Hello!

This is a fast update, I know. Time is in my hands, that's my argument. However, it's short, but I hope you like it. You guys should review! I love to see this is actually getting visits and all, but I would love if you told me what you think about it. So, leave a review or tweet me at HeyThereDelena and just let me know what you think. I'd love you more than I already do if you did that.

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Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I do own the plot, so there is that.


Chapter IV: Breathless

Something inside Mitchie's mind couldn't believe what she was seeing. There she was, Alex Russo, with her long and straight dark hair down to her chest, wearing a beige coat and a Moroccan red scarf over it, her hands inside her pockets, bright smile on her face and Mitchie couldn't believe it.

Still beautiful, still taller.

"You look fantastic," Mitchie heard Alex say, automatically looking down at what she was wearing. Her black coat, an old t-shirt, her favorite pair of blue jeans and boots.

"I–I guess, yeah." She mumbled and Alex chuckled.

"And I still make you nervous, it seems." Mitchie raised her eyebrow, as she walked towards Alex. The other girl kept her smile.

"Now that's just your ego talking, you don't," Mitchie replied. "Anyone would think that by now, it would have exploded a long time ago." Mitchie stood in front of Alex and the New Yorker wrinkled her nose, still smiling. "Nah, it just expands."

Mitchie rolled her eyes, being unable to suppress a smile this time. "It's been such a long time and you might never change, huh?"

Alex chuckled again, looking down for a second. Then, she connected her eyes with the shorter girl again. "I really am glad to see you."

Mitchie's smile grew, briefly. She tapped Alex's forearm with her hand and walked past her. "Let's go before I change my mind."

Alex bit her upper lip, still smiling, looking at Mitchie walking away, slowly but steady. "Let's go, then." She whispered and followed Mitchie.

Alex never really expected Mitchie to say yes. She was prepared for the worst, yet she seemed to be receiving the best. This was the universe telling her not to screw it up this time. However, being prepared for the worst, she hadn't really planned anything in case Mitchie were to say yes to her invitation. What was she going to do? She sort of had to impress the older girl so she wouldn't take back the opportunity she was giving her. But how to do it? Well, with Mitchie, it had always been about one thing: simplicity. So, once she caught up to Mitchie, they walked side by side through the streets of New York, in a comfortable silence between them. The city was loud and busy as every day, but there was something in the silence they were sharing that made it all seem quiet. Like once of those moments when no matter what's around you, everything feels just fine.

"So you and Caitlyn remained close." Alex started after a while, looking at the girl next to her. Mitchie flicked her hair off her shoulder and slightly nodded.

"Just like you and Harper."

Alex shrugged. "Harper and I don't know how not to be friends, to be honest. She has been there all my life; I really can't imagine how it would be if she wasn't there," Alex responded, staring at the slow movement of the clouds above the tall skyscrapers. She continued talking; telling Mitchie about her friendship with Harper, but Mitchie dozed out for a moment. She looked at Alex, paying as much attention as possible. She needed to read the signs to stop her from being a fool in that moment, in case this was another of Alex Russo's games. However, it wasn't long enough before she started noticing what she shouldn't have. Physically, Alex hadn't changed that much. Her features were still delicate, soft. She still looked like the kind of person that for some reason would make you feel the need to talk to her and the way her lips moved while she talked still was kind of distracting. Nevertheless, every time she would smile, there was something hiding behind it.

Nobody did actually know, but Mitchie had always been a good observer and back in the day, the one thing she liked to do was observing Alex, no matter how creepy that sounded, because Alex was an enigma to anyone that had ever come across her. Alex liked to always be smiling, always be joking, but, every time, Mitchie would notice how her eyes would never flick at anything. It was really and completely rare to get a good, genuine smile out of Alex Russo and Mitchie knew, because she had gotten a few. And she still remembered every single one of them. Although Alex hated when people knew more things about her that what she liked to share, Mitchie had always been aware of how much the New Yorker had to hide, things that maybe Harper herself never knew about it. But she'd never know, because pressuring Alex Russo was one of those things you didn't do –It never worked. If she wanted you to know something about her, she'd tell you. If not, then, sorry, but you weren't ever going to know.

"… I'd really think I'd be a disaster without Harper, to be honest." Mitchie heard Alex finish, taking her out of her thoughts. She smiled, trying to pretend she had listened to what the other girl was saying, hoping Alex wouldn't notice.

Thankfully, she seemed clueless. "Caitlyn and I, to the difference of you and Harper, argue a lot, but we wouldn't be Caitlyn and Mitchie if it wasn't that way. I guess it's always different."

"Yeah, I agree," Alex said, looking back to Mitchie. "I mean, we never fought."

Mitchie scoffed. "We avoided our problems, which is different."

"No," Alex denied, shaking her head side to side as she did so. "We didn't like to stay mad at each other."

That annoyed Mitchie. "Yet we still managed to not talk to each other for five years," Mitchie said, stopping in her tracks in the middle of the streets. Alex stopped too, sighing, clearly frustrated. She expected something like this, yes she did, but it still was bothering her. Just one comment and it all the minutes they had spent in peace were down the drain. "It seems really contradicting to me, don't you think?"

"I'm sorry, alright?" Alex said, exasperated. "I know it was my fault and I'm sorry, but you never tried to do something about it either, so you need to stop making it seem as it was my entire fault because it wasn't!"

Mitchie grimaced, irritated. "What would have been the point, anyway? You didn't care. The only thing you wanted was your precious little girlfriend and you didn't care about anything else. you didn't care about what you were doing, who you were hurting as long as your fucking girlfriend was happy. You would have blown me off if I had gone to you and tried to talk to you, just like you did with everything else!"

Alex ran her fingers through her hair. "I was a fucking teenager! I barely knew what I was doing! She was my girlfriend and I had to please her!"

"And I was you friend and I deserved to be treated as one not just another person that you would see in the street and never talk to again!"

What Mitchie didn't know was that Alex had spent just as much time as she did trying to understand her, and while Mitchie Torres still remained a mystery to the New Yorker; she had learned a few things. And right there, when she was yelling at her, she was sure of what she had to do. A few people passed them by, rushing to whatever they had to do, yet the time stopped for Alex. She took a deep breath, being completely aware that she could end up injured because of it; she went on and wrapped her arms around Mitchie, tightly. Mitchie's yelling stopped, but she tried to push Alex away for a few moments. She could feel the tiny shorter girl fighting against her embrace –she didn't want to fall for it, for the warmth Alex could give her. She didn't want to trust her again. Nevertheless, she couldn't resist after what appeared like years to the young Russo. She felt Mitchie slowly relaxing in her embrace and not long after, the hug was returned. The brunette rested her head on Alex's shoulder and sighed.

"I'm sorry," Mitchie whispered and Alex smiled, resting her head on top of Mitchie's. She wasn't that much taller, but it worked out.

"I'm sorry, too."

From that moment on, nothing about that matter that had kept them away from each other for so long needed to be said. They came to a silent agreement of letting it behind and looking ahead, because there was no need to look back at old wounds. They had been covered a long time ago, anyway. They were now just two known strangers, trying to discover each other, again. That way, the rest of the afternoon was filled with questions that had been asked before; walking down that gigantic park Mitchie had loved for as long as she could remember. A park she once had told Alex she'd love to visit. She might had a lot of time visiting it, but doing it for the first time with Alex was nicer than she ever thought it would. For the day, they were teenagers again, not having any other worries but trying not to forget the information that was being given about each other back and forth.

The rest would come when it had to.

After exploring a significant part of Central Park, enjoying the wonderful autumn weather and talking like if there was no tomorrow, Alex took Mitchie home, hoping with all her faith Caitlyn wouldn't be there –Mitchie had told her about it and she could be taller, but there wasn't anything scarier than Caitlyn being upset. And Mitchie laughed a lot after being told.

"She's going to be really pleased to hear that." Mitchie said with a laugh, as they walked down the hallway of the floor Mitchie's apartment was in.

Alex rubbed her cheek, uncomfortable. "Does she really hate me that much?" Mitchie stopped at the door Alex assumed was her apartment and started unlocking the door as the other girl watched.

"No, she doesn't. It's not in Caitlyn to hate people." Mitchie said, and once the door was unlocked, she looked back to Alex, before opening it. "She just doesn't like you and has been waiting for an opportunity to kick your ass."

Alex swallowed, loudly and Mitchie chuckled at her silliness, opening the door. "Cait?" She called, her happiness being noticeable in her voice. She got no response and Alex relaxed. Mitchie raised an eyebrow, and took her phone out of her pocket, looking at the hour. "It's almost eight, she should be here." She whispered, more to herself than anything. Alex waited in silence. "I guess she's having dinner with her parents tonight."

Alex started at Mitchie, surprised. "How do you know?"

Mitchie shrugged, resting it importance. "It's Thursday. Her mother likes to have her over on Thursdays all day, which is why I was with Shane. She just usually skips dinner. Dinners are our time."

Alex nodded in understanding and Mitchie rested her shoulder on the door frame, crossing her arms over her chest. "So, thanks for today. It was really nice." Alex smiled, putting her hands inside her coat's pockets like she'd always do.

"Thanks for accepting." Alex replied. "Can I guess this means we get to be friends again?"

Mitchie looked down, biting her lip. Then, she looked up and smirked. Something inside Alex stopped as she did that, but she tried to keep it cool. "I guess so, yeah."

The New Yorker grinned, hoping her voice wouldn't betray her. "Good."

"Good." Mitchie repeated, still smirking.

Alex shifted on her feet, nervous. "So, can I see you tomorrow?" Mitchie raised both of her eyebrows, surprised. Alex Russo was never one to ask for things. She was the kind of girl that if she wanted something she'd get it, point being proved earlier that day. But standing there, in front of Mitchie, she felt like a defenseless little child and she didn't know why she was so nervous. And the worst of it was how much Mitchie was noticing.

"Give me a call tomorrow, and we'll see."

Alex licked the back of her teeth. "O–Okay." She babbled and cursed herself internally for doing so.

Mitchie's smirk couldn't be bigger. It actually was more of a grin by that moment. "Goodnight, Alex." And with no warning whatsoever, Mitchie moved from the door frame and leaned in, slightly standing on her toes and giving Alex a quick peck on the cheek. Before she could register what had happened, Alex's face turned a shade of red it had never turned before, a lump forming in her throat.

Her heart was going to get out of her chest. "Goo–Goodnight, Mitch."

Pleased with the reaction obtained, Mitchie walked into the apartment and closed the door behind her. Alex stood there, speechless and red-faced, surprised. Way too surprised, in fact. She had always known about the Alex Effect, which seemed to be useless the entire afternoon. But, The Mitchie Effect?

"Damn it." She mumbled, breathlessly. The raven haired girl blinked a couple of times, trying to come out of her trance. "I don't blush." She covered her face, still not believing it. "I don't blush." She repeated, but little did she know, that wasn't going to be the last time.