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“Alexander!” Magnus shouted, fighting down a laugh as he stumbled after the other boy. “It was just an innocent prank!"
When Alec turned around to glare at him, his hair and face still covered in glitter, Magnus couldn’t help bursting into laughter all over again. Alec’s glare, coupled with the glitter was something he was going to remember fondly for decades to come.
"I’m going to be washing this off for days, Magnus!” Alec growled, glaring at him. “I don’t see how this is funny for me!"
Magnus watched him stomp towards the showers, leaving a trail of glitter as he went. He covered his mouth and couldn’t help continuing to laugh as he shook his head and watched. Alec needed to learn to lighten up and enjoy himself. A good prank did wonders for his mood.
~!~
Alec sighed and hid his face in his arms at the lunch table while his sister played with his hair, an ever growing pile of glitter appearing on the table as she tried to get some of it off of him.
"How much glitter did he use?” Izzy asked, her eyes wide as she pulled her hand back, wrinkling her nose at all of the glitter on her hand.
“Enough to torture me for the rest of the year,” Alec mumbled, miserable. He sighed and curled up tighter. "He laughed so hard at me, Iz.“
"I’ve told you,” Izzy said, a smile on her lips. “He’s pulling your pigtails, Alec."
"That’s stupid,” Alec muttered. “I want to kiss his stupid face, not have him cover me in glitter that I’m never going to be able to get off."
Izzy couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her. "I’m pretty sure that he wants to kiss your stupid face too, he just doesn’t know how to say that."
"Pranks aren’t a love language,” Alec grumbled, closing his eyes with a sigh. Even if it had been at his expense, getting to watch Magnus laugh as hard as he did earlier was nice. Magnus always looked so pretty when he laughed, especially like that.
Izzy scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Sulking doesn’t suit you, big brother. You left your emo phase in freshman year, remember?"
"Shut up,” Alec snapped back.
“I’m just saying,” Izzy said. “You know how love languages work, right? Now that you know his, supposedly anyways, time to start exploiting it."
Alec opened one eye and tilted his head on his arms, staring at her with a frown. "What are you talking about?"
Izzy grinned, her eyes bright. "I’m saying that you need to prank Magnus!"
Alec opened his mouth to tell her what an absolutely horrible idea that was when he pictured Magnus enduring any of the pranks that he’d been through in the past year. He snapped his mouth shut and hummed in consideration, hiding his face again. "It’s gotta be good,” he said, glancing at her.
Izzy’s grin shifted into a smirk. “That’s what you have me for. We’ll pay him back properly, don’t you worry."
"You’re scary,” Alec said, frowning at her. “What are you planning?"
"Oh nothing,” Izzy said with a wave of her hands. “Just you wait and see. You’ll need to help me with a few pieces of it, but I know exactly how we’re going to start. You know how Magnus just bleached the tips of his hair? Well…"
~!~
Izzy hadn’t told him the color. She’d only told him that if he managed to switch Magnus’ shampoo bottles in gym, that his the blond streaks in his hair would be temporarily dyed another color. The bubblegum pink and the miserable look on Magnus’ face had him bursting into laughter the second Magnus stopped beside his locker.
Magnus’ eyes widened and his mouth fell open before fury bled across his face. ”You!“
Alec smirked at him, feeling confident for the first time in a very long time. He leaned in close and gave his hair a shake, scattering some errant glitter onto Magnus, just to watch his scowl deepen. "Me,” he shot back. "Consider it payback for the glitter bomb.“
Magnus’ eyes narrowed. "Oh, it’s on."
Alec raised his eyebrows and gave Magnus his best unimpressed look. "Don’t start something you’re afraid to finish."
"You’re the one who should be afraid."
Alec watched Magnus stalk away from him, his fists clenched by his sides and told himself that he did that to make sure Magnus didn’t look back at him. Not because those jeans highlighted certain, ah, assets. After all, he still wanted to kiss Magnus’ stupid face. Even when part of his hair was bubblegum pink.
Alec grinned again and headed for class. He couldn’t wait to tell Izzy what a success that had been.
~!~
The next two weeks devolved into an all-out war.
Alec was relatively sure that half of the school was taking sides, or at the very least participating in their ever-escalating prank war. He put the finishing touches on his latest, wiping his face with a grin. The giant roll of shrink wrap he’d taken from work was almost empty, but it was worth it, seeing it wrapped around Magnus’ car.
It was going to take him at least a few minutes to get himself in and he was going to get a second surprise when he realized that all the footwells were filled with styrofoam peanuts. Alec patted himself on the back and considered it a job well done as he headed towards the school. Now he’d just have to make sure he was in the parking lot later to see Magnus’ reaction to his prank.
Of course, by the time it was the end of the day, Alec wanted nothing more than to simply go home. He’d spent the entire day with wet shoes, because he hadn’t leapt out of the way of Magnus’ prank quickly enough and he wanted to go home and wear any other pair of shoes as long as they didn’t fucking squeak when he walked.
He got there, just in time to see Magnus staring at his car, his eyes wide in shock. Alec leaned against the trunk, smirking. Worth it. So completely worth it.
“I swear, Alexander, if you have hurt my car…”
“Relax,” Alec said, waving a hand. “I didn’t hurt your precious car. It’s like saran wrap. It’ll come off perfectly fine, I promise.”
Magnus narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“Hey,” Alec protested. “There’s a line. I haven’t crossed that line. Actually hurting your car would be crossing that line.”
Magnus blinked and tilted his head. “What? I mean, we’re at war.”
Alec huffed. “I mean, yeah, it’s a prank war. But I’m not going to fuck with you that hard, Magnus, jesus. I don’t hate you.”
“Could have fooled me,” Magnus muttered, glaring at his car, then at Alec.
“Magnus, you dunked my locker lock in lube. I couldn’t unlock my locker for two days,” Alec shot back.
Magnus grinned, bright and wide at the reminder. “Oh yeah. Okay, maybe I earned my car being saran wrapped.”
“Damn right you did.”
“You never did tell me why you decided to get involved in a prank war with me in the first place,” Magnus said, leaning against his car. “One day, you were blushing all cutely every time you were pranked, and the next, we were in a war.”
Alec rolled his eyes. “Well, you were never going to do anything about my supposedly cute blushes, so this seemed like the next best thing.”
Magnus blinked. “You, I, what?”
“You heard me,” Alec said. “I figured it out after the glitter bomb. Been waiting for you to get a clue. Haven’t you heard that pulling pigtails is old news?”
“So, what, you decided to pull mine right back?” Magnus shot back.
“Well, yeah,” Alec said with a shrug. “Hasn’t worked though, so I’m guessing I read it wrong. If you want to call a truce, let me know.”
Magnus watched Alec start to walk away and shook himself out of his stupor and immediately chased Alec across the parking lot. “Wait, wait.”
Alec raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest. “You rang?”
“Yeah,” Magnus panted, focusing on Alec. “Maybe you’re right. What are you suggesting I do about it?”
“For fuck’s sake,” a voice said from the other side of Alec’s car. “Kiss him already!”
Alec flushed and glared at his sister, where she was smirking at him before she slid into the front seat. When he turned, Magnus was standing much closer than before and his breath caught.
“I’ve missed these blushes,” Magnus admitted, trailing his fingers over Alec’s cheek. “A lot.”
Alec’s mouth was dry and he stared at Magnus, at the way his eyes shone almost gold in the sunshine and nodded, unable to look away from him. “Maybe, uh. Maybe you should, um, do something, about that? Maybe?”
“Alexander,” Magnus drawled, raising both of his eyebrows. “Are you suggesting that I kiss you?”
Alec huffed, rolled his eyes, and tangled his fingers in the lapels of Magnus’ jacket, yanking him in closer until their lips were an inch apart, savoring the surprise in Magnus’ eyes. “No. I’m suggesting kiss me, date me, and maybe think about new ways to make me blush.”
“Well,” Magnus said, settling his arms over Alexander’s shoulders, tangling his fingers in the short hair at the nape of his neck. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
Alec decided the best way to shut Magnus up was to pull him in for a proper kiss. Magnus melted into him with a happy groan, and it sent shivers down his spine. Maybe pulling pigtails wasn’t the worst thing these days.