A Malec Alphabet

C- Crosswords

C- Crosswords

(Who actually enjoys them?)

Magnus threw the book at the wall with a frustrated yell.

"Damn You!"

Alec looked up, startled. "What's happening?"

Magnus had swept over to the book and was cursing it in many languages: French, Latin, and more that Alec didn't recognise. "Stupid book!" he said, shaking it. "Stupid bloody book!"

Alec still looked confused and worried.

Magnus sighed. "It's a puzzle book Alexander." he said as if that explained everything. Alec raised a dark eyebrow. "This crossword has been designed to destroy me."

His boyfriend rolled his eyes, blowing a strand of black hair out of his face.

"I highly doubt it Magnus." he said dryly.

"Oh?" Magnus said. "Listen here. 'traffic light colour, five letters'. That's easy; 'green', right?"

"Uh huh." Alec cautiously agreed.

"But the word that comes out of the third letter is defiantly 'bear'. There's a photo for that one. And 'bear' does not start with an 'e'!" Magnus ranted.

"'Amber'." Alec said.

"Huh?"

"'Amber'. The word." Magnus looked at him blankly. "You know, that middle traffic light colour that everyone ignores?" he said sarcastically.

Magnus stared at him, then at the book. Slowly he took the pen and changed the spikey letters to 'AMBER'."

Alec smiled.

"Six letters, unmarried woman." Magnus shot across the room to Alec.

"Let's see." Alec said, crossing the room to sit next to Magnus on the love-seat. "I think it might be 'Maiden'. Not sure though." he rested his head on Magnus's lap.

"You're a maiden." Magnus muttered under his breath, scratching the word into the boxes.

"We've been through this."

Magnus stuck his tongue out.

"What do you want for dinner? We could get a take-out or I can defrost a pizza?" Alec mused.

"What's the other word for 'permanent' that begins with an 's'? It's nine letters." Magnus said, ignoring Alec completely.

"It's steadfast. Now pizza or take-out?" Alec rolled his eyes.

"Take-out." Magnus said, absorbed in the crossword.

Alec made to sit up, but Magnus pulled him back down again. "You're keeping me warm."

"How are we going to order if you won't let me get the phone?" Alec sighed.

Magnus snapped his fingers and the phone fell onto Alec's head in a cloud of blue sparks.

Alec muttered a curse, but dialled the local Chinese take-out.

Magnus was starting to get angry. He couldn't think of the answer for seventeen down (another word for 'sneaky', seven letters) and Alec was busy ordering food. The fact that he didn't know was making him angry; he accepted that crosswords were not his forte, but he was eight hundred years old for goodness' sake! He could speak fluent Purgatic, Greek, Mandarin and a whole other assortment of languages. So why was finding one ordinary English word so hard?

He was cursing under his breath when Alec hung up the phone.

"You alright?" he asked.

Magnus showed Alec the clue, and started tapping his foot furiously, shaking Alec's head up and down, making him move his head off Magnus' lap and sit normally next to Magnus on the love seat.