That night, Alex lay in her bed, waiting for everyone else to be asleep and reviewing her plan. First, I make a duplicate of myself. Then, I take a cab to the dorm. Then I use the go-through-mo-through spell to get to Justin's room. And then I either surprise him, or I kill him if he's got another girl there. This should all work.

She looked over at the bedside table. 11:03, the LEDs showed. Okay. They should be asleep now. Here goes. She scooted over to the edge of the bed, said "Edgebono Utoosis," then sat up and looked at the duplicate of her that was lying there. The duplicate looked up, dumbly. Yeah, dumbly is right. I'd forgotten how stupid the duplicates are. Well, how much brains does it take to sleep?

"Okay, I've got a nice, simple job for you. You lie here and sleep. If anybody tries to wake you up, just keep sleeping. Got that?"

The duplicate gave a nod, then closed her eyes. Aww. I look so cute when I'm sleeping. Alex smiled, tucked her duplicate in (resisting a sudden urge to kiss herself on the forehead), went to the door, opened it a crack. Lights out. Good. She slipped out, went down the stairs, taking them very carefully, silently crossed the living room, opened the door, and went out.

Thirty minutes later, she was in Justin's dorm, smiling and humming to herself as she took the elevator up. I can stay 'til four, I think. Tomorrow's Sunday, so I can sleep in. This is going to be so good....

The elevator dinged for four, and she actually skipped out, still humming, did a twirl on her way to 418. Stopping in front of the door, Alex paused a moment and took out her compact, did a quick check. All good. Here goes.... "Go through mo through."

Alex stepped through the door and said, "Surprise!" striking a pose with one arm up and one down as she did. Then she stopped, feeling foolish as she saw Justin wasn't there. The bedside light was on, but it illuminated an empty room. Her heart sunk and her shoulders slumped. It's midnight. Justin never stays up this late, unless he's with me. So where is he?

The dorm had common rooms, she remembered. Maybe he'd be in one of those. Or maybe he's visiting Beth in 521. Alex stepped back out into the hallway, took a breath, looked up and down it. There was a lounge on the ground floor, and a balcony above that, and she remembered something about a game room, and TV rooms. I'm going to find you, Justin, even if I have to do a room-to-room search of this place. And you had better not be with another girl when I find you.

*

Justin looked down at Alex -- or actually, Alex's duplicate, although he didn't know it -- sleeping in her bed, and smiled. She's so beautiful like this -- all calm and peaceful. Slowly, he knelt by the side of her bed, then crossed his arms on it and watched her, wanting to take in her beauty by the light of the blue '12:03' on her clock for a few moments before waking her up.

After a minute or so, he frowned a little. Usually she'd realize he was there by now, and wake up, give him some sarcastic remark about acting like a stalker watching her. She must really be tired, to still be sleeping. Justin reached out a hand and gently touched her on the shoulder, saying, "Hey. Wake up, sleepy."

Nothing. Frowning more deeply, Justin put his hand on her upper arm, shook again. "Come on... your favorite brother's here." The shaking moved her head, but she still didn't wake up. He pulled the blankets back then, and tried tickling her under the arm. That got movement, which was a relief -- but she still didn't wake up.

Shaking his head, Justin covered his little sister back up, tucked the blankets in around her, then leaned down and kissed her on the temple, then on the cheek. Wow. If she's that tired, I'll let her sleep. I'll just leave a note for her, so she knows I didn't forget about her or something. And I'll stay a while, in case she wakes up.

Moving over to Alex's desk, Justin dug through the debris, found a piece of paper and a pencil, turned on the desk lamp. He turned to look at Alex after he did that. No reaction, though. She was really out, he thought as he set to writing his note.

*

Back at Justin's dorm, the real Alex was growing frantic. How many little lounges can one building have? So far, she'd found the main lobby area on the ground floor, the balcony of that, TV rooms on floors five, ten, and fifteen, a rooftop deck (which was locked at night, but that hadn't been an obstacle for Alex), a pool room in the basement, and, she had just discovered, small study lounges on every floor. She was checking the fourth of those, and hoping there weren't any other such lounges that she hadn't figured out the existence of.

She wasn't really feeling hopeful, but she wasn't sure what else to do -- and she desperately wanted to find Justin right now, though she was torn between hugging him hard when she did, or yelling at him for not being where he should be. With me, that is.

Since she was on the fourth floor, she decided to go back to Justin's room. After all, he might have come back to it. This time, she trudged rather than skipped down the hall to 418. As she walked, she looked at her watch. 1:33. Longer than I thought it had been. Even if he's there, that doesn't give us a lot of time.

Outside his door, Alex recast the spell. She hadn't walked through anything since the roof deck door, and she didn't want to bump her nose if it had worn off. She looked both ways, and, seeing no one in the hall, stepped through into Justin's room.

The light was out, she noticed immediately, so he'd at least been there. There was a night-light on -- she smirked a little at that, automatically, but it made her feel good to see it, really. It was a sign that Justin was still the same Justin. And he was there, she saw after her eyes adjusted. There in his bed, eyes closed, chest rising and falling slowly in the rhythm of sleep.

She moved to the bedside, pulled out the desk chair and sat in it, just looking at him for a minute. His hair looked dorky, he had an insipid smile on his face, and he still slept with a night-light -- but she wouldn't trade him for anything. Alex sighed and smiled. After a moment, the smile turned to a grin, and she moved onto her knees on the floor, next to his head, then leaned over carefully, extended her tongue, and licked his ear.

Knowing what his reaction would be, she pulled back instantly, giggling, as Justin half-jumped and let out a "What the --!" He cut off there, looking at Alex, and gave her a smile, his eyes narrowing with it. "I'm gonna get you for that."

"Ooh," she cooed, stepping back. "I can hardly wait." She jumped back again as he got off the bed, but Justin brought his blanket with him, swept it around behind her and grabbed the other side, then pulled it taut, pulling Alex against him.

"Cheater," she said, smiling up at him, and reached her hands to his sides, started tickling him. Justin dropped the blanket and grabbed for Alex's arms. He got one, missed the other, and she moved it, then tried to tickle him harder, hoping to make him lose his grip.

Justin squirmed to the side with an "Ah!" and grabbed again, got her other arm. Turning, he dropped the two of them onto the bed, then grinned. "Hear that?"

"What?" Alex asked, puzzled.

"I oiled the springs for us," he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Were you planning on doing something that might make them squeak?" she asked innocently, grinning as she did.

"Maybe," Justin said, then moved his arms and pulled his little sister against him and kissed her. His kiss was rough and needy, and their teeth clinked together once before he softened it a little.

Alex let her body mold against her brother, feeling him against the length of her, and sighed softly into the kiss. As her mouth opened for the sigh, Justin entered her with his tongue, kissed her slow and deeply, taking his time, stroking Alex's silky hair with one hand as he did.

Then he broke the kiss and moved, off the bed, taking Alex by the arms again and turning her onto her stomach. "I said I was going to get you for that, Alex. Are you ready to take your punishment?"

She smiled, eyes half-closed, struggled against his hold just enough to make Justin have to make an effort to hold her down. "No.... I wasn't bad. I wasn't."

Justin's answer was a smack on her butt, hard, knowing that her pants would absorb a good bit of it. Alex let out a little yelp and squirmed more, and Justin spanked her again. "Be a good girl and take your spanking, Alex."

"No... I wasn't being bad... ah!" She stopped squirming as Justin reached under and unbuckled her belt, undid her pants, then pulled them down to expose her butt. He gave her four good smacks there, then paused, letting his hand caress her there as he spoke.

"I went to you earlier, but you were so asleep I couldn't wake you up."

"What?!" Alex looked over her shoulder at him, then gasped. "Oh -- I left a duplicate in my bed while I came over to find you! You must've been trying to wake it up!"

Now it was Justin's turn to be startled. "Wait... that was a duplicate? But I --" He stopped there and began to turn pink, prompting a raised eyebrow from Alex.

"Justin, what did you do to my duplicate?" He turned more red, and Alex turned over and sat up. "You didn't have sex with it, did you?"