"Alex, have you heard from Justin today?"

At her father's voice, Alex started, then quickly rolled onto her side in bed, grabbing the quilt and pulling it up. Glancing over her shoulder at her still-sleeping brother Justin, she tugged that part up higher, covering him. "No... no. Why would I have seen -- heard from Justin?" she called back through the door.

"He's supposed to have been down at the sub station for his shift fifteen minutes ago. It's not like him to be late. And he's not answering his cell."

"I'm sure he'll be there soon," she called back, nudging Justin with her foot. "Why don't you head back down, and I'll try calling him again?"

The door started to open -- at the exact moment that Justin awoke and started to sit up. Alex swept her arm back, pushing Justin back down, at the same time calling out, "Just a second!"

The door stopped, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief, then hissed out under her breath, "Stay down!" Justin slid back down under the quilt, and Alex got out of bed, grabbed her robe, belted it on over her naked body, then crossed to the door, tilted her head to look out at her father. "Is there something else?"

"Yeah -- if he doesn't show up, we're going to need you to help with the lunch rush. So, while I know you love sleeping until noon on Saturday, I need you to get dressed and come down."

"Okay," she nodded. "I'll get right on that." She closed the door, locked it, waited three seconds while she listened to her father's footsteps going away. Then she crossed quickly back to the bed.

"Justin! Why didn't you set an alarm?"

"I did," he protested, sitting up. "I set it on my cell phone." He nodded toward it, sitting on Alex's night table. She picked it up, looked at it, rolled her eyes, then tossed it to him.

"Yeah -- battery's dead, genius. Which is why dad's calls didn't get you either. You'd better hurry up. You know dad -- I'm sure he's already docking your pay in his head."

Nodding, Justin slipped out of bed, stood up, reached for his clothes and started to pull them on.

"No -- those look like you slept in them! Here." Grabbing her wand off the desk, Alex gave it a flip and wave, saying, "You need some clothes, but no, not those. Here's an outfit that just might fit!"

Justin looked himself up and down, then looked over at Alex with a raised eyebrow. "While I'm sure this would look good on you, a skirt over tights isn't my thing."

"Oh, damn -- I was thinking about what I was going to wear today. Here -- You need some clothes, but no, not those. Here's an outfit that just might fit!"

This time, Justin nodded and smiled. "Nice. And clean too. Which reminds me, I ought to take a --"

Before he could finish, Alex waved her wand again, and a breeze rippled across Justin, leaving him feeling dry and clean. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Nice job." Then he frowned. "But you're not supposed to be using magic without supervision."

"Yeah, and you supervised me. Now get going." He started for the door, and Alex shook her head. "Justin! Where's your brain this morning? You come down from upstairs, and Dad'll know --"

"That I can teleport? He knows that." He smiled, then stepped to his sister, wrapped his arms around her, gave her a quick kiss. "I'll tell him the truth -- that my cell phone battery died, so my alarm didn't go off, so I teleported here and came down."

"You didn't teleport here, though."

"Sure I did -- I just won't tell him that it was to your room, at two o'clock last night. I know I'm a lousy liar -- that's why I just edit the truth." Justin smiled and raised his eyebrows. "I'm getting pretty good at it, don't you think."

"Yes, yes -- now get down there before dad comes back up looking for me."

"Okay." He gave her another kiss, then headed downstairs.

*

"Justin, that was too close earlier. You need to stop sleeping here."

"Alex!" Justin looked around the sub shop quickly, then leaned over to Alex and hissed a whisper. "Ixnay on the ...." There was a moment's pause, and Alex gave him an expectant look, smiling. "Don't talk about that out here. Somebody might hear."

Rolling her eyes, Alex replied, "Who's going to hear? Dad's in the kitchen making sandwiches, Mom's gone upstairs for her break, Max is busy doing... whatever it is he does, and the customers couldn't care less if we were strangling each other over here."

"And," she went on, "that's what I want to talk to you about."

"Strangling each other?" Justin shook his head. "Okay, I know you like it to hurt, but I think that's going too far --"

"No, not strangling. Keeping track of where people are. I'm good at it, because, well, I've been sneaking things past the rest of the family since I was six."

"Six?"

"Yeah... that was when I kept hiding your Tamagotchi. Oh, that was so much fun, watching you run around in a panic, saying it was going to die... but that was wrong, and I'm not doing things like that any more," she said, seeing Justin's hurt-puppy look. "Anyway, the point is, I'm good at sneaking, and you're not. So, you need to stop spending the night over here. I'll come over there."

"Yeah, but no one's going to notice if I'm missing in the middle of the night...."

"... and no one's going to care if they find me in your room in the middle of the night, while people here will care if they find you in my room. Trust me. I'm the one who's good at this, remember?"

Justin opened his mouth to reply, stopped, closed it, frowned for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. I have to agree that you're better at being sneaky and underhanded."

"Awww...." Alex gave Justin a quick hug. "You say the sweetest things."

"I know." He smiled and reached out for Alex's hand, but she stepped away, shaking her head.

At Justin's puzzled look, Alex whispered, "Mom's coming down the stairs."

He turned to look, and, indeed, she came into view a few seconds later. "How do you do that?"

"Like I said, I've been practicing since I was six. It's just instinct now. Oh, and here comes dad, then Max will be here in... thirty seconds."

Their dad came out of the kitchen. "Justin? I've got three orders ready back here. What's taking so long?"

"Right on it," he replied, and headed into the kitchen.

"So, Alex," their mom said, "what were you and Justin talking about?"

"Just a minute," she replied, holding up her hand. "One thousand twenty, one thousand twenty-one, one thousand twenty-two...."

Max came running down the stairs, and Alex frowned. "Eight seconds off? Wow, I'm losing my touch. So, Mom, you were saying?"

"Oh, just wondering what you and Justin were talking about."

"Old times. Me stealing his Tamagotchi, that kind of thing."

"Oh. Well... I'm glad you two are getting along so well lately. I guess you've realized how much you really love your big brother, now that he's not around all the time."

"Yeah." Alex smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's it exactly."