A/N: Still have no idea what I'm doing, but it's fun. Also still not Cassandra Clare... working on that... ;)
The next day, Magnus returned to Alicafe. Alec wasn't there, but the redhead barista was. Due to the fact that the place was virtually empty, Magnus loped right over to the counter and leaned against it with both hands.
"Hello, what can I get you?" The redhead asked politely, coming over to the register.
"A conversation, if you please," Magnus replied. "Do you know this woman? Or any of these people?" He showed her the selfie of the black-haired woman with the two men.
"Yeah, that's Izzy, Jace, and Alec," she said in surprise. "Why?"
"Izzy as in…?" Magnus prompted.
"Isabelle Lightwood?" The redhead said slowly. Lightwood. Good. Magnus was onto something. The redhead continued, "Wait. Hold on. Izzy called me yesterday and said that Magnus Bane had talked to her. Do you have something to do with that?"
Magnus just subtly winked at her. Well, he would've liked to say it was subtle, but she definitely noticed, so he might as well have lowered one glittery eyelid in slow motion. "I suppose you heard about the talk, then, and what Magnus Bane wanted?"
"Izzy said Magnus talked about her brother, but I can't imagine how that's possible—Alec would've mentioned… I mean, he's obsessed with—" she cut herself off, eyes widening in horror as she took Magnus in from a new angle. "Holy shit."
He simply smiled, glancing down at her nametag. "Thanks, Clary."
"But really, do you want a coffee or not?" She asked, recovering from her shock quickly.
"I'm good, actually," Magnus drawled. He dropped a twenty into her tip jar and turned on his heel to exit the café. He could feel Clary's eyes on his shoulders as he walked, and he waved at her over his head. The door dinged as he stepped out. He only made it half a block and subsequently tripped over a black booted foot. The boot was equipped with at least six inch heels. He opened his mouth to either apologize or snap at the woman—he hadn't decided yet—but before the words could escape, they were stopped in his throat by a sudden hand, clasping around his neck. A black-haired woman pinned him against the wall and held him there, arm straight, eyes fierce.
"You have five seconds to start talking. What do you want with my baby brother?"
Magnus gasped for breath. "Generally people need oxygen to speak," he informed her.
"I had no idea," Isabelle said sarcastically, slightly lessening the pressure on Magnus' airway.
"That's horrible," he said. "Someone should've told you." He turned to a random passerby. "Tell her people need oxygen to speak."
The person hurried away, rolling his eyes. Magnus pulled Isabelle's hand from his neck and shook his shoulders. "Okay, look, I don't know what you're talking about. If your brother's name is Alec, and if he has black hair and blue eyes, I want to get to know him better. If not, I'm not sure what I want with your 'baby brother.' How much older are you?"
"Actually, Alec's two years older than me," Izzy admitted with a smile. "I just call him baby brother because he's so innocent and clueless about people sometimes." Magnus grinned back, and she slammed him into the wall again. "What do you want with him?"
"What do you want with me?" He demanded. "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes, of course. You're Magnus Bane, the most famous and well-liked musician this side of Idris. People like you don't just want to get to know people like Alec. But…" she tapped a shimmering fingernail on his nose. "Because I like you, I suppose I'll give you a chance."
Magnus opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Eventually he just took a breath and smiled at Isabelle. "How sweet of you. Now, perhaps you'll let me buy you a coffee?"
"You say that like I'll stop you," she grinned, and followed him back into the shop.
"I dunno, you look like you could," he shot back.
"Please," she rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to say no to free coffee. Oh, hi, Clary!" She leaned across the counter and kissed the redhead on the cheek.
"Back so soon, Magnus?" She wondered with a rather cruel smirk.
"We both know you texted Isabelle to tell her I'd been here. I made it halfway down the block before she tripped me."
"What can I say? These heels are lethal," Isabelle smiled. Magnus, as promised, paid for her coffee as well as his own rainbow smoothie, and they went to sit down. Magnus couldn't say he wasn't surprised that she hadn't gone full-out fangirl on him. He'd had an... experience with something like that in Peru, and it had ended with cauliflower everywhere, a malfunctioning chocolate fountain, and a hell of a lot of glitter.
"So, my brother," she urged. "What brought this on?"
"Met a cute guy here yesterday morning. Came over to talk to him. He says his name's Alec, says it's short for Alexander, and doesn't tell me anything about himself. Naturally I'm intrigued at this point, right, and my favorite author in the world is named Alexander, so I looked up Alexander Lightwood, and there was a picture of you, Alec, and a blond dude. The link on the picture went to your Instagram, where I learned that your name was Isabelle Lightwood. And you know the rest." He clasped his hands on the table. Izzy stared at him, silent.
"My big brother is your favorite author." She seemed disbelieving. "But you're his favorite singer. This is completely ridiculous." She was grinning. "I'm fangirling over the fact that you fangirl over Alec and that Alec fangirls over you." She giggled. "Magnus freaking Bane, do you have any idea the position you put me in? I can't just go up to Alec and say I met you!"
"Why not? I am here for a concert. Early, yes, but I am. It's not super unrealistic for us to bump into each other, right? For all he knows, we could've met trying to buy the same shoes at the mall… speaking of which, where did you get those?"
Isabelle leaned forward in her seat, eyes lighting up. He could see he'd passed her test. They chatted long after their coffee cups were empty, and exchanged stories, laughter, and phone numbers by the time Izzy had to go. She gathered her stuff up and stood.
"Oh, Magnus… next time, I'm buying you coffee." She flashed a grin at him and blew out the door like a whirlwind. He sat back in his seat, positively dumbstruck. He found a pen in his pocket and began to scribble down lyrics on the inside of his forearm. Some he crossed out and replaced, others he left in his messy scrawl on his skin. It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a song he could dance to. And call him crazy, but right then Magnus felt like he could dance to just about anything.
Alec was painting in the park again, losing his mind to the melodic action of pinning color to the blank white canvas. It felt good to be able to control something, no matter how fleeting that control was. He couldn't control much else, like his character block or the fact that his mind seemed to want to keep straying back to his conversation with Izzy. He'd avoided Alicafé that morning, maybe unintentionally, but part of him wondered if he'd see Magnus again, and if he'd be able to form a coherent sentence. Woah, don't get ahead of yourself, Alec, he scolded himself, adding a streak of light blue to the left side of the mountain.
"Hey! You!" A gruff voice sounded behind him, and he turned to see the greenish man standing at the bottom of the hill, feet wide and hands in the pockets of his black jeans. His shirt read #don't care and he sported a baseball cap that said Not Dead over curling white hair.
"Hey me?" Alec asked, wary.
"Yes. You realize you made my best friend weird. People don't just make Magnus weird. I don't know what's going on, but if he gets any weirder, I will automatically blame you and come to nuke your house myself." Then he half-smirked. "Ragnor Fell. And that's my name, so no falling puns. Lillith knows I get enough of those from Magnus and Cat."
"Um." Alec was impressed with his own ability to speak today. "Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. Sorry."
"You were the one who looked at Magnus yesterday and made him drop his coffee on my new shoes," Ragnor said flatly. "He referred to you in his text messages as Mr. Blue Eyes and told me to make sure you weren't a serial killer."
"Why would he think I'm a serial killer?" Alec was bewildered. Ragnor grinned lazily at him, tilting his head to the side. The chains around his neck clinked.
"He doesn't," he sighed. "That was a joke. Which I figured would be funny unless you actually are a serial killer. In which case I should probably run away, right?"
"Yes, and I'll give you a five second head start," Alec told him with a straight face before turning around to continue with his painting. Ragnor did not move. "Okay, what do you actually want?"
"Your name."
"Alec."
"Short for Alexander?" Ragnor looked up at this. "Are you the same person who Magnus met in the coffee shop?"
"Why does Magnus talk to you about me so much? Why doesn't he come talk to me himself?" Alec asked, exasperated.
"Do you really want him to?" Ragnor smirked, raising his eyebrows. "Cause I do love to play matchmaker, in case you were wondering."
"What?" Alec's face burned. "No! I'm… what are you talking about?"
"I give you a week before you figure it out on your own," Ragnor told him, then walked away. The back of his shirt said #still don't care.
Alec wasn't sure what to make of their talk, and frankly, he wasn't sure he wanted to. He turned back to his painting. The colors didn't seem vibrant enough anymore. He plugged in his earbuds and hit shuffle on Magnus Bane songs.
Raise a fist, this enchanted mist
Isn't going away
I think it's here to stay
Stronger than the thickest walls between us
Cause at least those have a door
I'm not me anymore
I can't see anymore, the tears
Just keep falling, and I
Just keep falling.
And for the first time ever, Alec wildly wondered why so many of Magnus' songs seemed to mention doors.