Piano Days and Other Malec One-Shots

The Course of True Love (and First Dates), From Alexander's Point Of View

Alec ducked, narrowly avoiding what could have been a serious bruise. He swept his leg out, realizing only after the fact that it would never gain the momentum needed to sweep Jace off his feet.

So he rolled away, rising back up to his feet.

"Jace, I'm tired. Can't we be done?" Alec begged. Jace answered his plea by charging at him, seraph blade still in hand. Alec sprinted for the wall, using it as leverage as he sprung up, pushing off the walls and flipping over Jace. He pulled his own seraph blade, sticking the point up against Jace's slender neck, backing him into the wall. "I win. We're done."

"You still took five minutes to kill me," Jace said, shaking his head. "You've gotten weak-- or you're distracted. What's on your mind?"

"Actually killing you," Alec said. The clock on the wall ticked the seconds by louder than usual. Alec looked away from Jace, who was trying to pull the truth out of Alec through intense staring. How easy would it be to just come out to Jace, and confess his love for his parabatai. He wished for the confidence to be honest. He wished for his love to be reciprocated.

But he couldn't do that to himself and he couldn't lose everything when lying was just easier.

...........

He took the steps two, maybe three at a time, doing his best not to fall down the stairs yet again.

He was running horribly late, something he tried to avoid. He cursed Magnus for living on the fourth floor. He cursed the elevator for being broken. And he cursed Jace for insisting on practice that neither of them needed. He swore as he breathed, cursing himself for being admittedly out of shape.

He stumbled, losing the elegance and grace the Nephilim were inherently supposed to have. His hands grabbed at the railing and he pulled himself up. Magnus already knew he was on his way up. He had stabbed the buzzer half a dozen a times at the front door. But there was no point in being even later.

He threw the door open, realizing on second thought that he should have knocked. It would have made him look slightly less insane.

There was a large mirror across the room that his eyes were drawn to first. His t-shirt looked slightly darker than he remembered it being, maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was sweat. The same sweat covered his forehead making it shine. He should have taken a cab like a normal person. Instead, the trip had consisted of a mix of subways and running.

"Well, this is unexpected," Magnus said, drawing Alec's attention to him. He was a blur of red, draped across a chocolate brown couch, excluding the blue streak tint to his hair that probably came from a combination of magic and hair dye. He was holding his cat, an overly fluffy gray Persian, who was purring contently in Magnus' arms while staring daggers into Alec.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Alec breathed. "Jace wanted to do some weapons training, and didn't know how to get away-- I mean, I couldn't tell him--" He was rambling but Magnus cut him off.

"Oh, Jace, that's it," said Magnus. Jace?

"What?"

"I briefly forgot the blond one's name," he said. It had been awhile since they'd seen Magnus but Alec didn't believe anyone ever forgot Jace's name. He was too memorable, at least in Alec's eyes. The golden hair, with the matching eyes--

But he was here. On a date. With Magnus.

Magnus, who might actually like him, if he stopped screwing everything up.

Magnus, who apparently couldn't remember people's names.

Magnus, who was waving all the awkwardness and mistakes away with his fingers.