[A/N] Hey! Just wanted to tank you guys for your lovely comments on the first chapter! This is my first fanfiction (that I've published) so all the support is really great. Also, I have exams coming up, so the next chapter may not be with you for a while, but after that I have nothing else to do!
As always, The Mortal Instruments series and all it's characters belong to Cassandra Clare.
Three days after the incident, his writers block was still refusing to give him a break.
He just needed to write something, it didn't have to be his greatest masterpiece. He had his forehead on the desk, trying to think, but his thoughts kept wandering back to that colourful man and his 'raven' hair. Since it was clear that his mind wasn't going to leave the subject of 'Magnus Bane' alone, he got out his notebook from the incident, and started to write.
'He walks with a casual grace, like a busy house-cat, swiftly avoiding any obstacles in his way. His voice is rich and deep, like..."
He thought for a moment.
'...like smooth dark chocolate, leaving you wanting more. He's cute and sexy at the same time, and-'
Stop it Alec, this is getting weird. He'd never spoken so highly of the people he observed – He was a little worried he'd become like one of the sappy girls in novels with love triangles, all 'love at first sight' and 'dark dreamy princes'. His phone snapped him out of his thoughts. He checked the caller ID; Isabelle.
"Hey." He said as he pressed accept.
"Alec, thank god you picked up! I know you're not meant to be working tonight and you hate the crowds at the club and all, but that cute guy you were eyeing up is here!" Alec almost spat out the soda he was drinking.
"Iz! I was NOT eyeing him up!" Alec argued, his face turning rosy slowly.
"Oh, come on Alec. You start looking at a guy with good fashion sense after all these years of me trying to hook you up with someone boring? Of course I'm going to notice. Listen, I'm happy for you! You finally know now that your cold heart can lust-"
"Oh Jesus Chri-"
"Okay, okay," She laughed, "But he even asked if you were working tonight. He likes you, and I saw him give you his number though – Don't throw this chance away, he's actually cute." She said sternly, and hung up before Alec could protest.
He fished around in his pocket and took out the small piece of paper with the number scrawled on it. He had not called Magnus yet – What would he say? He had exactly zero experience with things like this in real life. In his stories, he could make romance bloom in the most awkward of situations – But, real life didn't work like fiction.
"Magnus Bane..." He mumbled to himself.
No. He wouldn't go. He absolutely would not, under any circumstances, go to the club tonight.
Alec frowned as he sat at the bar, sipping his orange juice and tapping his fingers on the wood of the bar nervously. When he'd walked in, Isabelle had simply offered a smug smile and a look that said 'I knew you wouldn't be able to resist.'
"Magnus alert," Izzy said, pointing to an approaching figure across the room. Alec was about to move away, to chicken out, when Izzy pushed down on his shoulders and started to speak again.
"Be cool. Don't mess it up – and probably best to leave the wizard speak for now." She said, giving him a quick wink before going back to charming customers into buying more expensive drinks. Alec leaned over the bar, about to call her back when he heard a voice besides him.
"Hey." Magnus spoke, and Alec nearly fell off the barstool when he jumped.
"Jesus, um, hi." He mumbled awkwardly, shock lacing his voice. Magnus was laughing now, and Alec felt like that laugh could melt him if he let it, despite only vaguely hearing it over the loud music. Alec quickly spoke up, "Listen, about the writing thing, I swear it's just what I do to practice, I'm not a stalker or-" He was silenced when the other leaned down to his bag and took out a long rectangular shape – A sketch pad.
"Go on, look." Magnus said as he slid the pad towards Alec and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. Alec looked over at him for a moment, and he was just sitting there, grinning at him. He flicked the pad open to the first page.
On the first page was a detailed sketch of a woman reading a book on a park bench, on the next page was a small boy sitting on a pier, his toes just touching the water. The drawings couldn't really be called sketches, Alec decided as he looked at a few more portraits. They were so detailed, and most were fully shaded, giving them an almost 3D effect. Magnus started to talk as Alec flipped through the portraits.
"I like to people watch too. To practice, of course. The only difference is that you write and I draw. So, will you stop trying to apologise now?" Magnus asked with a chuckle, and just as he finished, Alec flipped the page – and saw himself, printed across the paper in graphite.
His eyes widened as he stared at the portrait. He was slouched over on a barstool, notebook in his lap, his pen in hand. It was definitely the more detailed of the drawings. He looked focused, and... Beautiful. Alec had never used that word to describe himself, but in this picture it was the only word to describe it.
He was a black and white shaded portrait, except for his eyes, which were shaded a dark blue. Every detail looked like it must have taken an hour on it's own to draw – The lone strands of his hair that stuck up, the fibres of his sweater, old creases in his jeans.
"It's beautiful..." He mumbled, touching the paper with his fingertips.
"No, it's you that's beautiful. I couldn't find the right colour for those gorgeous blue eyes of yours..." Magnus purred, smirking at Alec. Alec was a little stuck for what to say for a moment, before he smirked and looked up at Magnus.
"It's good. But –"He paused, trying not to laugh. "My eyes are sapphire, not blue, darling." He teased.
The two of them talked all night, about this and that. Their families, their jobs, their hobbies... Just normal things. Magnus would try to flirt, and Alec would always clam up and start stuttering. He felt a little pathetic, what with his complete lack of experience in the real life romance field, and Magnus' array of experiences in it. But, by the end of the night he'd become a little less nervous around Magnus Bane, and they were both laughing. However, he still felt his heart jump a little whenever they made eye contact.
"Call me this time – Okay, sweetheart?" Magnus asked, winking at Alec as he pulled on his coat. Alec smiled a little.
"I will." He said, even though he still had no idea what he would say. 'Hey, this is the stuttering idiot from the bar.' And then where would that go?
When he got home, it was after midnight. He fell into bed, still with that stupid smile on his face. Someone had called him beautiful. Moreover, someone beautiful, interesting and funny had called him beautiful. He fell asleep that night with a stupid smile on his face, and dreamed of portraits and of Magnus.
It was one in the afternoon, and Alec was still staring at his phone, the piece of paper with the number of a certain sparkly man clenched tightly in his other hand. Each and every time he plucked up the courage to push in the numbers, he just ended up deleting them from the screen again. What would he say? What would Magnus say? How was the whole 'Call me' thing supposed to work exactly?
The worst thing was, that he'd been so sure that he had known how it worked up until the moment he was actually faced with the order of doing so. He'd read about the 'Call me' line many times in books, even wrote about it once or twice. It seemed so easy to make his characters idly chat on the phone, make them joke and be witty and sarcastic – Real life was a different matter. In real life, you can't think for a few minutes every time you want to speak a sentence, like you would when writing a sentence. Everything was just so quick, and got too awkward if one person thought for too long.
When the phone in his hand rang and snapped him out of his thoughts, Alec honestly thought he would have a heart attack. He checked the caller ID; Luke, his 'manager'. Basically, the guy who finds magazines and collections for Alec to write for and makes sure everything's in to the editors on time – The latter was his main job.
"Hey Luke." Alec answered casually, if not still a little shaken.
"Hi, Alec!" Luke answered cheerfully. Cheerful. Good. Alec hadn't missed a deadline, then. "Are you busy right now?" He asked.
"Uh..." Alec looked over at the blank sheet of paper on his desk. "No. Not really." He answered.
"Great, because I need you to come by the office before you get too engrossed in your next story for the magazine. I have a surprise for you." He said. Engrossed. Ha.
"All right," Alec sighed, shrugging on a coat and pair of boots, the phone sandwiched against his ear and shoulder. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes." He promised, and then hung up.
The subway was crowded, and Alec's headphones weren't doing much to silence the noise of chattering people. He was a very happy man when it was his stop, and he was finally free of the mass of bodies. Winter in New York was not Alec's favourite time and place. God damn tourists.
He arrived at the office a few minutes before he said he would be, and Luke as always greeted him with what he called a 'friendly handshake' – Alec thought of it as more of a 'Hey, you're kind of cool but I'm keeping my relationship with you professional in public because otherwise I'll be seen as unprofessional handshake'.
Luke talked as they walked through the halls, leading Alec to where his surprise was waiting.
"So, you know we've been trying to get you an illustrator for your short stories? Well, this guy just pops up this morning asking if we have any work for an illustrator. Since you're pretty much the only good writer we have without one, you get him. He's pretty good, from what I hear." Luke explained, Alec nodding absent mindedly as they walked. He caught the basics. The word illustrator was enough.
"Guess it's not really a surprise any more." Luke chuckled as he opened the door to one of the small offices.
Alec froze, looking over at the man sitting on the edge of the desk with wide eyes.
Magnus Bane stared back at him with feline eyes – Also wide with shock.
There was a long, awkward silence.
"Do... You two know each other?" Asked Luke from behind Alec.