Justin loved his baby sister. When she came home from the hospital, she took an instant distaste to him.

"Hold her head, Justin."
"Isn't she the cutest Justin?"

"…You can clean off the spit in the bathroom, Justin."
"…I'll change her diaper, Justin; sorry she did that while you were holding her."
He can still recall cleaning the various bodily expulsions from his Calico Girl T-shirt. He returned to find her clean, staring at him with those large brown eyes. He picked her up. She was softer than he realized.

Ten years later, Justin was still cleaning himself. This time he had grease in his hair. Where Alex got her hands on koala cooked grease was beyond him. He washed it out of his hair, idly wondering if his hair would look like those stereotypical males who appeared as Italian men in movies.

He opened the door to find Alex being yelled at. Their father would never punish her, not really, but he did not have to. Alex was soft inside, and it still hurt.

She got her powers, and then his messes got a whole lot more complicated. Blue cows that talk, a tank that bakes cookies, leaving Max on Mars… Alex's messes always found their way back to him. Sometimes it meant putting aside his own desires, sometimes it meant they worked together to solve the latest problem. Sometimes, but very rarely, she broke down completely.

She was still soft inside.

Then Mason came along. Handsome, charming, an older brother's worst nightmare, he did not understand Alex. The Brit saw a charming prankster, he never saw how soft he was.

But Justin never forgot.

This time he could not clean up her mess. Mason left her, so all he could do was hold her.

Alex made messes, but Justin made sure she stayed soft inside.

Years passed, loves come and go. The world outside the two was always hard on then, robbing them of whatever faith they had in their family, their friends, until one day they lost faith in each other.

Alex cleaned up Justin's mess. He sat there, broken over Rosie, after losing a girl, again. She knew what to do; she had experienced it time and time and time again.

Alex was soft, and she let Justin know that it was okay to be soft too.