Summary: Magnus give Alec the Stars
Alec opened his eyes, his body hurt and it took him a moment to remember why, honestly as he looked around Alec was surprised that he had even woken up at all, he was pretty sure he been dead, Warlock Bane had been holding him in his arms like he mattered and all Alec had seen were the sparkles in the man's eyes that twinkled like the stars.
Alec tried to push himself into a sitting position only to gasp in pain and fall back to the bed trying to curl up but that made him hurt more and he was gasping for breath when a blue woman with white hair came rushing in.
"Stop moving." She said and helped Alec back into a relatively painless position, "There, is that better?"
Alec nodded, "Who are you?"
"Catarina Loss." The woman said, "I've been your healer for the last week. I need to ask you a few questions, are you up for that?"
Alec nodded again, "Go ahead."
"What is the last thing you remember?" Warlock Loss asked.
Alec had a feeling that the Stars would not be a good answer to give, "I remember Warlock Bane trying to heal me." Alec doubted that Warlock Bane would not have at least true, no matter how angry he was with Alec Warlock Bane would have tried to fix him even knowing that it would be useless.
"Tried, being the deal, he didn't have much success and neither did I, I managed to get you stable enough to get you to the hospital trama room, they were better equiped to help and then once you were patched up enough that you wouldn't be worse off we brought you here to the Institute." Warlock Loss explained, "Now, what is your name?"
"James Leander." Alec told her.
She nodded, "Age?"
"20, give or take a month or two." Alec shrugged, he had stopped paying attention to dates when he was on the streets and the actual day of his birth had never really been celebrated, when he still lived at the Institute he would just let it pass and Isabelle would just pick a day and she would tell him 'happy birthday' and give him a gift and her cookie and that day would be his birthday for that year.
Warlock Loss frowned, "Date of birth?"
"Don't remember it, I don't know that I ever actually knew it." Alec told her.
"What about your parents?" Warlock Loss asked and suddenly she was concerned that there was a worse history to the man in the bed.
"I'd rather not talk about them." Alec admitted.
"Well, Mr. Leander, as far as I can tell you are no worse than you were before, except for the wound in you gut and the nick on your neck." Warlock Loss stood to leave, "Get a bit more rest, every one wants to visit you."
Alec nodded, "Was every on else okay?"
"You were the worst of it and you almost died, we're not sure if it was your natural resistance to magic or if the cause was the Soul Sword, it was not made to be used like that."
Alec frowned, "Wasn't it?"
"I don't know what the Clave has told you but no, it wasn't." Warlock Loss told him.
"The Sword just is, we were never told how it came to be." Alec told her, "But I think it may have been an actual soul once, drawn out by a Warlock."
Warlock Loss looked startled, "How did you come by this information?"
Alec shrugged, eyes drooping, "There's a window that can't be found from outside, it has the story."
"Sleep." Warlock Loss murmured, brushing his hair.
Alec mumbled, "Magnus?"
"Magnus, is fine, sleep."
Catarina looked down at the sleeping man and wondered where that room was and how it had gotten there, she knew that some of the older Institutes had a similar room, one that could only be found by Shadowhunters that needed some one to care for them but usually a Warlock would appear soon after they found the room and take them away, but why would Leander have been the exception? And why did the New York Institute have the room, as far as Institutes went, it was a fairly new Institute.
Catarina sighed, it looked like there was a long night of research ahead of her, she wondered is Magnus might help her but then she shook her head, she knew that Magnus was going to come camp out in the room until Leander woke again, he was going to be upset that he had missed the man waking but Magnus had needed the shower and to sleep in his own bed.
Magnus was watching James as he breathed deeply and evenly, yesterday he had missed the man's first waking and he intended not to miss the second, he needed to know what the mn meant by what had almost been his last words and Magnus decided that he was not going to let himself be pushed away a second time and if he had to rage a War against the Clave to love and be loved by the Shadowhunter laying in the bed then a War the Clave would have and, from the rumor mill, he would have an Army of various Downworlders and Shadowhunters that were demanding the right to love who they wanted, male or female, Downworlder of Mundane, and Isabelle Lightwood was leading the charge with Lydia Branwell, even the Seelie Queen was backing the two when Isabelle had mentioned that James had feelings for Magnus.
The Clave was trying to placate the group but they would not be placated, they wanted to love who they wanted and they would not stop until they would not be cast out for it.
Even Maryse Lightwood had thrown in her support, which had shocked not only her children but the Clave itself, and there was a sorrow in her eyes that no one dared ask about, afterall every Shadowhunter knew her son had vanished and never been seen again, not at any Institute, not by any patrol and there was something heartbreaking about a Shadowhunter being lost and their body never recovered, even Morgenstern had made sure that all bodies, enemy and thier own, had been recovered and the souls returned to the Angel.
Magnus shook his thoughts away, at the rate Isabelle and Miss Branwell would have the Clave folding inside a week, but Magnus didn't care at the moment, he just wanted James to wake up.
Catarina had taken the DNA sampe he had offered and told him that she'd run it but the results would be discussed with James first, if he didn't want them to know they wouldn't, there had to be a reason for him to hid and Catarina was not going to be the one that sent him back to a family that had not treated James kindly.
Magnus had agreed with her, James had told him just a small bit of his life, a piece or two from before he'd run from his parents and after he had been on his own and from that information plus some stories from Isabelle Magnus realized that, perhaps, James had been better off on his own, even if he had not had the protection of an Institute behind him.
It had shocked the Clave that so many Downworlders had inquired after the man laying in the bed, hell, it had shocked everyone when Morgenstern and his son had asked after the man and Magnus was slightly concerned at their interest but Clary had told him about the son's interest and The Seelie Queen had mentioned that Morgenstern had been mightily impressed with James, and she was too, she even had a plan to steal the man away to her Realm but knew she would probably fail, unless the Clave remains rigid in their dealings and then she planned to offer santuary to the rebelling Shadowhunters because she was sure that would win her points with James and she felt she owned it to him for revealing Morgenstern's plan for her Court, a plan she had not seen.
"Any change?" Simon asked as he entered the room.
"Not yet." Magnus replied.
"How are you doing?" Simon asked as he handed Magnus a bag of food, "Catarina says to eat all of that."
Magnus sighed, "I wish he would wake up."
Magnus opened the box of Chinese food and began to eat it with the chopsticks.
"That smells disgusting." James murmured adn he opened his eyes, "Can I have some?"
Magnus chuckled and set the food aside and helped James sit up as Simon got out a second container and a fork, "I won't tell her if you don't." He told Magnus.
Magnus grinned and nodded as James took the food and began to scarf the food down.
The two immortals stared with both facination and disgust at James who managed to eat everything in his box in under two minutes and then they remembered that James had spent severa lyears on the streets, he peobably hadn't had regular meals since he had run away, and Magnus didn't know if James had ever told him how old he had been when he ran away.
"I can always summon more." Magnus offered.
James shook his head, "I'm good, probably until sometime tomorrow, maybe the next day." James shrugged.
"Doesn't the Institute provide food?" Simon asked.
"Sure, but I don't actually get that hungry." James told them.
"Right, I should go tell Lydia and Izzy that you're away, they need to talk to you." Simon said and motioned to the door before leaving.
Magnus set his food to the side and looked at James.
"What?" James asked.
"We need to talk."
"Why?" Alec asked, "What do we have to talk about?"
Alec turned from Warlock Bane, he knew exactly what they had to talk about, when he was sure he was dead he had thanked Warlock Bane for a kiss he had denied wanting and Warlock Bane might not even realized that was what he was thanking him for, Alec remembered muttering a thanks for the stars before his Stars were gone and he'd been sure he was never going to wake and he had been so thankful that Warlock Bane had been holding him as he died because he had wanted so much more with the Warlock but would settle for the man holding him as he died.
Alec could feel Warlock Bane's gaze boring into the side of his face and wondered if perhaps the man would consider hi too much effort and leave whatever it was they had, broken and shattered as it was, and just let it remain so, nothing more than a series of almost moments and desparate longing and want that Alec was just too damn scared to try having. Alec wasn't good at keeping what he had when he had it, when he was almost eleven, he'd still been living on the streets of New York, he'd found a tiny cat, it was the cutest thing and Alec had pet the thing and fed it some of the meager scraps he had managed to scrounge up and then one day the cat had been gone. Alec had searched for weeks trying to find the cat but he never had and after a month he had decided to get out of New York and he'd never wanted to come back.
"You know what, James."
Alec looked at Warlock Bane, startled, the man had never caled him James, not after the Kiss.
"You thanked me for the Stars." Warlock Bane said, "What exactly were you thanking me for?"
Alec felt his cheeks burn, "I... I had lost a lot of blood."
"James."
Something in the way Warlock Bane said his name made Alec look at him, what he saw was understanding, hope and something Alec had never seen directed at him, something he had observed through windows and at parks when he was digging through trash for a half eaten hotdog, something that had always mad e him smile, even when hi sstomach was cramping from hinger of his bones were throbbiing from cold, seeing people wearing that look when they gazed at eachother had always made Alec feel better even if he had never hoped or expected to see that look directed at him.
"If you tell me, honestly, that you don't want to talk about it further I will walk out that door and never bother you again." Warlock Bane told him.
Alec's breath hitched and suddenly his vision tunneled and he couldn't breath and Alec was vaguly aware that there were hands gripping his upper arms and a voice calling the name James but his name wasn't James and Alec still couldn't breath.
"Alexander!" Magnus shouted when James wasn't getting a response and it was worth a shot.
James started to calm down and Magnus continued to hold the man in his arms.
James twisted a little to look up at him, eyes shiny and wet and Magnus realized that James was frightened, of what Magnus didn't know but he wondered how many people had care about him when he'd still been with his family and thinking about the flinch when he had first reached out to the man when he had redone the wards Magnus realized that there probably hadn't been any one since and he could understant how frightening it was to have something you wanted so badly but was sure you'd never be able to have it safely.
Magnus let his hand caress James' cheek and then he was pulling the man closer, "Let me give you the Stars." Magnus whispered against James' lips.
"Please." James whispered and pushed up just enough to connect their lips and then there were a thousand sparkling lights surrounding them in the infirmery and James was reaching up to tangle his hands in Magnus' hair and pulling him into kiss after kiss until they finally separated long enough to catch their breaths and then James was diving back in and the lights around them twinkled like the Stars.
