Chapter Text
Fall, Magnus has decided, was his least favorite season. Sure, the trees were changing colors, and everything smelled like the inside of a Yankee Candle store, but it also brought the cold weather and worst of all the start of school. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it didn’t mean he spent his precious free time grading papers and correcting tests instead of playing with the Chairman as he would prefer. Magnus loves his job, really, it just gets a bit overwhelming at times like, for example, tonight. He’s been sitting at home lesson planning for so long that his head starts to spin and his stomach turn. It’s long hours like these that make him long for the escape of the weekend where he can go out and let loose.
Magnus shakes his head, the last thing he needs to do is go down that train of thought where he’ll start thinking about what band he’s seeing with Raphael and Lily this weekend. Even worse, he’ll start thinking about whether or not Lily will let him stay home this weekend which will inevitably end in Magnus wasting 30 minutes going over excuses in his head. So with that in mind, Magnus buckles down and finishes up the last couple of tests he has, and goes to bed.
Magnus is late this morning but, then again, when is he not late? Still, he makes it to his classroom with one minute to spare which he counts as a success. Just as he’s set to arranging the papers on his desk Lily swings by.
“Please tell me how you convinced Mr. Coleman to give you a first-period planning block?” Lily grumps.
“What can I say Lily I’m very convincing when I want to be.” Magnus throws a sly grin at her. “Besides at least you don’t have a homeroom. I have all freshman this year, it’s horrifying.”
Lily narrows her eyes at him, “Oh shut up homeroom is only 10 minutes tops. You don’t have to deal with freshman in first period swim trying to drown each other.”
Magnus throws his arm around Lily, giving her a side hug. “I’m sorry Lily. Do you want me to grab you a coffee during my lunch to make it up to you?”
Lily grins up at him. “Don’t forget the 2 sugars and the croissant on the side.”
Magnus just shakes his head as he watches her trudge out of his room and hurry down the stairs before the students start streaming in. Just as he’s about to turn away from the doorway, a bright-eyed, very tall brunette walks right by his door. Magnus peaks his head out his doorway, his eyes following the boy down the hall. He’s dressed smartly in gray dress pants and a light blue shirt, I didn’t know they hired a new teacher? Magnus thinks. Just as Magnus is about to fully appreciate the mystery teacher’s assets he turns into the math workroom confusing Magnus even more. Magnus admittedly pays little attention during staff meetings but a new teacher on his floor definitely would have been brought up copiously. Just as he’s about to go prod one of the math teachers for info the warning bell rings. Magnus groans, he’ll have to postpone his investigation until after homeroom.
Magnus practically sprints out of his room as soon as the bell rings signaling passing period, making a b-line to Mrs. Lindham’s room. If anyone was going to know something about this new teacher, it would definitely be the woman who’d been here since Magnus was still in diapers.
“Mr. Bane, how are you doing dear?”
Magnus gives her his sweetest smile, “I’m great Mrs. Lindham how are you doing?”
“Just peachy! We’re starting functions today my favorite topic!” She claps her hands together. Magnus hears the few students in the room groan.
“Oh boy how ever do you contain yourself?” Magnus chuckles. “Can I talk to you real quick in the hallway?” Mrs. Lindham nods and follows him a few steps down the hallway.
“It’s nothing serious I just didn’t want students to hear me gossiping. I noticed the math department had a new hire?”
Mrs. Lindham scrunches her eyebrows together, “We haven’t hired anyone new?”
Now Magnus' confused, who else would be walking on the third floor in work pants and loafers and then stop off into the teacher lounge? “Oh I’m sorry I just saw a guy with a school ID walking down the hall and into the math workroom and assumed…”
“Oh! You must mean Alec! He’s my student teacher for the term.”
Now, this was news to Magnus. The Math department hadn’t had a student-teacher since the sophomore’s all but terrorized their last one away three years ago. “I didn’t know you got student teachers. I’ve never seen one with you before.”
“Oh I don’t usually but I’ve known Alec and his siblings since they were babies. I went to university with his mother and have kept in touch with her ever since. Alec’s a great kid, I couldn’t say no.”
“I guess I won’t have to tell you to let me know if he causes you any problems then huh?” Magnus grins.
Mrs. Lindham laughs, “No but thank you for the offer.”
As if he could hear them talking about him, Alec rounds the corner. “I hope I got enough copies, the copier was broken…” He finally looks up from flipping through the worksheets and meets Magnus' eyes. “Oh I’m so sorry for interrupting, I didn’t see you there.” Alec blushes.
And maybe Alec didn’t see Magnus but Magnus sure saw Alec. He was even more beautiful from the front than he was from the back. How is it possible for someone to have eyes that blue and a smile that wide? He’s absolutely done for. How is he expected to get anything done with Alec a few meters down the hall?
“It’s no worry, Alec. This is Magnus, he’s one of the chemistry teachers.”
“Nice to meet you.” Alec shakes Magnus' hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too Alec. Mrs. Lindham was telling me today’s your first day with her. Nervous?”
“I think nervous would be an understatement. Is it too late to choose a different profession or…?”
“I heard the McDonald’s down the road was hiring.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll see you guys.”
“Oh cut it out you two. You’ll be a great teacher Alec,” Mrs. Lindham says. “And you, Mr. Bane, don’t need to feed his imagination.”
“I guess we’ll see about the great part today.” Alec bites the inside of his cheek. Magnus really shouldn’t find it as endearing as he does.
“Well you’re in good hands with Mrs. Lindham, but I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that,” Magnus adds.
“Oh be quiet and get out of here you brown-noser,” Mrs. Lindham elbows Magnus toward his own classroom. “Some of us have a class to teach.”
Magnus lift his hands up in defeat, “Have a good first period, I’ll see you around Alec!”
“I’m going to die Lily.” Magnus slumps into his seat with Lily’s promised coffee and croissant.
“Sweet, can I have your apartment?” Lily dives for the coffee and rips a piece of the croissant off, popping it into his mouth.
Magnus narrows his eyes, “Why aren’t you more concerned. I’m having a life crisis!”
“You have a life crisis every other week, excuse me if I’ve become immune to your dramatics,” Lily rolls her eyes, to which Magnus pouts. “Fine, fine! What’s the problem, Magnus.”
“I’ve found my soulmate.”
“That doesn’t sound like a problem to me?”
“He’s Sharon Lindham’s student teacher.”
“So?”
“So??? I can’t just go up and ask him out on a date! That’s unprofessional and slightly creepy! He’s still a college student isn’t that violating some set of rules or something?”
“Dude I don’t get the big deal. You’re both adults he’s probably what 22? You’re 26, that's only a four-year difference.”
Magnus huffs indignantly, “He’s probably not even gay.”
“You never know unless you ask,” Lily grins. “And looks like now’s the perfect time.” Lily waves at Alec. Alec spots Lily and enthusiastically waves back.
“Hey Lily! How’d that fiasco at the pool end up this morning?”
Magnus discreetly has to hide his shock. “You will not BELIEVE how many swim caps those assholes shoved into the pool filter. How do they even come up with this stuff? Is there some secret list floating around here on how to drive teachers crazy?”
“I don’t know, I mean I was dumb at fourteen but I wasn’t let’s shove twenty swim caps into the pool filter dumb you know?”
“It was forty-seven swim caps. Forty. Seven.”
At this point, Magnus has finally recovered from Lily’s life-ruining move and has the wits about him to join the conversation. “That’s gotta be some sort of record.”
“Yeah well don’t go telling them that it’ll just egg them on. ‘Bro let see if we can get a record for this we’ll be in the Guinness World Record Book!’ Fucking idiots the lot of them. They can see how funny it is when they have to pay for a new filter.” Lily says snidely.
“Awwe come on Lily lighten up. You have to admit it is a little funny and besides it’s not like you’ll be the one having to fix the filter.” Magnus teases.
“It’s the principle of the thing! I’ll have to be the one to figure out how to occupy sixty rowdy teenagers for forty minutes.”
Alec shares an amused smile with Magnus, “Isn’t that, I don’t know, your job in the first place?”
Lily sputters, “That—That’s not the point! The point is I already have my lesson plan all set for this unit and I don’t need those dumbasses derailing it already!”
Magnus reaches over and pinches Lily’s left cheek, “Cheer up Lily it’s all going to be okay.” He says patronizingly.
Lily quickly swats away his hand. “You know what’ll cheer me up?” Lily asks with a knowing smile. Magnus has known Lily too long to not know exactly what that smile means. She’s about to rope Magnus into doing something he doesn’t particularly want to do.
“What?” Alec, oblivious to Lily’s manipulative ways, asks.
“Going out to Crabby’s Friday and letting me demolish you at trivia.”
Alec scrunches his eyebrows together (really cutely Magnus must admit). Magnus sighs. “Lily noooo that’s such a bad idea we have evals in three weeks we don’t have time to get plastered.”
“Magnus pleaseeee? I’ve had a shitty week and it’s only Tuesday. I even promise Raphael and I won’t get sloppy like we did two weeks ago.”
Magnus scoffs, “I don’t believe you. You guys are gonna ditch me like you always do.”
“Alec will come and keep you company! Right Alec?”
Alec looks between Magnus and Lily like a deer caught in headlights, “Uhhh sure I guess? If you want me to?”
“It’s settled then! Come on Mags it’ll be fun! Think of it as showing Alec how being a real teacher feels.”
Magnus rubs his temples. There was absolutely no need to drag Alec into this, especially after he had told Lily how far gone he was for this boy he’s said exactly two sentences to. How was he expected to sit with him for a whole evening and not make a complete ass of himself? He’s doomed. He may as well start finding another soul-mate because this one is clearly destined to fail.
“Fine I’ll go, but you better tell Raphael to keep his snide comments to himself.” Magnus finally answers.
“Yes!” Lily pumps her fist in the air. “I love you Mags.”
“Yeah, yeah whatever.” Magnus was going to have the longest night of his life on Friday.
The week seems to race by for once, which is just Magnus' luck that the one time he wishes it would drag on it passes by in a blink of an eye. Much to his disappointment Magnus hasn’t been able to talk much to Alec since Tuesday. Other than quick hellos and goodbyes in the hallway he hasn’t seen Alec at all. He’s beginning to think Alec’s avoiding him. Magnus catches Alec quite literally on Friday in the hallway after he trips and almost face plants into the tile floor.
“Whoa there.” Magnus catches Alec by his arm. “can’t have you getting out of Trivia night that easily.”
Alec’s blush blooms across his face and crawls down his neck, disappearing beneath the collar of his shirt. Magnus wonders if he’s a full-body blusher.
He’d really love to find out.
“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it. Speaking of I don’t want to intrude on yours and Lily’s friend time. If you don’t want me to come I’ll just stay home honestly, no feelings hurt.”
Fuck. Fuck. Magnus' internal panic must not have been so internal and now it makes sense why he hadn’t seen Alec all week, he had been avoiding him. Magnus' such a dumb fucking idiot sometimes.
“No!—I mean no it’s fine, I was just caught off guard. Lily doesn’t usually invite new people to trivia, she and Raphael are pretty intense about it.” Magnus' only partially making that up, Raphael and Lily do get pretty into it when they’re not at each other’s throats.
“Oh okay! I just wasn’t sure it looked like you might have just wanted it to be close friends, which is cool! I just didn’t want to intrude.” Alec nervously rubs the back of his neck.
“You’re totally 100 percent wanted at trivia Alec I promise.” Magnus smiles lopsidedly at him, hoping to ease some of the clear anxiety residing in Alec.
“Cool, I’ll definitely be there. See you later then?”
“Did Lily give you the address? It’s a bit confusing to get to.”
“Yeah she did, but I’m really not very familiar with the area.”
Magnus makes a split decision that he’s sure he’s going to regret as soon as it comes out his mouth, “We could carpool if you want? I don’t mind and I definitely know how it feels to have to find a new place by yourself. This way I can show you where it is and you won’t have to awkwardly walk in by yourself.”
Alec brightens up at this suggestion, “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a hassle.”
The relief that washes through Alec is enough to make Magnus sure of his answer, “Yes absolutely it’s no problem at all.”
“Okay awesome. Thank you so much Magnus.” Alec smiles at him so genuinely that you would think Magnus just offered to pay his student loans off not offer to carpool to a bar on a Friday night. After exchanging numbers Magnus walks away thinking that he could listen to Alec say his name for hours