The printer kept spitting out paper after paper after paper. Hundreds of words on every page, hundreds of pages from beginning to end. Alec had never been so nervous, and now he just wanted to hide under his bed and never know.

"Alec, relax. There's still a while 'til he gets here. You don't have to freak out about it yet."

Alec bit his lip and looked at Jem. His blue eyes were doubting, his lip red from biting. His blush was in place, a light pink tint on his pale complexion. "What if he doesn't like it? What if he thinks it's ridiculous? What if he laughs at me?"

"He won't laugh at you. He might not be the perfect gentleman, but he is not that much of a douche."

"But he might not like it, Jem."

"Well, he's not some book critic, Alec. Even if he doesn't like it there's still hope. Now, it won't be long till he gets here, so I'll leave. Give you two some space. And I imagine you'd want to talk to him about last night."

Jem was sitting on Alec's bed, looking at him the whole time they had been talking, while Alec had shifted from looking at Jem to look at the printer; the window; the ceiling; anywhere but at Jem. Jem's silver hair was ruffled, looking like he just got out of bed. There were a few black stripes in his hair, but the majority of it was silver like his eyes were. He was smiling reassuringly, trying to calm Alec down.

"But where are you going to go?"

"Don't worry about me, Alec. I'll go to a café or something, call my people in Milano and get some work done. I'm bringing my laptop so I'll be able to actually get something done. And, you know, if he likes it and you get a bit more confident, I know a few publishers. I'm sure they'd love to take a look."

"I know, Jem. I know you have connections. It's not necessary to bring them into it; this is nowhere near good enough to be published."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that. You've got a way with words. But I won't say anything, because just showing this to Magnus is a huge deal. I really think he'd be good for you –" he got up from the bed and started walking out the bedroom, "- but I'm leaving before you kill me for saying so."

Alec smiled hesitantly and looked back at the printer, which had now printed out several hundred pages and the very first page was lying on top with the title and Alec's name staring back at him. Soon enough he heard the door close before Jem, and he got up and picked up the pages from the printer's paper tray.

Not more than ten or fifteen minutes passed before the door opened. Alec was standing in the kitchen, and he'd left his book on the living room coffee table. He heard the shuffling of paper, and he knew Magnus had picked up the book, obviously intrigued on the stack of papers standing on the table. Alec's hand was shaking as he put the coffee cup in his hand on the kitchen table and he walked into the living room. Sure enough, Magnus was sitting in the couch with the stack of papers in his hands. He looked up as Alec stepped into the room, smiled and put the papers on the table in front of him as he got up and walked over to Alec.

"Hey," he said quietly, standing closer than Alec was used to. He leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on his lips, closing his eyes slowly, but pulling back when Alec didn't respond. He opened his eyes and looked at him. "Alec, are you okay?" he asked, as he took one of Alec's shaking hands.

Alec bit his lip, but intertwined his fingers with Magnus'. He looked down and took a shallow breath. "I'm just… nervous, I guess. Because of last night, and because of my book, and because of my feelings towards you and Scott and-"

"Alec, shut up. You don't need to be nervous. About the book, I get it, I do, but none of the other things are something worth getting worked up about. Let's talk, and I'll start the book later, alright?"

Alec looked back up into Magnus eyes, and stopped. Sometimes he'd forget just how gorgeous those eyes were, and he'd catch himself staring at him again. He blushed and nodded, following Magnus back to the couch and sitting down.

"I'm sorry I called you yesterday. With the catwalk thing yesterday and work today, you didn't need me to call you and screw up your schedule."

Magnus smirked slightly. "Actually, I'm quite happy you did. I was worried about you, and I'm not going to hide the fact that I'm crazy about you and I've wanted this for so long."

Alec looked down and his face turned the colour of a tomato, but he couldn't hide the smile playing at the corner of his lips – nor did he want to. "That's good, I suppose."

"Alec, you don't regret this, do you?"

Alec slowly shook his head, but didn't answer at first. He hadn't really thought about that – did he regret it? Was it too soon to sleep with Magnus? Should they have waited? Should they even have done it, at any point? "No, I… I don't regret it. I've wanted it too, I just… didn't think I'd be drunk the first time we did."

Magnus smirked and laughed. "I thought you'd said you don't like drinking? But anyway. I'm glad it happened, and that you don't regret it, even if you were drunk. It got me one step closer to having you to myself."

"Well, if you want me to yourself, maybe you shouldn't tell me how good-looking I am. I might decide I'm too hot for you."

Magnus laughed, happy to joke around with Alec the way they always did. He'd hoped it hadn't changed too much between them and made it awkward, and it didn't seem like it had. "Oh, darling, you may be hot, but no one is too hot for me. No one is hotter than me, either, not even you, lover."

Alec blushed at the new nickname, but he smiled nonetheless. He had let go of Magnus' hand when they sat down, but now he took it again, intertwining their fingers once again. Magnus smiled.

"Now, Alec, did you want to talk about your feelings, or do you want me to read your book?"

Alec glanced at the paper stack and let go of Magnus' hand. "Read. I'll go… make coffee, do you want coffee?"

"Hey, don't worry. Just go do something you want to do. Go buy yourself a new book to read, go to a café, anything you feel like. You don't need to be here while I read it, do you?"

"I can't go anywhere, Magnus…"

"Why not?"

"I quit my job yesterday when I was drunk; I… can't afford going anywhere. At all."

Magnus bit his lip hesitantly. "Oh. I guess you're kind of depending on this book, then?" he asked, and Alec nodded slightly and looked down. It hadn't been a good idea to quit his job, he knew that, but it just didn't give enough money for him to live off of.

"It was a stupid thing to do, but there's no way Luke is giving me back my job. So I'm going to have to find something new."

"You know that if you're in any kind of trouble, I'll help you. You know that, right? Even if you lose this place, you can come live with me. I don't mind."

Alec smiled. "I know. Just read. I'll go back to bed. You won't finish it today, but just… read. I still have a headache, so I just want to sleep."

Magnus nodded and Alec got up and went into the bedroom, throwing himself into the bed and pulling the duvet up around him. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but couldn't. What was he going to do about Scott now? And did this mean he and Magnus was in a relationship? That they were dating? Would he get over Scott with Magnus' help, or was he just making it harder on himself? What if the book wasn't good, what would he do then? What job would he be able to get? Even if Magnus thought the book was good, was that something he was just saying, or did he mean it? Even if he did mean it, would publishers agree with him?

Soon enough, though, he tried to empty his mind for thoughts and drifted off to sleep. He usually never dreamt, but tonight he did. He dreamt of Scott and Magnus and himself. He couldn't even forget in his sleep.

AN:

Hey guys! Been a tough week, so I haven't had time to update before now, sorry about that. You got a long chapter though, so I hope it's okay!

Short message for Darkys:

I don't have twitter, but I have tumblr. On there, I'm azooak as well, feel free to find me and message me on there. But I don't really use much social networks other than that. I mean, I HAVE twitter, but I haven't used it since I talked to Cassie Clare briefly a few weeks ago, and I didn't use it much before that, either, so. But whatever - I prefer tumblr, so hit me up on there.

But yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter - reviews are what I live for! So review, guys!

Azooak