Chapter 5

Phoebe, found it incomprehensible lying beneath her brother, with his lips on hers. New found warmth slowly but surely crept into her body, she was flustered, disgusted, embarrassed, but mostly flustered and something else, that specific question mark she occasionally finds herself unable to answer whenever it comes to him. It was always there.

His lips were cold and almost hard, but she could identify the palatable softness to them. Against all odds her upper body warmed up, given the cold asphalt around them her lips quivered in correlation to a shiver, but she ignored that, because she knew very well that from another point of view she basically just moved her lips against his in regard to the kiss.

Pain, which was actually just concealed guilt pooled within her chest, compelling her to raise her arms, managing to push his face to the side, shuddering when sensations of low inadequate temperate skidded from his facial cheeks to her upon contact with her neck.

She painstakingly remained still, hoping he'd read her action of having pushed him away as a sign of what happened to be regarded as a simple mistake. She expected him to do anything, yet he remained lethargic, not moving an inch. She couldn't trust her voice, nor did she have the strength to forcefully push him off, she was just too tired and the glaring goosebumps on her skin weren't just for display either.

She slowly cleared her throat, subtly raising her head and tilting it to the side near the ear visible in the corner of her eye.

"M-Max..." she croaked out, inwardly chastising herself for the stammer, before trying again. "Max... get off,"

Nothing.

"Max." she tried more harder, solidly.

No response.

"Max?"

When he didn't respond for the third time, Phoebe marked her apprehension and lifted a finger against his neck, precisely against his jugular vein, sighing in relief when she felt a pulse, albeit a very slow one.

She blushed, and nearly kicked herself, judging by his slowly breathing she deduced he was unconscious. He kissed me in his sleep. Max kissed me. Naturally, the thought itself would leave her appalling in speechless disgust, but that question mark would invade and twirl her mind toward foreign pleasant thoughts she didn't want to entertain.

Phoebe shifted her body, moving to tend to her twin brother.

Max was awake, immediately slapping the warm cloth off of his forehead, feeling an insatiable hunger settle within him, his mouth an arid dry land.

"Max."

He looked up, Phoebe appeared at her door with a tray littered with sandwiches, setting it down at her bedside.

"What happened? Why am I in your room? And why is it so cold?" he asked rubbing his bare arms, compelling him to acknowledge his lack of shirt. "And why am I naked?"

"You, uh..." Phoebe stuck, because he expectantly stared with an intensity that caused her to momentarily track back to the moment of the 'accidental kiss'. "you fell unconscious, so I uh, brought you here."

"My lair was closer." he prodded smartly and in remarkable fashion of picking up where his memories left, levitating the tray into his lap, not wasting time to stash and shove a sandwich into his mouth.

"You don't have spare sheets,"

"I fell unconscious huh?"

A thought struck her. Could it be the day he almost spent an hour at the north pole affected his system? Phoebe shook her head. "Yeah, you're pale all over." she said, pointing to his face and chest.

Max brushed his lips against each other, feeling the scratches of minor chaps, he stared up at her. "But why did I fall unconscious?"

"I, don't know, you slipped and fell."

"A hot shower is in order then." he said, pushing the tray aside, getting out of her bed. "Where's my shirt?"

"Drier."

"Thanks."

"Don't be long in the shower, we still have to clean up, the house is still wet all over."

"Easy, I have a thermal blaster beneath my bed, we install that in the air conditioning filter, activate it to maximum, and release a flutter of heat waves across the house evaporating all excess water in seconds." he explained as he left.

She was rendered speechless.

"So what, we just watch TV all day?"

They were on the couch, two large blankets draping over their forms as they sat and watched television, literally bored out of their minds. Phoebe was nervous and hesitant at first because of the last time Max pranked her, but he managed to convince her that he removed the clank ejector from beneath the couch cushions.

Now here they were, bored out of their minds, watching some action romance movie that dated back to the early 90's.

"Its not like we can actually go out somewhere, its too late."

"I guess you're right." he agreed, shivering a bit. "Please tell me I'm not the only one freezing to death here."

"If the fact that I can't feel my toes count, then yes."

"I mean, I know it doesn't snow in Hiddenville but-" he cut himself off, the content on the television catching his attention. "Okay, now that's just cliché, seriously."

"Nah, its kind of cute that he goes back for her."

"He's stupid if you ask me. I mean, he'd willingly go and save a girl knowing he'll be risking his life in the process."

"Max, that's a contemporary trend in all movies with the genre of action romance," she explained swiftly. "You wouldn't know because you don't have a girlfriend."

He shook his head. "I know I'm impulsive, but I'm not idiotic enough to run to my death to save another life. Be practical, you wouldn't either."

"Max, love-"

"Will get you killed, thank you very much."

Phoebe found his statement untrue. At a point he seemed interested in some girl...

"Hey, what's that girl's name?" she asked ominously, glancing beside her. "Uh, that hotheaded girl who 'treasured nature with all her heart', yeah, what's her name?"

Max frowned, before groaning.

"Allison."

"That's it, what happened between you two?"

"Well, she loved the earth before anything else, whatever that meant." he said sourly. "I later realised she's a freak and I'm not into freaks."

"She dumped you."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night buddy."

"Okay, when did this conversation go from movie reviewing to bashing Max's nonexistent love life?"

"I'm just saying-"

"I wish I was that guy, and you were that girl." he remarked suddenly. "I'd totally leave you behind."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Yes I would."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You wouldn't because I'm your twin sister and you care for me."

"No, no I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"I don't care about you Phoebe."

Phoebe shoved him.

"Glad you get the picture."

A tense silence fell over the living room. Phoebe's growing animosity was profound. He didn't care about her. He probably didn't mean it but he sounded so convincing and it saddened her because she could not find it within herself not to care for him. It came with the package of what she was made of.

"At least I'm not a jerk who'll probably end up living in their parent's basement for eternity."

"I'm not some naïve little rod in the world who thinks everything is sparkly and that the world revolves around her." he retorted aimlessly.

"You're disobedient, belligerent, fail all your other subjects, have a reputation as an obnoxious prankster, socially inept which is why the only friends you have is an entourage that possesses correlative intelligence of whom you form a little boy band with, and your best friend is a rabbit."

"You're a girl."

Phoebe openly gaped. That was a low blow and he knew it.

"And you're a boy without any magnitude to his existence."

"You're still a girl."

"And you-"

"Female."

"That doesn't-"

"Two X chromosome."

"Max, you're-."

"I still don't care about you."

"What makes you think I care about you?!"

Max shifted to his side, maybe he went too far with the gender callous remarks. Phoebe was fuming. Max grunted when she pushed him onto his back.

"Just because you're a boy doesn't make you any better than me!" she bit out with a not-so gentle poke against his chest. "You-you're an egomaniac and all you care about is yourself!"

Max was about to open his mouth, but relented from saying anything when she looked to talk again.

"You try and paint this bad boy image to make others think you don't care about anything but what you don't know is that you're going to end up alone!" she revealed, poking harder.

Max was appearing to be listening, but he wasn't actually listening. To him she was just flapping her gums about what he deduced to be his traits which further his self-aggrandizement. Although at the first sign of her glistening eyes, his throat tightened.

"I've stuck by you each and every time Max! Every time you messed up, I was the one that had to clean up after you!"

"Pheebs! know, calm down! I hear you!" he tried, actually feeling the pokes become painful jabs to his chest. Luckily, she managed to hear him as she visibly calmed down, wiping away the wetness from the corner of her eyes.

"You're too self-absorbed and don't think about others. You see only you," she said softly, looking down at him. "and I hate myself for caring so much even when I know you don't care about me."

Max blinked, a slow smirk appearing on his face.

"In the grand scheme of things. It's established I still don't care about you to the point of drabbling over mushy feelings."

Similar to Max, her intellictual mind deciphered that but backwards.

"You love me."

Max scoffed, momentarily averting his face entirely to the side as an excuse to hide from reeling in shock at what she said, and to ease the thunderous thumps of his heart. Phoebe's eyebrows nearly made union when he said nothing, keeping his face stationed to the side, not saying anything...

"Max... you actually love me?"

He slowly faced her, mind running a thousand miles to conjure up anything to refute her claim.

"What are you talking about? I don't love you."

"I think you do."

"I don't love you."

"You do."

"I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Denial. You're denying it."

Phoebe ran her tongue across the roof of her mouth, before her face directly aligned above his, peering into his eyes, a certain, certain thought marking its permanent debut above all.

"Don't you think it is a coincidence? For one, you claim I am your Empress. Secondly, you deny proclaiming your love for me."

His left eye started twitching. Phoebe wiggled her eyebrows. There was a sly smile creeping on her face. "And since we both know the coward that you are. I'll take initiative and prove just how right I am."

"By all means, please do." he agreed, not denying his curiousness as to were this little play of theirs would lead.

Phoebe made the mistake of letting her logic stray even if just momentarily, which was enough for her insecurities to prevail and misdirect her. Her eyes fell to his lips before northing back up to his, which he noticed and read immediately, not believing she'd actually carry out whatever he thought she had in mind.

Phoebe's face tethered closer, and closer, and closer, keeping her eyes locked onto his, keeping her face in an inevitable descend, just in case he opts to out of as she expected him to. This was stupid, but her pride wouldn't let her back down. If it came down to it. Obviously, it wouldn't mean much, would it?

Yet. As Phoebe's nerves got the better of her. She realised it was actually going to happen. The ball was in her court and knowing him, he'd be all too happy to see her make a fool of herself so when their noses touched, Phoebe thanked the heavens when someone knocked on the front door. The anticipation slowly left her. It would have been much easier if he was unconscious, she realised.

"See who's at the door?"

Phoebe felt his breath, wondering why her thoughts were entertaining the likes of kissing her own brother. One look at him and her face tinted. "O-on it."