Magnus POV---Present Time
I went to the book store everyday since the fist day it opened. It might have came off creepy but I didn't care, I wanted, needed, to see Alec more. Hear him more, be with him more, and most of all, I wanted to kiss him.
Kiss him until he turned as blue as his eyes. Touch him until he turned every shade of red that ever existed, and then some.
It seems like every time I come back his eyes change another shade of blue. I swear his smile gets ten times brighter I see it. The way he walks, like he wants something, makes me want to give him everything he desires. The way he speak, like he has a secret, makes me want to know everything about him. Even the way he makes coffee makes me fall even more in love with the boy who I can't ever have.
One day when I came in, the store was empty except for Alec because it was Sunday and everyone in the entire city went to church on Sunday, everyone except Alec and me. He was singing to an Alex and Sierra song called Little Do You Know, the volume on the stereo in the back so loud he didn't even hear the bell on the door. He was dancing and singing like no one was there and I just watched him. Watched him sway and move his hips and tap his feet so melodically, watched him swing his arms and pretend he had a mic, listened to him sing so beautifully, like he was the only person in the whole world. The song was over all too soon. He turned and saw me watching him, a hand over my mouth to cover my smile. He turned so red I thought he would never go back to his beautiful pale skin tone.
Another day when I entered, it was about eleven thirty at night and I found an asleep Alec dozing off in front of the fire, his head leaning on his shoulder and a book laying in his lap, he was exposing most his slender neck, making it so inviting and open that it took all of my self restraint to lay a blanket that I had found under the coffee machine, over him, kiss his forehead so lightly it was like I never had, and walk back out the door. I might have taken a couple pictures before leaving.
Okay a little more than a couple.
Today I walk into the bookstore and find Alec talking to a man much older than him and a little taller. His hair is the same tangled mess of black hair and his eyes a shade darker that Alec's. I would've guessed he was his brother or something if it weren't for the strands of gray hair and the wrinkles on his knuckles bAlec looks paler than usual, he looks terrified, like a cornered animal. The man he is talking to is standing abnormally close to Alec, just enough space for Magnus to rush into when the strange man raised a fist.
"Excuse me sir, but I would love it if you would leave." I had said, placing a hand on the man's shoulder to usher him out. Behind me, Alec had begun gripped my shirt with both hands.
With a grunt, the furious looking man stalked off towards the door, yanking it open and stomping off down the street. I didn't move until I could no longer see his stiff shoulders and bent head.
"Magnus, is he gone?" Alec asked in a voice that made me want to put myself in between him and the world, made me want to do anything to get him to smile again, made me want to kiss him.
"Yeah, he's gone." Slowly, Alec releases my shirt and steps away from me. "Alec, who was he?" Alec visibly tensed, hands tightened into fist at his sides, mouth in a thin line, and his beautiful eyes, fixed on the dark blue carpet. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to!" I quickly add, trying to calm him.
"Thank you Magnus, but you deserve to know." His voice is shacking, and so is he, not violently but not subtly either. Just enough to make me worry.
"Alec, why don't you sit down." I take both of his hands and pull them to my chest. They feel like ice. "Please." He nods once and moves toward the door. "Where are you going?" I asks, worried he might take off running.
"I'm closing for the day, I don't think I can run the shop today." He flips the wooden sign on the door from 'Open' to 'Closed' and walks towards the stairs.
"Would you like me to leave?" Thinking it is the logical time to go. He looks like he needed some time alone. After I asked he walks towards me, head down, and pulled on the sleeve of my sweater and tugs on it until I start walking with him. He didn't say anything as he pulls me upstairs.
After getting upstairs, he pulls my towards two bookshelves that blocked off the corner of the room. He reaches towards a book and pulls.
Click
The bookshelf slides away, revealing a set of metal stairs. You could only see the stairs is you looked over the shelves and not through, thanks to the wooden backing of the shelves.
Alec started to climb the stairs with me in tow, still stunned about the moving bookshelf.
He has a secret stair case. Why don't I have a secret stair case? I need a secret stair case.
Alec still doesn't speak as he takes his shoes off and put them on a wooden rack at the top of the stairs. I mimic his actions and take off my boots, placing them neatly next to his all black converses.
He walks towards one of the many book shelves lining the walls and pulls out a photo album. He tucks it under his arm and pulls me away form my frozen spot near the stairs and towards the kitchen island made of wood. There are two tall wooden seats under the island and he plops me down in one of them, my feet dangle under me as he takes the seat next to mine.
He opens the album and slides it towards me, never looking up from his hands. Inside are dozens of pictures of a boy who looks like Alec, a girl with almost identical features, and another boy who looks like the complete opposite of both of them. I read the names that line the bottom of the page.
Alec, Isabelle, and Jace. Age 10
"Alec, what is this?" I look over at his but he is still staring at his hands. I continue to look at the many photos. Alec and the other two at the beach, at a bowling ally, and a birthday party. In every picture they are all together. In one photo there is a man, the same man from the store but with out the gray hair and wrinkles, standing behind the three. It's a photo where Alec is in center with the other two on either side of him and he is holding a small bundle of blankets to his chest. He is wearing the biggest smile I have ever seen him wear. Under the photo are two names. "Robert and Max Lightwood."
"Max is my brother and Robert," He takes a shaking breath. "Robert is my father."
"Wait, I don't understand. This guy is your father? But he almost just punched you in the face." I close the album. "Alec, please talk to me."
"He hates me." He can't seem to catch his breath.
"But, why?"
"Because I'm me!" He is crying now, making his blue eyes glitter. "Because I left! Because I'm...." He stops like only just realized what he was saying.
"Alec, please calm down. You don't have to tell me." His shoulders are shanking and I take hold of both his hand. They feel like ice. He pulls them from my grasp and turns his chair away from me.
"No! I have to tell you!" His sudden outburst makes me worry twice as much. He wipes away his tears with the back of his hand and faces me, only to drop his head and look at his hands again. When he speaks again the boldness is out of his voice and replaced with a silent anxiety. "He hates me because," another deep, shaking breath. "Because I'm gay."
Stunned, I can't say anything.
What did he say? Gay? Then, can I kiss him? Wait, no, baby steps Magnus, baby steps.
"Magnus?" Alec is looking up at me through his black hair. "I understand if you don't come here anymore. If you want to leave I won't blame you." The way he said it broke the late bit of self restraint I had left in me.
Fuck baby steps
I kiss him.
He kisses me back.
