Chapter 9

(Alec's PoV)

Alec was fidgeting in front of his wardrobe when Isabelle found him after school on Friday. He couldn't decide what to wear for his date with Magnus. Normally he didn't care what he wore but he was pretty sure this was one of those occasions where you could wear just anything. On the other hand, he really did not want to ask Isabelle for help, while she always looked gorgeous herself he didn't entirely trust her fashion advice. Not after last time. But he didn't want to dwell on that.

Then she waved her hand in front of his face, from her seat on his bed, "Hello? Anyone there? Earth to Mars, are you receiving?"

"What are you doing?" Alec asked confusedly.

"I've been here for the last practically five minutes. And in that time you didn't say anything. You just stared at me. It was creepy, I swear you only blinked, like, three times. What were you thinking about?"

"The last time I listened to your advice on what to wear," he replied, sitting down next to her. Then he kicked himself, 'Why did he say that?', now she'd work out the problem twice as quickly.

"So, you need my advice again? YAY! I've been waiting years for the day you would forgive me…" Isabelle exclaimed excitedly.

Alec interrupted quickly, "I have not forgiven you for that. And it wasn't even a year ago, don't exaggerate." He wasn't sure why he said that though, Izzy always exaggerated – it was just what she does.

"But you still want my advice now, right?" she checked.

He shrugged non-committedly, he wasn't sure.

"It's for your date with Magnus, isn't it?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, I saw him at the gig last Saturday. I think you should put some glitter on and find something colourful to wear."

"No,"

"Yeah, I guess we might have some difficulty with that," Isabelle mused, "I mean, I've got glitter but you aren't wearing my clothes and you don't own anything colourful."

"Still no," Alec knew that if last Saturday was anything to go by then Magnus would look fabulous. But would he mind that much if Alec just wore what he wore last week? But no, Alec wanted to make an effort. He really liked Magnus and he wouldn't be able to look him in the eye if he just wore his favourite hoody.

"Ugh! Stop it Alec," Isabelle scolded him.

"What did I do?" he asked, he hadn't done anything.

"I can practically see all those angsty thoughts you're thinking."

"You can't see thoughts, Izzy."

"Stop thinking and help me find you something halfway decent to wear," she opened his closet and started searching through it. He stood up and crossed the room to look over her shoulder, "What about that?" he pointed to the first top he could see.

"NO… Alec, you really need to…"

"Update my wardrobe?" he finished for her, "Yes, Izzy. I know. You tell me every week."

"Well, where are you going on your date? That might help," she ignored him.

"I don't know! Magnus is keeping it a surprise," he almost wailed in despair, "all I know is I'm meeting him at Taki's Diner at five-thirty."

"Stop with the dramatics, big brother. That's my job and being a drama queen doesn't suit you… just call Magnus where you're going so you know what to wear."

He protested, "Magnus will never tell me."

Isabelle picked up a pair of scissors from his desk, "Call him or I will attack your favourite hoody with these scissors," she tried to tug the hoody from his back.

Alec pushed her away and slowly pulled out of his phone and rang Magnus' number.

He picked up on the last ring, "Why hello Alexander! What can I do for you?"

"Um… where are we going tonight?"

"I told you," he replied reproachfully, "it's a surprise! ... (Quieter) No Rafe! You may not get out the Lego now…"

"It's just, I don't what I should wear,"

"Whatever you wear will be perfect, don't worry about it… sorry Alec, give me a moment, Max needs something."

Alec took advantage of the pause to turn to Isabelle, "See. I told you so. He won't tell me."

Isabelle glared at him, "You're not even trying. Give me that," she grabbed his phone before he could stop her, "Hi, Magnus? This is Isabelle, Alec's sister… yes… look, why don't you tell me where you're going… I promise I won't tell him… and then I can tell him what to wear…. Oh wow, that sounds great… yes I promise… ok, bye then."

"What did he say?"

"I promised I wouldn't say. Didn't you hear me?" she turned back to the closet and pulled out some clothes, throwing them on the bed, "here, these'll do. Don't forget to brush your hair and teeth. You need to leave in fifteen minutes, I'll see you later," she walked to the door.

"Wait,"

"What?"

"These clothes seem quite smart for a diner."

"You're going somewhere afterwards too. Duh. Bye," and with that Isabelle walked out.

Alec sighed as he looked at the clothes. His sister had picked a pair of almost black but actually very dark blue jeans – without holes – an extremely pale grey shirt, but no tie so he decided he could leave the top button or two undone and a black jacket. He was left on his own to figure out shoes, although that was probably safer now that he thought about it.

…

As Alec opened the door to Taki's he realised he wasn't nervous anymore, he was just looking forward to seeing Magnus again. He looked around the diner and in the far corner booth spotted him. As he wound his way round a few tables he saw that Magnus was still wearing glitter but his ensemble was tamer than last Saturday's in general so they must be going somewhere much nicer after dinner.

"Hi Magnus," he greeted him as he slid into the booth.

"Alexander. I would say 'at last' but I've just realised that I was in fact early and you are not late,"

"And I would tell you that my name is 'Alec' but I've been telling you all week and I have resigned myself to the fact that you will blatantly ignore my pleas forever."

"A wise attitude indeed," Magnus smiled, "shall we share pancakes?"

"For dinner?"

"Pleeaase," Magnus widened his green-gold eyes and looked pleadingly at Alec.

Alec tried to stop himself from snorting in amusement, "You'll have to do better than that."

Magnus narrowed his eyes immediately, "If we can't have pancakes I won't tell you where we're going, you'll have to wait until we get there."

"Fine."

"I knew you'd come round, besides Taki's makes the best pancakes in the world."

After they'd ordered Magnus reached into his pocket and pulled out two pieces of paper then laid them on the table, pushing them towards Alec. On closer inspection, he saw they were tickets. Tickets to…

"What's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time?"

"It's a play…"

"About?"

"No spoilers."

"But. But you already kept where we are going a secret," Alec knew that his protests were pathetically weak.

"But you know now," Magnus easily countered him, "Besides that was a surprise. Not spoilers."

Soon after the pancakes arrived and although Alec would never admit it, they probably were the best pancakes he'd ever tasted.

…

"We made it."

Alec and Magnus slid into their seats just as the lights started to dim. He looked around the theatre curiously in the few seconds before the curtains swung open. They were sat right at the front of the dress circle – some of the best seats in the house. Alec glanced over at Magnus, he smiled back but Alec wished he could see his eyes, although in this gloom he could barely make out the ostentatious decorations on the private boxes lining the sides of the theatre.

…

As the curtains swung closed for the interval Alec turned Magnus, half-preoccupied by the incredible play and half by how to say what he wanted to say without offending Magnus. He doubted it was really possible to avoid offense though seeing as he didn't think it was the kind of thing you were meant to ask on a date.

Fortunately Magnus saved him from immediate awkwardness, "What do you think?"

"It was… different," he managed, hoping that didn't sound like he didn't like because he did, it was just kind of hard to explain.

Magnus seemed to know what he meant though, smiling knowingly, sometimes the three years between them seemed like eons at least until he asked, "Ice cream?"

"Please," Alec smiled back.

"Chocolate, Vanilla or Strawberry?" Magnus rattled off the flavours quickly.

"Chocolate."

…

"What do you want to ask me Alexander?" Magnus licked the chocolate ice cream off his little plastic spoon.

"Huh?"

"Oh, please! It's obvious something is on your mind. Tell me."

"Um… erm… well… uh, Magnus…" he stuttered, scrambling for the right words.

"You're wondering how I got us the best seats in the house?"

Alec stared.

"Don't worry about it."

"But I… um…"

Alexander. Do you really think I would spend an arm and a leg on a first date?"

"Um, no."

"No. I spend an arm and a leg on my second dates. Normally I only loose a toe for first ones!"

"Ok…"

Then Magnus explained that the tickets were free because he'd quit his job. Which sounds wrong but he had been costume maintainer (and hopefully one day designer) for the show but was leaving for the Lion King, which apparently had more interesting costumes than just normal clothes. A Slightly-Closer-to-My-Dream job. The seats were a leaving gift from the theatre manager as Magnus had never seen the show from anywhere but the wings before and he'd been working at the theatre for five years. Selling ice creams here was his first ever job.

And they'd gone to Taki's first because Magnus hadn't wanted their date to be completely a gift from someone else. But Alec didn't care about that once he discovered that a week and a half ago he hadn't even been planning on coming tonight at all because all of his other friends had already seen it and you can't go to the theatre alone.

He didn't really know what to say, even less so than before. He guessed he felt ashamed for thinking that Magnus would spend so much on a date (if the West End and Broadway were anything alike) with Rafael and Max at home. It didn't matter at all that he had in fact spent very little because the theatre obviously meant so much to him and Alec could see just how important a last night like this was. He could also see that Magnus cared just as much about what Alec thought of him as the other way round, which again, he realised was idiotic of him not to consider.

Eventually, as the lights once again dimmed for the second act, he forced himself to look into Magnus' brilliant shining eyes, "Sorry."

Magnus smiled softly, "It doesn't matter."

Alec kind of hated how forgiving and understanding he was. He flushed hotly with anger – at himself of course although dimly he was relieved the flush had not come from embarrassment – and insisted, "Yes it does."

He didn't answer immediately though, instead leaning forwards and brushing back the few annoying strands of hair that always fell across Alec's face at the most inconvenient moments.

Their eyes never broke contact, not even when the play started again, not until Magnus' eyes suddenly darted down to his lips. His hand was still cupping Alec's cheek as he murmured, "When are you going to learn that arguing with me is fruitless, Alexander?"

Then he pressed his lips to Alec's. Gently, carefully kissing him. The kiss didn't last as long as Alec would have liked. Magnus didn't pull away any more than a millimetre – or maybe two.

"Never," then Alec quickly put a hand on his shoulder and closed the – admittedly already almost non-existent – distance between them once wasn't a fan of PDA but the theatre was oddly quite empty but as the kiss deepened Alec found he didn't care.

…

When the play ended Alec stood up and held out a hand to Magnus to pull him up too. As they walked out onto the almost dark street Magnus grabbed his hand, "I think that was the best ever first date I've had."

Alec smiled, "Definitely the best first ever date."

It was the first time he'd seen Magnus look truly surprised and Alec just couldn't help but burst into laughter.

A/N: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has no real significance to the story other than it's a play I've seen that I absolutely loved. Sorry for the long update, it shouldn't be as long until the next one. If you spot any mistakes in this please tell me, after not posting for so long I'm impatient and can't be bothered to proof-read properly. Hope you enjoy and please review.