They were out of control.
She was spinning and slashing and burning her way through life, leaving devastation and painful memories behind her.
He was tearing and ripping and flaming his way through life, leaving hurt people and remorse behind him.
You don't know how they got like this.
They had been so happy.
But then your parents, their parents, found out.
And to put it quite frankly, the shit hit the fan.
Justin and Alex.
They were your siblings, your best friends, your role models, your everything.
And they were in love.
In all the ways that they could possibly be.
That freaked you out for a while, no lie. You didn't talk to either one of them for over a month and you left the room whenever they entered. It really had less to do with the fact hat they were together together, and more with the fact that they did not tell you.
You had to figure it out for yourself.
You walk down the stairs, looking for Justin because you want to show him the new spell that you finally learned.
You stride past your dad and mom working in the substation, and this weird feeling sinks into you, gripping your heart and squeezing your stomach.
For a minute, you almost stop, go back upstairs, and listen to the voice in your head screaming don't open the door don't open the door don't open the door.
But you don't.
You open the door, and see Justin and Alex.
They're pressed together up against the far wall, lips almost touching and bodies so close you weren't sure which body part belonged to which person.
You stand there, nauseous and horrified and unable to look away.
He presses their lips together and she twines her right leg around his waist and you stop breathing.
His left hand slides up her shirt and settles around her waist and she moans deep in her throat and you stop thinking.
He flips her around and presses her into the wall and she rips off his shirt and digs her nails into his shoulders and you start crying.
His grip tightens around her waist and she moves her other leg up around his hips and you finally remember how to move.
You sprint from the room, quieter than you have ever been, tears still sliding down your cheeks and an unfamiliar hollow feeling in your chest.
Five minutes later, you're in your room with music blasting so loud it hurts your ears, the door locked and barricaded.
Your breathing to fast and your thoughts won't slow down and you just don't understand.
You cannot comprehend what you just saw.
Your mom is knocking on your door, yelling in Spanish about the music being too loud, but you don't care, don't listen, don't turn off the music.
You need this. You need to think and breathe and calm down.
A few hours later, and its midnight and you think that you can go downstairs and get food now.
That wasn't a good plan.
You move into the kitchen, and see them there again.
Justin is smiling and Alex is laughing quietly and you just stop at the base of the stairs, watching.
He tilts her head up, running his thumb across the top of her cheekbone as her eyes flutter shut and she sighs.
They look content.
So you walk back up the stairs, thoughts screaming in your brain again, but heart begging you to just let it go.
You aim for the middle.
You don't tell them that you know or yell at them or tell your parents about what you saw. But you don't talk to them either.
You freeze them out, refusing to answer when they speak to you and not telling them what they did when they yell, "Why won't you talk to us?"
You need to think.
It took you a month to even say a word to them, another two weeks after that before you actually spoke in full sentences around them.
They were so relieved when you began to acknowledge them again, and that made you feel good.
But you still were not okay with whatever they hell they were doing.
You just didn't get it.
What were they doing?
Why were they doing it?
When had it started?
How long was it going to last?
There were so many questions and no answers, so you turned to magic.
You started to study all the time, leaving the lair only for school and sleep.
Your dad was angry for a while, but he didn't push it. He just made Alex take more shifts in the substation and let you learn. Your mom was angry for a while too, hurt that you weren't spending any time with the family, but then your dad said something to her and she let it go. She just figured that you were studying for the wizard competition, trying to beat your siblings at something for pretty much the first time in your life.
At least that's what you think they thought.
You weren't going to try and change their minds.
You were looking for answers. You wanted magic to fix this, to make it so you at least had the chance to comprehend what they were doing, to try and explain it. But there wasn't magic for that.
You went through countless books; read more than you thought was possible. You didn't always understand what they said, which led to reading even more books. If you had actually been studying for the competition, you would've beat Alex and Justin without breaking a sweat.
But that wasn't what you were looking for.
You didn't care about the wizarding competition or beating your siblings or much of anything really.
You only wanted answers.
But even magic didn't have them for you. All those endless hours and countless days spent reading, studying, absorbing information, they were wasted time. You couldn't use magic to fix this, you couldn't even use magic to explain this.
The only thing you could do?
Talk to them.
"So." You said, not quite sure where to go from there.
"So… want to tell us why you've been ignoring us for the past month and a half?" Alex questioned, looking at you curiously while you processed the fact that she now spoke in terms of we instead of saying I.
"Max?" Justin asked when you hadn't responded for a good few minutes.
"Well… it's just…" and you want to ask, but you can't get a sentence out, can't say the words.
"Yes?" Alex drawls, both of them staring at you impatiently.
You look at them and notice how their arms are barely brushing each other and how their bodies are angled towards one another and how for the first time in ages, Justin looks relaxed and Alex looks happy.
So you make a quick decision, one that isn't all that great for you and great for both of them.
"Nothing. It was stupid. I was just worried about the wizarding competition. You guys are so much better than I am." It's almost painful to let the lie slip from your lips, but you don't want to hurt them. They've been protecting you your entire life, and you figure it's about time to return the favor.
"Maxie." Alex laughs, dragging out the last syllable, "that's so silly!" She laughs again, pulling you in for a sideways hug as Justin rambles on about easier ways to remember spells and the three of you move downstairs.
You still want answers.
But you don't want to hurt your siblings in order to get them.
After that you didn't avoid them, but you didn't talk to them like you had before. You used to find Justin whenever you had a story about a new spell or you'd run to Alex to talk to her about a new prank, but now you did neither.
You talked to them at meals and if you were working at the same time as them and during magic lessons.
But that was it.
The rest of the time, you ignored the presence and acted like you didn't see the hurt in Alex's eyes or the confusion in Justin's when you walked away from them.
You didn't want to hurt them, so you weren't demanding answers. But without the answers, you were so confused and you just didn't know what to do so you didn't want to talk to them in case you slipped up.
It was a couple months before Justin's graduation, and you finally got an answer. Not all of the questions you asked were resolved, but the answer to the most important question was made clear without you even having to ask.
Its three in the morning and you can't sleep, so you head down to the lair to try and finish the homework your dad set for you the last lesson.
You walk into the door, and there are Alex and Justin.
Again.
But this time, they aren't doing anything bad, they're actually standing pretty far away from one another in the center of the room.
Justin looks frustrated and bemused, obviously not understanding whatever it is that Alex has been saying to him.
"Justin. It's not that hard to understand. Just let go." She barely breathes and the quiet words echo throughout the otherwise silent room.
And then the confusion on his face clears and his eyes lighten with understanding and he finally comprehends what Alex had been telling him.
He moves closer to her and you see him grip both her hands, close his eyes, and breathe deeply.
And he let's go.
His body begins to glow and she moves her hands, pressing them into his chest as his own fingers grip her hips tightly.
Green-gray eyes open and stare into her almost black ones, sparks flying off him.
Gold and silver and copper swirl around his body in a glorious swirl of bright magic, dancing and twirling around their entwined bodies.
"You too." He whispers, voice warm and full of awe.
She grins, her fingertips dancing over his shoulders while her eyes glow with anticipation.
She breathes out and her magic joins his, emerald green and sapphire blue and sparkling aquamarine slipping around the two of them, melding and twining with his own shimmering magic.
Silver mixed with indigo and gold met jade while copper and teal blended together seamlessly. They stood there, grinning at each other as you stood staring at them in shock.
You had never seen anything like that.
Sparkling cobalt with silvery highlights whirled around their heads while deep emerald glistened with gold around their legs and bright copper twinkled with turquoise around their torsos.
It was beautiful.
You didn't know that magic could look like that.
You didn't know that they could make each other's magic look like that.
You still don't know how they managed to do it.
Make each other glow.
But it made everything so much clearer to you.
Suddenly, it was like everything had clicked and while you didn't know everything, you didn't get an answer to every question that had been plaguing you for months, you did know enough.
You knew enough to understand that they could not be without one another.
You knew enough to understand that they made each other's magic shine in a way that you had never seen.
You knew enough to understand that they were together together and they were going to stay that way.
And you were a lot more okay with that then you had been a couple months ago.
So things were fine.
You talked to them every once in a while and covered for them with your parents when they were too obvious and didn't tell them that you knew that they were really way too close to one another.
It went on like that for months.
Justin went off to college and you pretended to not notice Alex's bright smile whenever she came back from visiting him and your parents remained miraculously oblivious.
Until they didn't.
They found out.
And everything went downhill from there.
Alex and Justin weren't really all that good with being discreet.
Because, really, making out half unclothed in the living room is totally not a good plan when you're not allowed to be together legally or morally.
You were working downstairs with your mom and dad while Justin and Alex relaxed upstairs, back for winter break from Columbia.
Then your mom went upstairs to grab something from the apartment.
She shrieked and you and your dad ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, wondering what happened.
You get there and Alex is sliding her shirt back on, defiance written all over her face.
Your mom is screaming in Spanish and your dad is yelling "what happened?" and Justin is smiling as he buttons his jeans.
"You're smiling?" your mother finally screams in English, glaring at her eldest son.
"Yeah." He said, laughing slightly as he wrapped his arm around Alex's waist and she starts grinning too.
"What even happened?" Your father yells, frustrated with being out of the loop. You stay in the doorway as your mom tells him what she walked in and stare at your siblings.
Alex is in front of Justin, both his arms circling her waist as she leans back into him, both of them looking a mixture of rebellious, disappointed, and happy.
"They did WHAT?" Your father screams, so loud that it actually hurts your ears.
Both him and your mom are yelling at Alex and Justin now, their angry words overlapping and making no sense at all.
You sigh.
You roll your eyes as you cross the room, stopping next to Justin and taking a stance and allowing Alex to grab your hand.
"Maxwell, what are you doing? don't you know what they did?" Your mother screams at you and you grimace at her before glancing towards your siblings. Both of them are looking at you with hope in their eyes.
"Yeah, Mom. I've known for a while now." You almost say two years but you figure your parents don't really need to know that it had been going on that long.
"You knew?" Three voices exclaim simultaneously, the only one not shocked is Alex.
"Yep. Sorry I didn't tell you but seeing as how well you're taking it right now, maybe that was a good thing." You say, Alex grinning at you and squeezing your hand while your dad stays silent and Justin smiles again.
"How I am reacting?" She yells back at you.
"Yes. How you are reacting." And you feel like your poking a hibernating bear with a pointed stick, but you can't stop.
"And how the hell am I supposed to be reacting?" She's still yelling and it's really starting to hurt your eardrums.
"Well. Maybe I'm mistaken but… they are your children. Aren't you supposed to just want them happy? They make each other happy. It's not their fault they're related." Alex's grip on your hand gets tighter and Justin moves one of his arms from Alex's waist to your shoulder. The warmth from their gratitude easily outweighs the chill you feel from your mother's glare.
"I don't care. It is not acceptable." She retorts, spitting out the two last words.
"Dad… Daddy… we're sorry to hurt you and Mom. But… we just… he's everything." Alex finally speaks, her voice cracking when she says the last word. Her eyes are filled with tears, but you know she doesn't truly regret anything that's happening.
"Why were you smiling? Earlier, when you first got up. Justin was smiling and then you were too. Why?" Is all he says, wrapping a restraining hand around his wife's forearm.
"Because…" She trails off, looking unsure. You tighten your grip on her hand, comforting her a little before Justin picks up where she left off.
"Because now you know. You might hate us and kick us out of the house and never speak to us again. But at least you know. Now we can be together and not feel guilty." He speaks calmly, his voice very matter of fact.
"You don't feel guilty? Your mother is crying and we might kick you out of the family but you don't care because you don't feel guilty?" Your father questions sharply.
"No. We don't feel guilty. The only reason that we had to feel guilty was for sneaking around. Not for being together. And as we are no longer sneaking around, the guilt is gone and we can finally just be together." Justin says, his arm around your shoulders tightening while Alex moves the hand not gripping yours to grab his.
You feel kind of bad, because your parents are standing there looking like their world just ended and you've got this urge to comfort them, but it's Alex and Justin and Alex's hand is warm in yours and Justin's arm feels too reassuring to move away from.
"Your wrong on that account. You cannot be together." Your mother rejoined the conversation, threat clear in her eyes. "It's illegal. And wrong. And you will split up. Now. Or we will take away your powers, disown you, and call the police."
"You wouldn't." Alex sounds sure, but her hand has tightened so much that it's painful and Justin's arm around her waist went from simply resting there to pulling her back into his body.
You stood as a united front with them, your two favorite people in the world, and hoped against hope that your parents weren't going to destroy them.
"Yes. We would." This time it's your dad that speaks, and for some reason that makes it more final. Because your mom is prone to over exaggeration, saying things that she won't really follow through with, but if your dad is backing up her statements, then they would actually follow through with them.
Alex snarls, storming out the door and slamming the substation door so loudly as she leaves that you can hear it upstairs.
Justin chokes slightly, unable to believe this is happening, and grabs his wand, disappearing to a far away place in a swirl of lights.
"I hope you realize…" Your voice breaks and you have to clear your throat before you can continue. "I hope you realize what you just did."
They're both staring at you shocked, still not sure why you aren't as furious and rage-filled as they are, and you answer their question before they even ask it.
"You destroyed two people. Two of your children. Feel proud? You shouldn't." And with that, you leave the room, head high and shoulders back.
And then everything fell to pieces.
Alex dropped out of school and spent all her days painting underground, all her work full of rage and pain.
Justin kept going to school, but he added to his course load and now he never came home.
They hadn't seen each other since that night, terrified of their parent's threats, and now their magic was rebelling.
The subways randomly stopped working whenever Alex was in the middle of a new painting and the weather had been dark and stormy for weeks now. You had already gotten a visit from Mother Nature, but even she couldn't fix the weather this time.
All of Columbia had been experiencing blackouts, periods of time in which the entire school lost power because Justin's magic wouldn't listen to him anymore.
Both of them refused to come home for lessons and you don't think that either one of them had really used magic since being separated.
And now it was out of their control.
You cried at night, feeling your siblings' magic reach out for one another.
During the middle of the night every once in a while, you could almost see blue and green and aquamarine reaching out to meet silver and gold and copper and there was one moment of relief, beautiful, glorious relief, when they touched before the magic separated and all that was left was two broken-hearted people.
You didn't talk to your parents anymore. You glare at them whenever they ask you a question and refuse to respond when they talk to you.
Every night you feel Alex's hurt and Justin's pain and you can barely stand it anymore and it is their freaking fault. So no, you don't want to talk to them.
Another year passes in a blur of sorrow and grief.
Then you're eighteen.
And it's time for the wizarding competition.
This is awkward.
That's the only thing that you can think as Justin and Alex stare at each other, absorbing all the changes that have occurred since they have last been able to see one another.
Alex is thinner, taller, with her hair cut short in choppy layers. She's wearing dark clothes, navy blue skinny jeans, thigh high charcoal boots and a loose black v-neck. And her eyes have changed too. They aren't bright and mischievous and full of love for Justin anymore. Now they just look sad.
Justin is different too. He's got dark circles under his eyes from an obvious lack of sleep and baggy jeans with a dark green shirt on. His hair is longer and messy, and he looks broken.
As soon as they walk in the door, you turned to glare at your parents, your face screaming 'see what you did?' because two of the most vibrant, beautiful people that you had ever known look like mere shells of themselves.
Then, before anything can be said, Alex and Justin reach out their wands, the tips touching in between the two of them.
"We lay forfeit to the Russo family magic. For now and for always." They intone as one, gazes never leaving each other.
Your father looks positively stunned and your mother keeps asking if that was even possible to do while their wands dissolve and they gasp at the sudden lack of power in their bodies.
You hold up your hands, magic swirling around your fingertips and when you close your eyes you can even see magic dancing behind your eyelids.
You laugh at the sheer joy, the happiness that you feel.
And then you reach out your arms, pull Alex and Justin towards you and grin at them, whispering break the blood bonds over and over again under your breath.
Because you could fix this now.
During that time right after you found out about them and you spent all your time studying magic for a way to get answers, you found this ritual that broke whatever secrets or promises or bonds that were keeping two people in love apart. All it required was a full wizard and an easy to repeat phrase about the bonds that needed to be broken.
Alex is looking at you, silent tears or gratitude running down her face and Justin is looking at her, hope making his eyes shine.
Your parents are yelling something in the background, but you're really too busy concentrating to care.
And then it works.
You can feel the magic work. It seeps out of your skin, washing over Alex and Justin where they stand in front of you.
Alex and Justin embrace and your parents yell but they don't care because their threats hold no weight any longer.
They pull away from each other and yank you into a hug, Alex whispering California into your ear, before the two of them run from the room, hands intertwined and smiles so bright you think that they might actually be glowing.
Your parents stare after them, then turn to look at you, horrified and angry.
You roll your eyes at them, walk up the stairs and throw all of your things into boxes that you had prepared weeks ago.
A wave of your arm and all your possessions are shrunk, easy to fit in your pocket.
You stride down stairs to the substation, grinning as you realize that your once orange magic now has bright blue highlights and shimmering gold sparkles.
You open the door to the lair, walking in and grabbing the IPP.
It's your one-way ticket to California.
Everything was pretty great after that.
Yeah, it sucked that you didn't get to talk to your parents but really, you haven't been talking to them for over a year anyways.
Now you live in a pretty house with a white picket fence and a pretty girl, and she's magical so you still have the family powers.
Alex and Justin live next to you, with three kids because yeah, that chant thing did work and the two of them really aren't related anymore. The three of you went to the doctor and got DNA tests ran to make sure.
The results showed that Alex was still your sister, but Justin wasn't your brother anymore.
That really, really bugged you for a while, but then he became your brother-in-law and it got a little easier to accept.
Everything was wonderful.
And you all of a sudden remember this one book that you read.
It was some weird philosophy thing that you had read simply because you thought it would be funny.
You had forgotten most of it by now, except for this one story that stuck in your memories.
Some old philosopher dude had theorized that people used to be these creatures with four legs and four arms that cart wheeled all over the place because they were so happy that they couldn't bare to sit still.
But the gods were jealous of them.
So they ripped them in two, leaving beings that were missing half of themselves to wander the earth, never truly happy unless they found their other half.
And the new race became known as humans.
At the time of reading the story, you thought the guy was batshit crazy.
Because really? Some species that cart wheeled everywhere and had four arms and four legs and never got sad? That was pretty weird, even for you.
But now, you think you may understand where the guy was coming from.
Because Alex was unhappy without Justin and Justin was incomplete without Alex.
So maybe they weren't going to combine into one being with four arms and four legs. But you do think that they were going to walk around happy and maybe even do some cartwheels because they were each other's other half and their souls had met and intertwined and they were finally whole again.
You think that this crazy ass theory of there being people that complete one another could actually make quite a bit of sense.
Because that was what Alex and Justin did.
They completed one another.