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The first words he had ever heard out of Magnus Bane's mouth had been “Okay, before we start, I'm bisexual.”
Which wasn't unusual considering Professor Bane was Alec's history professor and his queer studies professor. And this was his queer studies lecture.
Professor Bane had followed that statement with explaining that that was partly the reason he had studied this subject but also because sexualities were just insanely interesting to him. And that had been that.
The first thing the professor had wanted to do with them before they started the topics of the year was seeing how many people there were straight and how many weren't.
-
“I want all of you to pick the labels that apply to you. If you need the 'other' category on the little slips of paper I'm going to give you in a moment, please don't hesitate to write in whatever you want.
I won't be looking at handwriting and I tried to include the most common labels above so most of you just have to put a cross there but of course, I can't include everything.”
Everyone had nodded and Professor Bane had given them all a piece of paper. There were little squares on it, with labels written next to it. Gay/lesbian and straight were right at the top of the list, followed by bisexual, pansexual, polysexual and demisexual. The professor had also included asexual and the fitting romantic attractions under every label. On the right side of the paper were also transgender and transsexual, as well as nonbinary and genderqueer. Right at the bottom was a line and a category that just said: 'Other:'.
“I deliberately left out specifics, for example in the trans category so in case you're not out, no one will know who put a cross there or be able to guess.
You can put your names on there, I won't read them out loud but I'm very curious.
These pieces of paper will be taken to my apartment when I'm done here for today and I will destroy them then, so if you're closeted, no one will know if you chose anything or what you chose. Still, you don't have to put any crosses anywhere, just please don't put straight if you aren't, then the results won't be accurate. Please just leave it blank if you refuse to answer, that's completely fine.”
It had been quiet in the lecture hall for a moment as they all filled out the sheet of paper. Alec put a cross in the cisgender category and the gay/lesbian one, before deciding that he would write his name at the top of the paper.
He wasn't sure why he so desperately wanted his Professor to know that he was gay, but it probably had to do with the fact that Magnus Bane was the most handsome man Alec had ever had the privilege of looking at.
In the end about 65% of the people identified as queer in some way or another in their course and they actually had a pretty good variety of labels.
At one point while reading through the little pieces of paper, Professor Bane had looked up and smirked when his eyes found Alec's seat. No one had seemed to notice but Alec couldn't stop himself from blushing and sinking down into the seat a little.
How would he ever survive this last year before graduation?
-
It had been relatively easy in the beginning. He was quietly pining after Professor Bane, whose first name was Magnus. He also had two cats named Chairman Meow and Church, Church being a “demon who hates every single human on the planet”. Magnus's words, not Alec's.
Alec had also learned that his professor was incredibly talented and basically good at everything. He could play the piano, the guitar, could dance all kinds of styles, could draw pretty well, knew apparently every single piece of literature ever known to mankind and he was witty and intelligent and everything Alec was looking for in a man. Not that it mattered anyway.
The biggest problem was that he was his professor and cosmically out of Alec's league.
Someone like Magnus would never be interested in someone like Alec.
Even if the way Professor Bane was the only one who called him Alexander made Alec feel incredibly warm inside.
At the end of the first semester of the year, Magnus wrote his phone number on Alec's notes, stressing that Alec could text him whenever to ask questions for his paper on stereotypes around bisexuality and the results of that in the LGBT+ community.
“Thanks but my sister is bi and uhh, I can always ask her. Though, I guess the stereotypes for bi men are different than the ones for bi women, so thank you. I mean, I'll text you. Again, thank you.”
He had stuttered his way through that and blushed when Magnus just giggled and left him with his work. At that point Alec had actively needed to remind himself of the fact that Magnus wasn't Magnus. He was Professor Bane, his insanely hot professor and it was actually kind of unfair that the universe put them together in a way Alec could never actually have a chance with him.
-
They had texted frequently after that, mostly about university stuff, of course. Even if the occasional detail about their families or friends had slipped out when neither of them was thinking about the fact that Alec was a student and that Magnus was his professor.
Graduation was getting closer now, too, and Alec actually felt good about it. He liked the feeling of accomplishment he felt everytime he thought about his graduation.
That feeling always turned bittersweet, though, whenever he sat in either his history course or in his queer studies course. In a short while, he'd never see Magnus Bane ever again.
Life sucked sometimes.
Like for example when you had a massive crush on your wonderful and very out of your league professor.
-
Alec was pissed. At the universe, at the university and at himself.
His graduation was now officially over and he was in his dorm room packing the last of his stuff. To go home. Where he would never see Magnus ever again.
He'd decided that life sucked most of the time.
He was throwing his clothes in his boxes at random, clearly frustrated.
A knock on the door interrupted him in his doing and he rolled his eyes walking over to it before opening it while exclaiming “I AM ALREADY HURRYING, IZZY!”
He was greeted with the face of none other than his professor Magnus Bane.
“You're not Izzy.”
That was the dumbest thing he could have ever said in that exact moment to this exact person.
Magnus laughed, much to Alec's surprise.
“I'm not, Alexander, no. I see, you're already packing. I thought I would find you here.”
Alec frowned, letting Magnus into his room, closing the door behind him.
“You were looking for me, Professor Bane?”
-
Magnus grinned, the “I'm always looking for you” dying on his lips.
“I was, actually. And it's Magnus, now that you've finally graduated.”
Alec's face got even more confused after that. It was adorable, truly.
“...finally?”
Magnus nodded.
“You're now not my student anymore!”
Alec raised an eyebrow and god, how unfair was it that he looked so good without even being aware of what he was doing to Magnus?
“That's correct. Though I'm not really understanding what about that seemingly makes you so happy.”
Magnus snorted.
“I'm not! I mean, I am. But not for the reason you think. It just means I can finally do what I've been waiting to do since the first queer studies lecture. There's nothing stopping me now.”
Alec tilted his head a little and Magnus had to admit that he looked a bit like a puppy.
“Nothing stopping you from doing what?”
Magnus took a step closer to Alec.
“There is nothing stopping me from asking you if you want to go out for drinks with me sometime. Or dinner maybe?”
Alec's eyes widened almost comically and he almost took a step back. But he didn't.
“Dinner. Like a date.”
At that, it was Magnus's turn to frown.
“Of course like a date. I've been waiting for a year for this day.”
Alec looked at the ground, avoiding Magnus's gaze.
“I'd love to, but... why?”
Magnus reached out to him, grabbing his arm.
“I've been flirting with you for the past year whenever I got the opportunity to do so, Alexander. And usually that's a line I don't cross. I have never even given a student my number, except for you, apparently.”
It was silent for a moment.
“That was not a work number? I thought you were like that with everyone else, too. I didn't think you treated me any differently.”
Magnus snorted at the thought of treating everyone like he had treated Alexander in the past months. Weird and definitely inappropriate. To be fair, it had been a little inappropriate with Alexander, too, but he had never seemed uncomfortable. And Alec had been checking him out since that first day, not subtly either. And Magnus had tried to hold back when other people were around.
“No, you were the only one who had my personal phone number, Alexander.”
Neither of them seemed to breathe.
“You've really been waiting to ask me out? You like me? This isn't a joke?”
Magnus rolled his eyes at that answer, taking yet another step closer to Alec, before cupping his face with his hands and pulling him into a deep kiss.
Surprised by the sudden movement, Alec gripped Magnus's hips to steady himself.
Neither of them heard someone open the door to the room.
“Alec, hurry up, Maia is waiting for us outsi-
Oh.”
The two of them broke apart as soon as they heard Izzy's voice in the room with them.
Alec's sister looked Magnus up and down once, before smirking at her brother.
“Is that the professor you've been hung up on for months? Good for you, hermano.”
She then looked at Magnus, holding out her hand.
“You're Magnus Bane, right? I'm Isabelle Lightwood, or Izzy for short, Alec's sister.”
He shook her hand, returning her smile.
“So you're the infamous bi sister he never stops talking about.”
Izzy raised her perfectly filled in eyebrows at her brother.
“You didn't tell me that you talk to your handsome professor about me. I have to listen to you never stop talking about his outfits, his makeup and his everchanging matching highlights and you just forget to mention that you talk to him about me?”
Magnus grinned, watching the exchange between them.
Izzy sighed. “I'm going back down to the car. Hurry up, Maia is waiting and we didn't want to spend our whole day here waiting for you.”
With that, she turned around, closing the door behind her.
“You talked about my clothes with your sister?”
Alec blushed lightly. “I mean, yeah, you're beautiful. How am I supposed to listen to a word you say when you look so damn good all the time? Those red highlights you had like a month ago almost caused me to lose my mind.”
Magnus leaned to kiss Alec again.
“That's good to know. You still haven't answered my question, Alexander.”
“What question?”
Magnus laughed. “Was your attention span always this short? I asked if you wanted to go out with me?”
A lopsided grin spread over Alec's face.
“Have you ever kissed me before? I feel like that shortened my attention span significantly. And yes, I would really love to go out with you.”
A car horn outside made them jump apart again.
“Oh fuck, I have to go home. And I'm moving in two weeks! How can I go out on dates with you like that?”
Magnus took his hand and intertwined their fingers.
“Hey, I only live in Brooklyn, that's not the end of the world. I'm sure we'll find a way, I waited for so long. Nothing is going to ruin this for me now.”
“No way! You live in Brooklyn? I'm moving into an apartment in Brooklyn!”
Magnus pulled Alec into a hug. “That's amazing! So you really really want to give this a try? Give us a try?”
He felt Alec press a soft kiss to his temple, still not letting him leave his embrace.
“You bet your gorgeous ass I want to date you, Magnus.”
When the car horn outside sounded again, Alec let go of Magnus, throwing the last of his clothes into the box on the bed.
They kissed for one last time before Alec turned to the door, ready to leave campus and not come back. But now he wasn't leaving Magnus and that made things easier.
Standing in the doorway, he smiled back at Magnus.
“I'm glad you waited for me, Professor Bane.”
Magnus just rolled his eyes, grabbing the pillow from the bed and throwing it after Alec.
Maybe sometimes life didn't suck. Maybe life was actually pretty great sometimes.