AN: Woooo chapter two! I'm having so much fun writing this fic you guys, and I'm glad that those of you who are reading it are liking it already! Sorry for the big delay! School has started and it's been a little difficult to find the time to write, but I will try to get another part out later this week. Thanks for the reviews, faves and follows! More chapters and phan to come~
Magic
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Show!
It was dark in the theater aside from the stage lights that were still rather dim, so Phil, Chris and PJ had a difficult time getting to their seats, bumping into previously invisible people and tripping over what seemed like thin air. Luckily, however, their seats weren't very far from the entrance, their row being about four rows from the back wall. The stage seemed disappointingly far away and small from the velvety seats which were currently occupied by the excited university boys, but that fact did barely anything in the way of deterring their excitement for the upcoming performance.
The air was warm and a tad stuffy, chatter loud and constant. Fortunately, the people sitting in front of the boys weren't very tall, however the same could not be said for the people sat behind them.
Soon, there were less people hurrying about to get to their seats, but the chatter was still as lively and domineering as ever. Phil was trying to get Chris to pass the popcorn he had bought earlier, but even though he was sat just on the other side of PJ, the pandemonium made it impossible to communicate, so Phil eventually gave up. The good news was that Phil wasn't given much time to reflect on his unfortunate state of not eating popcorn, as the far away stage suddenly lit up with the concentrated beam of a powerful spotlight off to the side.
In a puff of sparkly, colorful smoke, with a crescendo of cheers from the crowd, the even more handsome in person Marcus the Magnificent appeared, adorning the same tasteful attire as he was pictured in on his posters and in the newspaper. Phil, or anyone in the audience for that matter, couldn't keep his eyes off the dazzling magician.
"Hello there, London, and welcome to the show!" Marcus flashed a smile that seemed to light up the theater, when in actuality, he had thrown his white gloved hands in the air and a bright flash had illuminated the room, the word 'Magic!' appearing out of thin air.
As the crowd 'ooo'd and 'aaaah'd, Marcus plucked his top hat from off of his chocolatey brown hair and held it over his heart, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Marcus the Magnificent, your host for tonight's Magic Show, and all of the other shows for this entire week!"
The audience roared as Marcus took a bow, placing his hat back on his head while still bowing. He looked back up at the audience, his charming appearance eliciting high pitched squeals from the fangirls.
"Tonight's theme is Transfiguration! Prepare to have your mind melted into a malleable jelly as I test the reality of what you see in front of your very eyes!" Marcus linked his hands together and flexed his fingers. The crowd soared with applause, Phil's own rhythm joining in with that of the audience.
This Marcus character sure had quite a bit of charisma. Phil could see why he was a particularly popular magician, and he was eager to see what kinds of things Marcus could 'transfigure'.
"For my first trick, something light and modest," Marcus gestured towards the side of the stage, a table floating seemingly on it's own towards the well-dressed lad. The audience rippled with excitement as the table slowed to a halt just next to the magician, and he plucked something invisible to Phil and the rest of the crowd off of the table.
"This, my friends, is a hair..." the gloved hands began working their magic, the hair falling into place in Marcus' left hand, his right hand creating a spherical cage around the hair, the two hands rotating around each other until suddenly, Marcus was holding some sort of a small animal, "... a mouse hair."
There was an uproar of applause and a few squeaks and shrieks from a few of the girls and one or two guys.
Marcus took notice of the shrieks, and looked up at the audience from the quivering ball of fur, "What's the matter ladies and gents? Chester here won't bite. But perhaps you'd prefer something a little less rodent-like? Say, I dunno..." Marcus cupped the mouse named Chester in his hands again and repeated the rotating motions, this time a bigger, ginger colored animal unfurling from his grasp, "... a kitty cat?"
Loud gasps escaped the lips of the awestruck audience members, followed by thunderous applause. Phil's mind was bending and twisting as he tried to figure out how Marcus was changing the animal in his hand from mouse to cat to chihuahua to pigeon to chinchilla and on and on and on. He had to be keeping a zoo up in his sleeves to be pulling this off. It was crazy. However Marcus was managing it, he was really damn good at it.
"This guy's amazing!" Chris exclaimed, trying to be heard over the applause as Marcus moved on to his next trick in which he was splashing buckets of water on five canvases, the water somehow morphing the blank material into famous paintings, famous paintings into photographs and photographs into moving short films.
Phil nodded in agreement, "I can't figure out how he's doing it!"
"Maybe he really is magic, eh?" PJ cracked a smile and elbowed Phil in the arm.
Phil rolled his eyes and smiled, "Right, and I'm the Queen of England."
Marcus' voice cut through their conversation, "Now comes the part of the show where I pick the first audience member who will come up on stage and be a part of one of my magic acts. Hmmm, let's see, who should I go with?"
Gloved hands stroked bare chin as Marcus paced along the stage, looking out at the audience in amusement as they screamed his name and jumped up in down in their seats. Phil, Chris and PJ all had a good laugh at the other audience members. Crazy people...
They were in the middle of admiring the hilariousness of a girl who was practically in tears as Marcus passed her, when suddenly Phil felt a pair of eyes bearing into him. He looked around for a bit, until he noticed Marcu's chocolatey brown eyes fastened on him. Or, he thought it was him. Was it? He didn't really know. It was kind of hard to tell when you're surrounding by a crap load of other people.
Marcus' hand slowly lowered from his chin, and he stopped pacing, turning to look what appeared to be directly at Phil. Phil started to feel a little uncomfortable, but sort of strangely excited. Was he looking at him? And if he was, why was he looking at him like that? It was almost like fascination, but something more than that.
Before Phil could finish his thought however, Marcus spoke up again, "You there, towards the back with the black hair and pretty blue eyes? Yes, you with the galaxy jacket?"
Phil gulped slightly. Marcus was definitely looking at him.
"Come on up here!" Marcus grinned widely, gesturing towards his stage of magical peculiarities.
It took a moment to register what was going on, and another moment to respond to PJ and Chris practically shoving him down the row of seats towards the aisle. When Phil finally got his bearings, he started down the aisle, shaking slightly as the crowd applauded their fellow audience member's lucky journey to where the magnificently handsome magician was waiting for him.
"Let me help you, those steps are notorious for making people, especially me, trip." Marcus smiled at Phil as Phil approached the steps to the top of the stage. A white, gloved hand reached down towards him, and he gladly took it, blushing slightly at the contact with the gorgeous and talented stranger. He ascended the steps and the applause died down as Marcus let go of Phil's hand all too soon and Marcus appeared to be needing to speak again.
"Well, thank you for the warm welcome for our fine friend here," Marcus said, patting Phil on the shoulder, "Now tell us, what is your name?"
"Uh, er, Phil. Phil Lester." Phil replied, blinking in the overwhelmingly bright light of the spotlights.
"Well hello, Phil!" Marcus gestured at the audience to applaud, and they did, Phil catching the pitch of Chris and PJ's voices amongst the clapping and whistling and cheering. Phil smiled shyly at the crowd and waved a bit. Marcus looked over at him, smiling at his shyness.
"No need to be so nervous, Phil," Marcus encouraged as the cheering died down, "all you have to do for this trick is dance."
The color drained from Phil's face, "Oh God, I'm a terrible dancer..."
The audience chuckled at Phil's comment, but Marcus just grinned, "Not with me dancing with you! This is a partner dance. It will be fun, right?"
Some more laughter from the audience. Phil smiled a bit, but before he had a chance to respond, one of Marcus' hands was on his waist and the other took his left hand in his right hand. Phil's cheeks started to burn, the laughter of the audience at the odd spectacle before them dying out in his ears, the only thing that mattered taking the form of Marcus' dark, warm eyes, which were staring at him intently. Marcus wore a small, playful smirk on his pink lips, his eyes giving Phil a barely noticeable once over. Phil blushed even more.
"You all right?" Marcus asked quietly below the chatter of the crowd, "You're red as a tomato."
"S-sorry, I, uh, just-"
"Do you want to return to your seat? I'm sorry if I dragged you into an uncomfortable situation."
"N-no, no, it's fine. It's just, I didn't think I'd be dancing with someone as amazing and beautiful as you when I stepped foot outside my house today."
Oops. Phil didn't mean to blab that out, but there it was, hanging in the air, suspended in between him and the magician.
A wide grin replaced Marcus' smirk, and he tugged Phil closer so that their chests and foreheads were touching, "Oh really? Why thank you, I'm flattered. You're not so bad yourself."
Phil was crimson at this point, and the crowd was roaring in amusement, or at least that's how it was for a moment. It soon turned into surprised gasps and cheers, but Phil barely took notice. He was too focused on the proximity of his body to Marcus', and the compliment he had given him.
Just a compliment? C'mon Phillip, don't be dense. That was nothing less than a flirtatious compliment.
Marcus continued to dance with Phil for a short while longer, but soon, to the dismay of them both, drew back from Phil and spun him as the audience 'ooo'd and 'ahhhh'd again. Phil didn't understand why until he looked at what he was wearing.
"I thought it only fitting that Phil here be wearing something equally as formal as I am. I mean, we did share a dance. What do you think?" Marcus gestured towards Phil, who was now wearing a white tuxedo with a black vest and bow tie that were decorated with galaxy colors and stars. The crowd gave an enthusiastic response, Marcus making eye contact with Phil again.
"And remember! All audience participants get to meet with me personally backstage after the performance, and get free passes to the rest of this week's magic shows!"
Phil's mouth hung open slightly as Marcus shook his hand and helped him down the stairs again.
"See you backstage," Marcus said quietly to Phil, and with a wink returned to the rest of his performance.
Slightly dazed, heart pounding, Phil made his way back up the aisle to his seat, still wearing the tuxedo Marcus somehow 'magically' transformed his clothes into.
PJ and Chris smiled at Phil as he sat down in his previous seat.
"Dude that was so cool! You didn't even notice the change, did you? Do you know how he did it? Did he tell you?" PJ fired all of these questions at Phil, but Chris stepped in before Phil could wrap his mind around what was happening.
"Never mind that! Did you see Phil's face? He is completely smitten with that magical boy." Chris laughed.
PJ grinned at the comment, but Phil punched both of them in the arms, "Shut up you idiots. I mean yeah, Marcus is nice looking. Okay, really nice looking, but I was literally up there for less than five minutes. I doubt you can completely fall for someone that fast."
Chris leaned back in his seat, "Yeah, well, you've got a whole week of magic for that to happen. You'll be a fangirl before you know it."
Phil grumbled a bit but decided to just ignore Chris. What did Chris know? I mean, yeah Marcus made him as red as a strawberry, but come on. He didn't love him. He barely knew him. Besides, he probably has someone already, knowing how rich, famous and good looking he is. Yep. He would just wait till the end of the show, talk with Marcus for a bit, and then say goodbye to him forever. Of course, he'd still be coming to the other shows though. Strictly for the magic though.
And definitely not for the captivating brown eyes that kept catching his gaze.