Get yourself together, Magnus. He had no qualms about talking to himself, but Magnus did know he was going insane regardless of that. Alec had stopped by his apartment that day, and since Jonathan was off doing unspeakable things with his father, Magnus had figured it would be okay to let Alec come in. He had promptly text Jonathan, warning him to not come home until he told him, and then he'd fallen into the same façade he had on their date.

Except now, Alec was laughing, and Magnus found himself smiling. Genuinely smiling. When Alec had placed a hand on his arm, he found his heart skipping a beat. This was terribly unacceptable. There was no way that he should be feeling like this toward anyone other than Jonathan.

He knew he had to get himself under control. This wasn't part of the plan by any means. The plan had been very clearly laid out to him from the start. By both Jonathan and Valentine as well. He was to work his way into the hearts of the Lightwoods, thereby being able to take them down more easily than attempting to attack the Institute.

They were going to get to Jace specifically, by taking down Alec first. Just as they all got comfortable with the idea of Magnus being with Alec, Magnus would kidnap him and hand him over to Valentine. When Jace realized what was happening, he would either join with Valentine to save Alec, or he would be destroyed when he watched his parabatai die.

The plan was utterly flawless, or it should have been. But suddenly Magnus inexplicably found himself wanting to protect Alec. He had never been particularly touched by innocence, he had often found it annoying, but as he saw the youth and gentleness reflected back in Alec's eyes, he wanted nothing more than ensure that they stayed young and gentle forever.

"Magnus?" It was Alec's voice that finally took him out of his thoughts. "I have a question." Magnus simply raised an eyebrow and nodded. He was slightly taken aback when Alec said, "Can I trust you?"

He forced himself to keep his face straight, to regain his composure internally before responding. He decided to be indirect with answering it, instead of trying to finagle his way out of it. "Why would you ask me that, Alexander?"

Alec's voice was just as honest and clear as his eyes were when he stared back at Magnus. It was often disturbing that Alec was so blunt. But Magnus found it unsettling in almost a comforting way. People were so rarely straightforward at all, and it was refreshing to finally be able to stop searching for a hidden meaning behind every word.

Alec smiled slightly and responded, "To be honest with you, Jace has a bad feeling about you." Magnus tried to laugh in a way that would cover up the fact that Jace was a lot smarter than he looked.

"Since when do we listen to Jace?" Was all that he was able to reply without giving away the deceptive tone in his voice. At that, Alec chuckled himself, but he looked skeptical even as he did so.

"Sometimes Jace says something worthwhile. Not often, but there's always that possibility." Alec was smiling even as he said it, and Magnus knew he was out of trouble as far as this conversation was concerned.

Before he was aware of what he was doing, he suddenly found his lips on Alec's, which was terribly unfortunate because Magnus had never intended for that to happen at all. Instead of stopping or pulling away, Magnus simply leaned further in, and Alec didn't fight back.

Magnus figured that he might as well be a rebel in every part of his life if he was going to take that route anyways.

Valentine had never made Magnus terribly comfortable. What with the whole swearing to eliminate all Downworlders and so on, that had kind of put a damper on their relationship from the very start. But the biggest downside to being with Jonathan was that he had to spend a lot of time with Valentine as well. Magnus had essentially figured out that Valentine only tolerated Downworlders when they were useful to him, as Magnus himself now was.

They were currently holding a "meeting" which always loosely translated to Valentine telling them what they were doing wrong and then giving them orders on how to correct their failures. Jonathan always seemed to take his father's criticism better than he ever took anything else, and Magnus figured this was because Valentine had quickly taught Jonathan to respect his father's authority.

After asking for an update on the situation with Alec, Valentine began spelling out exactly what they were going to do next, and Magnus inexplicably found himself becoming uncomfortable at the very idea of it.

"You do understand that for the plan to work the best, you're going to have to be the one to kill Alec, right Magnus?" What Valentine was saying made sense enough to him. Getting to Jace would be the easiest of Magnus stepped in and actually killed Alec for Valentine. Forcing Jace to watch someone Alec loved do harm to him was the worst thing Valentine knew to do to Jace. "He was always too soft, he always loved with too much passion. He'll be easy to bring down."

All Magnus could do was nod. He was suddenly feeling sick, and he had no idea why. It wasn't as though he objected to the plan on any particular moral standpoint. But every time he blinked, all he could see were Alec's clear blue eyes staring back at him.

"Magnus?" It was Jonathan's voice that brought him out of his thoughts about Alec. Which was a terribly awkward thing because it also made Magnus realize that he was supposed to be in love with Jonathan. "Magnus, you aren't thinking of backing out on us, are you?"

When Magnus responded, he hoped his voice seemed utterly sincere. "Me? Why would I do that, Jonathan? I thought we agreed I'm pure evil."

As they walked back to the apartment that night, Magnus remained quiet, trying to figure out exactly what he was going to do about the situation.