"You couldn't have found a nicer hotel?"

Justin rolled his eyes at Alex's question as he gave their cabbie a tip. "Amazingly enough, there is a limit to how much money I have on me, Alex. This is what I can afford, after the cab and leaving money for dinner."

"Remind me not to spend so much of your money next time we're going to be stranded," Alex replied, looking doubtfully over the weathered single-story place as she did.

The cab driver gave Justin a sympathetic look, quietly said, "I feel for ya, kid. My first wife was the same way. But hey, at least you've got a looker there, eh?" He give Justin a wink and a grin, and said, "Have a happy Valentine's tonight, if ya know what I mean!" as he rolled up his window and drove away.

"What did he say?" Alex asked, turning to look at Justin.

"Oh, um, he, uh, he just wished us a happy Valentine's." Justin could feel the blush rising on his cheeks, felt it grow hotter as Alex grinned at him.

"Oh, I see… he thought we were a couple, is that it? Well…." Alex grabbed onto Justin's hand and started forward, leading him into the motel's office. "Hello!" she said brightly to the bored-looking girl behind the counter. "We're the Russos. My husband called you a few minutes ago about getting a room here." She pulled Justin up next to her, then turned to look at her blushing brother.

Much to Justin's relief, the girl didn't even look up as she put down the Sudoku puzzle she'd been working on and moved over to the terminal there. She poked at it for a moment, then said, "Yeah. You're lucky - this is the last room we have left tonight. Lot of people visiting the park this weekend. It'll be seventy dollars for the night."

"Pay the girl, honey," Alex said, and Justin had to fight not to give her a dirty look as he opened his wallet. He laid the money down on the counter, wishing he'd brought his debit card. Figured I'd limit how much Alex could get me to spend that way. Well… it's a good thing I'd bought the tickets in advance, or I don't know where we'd be sleeping.

"You'll be in room twenty-nine," the girl was saying, finally actually looking up as she pushed the key cards over toward them. "It's around to the left, toward the back. There's soda and snack machines down the walkway there. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Do you have toothbrushes, by any chance?" Justin asked. "Our, uh… our car broke down at the park, and we weren't planning on having to stay overnight." The girl nodded, squatted down behind the counter, then came out a moment later with two toothbrushes and a hair brush, all wrapped in sanitary plastic.

"Thanks," Justin said with a smile, and then Alex was tugging on his arm again, pulling him toward the door.

Alex stopped about three feet inside the door of their room and made a face as she looked around. The walls were covered with tan wallpaper that had seen better days. Heck, it's probably seen better decades. "Well," she said, her gaze crossing the dark brown carpet (all the better to hide the stains), "I see it's not any nicer" - bed doesn't look too bad, hope it isn't too firm - "on the insi -"

"Hmm?" Justin went as he turned to look at Alex from the bathroom area, where he'd turned on the light and set down their toiletries. Alex stared at the bed for a moment, then gave Justin an accusing look.

"There's only one bed. Why is there only one bed?"

"I don't know," Justin replied. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that someone decided to pretend we're married?" Alex frowned, and Justin sighed, then shook his head. "She said this was the last room they had," he said then. "It's not your fault. I'll sleep on the floor."

He said it simply, with no special emphasis, and Alex blinked, then bit her lip. "No… you're hurt. I can….." Alex trailed off, and Justin smiled a little, walked over to his little sister, stroked her hair with his hand.

"Alex… no. It's okay. I'm the big brother here, so I take the floor." She opened her mouth again, and he smiled and shook his head. "No. We're not arguing about this."

"But -" Shaking his head again, Justin cut Alex off by putting his finger on the tip of her nose.

"No. The only way I'm sleeping in that bed is if you're in it too." Justin and Alex both blinked at that, and then Justin blushed again. "You know what I mean," he said hurriedly, then moved away from her, over to the phone. "Find something on TV. I'm going to see what we can get for food that's in walking distance or delivers."

As Justin picked up the "Restaurants and Entertainment" folder from the tiny desk, Alex sat down on the bed and took the remote, then turned on the TV, started flipping channels. Her eyes kept straying back toward her brother, though, and Alex found herself looking him up and down.

We could both sleep in it. It's big enough. And it's not like we haven't before…. And besides, I can just wear my pajamas, so it'd be like when we slept in our clothes in the jungle, and - Alex blinked then as she suddenly realized that she didn't have her pajamas. And she couldn't magic any up. Okay, no. Sleeping in our clothes in the bed would just be weird. And sleeping together in our underwear….

Alex suddenly pictured Justin in his underwear… and then pictured them in bed, the way they used to sleep together as kids, spooned together with Justin's arms around her, and she had to turn to make herself look away from her brother as she felt the heat rise on her face. Bad brain, don't go there. Quit picturing Justin in his underwear!

She turned over onto her side, facing completely away from Justin now, and bit her lip as she stared through the TV, trying to clear her mind. Think of something else… think of… Dad laying on the couch and watching wrestling. Alex closed her eyes, concentrating on that image, and after a few moments, the feeling of butterflies that had been starting in her stomach faded. Slowly, Alex took a deep breath, then let it out, felt herself starting to relax.

"Uh…" Justin said then, "Alex, what are you watching?"

Her eyes snapped open, and Alex found her blush returning even brighter than before as she saw the naked man and woman embracing on the screen. She grabbed for the remote, but too quickly, and her hand struck the remote, knocking it onto the floor. "Oh, uh, I wasn't really -"

Alex half-slid off the bed in her haste to get to the remote again, but she couldn't tear her eyes off the couple on the screen. The woman had her eyes closed, her mouth slightly open as the man pulled her hair to the side, then bit her there, and - and mercifully, her thumb found the power button and cut it off. "I, uh, I'd just kind of turned it on for the noise, and…."

Normally, Justin would have enjoyed watching Alex squirm, but right now, with what he'd just seen, he was a little afraid that if he tried to tease her, he'd take it too far. Might be better if I just get away from Alex for a few minutes, let myself cool down. "There's a burger place near here," he said then, walking toward the door. "I'm going to get us some food and bring it back here."

"Hey!" Alex jumped up from the floor, then half-ran over to Justin. "No leaving me alone here!" Waving a hand around at the room, she said, "There's probably rats in a place like this. Or roaches. So I'm coming with you."

A shadow of something went across Justin's face, and Alex wondered what he was thinking. He nodded then, though, and said, "All right. Let's get going." Opening the door, he gestured for her to go first.

"When did it start getting cold?" Alex hugged herself and shivered a bit as a gust of icy wind blew across them. Justin frowned, then took Alex's arm to stop her, shrugged out of his jacket and held it out for her to get into. It was big on her, but it did help, and she gave him a grateful smile as they started to move again.

"We're almost there," he said aloud, nodding toward their destination. "We can hurry a bit - that'll help warm us up too." Justin picked up the pace, and Alex matched it. When they reached the building, he broke from her to move forward and open the door for her.

Inside, it was much nicer, but Alex kept her arms around herself as she got into line, rubbing a little as she tried to warm back up. "Here," Justin said then, and he hugged her from behind, his arms over hers, pressed against her to help warm her back up.

Alex relaxed against her brother, let herself enjoy the feel of his warm body against hers. The line moved forward, and the pair of them moved with little shuffling steps, staying together. Part of Alex wanted to let it last, but after a minute or so, she turned her head and whispered, "Thanks. I'm warm enough now."

Justin let go just as the guy in line in front of them finished giving his order, and he and Alex moved up to the register. "We'll take a barbecue bacon cheeseburger, fries, a chocolate shake with whipped cream, and a number five combo, please," he said, pulling out his wallet as he did. Alex smiled a little at the fact that Justin remembered her favorite. Which is more than Dean's ever done, a voice in her head said, and she frowned at that for a moment.

As they ate, Alex stole fries from Justin, and he kept trying to block her hand when she'd go for them, each time letting her eventually get past and snatch one. When his fries were almost completely gone, Alex said she'd had enough, and gave him her untouched fries.

When they were done, Justin excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Alex waited at the table, playing with her straw as she did. "I can take that for you," a voice said, and Alex looked up to see one of the staff - a girl about her age, with long brown hair in a braid, blue eyes in a mildly cute face, and a nametag that said "Samantha".

"Oh, sure," Alex said, pushing the tray toward her.

Samantha picked it up, giving Alex a smile. "I hope you don't mind my saying, but it's really cute, the way you and your boyfriend play together."

"He's not my boyfriend," Alex said automatically, and then wished she hadn't as she saw Samantha's eyebrows go up slightly, saw her glance toward the bathroom then. A jealous urge rose up in Alex, and - Why not? Already did it once today.

"Is he -" Samantha started, but Alex cut her off.

"He's my husband," she said with a smile. "We're on our honeymoon, actually." She slipped her left hand under the table, wishing she had magic to supply herself with a ring.

"Oh, congratulations, then," Samantha said with a smile. She said something else, but Alex wasn't really listening now, as she saw Justin emerge from the bathroom and start toward them.

Standing up, Alex said, "Thanks," to her, then walked over to Justin and took his hand, looked up at him with a smile. "Let's get back to the hotel," she said, making sure Samantha could hear it. "I really want to get to bed."

A completely unsuspecting Justin simply nodded and said, "Okay," and it was all Alex could do to keep her smile from becoming a smirk as they left.

The walk back seemed even colder, and as soon as they got back, Justin moved to the room's heater, turned it on, then held up a hand in front of the vent, waiting for the air to warm up. Two minutes later, he frowned a little. The air didn't seem very warm, but... Ah, well. I can survive one cold night, I'm sure, and Alex'll have the blankets. It should be fine.

They watched TV for a bit, sitting on the bed, playing games with the remote each time a show would end - games that always ended up with Alex having it. Around ten-thirty, Justin tried his wand again. It still wasn't working, and he sighed. "Well... I guess we should go to bed," he said. Then he sat up, reached down and took the hem of his t-shirt, pulled it off, then held it out to Alex.

"Since you don't have any pajamas to wear, you can wear my shirt to sleep in, if you want," he said. Alex looked at the offered shirt for a moment, then took it and nodded quickly, trying to keep her eyes on her brother's face as she did.

A few minutes later, Alex came out of the bathroom, wearing Justin's shirt as a cover-up over her bra and panties. He was sitting over on the room's one chair, and Alex felt a moment of pique over the fact that she didn't look up when she came out, instead continuing to look down at his cell phone, doing something with it.

"Your turn," she said then, standing at the end of the bed. Justin looked up, and Alex smiled a little as his eyes first went to her face, then started to slide down her body before he jerked them back up with a noticeable effort.

"I was just texting Dad to tell him we're doing okay here," Justin said, getting up and starting toward the sink as he did. "He says they got the dragons back, and they expect to have the power back on in a few hours, but we might as well go to sleep." He turned sideways to move past Alex, not touching her, and then suddenly she was hugging him, pressing her head against his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Justin asked quickly, frowning as he put his arms around his little sister.

She nodded, said, "Yeah. I just wanted to say... thank you. Even with all the stupid stuff that happened, today really was a good day."

Justin smiled, then gave Alex a squeeze. "Good. I'm glad you liked it." They held on for a few more moments, then broke apart awkwardly, and Alex slipped into the bed while Justin brushed his teeth. She let her eyelids droop, but not close all the way, instead watching the way the muscles in Justin's back moved. When he turned back around, she closed her eyes all the way, listened as he went around the bed, took one of the pillows from it, clicked off the light, and then lay down on the floor.

It was 1:49 AM by the clock when Alex woke up. There was a noise, like a clicking, and she suddenly realized as well that she was chilly, even with the blanket. She folded herself up into a fetal position, trying to get warm, hoping whatever that noise was would go away soon. A minute later, it still hadn't, and it was then that Alex realized the noise was coming from inside the room.

She sat up, said, "Justin? Do you hear that?" There was no response, though, and she sighed a little, reached and found the switch for the light by the bed, turned it on and looked over at him.

Justin was curled tightly on the floor, his jacket over him as a completely inadequate blanket - and then Alex realized what the noise was. Justin's teeth were chattering.

Immediately, she threw back the covers and went to him, grabbed him by the arm and pulled up. "Justin - you're freezing!" she said, but he simply looked at her dully, blinking slowly.

"Oh, for God's sake - come on. We have to get you warmed up." Alex pulled Justin over to the bed, half-pushed him onto it, then climbed on with him, pulling the blanket up over both of them. Moving behind him, Alex pressed her chest and belly against his back for a moment. He felt cold to her, but the cloth of his shirt kept her from feeling most of it, and Alex sat up, pulled Justin's shirt off of herself, then moved back against him.

His skin was very cold where it touched hers, but she didn't worry about that as she felt him shivering, instead putting her arms around him. "Justin - you should have said something!" she said then.

"Ah-ah-ah-I'll b-be o -" he started, but Alex interrupted.

"No you won't. You can't even talk, you're so cold. Don't be so nice you freeze, idiot." Justin didn't say anything to that, but he moved his hands, shakily taking the blankets and pulling them tighter around himself. Alex held onto him, worried, but not sure what else she could do without magic. He'll be okay once he warms up. He's got to be okay. Biting her lip, Alex considered for a moment. If we've got more skin touching, that should warm him faster, right?

She reached around then and unbuttoned Justin's pants, started to search for his zipper pull, but he put a hand on hers, shook his head. "No - you tr-treat hypothermia by warming the - the torso first," Justin said.

"Okay," Alex replied, feeling relief that Justin wasn't having so much trouble talking now, and, more importantly, he seemed to be thinking okay. His teeth had stopped chattering, she noticed then, and while he was shivering some, it wasn't constant. Good.

Alex shifted, pressing herself more firmly against Justin, and after a couple of minutes, he stopped shivering entirely. Closing her eyes for a moment, Alex took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, feeling relieved now.

A few minutes later, Justin turned over. A little surprised, Alex let go of him. "Thanks," he said. "You're right. I was being stupid. It's just... we're not little kids any more, and..." He trailed off there, and Alex shook her head.

"And you felt like you had to freeze to death, because you're a boy and I'm a girl? Justin..." She moved in close, against him, put her arms around him. "I may tease you, and complain about you, but... there's no one in the world I trust more than you. If you needed to be in here with me, you should have just said so." Alex turned her head to the side, her forehead against her brother's chin. "I know you'd do anything for me. I'd do anything for you too."

They lay there like that, holding onto each other, and then Alex sniffled. Justin pulled his head back to look at her, but Alex turned over, turning her face away from him. "Alex? What's wrong?" he asked, but she shook her head, and he frowned, then moved against her, putting his arms around her.

"I... I'm sorry," she said. "I was just thinking about today, and then I thought about you leaving for college in a few months, and... you'll visit, right? I mean, I know you'll be busy, but -"

"Of course I'll visit." Justin rolled a little, side-to-side, rocking Alex in his arms like when they were little. "You just said you know I'd do anything for you. You think that wouldn't include visiting? Don't be silly." He brushed her hair back from her temple with one hand, kissed her there. "I wouldn't know what to do without you around, Alex. Really."

She smiled at that, then nodded. "Okay," she said, then. After a moment, Justin started to take his arm from around Alex, but she shook her head quickly, said, "No - hold me. Just... just hold me."

"I'm just going to turn off the light again," he said, and Alex nodded to that. Justin let go of her, turned it off quickly, then put his arms back around his sister. There, in the dark, he held her, and though it was cold in the room, together they were warm.

Author's Note:

... and that's it for that V-day! This one was a bit longer than my usual chapters, but I didn't really want to split it into two.

Speaking of splitting things in two, on advice from a friend, I'm going to be splitting this story. This part will remain T-rated; the new story will be M-rated - that way people who are looking for T-rated only material can find the existing twelve chapters of Valentines more easily.

The new story will be titled Valentines Continued: Unfolding Flowers. When I post the first chapter, I'll also add a new chapter here, directing people to it.

And as always, thanks to all of you who read my stories! I love hearing from you!