Water Under The Bridge

Chapter 2:
for there is no friend like a sister


*.*.*.*.*

Alec wasn't waiting for Magnus to come back in that next Tuesday morning—he wasn't, alright?

He wasn't checking the clock every few moments, looking at the door distractedly as he went about feeding the cats and running through the morning chores that he was much better about doing now that he'd had a little practice, had had time enough to get back into the swing of things and readjust to this life. He wasn't hoping Magnus would get there early enough to help him finish things up.

Just like he hadn't spent every day of the past week hoping against hope that Magnus would come in sooner, and he hadn't wondered if he would go in when Alec was off or after he had gone home for the day. And he hadn't spent the whole previous night tossing and turning, thinking about Magnus coming in that morning, fantasizing about the things they might talk about when he came in there.

(He wasn't.)

He felt something like a lovesick girl over it all, really, but, well, fuck it, he had earned it, he thought, had earned this crush, this feeling, this fun of torturing himself with what ifs and conversations that were never going to happen. He had earned the fluttering in his stomach whenever he thought about Magnus, replayed their conversations from the previous week over in his head, and remembered what it had felt like when their skin had brushed against each other, leaving trails of sparks in their wake, what it had felt like to have Magnus' hand in his own.

He had earned all of this and then some, god damnit.

*.*.*.*.*

He had just pulled a tabby kitten from her cage and was letting her cuddle up to him, stroke her head under his chin, when he flashed back to the previous week when Magnus had pulled Princess, the white cat, out from her cage and had held her like that, had pet her and cooed at her and loved on her like he did, and a smile spread across his face that he was sure looked silly, but, well…

At least there were only the cats around to witness it.

(He had earned that, too, that silly smile, that being infatuated with everything that Magnus did. He had earned it, okay? Even if he was still trying to deny any part of it to himself.)

"You look like a two creams, one sugar kind of guy," Magnus said, coming into the room in something of a rush, two cups of coffee and a paper bag from Alec's favorite bakery in his hands as he made his way towards the desk.

Alec raised an eyebrow at Magnus, the purring kitten nuzzling at his neck just as distracted by Magnus' presence as Alec was now. Even the fucking cats reveled in Magnus' presence, and couldn't help but be distracted by it. How was Alec ever supposed to have stood a chance in the world?

Reluctantly, he locked the kitten back in her cage and strode over to Magnus, picked up the steaming cup of coffee that Magnus nodded towards and took a thoughtful sip of it, amused, despite himself.

"Did you guess that all on your own or did my sister tell you that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Magnus simply gave him a smile in response, took a sip of his own coffee, went about busying himself in removing the pastries from the bag and setting them down in their wrappings on the desk in lieu of answering for a moment.

"Both," he said finally, gesturing to the sweet closest to Alec.

Alec simply shook his head in response, but took up the pastry Magnus had laid before him anyway; he was going to be the death of Alec, but…

Alec was very much so looking forward to it anyway.

*.*.*.*.*

"So…" Alec started, trying to keep his tone casual as he helped his sister, Isabelle, wipe down an empty cage that a dog had been adopted out of that day.

He had gone home earlier—after Magnus had left, coincidentally enough—but had agreed to come back to help clean the cages since Jace and Clary had a Hot Date and had taken off early that night. And besides, he'd wanted to talk to his sister anyway, and he wasn't above coming back to work to do as much, if the situation called for it, if it was dire enough. And he very much so thought that it was.

Magnus had spent a good deal of time with Izzy in the past year, given that she had been stuck with the cats most of the time, and Magnus was there every single Tuesday. And Magnus had mentioned something about being company for her when he was there, and he had asked Izzy about Alec's coffee preference. Despite how he wanted to keep his family out of his personal life whenever and wherever he could, he didn't see any other option but to talk to his sister about Magnus, given that she surely knew him better than anyone else at the shelter did—though Alec wanted to personally change that, with enough time.

"So…?" his sister repeated, idle curiosity painting the way she raised an eyebrow at him.

"So… Magnus Bane," he said, anticipating her response and bracing himself for it.

Isabelle stopped what she was doing and whipped around to face her brother completely, giddy smile on her face as she did.

"I knew you two would hit it off," she gushed, seemingly lovesick at the idea of them getting along, though they had spent so little time together, and Izzy had never once mentioned Magnus to Alec before.

What had she been planning, he couldn't help but think, wondering now if the way she had complained so much about working in the cat room had been nothing but a ploy to get Alec to offer to switch with her.

She certainly was diabolical enough that he would believe it.

He shook his head, though, a shy, amused smile on his face as he turned from her, pretending to be much too focused on the task at hand suddenly. If it had been a ploy, he thought, he owed her one.

"He's…" he began, feeling himself flush as he searched for the right word for a moment. "... he's something, isn't he?" he asked, settling on that when he wanted to say beautiful, amazing, kind, understanding, trusting, lovely, lovely, lovely instead.

Magnus was a treasure. But Izzy didn't need to know he thought as much. No need to give her a heart attack just yet, after all.

"He's a great guy," she agreed, knowing anyway; she always had been able to read him like a book. Often times he had been grateful for that, but other times… he was less than appreciative of that fact, and right now he didn't know exactly which one he was. "And he's single," she added, still knowing in that annoying way of hers.

Not that he didn't want to know that, not that that hadn't been part of his reason for bringing him up to her to begin with.

"Yeah?" Alec asked, head still ducked.

"Yeah," she replied.

Alec looked back up to her then, and saw the look in her eyes, felt the way she was considering him, Magnus, the situation, all of it. He felt in her gaze that she wanted this for Alec, wanted him to be happy, to be with someone he deserved, someone who deserved him, someone he wasn't going to be with just for the sake of it to make their parents happy and to shut them up. She wanted very much for Magnus to not break his heart, for him to not break Magnus'. She wanted this very badly for both of them, and that was why he loved her, why he could talk to her about this, despite her... her-ness.

"How is someone like him single?" he asked, swallowing around the hard lump in his throat that was brought on by her intense love for him.

"How is someone like you?" she countered.

He shook his head in response, went back to cleaning the cages. He wanted to know everything about Magnus, but now he wondered if his story wasn't so different from Alec's.

"So what's his deal?" he asked.

"Well," she began thoughtfully. "He's got this like… hotshot lawyer job? Or, well, he used to represent one of the biggest firms in the city, but then a new partner came in that he… clashed with? I don't know all the details, but I do know that, long story short, he left that firm and represents a lot of family cases now? I know it has something to do with his best friend being a social worker and his own hard childhood, but he glossed over most of the details," she shrugged, and Alec filed it away for later, thinking, a little arrogantly perhaps, that he would be able to get all the details from Magnus at some point.

"He went through some nasty breakup a while back, and he hasn't been in a relationship since then; a fling here and there, but nothing that lasted more than a couple dates, and I think he's closed himself off to love since then, though he hasn't said as much. But I don't know, big brother, I just think he could use someone like you as much as you could use someone like him," she said then, giving him that wide eyed look of hers that told him she had already put way too much time and thought into this—if him and someone he had only just met could be considered a this just yet, anyway.

"Is he even—"

"—gay? No. Bi? Yes," she interrupted, already seeming to sense where he was going with that particular question, which was fair, he supposed.

Alec couldn't help the smile that came to his face then; he hadn't really been aware of the fact that he was full of a sort of yearning hope that things would align like that, that he might have a shot with Magnus, that maybe

"I'm just saying," Izzy began again then, taking advantage of the silence to take a step towards him to soothingly stroke his shoulder. "You never know what could happen if you don't take the chance. You deserve to be happy, big brother, to have a happy ending, and who knows? Magnus might just be that for you," she said, insistent.

And for a moment, Alec allowed himself to believe her.

*.*.*.*.*