The next few months continued like this; Alec continued to act stubborn and didn't speak to Mr. Bane unless he was spoken to. He treated Mr. Bane like garbage but then, in an odd way, sort of missed his company when he left every evening. Magnus had hoped to at least develop a friendship with Alec in that short period of time, but Alec seemed to have no interest in that. They kept it strictly professional.
And Magnus still had no idea what was so "mentally unstable" about Alec, other than the obvious fact that he was obsessed with staying warm in thick clothing.
Ms. Lightwood's visits to Alec's apartment became less and less frequent. What started as every other day slowly turned into once a week, at most. Alec was stuck in a boring routine. Days passed, which turned to weeks, which eventually passed as flashing months.
One random day, Alec found himself staring down at his wrist in his shower. There were only ten pedals left on the rose, ten months to find love. He wasted so much time and it went by so quickly. He knew he had to find love, and fast, but to be honest Alec was simply lazy.
He had such a short period of time to find love. He couldn't date anyone at his old school- that was too risky. He had to date someone new. But how?
Of course! Alec thought. A dating website.
He always did his best thinking in the shower.
He stepped out of the shower, threw a towel around his waist, and pulled out his laptop. He sat down on his couch and went onto a dating website he heard about on commercials. He signed up and created an account with a fake name. After all, since his mum was a famous model, the name Lightwood was pretty well known. He used the name of Sam Edward.
Alec spent that night chatting with a girl called Maia . By the looks of her profile picture, she was really cute. She had brown short hair and sparkly brown eyes.
She was really nice and flirty, at that. She kept sending Alec winky faces throughout their chat conversation. They agreed to meet for lunch the next day at a park. Alec didn't know how she was going to react to seeing him in a ski mask, but he hoped that she wouldn't make a scene.
I should to go sleep. It's getting late. I'll see you tomorrow, Edward. ;)
Alec laughed as the message popped up on his screen. He slowly typed back, Alright. Goodnight, Maia . xx
Alec closed his laptop and went back into his bedroom, where he slowly fell asleep, hopeful that soon, if he was lucky, he'd change back to normal.
The next day, Magnus was in the middle of teaching Alec a history lesson when he suddenly stood up, claiming that he had to leave.
"Pardon?" Magnus asked, arching a brow.
"I have to leave. I'm going on a date," he said.
Magnus scoffed at that. "You can't be serious? I'm your teacher, Alec. I tell you what to do, not the other way around," he pointed out.
Alec crossed his arms over his chest. "Must I remind you that my mum is the one paying you so, in a sense, I'm in charge of you," he claimed.
Magnus shook his head, "And I'm the adult here. Listen, Alec. You can't just skip school to go on a date. It doesn't work like that."
"This is so unfair! Just let me leave for an hour or so, please. I'll be back later and I'll even stay up late to make up for it and pay you extra," Alec begged.
Magnus frowned. "Are you even, like, stable enough to go out on your own?" he wondered quietly.
Alec nodded. "Geez, I'm not insane, alright? I can handle myself."
"But Alec-"
"Please, Mr. Bane. Let me leave for an hour, two hours maximum. I'll be back before five and I'll stay until nine to make up for it. Here, I'll give you money," Alec said, reaching into his pocket.
Magnus held up his hand in protest. "No, no. I can't take money from you," he said.
Alec slumped his shoulders. "Mr. Bane . . . please," he asked.
Pushing his glasses back up his nose, Magnus sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this . . ." he groaned. Although the idea of skipping school for a date was crazy, Magnus couldn't help but feel compassion for the younger boy.
Alec looked at him hopefully. "Is that a yes?"
"Okay, Lightwood. I'll let you go on your stupid date under a few conditions. You can't tell your mum about this and you have to be home by five. If you show up any later, there will be consequences. When you get here, we'll continue on with the learning. Also, I want you to write an essay on the history lesson we were just talking about- one thousand words. Deal?" he offered.
Alec nodded. "Of course! Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me," he thanked him. He gave Magnus a short wave before leaving.
Alec got into his car and started driving towards the cafe to meet his date. Magnus wasn't a friend, hell, he wasn't even an acquittance, but Alec thought that Magnus was slowly becoming a little bit more tolerable.
Alec's date was, well, unsuccessful to say the very least. When Maia saw that Alec was clad in a ski mask, she ran away and didn't give Alec a second glance. Alec called after her but she kept on running.
Great, I skipped school, agreed to write a 1000 word essay, and recieved many, many weird looks for this? Alec thought to himself.
When Alec got home that evening, Magnus immediately started asking him questions.
"Alec?" Magnus shouted when he heard the front door open. Alec is late, Magnus mused as the younger boy slammed the door shut. He arrived home five minutes later than their agreement, to be exact, and Magnus was furious. They had a deal. For fuck's sake, Magnus was breaking the rules for him and he has the nerve to show up late?
Magnus fumed. "Alec you're late! Remember our deal? Care to explain-"
Magnus was cut off by another door slam. This time, Alec was inside of his bedroom. He locked the door. Magnus groaned in annoyance and pounded his fist against Alec's bedroom door.
"Open up! Alec, we had a deal! After your date you agreed to learn and-"
"Go away!" Alec yelled from inside his room. Magnus sighed deeply.
"Stop acting like a child and open the fucking door," Magnus said. He realised that he just swore in front of his student but at the moment he really didn't care. He was so mad.
"Leave me alone!"
Magnus wondered what had happened. I shouldn't had let him leave in the first place. This is all my fault. Why is it so hard to say 'no' to him? Magnus thought.
"Alec, you agreed to learn when you got back so please open this door-"
Magnus was suddenly cut off by the sound of . . . crying?
Now Magnus was starting to felt bad for yelling. Did Alec's date really go that bad?
Magnus jiggled the locked door knob. "Please, let me talk to you. I promise I won't yell," Magnus assured him. His voice now was more gentle and concerned.
When Alec didn't reply, and the only sound that filled the air was Alec's quiet sobs, Magnus decided to take matters into his own hands.
He flattened out a paper clip that he had attached to a few files and started picking Alec's lock. Eventually, the door clicked, and Magnus swung it open.
"Alec," Magnus breathed. There he was, lying on his stomach in his bed with his face squished in a pillow. Magnus had been teaching Alec for months but this was his first time seeing his room.
Mr. Bane sat on the corner of Alec's bed and frowned. "What happened?" he asked.
Alec grumbled. "I told you to leave me alone."
"Will you at least tell me what's bothering you-"
Alec suddenly sat up and looked at Mr. Bane angrily. "You don't care it's your fucking job!" he accused.
Magnus' breath caught in his throat. And no, it wasn't from the sound of Alec's yelling voice. It was because, when Magnus looked at Alec's face, he saw bright, red flaming eyes staring back at him.
"Your eye," Magnus squeaked. "It's. . . red."
Alec scoffed. "I'm crying, of course my eyes are red," he scowled, wiping away his tears.
"No I mean your eye is really red," he muttered.
Alec suddenly caught on to what was happening and gasped. He looked down at his pillow and there lied one of his coloured contacts. It must've fallen out when he had his face squished in it. Without his coloured contacts, which temporarily changed Alec's eyes back to their normal blue colour, it was obvious that there was something physically different about him.
"I, uh, shit," Alec breathed.
"Your eye is . . . like, really beautiful, though," Magnus admitted, and then blushed.
Alec gulped and pulled out the second contact, deciding that it didn't matter anymore. It felt nice and relieving to not have a piece of plastic blocking his tears as they filled his eyes.
"Wow," Magnus said breathlessly.
"I know, my eyes are like demon eyes, alright?" Alec growled.
Magnus shook his head. "No! They're, uh, really pretty," he said honestly. Alec's eyes were the brightest shade of red he had ever seen, speckled with flecks of gold. Magnus wondered why he tried to hide them.
"Whatever. Stop pretending and just leave."
"No. Not until you tell me what happened," Magnus said, suddenly remembering the task at hand.
Alec lost it right then, almost like the last fiber of control inside of him snapped. He curled his fists and let out all of his anger. All of the frustration that he had kept bottled up inside for the past few months.
"My date fucking ran away from me because I'm a monster, alright? Is that what you wanted to hear?" Alec screamed.
Magnus gulped. "Y-you're not a monster. Stop calling yourself that."
"But it's the truth! Fuck it, you don't understand!"
"Maybe she was just creeped out because you were wearing a ski mask?" Magnus delicately suggested.
"Trust me, wearing a ski mask is better than showing her the real me," Alec scoffed.
"What's wrong with the real you?"
"You don't want to know," Alec said, staring down at his hands.
Magnus stared back at his student. "Yes, I do Alec! What's so bad about you that you have to cover up your face and-"
Magnus was cut off by Alec asking him a simple question.
"Can you see without your glasses?" he wondered. There was a fraction of silence before Magnus answered.
Mr. Bane raised an eyebrow but then shook his head. "No, actually, I can't. Not very well. Why?"
Alec showed no emotion as he reached over and slowly slipped off Magnus' glasses, leaving his teacher nearly blind. Magnus was about to ask questions but again, he was cut off.
"Just shut up, alright?" Alec chuckled darkly. Magnus squinted his eyes and tried to see Alec, but all he could see was foggy blobs. He gave up. He couldn't see hardly anything without his glasses. He rested his glasses on the bedside table.
Alec cautiously took off his ski mask and set it to the side. Slowly, he leaned in closer to Magnus. He was so close that he could feel the older boy's breath ticking against his neck.
"I'm going to try something, okay? Just trust me," Alec said. It was the first time Magnus had seen this side of Alec- so vulnerable and fragile. Mr. Bane slowly nodded cautiously.
Magnus was blinded- literally- as he felt a warm pair of lips press against his own. He froze but didn't fight back or make any moves to try to stop it. Alec ran his fingers through his teacher's hair and moved their lips together.
Magnus opened up his mouth, allowing Alec to shove his tongue into it and explore new boundaries. Magnus threaded his hands through Alec's hair and felt it for the first time. Previously it had been concealed in the mask, but now, his hair were free and Magnus just couldn't get enough. Magnus imagined Alec being gorgeous.
They pulled away, out of breath. They stayed silent for a few moments, only enjoying the steady beats of each other's hearts. Magnus was dying to see Alec's face. He was longing to know what he looked like.
Almost as if Alec could read his thoughts, he reached over and placed his glasses back onto Magnus' face. Magnus blinked a few times, adjusting to the sudden clarity. As he looked up, he realised what Alec had been hiding all this time.
"Oh."