The elevator ride to the first floor was semi-awkward. Alec didn't say much, and Magnus wasn't sure what to say. He knew that Alec still had to be thinking about their devastating first conversation three days earlier.
So Magnus cleared his throat. "Alexan—Alec. I—"
"What do you do for a living, Magnus Bane?"
Magnus was startled into silence—something which happened quite rarely. "I'm sorry?"
"I'm sure the High Warlock of Brooklyn has better things to do than party all the time." Alec kept his eyes fixed firmly on the numbers ticking down in the elevator. "You must have a source of income. So tell me—what do you do?"
"I have clients," Magnus said slowly, casting a sideways look at the blue-eyed boy. "They need my magic, so they pay me to make potions and cast spells for them. Like the Clave does with Portals and things."
The elevator dinged, signaling their arrival at the ground floor. The doors slid open and Alec was the first one out. Sighing to himself, Magnus clenched one fist and then followed the boy. Alec was already halfway across the foyer.
"Hosting another client, Monsieur Bane?" the lobbyist asked. Magnus still had yet to figure out what kind of Downworlder said lobbyist was—he had the golden eyes of werewolves, but the pointed ears of fey.
"I'm not sure myself," Magnus sighed, hooking a hand around the back of his neck and shrugging with the other shoulder.
"That's unlike you, Monsieur." The fey-wolf smiled. "And a Shadowhunter at that."
"What can I say," Magnus murmured as Alec let the door shut behind him, already looking for a cab. "I've always had a thing for blue eyes."
By the time Magnus emerged onto the sidewalk, Alec had flagged down a cab and was climbing into the back. Magnus slid in after him.
"Riverfront Diner," Alec told the cabbie as the warlock slammed the door. The cab rumbled away. Alec sat back against the seat and looked out his window.
Magnus began humming softly to himself. Alec threw him a glance.
"Panic! At The Disco," he said immediately. "Death of a Bachelor."
Magnus raised one penciled eyebrow. "Someone's a music aficionado," he remarked.
"Because of Jace." Alec suddenly looked embarrassed. "He's the real music mind. I just happen to have picked up some of his knowledge."
"What about this then? Trivia." Magnus smiled. "C-sharp major, 1801, referred to as Number 14."
"Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata."
"Classical fan too, I see," Magnus mused. "C-sharp major, translates to 'treasurer of the night'."
"Too easy. Jace's favorite piece: Gaspard de la Nuit from Ravel."
"The only piece Beethoven never finished?"
"Tenth."
"What about the theorized 'curse of the ninth'?"
"The theory that a composer's ninth symphony will be his last." Alec, startlingly, laughed. "You're talking to the person who has read every book in the Institute's library—twice. I'm full of trivia."
"Yeah? Astound me, pretty boy," Magnus challenged.
"How about this? It's theorized that the Fair Folk originated from a class of demoted angels, who, in their spite, fled to Earth and bred with humans. The spawn, living with a foot in both worlds but outcasts in each, fled underground. Their blue skin—theoretically, of course—is a genetic mutation from lack of natural sunlight that just happened to stick around."
Magnus was impressed, to say the least. Alec looked smug for a moment before seeming to realize that he had been showing off and ducked his head, turning bright red.
"Not to bore you or anything," he muttered, immediately turning back into his cold, withdrawn self.
Magnus's immortal heart almost broke. No, please, he wanted to beg, you aren't boring me. Please, the way your face lights up when you talk about things you love—I want to see that again. I want that expression to never leave. How many insensitive Shadowhunters have broken your spirit—again and again and again—until this beautiful soul is forced to hide in such a cold outer shell?
But he couldn't say that. Instead, he managed, "You don't bore me, Alexander."
Alec was quiet, and Magnus cursed silently as he realized his mistake. But when Alec spoke, it wasn't about his Freudian slip.
"Sure. All of this useless knowledge I have—who is it going to help? Not us during a fight. Certainly not a High Warlock." He turned away. "I'm sorry."
Stop apologizing! Magnus wanted to take the boy by the shoulders and shake him, shout at him that he really is interested in what the Shadowhunter has to say, maybe even kiss him because why is he so damn pretty, but he couldn't do that either.
"Knowledge doesn't always have to be useful," Magnus instead said softly. "For the record, I can tell you exactly how Princess Anastasia died, I know how the Tower of Pisa began to lean, and I know that Vlad the Impaler—known more commonly as Count Dracula—was only half vampire on his mother's side. That woman was cra-zy."
Alec smirked a little but didn't reply. Feeling that this conversation was at a dead end, Magnus sighed softly and turned out his own window, watching the fading sun color the city.
When the cabbie pulled to a stop at the diner, Alec handed him a few mundane bills and they climbed out. Magnus pulled open the door and bowed Alec inside dramatically. Blushing, Alec avoided his gaze and slipped through.
The diner was cozy, reminding Magnus of the 50's. The nineteen fifties, of course, he corrected himself mentally. The eighteen-fifties were one mess after another.
Alec was already heading across the diner and sliding into a two-seater booth. Magnus followed and sat opposite him.
"So it's my turn," Magnus said. Alec glanced up, confused. "You got to ask me a question, so now I'm asking you."
Alec shrugged. "Ask away, warlock."
"What are some of your interests?" Magnus was keen to get the boy out of his shell again, like he had been in the taxi. The way his face had lit up, the excitement in his voice and the passion in his eyes—Magnus wanted to see that look forever.
"Well." Alec paused when the waitress came by and asked for their drink orders.
"Pepsi for me," he said with a fake smile, and then looked at Magnus, who was flipping through the drink menu.
"No alcohol?" he said, faintly aghast. "I suppose I'll just have a milkshake then." He looked up at the waitress, meeting her bright silver eyes—she was obviously fey, but had a charm cast over her skin to hide the blue. "No chance I'll be able to pay you enough to slip some rum into it?"
She smiled. "Not one chance, warlock." And she walked away, shaking her head.
"It's a diner, Magnus," Alec hissed. "Why would they sell alcohol?"
Magnus shrugged. "Anyway—back to the topic at hand. Your interests."
"Reading." Alec's face turned faintly pink as the word burst out of him, and he scrambled to find something else because goddammit that sounds boring as all hell. "U-Uh—fighting. I like fighting. I like—my bow. Um…" His face became hotter and hotter the more he scrambled for words. Magnus's gold eyes were fixated on him the entire time, his expression unreadable.
Goddammit, Lightwood, get yourself together! He's going to think you're some kind of idiot! Alec propped his menu up and ducked his head, giving up. He dropped his forehead onto the table with a harsh thud.
"Oh, don't do that," Magnus soothed. "You'll end up with a bump on that pretty head of yours."
Alec snapped his head up and slammed his menu down. "Yeah? What are some of your interests then?"
"You in my room."
Alec swore he had never been so red before. "What?"
"The sun and the moon." Magnus raised his penciled eyebrows. "Astrology. Goodness, Alexander, from the way you're blushing, anyone would have thought I had said something naughty." He winked. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
Alec didn't know what to say. So he sat there, gaping and staring like a fish out of water. Thankfully, it was that moment that the fey waitress came back and set their drinks in front of them. Alec snatched a straw and took a few hasty gulps of his Pepsi to buy time. Magnus popped his cherry into his mouth and took a drink of his shake, his eyes never leaving the Shadowhunter who was staring intently at his carbonated drink.
"Listen, Alexander."
I suppose he's not going to stop calling me that, Alec thought moodily, swirling his ice around with his straw. It's different from when Mother calls me that, though. Hers is always…accusing. With Magnus, it's more…intimate.
"Are you listening at all?"
Alec glanced up. "Yeah."
Magnus raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Instead, he sat back and put his hands in his lap. "I want to apologize…for my behavior the last time we spoke."
"Like what? Go home and fawn over your parabatai that you're hopelessly in love with but have absolutely no chance, because he's straight?"
That familiar lead ball settled in Alec's stomach. He stirred his Pepsi some more. "You're right," Alec mumbled under his breath.
"I'm…sorry?"
"I did love Jace." The confession almost made Alec wince. "But you can't love your brother—at least, not in the way that I did. And I tried to tell him once—and all he said was, 'We're brothers, of course I love you too'." Alec pushed his Pepsi away. "I still hate myself for it."
"Alexander—Alec." Magnus began to reach across the table, hesitated, and grabbed his shake instead. But he didn't make any move to take a drink.
"Do you know what the rest of my family—what the Clave—would do to me if they found out…what I was?"
"What do you mean, what you are?"
The uncharacteristic sharpness in Magnus's voice startled Alec. He looked up with a start. Magnus's cat eyes were glowing with a new fervor.
"You're gay, Alec," Magnus said bluntly. Alec had to stop himself from flinching back. "Don't say it like it's a disease, or something to be ashamed of. Plenty of guys like guys. There isn't anything to be embarrassed about."
Alec stared at his bubbly drink. "When you're a Shadowhunter, there is. If the Clave found out—they'd strip me of my Marks—and wipe my memory—and send me to live as a mundane!" Alec found his voice rising and struggled to control it. "That's my worst nightmare."
This time, Magnus could have sworn his immortal heart stopped for a few seconds. Alec's blue eyes were wet and his black hair began to fall to cover his bowed head. Magnus wanted nothing more than to reach out, take Alec's hand, kiss it and kiss him and just whisper that it'll be alright, I'll be your rock, I'll be here, I love you Alec, we can figure it out together, you don't have to be scared.
But instead, Magnus swallowed hard and turned his attention back to the laminated menu in front of him.
MAGNUS Y U NO COMFORT
Haha, I bet you guys hate me :D;;
I kinda hate myself but it's okay
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