Alex stretched and smiled, caught Justin's eye, then gestured him over. He walked over at his usual quick pace and gave his sister a friendly smile. "Yes?"

Stretching a little, Alex gestured and said, "My shoulders are feeling a little tight. Rub them?" She tilted her head and smiled with that. Justin frowned, so Alex leaned over to him, whispered, "Girls love backrubs, dork. This way she'll know you can give a good one."

Justin gave her a skeptical look, but nodded, then moved behind Alex, brushed her long black hair forward, then put his hands on her shoulders and began to knead the muscles. As he did, Alex closed her eyes and let out a long breath. Justin's hands were warm, and he rubbed her in slow circles, kneading slightly with his fingers as he did. Her back hadn't really been feeling bad, but he was definitely making it feel better anyway. I could get used to this.

After a few moments, Justin whispered, "Is she watching?"

Opening her eyes again, Alex said, "What? Is who watching what?"

"Is Millie watching me rub your back?"

Alex twisted her head a little to the side, then smiled. Millie definitely was watching, and didn't look at all happy about it. Alex gave her a little wave, then said, "Yes, she's watching."

Justin didn't ask anything further, and Alex was a little relieved at that. It wasn't that she would have minded lying to him, she told herself. It just made things simpler when she didn't need to.

So far, since they'd gotten home from school, Justin had taken Alex's books upstairs for her, made her a sandwich, refilled her drink, and now he was rubbing her shoulders. Millie, in the meantime, had been having to make up Justin's slack on busing tables, since he was busy with Alex, and was casting more and more annoyed glances at Justin, now upgrading to an outright glare.

All of which is exactly according to plan. And Alex? She was smiling happily, basking in the attention - more attention than she'd gotten from Justin since he first started dating Miranda. I never should have encouraged that. Prep and goth? It was doomed from the start.

"Alex," Justin said then, and she realized that he was saying it for the third time. At the same time, she also realized that she'd put her arms on the counter, put her head on them, and was beginning to doze under her brother's ministrations.

"What?" she asked, sitting back upright.

"Is that enough?" Justin tilted his head to the side, toward a customerless, but uncleared table. "I really should get back to work."

No. No, you shouldn't. You should stay here and rub my back for another hour or so. Blinking more in surprise at her own thought than at Justin's work ethic - which she knew all too well - Alex said aloud, "Oh. Yeah, that's good enough. It feels much better. Thank you." Turning toward Justin on the stool, Alex saw Millie watching out of the corner of her eye, and impulsively grabbed Justin by the arm, pulled him closer, and kissed him on the cheek.

Justin started to frown at that, but then seemed to remember the role he was playing, and smiled instead - and then, to Alex's surprise, leaned in and kissed her on the temple in return. She blinked a couple of times at that, then quickly turned away from him as she felt herself starting to blush.

And that surprised her as well. I'm Alex! I'm the one who's supposed to be making other people feel embarrassed and stuff! He moved away, and after a few seconds, she turned partway back and looked at him. He was busing a table, working quickly at it, not looking at her (or at Millie, thankfully), but also not blushing or... or anything. Alex's eyes started to narrow in a glare - how dare Justin handle her kiss better than she handled his! - but then she realized that Millie was still watching her, and she turned the incipient glare into a wink.

Of course, Justin didn't see the wink, since he was busy clearing the table, but that didn't matter - what mattered was that Millie saw it. To finish up, Alex turned her head a little, looked at Millie as if she were just noticing that she was being watched, and gave the blonde a quick smile and wave. Not a friendly smile, though - in fact, it was more a smirk than a smile, heading quickly toward 'Yeah, I just did that' territory.

Millie had the grace to look away, and Alex returned to her soda, smiling.

Wow, Justin thought as he turned away from Millie, Alex was right. This 'act nice to my sister/ignore her' combo is really working!

And unfortunately (from Alex's point of view, at least), it was. In fact, through the course of the last four hours, Justin had become the focus of a strange sort of tug-of-war, as both Alex and Millie flirted with him more and more outrageously. So far, he'd been the recipient of multiple cheek kisses from both, a full gamut of winks and looks, a dozen of so shoulder and arm touches, and three full-body hugs (two from Alex).

"Justin." Alex touched him on the shoulder again as she said his name.

He turned to her, gave her a smile. "Yes?"

She gestured over toward table eight, a two-seater along one of the walls. At this point, Justin didn't even blink to see an open schoolbook on the table, along with papers that were spread out and a pencil - as odd as it was to see Alex doing homework, the rest of the afternoon before had been much odder.

"Can you show me how to do this math? I wasn't really paying attention in class." Alex being Alex, she said the last part without the slightest trace of embarrassment.

"Sure." Justin walked over to the table with Alex, put his hand on it and bent his head down to look at the book and her papers.

Alex, though, put her hand on his shoulder again, then gave him a push toward the chair and down, saying, "There's a few problems I need help with, really. Not just one." Justin sat, and Alex moved behind him, leaned over his shoulder as he started to talk. It was math stuff, and Alex didn't really listen, just nodded and make the appropriate noises as he spoke, crossing her forearms on his shoulder for support.

He explained the first problem, and she pointed out a second, then waited about fifteen seconds before saying, "Wait a second. This is starting to hurt. Let me sit down for this."

"Sure," Justin said with a nod as Alex stood up. "You can bring the chair -"

He cut off as Alex stepped around him and sat right down on his lap. "Okay," she said then. "Go on."

Justin blinked, then blushed. "Alex, I, uhh... this isn't appropriate," he said quickly, dropping his voice to a whisper.

Frowning with feigned innocence, Alex said, "What? It's just us, Justin. It's not like I've never sat in your lap before."

"Yeah, well... you weren't - I wasn't - we were kids then, Alex."

She tilted her head, and her body moved as well, keeping her balanced, and Justin swallowed, trying to concentrate on anything other than how his little sister's bottom was feeling against him. "Well, Mister I'm-So-Grown-Up, you're the one who likes to keep reminding me that I'm still a kid," she said then, grinning a little.

"Alex," Justin hissed, "Get off me. You're in a skirt, for -"

He cut himself off, leaving Alex wondering just what he'd been about to say, but she looked down, then back up at him, and said, "Oh. So I am. Well -"

Justin stood up then, his legs pushing the chair back as he rose, hands moving to Alex's waist and lifting her off of him so she didn't fall down on her butt. Taking her forearm, Justin led Alex to the freezer. She looked for Millie

Never one to let someone else control the situation, Alex sped up as they walked, moving herself into the lead, opened the freezer door, gestured Justin inside. He went, and she followed, then shut the door behind them with a click. Justin had already turned around, standing several feet away in the center of the freezer, his arms crossed and an angry look on his face.

"Okay," he said, before Alex could speak. "Tell me what's going on."