Disclaimer: I do now own Wizards of Waverly Place. No profit is being made from releasing this fiction.

Author's Note: There are so many new WOWP episodes! I can't keep up with them. I almost wished they'd slow down. I heard Mason is coming back for an hour long episode this October? I hope I catch that.

And again, thank you thank you THANK YOU for the support and patience. Some of you always leave a review with each chapter that comes out, and I really do appreciate it. You may not think I notice, but I definitely do. I'm starting to recognize user names. You guys are awesome!

Also, in response to Maggs's comment: Unfortunately, I don't have any co-authors or author-friends in this site. I'm kind of a lone wolf. But I think the best way to encourage other authors to write about Jarper is to just support the ones that are already out there. Make sure to leave good comments like the one that you left me. Btw, thank you for the kind words. I really do appreciate all Jarper fans out there.

On with the story. Enjoy!

A Familiar Pattern 7

By genielou

Harper twisted a button on her cardigan as she nervously glanced at Justin. She still couldn't believe it. Justin had actually woken up very early in the morning to walk her to the subway. Justin. The boy that just a few hours ago was still barely speaking a few words to her. Justin, who Alex had insisted was showing signs of attraction towards her, but she begged to differ. Justin who she thought hinted awkwardness even now as she walked side by side with him under an orange sky. She had tried hard to keep the casual conversation going, and Justin was definitely making it easy. In fact, he led most of the topics of their discussions. Although, despite Harper's exterior composure, her nerves were most undeniably on overdrive.

"And so I started wearing my mouth-guard while I jump rope," Justin concluded. Harper nodded and smiled at a story that only she had the patience to tolerate.

"I know the feeling," she chided. "Sometimes I wear thimbles on all ten fingers."

Justin chuckled, and the sound was like chimes of bells to Harper's ears. They slowly approached the opening that led down to the subway station. Young teenagers with backpacks and men in suits came from all directions, hurrying down the stairs.

"Wow, there are a lot of people."

Harper nodded. "Yup. You'd be surprised at how many people actually travel this early in the morning."

"Yeah, no kidding," Justin agreed. He paused at the top of the stairs and held out a hand. "M'lady?"

Harper bit her lip and blushed. She took his hand, her chest tightening as his fingers enclosed lightly over hers. Justin took the small tool box that she held in her other hand, and slowly proceeded towards the stairs. He glanced constantly at her with each step he took, almost as if he was afraid that she would suddenly disappear.

"How very gentlemanly of you," she muttered, her lips pursing to contain her smile.

"Why, thank you," Justin said. "I am, after all, your escort at the moment. I should make sure that you get to your carriage unharmed."

It took a lot out of Harper to suppress her giggle, but her grin was very evident.

The clacking of women's stiletto shoes invaded the peaceful silence, causing Justin to turn his head and notice the few women who displayed very fashionable taste for such an early venture. He turned his attention back to Harper, and took in the sight of her outfit again.

"So," he started. "I guess you have to dress like that everyday?"

"Oh, yeah. You gotta have the right look if you're going to be part of the business," she said, although in her mind, she was screaming Liar! at herself. Dressing up was not a requirement in her summer classes. She was actually planning on just wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for the day. But as soon as Justin offered to escort her to the station, she had hurried back into her room and frantically looked for an outfit to wear. Once decided, she quickly exchanged her clothes for a purple sundress, and snapped a wide, red belt on her waist. She finished her look with a half-sleeve cardigan with glittery buttons, multi-colored bracelets, and ballerina slippers. She wore her favorite cupcake earrings for good measure.

"Well, you look really nice," he told her, a slight shade of pink invading his cheeks.

She was over-dressed for a school day, but at least she was impressing Justin.

"In fact, standing next to you makes me feel so out of place," he continued. "Maybe next time, you should dress me before we go out in public together."

She knew it meant nothing, but the word 'together' still caused her to giggle. "Oh, Justin, you look just fine. It doesn't really matter to me if you dress up. Zeke never dresses up when he's with him and that never bothered me."

Zeke. The name snapped Justin back to reality. What was wrong with him? He was supposed to be looking for something he didn't like about Harper, and here he was, strolling alongside her under lamp-lit streets and beautiful skyscape. The atmosphere was all wrong! Well, actually it was just right. Oh boy, it was such a nice atmosphere; he just felt so comfortable around her. But it wasn't right for what he was trying to accomplish. And now, hearing her actual boyfriend's name released him from the spell of the scene that almost resembled a romantic cliché. He had to stop flirting with her.

Oh, but she's making it so natural for him to act this way around her. No! Stop it. Retreat now! Retreat!

As soon as they reached the landing, Justin let her go and handed her toolbox to her.

"Am I gonna see you tonight?" Stupid! Stop flirting!

Harper smiled reassuringly. "I'll try to come home. But I might be late so don't wait up for me."

Justin nodded, and waved as she walked away. He stayed and watched as she inserted her card through a machinery, and squeezed through the metal bars that passed her through to the station. She turned around, glanced at him, and smiled, then walked away. Justin made sure she was out of sight before walking back up the stairs.

First encounter, failure. No faults found on Harper Finkle. He noted to himself. Reminder to self: don't flirt tonight.

He grimaced. I'll try.

Meanwhile, in the subway, Harper fidgeted with giddiness all the way to her stop. She was happy. Very happy. Everything is going according to plan and she just couldn't believe it. She would have to tell Alex as soon as possible to get some advice out of her, but that wouldn't be until around noon when Alex would finally awaken.

As hard as it was, Harper actually got through her day just fine; albeit a little distracted, but at least she was able to get through her work load. She was nervous. Time had been ticking by slowly during the day, but as the night dragged on, time suddenly seemed to speed up. With each minute that passed, she knew that she was getting closer to seeing Justin again. Alex had said to remain calm and cool when she comes home. Well, easy for her to say.

The day's work left Harper exhausted. Her fingers were twitching, and her eyes were tired from looking through at least a hundred different patterns of fabric. Add the thoughts of that night's anticipation and she was almost drained. She was fairly tempted to retire in her dorm for the night, but the motivation of seeing Justin again overruled that desire. After taking a short nap in the school library, she dragged herself to the station, blanked out as she waited for her subway, and was thankful to finally plop down onto a seat when her train arrived.

She tried to think about what she would said as soon as she got home. She needed to think of just the right topic to keep Justin entertained. Think, Harper, think. You've trained yourself for this. Think. Captain Bob Sherwood. Science. Working out. Healthy foods. Books. Old foreign movies. She quickly went through her mental list of Justin topics and she knew quite a lot, but everytime she tried to focus on one subject, she couldn't go far enough with it. Her brain was too tired to think clearly. Finally opting to think about a topic later on the walk home, she leaned her head back onto her seat and stared blankly at the ceiling.

When her stop came, she pushed herself up and out of the train. The stairs were an even bigger obstacle. She took each step slowly and carefully. Hungry, she thought. Breakfast had been her only meal, and she had kept herself full with water for the entire day. It was extremely bad, she knew that, but the thought of impressing Justin had gone through her head all day. She wanted to look good for him, so she skipped her meals. Stupid decision.

When she reached the top floor, she stomped her foot down hard on the ground in frustration. She heard the slurp of some sort of drink very nearby. The tease caused her stomach to stir painfully and grumble loudly.

"You like watermelon, right?"

She looked up in disbelief.

"I wasn't sure what flavor you'd like," Justin said sheepishly. "Max said that you like to blend watermelon smoothies at home. Hopefully, artificial flavoring is okay too."

She grinned at him. "Artificial flavor would be great," she said. She reached out and accepted the cup of icee was Justin. Releasing all composure, she took a long sip from the cup, letting her stomach dwell in the pleasure. Justin just watched her silently.

"Sorry," she told him, after gulping almost half of her cup. "I was really thirsty."

"Oh, well then, be my guest. Please drink some more," he grinned. Justin took a sip of his own as to not let her feel uncomfortable as she accepted the offer. "In fact," he started after releasing his straw, "I was really hoping that you'd be hungry. I haven't had dinner yet, and thought that maybe you would like to join me."

Harper couldn't believe it. It was like her prayer was being answered in a very generous way. God, you're totally awesome! "I'm famished. Let's go."

"Alright, great," Justin said. He grabbed Harper's toolbox and started ahead of her. Harper blushed and followed along, almost skipping despite her exhaustion.

"It's great to see you again, Justin, but you didn't have to meet me here," she told him, then took another sip of her drink. "It's already so late."

"I don't mind," Justin turned to her with a smile. "I just finished closing up the restaurant and thought I should just head here and wait. I was really looking forward to seeing you again."

Justin winced at the slip of his tongue. No flirting, remember? He turned to her, and his thoughts were quickly distinguished. He also couldn't help but think of how cute she looked when she blushed.

He led the way to a famous juice bar that was especially famous staying open late for college students and nighttime workers. Once inside, he quickly ordered his usual vegetable pita wrap and spinach shake.

Harper grimaced at his choice of food, but felt it necessary to stay within the diet that she had created for herself, especially at this very time. She ordered a salad with no dressing and a glass of water.

As they ate their dinners, Harper slowly found herself engrossed in their conversation. No special topic of the sort was at hand; they kept switching subjects, from the weather forecast to latest movie releases. Somewhere between bites, she even found out that they had been watching the same new cartoon on the television that had started airing right after they lost contact with each other.

"My roommate thinks I'm nuts, but I'm pretty sure the show is juxtaposing modern preference and the old tradition of actually making your own fun."

"Oh my god, Justin, that's what I said when I first saw the show!" she exclaimed. "I've tried explaining it to Alex, but she just told me that I'm overanalyzing it. I've always thought that the show might be that channel's technique of positive propaganda to get today's kids motivated into doing physical activities that didn't necessarily exclude technology."

"Right!" Justin agreed, pointing a finger at her to reiterate the point. "And to use technology with imagination, instead of letting technology imagine for you!"

"Although," she said, breaking the excitement and casting doubt into their sudden chemistry. "If their daily summer activities speak about today's society, then what about the platypus? What's the meaning behind a secret agent platypus?"

Justin lifted a finger to his chin in thought. "Well," he started, and Harper leaned on the table in anticipation. "I suppose… it is because… it's… kinda cool to have a pet platypus that can also kick super villain ass?"

Harper blinked. Her lips slowly widened to a grin and then she laughed out loud. Justin joined in, and soon after, the other occupants of the tiny restaurant were staring at them. They both had to cover their mouths to restrain themselves.

Justin heaved a sigh when they finally stopped laughing. He couldn't remember the last time he had had so much fun, let alone in such a casual meeting.

They went back to eating, and he eyed her food as she nibbled on the leaves on her plate.

"Harper," he started. "I've been meaning to ask. What's with all the diet food?"

Harper looked up at him, and thought carefully of what to say. "I, uh, well," she stammered. "I just want to eat healthier. So I've been very careful with what I eat."

Justin nodded as he took a bite of his wrap. He swallowed before continuing. "Well, no complaints here. You look really good now that you've lost a bit of your baby fat."

"Baby fat?" Harper repeated, not sure if she should be offended.

"Yeah," Justin continued, clearly not concentrating on what he was saying. "When I left for college, you still looked a bit puffy. You weren't fat or anything but, you know, you weren't really that thin either."

Justin took another bite of his wrap. He took a long swig of his shake and swallowed. Before he could take another bite of his wrap, he finally took notice of the growing silence and looked up at a sulking Harper, staring intently at her salad. He frowned when he realized what he had done.

"Oh no," he said. "Oh, Harper. I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that you look really different now. Good different."

Harper looked up at him, the insult of her previous body shape still pricking at her chest. "No, of course you didn't mean anything by it, Justin. I know," she told him, trying to plaster a smile on her face, but unsuccessfully. "I'm proud of how I am now, but, you know, I didn't really think I looked that bad back then either."

She pushed her plate away and grabbed her glass of water. Justin just stared at her as she drank its entirety, and slammed it down onto the table with more force than she had intended.

"I'm full," she declared. Without another word, Harper suddenly stood up, grabbed her tool box that was settled near Justin's feet, and ran for the door. It took a few seconds for the event to hit Justin before his mind kicked into gear.

"Harper!" he yelled as he pushed himself up and ran after her.

Harper ran surprisingly fast, thanks to her weekly jogging. When she turned her head and saw Justin easily narrowing the distance between them, she ran faster. She turned right and hid behind a trash can. When Justin passed by without seeing her, she stood up and ran towards the opposite direction. She thought she had lost him, but just as she was about to turn into an alleyway shortcut that she usually used to get him, she felt a force push her back. She stumbled backwards for a bit, and when she was finally able to look up, she saw what looked to be a transparent barrier that distorted her view of everything else. She turned around and saw, through distorted vision, Justin with his wand pointed at her.

"I'm sorry. I don't usually resort to magic but I was desperate."

Harper fidgeted with her tool box. "Make this thing go away. I was just going home, that's all," she smiled awkwardly. "We're cool. Really. We're good."

"No, we're not," Justin said. He lowered his wand. "Harper, please listen to me. I- - I didn't mean what I said. I'm an idiot, you know. You've known this since we were kids. What I said, it's not what I really meant to say."

"Right, right. No, I understand." Harper smiled awkwardly again, but Justin could see the strain on her cheeks. He looked at her warily as he felt a pang of guilt squeeze in his chest. "Let's just go home. We're okay, really."

Justin shook his head, frowning. "Harper," he started, taking a step towards her. "You were just fine back then, and you're fine now."

"Fine. I know. Just fine," she fidgeted. She was freaking out, and she knew it, but she couldn't control herself. "But I just need to grow up. And that's what I did. I did a lot of things to try to grow up." It might be the fatigue or the stress of that past month's worth of workload, because she really couldn't control herself. "And I think I did. And you noticed it. That's a good thing. But it's just that- - " her face wrinkled as she tried to look for the words. "It's just that, well, you noticed, you know. So that means that I really was that bad back then. I didn't think I was really that bad, but if you think I look good now then that means I must have been- - must have been- -"

Her speech cut off as she started to hiccup. She was trying hard not to cry.

Justin stared at her, not sure if he had caught everything that she had said. Something about growing up and him noticing. He approached her slowly. Lifting his wand, he touched the bubble with its tip, and tucked it away into his back pocket as soon as the bubble disappeared. He placed both hands on her shoulders and lowered his head to hers, tilting to make sure she was looking at him.

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'm not really quite sure what this is, but I know I don't like it. Can we… Can we forget that the last ten minutes didn't happen? Let's just get on with the rest of the night, okay?"

She looked up at him, gazing into his eyes, and felt herself calm down. He lifted a hand to her face, and ran a thumb near her eye, wiping a tear that threatened to slide down.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I don't know what came over me. I'm just tired, that's all."

Justin smiled down at her. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Harper nodded vigorously, and pulled away from him. She rubbed a hand on her cheeks to make sure no tears had stained her face.

"Can we just go home?" she asked.

Justin looked warily at her. "Okay," he said. "But we can't go home with you looking like that. Whoever's awake will get nosy and will definitely get worried."

He took her hand in his and reached for his wand.

"Wait," she said. "What are you doing?"

He smiled at her. "Trust me."

With a flick of his wand, they both disappeared and reappeared on a rooftop overlooking a suburban neighborhood. From the looks of the fancy houses and buildings, Harper guessed that they were somewhere in upstate New York.

"Where are we?"

Justin grinned at her. "My favorite place. The rooftop of the science building of my school."

Her eyes widened. She didn't know what to think. Less than a minute ago, she was upset over words that were unintentionally expressed, and now she's alone on a rooftop beneath the stars with the boy of her dreams. She was nervous. She's not ready for this.

"Relax." Justin told her. He took her toolbox from her and placed a hand to her elbow. "Come on, I'll show you where I live."

He pulled gently along. She followed slowly, hearing the crunch of her steps on the tiny gravel of the rooftop. Justin settled her toolbox on the ledge and pointed to a building a block away.

"There," he said. "Not too far away, right? That's how I knew about this place. I saw it one day while I was on my balcony. I was really frustrated with a project and needed to get away from people, so I zapped myself here where I can be alone."

He smiled softly at her, hoping to distract her from what had unfortunately transpired not too long ago. He gestured up towards the sky. "The view is incredible too, of course."

And he was right. Harper tilted her head up and wowed at the stars twinkling brightly. "They're never this bright at Waverly Place."

"Yeah," Justin sighed. "It's because of the area. There are lesser lights here. It's darker. In this area, you are at the mercy of the stars and the moon. They are the ones that light up your way."

Harper nodded blankly, still entranced by the little tiny lights in the sky. Justin stared at her as she kept her head up. He smiled at her admiration.

"Harper," he said. "You're beautiful."

She looked at him.

"Back then, you were cute as a girl. Despite what I said, being the dummy that I am, I really did think you were cute. Not just cute as in you're-like-my-sister-cute, but cute in terms of being an attractive-girl-cute. And now," he took a deep breath. He was finally going to admit it, not as part of an apology, but because deep down, he really wanted her to know. "Now, you're beautiful. As a woman. You should know that."

Her face remained blank. The words were registering in her mind, but she still couldn't believe it. Of all the scenarios that she had thought out, this was never part of it. How does she respond?

"Come on," he said. He took the toolbox, handed it to her, and took her other hand in his. "Let's go home."

With a flick of his wand, they reappeared inside the Substation Restaurant. He quietly walked her to her door. He waited even more silently as she fumbled through her keys and opened her door.

Before she could go in, he placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around. Then, still silently, he leaned down. She held her breath as his head tilted to the side. She closed her eyes and felt the brush of his cheek on hers, then the pressing of his lips to her cheek. It went as quickly as it had come, but it still felt like slow motion to her.

"Good night, Harper," he said.

She nodded and walked into her room. As she turned to close her door, she saw him still standing there, waiting for her. She smiled at him before finally closing her door shut.

She leaned against the door and heaved a huge sigh. She reached up to touch her cheek, and her lips widened to a shy smile.