"Jerry, is it just me or do you think our kids are spending a little too much time together?" Teresa asks her husband as she takes off her oven mitt after putting the chicken to bake.
"No, you're right to think that but maybe we should let nature take its course. They'll start fighting in no time again." Jerry reassures his wife, but he doesn't have full belief that they'll turn on each other any time soon.
Justin and Alex were currently huddled up next to each other, discussing tropical locations in the Wizard World they could visit for vacation when Justin can take a leave. They were discreet about their plans, though, since Alex was also busy with reading up on her magazines while Justin was the one checking out the different travel destinations on his Wiz-Tablet.
"Do you think they're talking about us?" Alex asks, referring to their parents.
"Yes, duh. Dad never reads books before dinner." Justin starts laughing along with Alex who lets out the girliest giggles he's ever heard, and judging from past experiences, he can tell she definitely has a crush on him. The girlier she gets around the guy, the more she likes him. Justin used to tease her for it, but now he thinks it's adorable. She's just as crazy about him as he is for her.
"Oh my gosh, guys my vision is coming true. Dad, do you have that new vase out back?"
"It's on the terrace." Jerry nods, as Max makes his way downstairs wearing a ridiculous suit.
"Max, what are you wearing?" Alex asks once she sees her little brother.
"This is my vision suit. I may not be a wizard anymore, but that doesn't mean I still don't have power. I can see the future!"
"Sure you can…" Justin looks off into the distance, ready to tune out whatever nonsense he says next.
"When you and Alex are alone, something will attack you and it will break that vase." Max explains his vision to them as they look at their father who is shooing away birds on the terrace.
"Dad, do you believe this?" Justin asks as Jerry steps back into the loft covered in bird feathers.
"Yes, it's 100% true. Max is a Seer like Daya, and he can see glimpses into our future, that's why they are called visions."
"No way, that means Max really is the mummy eyes-Seer boy from the prophecy?" Jerry looks at them with worry.
"The mummy eyed what now?" Their mom chooses the wrong time to butt into the conversation.
"Teresa, I think you need to sit down for this. It's about time we told you about Renaldi's Prophecy."
"The what now?"
"Since a student of Justin's dislodged the most powerful wand in the world, the events following a prophecy are starting to come true. It goes a little something like this: As soon as the lost heir returns, a friend shall bring the end of the wizard's secret, After the competition of the half mortal wizards, old enemies appear far and near, There comes a day when wizards run awry, Youngest brother that has the mummy's eyes gain sight for the future, Eldest siblings with full powers, are the ones who partake in what is forbidden must turn a parent, For future is past and past is the future, there was a reason greater that the powers were granted to two and not one." As soon as Jerry finishes reciting it to her, a sudden ray of light floods through the window and breaks the glass, along with the vase as Alex and Justin duck behind the couch and their parents and Max take cover by the counter.
"My vision just came true! That was so weird."
"What else can you see, Max? Do you know what's gonna happen to us in five minutes?" Asks Alex, crawling over to her younger brother as Justin peeks over the couch anxiously.
"That's not how it works. It just comes to me." She had a lot of things she would have liked to say to him at the moment, but she didn't have time to argue since someone was in the middle of ambushing them.
"Shoot. Guys, just hide over there, me and Justin are gonna fight off the intruder." Alex pushes her family towards the coat closet, waving her wand to cast a spell that will make the inside of the closet much bigger.
"Over there!" Justin points at the window as a figure wearing a dark cloak floats into the loft, holding a twisted wand. They immediately know that they are dealing with a wizard.
"Let me get this straight, our kids are a part of this prophecy because of a magic stick?!" Teresa looks at her husband for an honest answer.
"Um...yes?"
"How long has this been around anyways?"
"About a thousand years. You know, Justin and Alex are the only full Wizards from the same family. There was a reason for that, and this prophecy explains it." Jerry says, just as Max starts blinking before seeing his next vision.
"Guys, I just saw something. There's this guy and he said he'll make sure the future will never come true. He'll do anything to make sure the prophecy doesn't happen. He looks really scary." He shudders as his father grips his wife's hand even tighter than before.
"Stop it, you big baby. I trust my kids. Justin and Alex will protect each other. Now that they're adults, I need to trust that they'll defeat the villain and we can finish dinner in peace."
While Alex and Justin do a dance with the intruder around the couch, they try zapping him or her with spells. It doesn't work, seeing as they dodge and deflect every hit.
"Who are you? Why were you trying to hurt my family?" Alex asks as the cloaked figure suddenly teleports in front of her.
"You don't recognize me? Oh, I'm hurt." Alex's eyes widen as she sees a woman that she thought she'd never see again.
"Evillini?"
"Evillini?!" Justin gets up on his feet, as the woman aims her wand at his chest and he's forced to duck again.
"I thought you went to jail." Alex gasps as the woman reaches forward and tries grabbing her but she quickly teleports next to Justin, pushing him down again as he finally stands back up.
"I did, but I was behind bars for about 2 years before someone came and bust me out. He was a young Wizard, who was plotting revenge against you, in fact, because you wronged him in the past." She lowered her gaze, smirking as Alex gulped and took a deep breath.
"Who…? Justin, do you know anyone like that?" Alex asks him as he plops down on the floor beside her.
"No. Let's just focus on imprisoning Evillini again. Questions later." Justin demands, and from his tone Alex knows better than to go against him. It sounded like a solid plan.
"You better not be plotting something back there, Russos. I know all of your dirty little secrets. Try something and I will send this package to your father in the Wizard mail," They look up at her in horror, backed into a corner since she couldn't possibly be bluffing about knowing about them. No one knew. They had been careful from the very beginning. "You think I'm bluffing? Take a look, yourself. Here's a picture of you two being awfully close, staring into each other's eyes, oh and here is a cute moment you shared in the office. Oh, and don't forget the recording." Evillini smirks as Alex questions her.
"What recording?"
"Some are evil, some are kind, but now all must speak their mind," Evillini cast the truth spell on them before they could say anything, leaving them helpless at her feet. "Do you like Justin, Alex?"
"I love him even though he's my brother. I never want to let him go, because he's mine." Justin gawks at her as Evillini simply grins, looking at Justin, clicking her device so she could record him too.
"Are you in love with your sister?"
"Yes," Justin tries putting his hands over his mouth, but it doesn't help. "I love her more than I loved my ex-girlfriend, Juliet. I think I've loved her my entire life, but I was just too dense to realize it until it was too late. I almost murdered her werewolf boyfriend too." He stops talking as soon as she releases them from the spell, and their thoughts are no longer out in the open for everyone to hear. Thank goodness their family was hiding in the closet. There was no way they heard them out here.
"This recording is going with the rest of the evidence, if you decide to go to the authorities. We don't have to be enemies. You give me what I want in exchange for my silence." Justin did not want to negotiate with this woman, but what choice did he have? She was bound to expose them for their crimes even though technically, it is legal in the Wizard world.
"Fine. We promise not to turn you in. However, you have to destroy the evidence after we do whatever favor you had in mind."
"I'll be the judge of that. It depends on how well you carry out the task. If for some reason, your performance is less than satisfactory, I will send this box of evidence to your father. I'm sure he has no idea about you two?" Justin glances at his sister before striking the deal with the witch. She looks even worse now that she's gone to prison and escaped with half a head of white hair.
"He doesn't know. We'll tell him when we're ready."
"Good. Then do we have a deal?" She asks, stretching out her hand to Justin as he stands up in place, despite Alex pulling his pant leg and trying to stop him.
"Deal." They shake on it, and she disappears like nothing ever happened, restoring the vase to its original position and putting the windows back to normal. Alex ran over to let her family out of the closet, as they stormed out after Jerry had finished arguing with Teresa over the logic of the magic world since she thought her kids shouldn't be risking their lives to fulfill a dumb prophecy and Jerry believed the prophecy would change the Wizard World forever.
"Justin, who do you think let you-know-who out of her cell?" Alex whispers to her brother, hoping that their family wouldn't catch on.
"I have no clue. You made a lot of enemies in highschool." Alex giggles, since the statement was so true.
"Did you guys catch them?"
"No, but it looks like it was an attempted robbery." Alex starts, Justin following her lead.
"Yeah. Then they saw us and jumped back out through the window because everyone knows you don't steal from people when they're looking." Justin smirks as Alex facepalms, their parents staring at Justin in confusion.
"Then what took you so long?" Teresa asks, reheating her chicken in the oven again.
"We were just fixing the vase, and the windows. They were broken and there was glass everywhere and we didn't want Max to get hurt!" Alex decides to drag her little brother into her lie, since he was mortal now and he couldn't use magic to fix his problems like before. Not that Max actually had any problems. He used magic to make giant food. Mostly cotton candy, but it still counts.
"How nice, you fixed my vase. Wow, you really did a good job with concealing the cracks. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it looks like you replaced it with an identical one." Teresa winks, as Jerry and Max freak out behind her. They didn't know Evillini cast a spell that fixed everything, so they were under the impression that Alex replaced it with the vase they bought.
"I didn't. It was a spell."
"I guess from now on, you can fix that vase whenever it breaks with magic. You have my permission, mija." Alex was so ready to misuse that privilege.
"Alex, whatever you're thinking, don't do it." Justin warns her as she starts plotting ways to use magic in the loft without getting into trouble.
"So you had your encounter with the first enemy. It's not a big deal, it just means that prophecy is about to blow up in your faces." The eldest Russo siblings didn't like the sound of that. They were threatened 15 minutes ago. The prophecy is the least of their worries, since they knew someone was watching their every move now.
After they finished dinner, Alex and Justin went to their separate rooms before Alex cast a spell which connected their bedrooms through a single door, so they could see each other at any time. Alex was feeling particularly antsy today since she was still worried about what Evillini said.
"Justin, what are we going to do?" She asks after curling up next to him in a fetal position, burying her face in the crook of his neck for warmth.
"Hey, it's okay," His voice is calm and reassuring. "Evillini may have some dirt on us but she can't expose us if we tell them first." Alex can't believe her ears. Justin wanted to tell their parents about whatever was going on between them?
"Are you crazy? They would disown us."
"Nah, they wouldn't do that. Besides, I think dad knows more about us than we do. He was super suspicious of us earlier, so I don't think it would surprise him that much." Alex gripped her brother tighter as Justin gently squeezed back. He looks up at the ceiling as the light from the moon and lamp posts outside shine dimly outside.
"I think they'd still be disappointed in us, though. Your two oldest kids are dating each other because they dated a bunch of people but only they were there for each other in the end. It's so ironic, like a sick plot twist in a movie or something."
"This isn't a movie, though. We're really in love, and we have this unexplainable bond that exists only because we're so compatible."
"I love it when you flirt with me. It used to sound so cringey when I was younger but now it's just plain adorable." Alex giggles as Justin nuzzles his nose in her hair and hugs her tightly as they fall asleep.
The next day, Justin didn't have to go to work. Since Alex doesn't work, she doesn't have anywhere to be. So they spend a few hours cuddling, before they jump out of bed to change in private before meeting again in the bathroom so that they could finish brushing together and head downstairs.
Teresa noticed her kids' behaviour again, slightly more worried this time since her husband informed her about the prophecy. She had a bad feeling about it the moment she heard the lines "Eldest siblings with full powers, are the ones who partake in what is forbidden must turn a parent, For future is past and past is the future, there was a reason greater that the powers were granted to two and not one," as the only interpretations she could think of was the "forbidden" thing referred to in the text meant something forbidden in the Wizard World, like a rule that would be considered fine in the mortal world but not allowed in the Wizard World, or the other alternative being incest.
She just didn't want to think about her kids being involved in such a matter, since that didn't sound like something Justin and Alex would do, either. She didn't like the last word, stating that one of her kids must become a parent. Whatever this forbidden thing is, it will cause one of her kids to have a child and finish the prophecy. She really, really didn't like the alternative. Her mind is a very dark place.
"Alex, honey, you're not pregnant are you?" Alex spits out her orange juice as her mom asks. Justin stifles a laugh. It was just too damn funny. He may be in love with her, but she is still his sister. He'll always laugh at her when she falls flat on her butt.
"No, Oh my god, mom, how could you ask that when I don't even have a boyfriend and my old one dumped me for an old bat?! Shit, what did you do that for?!" Justin jabs her in the ribs as she starts going off on a tangent about her anger with Juliet for stealing her boyfriend and also stomping over her brother's heart.
"Alex, language." Her mom scolds her.
"Sorry mom." She mumbles, walking to the table to sit down and eat in peace while flipping through her magazines.
"So Justin, do you have a new girlfriend yet?" Teresa sounded obsessed with her kids' lives, enough to make them slightly concerned but also worried since she was starting to freak them out with all of the questions.
"Nope, not yet." He scratches his head as she chases them around, asking them about significant others.
"Mom, what's with all the questions? I thought we made it clear, don't ask. The bottom line is we caught my boyfriend making out with his girlfriend, and then we found out it's been going on for months so we were pretty upset. And because we understand each other best, we're just going to figure out what the heck we're going to do now that we're leaders of the Wizard revolution?" Alex's last statement sounded more like a question, since she was pulling her brother away to the lair so she could get away from their prying mother. "Why is she so touchy?" She asks after they're finally alone.
"I think it's because of the Prophecy. I think she definitely knows it's about incest."
"So?" Alex asks blankly before getting the idea. "Oh, right. Sorry, for a second I forgot that's illegal."
"For good reason! You know what, this is silly. There's got to be something in the books for this, something that will tell us how to make it all better." Justin was still in denial. He didn't want to admit that he was in love with someone with the same blood as him. He doesn't regret loving Alex, he just hates the idea that she's his sister. But that's what makes it so much better. They realized their feelings too late.
"Justin, put the book down. It's not going to help," She pries the book out of his hold. "The only reason why you can't find anything is because it's looked down upon in the Wizard World. Just because it's allowed doesn't mean people support it."
"You're right. That's why we should make an awareness project or something. I bet I can have the students put something together if I declare a new event at school. The sibling-marriage awareness day…"
"Yeah! That has a nice ring to it. Although, I do feel like some Wizards will be offended by this."
"This is so complicated, I wish a solution would just walk through the front door."
"Well don't hold your breath, kid. It looks like you've got your solution right here. I've been waiting to say that for the past 12 years. It sounded so much cooler when I was you." An older, much cooler version of Justin walks into the lair, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses inside. He's not a college student, he looks older than the clone Alex made a couple years ago.
"Alex, what did you do?"
"Why do you always assume it's me? I didn't do shit."
"Language." Both Justins warn her in sync.
"Besides, he's too old to be a clone. If I made a clone of you now, I'd make him the same age as you now. This isn't my work." She sits down on a loveseat, flipping through a magazine as Justin interrogates the older man.
"Okay, me, how old are you and why did you come here?"
"I'm 30, and I used a time travel spell to come back in time so I could warn you about something that I was warned about when I was you."
"How do I know you're me, and not an enemy posing as my future self so you could get information out of me?" Alex rolls her eyes at how winded Justin's concern sounded.
"Simple. I know what you're thinking."
"What's that?"
"The leather jacket is fake, I would never wear real animal skin." Present Justin gasps at his older self's guess.
"You are me from the future! Wow, so does everyone know about the Wizard World yet?" Future Justin asks as he sits in the brown recliner next to Alex's seat.
"Yes, approximately in 5 minutes, the Wizard World will be exposed to mortals once again. I'm warning you not to call Crumbs or anyone else since the world will be in panic. If anyone suspects you're a Wizard, do not admit it. The last thing you need is the FBI on your trail."
"Okay, got it. Thanks for the heads-up."
"Don't worry about it. So have you told mom and dad about us?" He refers to him and Present Justin as one entity, speaking to Alex as she puts her magazine down on the table.
"Not yet, but we're planning to tell them."
"Good. I can't tell you too much about what happens but please stick together. You two have to be united, got it?"
"Of course." Justin says, joining Alex on the loveseat as his future self turns a tiny dial on what appears to be a stopwatch.
"I'll be heading back now, bye guys." He disappears as quickly as he appeared, leaving no trace behind.
"That was awesome! Future me looked so cool." Justin geeks out as Alex yawns before pulling out her phone.
"He was trying way too hard with the jacket. Maybe when you do that, you could wear a normal outfit. And lose the sunglasses." Justin frowns as she starts walking away.
"Where are you going? I was in the middle of talking to you. Alex! Alex!" He runs after her after she decides to leave the lair while they were supposed to be brainstorming.
"Isn't it supposed to be your day off? Go do something fun and stop following me." Alex says, as she conjures up a chocolate cake to snack on while Justin watches her with a serious expression on his face.
"I can't have fun knowing that someone exposed Wizardry to the general public." Justin sighs, as he was also growing weary of being uptight and studious all the time. He wanted to be more laid back like Alex.
"Guys, there was almost this freak accident that happened with a guy selling flowers from a cart and a little kid riding a skateboard. Luckily, before the flower cart crashed into the kid, I used magic to make the kid float over him, and nothing bad happened! Although, a bunch of people who saw it did run away screaming." Justin and Alex's eyes widen in unison as their little brother admits that he was responsible for exposing Wizardry to the world.
"Max, you're not a Wizard anymore. How can you use magic?!" Justin yells as his brother wipes his ears.
"I can hear you, you know? And also, I'm not really sure. I just thought about saving the kid and then the skateboard flew."
"Telekinesis? But that ability isn't something available to normal humans. I can believe that you are a Seer, but I doubt the part about moving objects with your mind." Justin logically can't reach that conclusion. Max just defied logic. He defied physics. No human should possess that sort of power.
"Maybe someone tricked him. We're being targeted by enemies, remember?" Alex reminds him. He snaps his fingers, feeling much more high spirited now than before.
"Yes! Let's go check out the news in the lair. I bet this is everywhere." The three Russo siblings run to the lair to get a look at the news, and when they turn on the t.v, they find that it is indeed the biggest story on the planet.
"I guess we're too late then?"
"You think?" Alex and Justin look at their brother in disappointment.
"It wasn't even Max's fault. He was present when it all happened but he was the only person standing there that didn't freak out." Alex decided to not blame her brother, since she was trying to be a better person and the first step was to restrain herself from pointing fingers.
"Wow, I'm impressed. I guess you really are changing for the better." Alex felt her heart warm up at Justin's words. She always wanted his approval, even when they weren't on the best terms.
Without warning, the newly retired Wizard Professor himself appears in their lair, stroking his Crumb-filled beard while wearing a golfing uniform and a matching visor. Justin, Alex, and Max are taken aback by his sudden appearance, as he flashed in without warning.
"It looks pretty bad, doesn't it? It's actually worse than you might think. We tried bringing out a team of tooth fairies to spray everyone with memory dust, but a lot of people fled the scene after realizing a kid just levitated over a man's head."
"Oh this is bad, we need to convince them that it was special effects. Maybe we can recreate it with another trick." Alex suggests, speaking solely to Justin and Crumbs since Max was lost his own little world again. He seriously needs to start paying attention to his surroundings.
"Good idea, maybe we can use wires and make Max fly in the middle of the street?" Alex didn't despise the idea, she just didn't want to go through the trouble of setting up the entire thing with her bare hands. Justin probably wanted people to see them hooking the rope to the harness so that they could "figure out" how the trick works.
"No, that's already been done before. Let's use magic to make him lift something heavy."
"That won't be necessary, Alex."
"What do you mean, Professor?" She asks as he combs his beard with his fingers once again. She can feel the bile rising up in her throat as he occasionally finds cookie crumbs and other food residue in his beard only to sprinkle it on the floor. It's disgusting how he can walk around carrying all that dirt in his beard all day.
"The Wizard Council prepared for this. We've been expecting the fulfilment of the prophecy, and according to the books it was mistranslated. Many, many times, in fact." Justin and Alex share a look before she links up with his mind. It's easier to communicate without having to open her mouth and tell him with words. Things come across way better in the mind.
If it was mistranslated again, does that mean the prophecy Felix said was the new version was actually wrong? Alex ponders as Justin gasps, putting a hand on his chest and calming his heart down after Crumbs looks at him with confusion.
"Are you okay, Justin?"
"Yep, I'm fine sir." He pulls down his shirt, glaring at Alex as she smiles at him.
I hate it when you do that, Alex. He broadcasts his thoughts to her, grimacing at the girl as Crumbs watches the t.v closely. He was probably wondering about what the mortals think about the existence of Wizards and monsters, now that the secret is out. He isn't even trying to stop it because he believes in the prophecy.
I think the prophecy is out of order. The Wizard World got exposed after an enemy attacked us. Justin just stares at her as she nods at his thoughts, walking around the room to pick up a book she found at the library about the prophecy.
Even if there's a translation error in this, I think the general message stays the same. It's up to us what happens next. Even though she seemed like she was all fun and games, Alex hated the concept of a Revolution. Her rejection of change is the reason why she took down Stevie. That Witch was messing with a system which was very flawed and now that she thinks about it, it does seem kind of unfair that children born into Wizard families have to fight in a competition to see who will keep the powers they were born with because only one can become a full wizard. Why is this even a rule in the first place? It didn't seem to affect anyone after Alex and Justin became full wizards and they're from the same family. Too many things didn't add up. First she had to research a prophecy and now she was trying to crack the reason behind the one full wizard per generation in a family rule? She never even bothered to question it in the past before.
Maybe Stevie was onto something. Sure, she went about it the wrong way but don't you think it's strange how after we became full wizards there weren't any consequences? Everything was normal, and it was weird, right? Justin follows Alex, capturing the attention of Max as he looked up at his siblings who were amidst a heated discussion in their minds.
Don't you dare think about it. So many families get torn apart after the Wizard competition but I can't help but feel like that's something that happens on purpose. Alex, call me crazy, but I think the Wizard competition is rigged. What if it's an elaborate scheme so that the Wizard Council can stay in power and only select the "smartest" Wizards to win? What if we were granted the powers because they wanted to get the prophecy over with? We were the perfect contenders, especially since Felix found out he was Renaldi's descendent after grabbing the wand.
That sounds believable enough to me. Come on, let's go find mom and dad and tell them. Alex is about to walk into the sandwich shop when Justin blocks her from leaving, quickly grabbing her hands since Max was busy with feeding a dead lizard in his pocket again.
Wha-No! Don't tell them anything. If we're planning to overthrow the Wizard World government, we have to do it in secret. Especially now since Evillini is watching us. Justin warns his sister, looking around the room suspiciously before Crumbs interrupts them.
"Now if you'll be excusing me, I have some paperwork to fill out in the Wizard World. Expect me back for a mortal-on-wizard golfing tournament." Crumbs dematerialized in an instant, leaving the Russo siblings by themselves once more. Alex switches off the t.v, turning to Max so she can tell him his part of the plan.
"Go tell mom and dad you revealed wizardry to the world. Justin and I have some work to do."
"As what? Are you like...Wiz-detectives now or something?" Alex needed a believable lie and Max's sarcastic quip seemed good enough for her to steal.
"Yes. We are Wiz-detectives. Justin is my partner in crime and we're doing a secret case shhhh, don't tell anyone you saw us here." Alex quickly flashes them out of the room, leaving Max alone in the lair as he shrugs, not thinking much of their strange behaviour because Max knows weird. Alex and Justin were probably lying to him, but at the end of the day they'll come clean.
He's a lot smarter than they give him credit for, since he was able to figure out that Justin and Alex weren't actually Wizard detectives after Alex flashed out quickly.
"Where are we?" Alex points up at the sky, and Justin's heart drops.
"No way."
"Yep. The very tippy top of the Empire State Building." Justin bites his finger after realizing where he was standing.
"You know I hate heights."
"Relax, I put an enchantment on our feet so that if you take a misstep, you won't plummet to your death." Justin squints at his sister as she finishes organizing her notes and takes a seat on the metal support beam as Justin balances himself, even accidentally turning upside down for a moment before realizing his feet were practically bolted to the beam.
"This is so cool. I know we're wizards but the things we can do with magic are truly limitless."
"Yeah. Wanna help me figure this out?" Alex hands Justin a page of symbols.
"What's this?" He takes a seat next to her, grabbing the paper as cautiously as possible.
"It's an old magic puzzle. It says only the wizards destined to change the fate of the Wizard World are the ones who can decipher this. But the only thing I could figure out was that this little sentence up here says "unscramble the symbols." Apparently no one else has been able to solve this puzzle. No one."
"Wait a second...this isn't just any language. It's a lost language known as Snarcorcy. Or Gorganiec. Either way, they're languages that not many people can translate. Furthermore, I believe it is a translation of the translation. Who knows what the original meaning of the words even are?"
"Who cares? Just slap them together."
"Alex, you're leaving out one important detail. How did you figure it out? This sentence?" Alex shrugs, looking past her brother at the paper with a blank stare.
"I don't know," She reconsiders it, how truly strange it was that she knew what the words meant without even studying it. "I hope this isn't like some Harry Potter, Percy Jackson shit. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I had some huge prophecy to fulfill."
"You do. We're literally living it, right now." Justin reminds her as she zaps a bowl of popcorn into her lap.
"Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot for a second." She chews noisily as Justin looks up at her, examining her brown locks of hair as they cascade down to her shoulders. She cut her hair short at one point, but it sure grew back a lot quicker than he expected.
He also noticed how her face flowed a soft pale white in the moonlight. As the moon rose, they could see the stars more clearly, and the bright lights of New York shining brighter than the stars above. The last time they shared this view together was when they were out on the magic carpet ride, years ago. Alex and Justin really haven't been making enough time for each other as of late, and it's moments like these that Justin treasures for a long time.
He's not just saying that because he's in love with her, either. There are plenty of memories Justin shared with her but small moments that made it seem like there was something more between them.
Were those snippets supposed to remain as such? Could just not quench the thirst in his heart for Alex's love without committing a greater sin?
He does not want to hurt her when she's had her heartbroken one too many times. He's supposed to be her brother, supporting her through the tough times.
Even if it seemed like a possibility before, Justin could not bring himself to do such a thing to his precious Alex. Even if she shared the same feelings for him.
The whole family dynamic would get thrown off. What would they do if their parents found out? If their friends saw them having a date and started talking? People would judge them, even in the Wizard World.
The only way to do this would be to proceed with more prudence and caution than ever. Every time they want to be alone as a couple, they would have to put a lock on the door. Cast a time stop spell just to elongate their alone time to a few more minutes.
They would subject themselves to a prison in their own home.
Justin can't let that happen.
"You figure out what it means yet?" Alex asks as Justin as he snaps out of his daze to tell Alex what she didn't want to hear.
"Alex, we need to talk."
"Ch-yeah, we're talking right now." She pops another kernel into her mouth, chewing with her mouth closed as Justin continues.
"I meant about our relationship."
"If this is about my hair in your face when I crawl into your bed I'm sorry, I'll try tying it into a bun beforehand."
"No, that's not it," Justin feels his own heart break as he puts a hand on Alex's, and as she looked up at him with those deep, chocolate brown eyes, she felt a heavy weight in her own heart. "We need to put an end to whatever this is. Or stop it before it starts. Either way, it's not healthy, or normal, even for us!"
"Justin, of course it's not normal. We're wizards, nothing is normal for us!" Alex snaps her fingers and makes her popcorn disappear.
"You're not listening to me. Even for us, this is beyond insane. I can't be in a romantic relationship with my own sister. I can't be the next guy to break your heart. What happens when we get into a fight? Or if Max finds us?"
"Then we'll figure it out then, that's what makes it exciting. If things come our way, we have to go through it together." Justin drops his gaze to the paper in his hands. He lets out a long sigh before whipping his head back to his sister.
"I'm sorry, Alex. I can't do it."