When the teens had both angrily disappeared up the stairs without even finishing dinner, Connor looked over at the woman who still sat at the opposite end of the table. She was still looking more than a bit distraught herself.

She took a deep breath, cast another glance toward the stairs, and turned back to Connor, “What are we gonna do about them? They’re getting more and more out of control. And then---”

Though he interrupted her as he distractedly started looking at his phone instead of her, “I already told you what I thought we should do about them, fifteen years ago, Brie,” he stated in an eerily even tone despite what Star had just recounted about the day.

“Connor, please,” Brie scoffed slightly. She then looked up at him again, as he continued to not really be an active participant in the conversation. “We’ve raised them as our children for nearly a decade and a half.”

“I believe that was your idea,” was his only cool response.

Brie just shook her head in further disbelief, “Your coldness aside,” she said a little bitterly, “we need to find some way to rein this in. The point in doing this was to keep them from standing out, being noticed. And now, they’re going out of their way to be noticed. And not in a good way,” she continued worriedly.

“Well, that’s what teenagers do. You had to know it was coming when your bleeding heart decided to raise them, instead of my plan,” he stated with the same simple, cool tone.

“They’re still mostly...” though Brie didn’t finish that sentence, considering the two sets of ears that could be lurking on the stairs at any moment. “And if that really happened to Sky today, don’t you think we should, like, address that?”

“Address it?” Connor asked as he looked up at her only briefly before turning back to his phone, “Knock yourself out.”

Brie scoffed again, “And what about what Star said?”

“Which thing would that be?” Connor asked tiresomely.

“Would you be ‘addressing’ it if it had happened to her?” Brie called him on it.

He just scoffed again, as he finally stood, “Your problem, Brie, is that you’re trying to be a parent and a scientist at the same time. You’ve gotta pick one or the other. I did.”

When the time finally passed eleven, Star and Sky could usually be sure that their parents had retired to the downstairs bedroom for the night. Upstairs was just the two bedrooms and the bathroom down the hall. The upper floor of the house was where the teens had spent nearly all their non-school hours. That had even been true when they were children; back before they had so many questions. And back before they had all the other feelings they were now cursed with as well.

As the clock struck eleven, Star pushed herself up from where she had been laying on her back across the bed, glaring up at the ceiling with continued anger. Only, she couldn’t tell who she was the most angry at: Curt or her father. She figured Curt won by the tiniest margin, since their father usually could never be bothered to even waste the energy on attacking Sky physically. However, his verbal abuse was frequent enough.

Despite already only being clad in the long black t-shirt and panties that she usually slept in, she was still seething too much about the day’s occurrences to even try to sleep. So, she pushed herself up from the bed and quietly moved from her room, across the hall, to Sky’s door. She took a breath and lightly tapped at the door.

“Can I come in?” she called quietly through the door.

“Don’t you usually?” Sky returned, though his tone was unreadable. Inside, he was sitting atop his bed, his back to the wall. He gnawed at what was left of his black nail polish as he sat there, now clad in the black boxer-briefs he normally slept in.

Star warily stepped inside and closed the door tightly behind her, despite the fact that their parents were most likely already fast asleep downstairs. “Still not in the mood for that hug?” she asked sweetly, trying to force a smile as she moved to take a seat at the foot of his bed.

“You must really be starved for attention if you’re this determined to get a hug outta someone,” he attempted lightness, difficult as that was made by many, many factors on that particular night.

“Not someone; just you,” she teased as she moved across the bed to give him that hug she had wanted to share all evening. As she did, the light in his room flickered a moment. They then broke off the somewhat awkward hug, considering their location, and their state of dress.

“Yay, was so hoping for another problem” he sighed in response to the electrical disturbance which luckily seemed to have only been momentary.

Now sitting there next to him atop the bed, her own back to the wall beside his, she spoke “You know what we should do?”

Sky pushed away the very first thought that occurred to him, and then attempted another “Run away? Sell ourselves to a freak show? Murder them in their sleep? All of the above?” he offered, still trying to force that lightness if for no other reason than to distract himself from looking at Star for too long.

She allowed a small smile before she provided the answer she had originally had in mind, “We should do what we did to make ourselves feel better when we were younger.”

“Eat a popsicle?” he offered with a slight shrug over at her pretty face that at least seemed to be smiling now that it was just the two of them there.

“We should cast something,” she smiled back up at him.

“Cast something?” He raised a brow, “We haven’t done that since we were like eleven,” he added.

“And it made us feel better then. Like we could take on anything,” she reminded as she gently touched his hand before mentally reminding herself to not let her touch linger there too long.

“We were stupid little eleven year olds,” he smirked, “and we’re obviously outta practice,” he added.

“All the more reason to do it,” she told him with another smile up into his equally dark eyes.

“So next time Curt comes near me we can terrify him with our ‘light as a feather stiff as a board’ skills?” Sky replied wryly.

“Come on,” she chuckled again as she moved to crawl off the bed. Forcing his eyes from where her panties were easily visible as she left the bed, he took a deep breath. He then startled when she grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed with her.

“This is just...” he shook his head as she pulled him down to the floor across from where she had already taken a place on her knees.

“Come on, what do you wanna do?” she smiled again.

“It was your idea, Star. Don’t look at me,” he shrugged, still trying to keep his eyes from staying on her too long.

“All right, let’s start easy. You left your school books all over the desk. Let’s see if we can put them back in your bag,” she suggested.

“Ok, gimme a sec,” he stated as he began to get up.

“Stop it,” she laughed, “with our minds.”

“Yeah, well, I think mine’s been broken for years now,” Sky mumbled back as he claimed his seat on the floor with her once again. Another few long minutes passed before he spoke again, “Doesn’t casting usually involve more than just thinking real hard?”

“Not if we’re natural witches,” she grinned at the idea, though made no move to open her pretty eyes as she continued to sit there concentrating.

“And which movie or book did that one come from?” Sky had to ask.

“Hush. You’re not even trying,” she scolded him, though gently.

At least another three full minutes passed before Sky couldn’t help his sigh, “See, just like daddy dearest says; I’m just not natural.”

Star then opened her eyes again and blew air through her full lips in frustration, “We did it when we were younger. You’re just not trying, are you?”

“This is just stupid, Star. We don’t have any damn magic powers. Believe me, I wish to hell we did,” Sky sighed again as he stretched across the floor to retrieve his cigarettes from his discarded pants.

“You do remember. We could do stuff like this before,” she pressed with more seriousness then as he lit the cigarette.

Sky just shook his head, blew more smoke through his own pretty lips, and spoke again, “I don’t know what I remember. We were just stupid little kids,” he denied once more.

“You remember,” she told him again with narrowed eyes.

“Well, so what if we did?” Sky finally gave in, “We’ve obviously forgotten how to now,” he excused with another slight shrug.

“So you just wanna give up?” Star asked sadly.

“That’s what I do,” he mumbled, averting those sad, dark eyes again.

“Meaning?”

“Have you met me?” he scoffed as he took another drag.

“Name one thing you gave up on,” Star pressed.

“Life,” he scoffed.

“That’s not funny, Sky,” she told him, her own eyes darkening.

“And apparently I also gave up telling jokes that make you laugh.”

“Telling me you’ve given up on life is hardly a recipe for hilarity,” she scolded him again.

“Isn’t that what us fucked up freaks all eventually do?” he asked, attempting to sound like he was being sarcastic, though there was obviously something much deeper to his words.

“Well you better not ever do that to me,” Star whispered as she turned away to hide the tears that were already obvious in her voice.

“Star...” he breathed her name, feeling his heart immediately break every time he ever made her cry. He hated himself for causing those tears, no matter what he ever did to cause them. The rest of the world, their parents included, already made them both cry enough. He didn’t want to add to it himself.

He sighed sadly as he dropped the cigarette into his nearby ash tray and moved the few inches across the floor to wrap her in his arms from behind, gently propping his chin upon the top of those beautiful raven colored locks.

“I’m sorry Star, ok?” he whispered, squeezing her tightly as she moved her hands up to cover his bare arms and cuddle closer back against his chest.

“Promise me you won’t ever leave me here alone. Please Sky,” she whispered, the tears still apparent.

“I never really could do that. You’re the only one who gets me, remember?” he told her with an attempt at a smile.

But before Star could offer any response, every light in the room glowed suddenly around them, burning just as brightly as those feelings they had for each other, no matter how wrong they were supposed to believe they truly were.