It didn't take a long time to pack up my old room. It wasn't like moving out of my Mother's house when I'd had a whole lot of memories to say goodbye to. There were little things, like the day I moved in and the first flowers Magnus ever gave me. However, most of the memories I had in the apartment were either fairly unmoving or just plain not-good. Lots of nights laying on my own. Reading over Dr Zachariah's last essay. That time when I slammed the door on Magnus…
Yeah. I was pretty sure I wouldn't miss the place too much. The real redeeming factor was the company and even then I didn't see much of Kyle and Simon.
Isabelle had wanted to come help me with the moving out. I think she was hoping to show me she still wanted to be there for me; even though she was still a little mad I hadn't consulted her about my impeding change of address. Unfortunately she had to be at School during the weekdays. As did Jace, who had also wanted to come lend a hand.
I took my boxes down to my car myself – thankfully Simon had managed to figure his transport needs out by now. Magnus wasn't there to help me because he had something else to be getting on with. It sounds worse than it was; he was actually preparing for something we both had planned. A hard going, terrifying mission which would have sent most people running for safety.
Operation Clean-the-Hallway was not the nicest task we could have undertaken on my first day in the building. There was good reasoning behind the idea, though.
The thing was, we had no idea how long we'd be living in Magnus' apartment. He was pretty attached to it seems as he used to live there with his Mother. Don't ask me why he kept paying for it all the years he lived elsewhere, because I can't even begin to understand why anybody would want to return to living there after what had happened.
Magnus' reasoning wasn't the point, anyway. The point was that we either had to put some work in ourselves or live with the filth indefinitely. And I didn't like the sound of the latter. The webs creeped me out.
The drive to Magnus' place - soon to be our place - felt like it took much less time than usual. Buildings just slipped away in my rear-view mirror until I found myself in the car park, with Magnus already waiting at the entrance to the building.
"I still think this is insanity." I told him in no uncertain terms. We'd gone very quickly from Magnus making the offer, to me accepting, to me actually going through with it. The nerves and bouts of excitement were doing all kinds of things to my mood.
"Think positive, Alexander." Magnus smiled.
"How about you just think full-stop?" I retorted.
Suddenly, Magnus was frowning. He stood still with the boot of the car open like he wasn't sure if he should pick up one of the boxes or not. I looked into his bright eyes and he stared back at me.
"You don't have to do this." Said Magnus. His seriousness was almost rattling.
"You seemed pretty adamant that I did." I reminded him. I picked up a box to indicate that I had no intention of changing my mind, though. Even if I was apprehensive, I was looking forward to the move too.
"I'm not trying to force you." Magnus told me, although I wasn't sure how true that was. "I just wanted my argument to be compelling."
"Well, consider me compelled." I joked as I went inside.
Magnus had already gathered plastic buckets, heavy-duty cleaning products which stank of chemicals, mops, dusters, scouring pads and just about anything we could need. Admittedly Magnus had gone a little overboard shopping for the supplies; considering there was probably a caretaker closet somewhere. We knew we would probably need to excavate it, though, so we didn't bother searching.
First thing was first: Magnus was in charge of spider-control. At one point he disturbed a web and woke up a whole nest of little creatures I'd never known were there. I let out a very un-masculine sound and hid in the apartment until he dealt with the problem. By the time he came to get me Magnus was practically doubling over with laughter.
"Shut up." I told him grumpily. Meanwhile I started filling a bucket with water and cleaning solution. "I'm sure you're scared of something."
The walls in the hall quite literally had to be scrubbed down. It turned out there was a window at one end of the corridor - who knew? - which had to be painstakingly cleaned off and forced open to let the air in. With that out of the way we didn't choke on chemicals and the smell of the hall itself quite so badly.
"I can't believe how gross this place really is." I complained after the first hour or so. Even wearing gloves the whole thing had 'icky' written all over it.
"But won't it be nice when it isn't gross anymore?" Magnus reminded me why we'd taken on the task in the first place. Angels knew nobody else was going to do it.
Or so we thought.
When one of Magnus' neighbours came up the staircase with groceries, she nearly dropped the produce onto the floor we were mopping.
"You... You're cleaning it!" Gasped the young lady.
"Hi there, we're 2B." Magnus introduced us by both apartment number first. He mopped his path towards our newfound neighbour and extended a hand. "Magnus and Alexander."
"Alec." I interrupted in annoyance. He knew I didn't want to encourage people to use my full name.
"No, you're Alec." Magnus grinned. "I think the fumes have gotten to your head, Love."
The woman giggled a little and then seemed to get a hold of herself.
"5B. Arabella." She said by way of introduction. "I'll just drop these off inside, and I'll be right back."
Funnily enough this event became sort of routine for the rest of the day. Other residents started pitching in now that we had made the first move. I guess it just took a trigger to get everybody started. Nobody had wanted to be held singularly responsible for the mess but a lot of people were keen to get it out of the way.
By the late afternoon not only was the building just-about-spotless on the inside, but I'd met a whole lot of new people, too. Usually I didn't pass anybody in the hall and when I did we didn't pay one another any mind, so it was nice to put some names to faces.
I just had to hope that the community mind-set would remain so the place wouldn't wind up in such a state again. At least, you know, while I was living there.
Even so, whatever the future held, I found that my mood had gotten nothing but better. If not a little tired out. Magnus and I said goodbye to the few neighbours still straggling in the hall; chatting and inviting one another for visits. Being sociable was one thing but really, my move was only just beginning.
"Well, Alexander, welcome home." Magnus purred into my ear when our door was shut. He slipped his hands into my back pockets and I kissed him on the chin because it was easy to reach without going up on my toes.
"Why thank you." I grinned. It was one of those smiles which just couldn't contain itself. "I don't suppose you want to help me unpack?"
Thank you for reading everybody! I have a fairly long note for you today, I hope that isn't too bothersome.
So, this story has been going on for quite some time now. I know to anybody who has gotten this far, that's stating the obvious, but I recently had it pointed out to me that it's kind of… Stretching out. Which is what this note is about.
At the moment I'm writing a few chapters ahead and trying to pull everything together; and that means tying up the loose-ends. I think that I've covered the things that reviewers tend to ask about in what I have planned. However, if there is anything that has you thinking "I must know _ before this story is over!", please go right ahead and let me know in a review. If the answer already in my plan, great. If it isn't, I might be able to incorporate it. You've all been so great to stick with this story (and to read this passage of babble) and I don't want to skip over what parts are important to you if I can help it.
That said, we aren't quite finished here yet. I will post the next chapter soon, and I hope that you enjoy it.