Quite magical

Chapter Two

POV Alec

Alec felt strange when he entered their new house for the first time - the place he was supposed to call home from now on - but he tried to not let his feelings show. What he saw actually looked kinda nice - or at least he could imagine that it would look nice at some point in the future when there actually was something inside the house. Of course some of the furniture was already there, but just the very basic things as he realized when Maryse showed them around. Apart from the kitchen and bathroom interior, a dining table and one or two shelves in some of the other rooms the house was almost shockingly empty.

Of course Alec hadn't expected everything to be fully furnished when they arrived - Maryse didn't want to keep most of their old stuff and the new furniture wasn't going to be delivered before the end of the week - but he wouldn't have thought that it would be that serious.

This definitely was going to be a lot of work. He wasn't an expert of course but even though the house was generally in a relatively good condition there were quite a few things that needed to be repaired or improved before they could really live there. The banister which led to the second floor for example was a little bit shaky and there also would be no harm in changing some of the wallpapers ...

Alec could already see his freetime vanishing right in front of his eyes. He was almost certain that their mother wanted to turn this whole thing into a big family project. She probably wanted them to work on the new house all together because it was a good way of spending more time with each other. Alec guessed that she wanted to distract them from what had happened and that she was trying to show them that they were still a family, even though Robert wasn't living with them any longer. He knew his mother and her way of thinking so Alec was almost certain that he was right with his theory.

"So what do you think about this?" Maryse's voice suddenly interrupted Alec's thoughts and he realized that his mother was looking at him.

"Uh what?" he asked distracted. He had no idea what the others had just been talking about. There were so many thoughts running through his head at the moment that he couldn't really concentrate on anything else. He was way too busy trying to adapt to everything, to take in all the new expressions around him and to worry about what was going to happen in the future. New house, new neighbours, a new school, new people around him ... all this was going to be a lot to deal with in the next few days and Alec wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it.

"Max said he's hungry so I suggested that we could go to this nice little coffee shop we passed on our way" Maryse explained. "I know that this morning - and the whole last week probably - was very stressful for all of us and I thought this would maybe be a good way to relax a bit before we continue with this whole moving business."

"Oh yeah sounds good" Alec said and he really meant it. He hadn't had breakfast today and the only thing he had eaten so far was the cookie Max had given him in the car. Normally he ate quite a lot - if he wouldn't work out in his freetime he would probably be very fat by now - but this morning Alec had just been way too tense for breakfast. His stomach definitely needed something to work with now.

"Great so let's go" Maryse said and they all went downstairs again.

The weather outside luckily was pretty good. It wasn't too hot and the sky was covered with white fluffy looking clouds.

On their way to the coffee shop Alec quickly realized how quiet everything around them was. In contrast to New York the streets were extremely empty here. It was relaxing but also kind of strange. It felt like something was missing. Still Alec enjoyed looking at all the houses and the people they walked by.

He had always been like that - he liked making observations about his surroundings and always paid attention to the details in everything he saw. Mostly he did this because he was very curious and couldn't understand how so many people could be so blind for everything that was happening around them but sometimes it also helped him to calm down a bit. He liked to think about everything and everybody he saw and analyze it. When they passed a house he tried to imagine what kind of people were living in it and what they were doing at the moment. The only problem was that sometimes when Alec was too focused on the details he became unaware and blind for the obvious, the things that everybody else saw immediately.