Alex Russo sighed as she piled clothes into the washer in the apartment complex laundromat. This was a lot easier when I could just zap clothes clean. Carefully, she added the detergent, then fabric softener, pouring it into the little ball that was supposed to release it at the right time and sealing it with meticulous care. No bleach for these, she remembered, her mouth twisting a little sourly at the thought of the dress she'd ruined right after they'd moved. She'd also managed to make some of Justin's white socks pink, which once upon a time would have been cause for her to laugh for weeks.
But these days, things were different. Life isn't as fun without magic. She put quarters into the slots on the washer, her mouth twisting in a grimace as she did (Wish we had hookups. This is getting expensive), then pushed the slider in, picked up the basket, and looked at her watch as she walked out. 3:21. She smiled a little at that; Justin should be home at six, and then things would be much better. The time without him was always the worst part of the day, and she couldn't just sleep most of it away, the way she used to.
And with Mom, Dad, and Lexie coming to visit next week, I really need to get some things done. Alex frowned and thought as she crossed the parking lot, then went up the stairs to their apartment, unlocked the door, and went in. She set the basket by the door, since she'd just have to get it out of the closet again in an hour if she didn't, went into the second bedroom that was currently her studio/office, and went to her desk - actually a drafting table that Justin had managed to get cheap from a place that was upgrading their equipment - and set back to sketching.
This wasn't what she'd expected either. She still loved the actual work, but working as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer involved a lot of things besides the actual art. Justin was happy to help out with the bookkeeping parts of it, but the self-promotion parts and the meetings with clients fell to Alex. She'd always had a way with people, so that wasn't the problem - really, the worst part was getting used to not being able to teleport. Actually having to drive places was a foreign enough concept for a Manhattan native in the first place. She'd never been good at being on time to things, and -
Alex's phone buzzed, and she sighed, picked it up, then smiled as she saw it wasn't a reminder that she had to go to some appointment, but was Miranda calling. She thumbed it onto speaker and kept sketching, quickly outlining muscled arms. Romance novel covers weren't challenging work, but someone had to paint them, and it might as well be her.
"Hey," she said into the air. "How are you?"
"Horrible, like always. You?" A stranger would have thought Miranda was joking from the cheerful tone, but Alex knew she only talked with that forced cheer when she was trying not to cry.
Me? Bored. Worried about next week. Wondering if I'm ever going to hear from Max again. Wondering when I'm going to stop having morning sickness. Aloud, she said, "Oh, I'm okay. What happened?"
"I just came home twenty minutes ago and found Jack in bed with some little blonde," Miranda let out. "One of his students, I think. Well, they weren't actually in bed, but you know what I mean."
Alex shook her head and rolled her eyes, even as she sympathetically said, "I'm sorry. Did you throw his ass out?"
"Kind of. I told him I'd be back in an hour, and he'd better have his stuff out by then, or I'd be calling the cops. I feel like such an idiot, though. It's only been three damn weeks since I caught him before." There was a quick pause, in which Alex knew Miranda was shaking her head quickly, probably bowing her head down and palming her forehead with it. "I sure can pick 'em, can't I?" she said, and the end was almost a sob.
"Hey, hey - it's not like you make these guys be jerks. But yeah, I do wish you could find a real nice guy. You deserve one." Hell, if I still had magic, I'd clone Justin for her. He'd treat her right. Alex smiled, as she usually did when she thought about Justin. I wonder what he's doing right now, she thought as she continued to console Miranda.
At that moment, Justin sat in the cramped office he shared on a rotating basis with two other teaching assistants and took a deep breath as he looked at the diagram he'd drawn. The main part was two concentric circles, drawn with a charcoal pencil he'd borrowed from Alex's supplies, the space between the circles filled with words in a mixture of Latin, Greek, and what he believed to be debased Hebrew. Two more words were in the center, seeming nonsense.
After a moment, Justin stood and crossed to the door, double-checked that it was locked and firmly closed. Returning to the paper, he quirked his mouth to the side and gave a single, decisive nod, then picked up the knife and gritted his teeth as he pushed the tip a couple of millimeters into the flesh at the base of his thumb. Setting the knife aside, he squeezed the cut with the thumb and forefinger of his other hand, forcing a few drops of his blood onto the herbs in their small ceramic bowl.
It's weird that I had a bowl here already that would work, and the lighter. I guess I've been preparing for this unconsciously all along. He didn't know why it had taken him this long to actually try the ritual - he'd been obsessed with it off and on since the night after the competition, since he'd first wondered about whether what that other Justin he'd briefly been believed about knowing another way to empower a born wizard was true. He'd even decided he was going to do it a few times, but somehow never actually had.
Well, now I'll find out. He wasn't sure whether he wanted it to be true or not. Being able to have access to magic again could be both a blessing and curse... but it was more likely to be a curse. Especially if the Council should find out somehow. Still, it wasn't in Justin's nature to be able to sit still and not find out if something like this was true.
He intoned the words of the ritual, lit the herbs with his blood at the correct point, stared in stunned amazement as the spell worked, as the smoke formed itself into what the other Justin had believed would appear. The rest was mercifully brief, and a few minutes later, Justin was testing the limits on his new, temporary magic, until it was nearly time for it to run out.
It's too early, he thought then. He'd spoken to Professor Crumbs just last week, about that other matter, and until it was cleared up, there was still a chance that the Council might decide to check up on Alex and him. And as a mortal, I won't know if they try to read my mind. It'd be bad enough if I thought about this and they did... but if they know that I've actually done it, they'd kill me. They'd kill Alex, if they thought she had anything to do with it. It's safest if I don't even let myself remember it.
Quickly, he cleaned up the evidence of what he'd done, tore up the diagram and took it outside, deposited the scraps into the hallway trash can, where he wouldn't see them. Then, for the fourth time in two months, Justin Russo put his hand to his face, said, "Cerebellum erasus" - and promptly forgot the last forty-five minutes.
At four o'clock, Justin opened his door for his office hours. Out in the waiting area shared by 'his' office and three others, a blonde girl with a heart-shaped face lifted her head from her book and smiled at him. Justin smiled back, even as he cringed a little inside. Marie was a nice girl, but she kept coming to his office with, well, the dumbest questions. From her grades, she should have been able to figure things out on her own, and Justin had no idea why she didn't. Still, she was a nice enough girl, and she definitely wasn't hard to look at - quite the opposite, in fact.
So he gestured to her to come in and went to sit down at his desk, wondering what she was going to ask this time. "Thank you, Mr. Russo," she said with a bright smile as she came in, carrying her backpack in one hand.
"It's what my office hours are for," he replied with just the barest trace of irony in his tone. Marie sat down in the chair by his desk and set her backpack in her lap, unzipped it quickly, looking down into it as she got out the book for his class.
Justin's eyes flicked up and down over the girl as she was looking down. Nice, a part of his mind said. And the way she keeps coming around, she's obviously into me. I should - no. He closed his eyes and turned, angling his head a little away as he looked at the screen. These aren't your thoughts. Remember that. You aren't that Justin. You don't do things like that.
"Mister Russo?" He looked back to Marie, and she smiled again, held the book out toward him. "It's question twenty here. I'm not really understanding it." He took the book from her, carefully ignoring how she brushed her fingers against his, and did his best to focus on the problem, not on Marie.
She had another question after that one, about the programming portion of the assignment, which allowed her to move behind his chair and lean over him as she asked questions and pointed at the screen. Justin found it considerably harder to ignore her breasts next to his face as she leaned over, and was happy for the interruption when his phone rang.
"Just a second." Justin picked up the phone and looked, then smiled. "It's my wife. I need to take this," he said to Marie, then thumbed the button. "Hi. How's your day going?"
"Justin, I need you to come home," Alex said, and Justin sat up a little straighter.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"I'm not hurt or anything, but I'm not okay." Justin frowned at the slightly panicky tone of Alex's voice, opened his mouth to ask a question. "Just please, come home. Please?"
"Sure," he replied, trying for a soothing tone. Alex had mellowed some over the years, but 'please' still wasn't something that she said often. "I'll be there as fast as I can. Just hang on, okay? I'll call you back in just a few minutes."
"Okay. Hurry."
"I will. I love you." Justin blew a kiss into the phone, then hung up. "I'm sorry," he said to Marie, starting his computer shutting down, then standing and hurriedly putting things into his briefcase. "I've got to go. We'll finish this later."
"But… it's due Friday, and it's Wednesday right now…." Marie looked stricken, and Justin said, "Well, I have to be on campus tomorrow for my own classes. We could -"
"Could you meet me at noon? At the student union? Thursdays are kind of crowded for me, but I can print out the program and bring it…."
"Sure." Justin nodded quickly, only half paying attention to what he was agreeing to. "Noon, student union. Got it. I'll see you then. Thanks, and bye." He slipped out past her, walking quickly to the side door of the building, then broke into a jog once he was outside, heading for where he'd parked.