smilebackwards

Combining this with an ask meme I saw on tumblr. Found the word 'red' in my latest WIP and here's a snippet.

“Ouch,” Magnus says, more in shock than pain when the next thing Alec hands him pokes his arm with hard bristles. Alec stands up and takes it from him, telescoping the end out into— “A broom,” Magnus says, skeptically. “You brought me a broom.”

“Yes,” Alec says decisively.

Magnus snorts out a laugh. “Be still my beating heart.”

“You shouldn’t have to live like this,” Alec says earnestly, looking around at all the dark, depressing corners of Magnus’s father’s house. Magnus should really stop calling it that; it’s his house now, for whatever that’s worth.

And that’s how they spend the next few hours sweeping away cobwebs and beating red dust settled centuries deep out of the faded old furniture instead of having sex. At least Alec takes off his shirt, even if he ends up using it for a dust rag.

“This is incredibly sexy,” Magnus teases, but he’s honestly touched. It’s like the odd domestic chores he used to cherish: Alec’s insistence on hand washing their dishes, making breakfast in the mornings with the weak sunlight coming in off the balcony. Alec makes everything around Magnus feel brighter.

Alec grins back. “We’ll use the sheets once they’ve finished airing out.”

“Promises, promises, darling,” Magnus says, but, of course, Alec always keeps his promises.