Disclaimer: I do not own wowp. All "fan" characters mentioned here are imaginary and not modeled on anybody in the fandom.
A/N: 1. This was beta-d (Read: fixed/made readable) by Save Vs Magic. Every dorky reference came from him. So all flames should be directed at him, not me XD
2. This takes place in the OTP verse, but is an independent fic- it does not affect the course of OTP.
Alex always suspected reading was bad, but she knew it would get her into trouble the day she first laid her eyes on the Harper-istically shinning covers of the Charmed and Dangerous books.
And now it had happened. All the feelings that she shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't have, were doing the salsa right there in her heart. Of course, she was trying to fight it, but it just wasn't working anymore. Hadn't been for awhile, if she was completely honest with herself.
Sitting on her Macbook, in front of the open window, staring at the julia_alan home page on Livejournal, it was so hard to think that what she was feeling was wrong. Because if it was, then why did thousands of people all over the world ship Julia and Alan? Surely, so many people weren't wrong?
And there, right there. The train of thought that this thought was evoking in her mind was the reason for her worry - if they liked, loved, obsessed over Julia and Alan Rubik, wouldn't they be ok with Justin and Alex Russo?
The fact that she was actually thinking of this possibility, that she was actually considering getting together with her own brother, was scary enough. But what she was going to do was even scarier.
She told herself it was a bad idea, but really, when had that ever stopped her? All she had to do was put on the invisibility spell on herself, and use make-them-ups to travel to where these "shippers" were, watch them closely for a while to make sure they weren't whackos and see if they were all right to talk to, and then go visible again and ask them if they'd be okay if Julia and Alan happened in real life. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, she could mess up the spells, she could forget she's invisible and start talking, freaking someone out, or she could -
Yeah, to hell with all that. She willed the cautionary voice in her head (which sounded surprisingly like Justin's) to shut the hell up already. Thinking never led to anything good. It was almost as bad as reading, or maybe worse.
She glanced at the screen once again, though; at one of these "posts" where people were actually saying that they'd be okay with… you know... in real life. Wasn't that proof enough?
Oh sure, why not? Just like how she posts nice little comments in Gigi's YouTube from her secret account. Pfft! People can say anything and be anyone online! As if somebody would express their real views on the fandom. Pssh, that'd be like going against the pairing itself! And the first rule of the C&D fandom was that you never bashed Jalan. Never. Not unless you wanted to find yourself flamed harder than anyone since Joan of Arc, anyway.
With that thought in mind, Alex grabbed her wand. Her heart was beating first- was she actually going to do this?- but she wasn't going to turn back. OK, now to pick her first guinea-pig. Hmmm…. this girl, here, liked Julia. Like, a lot. Wow, looked like a crazy fan. Right then, start with her. It never hurt to overhear somebody singing her praises, after all.
On first glance, she thought that she had screwed up the spell and come back to her own room somehow, because, hello, messy much? Taking a closer look around, though, she realized she was somewhere else, hopefully in her intended location.
She chuckled to herself. If Justin was here, he'd probably start cleaning it up and arranging the books, like he had done hers for nineteen times before he finally gave up. Or maybe he would have started yelling about how they shouldn't be here, how they would get into trouble if they got caught, blah blah blah. The smile slowly abandoned her face, as she remembered what had brought her here, and she let out a sigh, willing herself to stop thinking about Justin- thinking never led to anything good, after all.
It was silent for a while, and she almost forgot about her mission and started to rummage through the girl's desk to find anything that she could possibly pass off as her 10th pending assignment. Then there was a sudden noise from outside the room, and she jumped to hide in the messy closet, only to remember that, duh, she was invisible! She rolled her eyes, and sat down right in the middle of the bed, popping the girl's marshmallows into her mouth. If Justin was there, he'd probably have been hiding under the bed, paranoid about getting caught. She grinned to herself. Now that's a prank idea.
In a moment, two girls walked in through the room, threw their backpacks on the desk, and sat down on the bed. And now she was confused. Which was the fan, and which was the friend? Ugh, really? Did they have to travel in groups of two? On second thoughts, Justin's idea that everyone should wear nametags wasn't so bad. (As long as the weren't using stupid Captain Jim Bob pins like he suggested.)
"I can't believe it!", one girl began, breaking Alex's chain of thoughts, and putting on a look of disbelief that Alex thought was too fake. "Can you believe they have been secretly dating all this time?"
"I know, right?" The other girl piped in quickly, mirroring the first girl's expressions, and making Alex roll her eyes. "He doesn't look gay. I mean, he never wears pink…."
The first girl dismissed her with the wave of her hand. "He watches chick flicks. He's seen Another Cinderella Story, like, a billion times. He's so gay. We should have known."
The second girl nodded quickly, and hesitantly looked around. "So what do we do now? Should we stop talking to him?"
Alex held back a snort. Going by that logic, Justin was so gay. And really? Discriminate against someone because they're gay? Judge somebody because of who they love? She'd read a lot about these stereotypes, she'd just never met them. And now that she had, she kind of wished she hadn't.
"Of course!" the girl replied with such finality, it made Alex flinch. "What he's doing is wrong. We won't talk to him ever again."
And Alex got up. There, she had heard more than enough, her work was done. If these people couldn't be ok with their friend being gay, oh hell, they'd worship her and Justin together, maybe even build their statues beside the Statue of Liberty and turn it into a bigger tourist spot.
And oh, by the way, the way she "accidentally" tripped on the desk and made everything fall and made the girls scream and run and yelp in fear of a ghost? Yeah, that was totally unintentional. Totally.
She was in her next location, sprawled on the next bed, bored out of her mind just by looking at the neatly organized room that reminded her so much of Justin's, and almost drifting off to sleep. That's when the door opened with a loud thud, and startled her, making her throw a punch in this air.
"He is not right for you!" one girl screamed, barging into the room.
A younger girl followed - her sister, Alex assumed. She was looking down at the floor, tears welling up in her eyes. "But why not?"
"Because…. I don't have to give you a reason." The older girl crossed her arms over her chest. "I just don't think you two should be together."
Alex snorted. That's the kind of the lecture Justin had been giving her about Mason. Except, you know, Justin wasn't so judgmental. (Or wrong, for that matter, not that she'd ever tell him that.)
"You two should break off. And get out of my room." The older sister added, before storming out of the room, leaving the younger one crying.
Oh, wow, Alex thought to herself. Normally, she wouldn't be someone who'd wanna listen to a long list of reasons. But, really? You could tell someone they shouldn't be together, just like that? Forget asking this chick then, huh?
OK, she must have messed up the spell this time, because this was the locker room of some school. Oh God no, not a school, that's the last place where she needed to be. She could almost picture Justin coming out of the- oh fuck. Could she just stop thinking about Justin long enough and get her job done? And how was she going to do that? How was she going to figure out which one was the girl she was looking for?
She almost had a mini heart attack when the school bell shrieked suddenly, and swarms of kids came out. She leaned against a locker and yawned. This was definitely a bad idea.
"But… but you met him online." She heard the girl in the locker on which she was leaning, whispering, as if this was a big secret. Alex chuckled to herself. Knowing High School, nothing was a secret...except, you know, magic.
"You don't know anything about him", the girl continued, "He could be old and married."
"I know the risks!" the girl she was talking to snapped. "And I'm gonna take the risks. I really like him. And I've gotten to know him so well, Mel." She slammed her locker closed, and looked her friend directly in the eye. "Will you never be ok with it?"
The friend sighed, and looked away. "Your secret is safe with me. I mean, you've kept my whole jalan obsession a secret too…. but I think you're making a huge mistake."
Alex held back a gasp with much difficulty. Hypocritical much? She can ship an incest pairing from a freakin' kids book series, but not support her friend's online dating? Wow, what an amazing fandom this was turning out to be.
Well, strike three, then. So much for that little experiment. No point in looking further, right?
With a sinking heart, Alex returned to her room, and plopped down onto her bed. She knew it was a bad idea, from the very beginning. It was useless. Hopeless. She had always known it was going to be this way- she wasn't a two year old child, or Max- but a part of her had still hoped that maybe, maybe it won't be so bad. Now everything was crystal clear- nobody was going to support her and Justin. It was all…. doomed.
Maybe she was the insane one. She had to be, she was falling for...
"Hey", Justin tapped on the wood of her open door, looking at her with a suspicious glare, that look that said "I know what you've been up to and I'm not going to get you out of it this time", the look he gave her right behind he jumped in to fix her mess. "You've been away from a while. What did you do?"
"Go away!" she yelled, throwing her pillow at him. "I didn't do anything, dork!"
He eyed her from head to toe, and looked around her room too. Seeing nothing, and not wanting to push, he sighed. "Okay", he paused for a moment, to glance at her once more, and finally closed the door.
Alex sighed. Why did he have to be freaking there for her all the time and make this knot in her heart twist and turn even more? God could this get any more-
"Hey", he opened the door again, and peeped his head in. She kind of hated how she noticed how his hair looked fluffy today, and the shirt he was wearing was the one she'd hidden in Max's room. "I know I'm going to regret this, but um, if you need help…"
She nodded, silently thanking him with her eyes, before letting out a scoff. "Yeah I know where to find Max."
He rolled his eyes, nodded back, and left.
Left her wondering, how could love ever be wrong?
And how could people judge? Did they know her? Or Justin? Did they know how perfect everything felt when they were together? Did they have any idea how much they loved and cared about each other?
No. No, they didn't. And nobody ever would. Because even if something did happen between her and Justin - OK, when it happened, because who was she kidding, really? - they were going to have to keep it a secret from the whole world. Because if even the Jalan shippers were too close-minded to accept them, they didn't have a snowball's chance in hell with the rest of the world.
But this was their life, their choice, and they were going to live it their way. Who the hell were people with nothing better to do with their lives to judge?
A/N: just an idea, now it's out of my head, so peace out XD Reviews are much appreciated. Thanks for reading :)
