Magnus woke up with a throbbing pain pulsating through his temples and through his back. The first thing he noticed through his eyelashes where the drawn curtains and the golden rays of sun landing on his bed sheets. Magnus closed his eyes and, as the sun rose higher on the pale blue September sky, trying to rise above the skyscrapers of New York, he felt his cheeks warming and the darkness behind his eyes was pierced by the light brought in by the beginning of a new day.
When he fully opened his eyes he saw he was still wearing yesterday's outfit. He felt the need to take a shower so he throw sideways the bedspreads and jumped out of bed. He immediately realized it was the worst decision he could have made, because the room started to spin around and his stomach twisted itself in a knot, making Magnus feel sick in an instant. He fell back on the bed, groaning loudly, closing his eyes again and hoping the sensation would be gone as soon as possible. He hated the mornings after.
The moment he felt the room coming back to its regular position and the puking sensation was somewhat gone, he reached for his phone, which was tuck in his leather pants' pocket and dialed one.
"Catarina," he said as soon as he heard that she had picked up, "please come to my room."
A few seconds after he hung up, the door burst open and the familiar figure of a tall, blue-haired girl was standing in the door frame.
"Just so you know, I was trying to go back to sleep too. I am on call tonight so I need all the rest I can get."
When she reached the side of his bed, she leaned over and examined his face.
"You look like shit. As expected. Now what do you want?"
"Sorry to wake you and thanks, that was very friendly of you. Now, can you bring me a glass of water and an Advil?"
"We ran out of Advil."
"Then something else, please! My head is going to explode!" He intended to shout but the pain was unbearable so the words came out like a low whisper.
"You should have remembered to buy something. I wanted Tylenol, or Ibuprofen or any kind of pill. But all you have is lube.That you seem to remember to buy." Her tone was reproachful and it bothered Magnus in a way that he didn't want to disappoint the one person he trusted and cared for the most.
He made an useless attempt to light up the mood."And not to use it, apparently." He laughed but the sound that came out was far from cheerful.
The look on Catarina's face said that she was oscillating between taking care of her friend or being angry with him and the latter seemed to win over as she frowned and shot him a very furious look.
"Take a shower! You stink!" were her final words and then she exited the room, slamming the door behind her. The walls vibrated for a few seconds after her withdrawal. Magnus heard the door from Catarina's room being slammed too.
"Stop ruining my apartment!" he shouted.
Magnus could feel her anger quivering through the walls and then finding shelter in his chest. He knew she was going to give him the usual lecture that followed a night full of alcohol and forgotten doings, but he didn't expect the disappointment and the sorrow buried deep in her eyes. He sighed loudly and stood up, slowly and careful not to make certain moves that could sent shots of pain through his entire body.
Magnus headed towards the bathroom and to his surprise he succeeded in reaching the shower without falling on the floor, although he kept on tripping on different kind of things thrown on the carpet.
He waited for a few minutes for the hot water to flow and stepped out of his clothes that seemed to be glued to his skin. He entered the shower and let the scorching water ooze all over his body, over the bruises on his back that he didn't know were there, over his sweaty torso and over his face where the salty memory of tears was restincg. He soaked everything in his favourite sandal soap and shampooed his hair with the same flavored bath product. His hands were moving slowly over his body, chasing away the tiredness and relaxing his muscles, but when he touched his lower back he felt an excruciating pain.
"What the hell?" he spoke between clutched teeth and turned around to see what was the source of the pain. He couldn't get a complete view of his lower back, but he saw what needed to be seen.
Bruises. Bruises all over his lower back.
Suddenly images from last night flooded his mind.
People jumping up and down.
A lot of alcohol.
A pair of cold, rough hands around his waist.
His own hands around someone's waist.
His nails deepening into a stranger's skin, marking his body.
The same body pressing against his on the floor.
The floor. The window still.
His eyes squeezed shut and darkness all around him.
Loud music and alcohol.
He was lost in his own painful thoughts and he began to scrub unconsciously every portion that seemed to be touched by unwanted hands until the skin on his arms and hips became red and irritated.
As soon as he realized what he was doing, he placed the sponge on its usual support and sighed loudly. No more of this, Magnus. No more. Breathe! the rational voice spoke inside his head.
He let his head fall backwards and the water washed off the lather and foam. Magnus stayed under the shower for a few more moments just because he loved the feeling of being surrounded by the hot steams that were clouding his mind, preventing it from wondering around too much. Thinking about last night wasn't going to change anything. What had happened, happened and there was no way Magnus was going to let his guilt consume him. Carpe diem, Magnus. Carpe diem, 'cause life is short. He knew that very well, didn't he?
He exited the bathroom, because the steams made it impossible to breathe, let alone do his make up and hair. He stepped inside his room, which seemed cold at first, and headed towards the mirror next to the closet.
Mess. I am a mess, were the first words that came to his mind when he saw his reflection in the mirror. He let the towel surrounding his waist fall down on the floor and turned around to look in the mirror and examined the damages of last night.
The same images that tried to flood his mind back in the shower came rushing back.
I'm fine. Let's dance. I'm fine. His own voice was echoing inside his mind but the words had no meaning now, just like they didn't have then.
He shuddered one more time and went over to his closet, opened its doors and stared for a long time.
"Yeah, that's it. We're going with comfy today," he finally decided.
The pain became even more unbearable as he bent in order to reach the bottom drawer with his pajamas and comfy clothes. He picked up some random outfit while his mind wouldn't let him forget his mistakes.
But, unlike the last time when he remembered the events of last night, as his eyes were watching the skies of New York, as the synaptic connections were entangling themselves in his brain, mirroring his knotted feelings pulsating in his chest, he saw not the pale blue sky of the morning, but a pair of beautiful blue eyes watching down on him and heard a low, soft voice lulling him to sleep. His eyes widened and his expression was of pure confusion and amazement.
For a moment he was not sure of what he was supposed to do. He just sat there, starring out the window, trying to make the memory of this beautiful man last and enjoying the happy tightness in his chest. It was hard to do so while his mind clouded in confusion and his reason told him it was no good sign that his initial whim turned out to be slightly more. Against his reason he found himself wishing and hoping that the fuzzy image of Alec was a memory and not a hallucination.
Only one person could tell him for sure.
He didn't realize when he had put on a pair of black sweatpants and a faded T-shirt colored like the rainbow, because a moment later he was walking as fast as his injured back allowed him towards Catarina's room.
He had already started to ask the question when he opened the door and realized, to his disappointment, that his friend was fast asleep.
His question was left unspoken. Magnus stepped out of the room and closed the door slowly, making sure he didn't wake Catarina with his high-pitched voice and impatient tone. His questions would have to wait, although he had to admit he was dying of curiosity. Was his assumption correct or he had been dreaming of beautiful blue eyes and porcelain-pale skin?
With those thoughts still in mind, he reached the kitchen and realized that Catarina had not only placed a cup of hot tea and a pill on the counter top but she had also cleaned the entire living room and put the furniture back to its place. It looked like there had been no party a few hours ago. There were a few things here and there that needed to be arranged the way Magnus wanted them but the rest of it...Magnus could not complain! He understood now why Catarina was more tired than after other nights of intense partying and drinking. She must have been up all night, cleaning his loft. He was thankful once again for having such a good friend by his side, but he was too tired to think about what had kept her up all night. She usually cleaned when something was bothering her and, instead of dealing with the matter, she used to distract herself by pulling extra hours at the hospital or by rearranging her entire apartment. This time she chose to clean up Magnus's.
He took the pill and emptied the cup from two gulps, hoping he will feel better in a few hours, but highly doubting it the moment he beagn walking toward his room. He scutinized with one sharp look the loft and decided that the couch was closer and easier to reach.
Glad that that certain piece of furniture was where it was supposed to be, in front of the television with a plasma screen, he laid carefully on the sofa, finding a position in which his back would hurt the least. Lucky for him, the position turned out to be a comfortable one. He tucked himself in the fluffy purple blanket and turned on the TV. He played with the remote until he stumbled upon a documentary about suricate on the Discovery Chanel. Magnus had to admit, he was fascinated about these animals. But even his passion for meerkats couldn't make those blue eyes disappear from his mind. What if indeed Alec had been there? How long had he stayed? What did they talk about? Had they talked at all or Alec made fun of a drunk Magnus?
He soon realized that all these thoughts succeeded only in giving him an even more painful headache.
Magnus frowned in frustration, angry that he wasn't able to remember any of it, but not even these thoughts were able to keep him awake for more than ten minutes. His eyelids closed slowly, burdened by the heavy memories of last night and he feel into a deep sleep, hearing in the background the funny noises of the wild life. He hopped from the bottom of his heart that – if indeed Alec had been a dream – it would return to him even if only in that imaginary dimension.
Five hours later, he was woken up by two low voices speaking slowly somewhere near him. He rose from the couch, searching for the source of the noise with his eyes half closed and spotted two blurred figures standing in the door frame.
"Catarina?" he asked heading towards the hallway. There was no response, although the voices kept on whispering.
The dizziness from earlier was almost gone thanks to the pill Catarina gave him, but his back was still slightly hurting.
"Catarina?" he asked one more time when he got closer to the hallway.
He was walking very slowly and by the time he made it over there, the door had been closed. Someone was standing awkwardly in front of it. His vision focused and he recognize the tall, black-haired figure.
Magnus was pretty sure he was dreaming and he wanted to go back to his warm place on the couch to wake from this deceiving dream. But he heard the man's voice and dream or reality – it didn't matter anymore.
"No, she just left. Ugh – It's me."
A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait. I had a lot of things going on. Thank you to all of you out there who are still reading this. Also, this is the third version of this chapter. I just couldn't write it the way I wrote the other chapters and it freaked me out a little bit.
But your reviews were the ones motivating me to write this no matter what.
I loved your reviews for the last chapter and I'm looking forward to read your thoughts on this chapter.
Night Chapter: Yes, Magnus has some really big problems, doesn't he? I am happy you liked it. Hopefully, we will dig up into Magnus' past soon. But right now I believe I have something else for you.
Ella Blackrose: Your review made my day. What I loved the most was that you held on to your hope: that there is a spark between these two. I am sorry in a way that you felt torn, but in a way it felt good to know that my story made you feel this way. (I am so mean right now). It felt good to see that you care so much for these characters. I don't know if it's because of this story in particular or because of the TMI books and the strong bond you have with them. Or maybe both?
Guest 1: It's okay.:) I hope you like this chapter too.
Guest 2:Wish granted. I love that you love this story.