It hardly seemed possible, but Monday was worse than Sunday had been. There was school to distract Alex, to be sure, but Justin was having his first day of school too, she knew, and she kept wondering what he was doing -- and who he was meeting. The two years until she'd be at college too seemed like a long, long time, and it felt like way too much could happen in that time.

Yeah... like yet another girl trying to grab onto Justin. Alex frowned, completely ignoring the World History teacher's lecture as she thought. Weird girls seemed to crawl out of the woodwork to go after him -- the centaur girl, the werewolf, that one he'd brought to their family game night last year. She used to pretend she didn't understand why, but she knew why.

He's cute. Really cute, especially when he's looking confused. And hot. She smiled, thinking about how Justin looked under his clothes. Not hugely muscular, but fit and trim. And he was just the right height, tall enough that she had to stretch up a bit to kiss, him, but not so tall that she couldn't reach him up there. She sighed again, then blinked a couple of times. Okay, Alex. Focus. What were you thinking about?

Oh, right. Girls after Justin. Well, she had a plan for that. She'd make sure the girls in the dorm knew Justin was taken. If any of them seemed to be trying to attach themselves to him, she'd use the anti-love spell. She smiled again, resting her chin on her hand. It was foolproof. Now I just need to put the plan into action.

*

"Hello?"

"Hi," Alex said into the phone, laying on her bed and twirling a lock of her hair around one finger.

Justin frowned. What's Alex calling for? "Hey. Is something wrong?" He stepped off the sidewalk onto the green, watched as other students went back and forth. It wasn't quite three o'clock, and while Alex was already out of school for the day, he was on his way to one.

"No... I just wanted to hear your voice." She paused half a second, then went on, "And to tell you I love you."

"I love you too," Justin answered, and Alex smiled at the tones in his voice. "I've got class in five minutes, so I can't talk long. I'm still going to get you tonight, though."

"About that... could you get me earlier? Like, eleven?" She heard the start of a negative noise coming, so she hurriedly continued. "It'll be okay. Mom and Dad have been going to bed earlier, since they're doing that breakfast thing at the shop. And I can leave a duplicate here again, in case they check on me."

Justin didn't answer for a moment, thinking. Alex doing magic when she's not supposed to, and it's my fault. "I can make the duplicate," he said then. "That way you won't be breaking the rule." He carefully didn't say 'the rules', knowing full well that Alex and he were breaking all kinds of rules already. Justin was nothing if not accurate in his speech.

"Okay. And you'll get me at eleven?"

"Sure. I'll see you then. I've gotta go now. I love you," he said again, with an automatic glance around first, even though he knew none of the rest of the family were anywhere in earshot. He blew a kiss into the phone, and on the other end, Alex giggled, then blew one back.

"I love you too. Bye!" She hung the phone up, then turned onto her back and stretched, looking up at that ceiling. Okay. Time to go downstairs and work for a while. And I'll even help clean up after, so when I go to bed early, nobody will suspect anything.

*

At 10:50, Alex was busy. She'd tried on three different outfits, all by the light of a nightlight borrowed from Justin's room -- so no one would see light coming from under her door when she was supposed to be sleeping. Before that, she'd gone through her underwear, lamenting the lack of anything really sexy. Maybe she'd get some now, and keep it at Justin's. There was a laundry room in the basement there, and nobody would think it odd for them to do laundry together. Not that she had any idea when they'd be able to do that, but if Mom found the kind of things she was thinking of in the laundry, there'd be questions and comments. Especially with her on the whole 'my babies' kick from Justin leaving.

In the end, she'd settled on the same blue-and-white panties and lacy white bra she'd worn for their first real night together; Justin had said he liked them, and they'd at least have that reminder. She glanced at the clock, saw it saying 10:52. Okay. Time to close things up here. Justin usually tried to be early for things, and she was sure he'd be early for this. So she put the extra outfits back up quickly, closed the closet and the drawers, and waited.

And then he was there. A puff of smoke went up, and Justin quickly fanned it, spreading it around. "It's okay. I took the batteries out of the smoke alarm."

"What?" Justin looked at her. "Alex, that's not safe, and --"

"And I'll put them back in later." She rolled her eyes, then stepped over to Justin and hugged him. "Mmm... two days is too long without seeing you."

Justin kissed the top of his sister's head, smiled for a moment, then glanced at the door. "Same here," he said. "But let's get going, okay?" He took a step back from her, pulled out his wand, and did the duplication spell. "Edgebono utoosis."

Alex's duplicate looked around, dumbly. "Okay," Alex said, "you get into bed and go to sleep." She looked at Justin, cocked her head to the side, then grinned. "Unless you need her for something else first?"

"No. I think I'm happy with the real you, thanks." His tone was dry, and the look he gave Alex was annoyed, but he put an arm around her and kissed her temple, and she snuggled against him like that for a second.

"Well, you get in bed, then," she said to the duplicate, then watched as it did. "So, I need to stand on your feet again?"

Justin shook his head. "I think I can do it with us just holding hands now. I've practiced a few times." He took her hand, said the spell, and they were in his dorm room. Immediately, Alex tackle-hugged her brother, taking him down onto the bed.

"Sorry," she said then. "I couldn't do that back there, though. And I really missed you."

"I missed you too," Justin said, then kissed Alex, rolling them onto their sides on the bed. With one arm around her, he held the back of her head with his other hand and gave a series of little kisses, alternating between her upper and lower lips. His hand slid inside her top, onto the smooth skin of Alex's waist, then started to creep higher.

Alex broke the kiss then, moved her hand to his forearm, stopping his upward progression. Justin frowned at that, opened his mouth to ask a question, but Alex spoke first. "Can we do that later? I'd like to go out in public with you. You know -- like a real boyfriend and girlfriend."

"We are a real boyfriend and girlfriend."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. We've had to keep everything secret -- but the people here don't know I'm your sister. We can go out. We can watch TV and cuddle. We can kiss in front of them." Justin still looked dubious about it, and Alex snuggled into him closer, then did her sad-puppy face.