Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Magnus didn’t miss Indonesia, as such.

His home was full of too many bad memories. Most of them were admittedly to do with his stepfather, who had moved with him to America, but the change of scene would hopefully make it easier for Magnus to get away from him.

In Indonesia, they had lived in the countryside. On a farm, in fact. It wasn’t an active farm, and Magnus didn’t really know why his stepfather didn’t just move into the city, but now they had moved to New York City.

Magnus hadn’t seen his stepfather much since they had moved. Their apartment was pretty nice. It was a decent size and the building seemed pretty nice. Magnus’ belongings mostly consisted of clothes, but he thought he had made his room look pretty nice.

He had done most of his decorating at night. The time difference between home and New York was twelve hours, and Magnus hadn’t adjusted yet, so he took the opportunity to decorate when he woke up every night.

He had seen his stepfather once since they moved four days ago. He didn’t care where he went; he was just happy to have the house to himself.

But he knew he had to adjust his sleep schedule. He had to go to school on Monday.

Thoughts of school had been occupying his thoughts for months.

His school back home had been small, and Magnus hadn’t bothered to make much of an effort with his clothes or makeup. But now he was going to a new school and he was determined to make a good impression.

He was also using this determination to keep the nerves at bay.

He had two outfits planned. One for if he was too nervous – a simple shirt and jeans – and one for what he really wanted to wear: makeup, leather jacket, t-shirt and ripped jeans.

Usually he wouldn’t hesitate to wear the latter, but he wasn’t sure about whether or not he wanted to draw attention to himself. The last thing he wanted was to be a coward, but he had heard stories about racism and homophobia and bullies and honestly, if that was going to be the case, he didn’t know if he wanted to have to deal with it.

Soon, Monday rolled around. Magnus barely slept on Sunday night because of both nerves and lingering jet lag.

He shuffled to the kitchen to force himself to eat something, and found his stepfather thumbing through a newspaper.

“What are you doing?” he asked in Indonesian, his voice cold.

Magnus could easily have argued, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to aggravate him before his first day of school. “Getting breakfast,” he said simply, in English.

He wasn’t going to fight with him, but annoying him a little bit was harmless. Usually.

His stepfather didn’t answer.

Magnus broke a slightly overripe banana away from the bunch, peeling it as he wandered back to his room.

“Will you be dressing like a gay today?” his stepfather called after him, in English this time.

Magnus felt his blood boil, but he pushed the anger down. He ate his banana quickly and got dressed in his ‘daring’ getup, putting on winged eyeliner.

He considered lipstick but decided to wait and see how the first day went before taking that step.

He laced up his boots and shoved a pen into his jacket pocket before stalking back to the kitchen to put the banana peel in the bin.

His stepfather did a double take. “What do you think you’re wearing?” he barked, reverting back to Indonesian.

“I don’t have time to change. I need to get the bus,” Magnus said, leaving the apartment before his stepfather could try to stop him.

Magnus’ heart was pounding in his chest, but he was proud of himself. He was glad he hadn’t chickened out at the last minute.

There was a small group of people gathered at the bus stop. When he approached, they stopped talking for a moment, and then their conversations resumed, quieter than before.

Magnus was sure they were talking about him but none of them had punched him yet so he thought things were going quite well so far.

The bus arrived, and everyone climbed on, Magnus last in the queue. The bus was already pretty full, and people watched him all the way up the aisle. He slid into an empty seat near the back, staring resolutely out of the window.

More people got on. The bus filled up, and one girl sat tentatively on the other side of Magnus’ bench, but she was sitting as far away as she could get from him. She looked intimidated and Magnus was sort of proud of himself but also beginning to get worried.

They arrived at the school and any confidence Magnus had managed to cultivate immediately dissolved.

The school was huge. And there were people everywhere. Magnus supposed that this was to be expected in a New York school, but it was still a little shocking.

He followed a crowd of children from the bus. They led him into the school building, and he broke off to approach the reception desk.

The secretary was sitting back in her chair and looked pretty disinterested in her job, but she looked up when Magnus approached the desk.

“Can I help you?” she asked. At least she sounded genuinely willing to help.

Magnus took a breath. He knew he was good at English, but actually being in New York and having to speak English all the time suddenly felt very intimidating.

He forced the nerves back down. “I’m new,” he said, for the first time in his life feeling horribly self-conscious of his accent when he spoke English.

To her credit, the secretary didn’t laugh or seem amused or confused. “What’s your name?”

“Magnus Bane,” Magnus told her.

She typed on her computer and clicked a couple of buttons, and then some sheets of paper started coming out of her printer. She picked them up and stood to spread them on top of the counter so that Magnus could see them. “This is your schedule. Registration starts in ten minutes, and your class is on the fourth floor,” she told him.

Magnus nodded and looked over the schedule, trying to take it in. He had no idea how he would navigate the school, but he supposed he would just try to follow people from his class.

“Your teacher will assign another student to show you around the school,” she added.

Magnus let out a relieved breath. “Thank you.”

She smiled reassuringly at him before sitting at her chair again. “If you need absolutely anything, feel free to come and ask. Me or any of my colleagues will be more than willing to help you.”

Magnus thanked her once again before going to search for his classroom.

It took him a while. The bell rang, and the students all filed into their own rooms. It was far easier to look at the numbers on the doors now that the hallways were empty.

He found his own room and took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

“Come in,” someone called.

Magnus stepped inside, and didn’t even have to speak before the teacher stood up.

“Are you Magnus Bane?” she asked, walking towards him.

Magnus was too startled to do anything but nod.

“I’m Mrs Ling. It’s nice to meet you,” she said, extending a hand for him.

Magnus shook her hand and let her lead him into the classroom. She was short enough that the top of her head only reached the middle of Magnus’ chest.

“Class, this is the new student I was telling you about. His name is Magnus Bane,” she said, putting a hand on Magnus’ back as she addressed the class. “Magnus, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?”

Magnus did not want to introduce himself to the class, but he didn’t really have a choice.

He felt like he’d forgotten how to speak, let alone speak English.

“I’m Magnus,” he said shortly, immediately feeling stupid. They already knew that. “I’m from Indonesia.”

He was about to start floundering – he couldn’t think of anything else to say, and the class was staring at him – but Mrs Ling reached up to pat his shoulder.

“We’re all very glad to have you in the class,” she said reassuringly. “Now, if you’ll come and sit here?” she continued, leading him to a seat in the middle of the classroom beside a black girl with long hair.

Magnus sat down, still feeling like the whole class was watching him.

“This is Catarina, and I’ve asked her to show you around for the first couple of days,” Mrs Ling explained, seemingly unperturbed by the strangely quiet class. “You’re both taking mostly the same subjects, so she’ll be able to help you out if you need it.”

When Mrs Ling returned to her desk, most of the class started chatting again, their conversations filling the room with a comfortable buzz.

Magnus stared forward until Catarina nudged him. “Are you nervous?” she asked, leaning closer to him and resting her elbows on the table.

Magnus could have lied, but he didn’t see the point. She’d probably be able to see right through it. “Yes,” he said shortly.

Catarina looked sympathetic. She squeezed his arm gently. “It’s okay. Everyone’s nervous on their first day, and you’ll be fine,” she said firmly. She seemed so sure about it that it was hard for Magnus to think differently.

Catarina leaned back and nudged the boy next to her. His skin was lighter than hers but darker than Magnus’. He had a pair of earbuds in his ears and was wearing a surly expression.

When he didn’t move, Catarina yanked one of his earbuds out for him. Loud music blared from it for a moment before he paused it and glared at her.

Catarina looked decidedly unbothered. “Magnus, this is Ragnor. He can be difficult sometimes but he’s a softie deep down.”

Ragnor raised a hand to wave at Magnus. “Hello.” He didn’t sound enthusiastic.

Catarina rolled her eyes and shoved Ragnor’s shoulder before turning back to Magnus. “Once you get to know him, you’ll see that he can really be a sweetheart,” she assured him.

Ragnor nudged her. “I am not a sweetheart,” he hissed before jamming his earbud back in and slouching in his seat.

‘He is,’ Catarina mouthed.

Magnus laughed and settled down in his chair. He knew that Catarina was probably only being nice to him because the teacher had told her to, but she did seem nice. And it would be good to have someone to show him around the maze-like school.

As it turned out, Ragnor was also in most of Magnus’ classes.

It was far easier to go between classes with Catarina and Ragnor on either side of him, effectively shepherding him through the crowds.

They sat through two classes, Magnus having to give himself a short introduction in both. The teachers didn’t try and stop him from sitting next to Ragnor and Catarina so, all things considered, Magnus thought things could have been a lot worse.

During the morning break, Catarina showed Magnus where his locker was. Magnus attempted to open it twice, pointedly ignoring Ragnor’s stifled laughter at his failed attempts, before Catarina took pity on him and opened it.

They sat through English and then had a free period, at the beginning of which Magnus was left alone for a few minutes as Catarina and Ragnor both went to the toilet.

Magnus was content to stand alone and wait for them, but then he was approached by a boy who was shorter than Magnus, but where Magnus was thin and lanky, this man-boy was far more muscular.

Now, Magnus could appreciate a man with good muscles, but this was honestly just too much. And even if he had been attractive, the look on his face could only be described as ‘douchebaggy’.

Magnus hoped the guy would keep walking, but of course he wasn’t that lucky.

“You’re the new kid?” he asked. It was like he was attempting to sneer at Magnus but it came out as more of an unfortunate whine.

“Yes,” Magnus said shortly, hoping he would be able to make him go away with disinterest.

He didn’t seem like the type to be put off easily. “Are you wearing makeup?”

Magnus glared at him. “Yes.”

“Where are you from?” the guy asked, leaning against the locker beside Magnus.

Magnus hoped he wasn’t trying to flirt. If so, he was doing a horrible job of it. “Indonesia.”

“Can you even speak English?” he asked, his smirk growing.

Magnus didn’t bother to reply to that.

“Well, can you?” he said, leaning closer to Magnus. Magnus was tempted to punch him. “Do – you – understand – what – I’m – saying?” he said loudly, enunciating each word slowly and loudly.

A small group of people had started to gather around them, clearly interested in what was going on. Magnus was tempted to just walk away, but he didn’t know where he was going and he knew the idiot would probably follow him. “Shut the fuck up,” he muttered.

“What was that?” he asked, sounding affronted.

“Shut – the – fuck – up,” Magnus repeated, saying it very slowly and loudly as if he were speaking to an idiot (it wasn’t hard to pretend. In fact, it wasn’t really pretending).

The guy looked like he was about to yell, but he reeled it back in and plastered a smirk back up. “Shut the fuck up,” he said, doing a ridiculous and altogether inaccurate impression of Magnus’ accent.

Now, Magnus could handle people bothering him about his clothes and his makeup. Those were there to draw attention. But his accent? That kind of stung. He was self-conscious about it anyway, and he very much doubted this cretin would be able to move to a country with a language that wasn’t his own and go to school there without some difficulty.

He couldn’t even think of anything to say. The guy was still grinning at him like he’d won.

“What’s wrong? Can’t understand me unless I talk like you?” he asked, still doing his wildly inaccurate impression.

Magnus could have argued with him, but he didn’t really want to speak in front of all these people if they were just going to laugh at him.

Before he could start blushing or get upset, he quickly jerked his leg up.

He knew he was skinny – probably too skinny – but he was glad for it now. His knees were bony and the high-pitched yelp the guy made when Magnus’ knee connected with his crotch was more than satisfying.

The crowd that had gathered around them by this point cheered.

The guy was steadily getting redder in the face, and he straightened up as much as he could while still holding onto his junk with both hands. His eyes were watering.

Magnus had to try not to laugh.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he hissed. “Fucking freak.”

Magnus was extremely tempted to kick him in the face – his boots were heavy, he’d probably be able to do some damage – but then someone grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

For a moment he was annoyed, but then he saw that it was Catarina.

And, really, it was better that he was pulled away. He didn’t exactly want to get expelled from school on his first day.

When they emerged from the small crowd, Ragnor was waiting for them, grinning widely.

Magnus hadn’t thought his face could make such a happy expression.

“That’s gonna go down in history,” he told Magnus, patting his arm. “That was incredible. Best knee in the balls I’ve ever seen.”

“How many knee in the balls have you seen?” Magnus asked, letting Catarina lead them down the corridor.

Ragnor snorted, shoving his hands into his pockets and following them.

Catarina looked like she was attempting to look stern, but she couldn’t quite keep the smile off her face. “Usually I’d tell you off, but he deserved that,” she said, squeezing Magnus’ arm.

Ragnor suddenly sobered up. “Yeah. What the hell was his problem?”

Magnus shrugged. “I don’t know. He just came and started talking at me and then made fun of my accent when I didn’t want to talk with him.”

Catarina sighed heavily. “You’ll probably want to avoid people like him. Most of them are on the football team and they’re all idiots.”

“I thought that kind of thing only happened in movies,” Magnus said.

Ragnor snorted. “Our school lives up to way too many stereotypes. It’s like we’re living in Mean Girls.”

Catarina looked pleased. “So you did like Mean Girls?”

“It was relatable,” Ragnor snapped defensively.

“Oh my god, we’re like Janis and Damian,” Catarina laughed, reaching over to push Ragnor’s shoulder.

Ragnor groaned. “Except I’m not too gay to function.”

“But you are a little bit gay,” Catarina said, smirking over at Ragnor.

“Shut up. Everyone thinks he’s hot,” Ragnor grumbled.

Magnus looked between them. “Who?”

“Nobody,” Ragnor said quickly.

Catarina rolled her eyes. “Have you seen Mean Girls?” she asked Magnus.

Magnus nodded. “Yeah. And if it makes Ragnor happy, I’ll be the one who’s too gay to function.”

Catarina looked up at him. “You’re gay?”

“Bisexual. But you know. Umbrella term,” Magnus agreed.

“Have you seen anyone cute?” Catarina asked, nudging him and winking.

Magnus shrugged. “I saw my reflection earlier.”

Catarina rolled her eyes fondly and they sat down at a table in the cafeteria to get to know each other.

Chapter Text

After their free period was the lunch hour.

Magnus bought a sandwich and sat with Catarina and Ragnor at a table near the edge of the cafeteria where they had a pretty good view of the rest of the students.

This also meant that people kept shooting Magnus furtive and curious glances. Magnus did his best to ignore them as he unwrapped his sandwich. He put it down after one bite, wrapping it back up in the plastic.

He knew he’d spend the afternoon hungry, but he could deal with that. He’d rather be hungry for a few hours than eat that disaster of a sandwich.

Catarina gave him a sympathetic look and slid half of her sandwich over to him. “You like ham and cheese?”

Magnus blinked down at the sandwich for a moment, startled. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.”

Catarina rolled her eyes and nudged the sandwich closer to him. “You won’t want to be hungry all afternoon, sweetie. Just eat it.”

Ragnor reached over to poke at Magnus’ abandoned cafeteria sandwich. “We should have warned you about the cafeteria food. It’s poisonous.”

Magnus took a bite of Catarina’s sandwich, which was decidedly better than the school one. “I’ll bring you food at some point. I think we still have stuff from home so I’ll try and get that,” he suggested.

“You don’t have to do that. But thank you,” Catarina said with a grin. “So what made you move to America?”

Magnus had known that this question would come up eventually. He had thought it would come up sooner, really. “My stepdad got a new job here.”

“Nice. Did your mom come as well?” Catarina asked, resting her elbows against the table and leaning closer to Magnus.

“No. She died,” Magnus said shortly. When Catarina looked horrified, he realised that what he said would probably be considered sort of blunt, so he backtracked. “A long time ago. It’s fine.”

Catarina reached over to squeeze his wrist anyway. “Sorry, Magnus. Do you like it here so far?”

Magnus nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t really been around the city. We only moved last week and I still haven’t really gotten used to the time difference.”

Catarina reached over to nudge Ragnor. “We can show him around!”

Ragnor sighed resignedly and nodded. “Yeah.”

Magnus sat back in his chair and nodded. “Thank you,” he said, glancing around the cafeteria curiously. “Is there anyone I need to look out for or is that guy from earlier the worst?”

Ragnor immediately pointed to a guy in the queue for food. “Avoid him,” he said. Then he pointed to another guy, and another guy, and another guy until Magnus had a list of around thirty people to avoid.

“Wow, Ragnor, that’s nearly the whole football team apart from one member,” Catarina said, smirking at Ragnor.

Ragnor looked like he was going to throw what remained of his wrap at her, but he composed himself. “Yes. But I’m not biased, I was just telling him which ones are douchebags from a completely objective viewpoint.”

“Am I missing something?” Magnus asked, looking between them.

Ragnor was glaring at Catarina but she was just grinning brightly.

“It’s nothing,” Ragnor muttered.

“It’s this guy on the football team,” Catarina explained before Ragnor could protest. “He’s extremely attractive but he’s also sort of an arrogant dick.”

Ragnor raised an eyebrow. “He’s not that much of a dick.”

Catarina just rolled her eyes fondly. “Sure, sure.”

“Is he here?” Magnus asked, his interest piqued. He knew it was highly unlikely that this allegedly attractive and nice football player would be gay, but a boy could dream.

The two of them peered around the cafeteria for a while until Ragnor nudged Magnus. “Look. Over there. See the blond guy by the window?”

Magnus looked over and frowned. “He’s not that attractive.”

“Well, he kind of is,” Ragnor grumbled defensively. “He’s called Jace.”

“Not my type,” Magnus said after a moment’s consideration.

Catarina looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. Ragnor looked sort of pissed off as usual.

Magnus looked back at Jace. Maybe he was the kind of person who got more attractive as you looked at him.

But then a group of girls who had been obscuring their view of most of Jace’s table moved, and Magnus sat up straight.

He didn’t look, but he could feel Ragnor frowning at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Who is he?” Magnus asked.

He didn’t know why Ragnor seemed to think the blond one was attractive, because the boy sitting next to him was the most attractive person Magnus had seen in his life.

He was sure he was almost blushing just because of how good the asshole looked from across the cafeteria.

“Who?” Catarina asked, leaning towards Magnus and trying to follow his gaze.

“Next to the blond one,” Magnus said, forcing himself to settle down in his chair again and act natural.

Catarina gave him a knowing smile. “You have better taste than Ragnor.”

Ragnor glared at her. “Look, you asked me who I thought the most attractive guy in school was, and I answered,” he snapped.

“Okay, okay. I know,” Catarina said, waving a hand at Ragnor before turning back to Magnus. “That’s Alec Lightwood. Jace is his brother. Adopted brother. And the girl sitting on his other side is his sister, Isabelle,” she explained.

Magnus was grateful for the explanation but, honestly, he didn’t really care about the siblings. Alec’s name was just running through his mind over and over again.

(And maybe he tested out Magnus Lightwood. Just to see how it sounded, of course. Alec Bane? Maybe they could hyphenate).

“So have you ever spoken to him?” Magnus asked, determined to find out more about him.

“Not extensively. But I’ve been in classes with him before and he seems nice,” Catarina said, looking amused. “He’s quiet and he kind of keeps to himself, but as far as I’m concerned that’s a good thing. The rest of the football team are assholes who never shut up.”

Magnus sighed softly. So he was a footballer, too. He probably should have been embarrassed by how infatuated with this boy he was, even after only a few minutes of knowing about his existence, but Catarina and Ragnor didn’t seem to care.

And Alec was exceptionally attractive.

“Will I have any classes with him?” Magnus asked hopefully. Maybe he’d be able to sit with him or try to be partnered with him to do a project or something.

Catarina shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s not in any of the classes I’m in with you, but maybe he’ll be in one of the other ones.”

Magnus sighed heavily. “Maybe I’ll join the football team.”

Ragnor let out a bark of laughter. “Sure you will.”

Magnus glared at him, but he knew Ragnor was right to laugh. Magnus was no expert in American football but all the players he’d seen so far were muscular and wide-shouldered. Magnus was pretty much the opposite.

“I have sharp elbows, that could be a new technique,” he suggested, bending one arm and poking at his elbow experimentally.

Catarina put her hand on his shoulder. “I’d support you if you wanted to join hte team, but do you really want to play football?”

Magnus didn’t even have to think about it. He shook his head. “No. It’s my idea of hell.”

She squeezed his shoulder. “You’ll find some other way of getting his attention, I’m sure. Even if you’re not in one of his classes. You’re new and you’re hot and there’s no way he wouldn’t notice you.”

“Thank you,” Magnus said, smiling at her. “Is he straight?”

Catarina winked at him. “He is not straight. He came out last year.”

Magnus felt like all his birthdays had come at once. Well, maybe not his birthdays. Those had been shit ever since his mother died. But it was definitely good news.

“You should talk to him,” Ragnor said. “Then maybe you won’t just spend all your time moping and staring at him.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows at Ragnor. “Like you talk about Jace?”

Catarina snorted and Ragnor groaned. “I don’t seriously have a crush on him, I’m straight, she just made me say who I thought was attractive,” he insisted.

Catarina rolled her eyes at Ragnor and patted Magnus’ hand. “You could go and talk to him, though. If you want. We’ll leave you alone somewhere and you can ask him for directions,” she suggested.

Magnus nodded slowly. The idea was inviting, but a voice in the back of his mind told him not to. “What if he turns out to be a dick and makes fun of my accent or something?”

“He won’t do that,” Catarina said firmly. “I know we said a lot of them are dicks, but not all of them are that terrible. And Alec is probably the nicest one in the whole team, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Magnus wasn’t entirely convinced. It kind of felt like she was being overly optimistic to encourage him to go and talk to Alec, but maybe he was being overly paranoid.

Alec was barely paying attention to Jace and Isabelle’s conversation. He loved his siblings more than anything but they could be exhausting.

He tuned in again when Isabelle nudged him. “Have you seen the new guy?” she asked.

“What new guy?” Alec asked.

“The new guy. He’s in your year and he kicked Joe in the balls,” she said.

News of that incident had travelled fast. “I haven’t seen him,” Alec said. If he did see him, he’d shake his hand and congratulate him for what he did.

“I heard he’s cute,” Isabelle said, winking at him and twirling a lock of her hair around her index finger.

Alec rolled his eyes. Isabelle had been trying to set him up with the attractive boys in their school despite Alec’s constant insistence that he didn’t need a boyfriend.

It seemed like unnecessary hassle, really. Ever since Jace had started flirting with that girl from the art club he had been far more miserable.

Isabelle enjoyed having boyfriends, but that was Isabelle. She was likeable and beautiful and had no trouble getting boyfriends. Alec didn’t exactly think he was ugly, but there was only one other gay boy in his year and he’d already dated him for a few weeks. As far as he was concerned, he was finished with dating until he left school.

He should have known Isabelle would try to set him up with this new boy, though. Even if he wasn’t gay, she’d try.

And if he was gay, she’d be so forward that she’d end up scaring him away.

The thought of another situation like that made Alec want to drop out of school and forget graduation. He shook his head. “Izzy, please don’t. I love you but I don’t want a boyfriend.”

Isabelle pouted.

“I mean it, Izzy,” he said firmly.

She sighed and looped her arm through his. “Fine. But will you talk to him?”

“Talk to him about what?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know. Ask where he’s from. Ask if he’s interested in men and whether he’s single,” she suggested.

Alec groaned and pushed his chair back. “I have to go to my locker,” he said.

Isabelle stood with him, holding onto his arm. “Promise me you’ll talk to him?” she asked as they walked out of the cafeteria.

“Fine, yeah, whatever,” Alec agreed, sighing.

By the end of lunch, Catarina and Ragnor had convinced Magnus to talk to Alec. They waited for him to stand up, and then gave it a minute and followed.

Catarina said that Alec’s locker was near hers, so she led him through the school then stopped walking. She grinned at Magnus and linked arms with Ragnor. “Just go to the end of this corridor and turn left,” she said.

Magnus felt a flutter of apprehension in his stomach. “I don’t know if I should do this.”

“You should. It’ll be fine. I promise,” Catarina assured him, squeezing his arm. “Now go,” she added as she pushed him gently towards the end of the corridor.

He let himself be pushed forwards, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He took a deep breath before rounding the corner.

It was still twenty minutes before the end of the lunch hour, so there weren’t many people in the corridor.

Magnus’ eyes were drawn to Alec immediately. Now that Alec was standing, it was obvious that he was tall. Very tall. And his sort of baggy sweater did nothing to hide that his body was fantastic.

A small part of him was tempted to just go over and wrap his arms around Alec, but that would be wildly inappropriate.

Instead, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and tried to look busy and lost. He looked up and down the corridor a couple of times for good measure, but forced himself not to look directly at Alec.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw him close his locker and turn around.

He nearly panicked and stayed quiet, but on an impulse more than anything else, he stepped forward and reached out to touch Alec’s shoulder.

“Excuse me,” he said, trying his best not to think about his accent. “I’m new and I was wondering if you could help.”

Alec looked a little surprised, but then he was smiling at Magnus and he was so attractive Magnus thought he might collapse on the spot.

“Sure. What do you need?” he asked. His voice was so smooth and Magnus had to force himself to clear his mind before he spoke again. He was afraid he might say something inappropriate if he didn’t.

“I don’t know where my friend went and I don’t know where I’m supposed to be for my next class,” he explained.

Alec nodded. “Do you know which room you’re in?”

Magnus realised that his plan was very flawed. “No. Shit. Uh, I can just go and get my things from my locker, you don’t have to come if you’re going somewhere,” he said. He regretted it as soon as it was out of his mouth, but he was sure Alec had better things to do.

“It’s fine, I’ll come with you. It’s hard to get around this school sometimes and I’ve been here for three years,” Alec chuckled. “Do you know where your locker is?”

“I think so,” Magnus agreed. He hoped he was going in the right direction as he turned to walk down the corridor with Alec. He had to force himself not to stare at him as they walked. “I’m Magnus, by the way,” he said after a few steps.

“Oh! Yeah. I’m Alec. Hi,” Alec said, shaking Magnus’ hand.

Magnus was very tempted to just keep hold of his hand forever, but he let go and stuffed his hands into his pockets again.

“So are you having a good first day?” Alec asked, fiddling with the cuff of his sweater as they walked.

Magnus nodded. “It’s fine. Most people have been nice so far,” he agreed.

Alec grinned at him and raised his eyebrows. “And if they’re not nice, you kick them in the balls?”

Magnus groaned and pressed one hand to his face. “Does everyone know about that?”

“News travels fast,” Alec agreed. “Seriously, though. I presume he was being an asshole to you?”

“You could say that,” Magnus said carefully.

Alec gave a derisive laugh. “Do I want to know what he was doing or will it make me want to go and punch him?”

Magnus looked over at him. “You don’t like him?”

“Jesus, no. He’s the worst. The only reason he stopped making fun of me for being gay is because he would have been kicked off the football team if he kept doing it,” Alec said, rolling his eyes before he froze. “I didn’t mean to say that. Sorry. I think that was oversharing.”

“No! No. It’s fine,” Magnus assured him, automatically reaching over to pat his arm. He tried not to think too hard about the feeling of Alec’s bicep beneath his sweater. “He was making fun of my accent.”

Alec closed his eyes for a moment. “Idiot. Don’t listen to him. Your accent is cute,” he said. Then his face went very red very quickly. “Oh god.”

Magnus suddenly didn’t feel so self-conscious all of a sudden, but he was very worried that his face might be going red as well. “It’s alright. Thank you."

Alec ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. “Okay. Uh. Sorry for saying that. But your accent is really nice."

Magnus laughed and nudged him gently. “Thank you. And don't worry about it,” he assured him.

They had arrived at Magnus’ locker. Magnus steeled himself before twisting the little combination around to the right numbers. When he tried to open the door, though, it wouldn’t budge.

“How does anyone do this?” Magnus asked, frustrated after he failed to open it two more times.

Alec looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Do you want a hand?” he asked.

Magnus let go of the stupid door to let Alec try it. He got it open on the first try. Magnus glanced over at him. Alec just smiled innocently and stepped back to let Magnus into the locker.

He pulled out his schedule. “I have drama,” he said. “I only took it to fill up a space in the timetable.”

Alec laughed. “I only took it because my sister forced me to.”

“We’ll be in the same class?” Magnus asked.

“Yeah. At least now I’ll have someone to talk to who isn’t a pain in the ass,” Alec teased.

Magnus folded up his schedule and tucked it into his pocket. “I might be a pain in the ass. You don’t know that yet.”

“True. But I doubt it. You seem nice enough,” Alec assured him. “And there’s no way you’re as obnoxious as some of the people in that class.”

Magnus let his locker door swing shut. “Is it that bad?”

Alec shrugged. “I mean, they’re nice people. They’re just really pretentious. And they sing all the time.”

Magnus blinked. “Do we have to sing? I thought it was just an acting thing. Not that I can do that either.”

“No, it’s just acting. But they all do musical theatre as well,” Alec explained. “But we have the class with people in the year below, so my brother and sister will be there. Ignore anything they say to you.”

Magnus nodded and took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. This will be fine,” he mumbled.

Alec bumped their shoulders together as they walked. “Of course it will. Just stay with me and hopefully they won’t make us do anything too awful.”

Magnus was more than happy to do that. He smiled over at Alec, trying not to read into the fact that his cheeks were still pink, and let him lead him to the class.

Chapter Text

Alec felt like his heart was still pounding.

He could barely believe that he’d been lucky enough to bump into Magnus, although he did kind of wish that he’d been warned about how attractive he was beforehand.

(Isabelle’s ‘I heard he’s cute’ didn’t count. Not after some of the boys she’d dated).

And then as well as having a beautiful face, Magnus just had to go and be charming and funny. Alec was surprised he hadn’t been even more embarrassing in front of him, really.

Now they were sitting together at the edge of the drama class, and Isabelle kept trying to catch Alec’s eye but Alec was pointedly ignoring her. He was determined not to let her embarrass him in front of Magnus, but he also knew it would probably happen anyway and he would be powerless to stop it.

The teacher was droning on about expressing your true feelings or something, so Alec decided that his time would be better spent looking at Magnus.

When he looked over, though, Magnus was looking at him.

He smiled and quickly looked back to the front, hoping that he didn’t come off as a creep.

After a few minutes, when his heart had stopped racing, he risked a glance back at Magnus. The other boy was still looking at him, but this time he winked at Alec.

Alec quickly looked to the front again. He tried really hard not to read into it. Magnus was probably just being silly. Of course he was just being silly. Why else would he wink at Alec in the middle of class?

When he came to his senses, the teacher was dividing them into pairs.

She faltered when she got to Alec and Magnus. “Alec, you can go with the new boy since you already seem to know each other,” she said, smiling kindly at them.

Alec nodded and ignored Isabelle making kissy faces at him from behind the teacher. They pushed their chairs to the side of the classroom and spaced themselves out around the room. Alec tried to subtly steer Magnus to the side of the room furthest away from Isabelle and Jace, who was now also smirking at him.

Alec made an impolite hand gesture at them, but hastily shoved his hand back into his pocket when the teacher returned to the front of the class.

“Today I’d like to do an exercise to do with working with other actors,” she explained, looking around the class.

Alec was finding it very hard to concentrate as Magnus had leaned over just enough so that their shoulders were touching.

“Stand facing your partner, and then allocate one person to be the actor, and one person to be the mirror,” she said. “The actor will perform some actions, and the mirror has to copy them as exactly as possible.”

And then she set off to walk circles around the room to check on how they were doing.

Alec felt like he was going to fall over. Looking at Magnus was sort of like looking at the sun and he didn’t know if he’d be able to cope with it for that long.

Even so, he turned to face him, taking his hands out of his pockets. At least if he was looking at Magnus he wouldn’t be distracted by Izzy and Jace.

“Do you want to be the mirror or the actor?” Alec asked him. The task had sounded good coming from the teacher, but when Alec said it he thought it just sounded ridiculous.

Magnus considered it for a moment. “Mirror?”

Alec nodded and let out a breath. He had no idea what he was supposed to do for Magnus to mirror, but he settled for just basic things like moving his arms and hands.

It was kind of awkward, and by the time the teacher spoke again, both of them were on the verge of bursting out laughing.

“Switch places please,” she called. “Actors, you’re now mirrors.”

Alec took a breath to try and calm himself. Magnus still looked like he could laugh at any moment, but he didn’t hesitate to start doing things for Alec to copy.

At first he was doing the same things Alec had been doing, but then he got a glint in his eye and started moving his hand forward.

Alec copied him, of course, and then their hands were pressed together.

Alec suddenly felt very self-conscious in case he had sweaty palms or something, but Magnus didn’t try to pull away.

When Alec looked up from their hands, Magnus was looking at his face.

If they hadn’t been in the middle of class where people – including Izzy and Jace – could see them, Alec thought he might have kissed Magnus.

(He didn’t know where these thoughts were coming from. He barely knew Magnus apart from the short conversation they'd had, and even though they’d gotten along well he’d never been this impulsive before).

After what felt like either seconds or hours of their hands pressed together, the teacher clapped her hands. “Good work. This next exercise is voluntary but it can be a good way to develop a bond with your partner,” she said, looking around at them all.

Alec and Magnus exchanged a glance and quickly had to bite their lips to keep from laughing.

And then the teacher continued. “Trust falls!” she said enthusiastically. This was met with groans by a few people in the class. “Like I said, you don’t have to do it, but it can be really beneficial.”

Alec turned back to Magnus. “Do you want to?” he asked. “I promise I’ll catch you.”

Magnus didn’t even look like he considered it before he nodded enthusiastically. “Absolutely!”

Once again, Alec forced himself not to think too much about Magnus’ excited reaction.

“Do I just stand in front of you?” Magnus asked, turning his back to Alec and standing a short distance in front of him.

Alec nodded before realising that Magnus couldn’t see him. “Yeah. And stick your arms out to the sides.”

Magnus followed his instructions and then glanced over his shoulder at Alec. “And then fall?” he asked.

“And then fall,” Alec agreed, holding his own arms out ready to catch him.

He suddenly felt a little worried. What if he didn’t catch Magnus? Or what if Magnus was freakishly heavy and he dropped him and it was embarrassing for everyone?

(He quickly disregarded the second thought. It was a possibility that Magnus would be heavier than he looked, but there was no way he would be too heavy for Alec to catch).

“Will you count me in or do I just do it?” Magnus asked over his shoulder, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“Whichever you prefer. I’m ready whenever,” Alec assured him.

Magnus stood still. Alec glanced around the class quickly. Most people were having arguments about who would fall and who would catch, some had already tried it, and some weren’t trying.

Alec looked back to Magnus, though. If he got distracted he’d probably end up dropping him and then Magnus would never like him.

He was just about to speak when Magnus took a deep breath.

“Three, two, one,” Magnus said before leaning back.

He only fell for a moment before Alec caught him, automatically wrapping his arms loosely around Magnus and holding him against his chest.

He was lighter than Alec had expected him to be. Only now that Alec had him in his arms did he realise how thin he was; the clothes and makeup made him seem far more imposing.

Then he realised that Magnus was smirking up at him. Again, Alec was suddenly very tempted to kiss him.

But Magnus just patted his forearm. “The football pays off, then?”

"What do you mean?" Alec asked. He was still distracted by Magnus' dark eyes and his annoyingly tempting lips.

"Your muscles," Magnus said, sliding his hand further up to pat Alec's bicep.

Alec didn’t know what to say. He just stared at Magnus. He was sure he looked like an idiot.

Magnus didn’t seem perturbed by Alec’s silence. “Maybe I should join the football team. Beef up,” he suggested.

That startled a laugh out of Alec. The thought of Magnus, who was as skinny as a rake, on the field with some of the huge guys on the football team was ridiculous.

“I’m serious!” Magnus protested, playfully smacking Alec’s arm and grinning at him.

Alec tried to compose himself. “Sorry. Sure, you could try out for football,” he told him, carefully setting him back on his feet properly. “Do you really want to?”

Magnus snorted and shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “No. Some of those guys could probably lift me above their heads and I don’t think I want that,” he said. Then he glanced at Alec. “You can, though.”

Alec pressed his hand to his face, but it was no use: the blush was impossible to hide. “Are you flirting with me?” he asked.

Magnus shrugged. “Maybe. Do you want me to be flirting with you?” he asked, smirking at him.

“Yes,” Alec said before he could stop himself. He turned away from Magnus and groaned. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled.

Magnus sidled around so that he and Alec were facing each other again. “Don’t apologise,” he said firmly. “But if you want me to stop just tell me.”

Alec nodded mutely for a moment before he found his voice. “No! No. I do,” he said.

Magnus looked confused. "You want me to stop?" he asked.

Alec shook his head quickly. “I mean you can flirt with me. I don't mind. It’s fine.”

Magnus looked relieved. “Good. I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to stop myself if you’d said no,” he said, bumping his shoulder against Alec’s.

Alec was sure he’d never been so flustered in his life. And that was saying something.

Thankfully for most of the rest of the class the teacher just spoke to them about the theoretical side of these trust exercises, so Alec had a chance to calm himself down.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the class, Alec rushed out with Magnus to avoid being roped into a conversation with Izzy and Jace.

They still had another class left to go.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Alec asked, keeping his shoulder against Magnus’ so they wouldn’t get separated in the crowds.

Magnus shook his head and pulled his schedule out of his pocket, showing it to Alec.

Alec looked over it and steered Magnus down a different hallway. “I’ll show you to your class,” he told him.

“You don’t have to. I’m sure I’d figure it out eventually,” Magnus said, nudging Alec's shoulder.

“Do you really want to be late on your first day?” Alec teased.

Magnus rolled his eyes. “Are you already going to shatter the cool football player image I had of you?” he asked, smirking at him playfully.

“I thought I already shattered it by turning into a babbling mess whenever you look at me,” Alec said. He hadn’t strictly intended to say that out loud, but Magnus laughed delightedly, so it clearly wasn’t the end of the world.

And Magnus did have a lovely laugh.

All too soon they arrived at Magnus’ class.

“See you later?” Alec asked, raising his eyebrows hopefully.

Magnus nodded. “Definitely,” he agreed, reaching up to pat Alec’s cheek before disappearing into the class.

Alec stared wistfully after him for a moment until a couple of girls in the front row noticed and started giggling.

After that he hurried to his own class, getting there just moments before the teacher. He got his notebook out but he knew he wouldn’t learn anything; he’d be way too busy thinking about the fact that Magnus – beautiful, funny Magnus – actually wanted to flirt with him.

Chapter Text

It was easy for Alec to avoid his siblings at school.

Isabelle and Jace were in the year below, so the only classes they had together were drama and gym.

He didn’t usually need to avoid them, he enjoyed spending time with them, but now he knew Isabelle would be interrogating him about Magnus.

Not that there was anything between them.

Yes, Magnus was unbelievably attractive and very flirty, but that didn’t mean anything.

Isabelle would definitely think something of it, though. He was sure she would like Magnus, that wasn’t the issue, but she would probably try to force them into a relationship and it would make things awkward.

Alec walked home from school, and managed to arrive home before Isabelle. He said a quick hello to Maryse before making an excuse about having homework to do and going to his room, hoping that he wouldn’t be bothered.

Isabelle and Jace got home and, as usual, Alec could hear them talking loudly in the kitchen. He was usually with them at this point, listening to whatever had happened during their day. Usually, Jace had flirted with some a girl and been embarrassing, and Isabelle had been asked out by somebody and she had said no.

Alec heard them move into the living room and put the TV on. The conversation moved to an argument over what to watch. (Alec still couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he knew them well enough to figure out what they were saying).

He tuned out their voices, relieved that he hadn’t been dragged downstairs to have to talk about Magnus.

He had just started typing out an English essay when there was a knock on his door.

He groaned, expecting the worst. “Come in,” he said reluctantly.

The door opened and Max slipped inside, crossing the room to lean against the desk beside Alec. “Are you busy?” he asked.

Alec shook his head and spun his chair around to face his youngest brother. This was the best visitor he could have hoped for; Max wouldn’t try and force him to ask Magnus out.

“Not busy at all. Did you have a good day at school?” he asked.

Max nodded. “Yup. We started reading To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“Haven’t you already read that?” Alec asked, amused.

“Yeah. But it’s good. I don’t mind reading it again,” Max said. He hesitated for a moment, clearly deciding whether or not to say something. He looked down at his feet, then pushed his glasses further up his nose and looked back up at Alec. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

There it was. “Did Izzy tell you to ask me that?”

Max shook his head. “No. But she said you were flirting with the new guy at your school and that he was cute.”

“Oh my god,” Alec mumbled, pressing his hands to his face for a moment and spinning his chair around to rest his elbows on his desk. “Was Mom there when Izzy was saying this?”

“She was in the room but I don’t know if she was listening,” Max said.

She definitely would have been listening.

Alec turned back to Max and let out a breath. “He’s not my boyfriend,” he said. “I haven’t even known him for a day. We’re just friends.”

“Do you think you’ll become boyfriends?” Max asked.

“I have no idea,” Alec said.

“Do you want to become boyfriends?” Max asked. Alec hadn’t thought Isabelle and Max were particularly similar, but not it was almost eerie. She had certainly taught him to be persistent.

Alec shrugged. “I don’t know. We have to get to know each other properly first.”

“But you think he’s cute?” Max pressed. The grin on his face was clearly inherited from Isabelle, too.

Alec nodded reluctantly.

Max looked delighted with this answer. “Good! Do you promise to bring him home if he becomes your boyfriend?”

“Yes, I will. But I don’t know if he’ll become my boyfriend so don’t get your hopes up,” Alec said, reaching over and pulling Max’s glasses down his nose.

Max laughed and shoved them back up, reaching up to mess Alec’s hair up before darting out of the room.

Alec turned back to try and work for the rest of the afternoon, a small smile still on his face after his chat with Max.

When he heard the familiar sounds of dinner being made, he shut his laptop and made his way downstairs. Jace was standing by the oven, poking a spoon into a pot of boiling pasta.

“Do you need help?” Alec asked, setting about putting knives and forks on the table.

Jace jumped when he heard Alec’s voice. “Don’t sneak up on me,” he grumbled. “And no, I’m fine. I’m capable of making pasta.”

While he had been speaking, the pot started boiling over. Alec gestured towards it. Jace turned around and swore, taking the pot off the heat to let it cool down.

Alec leaned against the counter to both watch him and make sure he didn’t end up injuring himself.

“So that Magnus guy,” Jace said once he had the pasta back under control.

Alec should have expected this. It was too late to escape now. “What about him?”

“Are you dating him?”” Jace asked, glancing over his shoulder at Alec.

“He’s been at our school for one day,” Alec said.

Jace looked at him blankly.

“I’m not dating him,” Alec continued. “I barely know him.”

“But you were flirting with him in drama, right?” he asked. “I didn’t notice, but Izzy said she was watching you.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “Izzy should have been focussing on her own work.”

At this point, Isabelle came into the room, leaning against the counter beside Alec and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “I can multitask, brother dearest. Now you’re done avoiding me, do you want to tell me about Magnus Bane?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Alec said. “He got lost on his way to class, I showed him where to go and we worked together. That’s it.”

Isabelle raised her eyebrows. “And he just happened to fall into your arms?”

Alec closed his eyes for a moment. “We had to do that. The teacher told us to. It’s not like he just threw himself into my arms.”

“True. But you looked like you were having a good time,” Isabelle teased.

“We got along well. But we’re friends. If you talk to him and try to set us up or something, I swear to god, Isabelle,” Alec muttered.

“I don’t think I’ll need to. You were doing just fine by yourself. I’m so proud of you,” she cooed, reaching up to pinch his cheek.

Alec groaned. “I was just being nice. It’s his first day and everything.”

“Did you ask him about kicking Joe in the balls?” Jace asked from where he was cooking sauce for the pasta.

“Mind your language,” Maryse told him as she came into the kitchen. Jace had the tact to look apologetic. “Who kicked who?” she asked, looking to Alec.

“The new guy at school. A guy on the football team was making fun of his accent so he kicked him in the…um, crotch area,” Alec explained, mindful of the fact that Max had come into the kitchen after Maryse.

“His accent? Where’s he from?” Isabelle asked, ruffling Max’s hair as he sidled past her.

“Indonesia,” Alec said, trying his best to ignore his family’s pointed looks.

Isabelle whistled. “Far away. Is his accent cute?”

Alec nodded, but quickly stopped himself when Isabelle’s smile grew. “It’s just a nice accent, okay? That doesn’t mean anything,” he grumbled.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to escape the questions at dinner, but part of him was sort of enjoying it: it was like confirmation that his family didn’t mind that he was gay.

Magnus arrived home to an empty apartment.

He didn’t mind, though. He’d rather be alone than have to deal with his stepfather.

He went straight to his bedroom and settled down to go over the work they’d done at school. Most of the time he was distracted by thinking about the other things that had happened and the people he’d met. Catarina, Ragnor, and of course, Alec were most frequently in his thoughts.

Eventually he decided that he wasn’t going to get any work done. He opened Facebook and searched Ragnor Fell first, deciding that that was probably the least common name.

Ragnor’s profile was one of the first ones to come up, with a picture of Ragnor and Catarina. Magnus hesitated for a moment before sending him a friend request.

He searched Ragnor’s friend list to find Catarina, whose photo was also of her and Ragnor, and sent her a request, too. He searched for ‘Alec’ in her friend list, and was directed to the profile of one Alec Lightwood.

His profile picture was of him and his blond friend – Magnus thought they might be brothers – but he didn’t really care about the blond one. He clicked on the picture to make it bigger. Alec really was incredibly attractive with his perfect face and messy hair and nice body.

Magnus forced himself not to think about those things and sent Alec a friend request. The last thing he wanted to do was make things awkward by doing nothing but flirt with Alec.

He clicked back to his news feed which was pretty empty apart from a few people from home and the pages he’d liked. He sat back and sighed, tipping his head back and closing his eyes for a few minutes.

It already felt like he’d been at school for way longer than one day. He’d had a good time for the most part, but he couldn’t help worrying.

Maybe Catarina and Ragnor were just spending time with him because he was new. And because the teacher had told Catarina to show Magnus around.

Part of him knew that he was just being paranoid, and that they were nice people and unlikely to just ignore him after a few days, but it felt unusual and a little too good to be true to have friends who seemed to like him and who hadn’t even batted an eyelid when he had told them that he was bisexual.

He ended up falling asleep for a while. He woke up at around seven with a stiff neck, sticky eyes where he hadn’t taken his makeup off, and a growling stomach.

He stood up and stretched on his way to the kitchen. His stepfather wasn’t home yet, so he quickly made himself some chicken and rice.

Just as he was clearing up the pan he’d used to cook the chicken, he heard keys in the door and his blood ran cold. He could have abandoned the washing and run to his bedroom, but then he’d have been in trouble for leaving the kitchen in a mess.

He stiffened and concentrated on wiping the spices and sauce off the pan. He heard his stepfather enter the kitchen behind him, but neither of them said anything.

Magnus didn’t turn around. The pan was clean by now but he didn’t want to talk to him.

Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t one of his lucky nights.

“Did you go to school looking like that?” his stepfather asked in Indonesian.

Magnus considered not answering, but that would only make him more irritated. “Yes.”

“Did anybody hit you?” his stepfather asked. He didn’t even sound malicious, he just said it like it was a fact of life that Magnus deserved to get hit for the way he looked.

“No,” Magnus said shortly.

His stepfather snorted in disbelief. “Why not?”

Magnus didn’t respond to that. He wanted to say something about most people not being awful, but he set about drying his dishes.

His stepfather seemed to be in a good mood, though. He didn’t yell at Magnus, but started making his own dinner. “It’ll happen. It always happens to people who deserve it.”

Magnus put his dinner things away quickly and went back to his room without saying anything.

He usually tried not to let his stepfather get to him, but after what had been a good day, his words seemed so much harsher.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to relax properly for the rest of the night, but he took a shower before getting into his pyjamas and crawling into bed.

Sleep wasn't going to happen anytime soon, but at least if his stepfather came to bother him he could pretend to be asleep.

He hadn’t expected to be crying himself to sleep tonight, but the day had gone a little too well, so he should have expected it, really.

He pulled the blankets up above his head and cried into his pillow, Catarina, Ragnor and Alec seeming a million miles away.

Chapter Text

Magnus woke up feeling groggy, his face still feeling strange and stiff from dried tears.

He was about to get up and go to the kitchen on autopilot, but decided to stay where he was. If he could help it, he wouldn’t speak to his father this morning.

He already felt like shit. He knew his bad mood was just influencing his thoughts, but he couldn’t help worrying that Catarina and Ragnor wouldn’t talk to him at school. Or that they would talk to him, but would quickly realise what a bad mood he was in and abandon him.

Taking a deep breath, Magnus sat up. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the time. He had half an hour before the bus would be at the bus stop.

He reluctantly rolled out of bed and started getting ready. He didn’t feel like putting together an outfit, so just pulled on the same clothes as yesterday.

His eyeliner was uneven five times before he finally got it right which only served to further dampen his mood.

He tried to smile at himself in the mirror, thinking of all those corny self-confidence articles, but it quickly turned into a grimace. He glared at himself for a moment longer before turning to put his shoes on.

‘You can’t be like this at school,’ he thought to himself as he tied his laces. ‘People will notice and then they’ll be mad at you. Pull yourself together.’

With that thought, he straightened up. Maybe he couldn’t pretend to be happy, he could definitely pretend to be irritated. Questions about being irritated would be far easier to answer than questions about being sad.

After a last look in the mirror, Magnus left his room.

His stepfather started to say something as Magnus passed the kitchen door, but Magnus wasn’t sure he would be able to deal with yet another one of his comments, so he didn’t stop.

“I’m late,” he said, letting himself out before his stepfather could ask questions.

As soon as the door swung shut behind Magnus, he regretted it. He had intended to bring lunch, and he’d promised Catarina and Ragnor food, and he’d forgotten to have breakfast. He leaned against the door for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut tight.

The corners of his eyes were stinging with tears, but he kept his eyes shut until he was sure they had gone away. Crying was fine in bed in the middle of the night where nobody would see, but crying now would only make everything worse.

A glance at his phone told him that he really was kind of late now. He stood up and set off for the bus stop, relieved in the back of his mind that his stepfather hadn’t left the apartment while he’d been leaning against the door.

He wouldn’t let himself linger on that, though. He got to the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up. He settled in the same seat he’d been in yesterday, trying to ignore the way his stomach was tying itself into knots.

When they arrived at the school, Magnus ignored the other people clogging up the hallway. He just wanted to get to his locker and then to class.

After a couple of wrong turns, he arrived at his locker. He turned the combination to the right numbers and pulled.

It didn’t budge.

He tried not to get frustrated. Maybe he’d turned to a wrong number by accident. He tried again, and it still didn’t work.

The bell rang.

The other students all started filing into their classes.

Magnus whined and pressed his forehead against the cool metal of the locker. The clang echoed down the quickly-emptying corridor.

He was ready to give up on anything ever going right in his life – yesterday had clearly been a fluke – and fall to the ground when he heard footsteps approaching.

It would probably be the idiot who made fun of his accent yesterday. That would be the cherry on top of a shitty morning.

He kept his forehead pressed against his locker, hoping the person would walk past, but he seemed to have run out of luck so the footsteps slowed when they got near him.

Magnus was ready to turn around and start yelling at the person to leave him alone, but then there was a voice behind him.

“Do you need a hand?”

Alec.

Magnus took his face away from his locker and turned to face him, suddenly hoping that the locker hadn’t left lines on his face or anything.

“I can’t get it to work,” he said. To his own ears, he sounded pathetic.

Alec gave him a reassuring smile. That made him feel slightly less pathetic. “Can I help?” he asked.

Magnus stepped back to let him get to the locker. He was about to remind Alec of the code, but Alec spun the lock a few times and the locker sprung open.

“Ta-da,” Alec said with a wry chuckle.

“Thank you so much,” Magnus said, picking out the books he’d need. “I’ll try to figure out how to do it myself at some point.”

Alec laughed quietly. “It’s fine. I think yours might be one of the sticky ones. You could ask at the office for a different locker,” he suggested.

“Or I could just get you to come and help whenever I need to open it,” Magnus said before he could stop himself.

Alec’s eyes widened just a fraction, and Magnus couldn’t help thinking that his cheeks looked a little pink, but he was laughing again. 

Magnus could have listened to him laugh for hours.

“You could do that,” Alec said, still grinning. Magnus couldn’t believe that someone could look so good in such bad lighting.

“But you’d probably be late to all your classes. Like right now,” Magnus said, suddenly remembering that they were in an almost-empty corridor.  

Alec seemed to make that realisation at the same time Magnus did. “Yeah. Yeah. Do you know where you’re going?”

Magnus thought about it for a moment before nodding. He was sure he’d be able to find his way. “Yes, now go to your own class. Feel free to blame me if you’re in trouble for being late.”

Alec laughed and brushed his hand against Magnus’ arm – he looked like he was going to squeeze his shoulder, but had stopped himself at the last moment – and then turned around. He started walking away, but turned back around almost straight away.

“You could give me your number?” he suggested. As soon as the words had left his mouth, he looked like he wanted to take them back. “I just mean– if you need help with your locker. Or if you get lost. Or anything else.”

Every word in every language Magnus could speak seemed to desert him. In absence of words, he nodded. Alec pulled his phone out of his pocket, holding it out to MAngus.

Magnuss gave him a small smile before taking the phone and adding himself to Alec’s contacts with a cat emoji beside his name. 

“I’ll text you later so you have my number,” Alec said as Magnus returned the phone. “I really have to go or else I’ll miss registration. But. Uh. I’ll text. See you later.”

With one last shy smile and a wave, Alec turned and walked down the corridor.

Magnus stared after him. Maybe Alec was his guardian angel or something. Either that or Magnus’ luck had turned around very suddenly.

Realising that he had to find his own class, Magnus turned and went in the opposite direction.

It took a few minutes to find the right corridor. When he did, he let himself into the class.

“Sorry, I got lost,” he said to the teacher. She gave him a kind smile, and Magnus weaved through the tables to sit beside Catarina.

“We were starting to worry,” Catarina told him, squeezing his elbow. “We should have come to find you this morning. Sorry.”

Magnus could only blink at her for a moment. Then he was seized with the urge to laugh. The fact that he’d been worried that Catarina wouldn’t want to talk to him seemed ridiculous now.

He smiled at her and waved a hand. “It’s fine. I didn’t really get lost, I was having trouble getting into my locker. But I got help.”

“From who?” Ragnor asked, perking up from where his chin had been resting on his desk.

Catarina rolled her eyes fondly. “You’re such a gossip,” she grumbled, shoving Ragnor’s shoulder.

Ragnor glared at her, then looked back to Magnus. “I’m just curious.”

“Alec,” Magnus said. He was about to clarify which Alec, but both of them suddenly looked excited.

(Well, Catarina looked excited. Ragnor looked his version of excited, which was slightly less irritated than his usual expression).

“I meant to ask you about that!” Catarina said, grinning at him. “We saw you talking to him yesterday. Looked like you were getting on pretty well.”

Magnus rolled his eyes fondly and tried his best to stop himself from grinning like an idiot. “Yeah. You were right about him being nice,” he said.

Catarina wiggled her eyebrows at him. “And you think he’s cute?”

Magnus nodded. “Extremely cute. Why?”

“And you know that he’s gay?” Catarina asked, winking at him.

Ragnor was looking straight ahead, but he kept glancing back to Catarina and Magnus, clearly interested in the conversation.

Magnus nodded again. “I’m aware,” he said. Catarina opened her mouth to speak again, but Magnus interrupted. “I don’t want to rush into anything. Or force anything to happen. Even if he is perfect in every way.”

Catarina laughed and reached up to squeeze Magnus’ shoulder. “Don’t worry, we won’t force you to ask him out or anything. But you would make a cute couple.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows and turned to look at her. He hadn’t thought about that. “What do you mean?”

Catarina just shrugged. “You look good together. You’re both very attractive and tall,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You have different builds. It looks good."

“Oh, yeah. I look like a rake and he looks like a Greek god,” Magnus said, sighing wistfully. Catarina snorted. “We had to do trust falls yesterday in drama. I could have cried.”

“Look at you. Falling into the arms of attractive boys on your first day,” Catarina teased, grinning at him.

Magnus laughed and sat back in his chair, trying to ignore the glances she kept sending him.

 Alec couldn’t believe he’d just done that.

He had given Magnus his number. He had offered Magnus his number and Magnus had said yes.

Alec had been a little worried when he had first come across Magnus. He'd never really had a proper crush – he knew he was gay, and he'd found boys attractive in the past, but there was something about Magnus.

Nobody in the school dressed as effortlessly cool as him, and he had a certain sharpness to him that just made him stand out, both physically and verbally.

Alec had no idea how to describe it, but he knew that he was drawn to Magnus in more ways than one.

Something in the back of his mind had told Alec that it wasn’t just the locker that was bothering Magnus, but he hadn’t wanted to start asking questions there in the corridor. And his mood had seemed to improve as they spoke.

And then Alec had gone and given him his number.

He had no idea what had made him offer. Some crazy impulse that he had been unable to stop.

For a second, he had been sure that Magnus was going to start laughing at him or something, but then he had agreed and Alec thought he was going to fall over from sheer relief.

Now he just had to figure out what to text him. He had his phone on his lap throughout registration, and he kept typing out messages and deleting them.

‘Hey, it’s Alec’ seemed far too boring. He added a kiss on the end but hastily deleted it. That was too much for a first text.

He deleted it and put ‘guess who?’ but that was either too flirty or too embarrassing. He deleted that one quickly.

After a few more attempts to come up with something creative, Alec sighed.

Simple would just have to do. He typed out ‘Hey, it’s Alec!’ and then started scrolling through the emojis.

His finger hovered over the lips emoji for probably a moment too long – that would definitely be too forward – but he kept scrolling and eventually settled on the cat emoji. That was always reliable, and Magnus had used it in his name in his contacts.

He sent it before he could over think it, shoving his phone into his pocket and promising himself that he wouldn’t look at it again until class ended.

He had already broken his promise three times by the time the bell rang.

Chapter Text

8.52am

Alec: Hey, it’s Alec!

Magnus: Are you texting in class? ;)

Alec: Registration. It doesn’t count

Alec: Aren’t you texting in class too?

Magnus: Registration doesn’t count

Alec: Touche

Magnus: ??????

Alec: Touché?

Magnus: What does that mean?

Alec: You say it when someone makes a good point. I think it’s from fencing.

Magnus: You learn something new every day

Alec: Maybe I’ll teach you how to open your locker and you can learn two new things today!

Magnus: Touche

Alec: Lol

Alec: Do you need me to let you into your locker after registration?

Magnus: I think I have everything I need.

Magnus: Thank you, though :)

Alec: No problem

Alec: I meant what I said

Magnus: ??????

Alec: You can ask me for help if you want.

Alec: Or if Catarina and Ragnor are busy or whatever.

Magnus: Oh! Of course. Thank you, Alec! :)

 10.57am

Magnus: Do you have gym this afternoon?

Alec: Yeah, why?

Magnus: Same. But I don’t have any sports clothing, do you think that will be a problem?

Alec: Usually he makes people wear stuff from the lost property but he should let you off since you’re new

Magnus: Is there any way to get out of gym? C & R just told me about it :(

Alec: What did they tell you?

Magnus: The things you do. Dodgeball and a beep test or something.

Alec: We do other things, but I get to practise for football most of the time so I can get out of most of the shitty things easily.

Magnus: Maybe I’ll join the football team!! :)

Alec: I won’t stop you but maybe you should think about it?

Magnus: Maybe I won’t join the football team :(

Magnus: Is there any other way to escape gym?

Alec: Break your leg?

Magnus: Will you help me break my leg??

Alec: Sorry :(

Alec: I’m sure gym won’t be that bad!

 12.14pm

Magnus stood with his arms folded across himself, a sour expression on his face.

Gym really was that bad.

The fact that it was Magnus’ second day at school was no excuse for not doing gym, according to the coach. He had been all but forced into a pair of very short shorts and a shirt which was at least three sizes too big for him.

He had reluctantly jammed his feet into the slightly-too-small (and questionably hygienic) shoes before shuffling into the gym hall with Ragnor to join the rest of the boys.

Magnus had felt self-conscious before but now, looking at some of the boys’ questionable outfit choices, he didn’t feel so bad. Plus, they had made the decision to buy and wear those clothes; Magnus had been forced into his ugly outfit.

He couldn’t focus at all on what the coach was saying. All he could think about was the fact that his borrowed shoes still felt like they were damp with sweat despite the fact that they probably hadn’t been worn in about five years.

Things improved only slightly when the gym door creaked open and Alec came in, followed by his blond companion.

Beside him, Ragnor tensed very slightly at the sight of his “man crush”.

Magnus was so pleased to see Alec that he gladly would have just thrown himself at him. That desire only intensified when Alec grinned and stood beside him, but Magnus managed to restrain himself.

Seeing Alec had put him in a good mood, but it disappeared when the coach started talking.

“Today we’ll be playing dodgeball,” he bellowed.

This was met with mixed reviews. Some people at the opposite end of the line whooped excitedly, but Magnus, Ragnor and Alec groaned in unison.

“I thought you liked gym,” Magnus whispered to Alec, raising his eyebrows at him.

Alec shrugged. “Not dodgeball.”

Magnus thought for a moment, then he nudged both Ragnor and Alec. “Do you want to try and get out of this?” he whispered.

The coach was making his way down the line, dividing them into teams.

Ragnor and Alec both nodded enthusiastically.

Magnus nudged Alec again. He was taking a risk, but he trusted Alec to react on time.

As soon as the coach was near enough to hear and see them, Magnus let his limbs go lax and he started falling backwards.

Alec caught him almost immediately. His reaction time was impressive, really.

“What the hell?” Ragnor exclaimed. Magnus was tempted to open his eyes to see the look on his face, but he was busy pretending to be unconscious.

Attracted by the ruckus, the coach walked over to them. “What’s going on here?” he asked, casting his eyes over Magnus.

“He fainted,” Alec said hesitantly.

Magnus was trying not to think about the way Alec’s arms felt around him.

The coach was silent for a few moments, but then he sighed. “I guess you’d better take him to the nurse.”

Magnus had been about to ‘wake up’ and walk by himself, but before he could, Alec moved. One arm was still wrapped around Magnus’ middle, but he reached down and swept his feet off the floor so that he was carrying him bridal style.

It took all of Magnus’ willpower not to throw his arms around Alec’s neck. He thought he did a pretty good job of staying limp as Alec carried him out of the room.

Only when the door had swung shut behind them did Magnus dare to move.

He opened one eye cautiously, glancing around to see if anyone was nearby.

“Magnus?” Alec asked, squeezing his leg gently.

Magnus opened both eyes and raised his head. Alec’s face was closer than he had expected it to be. He could only stare for a moment, then Ragnor appeared at his shoulder.

“I can’t believe that was your idea to get us out,” Ragnor said, rolling his eyes. Magnus thought he looked grateful, though.

“Are you okay?” Alec asked.

Magnus was suddenly very conscious of the fact that Alec was still carrying him. He slid his arm around Alec’s neck.

‘It’s just for support,’ he thought to himself. ‘This is completely for Alec. Not for you.’

“I’m fine,” he said out loud, patting Alec’s shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d actually pick me up like this. I’m impressed,” he said.

Alec snorted and grinned down at him. “Impressed?” he asked. “You don’t really weigh much. And I thought you were actually unconscious, I panicked.”

“I didn’t think my acting was that good,” Magnus teased, squeezing Alec’s shoulder. “But I’m completely fine.”

Alec looked at him for a moment before he shook his head. “Uh, I can put you down, then,” he said, carefully setting Magnus on his feet.

When he straightened up, Magnus couldn’t help thinking that his cheeks looked sort of red. That was probably just because he’d exerted himself by picking Magnus up, though.

Ragnor was staring at the notice boards a little way down the corridor. When he caught Magnus looking at him, he gestured towards Alec and raised his eyebrows.

Magnus turned back to Alec. “So do you want to go for an early lunch? Since I don’t need to go to the nurse.”

“That would be nice,” Alec agreed, glancing up and down the corridor. He stepped forward and into the changing rooms, holding the door open for Magnus.

Magnus followed, leaning back to look at Ragnor.

“Have fun with your lunch, I’ll wait for Catarina,” he called.

“Thank you,” Magnus replied, slipping into the changing rooms.

As soon as he turned around he was met with a shirtless Alec. He was sure his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

He hadn’t thought that bodies like that existed outside of magazines. No wonder Alec hadn’t had to try very hard to pick Magnus up.

Before he could stop himself, Magnus was speaking. “Oh my god,” he blurted out.

Alec turned around, his eyes wide. “Magnus! Sorry. I was just…” he gestured to the pile of folded clothes on the bench.

“Yeah. I should too,” Magnus said. It was very difficult to keep looking at Alec’s face when his bare chest was right there.

They stared at each other for a moment longer before Magnus managed to make his legs work. He quickly found his own pile of clothes, but he felt self-conscious all of a sudden.

He knew he was skinny, and it usually didn’t bother him, but now that he knew that Alec was some kind of supermodel under his clothes as well as above them, he felt sort of nervous.

Not that he had anything to be nervous about. Alec was just his friend, and that kind of thing didn’t matter.

He wiggled out of the borrowed shorts and pulled his jeans on, wiggling them all the way up before tugging at the hem of his shirt.

He glanced over at Alec who had (unfortunately) put his t-shirt back on. Magnus looked forwards again, determined not to be caught staring at Alec’s arms.

In a moment of clarity (or maybe madness), he realised that being self-conscious was stupid and that he should just get on with it. He wiggled out of the too-big shirt and folded it on top of the shorts.

Honestly, it didn’t feel as bad as Magnus had anticipated. But he still felt sort of paranoid. When he glanced sideways at Alec, they made eye contact.

There was a moment of silence before Magnus managed to speak. “Did you bring lunch or are you buying?” he asked.

The question was ridiculous and irrelevant but it shattered the weird tension between them. “Buying. I usually bring it with me but I didn’t have time to make myself anything this morning,” he explained.

Magnus didn’t know if he was imagining it, but he thought he caught Alec staring at his torso as he pulled his own shirt back on. And it wasn't the horrified expression Magnus had been afraid of.

“Do they sell anything that’s actually edible? I got a sandwich yesterday and it was awful,” Magnus said, bending down to put his boots on before pulling his jacket on.

Alec was quiet until Magnus turned to face him again. Then he stuttered for a few moments before speaking. “It depends. The sandwiches are usually terrible, but the pasta is a little better.”

Magnus snorted and slid his hands into his pockets. “Really? Catarina said it was like eating glue.”

“That’s…not a bad comparison. But trust me, the pasta is the safest thing on the menu. At least it doesn’t contain any questionable meats,” Alec said.

Magnus rolled his eyes and followed him out of the changing rooms. Nobody tried to stop them as they wandered through the school and, before long, they were tucked into a table in the corner of the cafeteria with matching tubs of colourless macaroni cheese.

Magnus took a bite and immediately put his plastic fork back in the tub. It tasted like flavourless plastic tubes covered in flavourless melted plastic.

“I saw people joking about white people and bland food on the internet but I didn’t think it would be this bad,” he grumbled, reluctantly taking another bite. He was hungry enough to eat at least a few pieces of this shitty pasta.

Alec laughed around his mouthful of pasta, covering his mouth with one hand and waiting to swallow before he spoke again. “School food is just especially terrible. Hence why most people bring their own lunches.”

Magnus took his third bite of pasta and deemed himself full, pushing the tub away. “I’ll bring something with me tomorrow. I can’t believe I wasted money on that.”

“At least we’re not playing dodgeball,” Alec said, smiling widely at him. “It could be worse.”

Magnus was inclined to agree.

Alec managed to eat about half of his pasta before pushing it away. “That was horrible.”

Magnus laughed. “Do they even provide salt or anything to season it?”

“No. They stopped giving us salt when they decided it was too unhealthy. Our fragile young systems can’t take slightly flavoured food,” Alec said, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe I’ll turn my locker into a spice rack. People can pay me to season their food,” Magnus said, leaning over to put his pasta container in the bin.

Alec laughed. “You’d make millions. Maybe it would be a good thing. You could make all your money in high school and never work again,” he teased.

Magnus sighed wistfully and rested his chin in his hand. “I wish. I’d move out of my apartment. Get away from my stepfather. Everything would be so fun,” he said. Then he realised that he’d probably said too much. “But everything’s fine,” he finished lamely.

Of course Alec had picked up on it, though. “Don’t you get along with him?” he asked carefully.

Magnus could have lied, but he knew it would be painfully obvious, so he just shrugged. “No. He hates me, I hate him. He only keeps me around because he has to.”

Alec scrunched his nose up. “That’s not fun. We’re seniors, though. Do you know what you want to do next year?”

“No,” Magnus said immediately. Whenever he thought about that he just felt nervous. “I have no idea. I’d like to go to college but I don’t think I can afford it. The only way I’d get my stepfather to help me with the money is by pretending to be straight and studying law or something.”

Alec sighed and hesitantly reached over to pat his shoulder. “Maybe you’ll get a scholarship.”

Magnus laughed sharply. “In my dreams. I don’t think I’m good enough at anything to get a scholarship.”

Alec was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

Magnus raised his eyebrows right back.

“What are you interested in?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know. Fashion,” Magnus said.

Alec gestured to his outfit. “You’re fashionable. My sister is into that kind of thing and she told me about someone who took pictures of their outfits every day and made a blog or something and that helped them get into college.”

Magnus couldn’t deny that the idea was appealing. He thought about his dreams a lot, but this was the first time he’d come across a feasible idea that could actually help him.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, giving Alec a grateful smile. “Anyway, enough about me. Do you know what you want to do?”

Alec sighed. “My parents want me to go into law. And I can see myself doing that, but I don’t know if it’s what I really want to do or if it’s just the easy option.”

Magnus nudged him gently. “You’ll figure it out,” he told him. “And if all else fails, you could become a model,” he suggested.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Magnus was worried that he was too forward.

Alec’s face went red. He stammered for a few moments, shaking his head before he could get any coherent words out. “Me? No way. You’re more cut out for that.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that very much.”

“You shouldn’t. I mean, you’re tall and…well. Attractive,” Alec managed to say. He was an alarming shade of red.

“You’re tall and attractive,” Magnus retorted, trying not to let his thoughts linger on the image of Alec shirtless in the changing rooms.

Alec shook his head. “You’re…you look like a model, though. With your cheekbones. And jaw. And everything.”

Magnus was sure he looked like a deer in the headlights, but he tried his best to smile at Alec. “Thank you.”

He didn’t think he was unattractive, per se, and he tried to act confident, but he often doubted whether he was actually attractive or desirable.

“It’s fine,” Alec said. He had just opened his mouth to say something else when the bell rang to signal the beginning of the lunch hour.

“Do you want to stay here or move?” Magnus asked, sitting up straighter in his seat. The cafeteria was already beginning to fill up and was getting steadily louder.

Alec bit his lip, looking between Magnus and where the other students were filing into the cafeteria. “Stay. But my siblings will probably show up and harass you. If they do, you have my permission to punch them.”

Magnus laughed, unsure if Alec was serious or not. Either way, he would probably meet Alec’s siblings, and he didn’t know whether to be nervous or excited.

Chapter Text

Alec and Magnus tried to spot Alec’s siblings, but before they appeared, Catarina and Ragnor came towards them, weaving their way through the tables.

“I can’t believe you fainted to get out of gym,” Catarina said, laughing and shoving Magnus’ shoulder gently. “And it’s only your second day of school.”

Magnus put his hand on his chest, pretending to be offended. “You think I did that on purpose? I had no choice,” he told her with a smirk.

Catarina snorted and looked over at Alec. “At least you had somebody to catch you. You’re lucky Alec has better reflexes than Ragnor.”

Ragnor rolled his eyes. “When he said he’d get us out of dodgeball I didn’t think he’d throw himself at the ground,” he grumbled.

“Do you mind if we sit?” Catarina asked Alec, gesturing to the empty chairs around the table.

Alec looked surprised to be asked. He took a moment to register the question before nodding quickly. “Yeah! I mean no. I don’t mind. You can sit,” he said.

Catarina sat beside Magnus, Ragnor on her other side. “Did you remember to bring lunch today?” she asked, nudging Magnus.

“Nope. But Alec and I already ate,” he told her. “The macaroni cheese. It was just as good as you said it would be.”

Ragnor and Catarina both winced.

“Did you just pretend to faint so you could go and get lunch with–” Ragnor asked. Under the table, Catarina gently stomped on his foot before he could continue.

Magnus shook his head. “I fainted so I wouldn’t have to play dodgeball. Lunch was just an added bonus,” he said.

Alec looked amused, but he didn’t comment on Ragnor’s unfinished sentence. “My brother and sister will probably come and sit here. If Jace says anything stupid feel free to kick him under the table,” he told them. “Or just mention ducks or mangoes to him.”

Ragnor suddenly looked a lot more interested in the conversation.

“Ducks and mangoes?” Magnus asked.

“He’s afraid of ducks and he didn’t know what a mango looked like until a few weeks ago,” Alec explained quickly, then he sat up a little straighter and waved to someone across the cafeteria.

Magnus followed his gaze to see Isabelle and Jace weaving through people and tables to get to them.

“I see we have company,” Isabelle said excitedly, sitting down in the chair beside Alec and immediately leaning around him to grin at Magnus. “You must be Magnus. I’m Isabelle. It’s nice to meet you.”

Magnus was slightly taken aback by her enthusiastic greeting, but it was sweet in its own way. “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said, unable to come up with anything more creative.

Isabelle looked to Alec. “He’s just as cute as–”

She was cut off by Alec nudging her and giving her a pointed look. She smiled innocently.

Magnus nudged Alec and raised his eyebrows. “As cute as what?”

Alec opened his mouth but no sound came out. “I– as cute– people– I think–”

“Lots of people think you’re cute,” Catarina interjected, patting Magnus’ arm. “Trust me. I’ve had people asking about you all day.”

“Like who?” Magnus demanded. He was so distracted by this that he didn’t notice Alec mouthing ‘thank you’ at Catarina over his shoulder.

Catarina shrugged. “Just people,” she said innocently. “Why? Is there someone you’d like to think that you’re cute?” she asked a moment later, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Magnus shrugged nonchalantly and sat back in his seat. “Maybe. I wouldn’t tell you if there was,” he said.

Catarina laughed and rolled her eyes at him.

Isabelle leaned across her brother again, leaving Alec leaning back uncomfortably in his chair. “Do you have a crush on anyone yet?” she asked Magnus.

“Maybe,” Magnus said carefully. He wasn’t exactly trying to hide the fact that he thought Alec was perfect in every conceivable way, but he wasn’t about to tell Isabelle that. Especially not with Alec sitting right there.

“Will you tell me who it is or do I have to find out some other way?” Isabelle asked.

Alec rolled his eyes. “He hasn’t even been here two days, Izzy. I’m sure he has more on his mind than getting a boyfriend.”

“Or girlfriend,” Magnus added.

“You’re bisexual?” Isabelle asked, raising her eyebrows.

Magnus nodded. He doubted Isabelle would be biphobic or anything but he was still somewhat hesitant.

“Damn. That means it’ll be harder to narrow it down,” she grumbled.

Jace leaned over so that now both of Alec’s siblings were leaning across him, effectively pinning him against the back of his chair.

“Is it me?” he asked.

“Is what you?” Magnus asked blankly.

Jace gave him what was probably supposed to be a withering look. “Your crush.”

Magnus laughed before he could stop himself.

Jace looked more offended than Magnus could have imagined.

Alec looked more delighted than Magnus could possibly handle.

“No offense. You’re just…not my type,” he said quickly, smiling as apologetically as he could at Jace.

Jace still looked a little sour, but Isabelle ignored him in favour of leaning against Alec and grinning widely at Magnus. “So what is your type?”

Magnus considered the question for a moment. “My type,” he mumbled.

Alec looked very interested in the answer to that question. Magnus tried not to read into that.

Catarina and Ragnor were looking at him expectantly. Ragnor looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“Tall, handsome, funny, nice eyes,” Magnus listed, trying very hard not to look at Alec.

He thought that was a vague enough description, but Jace kept looking between him and Alec.

“The only man I’ve met who fits that description is related to me,” Isabelle said, draping her arm around Alec’s shoulders.

“Isabelle,” Alec hissed, giving her a pointed glare before looking back to Magnus. “I’m so sorry about them,” he said.

Magnus was partially distracted by Isabelle’s delighted laugh, and partially distracted by the fact that Alec’s cheeks were pink and it was one of the cutest things he’d seen in his life, but he managed to force out a laugh. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Will you invite him over for dinner?” Jace asked, leaning around Isabelle.

Alec glared at him.

“What? You think he’s–” Jace was cut off by Isabelle nudging him in the ribs.

Alec didn’t know why Isabelle was suddenly trying to stop Jace from embarrassing him – she’d done enough herself – but he was grateful nonetheless.

“I’m what?” Magnus asked, leaning forward so that he could see all three Lightwood siblings. When none of them spoke, he looked to Jace. “What does he think I am?”

Jace looked uncomfortable. “I have to get lunch,” he said, standing up and walking away.

The sandwich he’d brought with him was still sitting on the table.

Isabelle rolled her eyes and picked up the sandwich, following him. “Sorry, Alec,” she said, but she didn’t look particularly sorry. She patted Alec’s hair and followed Jace at a jog, trying not to touch the half-eaten sandwich.

“Actually, we’d better go, too,” Catarina piped up from beside Magnus.

“What?” Magnus asked, frowning. He was pretty sure he must have missed something in the conversation. Or maybe all of them genuinely had to go. He doubted that, though.

“Do we?” Ragnor asked, looking irritated as always.

“Yes. We have the thing, ” Catarina told him, grabbing his elbow. “Remember?”

Ragnor looked at her blankly for a moment before realisation dawned on him. “Oh yeah. See you in class, Magnus,” he said, gathering up the remainder of his lunch before letting Catarina drag him away.

And Magnus and Alec were left alone.

Alec’s cheeks were still flushed. Or maybe Magnus was imagining things.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea they’d be that obnoxious,” Alec said, bumping his shoulder against Magnus’ and smiling apologetically.

Magnus rolled his eyes fondly. “You don’t need to apologise,” he assured him. “What were they talking about though? Is it some kind of private joke?”

Alec hesitated for a moment before answering. An expression passed over his face but it was gone before Magnus could figure out what it was.

“Sort of. They were just trying to embarrass me,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.

Magnus was entirely too distracted by the way it fell back over his forehead. Almost too distracted to hear what Alec said next.

“What Jace said,” he began. He paused until Magnus met his eyes.

Magnus panicked for a moment, thinking he’d been too distracted by Alec’s hair to listen to what he was saying. “What?”

“About you coming over,” Alec said. “You can. If you want to. But you don’t have to. But if you do want to, I promise I won’t let them be so obnoxious.”

Magnus could barely believe his luck. Surely Alec would do something awful at some point. Magnus wasn’t a lucky person, there was no way he’d managed to meet and befriend a sweet, handsome and gay man.

Usually men were two of those things at most.

He realised Alec was watching him, probably waiting for a reply.

“I’d love to,” he said with a smile. “You can come to my house for dinner too, if you want. Although I don’t think you’d want to.”

Alec tipped his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. He looked like he was challenging Magnus. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Magnus didn’t know what to say. ‘My dad is an asshole and would probably assume you were my boyfriend and kick both of us out’ was the closest thing to the truth, but that seemed a bit heavy for a casual lunchtime conversation. And the last thing he wanted to do was make Alec feel guilty or anything.

“Well, it’s just me and my stepfather,” Magnus began tentatively. “And like I said, we don’t get along. I don’t have a big family like you and it would probably be boring.”
Alec shook his head and bumped his knee against Magnus’ under the table. “It wouldn’t be boring,” he said immediately, but then he looked sort of embarrassed. “I mean. We’d keep each other company.”

Magnus knew it would probably never happen – he didn’t want to risk Alec meeting his stepfather – but the thought of sitting around together for a whole afternoon was strangely inviting.

Of course that led Magnus’ mind to what kind of things they might do if they were left to their own devices for a whole afternoon.

He imagined kissing Alec, and Alec kissing him, and he was fine with that until he imagined his stepfather bursting into his room and yelling at them and kicking Alec out and–

“Are you okay? You look like you’re going to throw up,” Alec said, his fingers wrapping around Magnus' elbow.

Magnus shook himself out of his thoughts and plastered a smile back on his face. “I’m fine. Just zoned out.”

Alec didn’t look convinced, but he let go of Magnus and folded his hands in his lap. “So, yeah. Uh. You can come over. Uh. Would tomorrow suit you?”

Magnus’ mind ran at a thousand miles per hour, then it stopped entirely. Alec’s house. Tomorrow. Dinner. “That would be great,” he said, feeling like he was in a dream.

“Great. I’ll double check with my mom, but there’s no reason why she would say no,” Alec said, grinning at him. “She actually wants to meet you, I think.”

That piqued Magnus’ interest. “She wants to meet me?” he asked, sitting up straighter. “Why? How does she know about me?”

Alec’s eyes went almost comically wide for a moment. “I– well, I just– I mentioned you,” he stammered.

Magnus couldn’t stop a grin from stretching across his face. “What did you tell her?”

Alec looked horrified that he’d let slip that bit of information. “I just told her that there was a new guy at school and that we’re in drama class together. And that you were nice.”

“I’m nice?” Magnus asked, smirking at him.

Alec groaned and pressed his hands to his face for a moment. “Yes, you’re nice,” he mumbled into his hands. He dropped them back to his lap. “That’s why Izzy and Jace were being assholes. Izzy is obsessed with trying to get me a boyfriend.”

Magnus forced himself to look calm and casually interested. “Do you want a boyfriend?” he asked instead of throwing himself at Alec and offering to be his boyfriend forever.

Alec just shrugged, staring at Magnus for a few moments. “I don’t know. I mean…maybe. If he was the right guy,” he said carefully.

Magnus tried not to think about that too much. “But you don’t want her to set you up?”

Alec shook his head. “Trust me, she’s tried. But I refuse to tell her what my type is, and she hasn’t figured it out, so she never does that well.”

“Will you tell me what your type is?” Magnus asked before he could stop himself.

Alec blinked owlishly at him for a moment. Magnus was about to apologise and tell him that he didn’t have to answer, but then he opened his mouth.

“Good sense of humour. Easy to talk to. Tall. Attractive,” Alec listed.

Magnus raised an eyebrow, trying not to think about whether or not he fit that description.

Alec filled the silence. “She seems to think I’m into guys who play football and everything. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m not even that into football. I mean, I play it, but other guys who play it seem to want to talk about nothing but football.”

Alec looked surprised that he’d said all of that to Magnus, but Magnus just smiled at him and patted his arm.

“I know what you mean. Sort of. I can imagine that would be annoying,” he said.

They stared at each other for a few moments. Magnus’ hand was still on Alec’s bicep. Magnus couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from Alec’s, and then the bell rang.

“Shit. I didn’t realise the time,” Alec said, immediately standing up. “Do you know where you’re going and everything?”

Magnus nodded and stood up after him. “I think so. Thank you. For…lunch.”

He realised after he’d said that that Alec hadn’t bought him lunch. Alec seemed to realise this, but he just laughed and squeezed Magnus’ shoulder before leaving in the opposite direction.

Magnus watched him go for a moment, then remembered that he also had a class and no idea where he was going, so went in the other direction.

Chapter Text

The thought of going to Alec’s got Magnus through the evening.

Well, that and the fact that he was tactical enough to have an early dinner, clean up and shut himself in his room before his stepfather even got home.

When he did get home Magnus still sat hunched under his duvet, ready to feign sleep if he came in, but he was left alone for the evening.

Alone and wondering what Alec’s house would be like, whether he’d meet his parents, whether he’d see Alec’s bedroom…

It was a nice way to spend the evening. Way better than sitting with nothing better to do than worry about his stepfather.

When morning rolled around, Magnus was woken up by a slamming door. He immediately panicked and jolted upright in bed, only relaxing when he was sure that he was the only one in his room.

He checked the time – 6.57 – before rolling out of bed and tentatively creeping out of his room.

His stepfather wasn’t in the kitchen or bathroom. Magnus didn’t dare risk going into his bedroom, but there was no sound coming from it, so that meant he’d probably left early for work.

Magnus heaved a sigh of relief. That meant he could relax.

To make the most of having the place to himself, Magnus settled in the kitchen to have a proper breakfast rather than a rushed banana on his way to the bus.

After some and a cup of tea, he returned to his room. He stared at his clothes and the makeup sitting on the edge of his desk. What if Alec’s parents were super conservative and they wouldn’t let him in or something?

He thought he was probably being stupid – Alec had said that his mother accepted him for being gay, he doubted she would kick him out entirely for wearing makeup – but he didn’t want to accidentally offend them or something.

He grabbed his phone and started typing.

7.36am

Magnus: R u awake?????

Alec: Yes, why?

Magnus: Will your parents be offended if I wear makeup to ur house??

Alec: Nope, u can wear what u want! :)

Magnus: I’ve been waiting to wear a corset and fishnets for a while, thanks! :) :) :)

Magnus: Alec?

Alec: Maybe not that

Magnus? :( :( :( Why?

Alec: You’ll have to wear it at school all day

Magnus: Yes??

Alec: It’s against the dress code

Magnus: True. I guess I’ll just wear the usual then

Magnus: Are you sure the makeup is okay??

Alec: I’m sure. Just be yourself :)

8.06am

Magnus: Sorry I was getting dressed!!

Magnus: Thank you though :)

Alec: Do you get the bus to school?

Magnus: Yes, why?

Alec: I can meet u when u get here if u want

Magnus: U don’t have to do that!!

Alec: It’s fine!! See you soon?

Magnus: See you soon :)

8.31am

Magnus caught sight of Alec waiting for him before he was even off the bus.

Magnus jogged down the steps and steps and wandered over to him, unable to keep a smile off his face.

“Morning,” he said brightly, coming to a stop in front of Alec.

Alec had been poking at his phone, but he immediately shoved it back into his pocket and returned Magnus’ smile with a grin that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “Hi. You’re in a good mood this morning.”

Magnus wanted to say that his mood was a million times better now that Alec was there and he was smiling like that, but it seemed a bit too forward, so instead he just shrugged. “I got up on the right side of bed.”

Alec laughed and turned to face the school, putting his hand on the small of Magnus’ back for a moment as they started walking.

Magnus was tempted to fall backwards to see if Alec would catch him. He was sure he could get used to being carried by Alec. He made a mental note to find any excuse to make it happen.

“You didn’t wear your fishnets?” Alec asked, dropping his hand from Magnus’ back and smiling sideways at him.

Magnus laughed and shook his head. “I wasn’t sure which shoes to wear so I just went with this instead,” he teased. “Are your parents okay with me coming over?”

Alec nodded. “Of course. My dad won’t be there, he’s on a business trip at the moment, but my mom is fine with it. She did tell me to ask you if there’s any foods you’re allergic to or that you really hate, though,” he said, shooting him an enquiring glance.

“I hate mushrooms,” Magnus said immediately. “But everything else is fine. I’m not allergic to anything.”

“What have mushrooms ever done to you?” Alec asked, nudging Magnus and sticking close to his side as they navigated through the busy corridors. “I’m kidding, I hate mushrooms too. I don’t know what we’ll have for dinner but if it’s something you don’t like we can just order pizza.”

Magnus’ head spun at the thought of that. It sounded like the Lightwoods ate dinner together as a family, which was incomprehensible to Magnus to begin with. Then the thought that they would be allowed to order pizza just in case Magnus didn’t like whatever they were having?

Magnus was used to cooking by himself, eating by himself and cleaning up by himself, all as quickly as possible to avoid having to speak to his stepfather.

“You don’t have to order pizza for me,” Magnus insisted, squeezing Alec’s elbow and letting go quickly.

No sooner had he let go did Alec put his hand on Magnus’ shoulder. “This is my locker,” he said, quickly turning the combination lock a few times. He pulled out a few books and let it swing shut again.

“How long did it take you to get used to unlocking that?” Magnus asked, folding his arms across himself and narrowing his eyes.

Alec laughed as they started walking again. “A few tries. But it takes everyone a while to get used to it, don’t worry,” he assured Magnus as they made their way to Magnus’ locker.

Magnus sighed heavily. “Did people get completely locked out of their lockers?”

Alec hesitated before answering. “Not…not really. No. But your locker is tricky, it’s not just your fault,” he said cheerfully.

Magnus snorted. When they got to his locker, he didn’t even try the combination, instead just gesturing for Alec to do it.

As usual, he opened it easily and Magnus collected the books he would need.

“We have drama again this afternoon so we can just leave school together if you want,” Alec said as Magnus shut the locker.

Magnus leaned against the lockers, nodding and smiling at Alec. He could have easily stared at him for hours, just admiring his face. But he remembered that he still needed to answer. “That would be nice,” he agreed. “Do you get a bus?”

“I usually walk if that’s okay with you,” Alec said, moving to stand in front of Magnus when another kid needed to use the locker he was leaning against.

Magnus tried hard not to imagine Alec pressing him up against the lockers and kissing him senseless. He didn’t do well, but he certainly tried.

“Walking is fine. With Isabelle and Jace, or…?” he asked, trailing off and raising his eyebrows.

Alec shook his head. “They usually spend a bit of time with their…well. I was going to say boyfriend and girlfriend but neither of their relationships are official,” he explained.

“How nice. Are they both flirty people?” Magnus asked, thinking back to the previous lunchtime.

“You could say that,” Alec laughed. “They’re just…not shy. At all. And I’m sure I told you before that Izzy is determined to get me a boyfriend before we graduate.”

“And you don’t want her to, right?” Magnus asked. He had the strangest urge to wrap his arms around Alec’s neck.

Alec shrugged and scrunched up his nose. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t say no to a boyfriend but I don’t want to be set up,” he explained.

“Understandable,” Magnus said, winking at him. He ignored the way Alec’s eyes widened just a fraction and continued talking. “She seems nice, though,” he said, before quickly adding, “so does Jace.”

Alec laughed and shook his head. “I know Jace is an…acquired taste. He’s sort of an asshole on the surface but deep down he’s nice. And if he doesn’t like you at first he’ll warm up to you eventually.”

Magnus was about to reply when the bell rang. He grimaced and stood up straighter. “I’ll see you later?”

“Definitely,” Alec agreed, grinning at him. “Maybe I’ll see you at lunch?” he suggested tentatively, looking nervous all of a sudden.

“See you at lunch,” Magnus agreed, acting on impulse and squeezing Alec’s arm before they parted ways to go to class.

He tried not to let his thoughts linger on how Alec’s bicep had felt beneath his fingers.

12.45

Alec: Won’t see u at lunch, sorry :( :( We have an extra football practise

Magnus: You won’t get to eat lunch??

Alec: No, we’re having an early lunch now.

Magnus; Oh good. I hope you have a good practise :)

Magnus: Will you be in class?

Alec: Hopefully! The other teachers get mad if they try to make us do football during class time

Magnus: Understandable

Magnus: I don’t trust anyone else in our class to catch me if we do trust falls again

Alec: You knew me for less than an hour before we did a trust fall!

Magnus: Ur trustworthy

Alec: Thanks :) :)

Magnus: I would definitely catch u if I wasn’t so weak

Alec: I would trust you to catch me anyway :)

Magnus: I hope ur trust wouldn’t be broken when u fell on top of me

Alec: The only thing that would break would probably be you

Magnus: I’m sure you’re not that heavy

Alec: Do u want to pick me up and see?

Magnus: I’ll try

Alec: Lol :)

Magnus: I’m not joking!

Alec: Sorry

Magnus: We’ll see who’s laughing when I pick you up and lift you above my head

Alec: Ok Magnus

Magnus: Catch you later

Magnus: Literally

Alec: Shut up

Magnus: :(

Alec: Just kidding

Magnus: :)

2.03pm

Magnus sat in the same seat he’d been in on Monday when he got to drama, as seemed to be the custom. Seats weren’t assigned, but people definitely had their own seats.

As the class filled up and Alec didn’t show up, Magnus felt butterflies in his stomach. He knew it was irrational but what if he had somehow offended Alec?

He was reading back over their text conversation when someone sat down beside him. He looked up to see Isabelle grinning at him.

“Do you mind if I sit here? At least until Alec gets here,” she asked.

“Go ahead,” Magnus told her, sliding his phone into his pockets and crossing his legs over each other.

Isabelle put her bag down at her feet and settled in the chair, turning to face Magnus. “So you’re coming over for dinner tonight?”

Magnus nodded. “Yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”
Isabelle beamed at him. “Good! Alec can’t wait either. And Max is excited to meet you.”

“Max?” Magnus echoed. Was that Alec’s dad? But his dad was away on a business trip. Another sibling?

“Our little brother,” Isabelle explained. “He’s like a mini Alec. He heard us talking about you and now he wants to meet you.”

“How much have you been talking about me in your house?” Magnus asked, raising his eyebrows at her and smirking.

Isabelle laughed and reached up to pat his cheek. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she teased. “We don’t just sit at the dinner table and talk about you, I promise. It’s just that you and Alec seem to get along really well, so we’re curious to meet you.”

Magnus sat back in his chair. “Is Alec really horrible when he’s not around me? Is it surprising that he gets along with somebody?” he asked, grinning at her.

Isabelle laughed and shoved him. “That’s my brother you’re talking about,” she scolded playfully. “He’s not horrible, but he can be…quiet. Usually he’s more reserved around people when he first meets them.”

“So he acts different around me to how he acts around other people?” Magnus asked, frowning.

Isabelle shook her head and rested her hand on Magnus’ arm, looking at the sleeve of his leather jacket for a moment before looking back to his face. “No. He acts the same way he acts with me and Jace. But it usually takes him a while to be that comfortable with people,” she explained.

Magnus nodded slowly. “So it’s not a bad thing?” he asked.

“Definitely not. I think he really likes you,” Isabelle said, squeezing his arm again. “Speaking of which, how would you feel about–”

“Are you going to try and set us up?” Magnus interrupted her.

Isabelle’s shoulders dropped. “How did you know?”

“Alec told me about you trying to set him up. But I think I’d prefer to let things happen naturally. If things happen at all,” Magnus explained carefully.

“I can help you out if you want,” Isabelle said, waggling her eyebrows at him teasingly.

Magnus laughed quietly and shook his head. “It’s okay. I don’t want to force anything. But maybe I’ll ask you for advice.”

Isabelle looked extremely enthusiastic about this idea. “Please do. I can tell he likes you, and you like him, right?” she asked. He nodded quickly. “Good. I’m sure things will happen naturally, but like you said, you can ask me for any help if you need it.”

 Alec dashed into the class, instantly relieved when he saw that the teacher hadn’t arrived yet. His eyes swept the class until they landed on Magnus and Isabelle chatting amicably.

He had known that Izzy and Magnus would get along – they had common interests and fairly similar personalities – but the way Isabelle was holding onto Magnus’ arm and her eyes were lit with excitement worried him.

He sidled over and tapped her shoulder, his heart skipping a beat when Magnus noticed him first and smiled up at him.

Magnus really was unfairly handsome. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to it.

Isabelle turned around and smiled innocently at Alec, which meant that she wasn’t innocent in any way, shape or form.

“What are you up to?” he asked, sitting in the seat beside her.

“Just talking to Magnus,” Isabelle told him. That didn’t reassure Alec at all. “I’ll leave you two. Simon looks like he’s trying to bore Clary to death,” she said, picking up her bag and weaving her way between the seats to sit between Simon and Clary.

Alec shifted into the seat beside Magnus, smiling apologetically at him. “Sorry. What was she saying?”

Magnus shrugged. “She was just chatting. I think she felt bad that I was sitting on my own.”

Alec felt relief wash over him like cold water. He was sure Magnus would tell him if Isabelle had made him uncomfortable or said anything inappropriate.

“Practise overran. At least they let us out, though,” Alec said, leaning back in his chair and letting out a long breath.

He still felt flustered from rushing to shower and get changed on the way out of practise.

Magnus felt flustered from the fact that Alec’s shirt was clinging to his slightly shower-damp skin and he was the most attractive person he’d ever met, and he was so sweet as well.

He was starting to consider getting down on one knee and proposing marriage immediately when Alec nudged him gently.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

There it was again. Magnus felt fine today having not seen his stepfather, but it still felt like Alec could tell that something was wrong.

(Even though something wasn’t really wrong today. He’d just been fantasising about getting a cat and a decently-sized apartment with Alec).

“I’m fine,” Magnus assured him, automatically pressing their shoulders together for a moment.

Alec looked like he wanted to say something else, but the teacher came in and started the class.

Chapter Text

Unfortunately for Magnus, the drama class was entirely based on theory.

They went over dramatic techniques and examples of them being used. It was interesting, but it also meant there were no opportunities for Magnus to get any closer to Alec than their shoulders occasionally touching where they sat.

When they were dismissed a few minutes before the bell, though, Alec grabbed onto Magnus’ wrist and dashed out of the classroom.

Magnus was startled but he tried to make the most of the warm pressure of Alec’s hand against his skin. He let go as soon as they were outside the class, and Alec looked sheepish.

“Sorry. I thought it would be better to get out before Izzy and Jace could try to tag along,” he explained, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

“You don’t have to apologise,” Magnus assured him, grinning as they walked to his locker. “Do you think we’ll get to your house before them?”

“Almost definitely,” Alec agreed. “They’ll stay in class now, Jace will try to flirt with Clary but he’ll just piss her off. Isabelle will flirt with Simon, Simon either won’t notice or he’ll get flustered and will have to leave to collect himself,” he explained.

Magnus laughed. “Does that happen a lot?” he asked, stopping when he arrived at his locker. He was about to attempt to open it himself, but he just sighed and stepped aside to let Alec do it.

“Every day,” Alec agreed. “Jace likes to tell me all about it. He thinks he’s good at flirting, but he’s not very tactical,” he explained. When Magnus stepped back, Alec shook his head. “I’m not opening that for you.”

Magnus frowned. “Why?”

“I want you to try,” Alec told him, folding his arms across himself.

Magnus didn’t know how he was expected to concentrate when Alec was just wearing a t-shirt and his arms looked like that. Even so, he pouted at him for a moment before turning back to his locker and twisting the lock around a few times.

When he tugged at the door, it didn’t budge and he groaned. “I don’t think I can do it. I’ll never be able to.”

Alec looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Come here,” he said, stepping closer to Magnus and putting his hand over Magnus’.

Magnus felt very warm all of a sudden. He was worried that he would smell weird or his hand would be sweaty or something, but Alec didn’t lurch away or anything, so it can’t have been that bad.

“You need to be careful not to let it go any further than the number you want,” Alec said. His voice felt like it was very close to Magnus’ ear. He had to try very hard not to shudder.

Alec gently twisted the dial, his hand covering Magnus’. “Then you have to sort of push in, then out,” he explained, doing exactly that. The locker sprang open.

Magnus was too distracted by Alec talking about ‘pushing in and out’ right in his ear to be impressed, but he forced himself to smile over his shoulder at him.

“Impressive,” he said, shoving his books into the locker to distract himself from the lingering warmth of Alec's hand on his own. “Maybe I’ll actually manage to do it by myself one day.”

Alec laughed and slid his hands into his pockets. “I just need to get my jacket, then we can go. If that’s okay with you.”

Magnus nodded and followed him through the corridors. Alec opened his locker easily, shoving a couple of books into a neater pile and pulling his jacket out where it had been roughly folded on top of everything.

While the locker was open, Magnus couldn’t help noticing the photos on the inside of the door. One was of Alec, Jace and Izzy at school. In the other, the three of them looked slightly younger and there was another small boy with them, presumably Max.

Magnus felt a strange little pang in his chest. Since losing his mother he had always been a solitary person, and couldn’t even imagine himself having siblings, but he suddenly wished he could have had the same kind of easy bond Alec had with his siblings. Someone to take silly photos for his locker with, and make fun of for their bad attempts at flirting.

“Izzy put them there,” Alec explained when he noticed Magnus looking at the photos. “I guess they brighten it up a little.”

Magnus nodded and shot Alec a quick smile. “They’re cute. Is that your little brother?” he asked, pointing to the second photo.

“That’s Max,” Alec agreed, looking at the photo for another moment before letting the locker swing shut. “He’s young but he’s super smart. Knows too much for his own good.”

“Isabelle told me he’s like a mini version of you,” Magnus said, watching him as they walked out of school together.

The bell had rung by now, and there were far more people running around the corridors, either leaving or trying to find their friends.

Alec laughed at that, pulling his jacket on when they got outside. Magnus tried not to be too disappointed at the fact that he was covering up his wonderful arms. “I guess we look pretty similar,” he agreed. “Mostly because neither of us ever brush our hair.”

Magnus snorted and glanced up at Alec’s hair. “I think it looks nice.”

“Thank you,” Alec said, his smile growing slightly. He seemed very determined not to look at Magnus but when he felt Magnus watching him, he looked over and grinned.

“What’s your mother like?” Magnus asked, putting his hands in his jacket pockets just for something to do with them.

Alec shrugged. “She’s nice. She can be sort of strict, but I think that’s mostly because of stress,” he explained. “She has to work and then come home and deal with four kids. And Jace is the equivalent of seven kids sometimes, so.”

“Let me guess, Max is more self-sufficient than Jace?” Magnus asked, raising his eyebrows at him.

Alec laughed, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. Magnus wished he had a photographic memory so he could keep that image in his head forever.

“You’re probably kidding but he totally is,” Alec said. “When my mom and dad are both away, Max and I usually make dinner. Izzy is the worst cook in the world and we don’t trust Jace not to get distracted and burn the house down.”

Magnus snorted and glanced over his shoulder. There were a few other people walking the same way as them, but Izzy and Jace weren’t anywhere to be seen.

They walked through a few neighbourhoods on the way to Alec’s house, but soon the houses got bigger with more space between them.

Alec walked with Magnus down one of these streets, telling him about the time Jace had decided to become a tour guide and tried to convince random tourists to let him show them around New York.

The story was completely ridiculous and Magnus was still laughing, but he did suddenly feel sort of out-of-place.

The street was quiet but the people who were milling around looked wealthy. Of course they were wealthy, they could afford relatively big houses this close to New York City.

Magnus’ stepfather made a decent amount of money, and begrudgingly gave Magnus some money for clothes to keep him quiet. The money they had was nowhere near enough to afford anything like this, though.

He had been sure that neighbourhoods like this didn’t actually exist.

He was happy with the way he dressed, and sort of happy with the way he looked, but he did feel like he stuck out like a sore thumb here.

Alec didn’t exactly dress fancy – today’s blue t-shirt was the most adventurous thing Magnus had seen him in – but he didn’t stick out quite as obviously as Magnus.

Or maybe Magnus was just paranoid.

“This is nice,” he said, looking back to Alec instead of their surroundings (Alec was nicer to look at, anyway. Even if the neighbourhood was lovely).

Alec nodded. “It’s not too bad,” he agreed, smiling sideways at him. He turned into one of the houses, his hand pressing against the small of Magnus’ back for a moment.

Magnus tried to ignore the fluttery feeling in his stomach when Alec touched him, looking up at the house as Alec tried the front door. It was locked.

“Nobody’s home yet,” Alec said as he fished his keys out of his jacket pocket.

They got inside and Magnus bent to untie the laces of his boots, pulling them off and leaving them by the door.

Alec sort of felt like a creep for staring at his (extremely attractive) friend’s butt while he was just taking his shoes off, but it was right there. He forced himself to look away before Magnus could straighten up and catch him, though. “Mom will love you.”

Magnus stood up and grinned. “Because I took my shoes off?”

“Yup. She always finds it weird when people just walk around the house with their shoes on,” Alec agreed, toeing his own shoes off and hanging his jacket by the door. “Want me to show you around?”

Magnus gladly followed Alec through the house. Living room, kitchen, dining room, his dad’s office, a study (which Alec said they only used for watching movies), and then upstairs.

“It’s just bedrooms up here,” Alec said. “And the bathroom. But this is mine,” he added as he nudged one of the doors open.

The room was painted blue. The sheets on the double bed were unmade, but Alec immediately crossed the room to tidy those up. The walls were decorated with tickets from movies and tourist attractions, as well as a few photos around the desk.

“Sorry it’s a mess,” Alec said, scooping up a couple of t-shirts from where they were piled up in the corner.

Magnus thought of his own room with piles of clothes and makeup everywhere. “It’s neat compared to mine,” he assured him, leaning closer to the photos on the wall.

Most of them were fairly recent ones of Alec and his siblings, but some of them were older, with the children much younger and who Magnus presumed were Alec’s parents.

He turned back to Alec who was holding a stuffed penguin and looking irritable.

“Is that yours?” Magnus asked, not even attempting to hide his amusement.

“It was my favourite toy when I was a kid,” Alec agreed. He put it beside the pillow on his bed and rolled his eyes. “I’m sure Jace put it there thinking I’d be embarrassed. Or that you’d be the kind of person who would make fun of it.”

Magnus laughed and leaned against the desk. “I still have a toy cat my mother gave me. It doesn’t look as good as it did when I got it but I’d feel too guilty to put it away, let alone throw it out.”

“Jace will be so disappointed that he didn’t manage to embarrass me,” Alec laughed. “You can sit down, by the way. On the bed or wherever you’re comfortable. Make yourself at home.”

Magnus pushed away from the desk and sat on the edge of Alec’s bed. It felt weirdly personal to be sitting on his bed, but he’d been invited, after all.

“Do you want a drink or anything?” Alec asked, sitting beside Magnus and resting his weight on his hands behind him.

Magnus shook his head. “I’m fine. Thank you, though. How long do you think we have until the others get back?”

“Jace and Izzy will probably be here in about ten minutes. Max and mom might be longer,” Alec told him. “I apologise in advance for Jace and Izzy, by the way. They’ll probably…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

Magnus leaned over and let their shoulders bump together. It felt like a far more intimate gesture now that they were alone and on his bed. “Probably what?” he asked.

Alec turned to smile at him. It really wasn’t fair for one person to be so beautiful. “You know Izzy keeps trying to set me up with guys. I think she might be trying to set me up with you. So they might try to act like we’re a thing. Or something.”

“Oh! Right. Okay. Isabelle mentioned that before you got to class today,” Magnus said, chuckling and running his fingers through his hair.

Alec followed the movement of his hand with his eyes. He felt hypnotised by the way Magnus’ hair fell back over his forehead until he shoved it back away from his face.

Then he realised what Magnus had said. “She mentioned what?”

Magnus opened his mouth and then closed it again. He hadn’t meant to tell Alec that. Well, it was out in the open now. “That she wanted to set me and you up with each other.”

Alec groaned and lay down on his back, covering his face with his hands. “What did you say?”

Magnus shifted to watch Alec. He looked wonderful from this angle. “I told her you didn’t like her setting you up with people. Was that…would you have preferred me not to tell her that?”

Alec shook his head and took his hands away from his face. “No. Thank you. I keep telling her I don’t appreciate it but maybe hearing it from someone else will make her stop doing it.”

Magnus nodded and smiled down at Alec. “Hopefully. Is there anyone at school that you like, or is she really just setting you up with random people?”

“I mean, there aren’t that many guys who are interested in guys who are out of the closet in our school,” Alec said, sitting up again. It felt like he was very close to Magnus all of a sudden, but he didn’t move away. “She knows that we won’t fall in love just because we’re both interested in men, but there’s a chance.”

“Understandable,” Magnus chuckled, folding his legs across each other and grinning at Alec. They were so close and so alone and part of Magnus was desperate to kiss Alec, but he knew he’d regret it. The last thing he wanted was to rush or misinterpret things and make things uncomfortable between them.

He was spared thinking of anything else to say when the door opened downstairs. “We’re home!” a voice yelled.

Magnus couldn’t really figure out who it was, but then there were footsteps on the stairs.

‘Max,’ Alec mouthed when Magnus looked at him.

Magnus heard knocking on two doors on the landing, and then there was a knock on Alec’s door.

“Come in,” Alec said, sitting up straighter.

Now their shoulders were touching. Magnus tried not to move too much, but he nearly fell backwards when Alec turned and gave him the bright smile he’d already grown attached to.

He forced his eyes back to the door in time for a boy with dark, messy hair and glasses to poke his head into the room.

Max looked at Alec for a moment before his eyes fell on Magnus. “Are you Alec’s boyfriend?” he asked, stepping into the room fully and coming to stand in front of them.
Alec spluttered, seemingly unable to get any coherent words out.

“We’re just friends,” Magnus told him, bumping his shoulder against Alec’s and smiling.

“Would you tell me if you were in a secret relationship and you didn’t want to tell the others because they’d make a fuss?” Max asked conspiratorially, leaning closer to them.

Alec laughed and reached over to mess up Max’s hair. “I promise I would. But we’re really just friends.”

Magnus watched them curiously. Max really was like a carbon copy of Alec – with added glasses – and it was sort of jarring.

“I’m Max,” Max said suddenly, turning to Magnus and sticking a hand out for him to shake.

Magnus shook his hand, smiling widely at him.“I’m Magnus.”

“I like your makeup,” Max told him, hopping up to sit on the bed beside Magnus.

“Thank you,” Magnus said, beaming at him. The compliment startled him, but it was sweet nonetheless.

“Mom is looking forward to meeting you,” Max said, looking between Magnus and Alec curiously.

Alec had leaned forward to be able to see Max. “She is?” he asked. “Were you talking about us?”

Max nodded and grinned at both of them. “Yup. We were getting stuff for dinner. Mom said that she hopes you’re actually nice so that she doesn’t have to pretend to like you.”

“Max!” Alec laughed, reaching across Magnus to shove his brother’s shoulder gently.

“What?” Max protested, reaching over to shove Alec back. His shove had considerably less effect on Alec than Alec’s had had on him.

“If you’re going to fight, can I move?” Magnus asked, leaning as far backwards as he could without laying down.

Alec smiled sheepishly at him. “Sorry. We won’t fight,” said.

Max hopped off the bed. “I’m gonna go and get food before Jace gets home,” he said as he darted out of the room.

Alec laughed when Max was gone, turning to Magnus. “He likes you,” he said, nudging Magnus playfully.

Magnus grinned. “He’s cute,” he said, determined not to think about how it did kind of feel like this was Alec introducing a boyfriend to the family. They were just friends. Nothing more. And that was fine.

“We should probably go downstairs, though,” Alec said, standing up and turning to face Magnus. “Mom is probably waiting to meet you.”

“In that case,” Magnus said, standing up and slipping his hands into his pockets. “I guess I’d better go and meet her.”

Alec opened the door for him and Magnus stepped out of the bedroom, feeling strangely nervous despite his constant self-reminders that he and Alec were friends and that meeting his mother shouldn’t be so intimidating.

(A voice in the back of his mind kept saying that it was intimidating becaus e he was hoping that they would be boyfriends one day).

(He ignored that voice determinedly, letting Alec lead him downstairs).

Chapter Text

Despite Alec turning to give him a reassuring smile as they went through to the kitchen, Magnus still felt nervous.

Maryse was putting things from a carrier bag into the fridge, Max leaning against the counter beside her.

“Hi, mom,” Alec said as he stepped into the kitchen. Magnus stayed beside him, not willing to stray too far from him.

Maryse glanced over her shoulder to smile at Alec, then turned around properly when she saw Magnus. “You must be Magnus,” she said, holding her hand out to him. “Alec told us all about you.”

Magnus shot an amused glance at Alec, who groaned, before shaking Maryse’s hand. “Thank you for letting me come over, Mrs Lightwood.”

Maryse looked both amused and impressed. “Why are the people Izzy and Jace bring home never this polite?” she asked.

“We’re just friends,” Alec interjected, giving Maryse a pointed look.

“You can call me Maryse,” Maryse told Magnus, ignoring Alec’s interruption. “And it’s no problem. Do you like pasta?”

“Pasta is good,” Magnus agreed, sliding his hands into his jacket pockets just for something to do with them. “Do you need any help making the dinner?”

Maryse shook her head, smiling between Magnus and Alec before turning back to put the last of the shopping into the fridge. “No. But thank you. It’s sweet of you to offer.”

Alec nudged Magnus gently. “Do you want something to drink?”

“A glass of water?” Magnus asked, leaning back against the counter while Alec went to get glasses.

Magnus watched him until he realised Max was watching him. He’d never been around children, really, but Max seemed clever, so Magnus didn’t think he’d have to act differently or anything. He smiled down at the younger boy.

Max beamed back at him, crossing the kitchen to get out of Maryse’s way and stand beside Magnus. He had to crane his neck to look up at him. “Do you like anime?” he asked.

The question took Magnus a little by surprise, but he nodded. “I’m not an expert or anything but I’ve watched some,” he told him. “Why?”

Alec had only been half-paying attention to Max and Magnus’ conversation, but he hadn’t expected them to have disappeared from the room when he turned around with the glasses of water.

He turned to Maryse, about to ask where they went, but she got there before him.

“Anime,” she said. That was all she needed to say.

Alec wandered out of the kitchen, through the hallway and up the stairs. He could hear Max chattering excitedly, and Magnus occasionally managing to fit in a reply.

He fought a grin as he toed open the door to Max’s bedroom. Both Max and Magnus were laying on their stomachs on the bedroom floor. Max was stretched out comfortably while Magnus had to fold his long, thin limbs to avoid them hitting any furniture or sticking out the door.

Magnus was also flipping absently through one of Max’s manga books, and Max looked positively thrilled.

“Have you stolen Magnus from me?” Alec asked, setting the glasses of water on the dressed and sitting cross-legged between Max and Magnus’ legs.

Magnus smiled over his shoulder at Alec. “He offered me manga. I couldn’t say no.”

Max rolled onto his back and sat up, shuffling over to Alec. “Please keep him,” he whispered. His eyes were practically sparkling with excitement.

If he wasn’t so adorable, Alec probably would have been annoyed. But it was Max, and it was impossible to be annoyed at him. “I’ll try,” he assured him, poking Magnus’ ankle when he started swinging his legs.

Magnus glanced over his shoulder again. “Are you talking about me?” he asked, smirking.

“Nope!” Max said brightly, scooting back over to lay beside Magnus again.

“I like your socks,” Alec said, eyeing the multi coloured cats on Magnus’ socks.

Magnus grinned and carefully swung his leg to nudge his foot against Alec’s shoulder. “Thank you. Do you want to join us?” he asked, patting the tiny space between himself and Max’s bedroom wall.

Alec eyed the spot. “I don’t think I’ll fit,” he said. “It’s fine, I’ll stay here.”

Magnus pushed himself up onto his knees. “Of course you’ll fit. Max, scoot over.”

Max moved along so that he was pressed up against his bed. He couldn’t fit his legs under it properly as there were boxes taking up the space.

Magnus gestured for Alec to lie in the middle. Alec did so, his shoulder pressed against Max’s as he folded his arms beneath his head.

He was about to turn to face Magnus, but he had already moved to lie beside Alec.

Alec tried not to move while Magnus got comfortable, but turned to glance at him once he had settled down. Magnus had taken his jacket off and Alec felt very aware of the fact that he could feel Magnus’ shoulder pressing into his side, and the way their hips were pressed together.

Max seemed happy that they were there, though. He happily chattered away, Magnus and Alec only having to reply every once in awhile.

Alec occasionally snuck glances at Magnus. Sometimes he was watching Max, sometimes he looked like he was thinking about something completely different, and twice he was looking at Alec.

Both times, Alec internally freaked out just a little bit, but forced himself to smile at Magnus and turn back to Max, mostly just hoping he wouldn’t start blushing.

Magnus had never really spoken to children before, but even if he had, he didn’t think most children were like Max.

He was enthusiastic and excitable but he was still making perfect sense as he slid books over to Magnus for him to flick through.

Alec just looked sort of bewildered. Magnus paid attention to every word Max was saying, determined not to make him feel like he was being ignored, but he did take the opportunity to gaze at Alec’s arms every so often.

It would be silly not to, really. Alec was in short sleeves and they were lying so close to one another, he had a perfect view.

He tried to look at Alec’s face, too, but after Alec had caught him doing that twice he decided it was too risky.

He could definitely get used to this, though. He shifted just slightly until his side was pressed against Alec’s instead of just their shoulders and hips.

Alec was warm and solid and he smelled sort of citrusy. Plus, Magnus could feel him breathing.

It would have been easy to just curl up against Alec’s side and go to sleep, but he forced himself to stay awake.

Alec nearly tensed when Magnus shifted closer to him.

He was sure he was just trying to get more comfortable on the bedroom floor, but now Alec was extremely conscious of the fact that they were both wearing thin shirts and he felt like he could feel every inch of Magnus’ side pressed against his own.

Max’s voice blurred as Alec focussed on Magnus. His shoulder was still pressed up against Alec’s, but now he was close enough that Alec could just about feel his ribcage expand with each breath.

He was sorely tempted to wrap his arm around Magnus (to get more comfortable, he told himself), but he kept still. The last thing he wanted was to freak Magnus out, especially with Max there.

“I’m just saying, I think I made progress,” Jace insisted.

Isabelle resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She knew Clary liked Jace, but wouldn’t agree to date him until he stopped trying so hard. Isabelle wasn’t going to tell Jace, though. He needed to figure that one out on his own.

Plus, it was sort of entertaining to listen to him rant every day on the way home.

“Whatever you say,” she said, smiling widely at him. “Speaking of progress. What do you think of Magnus?”

Jace shrugged. “I don’t know. He seems nice. I didn’t think he was Alec’s type.”

Isabelle frowned at him. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you know Alec. I thought he’d go for someone…” Jace trailed off. When he couldn’t come up with the right word, he continued. “He used to have a crush on me, right?”

“When he was thirteen,” Isabelle retorted. “Did you think he’d have a crush on someone who looks like you?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But I didn’t think it would be someone who looks like Magnus,” Jace insisted.

Again, Isabelle had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

Jace made some vague hand gestures, flattening his hand and waving it up and down.

Isabelle raised her eyebrows at him.

“Well, he looks sort of like the opposite of me,” Jace explained after a moment. “He’s freakishly tall and skinny and…not blonde.”

“Aw, has it bruised your ego?” Isabelle cooed, letting herself into the house ahead of Jace.

As she toed her shoes off, she frowned. Max usually came to greet them when they arrived home, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She wandered through to the kitchen, where Maryse was watching the coffee machine as it spat coffee out into the waiting mug.

“Hi,” Maryse said, turning to smile at them. “Nice day?”

Isabelle shrugged and leaned against the counter beside her mother. “Not bad. Where’s Max?”

Maryse nodded towards the hallway. “Upstairs. He found out that Magnus likes anime.”

“Magnus is here already?” Jace asked turning around from where he was searching through the cupboard for something to eat.

“Not everyone hangs around school to flirt after classes are over,” Maryse told him, stirring her coffee.

Isabelle laughed and Jace pouted before turning back to find more food. “Did you meet him, mom?” she asked.

Maryse nodded. “I did. He’s very sweet. Why don’t both of you bring home people like him?” she asked, raising her eyebrows and looking between them.

“Mom!” Izzy and Jace both protested at the same time.

“What?” Maryse asked, turning back to her coffee. “I know you liked him, Izzy, but that last boy you brought home had dreadful manners.”

Isabelle shrugged. “Well, I dumped him. Trust me, I wish somebody nicer would date me.”

“You’ll find somebody. You deserve it,” Maryse assured her before turning to Jace. “And you. Some of those girls you brought home were even worse.”

“I dumped them too!” Jace whined through a mouthful of cookie.

Maryse rolled her eyes and looked to Isabelle. “Are Alec and Magnus dating?” she asked. “Alec said they weren’t but I wasn’t sure if he was just embarrassed.”

Isabelle shook his head. “I don’t think so. I offered to set them up but I think Alec would prefer to do it himself.”

Maryse hummed and stirred her coffee, but she looked like her mind was elsewhere. “He’s right. Nobody should force them.”

Isabelle sighed. “You know what Alec is like, though. It’ll be years by the time he plucks up the courage to ask him out.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Maryse said with a shrug. “They seem to like each other. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Isabelle wandered out of the kitchen and up the stairs, sighing to herself. She was going to go straight to her room, but then she heard Max’s voice.

She hesitated, but then Max was in the room, so she was sure Alec and Magnus wouldn’t be doing anything private.

She poked her head around the door and bit back a smile at the sight.

Alec and Magnus were practically laying on top of each other because of the limited floor space in Max’s room.

If Isabelle had imagined the situation, she would have imagined Alec being tense and trying to lean away from Magnus, but he looked remarkably comfortable, even though they were pressed up so close against each other.

She considered saying something, but then Magnus said something and all three of them were laughing and she decided that she would have felt guilty interrupting them, so left to help Maryse with the dinner.

Chapter Text

Alec completely lost track of time as they chatted to Max.

Before he knew it, Maryse was tapping lightly on the door and poking her head around. “Dinner will be in five minutes, boys,” she said.

Before she left, she looked between Alec and Magnus and gave Alec a knowing smile. Alec did his best to ignore that.

Max stood and climbed over Alec’s legs to dart out the door.

Magnus was sort of lying on top of Alec’s arm, so Alec didn’t want to move until Magnus did. He turned to face him, trying hard not to think about how close they were.

“Sorry. I’m sure you didn’t come here expecting to lay on my little brother’s floor for a couple of hours,” he laughed.

Magnus shook his head. “Don’t worry, I had fun. Max is sweet,” he assured him. He moved to sit up, but froze in place when he realised he was laying on top of Alec’s arm. “Sorry, I’m crushing you,” he said as he sat up straight.

Alec sat up as well. “Don’t worry. You’re not very heavy,” he said, patting Magnus’ leg. He almost leapt away when his fingers brushed against the bare skin of Magnus’ knee where his jeans were ripped, but he forced himself to stay calm.

“I still feel bad for squashing you,” Magnus said. He moved to sit up on his knees. “Shall we go? Or do we have time?”

Alec sighed and stood up. “We should go. Otherwise they’ll just…assume we were kissing or something,” he said. “Sorry about them, by the way. They got it into their heads that we’re dating and now they don’t want to drop it.”

He really did feel bad about that. He knew what his family were like and knew how to brush them off, but he didn’t know if it made Magnus uncomfortable, and he got the impression that Magnus wouldn’t tell him even if it did. He held his hands out to help Magnus up.

Magnus stayed still for a moment before taking Alec’s hands and letting him pull him to his feet. “Don’t worry, they’re really nice,” he laughed. He seemed to realise that he was still holding Alec’s hands and let go of them, letting his own hands swing by his sides.

“Let’s see if you’re still saying that after dinner with them,” Alec said. He was teasing, but he really was apprehensive about what the others might say during dinner.

Magnus had met all the Lightwoods now and he liked them all, so he felt like he should be calm about it, but he sort of felt like all four of them might be sort of overwhelming.

Eating dinner with anyone else seemed strange after spending so long eating with only his own company.

He followed Alec downstairs, trying not to think about the fact that they’d been lying down together only a couple of minutes ago and the way Alec’s face had looked at such close proximity and the solid warmth of him when Magnus had been laying on top of him.

To make things worse, he imagined he could still feel the warmth of Alec’s fingertips against the skin of his knee. It had been a small touch, but it was unexpected and things felt different when they were alone and had just been lying together like that for so long.

He tried to push those thoughts away as they went into the kitchen. Maryse was dividing pasta between their plates, Max was sitting at the table, and Isabelle and Jace were setting out knives and forks.

“You took your time,” Isabelle teased, setting down the last of the cutlery and squeezing Magnus and Alec’s arms. Neither Magnus nor Alec looked at her, but Magnus was sure she would have winked.

Alec shot Magnus an apologetic glance. “I had numb feet, I had to wait until I got the feeling back,” he said.

Isabelle patted both of their shoulders and went to help Maryse with the food.

“Do you want help with anything?” Magnus asked. He knew Maryse could handle it, but that didn’t stop him from feeling guilty that her and Isabelle were pretty much doing everything while he was just standing there.

Maryse shook her head and glanced over her shoulder at him, gesturing towards the table. “Sit down and make yourself comfortable,” she told him.

Alec held onto Magnus’ waist lightly for a moment as he slid between Magnus and the wall to help Maryse.

Magnus forced himself to stay calm. He pulled a chair out and sat beside Max, folding his legs under the table and trying not to feel bad that the others were doing all the work.

“Are you from Indonesia?” Max asked, angling himself in his chair to face Magnus.

“I am,” Magnus agreed, looking down at him. “Why?”

Max leaned closer. When he wasn’t tall enough to whisper in Magnus’ ear, he beckoned him closer.

Magnus leaned down, unable to fight a smile. Max really was sweet.

“Don’t tell him I told you, but Alec thinks your accent is cute,” Max whispered in his ear. When he pulled back, he was smiling innocently.

Magnus felt sure that Max would be able to get away with murder using that smile. “I already knew that,” he managed to say without falling over his words.

Max looked surprised. “He told you? Or did Izzy tell you?”

“He told me when we first met,” Magnus explained. He didn’t mention that Alec’s compliment (that he probably hadn’t even thought about) had been echoing around his head whenever he felt self-conscious about his accent.

“Izzy always said he was bad at flirting,” Max whispered, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Magnus could feel himself going red, but he tried to ignore that. “He wasn’t flirting,” he said quickly. “He was just being nice. I swear. Someone else was making fun of me so he was being nice,” he insisted.

Max was still grinning at him, but then Alec came to sit in the seat beside Magnus. “What are you two whispering about?” he asked. He was smiling, but he still looked sort of tense.

“Nothing,” Max said, smiling widely at Alec.

Alec turned to Magnus. “What were you really whispering about?”

“Nothing,” Magnus said. He knew his cheeks were still red, and the way Alec raised his eyebrows made it obvious that he wasn’t convinced. “Just accents,” Magnus added, shrugging.

Alec looked between them curiously. “Neither of you will tell me, will you?”

Max and Magnus both shook their heads.

Before Alec could try to interrogate them further, Isabelle, Maryse and Jace brought the food to the table and sat down.

Magnus had no idea if the family had some kind of procedure before they ate or anything, but everyone just picked up their cutlery and started eating, so he did the same.

He was just about to compliment Maryse on the food when she spoke. “How long have you been in New York, Magnus?”

“We moved last Monday,” Magnus said.

“And you started school on Monday?” Maryse asked.

Magnus nodded.
“Did you do much last week or were you just getting settled in?” she asked.

“Last week was just getting adjusted,” Magnus explained. “The time difference is twelve hours so it kind of took a while.”

Maryse nodded and swallowed a mouthful of food before continuing. “Were your parents there to keep you company or are they working already?”

“My stepfather started working as soon as we got here,” Magnus said, hoping that this line of conversation wouldn’t go for too long. “But that’s…if he’s not working, he’s not happy.”

Maryse chuckled. “He sounds like Robert,” she said. Magnus hoped Alec’s father was nothing like his own. “And what about your mom?” Maryse asked.

Magnus felt his stomach drop, but plastered a smile on his face. “Dead,” he said, realising belatedly that it was inappropriate to be smiling like that while delivering that news. Still, it was better than crying in front of the Lightwoods.

There was a moment of silence. Magnus glanced around the table, and all of the Lightwoods looked either shocked or horrified. Maybe both. He was about to apologise and perhaps try to escape and hide in the bathroom, but Maryse spoke before he could.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” she said. She looked guilty and embarrassed, and Magnus felt bad.

“Don’t worry. It was a long time ago. And there’s no way you could have known,” he assured her, smiling genuinely across the table at her.

Things were silent for another short moment. Magnus was instantly worried that he’d managed to ruin the dinner and the Lightwoods would hate him and he wouldn’t be welcome to return.

“Have you seen much of New York?” Isabelle asked, smiling at him across the table.

Magnus shook his head. “No. I spent last week watching films set in New York but I thought I would get lost if I tried to go out by myself.”

“Alec could show you around,” Isabelle suggested, looking between them and grinning devilishly.

Magnus and Alec exchanged a glance. When Magnus looked forwards again, Maryse and Isabelle were grinning at each other. Magnus tried not to think about how inviting the idea of Alec showing him around New York was.

“What have I told you about setting me up?” Alec asked.

“I’m not setting you up!” Isabelle protested. “Magnus is your friend. He doesn’t know his way around New York, you do. It might be fun for you to show him around. That’s all.”

Alec sighed, sitting back in his chair. “Fine. It still feels like you’re trying to set us up, though.”

Isabelle rolled her eyes fondly. “You’re paranoid, Alec.”

“Sure, sure. It’s completely ridiculous of me to think you might set us up,” Alec said dryly. “You should set Jace up instead. He seems to be having trouble getting a date.”

Magnus snorted into his glass of water while Isabelle started laughing through a mouthful of pasta.

Jace looked indignant. “I’m not having trouble! I’m just taking my time.”

Maryse rolled her eyes. Magnus felt like the Lightwoods had had this argument before.

“Let me guess, you’re trying out different approaches to see which one is the most effective?” Alec asked.

“Yes, actually,” Jace said defensively.

“Keep trying. She might say yes eventually,” Isabelle said, leaning around the back of Maryse to pat his shoulder.

Jace started flushing. “I wasn’t talking about anyone specific.”

“Everybody knows you have a crush on Clary,” Max said. His smirk looked eerily similar to Isabelle’s.

“I don’t!” Jace insisted. His face was very red now. It made an interesting contrast with his blonde hair.

The rest of dinner was spent goading Jace about Clary. Magnus was glad that all the attention wasn’t on him anymore – he didn’t mind talking to them, but he felt like he was under a spotlight when he was answering questions and everyone else was quiet.

When they finished, Maryse stood to gather their plates. Magnus stood straight away to help her, gathering his, Max’s and Alec’s plates.

“Sit down and relax, you don’t need to help,” Maryse told him.

Magnus shook his head and picked up the plates, following her to the counter. “I insist.”

Maryse patted his arm and returned to the table to get the empty glasses. “You’re too sweet, Magnus.”

“Yeah, stop it. You make the rest of us look bad,” Jace said as he stood up.

“Speak for yourself,” Isabelle teased, stepping over to help Magnus and Maryse load the dishwasher.

Jace groaned and darted out of the kitchen before anyone else could make fun of him.

“Do you have homework, Max?” Maryse asked, brushing his hair back from his face as he stood and crossed the kitchen.

“Yup. Maths and science,” Max said, sighing heavily.

“Come and get me if you need help,” Maryse called after him as he wandered out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Then she turned to Magnus. “Speaking of help, you don’t need to help, Magnus. I’m sure Alec will entertain you upstairs.”

Alec nodded and gestured towards the door. “Unless you’re really desperate to keep going with the dishwasher.”

Magnus shook his head and straightened up from where he’d been putting a plate in the dishwasher. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help?”

Maryse shook her head. “Of course. You’re our guest. Go and have fun,” she told him. “Help yourselves to any snacks before Jace eats everything in the house,” she added.

Magnus laughed, thanking her before following Alec out of the room. They went back to Alec’s bedroom, and Alec closed the door firmly behind them.

“That was…something,” he laughed, turning to face Magnus with a sheepish smile. “Sorry about them.”

“You really don’t have to apologise,” Magnus assured him. “They’re nice.”

Alec nodded slowly and sat on the edge of his bed. “Yeah. But…well, I’m sorry if my mom made you uncomfortable. Asking about your mom,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn’t seem to want to make eye contact with Magnus.

Magnus sat beside him and bumped their shoulders together. “It’s really fine. She didn’t know,” he insisted. “Did I tell you about my mom?”

Alec shook his head and looked over at him.

“Exactly, she had no way to know,” Magnus said firmly. “Anyway, it happened when I was about ten. A long time ago. It’s still sad, but…you know.”

Alec sighed and hovered his hand above Magnus’ leg for a second. Magnus thought he was going to drop it, but he squeezed Magnus’ knee. “Still. Sorry you had to tell us all about it even if you didn’t want to.”

Magnus smiled at him. “It’s honestly fine. I wasn’t deliberately hiding it from you or anything, it’s just never seemed appropriate to bring up the whole ‘my mom is dead’ thing while we’re chatting at school.”

Alec nodded and took a deep breath. “Right. That’s good,” he murmured.

They gazed at each other for a moment, and Magnus felt his heartbeat pick up.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Alec blurted out.

Magnus automatically sat up straighter. It felt like the room had come back into focus now that he wasn’t trapped in a bubble with Alec. “That would be nice,” he agreed.

Alec picked up his laptop from his desk, putting it at the foot of the bed. He scooted back to lean against the headboard and patted the space beside him.

Magnus shuffled to sit next to him, stretching his legs out along the bed while Alec opened Netflix.

“What do you feel like watching?” Alec asked, scrolling through the various lists.

Magnus watched the movies and TV shows scroll past. “I don’t know. Anything. Any recommendations?”

Alec shrugged. “I don’t know. Something Marvel?” he suggested.

“Marvel is fun,” Magnus agreed.

Alec clicked through to the Marvel movies, and they eventually decided on Captain America. They switched the lights off and pressed play, settling down to watch the movie.

When the first Captain America finished, it wasn’t nine o’clock yet.

Alec stretched his arms above his head and turned to Magnus. “Do you need to be home by a certain time?” he asked, glancing over at Magnus.

Magnus shook his head. “No,” he said. His stepfather didn’t know he was at Alec’s, but he doubted he’d even notice that he was gone. “Do I need to leave by a certain time?”

“No. You can stay as long as you want,” Alec told him.

Magnus wondered if the Lightwoods would object to him just staying there for good.

“Do you want to watch the next one?” Alec asked, the mouse hovering over the Winter Soldier.

Magnus didn’t hesitate to nod. “Of course. You can never have too much Captain America,” he teased, shifting on the bed to get more comfortable.

Alec laughed and clicked on the movie, settling back next to Magnus.

Alec couldn’t concentrate on the film for a while. He and Magnus weren’t touching, but he was very aware of how close together they were sitting.

Eventually he managed to focus on the movie, letting himself think about that and nothing else for a while.

They were halfway through the movie when something touched Alec’s shoulder. He nearly flinched away from it, but he looked down and Magnus’ eyes were closed, his head dropped down against Alec’s shoulder.

Alec knew he should wake him up. He would probably want to go home, and his neck would hurt if he stayed in that position, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He’d come to notice that Magnus tended to look kind of nervous when he thought nobody was watching him, and sometimes it was easy to tell that his smiles were fake.

Now, though, he looked relaxed. His hair was starting to fall across his forehead and his eyeliner was smudged on his right eye, and he suddenly looked very young.

Magnus always seemed older than he was for some reason. Maybe it was the air of confidence he always seemed to have, or the fact that he was so tall, or the way he dressed or his makeup.

Whatever it was, it was easy to forget that he was the same age as Alec and was dealing with the same things and more.

He tried not to move as he reached over to turn the volume down on the movie.

It finished at around eleven o’clock. Alec let the credits roll, unwilling to move. Part of him hoped that Magnus would wake up by himself, but he knew it was unlikely. He’d been sleeping for over an hour now and he seemed comfortable.

(He seemed even more comfortable now that he’d shifted to lay on his side, his face very close to Alec’s neck).

Halfway through the credits, Maryse tapped the door and poked her head around it. “Is Magnus–” she began, but cut herself short when she saw Magnus’ position.

“He fell asleep,” Alec said. He realised after a moment that this was stating the obvious. “Should probably wake him up,” he added. He supposed it would be easier now that his mother was here.

“He can stay over if he wants to,” Maryse whispered, reaching over to brush Alec’s hair back from his forehead. “He’s very nice.”

Alec glanced down at Magnus and tried not to smile too widely. “He is. I’ll wake him up and ask if he wants to stay,” he murmured.

Maryse nodded. “Let him borrow some pyjamas. And I’m sure Isabelle can give him makeup remover,” she said before leaving. After a moment, she reappeared at the door. “And we have spare toothbrushes.”

Alec wiggled his fingers at her and she left again. This time, he heard her footsteps crossing the landing.

He took a deep breath and considered how to wake Magnus. He didn’t want to shrug his shoulder and make his head fall, so instead reached down to shake his leg gently.

“Magnus?” he asked, patting his leg above his knee.

Magnus mumbled something incomprehensible, then his eyes flew open and he jolted upright, looking panicked.

“It’s okay, you just fell asleep,” Alec said quickly, letting go of his thigh when he realised he was still holding it.

Magnus seemed to relax, his shoulders dropping as he took in Alec and the laptop and the dark room. “Sorry,” he said, his voice still hoarse from sleep.

Alec smiled gently at him. “It’s okay. Mom just came in, she asked if you wanted to stay over?”

Magnus looked a little surprised. “Really? That’s nice of her. I mean. I don’t have to if you don’t want me to.”

“Of course I want you to,” Alec said, probably a bit too quickly. “I mean, it’s late. I’d feel bad making you go all the way home by yourself.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Magnus asked. He was frowning slightly and Alec was very tempted to hug him.

He settled for squeezing his shoulder instead. “Trust me, she wouldn’t have offered if she wasn’t okay with it,” he assured him. “Do you want some pyjamas?”

Magnus rubbed his eye, dropping his hand again when he remembered that he was still wearing makeup. Alec had to stifle a laugh at his smeared eyeliner – he looked like a very tired (and very cute) raccoon.

To stop himself from thinking about the fact that Magnus was cute, he stood from the bed and opened a couple of drawers, trying to find something that wouldn’t be too huge on Magnus.

They were similar heights, but years of football and training had left Alec with broad shoulders and muscles, while Magnus was thin and bony.

He found a t-shirt that was too small for him and dug out an old pair of sweatpants, putting them on the edge of the bed. “Are those okay?” he asked, glancing up at Magnus.

“They’re perfect. Thank you,” Magnus said, smiling up at Alec. At least he looked more cheerful now. He shuffled off the bed and stood, picking up the shirt.

Alec was tempted to stay and get changed himself, but he thought it would probably be inappropriate the last thing he wanted to do was make Magnus uncomfortable.

“I’ll go and see if Izzy can give you makeup remover,” he said, smiling at Magnus before slipping out of the room.

He leaned against the door and took a deep breath. He was more than happy for Magnus to stay over – the thought of being able to spend more time alone with him sent a strange, excited thrill through Alec – but he was sure he’d have butterflies in his stomach the whole time Magnus was there.

Before anyone could find him there, he walked down the landing and knocked on Isabelle’s door.

He barely had to wait before Izzy opened the door. “Yes, brother dearest?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe. She looked far younger now that she was in pyjamas and glasses and no makeup.

Alec realised as soon as he opened his mouth that Isabelle would probably tease him relentlessly about Magnus staying over. And that she would tell Jace, and Jace would whine about Alec being allowed to have his ‘boyfriend’ over to stay the night.

He had no other way of providing makeup remover, and he doubted Magnus would want to keep his makeup on while he slept, so he sighed and folded his arms across himself. “Do you have any makeup remover?”

Isabelle narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you wearing concealer?” she asked.

“No. It’s for Magnus,” he explained. Maybe she wouldn’t ask questions.

This was Isabelle, though, and if she didn’t ask questions she wouldn’t be herself. “For Magnus? Is he staying?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

Alec closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Yes, he’s staying. He fell asleep when we were watching a movie and Mom said he could.”

“How cute,” Isabelle cooed, reaching up to pat Alec’s cheek.

Alec let her. If he was cooperative, maybe she wouldn’t harass him too much.

She disappeared back into her room and poked around the things on her dresser until she found a bottle of makeup remover and some cotton pads. She handed them to Alec. “Come and get me if he needs anything else,” she said brightly before leaning closer to him. “Jace has condoms,” she whispered.

Alec turned away from her and walked back to his room, cheeks aflame. He could hear her laughing as she closed her bedroom door.

In his haste to get back into his room and away from his siblings, he forgot to knock, and immediately panicked when the door opened. He raised the pack of cotton pads to cover his eyes before he could accidentally ogle Magnus.

“Are you decent?” he asked, kicking the door shut behind him.

Magnus laughed and reached up to take the cotton pads away from Alec’s eyes. “Don’t worry, I would have screamed if I wasn’t.”

Alec glanced down at Magnus’ attire. The shirt was still baggy on him, the collar dipping below his collarbones. The sweatpants also looked too big, but Magnus had tied the string around the waistband as tight as it would go.

“Isabelle’s clothes would probably fit you better,” Alec said, handing him the makeup remover things and picking up his own pyjamas.

“She’s a lot shorter, though. It would be a cropped shirt,” Magnus said, smirking. His eyes flicked to where Alec was unfolding his pyjamas. “Which one is the bathroom?” he asked, opening the bedroom door.

“Oh. Second door on the left,” Alec told him, relieved that he wouldn’t need to attempt to change with Magnus in the room. Admittedly, they’d sort of seen each other in their underwear in the changing rooms at school, but that was school. Everyone saw each other in their underwear there.

Magnus slipped out of the room and left Alec to his own devices.

When he was alone in the bathroom, Magnus took a deep breath.

He didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky, or how long his luck would last, but he wasn’t about to complain.

He’d panicked when he’d woken up. For a moment, the unfamiliar surroundings and being woken up by another person had freaked him out, but then he’d recognised Alec and noticed the Captain America credits.

Then he’d had the horrible realisation that he was going to have to go home and face his father, who would probably be angry at him for staying out so late.

But then Alec had offered him the chance to stay.

Magnus’ initial impulse was to say no. He didn’t want to inconvenience the Lightwoods, and the last thing he wanted was to make Alec uncomfortable, but Alec had kind of insisted.

He stared at himself in the mirror for a few seconds.

He felt like he should be embarrassed that Alec had seen him in this state. His hair was all over the place and his eyeliner was wrecked beyond repair, but Alec had still looked at him with the same warm smile, his stupidly pretty eyes making Magnus want to kiss him.

But he couldn’t think about kissing Alec. Not when he was about to sleep with him. ‘ Not like that, Magnus. Mind out of the gutter,’ he thought to himself as he started wiping at his eyes to get the makeup off.

He didn’t even know if he would be sleeping in Alec’s bed with him. Maybe they had a futon or something.

After getting all the makeup off and running his hands through his hair a few times, he stepped out of the bathroom and pretty much walked into Alec who had been standing outside.

Magnus was tempted to just step forward and throw himself against Alec, but he just stepped back, suddenly feeling self-conscious. It was one thing for Alec to see him with slightly messy hair and smudged makeup, but no makeup and his hair like this was a different story altogether.

He liked to think that his makeup and hair and fancy clothes distracted people from the things he didn’t like about himself. His thinness; his weird, gangly long limbs; his bony, sharp joints; his nose…he could easily go on.

But Alec didn’t look disgusted. Magnus was sure he was imagining it but he was sure Alec’s cheeks looked a little red as he leaned against the doorframe.

“I forgot to tell you we have spare toothbrushes under the sink,” he said. “So you don’t have to feel gross all night or anything. Not that you’re gross! You’re not gross at all. Just…” he trailed off and gestured towards the sink. “If you need it.”

After Magnus thanked him, Alec went back to his room. Magnus turned back to the mirror. He groaned quietly when he noticed that his cheeks were noticeably red.

Alec dashed back to his room. He wouldn’t go as far as actually screaming into a pillow, but he felt like he needed to.

He’d been brushing his teeth in Isabelle’s ensuite bathroom when he remembered that he hadn’t given Magnus a toothbrush. He finished brushing his own teeth and went back to the bathroom.

He stood outside for a minute trying to convince himself to knock, but then Magnus had opened the door and walked into him and Alec had nearly fallen over then and there because oh god.

Magnus looked good on a normal day – better than good, in fact – but nothing could have prepared Alec to see him with his hair all messy like that and no makeup and wearing Alec’s shirt, for god’s sake…

Alec didn’t scream into his pillow, but he did lie down, taking a few deep breaths. He needed to be able to act like a human being, at least until Magnus fell asleep. Even if he was sharing the bed with the epitome of human beauty.

Or maybe Magnus wouldn’t be comfortable with sharing a bed with Alec.

Alec couldn’t put his finger on how that concept made him feel. It was something like disappointment, but not really disappointment. Anyway, the thought of sleeping on the sofa when he knew Magnus was just upstairs was almost painful.

It felt like no time at all had passed when someone tapped on his door and Magnus stepped back inside.

Alec smiled up at him, folding his hands behind his head. “Did you have everything you need?”

“Yes, thank you. Am I sleeping in here or would you prefer me to sleep on the sofa or something?” Magnus asked, taking his folded clothes off the bed and putting them on the floor.

Alec lifted his head to watch him. When he bent to put his clothes down, his t-shirt fell forwards and Alec could just barely see his chest. He forced himself not to stare, instead looking at Magnus’ face.

“You can sleep in here. If you’d prefer to be alone I can sleep downstairs, though,” he told him.

Magnus shook his head. “I wouldn’t make you sleep downstairs, I’d feel too guilty to sleep,” he said, eyeing Alec’s bed. He seemed to think about it for a couple of seconds before carefully climbing over Alec’s legs to sit on the side closest to the wall.

Alec made himself stay still. He had never seen Magnus in anything other than his jeans and leather jacket (apart from that time in gym, but he’d still been wearing makeup and his hair had been styled), and now he was wearing Alec’s pyjamas and climbing over him to lay beside him in bed.

It was overwhelming in the best way possible.

Alec tried to suppress the ridiculous, dopey smile spreading across his face, but he didn’t think he was doing a good job. At least the room was dark.

“Thank you for letting me stay,” Magnus murmured. Alec could feel him shifting around on the bed.

When he turned his head, Magnus was laying on his side, facing him. Alec forced himself to smile normally. “It’s no problem. I don’t think I would’ve been able to sleep if I’d been thinking about you getting home by yourself.”

Even in the darkness Magnus looked beautiful, his eyelashes and cheekbones casting shadows across his face.

“It’s still nice of you. And nice of your mom,” Magnus said, poking at the material of Alec’s sheets. “Your family is so nice.”

Alec laughed sheepishly. “They’re…really something,” he agreed. He loved them a lot, of course, but they could be a lot to handle. Especially when all of them had been sort of flirting with Magnus on Alec’s behalf. “You don’t have to go around New York with me, by the way. If you don’t want to. You know what Isabelle is like.”

Magnus looked up at him. “I…well. It could be fun,” he said carefully. “I mean. If you don’t want to, it’s fine. You’ve lived here forever, I’m sure it wouldn’t be very exciting for you to show me around.”

Alec nearly laughed again. Magnus couldn’t be more wrong: the thought of showing him around made Alec more excited than he’d been for anything in a long time.

(Maybe he was already planning what they’d do. Maybe he was also imagining it too much like a date. He removed ‘share a pretzel’ from his mental list).

“If you want to see New York, I’m happy to show you around,” he assured him. “I know nice places. I think. And you won’t have to get lost or pay for a ridiculous tour or anything.”

Magnus grinned at him. Alec was glad it wasn’t any brighter in the room or he probably would have died then and there. Nobody should have the right to be that attractive.

“Thank you, Alec,” he whispered, breaking off to yawn.

Alec once again had to fight the urge to scream into a pillow. He wanted to hug Magnus tight and never let go, but instead he sat up and tugged gently at the corner of the blankets.

Magnus got the message and sat up, letting Alec pull the blankets over both of them.

When they were laying on top of the blankets, it had felt like there was plenty of distance between them, but now they were underneath them, it felt like they were extremely close together.

Magnus yawned again, rolling onto his side and facing the wall. “Will you be offended if I fall asleep?” he mumbled, shuffling around some more.

Alec lay on his back again, looking over at Magnus. Even his back was attractive. “I’ll be super offended,” he told him, but now that he was under the covers, his voice had started to slur just slightly with sleep.

Magnus laughed quietly. “Goodnight, Alec,” he whispered.

“Goodnight, Magnus,” Alec murmured, watching him for another moment.

He managed to stay awake long enough to set an alarm on his phone, but then he fell asleep quickly, listening to the sound of Magnus’ breathing.

Chapter Text

For the first time in a long time, Magnus woke up feeling relaxed.

He wasn’t fully awake yet, but he was curled up on his side and Alec was warm and solid behind him and–

That thought woke him up.

Alec’s chest was pressed against Magnus’ back and his nose was buried in Magnus’ hair.

Magnus was quite sure they hadn’t fallen asleep like this. He could remember falling asleep quickly, extremely aware of Alec lying inches away from him but being careful not to touch him.

Now he kind of wished he had stayed awake to make the most of it. There was barely any room between Alec and the wall, but Magnus was extremely content to be there.

It was impossible to tell what time it was. The thick curtains were drawn so no light could get into the room and Magnus couldn’t see any clocks. The house was quiet, though, so he assumed it was still early.

He was surrounded by the scent of Alec and it was intoxicating. He would have been happy to sleep on the floor of Alec’s room or something, but this had been an unexpected treat.

Alec moved his arm, draping it across Magnus’ waist. Magnus could have freaked out, but he forced himself to stay still. He could handle this.

Magnus shifted to get more comfortable, thinking that he might get some more sleep before they had to get up, but moving made his too-big shirt ride up ( Alec’s shirt, his brain helpfully supplied) and Alec’s hand was suddenly pressed against his bare stomach.

Part of Magnus wanted to push Alec’s hand away. He had seen Alec’s ridiculous abs (and his arms and chest), and Magnus knew his weird skinny body was no comparison.

But he didn’t want to wake Alec up. He carefully looked over his shoulder and saw that Alec was still sleeping soundly, his hair tousled and face relaxed.

Magnus could have stared at him for hours, but he forced himself to look forwards again. He couldn’t imagine how weird it would be to wake up with somebody staring at your face at such close proximity.

He settled against Alec, tensing whenever Alec’s hand moved against his stomach, and soon managed to drift back to sleep.

Alec was pleased that he’d woken up before his alarm.

It was always nice to have some time to lay around before having to get up.

He moved and for a moment he thought one of Isabelle’s stuffed animals had got onto his bed somehow, but instead of the soft fluff of one of her toys, it felt more like hair against his nose.

When he pulled back, he froze.

Magnus.

Magnus had just stayed over so he wouldn’t have to go home on his own, and now Alec was practically spooning the boy.

In fact, he was literally spooning him. There was no avoiding the fact.

And his hand was on Magnus’ stomach.

Alec just tried his best not to freak out. He hoped Magnus wasn’t awake. What if he’d put his hand on Magnus’ stomach and it had been really cold and woken Magnus up?

“Magnus?” Alec whispered. He rubbed his thumb against his stomach automatically, but made himself stop. That was probably weird.

At least he was sure Magnus was asleep. He didn’t respond apart from his stomach muscles shifting in response to Alec’s touch.

Alec tried not to think about that too much. He buried his nose in the back of Magnus’ hair and held onto him, his mind still foggy with sleep.

At least they could have these few minutes before they had to get up.

When the alarm went off, Magnus groaned.

The last thing he wanted to do was get up. Alec’s bed was warm and comfortable and it was nice being wrapped up in Alec’s arms.

All too soon, Alec let go of Magnus. He reached over and switched his alarm off, but when it had stopped blaring, Alec turned back to Magnus. “Are you awake?”

Magnus was just about to answer when Alec leaned over him carefully. When he saw that Magnus was awake, he smiled.

“Hi,” Magnus said, rolling onto his back. “Did you sleep okay?”

Alec nodded. “Sorry for probably crushing you during the night,” he said sheepishly.

Magnus laughed and shook his head. “You weren’t crushing me, it’s fine,” he said firmly. He still felt like he could feel Alec’s hand on his stomach, but he ignored that.

“Do you want to come and get breakfast?” Alec asked, sitting up and stretching his arms above his head.

Magnus stared at Alec’s arms for a moment. He really was annoyingly attractive. “That would be nice,” he managed to say as he sat up and shuffled over to the edge of the bed.

“I don’t think we have anything fancy, it’ll just be toast or cereal or whatever,” Alec said.

Magnus stood up and stretched his arms above his head, yawning. “It’s fine. I don’t usually have time for breakfast so anything is an improvement.”

Alec chuckled and led Magnus out of the room and through the house. When they got to the kitchen, Isabelle was already waiting by the toaster wearing pyjamas with her hair twisted up into a neat bun.

She turned around when Alec and Magnus came into the kitchen. She smiled at Alec, but her eyes widened just a fraction when she saw Magnus.

That was all the reminder Magnus needed that he looked like shit.

“You look so cute,” Isabelle said, stepping over and reaching up to pat Magnus’ cheek. “Well, you look cute all the time. But it’s usually the intimidating kind of cute.”

It was far too early in the morning for this. Magnus didn’t know what to say, instead just blinking a couple of times.

“Don’t you think he looks cute?” Isabelle asked, turning to Alec.

Alec looked startled. “I…he…yeah,” he muttered. When he turned back to the coffee machine, his cheeks looked quite red.

Isabelle laughed softly and let go of Magnus’ face. “Would you like toast, Magnus?” she asked, turning around just in time to catch the toast as it popped out of the toaster.

“That would be nice,” Magnus agreed, leaning against the counter beside Alec.

Isabelle put another couple of slices of bread in the toaster while Alec glanced at Magnus.

“Coffee?” he offered, gesturing towards the coffee put which was steadily filling.

Magnus just nodded. This was clearly a familiar family routine, and it felt a million miles away from Magnus’ usual routine of getting out of bed, getting dressed and dashing out of the apartment before his stepfather could see him.

Alec poured three mugs of coffee, offering Magnus the mug with cats on it. “You like cats, right?”

“I love cats,” Magnus agreed, taking the mug.

“Do you take sugar or milk?” Alec asked.

Magnus had already started taking a sip, so just shook his head. “I’m fine without.”

Alec nodded and Isabelle slid a plate of toast over to Magnus. “We have butter, jam and Nutella. There might be more if you look through the cupboards.”

Magnus followed her gestures and opened one of the cupboards where he quickly found some raspberry jam. He spread some onto his toast and followed Alec to sit at the table.

They ate in tired silence for a while, but Isabelle turned around when she finished her breakfast. “Do you have makeup with you?” she asked, patting Magnus’ hair.

Magnus shook his head. “No. I was planning on just going to school like this.”

“I have some things you can borrow if you like,” Isabelle suggested, grinning at him. “I mean, you’d still have people falling at your feet if you went in like that because you look nice. But if you want makeup, feel free.”

Magnus smiled up at her. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

“Knock on my door when you need me,” Isabelle said, squeezing his shoulder before disappearing from the kitchen.

Alec leaned closer and bumped his shoulder against Magnus’. “Sorry. She can be overbearing at the best of times but in the mornings…” he trailed off and shuddered, taking a sip of his coffee.

Magnus laughed and knocked his knee against Alec’s beneath the table. “You don’t have to apologise, trust me. She’s lovely.”

Alec drank the last of his coffee and stood up. “Are you done?” he asked, gesturing to Magnus’ empty mug and plate.

Magnus nodded and stood up. “Do you want help? I feel bad making you do everything.”

Alec laughed and shook his head, putting the dishes in the dishwasher. “It’s nothing, trust me,” he assured him. “Do you need to shower or anything?”

“I think I’ll be fine for today,” Magnus said, following Alec upstairs. “Does my hair look really awful?”

“No! No. It looks great,” Alec said quickly. He glanced over his shoulder at Magnus, his cheeks pink. “It looks fine.”

Magnus was a little surprised at Alec’s enthusiastic compliment, but he certainly wasn't about to complain. He picked up his clothes from the bedroom floor and lay them out on the bed.

“I’ll go and brush my teeth,” Alec said quickly, grabbing his own clothes. “I mean…uh. You know. Give you some privacy.”

Magnus was tempted to tell him that he wouldn’t mind Alec being there, but that would also probably be wildly inappropriate. “Okay,” he said instead. “Did Isabelle mean it when she said I could use her makeup or was she just being nice?”

Alec paused at the door, turning to face Magnus. “She meant it. Trust me, I know Izzy and she doesn’t say things if she doesn’t mean them.”

Magnus nodded slowly. “Good to know,” he said.

Alec grinned at him one last time before leaving the room.

Magnus got dressed, staring at himself in the mirror. He didn’t mind his face without makeup, but now he was alone he let himself think about the way Alec had flushed when he had been asked whether he thought Magnus looked cute.

He had either been caught on the spot and had to lie quickly, or he really did think Magnus was cute.

Magnus hoped it was the latter.

Before he could think about it too much, there was a gentle knock on the door.

“Come in,” Magnus said.

Alec stepped into the room, smiling when he saw that Magnus was fully dressed. “Are you okay with walking to school, by the way? The weather is sort of horrible so we can get the bus if you want.”

“Walking is fine,” Magnus assured him. Walking was a welcome change to his usual bus ride. “Will I have time to do my makeup quickly?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course. We have about twenty minutes before we have to leave if we want to walk normally. Half an hour if we want to speed walk,” Alec agreed, grinning.

Magnus laughed and stepped out of Alec’s bedroom. He looked up and down the hallway before turning and stepping back into Alec’s room.

“Which one is Isabelle’s room?” he asked.

Alec had been smoothing the duvet over his bed. He looked up when Magnus came back, smiling sheepishly. “Turn left, it’s the first door on the right.”

Magnus nodded and stepped back outside. He knocked on the door, hoping he’d understood Alec’s directions properly.

There was a muffled clatter from inside and then Isabelle was pulling the door open. She was fully dressed now, and had a mascara wand in her hand. “Come in,” she said with a grin.

Magnus allowed himself to be pulled into her room. It smelled faintly of perfume, and every surface seemed to have something on it, but it was relatively tidy and very homey.

“What do you need?” Isabelle asked, putting another couple of coats of mascara on each eye before putting it back.

“Just eyeliner, I guess,” Magnus said with a shrug. “I don’t want to use up all your stuff.”

Isabelle shook her head and took Magnus’ arm, pulling him to sit on the stool in front of her dressing table. “Will you let me do your makeup for you?”

Magnus nodded immediately. Isabelle’s makeup always looked nothing short of impeccable and he was sure she wouldn’t intentionally make him look ridiculous.

Isabelle beamed and picked up a bottle of primer. “Close your eyes,” she said.

Magnus obeyed, and she started gently rubbing the primer over his eyelids.

“So did you sleep well last night?” Isabelle asked, pushing his hair back gently as she continued to put the primer on.

“I did,” Magnus agreed, trying to keep his face still.

He heard Isabelle picking up and putting down a couple of things, but then she started sweeping an eyeshadow brush over his eyelids. “Did you snuggle with Alec?” she asked. A grin was audible in her voice.

Magnus opened one eye. “I wouldn’t tell you even if I did,” he said, unable to keep his lips from pulling up into a smirk.

Isabelle gestured for him to close his eye again, and he did so. “You looked nice in Alec’s shirt, by the way,” she said, pinching his nose playfully.

Magnus snorted and shook his head. “Thanks. It was just further proof that Alec is out of my league,” he said. He hadn’t strictly intended to say that out loud, but he couldn’t exactly take it back now.

“What do you mean by that?” Isabelle asked. “Open your eyes.”

Magnus opened his eyes and tried to stay still as she continued to brush eyeshadow across his skin. “I mean Alec is…well. He has an impressive physique,” he said carefully. “I do not.”

Isabelle shook her head and leaned from side to side. “You try telling Alec that,” she murmured. She put the eyeshadow away, seemingly satisfied, and picked up an eyeliner pen.

Magnus tried to keep his eyes as still as possible while she leaned close and started working on the eyeliner. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Alec thinks you’re attractive and he’d be shocked and appalled to know you were thinking like that,” Isabelle said, carefully sweeping the eyeliner out in a wing.

Magnus blinked before she could start on the other eye, leaning back slightly. “Thinks I’m attractive? Has he confirmed this?”

“You were there,” Isabelle said, drawing eyeliner on the other eye when Magnus leaned forward again. “In the kitchen. I asked if he thought you were cute.”

When she was finished with the eyeliner, Magnus shrugged. “He was hardly going to say he thinks I’m ugly when I was standing right there.”

Isabelle chuckled and shook her head. “Trust me, Magnus. I know my brother and I know he thinks you’re attractive, even if he’s too paranoid to tell you himself.”

“We’re just friends,” Magnus said firmly. No matter how much he might want something more, he didn’t want to rush it and end up ruining what little hope they might have.

“I know. I won’t force you into anything,” Isabelle said softly. She patted Magnus’ hair and leaned back to look at her handiwork. “You’re so handsome. It’s not fair. But it’s nice to have someone who lets me do their makeup.”

Magnus smiled and turned to look at himself in the mirror. Isabelle really did know her way around an eyeshadow palette; his makeup looked neater than he could ever make it by himself. “Thank you, Isabelle.”

“Wait, I need to set it,” Isabelle said quickly. Magnus closed her eyes and let Magnus squirt the setting spray over his face, then she straightened up. “Your skin is so perfect. It’s not fair.”

Magnus laughed and stood up, patting his pocket to make sure he had his phone. “My skin might be nice but the rest of my life is a mess.”

Isabelle snorted and swatted his butt as he left the room. “See you at school,” she called after him.

Alec was waiting in the hallway holding an umbrella. He stared at Magnus for a moment when he came out of Isabelle’s room. “You look nice,” he said after a moment, grinning at him.

“Thank you. So do you,” Magnus said, running his hands through his hair a couple of times to push it back from his face. “Shall we go?”

Alec nodded and they went downstairs where they bumped into Max. “Hi,” he said brightly. “Will you come over again?” he asked, turning his gaze on Magnus.

Magnus looked from Max to Alec and back again. “If Alec wants me to, then yeah.”

“I’ll invite him again, don’t worry,” Alec said, ruffling Max’s hair. “See you later, Max. Have fun at school.”

“You too!” Magnus called after them as they stepped out of the door.
It was pouring with rain. Alec immediately put the umbrella up. It was one of the small umbrellas, and wasn’t quite big enough for them to walk beneath comfortably.

Magnus leaned closer to Alec. When they started talking, and it was more difficult to maneuver the umbrella, Magnus hesitated for a moment before looping his arm through Alec’s.

“Is this okay?” he asked, glancing at Alec’s face.

Alec looked pleasantly surprised. “It’s fine,” he agreed, and his grin made it feel like the sun had come out.

Even though the rain was still drumming against the umbrella and there was a chilly wind in the air, Magnus was certainly content to be arm-in-arm with Alec as they walked, squashed together under a too-small umbrella.

Chapter Text

People gave Magnus and Alec curious glances as they walked into school together.

Magnus started to unlink their arms, but Alec looked over at him. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” Magnus agreed. “I thought you wouldn’t want to…encourage rumours.”

Alec laughed quietly and shook his head. “I’m pretty sure there are already rumours.”

“Really?” Magnus asked. “I haven’t even been here for a week.”

“I know. But neither of us are straight and we’ve talked to each other, so we’re obviously in love,” Alec teased.

Magnus snorted. Of course that was a ridiculous assumption that people needed to stop making, but he wasn’t about to mention that he really would be happy to go out with Alec.

“Thank you again for letting me stay over,” he said, letting go of Alec’s arm when they got inside and Alec had to fold the umbrella down.

Alec shook his head. “It’s fine, I had fun. You can come over again whenever. If you want.”

Magnus resisted the urge to beg Alec to let him live there permanently. “Thank you. Tell your family thank you, as well.”

“I will,” Alec said, bumping their shoulders together as they walked. “Anyway, even if I didn’t invite you over again, Max would come here and invite you himself.”

Magnus laughed. “Max is lovely. Your whole family is. I would invite you to come to my house but it wouldn’t be as fun.”

“I’m sure it would be fun. We wouldn’t be interrupted every five minutes by my family coming to bother us,” Alec teased.

“Oh, come on. They’re sweet,” Magnus insisted. “If my stepfather came to bother us it would probably be to kick you out or something. He’s not very friendly.”

Alec squeezed Magnus’ elbow gently. “Well, you can come over whenever. Max and mom would be thrilled to see you again.”

They had reached Magnus’ locker. Magnus didn’t even try opening it, instead just gesturing for Alec to go ahead.

Alec got it open and Magnus retrieved his books.

“See you later?” Alec asked, leaning against the locker beside Magnus’.

Magnus nodded. “Definitely. Have fun in class.”

“You too,” Alec said, giving Magnus one last smile before turning away to go to his class.

Magnus watched him go. If anyone asked, he would deny that he let his eyes linger on Alec’s butt for longer than was acceptable for a pair of friends.

When he arrived in registration, Catarina and Ragnor were already at their usual table. Magnus sat beside Catarina.

“Morning,” she said cheerfully, reaching over to squeeze Magnus’ wrist. “Did you stay at Alec’s house last night?”

“Where did you hear that?” Magnus asked, folding his legs under the table and putting his books on the desk.

“I saw you walking in together,” she said. “You certainly looked very cosy. Did anything…happen?”

Ragnor was staring straight ahead, but Magnus kept catching him glancing over. He really was terrible at pretending he wasn’t interested in gossip.

“Nothing happened,” Magnus said firmly. “I only stayed over because I fell asleep watching a movie. It was fun, though.”

Catarina grinned and elbowed him gently. “That sounds like fun. Did you cuddle?” she asked.

Ragnor was smirking. Magnus was quite sure they’d been discussing it before he had arrived.

He was saved from answering her question when the teacher started talking.

Magnus certainly wouldn’t complain if people thought he and Alec were dating, but it would inevitably get tiring if people kept asking questions like that.

10.38am

Alec: Are people asking you questions?

Magnus: Yes, it’s very strange

Magnus: I’m telling them all we eloped last night

Alec: That’s a relief, I’ve been telling them the same thing

Magnus: Good! :) Maybe they’ll stop asking soon

Alec: I doubt it

Magnus: Same

Alec: Will u be at lunch today?

Magnus: I have no other plans so yes

Alec: Do you want to sit together again?

Alec: It’s fine if u want to sit somewhere else to stop the rumours

Magnus: What rumours?? We’re married, of course we need to sit together

Alec: Wow sorry I forgot

Magnus: Forgot?!?!? I want a divorce

Alec: Babe no

Magnus: Babe yes. Pack your things.

Alec: Give me one more chance?

Magnus: Fine. One. But ur sleeping on the sofa tonight

Alec: Please no

Magnus: I’ll have more than five inches of bed to use

Alec: Oh my god

Alec: I’m sorry for crushing you in your sleep

Magnus: It’s fine, it was nice

Magnus: That sounded creepy

Magnus: Sorry

Alec: It’s fine

Alec: Not creepy

Magnus: Phew

Magnus: I guess u can sleep in the bed

Alec: Thanks babe xox

Magnus: You’ll just have to make it up to me ;)

Magnus: I didn’t mean to use that winky face I’m so sorry

Alec: It’s fine! I should stop texting before my phone gets confiscated

Alec: See u at lunch?

Magnus: See you :)

1.06pm

Magnus sat at the table in the cafeteria that they had been at a few days before.

He didn’t know what had come over him earlier when he had been texting Alec – it was easier to be flirty when he wasn’t staring at his beautiful face – but Alec thankfully hadn’t seemed to mind.

Ragnor sat beside him, looking irritable as usual. “Will you ever ask Alec out?”

“I don’t know,” Magnus said, glancing over at him. “Not right now, anyway. I don’t want to rush things.”

“So you’ll make us deal with your sexual tension until you decide to do it?” Ragnor asked.

Magnus rolled his eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Alec chose that moment to approach the table. He had evidently just come from football practice and his hair was still damp from the shower, and his shirt was clinging to his chest.

So maybe Magnus had a faint idea of what Ragnor was talking about.

He forced himself not to stare, smiling at Alec as he slid into the seat beside Magnus. “Did you have a fun practice?”

Alec nodded, putting his pot of pasta on the table. “It was good. At least we got out on time for lunch.”

Magnus snorted, poking his fork into his own pasta. “I don’t think I’d survive the afternoon without lunch. Even if it is crappy pasta.”

“If we’d mentioned how awful the lunch is here mom probably would have made lunch for you to bring today,” Alec teased.

“She would not,” Magnus laughed, rolling his eyes.

“She would. And she would have made me bring you something for lunch every day,” Alec said, laughing. “Trust me. She thinks you’re lovely.”

Magnus rolled his eyes fondly and took a bite of the terrible pasta. “She’s very nice. Tell her thanks.”

“I will. And she’ll talk about you for the next seven years,” Alec said.

Magnus glanced sideways at Ragnor. He was pretending to gag. Magnus elbowed him in the ribs.

Catarina came to sit beside Ragnor. She started chatting to him which was a relief since it meant he was distracted from making fun of Magnus and Alec.

While they ate and talked, Magnus kept catching people looking at them.

A couple of people had asked him whether or not he was involved with Alec throughout the day, but he hadn’t expected this.

Maybe people were interested since Alec was a handsome football player. Maybe since Magnus was still fairly new to the school.

EIther way, he was sure people would lose interest before long. If he knew anything about schools it was that gossip moved quickly.

If him and Alec could even be called gossip. Which they couldn’t. They were just friends. Friends who accidentally cuddled each other in bed and walked to school arm in arm.

As they neared the end of lunch, they left their table. Catarina and Ragnor went to their own lockers while Alec and Magnus walked together.

Alec collected his own things before they went to Magnus’ locker.

“I’ll have to start paying you for opening this for me,” Magnus said, watching as Alec twisted the lock.

Alec laughed and shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s not like it’s difficult,” he teased, smirking at Magnus.

Magnus stuck his tongue out at him and turned to get his things out of the locker. He wouldn’t let himself think about how stupidly attractive Alec looked with a smirk.

When he had all his things, he pushed the locker closed and smiled at Alec. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked. He felt a strange pang in his chest. If only he could just go to the Lightwood house for another afternoon.

“Yeah. Definitely. Have a good afternoon,” Alec said, squeezing his shoulder and grinning at him before turning to walk way.

Once again, Magnus stared after him. This time, though, Alec glanced over his shoulder.

Magnus panicked about being caught for a moment, but Alec just grinned and waved at him. Magnus waved back and turned to go to his own class, determined to try not to spend the whole time thinking about Alec.

He did a terrible job of not thinking about Alec during class.

Going home felt like coming out of a nice dream, though. The apartment felt stiflingly silent compared to the constant noise of the Lightwood household.

Magnus tried to work for a short while, but it was impossible to concentrate, so he pulled his phone out.

Nobody needed to know how excited he was about having a text from Alec.

Alec: Max is disappointed that I didn’t bring you home again

Magnus: Aww :( tell him I wish I was there too

Alec: Is everything ok?

Magnus: It’s fine!! Just very different to yesterday

Alec: Yeah

Alec: Well, I meant it when I said u could come over whenever

Alec: So if u ever need to or whatever just text me

Magnus: That’s nice of you

Magnus: I’d better go and get dinner, maybe text u later

Alec: Ok :)

Magnus sighed softly and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.

Alec was so lovely and he was sure he was being sincere, but Magnus knew he wouldn’t be able to just text him spontaneously to ask to come over, no matter how much he wanted to.

He took a deep breath and closed his laptop, going to the kitchen.

It didn’t take long to make dinner. He ate it quickly and washed his dishes, and was just beginning to think he might be able to go back to his room without a conversation when he heard a key in the front door.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead concentrating on washing away that spices that had stuck to the pan.

His stepfather walked through the apartment and into his bedroom. For a moment, Magnus felt lighter than air. Maybe he would stay in his room for a minute and Magnus would be able to get back to his own room in time.

Of course he wasn’t that lucky, though.

The bedroom door opened again and Magnus heard the footsteps come back down the hallway and into the kitchen.

Magnus didn’t turn around for a few seconds, but the footsteps had stopped abruptly. He glanced over his shoulder to see his stepfather standing in the middle of the kitchen.

He was still wearing the suit he wore to work, his arms were folded across his chest and he looked angry.

Magnus wanted to sigh, but he knew that would only make him more annoyed. Instead he looked back to the pan he was washing. If it was about him, his stepfather would bring it up.

What Magnus didn’t expect was a hand to grab his shoulder. He was tugged around to face his stepfather.

His expression had changed from angry to livid.

“Where were you yesterday?” he asked.

Magnus still felt like he was in shock from being whirled around so quickly. He said nothing.

His stepfather clearly took this as some kind of challenge. “Where were you?” he hissed. “And don’t try to lie to me.”

“I– I was just–” Magnus stuttered. He felt like an idiot, but it was surprisingly difficult to clear your thoughts when someone was looking at you like that. “I was at a friend’s house.”

“I said don’t lie to me,” his father said coldly. He grabbed Magnus’ shoulder again, forcing him to bend so that he was slightly shorter. “Where were you?”

Magnus was barely an inch taller than his stepfather, but being able to look down while he spoke to him always made him more at ease. Now his heart was pounding.

“I was at my friend’s house,” he repeated. “We…had a project to work on.”

His stepfather let go of his shoulder. Magnus started to straighten up, ready to try and escape back to his bedroom.

But then his stepfather pulled back and slapped him across the face.

Magnus couldn’t even think. His mind went completely blank; all he could think about was the horrible stinging in his cheek.

His stepfather shook his hand. He was still glaring at Magnus like he was a stain on the bottom of his shoe.

“Fucking faggot,” he said venomously. “Get out of my sight.”

Magnus was more than happy to oblige. He scrambled out of the kitchen, almost tripping over his own feet, and shut himself in his bedroom.

He leaned against the door, sliding down until he was curled up on the floor.

He hesitantly put a hand to his cheek. It still felt like it was burning from the impact of the slap.

His stepfather had always been awful to him. He used to shove Magnus around when he was younger, but Magnus had convinced himself that that was normal.

It had stopped when Magnus got older and taller. Yes, he had never been especially nice to Magnus, but he didn’t think he would ever actually hit him.

He sat still for what might have been minutes or might have been hours, only moving when he heard his stepfather walk past his room, muttering something in Indonesian.

He forced himself to his feet and snuck out to the bathroom, washing his hair as quickly and quietly as possible before returning to his room and curling up in bed.

He knew it was stupid to do so but he couldn’t help comparing this to last night. Last night he had been in Alec’s bed, watching superhero movies and had felt like people cared about him; now he felt alone and he felt like his insides had been scooped out and couldn’t stop thinking about his only remaining family hitting him.

Just when things felt like they had started to get better, they had gotten a thousand times worse.

Magnus pulled the covers up over his head and squeezed his eyes shut, but stifled sobs kept him awake for a long while before he could get to sleep.

Chapter Text

When Magnus woke up, the first thing he felt was a stinging ache in his cheek.

He lifted a hand to his face and winced before rolling out of bed and looking at himself in the mirror.

There were faint purple lines across his cheek where his stepfather’s hand had made impact. Magnus sighed and poked them, wincing. At least his skin was dark enough that they weren’t immediately noticeable.

They were still noticeable, though. He took a deep breath and located the concealer on his makeup table, carefully covering up the bruises.

He was no expert when it came to concealer – he could only do eyes and lips – but he thought he covered them up quite well.

He stared at himself critically for a moment. He could wipe the concealer off and leave the marks uncovered. He’d tell somebody about what happened, and the whole mess would hopefully be sorted out.

But then he supposed that he could still tell people about it even if the marks were covered. Covering them would just stop people from asking unwelcome questions.

The thought of escaping to school all day was something of a relief, at least. But then it was the weekend and Magnus didn’t know what he’d do.

He quickly did his eyeliner and got dressed before stepping out of his bedroom. He was almost out of the door when his stepfather emerged from the kitchen.

Magnus stilled, determined not to accidentally make him angry.

“Don’t you dare tell anyone what happened last night,” he said coldly.

Magnus didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of anything to say, so closed it again.

His stepfather looked perversely calm and casual, as if nothing had happened. “Do you think anyone would care?” he asked.

Magnus had a horrible feeling in his stomach.

His stepfather continued. “Nobody cares about you. Nobody could care about you. Look at you,” he said, gesturing at Magnus as a whole. “You’ll just be inconveniencing them.”

Magnus didn’t know what to say. He sort of wanted to throw up. His stepfather went back into the kitchen, leaving a clear path for Magnus to get to the door.

For a moment, he was rooted to the spot. A small voice in the back of his mind was saying that people did care about him, he had Alec and Catarina and Ragnor and the other Lightwoods.

The other part of his brain agreed with his stepfather, though.

His mother had died when he was nine and since then, nobody had been particularly affectionate towards him.

His stepfather had given him food and somewhere to live, but other than that, had as little to do with him as possible. Magnus was surprised he had taken him to America, really.

Nobody from Indonesia would be missing him, and he was still new at school, so there was still more than enough time for Alec, Catarina and Ragnor to get bored of him and move on.

Thinking what his stepfather had said over, Magnus decided that they would be more likely to stop talking to him if he told them what had happened.

They were lovely people, but he doubted they would want to deal with all of this for a boy they’d only known for a few days.

When he finally managed to make himself move, he had to run to catch the bus.

He slumped into his usual seat and slumped down, trying to catch his breath quickly. To try and distract himself from his thoughts, he pulled his phone out. Alec had already texted him.

Alec: Family driving me nuts. Please help

Magnus didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Of course he understood what Alec was talking about. He could just imagine the way the Lightwoods would be teasing him; the easy jokes they had made over years of being a tight-knit family.

To Alec, it was probably exhausting, but Magnus found himself wishing he could have something even remotely similar.

He closed his eyes for a moment before replying to Alec.

Magnus: Haha

Alec replied almost straight away.

Alec: Are you okay?

Magnus: Fine

Magnus: What is your family up to?

Alec: Mom and Max caught wind of the rumours and now Max is begging me to marry you

Magnus: Aww

Magnus: Tell him he might have to wait until we graduate

Alec: I’ll let him know

Alec: Are you on the bus?

Magnus: Yes, why?

Alec: Do you want me to wait for you?

Magnus: That would be nice

Alec: Great, see you soon :)

Magnus: See you

Despite his certainty that his mood would remain horrible all day, talking to Alec had already lifted his spirits.

The thought of Alec waiting for him at school also made the day look considerably brighter.

Magnus stood and made his way down the central aisle of the bus as soon as it stopped, which meant he managed to overtake most people who were taking their time.

Alec was leaning against the fence, typing something into his phone. He looked as tall and handsome and messy-haired as ever.

Magnus found himself smiling as he approached him. The smile dropped slightly when he felt the bruise on his cheek twinge. “You escaped your family?” he asked, sliding his hands into his pockets.

Alec grinned when he saw Magnus, immediately putting his phone in his pocket. “Yeah. Although I think I just fuelled Izzy’s fire by telling her that I was meeting you.”

Magnus shook his head, starting to walk with Alec. “Were they teasing you about being my husband?”

“Yeah. The rest of them are clearly having boring weeks,” Alec chuckled. “I’m sure I’ll be able to find something to tease them about.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to tease Jace about something,” Magnus said. “He’s just jealous because the girl he likes doesn’t actually like him back.”

Alec laughed, but stopped abruptly. “Wait, what?”

Magnus realised what he’d said. He wasn’t particularly prone to blushing, but he could feel his face heating up. He just hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. “Nothing,” he said as calmly as he could.

Alec was quiet. When Magnus looked over, Alec was watching him. When they made eye contact they both quickly looked away from each other.

“Uh, do we have classes together today?” Magnus asked, automatically grabbing Alec’s arm when they navigated through a thicker crowd.

Alec smiled over his shoulder at him. “I don’t think so. Unfortunately,” he said.

His cheeks went red and he looked ahead again. Magnus tried not to read into what he meant by ‘unfortunately’. He was just being friendly.

“Will you be at lunch or will they be torturing you with football?” Magnus asked, letting go of his arm when they were in a less busy corridor.

“We don’t have practice today, so I will be available for lunch,” Alec said, opening Magnus’ locker for him without waiting for Magnus to ask.

Magnus gathered his things and pushed the locker shut. “Nice. I’ll see you then?”

Alec nodded and squeezed Magnus’ arm. He looked at his face for a moment longer than usual, but then let go of him and stepped back. “See you,” he said, turning and walking off to his own class.

Magnus wasn’t one to break tradition, so he watched Alec go for a moment before turning to go to his own registration.

Catarina was already there. Magnus slid into his seat beside her. “No Ragnor this morning?” he asked, folding his legs beneath the table.

“He said he’d be here. I guess he’s just running late,” Catarina said with a shrug. “How are you today, sweetie? Done any more flirting with a certain Mr Lightwood?”

Magnus shrugged and fiddled with the corner of his notebook. “Maybe. A gentleman doesn’t flirt and tell.”

Catarina laughed and reached up to pat his cheek.

Magnus automatically leaned away. He immediately felt guilty and leaned closer to Catarina again, bumping their shoulders together.

“Are you alright?” she asked softly, putting a hand on his arm.

Magnus nodded. “Fine. Sorry,” he agreed, forcing himself to smile at her. “Just not used to people touching my face.”

Catarina smiled apologetically at him. “Sorry. I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

Magnus did feel bad. Catarina was just being nice. He bumped his shoulder lightly against hers and smiled.

She smiled back, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She did relax as they chatted throughout registration, though, mostly talking about classes and people.

It was enough to keep Magnus’ mind off things, though. Ragnor showed up just after registration and they went through their classes as normal, but Magnus couldn’t deny that he was grateful when lunch rolled around.

Catarina and Ragnor went to their lockers, Catarina giving Magnus a knowing wink before they left.

Magnus bought a portion of fries before making his way to their usual table. Alec was already sitting there, a sandwich on the table in front of him.

“Hi,” Magnus said, sitting beside him and carefully squeezing a sachet of ketchup into the corner of his fry container. “Did you buy that or did you bring it from home?” he asked, gesturing to the sandwich.

“I brought it,” Alec said, smiling at Magnus. “I woke up early and had enough time. Have you had a nice day?”

Magnus nodded. “It’s been alright. What about you?”

Alec shrugged. “The usual,” he chuckled. “I actually meant to ask, Magnus–”

He was interrupted by Isabelle sitting beside him. “How are my favourite lovebirds?” she asked, ruffling Alec’s hair.

“We’re not lovebirds, Izzy,” Alec grumbled, gently swatting her hand away. “Don’t you have to go and flirt with Simon?”

Isabelle rolled her eyes fondly and leaned against the table. “I’ll leave you alone in a minute, don’t worry. Just wanted to come and say hello.”

Alec’s expression softened. “Hello,” he said, chuckling and smiling up at her.

“Did you ask about–”

“I was going to when you interrupted me,” Alec interrupted her.

Isabelle looked delighted. “Oh! Okay. Sorry. I’ll go and find the others and keep them away from you,” she said, kissing Alec’s forehead before walking away.

Alec looked back to Magnus. “Sorry about her,” he said sheepishly.

Magnus waved a hand, swallowing a fry before speaking. “It’s fine, you know I like her. What was she talking about?”

“Well, before she interrupted, I was going to ask if you wanted me to show you around New York this weekend,” Alec said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Magnus was a little surprised, but definitely pleased. At least that might get him out of the house for a day. “I’d love that,” he agreed immediately. “What day do you prefer?”

“Either is fine with me,” Alec said with a shrug. “Whenever you’re free.”

“My only plans were to lock myself in my room and use the Internet too much,” Magnus assured him. “Tomorrow?”

Alec nodded. “Tomorrow is perfect. We could get lunch, then I’ll show you around in the afternoon. If that’s alright with you,” he suggested.

Magnus nodded, trying not to grin too embarrassingly widely. “That sounds perfect. Where should I meet you?”

“I don’t know. We could meet outside the school,” Alec suggested. He looked like he was deep in thought for a few seconds. “Do you remember the way to my house?”

“I think I’d be able to find my way there. I’d text you if I got too lost,” Magnus agreed. “I could get you there?”

“There’s a subway station about halfway from the school to my house. I could get you there and we can get the train into the city,” Alec said with a shrug.

Magnus nodded. “That sounds good. I’ll look it up tonight and maybe I won’t get lost on the way there.”

Alec laughed, nudging his shoulder gently against Magnus’. “You can text me if you get lost, don’t worry. I know the area pretty well.”

“That would be nice,” Magnus agreed.

“Great. It’s a date,” Alec said, grinning at him. Then his face fell. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Magnus snorted, shaking his head. “It’s fine. We are married, after all,” he teased.

He didn’t know what it was about Alec that made him feel like this. He practically felt lightheaded. Maybe it was the prospect of a whole day with Alec looking around the city.

The rest of lunch passed quickly. Alec finished his sandwich and Magnus shared the last of his fries with him.

Catarina and Ragnor walked past their table while they were sharing the fries, Catarina grinning at them and Ragnor raising his eyebrows.

Magnus spent the afternoon in Spanish class. He had only taken Spanish because it was better than taking maths or a science, but it was actually pretty enjoyable.

Earlier the thought of the weekend had filled him with dread, but now he couldn’t wait to go to sleep and wake up to Saturday.

He made dinner earlier than usual to avoid his stepfather, washing up quickly and returning to his room.

In the time before going to sleep, he managed to wash his hair, plan an outfit for tomorrow, paint his nails, and scroll Tumblr for a while.

As soon as his eyelids started to feel heavy, he shut his laptop down and crawled into bed. It took a while to actually fall asleep, his anticipation keep him up longer than usual, but eventually he managed to drift off.

Alec loved his family unconditionally, but part of him wished he hadn’t told them about going out with Magnus tomorrow.

They teased him relentlessly about it being a date. Usually, Alec wouldn’t have minded, but the fact that he was unreasonably attracted to Magnus made it a little harder to play it cool.

And what Magnus had said earlier kept running through his head.

“He’s just jealous because the girl he likes doesn’t actually like him back.”

It could mean that Magnus liked him, but Alec didn’t want to assume things and end up embarrassing himself.

He lay awake in bed for longer than usual. He had a plan in mind for where they could go tomorrow, but he had been thinking of it in a kind of clinical way until Magnus had actually agreed.

Now he kept imagining the familiar places and landmarks, but they all seemed different with Magnus there.

He fell asleep thinking about Magnus against the New York skyline.

He tried not to think too much about how the landscape paled in comparison to Magnus.

Chapter Text

Alec woke up two hours before he needed to.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to just lay around for two hours, so he got up and got ready. When he went downstairs, Maryse was in the kitchen.

“You’re up early,” she said, glancing over her shoulder from where she was making coffee.

Alec looked at the time. “It’s ten thirty. Not that early.”

Maryse shrugged and poured herself a mug of coffee. “Early compared to your siblings,” she said. “Coffee?”

Alec nodded and picked a mug out of the cupboard. He tried not to think about the fact that it was the mug Magnus had used the other morning.

“Could your early start be anything to do with your date?” Maryse asked, pouring his coffee and pushing it over to him.

Alec turned away, willing himself not to blush. “It’s not a date, mom. We’re just friends and I’m showing him around.”

Maryse chuckled and reached up to pat his cheek. “I know. Just teasing,” she assured him. “I think Max really is expecting you to marry him, though. If you don’t, he will.”

Alec snorted. When he had first come out, Maryse hadn’t been completely on board with it, but the fact that she could joke about Max marrying a boy was just proof of how far she’d come in a relatively short time.

“Don’t you think Magnus is a little old for him?” he asked, putting some bread into the toaster.

“He’s your age,” Maryse said with a shrug. “About nine years between them?”

Alec decided that they should definitely stop talking about his nine-year-old brother marrying his friend.

“Are you doing anything today?” he asked.

Maryse looked amused at the change of subject. “Not that I know of. I’ll spend the whole day trying to convince your sister to clean her room.”

Alec snorted. Isabelle’s room looked like a mess to everyone but Isabelle. She professed to know exactly where everything was.

“Good luck with that,” he said.

They ate and drank in companionable silence for a while. Alec soon went to put a coat on. He was still early, but he’d rather wait at the subway for Magnus than wait at home where he would just get pestered by his family.

He had just sat on the bottom stair to pull his boots on when Max came speeding down the stairs, throwing his arms around Alec’s neck from behind.

“Will you tell Magnus I said hi?” he asked excitedly.

Alec tried not to wince from the volume of Max’s voice so close to his ear. He turned to face his brother, grinning. “Of course I will. And I’m sure he’ll say hi back. Any other messages?”

Max thought about it for a moment. “No. But you should tell him he looks hot.”

Alec lightly shoved Max, laughing and looking back down to his shoes to hide his pink cheeks. “Is that a message from you?”

“No!” Max protested, pushing Alec’s leg playfully. “That one is from you.”

“Really? I didn’t know I’d sent that one,” Alec said dryly, sitting up straight and pushing Max’s messy hair out of his face.

Max shrugged and reached over to mess up Alec’s hair in retaliation. “Maybe you just forgot to deliver it,” he said with a mischievous grin.

Alec blinked a couple at times. It was easy to forget that Max was only nine. “Have you been talking to Isabelle?”

“Maybe,” Max said innocently. He leaned over to hug Alec tight around the neck.

Alec laughed and hugged him back. “You keep your nose out of my personal business,” he teased. “And tell Isabelle the same thing.”

Max pulled back and nodded obediently. “I’ll tell her. Have fun on your date,” he said before trotting off to the kitchen to find food.

“It’s not a date!” Alec called after him.

Jace’s head suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. “Are you going on your date?”

“It’s not a date,” Alec repeated. He made sure his boots were tied before standing. “I’m going, bye!” he called as he opened the front door.

Before he could close it again, four different voices called, “enjoy your date!”

Alec rolled his eyes and set off towards the subway, hands stuffed into his pockets.

He had expected to have to wait for Magnus since he was so early, but as he approached the station, there was a familiar figure leaning against the wall.

Magnus didn’t notice him which gave Alec the perfect opportunity to gaze at him as he approached. Maybe he could get the staring done now and he wouldn’t get caught staring during the day.

He looked as beautiful as always. He was dressed impeccably – far better than Alec ever dressed without Isabelle’s intervention – and even though he was just leaning against a wall he looked like he could have come straight from the pages of Vogue.

Alec forced himself to stop thinking about Magnus as some kind of supermodel. He was his friend.

“Hi,” he said when he was a couple of feet away from Magnus.

Magnus looked up, and a smile broke across his face when he saw Alec. “Hi! Sorry I got here so early, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get lost and end up getting here late,” he explained, standing up straight and sliding his phone into his pocket.

Okay, so Magnus had looked like a supermodel when he had a straight face, but Alec practically melted when he smiled at him like that. Coupled with his voice and his ridiculously endearing accent, Alec was surprised he managed to listen to what Magnus was saying.

“Have you been here long?” Alec asked, checking the time. It was still ten minutes before they had actually arranged to meet.

“Only five minutes,” he said, leaning over to look at the time on Alec’s phone. “You’re early too.”

Alec chuckled and nodded. “Yeah. My family wouldn’t leave me alone. Max says hi, by the way.”

They set off down the stairs to the subway, but when Alec looked sideways, Magnus was smiling. “Tell him hi back,” he said fondly. “Do they still think we’re boyfriends?”

“Oh, absolutely. They’re all completely convinced that today is a date,” Alec agreed, rolling his eyes. “Do you need to buy a ticket?”

Magnus nodded and let Alec divert him over to the machines. He bought a Metrocard and put enough money on it to last the whole day, then they went through the barriers and onto the platform.

It wasn’t particularly busy, but Alec knew that that would change when they got into central New York.

Before long, a train rolled into the platform. It was already busy, so Magnus and Alec ended up standing near the doors. It was crowded enough that they were squashed close together.

They were surrounded by people and Magnus was trying hard not to fall over, so even though they were just as close, it didn’t feel nearly as intimate as it had in bed the other morning.

Magnus let go of the railing for all of three seconds to push his hair away from his forehead when the train lurched. Rather than fall on a stranger, he automatically grabbed Alec.

Alec had been gazing out of the window over the heads of the other passengers, but he jumped and looked at Magnus when he was grabbed.

“I’m so sorry,” Magnus said. He knew he should let go of Alec and hold onto the railing again but he didn’t want the train to jolt like that again, and Alec’s shoulders did feel very solid and muscular beneath his hands.

Alec laughed and rested his free hand lightly against the small of Magnus’ back. “It’s okay. This is your first time on the subway, right?”

Magnus tried not to think too hard about the pressure of Alec’s hand on his back, but it was certainly difficult. “Yes,” he said after a moment, “It’s…different.”

“Yeah. It’s convenient but it gets busy,” Alec said, scrunching up his nose. “Anyway, I’ve seen people do a lot worse than you. And they’ve lived here all their life.”

“Are you talking about somebody specific?” Magnus asked, loosening his grip on Alec’s shoulders slightly.

“Jace. But don’t tell him I said that,” Alec said. “He’s too manly to hold onto the railings when he stands which is always fun to see.”

Magnus snorted. “I know he’s your brother but he seems ridiculous.”

“He is ridiculous,” Alec agreed.

The train pulled into another station. More people got onto the train and Magnus was forced to press closer to Alec. They locked eyes for a moment, Alec’s arm tightening around Magnus’ waist.

Then Alec cleared his throat and glanced out of the window again. “What do you feel like for lunch?”

Magnus was relieved to have something to think about other than Alec’s pretty eyes and nice shoulders. “Anything, really. I trust you to pick something nice out.”

“I can give you a couple of options to choose between if you like,” Alec offered, rubbing Magnus’ back absently.

“Go ahead,” Magnus agreed. He looked sideways and accidentally made eye contact with a girl watching them. She fanned herself with her hand, mouthing ‘he’s hot’ and winking. Magnus wanted to nod, but Alec would probably see and ask him about it, so he settled for grinning at her. He turned back to Alec when he started speaking.

“We could go for a pretzel or something, or we could get burritos,” Alec suggested. “Or if we see anything you fancy, we can get that.”

Magnus nodded. “That sounds great. You definitely know better than me, I don’t want to get sucked into some overpriced touristy place.”

Alec chuckled, glancing up when they drew into another station. “We’re the next stop,” he said.

Magnus wasn’t going to complain about being pressed up against Alec like this, but it would be nice to get out of the packed train.

It only took a few minutes to get to the next stop, and Alec kept his hold on Magnus as they wormed their way out of the carriage.

They emerged at street level onto a road lined with trees and cafes. It wasn’t too busy so they had a stress-free walk down the street until they reached a small burrito shop.

“Is this okay? We could get burritos and eat them in the park. But if you want something else, we can get it. There’s tonnes of food places around here,” Alec said, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets.

Magnus nodded, stepping over to look at the menu of the burrito place. “I’ve never actually had one of these before.”

Alec nudged his shoulder gently against Magnus’. “This could be a big moment in your life,” he teased.

“Can you give me a recommendation?” Magnus asked, looking at Alec instead of the menu. “It all sounds good but I trust your opinion.”

“Don’t put me under pressure. If your first burrito is a bad one it’ll be my fault,” Alec laughed. “The chicken one is always good. And you can choose how hot you want your salsa, so you can sort of customise it.”

Magnus nodded and smiled at Alec. “Let’s go, then.”

They stepped inside and joined the line. It smelled fantastic, and Magnus’ stomach was growling by the time they placed their orders.

Alec paid for both of their burritos before Magnus could stop him.

“Let me give you the money,” Magnus said, reaching into his pocket.

“No way. This is my treat. You can pay for the next thing we get,” Alec insisted, putting a hand on Magnus’ arm.

Magnus wanted to protest further, but he knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere. “Are you planning to go somewhere really expensive next?”

Alec laughed. “I was hoping you wouldn't figure it out. I guess I’ll cross ‘tour of all 5-star restaurants in New York’ off the list.”

“That does sound like fun, but my family isn’t rich,” Magnus teased.

Alec’s name was called and they were handed their foil-wrapped burritos. Magnus had ended up ordering the same thing as Alec – he didn’t know Mexican food very well, and decided that he could experiment more if they came here again.

Then he realised that he was already planning another day with Alec and he should probably slow down.

The walk to Central Park took about ten minutes, but the burritos stayed hot. Rather than walking through the park to find a bench, they sat on the grass. It was a relatively nice day: it wasn’t particularly warm, but the sky was blue and there wasn’t too much wind.

Magnus unwrapped his burrito, staring at it for a few moments. “This is going to be embarrassing to eat, isn’t it?”

Alec laughed as he unwrapped his own burrito. “I’ve never met anyone who can eat a burrito neatly. I got napkins, though, so don’t worry.”

At least Magnus wouldn’t be the only person making a mess. He took a bite, humming happily at the flavour.

“You like it?” Alec asked when he’d swallowed his own bite.

Magnus nodded. He had already taken another bite, though, so waited until he’d swallowed to reply. “I’m glad I trusted your tastes.”

Alec laughed and they settled to eat the rest of their burritos. By the time they reached the ends, they were both dropping rice and vegetables on the grass and trying not to laugh. Laughing only made them drop more food.

When they were finally done, and had picked up most of the dropped food, they stood up. “What have you got planned for us?” Magnus asked, putting his balled-up foil into a bin.

“I thought we could walk around Central Park for a little while,” Alec said, glancing down to Magnus’ shoes. “If you’re up for it.”

Magnus waved a hand. “These shoes are comfortable, it’s fine. I’m not stupid enough to wear painful shoes for a day of walking around a city,” he teased.

Alec laughed and nudged him. “Really? I thought you’d be the kind of person to say that you have to suffer for fashion.”

“Well, yes. But there’s a time and a place,” Magnus agreed.

“Fine. Anyway, after that we could walk across Brooklyn Bridge. You can see the Statue of Liberty from there, and there’s more cool stuff around there,” Alec said, watching Magnus as they walked. “Then depending on how long that takes us, we could go to the Rockefeller centre.”

Magnus grinned at him. “You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” he teased.

Alec shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, there’s no way we can see everything in one afternoon, so I just picked out some stuff I thought you’d like.”

“It sounds perfect,” Magnus assured him. “Is Rockefeller one of the buildings you can go up?”

“Yeah. Depending on when we get there I thought we could go up,” Alec suggested. “It’s really cool up there. And there’s a lot less waiting around than the Empire State Building.”

Magnus nodded and bumped his shoulder gently against Alec’s. “That would be great. Thank you for doing this for me, Alec.”

Alec shook his head. “You think it’s difficult for me to spend the day with you?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at him.

Magnus didn’t know what to say to that.

Alec’s eyes widened and he quickly looked straight ahead again. “I just mean. Um. I like spending time with you. And it’s nice to be able to go around the city with someone who hasn’t lived here forever.”

“Thank you,” Magnus said, proud of how steady and calm his voice sounded. It did to his own ears, anyway. “I like spending time with you, too,” he added.

Alec grinned at him and they kept walking, occasionally bumping shoulders as they went.

As it turned out, Alec’s plan worked out perfectly.

They walked slowly through the park and got the subway to Brooklyn, then walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Getting across the bridge took them about an hour. They took a lot of selfies together, and a lot of stupid pictures of each other, and had their picture taken together by a couple of friendly tourists.

They wandered around the surrounding area for a short while, then got the subway back to the Rockefeller Centre.

The subway was even busier this time around, so Magnus and Alec ended up holding onto each other for most of the journey.

They spent a while wandering around Rockefeller Plaza, both of them craning their necks to look up at the building.

“Do you want to go up?” Alec asked, touching Magnus’ elbow lightly.

“How much does it cost?” Magnus asked. “I should have enough money with me, but–”

“My mom said she’d pay for us,” Alec said.

Magnus stared at him for a moment. “She what? She doesn’t have to do that.”

Alec shrugged, laughing softly. “I know. I told you she likes you, though. She insisted.”

“Your family is ridiculous,” Magnus grumbled, nudging Alec playfully. “Fine then. If she insists.”

They went inside and got tickets. Once they got through the security check, they only had to queue for a short while before they were ushered into a lift.

It was dark in the lift. Once again, they were pressed close together. As the lift rose, it was lit by coloured lights. Magnus looked straight up, watching the lights.

Alec, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to look away from Magnus’ face. The weird lighting kept casting shadows across the sharp lines of his face, turning it from green to red to blue to purple. He was too beautiful for his own good, really.

They soon reached the top, and when they emerged onto the observation deck, the sun was beginning to set.

Magnus immediately went over to the glass, staring across the New York skyline and the Empire State Building.

Alec paused before going to stand next to him. As expected, the skyline was nice, but Magnus was beautiful.

He cleared his throat and went to stand beside Magnus, leaning against the glass. “It’s nice, right?” he asked, bumping their shoulders together gently. He had loved the view from Top of the Rock ever since he was a kid, but he couldn’t seem to stop looking at Magnus.

Magnus nodded, turning to look at Alec after a moment. “Amazing,” he agreed. “Can you point out anything fun?”

“Statue of Liberty is over there,” Alec said, pointing across the water.

Magnus leaned closer to follow the direction of where he was pointing. “Impressive,” he teased.

The sides of the buildings were painted in orange and gold as the sun sunk lower to the horizon.

Alec squeezed Magnus’ elbow. “We can go up a level if you want,” he suggested, gesturing towards the escalators.

Magnus gladly followed him. The higher observation deck was quieter, thankfully. Magnus took photos of Central Park, then they crossed to the other side so he could take photos of the Empire State Building.

“Take a picture with me,” Magnus said when he seemed satisfied with his pictures.

Alec wrapped his arm around Magnus’ middle. Usually he would have freaked out about it (maybe he was freaking out about it now), but they’d taken a lot of pictures that day and now it felt far more natural.

Magnus wrapped one arm around Alec’s shoulders and took a few photos, leaning into Alec until he could fit the Empire State Building into the background.

A couple offered to take a photo of them together, which they happily accepted.

“Go on, kiss him on the cheek or something,” the lady teased when she had taken a couple of photos.

Magnus and Alec exchanged a glance. There was clearly some kind of misunderstanding, but before he could talk himself out of it, Magnus leaned over to kiss Alec’s cheek.

The lady taking the photo laughed and handed Magnus’ phone back to him. “That’s a keeper,” she teased. “You guys are cute. Have a nice day!”

Magnus thanked her, but he sort of felt like he was in a daze.

He pocketed his phone and turned back to Alec. “Sorry about that,” he said, suddenly worried that he’d made Alec uncomfortable.

Alec shook his head. “No, no. It’s okay. That’s easier than trying to insist that we’re not a couple,” he agreed.

Magnus nodded and looked back at the skyline.

While Magnus was distracted, Alec took the opportunity to look back to Magnus. The way the sunlight hit his face made it look like he was glowing.

Even when Magnus looked back at Alec, Alec couldn’t make himself look away.

“Are you okay?” Magnus asked, smiling at him.

That wasn’t fair. Magnus had no right to have such a beautiful face and to be standing in the sunset and to be smiling like that.

“Can I kiss you?” Alec blurted out before he could stop himself.

Magnus’ eyes widened. Alec was just about to apologise profusely and try to find somewhere to hide, but then Magnus nodded.

Alec leaned forward and pressed his lips to Magnus’. He kissed him for a few moments and tried to pull back, but Magnus stepped closer, tipping his head to the side and deepening the kiss.

When they did eventually pull apart, both of them were wide-eyed and maybe a little bit flushed and holding onto each other.

“I…” Alec trailed off. It was hard to concentrate when Magnus was looking at him like that and his brown eyes were lit up by the sun. “I was going to wait. So we’re not rushing things,” he managed to say.

Magnus reached up to brush his hand against Alec’s cheek. “I thought the same thing. But we can get to know each other and kiss at the same time,” he said gently. “I think it would have been torture if we tried to force ourselves not to kiss each other soon.”

Alec laughed and squeezed Magnus’ arms gently. “That’s very true,” he agreed. He didn’t know whether they would be ‘official’, or if they would be telling people, or how he would tell his family, but none of that mattered now.

What was important was that Magnus was there, and he was beautiful and perfect and he was pulling Alec in for another kiss.

Chapter Text

Magnus could have kissed Alec forever.

He had thought about kissing him more than he cared to admit, but he couldn’t have imagined a more perfect moment than this.

By the time they pulled apart properly, the sun had almost completely sunk below the horizon. The city was beginning to light up and it looked completely different to the way it had looked in daylight.

“We should go,” Alec said, looking out over the buildings. He didn’t let go of Magnus’ waist, though.

“We should,” Magnus agreed. He gazed at the skyline for a moment longer. “This was nice, though.”

Alec looked to Magnus, raising his eyebrows. “The kissing or the view?”

“Yes,” Magnus said, trying not to smile too goofily.

Alec laughed and looked at the skyline one more time before dropping his hands from Magnus’ waist. “I have one more place to take you.”

“Really? I thought this was your last plan,” Magnus said as they made their way back down the escalators and into the elevator.

The ride back down was far less busy, but it meant they could actually appreciate the coloured lights.

“It was going to be the last thing. But I thought of something else that I can show you,” Alec explained. “It’ll be better in the dark.”

“I’m intrigued,” Magnus teased, bumping his shoulder gently against Alec’s. Now that he knew what it felt like to kiss Alec, he couldn’t seem to stop his eyes from drifting down to his lips every few seconds.

They got out of the elevator and left the building. It was busy outside but instead of just clinging to Alec’s elbow like he had been doing all day, Magnus reached down to link their fingers together.

For a moment he worried that it was too forward, or that Alec would hate it or something, but Alec looked over his shoulder and grinned and squeezed Magnus’ fingers tight.

Soon they got through the crowd and onto a quieter stretch of pavement. They kept holding hands even though they didn’t really need to anymore.

“Will you tell me where you’re taking me?” Magnus asked, swinging their hands between them.

“It’s a surprise,” Alec said cheerfully. “But I think you’ll like it.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows. He was just about to ask another question when Alec steered them around a corner.

They were suddenly in Times Square, and it seemed like everything around them was either lit up or moving or both.

When Magnus got over the surprise of being in such a place, he realised Alec was watching him.

“Is this a good surprise?” Alec asked.

“This is insane,” Magnus said, letting Alec lead him across the road. There were tourists everywhere, and there was something new to look at wherever he looked, but it was overwhelming in the best way possible.

And Alec’s hand in his made everything a little easier to handle.

“I thought you might like it,” Alec said as they climbed the red steps. “And everyone who wants to see New York should definitely see Times Square. Even if it is sort of a tourist trap,” he teased.

They stood at the top of the steps together for a while, Alec pointing out various things while Magnus got distracted by people in costumes on the ground.  

Alec was saying something about Broadway shows when Magnus got distracted by his face. The lights around them kept changing colours and they were reflected in Alec’s eyes.

“Alec?” he asked, squeezing his fingers.

“Yeah?” Alec asked. His attention was immediately on Magnus rather than everything that was going on around them.

“You know how we kissed?” Magnus said, rubbing his thumb across Alec’s knuckles absently.

Alec looked amused. “I haven’t forgotten.”

Magnus rolled his eyes fondly. “I should hope not. Anyway, will that be like a regular thing, or…?” he trailed off. He didn’t think Alec was the kind of guy who would kiss people without it meaning anything, but he couldn’t seem to shake the weird feeling that Alec wouldn’t really want him as a boyfriend. Or whatever they might end up being.

“If you want it to be,” Alec said, turning towards Magnus and putting a hand on his arm.

Magnus let go of Alec’s hand and put both hands on his shoulders instead. “Do you want it to be?”

They met eyes and then Magnus kissed him, and it was easy to forget the noise and lights that were surrounding them.

When they pulled apart, Alec remained close, their foreheads pressed together. “Is that a yes?”

Magnus laughed and tilted his head to peck Alec’s lips. “It’s a yes. And maybe we can do this again?” he asked tentatively.

“We can kiss again or spend the day together again?” Alec asked.

“Well. Both,” Magnus said, grinning at him. “But I meant spending the day together,” he said more seriously. “We need to go everywhere we went today and kiss.”

Alec snorted and squeezed Magnus. “That sounds fun. I sort of wish I’d just asked you out earlier. I mean, they always say you should be friends with someone before you date them, but we might as well kiss while we get to know each other,” he teased.

To prove his point, Magnus pressed a kiss to the corner of Alec’s lips.

Alec looked like he was thinking about something for a moment, then he spoke again. “Do you have plans for dinner tonight?”

“No, why?” Magnus asked. It sounded like Alec might be inviting him to get dinner together but he was determined not to get his hopes up.

“We could get something. If you want. I mean, I understand if you just want to go home or whatever, but–” Alec said.

Magnus put a finger over his mouth before he could continue. “I’d love that. Where do you want to go?”

Alec looked like he was trying to suppress a grin. When Magnus dropped his finger from his lips, he laughed. “We could go back to my house if you want. Or we could get McDonald’s if you don’t want to deal with my family.”

“I don’t mind going back to yours,” Magnus said, reaching up to push Alec’s hair away from his forehead. “You know I like your family.”

Alec raised his eyebrows. “If you’re sure. If Izzy has been cooking, we can make pasta or something.”

“Is she a bad cook?” Magnus asked as they made their way down the stairs, weaving between tourists.

“Famously bad,” Alec agreed. “She’s never actually poisoned anyone, but it tastes horrible.”

“At least she tries,” Magnus laughed. “She’s lovely, anyway.”

Alec nodded, tightening his hold on Magnus’ hand as they walked down the stairs into the subway. “Will we tell them about being…together?”

Magnus shrugged. They let go of each other’s hands to get through the barriers, but linked fingers again when they were through. “That’s up to you. They’re your family.”

“Maybe I’ll wait until you’ve gone home to tell them. Then you won’t have to deal with the teasing,” Alec laughed. A train was just leaving as they reached the platform, but that meant the platform was relatively quiet for them to wait for the next train.

While they waited, they discussed how Alec’s family would react to them being together. It didn’t take long to decide that they would all be too excited for their own good.

The train was just as busy as it had been earlier, and they spent most of the journey pressed up against the door.

At least now it didn’t feel quite as awkward when they were pressed up against each other. Plus Magnus plucked up the courage to press kisses to Alec’s cheeks a few times on the way home.

Whenever he did that, Alec looked like he was trying not to grin as he stared out the window.

It felt strange to emerge from the subway in Alec’s neighbourhood again. It was far quieter, and there weren’t skyscrapers wherever they looked.

They held hands until they got onto Alec’s street. “We only have to talk to them for half an hour at most. Then I’m sure we can escape upstairs,” Alec assured him, turning into his driveway and holding the door open.

“Are you sure your mom will be okay with me being here?” Magnus asked, bending down to get his boots off.

“She’ll be thrilled to see you,” Alec assured him, toeing his own shoes off. He tried his best not to look at Magnus’ butt while he was bent over, but he was only human.

Alec thought he did a good job of acting like he hadn’t been staring at Magnus’ butt by the time he straightened up. “Can I take your butt?” he asked.

“My butt?” Magnus asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alec stared at him for a moment but then realised what he’d said. “Oh god. Your coat. I mean I can take your coat,” he said quickly.

Magnus laughed and slid his coat off his shoulders, passing it to Alec who hung it on a peg. He let Alec lead him through to the kitchen where Isabelle was at the sink.

She looked over her shoulder when she heard them come in, beaming when she saw Magnus. “I take it your date went well?”

“It went fine,” Alec agreed. “Did you already have dinner?”

“So you’re not denying that it was a date?” Isabelle asked, turning around fully.

Alec rolled his eyes. “I know I won’t convince you otherwise, so I thought I’d let it go. Have you eaten?”

“Yes, we’ve eaten. We thought you were getting dinner somewhere,” Isabelle said, turning back to her washing.

“We thought about it, but thought it would be easier to come home,” Alec explained as he opened a cupboard and poking around.

“Was Alec a good tour guide?” Isabelle asked, turning to Magnus.

“He was excellent,” Magnus told her, leaning against the counter. “Very knowledgeable. Do you want help with the dishes?”

Isabelle shook her head and bumped her shoulder gently against Magnus’. “I can handle them. Where did you go for lunch?”

“We got burritos,” Magnus explained with a grin.

“Magnus’ first ever burrito,” Alec said from where he was still looking through the cupboard.

“Did you like it?” Isabelle asked.

“It was great,” Magnus agreed.

Alec looked through the fridge for a few moments and turned to Magnus. “We could have pasta or we could order something in.”

Magnus shrugged. “What would you prefer to do?”

Alec considered it for a moment. “Do you mind if we order in? Since it’s Saturday and everything.”

“Of course not. You can pick what we get, though. You know what’s good around here,” Magnus said quickly.

“Is pizza okay for you?” Alec asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Yeah. Before you ask, any topping is fine,” Magnus said. “And I’ll pay. Since you got the burritos.”

Alec looked like he was going to protest, but the pizza place answered the call and he had to place their order.

“He paid for your lunch?” Isabelle whispered, gesturing towards Alec.

Magnus nodded and was about to answer when Max appeared at the kitchen door. “Magnus!” he said excitedly, darting across the kitchen and throwing his arms around Magnus.

“Hello,” Magnus said. He was a little taken aback by the hug, but he patted Max’s hair anyway.

“How was your date with Alec?” Max asked, grinning up at him.

“It was fun,” Magnus said, trying not to laugh at the expression on Alec’s face.

He hung up the phone and messed up Max’s hair. “What did I tell you this morning?” he asked, leaning against the counter beside Magnus.

Max smiled up at Alec apologetically, letting go of Magnus and standing between them. “Did you have fun though?”

“We had a lot of fun,” Magnus said.

“Is mom at home?” Alec asked, twirling a lock of Max’s hair around his index finger.

“Yup. She’s in the living room pretending to work but she’s really watching TV,” Max told him.

Alec snorted and stood up straight. “Everyone does that,” he said before turning to Magnus. “Do you want to go and say hi to her? Then we can go upstairs.”

Before they could leave the room, Max grabbed Alec’s sleeve. “Are you getting pizza?”

“Yeah, why?” Alec asked, smiling down at him.

“If you don’t finish it can I have some?” Max asked.

Alec laughed and nodded. “Sure. But we’ll probably finish it so don’t get your hopes up. Izzy will make you something if you’re hungry.”

“I’m not that hungry!” Max called after them.

Alec ignored Izzy’s protests and pulled Magnus through to the living room.

Maryse was sitting on the sofa, a laptop open on her lap and a glass of wine in hand. She was clearly watching the TV, though, where some show about wedding dresses was playing.

“Hey, mom,” Alec said, perching on the arm of the sofa.

Maryse startled and looked up at Alec. She smiled when she saw him, leaning over to put her wine glass on the coffee table. “Did you two have a nice day?”

“It was good, yeah. We ordered pizza for dinner,” Alec said.

“If I knew you were coming here for dinner I would’ve waited to eat,” Maryse said apologetically. “At least you had a nice day. Did you go to Top of the Rock?”

Alec nodded and glanced over his shoulder at Magnus. “We did. Just in time for sunset.”

“You didn’t have to pay for me, Mrs Lightwood,” Magnus said, leaning against the side of the sofa. “I can give you the money for it if you want.”

Maryse shook her head, smiling up at Magnus. “Don’t be silly. It’s my treat,” she said firmly. “And call me Maryse.”

Magnus nodded and slid his hands into his back pockets. “Alright. Thank you.”

“Do you want money for your pizza?” Maryse asked.

“I’m paying,” Magnus said before Alec could say anything. “Alec bought me lunch so I said I’d buy the next thing.”

Maryse looked like she was going to protest for a moment, but she nodded. “If you’re sure. You’re welcome to stay over again if you want to, by the way.”

“Thank you,” Magnus said, glancing at Alec.

“We’ll wait for the pizza. Thanks, mom,” Alec said, standing up.

Maryse waved them out of the room and Magnus wandered upstairs and into Alec’s room. He was pleased that he remembered which room was Alec’s, flopping down on the bed when they got inside. “Do you think she would let me stay over if she knew?” he asked when Alec had closed the door behind them.

“I don’t know. Probably,” Alec said, sitting beside Magnus and patting his knee. “She already loves you.”

Magnus laughed and sat up. “I don’t have to stay over, though. If you want your bed to yourself.”

“You’re more than welcome to stay over. Maybe it won’t be as weird if I wrap myself around you while we’re asleep,” Alec teased, bumping their shoulders together.

“We never actually talked about that, did we?” Magnus asked. “That was nice, though. I mean, apart from being a bit awkward.”

Alec leaned over and kissed his lips gently. “We should probably talk about…what we are,” he said carefully.

“What do you mean?” Magnus asked.

“Well, I’m not an expert, but when Izzy goes out with people there seems to be a stage before they become actual boyfriends and girlfriends,” Alec explained. “Like, they’re not official but they go on dates and kiss and stuff.”

Magnus scrunched up his nose. “Isn’t it easier to just say we’re boyfriends?”

Alec laughed and shifted on the bed so he could wrap an arm around Magnus’ middle. “That would definitely be easier,” he agreed.

“So we’re boyfriends?” Magnus asked, trailing his fingertips across Alec’s knee.

“Definitely,” Alec agreed.

Magnus grinned and leaned over to kiss Alec.

Kissing at the Rockefeller Centre and Times Square had been nice, but now they were alone it felt a thousand times better.

Magnus wrapped his arms around Alec and he wasn’t sure how it happened but they were laying down and it felt like nothing else in the world mattered.

They parted to catch their breath for a few moments. Magnus made eye contact with Alec, and both of them started laughing.

As soon as they caught their breath they were kissing again, and Magnus was just enjoying the feeling of Alec’s hair between his fingers when the bedroom door opened.

“Your pizza is– oh my god.”

They pulled apart to see Jace staring at them, his eyes wide.

Chapter Text

There was a moment of silence.

Jace stared between Magnus and Alec.

Magnus and Alec stared right back, arms still wrapped around each other.

Then, suddenly, Alec untangled himself from Magnus and stood, pushing the door closed.

“Hasn’t mom told you about knocking on doors before you go in?” Alec asked.

“I thought you were just friends, I didn’t think there was any need to knock!” Jace protested. “Have you been together this whole time?”

“You don’t have to yell,” Alec hissed. He glanced down to Magnus, who had moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “We only kissed today.”

Jace looked down at Magnus, then back up to Alec. A slow smile spread across his face. “We were right this whole time.”

Alec pressed a hand to his face for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut. “We liked each other the whole time but didn’t want to rush things.

“But you realised that was stupid?” Jace asked, folding his arms and leaning against the door.

“Yes,” Alec agreed shortly. “Now will you let us go and get our pizza?”

Jace was still grinning, but he opened the door and stepped aside to let them through.

“Don’t tell the others,” Alec said as they passed Jace on the way out of the room.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Jace called after them.

Alec rolled his eyes, brushing his hand against the small of Magnus’ back as they went downstairs. “Sorry about him. Again,” he sighed.

“It’s alright. It could have been worse,” Magnus said with a shrug. “Maybe we should put a tie on the door or something if we plan on doing that again, though. If Jace has a habit of not knocking.”

“You can tell the others what the tie on the door means,” Alec teased, squeezing Magnus’ arm before letting go of him.

When they got to the kitchen, the pizza box was already on the table with a bottle of Diet Coke beside it.

“Is this okay for you?” Alec asked as he opened the pizza box.

Magnus nodded and sat beside him. “It looks great. I’ll give you the money for it.”

Alec rolled his eyes and took a piece of the pizza. “If you insist. But mom really doesn’t mind about paying for it. I think she feels bad that she made dinner before we got home.”

“We were busy,” Magnus teased, bumping his knee against Alec’s beneath the table.

They managed to get through two slices of pizza each before there was a knock on the kitchen doorframe and Jace sidled in.

“Sorry. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t interrupting anything,” Jace said, smirking at them and opening the fridge.

Alec glanced at Magnus and rolled his eyes, but before he could think of anything to say, there was another voice from the doorway.

“Interrupting what?” Max asked, looking over Magnus and Alec’s pizza curiously.

“Nothing,” Alec said quickly.

Luckily, Max was already distracted by the fact that Magnus wasn’t eating his crusts. “Can I have those?” he asked, hopping up to sit on a chair opposite Magnus and Alec.

“Go ahead,” Magnus agreed, sliding his plate closer to Max to let him take the crusts.

“Haven’t you already had your dinner?” Alec asked.

“Yeah, but I’m still hungry,” Max said with a shrug. “Jace ate everything before I could have leftovers.”

“Of course he did,” Alec said, glancing over at Jace who was leaning against the counter and looking at his phone.

“What did you do today?” Max asked as he started devouring the crusts.

Magnus shrugged and glanced at Alec, trying not to smile too much. “Alec just showed me around. We had burritos.”

“Did you go to Top of the Rock?” Max asked. When Magnus nodded, he grinned. “Did you have fun?”

For a moment, Magnus was completely distracted by Alec’s hand brushing against his knee, but he swallowed his bite of pizza and managed to form an answer. “It was great.”

“Did you spend a long time there?” Jace asked, crossing the room to sit beside Max. He folded his hands atop the table and grinned between Magnus and Alec.

“Well, yeah. We took pictures and looked at the view and everything,” Alec said, narrowing his eyes at Jace.

Jace barely had time to open his mouth before Isabelle came into the kitchen. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, with a pair of glasses balanced on her nose and her damp hair wound up into a bun.

“Can I see the pictures?” she asked, diverting her course to stand behind Alec.

“My phone is upstairs,” Alec said immediately, his mind immediately going to the photos of he and Magnus kissing. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to explain those away.

“Do you have yours?” Isabelle asked, patting Magnus’ hair.

Magnus was about to say yes, but Alec bumped their knees together and he remembered the kissing photos. “It’s– uh, battery. No battery,” he said. “Sorry.”

“You’ll have to show them to me soon,” Isabelle teased, combing her fingers through Magnus’ hair a couple of times before sitting down beside them.

“They’re mostly of the scenery and stuff,” Alec said with a shrug. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“If you didn’t take any selfies I’ll send you back out to take pictures of yourselves at every tourist location,” Isabelle threatened, stealing half of a crust from Magnus’ plate.

“We took selfies,” Alec assured her. “But a lot of them are just buildings and stuff. You know.”

“I’m sure they’re still exciting,” Isabelle said with a shrug.

They managed to get through the rest of the pizza without anyone finding out anything they shouldn’t. Jace kept shooting them weird little smirks but Alec was sure nobody would really question it. Jace always acted weirdly.

When they were done – and the other three had eaten all of Magnus’ crusts – Alec put the box in the trash and pushed his chair in. “Upstairs?” he asked.

Magnus stood up. The Lightwoods were lovely, but he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Alec’s lips.

They were about halfway to the door when Isabelle spoke. “Are you going to make out while a movie plays in the background?”

Alec and Magnus both whirled around, eyes wide. Alec stared at Jace, but Jace just shrugged and shook his head, looking genuinely bewildered.

“No,” Alec managed to say. “Just the movie part,” he said, grabbing Magnus’ shoulders and gently herding him out of the door.

Isabelle turned back to Jace and Max. “Do either of you know what that was all about?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think they’d…converge on us like that,” Alec said as soon as they were in Alec’s bedroom with the door firmly closed behind them.

Magnus laughed and sat on the bed, trying very hard not to think about what they’d been doing on that bed less than an hour ago. “It’s fine. At least Jace didn’t say anything.”

“I could’ve sworn Izzy knew,” Alec sighed, sitting beside Magnus and bumping their shoulders together. “I thought Jace texted her or something.”

“Me too. She said things like that before as well, though,” Magnus said. He tried to maintain eye contact with Alec, but Alec’s eyes kept flicking down to his lips. “I assume you didn’t mean it when you said we wouldn’t be making out.”

Alec’s eyes snapped back up to Magnus’. “Of course. Give me a second,” he said. He stood and opened his laptop, bringing up Netflix and clicking on a random movie. He dragged the slider to fifteen minutes in and put the laptop at the end of the bed. “Now if we hear anyone coming…” he trailed off and raised his eyebrows.

Magnus wrapped an arm around Alec’s shoulders as soon as he was sitting down again. “Great,” he mumbled.

Before they actually kissed, Magnus felt like his heart might beat out of his chest, but then their lips met and he couldn’t think of anything else.

Soon they were lying down and Magnus’ hands were in Alec’s hair and Magnus was sure he looked like a mess but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Alec kept running his fingers through Magnus’ hair and there would be no way of making it look good again until he could get his hands on a can of hairspray.

Magnus didn’t know how much time had passed – he had almost forgotten that he was at Alec’s house he was so caught up in the kissing – but then there was a gentle knock on the door.

Both of them jolted upright. Alec dragged the laptop closer to them and wiggled the mouse so the screen would brighten, and Magnus adjusted his clothes so he didn’t look like he’d just been rolling around.

“Come in,” Alec said. His voice was a little hoarse. Magnus nudged him and grinned.

Alec snorted and elbowed him gently, but then the door opened.

Isabelle poked her head around the door. She looked like she was about to say something, then she frowned. “Are you okay?” she asked, looking between them.

“Fine,” Magnus said.

“Why?” Alec asked at the same time.

“Alec, you’re red,” Isabelle said, reaching over to press the backs of her fingers to Alec’s cheek before looking to Magnus. “Your hair is messier than it was after you slept on it the other day. No offense.”

“None taken,” Magnus said, quickly trying to shove his hair into place.

Isabelle didn’t look convinced, but she leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “Are you staying over tonight, Magnus?”

“Oh. I don’t know, actually. I should ask my dad,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through to his contacts.

“I thought your phone was out of battery,” Isabelle said, sitting on the edge of the bed and raising her eyebrows at them. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to hide something.”

Usually Magnus avoided phoning his father, but with Isabelle looking at him like that, even that was the more inviting option.

He clicked on the contact and it started ringing.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Alec said, waving a hand and watching Magnus.

While he waited for his father to answer, Magnus sort of wished he could grab Alec’s hand or leg or something to distract himself, but Isabelle was still watching them like a hawk.

He picked up on the seventh ring.

“What do you want?” he asked in Indonesian.

Magnus forced himself not to sigh. A ‘hello’ might have been nice, but he couldn’t even expect that much from his father.

“I was wondering if I could stay over at my friend’s house again,” Magnus said, in Indonesian. It felt weird speaking something other than English in front of Alec and Isabelle, but he supposed his father might be more receptive in Indonesian.

“Friend. Right,” his father scoffed. “Whatever. You’re probably whoring yourself out again. Try not to get yourself killed,” he said.

“I’m just at my friend’s house,” Magnus said calmly. “Can I stay?”

“Yes,” his father said shortly before hanging up.

Magnus looked at the phone to make sure he had really hung up, then he shoved his phone into his pocket. “I can stay.”

“Great! Do you need more makeup remover?” Isabelle asked, sitting up straighter.

“That would be nice, actually,” Magnus agreed. Before he could say anything else, she had stood and darted out of the room.

Alec sighed and bumped his shoulder against Magnus’. “I think she’s onto us. Do you mind if I tell her?”

Magnus leaned in to press a quick kiss to Alec’s lips. “She’s your sister. It’s your choice whether you tell her.”

Alec nodded slowly and smiled at Magnus. “I guess we can see if she says anything when she gets back.”

It only took a minute or so for Isabelle to return with cotton pads and a bottle of makeup remover. “Here you go,” she said, putting them on the bed beside Magnus’ legs.

She straightened up to leave, but Alec reached up to grab her hand before she could go. “Can I talk to you?” he asked.

Isabelle sat down straight away. “Of course. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Everything’s great, actually,” Alec agreed, glancing at Magnus. “I just wanted to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Isabelle asked, reaching up to tuck a loose lock of hair behind her ear where it had fallen out of her bun.

“Me and…uh. Magnus and I. We kissed today,” Alec said.

He didn’t get time to continue before Isabelle shrieked delightedly and threw her arms around both of them.

Alec peered at Magnus around the back of Isabelle’s head. Magnus looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“Where did you kiss?” Isabelle asked when she pulled back.

“Top of the Rock,” Alec said, gently swatting her hand away when she tried to put it on his cheek.

“Romantic. I’m impressed,” Isabelle teased. “But you weren’t together before today?”

They both shook their heads. “And we only really kissed at the end of today,” Magnus said.

Isabelle was still grinning at them. “I knew it. I knew you two would be the cutest,” she said smugly. “Are you boyfriends now?”

Alec and Magnus exchanged a glance, then nodded. Alec was trying very hard not to grin too goofily.

“You’re so cute. Does anyone else know?” Isabelle asked.

“Jace knows,” Alec said reluctantly. “We didn’t tell him. He didn’t knock on the door before coming in here and we were kissing.”

Isabelle snorted. “That explains why he was being so weird at dinner,” she teased. “Are you telling mom?”

Alec shrugged. “I’m not sure. I was going to tell her after Magnus went home so she wouldn’t get a chance to give him some kind of initiation,” he chuckled.

“Good plan,” Isabelle agreed.

“Do you think she’ll still let us sleep in the same room after she knows?” Magnus asked, picking up the makeup remover and pouring some onto a cotton pad.

“I don’t know. Probably. She’ll probably make you swear an oath not to do anything, though. Or she’ll make you leave the door open,” Isabelle said with a shrug, standing up. “I’m so happy for you. But I’ll leave you alone to get on with your making out.”

“We weren’t making out,” Alec protested, reaching over to swat at her half-heartedly as she left.

“So you were bright red for no reason?” Isabelle asked, pinching Alec’s cheek and winking. “And I’m sure Magnus’ hair messed itself up.”

“Whatever,” Alec mumbled.

Isabelle laughed and let herself out of the room.

When Alec turned around again, Magnus had wiped all of his makeup off. “That went well,” he said, putting down the makeup remover and grinning.

Alec was struck by how ridiculously attractive Magnus was. He was beautiful all the time, obviously, but he looked so different with his hair all fluffy and his skin completely clear.

“Are you okay?” Magnus asked, reaching up to press his fingers against Alec’s cheek.

Alec realised he’d just been staring at him. “Fine. Sorry,” he agreed hastily. Then he remembered that they were boyfriends now and he didn’t have to pretend. “You look really good.”

Magnus looked surprised but pleased. “Thank you. So do you.”

“I’ll get you pyjamas and stuff. And the toothbrush you used is still in the bathroom,” Alec said, standing up from the bed. He opened a drawer and dug through it for a moment until he found the pyjamas Magnus had worn last time he visited. “Are these okay? Mom washed them.”

“Those are great. I’ll go and change,” Magnus said cheerfully, taking the pyjamas and leaning in to peck Alec’s lips before slipping out of the room.

While Magnus was gone, Alec couldn’t seem to stop smiling to himself. He changed into his own pyjamas and lay on his bed, covering his face with his hands to hide his smile even though nobody was there to see it.

It felt like he was in a dream. He had been alone with Magnus all day, they had kissed, they had agreed to be boyfriends, and Jace and Izzy knew. All he had to do was tell Max and Maryse (and Robert, eventually), but for now everything seemed pretty perfect.

Before long, there was a gentle knock on the door.

“Come in,” Alec said, taking his hands away from his face.

Magnus let himself into the room, pushing the door shut behind him. He climbed over Alec carefully to settle beside him, laying on his side and folding his arms. “You look nice in pyjamas,” he whispered, tugging at the sleeve of Alec’s shirt.

Alec sat up and closed his laptop, reaching over to put it on his desk. When it was off the bed, he lay down on his side to face Magnus. “Thanks,” he chuckled, pulling the blankets up over them. It felt like they were a lot closer now that they were under the blankets, but now it was nice instead of tense and uncomfortable. “I don’t know if mom will still let us sleep together when she finds out about us.”

“Sleep together?” Magnus repeated, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

Alec snorted and rolled onto his back again. “You’re terrible.”

“Yeah, but you’ve agreed to be my boyfriend. You can’t get out now,” Magnus said brightly.

“I could break up with you,” Alec suggested.

“You wouldn’t dream of it,” Magnus teased, reaching up to pat Alec’s cheek.

Alec opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. “You’re right. But you’re still terrible,” he mumbled.

“Terrible is my middle name,” Magnus said smugly.

“Magnus Terrible Bane?” Alec asked, rolling onto his side again and reaching up to brush Magnus’ hair away from his face gently. “That’s a nice name.”

Magnus laughed and draped an arm across Alec’s shoulder. “Thanks. I don’t actually have a middle name. What’s yours?”

“It’s a family name,” Alec said, hesitating for a moment before draping his own arm across Magnus’ middle. “Gideon.”

“Alec Gideon Lightwood,” Magnus said. He looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Alec poked him in the side. “Shut up. My great great grandfather Gideon Lightwood will be very offended.”

Magnus squirmed and laughed, swatting at Alec’s hand. “Sorry. Fine. I won’t make fun of your middle name if you promise not to tickle me.”

“I promise not to tickle you for now,” Alec agreed, wrapping his arm around Magnus again. “But I might need to use it in the future. It can be a good tactic.”

Magnus hummed and shuffled closer to Alec, bumping their knees together. “You’re one of those dangerous people who uses tickling to get what he wants. I should have known.”

Alec laughed, but couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss Magnus slowly.

He could definitely get used to this.

Chapter Text

Magnus was sure that waking up first meant he should try and roll away from Alec and put a bit of space between them, but he couldn’t be bothered and he was sure Alec wouldn’t mind.

Plus, it was very comfortable. Alec was pressed up against his back with his arms were tight around Magnus’ waist. Magnus wasn’t sure he’d be able to wriggle free without waking him even if he’d wanted to.

He was kind of glad Alec was asleep, though. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling and it was starting to get embarrassing.

Part of him wanted to stay awake to make the most of being in bed with Alec, but before long his eyes felt too heavy to keep open and he drifted back to sleep.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, but Magnus soon woke up again. Alec’s hand had crept underneath his shirt at some point, but before he had time to think about that, there were footsteps on the landing and the bedroom door burst open.

Magnus almost jumped out of his skin, and he was sure he kicked Alec in the leg, but Alec barely even moved.

“Is it true?” Max asked excitedly.

Alec didn’t let go of Magnus, but Magnus could feel him shifting behind him. “Max, what are you doing?” he asked. He sounded like he was still mostly asleep.

“You’re boyfriends?” Max asked.

“Sorry, he made me tell him,” Isabelle said from the door.

“It’s fine,” Alec said, his voice muffled against Magnus’ hair. “Yes, Max, we’re boyfriends. And we’re trying to sleep.”

The mattress shifted and Magnus suddenly had a surprisingly heavy young boy sitting on his legs. “When did you start dating?” Max asked.

“Yesterday,” Magnus said, glancing up at him as well as he could with Alec’s face pressed into his hair like that.

“Were you keeping it a secret?” Max asked, but then he frowned and leaned closer to Magnus. “Is that a bruise?”

Magnus was confused for a moment, but then he remembered the bruise on his face. He hadn’t even thought about it, and Alec hadn’t said anything last night, so he’d assumed that it had faded.

Before he could reply, Alec reached over to push Max’s shoulder gently. “Can you give us a while to wake up?” he asked. “We’ll give you all the details later.”

Max didn’t move for a moment and Magnus was sure he was going to stay and insist on answers, but then he climbed off the bed. “Mom’s out but she left us stuff to make pancakes,” he told them before shutting the bedroom door.

“I’ll make pancakes for you if you want,” Isabelle offered, still lurking in the doorway.

“Don’t touch anything in the kitchen,” Alec said sternly, glancing over his shoulder at her. “I don’t want Magnus to be poisoned. Or anyone else.”

Isabelle rolled her eyes at him, but pushed Max gently out of the room. “Whatever. I’ll leave you to make your own pancakes. See you whenever you get up,” she said cheerfully, pushing the bedroom door shut.

Her and Max’s footsteps went across the landing and back down the stairs.

There were a few moments of silence, then Alec sighed and brushed his fingertips against Magnus’ stomach. “Sorry. I’m sure that’s not how you wanted to get woken up,” he said.

Magnus wasn’t completely sure how he was expected to reply with Alec’s fingers on his stomach and his warm breath on the back of his neck, but he laughed quietly. “It’s fine. I was already awake,” he assured him.

“And I’m sorry that I get so clingy in my sleep,” Alec added.

“You really don’t need to apologise for that,” Magnus said. He twisted in Alec’s arms so that he could press a kiss to the corner of his mouth before he could think himself out of it.

Alec grinned, but his smile faded after a moment. He reached up to brush his fingers against Magnus’ cheek, his brow furrowing. “What happened? Was it someone at school?”

Magnus could practically feel the words itching to get out of his throat. ‘It was my dad, he hit me, I’m scared to go home in case he does it again’. Instead, he just shook his head. “No. It’s nothing, really,” he said, rolling over to face Alec and brushing his hair away from his face. It had somehow gotten even messier overnight, and it was a welcome distraction.

Alec still looked concerned, though. “Are you sure? Because if someone did this to you…” he trailed off, frowning.

“It’s fine. I can deal with it,” Magnus said slightly more forcefully than he’d intended.

He felt bad when he saw the look on Alec's face – he was sure Alec knew that he was lying , but what his father said about not telling anyone kept echoing around in his head, and he couldn’t help thinking that if he kept to himself and didn’t do anything to antagonise him, he wouldn’t be hit again. It was probably just a one-time thing.

Alec nodded, but he brushed his hand against Magnus’ cheek where the bruise was. “If you ever need anything, just call me. Even if it’s the middle of the night or whatever.”

Magnus leaned forward to kiss his lips, forgetting for a moment that any of the Lightwoods could walk in on them at any moment since none of them seemed to have any concept of privacy. Except Isabelle. Sometimes.

Alec kissed him back, and they soon got caught up in each other.

It still felt too soon when Alec pulled away. “I should really shower. Then we can get breakfast?” he suggested. “Or you can get breakfast while I shower. If you’re hungry. I don’t mind.”

Magnus kissed him again just because he could. “I can wait.”

Alec squeezed Magnus’ waist before letting go of him and rolling out of bed. He picked up his towel from the back of his desk chair, then leaned down to give Magnus another kiss before leaving.

Magnus wasn’t about to complain about being left in Alec’s bed. He pulled the blankets up over his head and quickly dozed off, warm and comfortable and surrounded by Alec's smell.

He jolted awake when he heard the door opening, though.

For some reason his mind jumped to the conclusion that it would be Jace or Max, and for some reason he thought that he shouldn’t be laying down if it was one of them.

When he looked up, however, it was a much better sight than Jace or Max (no offence to Max).

Alec was standing in the doorway, still damp from the shower. He only had a towel around his waist.

Magnus was pretty sure he’d just died and gone to heaven. The more reasonable part of his brain was telling him that he should stop staring, but it was completely drowned out by Alec and his shoulders and arms and chest and–

Alec looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh my god,” he managed to say. “I’m so sorry, Jace was trying to get into the bathroom so I had to get out and I just automatically came in here and I forgot you’d be here,” he said.

Magnus was sure he hadn't taken even one breath while he said all of that.

“You don’t have to apologise,” Magnus assured him. He tried to make himself stop staring so blatantly, but it was difficult. “Um. Do you want me to wait outside?” he asked, forcing his eyes up to Alec’s face.

Alec nodded. “If that’s okay. Sorry. I just need to…put underwear on,” he said apologetically.

Magnus rolled out of bed but couldn’t resist kissing Alec on his way past. He had planned to make it a short kiss, but then he felt Alec’s arms around him.

He wrapped an arm around his shoulders, making the most of his warm, damp skin. And the way his eyelashes were still wet and his hair was everywhere…

Magnus could have stayed there all day, but he reluctantly withdrew his arm from around Alec, who looked dazed.

“I’ll wait in the kitchen,” Magnus said, pecking his lips one more time before letting himself out of the room.

He took a moment outside to take a deep breath and make sure he was decent. A week ago, he hadn’t thought he’d need to be adjusting his underwear in the middle of the Lightwood household landing, but there he was.

When he arrived in the kitchen, Isabelle immediately wrapped him up in a hug and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Did Alec kick you out?” she asked, reaching up to brush her fingers through his hair.

“He just showered. He’s getting dressed,” Magnus explained, making an unnecessary upwards gesture. He wasn't exactly used to the kind of physical affection that Isabelle seemed to use so liberally, but he wasn't about to complain.

Isabelle let go of him and grinned devilishly. “He wouldn’t let you stick around while he gets dressed?”

Magnus wanted to seem composed – Alec was her brother, after all – but he couldn’t seem to think of anything to say. His mind was full of Alec.

“You’re so cute,” Isabelle laughed, sliding the tip of her index finger down the bridge of his nose. “I’m glad you appreciate Alec for how handsome he is. I always try to tell him but he never believes me. He thinks that it’s my job as his sister to say it.”

Magnus shook his head, trying to compose himself. “He’s very handsome. I’ll make sure he knows,” he said.

“Would you like coffee? I’d love to give you pancakes but everyone thinks I’m an awful cook. I thought I should wait for Alec to make them,” she explained, fishing two mugs out of a cupboard.

“I’d love coffee,” Magnus agreed, grateful for the offer. He hated asking for things at people’s houses; it always just felt like he was hassling them.

Isabelle set about pouring two mugs of coffee. “Do you take milk or sugar in yours?” she asked.

“Just milk. Thank you,” Magnus said, but he was distracted by Alec arriving in the kitchen. He was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie that was just unzipped enough that Magnus could see chest hair poking out.

They made eye contact, and Magnus wanted to laugh and the corners of Alec’s mouth twitched and Magnus didn’t know whether to laugh or kiss him (Isabelle be damned), but Isabelle just held the second mug of coffee out to Alec.

“Thought you might want this. And you haven’t even been dating for a day, you’re not allowed to have this much sexual tension,” she said, hopping up to sit on the counter. "Especially considering how much you seem to have been making out," she added, smirking at Alec.

Magnus laughed and Alec quickly turned red.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Magnus said, leaning against the counter beside Isabelle.

Alec took a sip of his coffee and started making pancakes, looking like someone who was trying to look more composed than they really were. He heated up a pan and gave the batter a stir. “Do you want blueberries?” he asked, bumping his shoulder against Magnus’.

“That would be nice,” Magnus agreed. Part of him wanted to ignore the pancakes and make out with Alec, but he was sort of enjoying the domesticity of it all; drinking coffee and watching his new boyfriend make pancakes.

Plus Isabelle was sitting right there. But she probably wouldn't mind.

“I can’t believe you told Max,” Alec said once the pancakes were in the pan, reaching around Magnus to tug at a lock of Isabelle’s hair.

Isabelle looked sheepish, but she caught Alec’s hand and squeezed it. “Sorry. I know you probably wanted to tell him yourself, but he kept asking me.”

“It’s okay,” Alec said, laughing. He managed to wrestle his hand out of hers to poke at the pancakes with a spatula. “I know what he’s like. And at least he knows now.”

“So now you only need to tell mom?” Isabelle asked, turning her attention to Magnus’ hair. She ran her fingers through it methodically, getting rid of the few tangles that had developed overnight. Magnus was suddenly finding it very difficult to focus on what anyone was saying.

“Yeah. But at least we know she likes Magnus,” Alec agreed. “She’ll be happy. And hopefully dad will be too. Whenever gets home from that business thing.”

Isabelle sighed and wrapped her arms around Magnus’ shoulders, pressing her cheek into his hair. She watched Alec make the pancakes for a few moments, then sat up and looked down at Magnus. Then she narrowed her eyes and leaned closer. “Is that a bruise?” she asked, brushing her thumb against his cheek.

“Yes,” Magnus said carefully. “It’s nothing, though.”

She looked like she wanted to enquire further, but Alec looked over. “Izzy, can you get two plates please?”

Isabelle hopped down from the counter and went to find plates for them.

Magnus gave Alec a grateful smile. ‘Thanks,’ he mouthed. Alec just grinned in response, but before Magnus could kiss him, Isabelle was back with the plates.

“I’ll get out of your hair. Then you can kiss and talk about boyfriend things and you don’t have to feel awkward,” she said, wrapping her arms around both of them and squeezing them tight.

“Thanks, Izzy,” Alec said, kissing her cheek before she could leave the kitchen.

She gave them each one last squeeze before leaving the kitchen and climbing the stairs.

Alec watched her go, then smiled over at Magnus. “Was she okay before I got here?” he asked.

“She was fine. Just gave me coffee and asked why you wouldn’t let me stay and watch you get dressed,” Magnus explained, rolling his eyes fondly.

Alec groaned under his breath and flipped the pancakes over one more time to make sure they were properly cooked before flipping them onto their plates.

It didn’t take long for them to finish the pancakes, and they somehow managed to make it through breakfast without being interrupted by any of the other Lightwoods.

Their lips were a bit sticky from the syrup and blueberries, but that didn’t stop them from kissing.

They didn’t have any plans for the day, so after they’d cleaned up breakfast and Magnus had gotten dressed, they just curled up together on Alec’s bed.

Alec’s laptop was open with a random movie playing on Netflix, but neither of them were paying any attention to it.

There was a moment of silence between conversations, and Magnus turned to bump his nose against Alec’s jaw. “Will we tell people at school? About us?”

Alec was quiet and for a second Magnus wasn’t sure if he’d heard him, but then he spoke. “We probably don’t need to stand up in the cafeteria during lunch and make an announcement or anything. But I don’t think we need to hide it.”

“I don’t think we’d be able to hide it. Izzy and Jace will probably tell everyone,” Magnus said, resting his chin against Alec’s shoulder and glancing to the laptop.

Alec snorted. “That’s true. Even if we told them not to tell, it would only be a matter of time.”

“I should tell Catarina,” Magnus said, more to himself than to Alec.

“Are you good friends with her?” Alec asked. He shifted to comb his fingers through Magnus’ hair, winding the ends around his fingertips.

Magnus nodded. “I think so. She didn’t really get a choice, our homeroom teacher just assigned her to look after me, but she’s really nice.”

“I don’t know her well but she’s always seemed friendly. And she definitely seems to like you a lot,” Alec said, pressing his lips against Magnus’ hair. “And Ragnor. He seems nice too,” he added.

Magnus lifted his head to grin at him. “I think Ragnor is harder to get to know. But I also think he’s a lot sweeter than people think.”

“Well, you like him. So I’m sure he can’t be too terrible,” Alec teased.

“That’s not true. I like you and you’re terrible,” Magnus said, sliding his arms around Alec’s middle and kissing his cheek.

“I’ve done nothing to deserve that,” Alec said with a laugh, pulling Magnus closer and kissing him.

Magnus wanted nothing more than to think of something funny to reply with, but his brain seemed to have short-circuited when his lips met Alec’s.

They eventually pulled apart, and Magnus reluctantly sat up. “I should probably go home,” he said, folding his legs up beneath himself.

Alec sat up as well, his arm snaking around Magnus’ waist. “I guess so. Or I could kidnap you and keep you here.”

Magnus forced a laugh and rested his head against Alec’s shoulder. “If only.” He felt silly for his mood changing so suddenly, but he hadn't seriously thought about going home all day, and now it felt like coming out of a nice dream and back to the real world.

Alec was quiet for a moment, but his fingers kept rubbing Magnus’ waist. “How are things at home?” he asked. “Are you settled in?”

“It’s fine,” Magnus said automatically. He could feel Alec’s eyes on him, but didn’t look up. “Still a bit of a mess. But not too bad.”

“If you want help with unpacking and everything just give me a call,” Alec said.

Magnus nodded and squeezed Alec’s knee. “Thank you,” he murmured, even though he knew there was no way he’d ask Alec to come and unpack with him.

In his head, he could romanticise it – they’d curl up in his room and sort through his things, and Magnus would tell Alec silly little stories about them, and they’d get distracted after half an hour and end up making out on the floor.

In reality, though, he knew he’d spend the whole time with his heart racing in case his stepdad showed up in a bad mood.

Yes, it was unlikely that he’d hurt Alec, but it was a risk Magnus wasn’t willing to take.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by Alec nudging him gently. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Magnus said again. He’d probably have to come up with a new automatic response soon if he wanted people to keep believing him. “Just thinking.”

“Anything you want to talk about?” Alec asked carefully.

Magnus shook his head. “It’s alright. I should go, though. Need to get ready for school tomorrow and everything.”

Alec made a discontented noise and ran his fingers through his hair. “This weekend went by so fast. It doesn’t feel like we should have school again tomorrow.”

“I know. I’m sure it’ll be fun, though. At least we have class together,” Magnus said, sitting up and smiling at Alec.

“Do you want lunch before you go?” Alec asked, smiling hopefully.

And Magnus couldn’t say no to that face.

Chapter Text

Sunday – 9:07pm

Catarina: You told me to remind you about the English homework, so here you go.

Magnus: You’re a lifesaver. Thank you!! <3 <3

Catarina: If you need help with it we can do it during our free period tomorrow.

Magnus: Are you just saying that because I’m still sort of new?

Catarina: Maybe. Three strikes and you’re out, Bane.

Magnus: I’ll keep that in mind. It’s not entirely my fault, though, it was a busy weekend.

Catarina: Did Alec have anything to do with that busy weekend?

Magnus: Maybe. ;)

Catarina: If you don’t tell me I’m not helping you with the homework.

Magnus: Well, he was showing me around the city yesterday, then I stayed at his house overnight. And for most of today.

Catarina: Oooooooh ;)

Magnus: We didn’t do anything!

Magnus: Well, we didn’t do much.

Catarina: ;) ;) ;)

Catarina: I expect all the details tomorrow.

Magnus: Fine. But only because you’re the best. <3

Catarina: You know it.

Monday – 8:32am

Alec: Don’t forget your gym stuff today. ;)

Magnus: Maybe I’ll forget it on purpose. I want you to carry me again. :)

Alec: You don’t have to forget your gym stuff to make me carry you. Just break your leg or something.

Magnus: I’ll find a way. ;) xox

Monday – 9:58am

Magnus: If Catarina interrogates you at any point, don’t be concerned.

Alec: What have you told her?

Magnus: That we’re a “Thing”.

Alec: She does seem protective of you.

Magnus: She hasn’t even known me for that long!

Alec: Neither have I.

Magnus: Point taken. <3

Tuesday – 12:11pm

Magnus: Do you know Raphael Santiago?

Ragnor: What? Why are you asking?

Magnus: He was asking about you during Spanish today. ;)

Ragnor: Yes.

Magnus: Yes what?

Ragnor: I know him.

Magnus: Care to elaborate?

Ragnor: No.

Magnus: Please???

Ragnor: No.

Magnus: :(

Ragnor: No.

Tuesday – 12:16pm

Magnus: So how do you know Ragnor?

Raphael: We’re brothers.

Magnus: You’re clearly not. Do you think I’m an idiot?

Raphael: Do you want me to answer that?

Magnus: No.

Raphael: Well, I’m going to anyway. Yes, I think you’re an idiot.

Magnus: :’(

Raphael: You asked.

Tuesday – 12:17pm

Magnus: How do Raphael and Ragnor know each other???????

Catarina: You already texted both of them, didn’t you?

Magnus: If you tell me I’ll do anything for you???

Catarina: They’ve had a crush on each other since they met but they’re both too stubborn to admit it.

Magnus: Hmm.

Catarina: Trust me, I’ve tried.

Magnus: I’m still going to try.

Catarina: Good luck.

Thursday– 3:13pm

Catarina: I can’t believe you.

Magnus: ???!??!!?

Catarina: I’ve been trying to get Ragnor to talk to Raphael properly for almost 3 years, and you’ve done it in barely 2 days.

Magnus: REALY?!

Catarina: They’re bonding over the fact that they both think you’re ridiculous.

Catarina: Raphael thinks you look like a leather-clad peacock today.

Magnus: Tell him thank you!!! :* :)

Catarina: He rolled his eyes extravagantly.

Magnus: Good.

Friday – 2:54pm

Alec: I know it’s short notice but do you want to do something this afternoon? Football’s been too busy this week to see you very much.

Magnus: That would be fun! Maybe I’ll become a cheerleader so I can lurk around the football field. ;)

Friday – 3:23pm

Magnus: So you wanted to do something?

Alec: Yeah! Yes, sorry, I got distracted.

Alec: We could go for coffee or something?

Magnus: Sounds perfect. Meet you outside after school? :)

Alec: Great. See you then.

Friday – 3:26pm

Isabelle: Did you sort out a date with Magnus?

Alec: Yes, we’re going for coffee.

Isabelle: Can I come??

Alec: No.

Isabelle: Magnus likes me!

Alec: Magnus is my boyfriend.

Isabelle: Where are you going for your date?

Alec: I’m not telling you.

Isabelle: Is it that nice coffee shop by the park?

Alec: …No.

Isabelle: :)

Friday – 8:58pm

Magnus: Don’t get me wrong, I had a lovely afternoon, but remind me again why we had to walk for an hour and a half to get to a coffee shop??

Alec: I was afraid Isabelle would be stalking us.

Magnus: We totally could have hidden if she came in.

Alec: Not with your shiny shirt.

Magnus: You’d be surprised at how well I can blend in.

Magnus: Or I could have hidden behind you.

Magnus: Anyway, next time we do that, you can carry me. My feet are killing me.

Alec: I’ll kiss them better. X

Magnus: If you try and kiss my feet I’ll kick you in the face.

Alec: It’s nice that you’re romantic.

Magnus: I like to keep the spark alive. :) :)

Saturday – 11:42am

Magnus: Do you want to do something today or are you busy?

Alec: Sorry, I’m going to visit relatives today. :( Maybe tomorrow?

Magnus: Ok!

Saturday – 11:43am

Magnus: Do you want to do something today?

Catarina: I’m sorry, I’m helping my aunt with her shop today! You can come by if you want?

Magnus: It’s ok! I’ll try to stop by.

Saturday – 11:47am

Magnus: Are you free today?

Ragnor: Nope.

Saturday – 11:55am

Ragnor: Are you okay?

Magnus: Fine. See you Monday.

Ragnor: I can do something this afternoon if you want to.

Magnus: It’s ok, don’t worry about it.

Saturday – 12:03pm

Ragnor: Did Magnus text you?

Catarina: Yeah, why?

Ragnor: He texted me. Do you think he’s okay?

Catarina: Maybe he’s just bored?

Ragnor: He seemed sort of. Weird.

Catarina: Weird?

Ragnor: Not as annoying as usual.

Catarina: You’re horrible sometimes, you know?

Ragnor: Yeah, yeah. Seriously though.

Catarina: Do you think something’s going on with him?

Ragnor: I don’t know.

Catarina: We can ask him on Monday.

Ragnor: Or we can try and make him come out tomorrow. Get it out of him then.

Ragnor: As long as you’re free. I’m not doing that on my own.

Catarina: I can do something tomorrow. I have to get back to work but we can group chat tonight?

Ragnor: Great, another group chat.

Catarina: You love them really.

Ragnor: I really don’t.

Saturday – Group Chat: Homeroom Crew – 9:34pm

Catarina: Hope you don’t mind the group chat, Magnus! Do you want to do something tomorrow?

Ragnor: The only reason he’s not replying is because you named the group ‘Homeroom Crew’.

Catarina: Shut up, I had to name it something.

Saturday – 10:07pm

Catarina: Do you think he’s okay? He usually replies quickly.

Ragnor: Maybe he’s asleep.

Catarina: Okay, we don’t know him perfectly but I think we both know he won’t be asleep at 10pm.

Ragnor: You never know.

Saturday – Group Chat: Homeroom Crew – 10:11pm

Magnus: Sorry, my phone was charging. What do you want to do?

Catarina: Anything! Lunch? Coffee? Just a walk?

Magnus: Any of those are fine, when do u want to go?

Catarina: Would 12 suit you? We can meet at the subway station nearest the school?

Magnus: That’s fine. See you then!

Catarina: Is that ok with you, Ragnor?

Ragnor: Yeah.

Magnus: Award for outstanding contribution to the group chat goes to Ragnor.

Catarina: It just wouldn’t be the same without him. ;)

Ragnor: I knew this was a mistake.

Catarina: See you both tomorrow! <3

Chapter Text

Catarina was already waiting when Ragnor arrived at the subway station. She raised a hand to wave at him, smiling brightly.

Ragnor didn’t bother waving back since they were already within earshot of each other. “Is Magnus here yet?”

Catarina gave him a withering look. “Yeah but he’s camouflaged,” she deadpanned. “No, he’s not here yet.”

“He’d probably have some kind of magic camouflage outfit,” Ragnor grumbled. He heaved a sigh and leaned against the railings. Even if Magnus was bizarre and indecipherable, he had to try and be nice to him today in case something really was bothering him.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, each of them checking their phones far more often than was probably necessary. They were supposed to meet at 12, and it was nearly 12:10. Usually this wouldn’t be concerning, but…

“Do you think we should text and make sure he’s okay?” Catarina asked.

Ragnor definitely wasn’t usually the type of person to do that. If someone did it to him, he’d be annoyed, and he usually just assumed something important had come up, but his gut instinct was telling him that something was wrong. “Maybe.”

Catarina unlocked her phone and started typing. Ragnor leaned over to see what she was writing, and tried to change it – “that makes it sound like we’re pissed off, write it differently” – but just as she hit send, they heard footsteps and looked up to see an out-of-breath Magnus leaning against the railings beside him.

“Hi. Sorry. Got held up,” he said, running a hand through his hair.

Catarina dodged around Ragnor to give him a hug and press a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay. We were just worried,” she said, holding on for a second longer despite Magnus’ protests that he was probably sweaty.

Ragnor was worried about him too, but he didn’t hug him. He had a reputation, after all.

They made their way into the station and managed to get on a train just as it was about to leave the platform. It wasn’t packed, but they still huddled around a pole to chat.

“Sorry we couldn’t do anything yesterday,” Catarina said, smiling apologetically. “Usually I could’ve gotten out of work but my cousin was sick.”

“Yeah. I was…” Ragnor trailed off. He hadn’t intended to give either of them details on where he’d been yesterday, or who he’d been with, so he settled for just grunting, “busy.”

Magnus patted Catarina’s hand on the railing. “Don’t worry about it. I was just bored,” he assured her.

Catarina and Ragnor exchanged a look, but then Magnus’ attention turned to Ragnor.

“Busy with what?” he asked, the beginnings of a smirk on his face.

Ragnor stared at him for a few moments. Did he know? There was no way. He hadn’t told anyone, and he doubted anyone else would have found out. “Nothing.”

Magnus mouthed something at Catarina, and she turned to him with a grin on her face. “You’re acting pretty cagey.”

“I’m not!” Ragnor snapped. Maybe snapping would come off as somewhat cagey. He toned it down. “I’m not. I wasn’t doing anything, and I was alone.”

“You seem awfully defensive,” Magnus said evenly.

“Where do you think I was, then?” Ragnor asked, glaring at him. He’d promised to be nice, but honestly, Magnus could be such a pain in the ass.

Magnus pretended to think about it for a moment. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t suspect anything if you weren’t being so weird about it.” He still had that annoying little smile on his face.

There was no logical way that Magnus could know, but he seemed to know something and as far as Ragnor was concerned, that was worse than him knowing the truth. “I was with Raphael,” he blurted out.

Catarina clapped a hand over her mouth. Ragnor was sure she would have screamed if they weren’t in an enclosed space. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything,” she said when she managed to get herself under control.

“I knew you’d react like this,” Ragnor grumbled. Then he looked back to Magnus. “How did you know?”

Magnus shrugged. “I think Raphael underestimates how good I am at understanding Spanish. We had to talk about weekend plans and he was going at a million miles an hour but I was pretty sure I heard a couple of Ragnors between all of the cafés and parques.”

Catarina laughed delightedly. Ragnor wanted to be annoyed, but for some reason he just…wasn’t.

Until Magnus and Catarina simultaneously asked for all the details, that was.

Magnus was trying not to be suspicious of what Ragnor and Catarina were up to. He felt like they had some kind of reason for inviting him out, but figured that they were waiting until later to actually tell him.

Of course his brain had run through all the worst possibilities last night, and now he was thinking to himself that it had been stupid to worry so much, but there was still a little voice in the back of his mind telling him to be careful.

It was easy to ignore that for now, though. Teasing Ragnor was always fun.

They got off the train in Manhattan, and Catarina steered them to the left. “I know a good cafe. And it’s cheap,” she said cheerfully.

It took them about ten minutes to walk there. Magnus wasn’t feeling particularly talkative but Catarina was incredibly good at making easy conversation and keeping it flowing, even with Magnus and Ragnor.

When they arrived at the cafe, they sat around a small table in the corner. It was probably too small for the three of them – their knees kept bashing together under the table when any of them moved – but it was better than nothing.

They ordered food, then Catarina and Ragnor gave each other a look.

Magnus knew it was completely irrational but his heart started beating a little faster. Were they officially rejecting him from their group now that he couldn’t really be considered a ‘new’ student? If so, why had they taken him to a nice cafe to do that?

He was so caught up in thoughts that he didn’t realise that Catarina was talking until she reached over to touch his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked, a concerned little frown on her face.

Magnus nodded quickly. “Fine! Perfect. Just zoned out for a second,” he assured her. “What were you saying?”

Catarina took a deep breath. “Well, we don’t want you to feel like we’re prying or anything. If you don’t want to tell us anything, it’s fine,” she began.

Magnus glanced between them. Had he accidentally lied to them about something and upset them? He was sure he’d told them everything. Well. Everything apart from that, but he didn’t plan on anyone finding out that secret.

Catarina opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then gave Ragnor a despairing look.

He raised his eyebrows at her and turned back to Magnus. “We think you’re acting strangely and we’re worried about you.”

After about ten seconds of silence, Magnus realised that he would probably have to reply to that somehow. He thought he’d been playing it off pretty well, but apparently not.

“I told you not to be so direct like that,” Catarina sighed, reaching over to shove Ragnor’s shoulder.

“It’s fine,” Magnus said. They both turned to him, and suddenly it was a lot harder to think of words. “It’s fine. I mean I’m fine. You don’t have to worry.”

It was obvious that neither of them was convinced. Magnus wasn’t even convincing himself, and that was usually something he was good at.

“Like I said, you don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to, but if there’s anything you need to talk about…” Catarina trailed off and shrugged. “We’ll do whatever we can to help.”

Magnus plastered a smile onto his face. He knew he should have worn more makeup – that always made it easier to fake a smile. “Thank you. That’s sweet. I think it’s just…school stress and everything.”

Ragnor was still watching him carefully. Magnus knew it was stupid, but it felt like he could read his mind. “Is Alec treating you okay? Because I know he’s all…tall and strong and everything, but I’ll kick his ass.”

That got a genuine laugh from Magnus. “No. Alec is fine. Feel free to try and kick his ass, though.”

Catarina laughed, Ragnor rolled his eyes, and things felt like they were back to normal. Magnus let out a sigh of relief. A little voice in the back of his head was yelling at him to tell them, they want to help, you can’t handle a full year of this, but for some reason he just couldn’t make his mouth move to form those words.

The food arrived, and it was a welcome distraction. They talked about school, and Alec, and kept trying to get details from Ragnor about his ‘not-a-date’ with Raphael.

Magnus forced himself to calm down. Catarina and Ragnor had proven time and time again that they were his friends, and they weren’t going to desert him over anything stupid. He could trust them.

That didn’t mean he was going to tell them about his stepfather, but it was nice to know that they were there for him if he did ever need anything.

When they were done they paid for their food and forced themselves to get up. Magnus had stood up and was about to pull his jacket on when Catarina reached out to grab his hand.

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at his wrist.

Alarm bells immediately went off in Magnus’ brain. “Nothing,” he said. That obviously wasn’t a convincing answer, though. “Just a bruise. It’s nothing.”

He was tempted to pull away, but he knew that would make him look a million times more suspicious so forced himself to relax.

Catarina pushed his sleeve up a bit to see the bruise properly. It went all the way around his wrist, and was mostly bluish-purple.

“Can we go outside?” Magnus asked. It was warm in the cafe, and now it felt like everyone was staring at them and his head felt like it was spinning.

Catarina took one look at his face and nodded. She pulled his jacket on the rest of the way for him and herded him outside, Ragnor already there to hold the door open.

“You look like you’re about to pass out,” Ragnor said in that delightfully subtle way of his.

Magnus would have glared at him, but moving his eyes made the spinning worse.

Before he could protest, both of them had arms around him and were practically carrying him across the road where there was a small park. They sat on a bench, and both turned to him.

“If someone’s hurting you, Magnus…” Ragnor said.

“Is it someone at school? Because we know which teachers actually take action against people like that. You can’t let them do that to you,” Catarina said, reaching up to pat his hair lightly.

Magnus stayed quiet. Honestly, he wasn’t prepared at all for this situation. He knew people might have seen the bruises, but he hadn’t expected them to actually be worried about him like this.

“Do you need a bottle of water or something?” Ragnor asked after a couple of minutes. “Or something sugary? You still look sort of pale.”

“My dad,” Magnus muttered. His heart was racing, and he sort of half-regretted saying it already.  

“You want your dad?” Catarina asked. “We can call him for–”

“No,” Magnus interrupted her. He sighed shakily and leaned forward until he could press his forehead against his hands. It didn’t feel better, per se, but at least it stopped the spinning.

Catarina and Ragnor were both quiet for a short while.

“Do you mean your dad…” Catarina couldn’t seem to finish the question, but she touched Magnus’ wrist lightly.

Magnus nodded.

“Was that the first time?” Ragnor asked.

Magnus shook his head.

They sat in silence for another while. Magnus probably could have sat up, but he could feel tears pricking in his eyes and he was determined not to cry in public.

He probably would have been able to avoid it, too, if Catarina hadn’t leaned in to hug him tightly. He kept his hands over his face, but couldn’t stop his breath from hitching.

“We’ll help you, Magnus. Promise. We’ll do anything we can,” Catarina said, rubbing his back in circles.

Magnus would have replied, but he didn’t trust his voice.

Ragnor patted his back a few times which, from Ragnor, was probably about as much physical affection as he could expect. He gave a watery laugh at the thought of how uncomfortable Ragnor probably looked right now, and forced himself to sit up straight.

Catarina had let go of him and was digging around in her bag. Ragnor looked just as uncomfortable as anticipated.

“You have a little…” he said, gesturing to his own eyes and then to Magnus’.

Of course today had been the perfect day for non-waterproof eye makeup. Catarina produced a packet of tissues from her bag and immediately got to work wiping away the smudged makeup.

“There. As handsome as ever,” she said, leaning over to throw the dirty tissue in the bin.

Magnus’ heart was still pounding, and he was partially convinced that he might be having a really vivid dream, but at least his head felt clearer now. “What do I do?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Catarina admitted. “But you can stay at my house tonight, and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

Yes, it was terrifying and Magnus had no idea what would happen to him or his father, but all things considered he felt a lot better. At least he didn’t have to face this alone anymore.