(A/N: time to make things emotional and meaningful again, that's why I'm changing my writing style for this fic.)

Disclaimer: don't own it.


Chapter 2: one chance

Dear you,

The first time we talked, we must have noticed sparks fly.

We must have talked about fairytales, about the Sleeping Beauty and her Prince Charming. I must have understood that you have come to me to wake me up from my eternal sleep, to liberate me from my eternal wait...

We must have looked at the night sky and talked to the stars and the moon. I must have looked into your eyes and noticed a magical glow in them…

13. 07.


She climbed down the stairs for dinner, and her limbs froze when she saw him sitting in the chair in front of her destined seat. She had been so used to dining with two family members that the presence of a third one felt so... strange.

She sat on her chair quietly and picked up her fork with her shaking hand, hoping her family wouldn't notice how unusually quiet she was being. Fortunately, they were too busy talking to Justin.

She stabbed her meat with her fork, taking out her anger on Justin, and stuffed it into her mouth, her eyes rolling as her ears paid attention to Justin's voice, narrating some boring story written by some old dude to Max. She never liked studying about French revolution anyway.

And when Justin shot a nervous glance at her direction and their eyes met, she choked herself with her food. He never looked at her, NEVER, when did he start acknowledging her presence? She coughed and spit out the food on a tissue, and he was the first one to hold up a glass of water in her direction.

She grabbed the glass from his hand, a jolt of electricity shooting through her body when their fingers met. But the very next moment, a jolt of anger shot through her- he was never there to help her out for the past thirteen years.

She kept the water within her mouth for a good five minutes, hoping her anger would dissuade- a technique she had learnt from a website. When that didn't help, she excused herself and climbed up the stairs.

She wanted to go to her room and lock them all away, to lock all the thoughts and feelings away, but it felt like her legs had a mind of their own- they carried her to the terrace. She found herself standing at the side of her terrace, leaning over the railing, looking at the bright lights and colors of the city. She looked at a big banner hanging from the wall of a tall building, and her mind read the letters of a certain word over and over again, as if that was the most amusing thing. F. a. m. i. l. y. F. a. m. i. l. y. F. a. m. i. l. y…

She could hear the honking of New York traffic, and see people walking happily. Her eyes caught sight of two little kids- a brother and a sister sharing an ice-cream. And before she even realized it, two tiny tear-drops shot from her eyes.

"Don't cry" came Justin's concerned voice. A startled Alex turned around to find him standing awkwardly, two feet away from her, fidgeting with his hands, his eyes fixed on the ground, breathing irregularly. "Please don't cry." He repeated again.

How in the world did he know she was crying?

She wiped the offending teardrops with her hands a little too harshly-he never wiped her tears for her, and took in a deep breath, trying to stop her sniffles. He held up his handkerchief in her direction, and by instinct, she reached for it and blew her nose into it.

She went to return it back to him, when she noticed that it was ruined, dirty, and he wouldn't touch it. "Sorry for ruining your handkerchief, I'll buy you a new one." She mumbled softly, her voice still cracking with tears.

He shook his head, never looking up from the ground, the glass of his spectacles reflecting the bright street light. "W-w-why are you crying?" he asked hesitantly, his voice shaky and uncertain.

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand, turning around and away from him. He wasn't her brother, he couldn't tell why she was crying just by looking at her, he didn't care, and she now wouldn't let him.

Her ears picked up the sound of foot-steps and she turned around to find Justin standing behind her, staring at her in confusion. Her natural instinct was to move backwards, but her back touched the cold iron railing.

She raised an eyebrow, questioningly him silently.

"D-did I do something wrong?" he asked hesitantly again, in a soft, low voice that was almost buried by the sound of a lively New York.

She let out a small laugh. Gosh, everything was wrong.

His eyebrows narrowed together, his confusion increasing. "I… I am sorry… for whatever I did to hurt you…"

She shook her head, not seeing any point in having the conversation with him. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked instead.

He stirred a bit; startled by the sudden change of topic- his conversation skills weren't that good AT ALL, did he even talk to people? "I…I..." he stuttered nervously.

She almost, almost wanted to lean forward a put an assuring hand on his shoulder. But she couldn't- they never cared for each other.

"I want my sister back." He blurted out nervously, his eyes darting left and right, carefully averting her gaze.

"You said that before." She said, unusually calmly for a short-tempered person like her. "I want to know why."

He sighed and walked to a corner of the terrace, putting his hands on the railing, tapping it in a rhythmic pattern, picking imaginary strings from it.

Yeah, his awkwardness was definitely not showing.

And she definitely didn't remember that he used to do this when they were kids. Of course he wasn't tall enough to reach the top of the railing back then. But she was tall enough to stand next to him and put an arm on his shoulder.

She closedher eyes tightly in her desperate attempt to fight the memory, but that only made the images clearer.

"I…I..." he began again, snapping her out of her trance, and she whined, fearful that he'd be stuck in that 'I' part for another long minute. "I miss you Alex." He said softly, as if he was confessing to a horrible crime, as if what he said was something totally unacceptable.

She scoffed, unable to believe him. "Wow. So one sudden day you realize that you miss me?"

"It wasn't one sudden day." He protested, meeting her gaze and holding it for three seconds, before looking down at the ground again. "It was every day."

"Yes, and that's why you never even talked to me." She snickered, amused by his reasoning. And he's the smart one.

"I…I…" he began stuttering again, and she fought the urge to bang her forehead against the wall. Really? "I thought I wouldn't miss you so much if I tried to forget you..."

"And it didn't work, right?" she asked, her voice venomous, her fiery eyes glaring at him. She could see the lump in his throat as he gulped, and for a moment she almost felt guilty for being so harsh.

He nodded, taking a few hesitant steps towards her. "I… I'm sorry Alex… I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" she asked incredulously. "What made you think that you hurt me? Like I actually care about you!" she cringed when her voice cracked a bit, but this was Justin, he wouldn't notice- he was a stranger after all.

He looked down at the ground guiltily, the fingers of his right hand intertwining with the fingers of his left one, as his own thumbs engaged in a war. "So… you won't give me a chance?"

She just stood there, breathing in and out, in and out; in and out…did she want to give him a chance, after he hurt her so badly?

She felt a tiny drop of liquid fall on her left foot, and after spending a minute of glancing at the sky to see if it was raining, she finally realized that he was crying.

"Justin…" she began, her hand going up to wipe his tears, but freezing in mid-air when she realized she couldn't do it- she had no right to.

She hastily put her hand down, pursing her lips. "Fine… I will give you a chance… just, just stop crying okay?"

Something moved and something happened, and the next thing she knew, Justin was hugging her tightly. Her eyes widened, she wondered when exactly he learned to hug a girl, when exactly he gathered the courage to hug her, but people do tend to act this way when they are emotionally vulnerable. Her eyes slowly drifted shut as she felt his hot tear-drops falling on her shoulder, slowly trailing down her skin. This was a new sensation, a new sort of comforting feeling, and she liked it.

She let out a small laugh, wrapping her arms around his shoulder. "Stop crying like a little girl." She teased.

"Sorry." He mumbled against her skin, still sobbing, and pulled back.

She snorted. "You're a total dork, you know that? I can't be seen going around with something like this! It'll totally ruin my reputation! Yeah, we'll need to work on how you look."

He raised an eyebrow and wiped his tears, a hint of suspicion in his eyes (of course their mother told him about her pranks).

"We will start with the clothes. Let's go shopping tomorrow." She said, gesturing for him to climb down the stairs. "Pink and white is so not a guy combination!"

"These are not mine." He said, much to her relief. "These are my friend Zeke's. I borrowed them because I thought they look cool…"

And there, end of relief. So much for hoping!

"Okay…. Goodnight then." She said as they reached their rooms.

He nodded. "Goodnight Alex…"

When she reached for her doorknob and was about to turn it, she felt a quivering hand above her own, and looked up to see Justin's nervous eyes.

"T-Thanks A-Alex…" he whispered awkwardly, before pulling back and dashing to his room in a hurry.

She stared at his closed door for a minute, trying to comprehend what was happening, and then brought her hand in front of her face, staring at it with wide eyes, wondering why it was trembling.

When she entered her room and changed into her pajamas, ready to hit the bed, she found herself standing in front of the wall that separated her room from Justin, and she wondered what that meant. She looked at the mirror, and sat down in front of her dresser, her hands playing with her lip gloss absent-mindedly, as she studied her face for any sort of sign. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she knew that when she would see it, she would know that was it.

When she woke up in the middle of the night, she found herself facing the wall again. Her eyes lingered on it for a moment, as her mind thought over the day's happenings. There was something right in front of her eyes, something huge, something really important, but somehow she was unable to notice it…She closed her eyes, ignoring the strange feeling in her chest (when did Alex Russo pay attention to feelings?), once again drifting off into peaceful dreams of pink, spectacles, guillotine and stuttering...


(A/N: Am I able to live up to your expectations? This chapter took a bit of effort, because I needed to make their awkwardness show, but well, it's finally up. I decided to change my writing style a bit, because it needs to be serious and meaningful, and I need to pay attention to details. Do you like this style? Do you like this chapter? Please review! This is probably my last update in June, but the more the reviews, the faster the update in July ;))

Note: I won't be using any song for this fic. Instead, every chapter would have those first paragraphs that don't make nay sense now :P