Chapter Text
Alec hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder and started walking.
Isabelle always teased him about the fact that he was always early to things, and usually he ignored it, but this time he had been even earlier than usual.
He was going to Washington DC for a long weekend with his siblings and their partners. Simon was doing a show with his band, and Izzy had managed to rope the rest of them into coming along.
In all honesty, Alec didn’t mind. It was an excuse to get away from work for a while, and it was always nice to spend time with Izzy and Jace.
Okay, so maybe he was a little bitter that they both had partners and he was single. But he could live with that.
He’d had boyfriends over the years, but the longest any of them had lasted was a few months, and now both of his younger siblings had long-term partners and he was still very much single.
Isabelle kept telling him to use dating websites or apps, but those had never appealed to Alec. He knew it was possible to find love there, but he couldn’t imagine making himself a dating profile or anything. Just the thought of it was enough to make him shudder.
The thought of Isabelle setting up a profile for him was even worse.
He had arrived 45 minutes early for his train. He always preferred being early than late, but he was beginning to regret it now.
Sitting in a train station could be entertaining, but he wouldn’t let himself listen to music – he wanted to save iPod battery for the train journey – and people-watching got boring after an hour.
Maybe it would have been more fun if he wasn’t so single.
So as soon as his train’s platform was on the departure boards, he left his seat.
After stopping at a shop and buying more snacks than he was likely to need on a 3-hour train journey, he set off to the platform.
The train was still relatively empty when he boarded. He hadn’t reserved a seat, so he slid into an empty row of two. At least then he was less likely to have anyone sitting beside him.
He still had a good fifteen minutes before the train was due to leave, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to settle properly until the train was moving.
Whenever somebody came into the carriage, Alec looked up. Most people getting on looked like they were going to Washington for business trips. He supposed they wouldn’t be too annoying to sit next to.
Alec started to relax when there was only five minutes left until the train was due to leave the station. The carriage was nowhere near full, so hopefully anyone who came in the last few minutes before the train left would just sit in one of the empty rows.
He glanced at his phone again. Three minutes until the train was due to leave.
Two minutes.
One minute.
He was just about to find his iPod when the carriage doors slid open again. At first Alec didn’t think anything of it – he supposed it was normal for people to be late to get the train – but then a shadow fell over him.
He looked up from where he’d been in the process of unzipping his backpack.
The first thought that ran through his head was beautiful .
The man looming over him was tall – very tall – and wearing eye makeup. His hair was swept effortlessly away from his face, and his cheekbones looked like they could cut glass.
Alec just had time to glance down to his outfit – and wow, his jeans were extremely tight – before the man spoke.
“That’s my seat,” he said.
Alec was caught up in the man’s voice for a moment before he registered what he had said. He cursed himself for being too distracted by this guy’s amazing face.
“I– seat? Yours?” Alec asked.
He was tempted to try and jump out of the train window. Why was he incapable of talking to attractive men like a normal human being?
Beautiful Man nodded. “Yes. I reserved this seat. You’re in it.”
Alec resisted the urge to sigh. The train had just started moving and there were plenty more empty seats, why couldn’t he just go and sit in one of those?
“There are other seats,” he said. He mentally congratulated himself for speaking without tripping over the words or anything.
Beautiful Man raised an eyebrow. He really was beautiful. It was a shame he was shaping up to be an asshole. “Yes, but I reserved this one. I would like to sit there.”
He had a trace of an unusual accent. Alec wondered where he was from for a moment, but he forced himself to stop. He had to stand his ground. “Well, I got here first. You’ll have to sit somewhere else,” he told him.
“I reserved the seat before you sat there,” Beautiful Man pointed out.
Usually, Alec would have just moved, but now he’d stood his ground it would have felt like giving up if he’d stopped. “Maybe you should have got here earlier if you were so desperate for the seat.”
Beautiful Man looked a bit put out, and Alec felt bad for a moment. But he convinced himself that he only felt bad for him because he was beautiful.
“Please?” Beautiful Man asked, leaning down and gazing imploringly at Alec.
Alec felt his heart melt just a little bit, but he shook his head. “Nope.”
Beautiful Man straightened up and sighed. “I didn’t want it to have to come to this,” he said. He hoisted his bag up onto the overhead luggage rack.
For a moment, Alec thought he was going to go and sit in the row in front. That would have been fine. Alec could have forgotten about his beautiful face and the way his shirt rode up to expose a strip of smooth, brown stomach when he put his bag on the luggage rack.
But no. When his bag was secure, he slid into Alec’s row.
Alec supposed he could deal with sitting beside him. Maybe he’d be able to surreptitiously admire his face if he pretended to be preoccupied with his music or something.
But Beautiful Man kept on sliding.
Alec had a moment to admire his butt, but before he could register what was happening, Beautiful Man sat in his lap.
Really, genuinely, literally sat in his lap.
Alec was too shocked to say anything as the man shuffled to get comfortable.
“What are you doing?” he managed to choke out, trying not to think about the fact that his (very cute) butt was in his lap.
“I’m sitting in my seat,” Beautiful Man said, he smiled over his shoulder at Alec as if this was a normal thing that normal people did.
Alec stared at him. He could keep arguing, or he could stay still and hope that Beautiful Man would get bored and sit elsewhere.
He turned both ideas over in his head but decided that the latter was better. The man seemed stubborn and Alec didn’t want to spend the whole journey fighting with him.
Beautiful Man shifted and Alec bit his lip hard.
His butt had brushed against Alec’s crotch just right and now Alec was willing himself not to get an erection. There couldn’t possibly be a less appropriate time to get an erection than when a beautiful stranger was sitting on his lap on the train.
Alec was busy trying to think about that time Jace got drunk and tried to show him straight porn to ask about the differences between that and straight porn when Beautiful Man moved again.
For a moment Alec thought he was going to move into the seat beside Alec, but instead he just sat sideways, his back against the train window and his ass on Alec’s thigh instead of directly on his crotch.
“I’m Magnus,” he said, smiling brightly at Alec.
Alec felt nearly all of his annoyance disappear. He knew he was being ridiculously shallow, but it was hard to be angry when Magnus was smiling at him like that. “Alec,” he said.
Magnus folded his legs. Alec’s eyes were drawn to the movement, but he found himself staring at his ridiculously long legs for more time than was strictly necessary.
When he looked back up to Magnus’ face, Magnus looked amused. “So, Alec,” he began, then paused. “Can I call you Alexander?”
Alec didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t thought that people like Magnus existed. “If you want,” he said carefully.
“Wonderful,” Magnus said, beaming at him. Alec felt his heart beat a little faster. “So, Alexander. Anything waiting for you in DC? Any one? ” he asked. He sounded perfectly calm, as if he was used to starting conversations while sitting on strangers’ laps.
Maybe he was used to it. Maybe this was some sort of strange hobby.
“My brother and sister,” Alec told him. He considered being antisocial and letting the conversation stop there, but he had a feeling Magnus would keep talking to him even if he didn’t respond. (Plus, part of him did want to keep talking to Magnus. Even if he was a bit strange). “What about you?”
Magnus looked pleased that Alec was continuing the conversation. “I’m going for work. A meeting tomorrow afternoon and a networking type of event on Saturday afternoon.”
“What do you work as?” Alec asked.
“I’m in fashion,” Magnus said. Alec had expected an answer like that. “Fashion marketing at the moment, but I’d love to go into the more designy side of things. What do you do?”
Alec was almost surprised to be asked. People didn’t usually take much of an interest in him. Especially if they were as beautiful as Magnus. Maybe Magnus was a special case. He was sitting in his lap, after all.
“I work for a gym. Mostly archery classes,” he explained.
Magnus hummed and squeezed Alec’s bicep. “I should have guessed that,” he said, smirking at him.
Alec didn’t know what to say. Was Magnus flirting with him? Maybe he was just one of those people who flirted with everyone.
“Are you uncomfortable?” Magnus asked, looking concerned all of a sudden. “I can get off you if you want.”
A few minutes ago, Alec might have jumped at the chance to make Magnus move, but now he looked genuinely worried so maybe he wasn’t a complete asshole.
For some reason Alec shook his head and patted Magnus’ leg. “You can stay there if you really want to.”
Magnus looked pleased and draped his arm across Alec’s shoulders, folding his legs. “Good. You have a very comfortable lap.”
“Thanks. You have a comfortable butt,” Alec said before he could stop himself.
He was ready to apologise profusely, but Magnus laughed loudly and tipped his head back against the window. Alec had a moment to appreciate his sharp jawline before he opened his eyes and looked at him again. “Thank you, Alexander,” he said, squeezing Alec’s shoulder tight.
As it turned out, the two of them had quite a lot in common.
They chatted about light, casual things for a while. Music (even though Magnus liked more dancey music, they had a few common favourites), movies (neither of them watched many movies but they had seen and liked a lot of the same ones), TV shows (Alec didn’t watch much TV; Magnus did. Alec now had a long list of recommendations).
Soon, though, they moved onto heavier topics.
“Where are you from?” Alec asked, trying not to get too transfixed by a lock of Magnus’ hair that had come loose from its style and was swaying in time with the train’s movements.
“Indonesia,” Magnus said, tapping his fingers gently against Alec’s shoulder in a gentle rhythm.
Alec tried not to concentrate on the way his hand kept brushing against Magnus’ hip. “Wow. What made you move to America?” he asked, looking up at his face.
“My stepfather,” Magnus said, laughing just a bit too brightly for it to be sincere.
Alec bit his lip. He didn’t want to pry into Magnus’ life – they barely knew each other, really – but Magnus did have a sort of faraway look in his eye, and his smile was steadily dropping.
“You don’t get along?” he guessed. Hopefully that was vague enough that it wouldn’t upset Magnus too much, but he could elaborate if he wanted to.
Magnus gave a short laugh, this one completely devoid of humour. “That’s an understatement,” he muttered. “Let’s just say he wasn’t exactly supportive when I came out. Not that he was particularly supportive before that, either.”
“I’m sorry,” Alec said. He felt bad for mentioning it now. He didn’t want to dredge up bad memories for Magnus.
“It’s fine,” Magnus said, but he still wasn’t smiling.
Alec squeezed his knee automatically. The only person he’d ever really comforted when they were upset was Izzy, but he wasn’t exactly going to give Magnus a hug and a kiss on the forehead at this point in time (no matter how much he wanted to), so he settled for the knee squeeze.
Magnus looked slightly surprised at the touch, but he smiled down at Alec. Even though the smile wasn’t as bright as it had been before, it was better than his previous blank expression. “What about you, Alexander? Do you get along with your parents?”
Alec shrugged. “Sort of. I get along okay with them but I can tell that they still aren’t completely comfortable with me being gay,” he explained.
“So you are gay,” Magnus said, breaking into a more genuine smile. “I caught you staring at me earlier but I wasn’t completely sure.”
Alec’s eyes widened. He was suddenly very aware of the fact that his hand was still on Magnus’ knee. “Staring at you?” he asked, trying his best to sound shocked. “When?”
Magnus laughed. “When I got on the train. I was probably leaning over you for almost twenty seconds and you didn’t say anything, you just stared at my face,” he said, rubbing Alec’s shoulder.
Alec opened his mouth to defend himself, but he couldn’t think of anything to say, so closed it again.
“And also when I was putting my bag up on the rack. You were looking at my stomach,” Magnus said, raising his eyebrows.
Alec could feel himself going red. “I was not!”
“And you were looking at my butt just before I sat down,” Magnus added.
There was no point in denying it, but Alec still shook his head. “You can’t prove it.”
Magnus shifted so that both arms were around Alec’s neck, his lips just about brushing against Alec’s ear as he whispered. “Are you going to deny it?”
Alec’s breath caught in his throat. Magnus had moved enough that his butt was dangerously close to Alec’s crotch again.
“I– you– I don’t–” Alec didn’t know what he was trying to say, but whatever it was, it wasn’t coming out.
Magnus laughed and let go of Alec, but he kept one arm around his shoulders. “I’m only joking. Well. I’m not joking about you looking at me. But I don’t mind.”
Alec glanced down at his hand on Magnus’ knee. “You don’t mind me looking at you?” he asked.
“Nope,” Magnus agreed. He slid his hand along Alec's shoulder until his thumb brushed against his neck. “You’ve been sitting down the whole time but your torso is beautiful,” he said.
Alec was left speechless. Magnus was pretty much the definition of beauty, and he was calling Alec beautiful? “You’re more beautiful,” he blurted out.
Magnus laughed. “Is this a competition?”
Alec shook his head and forced himself to keep looking at Magnus’ face, even if he was so handsome it made Alec want to cry. “No. But you’re way out of my league.”
Magnus put his hand on Alec’s cheek. Alec tried extremely hard not to freak out as Magnus tilted his face up.
“Nobody should make you believe that you’re not good enough,” Magnus said gently, brushing his thumb against Alec’s cheek.
Magnus’ other arm was still around Alec’s neck, and Alec could feel himself getting lost in Magnus’ eyes, leaning closer and closer to him until –
“Can I see your tickets, please?”
Alec quickly drew back and looked up. The train conductor – a young woman – looked mostly bored, but somewhat amused by their position.
Magnus stood from Alec’s lap and reached up to pull his ticket out of his bag.
Alec tore his eyes away from where Magnus’ shirt was riding up again and put his own bag on the seat beside him, pulling out his own ticket.
The conductor checked their tickets and moved on.
For a moment, Alec thought Magnus might sit in the seat beside him instead of back in his lap. He was just about to move his bag out of the seat when Magnus was planting his butt right back in Alec’s lap.
“Do you need to pee or anything?” Magnus asked, once again wrapping his arm around Alec’s shoulders.
Alec shook his head. He hesitated for a moment, but Magnus didn’t seem to shy away from physical affection, so Alec wrapped his own arm around Magnus’ waist.
Magnus looked very pleased about this. He settled more comfortably into Alec’s lap, squeezing his shoulder tight.
They stared at each other for a moment longer.
Alec thought that if Magnus kept looking at him like that, he’d do something stupid, so he gestured to his backpack.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
The question sounded lame even to his own ears, but Magnus grinned. “What have you got?”
An hour and a half later, Alec found himself still with Magnus in his lap, but now the seat beside them was heaped with empty wrappers.
The train was beginning to slow down as they rolled into DC.
Most of Alec’s mind was occupied with the fact that Magnus was still laughing at something Alec had said, but part of him was wondering what would happen when they got off the train.
Yes, Magnus had just spent three hours in Alec’s lap.
Fine, Alec had been extremely close to getting an erection more than once.
Okay, Alec hadn’t found it so easy to get along with someone in a long time.
But that didn’t mean Magnus would want to keep in contact with him. He’d been sweet about telling Alec that he wasn’t out of his league, but behind the silly jokes and dry remarks, Magnus did seem like a genuinely sweet and lovely person, so it was hardly out of the question that he was just being friendly.
As the train got slower and slower, Alec started to panic.
He didn’t want to let Magnus slip through his fingers, but the thought of being rejected by him was terrifying.
“We should clear these up,” Magnus said. They were just pulling into the station.
Alec gathered the wrappers and stuffed them into the side pocket of his backpack. “I hate it when people just leave stuff laying around for people to clear up,” he sighed.
Magnus was holding onto his shoulder so he didn’t get shoved off Alec’s lap as he put the wrappers in his bag. “I know. I don’t go on a second date with people if they do that on the first date,” he said. When Alec looked up, Magnus was watching his face.
The train had almost slowed to a standstill.
They were silent for a moment.
Then Magnus stood up.
Alec’s lap felt strangely empty and cold without him there.
“My seat was even better with you in it, Alexander,” Magnus said, squeezing his shoulder once more before reaching up to get his bag.
Alec knew this was his chance. He should ask Magnus for his number, or whether he wanted to meet up over the weekend.
But Magnus got his bag down and pulled his jacket on, smiling down at Alec. “Are you coming?”
Alec nodded and shrugged his own jacket on, swinging his backpack onto one shoulder. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“I didn’t make your legs numb by sitting on them the whole way, did I?” Magnus asked, glancing down at Alec’s legs as he stood. “You look even better standing than you did sitting down,” he added, winking.
Alec laughed and followed Magnus off the train. The platform was busy, but he and Magnus stuck close to each other.
“Are you meeting anyone, or?” Alec asked, glancing around the station. If Magnus was meeting anyone, he was sure they would be just as fashionable as Magnus.
(He would say just as beautiful as well, but he was sure nobody else could be that attractive).
Magnus shook his head. “I just have to find my hotel. Then I suppose I’ll get settled in,” he said. Alec couldn’t decipher his expression. “What about you?”
“My sister should be waiting for me somewhere,” Alec told him, glancing around to see if he could spot Izzy anywhere.
“Right,” Magnus said, glancing down at his shoes and taking a deep breath. “I suppose I’ll see you later, Alexander.”
Magnus turned around. He walked away from Alec for two steps.
“Magnus,” Alec called after him, his heartbeat quickening.
Magnus turned around. Alec still couldn’t figure out his expression. He panicked. “When are you going back to New York?”
“Sunday,” Magnus said, poking at the handle of his suitcase.
Alec felt himself deflate. “Oh. I’m going back Tuesday,” he said. “Well…” he trailed off. This was his last chance. He could ask Magnus for his number now and they could see each other again.
Magnus smiled, but Alec still couldn’t work out what he was feeling. “Well indeed,” he said. A man in a suit walked in between them.
By the time he had passed, Magnus wasn’t smiling anymore. “Bye, Alec,” he said, then he disappeared into the crowd.
Alec didn’t feel anything for a second, then he felt a wave of panic.
He followed in the direction Magnus had gone, but he couldn’t see him or his green coat or his perfect hair anywhere.
Then he felt a hand on his arm.
His heart lurched.
He turned around expecting Magnus’ grinning face and some silly remark about Alec panicking over nothing, but instead he got Izzy beaming at him.
For the first time in Alec’s life, he was disappointed to see his sister.
“What’s wrong?” Isabelle asked as soon as she saw Alec’s face.
“Nothing,” Alec said immediately. If he told Isabelle, she would probably launch a city-wide search party for Magnus.
Isabelle reached up to put her hand on Alec’s shoulder. “Did you have a bad journey?”
Alec hesitated. The pressure of her hand was just making him think about Magnus. He couldn’t tell her he’d had a bad journey – that would be one of the worst lies he could tell – so he just shrugged. “It’s nothing,” he muttered.
Isabelle looked suspicious, but she took his arm and pulled him through the station – in the opposite direction of where Magnus had gone – in search of the others.