A/N- Aw, your reviews were the best ever! :) I'm so happy. Thank you so very, very, very much! Here's chapter ten!
Disclaimer- I don't own the Mortal Instruments series, Cassandra Clare does. *bows down*

After Magnus made his comment about quitting smoking, Ragnor went around the bunk room in search of a cute boy to get with. He said he was in desperate need of a piece of ass but I thought he was just trying to get Isabelle out of his head by drowning in a sea of boys. There was a very attractive boy standing by himself in the corner and Ragnor immediately drifted towards him, moving with a confident aura surrounding him. I couldn't blame him for choosing that boy; he was definitely hot… but he was nothing compared to Magnus.

Me and my boyfriend (I love using that word) were lying in my bed together, holding hands and staring at the bottom of his mattress above us. I imagined we were in my room back home, looking at my ceiling instead.

We were completely still and quiet, except with a peck or two every once in a while. I had no idea how long we had been there; whenever I was with Magnus time just seemed to fly by. From the two windows in the room, I could see that the sun had just set so I figured it was about half past seven.

Magnus stared at me for a minute or two before saying my name to get my attention away from the top bunk.

"Hm?" I muttered, lazily turning my head towards him.

"Can I tell you something personal?" he asked, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. I nodded and he bit his lip, sighing softly. "I have uhm… been with a lot of people in my life -boys and girls- but with you it feels different, good different."

Call me crazy, but from the angle my head was at I could see Magnus' cheek perfectly, and it was pink. Magnus freaking Bane was blushing. It wasn't nearly as deep as I blushed, probably because his skin was tanner than mine, but he was definitely blushing.

"Different how?" I asked, not commenting on his blushing until I found out the reason behind it.

"You're not like any of the people I've met before. You're so much better than all of them," he said. There was a lot of spacing in between his words and I could tell he was struggling to get his sentence out right. "I find it hard to believe," he continued. "That you even like me. You actually care about a delinquent like me and I think that's a first. After my parents… d-died, I didn't think anyone would ever care about me like they did and you do now. It's a good feeling, knowing that I have someone to care about me."

His little speech had me blushing, too. It was kind of like a contradiction, being deep and heartfelt in the middle of Idris. Speeches like that belonged back in my bedroom or his apartment or a quiet park, not a place designed to punish bad kids.

"I know exactly what you mean," I said, smiling up at his blushing form. "But it's more than just me caring about you… I really, really like you, Magnus."

"I really, really like you, too," he answered honestly, blushing deeper.

"Why are you so embarrassed?" I asked softly. It couldn't have been because people were watching; everyone else was doing their own things and we were being very quiet.

"I feel like such a teenage girl," he said, gripping my hand harder. "I can't get you out of my head. Even when we're asleep and I know you're either right next to me or in the bed below me, I want to be closer to you. We've only known each other for three months and I…" He paused, leaving me hanging there in anticipation.

"You…?"

"I have fallen completely head over designer heels for you," he finished.

His eyes were carefully watching me as his words sunk in. I thought he had just told me he was in love with me and I was actually thrilled by the idea. I wasn't sure how to respond with words, though, so I used my body instead. Our hands were already intertwined so I brought them up to my chest and smiled at him.

"You have no idea how happy you just made me," I whispered, leaning into him. The kiss we shared said more than anything Magnus or I could've expressed with words. It said 'I'm glad I met you,' it said 'You're the only good thing in this place,' it said 'I love you.' The only thing left to do was say it all out loud, but I had no idea if I would be able to do that.

"Alexander," Magnus said against my lips, pulling back ever so slightly. "I've never told anyone this," he started, looking right into my eyes. "But I think I love you." His own green and gold eyes sparkled when he said this and their feline qualities melted away to reveal something much softer.

My heart stopped and filled with immense joy at the same time. "I love you, too."

And just like that the moment was over. No crying, no drama, no nothing. It was short, sweet, and to the point. That's how I always went through life, simple and easy…. at least, I tried to do that. Sometimes that didn't happen.

"It's weird," Magnus said after a moment. "I'm still in Idris and yet I feel like today's Christmas or something."

"Me, too," I muttered, scooting closer to him so our hips were touching. My cheeks were starting to physically hurt from smiling so much but I didn't care. "Hey Magnus?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

After that, things just seemed to get better and better. William, Sebastian, and Jonathan hadn't bothered me in months which sort of scared me but I decided to disregard it and get on with my life at Idris. Magnus and I were closer than ever, completely inseparable. Every moment of the day we were holding hands or sitting next to each other or looking at each other. We were always connected somehow and I couldn't have been happier.

Izzy's letters to me were getting more positive with Max back at home, though my parents were still denying my existence. And on Christmas day, Izzy said she had gotten me the new My Chemical Romance album and wrapped it up and put my name on it and everything, but my parents threw it away. I didn't let it get to me; it's not like I was ever going to see them again. After I got out of Idris I was going to get my own place away from them. Jace was also talking more and acting like himself. The whole situation had died down almost completely by January.

That was when it was time for Ragnor to go home. A big group of boys were going home on the same day, Jonathan being one of them. It was quite obvious that Magnus and I were very happy about that. The threesome of evil guys was down one person and that made them weaker so I hoped with everything I had that they wouldn't touch me again.

Magnus, Ragnor, and I were sitting at our usual table the day before he had to go, joking around about all of the good times we'd had in the six months he was there.

"Lad, you never told me why you were in here," Ragnor mused, his lips around a newly lit cigarette. "All you said was 'I'm innocent, I'm innocent!'"

"That's because I am innocent," I stated.

"Well something had to happen for you to get here," Magnus said, tightening his hold around my waist. I was currently sitting on his lap and he wasn't letting me go anytime soon.

"Why do I need to tell you if I didn't do it?" I questioned.

"Because it's something I need to know before I get out of here," Ragnor said seriously. "I'm a very curious person, Alec."

I sighed. "Alright, fine."

"Yes," Ragnor whispered, high-fiving with Magnus. They both leaned in like anxious children waiting to hear their parents tell a story.

"It was on a Saturday night in June and I was driving my brother home from a friend's home," I started, not really wanting to relive the memory. "He kept complaining about being hungry so I stopped at one of the convenience store nearby so I could get him a snack. We went inside and the storeowner was really nice and I bought Max a candy bar. Then out of nowhere this fire starts near the back room and takes over nearly the entire store. The owner was yelling at me to get out but I couldn't find Max anywhere. I thought he had gone back to the car so I followed the owner outside but he wasn't there. He was still in the store and I could hear him calling my name but the stupid owner wouldn't let me go back in so he called the fire department. They got him out and thank goodness he was alive but uhm… he was burned really badly and the owner thought I had done it…" My throat felt tight and my downcast eyes were burning. The mood had gone sour and Magnus rubbed my back affectionately.

"Did they ever find the guy who did it?" Ragnor asked softly.

"No," I muttered. "They're all convinced it was me."

"My poor baby," Magnus cooed, though he seemed shaky after hearing my story. "At least Max is okay now, right?"

"Yeah… and if that hadn't happened then I would've never met you," I said. I bent down to kiss him and heard Ragnor groan.

"I love you both like brothers," Ragnor said. "But I'm not going to miss seeing you two kiss each other every goddamn second of the day."

"And we're not going to miss hearing you complain all the time," Magnus answered.

He was kind of wrong. The day after Ragnor left, Magnus and I were both pretty sad, Magnus especially. He had been acting weird ever since I told him what happened to Max, but I waited to ask him about it until after we took a shower.

We always took the shower stalls right across from each other so we could talk. Like I said before, there were half-walls all over the place so we were covered up enough to not make it awkward. Magnus wasn't talking to me though; he was just standing there not looking me in the eye.

I was about to ask what was wrong with him when something hard hit me on the side of the head, nearly making me fall over. Grasping the side of the half-wall I was in, I turned to see Sebastian and William grinning evilly at me. The thing that they threw at me was a bar of soap and it was lying on the floor next to my feet. I sighed and picked it up, tossing it aimlessly into the empty stall next to me.

"And so the tormenting begins again," I muttered to Magnus.

He gave me a small, sad smile and shut his water off. "Meet me in the bunk room," he said. "I need to talk to you." Before I had a chance to ask him what he meant, he was out the bathroom door.

I showered quickly and got dressed in my usual clothes that were in desperate need of a wash. The damn guards had us shoveling snow with the same shovels we used to dig holes back in September. The mixture of leftover dirt and snow made for quite a messy job.

On my way out, Sebastian stopped right in front of the door, blocking my way to the bunk room. Thankfully he was fully clothed, but my heart still plummeted down into my stomach when I saw his face. If I looked close enough, I could see that there was something slightly off in his expression, especially his eyes. There was a crazy glint to them, not unlike the one I had seen in Jonathan's eyes when he was beating me up, but Sebastian's were scarier.

"Hey there, Lightwood," he said weirdly. "Did you like my little present to you?"

"Yeah that bar of soap was real special," I muttered, trying to push past him. He caught my wrist and gripped it hard enough to leave his handprint there.

"That's not what I meant," he whispered.

"Let go of me," I growled, trying not to cry or make a seen. He was freaking me out. The crazy bastard flung my wrist back at me and walked to his bunk bed.

I took a deep breath before walking up to the table Magnus was sitting at. It seemed oddly lonely without Ragnor there.

"Hullo, love," he said softly, his accent (which I had yet to figure out, by the way) sounding thicker than usual.

"Hey," I answered, taking the seat next to him.

"Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head slightly. "What did you want to talk about?"

He took my hands and sighed, still not really looking at me. "It's about what happened to Max," he said quietly.

"You know I didn't do it," I said quickly.

"I know, I know." His cat-like eyes met mine and the sadness in them made me scared for what he was going to say next. "Because I'm the one who set that fire."

A/N- Review ;)
-Ella