A/N: I know, this took way too long, and I'm very sorry. Thank you ever so much for the many reviews. Enjoy!
Magnus wasn't totally sure what he had expected when he walked into the pool area to find Alec. He hadn't ever actually been around a swim practice; most of his previous boyfriends had been too pretty for any sort of physical activity. As it was, he couldn't say he was too surprised. The boys churned the water into a frothing mess of chlorinated liquid, goggles flashing in the florescent lighting. Magnus, ignoring the coach, scanned the water for Alec. Of course, in goggles, faces hidden by the water and hair slick against their heads and dark with wetness, basically everyone looked the same to Magnus, but he kept looking. Alec was there somewhere.
Eventually, he spotted his boyfriend. He was in the lane closest to the door, that Magnus had entered through, gasping for breath as he gulped from a green water bottle. Magnus was about to start over to him when the coach's loud voice rang through the pool.
"Listen up!" she yelled, blond ponytail swinging. "We're doing a ladder!" Magnus had no idea what that meant, but he did understand the groans from over half of the boys. Alec, he noticed, hadn't made a sound, only looked intensely at his coach. "Fifty, one hundred, one hundred fifty, two hundred, then back down again," she yelled to the swimmers. "Twice through." She pointed to Alec's lane. "You'll be on the base of fifty seconds for a fifty." She moved to the next two lanes. "Base one minute." And the next two, "Base one ten." She walked back to her spot near the closest wall. "Go on the top!"
Magnus still had no clue what was going on, but he headed over for Alec, who looked as if he did. "Alec!" he called. Alec, startled, glanced over at him, but just then, another boy in Alec's lane yelled, "Alec, go!" and suddenly, Alec was underwater, inaccessible. Grimacing, Magnus waited by the water. Alec couldn't swim forever.
Sure enough, he stopped when he made it back to Magnus's end of the pool.
"Magnus?" he asked, glancing between the teen and the clock fixed to the wall. "What are you doing here?"
"I had to see you," Magnus began, but Alec let out a low huff of annoyance at the time he had actually had to swim, and pushed off the wall again. This time, he swam two laps before stopping, panting hard after he was done.
"I'm on an interval," he informed Magnus.
"Huh?" Magnus asked.
"I only have so long to swim a given amount, and then I have to go again," Alec elaborated. "Why are you here? I said we'd talk when I got back."
"I know, I just needed to see if—"
"Got to go." Alec pushed off the wall again. Magnus pursed his lips in irritation. Was swimming always like this?
When Alec stopped again, Magnus forced himself to focus and talk fast. It wasn't easy, seeing drops of water sliding down Alec's chest and face as his mouth opened to take in more air. Actually, it was insanely distracting.
"I just needed—" he began, but Alec cut him off.
"Did you walk here?"
"Yes," Magnus said, "but that isn't the point. Alec, I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you mad."
Alec narrowed his eyes. "Magnus, this isn't really the right time or place," he pointed out.
"Five seconds, Lightwood," someone called.
"I said we would talk later—"
"Alec, go!"
"I had to see you."
"Alec, you're missing the time!"
"Couldn't it wait?"
"No—"
"Lightwood!" the coach bellowed. "You missed your interval!"
"Damn," Alec muttered, and he was gone again. Magnus bit his lip in aggravation, reminding himself that it wasn't Alec's fault that this stupid sport had no time to rest and talk in between sets.
"Hey, you!"
It took Magnus a moment to realize that the coach was yelling to him. He turned to her, an eyebrow quirked in question.
"Would you mind dealing with your personal issues in your own time, not during my practice?" she asked.
Magnus saluted, trying to keep his natural sarcasm out of the gesture. "Sure thing," he said. You accomplished what you came here to do, he told himself sharply. Now go sit down, relax, and wait for Alec to finish. Like he said, you'll talk later. He took his own advice with bad grace, stalking over to the nearest chair and collapsing into it. He took in the roiling water and tried not to look at Alec's rippling muscles. It would only make it harder to talk to him later if he couldn't get Alec's insanely fit body out of his mind.
Alec almost never let Magnus see any more of his body than appropriate by school dress code, and not Magnus's version of school dress code, either, which included skin-tight clothes and bare-midriff shirts. Sure, if they were making out, Alec would let Magnus run a hand under his shirt and over his smooth back and hard abs, but Magnus had never actually seen Alec take his shirt off, and he had to say right then that the view was stunning. The shock of the ridiculous beauty of Alec's body was only amplified by the water soaking it and rolling down his skin. It was all Magnus could do not to drool like a thirteen year old boy confronted by a shirtless athlete. Alec truly was a work of art. Now all Magnus had to do was convince him to forgive him, because Alec was, understandably, looking pretty pissed off just then. Magnus couldn't exactly blame him.
(SCENE)
When swim practice finally finished, Magnus stretched, expecting Alec to shower and come home, but the blond coach shattered those hopes in a heartbeat. "Change for dryland, gentlemen," she yelled. "The sooner you dress out, the sooner you get to leave."
The team gave a collective groan and headed for the locker room. Magnus stopped Alec with a hand on his shoulder, standing.
"What's dryland?" he asked, hoping Alec wouldn't glare at him like he was probably aching to do.
The blank, apathetic look on Alec's face was worse "Workout," Alec said after a moment. "Pushups. Planks. Sit-ups. That sort of thing." He shrugged off Magnus's hand and walked away. Magnus watched him go, the water sliding off his skin as easily as Magnus's hand had been shaken from Alec's shoulder. Magnus tried not to wince, and resumed his seat in the chair.
(SCENE)
Alec didn't bother changing out of his swimsuit for dryland practice; he never did. It was always too awkward and uncomfortable for him. Instead, he toweled his body dry at top speed, then yanked on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and grabbed his shoes. He was out of the locker room before any of the other guys had even shaken out their towels, to his relief, until he realized that Magnus was still sitting out on the pool deck. He spent nearly a minute dallying at the door to the locker room, debating which was worse: coming outside and having to talk to Magnus, or staying in and having to deal with the other guys on the team, changing. In the end, he tentatively stepped out, then forcefully raised his chin, reminding himself that he wasn't a silly little girl who had done something wrong. He was a royally ticked-off boy who didn't want to talk to his boyfriend. What was wrong with that?
Alec stalked around to the other side of the pool, which had a flat expanse of tiled floor leading to the bleacher-like stairs that spectators typically sat on. He sat down, avoiding Magnus's gaze, which drilled into him from the other side of the pool. He pulled on his shoes, eyes down, and laced them slowly as he attempted to look like he wasn't a total idiot.
He tentatively looked up to see Magnus staring at him. Alec put on his pissed-off face. Magnus hopefully held his hands up in the shape of a heart, and Alec's eyes narrowed at the presumption. Alec copied the motion, then mimed an explosion in which the heart was ripped into little pieces. Magnus bit his lip, torn between wincing and laughing. Alec looked down again, still glaring.
Thankfully, the first of the other boys were out of the locker room moments later, joining Alec on the steps and Alec didn't have to act like he was looking away extremely obviously.
"Killer set today, huh?" one of the boys, Alec thought he was called Pete, asked.
"Only the first day," Alec replied noncommittally. "Have to keep in shape somehow."
Pete laughed. "Do you ever even get tired, Lightwood?"
Alec shrugged, but the coach started yelling before he could give a reply. "I want you to run these stairs up and down ten times, and if you walk, you'll be starting over." They got to work.
(SCENE)
Legs trembling, Alec picked up his swim bag after Coach had dismissed them. He was halfway over to the door that Magnus was sitting by when someone shoved past him. "Fun practice, Lightwood?" a sneering voice asked as the boy, a kid in Alec's English class named Bat, turned around, smirking.
"What?" Alec, too tired for any banter, snapped back.
"Did you just join the team to ogle at boys in swimsuits, fag?" Bat said. "Because you sure didn't come for your talent."
Alec wasn't sure how Magnus got there, but there he was. "Shut the hell up about Alec," he said smoothly. "He's faster than you were."
Alec rounded on Magnus. "Okay, one, I do not need your help, so back off before I get madder than I already am. B, no, two, I told you we would talk when I got back, so why are you even here? Three, or C, yes, Bat, I am a better swimmer than you, and four, or D, or that little iv thing they put in brackets for footnotes, if I was looking at any guys in swimsuits, you can rest assured that you were not one of them, and until you lose the flab and get some abs, you won't be."
He turned on his heel, leaving the kid gaping furiously after him and Magnus scampering to keep up.
"So…." Magnus began tentatively as the door swung shut behind them, "you mean that if he did have abs, you might be looking?"
"If it meant pissing you off, yeah, maybe," Alec said through gritted teeth.
"Okay, I deserved that," Magnus replied, recovering from this blow quickly. "But seriously, baby, can we talk?"
"I said we'd talk when I got back!" Alec snapped. "So I have to do everything you say, but that doesn't work in reverse?"
"I was worried—"
"I left a note saying exactly when I would be home and everything! Honestly, Magnus!"
Magnus slumped slightly. "Will you at least drive me home?" he asked, without much hope. He would be entirely unsurprised if Alec did make him walk, what with the mood he was in.
Alec's lips pursed and his eyes narrowed. Finally, he said, "Fine, but only because there's a serial killer on the loose. Otherwise, you could suck it up and walk."
Magnus hopped gratefully into the passenger seat. "Well, if there wasn't a serial killer on the loose, you probably wouldn't even be mad at me. So we can just blame everything on him, right?" he asked hopefully.
Alec's lips tightened again. "I don't think so. And don't think you're getting out of me being mad at you."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Magnus muttered, his dream of Alec coming to his senses and falling back in love with him exploding much like Alec had mimed earlier that day. The rest of the car ride was filled with stony silence on Alec's part and pained silence on Magnus's.
(SCENE)
Alec squealed into Magnus's parking lot, taking no care with the car Magnus cared for better than he cared for his precious cat.
"I'm going home," he said coldly.
"What?" Magnus asked, shocked. "Alec, wait, we have to talk about this!"
"I left my math textbook in my room."
"Alec, you said we'd talk!"
"Yeah, well if you would stop being such an overprotective jealous little bitch, maybe I'd be willing to talk to you!" Alec almost yelled back.
Shocked, Magnus reeled back, eyes wide. He stumbled out of the car without meaning to, but before he could drag Alec out, by force if necessary, the door had already been slammed shut and Alec had peeled away, fully aware that he had just stolen Magnus's car and probably his patience as well.
A/N: Yes, angst, I know. It improves. Contrary to popular belief, I have a plan. Sort of. Part of the next chapter is already written, so hopefully it will be up soon. I'll try!
LOVE
K