AN: My first trip into this fandom. After reading CoHF, I was very happy… Except I wanted Magnus/Tessa interaction. So I decided to write some.
Be Happy
"So that's your Alexander? Awfully young, isn't he?"
Magnus couldn't help the small grin that curved his lips at the voice. It had been years, decades even, since she had sounded so content, and her poking fun at him was a small price to pay to hear it.
"Tessa. Jocelyn invited you to the festivities, did she?"
Tessa looked much as she ever had, with her dark hair and grey eyes. There was a peace to her that had been missing for the past several years, as she watched the Shadow Hunter families she'd so dearly love nearly fall into destruction, unable to do a thing to stop it.
"She wants to introduce me to Clary," Tessa replied. The two of them stood in companionable silence for a while, watching over the crowd. Jace and Clary swayed together looking blissfully happy, and Magnus noticed that Tessa's eyes lingered on the blonde more than once, likely looking for traces of her beloved Will. Simon was staring around with thinly disguised awe, trying not to stare at Isabelle too often, while she pretended to ignore even as she moved every time she did. Alec was in discussion with Maia and Bat, but he glanced up to catch Magnus' eye once and gave him and Tessa a smile. Magnus wondered if he recognized who Tessa was from his memoir, and thought that he probably did.
"How is Jem doing?" Magnus asked, breaking the content silence and using the true name of the one known as Brother Zachariah.
"Well, although he thinks he'll likely stick with using Zachariah. That has been his name longer than James ever was."
Tessa met Zachariah's eyes across the barn. He was with Maryse and Robert Lightwood, but the two were connected, even after all these decades, and a silent communication seemed to pass between them. It reminded Magnus of how she had been with Will, so attuned to him, and how wrecked she had been when he had died.
"How can you do it again?" he asked, allowing himself to finally voice his worries – not just for her, but for him as well. "I remember you in Paris, after Will. Je – Zachariah, he'll want a family with you. A life. How can you do it again?"
"I almost said no," Tessa admitted, looping her arm through Magnus' and beginning to lead him around the outside of the tent. "I remembered it all. The pain of losing Will, of watching my children and my grandchildren die. How I eventually had to separate myself from them, because I could see him in the faces of them all, yet so many looked at me as a stranger" – once again she looked at Jace, that timeless grief that all immortals seemed to eventually develop visible in her eyes – "but I remember what your werewolf friend told me all those decades ago. That so many people were lucky to have just one great love in their life, and I've gotten two. The thought of going through that again terrifies me… but it's Jem."
The words were spoken so simply, given with the smallest of shrugs. To anyone else it wouldn't have been enough, but Magnus had been there. He had known Tessa as a wide-eyed teen that had no idea what was happening to her. He'd known her when Zachariah first joined the Brothers and the heartbreak and grief she and Will had both gone through. He'd known her as a lost and grieving widow. He knew about her annual meeting with Zachariah, one both of them had been careful to never miss. To Magnus Ban, but it's Jem, was really all he needed to understand her.
"It's Alec," he said softly, and Tessa's observant gaze shot to his face, taking in his expression, and she brought their walk to a halt. She took her arm out of his and stood in front of him, grasping his hands. Her smile was soft and happy and it made Magnus feel at peace, as Tessa's presence so often did.
"That's wonderful, Magnus," she said, squeezing his hands and Magnus squeezed back. Tessa had always been able to communicate without words to her boys so easily, but time and being each other's rock had wrought the same effect on the two of them. They didn't need the words, to know that they would both embark on their lives with their respective Shadow Hunters with happiness. Nor did they need words to know that, after time ripped those Shadow Hunters away, as it always did, they would once again be each other's solace. The place they went to grieve once more. "Jocelyn is coming. It's time I met my namesake."
"Be happy, Theresa Gray," Magnus said as Tessa released his hands to join the redhead. "You deserve it – you both do."
Tessa gave him a smile over her shoulder.
"So do you. So be happy, Magnus Bane."
And then she was gone, following Jocelyn through the crowded barn, and Alec joined him once more, pressing their shoulders together and twining his fingers with Magnus'.
"Was that who I think it was?" he asked. "I mean, I've just gotten to that part… but…"
"That was Tessa Gray," Magnus said with a nod. "Quite possibly the bravest person I've ever met."
"Really?" Alec looked almost startled at that. "I guess there's more to read, but she seemed rather scared in what I've read so far."
"Keep reading," Magnus agreed. "Then you'll understand."
But for the night, Alec wouldn't be reading, and Magnus turned towards him, leading him into the slow steps of a simple waltz, and Alec let him, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips.
Yes, it was time for Magnus Bane to simply be happy.
AN: There. I love the Magnus/Tessa relationship, and I loved that people kept on using Tessa to make Magnus make better life choices all through CoHF. I just wish we'd had some interaction!