Hey there, I'm not a very active writer right now and I want to apologize for that, there are personal reasons playing into that, but I still managed to finally get an idea for the prompt Echo, so I decided to share :) I don't want to say too much about this one, just that it's a different kind of 'first' meeting.

I hope you enjoy and thank you for everybody still being here. I'm incredible thank you for every kind word and that you are enjoying the different ideas I come up with.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Except for the idea, I guess.

Echo

An echo fades slowly, and sometimes not at all.

He came in on a Monday.

It was right after noon. Magnus could see the bankers passing by the shop's windows on their way to a restaurant for a lunch break. He always envied them because they had the time to go out for lunch. They didn't have to sit on the steps at the back entrance of a tea shop, trying to open the little bag of sugar for your coffee without spilling everything because you forgot to bring scissors again.

Magnus followed another group of two suits and a dress, all black, walking up the street. He imagined the clean and organized officers they were working in when they didn't go for lunch, the rustling sound of paper, beeping of telephones, the dull sound of footsteps, especially when somebody wore heels, on a grey carpet. A hint of coffee in the air, mixed with perfume and that bowl of Thai-food, that had been left too long in the microwave.

Goosebumps broke out over Magnus' arms.

Suddenly he was very happy about his lunch break on the steps at the back entrance of the shop. He could go through their storage, looking at the big peaks of tea, enjoying the sound of their in his head, smelling the spices, that still lingered from when they opened the packages. Magnus wondered if he still had enough tea at home to make it through the week, when the doorbell rang. It was a little silver-colored bell at the top of the doorframe, small and jingly. Magnus adored it. He had named the bell Misty, but for some reason the name hadn't caught on with his other coworkers.

The strangers, that stepped in, wasn't a face Magnus recognized from their few regular customers - and he would be very upset with himself if he'd happened to forget a face like that.

„Hey there," Magnus chimed, smiling like it was a reflex for him, when customers entered the store. He liked his job, but at the same time he couldn't help but notice how he sometimes tended to smile at strangers on the street the same way and they would walk a bit faster past him because the were scared he'd try to sell them something.

„Hey," the new guy said, his smile a bit unsure and thin veil of fear covering his whole demeanor. He had his hands pushed into the pockets of his jeans, kept pressing his lips into a thin line, released them, pressed them together again and it seemed like his eyes were trying to avoid Magnus without being impolite. „I'm here for … tea. Yeah, I want to get some for my family, my mother sent me."

„Okay, then what kind of tea are you ordered to buy?"

They stared at each other for a while and the other's thoughts seemed to be far away, as if there was so much more here and Magnus was blind to every detail.

"Green tea," the stranger eventually said, voice soft and his eyes falling to the counter between them. "Something with fruit for my sister and a strong black tea for my mother."

The words sounded rehearsed. When he looked back up again, there depths in his eyes, that hadn't been there before. His posture relaxed a bit, tension faded from the air around him. Something was lost and Magnus felt a dull pain in his chest. The stranger smiled, careful, like stretching tender skin. "I need a small package of each tea."

Magnus felt himself nod and mumbled "Yeah, sure." It still took him about five more seconds to get to looking for possible options of tea. They had the wall behind the counters filled with boxes, where they stored the teas, that weren't pre-packaged. Each box could be packaged out individually. So he did, opened one box after the other, let the stranger smell the different kinds, gave him some input on the tea leaves and where the differences lay. He tried to flirt, he really did, he always did. He liked it. He liked putting that little smile on customers' faces, make them laugh sometimes, let them leave the shop with a little spring in their step.

But this was different.

The stranger was attractive, he was nice and respectful, patient, too. But flirting felt wrong in this situation, it felt so wrong, that Magnus felt a buzzing on his skin, whenever he would try to go for it. There was something cold between them, a professional distance, that Magnus usually only had with high officials. Not customers. Something was so wrong here and Magnus wanted to leave, he wanted the stranger to finally leave and at the same time wanted him to stay forever.

When he paid for the tea, the buzzing on Magnus skin had gotten so bad, he was ready to take a break the moment the other was out of the door. In a desperate attempt to avoid the other's face, his eyes, his own gaze fell on the sweater the stranger was wearing. It was a nice sweater, great color choice, too.

"That's a nice sweater," Magnus said before he could stop himself. His eyes were drawn back up by the sound of the sudden breath intake of this strange customer. Their eyes met and the other smiled, soft and warm and elegant.

"Thank you," he said. "It was a present from my boyfriend."

Magnus nodded slowly. Of course he had one.

"Great taste," he whispered.

"Yeah, I think so, too."

The buzzing faded a bit. Not everything seemed to be wrong anymore. Something had become right again and Magnus hated himself for not understanding what it was.

After leaving the shop, Alec went straight back to the hotel room. He barely noticed the other people around him, almost forgot to press the bottom to his floor in the elevator, and barely managed to open the door to his room. When the door closed behind him, he placed the bag with the tea on the small table next to the coatrack, staring at the floor of the short hallway with empty eyes. He leaned back against the door and slowly slid down to the floor. The last of his energy left his body. He was sad, but too tired to cry and it seemed overdramatic at this point anyway. He had cried enough, spent so many nights doing it. It hadn't helped to dull the ache in his chest. No hour spent training had gotten had made things easier to bear.

He had been so angry, so sad, furious and desperate and so bloody helpless. Until today.

‚Track him down, look if he's okay, go back.' That had been the plan to put an end to this, to make his peace with the fact, that Magnus' memories had really been taken. He had been worried, had wanted nothing more than his boyfriend back.

But it was okay now, Alec had made sure of that.

Magnus had a stable job at a nice place.

He had friendly coworkers.

He was living in a town, that had legalized same sex marriage, that had a low rate of hate crimes against the LGBT+ community.

He was allowed to be out and proud like deserved it.

He had a cat waiting for him at home, a little apartment in a good neighborhood.

He was healthy and not in any debt.

And most importantly:

He didn't recognize Alec.

Alec took a deep breath and let the back of his head hit the door behind him. There had been no need to actually go into the shop, but in the end Alec hadn't been able to leave the country again without doing so. And maybe, just maybe there had been that little, stupidly naive hope of Magnus recognizing him. But no, of course not. Asmodeus was too powerful, too proud probably as well. He wouldn't let his magic being broken by something as simple as that.

"You watched too many movies," Alec whispered to himself and closed his eyes. In his defense though, his mother had indeed told him to get tea. She probably hadn't expected him to cross the Atlantic Ocean to get it, but that wasn't important right now. Isabelle had promised to cover for him, so Maryse would at least not send a search party, because Alec also had turned off his phone the moment he'd stepped on the plane. He would deal with everything when got back.

Alec opened his eyes again.

"It's okay," he said to himself. "It's going to be okay. I can keep an eye on him from New York."

The breathing came easier again. The acting in his chest lifted a bit. He might have lost Magnus as his boyfriend, as everything he had been for Alec, but he hadn't lost Magnus. Magnus, the person, he was okay, he was doing well, and that was enough for Alec. As long as he know Magnus was fine and happy and surrounded by good people, he could was fine with loosing him.

It was okay.

A second of silence followed and then there was a knock on the door.

Magnus held open the door for the old lady. She stepped out onto the street and then turned back again with that 'Oh, no, I forgot something'-gesture.

"I wanted to ask, if you could tell, if I can find a church around here? I want to lighten a candle for my grandson," she said an apologetic smile on her lips, which Magnus always found a weird thing to do. Why apologize for posing a question like that? He nodded in understanding and stepped out on the street next to her.

"There is," he began and pointed down the street. "If you take that way, and at the end, turn right, you get to an opening, where you'll find the nearest Institute."

The woman shot him a confused look as Magnus found himself frozen in place. The almost painful buzzing on his skin returned. His heartbeat speeding up and a part of him understood, but it was so small, that his mind was reeling after all.

"Institute? Dear, I'm looking for a church."

Magus blinked, but couldn't tear his eyes from the direction he'd been pointing to. "Yeah," he whispered. "But … that's-it's the same." He shook his head to get himself to snap out of it and cleaned his throat. In an attempt to save the situation, he put on his best winning smile, looking the old lady. "I'm sorry, I mixed up the words, you'll find the next church down there."

"Ah, okay, thank you, young man." The woman waved at him as she made her way down the street.

Magnus dropped the smile and gasped for air. His heart was beating hard in his chest. There was a sound in his ear, there were colors in front of his eyes, then another pair of eyes, a smile, a voice, a buzzing in his ears. The world around him was tinged in so much brighter colors all of a sudden, sounds came sharper to his ears, the soft breeze felt different on his skin. Everything was cold and clear suddenly. His thoughts raced back to the stranger, that had bought tea before the old lady had come in. The one with the nice sweater. The one with the … there was a line on his throat, there was black on skin, a pattern, a tattoo.

"Rune," Magnus muttered.

And then he started running.

When Alec opened the door and saw Magnus standing in front of him, both hands pushed against the doorframe and breathing heavily, he was frozen in place.

"Magnus?"

Magnus looked up and his look in his eyes was fierce as a fire from hell.

"Alexander."

There was anger and determination, that Alec didn't understand and then there was nothing left, but Magnus' lips crashing against his own and the other's hands holding his face. One kiss was followed by second, only broken by Alec's name whispered against his lips and Alec started kissing back. He brought his arms arms up to wrap them around Magnus' waist as Magnus pushed him further into the hotel room until Alec's back hit a wall. Their lips were bruised when Magnus eventually leaned his forehead against Alec's, his thumbs tracing the line of Alec's lower lip and Alec held him as tight as he could, breathed him in, felt the warmth of his body, telling himself not to cry quite yet.

"I'm going to kill him," Magnus whispered after a short silence only filled with their heavy breathing. "I'm going to fucking kill him."

He opened his eyes and they weren't human anymore. The illusion of round pupils and dark irises bled away, revealing piercing cat eyes, glowing strong and fierce.

"I'm going to kill my father." Magnus placed another, much softer kiss against Alec's lips.

"For taking your memories?"

The hotel room was dark and empty, filled with so much screaming silence. The air felt electric, a hidden power waking up again. It was velvet on Alec's skin because it was magic around them. A magic, that had been asleep for too long, not even aware of the chains it had been burdened with.

"No," Magnus growled, shadows passing across his skin. "For leaving an echo of my feelings for you."

Alec narrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but Magnus brushed his cheekbones like he had done so many times before and continued:

"He left an echo. He left enough of my feeling for you to leave me with a longing, the feeling of missing something, but not enough to work out what was wrong, what didn't work out with potential relationships, what I was looking for. This way I would have been a lifetime supply of pain and longing and unrequited love for him to feed off - that's what I'm going to kill him for."

And Alec just nodded. "Okay." Then he closed the tiny distance between them. "But not today."

Today he wanted to be about warmth and love and healing scars.

"Tomorrow then."

There was a soft echo of Magnus' special stubbornness in those words and Alec wanted to hear it grow and grow and grow.

If there's confusion left, feel free to ask, I'll try to explain things as good as possible, I just didn't want to give too much input before you read it.

I'm on tumblr as freakypumpkin and on instagram as angrymuffin911 if you want to to come over there to talk, or just to take a look at what I post :D

I wish you all a nice day.