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There are more important things to be focusing on, Alex knows this, but every time her eyes drift over to Max, she forgets every single one of them.
It’s just…
Usually, he looks like every other teenage boy she’s ever met, with his colourful t-shirts and jeans and… Max-ness. And that has enough of an effect on her as is, which is a goddamn disgrace, honestly, because who has she become that her little brother in regular clothes doing the most stupid ridiculous things turns her to putty in his hands?! But here, in the fifties… She just can’t figure out why he has to look like that, of all things! With the slicked back hair and the leather jacket and the jeans cuffed at the ankles.
Judging from the way she keeps catching Justin glancing his way too, she isn’t the only one losing her footing over it.
And, really, with the way Max looks here, she doesn’t think she can be faulted for grabbing him by the wrist and tugging him towards the spiral staircase that leads up to the loft from the diner. Grandpa is still making the meals the other teens ordered, and no one has started complaining yet, so she figures they have a few more minutes before she’s never going to see Max like this again.
“Alex, what do you think you’re—” Justin tugs sharply at her arm, eyes frantic as he looks back at the diner, his concern about irreversible damage caused by time travel making him even more annoying than usual. Which is a feat, considering.
“Justin, come on, please!” Alex can’t help the hint of a whine that she lets seep into her voice as she fixes her grip on Max’s wrist to keep him from slipping away. Not that he seems too eager to do that, looking between them in confusion but without an ounce of urgency or desire to get away. Her older brother must recognise something in her eyes, because he groans and releases her, allowing her to continue up the stairs.
She only has to wait a total of four seconds before he follows them up.
The living area is different to what it is in the future, but they’re in a time crunch, so she doesn’t have time to take it in, let alone process how, exactly, it’s different. Instead, she glances around to make sure they’re alone before tugging Max —who still looks largely clueless about what’s going on— around into the laundry, waiting for Justin to follow them through the door before kicking it closed.
“Guys, what’s going on?” Max asks, eyebrows furrowing as his eyes dart between them in confusion. Alex exchanges a look with Justin, who leans back against the door and tilts his head, clearly waiting to take her lead on this.
“Nothing,” Alex says, even as she grasps Max by the front of his jacket and pulls him in. He stumbles in surprise when she kisses him, but he’s used to it by now, so it only takes him a second to adjust, his hands flying to her waist as he pushes into it. Her own hands glide up, carding into his deceptively soft curls that are styled back with gel that smells citrusy, almost, and clean.
Justin makes a noise by the door, and she pulls back to meet his eyes, seeing the torn look in them, like it’s such a hard decision to choose between preventing them from causing so-called ripples in the fabric of time, and… whatever it is they’re going to do to Max. They. Because she has no doubt what Justin’s choice will be.
He talks a big game about doing the right thing, but he’s as selfish as she is, especially when their little brother is involved.
Even despite this, she decides to urge him on a little, whining and whispering, “Who knows when this will happen again!” It does the trick, pulling Justin away from the door and towards them instead, one of his hands curving over Max’s waist from behind.
“When what will happen again? What’s going on?” Max still looks adorably confused, and Alex distracts him by pressing her mouth to his again, pleased when it works as intended. He’s always the easiest to distract, after all, something neither she nor Justin will ever admit to taking advantage of as often as possible. He melts, taking a step forward to back her up against the washing machine behind her, his mouth soft under hers as their heads tilt slightly and their lips slot together like they’re meant for it.
Selfishly, and probably stupidly, she’s convinced they are. All three of them.
Alex almost protests when she feels Justin tugging at the jacket to pull it down, but when she backs off to watch, she can’t help the way she squirms at the sight of her brother in a plain white t-shirt tucked into his jeans, so simple yet so… She doesn’t even know.
Max’s confusion returns, but he seems onboard enough with whatever they seem to have planned that he doesn’t voice it this time, just leans into Justin’s chest and groans quietly when Alex reaches down to start tugging at the button of his jeans. Justin makes another noise, this time of alarm, and snaps a hand out to squeeze her wrist.
“Alex,” he jerks slightly when she fights the grip to pull the zip down. The sound of metal scraping metal is too loud in the small space. “We don’t have time—”
Max’s breath hitches when Alex snakes her hand inside, head tipping back against Justin’s shoulder. “I won’t last long,” he murmurs, because he never does. It’s one of the many things Alex adores about him.
She grins. “See? He won’t last long, so it’s fine!” she chirps. Justin groans and shakes his head, but he doesn’t protest any more, instead focusing on taking Max’s weight, his lips brushing their brother’s neck teasingly as Alex shuffles herself up onto the machine so she can coax Max between her thighs.
As soon as he’s settled between them, she hums, looking down at her hand moving slightly inside his jeans. When she looks up, she finds her brothers watching, too, and it makes her bite down a softer, satisfied smile in favour of tugging him free so they have a better view. She doesn’t miss the way they both shift and stutter in response.
“I don’t know what I did,” Max starts, his hips rocking up into her even strokes involuntarily. “But maybe I should do it more often.”
Alex laughs, more a soft giggle than anything else —and God, she can’t believe they’ve turned her into the kind of girl who giggles—, squeezing gently, her thumb gliding over the drooling head. “It’s these stupid clothes,” she tells him, twisting her wrist just so, pulling a strangled whine from her younger brother in response.
“And your stupid hair,” Justin adds, nipping low enough on Max’s throat that it will be covered by the collar of his shirts. Or, the ones that come higher than the collarbones themselves, at least. “It’s ridiculous.”
“All sexy, and hot, and,” Alex leans in to press a sticky kiss to Max’s jaw. “It makes us want you, Maxie,” she coos between kisses and sharp jerks of her hand. “More than usual,” she clarifies after a brief pause, because it seems like an important distinction.
Max doesn’t seem to be paying attention to anything they’re saying, though. A slow moan bubbles past his lips, and his hips start shifting without an ounce of coordination, a little sloppy and wet as her grip loosens enough for him to start pushing into it with ease. Justin bites up gently while snaking a hand over his waist, and their brother whines high in his throat when that hand wraps over Alex’s around him.
Their hands tighten and their movements quicken, Alex’s eyes darting between their hands on Max, and his face, watching the emotions flickering over it; the way his eyes roll back, the way his lips part further with another moan, and the way his teeth clack back together with a hiss a second later. She loves this part, she already knows, rubbing little circles under the head that have his knees buckling and Justin’s arms tightening around him even more so he doesn’t fall.
“Alex,” Max groans, forcing his eyes back to hers. They’re lidded, and dark, and she cannot wait until everything is fixed and they’re back home so he can do whatever it is he’s thinking about right now. “Shit, ah,” the eye contact breaks as Justin presses his thumb against the slit, Max’s eyes fluttering closed and his mouth dropping with a low moan. “I’m close—”
As if taking that as a challenge, she watches as Justin’s teeth dig sharply at the base of Max’s throat while their hands speed up, her older brother squeezing them around Max sharply until he chokes on a whine and squirms up into them in quick jerks. “Come on, Max,” Justin urges.
Alex leans forward to press her lips to Max’s racing pulse, just below his ear. “Be good for us,” she coos, and it’s like she’s said the magic words, because his breath hitches and his body jerks sharply, stuttering, Justin’s hand twisting hers up once until their brother gasps as he tumbles over the edge quickly.
It always makes her dizzy, the way things change and shift when they’re like this. Max’s need to be good for them despite perpetually misbehaving; Alex’s desire to focus the attention on them instead of herself; Justin’s desperation to lose control just for a little while. She doesn’t think anyone could give them that besides each other, not in the way they really need it.
God. They’ve turned her into a sap.
They stroke Max through his orgasm, and then ease him through the aftershocks, too, their grip firm and practised until he hisses sensitively and bats their hands away with a soft moan, and then Alex leans up to kiss him square on the mouth. He kisses back lazily, blissed out, and she can’t help snickering softly in response. He’s cute like this.
She just manages to register Justin muttering something under his breath, and glances down in time to see a wet patch on the front of Max’s t-shirt disappear like it had never been there in the first place. Shooting him a grateful look, noticing that both Max and their hands are clean now, too, she gingerly tucks Max away, trying her best to make sure he looks as normal as he had when she pulled him up the stairs.
Max is just starting to kiss her back properly, fingers brushing up her jaw lightly, when they hear their mom calling for them up the stairs. Justin tenses up, yelling back, “Just a second!” while taking a step away.
Alex hates that, so she pushes Max away gently with a placating nip to his bottom lip and reaches for her older brother, not giving him a chance to protest before she kisses him firmly. He relents almost instantly, groaning quietly, and she pulls back. “This is why you should always listen to my ideas,” she teases, flicking his jaw.
Justin rolls his eyes. “I have our entire lives together up to this moment as proof otherwise,” he says, flicking her ear gently in retaliation. “Come on.”
Then he turns to Max, who is shrugging his leather jacket back on and trying to fix his hair that totally doesn’t look like he had his older sister running her fingers through it at all. Alex slides off the washing machine while Justin tugs Max in, humming in satisfaction when she sees the firm kiss he plants on their brother’s mouth. Max melts into it, clinging to the front of Justin’s jacket, and looks dazed when Justin pulls back a few seconds later.
“You’re cute,” Alex coos, grinning as she stretches up on her toes to first kiss him on the cheek, and then give Justin the same treatment. She’s pretty sure she isn’t imagining the way their eyes tip down shyly, their cheeks growing warm, which makes her chest ache with affection, not that she’ll ever admit it.
A quick once over with another one of Justin’s spells that she should really learn for herself at some point, if she insists on dragging Max away like this, and then she’s leading them out of the laundry and back down the stairs.