to.
"Well, there's a reason for that," she says, hefting a book that must weigh about a thousand pounds. "It stops people asking me to actually do stuff."
But, well, she's here now, and maybe having something to occupy her might stop any more ridiculous confessions.
An hour later, she still hasn't found anything, and even Justin is starting to look frustrated.
"No luck?" she asks, and he shakes his head.
"You?"
"Nothing," she says, and closes the book. They're getting nowhere, and she's pretty sure they're just wasting their time, anyway.
"I was sure I'd be able to fix this," he says.
"I was sure you would, too," she says, and god, this confession thing is getting so old. "You always do."
Justin looks happy, like she complimented him willingly (okay, so maybe it goes both ways), and seriously, how many more nice things are they going to have to say to each other before the spell wears off?
"Come on," she says. "I'm hungry, and I can't leave here without you."
He looks like he's going to argue, for a second, but she's guessing he's hungry, too, because he gives in without a fight.
She misses fighting with him. Like, already.
"Alex," Harper says, as soon as they exit the lair, and Justin takes off at a run up the stairs.
Alex waits, tapping her foot.
Justin doesn't get halfway there before he turns around.
"Right," he says, and she rolls her eyes. And he's supposed to be the smart one.
"So," Harper says, "what are you doing tonight? Because I thought -"
"Actually," Alex says, cutting her off, "I can't tonight, Harper."
Well, technically she could, but she doubts Justin would be willing to tag along with her and Harper all night, and it's not like she can go without him.
Worst. Spell. Ever.
"Oh," Harper says, and great, now Alex actually feels guilty about disappointing her. "Well, okay. How about tomorrow night?"
"Tomorrow night sounds great," she says, because if the spell hasn't worn off by then, she'll probably have thrown herself off the balcony.
She wonders if Justin will have to follow her down.
"Hi, Justin," Harper says, like she just noticed him, so maybe she's getting a little better at this. "You look good. I mean, not good. Not that you look bad. Or that I even noticed. Because I don't notice you. I mean, I don't care. Well, I -"
"He always looks good in that shirt," Alex says, and oh, god, she is just going to die now. Even if Harper's looking at Alex like she just saved her.
Because Justin's looking at her like he knows exactly how much she didn't just want to say that, and that's way worse.
"Thank you, Alex," he says, smug. And he doesn't even try to run away from Harper again, so her comment must have really distracted him.
"I'm just going to go," Harper says quietly, waving goodbye to Alex, and Alex buries her head in her hands.
She wonders if she could get Harper to sew her lips together, just for tonight.
"So I look good in this shirt, do I?" Justin asks, and of course he's incapable of letting this go.
"Better than you usually do," she says, and manages to put as put scorn into the words as possible. "Whatever, can you just make me a sandwich?"
And Justin does it, which is weird, but it's not nearly the weirdest thing that's happened today, so she lets it slide.
-
"Can you pass the salt?" Justin asks, and -
Okay, so it's not like she usually spends a lot of time thinking about stuff, but Alex has a theory.
So she tries not to pass him the salt.
And does it anyway.
"Damn it," she says, and Justin looks at her oddly (no change, then), but she doesn't bother to elaborate.
After all, if she's right - which is usually unlikely, but right now, it seems possible - she's hardly going to let him in on the secret.
"So what are you kids doing tonight?" their dad asks, and it sounds like exactly what it is, one of those awkward, silence-filling questions.
Alex shrugs. "I was going to go out with Harper tonight, but -"
Okay, so maybe she shouldn't tell their parents that part. She's sick of researching this stupid spell, and she knows that's exactly what their dad would insist they spend all night doing, if he knew.
"- she's busy. So I figured I'd watch the Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster marathon I taped last week."
"I taped over that," Justin says, and then clamps a hand over his mouth.
She turns on him. "You did what?"
Even using both hands, he can't stop himself. "I taped over it. There was a documentary on robotics I wanted to watch, and I couldn't find a tape."
"Justin," she says. "Didn't you look at the label? It said 'Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster, do not tape over.'"
He's shaking his head, but what he says is, "Yes. I thought you'd forget about it, and you wouldn't find out."
"I can't believe you," she says, and then, oh, no -
"Yeah, well, I stole your Captain Jim Bob Sherwood lunch box," she says. "Again."
Damn it.
Justin gasps, and, really? He's surprised?
"I looked in your room and everything," he says, and now their parents are kind of staring at them, which, okay, is probably not that surprising. "Where did you hide it?"
Oh, no.
"In my closet," she says. "In a box with all my old clothes. It's where I keep everything I don't want you to find."
Yeah, so, this is just getting worse and worse.
"I knew it!" he says. "Well, not 'knew it' in the sense that I actually knew anything, but I knew there was somewhere I didn't look."
"That's because you're terrified of my underwear," she says, and seriously, if they could stop talking about this in front of their parents - like, right now - that would be great. "So I put that on top."
Justin mutters something that sounds suspiciously like 'evil genius,' and then asks, "Can you give it back, please?"
"Okay," she says, and when is this going to end?
Justin looks surprised, but he follows her as she gets up from the table, leaving their parents behind in stunned silence. At least, until she hears their dad ask Max, "Did you do this?"
Yeah, so this was probably never going to stay a secret for long.
Justin follows her closely all the way up the stairs, like he still doesn't trust her, and if he knew what she knows -
"You don't have to follow me," she says. "I have to give you the lunch box, anyway."
Oh, whatever, she's beyond being surprised by it, at this point.
"What do you mean?" he asks, and she manages to get all the way to her room and shut the door behind them before she answers him.
"I have to do what you ask," she says. "I mean, I think I do. I haven't really tested it. I'm pretty sure it's part of the spell."
And before he gets any bright ideas -
"It works both ways."
"Oh," Justin says, and he looks a little less excited at the prospect. "Prove it."
"Sit down," she says, and he sits down on her bed almost immediately.
And then tries very hard to look like it was a coincidence.
"Maybe I wanted to do that," he says, and, fine, if he wants to do this the hard way. She can totally beat him at this game.
"Take your shirt off," she says, and -
Okay, so she's not really sure why she started with that. Except she's pretty sure it isn't something he would do, if the spell didn't make him.
He does.
And, okay, maybe she looks, a little.
"Okay," he says, slowly, and then his suspicious look is replaced by one she really doesn't like. "You, too."
Oh, she is so going to kill him for this.
But she takes off her shirt, anyway.
At least, she takes off one of her shirts. Hey, maybe there's a reason she wears so many layers, besides it looking cool.
(Okay, so it's not like she actually ever expected something like this to happen, but whatever.)
"Sit down," he says, and she tries - really, really tries - not to move.
A moment later, she's sitting beside Justin on the bed.
"This sucks," she says, and it almost feels nice saying something she isn't forced to by some stupid spell.
"Yeah," Justin says, but he doesn't sound so sure about that.
But she isn't going to -
"No, it doesn't."
Alex isn't sure which one of them is more surprised by what he just said, but maybe, if she doesn't push -
"What part of this doesn't suck?" she asks. So, apparently she's completely lost control of her own vocal cords.
Justin shrugs, and gestures between them. "This."
Oh, this. Yeah, that isn't vague at all. So, what? This, the spell? This, the fact that they can't get more than a few feet away from each other before they spring back like one of Max's bouncy balls? This, their complete inability to keep secrets from each other any more?
Because that all kind of sucks, if you ask her.
"I kind of like this," he says, almost apologetically.
Silently, she begs him to shut up. Only, maybe her sense of self-preservation isn't as strong as Max's.
"Like what?" she asks. "Being half-naked in my bedroom?"
"No," he says, and raises an eyebrow. "I mean, the bit where you have to do whatever I say."
Okay, so that doesn't exactly surprise her.
"And the other part," he adds, so quietly she almost doesn't hear him. (She wishes she hadn't.)
"What?" she asks, and maybe she should stop talking, right now -
"Come here," Justin says, and she slides closer, until her thigh is pressed against his.
And if her chest feels kind of weird, tight and constricted, that's just the spell.
"Justin," she says, "what are we -"
"Tell me the truth," he says. (Like she can tell him anything else.)
She kisses him, instead. Mostly just to prove that she still has some control left. Maybe.
Justin kisses her back, and she's not sure if that's even a surprise, at this point, but whatever, she's pretty sure neither of them are thinking clearly any more. And then he's reaching for her, pulling her closer, and this is crazy, it must just be the spell, there's no way -
"Alex," he says, and, okay, so that's her name.
Not that she, like, forgot it. Or anything. Not like her head is so full of Justin she can barely remember what they're even doing in here any more. Or where 'here' is.
"Do you -" he starts, and it's okay, she's kid of having trouble forming complete sentences, too. "Is this okay?"
She's almost surprised when she says, "Yes."
(Right, she can only tell the truth.)
"Okay," he says, and then she's sliding onto his lap, her legs falling to either side of his, and Alex doesn't know if she's doing it, or he is. Not that it matters, probably. His hands move up her thighs, pulling her skirt with them, and settle on her waist, dragging her closer (like it's even possible; she's pretty sure they're kind of fused together, at this point), moving up underneath the fabric of her shirt.
And then she leans back, a little, and he takes care of that, tossing her shirt to the floor, and, okay, so she was wrong about him never being likely to see a bra. And about him being terrified by them, evidently.
(It still takes him a couple of tries to get it unhooked, but she's being patient, really. And she only makes one, tiny, impatient sound of protest.)
She expects Justin to say something, to make some smart comment, but he's just staring at her silently. And really, if she'd known that this is all it would take to render him speechless -
Well, okay, she probably still never would have done this. But she's doing it now, is the important thing.
She's not really sure how far they're going with this, and it's not like she's trying to push it along. And she swears her hands find their way to his pants all by themselves. But Justin doesn't exactly seem to mind, so.
She's only managed to get them halfway undone when he grabs her, twisting her and laying her back on the bed, and her head doesn't quite hit the pillows, but it's a soft bed, so whatever. And then Justin takes his pants off the rest of the way all by himself, points for initiative (she has to make this funny, okay, or she's going to actually start thinking about it, and that would probably be bad), and kind of lays down on top of her.
The weight of his body on hers is warm and solid and not entirely unwelcome, and she pulls him closer, hooking one of her legs around the back of his knees, her hands resting on his shoulders. He kisses her, again, and his hands run up her sides, giving her goosebumps. And then he palms her breasts, squeezing gently, and it gives her more than just goosebumps.
"Alex," he says, and his voice sounds weird, almost not like Justin at all. But only almost, not enough so she can pretend he's someone else.
(Right now, she's not even sure that's what she wants.)
"Take off -" he says, and then stops, and Alex realises, a second after he does, that, okay, maybe neither of them should be giving orders at this point. At least, not without talking things out beforehand.
Which they're probably not going to stop and do now, so.
"I mean," he says, "can I -"
He doesn't actually finish the sentence, but there aren't really a lot of things she could be taking off right now, and she's pretty sure she gets the picture. And she's not sure she really trusts herself to speak - for a lot of reasons - so she nods, instead.
Even - maybe especially - now, Justin seems to exist purely to torment her, and he takes his time as he traces his fingertips up the inside of her thigh, then peels her underwear down so slowly that Alex swears she's about to burst. Once they're down to her knees, she wriggles the rest of the way out of them (seriously, it's like she has to help him with everything), and she takes care of her skirt, too, while she's out of it.
So, now she's naked, and Justin ... isn't.
But, okay, she can fix that.
She doesn't bother asking (because, realistically, it's not like he could probably say no), just reaches for his boxers, and all it takes is a few seconds before they're both naked, and he's back on top of her, and this is kind of terrifyingly scary, but also kind of not scary at all.
"Are you -" he says, and god, does he have to be so deliberate about everything? Only Justin, she thinks, could possibly suck the fun out of sex.
So she curls her hand around him instead, guiding him to where he needs to be, and for this, they don't need words.
Only action, and it turns out, when it comes down to it, Justin isn't so bad at that.
Or at, you know, other things.
Still, Alex has never liked being out of control for long, and when she flips them over, Justin goes along with it, grasping her hips as she rocks, slowly, back and forth on top of him, and then he's gripping her harder, and if he can just hold on a minute -
"Wait," she says, and it must be, like, impossible or something, but he does, and then a bunch of things all happen at once, but mostly, she doesn't notice any of them.
At least, not until a few moments later, once she can catch her breath again.
"Wow," she says, and she's still on top of Justin, but his grip has relaxed, now, and so has the weird tightness in her chest -
"Bark like a dog," she says, and Justin looks at her like she's lost her mind. And, sure, as far as post-sex small talk goes, it's not exactly standard, but she's trying to prove a point here, okay?
He doesn't say anything, like maybe he's just writing it off as a byproduct of his sexual prowess or whatever (which, she's pretty sure was mostly her sexual prowess, since she was doing most of the work, but maybe she can try not to deflate his ego, just this once), and lets his head fall back on the bed.
And, most importantly, he doesn't bark.
So she climbs off him, and sits, and waits.
"Alex," he says a minute later, sitting up, and she knew he'd get there eventually. "I didn't have to do what you said."
"And I don't have your Captain Jim Bob Sherwood lunch box," she says, and -
Nope, that's it. She can lie again (and, okay, it's a little ridiculous how much not being able to do that bothered her). And they don't have to take orders from each other. So.
"The spell's worn off," she guesses.
"Not worn off," Justin says. "We made it wear off."
"The difference being?" she asks.
And then tries to remember, Max, and something about -
"Wait," she says. "That's what was bugging us?"
"Um," Justin says. "Something like that."
And she'd almost rather believe that, because the alternative is that this was one massively screwed up spell Max cast on them. And, weirdly, this might actually be easier to explain.
(Well, not all of it, obviously. But, the family-safe version.)
"That's kind of weird," she says. But, okay, she's currently half-snuggled up to her brother while they're both naked, like, after they just had sex, so maybe she shouldn't really have the final say on what is and isn't weird.
"A little bit," Justin agrees, but then he pulls her closer, so that she's kind of wrapped up in his arms, and, whatever. She can deal with weird. Their family is nothing but weird.
So, she can probably deal with this.
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(Anonymous) 2017-02-22 03:23 am (UTC)(link)