It was supposed to be date night for Magnus and Alec, or rather, a night when Alec didn't have to be out all night hunting demons. It was supposed to be date night, but Magnus seemed terribly distracted. Sure, he'd smiled and laughed and tried to make things seem normal, but Alec knew him well enough by now to know that things were anything but normal. His smiles hadn't been as wide as normal, his laughs hadn't been as loud, and the spark in his eyes just wasn't there.

Alec reached across their table at dinner to grab Magnus's hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze, attempting to comfort Magnus even when he didn't know what he was comforting him for. "Magnus, darling, if you're feeling badly, we can go."

Magnus looked up at him, seemingly a bit surprised that Alec had picked up on the fact that he was overly distracted. He still seemed to be getting used to the fact that Alec knew him better than anyone ever had. He slowly shook his head while answering, "No, Alexander. I'm fine, just a bit distracted at the moment."

Instead of listening to what he was saying, Alec signaled their waiter for their check anyways. Despite Magnus's continual protestation, Alec herded him out of the restaurant and back toward the apartment. He could tell from the way Magnus was carrying himself that there wouldn't be a typical "date night" when they reached home.

Knowing this, Alec stayed silent throughout their walk home, simply keeping hold of Magnus's hand and refusing to let go. Once they entered the apartment, he sat Magnus down on the couch, then proceeded to go into the kitchen and quickly make coffee. He then carried both the coffee and a blanket to Magnus, wrapping the blanket around both of them so that they could curl up together.

Magnus seemed to relax immediately once he was wrapped up with Alec, seemed to immediately feel comfortable once again. When Alec asked him what was wrong, however, he simply laid his head on Alec's shoulder and took a deep breath.

"It's nothing, Alexander," he said after much too long a pause. His voice had cracked when he said Alec's name, and he knew that it was much too late to actually successfully hide anything from Alec. He knew that he would have never been able to hide something this painful from his husband.

Alec simply sat quiet, knowing that if he said nothing, Magnus would continue on his own. He took a deep breath before beginning, trying, and failing, to keep his voice even. The cracking of his voice caused Alec to wrap his arms around even tighter. "It's his birthday, Alexander." His voice had come out barely above a whisper.

When Alec answered, he kept his voice soft. "Whose birthday is it, Magnus?" At that, Magnus turned into Alec and buried his face in Alec's chest. He tried to speak, but nothing would come out, he tried to keep from letting tears fall, but that was in vain.

Throughout the next few minutes, Alec stayed silent and simply held Magnus. He leaned down several times to kiss Magnus on the top of the head, a gesture so kind and gentle, so characteristic of his sweet Alec, that it brought more tears to Magnus's eyes. Finally, he was able to speak enough to say, "Ragnor's."

At that, the tears began to fall in earnest, and Magnus realized that he had been keeping his emotions bottle up since they had lost Ragnor. Alec seemed to sense this too, and he remained silent still yet, keeping a firm hold on Magnus.

Before long, Magnus began speaking again. "He might as well have been my brother. He'd been by my side for as long as I can remember." He took a break to allow Alec to wipe away some of the tears that were still streaming down his face. "When I ran to the Silent Brothers for asylum, the called for him because they had no idea what to do with me. When he got there, they continued to argue over what to do with me, and you know what he did, Alexander? He talked to me. Like I was a human being, not a burden to be gotten rid of. For the first time in my short life, someone actually treated me like a person."

Alec hugged Magnus tighter, and Magnus knew that Alec was comforting both him and himself. Magnus couldn't help but chuckle as he continued talking about his first meeting with Ragnor. "After he talked to me, he stood up right then and there and interrupted the Silent Brothers in the middle of their argument. All he said was, 'I am taking this child with me', then he reached for my hand and marched me out of the Silent City. To this day I have never heard anyone talk to the Brothers like that."

Magnus finally went speechless at what Alec said next. "He sounded amazing, Magnus. I wish I had met him." Smiling softly, Magnus simply nodded. He reached up to wipe his own tears away this time, fighting another bout of crying.

He finally got through the lump in this throat and responded, "Me too, Alec. You would have loved him, and he definitely would have loved you." He smiled in earnest as he continued. "He was actually mostly annoyed by you." Magnus raised his hand as Alec started to protest. "No, no, annoyed in an amusing way. Meaning that I wouldn't stop talking about you to him."

At that, it was Alec's turn to smile in earnest. Before he could respond, however, there was a sharp knock at the door. Alec looked to Magnus for approval before unwrapping himself from Magnus and going to answer the door.

When he opened the door, Alec stepped back quickly in surprise at who was standing before them. Before he could say a word, Raphael Santiago waltzed into their apartment and plopped himself down on one of their chairs.

Alec whirled around and looked at Magnus, who didn't seem at all surprised that there was now a vampire in their living room. "What can I do for you, Raphael?" was all he asked.

"What do you think, Magnus?" was all that Raphael said, and Alec could tell that Magnus was irritated by the question. It was a tense day for Magnus as it was, and he was running short on patience, something that was needed in excess when dealing with Raphael.

When Magnus simply stayed silent, rather than arguing with Raphael, Raphael continued explaining. "I thought you might want some understanding company on Ragnor's birthday."

Alec thought that was a reasonable explanation, but what Magnus said next surprised him yet again. "No you didn't. I know better than that, Raphael."

Raphael opened his mouth, shut it, then opened it again. "What do you mean exactly? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't," Magnus answered, voice cold and hard. "You know exactly what I am talking about, Santiago, don't-" Alec jumped slightly as Raphael cut Magnus off.

"Do not call me that. That is what Ragnor called me, you know that." At that, Magnus smiled and inclined his head.

"Just admit it, Raphael. That will make this conversation much easier on the both of us." Alec was tired of looking back and forth between the two, but he had the feeling that this was the climax of the conversation, so he stayed silent and just switched his gaze back to Raphael.

"Fine, Magnus, I'll admit it. I was in love with Ragnor, and I am here because I didn't know who else to turn to. Is that what you wanted to hear? Is that what you wanted me to admit? Did you want me to admit the fact that my heart is breaking more and more with each and every day that I have to live without him?"