"It is 7:30 in the goddamn morning. New York itself better be on fire. What do you want?" Alec was not happy about having Jace call him in on his day off after working the last 36 hours. He could feel the migraine forming even before Jace could reply.
"Well, it might as well be, Alec. The sensors are going crazy. I've never seen anything like this. I thought you would want to be here in case it gets worse." Jace was frantic.
"Shit. I'll be right there." Alec sighed "What could possibly be worse than whatever is lighting up the sensors?" Alec asked sarcastically.
"I'd rather fight the devil than whatever monstrosity is lighting up the monitors. So you're coming or what?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way. Just let me get ready." Alec hung up as he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.
"Duty calls?" Magnus asked dejectedly.
As they both sat up, Alec explained why he was being called in. "Jace said the sensors are going crazy, so he called me in. I got to go handle the chaos. As quickly as possible so I can get back to my day off."
Magnus gave Alec a goodbye kiss that quickly led to them lying back down. As Magnus started to suck on the deflect rune on his boyfriend's neck, Alec let out a groan.
"I have to get up and go to the Institute." Magnus sucked a little harder, which caused Alec to moan. "I have to help out with the demons."
Magnus was straddling him now. He smirked as he leaned back and ground his hips down. "I'll be quick, then."
The first thing Alec saw when he walked up to the New York Institute was Lucifer Morningstar sitting on the steps.
"So, can I assume that the sensors going crazy is your fault."
"Tsk tsk Alexander. You don't even know why I'm here yet." Lucifer said with a smirk.
"You're bored. Or you have a problem that you don't want to ask for help on." Alec shot back. "So, which is it? I'd like to get back to my day off." Alec continued as he walked up the steps and into the Institute.
"Little feisty today, are we?" He followed Alec up the stairs, not even bothering to stop at the ward line. "What, I can't pop in and see my favorite Nephilim? You wound me Alexander."
Alec just rolled his eyes and glared as they walked into Operations. Alarms were blaring at different intervals and pitches. "Are you gonna tell me why you're here? Or are you just going to stand there and be in the way? As you can see, I have something better to do than listen to you whine." Alec turned to the chaos and snapped " Report."
Lucifer was taken aback by the audacity of the shadowhunter. The man before him was not the insecure little welp he had met so long ago. The mannerisms that once defined him were gone. No more 'The Law is hard, but it's the Law', no more pining after his parabatai. Hell, if Lucifer didn't know better he would say that he was almost happy, surrounded by the chaos that is the New York Institute right now.
"There are two rifts covering most of the docks. Jace said to wait for your orders on how you wanted this done. And then there's this." Underhill gestured to the screen between them. "Something powerful showed up not too long ago. Weird thing is, whatever it was headed straight for the Institute." Underhill finally glanced over at the fallen angel and said with a raised eyebrow. "Who's your guest?"
"Not important right now, Underhill." Lucifer scoffed, which earned him an eye roll from Alec. He turned to the Devil and said, "You can shut it until I can get those rifts closed." He turned back to Andrew. "How many patrols do we have in the area around the rifts?"
"None sir."
"Prepare three teams of five to handle the demons, then. I'll see if a couple of warlocks are available on such short notice for the rifts."
"And what about whatever is heading here, Sir?"
Alec cut a look at Lucifer, who just smirked back. "I got it under control, worry more about closing the rifts."
As Underhill nodded and left, Lucifer was far more interested in looking at the screens. "Alexander, you're going to want to look at this. Look here and here. Those aren't normal rifts. They're traps."
At that, Alec snapped his head up to look at him. "How can you tell?"
Lucifer gestured to one of the rifts. "It's too powerful. Demons are going to be hiding behind the edges."
Alec turned and said to Underhill's back "Make it five teams. They're bringing backup."
"Well now that that's handled, what do you say to a drink in your office?" Lucifer wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he spoke.
"You're worse than Magnus." Alec mumbled under his breath, causing the fallen angel to perk up. "Rifts still aren't closed, so it's a no to the drink."
"Magnus? Magnus Bane? How do you know my nephew?" He said with narrowed eyes, the irises of which started bleeding red.
"He's my boyfriend, if you must know." Alec sassed.
"Oh-oh hoo. Boyfriend is he? How did Mommy and Daddy take that? Not very well I can imagine." Lucifer looked like a kid in a candy store at the news, forgetting all about intimidating Alec.
"No, it went well actually. Eventually." That last part was mumbled under his breath. "We just had dinner with mom a few days ago," he said, as he took out his phone and called the very man they were discussing.
"Hey Magnus, are you free right now? … Unfortunately, I have to stay here for right now. The rifts could use a warlock's help to close them, if you want to spend time together… You're on your way? Great, thank you. … Love you too, Magnus. See you soon."
When he looked at Lucifer again, he had one eyebrow cocked. "You didn't tell me you loved him, Alexander. Anything else you're hiding from me, Nephilim?"
Before Alec could so much as roll his eyes, a swirling vortex that was a portal opened up beside him. Out walked the warlock in question in all his glittery glory, but before Alec could say hello to his boyfriend, Magnus had his magic out and curled defensively around them both.
"Now, now, Maggie, don't be bitter. I'm just here to catch up with Alexander here," he said with a smirk.
"Oh, is that what you're calling it? I thought you were just a thorn in my side until you asked for the help that you won't tell me you need," Alec said with an eyebrow raised in defiance. "Anyways," he continued, now facing Magnus, "just ignore him for now. Thank you for helping." Alec leaned in to give Magnus a quick kiss.
"My pleasure, darling."
As Alec left them to go help coordinate the teams, Lucifer leaned menacingly next to Magnus.
"Take care of this one, nephew. He's one of a kind. And if you don't, well I'm me. I'll make you suffer in ways that you couldn't possibly imagine." Lucifer let his eyes bleed red.
"I planned to, Lucifer. I know how lucky I am when it comes to Alexander." Magnus replied, oblivious to the world around him. "How did you two even meet?"
"In all the millennia since falling, Alexander Gideon Lightwood was the only one that wasn't afraid to ask for forgiveness for the Devil. The shadowhunter, barely out of his first rune ceremony, was the one to think, 'What about Lucifer? What about the one that did everything he could to protect his family?' At thirteen, he was the only one that had kindness for the Devil. And so, he prayed to me. Not Father, not Raziel, me. Every night, he would pray to me, telling me about his life, when one day it was different. He had gone out on a mission alone. Like an idiot. He got distracted and got himself cornered. So I gave him a blessing. We talked face to face for the first time after that patrol."
Lucifer rolled his eyes at Magnus' raised eyebrow. "Yes, the Devil can give a blessing."
"I never doubted that. It makes sense that you would protect Alexander. You were protecting the only one that believed in the good in you."
"Well, I wouldn't take it that far," he deflected.
"Even if you can't see it, Alexander can. He's not wrong either." Magnus cut Lucifer off with a look. "No matter what you say otherwise, the good in you saved him that night. So thank you, for saving him. I don't want to think about a world without Alexander in it."
Lucifer opened his mouth to protest, but Magnus cut him off with a wave of his hand. "You don't have to say anything, just let me thank the person that saved my heart before I met him."
Lucifer looked down and a small grin slid onto his face. "You're welcome."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Jace was talking to his parabatai.
"Who is that, talking to Magnus?"
"Lucifer Morningstar," he replied dryly.
"Dude, did Magnus get the shovel talk from The Devil?" Jace asked, eyebrows shooting up almost to his hairline. His eyes were flitting between Alec and the scene he was watching.
"Don't worry, I got one too. I'm dating his favorite nephew after all," Alec said off-handedly, almost as if it was common to have Lucifer Morningstar give you a shovel talk. "Now, are you going to focus on the mission, or are you going to gossip all day?"
After Jace, Magnus, and the teams left for the docks, Alec turned to Lucifer and said "Walk with me. We'll eat while you tell me why you're here."
As they arrived to the door, even he could feel the core reach out to Lucifer. The fallen angel let out a little gasp when he realized where they were going, what he was feeling.
"The Angelic Core. You're taking me to the core, why? Aren't you afraid I'll corrupt it?" Lucifer was shaking, not with fear, but with hope. This would be the closest to heaven, closest to home, that he's been since the fall. Hell might be the place where he lived, but home, home was exploring Eden aimlessly for hours on end, home was teaching the seraphim how to fight, even if it meant he would be missing the meeting with Micheal and Dad, home was comradery and the love of siblings that he missed dearly, even though he'd never admit it.
"No," Alec said simply, " If you wanted to corrupt it, I never would have seen you do it. I thought that as we talked, I could give you a piece of home back to you. You may have fallen, but you are still an Angel."
He would never say it, but Alec's words had tears welling up in his eyes. No one had ever been so kind to him. This little nephilim knew something that he never told a soul, not even admitting it to himself. He missed Heaven.
With a long breath and a small shake to clear his head, he spoke, "I don't think I can stay anymore."
"Stay where? Here on Earth or in Hell?" Alec asked immediately, eyes locked on Lucifer and searching for anything off. He found it almost instantly. The Devil's shoulders were slumped defeatedly, his hands shook minutely, but his eyes were what made Alec really worried. Alec had seen that look in the mirror more times than he could count during his teen years. Self-hatred. Lucifer may have a mask that fools everyone else, but Alec saw straight through it. "Hell. You can't stay in Hell."
"How did you know?" Lucifer sighed, masks dropped. He didn't see the point in keeping them up if Alec could see through them.
"You have a very familiar look in your eyes." Alec sympathized as they both sat on the floor. "I had it when I met you for the first time. So, I'm going to tell you now what you said to me then. 'No duty is worth your life.' Take a break if you must, but Lucifer, you have to remember something else too. The people most suited for power are the ones that do not seek it. Your hate for being the King of Hell, is probably why your father chose you to hold the power. He knew you wouldn't abuse it."
"When did you get so wise, Alexander?" The Devil gave a weak, absentminded chuckle.
"I grew up." His voice was pained. "I had my entire world turned upside down. No one comes out of that unchanged."
With that, Alec told the Devil all that had happened. From Clary showing up, to Valentine's defeat, he didn't leave a single detail out.
When all was said and done, maybe, just maybe, the look in Lucifer's eyes wasn't so bad.
Later, after all the paperwork was signed and Iratzes applied, Magnus and Alec sat on the couch at the loft to relax. Takeout ordered, eaten, and mindless reality shows playing on the television when Magnus asked the question that was bugging him.
"Why did you start praying to him? He told me how you two met, but not why you started."
Alec sighed as he shifted to lay his head in Magnus' lap. " I started because he reminded me of myself. In every story before he fell, he was a brother that would do anything for his family, even if it meant breaking the rules."
"I met him on a patrol, like he told you, but," he took a shaky breath to try and calm his nerves, "he was wrong about one thing. I let myself get cornered. I wanted to die that night. I just realized that I had a crush on Jace. I was ready to end it all, but…"
"But what?" Magnus asked while running his hand through Alec's hair.
"But then something stopped me. I had this feeling wash over me. I can't describe it but it felt like that if I didn't protect Jace, Max, and Izzy, then no one else would. That if I didn't protect them something bad would happen."
"He did say that he blessed you." Magnus mused.
"He did what?"
Magnus took in his boyfriend's raised eyebrows and tensed shoulders. "He didn't tell you? Not once after that patrol or in all the years since?"
"No…" Alec looked off into the distance for a second before a shudder ran through his body, bringing him back to the story. "After the apprehension ran its course, I picked up my blade and fought my way out of the corner I backed myself into. I didn't realize until later that it wasn't Raziel that gave me those feelings, but Lucifer. The Devil was the one who cared more about me than anyone had at that point in my life." Alec looked at his hands and reached up to play with the rings on Magnus' free hand. After a few silent seconds, Alec looked his boyfriend in the eye. It hurt him to be the cause of the tears in Magnus' eyes, but he knew that it would only hurt them both more in the long run if he didn't finish. "It was in that corner that I realized that I had something to live for. I had to live to see Izzy's smile when she takes out Jace in her new six inch heels for the first time, and I wanted to hear Jace play one more time. It made me want to live and ever since then, I take a few minutes to think about what I want to live for. Sometimes it's as little as sparring with Jace or as big as being there for Max's rune ceremony. Lately, what I want to live for, is us."
Magnus couldn't take it any longer. "Oh darling," he whispered as he continued to run his hand through Alec's hair. "You have gone through far too many hardships for someone with your heart. Just remember that it's okay to want to live for yourself too. You, my Alexander, are nothing short of a marvel to witness. You would do anything, in your not so insignificant power, for someone you care about and damn the consequences. It's one of the reasons I love you." Magnus grinned down at his boyfriend, the love he professed clear in his eyes.
"I love you too, Magnus." Alec lifted his head up to give him a kiss. "That's why he was here. He didn't think he had anything to live for anymore. He was here so I could talk him off that ledge that is the balancing act of self or duty. He reminds me so much of myself before I met you, so willing to sacrifice everything he is for someone that didn't deserve it. So, I told him to stop picking duty over self, to just take a break for a while to get his head screwed on straight before he went back."
"That's very sound advice darling, but what will he do with this … vacation?" Magnus resumed brushing his hand through Alec's hair, unaware of when he had stopped.
Alec raised his arms in befuddlement. "I honestly have no idea. He was mumbling something about Los Angeles as he left. Maybe he'll find someone to settle down with. Hey, maybe he'll take a page out of your book and open a club."
"He's not going to open a club in LA. If anything, he'll open one in Vegas, Sin City and all," Magnus said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Stop it," Alec said as he pushed the warlock head to the side.
Smörgåsbord Haberdashery.