"You're still awake." Magnus's voice broke the comfortable silence. It wasn't a question.
Alec rolled his head to the left, until his cheek pressed into the pillow. His hair fell naturally into his eyes, the longest strands tickling the bridge of his nose. Magnus was watching him, also in moonlit profile.
"You too," Alec replied, brows raised. How astute.
"Can't sleep?"
"Wasn't really trying," Alec admitted, with a half-smile.
"You said you haven't been sleeping well since you got here."
"I haven't."
"Then why fight it now? Is there something wrong?"
"Nope."
"Is it the bed?"
"No, the bed's fine," Alec replied with a snicker. It was roomy enough for at least three or four people, will rolling room. And it had an elaborate canopy, and curtains drawn back on the sides, which - granted, he wasn't used to. It was fairly dramatic. Very Magnus, to fashion an antique four-poster in the middle of a borrowed house in Alicante. A full-sized bed, maybe even with a simple headboard would have sufficed.
"Then…? What?" Magnus prodded, shifting beneath the dark comforter. He was rolling gracefully to his side, propping his head up on his hand, elbow sinking into the neighboring pillow. His hair was down, shiny and smooth - the way Alec preferred.
"Am I bothering you?" Alec asked, regarding him seriously.
"I just want to know," Magnus replied, brow wrinkling briefly in what appeared to be frustration. "This is a therapeutic mattress, you know – I guessed your sleep number. And the sheets are nice, aren't they? Egyptian cotton."
Alec nodded absently, conceding that they were nice. Not that he thought much about sheets.
"And I'm wearing pajama pants – which I fully intend to keep on all night." Alec's face warmed automatically, which doubtless the warlock could see – for he smiled, head inclined a fraction. "Unless you change your mind, of course."
"Whatever you're comfortable with," Alec replied automatically, although it would change things if Magnus did decide to go with comfort over convention. Was he OK with that? Trying to sleep with the naked warlock right there, beside him?
Was that even possible?
"I'm more concerned with your level of comfort here," Magnus replied, sounding amused, but the crease was back in his forehead. "Tell me," he whispered, insistent.
"What?"
"Why can't you relax?"
"I am relaxed," Alec argued, settling back again as if to prove the point, although he crossed his arms over his chest in frustration.
"Alec-"
"Will you please stop!" Alec cut in, thumping his head back against the pillow with a hollow thwap. Magnus was quiet, and Alec closed his eyes. He didn't mean it to come out quite like that.
"Sorry."
No response. Sighing, Alec shifted to his side, and looked up at Magnus again, who was frowning. It wasn't right, that frown. Alec was sorry, for bringing it on.
"I'm not ungrateful. I really do appreciate the extra effort you've made to put me at ease here."
Magnus nodded slightly, seeming pacified that his work was being acknowledged. At the least. But it was a success – Alec wasn't just humoring him. He was relaxed, he was warm, and he could imagine falling asleep so easily right now, right beside the half-clothed warlock, if that's what he really wanted to do. If he was ready. But he didn't want to sleep, not yet.
"Do you need help sleeping?" Magnus asked softly - confirming yet again that he had no skill for mind-reading. As perceptive as he had so often seemed to Alec, he wasn't omnipotent.
Alec shook his head, reaching out tentatively to rest his hand over where Magnus's was splayed, against a wrinkle in the sheet.
"I don't want to go to sleep yet. I like this. Just…being with you, like this. It's…nice," Alec said, for lack of a better word.
Finally catching on, any evidence of the previous frown was smoothed away and eradicated. Magnus smiled softly.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the mood, jumping you like that." Throaty chuckle. "Figuratively speaking."
Alec blushed and rolled his eyes at the same time.
"You know, I like this too. When you actually open your mouth and tell me exactly what you're thinking," Magnus confided, scotching closer, until his chin had reached the edge of Alec's pillow. "It's not that difficult, is it?"
"Not when you force it out of me, no."
"You could have just told me from the beginning," Magnus persisted. It was something he would have done. Magnus was more plainspoken, all about getting the reaction. Or action, at any rate.
Alec shrugged one shoulder. "I didn't feel like talking anymore than sleeping. I really just wanted to enjoy lying here with you, like we are now. I was thinking…about what it would be like to do this more often."
"That's certainly a possibility."
"Hinging on...?"
"How serious you are about it," Magnus replied, one challenging brow raised.
"Why don't we?"
"Why, indeed," Magnus drawled, leaning closer still, until his hot breath fanned Alec's face. His eyelashes fluttered.
Long seconds passed in silence, Alec thrilling to the proximity of the warlock, the warm tickle of their breath, the body heat radiating between them beneath the comforter.
Alec breathed in when Magnus slid his arm over him, drawing him minutely closer, but he didn't resist. A soft kiss pursed against his parted lips, then another blessing his forehead, and caressing his hair. He tipped his head foreward, tucking his face beneath Magnus's chin, pressing a kiss to the base of the warlock's throat.
"Tell me what I need to do to tempt you to make it real," Magnus asked, unwilling to let the matter go until he had some kind of promise. He just couldn't seem to get the hint, the point of this entire conversation – that Alec just wanted to be with him, to relax alongside Magnus, this close, and savor it. Nothing and no one else in the way. No distractions.
"Shut up," Alec suggested, smiling faintly against the sparkling skin.
Magnus chuckled. And he complied, brushing Alec's hair back from his face. Their thighs brushed, Magnus's calf sliding across Alec's. Alec lifted his hand, curling his fingers against Magnus's side, the flare of a slender hip, bunching the soft material of his pajama pants.
Magnus sighed, his lips traveling down from Alec's forehead, along his right cheek, nuzzling his sharp jawline.
Alec relaxed his head back, encouraging him to continue. It kept the warlock preoccupied, forgetting the need to speak, his mouth finding another outlet. Alec smiled beneath the curtain of Magnus's dark hair, passing his fingers through it in contentment.
This was exactly what he wanted.
