As the lone shadowhunter made his way down the snowy lane towards the large, and vaguely familiar house situated near the end of the street he again asked himself what was drawing him to this house, and more importantly, its owner.

Alexander Lightwood had always been a little impulsive, a little too straightforward, if his mind told him to do something he usually did, but this particular venture may have been classed as just plain reckless compared with previous ideas he may have had. He didn't exactly know what he was expecting when he got to the house. It had taken him many days of relentless soul searching to muster the courage it had taken on his part to make this simple walk across town.

He remembered the first and only time he had ever visited this particular establishment. He recalled all the bodies moving simultaneously to the faerie band playing in the corner, a sort of dark magic lingered in the air. Multi coloured drinks and cups sprawled on almost every surface he set his eyes upon, left by guests who fancied a dance instead of consuming the intoxicating fluids found in the cups. Not only were the beverages different hues either, the room was filled with people of an array of different colours. Some even had differently coloured limbs, all the colours seemed to blend together if you stared in at the dance floor for too long. The euphoric feeling in every crevice in the room, it was a little infectious and probably would have tempted Alec if he hadn't had years of Shadowhunter training to keep him on a firm leash – it was a business affair to which they found themselves there, not pleasure. Therefore Alec had kept a slightly impassive, if not bored, expression throughout his brief stay.

And of course he remembered the host - all glitter and magic. Alec thought he might have a fit when he first laid eyes upon this warlock. After you got past the layers of carefully applied glitter and make-up and hair gel – which was pretty dazzling in itself – you were met with one of the most unlikely appearances for a warlock known to man. He was thin, lean and had spiky dark hair held imperceptibly by hair gel, but what had caught Alec's attention has been his eyes. The oddest combination of yellow and green gave them a rather feline look to them; they were bright and piercing and strayed to Alec quite a lot throughout his fleeting stay. His companions may not have thought it but Alec found him rather imposing. He'd certainly made some sort of impression on him, hence why he was strolling purposefully towards his house, still a little unsure on what he actually wanted to say to the warlock in question, just knowing he had to say something before the suspense made him spontaneously combust.

He also remembered the flirtatious manner in which he had bid farewell to a spluttering Alec on that night. The wink and the cheeky request for Alec to call him had certainly left its mark, he just wasn't entirely sure why. He'd been fine loving Jace from a far for the past 6 years with only Izzy knowing of his biggest secret. He'd come to terms with this unrequited love long ago, even if it hurt a little to think about. Then he had to be drawn to a damn warlock, a downworlder of all people. Eventually it had driven him stark crazy, he needed to confront his feelings and stop being such a baby. He knew he couldn't leave here without some serious answers. The party to which they may or may not have accidentally gate crashed only happened about a week or so ago, but it felt like an eternity to Alec.

This particular warlock also happened to have saved Alec's life when he was an inch from death a few short days ago. Alec, having recently received a nearly fatal injury from a greater demon, was so close to death he probably had tea with Jesus. That was until a certain warlock had shown up in the nick of time and nursed him back to health, effectively saving his ass. Then, after saving his life when he didn't have to, said warlock just disappeared, without so much as a thank you from Alec. The guilt from this had been a strong contribution to why he was purposefully strolling to his house, he at least needed to say thank him for saving his life when he hadn't had the chance to previously.

It'd been easier than he thought to get out of the Institute without arousing suspicion. Jace would be too busy drooling over Clary somewhere to notice his absence, Isabelle was out shopping and wouldn't be back until that night and his parents were still away with Max. All he'd had to do was come up with a quick excuse to Jace and not seem too distressed on the way out. As long as he met Jace at the right time for training later, all would be dandy.

The wind picked up a little as Alec neared his destination, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. A sudden gust of wind blew at him from behind, almost urging him forward, like it was as impatient for this meeting as Alec was. Don't be stupid, forces of nature are not working with you here. Get a grip on yourself, idiot. He stuffed his hands into the furrows of his coat; head bent against the wind in case it changed direction and rounded the last corner to the house in which he seeks.

The house of Magnus Bane.

High Warlock of Brooklyn.

Why am I doing this again? He thought as he got closer to the house. It's not going to change anything no matter what either of us says. I bet he'll laugh in my face and throw me out. Or worse, tell Jace or Clary that I'd arrived uninvited on his doorstep. That would take some explaining.

Alec shook his head to clear it of all these negative thoughts, if he was planning on getting some sleep any time soon he had to suck it up and talk to the damn warlock. He reached the right house, took a deep breath in a useless attempt to calm himself and walked the last remaining distance between himself and the door. Only now that he was actually here did he seriously think about what he would say to Magnus. He just stood there and stared at the intercom. After a minute or two he felt faintly foolish just staring at his door. Come on, Alec, you can do this. By the angel, you're a shadowhunter so grow some.

"You're right!" he said, finally noticing that he had said the last bit out loud. Blushing slightly at his own ignorance, he raised a hand and pressed the little button found next to Magnus's name of the intercom. There was the briefest of pauses, in which Alec held his breath, and then a tired voice came from the intercom and said, "Magnus Bane."

At a loss for what to say, he blew out a shaky breath to try and clear his thoughts. A few beads of sweat started to collect in the palms of his hands, the nerves starting to get the better of him.

"If this is some kind of wolfish prank, I must forewarn you that I am not in the grandest of moods right now. So if you wish to leave here with your body as you found it, I suggest you move your ass away from my door." With that said the intercom went dead.

Not quite sure what to do, Alec pressed the button again, this time with a clearer idea of what he would say. His hand trembled a little, anticipating how this meeting might end.

"You are seriously messing with the wrong warlock today." Magnus growled down the intercom. At least a mundane hadn't heard him declare himself to be a warlock, that'd produce some awkward questions.

Summoning his courage he made the leap. "Er, Magnus? It's Alec. I was at your p-party the other day." He hoped his voice didn't sound as pathetic as he thought it had. He didn't want to bring up the whole saving-his-life thing yet so he went with the safer option.

"Doesn't ring a bell, are you a vampire?" he asked, his irritation still colouring his tone

"No, I'm a shadowhunter."

"Oh god, you're not that one, are you? Oh well you can piss off, blondie."

Knowing he meant Jace, Alec hastily said, " No, I'm not Jace. I'm the other one. Alexander Lightwood."

A moment's pause. Alec didn't dare to breathe.

Magnus's voice now had an uncanny resemblance to a purr when he responded. "Oh, you're the other one. What can I do you for, Alexander?" He seemed to say Alec's name with a relish that made Alec a tad breathless.

"I just wanted to, er, talk to you, but if now's an inconvenient time I could… come back another time." A small part of Alec kind of wished he was busy, so he didn't have to face his demons, so to speak.

"Nonsense," he purred, "I have plenty of time, please, do come in." Again, the intercom went dead, but the door beeped and opened slightly, allowing Alec entrance. He unconsciously wiped his still slightly sweaty palms on his jeans as he made his way up the stairs and to a second door. When he reached the door in question, he raised his hand and tentatively knocked on it. As soon as his hand made contact with the wooden door it swung open to reveal a rather breathless Magnus, standing elaborately next to the doors hinges.

Magnus looked very similar to how he looked the last time he saw him, still with the glitter in his hair, make up colouring his face. Except this time, he was wore very tight skinny jeans and a tight white top that showed his biceps in all the right places. Not that Alec was looking of course. Upon seeing Alec, he grinned at the rather embarrassed shadowhunter. He pushed away slightly from his position in the doorway to get a better view of Alec and asked in a voice full of playful jest at Alec's obvious discomfort, "So, as I already asked, what can I do you for, gorgeous?" He ended with a wink.

Alec, like the great idiot he was, tried to form a coherent sentence under the close scrutiny of Magnus's gaze. Yeah, he failed.

"Er, yeah… I, um… What I…?"

Magnus just grinned again, obviously revelling in the poor boys uneasiness. He just became more embarrassed when he felt himself turning beet red.

"What? Sorry, I didn't quite catch that?" He purred in that same tone as before, moving slightly closer to Alec as he posed the question.

Alec exhaled in another futile attempt to calm himself, sweat started to collect in his palms again. He just mumbled another incoherent sentence and averted his eyes form Magnus's and found a new found interest in his shoes.

"Hey," he said, whilst reaching a hand out to gently lift his chin so meet his gaze, "I'll get us some tea and we can talk, once you can remember how to. Okay?" Some sort of electricity seemed to flow through Magnus's fingers and Alec's cheek when they made contact. Was that supposed to happen? I bet he's trying to burn me because I'm blushing, the bastard! But Alec found himself weirdly liking that odd feeling, no matter what he told himself.

Alec found himself nodding and followed Magnus into another room; this was obviously some sort of sitting room. Magnus continued through another door that led off from this one with a quick "Have a seat," thrown over his shoulder. Alec sat and looked, dumbfounded at his new surroundings.

It was a fairly large room with some armchairs of a duck egg blue located just in front of Alec. There was a furnished coffee table perched between three of the armchairs, forming a circle around it. A loveseat could be found to Alec's left. There was a rather eccentric carpet found in the centre of the room. The windows let in a fraction of the light, situated along the right wall, the closed curtains blowing in the breeze coming in from the open window. A large lamp was found on a small wooden table in the corner next to the door in which Magnus just went through. Old fashioned paintings hung around the room, making it feel a little lighter, if that was possible.

Feeling a little stupid just standing there, Alec made his way over to one of the armchairs and perched on the edge, well aware that his nerves were as taut as a wire. It was for this reason that Alec nearly jumped half a mile when a ball of fur streaked from under an adjacent armchair and landed on his lap. Chairman Meow was perched, noticeably at ease, on the top of Alec's legs. He tentatively reached out a hand to stroke the cat. He brushed his hand through the soft fur again and again when the cat showed no sign of resistance; Chairman Meow let out a contented purr and snuggled further into Alec's lap. Alec smiled a little, seeing how content the cat seemed to be.

"Well Chairman Meow seems to like you," said a booming voice from behind Alec. He flinched a little at the sound of his voice, having been momentarily distracted.

"Yeah, I guess s-so." Alec said whilst still looking down at the cat in his lap.

"He's an excellent judge of character." He was using that voice again; it made Alec's discomfort increase. He finally snuck a look at Magnus standing leisurely in the doorway. He seems to have a thing for doorways, Alec thought distractedly. Now he was carrying a tray with two cups of steaming liquid, a cup of what appeared to be milk, a bowl of sugar and a packet of biscuits. Magnus moved towards where Alec was perched, sliding the tray onto the table and sitting comfortably on the chair to Alec's right, the one, he noted, that was closer to the chair he was sitting in than the third. At closer inspection he found that the biscuits were malted milks, which just so happened to be Alec's favourite biscuits, yum but weird.

Alec glanced at Magnus again and was met with his piercing eyes; he couldn't seem to look away. He could feel the heat rush to his cheeks again. He had to get a grip on himself if he wanted the warlock to talk, he couldn't keep tripping over his words whenever he opened his mouth.

"So," he began, not sure where to go with this sentence. Seeing no way that Magnus hadn't heard him, Alec rushed to pour milk and on sugar into his tea.

"So?" Magnus enquired, quirking a perfectly shaped brow at his unfinished sentence.

"Any, er, more parties p-planned soon? You seem to enjoy throwing t-them." He finished stupidly, I sound so pathetic, shoot me now, he thought.

"Why? Would you like an invite?" he asked devilishly. Then, seeing that if he teased Alec further he probably wouldn't get a coherent response from the boy, added, "No, I haven't got any plans for another. Considering you and your little Nephilim friends and pet mundane sort of crashed it last time." He didn't sound annoyed, just amused.

"Yeah, sorry about that, it was a tense n-night." He said, stuttering slightly.

"That's understandable. Clary had just found out her mother had made her blind to her world, your mundane was turned into a rat, and said mundane then ended up in the clutches of a hungry vampire clan. It wasn't a very good night for you shadowhunters really." He grinned, finding humour in their unfortunate circumstances. Alec should have been annoyed, but he just laughed along.

"Oh, we found the mundane by the way. Jace and Clary broke into the vampire lair uptown and stole him back. They completely whooped vamp ass, even got away on one of their motorcycles," he grinned suddenly. "With a little help from the werewolves of course," he added wryly. He seemed to gain a little more confidence the longer he sat there.

"Werewolves? What were the Moon's Children doing in a vampire lair?" He asked curiously, picking up his own cup of tea after adding what he needed to. Alec noticed the odd way that Magnus looked at him when he mentioned Clary and Jace.

"We have no idea, Jace says they just turned up out of nowhere and chased them, taking out a vampire or two in the process," he grinned at the thought. He wasn't very fond of vampires, but they were tolerable.

"Now that I would have paid to see, but what an odd combination. Were you not accompanying them on this particular venture?" he asked, his eyes sparkling at the new information.

"No, Izzy and I were ahead of them, we weren't even aware that they were no longer behind us until they were half way to the hotel." He ended with a chuckle. "I didn't half feel like an idiot, losing my parbatai and his friend."

"That must have been a surprise." He chuckled then after a moment's pause added, "Jace's friend? Does that imply that she is not a friend of yours?" Curiosity coloured his tone again as he posed the question.

A brief awkward silence followed. How is he meant to say that he doesn't like Clary because Jace is obsessed with her and has never shown an interest in anything before other than himself and that he - Alec - was irrevocably in love with Jace, and doing all that without letting slip that he's gay? That didn't seem possible. Magnus was staring at him, obviously waiting for an answer.

"We, er, don't really, um, see eye to eye," he said at last, albeit lamely, carefully diverting his eyes a fraction to the left.

"How so?" Magnus asked, noticing the way Alec had seized up again.

"We just don't agree on, er, any- many things. We're nothing alike and I… just don't really know her, er, that well." Alec couldn't help but avert his eyes again as he said this, thinking that the lie was so obvious it was laughable.

Magnus just stared at him, he stared at Alec in a way that made him feel naked, like all the regrets, all the problems, the hostile thoughts he'd ever had were shown on his face - Alec seemed to be completely immobilized. They must have sat like that for eons, perched on the edges of their plush armchairs, both squeezing their tea cups so hard it must have been painful. Finally, Magnus put down his cup and leaned back in his armchair.

"Oh," was all he said. An awkward silence ensued, broken only by the occasional purr from Chairman Meow, who was still lain contently in Alec's lap. He was at a complete loss as to what he should say now, and just as he had a conversation flowing. Not the particular conversation he wanted but still a comfortable one at that.

"He really is an excellent judge of character." Magnus said abruptly, indicating the lounging cat. "Always runs away just before one of my parties, even if most of them are for him."

A little stunned that Magnus had spoken and not enquired about the blatantly obvious lie, he recovered himself and said, "He seems like a clever cat. Why doesn't he like your, um, parties exactly?"

"All the vampires and faeries and other downworlders make him nervous," he chuckled, "and he says they smell terribly." He added, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Alec laughed. "Wow, well I can't say I could disagree with him."

"They do have a bizarre odour about them, don't they?" He laughed along with Alec.

Alec finally saw fit to get in his rehearsed gratitude to Magnus, therefore he took a deep breath, relaxed in his seat a little and said, "Magnus, I wanted to say thank you for saving my life."

Magnus saw the sincerity in Alec's voice. "Ah, so we finally reach the reason of your unexpected venture to my house." He paused. "You're welcome, I guess?" He finished uncertainly. He looked a little uncomfortable for some reason.

"You didn't have to, you could have walked away, or not bothered showing up at all, but you stayed and you saved my life. I didn't get a chance to say anything to you before you left, so thank you. And that's only one of the reasons I came here." He couldn't continue looking into his penetrating eyes as he said this, so he let his eyes flicker to a clock found just above Magnus's head. He saw the time and his heart sank a little. He had to meet Jace at 5 for training, it was half past 4.

Before he could give Magnus a chance to reply he hastily added, "Right, er, Magnus, I have to go now. I'm meeting Jace, y'know shadowhunter training, can't let the demons get the upper hand." He knew he was rambling but he couldn't see to stop. He just seemed to make a fool out of himself whenever Magnus was involved.

Magnus looked at him in that odd way again; he'd noticed it before whenever Alec mentioned Jace or being a shadowhunter. His brow was cocked upward, in obvious contemplation, leaving Alec wondering what was going through the warlock's mind. After a minute he said, "Oh," Magnus looked a little disappointed. "Are you sure you can't stay a little longer? You never did tell me why you came here in the first place."

"No, I'm sorry. I would do, but I really can't be late." He smiled timidly at the warlock and began to stand up. "Thank you for the tea by the way."

"Not a problem." He smiled back, holding out his hand. Alec shook it, again feeling that strange electric sensation when their skin touched. Magnus seemed to feel it this time too; his face lost its composure by the tiniest division, showing Alec's mirrored confusion before he composed himself again. "I'll walk you to the door, this way, shadowhunter." He said, showing some of his earlier bravado.

He led Alec through the door they had previously come through, down a long narrow hallway and to the front door. A sudden sadness made Alec slow his pace ever so slightly. He didn't want to leave yet; he hadn't fulfilled his purpose of going there in the first place. He had liked the brief get together they'd shared, not at all excited to see it come to an end.

Magnus was standing perfectly at ease against the front door, holding it open with a half dejected half amused expression lighting his face. Seriously, the guy must have some kind of door fetish, he thought. Alec made his way towards the door, only stopping when he was pleaced firmly on the other side of the door. Magnus still hadn't closed it, just stood in the same position as before.

"One more thing before you go, ease a man's curiosity, what were the other reasons?" he asked again, looking a little hopeful.

"It doesn't matter now, it'll keep." He smiled at him again, then, seeming to find some kind of newfound confidence, added, "I might, um, tell you next time I see you."

Magnus spirits seemed to lift a little at this and said flirtatiously, "So there will be a next time?"

Even if he was turning red in the face, he grasped his confidence with all he had, "Definitley." And with that he turned his back on the warlock and proceeded down the steps and back onto the street, back to reality.