First Fanfiction! I hope you enjoy it! (No copyright intended, all characters belong to Cassandra Clare)

CASTLES MADE OF SAND, CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Day Tripper

"Got a good reason, for taking the easy way out. Got a good reason, for taking the easy way out,
now she was a day... tripper, one way ticket, yeah! It took me so,
long to find out, and I found out, She's a big teaser,
she took me half the way there."

He could remember it so clearly: everything was dark, save for small lights—possibly the gleam of the night stars—passing over the walls and floors of the open room. His body was over heated and heavy; as if weights were being pressed down on top of every inch of his skin. It was ominously quiet, he realized as his eyes danced around the room in his elated nature.

A dark figure came back to join him in the room, walking with a sort of dip to their hip—a very familiar dip, as it was. Magnus smiled gleefully, because this was what he had been dreaming about for such a long time, wasn't it? This is what he had hoped for, yearned for, and it was in front of him—for his taking. There was something though, at the back of his mind, whispering to him about the alternative—whispering to him the other thing he wanted. But he pushed that away.

They finally came back together in the middle of the room; Magnus could map out every plane to his face, as he had memorized it many times before—but he would never admit that. He raised his left hand, cupping his jaw within his hand. "Say it," he breathed out, with a delightful smile on his lush lips.

"Say what?" He replied in a clipped voice.

"What I want to hear. What you've wanted to tell me for so long." Magnus pointedly stated. Was this right? Forcing him into some form of submission? It was a couple of minutes before he answered Magnus, and as he did so Magnus' heart threatened to leap out of his chest.

"I love you,"

The heat of the suns light eclipsed over Magnus' eyelids. He opened them slowly as the piercing rays flooded throughout his bedroom; engulfing the space in a luminous light. Sarah was pulling his lush champagne colored drapes wider than they were left last night before Magnus was supposed to go to bed, but was interrupted by the image of Alec standing on his front lawn. In that moment that he had glanced down at Alec waiting at the base of his house, Magnus couldn't deny the rush of emotions he had felt. For one, he was ecstatic to be graced with the image of Alec standing there, but then he was so angry about what had transpired between them the night before at Homecoming. In one respect, he wanted to run out of the house and throw himself into Alec's waiting arms and embrace him with the most passionate kiss he could conjure up; but then in another respect he didn't want to be submissive in any way, shape, or form, especially when it came to giving into Alec after a fight.

There was a small shifting on Magnus' abdomen; a slight brushing of charcoal hair over his skin—causing him to shiver and contract the muscles in his stomach a bit harshly. He peered down, through half lidded eyes, and his gaze was met by the sleeping image of Alec. Alec felt warm against Magnus' skin—almost too warm, but Magnus was not about to start complaining. Having Alec tucked against the side of his body, his legs tangled and threaded through Magnus', with his head resting against his abdomen—was beyond a heavenly sight to see. He loved waking up next to Alec; this had been the third time in which he did so and every single time, he felt his heart beat a little bit faster knowing that Alec probably liked it to. There was no doubt Magnus wanted to end up in this exact position for as long as possible, but given the circumstances revolving around their relationship, he was sure that he couldn't get everything that he wanted.

Alec's thin lips were set in a sort of pouting form and his long eyelashes were splayed out over top of his high cheekbones. His dark hair—disheveled as always—was plastered to the left side of his face from a bit of sweat. And man, were they ever sweating last night. Feeling Alec throbbing within the grasp of his hand created this whole other connection between them. Alec had willingly given his body over to Magnus—to do as he pleased—and likewise Magnus had given himself to Alec. Not fully though, however; they didn't go past fondling, rubbing, stroking, because quite readily Magnus knew that Alec wouldn't be ready for that just yet. And surprisingly, Magnus didn't think he was ready for that either. In the moment that they were stroking each other, yes, Magnus could have seen them getting caught up and pushing past every last boundary between them, but it just didn't happen that night—and he was actually thankful for that. Alec deserved a relationship that wasn't rushed and Magnus was fully intended to give that to him.

This was definitely the first time he had, had full on sexual contact with another guy, but Magnus—being extremely comfortable with any sexual act really—didn't find it that harbouring to begin with. He knew that when things like actually having sex with Alec happened that, that would bring about many more complications, because they were both inexperienced in that field. A small part of him was nervous about it, but an even larger part of him was audaciously excited for that day to come where they could finally connect with one another in the most intimate of ways. Fully naked skin rubbing together; erotically grinding and sliding against one another's sweaty bodies; Magnus pushing Alec further and further into the bed, as they both groaned and shouted together—stealing breath whenever one could take it and the other could give. Yeah, Magnus was definitely looking forward to it.

He was way in over his head. He had weaved himself so deeply within Alec's life already and in respect, Alec had, had the same effect on Magnus. That thought made Magnus freeze; he trusted Alec with so much—he couldn't even begin to explain the amount of trust he had within Alec—that he knew he needed to wiggle his way out of William's plan, and fast. He didn't know how he would accomplish that, but hopefully William had gotten over whatever past infraction he had with Alec, that he could see a way to letting go—and in turn let Magnus leave the plan behind as well. He still had a hard time fathoming what Alec could have possibly done to William to make him act in such rash ways. What was William capable of doing?

Sarah noticed that Magnus was awake and gave him a small sad smile; the pain and hurt over Olive was still fresh—as it should be—and Sarah wasn't going to ignore the deep sadness inside her that would be indescribably hard to deny. She walked over to the side of his high bed and bent down to give him a quick reassuring kiss on his forehead. Magnus raised his index finger to his lips in gesture to be quiet for Alec, who was now lightly snoring against Magnus' stomach. Sarah gazed down at his sleeping form and smiled softly to herself.

"You might want to get him up soon. Maryse'll be 'ere any second." Sarah warned and Magnus sighed. He knew it was far from possible... But had Maryse known of Magnus and Alec, they would be able to lay in this position all day—which Magnus would be perfectly content with. As it was, the thought of Maryse, let alone Gerald, finding them in this position together did not seem okay at all, in Magnus' eyes.

"I'll try to wake him up. But I make no promises," Magnus whispered as he ran his finger tips across the small of Alec's back; feeling the smooth skin coiled over hard muscles there. Sarah nodded and began to retreat towards his door, stopping for a quick second to pick up Chairman Meow. When Sarah had first seen the kitten earlier that day, after James had left, she fell in love with it instantly—much to Magnus' surprise. He was sure that she would scorn Magnus, or James, for bringing a kitten into the home without her consent. But ever since she held the kitten within her pudgy hands, she had been bent on taking care of it, going as far as to buy a bed and all the other necessities Chairman would need.

"I'm not cleaning those sheets," she cocked her eyebrow and gave Magnus a pointed look before leaving; shutting the door lightly behind her. Magnus shook his head and grinned to himself, because of her comment. The fact that Magnus' sheets were clearly marked with what they had been doing around midnight, didn't go unnoticed. His mind wasn't necessarily in the gutter all the time, but at the moment, with Alec's half naked body caressed against his equally naked body, he felt a desire for Alec once again blossom within the pit of his stomach.

They had little to no time to be together, if what Sarah had stated was true, but he at least wanted to get a quick kiss in before they had to get ready. It was Sunday, and although he hadn't expected Alec to show up at his house last night, he now wanted to spend all day with Alec just lazing about in bed. He had never wanted that before.

He nudged Alec's foot with his own, for starters, earning a low sigh to escape from Alec's lips. He brought his hand up to caress the top of Alec's shoulders—pressing his fingers into the tight pale skin there, soothingly. But still, Alec didn't make any heed to wake up. He once again trailed his fingers against Alec's skin, but this time he followed the path of Alec's torso and down past the waist band of his boxers. He gripped Alec lightly, running his thumb up the underside, along the strong pulsing vein—and Alec shivered violently as he began to wake up from the stimulation.

He raised his head with sleepy lake blue eyes, seeming more than disorientated at the moment; but he could have fooled anyone because a second after he had seen Magnus glancing down at him, with his hand around Alec's member, he shuffled his way up Magnus' body and attacked his lips, full on. Magnus gasped in surprise and then eased into the kiss as Alec's tongue darted across his bottom lip, asking for silent access into Magnus' mouth.

Magnus retracted his hand away from Alec's boxers and clasped both of his arms around the middle of Alec's back, pulling him up and against Magnus' body. Alec winced, for some unknown reason, but then whimpered at the contact of their cores and brought his hands up into Magnus' hair; tugging ever so softly on his strands. They laid there for what could have been hours—but really it was only a few of minutes—battling for dominance; gasping for air in short successions; and hesitantly swaying their bodies together. It was hard not to get carried away with Alec, because he felt so good against Magnus' body; in the grasp of his hands.

"Magnus Bane!" A voice hissed from his doorway. Both Magnus and Alec reluctantly stopped kissing and glanced over at Sarah who was tapping her foot rather loudly on the floor at the base of his door. "What did I tell you, boy?" Magnus cut his eyes sideways at Alec, who was blushing feverishly—his face the color of ripe tomatoes—and smiled to himself. Alec made to get up off of Magnus, but Magnus locked his arms even tighter around him, keeping him pressed to the planes of his body.

"Don't worry, we'll be ready. Just give us a couple of minutes." Magnus smirked deviously at the even brighter blush Alec acquired.

"No, you don't get a couple of minutes. Maryse is already 'ere! And your father wants you to come downstairs now,"

"My mother's here?" Alec quite nearly shouted as he wrestled himself free of Magnus' arms and bolted over to his jeans that were laying on the floor. "Why didn't you tell me she was coming over?" Alec shot Magnus a feral intimidating look. Magnus ignored this with a wave of his hand, brushing it off and turned to regard Sarah—rather than stare at his boyfriend getting dressed. He much preferred the act to be the other way around, where Alec was getting undressed.

"Tell him we'll be down soon." Magnus shrugged but then thought better of it. "Or maybe, just tell him I'll be down soon and Alexander will be a surprise."

"No! I don't want them to be wondering why I was up here in the first place. My mother doesn't even know I snuck out last night." Alec's voice took on a slightly whiny tone, his mouth falling into the shape of a pout. It took all of Magnus' will power not to launch himself across the bed and capture Alec's bottom lip between his teeth. Magnus stood up and walked over to his dresser and brought out a crisp light blue low v-necked shirt and waxy black conforming jeans.

"I just won't say anything to them." Sarah muttered and left the room.

"We'll just tell them you came over early this morning to uhm... Start on a Biology project?" Magnus suggested, raising his eyebrow in question.

"You know, Biology seems to be our excuse for everything. We're going to need to come up with something new, soon." Alec laughed, his hiccuping laugh, and pulled on his shirt; covering up the body that Magnus could stare at all day. Magnus did notice, however, that Alec took a shuddering gasp in when he pulled his shirt on, as if in some kind of pain... "Stop looking at me and go get dressed."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Magnus blurted out, against his own accord, completely catching Alec off guard, as to the sudden change of topic.

"Talk about..."

"What we did last night," Magnus finished Alec's sentence, or at least he was hoping that, that was what Alec was going to say. Alec bit his bottom lip and slightly blushed at that.

"Oh, well, I—I liked that. A lot, I mean, I—I hope that happens again?" Alec stuttered on his words in such a timorous way.

"You 'hope', that happens again?" Magnus smirked and shrugged into his black jeans. "You don't expect that to happen again?" He licked his lips and did a slow once over of Alec's body, from head to toe. He watched the way Alec seemed to gnaw even harder on his bottom lip as his body shivered in response to Magnus' words. "Just you wait. When we get to Jem's cabin—"

"Uhm no." Alec cut him off sharply. "We are not doing anything when we're there Magnus. We could get caught."

"Oh come on. You're going to deprive me of your—" Alec snarled, cutting Magnus off mid-sentence. "—Body, for three nights and two days? I won't let that happen." Magnus grinned widely and gestured for Alec to follow him out of his bedroom, with his arm outstretched to the side. Alec rolled his eyes, but Magnus couldn't miss the ghost of a smile he had, playing at his lips. They made there way down the steps; Alec more so in a hurry, rather than Magnus who was taking his time. Maryse and Gerald were in the steel grey kitchen, standing on opposite sides of the large island counter, in the middle of the room. Maryse had a stack of white files and brown manila tag folders in her delicate hands, while Gerald stood there with a coffee in his own. When Magnus and Alec had made there way into the kitchen, Maryse did a double take as she noticed her son.

"Alec?" Maryse asked in surprise. She placed the files and folders she had in her hands on top of the shiny surface of the counter and stepped closer to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uhh, came over earlier, to, uhh, work on our Biology project." He offered up as he stroked the back of his neck with his left hand.

"Unusual, I didn't hear anyone come into the house this morning..." Gerald took a long sip of his coffee and as he did so he raised his eyebrow to Magnus slowly. Magnus returned the gesture with an impassive face, praying to god that Gerald couldn't see right through him in that moment. Maryse was too busy smoothing down the front of Alec's shirt to notice the look Gerald had given Magnus.

"I thought you would've been with Jace when you woke up." Maryse said.

"Why?" Alec questioned, bringing both of his hands up to Maryse's wrists, to stop her movements.

"Because he has been freaking out all morning about something. He said he needed to talk to you, but Izzy kept telling us that you were sleeping and to not bother you." Maryse squared her expression in thought. She really was beautiful, Magnus had to note, the perfect image of Isabelle and Alec wrapped up into a pretty woman figure. She was wearing a pale peach dress that ended just below her knees, while adorning a set of pearls around her neck. "You didn't tell anyone that you were coming here,"

"Jace didn't say why he was freaking out?" Alec enquired rather hesitantly, as if he were testing out different ideas in his head.

"He kept saying that something happened on Friday, the night of that dance, and that he needed to talk to you." Maryse put a strange amount of emphasis on the word 'you' and Magnus wished she hadn't done that because he could see now that Alec had become tense and ridged standing there in front of his mother. He looked quickly over to Magnus, and Alec's thoughts were clear as day to Magnus in that subtle glance that they shared.

"I... Magnus can you take me home?" Alec earnestly asked, letting his hands—and Maryse's—fall back to his sides. Magnus nodded and lead Alec out into the front foyer, after they had said their goodbyes. Magnus picked up his keys from a small key rack hung up just shy of the front door.

"Alexander, what do you think it is?"

"Nothing," Alec said rather dismissively. Magnus frowned in partial anger.

"Alexander tell me what you think it is. Do you think he found out about us? Do you think it's something else?" Magnus threw out the first scenario that popped into his head. He guessed that, that situation—of Jace finding out about them—would affect Alec a lot, and by the way he was acting, so reserved, Magnus couldn't help but think that, that was it.

Alec turned his head away slightly so that Magnus could only see the exact side profile of his face. There was a small amount of light escaping into the front foyer and now that Alec had his head turned to the side Magnus could make out the beginning of a blossoming bruise on the bridge of Alec's nose, which crossed over slightly to the underneath of his left eye.

"Who gave you that?" Magnus took Alec's chin in between his fingers lightly—guiding his head back to Magnus. Alec jerked his head back in... Disgust? Surprising Magnus greatly by his reaction.

"No one," Alec spat out, through his teeth.

"Alexander stop being so curt with me. Does that have something to do with Jace?" he pointed out the bruise once again. "Tell me who did this to you."

"I can't," Alec hung his head in defeat, tightly shutting his eyes. Magnus placed the palm of his hand right in the middle of Alec's ribs, meaning to bring him closer to his body in a sort of embrace—but Alec winced at the contact and sucked in a sharp breath of air. Magnus knit his eyebrows tightly together on his forehead, wondering why Alec had reacted to him in that way. He grabbed a handful of Alec's shirt in his hands, along the hem, and pulled his shirt up—much to Alec's protest—to reveal the side of his ribs.

The pale skin there was blotched with purple and yellow patches, which looked terribly tender, and Magnus couldn't believe that he didn't notice it at all when they were upstairs in his room. It looked painful for Alec to take deep breaths in, and Magnus flinched at the thought that someone would want to hurt Alec in this way. "Please," Magnus reached the tips of his fingers out tentatively to touch the bruised skin, "tell me who did this to you."

"Magnus trust me right now, okay? I can't tell you. I just can't." Alec pulled back from Magnus and let his shirt fall back down his torso. He reached out for the door handle and yanked the door open, letting fresh Autumn air into the foyer.

"Will you at least tell me why?" Magnus hissed; he was steadily getting more and more flustered as Alec continued to evade his questioning. When you were in a relationship with someone, weren't you supposed to trust them with anything—tell them everything? Sure, Magnus wasn't the greatest representative of that point, but he was slowly getting there.

"Because I—I..." Alec trailed off and ran a pale hand throughout his hair. "Baby, please don't do this. I just can't tell you right now," he sighed loudly.

"Did you just call me Baby?" Magnus cocked his head back in surprise and smirked at Alec. Alec's face flushed brightly with color as he had just come to the realization that he had just called Magnus 'baby'. "I like it," Magnus stated, taking a step closer to Alec. "But don't think that just because I pointed that out, that you're off the hook for not telling me who hurt you, lovely."

"I know Magnus. And I swear to you that if I could tell you, I would. God, I want to tell you so badly," Alec closed his eyes. Magnus sauntered his way up to Alec within seconds and clasped his face between the palms of his hands, stroking the pads of his thumbs over the fragile skin of Alec's cheeks. He kissed Alec lightly on the lips, once, twice, and then pulled away as Alec began to deepen the kisses.

"Then tell me Alexander. Tell me."

He felt elated when those words 'I love you' escaped his lips. And he wanted to say them back; it had been a dream for him to hear those words and be able to speak them back with such finality. Then he began to realize something that gnawed at his already disrupted senses...

It wasn't Alec who had said those words.

A/N: Yeah, I know that the beginning and end divide is a bit confusing (?) It's supposed to be that way!—to keep you guys guessing (although I'm pretty sure you guys can figure that one out on your own—or can you?) Next chapter should be interesting, I wonder what Jace happens to be freaking out about? And who's excited for Jem's cabin chapters? Because I know that I am! I think we will have two more chapters until we get to that point, so stick along for the ride. I also wanted to make you guys a deal, since I'm overly excited about today, because guys we have a Magnus Bane! (As in the movie, in which he is being played by Godfrey Gao). So, since I'm overly excited, I'll make you the deal that if we get sixty reviews, I will update tomorrow night!

Think your up for the challenge? Review!

Amber,