Another week in their new abode passed with their depression only deepening that much more. Then, that Friday morning, Sky entered Star’s room, startling her slightly, and looking as though he’d had an epiphany of some kind.

“Yes?” she asked, immediately noting what almost looked like hopefulness on his face.

He then moved to a seat on her bed with a smile, placing his hands over hers, which only caused her to tense as she looked up at the camera. “Remember what you said about when we used to cast when we were little?”

“I think we both know that...” another look toward the camera, “that that wasn’t exactly what was happening.”

“Yes, but what you said; it made us feel powerful, like we could face anything” Sky reminded her.

“Yeah, and look where that got us” she scoffed sadly.

“But look how we got here. We were right, we can face anything” Sky told her as he squeezed her hands with another smile.

“Not sure I follow” Star told him warily.

To that, he only smiled back at her before pushing himself up from her bed and grabbing a nearby discarded leather jacket from the back of her desk chair. He then turned to smile up at the camera, before extending his middle finger to it, and throwing the jacket over the lens.

“Sky...” she exclaimed, though couldn’t help her slight smile.

“Ready to short-circuit another fucking house?” he grinned down at where she still lay atop the bed as he began removing his shirt, looking down at her hungrily.

She couldn’t help another little laugh, “usually when stuff happens, it’s not stuff we planned. It just happens” she reminded him.

“Ain’t it time we test that theory?” he smirked as he also began removing his pants.

From behind the monitors, Brie and Connor watched the other, more hidden camera’s feed, “are we supposed to be stopping this?” Brie asked him with more than a bit of discomfort as Sky finished removing his clothing and began moving toward Star’s bed.

“We’re supposed to see what happens, aren’t we?” Connor sighed with more than a bit of his own discomfort then as Sky began undressing Star.

“They’re only fourteen. No matter what else...happens here, we’re still gonna have to destroy every bit of the footage” Brie stated, trying not to look directly at the monitor as Sky moved to take a place above Star on the bed.

“Did he put a condom on this time too? Last thing we need is them procreating” Connor stated as he looked down at his notes again.

“Connor!” she exclaimed.

“Calm down, Brie. It’s always been the plan to destroy any of the footage, no matter how innocent...or not” he added as he glanced up again in time to see Sky moving to enter her again.

But before either of them could say more, or take any more notes, once again, every single electrical item in the house and the hidden monitor room, began malfunctioning and eventually all went dark. The two then just looked at each other in the now dark room, both letting out another sigh. Connor’s seemed to be one of annoyance, while Brie’s almost seemed to be one of relief.

Their parents returned to the main part of the now darkened house that afternoon, under the guise of arriving home from work just like any other day. Having to actually manually open the doors, Brie and Connor took a deep breath to compose themselves before facing their children again.

Inside, Sky and Star sat in the now candlelit living room, smirking at one another and tossing jelly beans into each other’s mouths with content giggles.

Taking another breath as she approached the two oddly self-satisfied teens, Brie spoke, “care to explain why we have no electric....again?” she couldn’t help adding.

“No clue...mom” Sky added the last word with a bit of bite, “maybe you should call the electric company” he added with another smirk, which was reflected on Star’s face as well.

“You two seem awful chipper” Connor greeted them with an attempt to hide his scowl.

“Well, we hated the cameras” Star admitted, “and for one whole day, we didn’t have to put up with them” she added with an innocent shrug as she tossed another candy towards where Sky caught it on his pierced tongue.

Not sure what else they could say to the teens without blowing their own cover, and not that comfortable seeing them again, after the way they had seen them earlier, though briefly; Connor and Brie just shook their heads at one another before moving away from the couch to order in dinner for the night.

After they had finished eating take out by candle light, the two teens finally seeming happy for probably the first time in their lives, their parents sighed again. At the sound of the mutual sighs, Sky looked back at Connor and Brie, “how is it that with the four of us in a room, you two are the more depressed ones?” he chuckled, Star laughing at the observation as well.

Their parents just shook their heads again, not sure if they should be mortified or not. After all, if Sky and Star did still truly believe they were siblings, then their current mood was quite worrying. However, if they had somehow discovered they were not related at all, then this was just two teens in love. Not knowing for sure which was the accurate appraisal, did nothing to calm their parents’ nerves.

“You two need to go get packed” she told them, causing them both to look back her way.

“Packed for what?” Star asked, her smile wavering for the first time since their lovemaking had ended that morning.

“Well we can’t exactly live in a place with no electric, now can we?” Brie returned.

“So, where you making us go now?” Sky asked suspiciously.

“Back home” Connor answered, “most of the remodeling should be done now. At least enough that the place should be livable.”

“Does that mean we’re going back to school, too?” Star asked warily.

“Suppose it does” Connor agreed as he and Brie rose from their seats and made their way back toward their own room for their last night there. It was obvious to them that a new approach would definitely be needed to this particular set of study subjects, to say the least.

That night as Connor and Brie lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, she spoke up again, “they’ve already learned how to use their power to get what they want. They’ve already learned to at least partially control it to some extent. And I don’t honestly know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing” she admitted worriedly.

“Still think I was wrong fifteen years ago?” Connor couldn’t help the question, to which Brie only angrily rolled over, burying her head in her pillow.

After another few moments, Brie spoke again, though still didn’t turn back to him, “maybe we’re looking at this wrong.”

“Got another theory do you?” he asked tiresomely.

“We fucked them up beyond repair by trying to hide the truth from them. Maybe what we should be doing is encouraging them to embrace their power, hone it, use it in the best way they can” she suggested hopefully.

“And what happens when they realize that they don’t need to listen to us anymore? That they’re the ones with the power, and they can use it any way they want? Didn’t his little stunt with the cameras today prove that that is a very real possibility?”

At that thought, Brie let out another frustrated sigh, “so how do we stop them from growing more and more powerful then? Even threatening them with eternal damnation if they ever touched one another obviously wasn’t enough to stop it.”

“Again, why do you think I said what I said when we first knew this was a possibility? Now we just gotta live with our decision to let them survive long enough to get to this day. And here we are” he told her with another shake of his head as he too turned away to make some attempt at sleep, despite all the worries of what all the next days would bring.

That next day was a Saturday, so they wouldn’t be returning to school after their week away just yet. That morning, the four of them returned to their old home despite the rather recent water damage, as keeping them at the experimental house obviously didn’t go as their parents had hoped.

After getting settled back in, Connor and Brie went about their weekend errands, which unfortunately had no designated end time, like their work days did. So, Star and Sky had to keep some kind of hold on their desires that day, not knowing when they might get interrupted in the middle of any particularly intimate activities.

After all, they still had no hard proof that they weren’t really siblings, no matter how much they had once again talked themselves into believing that it was all a lie. Nor did they have any proof that anyone at all had been watching them on the monitors at the other house, let alone their parents; but still, there was room for doubt in either scenario. Due to that small sliver of a chance that maybe it wasn’t all just some huge conspiracy, they still had to keep up the guise of a reasonably normal brother and sister who hadn’t made love to each other more than once already. At least they had to play that part when they weren’t assured of no prying eyes or interruptions, that was.

When their mother did return home, the two were sitting closely on the sofa, whispering sweet words against each other’s necks and sharing soft kisses. Upon hearing the car pull into the garage, the two immediately put more distance between them on the couch and went back to pretending to once again be more interested in the now replaced TV than each other.

As Brie entered from the garage, she gave the two another suspicious look, knowing what she did know about what they had been doing with one another only one day earlier. She took a breath and moved to greet them. “Good, you’re both here.”

“Where else would we be?” Sky replied, giving his mother an equally suspicious look, as he and Star often did.

“Actually, I’m the one with a question. A serious question” she stated as she took a seat on the also newly replaced recliner. The two looked at one another warily, but said nothing just yet. Brie took another breath and reached into her bag. A moment later, she presented them with the empty condom wrapper, causing them both to grow noticeably more uncomfortable. “Either of you care to confess?”

“What?” Star asked, choking slightly on the word, as Sky just averted his eyes and offered nothing in the way of any verbal response. Though one thing occurred to both teens then; maybe it was possible that no one had been watching them on all those cameras after all. And maybe, just possibly their interest in one another was still a secret from everyone else but them. Maybe.

“I found it in the bathroom the two of you share, the day of the flood” she told them pointedly, “so keep that in mind before you give me an answer about exactly why it was there.”

That was when Sky spoke, “it’s mine ok” he took the hit for her.

“Really?” Brie replied, brow raised.

“At least I’m being safe, right?” he attempted to parrot what every Lifetime movie stated that a teen’s parents would want to hear as their only defense when caught in any similar situation.

Brie sighed again as Star’s eyes were now the ones averted as she held her breath, “and might I know who exactly it was that you were using this with?” she pressed further, trying to hide the glance over at Star that she couldn’t help.

“I seriously doubt it” he lied, looking away once more.

“Go to your room, Sky” she stated simply. In response, he and Star just gave each other another worried look. “Now, Sky” she stated more forcefully as he grudgingly did as he was told for once. Star swallowed hard, eyes averted again, causing Brie to turn her attention back to the girl, “well you don’t exactly look shocked.”

“What do you want me to say?” was the only response Star could come up with right then.

“Do you happen to know how long, and who with, that he’s been doing...this sort of thing, at least?” she couldn’t help asking.

“How would I know?” Star gave in to upholding his lie.

A nearly inaudible scoff from Brie in the face of that blatant lie coming from Star’s lips, “and I don’t suppose you’d tell me if you were actually doing something like that too, would you?”

“Mom, please” was all Star said.

Brie just shook her head again before reaching into her bag once more. Star couldn’t help a slight cringe at what she would pull out of there this time. At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if Brie took out the recording of her and Sky making love right then and there. And of course, she would probably drop dead herself in the face of that turn of events.

Instead, Brie took out a small circular plastic container and handed it to Star, who looked more than a little thrown by the gesture. “Let me make it very clear; this is not my way of giving permission. It’s just my way of trying to keep you from ruining your life too, especially after I already almost lost Sky” she finished sadly as she then got up to leave the room and Star behind to think on those words long and hard.