Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Thumbelina: I wish I had wings.
Prince Cornelius: Maybe someday you will.

Thumbelina

Chapter Three: You're All I See

It's not like she's mad at him, god. She wishes everyone would quit asking her about it. It started with Harper a week earlier at lunch, then Max questioned her when she got home, later followed by her mom and dad. Maybe she just didn't want to talk to him, okay? Or make fun of him, or prank him, was that too hard to believe? Well, okay, it is kind of hard to believe that in one week Alex Russo would stop teasing her brother.

It's one of the constants in her life, this back and forth thing she has with her brother. Always has had with her brother. One of her first memories is her teasing him about the action figure he wanted, a toy he wanted so bad that he sat in the store and almost cried about it. He was six, almost seven and she was four.

It became normal after that. Picking on Justin, stealing stuff from his room, arguing with him about what was wrong and what was right (she knew the difference between right and wrong, sometimes doing the wrong thing was more fun) but they were always there for each other. He was always bailing her out of whatever situation she may have gotten into. It's just…something's different now.

She notices stuff about him now. Characteristics she's always known about, always ragged on him about, just, well, she used to be annoyed, repelled by these things (maybe not all of them, because she'll admit it is nice to have a door held open for you) and now…

Now she finds herself attracted to these traits.

How sick is that? Justin is her brother, they're related by blood, and it's wrong, and illegal, and she shouldn't want to kiss him, right?

Right.

She needs help. Some serious help. But the person she goes to for help is the cause of her problem. So she's stuck. And frustrated.

And she really wants her brother. Back. She wants her brother back, to talk to, to tease, and to hang out with.

But she's trapped. So she sits in her room when she's not at school and not working. She's actually studied the past few days. So, obviously, something is bothering her. Honestly, if she gets one more C on a paper there may be a call home.

Justin hasn't talked to her since that morning in the kitchen. He hasn't talked to anyone lately. So, maybe she should apologize for ignoring him? He's bothered by it, or so it seems. And she does miss him. She's just afraid.

Afraid that he'll brush up against her and the area will burn for the rest of the day, she's afraid that his hot breathe will hit her ear as he leans in to say something to her and that her stomach will clench from the sensation. Basically, she's afraid that she will feel something she shouldn't.

So, maybe, the situation is okay for now. At least until she figures out how to fix it on her own.

*****

"Did you talk to you brother, yet?" Harper asked from behind her.

Good god, she was still on that? Alex rolled her eyes tiredly and turned to face her best friend, "No, Harper."

Harper sighed unhappily, "Oh, Alex, I'm afraid if you don't talk to him soon you'll really regret it."

Alex rolled her eyes again and turned back to her locker to slam it shut, "Whatever, Harper. It's not like I'm mad at him or anything, it's just…" she trailed off, catching sight of Justin talking to Zeke across the hall, "Complicated."

"Complicated how?" Harper asked, following her friend's gaze.

Alex shook herself out of her daze, "I don't know, Harper. Look, it's nice and all that you want me to apologize to Justin, but I can't, okay? So drop it."

Harper's face fell in disappointment, "Fine, I'll drop it," she raised a finger and pointed at Alex, an annoyed expression on her face, "But you have something special with Justin and you need to fix it. Soon."

"Whatever."

*****

Would it never end? "Dad, you realize that there are only three of us, right?"

"So? Listen, Alex, and pair up with Justin like I told you," Jerry replied.

She scoffed and scrunched up her brow in frustration, "What about Max?"

"He'll pair up with me."

"But you're our teacher!"

"Alex," Jerry warned.

She sighed, crossing her arms across her chest, "Fine."

She turned to Justin, "So…" she started, trying not to look at him. "Umm, I guess we should—"

"I'll do it, don't worry. Just sit there and paint your nails or something."

"You know I don't paint my nails."

Justin sighed heavily, "I know, because you're too busy biting them. Just, Alex, look, sit there and be pretty. I don't care. Just don't talk to me."

Alex tried to hide the wounded look on her face, but he saw it. Instead of apologizing and pulling her to his side for a hug, he went back to work. Not bothering with any words of comfort.

*****

Alex waited until she was in her room, door shut and locked, music on, before she plopped onto her bed and started to cry. Well, sobbed would be more accurate, she turned her face into her pillow and screamed, trying to release everything that had been building up recently.

God, why couldn't she be normal? Not that she had ever really wanted it before. But now, with this and the whole wizard thing…

"Magic," she whispered to no one. She sat up in her bed, wiped away the tears that were now drying on her face. If she couldn't go to her brother about this, couldn't ask him for any sort of help she could turn to magic, right?

She was, after all, a wizard (maybe not the best, but, when she knew a spell well, she knew it well, never had any problem with it.)

There must be some spell out there that she was good at, that she couldn't screw up. That she could use to release these feelings.

She wracked her brain for a moment before it hit her. She scrambled off her bed and searched her room for a blank sketchbook, after a few minutes she found it.

And for the next few hours she devised a story, a whole new world. Just for her and her sick fantasies.

When she was finished she let out a sigh of contentment and she whispered, "Literarium Terrarium."

And she vanished.