A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews so far. Please do keep them coming :) This story is a bit of a slow burner, I want to keep it true to how I feel Alec would approach this situation so please do keep reading. The fluff is here and lemons will come when they are called for!
Saturday morning Alec woke up naturally and smiled as he stretched. Then immediately worried about Max as he glanced at his clock and realised it was nearly 8am and this was way past Max's normal waking up time. He got up swiftly out of bed and stuck his head round the door to Max's room. There was no reason for his worry. Max was just sitting up in his cot, with a book open, making up his own story seemingly as he couldn't read yet, but was babbling away to himself.
With that Alec decided to go back to bed for a bit. He was going to take the lie in if Max was willing to give it to him. He tossed and turned for a while trying to get back to sleep but he was too jittery about the day ahead to manage. He hadn't seen or spoken to Magnus since Wednesday and that made him feel a bit apprehensive about the playdate. Alec knew that it was ultimately a playdate for Max and Finn but he couldn't stop himself from feeling a little nervous about it. After all, if Max and Finn did nap at the same time he would probably have a couple of hours alone with Magnus.
Giving up on his lie in he went to check on Max again who was still happily playing in his cot, so Alec decided that he would take a shower. When he was in the shower he couldn't stop himself from imagining what his time with Magnus might be like later. Alec had a very active imagine sometimes and only a few minutes later he realised he would have to finish up the shower cold. He thought about using his hand again, but Izzy was in and Max might need him for some reason or just decide he wanted to get out of his cot and start screaming. He didn't want to start something he couldn't finish and also he didn't really want to go to Magnus' later with that memory in his head, otherwise he knew he'd just end up blushing massively if he thought about it in front of Magnus.
Deciding what clothes to wear was the next task on Alec's list. He didn't really have a clue so he just put some normal casual clothes on, straight legged dark jeans and a slightly worn t-shirt and went to get Max out of his cot.
They went downstairs for some breakfast and after that sat on the sofa with the tv on. They had just started watching the spiderman animated series when Alec got a text.
Hey Blue Eyes, my address is 1205 Lincoln Avenue. See you soon x
Izzy suddenly whispered in his ear "Blue Eyes? I thought this was just a play date for Max?" and then sat down next to Alec on the sofa with a smirk on her face. Alec blushed and stuttered out "Y-yea, it is. He's just given me a nickname, it doesn't mean anything". "Are you kidding me Alec? You don't call someone Blue Eyes unless you're into them." Izzy challenged. "Do you think so?" Alec asked rather unsurely. All of a sudden Izzy grabbed Alec's hand, told Max to stay on the sofa and tugged Alec up the stairs to his room. She knew her brother, although he was trying not to let it show he was nervous about this playdate and was more keen on this guy than he was letting on. She delved into his wardrobe and brought out some black jeans she had bought Alec last Christmas but she hadn't ever seen him wear and a long sleeved v-necked top. "Wear these instead" she demanded whilst throwing the clothes at Alec. She walked out the room and called behind her "I'll keep an eye on Max, you change and do something with your mop head."
A couple of hours later, Izzy was putting Max's favourite dog teddy in his spiderman backpack and wiping non-existent fluff off Alec's shoulders. Alec pushed Izzy's hand off him, reached down for Max's little hand instead and then opened the door. "Good luck big brother!" Izzy called out as the door shut behind them.
Magnus' house was easy to find, being only 10 minutes from Alec's and a few straight roads. It was a modern but small house which stood out from the rest of the street, as it was so rectangular and colourful. Alec got Max out of the car and gave him his backpack to hold, locked the car and walked up to the front door to ring the bell.
It didn't take long for Magnus to come to the door and open it with what Alec could only describe as a flourish. Magnus put his hand on Alec's shoulder and ushered him and Max in. Finn came up and grabbed Max's hand pulling him into the next room, leaving Magnus and Alec awkwardly staring at each other. Alec rubbed the back of his neck and looked more closely at Magnus. He was much more casually dressed than he had seen him before. He assumed he was usually in his work attire during the week which consisted of smart trousers and a shirt but today he had on some ripped soft blue skinny jeans which revealed delicious patches of caramel skin and a green tight fitting t-shirt. Alec trailed his eyes up Magnus' body all the way to his face and realised the green of Magnus' t-shirt nearly matched his eyes.
"See something you like Blue Eyes?" Magnus purred whilst his hand rose up to the collar of Alec's leather jacket. "Uhh, I was just thinking you look so different not in your work clothes". Alec managed to get out. A small tremble ran down Alec's back from the back of Magnus' hand brushing lightly against his neck as he helped Alec take his jacket off, so he grabbed the other side of his collar and shrugged out of it leaving it hanging from Magnus' hand. Magnus hung his coat on the peg next to the door and turned back to Alec. Magnus then took his own turn to appraise Alec, seemingly focusing on Alec's chest. It was then that Alec remembered he had a v-neck top on and his chest hair was probably showing. Magnus licked his bottom lip, then said "Let's go check on the boys, then I'll get you a drink."
The boys were happily playing together on the floor of the living room so Magnus led Alec through to the kitchen and asked him what he wanted to drink. He had to drive so he accepted a soda. Their fingers brushed and Alec really felt it this time. He couldn't deny it anymore, he wanted Magnus. In admitting this to himself, Alec started up a conversation, "So this house is pretty different, what made you choose it?" Magnus chuckled out "Ah, actually I didn't choose it, I designed it. I'm an architect." Alec was impressed, and he told Magnus so "Oh wow, I'm impressed. Don't you have to study for years to do that?" "Yea, I'm doing a placement year at Marsden Brown Associates, I've still got another year left after that before I do my exams and then I'm fully qualified." Magnus explained.
Magnus grabbed himself a soda out of the fridge too and then walked back through to the living room. They spent a few minutes playing with the boys watching Max introduce Finn to his dog teddy named Woof. Magnus laughed at the originality and Alec admitted it hadn't occurred to him, he'd just been used to it since Max was a baby and the family was trying to teach him animal sounds, so the dog had automatically been named Woof. Magnus put his hand on Alec's knee after Alec had told that story and said a quiet "I'm so sorry about your parents". Alec hadn't really thought that the story would sound so pity worthy, and he didn't want to ruin his time with Magnus by bringing the mood down, so he gently put his hand over Magnus' and thanked him, then moved onto a lighter topic. "So how old is Finn?" drawing his hand away as he asked. "He turned 3 in October, and he's been telling everybody that asks how old he is about it" Magnus chuckled, remembering when Finn had told the mailman earlier that morning. He was a strange kid; when he wanted to be talkative he would be, but when forced into social situations he became shy and quiet.
"Max is turning 3 in a few weeks and I know I should do something to celebrate it but I have no idea what. We would usually just have a family dinner but my other brother is back at college, so it would just be me and my younger sister and it seems a shame now Max is in Daycare not to try and have something involving some kids. What did you do for Finn's birthday?" Alec asked. "Well Finn used to go to my mum's before he started Daycare and she gets him to play with some of the other kids in her neighbourhood, so we had a few of them over to my mum's one day for a party with cake and party bags and games. He loved it. Maybe you could do something similar for Max? It doesn't have to be long or with loads of kids." Alec nodded at that, thinking it would be good to do something similar.
Finn chose that moment to shuffle over to Magnus on his bum and whine that he was tired. Alec went over to Max and asked if he was too, but he just shrugged so Alec tried a different tactic "Finn is going for a nap so I bet if you asked him nicely you could read one of his story books". Max's little face lit up at that and he went over to Finn to ask. Magnus responded on Finn's behalf "I will gladly read you and Finn a story Max, why don't we go up to Finn's room and pick one".
Magnus picked Finn up and walked towards the stairs so Alec followed and helped Max up the unfamiliar stairs. When they got to Finn's room Alec realised that he had a proper bed and Magnus was making room for Max to top and tail with him. Max hadn't yet slept in a proper bed but maybe this was something he should be thinking about. He didn't know when kids were meant to start in a normal bed. Alec noticed there was a pull up bed guard thing to stop them from rolling out onto the floor so he wasn't too worried.
Alec helped Max into the bed and pulled the blanket up over him, then went to sit down against the wall by the door. Magnus gave the boys a few options of what story they could have. There was a yell for the Hungry Caterpillar and so Magnus settled cross legged on the floor next to the bed so both boys could see and started to read. Alec was gazing over at Magnus and watching him read to the boys and thought once again, how perfect Magnus might be for them. Not even five minutes later both boys were spark out with their mouths open snoring softly. Magnus got up quietly and tip toed over to Alec. He held his hand out to Alec offering to help him up off the floor. Alec eyed the hand for a few seconds but then took it. Magnus gave it a sharp tug and then Alec was on his feet almost nose to nose with Magnus, their breath mingling, hands still linked. Alec looked down at Magnus' lips, the ones he'd been daydreaming about kissing, but lost his nerve and leaned back against the wall away from Magnus, removing his hand from his grasp. He cleared his throat, opened the door next to him and hurried out.
Magnus joined him downstairs shortly after and asked Alec if he wanted another drink. He was obviously choosing to ignore the moment upstairs and not make it into something awkward so Alec tried to do the same. Alec asked for another soda and wandered into the kitchen after Magnus to retrieve it. Magnus got out some other stuff from the fridge and put it on the worktop next to him. Alec was intrigued, it was all in tupperware boxes so he couldn't see what it was. Magnus noticed Alec trying to peer round him to see, so said "I thought I'd do Cobb salad, is that okay?" "I actually don't know what exactly is in Cobb salad but I'm sure it's great" Alec responded.
Magnus shuffled to the left a bit to get a knife out of the draw, so Alec retreated to the other side of the kitchen and leaned against the worktop. He watched Magnus pull a chopping board out of a cupboard and then start to chop the lettuce. His eyes were trained on Magnus' back, his physique obvious due to the tight fitting t-shirt, as the muscles in his lower back rippled as he made the cutting motion. They moved to Magnus' biceps which were straining against the sleeves, Alec was practically drooling as Magnus turned around. "Can you just grab me a big bowl out of that top cupboard please Blue Eyes?"
Magnus could totally have reached that himself, considering he was a bit taller than Alec, but he extended his arm up to the top shelf and went to grab the bowl. "What happened there?" Magnus had the tips of his fingers on Alec's lower back, just above his waistband, where his top had ridden up. Alec hadn't even realised Magnus was behind him, but twisted round to see what Magnus was looking at. "Oh, that scar. I did archery as a kid with Jace, my brother, and he got annoyed at me one day and aimed his arrow at me. It narrowly missed me and skidded off my back." Magnus' fingers hadn't left Alec's back, in fact they were now stroking across the scar. Alec swallowed deeply, and placed the bowl on the worktop. Magnus withdrew his fingers as Alec's top fell back down. He took the bowl from the worktop over to the other side of the kitchen and proceeded to pile the lettuce he had just cut into the bowl. "I bet your parents were furious". Alec shrugged then realised Magnus couldn't see that. "I didn't tell them. Jace had only just moved in with us after his dad had died, so I didn't want him to get in trouble. I figured he was probably just lashing out because of that. That's probably why it scarred because I didn't go to the hospital and have stitches or anything. I just wrapped it in bandages and waited for it to heal by itself." Magnus had resumed his chopping and Alec moved up to stand beside him. "Can I help?" Alec offered.
"Oh, don't worry it doesn't take much to chop everything up for the salad. I did get some nice bread to go with it though, that's in the bread bin just over there if you want to get that out." He pointed with his free hand. Alec wandered off over to the container, got the bread out and brought it back over to Magnus, who just took it out of Alec's hand and put it on the tray next to the salad bowl. Once again, Alec felt at a bit of a loss as to how to help so he just sort of stood there and watched Magnus. This didn't seem to bother Magnus who continued to chop, moving on to the avocado now.
"So Jace isn't actually your brother? Is he related to you at all?" Magnus' voice rose in question towards the end. "No we're not actually related, his dad was best friends with mine, and Jace and I were best friends too so my parents took him in as he didn't have any other family." Alec explained. "Oh right that's good, at least, you didn't lose your best friend". Alec was thankful for that.
Magnus declared that lunch was served and laid the tray down on the small table in the kitchen. They sat down at the table, sitting opposite each other and Magnus started serving up the salad onto a plate and set it down in front of Alec "Help yourself to bread, you can just tear some off" Magnus added. The salad looked delicious so Alec dug in. "Oh my god, this is amazing!" Alec almost moaned through his mouthful of food. "Ah, good, I make it quite a lot because it's quick and easy" Magnus responded.
The men sat in a comfortable silence whilst they ate their lunch, but once Alec had nearly finished he remembered he wanted to ask Magnus something "Can I ask you a parenting question please?" he looked up at Magnus to see his reaction. "Of course, I wasn't joking when I said I could provide parenting tips". Magnus looked quite proud of himself so Alec asked away "I saw that Finn is in a bed, not in a cot anymore. Is there an age that's meant to happen, or when they reach a certain height or something? It's just that Max is still in his cot but now I think about it, when he is stretched out he does almost reach the ends". "Finn's only been in a bed for a few months. His is actually converted from his old cot, a lot of them do that. You should check Max's to see if it does. I think you will probably just have to get a different mattress and a bed guard." Magnus suggested.
Alec looked down, he suddenly felt quite daunted at the parenting thing, he really had no idea what he was doing, even something so simple as when to put Max in a bigger bed. Magnus could obviously tell that Alec suddenly looked a bit subdued. "Do you want me to come round and see? It wasn't that obvious with Finn's, I had to get the instructions out, but I assume it should be similar for Max's if it does convert". Alec thought about it, he would actually really find Magnus' help with this invaluable. "Would you mind? I don't want to impose but that really would help me out" Alec almost pleaded. "Of course I don't mind, I wouldn't have offered in the first place if I didn't mean it. Besides, I was looking for another reason to see you again". With that, Magnus gave a wink to Alec, got up and started clearing the plates into the dishwasher, leaving Alec with scarlet cheeks at the table.
Magnus suggested for Alec to take a seat on the sofa again and that he would join him when he'd finished loading the dishwasher. Alec had just about sat down when Magnus plopped down beside him, somewhat closer than they had earlier when the kids were about. Not really knowing what to do in this situation, Alec just stayed where he was. He didn't want to offend Magnus by moving halfway across the sofa from him, and if Alec was honest with himself, he was rather enjoying the brushing of his thigh against Magnus' every so often as they talked. They were just talking about Alec's brief stint at college, and how Magnus had had to change to a distance learning course when Finn came along, when they heard tiny voices calling down the stairs. They went to collect the boys and then proceeded to put a Disney film on whilst the boys clambered over them on the sofa.
It was overall a very likeable afternoon and Alec felt like maybe this showed he could care for Max and still have adult company at the same time. At least in the form of playdates. Perhaps he wasn't going to just be restricted to cartoons and chicken nuggets. After the Disney film, Alec thought they had better go home so he could get Max fed, bathed and in bed on time, even though he was rather reluctant to leave. Max was having fun, he was having fun, but he knew he needed to keep Max in a routine. He picked Max up from where he was strewn halfway across his lap, threw him lightly into the air then set him down on his feet with a chuckle. Finn saw this and shouted that he wanted a go so Alec had to do the same with Finn, then Max again, then Finn again until Magnus told Finn to stop because Alec and Max had to get home.
Magnus led them both to the door, Alec helped Max with his shoes and then stood up to collect his jacket off the hook and slipped it on. "It was so lovely to have you guys over, Finn really seemed to enjoy himself. I'm so glad he's made Max as a friend." Magnus said as he opened the door. Finn reached over and gave Max a hug. Alec and Magnus looked at each other with similar 'oh my god they're adorable' looks. "Yea, it's really good for Max to socialise more too, my parents didn't really let him be around other kids so I want to give him that. Thanks so much for having us"... "Say thank you to Finn for sharing his toys with you Max." Alec looked down expectantly at Max. "Thank you Finn" Max said quietly to Finn.
Alec took Max's hand then and started to lead him out the door as Magnus said a final "See you later Blue Eyes" in Alec's ear. Alec just shook his head and chuckled at that as he walked down the drive. Maybe it wasn't just some nickname after all.