Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (NC-17) 4/4
xiv.
Suddenly, her hands are everywhere at once, roaming over his body and tracing every well-defined contour-his back, his neck, his arms, his chest-while his stay firmly rooted to her waist in a gentlemanly display of polite restraint. Feeling neglected, Alex finally rolls her eyes in frustration, grabs his hand in her own and, without breaking the kiss, slides it up her midriff under her T-shirt until his palm is covering her breast. His entire body goes rigid again, and for a second she feels a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, fearing that she’s pushed him too far, too fast. But then he squeezes her, grinds the heel of his palm against her swollen nipple, and begins to roll it gently between the knuckles of his thumb and forefinger. She sighs with relief, grinning against his lips, as Justin turns his brain off with an almost audible click, and finally lets his hormones take over.
And, boy howdy, do they.
Justin releases her lips with a moist smack, nuzzles against her cheek, then attaches his lips to the pulse point just below her jaw and begins to suckle on it for all he’s worth. Alex groans at the sensation and involuntarily bucks her hips, receiving an answering groan from Justin in response as she inadvertently grinds herself against him. She becomes aware of the growing stiffness she can feel pressed against her core, through his thin exercise shorts and her flannel pajama bottoms. Wrapping her arms back around his neck, she bucks against him again, on purpose this time, enjoying the illicit thrill and rush of power that shoots through her as she feels him twitch against her. Suddenly she’s grateful that he doesn’t wear a cup, after all.
Both his hands are beneath her shirt now, kneading her breasts, and his mouth is gradually moving south from her jaw to her collarbone. A little too gradually for her taste, actually. Grunting with impatience, Alex pushes back from him, crosses her arms in front of her to grab the hem of her shirt in both fists, yanks it up and off of her, and tosses it carelessly over her shoulder with a flourish. And the gasp this tears out of Justin as he gets his first really good look at her, naked from the waist up, is easily the most gratifying thing she’s heard in her young life, so far.
“Wow,” he says, with a quiet awe that makes her entire body flush with pride. He reaches up with to stroke the soft swell of her right breast with the back of his left hand, gently and deliberately, making her shudder. His eyes drink in every inch of her, hungrily, before coming to rest on her own. “My God, Alex…you’re perfect.”
She beams at this for a second, unreservedly, then drops her gaze to his chest and cocks an eyebrow.
“Well, you’re certainly not,” she pouts. “For one thing, you’re wearing entirely too much.”
“Oh, right…sorry,” Justin mutters bashfully. He reaches back to grab his own shirt, bunching it up just below the collar, hesitates a moment, then clears his throat uncomfortably as he draws it forward over his head.
“Well, helloooooooooo nurse!” Alex grins, as she finally gets an eyeful of Justin’s new physique. She leans back in his lap, bracing her hands against his knees behind her, and whistles appreciatively as she runs her eyes up and down his finely-toned chest and stomach. “Wow yourself, there, sailor!”
Justin goes deep crimson as he carefully drapes his shirt over the bench next to him. “Really?”
“Ohhhh, yes,” Alex sighs contentedly, leaning forward again to run her hands over his firm pecs, then trace her fingertips over the ripple of his abs. “I can definitely work with this.”
Justin laughs nervously, then gasps as Alex takes the waistband of his shorts between the thumb and forefinger of each hand and daintily pulls it away from his body, pinkies raised, and cocks her head forward to peer down the front of them.
“Alex!” he says, in that breathy, scandalized voice that’s always given her chills. He grabs her hands in his own and snatches them away from his waistband. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“What, I’m not allowed a preview of coming attractions?” Alex pouts.
Justin’s expression is priceless, as about two dozen emotions play out over his face in the space of the next few seconds, fighting for dominance. Shock seems to have the upper hand through most of it, but utter disbelief and excited anticipation rally to give it a run for its money. There may even be a hint of sheer terror in there, too. Eventually, though, it’s a serious look of sober concern and sincere affection that finally wins out, as he looks deeply into her eyes. Because he’s Justin, after all.
“But I thought we’d just…I didn’t think you would…are you trying to tell me that you want to-?” He glances away for a second, and the entire battle plays itself out again before his gaze returns. “I mean, that you want us to-?”
Her heart pounding painfully in her throat, Alex brings one hand up to cup his cheek, then leans forward to kiss him softly.
“Yeah, I do,” she whispers then, pressing her forehead to his, her chocolate brown eyes coyly meeting his through her lashes. “I mean, if that’s OK?”
Justin snorts . “I think we left ‘OK’ back in the dust somewhere, about twenty minutes ago…”
“Justin, we’re not normal people, remember?” Alex sighs, trailing her fingers up and down his bare chest. “And y’know what? I think I’m perfectly fine with that.”
He doesn’t say anything, but he shakes his head slightly, hesitantly, as though he wants to believe her but he just can’t bring himself to.
“It’s true, Justin,” she says, kissing him again. “Honest.” Another soft kiss. “I’ve always known that I wanted it to be you.”
She feels more than sees the impact this has on him, the sudden hitch in his breathing, the quickening of his heartbeat beneath the pads of her fingers, the way he swallows hard to keep from crying. And as he takes her hand in his and brings it up to his lips, kissing the back of it gently, she grins and feels a sudden surge of erotic warmth shoot through her core, because she knows she has him now.
“Not here, though,” Justin says tenderly. “Not like this. You want it to be special, don’t you? Romantic?”
“Oh Jesus Christ, Justin! You can be such a girl sometimes!” Alex growls in annoyance. She pulls back, places her hands on his shoulders, and looks at him levelly. “Look, trust me: this exactly how and where I want it. Want you.”
Justin blinks at this, then glances at the cluttered, musty basement around them and frowns, clearly unimpressed with the ambiance of their surroundings. “What, seriously?”
“Oh God, yes!” Alex says, a little breathlessly. She feels her cheeks begin to burn, unable to believe what she’s about to admit to him. “If you knew how many times I’ve pictured it in the past few months as I spied on you…me lying back, right here…you hovering over me…”
“Really,” Justin says, nonplussed. One side of his mouth turns up in a cocky smile as he wraps one arm around her waist, brings the other hand up to rest between his shoulder blades, and pivots his hips to twist them both to the side as he slowly lowers her down onto the bench. “You mean like this?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she nods as she lays back, grinning in anticipation. The sensation of the cool vinyl beneath her flushed and naked back is simply delicious, making her shiver. She untangles her legs from his, and places her feet flat on the floor to either side of the bench. The way this forces her knees to spread for him, and the way his eyes are drawn immediately to her groin feels thrillingly, blatantly naughty, even though she’s still wearing her pajama bottoms.
Justin leans forward, kisses her first on the lips, then on the hollow spot at the base of her throat just above her collar bone, and finally each of her tight and swollen nipples in turn. Then, as if he were reading her mind, he hooks two fingers of each hand into the waistband of her pants and panties beneath. He tilts his face back up to hers, his eyebrows raised in askance. Alex giggles nervously in response, then nods lightly and arches her back towards the ceiling, supporting herself on her shoulders and elbows, lifting her bum clear off the bench. And then she gasps as he smoothly eases her bottoms down to her knees, and the cool, moist air of the basement raises gooseflesh all the way up her legs to her equally damp pussy.
Justin actually pauses in the midst of tugging off her pants and cocks an eyebrow at his first glimpse of her below the waist. He stares for a moment, then glances up at her face in amusement. “A lightning bolt, Alex? Really?”
Alex blinks at him, then looks down at herself and blushes furiously. Oh right, she forgot about that.
“Um, waxing’s a real bitch,” she explains lamely. “And there’s no way in hell I’m using a razor down there, so I, uh…made up a spell.” She shrugs. “Sometimes I get a little, um, creative with it."
"No kidding,” he says, grinning down at the sculpted little patch of dark pubic hair on her abdomen. “It’s cute.”
“Shut up,” she groans, lifting her legs straight up in the air, as much to block his view of it as to make it easier for him to pull her pants the rest of the way off. “I didn’t think anyone else was actually gonna see it...”
“No really, I mean it. It’s adorable,” Justin chuckles, pulling off her right boot, then her left, and dropping them to the floor next to the bench. “Personal grooming as literary criticism? I like it. And God knows I appreciate a clever pun as much as the next guy.”
“Literary-?” Alex frowns in confusion as he slips her bottoms up and off her, then lays a kiss upon her ankle as he folds them carefully in his lap and sets them on the floor. Because, really, is this what they’re doing? Bantering as he peels her clothes off? OK, yeah, so the whole witty back and forth repartee thing is kind of what they do-well, not so much lately, and God, how she’s missed it-but, hello, now? Is this seriously, like, some kind of weird foreplay for them?
(Is that why it’s turning her on so much? Is that why it kind of always has?)
“OK, I’ll bite,” Alex sighs in mock-resignation, electing to just go with it. “What’s the clever pun?”
Justin cocks an eyebrow at her again, one hand supporting her ankles as he slides the other all the way down her outstretched legs. He rakes his fingernails gently along the back of her thighs, making her quiver, until he’s cupping the gentle curve of her ass in his palm, and squeezing it gently.
“I’m sorry, is ‘Hairy Potter’ not what you were going for?” he asks.
“Uggggh,” Alex groans shakily, covering her face with both hands and shaking her head as he begins to kiss his way down her calf, his lips following the trail left by his fingers. “OK, that’s it. You’re officially not allowed to talk, anymore. I called it.”
“Oh, c’mon,” he says between kisses. His fingers have begun tracing little circles on her ass cheek, growing wider and wider with every circuit, skirting the outer edge of her cootch, and it’s driving her wild. “I thought it was funny.”
“Only you would, egghead,” she replies, although it comes out more like a desperate croak as she squirms against the twin sensations of his lips and his fingers growing inexorably closer to her sodden core from opposite ends. She can feel liquid heat seeping out of her, and she wonders if he notices.
“Hey, it was either that or a Flash reference,” he mumbles against the back of her thigh, nipping it gently between his teeth. “Ooo, or maybe Captain Marvel…”
“You are seriously killing the mood with all this geek shit, dorkus, I mean it,” Alex pants, her legs shaking with barely contained anticipation. “I swear to Christ, if the words ‘Jim Bob Sherwood’ actually come out of your mouth at any point, I’m leav-“
She breaks off with a cry as his middle finger finally slips into her-not far, but just enough-as his lips brush lightly against her vulva, causing her entire body to spasm clear off the bench, as little bursts of color explode behind her eyelids.
“Shazam!” she hears him say proudly through the haze.
Releasing his hold on her ankles, he allows her to drop her legs down onto his shoulders, opening herself to him. He accepts the invitation eagerly, parting her folds with the fingers of one hand while teasing her threshold with the other, even as his lips, teeth and tongue begin a deliberate, determined exploration of her clitoris. Her body floods with molten desire under his onslaught, and the slippery wet sound his tongue makes as he laps up every last drop is the most exquisitely erotic thing she’s ever heard.
Moaning, Alex brings her hands down to tangle her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. Her back arches and her hips begin to gyrate of their own accord, trying to urge him to probe deeper. But as lavishly attentive as he is, his fingers draw back slightly each time, never straying far beyond the surface, making her ache and burn with need.
“Justin, please!” she groans in desperation. ”I want you!”
Justin stops suckling her clit long enough to raise his head and gaze at her intensely. His face is slick with her, and sweet holy fuck, he looks so good down there that just the sight of him is nearly enough to drive her screaming over the edge right then and there.
“Are you sure?” he asks soberly, his fingers still expertly teasing her entrance, just below his chin. “Because just this is fine, really…”
“Like hell it is!” she growls, leaning forward to grab him under his arms. He actually squawks in surprise as she hauls him up and over her, then squawks again even louder as she grabs the sides of his shorts in either hand and yanks them down with all her might. His erection stands at attention at a near right-angle from his body, bobbing comically up and down with the suddenness of its release. They both stare at it for a silent moment as though hypnotized.
And then a wicked grin breaks across Alex’s features, and she reaches out to wrap her small hand around it. She squeezes it gently, enjoying its warmth and firmness against her palm, and the soft, urgent grunt that escapes Justin’s lips in response. Stroking him gently, she marvels at how smooth his skin feels, here, despite how tightly-almost painfully-it looks to be stretched over the throbbing length of his shaft. A tiny, pearly white bead of pre-cum begins to ooze its way out of the tip, and Alex smears it with her thumb, rubbing it over the head, feeling her clit twitch mightily as he groans again, louder. Then, leaning back against the bench, she hooks her calves around the backs of Justin’s knees, curls her fingers tightly around his girth, and begins to tug him forward, angling him down towards her.
His eyes go wide as he realizes what she’s doing. “Alex, wait…”
“No,” she says, in a tone that leaves no room for debate. “I need you. Now.”
He shakes his head frantically and tries to pull away. “But Alex, we don’t have a-“
“My lover wants to practice safe sex,” she says impatiently, holding him tightly and twirling his head in the air with a flourish of her wrist. “Wrap his member in ribbed latex.”
And then Justin’s jaw drops open as the tip of his penis flares with a bright red light, and a condom suddenly materializes around it out of thin air, beneath her fingers. He stares at it open-mouthed for a moment, completely flabbergasted, then raises his eyes to Alex’s in stunned disbelief.
“Did you seriously just use my wang as a-?”
She cuts him off by crushing her lips into his and thrusting her tongue deep into his mouth, because his breathy, scandalized voice is more than she can honestly take right now. Hooking her left elbow around the back of his neck, she drags him down onto her, angling the tip of his cock against her entrance with her other hand. He inhales sharply and breaks the kiss, drawing his head back slightly and gazing deep into her eyes.
“Alex…?”
She nods frantically, wishing he’d just do it already, before she loses her goddamned nerve. “Just go slow, OK?”
Justin smiles at her reassuringly, then leans forward and covers her mouth with his, kissing her slowly, almost lazily, in counterpoint to the near-panicked urgency she feels in her loins, with the burning tip of him pressed bluntly right up against her. Alex squints her eyes closed, her entire body tensed like a spring wound too tightly, anticipating the moment of truth and dreading it at the same time.
And then she squeals in surprise as Justin captures her bottom lip between her teeth and bites down. Not hard, not enough to really do more than sting, but it takes her head right out of the game for a second. And just as she’s about to pull away from him in annoyance and ask him what his damage is, he flexes his hips and slips himself forward into her. Alex whimpers into his mouth as he parts her like the Red Sea, her muscles clamping tightly around him as though they have a mind all their own. Justin moans, releases her lip from his teeth, and drops his head down so that ends of his hair tickle against her taut nipples.
“Oh my God,” he says breathlessly. “Alex, you’re so tight…”
“Don’t stop,” she gulps, sliding her hands down his back and cupping his ass in her palms. “Keep going.”
He does, pushing in slowly, deeply. And yeah, it hurts a bit-OK, yowch, maybe more than just a bit-but not nearly as much as she was afraid it would. Certainly nothing she can’t handle. In fact, it kind of feels amazing at the same time-not just in spite of the pain, strangely, but because of it, in a way. And looking up into his face, at the way it’s contorted with restraint as he fills and stretches all her secret places in ways her wand never has, never could, she feels a surge of joy and gratitude that it’s him she’s experiencing this with. Especially when, just today, the whole idea of it seemed impossible.
Justin gives one last, gentle thrust, easing himself in to the hilt at long last, and together they moan as his testicles brush against the sensitive skin of her perineum. He finally raises his head and smiles at her, his eyes dancing. Alex smiles back, her eyes filling with tears, then surprises them both by choking back a sob.
“Hey,” Justin says, his voice filled with concern as she strokes her dark hair away from her forehead. “Alex? Honey, what’s wrong?”
Alex grins at this through her tears-he’s never called her that before, and she knows it’s petty, but she never heard him call Juliet that, either-then sobs again and shakes her head, lifting it to press her forehead against his chest, overwhelmed with emotion, and feeling vaguely confused and embarrassed by it.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” she says honestly, her voice muffled. “I’m just…being all girly, that’s all. Sorry.”
He lets out a small, sharp breath, part laughter, part relief, then kisses the top of her head. “Don’t be. You’re allowed.”
“Gee thanks, egghead,” she chuckles, sniffling as she nuzzles his chest. She lowers her head back down onto the bench and smiles lovingly up at him. “So glad you approve.”
“Do you want to keep going?” he asks softly.
Alex grins wickedly in return as she blinks away tears. “Try and stop me.”
Justin gasps as she clenches herself around him, gripping him tightly, then starts rocking her hips back and forth, grinding slowly beneath him, against him, around him. Looking down at her, his grey eyes filled first with surprise, then gratitude, he lowers his face to hers and softly brushes his lips against hers, then trails kisses along her jawbone to the pulse point just below her earlobe, nipping it gently. Alex sighs, closes her eyes and lolls her head to the side, her entire body shivering as his mouth works its magic on her throat, even he gradually begins to ease himself in and out of her.
She winces a little at the sensation, pain/pleasure, pleasure/pain, groaning every time he almost slips out of her, leaving her empty, then again whenever he’s fully seated inside her, filling her almost to bursting. She can feel his breath quickening, hot against the side of her face, and she begins to rock her hips just a little bit faster, silently urging him on, letting him know that it’s OK for him to pick up the pace. He follows her cue, the way he always has, and throws caution out the window, thrusting into her with confidence. And, ohmigod, as much as it hurts, it’s heaven.
Suddenly Alex feels his weight shift, lift up off of her, and she opens her eyes to see him gripping the struts of the barbell rack to either side of her, bracing himself against them for leverage. He begins to piston in and out of her with wild abandon, and it makes her so wet that her pussy audibly squishes around him. In response, Alex brings her feet up onto the bench behind him, lifting her knees, then cries out and arches her back as…
“OHJESUSFUCKINGCHRIST!”
Wow. She didn’t think it was possible for him to get any deeper than he was, but holy shit, was she wrong.
Justin’s body is coated in a thin sheen of perspiration, the muscles in his arms and chest bulging and rippling with every plunge of his cock. The air is thick with the scent of him. It’s every fantasy she ever had while watching him work out come to life. But it’s the expression on his face as he fucks her urgently that gets her the most: not his ‘Batman face’, as she would have expected, but an unfamiliar look of complete and unadulterated bliss. Like she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him. And it’s the hottest fucking thing she’s ever seen.
And though everything she’s ever read or heard or seen about losing your virginity-from Judy Bloom to Dr. Drew to Savage Love, right on down-has prepared her not to expect much from her first time, apparently none of those assholes ever had their cherries popped by Justin Sisterfucking Russo. Because she can feel an orgasm coming on with a vengeance, as she bucks uncontrollably beaneath him. He is so going to make her come.
And then, just as she feels the swelling tide within her nearing its peak, and it seems like she might teeter on the edge of it forever, perpetually just one more thrust of his burning cock away from paradise, his hips give a jerk and he twitches wildly deep within her. He cries out her name as he explodes, burrowed as deeply and tightly inside her as he can manage, in that breathy, scandalized voice she loves so goddamned much. And that’s all it takes to send her plummeting over the brink after him, legs clamped tightly around his waist as she grinds herself against him, riding out her orgasm, fingernails raking his back and shoulders as her whole body tries to turn itself inside out around him.
The next several moments are filled with wordless panting and breathless groans as shuddering aftershocks claim them both, Alex’s pulse beating wildly in her throat and chest and clit. Justin lowers his forehead and presses it against hers as he struggles to catch his breath, eyes closed. Grinning, Alex reaches up to frame his face in her hands, and tilts her chin up towards him to brush her lips against his.
“So,” she breathes, “that happened.”
He opens his eyelids, slowly, his grey eyes dancing happily as they search hers. “Are you all right?”
“What, are you kidding me?” Alex scoffs, sliding her hands up to run her fingers through his hair. “Every muscle below my lightning bolt is throbbing, right now. I’m sore in places I didn’t know I had. I’m going to be walking funny for days... so, yeah, never better.”
Justin grins at this. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
Alex snorts and cocks a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Uh, no offense, dude, because I appreciate you’re trying to play the sensitive male card, here, but I very seriously doubt that you do. This is really kind of a girls’ only thing.”
“Well, yeah, but…” Justin shrugs, turning his head slightly to kiss the inside of her left wrist. “You’ve just described the way I always feel after a really good, hard workout, is all.”
“Well then, congratulations, egghead,” Alex sighs. “You’ve just been hired as my full-time personal trainer.”
He lets out a short, sharp laugh at this, and she revels in the sound of it. It’s been so long since she’s heard him so happy, and it thrills her to know that she’s the cause of it.
“I think I like the sound of that,” he chuckles. “Although, then again, given how you tend to take to training like a fish to battery acid…I think I might be in for some serious trouble.”
She shrugs, not bothering to deny it. “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.”
He blinks in surprise, then laughs again, delighted. “Wow, nice pull. Who’s spoiling the mood with geeky references now, though, hmm?”
“Yeah, great,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Who knew extreme dorkiness was a sexually transmitted disease?”
Justin shakes his head ruefully as he kisses her again, still chuckling. And, huh, it looks like this weird bantering thing of theirs is going to pass for afterglow pillow talk, too. It’s more than a little strange, but also comforting in a way…like it’s nice to know that, even in the face of something as irrevocably life-altering as this, their dynamic really isn’t going to have to change all that much.
Justin begins to soften inside her, and without breaking the kiss, he reaches down to hold the base of the condom as he slips himself out of her. Alex inhales sharply, and holds her breath to keep from hissing through her teeth as he withdraws, because even this little bit of movement leaves her burning. And as much as she genuinely can’t wait to make love with him again, she really hopes he’s OK with going just the one round for tonight. Because she seriously wasn’t kidding about the whole ‘walking funny for days’ thing.
“I still can’t believe you used my dick as a wand,” he says, marveling at the condom as he ties a knot in it and drops it next to where their clothing lies scattered. “That was really something.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” she says as she stretches lazily. “I totally lost track of mine in all the…y’know…and I just worked with what I had on hand.”
“Ha-ha.”
Alex frowns as she picks her head up off the bench and begins scanning the floor around it. “You don’t see it, do you? Dad’ll flip tomorrow if he finds out I’ve lost another one.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll find it,” he says, tugging on her arm and pulling her into his lap. “Let’s just be for tonight, OK? Tomorrow can take care of itself.”
Alex raises her eyebrows in surprise at this very un-Justin-esque sentiment, then nods as she wraps her arms around him.
“OK,” she sighs contentedly, as she tucks her head under his chin.
xv.
Alex gets off easy, all things considered, with only a scraped elbow and a small goose egg on the back of her head where it bounces off the side of the dumpster as she slams into it, hard. She coughs twice, choking on the stench of ozone. Smoke rises from the scorch mark in the middle of the black magic-proof vest she wears, where it’s absorbed the brunt of the blast. And suddenly, she’s not quite so annoyed that Justin makes her put the damn thing on every night they go out like this. Capitol fashion crime though the official Monster Hunter’s uniform might be, she can’t deny the utility of it. Justin’s going to be insufferably smug about it for weeks when he finds out, though. Ugh.
Fuck her life. Why didn’t she just choose Magical Basket Weaving for her independent study when she had the chance?
Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, she looks up suddenly as the will-o’-wisp swoops down towards her from the mouth of the alley. It buzzes like a horde of angry wasps as it pulses blue-white, charging itself for another blast. Gripping her wand tightly, she scrambles to get her feet under her then tucks herself into a clumsy shoulder-roll, ducking just beneath the jagged bolt of energy that the wisp hurls her way. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up as it just misses her, and splashes against the side of the dumpster with a shower of sparks.
Grimacing, Alex brings her wand up, blindly fires a curse off over her shoulder at the furious buzzing behind her, and sprints like mad for the end of the alley. Just a year ago, when she was still faking cramps to get out of gym on a regular basis, she would have been wheezing after just a few dozen steps. The strict exercise and nutrition regime that Justin had put her on as her independent study advisor had quickly made up for the lack, though. And as much as she still misses chili cheeseburgers with curly fries in the bun, and chocolate shakes with whipped cream in the bottom-oh so very, very much-this whole staying-one-step-ahead-of-certain-doom thing makes up for it. Well, almost.
Goddamned if he isn’t going to be insufferably smug about that, too, though. Gah. Clearly, she’s going to have to avoid him for a day or two, once all this is over. Right after the victory sex, of course, because the only thing hotter than make-up sex is victory sex. Although…ooo, hold the phone…maybe if she picks a fight with him about him being insufferably smug during the afterglow, then she might actually be able engineer both in the same night!
She yelps in surprise as another bolt sizzles past, so close that a static tingle crawls across her cheek. OK, clearly she needs to focus, here.
Her lungs burning, Alex vaults over the snoring wino slumped against the wall at the mouth of the alley-conveniently, the only other living soul out and about at three-thirty in the morning-and out onto the street. She skids to a halt on the heels of her Converse high-tops, then jumps backwards, pressing her shoulder blades against the front of the brownstone building. Covering her mouth and nose with her free hand to muffle her heavy breathing, she holds her wand at the ready with the other, and waits. The wisp was right behind her. Any second now…
As if on cue, the willow wisp comes shooting out of the alley at top speed, overshooting her by several yards, then pauses in midair and bobs uncertainly as it tries to get its bearings.
“Game over, Lite Brite,” Alex grins, then levels her wand at it. “Before this douche can fire its beam, wrap it in a containment stream!”
And then she flinches away from her wand, squinting against the sudden brightness as a brilliant red and blue ribbon of energy explodes from the tip, arcing through the air to twine itself around the hovering wisp. It shrieks in anger in surprise, and begins to shake violently back and forth, fighting to batter itself loose. Alex gasps as her wand suddenly jerks to the right, nearly slipping right out of her grasp. Grabbing it with both hands, so tightly that her hands go white at the knuckles, she grits her teeth and struggles to control the stream with all her might.
Then, just as she fears that she’s about to lose it, a second confinement stream crashes through the air from the other side of the alley, and loops itself around the wisp in concert with her own, helping to keep it steady. Feeling the tug on her own stream lessening a little, she risks a glance to her left to see Justin glaring at her in exasperation as he grips his own wand in both hands.
“Why in the hell would you chase it into its nest yourself, like that?” he growls over the roar of their twin proton streams. “Especially after I specifically told you not to?!”
“Duh! Have we met?” Alex yells, with a roll of her eyes. “When are you gonna learn that the quickest way to get me to do something is to tell me not to?! Besides, you’re the one who said we needed to draw it out into the open!”
Justin opens his mouth to retort, but anything he says is drowned out by the high-pitched, keening wail that the wisp gives off in its desperation to escape, making them both wince as it threatens to shatter their eardrums.
“Yeah, well maybe now you’ll never zap a chick with three thousand completed spells under her belt, you whiny little bitch!" Alex sneers at it. And yeah, so maybe it’s been a couple months since that happened, and she’s still dining on it. So what? She’s allowed.
The wisp actually growls at her angrily, impotently throwing off sparks in response.
“Alex, shorten your stream!” Justin yells. “I don’t want my face burned off!”
Whoops. Alex blinks, looks down at her wand and gives it a quarter-turn counter-clockwise, decreasing the arc of her stream. Then she casts a glance over her shoulder at the wino napping behind her at the mouth of the alley.
“Hey, you!” she shouts. “Hey c’mon, get up already!”
The wino doesn’t move, continues snoring loudly. Alex’s shoulders sag in disbelief before she kicks back to jab him in the ribs with the heel of her shoe.
“Goddammit Max, you were only supposed to pretend to be asleep! Would you wake the fuck up?!”
With a grunt, Max’s head comes up beneath his tattered, dirty baseball cap. He yawns, and raises one arm to shield his eyes from the brilliant flare cast off by the twin proton beams and the angry wisp, before he blinks at them blearily and seems to come to his senses.
“Oh right, that’s what we’re doing now,” he mutters, ignoring the angry glare Alex shoots him over her shoulder. Throwing aside the grimy newspapers he’s covered himself in, he stands up off the black-and-yellow-striped iron chest that he’s been sitting on. He pulls his wand out of his back pocket, raps the tip of it against the top of the chest, then flicks it towards the rain-slicked street just beyond the alley. Immediately, the chest goes skidding across the wet pavement of its own volition, until it comes to a halt directly beneath the wisp.
“Alright, I’m opening the trap now!” Max yells, aiming his wand at the chest. “Remember, don’t look directly into the trap! Bring your streams off as soon as I close it! Ready? OK, on the count of ten: one, two-”
“JUST OPEN THE DAMN TRAP, ALREADY!” Alex and Justin howl at him in the same breath.
“TEN!” Max shouts, flicking his wand backwards as though throwing a switch. The lid of the chest swivels open, and a bright shaft of impossibly bright light erupts upwards from it, enveloping the wisp, drawing it inexorably downwards. The creature wails and screeches as it struggles against the trap’s pull, stretched impossibly lengthwise, as though it’s being sucked into a black hole. And then, as Max flicks his wand forward again, and his siblings yank their containment streams away, the wisp gives a final anguished howl of frustration as it collapses back to its original size and disappears into the shimmering white void of the trap, right before the lid slams closed, echoing into the night.
In the silence that follows, Alex and her brothers stare wordlessly at the chest, then exchange glances and approach it cautiously, wands held at the ready until they’re surrounding it on three sides. Max raises his foot and pokes it with the toe of his shoe. And though the chest sparks a little in response, otherwise, the trap appears to hold.
“It’s in there,” Justin says, staring at it, almost in disbelief. Then, grinning up at Alex proudly: “We did it! We finally caught it!”
And before she can react, Justin rushes forward, grabs her by the waist and lifts her into the air, twirling her around in a circle as she squeals in surprise and delight. She wraps her legs around his midsection and braces her forearms on his shoulders, bringing one hand to the back of his neck to draw him into a deep kiss. His tongue wrestles eagerly with hers as he slides his hands from her waist down to her ass, squeezing it gently.
Oh yeah, victory sex is so definitely on the menu for tonight.
“Aw geeeeeeez, you guys!” Max groans, covering his eyes with one hand. “Look, not that I mind, but you’re making it awfully hard for me to completely misread the situation, here.”
Alex and Justin break their kiss with a moist smack, then sheepishly disentangle themselves from one another, blushing furiously.
“Sorry, Max,” they both mutter. Sometimes they forget that he’s not officially supposed to know about them, even though he’s technically known since before either of them were willing to admit it to each other. Or even to themselves, really. Well, at least part of him has, anyway. Whatever, it’s complicated.
“Uh huh,” Max says, rolling his eyes at them as he bends over to pick up the trap. He stumbles backwards a little as he heaves it up to his chest. “Crap, this thing is even heavier now with the wisp in it. Why am I always the one who has to look after the trap? Why can’t I be on confinement duty?"
“Finish your wizard lessons and graduate to independent study, already, and you can be,” Justin says evenly, although judging by the look on his face, he hopes that day never comes. Because the idea of Max wielding a proton stream? Yikes.
“Exactly,” Alex nods, agreeing with him for once. “Until then? You’re trap boy.”
“Ugh, fine,” Max grunts. “I’ll bring this back to the lair. You two go get a room, or whatever. You want me to whip up a couple duplicates for you, just in case?”
Alex exchanges a furtive glance with Justin. He clears his throat awkwardly. “You, uh, sure you don’t mind, buddy?”
“Yeah, sure,” Max shrugs. “Just make sure you’re back before Mom tries to get either of your doubles up for breakfast. Mine still bark. And remember, we have a deal!”
Alex frowns at this in confusion, but Justin simply nods in resignation. “I know. I haven’t forgotten.”
Max grins as he tucks the trap under one arm, and raises his wand with the other. “Have fun, you two. I’d say ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’, but I think we all know the chances of that happening are slim to none.”
And then he winks, waves his wand in a circle, and disappears into thin air as he flashes himself back home.
“Deal?” Alex asks, as she stares at the empty spot where he was, then cocks an eyebrow up at Justin. “What deal? I didn’t agree to anything.”
Justin sighs as he takes her hand in his, and they begin to head down the street towards Washington Square Park. “The next time we all do this, Max wants us to wear matching masks and capes to go along with our Monster Hunter uniforms. He figures since we’re essentially fighting crime by night anyway, we might as well look the part. I told him that if he kept covering for us, we’d think about it.”
“Wow,” Alex blinks. “Not only are you advocating the irresponsible use of magic for your own ends, but now you’re actually manipulating your little brother into doing the dirty work for you? Very devious, egghead. I’m impressed.”
“Uh, newsflash: I’ve been covertly dating my sister for a little over a year, Alex. Things like this have kind of become second nature to me, by now,” Justin says flatly.
“C’mon, you know you love it,” Alex giggles, elbowing him gently in the side.
“Yeah well, you don’t have to sound so insufferably smug about it,” he gripes sourly.
Alex gives a start, then finds herself grinning proudly, as it gradually occurs to her that this whole ‘rubbing off on one another’ thing might be more of a two-way street than she realized. And maybe they’ll both wind up better off for it in the long run, even if neither of them is exactly thrilled about the idea most of the time.
“I especially like how you told him you’d just think about it, without committing to actually doing it,” Alex says, squeezing his hand. “Gives you just the right amount of wiggle room to say no without technically going back on your word.”
“Mmm,” Justin says noncommittally, suddenly seeming to find the toes of his boots extremely interesting.
Alex narrows her eyes at him. “Dude, you are planning to say no. Because you realize how ridiculous we’re going to look Monster Hunting in cosplay outfits, yeah?”
Justin shrugs his shoulders slightly, without looking up. “There are any number of benefits to be derived from the use of enchanted cloaks and helms: increased strength, stamina, charisma, hit poi-um, I mean, vitality. And let’s be completely honest, here: would we really look any more ridiculous than we already do?”
“That depends,” Alex scoffs. “Are we getting Harper to-oh please God, no. Tell me you’re not getting Harper to make them.”
“She…may have overheard the conversation and volunteered?” Justin says, wincing at her slightly.
“Ugh,” Alex groans, hanging her head. “Dude, no. Absolutely not. If you and Max want to run around the city like assholes in your Finkle Original tights and booties, knock yourselves out. But there’s no way in hell-”
“Alex, Max is closing in on his three-thousandth spell,” Justin cuts her off, his voice quiet but strangely urgent. “Yeah, you pulled ahead of him at the end, there, but just barely. The competition is coming up sooner than you might think. We really don’t have a whole lot of time left to live out our dreams together like this, before two of us are forced to become mortals.”
Alex glances up at him in surprise. By mutual, unspoken agreement, they haven’t really talked about the Wizard Competition at all in the year they’ve been together-their fiercely competitive streak having been channeled into, um, other pursuits-but it’s been the elephant in the room ever since she graduated from regular Wizard Lessons. Which she never would have done if he hadn’t helped her every step of the way. And where before she would have automatically assumed that by ‘two of us forced to become mortals’, he really meant her and Max, now she isn’t so sure anymore. The way he’s pushed her over the past twelve months, forced her to buckle down and finally realize this ‘untapped potential’ crap that everyone’s been going on about for her entire life, makes her think that he’s actually trying to give her a fighting chance to keep her powers. Or maybe even that he just straight up wants her to win.
So maybe when he’s talking about not having much time to live out their dreams together…maybe he’s actually talking about his own.
“Are you sure we’re still talking about Max, there, Dork Knight?” she asks softly, with a knowing smirk. “Admit it, egghead: you really just want an excuse to play super hero, don’t you?”
Justin doesn’t reply, but raises his eyebrows at her imploringly, his blue-grey eyes going soft at the corners. And crap, even though she can recognize that her patented Alex Russo Puppy Dog Stare is being thrown right back at her, she still feels her resolve beginning to crumble. Dammit, why does he always have to be such a quick study?
“Oh, for the love of Christ…fine,” she groans, against her better judgment. “One time. And I get to be Catwoman.”
Justin breaks out into a wide smile as he pulls his hand out of hers and throws his arm around her, and Alex reluctantly allows herself to be drawn into a sideways hug. But then he blinks as something occurs to him. “Wait, but Alex…Catwoman doesn’t wear a cape...”
Alex glares up at him, the fire in her eyes leaving no room for debate. He rears back and holds up his free hand, patting the air between them. “OK, OK! Catwoman it is!”
“Damn straight,” she purrs as she leans into him and tucks one hand into his back pocket, enjoying way his ass flexes under her palm as they cross the street. “Hey, where the hell are you taking me, anyway?”
“NYU has some pretty awesome student gym facilities,” Justin replies. “Way better than the good ol’ home gym. I thought I’d give you a tour.”
“What, right now? At this hour? They’re still gonna be open?”
“Actually, no. They’ll definitely be closed. Completely deserted.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her meaningfully, in what he probably thinks is a suave and debonair fashion, and it’s so faux-cool that it’s adorable. “We’d have the whole place to ourselves.”
“Ah ha,” she says, a wicked grin slowly spreading across her face at how well he knows her. Because victory sex, with a side of her bizarre little workout kink? Um, yes please. “And, uh, we’re supposed to get in how, exactly?”
Justin snorts and looks down at her like this should be the most obvious thing in the world. “Um, Alex? In case you missed the memo? We’re wizards…for a little while longer, at least.”
Alex’s jaw drops in astonishment at what he’s suggesting, and for a moment she’s tempted to ask who is he is, and what he’s done with her big brother. Maybe he does have a little bit of a Batman streak in him, after all.
“Oh wow,” she gasps, feeling a thrill run through her at this hot little bad boy side she’s cultivated in him without even realizing it. “I’m starting to think that maybe I’ve created a monster.”
“Level ten, baby,” he says, in that endearing trying-to-be-cool voice that’s never quite worked for him. “What do you think, Apprentice Monster Hunter Russo? Do you have what it takes to bring me down?”
“Pfft. Oh, you know it, dude,” Alex scoffs, squeezing his ass in her palm. “As many times as I need to, for you to stay down.”
“Heh. You sure, there, honey?” Justin chuckles, with the glint of a challenge in his eye. “Because, y’know, that could take awhile. I’d understand if you’re too tired…”
Alex smirks as this prompts a snippet of a song lyric to pop into her head, and flips her hair confidently over her shoulder. “More than ever hour after,” she quotes, “our work is never over.”
Justin actually stops in his tracks at the base of the Washington Square Arch, and stares at her in shock, eyebrows raised, then turns and gathers her into his arms.
”I need you, right now,” he quotes back.
Grinning widely, Alex grabs the sides of his vest, lifts herself up on tiptoe and tilts her chin up towards him, as Justin dips his forehead down towards hers. As they kiss, he draws his wand out from his back pocket, twirls it around his finger, then waves it in the air with a flourish. And the laws of physics and probability look the other way for a moment as they disappear from the street in a flash, holding tightly on to one another. Together, now and always, and each of them forever a finer person for it: harder, better, faster, stronger.
-30-
Part I | Part II | Part III| Part IV