Cardiff (23.07.2014 – 27.07.2014)
(Simon)
"Morning, guys," Magnus slid into the empty seat next to Alec, pressing a quick kiss into his hair that made the other boy hum happily. There was something so wildly unexpected about that couple. - The colourful Magnus even now dressed to the nines in something yellow and red and the subdued, shy Alec. Yet somehow they just fit. No idea why or how, they just did. You could just look at them being in the same room, and you just knew those two were a match (Not that I had clued on to that until that weird night at the bar in Manchester. Then again, I was notoriously horrible at reading those sort of things.)
"Morning, Magnus," Izzy practically purred. She was sitting opposite me, next to Alec, and she was leaning around her brother to send his boyfriend a flirtatious look. "So, what's your plans for today?" Alec blushed, as even I had noticed was a habit of his turning to send Izzy one of his big brother looks of 'Butt out of my business'.
"This isn't about you!" Izzy exclaimed, pushing her brother back. Alec just shook his head.
"Well, actually, it is, seeing as darling Alexander is mine for the day." Magnus raised an amused eyebrow as Alec's blush deepened.
"No!" Izzy whined, "Alec doesn't like shopping, can't he hang with Max and Jace?" the evil look Alec send her had a few of us at the table laughing. We had made it to Cardiff and another day off, and the day had started with quite the standoff between the Lightwood children and their parents. The kids had won, and where now planning what to do with their freedom.
"As much as I love shopping, I think my montheversary with my boyfriend takes precedence," Magnus calmly replied, snatching a piece of bread from Alec's plate.
"Wait hold up," Jace cut over Izzy who was about to argue, "You and Alec have been together for a month?"
"Yup," Magnus replied simply. Then Izzy squealed, making most of us jump in our seats.
"Why did you not tell me that?" she punched her eldest brother in the shoulder.
"I did not know I was supposed to!" Alec rubbed at his sore shoulder and glaring at his sister.
"You were, now tell me everything! What are you doing today?" She was once again leaning around Alec to get at Magnus, who was trying to control his laughter. I sort of unintentionally tuned out as Magnus started to describe his planned day, instead getting lost in starring at Izzy. So, we kissed. 6 days ago. And yeah, I might have been slightly drunk but I could still perfectly remember how her lips had felt against mine. I wanted more, of course I did, but I was also terrified. Not just of being rejected, because she had already caved once, and I had a pretty strong feeling that I could get her to again. What was equally as scary was how much I already cared for her, and if those feelings were not returned, if all she wanted was some summer fling, then I would be left in the horribly worn out movie plot of unrequited love, and we all know that will bring you nothing but pain. Maybe best to avoid getting to the falling in love all together.
"Simon?" Rebecca elbowed me in the side, and I turned towards her, dazedly. "What are you doing today?" she asked, and shit, they had moved of topic, and Izzy was looking knowingly at me twirling that amazing hair around a finger. She knew I had been staring.
"Oh, I was just going for a walk, like. To the water or something." I had already embarrassed myself enough, I was not telling everyone I was going to shamelessly ogle an area used in a Si-Fi type TV show.
"What, to where they shot that Flash Tree show?" Izzy asked, raising a dark eyebrow in a move that seemed to be spreading throughout the group.
"Torchwood," I corrected automatically at the same time as Alec whispered nerd under his breath with the weirdest smile on his face and elbowed his sister in the side.
"Yeah, that. I'll come. Since no-one wants to come shopping with me." I smiled a smile that I knew did nothing to hide the way my stomach clenched in nerves, and nodded as carefree as I could. This was going to be interesting.
(Magnus)
I knocked on the door and shook out the giddiness from my shoulders. Today it was precisely 30 wonderful days since I had kissed my Sweet Alexander in a reading room in Scotland. It also happened to be a day off on our tour, which had given us – well me – free rains to plan the perfect date. (We had yet to go on a proper date, what with being on a trip with 30+ other people and keeping our relationship a secret. I had every intention of going all out on this one.) We had waited out the rest of the groups' departures in my room, cuddled in a narrow bed as we had carried out hushed conversations amides exchanged kisses. (I admit I was very much looking forward to being back in my own bed with room to properly lavish my darling boy with the attention he deserved.) Then we had separated – again, on my orders – to get ready for a lovely lunch, just the two of us.
With everything that had happened over the last week or so, Alec seriously needed a reminder of how amazing he was, and I was going to give him just that, starting with my own outfit. I had decided, after spending most of my night thinking it over, on a pair of jeans that were just tight enough to not be street and just ripped enough to not get suffocating hot in the humid British summer. I paired them with a coquettish of the shoulder, loose grey t-shirt with the image of an adorable cat on it. My hair was done up in porcupine spikes with blue wax carefully streaked through it. Sparkly dark blue eyeliner framed my eyes and I even added a thin layer of glistening lip-gloss after careful deliberation. I was going for adorably fashionable geek, and I knew my boyfriend would appreciate it.
The look of surprise on Alexander's face as he pulled open his dorm room door was near priceless – a sort of fish-like stare with wide eyes and gabbing mouth – and totally worth it. I hardly noticed however, to occupied with imitating a fish myself. He had gone all out as well, in his own way. - An ungodly tight blue t-shirt paired with a pair of blue and white surfer-shorts. His hair was carelessly ruffled and a pair of sunglasses kept it from falling in his eyes.
"Well, hello there," I said in my most sultry voice, leaning against the doorframe. He smiled a genuine smile shaking his head at me.
"Hey," he replied, leaning in to press a short kiss against my lips.
"Ready for our date-day?" I asked, stepping back to let him exit the room. He smiled widely at me and nodded, linking our arms as we made our way out of the hostel and onto the streets of Cardiff.
(Alec)
I should not be reacting like this to a bouquet of flowers. I was a grown man, I had a grown-up life back in the city with grown-up friends who would laugh me out of town if they saw me now. Yet here I was, smiling the dopiest smile in my life as I inhaled the smell of the roses and chrysanthemums.
"This is the most impractical thing you could have gotten me, dear," I told my beaming boyfriend even as I hugged the flowers to my chest. "Now I have to carry them around all day, and then I have to figure out how to move them with me for the rest of the trip!"
"But it's tradition!" Magnus insisted, wrapping an arm around mine and guiding me onwards down the street. "We agreed on a perfectly traditional date – day!" I smiled at him as well as I could without breaking stride. Somehow it was hard to believe that a month had already passed since that day in the library back in Dundee. On the other hand, it felt like I had been with Magnus for an eternity. - The depth of my feelings for the man walking next to me definitely pointed to something more longstanding. (I had stopped worrying about how much I felt for the man. There was no point in that really. It was what it was.)
"We did agree on tradition," I was still smiling. It was sort of ridiculous how happy I was today. - that my boyfriend and I had been doing the secretly kissing thing for 30 days didn't make this day anything out of the ordinary, surely. My body didn't care about that rationale, though, itchy with happiness as it was.
(Magnus)
"Yes, but if we don't take that discussion as a nation, then where does that put us in an international perspective?" Alec was leaning over the table, eyes heavy on my face as he argued passionately about the need for a restructuring of parts of the American economic system.
I had placed my chin in my hand, trying not to stare to love-sickly at my boyfriend. - It was just that I kept thinking 30 whole days, and so many more to hopefully follow. This was not my first relationship, not by a long shot, but I looked at the man opposite me with his flaming blue eyes and I just knew. He was special, what we had was special, and I'd be damned if I let go of this anytime soon. - How much time did it take to fall in love? Because I knew for a fact that I was at least halfway there. That didn't scare me even half as much as I would have thought it would.
The restaurant I had found for us was cosy and welcoming with colourful walls and little vases on each table. We had already eaten our way through a delicious lunch and where now lost in conversation over a cup of espresso and a slice of chocolate cake for me and a cappuccino for my boyfriend. We had flirted and bantered our way through everything from the pranks Alec had used to pull on Jace when they were kids to important socio-political issues. In other words things were going exactly as laid back as I had planned.
"True, but if the national economy isn't stable then how is it going to perform on the global market? And if we can't compete, then how is our economy going to survive." I countered, not without a smirk at the fire in Alec's eyes.
Alec was about to counter argue, but was interrupted by a ping of his phone. In general we didn't really use them here, the international cost being too high, so I wasn't too surprised at the almost frantic way he pulled it from his pocket. The frown disappeared, however, as he read through whatever message he had received, giving way, instead for a blinding smile.
"What is it?" I asked, unable to contain my curiosity. In lieu of answering he pushed his phone across the table for me to look at. On it an email entitled 'I did it!' was opened. The email was from Izzy and contained only a picture, but what a picture it was.
Whoever had taken it either had impeccable timing, or had gotten very lucky. Izzy and Simon were stood on some Curb somewhere in Cardiff, with a silver pillar behind them, shimmering as if water was running down its surface. Simon faced the camera almost dead on. Dressed in his usual band T-shirt, well-worn shorts and blue flip-flops, he stood almost rigidly, one arm thrown to the side, the other resting on Izzy's arm. His eyes were wide in apparent surprise, his hair mussed up and hiding a pair of sunglasses. Izzy was stood in front of him, back to the camera. As always, she was impeccably dressed in a cute little fifties- cut black and white summer dress that did everything for her lean figure. Her hair was done up in a high pony tail, the light wind spreading strands elegantly into the air around her. One black-sandaled foot was on the curb beside Simon's flip-flop, the other kicked into the air behind her. A pair of sunglasses dangled from one hand thrown to the side. The other was clenching onto Simon's faded t-shirt. But all of that didn't really matter because the most remarkable thing about the photo was the way Izzy was pressing her lips against Simon's, clearly catching him of guard.
"Oh, my God!" I exclaimed looking at my boyfriend with a wide grin to match that on his face.
"I know." Alec agreed, "My sister is such a nerd!"
(Simon)
I was still starring, shell-shocked, into the air when Izzy leapt back off the legendary invisibility-curb and skipped over to the stranger who had volunteered to take our photo to retrieve my phone. Had she really just kissed me? Without the influence of alcohol? She had. I knew she had, but I was struggling to figure out why. She had spent this entire time dancing about me, never letting me to close. This was one epic one-eighty. What was I meant to do with that?
She was practically prancing back towards me, phone held out in victory.
"Look!" she said as she came closer. "She got it just right!" whoever that lady with the shopping bags was, she really had gotten the timing down, and so there it was in 0s and 1s. Proof that what I thought had happened had actually really happened.
"Wow," some part of me remembered to agree with her, another remarked casually on the positively sparkling smile on her face. - A smile that was there because we had kissed, in public, and someone had managed to take a picture of it, though most of me was still trying to figure out what was going on. As I pocketed my phone Izzy grabbed my hand and pulled me from the curb I was still standing on.
"Come on," she said, wrapping an arm tightly around mine, "You're buying me lunch."
"Wait, hold up," I stopped, and she turned towards me, still smiling. "Just, update me here, please? What is going on?" her smile turned almost bashful as she looked at me through her dark eyelashes.
"I told you. We're going to get lunch. I think I saw a nice little café close by." she told me.
"Yeah, I got that part. What I don't get is the randomly kissing me part? You know, since you've basically told me nothing would be happening between us." she swung around to stand next to me again, pulling us onwards.
"Oh." she said, slowly, "that part. Well, I just, sort of, went with my guts, I guess? And I don't think I've said nothing would be happening between us, I mean we have technically kissed before even."
"Well, yeah, but we were drunk and it was a weird night." I watched her profile as she determinately steered us towards the far end of Roald Dahl Plass. It didn't really give anything away. "And, you sort of have made it quite clear that you weren't interested in me like that." her eyes flickered towards me at that.
"That's not true," she said as some pigeons scurried out of our way. It was a warm and humid day, and the plaza was filled with people milling about with shopping bags and ice-cream cones. No one was really taking notice of the way my heart was carrying out a gymnastics routine worthy of the Olympics.
"Then why have you been pushing me away?" I had to ask even as most of my body was waging war against any remaining doubt and fear.
"I don't know," she shrugged, "Because I don't know my own head sometimes? Because I sometimes care too much about what other people might think? Something to do with that. I am interested though, and if it's not too late, I hope something more can happen." It wasn't exactly a declaration of love, but, screw it. I was going in.
"What, like a date?" I smirked as she turned to face me. "Izzy Lightwood, are you asking me out?"
"I guess I am," she smiled nervously as if I would ever turn her down. I couldn't suppress a smile, and that seemed to relax her some.
"In that case shouldn't you be the one buying me lunch? The one who does the asking pays, right?" with that I lent in to kiss the rest of the doubt of her lips. I could feel the grin that was spreading across her face, and one to match was spreading on mine as well.
"Deal," she said when we pulled apart, "Come on then, it should be right over here."
AN: Happy Thursday out there! Firstly, thank you so much for the response to the last chapter! Secondly, I'm sorry for not having replied to your reviews this week. I have read them all, and do appreciate them so much! Thirdly, I wanted to warn you that I may not be able to publish a chapter next week, as I have important Uni business to attend to and want to make sure I have time to properly edit the chapter, which takes them to Bath. Have a very lovely one to two weeks and let me know what you thought!