Please Review

Something very strange was happening in the Russo household, though Theresa couldn't really place her finger on what it was. Justin and Alex were actually acting civil towards one another…somewhat. The pranks lessened, in their intensity if not in frequency. Instead of filling his pants with flesh-eating jellybeans, they were slathered in week-old gravy. She stopped kidnapping his action figures and holding them ransom for weeks on end. Although, she did zip his mouth shut for a few days.

Justin, for his part, no longer reacted to her pranks. At least, not in the usual way. There were no screams of protest, no unfulfilled promises of revenge. He threw his pants in the wash. After the mouth-zipping incident, he actually congratulated Alex on her ingenuity. It was beyond weird.

Theresa tried talking to Jerry about it, but he was just happy that the two eldest were finally getting along. He was more concerned with whether or not they should put Max in therapy. After careful consideration of their son's behavior and dwindling common sense over the years, Theresa begrudgingly agreed that that was the more immediate worry.

But that by no means meant she was going to forget about the other two, not by a long shot.

Alex sat in her room, thinking. Which, by definition, meant she was spending way too much time with Justin. But that wasn't something she could help, since thanks to their spell they now spent every night together.

Technically speaking. Justin didn't talk much anymore, and while that was an improvement over the spouting of random facts of knowledge she didn't really care to know about, she missed the conversation. He was distant whenever they hung out, and she thought she knew why.

A few weeks ago, Alex came face to face with the possibility that she might be falling for her brother. As she thought more about it, she found herself attracted, rather than repulsed by the idea. Justin was the ideal guy, though she would never say that to his face. He was intelligent, he was kind, he could be funny if he tried. He had incredible patience. (Who else would put up with all the crap she puts him through?) And he had this insane ability to make Alex feel better, no matter what the situation. He was always there for her, the list went on and on.

In light of her newly discovered feelings, Alex decided it was time to start being nice to Justin. Not too nice, mind you, but nice. She almost always disregarded her first ideas for pranks, which for some reason now included some form of bodily injury and the forceful removal of Justin's shirt. She stopped stealing his money. She actually asked, which surprisingly enough, made him more willing to give it up. If she'd known that, she would've started being nice to him a long time ago.

Then again, maybe not.

And Justin was being nicer to her too, in his way. He wasn't so pissed when she pranked him, which took a lot of the fun out of it. What was the point if he wasn't going to react? He'd actually taken to congratulating her instead, which, if Alex were being honest, worked just as well. He was smiling at her more often too. More than once, he'd take her hand in his. And she would hope.

But it always ended the same way. His brow would furrow, and the smile would disappear. He would let go, make some excuse and walk away. Whenever she tried to get him alone, Max always seemed to be in the room, and Justin made the excuse of helping him with homework or some other thing. Which of course could only mean one thing: Justin was being Mr. Negative, thinking about only the bad things of their being together. It was wrong, she's my sister, blah blah blah. That had crossed Alex's mind too, but she chose to focus on the positive instead.

Justin thought way too much, it was his biggest problem, one she intended to fix.

She didn't stress it too much; she already had a plan in place. What Alex Russo wants, Alex Russo gets, one way or the other.