First Fanfiction! I hope you enjoy it! (No copyright intended, all characters belong to Cassandra Clare)
CASTLES MADE OF SAND, CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
I'll Follow the Sun
"For tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun. Some day you'll know I was the one But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun. And now the time has come, And so my love I must go.
And though I lose a friend, In the end you will know."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Mrs. Carstairs. Make sure to have those ginger snaps ready for me," Magnus called, as he retreated back towards his car, which was parked on the far right side of the slate driveway. Mrs. Carstairs stood there on the threshold of their estate, her short black hair tucked just below her chin, and her warm welcoming smile, spreading vastly over her delicate face. She gave Magnus a subtle wave, as he returned the gesture as well, and within a few moments, she had made her way back into the house, where James was now safely asleep; working off his eminent hangover. It was amazing to believe that Mrs. Carstairs was okay with her son arriving home absolutely hung over—lord knows what Gerald would do in Magnus' case—but then again, the Carstairs family were among the nicest, most understanding people he had ever met in Alicante.
Magnus turned back to the direction of his car, and nearly jumped out of his skin when his eyes were met by the dark image of William leaning coolly against the side of the gleaming red car door, with his arms cris-crossed over his ample chest. "Magnus," William greeted with a smile, and shrugged himself off and away from Magnus' car. He still had on his deep blue button down, and dark black ashy faded jeans—Magnus had arrived with William that night at the party, and for quite some time they spent the whole night by each others side. It wasn't until Magnus spotted Alec in the crowd of people; magnetically pulling Magnus towards him, that Magnus had lost tabs on where Willam was.
"So, I heard someone got upset by something, and left early last night," Magnus grinned and quirked his left eyebrow high on his forehead, rearing around to the drivers side of his car, listening for the silent click of his door opening. Without a shred of hesitation, William opened the door on his side swiftly, and sat down—Magnus following his actions in tow.
"Who told you that?" William turned to regard Magnus with cool unnerving eyes, once they were both seated in the car. Magnus stuck his keys in the ignition, and revved the engine, knowing that the probable place they would end up was school by now—it was nearly afternoon, and really Magnus was willing to break tons of speed limits passing through town, if it meant getting that much closer to seeing Alec. Even if he rather the circumstances being different—having Alec all alone—it was still an opportunity Magnus would not miss.
"Jem, darling." Magnus answered and waved his hand in front of his face, and then proceeded to turn out of the driveway onto the paved road. "Don't avoid my findings. Do tell William,"
"It was nothing. I just wasn't feeling in the mood to be there any longer. Nothing made me upset—" William's tone of voice was muddled and strangely closed off—as if he were slightly ashamed of what was brought up, or as if he were attempting to work his way around something. And that rarely ever happened; Magnus had known William for quite some time and had become accustomed to the ways William presented himself, the ways he spoke, acted, everything. William was not himself lately, it was almost as if something was plaguing his mind, tearing away at the delicate seams which held it together. And Magnus was definitely aware that he was delicate; forever the boy who would put the worries of others ahead of his own, so he could protect himself from the truths of his own life. Magnus needed to talk to James, because other than Magnus himself, James would be able to interpret what was wrong—since given the circumstances at hand, Magnus had no clue whatsoever. "Tell me. How was your night Magnus?" William asked a bit more merrily than was needed.
"Apart from spending most of my time with you—extraordinary." Magnus grinned; flashes of lake blue eyes scuttled and danced across his vision and mind.
"The Lightwood kid was there. I saw you go over to him when we were in the basement," William said haughtily, fiddling with the dials of Magnus' car, changing the heat. "How'd that go?" William wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, smirking a wicked playful grin. He had definitely watched them dancing, that much was clear by his indirect statement—but had he seen them flee the basement, and kiss upstairs? Or was that still a private moment between Magnus and Alec? Magnus hoped for the former, because quite readily he was distraught about the idea of still going along with William's plan, and didn't want William seeing them kiss add to the already blazing fire. But he doubted anyone had seen them.
For the most part, Magnus would not have been able to detect in himself, anything that deemed to be forced in regards to being with Alec. From time to time, he would completely forget about the deal that he had made with William—Alec was just that good at causing Magnus to escape his mind, and the troubles within his life for the moment. "Good, I guess." Magnus didn't want to have this conversation. Not now, when Magnus was already having an amazingly optimistic day.
"You aren't telling me something, I can see it on your face," William suggested, in a low husky tone.
"Listen Will, if something happens between us you would be the first to know," Magnus replied a bit abrasively and otherwise forcefully.
"Then how come you are hiding the fact that something has happened?" William sounded a bit hurt, which cut Magnus like a sharp bladed knife. He didn't want to lie to William—his best friend. But what choice did he have? Magnus wanted to insure that his relationship?—Could he call it that?—with Alec, was a private matter, one which could be locked away and embraced by only Magnus and Alec. But then again, what did that say about Magnus and William's friendship, in which they had built upon trust and truth years ago? However, that trust that they had built didn't include not being able to bend certain things to fit their own means, so long as they weren't called out upright on an issue. But William... He was certain Magnus was hiding something from him; being subdued about the subject, trailing his way around the actual truth, and what could that entail on their friendship? Was Magnus willing to lose William at this point?
"We kissed." Magnus shot out; without any sign of restraint holding him back. No he couldn't—wouldn't lose William's friendship. Through the many hardships and trials of Magnus' life, William had been there—to listen, to console, to give advice. And the least Magnus could do, for the years of undeniable friendship, was to give William the truth. He owed it to him—even if Magnus didn't want to think of their friendship as some sort of bargaining tool. But really, Magnus would never forgive himself if he let their relationship slip through the cracks over something he could have potentially avoided, by being truthful. Magnus watched from the corner of his almond shaped eyes, William's mouth drop slack open, his sharp eyebrows rising high and pinched upon his forehead; a flash of emotions trailing across his features.
"Wow, Magnus. You've definitely subjected yourself to move fast." William shook his ashy black hair, wafting a wave of sea water scents to Magnus' nose. "And he was pliant? He kissed you back?" William sounded eager, a bit too eager for Magnus' likings. But then there was something else there underneath the thick layer of formality... His voice was laced with—knowing? Scorn? Longing? Magnus couldn't be sure. All he knew was that, William was good at bending his way around revealing his emotions and his intentions. Magnus had always known that, that was William's way of protecting himself and yet Magnus didn't agree with it. At some point, and there was no telling when, all of those hidden bottled up emotions would pour out of William in a heated frenzy.
"Y—yes, he kissed me back. But nevertheless, I don't think this idea of yours is any good. Now if you tell me what the point of this was—"
"No." William interrupted loudly. "Magnus, just trust me—keep going. Trust me please?" Magnus turned his head to regard William, who was boring his eyes straight through Magnus. His eyes were deep and dark; before, the very same eyes Magnus wanted to slowly seep into and be swept up by—but he hadn't had thoughts like that in awhile. William's features were hard, structured and relentless in giving absolutely anything away. But strangely at the same time, gazing into William's eyes, Magnus watched a slight fracture take place within William. A vulnerable point, being hit dead on the nail, cracking—for a reason, Magnus didn't know.
Magnus sighed, and swung his head back to the road ahead of him. Avoiding William's gaze. "Of course Will, I trust you." He sighed again.
"Good." William smiled, and turned to gaze out of the passenger seat window. "I was thinking that we could head over to Sage's bar today instead of the Academy, grab a few early morning drinks and—" William was cut off by the subtle low ringing of Magnus' iPhone.
"Hold that thought," Magnus raised his hand to William and pulled over to the cement curb. They were now passing through the updated part of Alicante's downtown, where piles upon piles of people crept along the sidewalks, and fluttered in and out of the many flashy lavish stores and bistros. Magnus shoved his hand into the front right pocket of his leather pants and pulled out his white iPhone which continued to beep relentlessly. "Hello?"
"Hey—uhh Clary just gave me your number. Well actually she gave Iz your number, and I got it from her." How could his voice do that? How was it able to send sparks along the hairs of Magnus' arms and sweet shivers down his spine, over the phone?
"Mmm, Alexa—" Magnus caught himself, realizing for a fleeting moment that William was still in the car beside him. "Why'd you call, lovely?" Magnus attempted to drop his voice lower, knowing that William undoubtedly could still hear him, but otherwise hoping that William took that as his signal not to listen in.
"I can't get out of the house—well, not unless you can pick me up? I mean it's fine if you can't and all. But, uhh, yeah." Alec sounded even remotely flustered over the phone. Enduring, yes. Painfully adorable, yes. Would Magnus get tired off it? Never.
"I'll swing right on over. Spare me the address?"
"632 Cunningham way. Call me when you get here. I—I kind of have to sneak out."
"Sure thing, lovely. See you in a few." Magnus smiled and clicked his phone off.
"So, I take it we aren't going to venture off to Sage's today?" William lowered his dark eyebrows and pinched them together. He sounded more than disappointed, but after a moment of hesitation he released the tension in his features and smirked lopsidedly. "I guess you have much more important things to attend to. Just drop me off at Sage's. I won't keep you any longer Magnus." William shrugged half-heartily, his face closing off to any other indifference. Within a few minutes William was dropped off at their favourite infamous bar, and now Magnus was on his way to 632 Cunningham way. He deliberately needed to memorize that address to heart, because he had a sort of gut feeling that he would be seeing a lot of that house—and quite possibly that was wishful thinking, but he couldn't be too sure.
He was slowly coming up the drive of Alec's estate, a rush of excitement waved throughout his body. No, he was not going to take Alec to school—he wouldn't be able to handle not being able to show some type of affection towards Alec. He would sit there painfully in Biology class waiting desperately until the bell rang so he could pull Alec into a janitors closet of some sort, and ravish him there. Then again, that did sound rather intriguing to Magnus... But no, today they would go somewhere else for a while, somewhere they were least likely to be interrupted at.
He pulled into a long wide half crescent shaped driveway, and made sure to deliberately park closer to the road, off to the side where there were a ton of pine and evergreen trees shadowing the view of his car from the house. The estate was just as large as any of the other houses on the hilltops, except this one had a more home styled air to it—very inviting, and more so characteristic of a marvellous white lodge house with trees upon trees surrounding it. Magnus pulled out his phone, and dialled back Alec's number that had come up on his screen earlier when he was in the car with William. Alec picked up on the second ring, and quickly spit out his reply of 'i'll be there in a second', and hung up. Magnus sat in his car for a couple of minutes, letting the fresh smells of the woods waver throughout his car through the cracked windows. The breeze had a subtle crisp edge to it, calming and evening out the pure blissful heat of the sun's brilliant rays, which were bright and livid.
His eyes instantly focused and trained on a dark blur of a figure darting across the lawn towards his car—Alec; wearing dark black jeans, which matched the charcoal color of his hair, and a dark grey t-shirt paired with his ever so familiar pair of cream colored Levi's. Magnus shook his head to himself, seeing as he had yet to even go home and touch up his image, while this god of a person who had taken the time to ready himself, was going to spend his day with Magnus. Alec made it to the car in no time at all, and Magnus took it upon himself to get the car ready for departure. "Go. They'll realize I'm gone in no time," Alec said breathlessly as he slid into the seat beside Magnus. His cheeks were flushed a rosy pink tone, his hair roused and dishevelled in the back—sweeping to one side—and light swatches of sweat dotted the arch of his nose.
"What's with all the sneaking around?" Magnus laughed and shook his head, making a full hasty U-turn out onto the road.
"It's Jace. He doesn't understand why I would want to go to school, he wanted me to stay home today." Alec's breath was a bit laboured, his chest rising a bit unevenly, but he seemed to be calming himself well for the moment.
"And you didn't want to tell him that your only reason was me?" Magnus smirked devilishly and winked at Alec, loving the blush on Alec's face as the result. "Don't worry, I get it lovely, you don't want to tell anyone about... Us." Could he already partially label them as 'us'? It was quite too soon for that, but really Magnus wasn't partial to waiting for things he knew would be his eventually. Did that make him a bit pretentious? Or overly hopeful? One thing was for sure, and that was the fact that Alec hadn't even flinched when Magnus drawled out 'us'; he seemed unfazed by it.
"Iz knows," Alec turned his head away, biting the skin of his lower lip. He needed to stop doing that—it was utterly distracting for Magnus, to say the least.
"You told her?" Magnus quirked a questioning eyebrow high on his forehead, as he continued to drive further and further away from Alec's estate.
"No! I—I didn't exactly tell her. She saw us last night—kissing." His blush deemed to get darker and hotter.
"Oh well that's a relief," Magnus said as they entered the old part of downtown Alicante; heading in the direction of the boat docks.
"How is that a relief?" Alec nearly shouted, his mouth left a gape.
"One less person to sneak around, lovely." Magnus suggested.
"Oh, well, yeah I guess that's a good thing." Alec agreed, and turned back to gazing out of the tinted window of the passenger seat. They fell into a comfortable silence shortly after, each keeping to themselves and their thoughts—although it was quite maddening, having to wonder what was going through Alec's mind. Magnus' mind was concentrated on getting to the boat docks so they could sneak onto old man Penhallow's boat and spend the day there. Together. Alone. Only the lot of them knew that Penhallow never bothered to show up on Monday's. "Yenno, I've never..." Alec's voice was timid and low, cutting through the brief silence. "I've never—done this before." He sheepishly finished. Magnus pulled into the grey cemented parking lot of the boat docks, which was over-looking the deep blue sun flecked ocean that stretched for miles.
"Hmm? And what would this be?" Magnus unbuckled his seat belt and turned to Alec, catching the slight hesitant glint in the back of his lake blue eyes. Magnus tilted his own head in question at the look that plagued Alec's face—making his features a bit sharper and harder than they usually were—accentuating the dimple in his left cheek greatly.
"Don't make me say it Magnus..." Alec sighed, and offered him a half-hearted smile that didn't naturally reach his eyes.
"No Alexander, I want to know what you mean." Magnus raised his eyebrows pointedly, as Alec sighed and fiddle with the hem of his dark grey shirt a bit, while gnawing on his bottom lip.
"I've never... Kissed a—a guy before. Let alone continued something with said person." Alec's face flushed once again. Really Magnus would never get sick of seeing that bright crimson—sometimes deep scarlet red—color. It suited Alec oh so well, and just the mere fact that Magnus could elicit such a reaction made his stomach do unsettling flips and turns. A feeling he had never experienced before he had met Alec.
"Oh," was all that slipped out of Magnus' mouth.
"Oh? That's all... Oh?" Alec gazed at Magnus incredulously; the corners of his lips pulling up a bit, into a ghost of a smile.
"Oh—I haven't done this before either. Been with a guy that is, so I guess we are in this together Alexander." Magnus leaned over the small storage console which rested in between them, pressing his hand onto Alec's upper left thigh, and with the other hand he grasped Alec's face in between his finger tips and drew Alec's face closer to his own, pressing their lips together. He could hear the hitch in Alec's throat as they connected, and could taste the spicy cinnamon on his soft thin lips. Magnus let the kiss linger and deepen, but didn't take it any further than the press of their lips against one another. He pulled back slowly, and opened his eyes just as slowly watching Alec do the same.
"Yeah, I think I like the sound of that," Alec said with a smile and tilted his eyes towards the tiny red dotting boat on the water. "That's where we are going?"
"—And where we are staying for the remainder of the day."
A/N: Oh gosh, I am so sorry you guys! Four days is way too long of a wait. To be honest, I had terrible writers block, and I've been horribly sick for the past couple of days. So for this chapter: I guess I wanted you guys to see a bit more into William and Magnus' friendship—it is a weird friendship, I know. It is actually the one friendship I am still trying to figure out! You see, they are two different people as well, but somehow they work, and rely on each other in the faintest and biggest of ways. Also you guys will be happy to know that the next chapter is souly dedicated to Malec! And I just wanted to address something as well; I got a message from someone the other day asking if I could put smut and lemons in soon—all in time prettys! Malec is a relationship that deserves not to be rushed. But fear not, it will happen at some point... Again, the next update may take a bit of extra time, sorry! Also a little while back someone asked me if I give shout-outs, and yeah for sure! As long as you review, I would be glad to!
Take a little bit of time out of your day and click that 'Review this chapter' button. You know you want to (;
Amber,