Justin Russo was laying down on the bed: Tired; exhilarated.

Next to him, his sister, Alex. The blanket was down to her pubic region, her breasts exposed to the ceiling above, which Justin stared at as if he were afraid it would crash down on him.

"Alex." He said, his voice gravelly. "We made a mistake."

Not moving, she turned to look at him. "You had 45 minutes to realize that and you realize it after we, well . . ."

"Obviously," Justin scoffed. "I wasn't thinking then." He banged his fist lightly on the mattress, but hard enough so that Alex felt a vibration. "Damn it."

"Well, Justin," Alex said, hoping to diffuse him. "We did it and . . . it's over."

Justin was looking at the ceiling, but he still had the pictures in his mind of what he had done. He had the picture of her under him, looking at him. The way her face had contorted in pleasure. Since he couldn't get the visions out of his mind, he looked over at her anyway. It was not as if the visions were not strong enough already.

"Yeah," he said. "Over. Then what are you still doing here?"

"Honestly?" She stifled her laugh as much as she could. "You wore me out." He gave her a tight-lipped smile, not able to keep a gaze.

"Well, according to my wall clock it is 11:40. We already did it and . . ." he relented. "You can stay here tonight if you don't want to go back to your room. " Alex turned her head back and looked at the same ceiling as Justin. She felt if she got up, she would not be able to walk. Even lying here in the bed, her legs felt like sticks of butter or jelly.

"Justin?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did this happen?" He didn't answer. Alex sighed and put her arm over her breasts with one hand and ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. He suddenly spoke, sending a shiver through her as she anticipated an answer that she could not predict.

Nothing could be predicable anymore after tonight.

"When we were having sex, that's what I was wondering. How did it get to this point." Now it was his turn to sigh. "And I still don't know, Alex. I don't know."

"That helps," she said. Justin immediately thought that her sarcastic personality was partially what had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

"Well, I'm sorry," Justin muttered, giving her an eye. "I've never been in a situation like this before." He immediately felt sorry for losing his patience a little and he found her hand and grasped it in his. "We'll be okay, Alex." He squeezed her hand, her warmth against his. He forced himself not to think of the 40 minutes. Alex looked down. Their hands were barely hidden underneath the blanket. For some reason, it did give her a bit of comfort to feel Justin after their horribly awkward, yet highly satisfying encounter. Alex had to admit it. It had been satisfying. Though she was not going to admit that to Justin. Not yet. She was tempted to tell Justin that they probably should not touch. After having him inside of her, his body lined with her own, it seemed out of place for her to let go of her hand. The feel of his thick skin over bone was imminent.

Laying there, Justin zapped his alarm clock so that it was set for 6:15 for school.

"You know," Alex said. "I'm trying to sleep, but I can't."

"You're shaking. Are you cold or just nervous?" Alex looked back at him and almost didn't answer after looking into his deep eyes that seemed to search inside her. She had not realized she was shaking. She rationalized that her thoughts consumed her.

"I—I don't know." She said. Not knowing why, Justin hoisted himself up a little, pulled Alex toward him and nestled her against his body, her back against her chest. Neither of them spoke, and two minutes later, the siblings fell asleep in each others arms.

The alarm clock sounded like a faraway chime to Justin and Alex, who had gotten less than 7 hours of sleep. Justin didn't want to reach over and turn it off. He was so comfortable. So comfortable . . . with his arm around Alex and another over her torso, his hand landing at her hip. They had moved positions considerably in the night. He zapped the alarm clock with his finger and Alex stirred.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Justin prodded her with his arm, tapping the fleshy pads of two fingers on her stomach and bent his head down to kiss her forehead. "Time to get up and face the day." Alex, too, was comfortable with Justin holding her, but this was her brother. And he was holding her naked. Suddenly, yesterday seemed far away. She lifted herself from Justin and was pleased when she was able to stand as if yesterday she had just fallen asleep in Justin's bed. Justin made sure to turn away when the blanket fell to the bed and her nakedness emerged from its obscured view. Alex zapped on some clothes and zapped her hair straight. Her brother, ever still on a straight and narrow path when it came to magic, shucked some clothes on himself and smoothed his hair.

"I guess . . ." Alex said, looking dressed and fresh. "I'll meet you in the bathroom." Justin looked over at her. "Okay." He forced a grin.

No, they did not need to talk about it. If it happened a second time, sure, they would talk about it much more. Right now, he figured getting back to normal life was a big step in the right direction. He walked out of his room, closed the door and entered the bathroom, where Alex was already brushing her teeth.

It was as if nothing had happened. Justin grabbed his own toothbrush and brushed next to her, as he had done many mornings. As always, they had their little competition as to who could brush faster and had fun swishing their mouthwash. It was easy to act normal because before last night, they had been doing so all their lives.

"Before you do your hair gel," Alex said. "I have to use the bathroom."

"Okay." He said, getting ready to leave.

"You know," she continued. "If fighting brought us to last night, maybe we should really try not to fight anymore. See how that works."

"We are going to fight," Justin said. "Just that we should try to give in faster. And it doesn't matter who gives in."

"Right."

"It's not a contest," he added, looking straight at her. "Okay. Going now." Alex gave a little wave with her fingers. On the toilet, she gasped and held her breath in when what seemed like a dream turned into reality again when she discovered residue from last night. Feeling a bit numb and lightheaded, she cleaned herself up and flushed the toilet and then let Justin back in the bathroom. While he did his hair gel, she put on her makeup.

"Hey, Justin?" Alex asked, slowly applying lip liner.

"What's up?"

"Do girls look different after . . ."

"After what—oh, no, no. Of course not. They look exactly the same. I promise."

"Good," she said. "You on the other hand, you look like a stud." Shocked, and excited, Justin accidentally elbowed his hair gel into the sink and got closer to the mirror. "I do?" Alex nudged him. "No, of course not Justin. I was kidding. You still look like the same science geek that can't kiss a girl after the tenth date."

"You don't kid a guy about that stuff," Justin said, grinning at her. She smiled right back at him. Per haps they could salvage this after all. With Justin's sensibility and her sense of humor (which he obviously lacked), they could easily put the past behind them.

"What's for breakfast?" Justin cheerfully asked, coming down the stairs, Alex behind him.

"Eggs or a muffin. What do you want?" Theresa asked. Jerry, drinking his coffee, smiled at his kids.

"Muffin," Justin and Alex said at the same time. They looked at each other in shock.

"Too bad," Max said. "There were only 2 muffins and I took 1."

'You can take the muffin," Justin said to Alex.

"That's nice of you to give the muffin to Alex," Theresa beamed. "Now if all mornings could be this peaceful I would be so thankful."

"Well, we'll try," Alex said, grabbing the blueberry muffin. "Dad, what time is it?"

"6:55, to be exact," Jerry replied. Alex shrugged a little and took a huge bite out of her muffin. She went over and fluffed Max's wavy hair. "Give the boy a haircut," she joked. She liked his hair, in fact. She thought it added character. A few feet away from her, Theresa served Justin a scrambled egg. "Hurry up," she said, and started bustling around getting the sandwich shop ready for customers. "Jerry!"

"I'm hurrying!" he yelped. "Gosh, every morning she is "do this, do that." However, he muttered it so no one really heard him.

Alex finished her muffin in record time, hopping off the stool and throwing the bottom paper in the trash can. "C'mon, Maxie. You ready yet?"

"Hey, hey," he said. "Give a man time to savor his food."

"A man? Max, you're my baby brother. You still need to wear diapers."

"I only wet the bed because I fell asleep after too much orange soda," Max mumbled. "It won't happen again." Alex and Justin laughed at the memory and Alex ruffled his head.

"I hope you learned from that," Jerry said. "Orange soda ONLY in moderation."

"Right," Max said, his voice trailing off. "I'm done."

"I'll be right behind you guys," Justin said, gulping his eggs and slinging his backpack soon after his brother and sister exited the shop. "Bye, guys."

"Have a good day at school, honey!" Theresa waved at Justin with a large smile on her face. "Gosh. Is he a damn good kid or what?" She said to Jerry. He spooned eggs into his mouth and nodded. Meanwhile, Justin ran up to Alex and Max and they started on the trek to the subway station. Just another Friday rush. But Alex and Justin were both thinking that they were glad it was Friday. It would be nice to have 2 days to fully get acclimated to what would ultimately be a new relationship with what had occurred last night. Right now, the two siblings felt as if they were winging it.