Alec leapt out of his car, ready to go and collect Max, and then realised he needed to calm down and play it cool if this mystery man was somewhere around. He took a deep breath and straightened himself out before walking through the door of the centre. He glanced around the reception but couldn't see anyone there so he wandered into the classroom where he had dropped Max off. He was pleased to see Max sitting on the floor with another boy that looked to be about the same age. They were just pulling funny faces at each other, it was amusing what toddlers deemed to be fun. After a minute or so of watching his little brother with his new friend and a soft smile appearing on Alec's face the same nursery nurse that distracted Max in the morning came up to give Alec the report on Max's day. He had apparently settled in quite quickly and although shy with most of the other children had latched on to the boy he was currently sitting with.

At that moment Max turned around and realised Alec was there and ran up to him, grabbing the bottom of his t-shirt and asking for "up". The other boy had apparently followed and was staring wide eyed up at Alec too. He had caramel skin and dark hair and he was clinging to Max's arm with his tiny hand. Max seemed to realise his manners then and said to Alec "This is Finn". Alec knelt down and said Hi to Finn as Max started talking away about his day and what he had been doing with Finn. Alec was really pleased that he had a good day but he noticed that Max was leaning against him more and more as the chattering went on. Of course, he would be tired after having this much stimulation for the first time, even if it was only 4 hours. It was also pretty much his nap time. He scooped Max up into his arms and told him to say bye to Finn.

Alec was walking out of the classroom door and towards the parking lot as Max started jabbering in his ear again about Finn and their games. He was glancing down at Max to show him he was paying attention when suddenly a curious voice asked "Sorry little man, but did you say Finn?" Max and Alec both looked up startled and then Max hid his head in the crook of Alec's neck. Alec registered the man in front of him and his breath caught in his throat. He had to cough to clear it after realising it was the man he had been daydreaming about. "H-hey, yea he said Finn, why?" Alec managed to stutter out. "Finn is my son, and he's usually really shy so I just wanted to check I heard your little boy correctly" said the mystery man. "Ah, yea, so is Max, as you can see" said Alec, motioning to the fact that Max had turned his head completely away from the stranger and was hiding. "so I'm surprised he made a friend too" Alec continued. "I'm so glad" said the caramel coloured guy and with that he carried on to the classroom and Alec slowly shuffled off to the car. As he reached the door he made the snap decision to turn around "Hey! Erm, hey, I met your little boy but I didn't catch your name?" The golden stranger swivelled round before he entered the classroom and smiled at Alec "Magnus, nice to meet you, and you are?". Alec replied with a soft "Alec" and a blush. "So great to have met you blue eyes" and with that the man called out Finn's name as Alec watched him disappear.

Max was running around like a madman the next morning, saying he wanted to go to and see Finn again. Alec smirked to himself thinking he actually wouldn't mind seeing Finn's dad again. Alec grabbed Max round his middle and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. Max squealed and then proceeded to hit Alec's back with his little fists, so Alec patted his bum a few times and then let Max down. Max grabbed his hand and dragged him through the front door shouting about Finn again.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled into the parking lot and as soon as Alec unbuckled Max from his car seat and set him on the ground he had sprinted off into Daycare and Alec quickly closed the car door to jog after him. When he got inside Max was already sitting on the floor with Finn. Upon seeing this Alec glanced around to see if Magnus was there too but unfortunately there was no sign of him.

Alec thought to himself 'stop caring, it's not like anything could happen anyway, besides he's got a kid, he's probably married'. Alec called a quick goodbye to Max, seeing that he was already engrossed in something with Finn and walked out. He got to The Coffee House on time that morning and went about his day, finding it a little easier today knowing that Max was happy. It was about three hours into his shift when it was time for his break. He went to take his apron off whilst walking over to the staffroom when someone called his name. He turned round at the call to see Magnus standing just inside the doorway. Alec started walking over to the door as Magnus ambled further into the coffee shop, trying to get passed people. They met in the middle and there was a slight pause as Alec looked at Magnus sort of expectantly but saw that Magnus was actually staring down at Alec's shoes. Alec decided that he would be bold and start the conversation. "Hey Magnus, how are you doing?". "Alec, hey, I was just coming into get a coffee, do you work here?" asked Magnus. "Err, yea, yea. Just part time, it's an in-between job" Alec felt he had to explain. He didn't know why he told a white lie. "Are you on your break?" Magnus questioned. "Yea, just started, but I can make you a coffee if you'd like before I go on my break properly?" Alec offered. "Oh, no, no, no. I was wondering if you wanted to sit down and have a coffee with me? I wasn't hinting that you should make me one" Magnus clarified, whilst looking at Alec's shoes again. He waited for Magnus to look up at him before he said "Uhm, yea, coffee would be great" and gave him his best toothy smile.

At that Alec asked Magnus what he wanted then went to make it behind the counter sneakily, so none of the other customers would bother him. After he made the coffees he looked round to see where Magnus was sitting and eagerly walked over to the table in the corner. He went to pass Magnus his coffee but tripped at the last minute and spilled the cup all over the table and partially over Magnus' lap. Their hands went up to both their mouths, time seeming to stand still, and then after what was only a few seconds Alec started to apologise profusely, at the same time that Magnus burst out laughing. Alec did the first thing he could think of, grabbed a handful of napkins from behind him and started trying to wipe Magnus' trousers to soak up the coffee. Magnus sat there whilst Alec frantically wiped Magnus' crotch area until Magnus grabbed Alec's wrist to stop his motion and said "You might not want to do that, or I'm going to have a situation I'd rather not have in public". Only then did Alec realise what he was doing and quickly withdrew his hand. He blushed a deep tomato red and spun round away from Magnus. He put the used napkins in the bin and was about to turn around to start apologising again, when he felt a hand on his bicep. He looked up to see Magnus, with a smirk on his face "I have to get back to work Alec, but it was good to see you, and maybe I'll see you again this evening at Daycare". "Oh, okay, sure, yea maybe I'll see you around" Alec muttered with embarrassment.

Alec walked off back towards the staffroom for the rest of his break, with a sad look on his face. Clary saw him and followed him into the staffroom, "Why have you got that look on your face?" she queried. "Why wouldn't I have? I just threw coffee all over a gorgeous guy, who is Max's new friend's dad, what if he hates us now? He's just so gorgeous, god I haven't felt this way in a while, and I don't even know if he's gay, he's probably not.. " Alec whined out in one quick breath. He sat down with a huff on a stool and hid his face in his hands. Clary tried to pull Alec's hands away from his face "Are you serious? Alec, look at me". Alec looked up at Clary from his perch on the stool, putting his hands back in his lap. She gave him a light slap around the back of the head and said "Did I mishear when he pretty much said if you didn't stop stroking his lap then he was going to get a hard on?" It was only then that Alec thought back to the encounter more closely. Magnus had said that, but then again he has a kid so why would be he be gay? He made that point to Clary but she slapped him round the head again and told him to stop being an idiot and that people don't just have to like men or women, they can be into both. Alec, once again felt like a moron when he realised that. Clary let him get back to the few remaining minutes of his break and Alec sunk quickly into his own thoughts. Could it be that Magnus was gay or at least bi-sexual? What if Finn wasn't actually Magnus' son? But wait, no, Magnus had already referred to Finn as his son, and Finn looked like a mini me of Magnus, there was no way he wasn't his biological child. Was Magnus still with Finn's mother? Was he off-limits? But then he came back around to Clary's point that Magnus had sort of flirted with him, and he had called him blue eyes the day before. Maybe he was into Alec, like Alec was into him. Scratch that, he had to focus on Max, he didn't have time to be thinking about relationships. But then, he did need to think about his own happiness sometimes.

He had to get back to work but spent the rest of the afternoon mulling over the same thoughts and not once reaching any solid conclusion about anything. As he was leaving, Clary grabbed him by the shoulder and asked what he was doing that evening. He was obviously planning to do what most of his evenings consisted of; cooking fish fingers or chicken nuggets for Max, giving him a bath, watching cartoons for a bit and then putting him to bed and collapsing into his own shortly after because he was exhausted. This isn't what he told Clary though, he gave a simple "nothing" response. With that, she declared that she was going to come with him so she could meet Max as she'd heard so much about him and loved kids. Alec just sort of shrugged and asked her if she wanted to have dinner with them too, with the warning that it would probably just be fish fingers. Clary happily agreed and they went out to the staff parking lot and got into Alec's car together.

Whilst walking into the Daycare centre Alec spied Magnus and walked up to him to apologise for the coffee ordeal again. Magnus immediately put a stop to that and told him to stop being silly and that he had been looking for an excuse to get rid of those trousers he didn't particularly like anyway. Alec laughed awkwardly and just as there was a slightly uncomfortable silence forming Clary walked up behind Alec. Magnus looked over Alec's shoulder with what Alec could only describe as a scowl on his face and then looked back at Alec expectantly. When no introduction came and Alec continued to just stand there not speaking, Magnus asked "And who might this be? Your lovely wife?" Alec's mouth fell open and said "Oh noooo, I am way too young to be married. This is my friend Clary from work". At that, Magnus seemed to stop the scowling. Clary chose this moment to butt in to their conversation and asked bluntly "and you Magnus, are you married?" Alec turned to Clary and whispered at her to shut up but Magnus was already answering the question so he focused on that instead. "Oh no, I'm too young to be married too. Anyway we better go and collect our children." Magnus replied and then started wandering off towards the classroom. Clary pushed Alec to follow and when he turned around to look at her she was just waving her hands in the direction of the classroom and Magnus and whisper-shouting at him to "Go get him Tiger".

Alec ran off quickly hoping that Magnus hadn't seen or heard any of that. It appeared he had not as when Alec entered the classroom he was kneeling down taking part in a game of superheroes with Max and Finn. That made Alec's heart flutter, seeing this gorgeous man, playing with his little brother and Max happily including Magnus, not being scared of him as he was yesterday. Alec went to go and kneel down with the three of them and asked if he could play the game too. He got given a supergirl doll by Finn and muttered "Of course, I get the girl doll" under his breath. Magnus had obviously heard that though and asked "What do you mean by that?" Alec spluttered, not realising he had said that quite so loudly, in fact Magnus must have really good hearing considering there was a lot of background kid noise in the classroom. He decided he may as well just be upfront with Magnus, "Uhm, well, uhm I'm gay... so people often assume I'm into the girly stuff. Not that Finn would have been thinking like that of course because he's only two or three, it was just funny because...err...he did give me that..uhm...maybe I just give off that vibe..." Alec trailed off because Magnus was just staring at him. "You're gay? Really? Because you really don't come across as gay. You haven't responded to any of my flirting, so I came to the conclusion that you weren't." Magnus explained after a while. "Oh, err, yea, yea I am." Alec told Magnus again and stared back at him processing Magnus' words about his flirting.

After a while the embarrassment got too much for Alec so he just picked Max up quickly and scurried out of the classroom. However, he didn't get very far because Clary was standing in his way. "Hey guys, you looked like you were having fun in there. You should totally organise a play date for the boys!" she addressed Alec and also Magnus who had now come to stand next to Alec with Finn in his arms too. Alec just eyed Clary sending her the death glare, but then Magnus turned to Alec and softly said towards the side of Alec's still turned forward face "Yea, yea I would like that."... "and of course I'm sure Finn would too" he added quickly on the end. Alec shifted so he was facing Magnus and with the now common Magnus induced blush he said "Great, yea, uhm, great. That would be great, Max needs to make some proper friends". Clary butted in again with "So... maybe you should exchange numbers, so you can organise one more easily?"

Magnus took his phone out of his pocket, passed it to Alec and asked him to put his number in. Alec did as he was asked and went to pass the phone back to Magnus, their fingers brushing briefly. Magnus looked at Alec again and smiled softly uttering a small "Thanks". Finn started wriggling in Magnus' arms and whining that he wanted to go home, so Magnus let him down and turned towards Alec again. He put a hand on Alec's bicep again and with a light stroke down Alec's arm he said "I'll text you Blue Eyes", grabbed Finn's hand and walked out. Alec couldn't help but stare after them, feeling tingles running down the arm Magnus had just touched, and, if Clary's smack of his other arm was anything to go by, he was caught staring at Magnus' ass for too long as he walked out.

A/N: I hope you are enjoying this so far. It's my first fanfic, just trying to give myself a creative outlet :)

Review are welcome (constructive too!). Thanks x