"You know, you are just like a little kid sometimes. I don't know how you can eat that like that." Justin shook his head and frowned a little at his sister, but Alex just grinned back at him, tore another piece of cotton candy off the stick, then stuck it into her mouth.
"Because it's fun," she said to him. "I know you know what fun is. I mean, it's what you're taking me out for today. A day of fun. Right?" Justin was fighting hard to keep the frown on, Alex could see, and she slowly pulled a long, pink strip of off, waiting for him to say something, knowing Justin couldn't stay silent for long with an argument hanging.
He took a deep breath, opened his mouth - and Alex immediately stuck the cotton candy into it, went up on tiptoe and grabbed him by the back of the head and the jaw, then held them shut, giggling as she did. "Okay, now you have to eat it!" she said, eyes twinkling as she looked into her brother's wide-eyed expression. "Come on - it's not going to kill you..."
Justin struggled a bit more, and people around them were starting to look, but Alex didn't care about that. She hung on determinedly, her face just a few inches in front of Justin's, looking into his grey-green eyes as he made noise. It was something like 'an ew', and after a moment, Alex got it.
"You don't need to chew it, Justin. It's cotton candy. Just let it melt and swallow. Work it with your tongue. You do know how to use your tongue, don't you?" Ohmygod, what did I just say? Well, there was no unsaying it - at least, not without a spell, and Alex couldn't exactly grab her wand while holding onto Justin like this.
She saw him swallow, then glare at her, and she grinned and let go, stepped back, then held the cotton candy out to him. "Okay, now that you've had one piece, you might as well have another. I can't eat this whole thing by myself."
"Oh, I see. This is you being nice and sharing, huh?" Justin shook his head, his mouth twisting, and Alex knew he was fighting down a laugh.
"Yes," she said, giving him a bright smile, and then Justin shook his head more fully, sighed, then reached and ripped off a strip of the blue, put it into his mouth.
"Fine," he said then. "If it'll keep you from assaulting me again. So... what do you want to do next?"
"I wanna go to the log ride," Alex said, taking Justin's hand and starting to pull him along.
"Wait, no," Justin said, following along even as he argued. "We're not dressed for it. That's too nice for you to get wet..."
Alex stopped and turned to look at her brother, grinning a little. "Did you just say I look nice?"
"What?" Justin stopped as well, frowning at Alex. "No, I -" He stopped then, realizing the trap he was falling into as Alex tilted her head to the side and frowned.
"So I don't look nice?" she said, and even Justin knew enough about women to recognize the danger in her tone.
"Alex," Justin stalled, arranging his words ahead of time like an army engineer planning his route through a minefield, "you look very nice, just as you always do. But I know that outfit is new, and if you get it wet, it -"
"Duh," Alex said, cuffing Justin playfully on the side of the head. "That's why we'll use a waterproofing spell."
"I don't know," Justin said, frowning. "We're not supposed to -" He paused and looked around, making sure no one was listening, then said, "do that without permission."
"Do what?" Alex asked innocently.
Justin frowned more, then looked around again before hissing out, "You know what. Come on, Alex, please. Don't fight me on this. I'm trying to make this a fun day."
Oh, and you are, Alex thought, still smiling at Justin. It's just that our ideas of what's fun differ a little. "So... we can't do you-know-what?" Justin smiled relievedly and nodded, until Alex added, "Even if that thing happens?"
Justin turned his head a little, then frowned at Alex again. "What thing?"
"That thing. You know -" Alex made a vague circular motion with her free hand, said, "That thing. The one we can't talk about."
His expression clearly indicating that he had no idea what Alex meant, Justin carefully said, "No, I don't know, Alex. What thing?"
Rolling her eyes, Alex gestured for Justin to come closer. He did, and she stretched up on tiptoe, moving to whisper into his ear - and then licked his earlobe messily. Justin jumped away from her, right into the ropes holding up a tent, just as Alex had planned, and she laughed so hard she chortled, pointing at him.
"Alex," he let out angrily as he stood up, and she laughed again, then broke into a run.
Shaking his head, Justin fought down a grin as he wiped at his ear. That was... different. Alex had always teased him, of course, but lately it seemed like she was teasing him more, in ways that she never had before. Almost like...
Like a girl teasing her boyfriend. Justin blinked at that, then shook his head. No. That didn't make any sense. Alex couldn't possibly -
"Hey!" Alex yanked on Justin's sleeve, interrupting his thoughts, and he turned and looked, saw her glaring at him angrily. "When I run away, you're supposed to chase me!"
"Oh, is that how it works?" Justin asked, faking an innocent look. He put his thumb to his chin, cocking his head to the side as he did. "I had not realized that," he said, and Alex growled, then stepped forward to push him with both hands. Justin dodged to the side, grinning, then tried to grab Alex, putting both arms around her. She turned partly sideways and pushed him, hard, and Justin tried to step back, but his foot caught on Alex's, and both of them fell.
Instinctively, Justin pulled Alex to him, trying to cushion her with his body before they hit the -
Justin blinked as a light shone into his eyes. He closed them tightly, but the light was still there, shining redly through his eyelids. Grimacing, he tried to bring his hand up in front of his face, but then there was a weight on him and arms around him, pinning his arms to his sides.
"Okay, miss," a voice said, "I know you're glad your boyfriend's waking up, but you've got to let us look at him."
Boyfriend? The light went away, and the voice said, "Mister Russo, can you hear me? If you can't speak, blink twice for yes."
"I... I can hear you," Justin got out, opening his eyes. Everything was blurry. He was on his back, in a brightly-lit room with pale green walls, and a man wearing something that was also pale green - scrubs? - was sitting beside him. Someone was holding his right hand very tightly, and he looked to that side, saw a feminine shape with dark hair. "What happened?" he asked.
"You fell and hit your head," the man said. "You've been out for about three minutes is all. Thankfully, you weren't far from our first aid station here."
"Are you okay?" Justin asked as he tried to sit up, but a hand pushed him back down. "Whoa there," the voice said, and Justin chuckled as that brought Mr. Laritate to mind. "Your girlfriend is just fine."
"Oh... okay, good." Justin blinked a couple of times, and things came more into focus, revealing to him that the shape was indeed Alex, and not Miranda, as he'd first thought. And why would I think that? We've been broken up for two years. He shook his head, then winced a little.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked immediately, moving closer to him. "Oh, Justin - I'm sorry," she said, and he could see that she'd been crying. "Please be okay."
Justin squeezed Alex's hand, said, "I'm okay. Head hurts, but I'm okay."
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that," the man said. "Now, if you'll look at me for a minute, I'm going to make sure your pupils are responding properly..."
It was more than an hour before they were out of there, with Justin holding an icepack to his head, and Alex clinging to his arm like she was afraid he might blow away. "Let's go home," she said, and Justin frowned at her.
"I thought you wanted to do the log ride?"
"With you holding an icepack to your head? Yeah… no. We can come back another day," Alex said. "I want you to be okay. You had me scared there." She pulled him to the right, toward a path that led to a set of restrooms, looked around, then said, "Please. Just take us home. We'll finish it another day, okay?"
Justin looked into Alex's eyes, saw the worry there, and knew he couldn't argue with her. "Okay," he said, then pulled out his wand, held it up. "This day isn't what it was supposed to have been, so please take us home again."
Nothing happened. No light on the tip of the wand, nothing. Justin frowned, then tried again. "We're done with being out today, take us home right away."
Again, nothing happened. Alex bit her lip, then pulled out her own wand, shook it. It didn't light up either, and she put it back away, then pulled out her cell phone.
Feeling a little dizzy, Justin stepped away and sat down on a bench, watched as Alex dialed and put the phone to her ear. "Mom? Can you get Dad? We're trying to come home, but it's not working." There was about half a minute's silence while Alex waited, and then she said, "Dad? Justin tried to get us home, but it's not working, and when I took out my - oh. Okay, uhh... let me give you to Justin."
She came over to him, carrying the phone. Justin took it, frowning at Alex, but she just gestured to the phone. "Yeah, Dad?"
"Justin, they're having problems at the magic power plant again. I was hoping they'd get the dragons back before you two were done, but it looks like it may be a while yet. Do you have money for a hotel room?"
"Yeah," Justin said, nodding. "But we have school in the morning..."
"If it's not back on in time, I'll call the school. Don't worry about that. You just take care of Alex, okay?"
"Okay," Justin said, nodding.
"All right. Call me if you need to. Bye."
"Bye," Justin echoed, then hung up the phone and handed it back to Alex, who was looking at him expectantly.
"Um, well…." he said then, "the dragons got loose at the power plant again, it sounds like. Could be hours before things are back. So… it looks like we're going to be sleeping in a hotel tonight."