That day Magnus had insisted on taking my number instead when he had to go. He typed it directly into his phone and made some comment about 'younglings' being unreliable and loosing things. I still remembered the glint in his eye when I bit my lip.

Since then Izzy kept talking about how I was 'so in there'. She sounded more like Jace than herself. Funnily enough it was Jace who asked the more clean-minded questions. Probably part of his new ploy to get that Clary girl: Proving he wasn't a self-absorbed dick.

"So, come on. Izzy is expecting me to get the gossip on this Magnus guy." He said while we ran laps. Well, jogged laps. Neither of us really felt like sprinting and the Coach wasn't paying much attention.

"Izzy knows all the Magnus gossip. There isn't much to say." I groaned. As if I would keep anything majorly big from her. "He's just a guy I met at work. We text a lot and chat on my breaks."

"And you like him?" Jace pried as we both jumped some girl's legs. She was doing stretches way too close to the track, probably hoping to get noticed. When we passed she made this scared, squeaking sound like she thought we were going to land on her. Then she relocated somewhere out of the way.

Did I like Magnus? Yes. I liked him a lot.

It was weird because we didn't have much in common. It just sort of… worked somehow. Like, Magnus had a job in fashion, so when he brought it up I'd talk about Izzy and her trend obsessions. And when he noticed angry scratches I'd gotten from our cat Church he always had a story about whatever adorable thing his kitten had done recently (last time it was falling asleep in a hat-box).

"Well, it's easier to text him than talk to him. I don't get distracted by, you know, his face."

"Of course." Jace smirked. I shoved him and laughed when he almost fell over stretches-girl. She must have thought we had it in for her.

"But, really, there's not that much to say. I know random stuff. He hates black coffee, he smokes, he speaks a lot of languages…" I wracked my brain for any information that was remotely interesting. To Jace, I mean. I found just about everything about Magnus interesting. The thing was other people didn't care about his favorite smell (sandalwood) or the dumb shows he kept trying to convince me I should watch. Izzy felt like I was keeping things from her; I just didn't have anything to say that she would consider worth her while.

Jace really did look like I was about to put him to sleep. It was fair enough. I was always trying not to doze when he went off on one about his girlfriends and their perfumes and rom-coms.

"Oh!" Jace's eyes snapped wide open when I gasped. I'd remembered the only gossip-worthy thing I knew about Magnus, a fact I'd pushed to the back of my mind. "And he's thirty."

"Are you alright there?" Magnus asked. I was a bit busy choking on my drink to answer him.

"T-Thirty?" I stammered. Magnus started rubbing circles on my back while I swallowed and regained breath. Yeah, that was exactly what I needed. Him to act like a grown-up. "As in three-zero?"

"I thought it was obvious I wasn't a high-school kid, Alec." He said.

I looked him over. Really looked. Magnus was clearly not my age, I always knew that. But he didn't have an adult vibe to him. He definitely didn't look thirty. Maybe twenty-six at a push.

I knew other thirty year olds: teachers in cheap suits with dull haircuts. Adults who would never touch glitter and didn't plug in their earphones every spare moment.

Magnus had always looked older than I did but he'd also acted like a teen. A wilder teen than I was. He had his mature moments, but still…

"I thought you were a college senior or something!"

He just seemed to have that combination of teenage rebellion and grown-up savvy; the kind that was unique to the student population before they left school and couldn't afford to keep their immaturities any more.

For a moment Magnus looked flattered and smiled at me the way he did when he was pleased. He had this really satisfied smile which always made my pulse pick up speed.

Then his face twisted into an expression of doubt.

"This isn't a problem is it?"

Yes. Yes it's a problem. I go to high school. What the hell is wrong with you?

"No, why would it be a problem?"

I don't know why I said it was alright. Magnus was definitely too old for me. I mean we had moved past the point of 'more experienced' to 'old enough to be Max's Father'.

But I liked Magnus. I clicked with Magnus. I didn't want to stop talking to him just because he had twelve years on me. Twelve years was nothing, wasn't it? It wouldn't seem like much when I reached twenty. Not that I was sure I'd still know Magnus when I reached twenty.

A long finger touched the center of my forehead and Magnus frowned at me. "You're freaking out in there, aren't you?"

"No." Yes. No.

He was still the same person I'd been talking to all this time. The same person I liked. I reached up and twined my fingers into his hand to bring it back down to the table.

"I'm fine, honestly…"

Jace tripped flat on his face. Genuinely got caught on his own feet and fell to the ground. I'd never seen that happen before. Had I really surprised him that much?

"Are you serious?!" People nearby all started to look at us so I ducked down on the floor beside him, pretending to check him over for scrapes. Actually, his knees were bleeding a bit.

"It's not that big a deal…" I said quietly in the hopes that Jace would lower the volume. He didn't.

"My Dad is thirty!" He exclaimed.

"Your Dad is forty-two."

"Same thing!"

I resisted the urge to rub my temples. Maybe I was right the first time and it was worth freaking out over. What was I supposed to do, though? Go to Magnus saying 'You know how I said your age didn't matter? Well it does.'?

That wouldn't work. I'd change my mind about saying it the second I opened my mouth anyway. I didn't want to stop seeing him.

After another minute or so Jace seemed to calm down a little and everybody else had gotten back to their own business. Except for a couple other guys who were probably finding it weird that I still had my hand on Jace's leg. I quickly removed it and wiped the blood off on my kit. Sadly it was already dry. Gross.

"Do you think Izzy will freak?" I ventured, helping to pull my friend back to his feet.

Jace raised an eyebrow at me like I was an escaped mental patient. "You have to ask? Izzy will definitely freak."

I was worried about posting this chapter (and the rest of the story after it). I had to keep reminding myself that the people reading this probably ship the cannon where Magnus has 200 years on Alec at the very least. That's actually what I was kind of reflecting.

Anyway; thank you for reading and I hope that you'll continue to read on. More chapters are to come, next up we have: 'Meeting The Father'