By the time they'd re-dressed and straightened things up in Crumbs' office, it was half-past midnight. Without speaking, they moved together, hugged each other closely, and simply held onto each other for a long moment, Alex laying her head against her brother's neck and shoulder.

She breathed in and out, slowly, feeling the warmth of him, the gentle way he held onto her. "Justin," she said then, "I want to go home with you."

He blinked, forehead creasing in a frown. "I want to take you home with me, Alex. But we have to take you back to -"

"No," she said, pulling away slightly to look up into her brother's eyes. "No, we don't. What are they going to do? Call the police? I don't think they will. Come drag me back? I won't go."

"They won't give me money for food or rent," Justin said, shaking his head. "And I don't have a job yet. We can't, Alex. Not until I have a job, at least. And if they do call the police… they don't have to say why you ran away. They'll ask you why you did, but… I don't think telling the truth would help us, and… do you want to say Mom and Dad are abusing you?"

Alex glared at Justin, then shook her head and growled. "Why do you have to be so… so right about everything?"

He pulled her back against himself, hugged her more tightly. "It's only four months. We'll make it."

"At least take me with you right now. Let me see it again…."

Justin shook his head. "Alex - I know you, and I know me. If I take you home with me, you'll find a way to keep me from taking you back home. We both know you will. Please - go with me on this one?"

She turned away from him, folding her arms. "You mean don't go with you. You can take me home, but don't expect me to stay there."

Justin's eyes narrowed as he looked at Alex, and he tilted his head, asked, "What does that mean? Alex… don't go running away somewhere else -"

Alex rolled her eyes, turned again and thumped Justin on the arm. "I'm not going to run somewhere else. I'll just walk downstairs, out the front door of the shop, then teleport to you. You can't stop me from doing that." Justin tried to hug Alex again, and she pulled away, folded her arms and gave him a determined, defiant stare, chin held high. "And you know me well enough to know that I'll do it. So why don't we skip that, and you just take me home with you now."

Narrowing his eyes, Justin glared at Alex for a good five seconds, then shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You're stubborn enough to do it. All right. But you know - you can be impossible sometimes."

As soon as he said 'all right', Alex dropped the stare and smiled. "I know," she said sweetly, moving back to Justin and taking his arm in her hands, pressing against him. "And you love me."

Justin continued to glare for a few more seconds, then shook his head, letting out a chuckle and a wry smile. "Yeah. I do." Raising his wand with his other hand, he said, "Okay. We're going home."

When his phone rang, Justin picked it up immediately, expecting the call. "Hi, Mom." Alex lifted her head and opened bleary eyes, then sank back down a moment later, stealing Justin's pillow and putting it over her head to muffle the sound. "Yes, Alex is here with me. No - it wasn't my decision, and it wasn't her decision. It was our decision."

Under the pillow, Alex smiled at that. "She's sleeping right now. When she gets up, I'll tell her you want to talk to her." Justin stood up off the futon and walked to the far corner of the room, then leaned against the kitchen counter, facing away from Alex to keep the sound of his voice down as much as possible.

"No. No, Mom." There was a pause, and then Justin said, "I'm sorry you're angry, and I'm sorry you're hurting, but I'm not going to do that."

The pause was longer this time, and then Justin said, "Hi, Dad. Before you say anything else, we talked to Professor Crumbs last night. We know about - about what can happen, if we're together that way. We're going to wait until after the competition, but Alex is here now, and she's staying here."

There was almost a full minute's pause, and Alex moved the pillow, looked to see Justin still leaning against the counter, his head down as he held the phone to his ear. He was in his boxers, and she looked up and down his body for a moment, then said, "Justin... just hang up and come back to bed. They'll keep you on the phone all day if you let them."

He stood up and held his palm out to Alex, then spoke into the phone. "All right. We'll see you then. But Dad... you're not taking Alex away if she doesn't want to go." He says it matter-of-factly, not in any kind of challenging way, but Alex knows her brother, knows that tone means he's really serious. This isn't about bluster, or posturing - it's a simple fact, that he won't let them take her, and it makes her feel warm and safe.

So this time, she threw the pillow. "Come to bed! You're keeping me awake!"

Justin smiled at Alex, picks up the pillow, made a kiss at her. She rolled her eyes, turned over to face away from him, and then allowed herself to smile. Maybe twenty seconds later, she felt him move onto the bed, lifted her head a little so he could slide his arm under it and snuggle into her.

"They're going to come over at two, to talk. You know Mom - if I didn't say yes, she'd just come over anyway, and hammer on the door until we let her in."

"Yeah," Alex nodded and mumblesd her voice fuzzy with sleep. "An' if we go somewhere, she'll jus' stay 'til we get back. It's okay." She moved her hand onto his, slid her fingers into his grip, and in moments, she was asleep again.