For a moment, the brothers just looked at each other. Justin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Max pulled away from him, jerking his shoulder from under Justin's hand and taking a step back down the stairs. As he stepped back, Max pulled out his wand and leveled it at Justin, glaring at him. "Don't touch me," Max said, his voice cold and hard in a way Justin had never heard from him before.
"Max… it's okay." Justin took a step back as well and raised his hands as he did, holding them palms out at the level of his chest. "I'm not going to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you. Even if I did," he said, dropping his voice to just above a whisper, "I don't have powers any more. I'm no possible threat to you."
Max kept his wand up, shifted down another step. He licked his lips, swallowed. "I don't care," Max said then. "Just… just stay back. I don't trust you."
"It's me, Max. I'm not him. You know me - I'd never hurt anybody. Especially you, or Alex, or Mom and Dad -"
"I don't know that any more," Max said, shaking his head. "I don't know who you are."
Justin blinked, then tried again. "Max, please. I know what you remember. I remember it too." Justin swallowed, said, "I wake up at night, shaking from remembering it. He… he was a monster. But I'm not him."
"I remember all right," Max answered. "I remember promises. I remember excuses. I remember lies. He sounded just like you. He had an answer for everything too. And when he didn't -" He stopped, shook his head quickly, then raised the wand again. "Nex -" Max intoned, and Justin lunged forward, grabbed Max's forearm and pushed up, at the same time clamping his hand over his younger brother's mouth.
They both fell down onto the stairs, and Justin grunted in pain as the edge of a step struck him in the ribs. Max tried to turn his head away, to get his mouth free of Justin's hand, but Justin held on with everything he had, squeezing Max's wrist as hard as he could at the same time, trying to get him to drop the wand. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, "but I can't let you -"
"STOP IT!" They both looked at the yell, to see Tutor standing at the bottom of the stairs, carrying a toiletry bag. "What are you two doing?"
Both the brothers froze for a moment, looking first down at Tutor, then at each other. Blushing, Max let go of his wand. It clattered on the stairs, bouncing down a few steps, and with it safely out of reach, Justin released Max's mouth and wrist. "It's... it's nothing," Max said.
Justin sagged a little with relief, said, "It was just… a misunderstanding. Max is… still very tense."
"Yeah," Max said, nodding. Tutor came up the stairs to them, then took Max's hand and helped him up, looking concerned.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, and Justin's mouth twisted a little. Is he okay? He's not the one who just had a wand pointed at him. A black feeling arose with the thought, but Justin closed his eyes for a moment and stomped on it. No. This isn't about me. Max is the one who's been hurt here.
Getting to his feet, Justin moved back up a step. "I didn't know you'd be coming up this way," he said. "I was just going down to get Lexie's purse - she left it in the car." He paused a moment, and Max and Tutor both looked at him.
"Max… I'm sorry. If I could undo the things he did, believe me, I would." Max didn't say anything, but turned away from Justin again. Tutor gave him a pleading look, and Justin grimaced, but nodded, then moved past the two of them, going down the stairs, staying as far from Max as he could while passing.
Justin hurried the rest of the way down the stairs, taking them two at a time, then jogged out to the car. Once there, he stopped and put his forearms against the roof of it and leaned over, putting his forehead against his palms. Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out slowly, fighting the shaky feeling that had been threatening to well up all the way down from his confrontation with Max. He was casting on me. If Tutor hadn't shown up right then, he would have gotten his mouth free eventually, then cast something. And there was nothing I could have done about it.
He lifted his head, opened his eyes, looked up into the sky. There were clouds, but Justin simply stared into the distance, breathed in and out until he felt himself starting to calm.
Justin and Max managed to avoid each other for the next two days. Neither of them spoke about their confrontation on the stairs. On the one hand, Justin was glad to avoid the drama that would have caused, but on the other, he had a feeling that things weren't getting any better.
Not only that, but everyone seemed to be walking on eggshells around him, and, he guessed, probably around Max as well. He guessed that Tutor had told at least some of them that she'd found the two of them fighting. Probably not Alex, since she'd have no problem asking me what the hell was up. Or maybe she didn't tell anyone, and I'm just imagining it.
Because of all those things, going back to school on Monday was actually somewhat of a relief - it was good to be away from the rest of the family for a reason besides staying away from Max, and his classes gave him something else to focus on. Marie smiling at him and watching him all through class was a bit embarrassing, now that he knew she had a crush on him, but it was kind of cute in a way as well, and when she left as soon as class ended, he felt vaguely disappointed.
With the end of the quarter nearing, Justin had his own papers to write and exams to study for, and he went to the engineering library, got a Kindle from the circulation desk, and found a spot to set up his laptop and work. He spent a couple of hours there - the rest of the family had gone over to San Francisco to sightsee, and weren't going to be back until late - and then went home.
Bill, credit card offer, junk, junk, occupant junk…. Justin tore everything but the bill in half, set the bill on the table by the door, threw the rest in the trash. He leaned his attache case against the side of the futon and took off his shoes, saying "Alex?" as he did. There was no answer, and he went to the door of Alex's studio, opened it quietly - sometimes she got very focused on what she was doing - but she wasn't there either.
Either not back yet, or…. Justin padded to the bedroom door. It wasn't quite closed, and he pushed lightly, then smiled as he saw her asleep in the dark room, laying on her side facing toward the door. He stood and watched her for a few moments, just looking at her, then padded over, brushed her hair back, then kissed her temple. She smiled in her sleep, brushed his hand over her hair again, gave her another kiss.
She stirred a little, stretched, opened her eyes to reveal her dark brown orbs, looked up at him, then smiled. "Hi," she said, then rose a little to meet Justin's lips with hers as he bent to kiss her. "Mmm… how was your day?"
"It was okay." Justin stroked her hair again, gave her another kiss. "The usual. Got the first draft of my paper for theories of computation done. How'd things go with the family?"
"Oh, God. Mom and Dad argued the whole time." She covered her eyes, stretched, then sat up. Justin crouched down beside the bed, took her hand and started to stroke it. "Nothing serious, just their usual bickering, but I'm so tired of it."
"Sorry you had to deal with that." Justin shook his head a little. "At least it's only for a few days, though."
"Yeah," she said, her tone lightly sarcastic. She stopped, looked over Justin's shoulder for a moment, then reached and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad you're home. I missed you today."
"I missed you too." Justin leaned in to kiss her again, and she smiled widely… and then started laughing. He frowned, smiling in spite of his confusion as she laughed, and asked, "What's so funny?"