Title: When I Sneak to Your Bed
Character/Pairings: Justin/Alex (incest)
Summary: So that's how Alex ends up on the floor of Justin's bedroom, tangled in sheets on the hard floor, wide awake. Justin refused to let her have the bed and pulled out his old Green Lantern sleeping bag, saying she could use it if she wanted (no, she did not want to).
Rating: PG-13 (slight language, incest)
Word Count: 5,300
Disclaimer: I own nothing, the title comes from Brand New's The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot.
Other: The beginning of this is so plotty? But it's all setup, and this turned out much longer than I expected. And I'd appreciate it if you ignored any holes in logic.
Flipping through a rack of clothes at Suburban Outfitters, Alex is vaguely aware that she's late for wizard lessons, but there's a sale, and it may not be the Crazy Ten Minute Sale, but still. "Harper, what do you think of this?" She holds up a dark blue peasant top, running through a list of shirts that she has at home and could layer underneath it.
"I don't know, maybe if I added some berries to it…"
"I think I'll try it on," Alex says, folding it over her arm. "So I'm going to redo my room this weekend. I found this great spell that redecorates anything. Wanna help?"
"But I like your room the way it is," Harper responds, grabbing a jacket, taking it off the hanger and pushing her arms through the sleeves.
"It's so three years ago though."
"Well." Harper makes the face she always does when she thinks Alex has a bad idea, but Alex can't understand what's so dangerous about this one. "Are you even allowed to?"
"Sure." Picking up a cute red top from a counter, Alex notices that it's the last one left, her size, too, so she'd be insane not to try it on.
"But shouldn't you be studying for the math test on Monday?" Harper asks, knitting her eyebrows together and pressing her lips into a straight line.
"I don't study for tests." Alex rolls her eyes, heading over to the dressing rooms, tapping her foot lightly as she waits for one to become available. "Besides, I'm getting a C in math, which is like, amazing."
"That's only because Justin helped you study before the last one. And don't you have a 70 percent?"
Damn. "First, Justin didn't help me study, he told our parents I was getting a D and they forced him to help me, and second, a 70 percent is still a C, and third, math is stupid."
"But your grade will drop when you fail this one. Do you even understand matrices?"
"Those movies with Keanu Reeves?"
Harper sighs heavily, readjusting the tops she slung over her arm. "Alex, I'll come over and study with you if you want."
"Pfft." She's never going to study for that test, no matter what Harper says about it, and it's annoying having to hear her blabber on and on. And really, she thinks Harper might need someone to tutor her if she thinks they're learning about some movie in class.
"Alex," Harper says in that disapproving tone that she gets sometimes when she thinks Alex should study, but is too scared to push the issue any further.
"You can help me with my room? Final offer."
"No," Harper sighs begrudgingly, "I'm spending Saturday studying and doing my homework." She's been on this big school kick lately because Justin's going off to college soon, and she's trying to impress him with her academic motivation, or something equally as lame.
"I'm not telling Justin that," Alex says flatly, shaking her head.
"I'm not doing it for him. I am devoted to my schoolwork," Harper lies. She's really bad at it, her voice gets all high and squeaky and she starts to blush bright red.
"Still not telling him."
And then a girl from their school is walking out of a dressing room, so Alex bolts in quickly, slamming the door shut and sliding the lock into place. Harper is her best friend and Alex loves her, but there is only so much of her yapping about school and Justin that Alex can take.
She breathes heavily and holds up the red top before trying it on
*
Walking casually into the lair, Alex crosses her arms and plops down on the couch next to Max, aloof and bored already. Her dad is looking harshly at her, having stopped speaking mid-sentence. Alex smiles a little, nodding that he can go ahead and continue, hoping maybe he's too excited about the lesson or too upset with her or something and he won't yell at her for being late. And really, he should be used to it by now, it's not like it's something new.
"Alex," he sighs, a little disappointed in her. "You're late."
"I know, daddy," she says, trying to sound sympathetic, "but there was a sale at Suburban Outfitters and I needed to get this top, because it was the only one in my size, and it fits perfectly." She pauses for a moment, watching his face fail to fall out of anger. "It's in my room if you want to see it?"
"No."
"Okay, then, continue." She motions with her arms that it's okay for him to keep going with whatever it was he was teaching Max before she arrived. And seriously, Alex has been studying magic extra hard lately to try and catch up with Justin, so even if she was late, she's still doing better than before. She hopes.
"Well," he sighs, "I was teaching Max the spell for conjuring up a lantern to see by in case you need a light if the power goes out or something like that. Before you finally decided to show up"
"Cool," Alex says, but the spell doesn't strike her as being that interesting.
"Max, you can try. But remember, you have to set it down with your wand," her dad coaches her brother, who jumps up from the couch suddenly as he hears his name.
"I got this Dad," he says, holding his wand out in front of him. "Lanternus burnus." Waving his wand a little, a small, brassy lantern pops up over the table, hovering in the air parallel to Max's wand. "Cool, I did it!" And suddenly he's waving his wand haphazardly, sitting back on the couch and turning to Alex for congratulations.
"Max!" their dad screams, and Alex is aware of smoke surrounding her and the way it's seeping into her lungs, causing her to cough. Getting up off the couch, she races out of the lair into the kitchen, taking deep breaths to clear her lungs. She thinks if smoking is this nasty she doesn't want to start, even if it would be pretty badass.
Max and her dad come sprinting out a second later, both weezing as they attempt to breathe normally again. Then her dad orders, "Alex, point your wand at the lair and say 'A great tragedy came, put out the eternal flame.'"
"Got it," Alex says, grabbing her wand and reciting the spell. There's a rush of smoke from under the door and then it stops altogether.
"Max, I told you to set the lantern down carefully." Her dad looks at her younger brother, his face slightly red, and his eyes still watering from the smoke.
"I forgot," Max apologizes. His shoulders slump in defeat and Alex feels a little sorry for him.
"What happened?" she asks.
"The flame on the lantern is magical," her dad answers, and Alex can't help but think, duh. He continues, "It burns quickly, but never goes out."
Walking back into the lair, it feels unusually hot, like waves of fire tumbling around and around on her skin. Everything is charred: the walls, the furniture, the source of their wizard powers. And as it turns out, the only way to fix it is by magic, only it isn't really safe to do magic because the source of their power is burned so badly. Her dad is upset that they have to call in experts from the wizard world who won't be able to come out and give an estimate for three days. And then they'll start repairing the lair. He sighs and grunts and raises his voice at them, having dialed a bazillion numbers into their normal telephone since he didn't think it would be a good idea to call by wand.
*
It's late Sunday afternoon and Alex is standing behind the counter at the sub station, looking out at the myriad of people drinking soda and nibbling on sandwiches as if their lives and wants are more important than hers. If they all left Alex is fairly confident that she could go out and do something like see a movie or hang out with Harper without getting caught.
Her parents are back in the burnt lair with the magic technicians who are supposed to fix the problem. Alex hopes they get it done soon because she has had a fairly difficult time the past three days without magic. She wanted a chocolate banana milkshake with Oreo and Reese's Pieces in it last night and couldn't just poof it in front of her. When Gigi was being a bitch at school on Friday- as usual- Alex wanted to conjure a banana peel for her to slip on in the hallway. (Lately Alex has been into bananas, it's just that she perfected the spells for them a few days ago and there are so many options.)
A moment later her parents walk out of the lair and her dad huffs, upset.
"What is it?" Alex asks, turning around to face her parents even though she just saw a customer wave her over and another one run out of lemonade.
"Those idiots," her dad grumbles under his breath, twisting a rag around and around in his hands.
"Well, honey," her mom says in a pleasant tone, but she glances at her dad a little, worried. "They said they'll come back to fix it on Monday, but it'll probably take a couple of days to finish."
"What? How many days?"
"They're not sure, maybe three or four."
"That's ridiculous!" Alex sighs heavily. She really thought they'd be able to fix the situation today. If only Max hadn't gotten so excited about executing the spell correctly. Then he could have set the stupid lantern down on the table before celebrating and everything would be fine.
"Isn't it?" Her dad shakes his head in understanding, tossing the rag on the counter.
"Calm down, Jerry," her mom hums softly, reaching out and rubbing soothing circles into her dad's back. "Everything will be fine. Now, go make some sandwiches. The dinner rush should be starting soon."
"Am I done?" Alex asks hopefully, glancing at the clock.
"Well, alright." Her moms says, rubbing the rag around the counter, trying to clean it up a little before looking around the restaurant to see which costumers need her assistance. "Do your homework."
"Sure," Alex says noncommittally, already running up the stairs.
When she opens the door to the apartment she sees Justin sitting at the table, books spread open, scribbling notes down. "Hey," she says, inching towards the stairs.
"Alex." Justin glances up briefly before looking back down at his notes. A second later his head snaps up again. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing." She runs a hand through her hair, scuffing her foot on the floor, ready to run up to her room.
"I don't believe you," he says, dropping his pencil and sitting back in his chair. He studies her for a second, concentrating really hard. "You're not planning on doing magic are you? Because dad said it probably isn't safe."
"Probably isn't. But it could be."
"Alex, you know that-"
"That everything was fine when he had me extinguish the fire?" She raises her eyebrows at him, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "Besides, I know what I'm doing."
"Then why did you stop to talk to me?" Justin asks, and it's his turn to raise an eyebrow at her.
"I was just wondering," she says casually, looking past his head at the refrigerator, "if I was going to redo my room with magic, if I need to draw a picture of what it will look like, or just have a design board ready and a picture in my head?"
His mouth twitches into a smile and Alex rolls her eyes at him. "I'm not telling you."
"You know I'm going to do the spell anyway."
"But if you mess it up it's your room, your fault. And besides, I have to study for my AP tests."
Stepping onto the stairs, Alex looks at him one more time. "You think it's safe to do magic, don't you?" She knows it, because if he didn't, he would be trying harder to stop her.
"Alex," he sighs, but he doesn't look up from his notes, and she can see his eyeballs moving back and forth under their lids as he skims over his massive textbook.
"Oh my god, you did magic!"
"Alex." His tone is warning now, and he looks up at her, annoyance clearly etched over his features.
"What like, you used it for a light to study under your covers?" And by the way he shakes his head and his eyes drop from her face, she knows she's right. "Wow, you are so lame."
"I have three AP tests in two weeks, Alex." He says it like it's an explanation, like he had no choice and is ashamed of himself.
"Whatever, I'm going upstairs." She turns around, feeling pretty good about this whole thing. If Justin thinks it's okay then it probably is. And also, now she can hold this over his head, which is sure to be a lot of fun.
Opening the door to her room, Alex grabs the plans off her desk. She spent all of school on Monday coming up with them, trying to make sure the room was exactly how she wanted it. Closing her eyes, she visualizes what she wants the room to look like. If she needs the drawing it doesn't really matter, she can do that tonight and fix her room tomorrow, no big deal. So she picks up her wand off her desk and points at the plans, clearly enunciating the first part of the spell, then she points her wand at her room, finishing it off.
Alex doesn't even know what's going on until the spell seems to bounce off the mirror she happens to be pointing at, and out of her room. And then there's a bright flash and when she opens her eyes her room is covered in black burnt dust, a smoky smell covering everything. And, shit, her room looks just like the lair. She turns quickly, yelling for Justin and running downstairs.
"What is it?" Justin sighs, looking up at her, finger poised on the page to keep his place.
"I need your help, my room likes like a, a, it looks burnt." She's bouncing on the balls of her feet, trying to motion for him to come with her and just fix everything. "And you told me I didn't need a picture of what the room looks like," she accuses, because clearly this is Justin's fault.
Crinkling his eyebrows together, he looks at her, questioning. "But, you don't need one."
Alex can see him wracking his brain for the spell she used, trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. Finally, he lets out a deep breath, pushing his chair back and standing up.
Alex is walking briskly down the hallway to her room, and when she enters it she turns around and Justin isn't behind her anymore. "Justin? What are you..." her voice trails off as she meets him at the entrance to her parent's room across the hall. It looks exactly like her room does, the same way the lair does. Oh.
"Alex, what did you do?" Justin doesn't look happy about her messing this up; he has that expression that means Mom and Dad are going to be pissed and he knows Alex is going to drag him into the whole ordeal, but he doesn't think that's fair.
"I guess the spell bounced off the mirror in my room?" She shrugs, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"You realize I can't fix this, right?"
"You mean we."
"What?" Justin looks at her, confusion coloring his eyes.
"We can't fix this," Alex clarifies.
"Right," Justin replies sarcastically, stepping back from the doorjamb to look into Alex's room. "I can't believe you did this. No, actually-"
"Shut up." Hitting his shoulder slightly, Alex lets out a heavy sigh. This is so unfair. Justin gets to do magic when the power source is slightly singed, but the minute she tries it, the entire thing goes wrong. Of course this would happen, of freaking course.
Justin shakes his head a few times before brushing past her, heading down the hallway.
"Wait, how are we going to tell Mom and Dad?" Alex asks, tapping a finger against the molding around the door.
"You," He answers her, jogging downstairs with his hands in his pockets.
*
As it turns out, her parents are really angry. Her Dad does that thing where he starts to say a bunch of different things before settling on her name, but this time he screams it at her, and she tries her best not to flinch. After her mom calms him down and they call the technicians from the wizard world, telling them how they need two more rooms fixed, her parents decide she's grounded for two weeks, which Alex finds to be a little harsh. It's not like she was sneaking out of the house or shaving Justin's head while he was asleep (which is something she's seriously considered).
Then there is the whole issue of where they're all going to sleep. Her parents make her pull out the sofa-bed and put the sheet on it before telling her that it's where they're going to sleep. She then has two options, Max's room or Justin's room, which really isn't two options, but one option. Because there is no way in hell Alex is going to sleep on a lumpy bed with god knows what in the sheet, especially when Max's room smells like old cheese, fish and too much Febreeze.
So that's how Alex ends up on the floor of Justin's bedroom, tangled in sheets on the hard floor, wide awake. Justin refused to let her have the bed and pulled out his old Green Lantern sleeping bag, saying she could use it if she wanted (no, she did not want to).
Rolling over, she tilts her head back to get a good look at him. His mouth is hanging open slightly, which Alex finds a little revolting, but he's kind of curled towards one side of the bed, so she lifts herself off the floor slowly, hearing it creak, and halting. Justin sighs quietly, but his eyes don't flutter open, so she stands up fully, shaking her feet out from the sheets.
Walking over to the bed, Alex moves the covers back, lying down and tugging them lightly to free them from under one of Justin's legs. She brings them up to her chin and rolls over, facing the opposite way. As her breathing steadies to a slow rhythm, her eyes begin to shut and she allows her body to relax. She feels a heavy tiredness overcome her and tucks one hand under the cool side of the pillow.
*
Her eyes open slowly and she glances at the clock, it's nearly four in the morning. Shutting them tightly, she tries to drift back into her dream, but suddenly her eyes snap open and she realizes that Justin's body is pressed warmly into her own, their legs are twisted together and it feels really strange. But also, kind of nice. Which, in itself, isn't really that weird, except maybe it is? Whatever. It's too early for her to think about this any longer, so she rolls over and tucks her head under Justin's chin, closing her eyes again.
*
She wakes up to her mom yelling up the stairs that she needs to get to the kitchen soon if she wants breakfast before school. Looking at the clock, she sees that she's running later than usual, and when she gets downstairs, Justin's finishing up a bowl of cereal, reading through the same textbook he was yesterday. He glances up at her for a moment, but doesn't say anything; there's no comment about her sleeping in his bed.
So, yeah, maybe it wasn't weird.
*
"Are you ready for the test?" Harper asks, fingering her headband--with a teacup attached to it--before placing it on her head once more.
"What test?" Alex asks, rummaging through her locker for some lipgloss. She can't really remember if she left her free sample at school or if it was burned to a crisp in her room.
"The math test." Harper's eyes widen at Alex in disbelief, as if she actually expected Alex to remember that.
"Oh, right."
Harper's unusually silent for a minute and then she spots Justin walking by. "Hey," Harper says cheerily, smiling widely at him.
"Hey Harper. Alex." He stops next to her and pulls her locker door back. "Lose something?"
"No." She gives up on trying to find her lipgloss, deciding it was probably in her room when she did the spell. Slamming her locker closed, Alex leans back against it, running a hand through her hair.
"How was your weekend, Justin?" Harper asks, leaning forward so Alex feels like Harper's invading her personal space.
"Good." Alex thinks he glances at her as he says it, thinks there's a smile threatening to form on his mouth. But then he nods his head and it's gone. "I've got to head to class." He touches Alex's shoulder lightly, making the strangest face for the smallest of seconds. Alex wouldn't even have noticed it if she hadn't been paying close attention.
"Bye Justin." Harper waves at his back enthusiastically, grinning like an idiot.
"Let's go," Alex says, grabbing Harper's arm and leading her down the hallway.
"To class?" Harper asks, tugging Alex's hand off her arm, looking at Alex suspiciously.
Shrugging, Alex sighs, "Why not?" She doesn't have anything else to do anyway.
*
When she gets home the lair looks, well, worse. But maybe things have to get worse before they get better, or something. The technicians haven't started on the rooms upstairs yet, but they said they'd be finished with everything by Saturday night (apparently fixing non-magical rooms is easier).
Alex walks into Justin's room in her pajamas, dread pounding in her chest as well as a thrill of something else she won't think about long enough to identify. Glancing around, she sees that Justin's already lying in bed, reading. She takes a quiet breath and walks over to the other side of the bed, hesitating, running her finger along the nightstand. Alex looks at the clock a bunch of times, hits the base of the bed with her knee, tugs down her top.
Finally, Justin looks up at her, marks his page and closes his book. He hands it over to her and she places it on the nightstand. Scooting down in the bed, Justin pulls the covers up and rolls over, staying on his side. And whatever, she isn't going to stand here all night. Alex gets in next to him and reaches over to turn off the lamp. As the room is bathed in darkness, she closes her eyes and burrows into the bed, waiting until her eyes ache, then she opens them and it only takes them a few seconds to adjust.
Justin rolls over to get comfortable and his foot kick's Alex's shin and she rolls over. Incidentally, that moves her closer to him; she didn't do it on purpose. Then her hand hits his elbow and he's a few inches away. Alex tangles her legs in his, burying her head in the pillow and inhaling. She doesn't want to see Justin's face right now.
Because she's pretty sure this isn't normal.
*
She wakes up around two in the morning with Justin's face centimeters from her own; she can feel his breath on her cheek, on her chin. He's mumbling something even though he's still asleep. Alex thinks she hears her name, so she stares at him in concentration. And he whispers it again, clearer. For a second she's worried that maybe he's awake, but his eyes are shut and relaxed.
Looking at her brother, she feels something tighten in her chest and it's, she doesn't know. She doesn't want to think about what this thing she's feeling is and how she probably shouldn't be feeling it.
His breath hits the corner of her mouth and his eyes are fluttering open. And so she doesn't think, she just removes the small expanse of space between them, touching her lips to his. It's, yeah, it's definitely weird. But also kind of good. And he's kissing her back, but then Justin seems to realize he's awake and he moves back, staring at her with large pupils, breathing shallowly.
"Sorry," he mutters, turning over in the bed, untangling their legs and scooting to the edge.
Alex wants to tell him she's sorry to. But she's not. And it's too early in the morning for lies.
*
In the morning Justin pretends to be sick, Alex knows because he has no clue how to fake symptoms. His coughing sounds really fake; he freaks out when their mom tries to take his temperature, and he keeps blinking rapidly like that's convincing everyone he's weak. She's surprised when her mom seems to buy it, but it's probably because Justin never tries to get out of school. One time when he had the flu he attempted to convince their mom he could still go, even after throwing up two minutes prior.
School's unbelievably boring, as usual. Alex doesn't pay attention in any class and she skips P.E. altogether, because who really cares? She tries not to think about how Justin's at home pretending to be ill; she tries not to look like she wants to puke when Harper makes him a huge, elaborately decorated card during lunch. She tries to ignore the knots in the bit of her stomach.
Alex isn't really surprised that she fails at all of it. She keeps thinking about Justin and what happened and how he probably hates her now, and Harper asks her if maybe Justin's contagious, saying she looks really pale. Pretending he is, Alex nods solemnly, then claps her hand over her mouth and runs to the bathroom as if she's going to be sick.
Home isn't much better. Justin is oddly polite and seems to stay as far away from her as possible. When he's watching some stupid show on the History Channel, Alex sits down next to him and he gets up, saying she can have the television. Instead of sitting next to her at dinner like he usually does, he switches seats with their mom, complaining the light from outside is hurting his eyes.
*
She's going to talk to him before they go to bed, but when she goes into the room at eight he's already laying on the ground in his sleeping bag, pretending to be asleep. He isn't; his eyes are shut too tight and his breathing is loud and irregular. Alex doesn't say anything though. She turns off the light and climbs into his bed, staring at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry," she whispers. If he hears her, he doesn't respond.
*
On Wednesday Justin gets up and goes to school. Alex feels relieved. He still isn't really talking to her other than saying what's necessary, putting on a show of politeness for their parents. But she doesn't care, because at least he's getting out of the house. And school always puts Justin in a good mood.
At lunch she notices him sitting alone on a bench in the courtyard. Excusing herself from Harper's story about Jeremy from Science, Alex goes outside, sitting down beside Justin, squinting in the sun.
"Hey," she says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Hi." He puts his water back into his bag and zips it up, throwing it over his shoulder. "I'll see you at home."
"Wait." She reaches out and touches his arm lightly. He freezes. Alex removes her hand and sits on her palms, feeling the pebbly concrete of the bench scratch them. "We should talk about it."
"Alex," he hisses, looking around the courtyard and over his shoulder, like he's worried someone will overhear them. His backpack is starting to slip off his shoulder and he pulls it back up, clutching the strap tightly.
"Please?" She sees him in her periphery vision. He lets his backpack drop to the side of the bench, but his shoulders are tense. "I just want things to be…normal again."
He doesn't say anything for a really long time and the silence makes Alex feel uncomfortable. She shifts on her hands and then Justin inhales sharply, and she lets herself look at him.
"They can't be." It's a decision. A beat later he says, "I'm sorry I kissed you."
"What?" Alex asks, her eyes widening. She frees her hands and pinches the skin between her thumb and forefinger. "You didn't kiss me."
"You don't remember?"
"No, I do. I kissed you."
The words hang in the air for a long time; they go unanswered for so long that Alex concentrates on opening her eyes little by little, adjusting to the sun. Finally, Justin turns his head and looks at her. She stares back, trying to look confident, trying not to blink, but his gaze feels acute and knowing. She thinks he's probably getting all the answers he needs.
"Do you," he says, pausing and pressing his lips together before continuing, "regret it?"
Alex shuts her eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun and Justin's eyes on her face. Her mouth twitches into a small smile. "No."
"Oh." Justin exhales and visibly relaxes. He smiles a little, too.
*
When they get home, the lair is all fixed and her dad wants to start catching up on magic lessons. Alex pays attention for most of it, but she feels like maybe Justin should teach her instead. She asks her dad if that's okay, just so they can get back on track with his lesson plans faster. He agrees as long as it doesn't interfere with Justin's monster hunting.
Her parents say she can sleep on the couch in the lair if she wants, but she sleeps in Justin's room instead. And when her room is fixed, Justin makes her redecorate it just so she can get the spell right. It looks really nice.
She's trying to sleep there one night, but her eyes don't want to close. Alex feels like her room is really hot and thinks that maybe they should turn on the air-conditioning soon. It's almost summer. She tosses and turns for an hour or so, trying to get comfortable. Her toes curl over the edge of the mattress as she slides lower off her pillow, pressing her cheek to a cold patch of sheets.
Looking at the clock, she decides this isn't working. Carefully, she gets out of bed and creaks open her door, looking down the hall. Tiptoeing into Justin's room, she opens and closes the door silently. She's gotten used to sneaking over to her side of the bed (that's how she refers to it now, and it gives her a little start each time she thinks it), pulling the covers back and climbing in.
As soon as she settles in, Justin wraps an arm around her waist and presses a kiss to her earlobe, snuggling into her neck. Alex allows her eyes to flutter shut and breathes slowly, content.
"Hey," she whispers.
"Hi," he mumbles, his lips moving on her skin.
"Goodnight." She turns over in his arms and looks at him for a second, seeing the shape of his closed eyelids, the length of his eyelashes.
" Night."
Burying her face in his chest she sighs, wishing she could lay here forever. And maybe she doesn't want thinks to go back to normal. Alex always thought normal was overrated anyway.
*