A/N: Two things. One, I have finally finished plotting out this story so I actually know for sure where I'm going now, yay! Two, I can only upload one chapter today because I'm at the library and it's closing in about ten minutes.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love you all. I especially love to hear how my stuff is apparently crack. YAY CRACK!

Now, before I run out of time at the library or on my almost dead laptop, onto the story! I don't own Wizards of Waverly Place.

Chapter Five:

"Okay, so we're basically going with understated elegance with a touch of Bohemian?" Marissa asked. Justin and Alex sat there with identical expressions of "what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into" until Alex finally shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" Somehow they had gotten roped into planning the wedding with Mr. Dawson's sister and were now stuck sitting in her office together as they all looked through wedding catalogues.

Alex was enjoying herself in a way. She figured this was good practice for when she finally got married. So she thought she might as well live it up a little. Justin was upset with her though, she could tell.

"Why don't we choose your basic color scheme?" Marissa asked. She was a very businesslike woman but friendly and looked a lot like her brother. They shared the same dark hair with silvery streaks but Marissa's looked more deliberate. She was very pale which she made jokes about every now and then, which put Alex and Justin somewhat at ease.

"So how do you feel about red?" Marissa continued.

"No, no way!" Alex shook her head. "Everyone picks red. Red and white are like, the go-to theme colors."

"You're absolutely right," Marissa agreed. She reached down behind her desk and then sat up again. "Hmm, I can't find my color swatch book. Let me go look and see if Evianna borrowed it." She stood up. "I'll be right back."

As soon as she was gone, Justin rounded on her. "What are you doing?" he asked through clenched teeth. Alex shrugged.

"You haven't come up with anything to get us out of this yet," she pointed out. "You were the one who said it would be rude to stand her up or cancel the meeting."

"I figured we'd get here and tell her nicely that her services aren't needed, that we decided all we wanted to do was get married in the courthouse!" Justn shot back. "That would have been the simplest idea! But then you had to go and start talking wedding colors! And themes!"

"I'm sorry," Alex said, crossing her arms. "I figured that I might as well feel her out and see if I'd like her to plan my wedding."

"What wedding?" Justin asked. "You aren't even engaged!"

"Minor details!" Alex protested. "I might be. Someday. A long, long time from now."

Justin's reply was cut short by Marissa's return. She sidled back into her seat and presented them with the color swatch book, flicking it open. When they didn't make a move to look, she glanced up, seeing their stormy faces.

"Hmm," she said. She moved the book to the side and leaned forward across the desk. "I've seen this look before. You know, a lot of couples have disagreements on the concept."

"But..." Justin tried to say.

"The important thing to remember is that you're getting married. You're going to be able to spend the rest of your lives together! I want you to turn to each other and tell each other you love the other person." Justin and Alex continued to sit there. "Come on, do it!"

"I love you Alex," Justin turned to his sister and ground out the words reluctantly.

"I love you Justin," Alex said tonelessly, equally frustrated with her brother.

"There, now isn't that better?" Marissa asked. They shrugged. "Okay, lets get back to business," she said. "We need to get a lot done in the next month to get everything together so we need to come up with a theme and a color scheme before you can leave."

Justin and Alex groaned simultaneously.

Two hours later they left the office, each exhausted mentally from their experiences.

"Please dear god get me out of this!" Alex moaned. "I really don't want to plan a wedding now, I've decided. It's too much effort!"

"That's fine because we're not getting married," Justin said. They strode down the block to the end where Justin hailed a cab for them. Alex noted the pink tinge on his cheeks and wondered if it was from the cold or from his irritation with her. She felt terrible at thought of making him so upset. It was really stupid of her to have gotten them in so deep and she regretted it now.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly as they rode towards Justin's office. Mr. Dawson had given him the whole morning off to wedding plan and Alex's work was quite flexible about when she came and went as long as they had their designs. That left them at large for another couple hours so they were going to try to hash things out over lunch before Justin went in.

"You're always doing this," Justin said. "You always take my good ideas and make them so...so..." he stumbled, trying to find the right words for his anger. "Such a complete mess."

"Your good idea?" Alex burst out. "This idea is what got us into this mess in the first place. You just had to have this promotion so much that you dragged me right into it."

"Hey, you're not completely innocent either. You told me all about trying to make that guy you work with jealous so he'll ask you out."

"And?" Alex shot back. Justin rubbed his temples and sighed.

"I'm getting a headache from arguing. Can we just drop this until we find something to eat?"

"Fine," Alex sat back against the seat and crossed her arms. Traffic was going slowly so she cast about for another topic.

"Are you coming to the Winter Fashion Show?" she asked. "It's the week before Christmas."

"When and where?" Justin asked.

"It'll be at the Metropolitan Arena." Alex said. "It starts at eleven. I have to be there early but I'll be watching the show from the front of the house. Grady is going to be there too. He designs men's ties."

Justin snickered.

"Shut up," Alex snapped. "I'd like to see you design ties."

"Sure, since all it takes is a coloring book. You make the red tie red, the blue tie blue and throw a few spots on the black one and call it polka-dotted."

Alex told Justin to shut up and he laughed at her. Finally, after an endless cab ride they arrived at the corner of Justin's block and slipped out to go into Justin's favorite restaurant. Piedro's was an upscale Mediterranean place with a warm, homey feeling.

They sat down and the waiter took their drink orders. Justin checked the time and saw he had an hour left before he had to get back to work.

"Okay, out with it. Let's sort this mess out," Justin said. "How are we going to get out of this?"

"Well, have you considered telling the truth?" Alex asked. Justin just stared at her. "Okay so that's out. Let's see. We could always try...no that won't work. Or maybe...no, no not that either."

"Can't you come up with anything?" Justin demanded. Alex glared at him.

"I'm trying," she hissed. "I don't see you coming up with anything either."

"Well we'll just have to rack our brains. We can't get married, it's just too crazy. Even for a promotion."

"Maybe you could fool Mr. Dawson into thinking you and I eloped. Then we don't have to actually get married."

"That could work," Justin stroked his chin, thinking it over. "Nah, he'd just insist on throwing us the wedding anyway."

"He sure is pushy," Alex muttered. The waiter brought their food and they tossed ideas back and forth. Nothing seemed to gel and before long Justin had to return to work. Reluctantly, he headed out the door, Alex trailing behind him.

"Okay, I've got to get to work now but surely we can come up with something before we head to the Winter Fashion Show," he said.

"I hope," Alex agreed.

They didn't.

The Winter Fashion Show arrived and Alex was in a frenzy trying to get everything ready in time. She just didn't have time to st down and discuss things with Justin. They planned to meet up in front of the Metropolitan Arena at 10:30 and Alex stood on the steps waiting for her brother to show up.

She bad ben running around all morning trying to get things done in time for the show and just now had a moment to relax. As she waited, she pulled out her handbag and popped a mint.

"Justin Russo at your service, ma'am." Alex turned to the soft, husky male voice. Her heart leapt into her throat and she almost choked on her mint.

"Ugh, you scared me," she complained, giving him a playful shove. He was dressed up in a nice suit with a bowler hat on his head, reminding her vaguely of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood Comics and Mouse Villains.

"Nice outfit," she teased. "Are you dressing up in costume?"

"Uh-huh," he rolled his eyes. "Shall we go inside?" He offered his arm and she took it, feeling the same tingles as before only this time they traveled all the way up and down the length of her arm.

They headed towards the 'red carpet' which was actually grey. Along the sides, reporters and photographers called out for pictures and interviews. Alex stopped several times to give an interview or pose for a photo.

"This is a lot of work," Justin commented to Alex as they entered. "I thought you were just supposed to...you know, design the clothes"

"That's only half of it," Alex admitted. "There's the fashion shows, the modeling shoots, the publicity shoots, the international traveling...there's so much more to it all. And most people think Della DeLuca designs all the clothing but really its a whole fashion house.''

"Well I definitely learned more about the fashion industry," Justin said politely.

"More than you cared to?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well, here's our seats," she said, indicating her seat with "Alex and Guest" printed on cream paper.

They sat down and Alex smirked to see that she had manipulated precisely. Her seat was directly across from Grady Adams. He was sitting with a blonde but he didn't look very interested. She flashed him a smile and took Justin's hand, squeezing it in her lap. She turned to Justin and batted her eyelashes at him.

"Is he looking?" she murmured. Justin looked a bit confused. "Grady. He's sitting across from us."

Justin glanced across at the young man with a blond coif who was eyeing Alex and Justin's intertwined hands.

"Yeah," he turned back to her.

"Quick, do something!" she hissed under her breath. Justin mentally scanned for the most innocent gesture he could think of. Leaning in, he pressed his forehead to hers and gave her cheek a gentle kiss. Alex's nerves exploded with tingles where his lips touched. She almost shivered but mentally shook herself out of her weird moment.

"Okay the show is starting soon," Alex said. She broke her gaze from Justin's and focused on the stage in front of them. They were seated along the catwalk, directly in front of the edge of the stage. Front row center, so to speak.

The CEO of DeLuca came out on the stage to introduce Della DeLuca and the lady herself introduced the show. Justin watched a parade of fashions strut across the catwalk and found himself bored and tuning it out until they announced Alex's Line.

He watched intently, sizing up her designs. All things considered he was impressed with her sense of style and color. She had a way of matching textures that was unique and bold. The young models who wore her designs were more real looking than the others too.

"Do you choose the models?" Justin whispered.

"Yes," Alex said. "Every model is auditioned and we fit the clothes to the models."

"Your models look different."

"Yeah, I hate those thin nothings the others always pick. Real girls wear my clothes so real girls should model them." Justin was surprised by her statement.

The show finished and Justin waited around while Alex talked to a hundred people about her fashions. She was interviewed again by reporters and then finally they headed to the Waldorf for cocktails. The roof had been rented out for the party and Justin was impressed by Alex's lifestyle.

"Is that your girlfriend?" A tall, leggy blonde asked. He glanced up to see that she was talking to him. He had his hand intertwined with Alex's but his sister was busy talking to someone about the show.

"Uh, yeah," he shrugged.

"She's amazing," the model gushed. "She hired me when I was a nobody kid about five years ago. Went over the heads of a lot of her higher ups to do it, I remember. But I have her to thank for my career now."

"Yeah?" Justin asked.

"She's got such an eye for fashion. You know, she designed the dress I'm wearing now," she leaned in. "You hold onto that one." The model turned and strutted away. Alex's attention turned to him.

"Was that Evalina Evangelo?" she asked. "I haven't seen her in forever!" Justin's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe he had just spoken with Evalina Evangelo. Evalina was the biggest name in modeling at the moment. She even had her own TV show, "America's Next Big Catwalker". It was rumored she might be hosting a talk show soon. And Alex had discovered her?

It was like that all day long with people coming up to Justin left and right and telling him how fabulous and amazing and phenomenal that Alex was. In fact, her coworker Mindy (who had seemed rather put out by Alex's popularity), had confided in him that Della DeLuca herself had asked Alex to head up their Young Miss line.

It blew Justin away, frankly. He couldn't understand where the Alex of yesteryear had gone. Where was the lazy, selfish, spoiled brat who made him miserable growing up? Where was the perpetual sloth who foisted most of her diner shifts on him? He knew she was successful but now he was seeing it all first hand.

A part of him, a very small, very mean part had thought maybe Alex's success came from her old ways of petty manipulation and a dash of skill. Now he was forced to see the truth.

The afternoon turned into evening and the party moved from the rooftop tent to a swanky dance club. There were drinks and dancing and Justin found himself having a better time than expected.

Until Grady Adams came over to dance with her.

"Hey Alex. Do you maybe want to dance?" Grady asked. Justin found himself reluctant to let Alex go with someone so blond and hairsprayed (at least that's what he told himself) but he wasn't alone for long. Evalina Evangelo came over and asked him to dance.

"Sure!" he agreed to quickly for his own liking.

"So how did you and Alex meet?" Evalina asked.

"We knew each other growing up. We were friends back then. Well, maybe friends and enemies."

"I had one of those," Evalina laughed. "Frenemy was what we called each other. Sister was another name." Justin coughed and looked away for a moment, trying to keep from turning red.

"Yeah, heh," he gave a nervous laugh. They danced for one more song before Justin realized that he was going to have to call it a night or he wouldn't be able to get up for work the next day.

Alex returned and he asked to leave and she decided to leave with him.

"So you were cozy with Adams," Justin said as they exited the hotel.

"Yeah, can you believe it? He asked me to dance and asked about you and me and seemed all interested."

"Well, it seems kind of weird for a guy to go for someone who's taken," Justin said gruffly.

"Yeah, but that was the point, to make him jealous," Alex said. Justin dropped the subject, deciding to keep his thoughts to himself for the time. He didn't want to ruin Alex's day with an argument.

They parted ways on the street, each hailing a cab to take them to their respective apartments. Alex impulsively leaned in and gave Justin a peck on the cheek before he left.

"Thank you," Alex said. "You're the best brother I could ask for. But tell anyone I said that and regret it." Justin chuckled but promised to keep it to himself.

Justin got into the cab and waved goodbye to Alex as it took off. He settled back against the slightly sticky seat and hoped they would think of a way out of this situation before it was too late.

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