Magnus & Alec

Chapter 10

Magnus' POV

The next morning, when Magnus got on the bus, there was a stack of comics on his seat. He picked them up an sat down. He was already reading. Magnus put the comics between his books and stared at the window. For some reason, he didn't want to read in front of him. It would be like letting him waatch him eat. It would be like... admitting something.

But he thought about the comics all day, and as soon as he got home, he climbed onto his bed and got them out. They were all the same title - Thor.

Magnus at dinner sitting cross-legged on his bed, extra careful to not spill anything on the books because every issue ws in pristine condition; there wasn't so much as a bent corner. (Stupid perfect blue-eyed kid.) That night after his mom thought he was asleep, Magnus turned the ight back on so he could read. Magnus was only distantly conscious of Asmodeus watching TV in the next room, and he practically fell off the bed when he jerked the bedroom door open. He looked like he expected to catch some middle-of-the-night hiijinks, but when he saw that it was only Magnus reading, he grunted and told him to turn out the light when he was done and go to bed soon. After he shut the door, Magnus got up and turned off the light. (He could just about get out of bed without tripping over now, which was lucky because he didn't want Asmodeus coming back.) He might have gotten away with leaving the light on, but it wasn't worth the risk. Anyway. Whatever. He could still read. There was enough light coming from the window.

Alec's POV

He read stuff as fast as he could give it to him. And when he handed it back to him the next morning, it was as if he was handing him something fragile. Something precious. You wouldn't even know that she touched the comics. He'd read all of his Thor in less than 3 weeks. Now he was giving him The Avengers comics five at a time, and he could tell that he liked them because he wrote the characters' names on his books, in between band names and song lyrics.

They still didn't talk on the bus, but it had becme a less confrontational silence. Almost friendly. (But not quite.)  Alec would have to talk to him today - to tell him that he didn't have anything to give him. He'd overslept, then forgotten to grab the stack of comics he'd set out for him the nigh before. He hadn't een had time to eat breakfast or brush his teeth, which made him feel self-conscious, knowing he was going to be sitting to close to him. But when he got on the bus and handed him yesterday's comics, all Alec did was shurg. He looked away. They both looked down. He stared down at the books in his lap. He stared at his books, too - covered in ink and doodles.

'So,' he siad, before he knew what to say next, 'you like Green Day?' He was careful not to blow his morning breath on him. He looked up, surprised. Maybe confused. He pointed at his book, where he'd written 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' in tall green letters.

 'I dont know,' he said. 'I've never heard them.'

'So you just want people to think you like Green Day?' He couldn't help but sound disdainful.

'Yeah,' he said, looking around the bus. 'I'm trying to impress the locals.'

He didn't know if she could help but sound like a martass, but she sure wasn't trying. The air soured between them. Alec shifted against the wall. He looked across the aisle to stare out the window. When he got to English, he tried to catch his eye, but he looked away. He felt like he was trying so hard to ignore him that he wouldn't even participate in class. Mr Smith kept trying to draw him out - he was his new favoruite target whenever things got sleepy in class. Today they were supposed to be discusing The Hunger Games Trilogy, but nobody wanted to talk.

'You don't seem troubled by the games, Mr Bane.'

'I'm sorry?' he said. He narrowed his eyes at him.

'It doesn't strike you as tragic?' Mr Smith asked. '24 young people forced to fight to the death till one survives, every singles year. Doesn't that get to you?'

'I guess not,' He said.

'Are you so cold? So cool?' He was standing over his desk, pretending to plead with him.

'No...' He said. 'I just dont think its a tragedy.'

'Its the tragedy,' Mr Smith said.

He rolled his eyes.  'It was their own fault,' he said.

'Who's?'

'The districts.'

'Do tell...'

He rolled his eyes again. He knew Mr Smith's game by now. 'The District have had 74 years to rebel, to stop sending their goods to the Capital, to cut them off completely and use their own weapons against them. But instead they wait for one girl who decides that she and the boy from her district both deserve to live or die together to pull out some berries to actually start a rebellion with the help of district 13 who have been dormant all that time.'

'Then why didn't they rebel? Someone else, tell us Mr Lightwood!' Mr Smith said.

Alec hated talking in class. Magnus frowned at him, then looked away. He felt himself blush. 'Because...' he said quietly, looking at his desk, ' because they felt like they needed a leader, even if it was a 16 year old girl she was the symbol of the rebellion, what drove people forward?'

Mr Smith leaned back against the board and rubbed his beard.

'Is that right?' Alec asked.

'Oh, it's definitely right,' Mr Smith said. 'Yes Mr Lightwood, well done. Truer words never spoken.'

He didn't acknowledge Alec in history class, but he never did.

When he got on the bus that afternoon, he was already there. He got up to let him have his place by the window, and then he surprise him by talking. Quietly. Almost under his breath. But talking.

'It's more like a wish list,' he said.

'What?'

'They're songs i'd like to hear. Or bands I'd like to hear. Stuff that looks interesting.'

'If you've never heard Green Day, how do you even know about them?'

'I dont know,' he said defensively. 'My friends, my old friends... magazines. I don't know. Around>'

'Why don't you just listen to them?'

He looked at him like he was officially an idiot. 'It's not like they play Green Day on Capital FM.'

And then, when Alec didn't say anything, he rolled his yellow cat eyes into the back of his head. 'God,' he said. They didn't talk anymore on the way home.

That night, while he did his homework, Alec made a playlisy with all his favourite Green Day songs, plus a few songs by Fall Out Boy, the Neighbourhood and American Authors. He put his ipod and five more Avengers comics into his backpack before he went to bed.