I do not own stuff that isn't mine...
This story is giving me writer´s block.
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No matter how earth-shatteringly upsetting - or good - an evening might be, a new day always dawns. As this new day dawned, it saw Magnus Bane at work with managing his business without being bothered by all the looks: looks probably due to him being joined in his duties by his father, the legendary rockstar known as "The Prince of Hell" or "The Prince of Darkness" - mostly depending on which generation you were from.
It saw Ragnor Fell writing up a report, starting the court case process which would - hopefully - land them with the custody of twelve-year-old Maximillian Lightwood being transferred to his older siblings.
It dawned for Alaric, chief of police, already hard at work with the inevitable paperwork even a small town generated, when he was not gossiping by the coffee pot with his colleagues. It was not his normal way to do so, but thanks to his breaking of the habit gossip was already starting to spread like a wildfire: Alexander Bane was a martial arts teacher, with a careless sparring partner. His husband was worried about him, actually, not trying to hurt him. Alaric might not be a man of all too many words, usually, but he knew how to get an idea across. His strategy was very effective.
Cat was waiting for the waiver to be sent over by Ragnor Fell, signed by Alec Bane, freeing her from her professional wow of silence. As soon as it arrived - promptly at eight am in the morning - she corrected her colleague's speculations by stating that yes, those had been the marks of hands hitting him, on Alec Bane. But while they were, they were of hands at least two sizes larger than Magnus Bane's. In the resulting silence in the hospital staff room, she had merely innocently stated that, "I hear he's really fond of sparring. I believe his dojo master or whatever they're called just suspended his normal sparring partner for being too careless, though, but maybe a break would be good for him". Internally, she smirked and noted: "job done".
The hours after dawn saw Melion in a bed in the largest guest room, watching over his still-sleeping fiance, woving to never fail to protect her like this again.
It saw Luke and Hodge talking, accompanied on the patio by a large dog and a tiny kitten, both indulged with plenty of petting, and Alexander Bane greeted the new day in the kitchen, making enough food to feed an army, because we all have different ways of coping, and that was his.
After lunch, Meliorn had dragged Isabelle to the doctor's surgery to have another checkup with Cat, and Luke had left to go back home, duties awaiting. Hodge had promised to take the kids back safely later.
Hodge, Alec and Jace, themselves, after lunch found themselves in the park less than a mile from the Bane house, Hodge attempting to instruct the two younger men in how to spar more safely together. They pointedly ignored all the looks they got from the people walking through the park or tanning nearby, focusing only on their training - like they would in the gym.
There were quite a few people sitting meaningfully nearby on the grass, pretending not to watch them, when Alec and Jace went up against Hodge together and Jace made one of his clumsy, too hard attacks.
Blocking him easily enough, Hodge scolded him loud enough for all the curious bystanders to hear. "Jace! See, that's why you can't be sparring with your brother," he gestured in Alec's direction, just to clear it up for the eavesdroppers, hoping to help in the killing off of the rumours, "he is a lower weight class and much as he plays the hero when he shouldn't, you'll hurt him. You have to learn to pull your punches. Again."
As they took positions to continue the spar, more than one of the onlookers - especially those who had already heard the rumours creeping out from the hospital and the police station - had a lot of new things to think about when they eventually went about their day, after their lunch breaks.
The subject was discussed in John's bar, willingly aided by both Alaric and Cat, (the latter explaining that Alec Bane, upon hearing the rumours, "He was so upset, too, poor dear," had signed off his rights of patient privacy so that she could talk about it) who gave them the scoop on how Isabelle Lightwood's own mother had hit her and she had come to find her brother and brother-in-law. They didn't provide more details than that, never ones to ignore anybody else's privacy, but it was more than enough to sway anybody still having reservations.
By the time this night was put to rest, so was any rumour that Magnus and Alec Bane were anything but a perfectly pleasant, perfectly happy couple. Lydia herself was feeling a tad ashamed, but she almost forgot as much, because of the immense relief that drowned all negative thoughts out. When she - some days later - tried to apologise, Magnus Bane was more than gracious about it; giving her a warm hug, merely requesting that should she hear anything strange ever again, would she please just ask him about it. She promised she would, easily, and in the coming years she kept that promise more than once.
