Everything About You - Malec (Magnus Bane x Alec Lightwood)

An entirely new experience

I walked down the corridor of his new school and sighed. This was going to be hell. I was expected to sleep in the same room as someone I had just met. I had a hard time being nice to his siblings (I was very blunt and straightforward; I said what I thought, which tended to get me a lot of enemies), let alone some random guy. I just hoped this guy wasn’t homophobic or *shudder* talkative …

Room 124, room 123, room 121, room 120. Finally. I took a deep breath and slid my key into the lock, pushing the door open and lugging his bag through, dropping it on my toe about three times before a smooth low voice said “you need any help with that?”

My head whipped around as I jumped, causing the suitcase to fall on my abused little toe yet again. “OW! Shit!” I hopped up and down on one leg, which really didn’t help for balance, especially when there was a solid body behind you, ready to fall into. Which is exactly what happened, incidentally.

Probably my new roommate and I fell in a tangled heap backwards right onto a bed. I instinctively grabbed onto the stranger’s shoulders and I felt arms wrap around my waist as we fell. Our legs were tangled and our bodies were pressed together … everywhere … so I could tell this person was a guy. Great …

“Wow. If I knew you were going to be this eager, I would’ve prepared myself.”

I opened my eyes, which I had squeezed closed during the fall, and found myself nose-to-nose with a particularly gorgeous face with tanned skin and green eyes – for some reason, they seemed like they were contacts; they were just too … glassy. This man had spiked up hair which was gelled in different shades of blue and – was that – glitter? Oh god. I mentally facepalmed myself. Only I would get into this situation with such an openly gay guy … within my first ten minutes of being inside this school, no less.

“I …” Wow, great response, Alec. The guy chuckled. “It’s alright to be awed by my beauty; everyone is. Although it’s a particular pleasure to be checked out by those gorgeous blue eyes.” Before I’d even had time to process this compliment, he had leaned right up close to my ear, and whispered, his lips brushing my earlobe, “black hair and blue eyes is my favourite combination.” He leaned back and grinned at me. I realised I was blushing. Damn my pale skin.

“Um, I … thanks?” I stuttered, not entirely sure how to respond. This guy was obviously flirting with me. I bit my lip anxiously, and noticed how the stranger’s pupils dilated slightly. Hmm … I looked up at him through my eyelashes, experimenting, and heard the small intake of breath as I did. I pretended to look confused – I was an actor after all; had been doing Drama all my life. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He was about to respond when somebody rudely barged into the room.

“Magnus, has he – oh, come on, already?”

I jumped off “Magnus”, ignoring the cold feeling that came with being outside of the circle of his arms. “I – I mean, we, I tripped, and, um, we fell – I mean, it was an accident, I didn’t – we weren’t-”

“Alright, no need to get your knickers in a twist.” The guy in the door said. He paused, and I looked up to see what had made him stop. Then I realised the way he was looking at me was – really? Two guys checking me out already? God.

“Looks like you’ve lucked in on this one, Mag.” Magnus’s friend said stepping forward. “My name’s Ragnor Fell. But you can call me babe. Or hottie. I’m not picky.”

I opened my mouth, startled. Was everyone here so forward? “I’d really rather just call you Ragnor, if I have to call you at all.” Wait. Was that rude? I’m always so blunt, I never can tell. But judging by Magnus’s gleeful “Rejected!” and Ragnor’s affronted look, it was. I hurried to amend it. “Sorry – that came out wrong. I meant, like, if I see you again, I’ll call you that. It’s not that I-”

“Don’t worry, cutie, you can make it up to me in other ways.” Said Ragnor coming right up close and tapping me on the nose, grinning. I took a hasty step back. Suddenly Magnus was next to me, draping an arm over my shoulders.

“Alright, Rag, enough creeping him out.” Ragnor threw his hands up in defeat and stalked out of the room. He turned at the door and said “this isn’t over, Bane.” I still don’t know if he was being serious or not.

Magnus wiped his brow dramatically. “Phew,” he said, “glad he’s gone. He can be so annoying sometimes, trying to steal you away like that.” He grinned. “And I can’t have that, can I?” He leaned in close again, so that our noses were touching. His breath washed over my face and my eyes fluttered closed. I noted that his arm had slid down to my waist. Then the warm breath and the arm were gone.

“You’d better unpack,” I opened my eyes to see Magnus lying on his bed, his arms behind his head, “dinner’s in fifteen minutes.”

I shook my head a little. Snap out of it, Alec. I retrieved my suitcase from where it was still standing in the doorway and brought it over to the bed on the opposite side of the room to Magnus’s. I was in the middle of unpacking my t-shirts when Magnus said suddenly, “you never told me your name.”

I turned. “Alexan – Alec Lightwood.” I said. Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Alexan-Alec is a funny first name.” Laughter danced in his eyes. Again, they didn’t look genuine. The emotion did, but not the eyes …

“My full name’s Alexander, but no one really calls me that.” I paused, trying to build up the courage to say what I wanted to. “By the way, are those – are your eyes real, or are they contacts?”

Magnus froze, and I immediately felt bad. “How … how could you tell?” He asked. I thought I could see fear in his eyes. I backpedalled quickly.

“It’s not obvious. I mean, I only noticed it because we – you know …” I trailed off, remembering the very awkward but oddly enjoyable moment earlier. Magnus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He sat up. “You can’t tell anyone they’re not real, alright?” I opened my mouth to ask why, but Magnus cut me off. “You just – can’t. Alright?”

I nodded slowly.

I walked into the cafeteria next to Magnus, searching for Jace and Izzy. I finally spotted them sitting at a table with four others: a beautiful blonde haired girl, a girl with brown hair and a slightly blue tinge to her skin, another brown-haired girl with kind grey eyes, and … Ragnor. Shit. Trust me to have the bad luck of my siblings becoming friends with Magnus’s friends. I sighed and followed Magnus to the table. What I didn’t see was Ragnor shove the blonde-haired girl from her seat to make room for me.

I reached the table and looked, confused, staring at the seat Ragnor held out for me. “Wasn’t … wasn’t somebody sitting here a minute ago?”

Jace snorted across the table. I was utterly confused. “It’s alright, I’ll just sit here.” Magnus brushed past me and sat in the recently vacated chair. Ragnor glared at Magnus whilst, unnoticed, the blond-haired girl got up off the floor, muttering angrily, and placed herself daintily as far away from Ragnor as she could get. Magnus grinned up at me. “Do you want to get a chair, or just sit on my lap?” He patted his lap suggestively.

Yes, please… “Um, I’ll just – I’ll just get a chair…” I turned and got the nearest chair and when I turned back around, Ragnor and moved his chair again so that the available space was … in between him and Magnus. Could this lunch get any worse?

Yes. Yes it could.