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The day started as usual. Chairman Meow had kneaded at his stomach at precisely six o’clock in the morning until Magnus had dragged himself out of bed to open the window that let Chairman out, then he had dragged himself back to bed for another couple of hours sleep before his alarm went off, was snoozed and then went off again so he could give Chairman his breakfast.
At half past eight Magnus tumbled out of bed so he could start his Sunday morning routine. He would leave his hair flat and only apply the barest hints of make-up since he had spent hours and hours fully done up the two nights previous. He picked simple clothes that would keep him warm while still looking fabulous. All before nine o’clock when he went to feed Chairman Meow.
Only, Magnus spent half an hour searching his entire apartment looking for the cat for him to be nowhere to be found, which is what led Magnus to his current predicament.
“Chairman Meow!” Magnus called, “If you do not get down from there in the next two minutes, I’ll revoke your tuna privileges for the rest of the week!” It wasn’t much of a threat but it was all he could manage without feeling guilty. He wasn’t sure when he became a crazy cat man exactly, just that he was and he wasn’t ashamed of it. Magnus spoiled Chairman as much as he spoiled himself; which was admittedly a lot, but he deserved it.
Magnus jumped slightly when a light cough sounded next to him. He spun around to face the mystery cougher, only to be faced with a large Doberman that was almost as big as he was. As he took a step back, his eyes followed the dogs black rope lead up its’ humans arm, then his chest and face to meet a pair of the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were a light pear colour with brown flecks, making them more hazel than the colours they actually were, and the eyelashes around them were sinfully long; a length that people would pay extortionate amounts of money for.
It wasn’t until the man coughed again that Magnus realised he was staring. He quickly looked away, ducking his head and rubbing his nose – a nervous tick he had picked up somewhere along the way. “Can I help you?”
The other man raised his eyebrows, smiling slightly at Magnus’ tone; he hadn’t meant to sound so rude. “I was just wondering if you’re okay? You are shouting at a tree.”
“Oh! Yes, I’m fine.” Magnus laughed, shaking himself back into his default confidence. “Chairman Meow is stuck in the tree. I’m shouting at him.” He explained. The wide, toothy smile he received for the name was just as beautiful as his eyes were. He held out a hand, “I’m Magnus.”
“Alec.” Alec shifted the dogs lead to his left hand so he could shake Magnus’. His hand was larger than Magnus’, easily dwarfing it but somehow they fit perfectly together, and he had decidedly more callouses than Magnus did.
“So Magnus do you make it a habit to name your pets after fascist dictators?” Alec asked, a slight blush rushing to his cheeks as he drew his hand away from Magnus.
“It was between Chairman Meow and Adolf Kitler, but I thought that second one might be a bit too much” Magnus explained. The dog butted its snout against the hand he dropped, so he scratched it behind the ears as he watched Alec chuckle at the other name he suggested, the way his shoulders shook could have been distracting if Alec had not begun speaking.
“What about Ikki Kita?” Alec offered thoughtfully.
Magnus felt his heart stutter over a few beats. A physically flawless man could catch his cat puns come historical references and thought they were funny; he must have put out some good karma in his past lives because it was sure as hell coming back to him now.
“Here, can you hold this?” Alec thrust the lead out to Magnus, who took it tentatively; he liked dogs, just small ones that weren’t taller than him when stood on their hind legs.
“Why?”
“I’m going to get your cat down.” Alec pulled off the zipped sweater that Magnus hadn’t noticed he was wearing. He folded it and laid it over the dog’s back, “Look after this for me, Hal.”
“I guess I’m not the only one that names their pets after weird sources.” Magnus said. Alec smiled blindingly at him again, and Magnus wondered if he smiled that much at everyone or if he was just a special case; he hoped he was a special case. “Shakespeare?”
“Yes. Henry fifth is one of my favourites!” Alec replied. He stepped towards the tree, laying his hands flat on the trunk and craned his neck back so he was staring into the dense canopy of green leaves. “Although I did want to call him Aufidius, but my brother had some trouble saying it.” He muttered distractedly.
Alec turned back to face him, “Alright, give me your scarf.” He rolled his eyes when all Magnus did in response was gape opened mouthed at him. “I need it so I have something to put your cat in.” He explained.
“This is vintage Hermes!” Magnus told him. No matter how much he loved his cat, he paid good money for that scarf and he was not going to let it be Macgyvered into a cat carrier.
Alec blinked at him, “I have no idea what that means.”
“It means; you’re not using my scarf.”
“Fine.” Alec huffed, running a hand through his hair, “I’ll figure something out.” He turned back to the tree, this time running up it slightly so he could catch a low hanging branch.
“Oh. Magnus?” Alec said, still swinging slightly from the branch and exposing a wonderfully distracting line of skin above the waistband on his pants.
“Yes?”
“Hal is going to get a little bit antsy when I go out of sight.” Alec grunted. He pulled himself up onto the branch, it wobbled dangerously under his weight but he managed to right himself enough to hop to another branch, this one sturdier. “It’ll be fine, just be more Alpha than he is.”
“Be more Alpha?” Magnus called. He didn’t think the words ‘Alpha Male’ had ever been associated with him on account of most things in his life. He had never ‘dominated’ anything, unless they were speaking metaphorically, in which case he had always dominated the swim meets in high school, but other than that nothing came to mind.
“Yes! Just tug the lead if he starts straying. It’s fine.” Alec jumped quickly between a few branches, muttering ‘oh shit’ when one started cracking under his weight. He disappeared out of sight, jumping to climb on a branch above him.
Magnus glanced down at the dog, who was beginning to shuffle his paws restlessly. He was suddenly faced with a jittery dog almost twice his size and he had not the faintest idea what to do. So, like with most problems he didn’t know how to solve, he sat down - of course this normally only solved his problems when he had a large glass of whiskey to go with it; but the power of suggestion was indeed a powerful thing – and hoped the problem would resolve itself.
Hal butted his nose against Magnus’ forehead so hard that his vision blurred and went dark around it’s edges. He blearily reached out a hand to pat Hal on the head, and before he knew it, he had a lap full of a shaking and whining Doberman.
“Hey, Hal?” Magnus said five minutes into the fate he’d resigned himself to, “Can you move to my other leg? I’m sure the one you’re sat on is dead.”
Hal craned his head back to breathe on Magnus’ face, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth and just stared at him.
“Guess I’ll take that as a no then.” Magnus sighed. He tried to move his leg anyway. The karma he earlier thought had come for him had obviously disappeared because all that happened was he was able to move his foot the slightest of inches so it was pointing at an even more awkward ankle.
“Do you think your very attractive owner will carry me home since you’ve ruined my ability to stand on my own?” He asked.
The dog just stared at him again. “Great.” He mumbled, “I’m becoming a crazy dog man, too.”
There was an audible ‘fuck’ that caused Hal’s ears to perk up and then a dangling foot that made his entire back half shake in excitement. If he could stand, Magnus would have been shaking in excitement of having his limbs back.
Alec landed on the grass with barely a sound, just a grunt when Hal ploughed into him, his paws hitting firmly in the middle of Alec’s back. He stumbled slightly but otherwise didn’t show any particular interest in his dog’s excitement.
Magnus hopped up to his feet, leaning heavily on his left leg, the right still throbbing from the sudden rush of blood to its extremities.
“I got your cat.” Alec gestured to where Chairman’s usual disgruntled face was peeking out of the folds of Alec’s shirt.
Now that Magnus was actually looking at him, it became clear exactly why Alec had asked to borrow his scarf. The grey t-shirt he had been wearing had been torn up and re-tied together to fashion a sort of harness, presumably so Alec could carry Chairman down from wherever he had settled himself and still have the use of both his hands – which usually only aids tree climbing.
“Yeah. Thanks.” Magnus replied.
Alec nodded and began to untangle the shirt from where he tied it so he could put the cat down, or at least in Magnus’ arms so he didn’t have to climb another tree and ruin another shirt.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Magnus nodded at the secure wrap his cat was being removed from.
“Army.”
Magnus gratefully took Chairman out of Alec’s outstretched hands when he had finished and wisely didn’t comment on Alec’s lack of response. He thought carefully about his next words.
He didn’t have long to do so before all coherent thought was forced from his brain. Alec had pulled the rest of the torn fabric off his torso and was bunching it together in his hands. His hair covered chest and toned arms had an assortment of black tattoos littering the pale skin.
Magnus swallowed forcefully as he watched Alec sweep up his jacket from around Hal’s neck and put the rolled up shirt in the dog’s mouth. “Should you be giving him that?” He asked, maybe a little bit disappointed as he watched Alec’s bare skin disappear under more black fabric.
Alec shrugged, “it’s better he continues to rip that up than my underwear again.”
Magnus snorted, then swooned slightly at the light blush that flooded Alec’s cheeks when he noticed where Magnus’ eyes were trained. Thankfully Chairman had remembered Magnus’ promise of tuna so he dug his claws into Magnus’ forearms – it was truly a miracle that he didn’t drop him – and brought him back to reality.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this,” Magnus raised his arms a fraction so Alec’s attention was brought to where Chairman was restlessly sat in Magnus’ arms. “But I would really like to invite you to dinner so I can try.”
Alec’s eyes widened dramatically and his blush grew darker, he glanced down at Hal – who was panting around the wadded t-shirt – then back at Magnus. He swallowed. “I’d like that.”
“Great!” Magnus beamed, “Friday then, say seven?”
“Seven. Where?”
Magnus motioned to the three story apartment building they were stood two buildings down from, “There. My name’s on the buzzer.”
Alec nodded, this time what Magnus was sure was a blinding smile threatening the corners of his mouth. “Friday at seven then. It was nice to meet you Magnus.”
“You too.” Magnus whispered, taking a slow step back, unwilling to drag his eyes away from Alec just yet.
He watched Alec and Hal continue down the sidewalk on their journey, only laughing after Alec had turned his attention back to where he was going after being nearly run over by a bright yellow taxi because he was looking back at Magnus.
“A soldier, Chairman!” Magnus sighed dreamily as he began the walk back to his apartment. “Can you imagine the stamina he has? And the strength? And don’t get me started on the uniform!”
Chairman Meow seemingly did not want to imagine Alec in the way that Magnus was if the yowl he gave in response was anything to go by. Magnus sighed again, this time in annoyance, he thought that being a crazy cat man would at least give him a sympathetic ear to talk to, but apparently even that couldn’t happen without Chairman being full of tuna first.
“One day I’ll be gone and then you’ll appreciate me.” He muttered to the cat, but saying anything with any hint of malice was out of the question. He was still feeling the residual excitement for his date, and he found himself hoping that it wasn’t just a onetime thing, Alec already seemed to be the antithesis of his last ex and Magnus really was ready for a change.
Besides, if Chairman liked Alec enough to be forcibly removed from his hiding spot without leaving a multitude of scars behind, then it must be a good omen for his future – however long it may be – with Alec.