[Alec POV]

"Your brother has to be fucking kidding me."

"Fuck me!"

"Not with your brother in the room."

"Fuck you!"

They both curse simultaneously. Alec freezes and immediately tries to cover himself up, frantically buttoning up his shirt. Not that this would change anything about the situation below his waistline. He looks at Magnus, which is partly annoyed (because of Jace), somewhat amused (because of the situation before), partly desperate (because of his situation), and Magnus conjures a pillow. Alec smiles at him, thankfully.

Seriously, Jace, I thought we're parabatai.

Just as he realizes that his buttons are all wrong, Jace comes into sight.

"There you are. I wanted to ask you – Woah!" Jace stops in his movement and starts laughing, taking in the sight. Magnus shirtless, his hair kind of a mess, a hickey forming at the base of his neck and Alec, several buttons undone, the rest improperly closed and his shirt's hanging loosely. His eyes stop at the pillow. Which does not match Magnus' interior at all.

"Not. A. Word. Or I will kill you. And stop staring!" Alec shifts uncomfortably in his place. He tries holding his breath and looks at Magnus. With one quick glance, his boyfriend understands.

"Can you fetch my coat from the bedroom? It's gotten unexpectedly cold in here." Magnus asks.

Alec glares at Jace, who now tries to stifle his laugh, holding up a fist in front of his mouth. Alec quickly obeys and leaves the room, but not after giving Jace another furious look, puffing a strand of hair out of his face. Seems like Simon taught Jace some lessons in inappropriate times to enter a room. Jace should've known this is not a good time.


[Magnus POV]

"Explain yourself."

"The door was unlocked," Jace says, struggling to maintain a straight face. Magnus crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"And I'm supposed to believe that? My door locks itself – So things like this," he points at the blonde, "won't happen."

Another thud outside his apartment indicates that someone else has managed to trip up the stairs.

"Woah – awesome! A Moth!", the voice calls out.

"What is the vampire doing here? And why is my hallway suddenly an insectarium?"

"Yes! The key-thing worked. I told you it w -," Simon comes running through the door and immediately stops as he sees Magnus' facial expression.

"You don't have a key." Magnus doesn't break eye-contact with the two of them, convinced they would leave if he stared at them hard enough.

"Well… we kind of have. I've snatched one of Alec's a while ago." Jace looks at the floor, like a child that's about to be scolded. Well, that's precisely what he is — a child.

"WHAT?!" Alec shouts as he appears from the bedroom – now adequately dressed. He hands him his coat, and Magnus gives his hand a calming squeeze.

"I thought I'd lost the key. And now you tell me that you STOLE it?"

"We didn't steal it. We borrowed it. Kinda."

"And what for? Simon, do you have anything to say?" Magnus intersects, looking at the boy who's crouched down to play with Chairman. The cat seems to enjoy it.

"Me? I've got nothing to do with it – Who's a good boy? – I swear."

"Traitor!" Jace hisses at the vampire, half bewildered, half annoyed. "Don't act like this was completely my idea. I'm gonna kick your ass all the way back to the Institute." Simon stands up and tries to rub off the cat-hair – unsuccessfully.

"Okay, okay. Maybe I had a small part in this story." He looks with a hopeful smile directly at Alec. Then at Magnus. Neither of them budges. Chairman looks at Simon expectantly, purring and shifting from one paw to the other. Simon eventually bends down again to pat his head.

"We borrowed it for emergencies. Obviously. I was not planning on running into more scenes like this." Jace explains weakly.

"Scenes like what?" Simon looks around perplexed at first and seems to slowly understand the situation. "Oh… Oh! Yeah – me neither. I don't need that EVER again in my life. I had my fair share of walk-ins." That's true.

"I cannot think of ONE," Alec raises his hand to accentuate, approaching Jace. "One emergency that needs one of you to break into our home!"

"But neither of you was picking up your phone! I sent a ton of messages." Jace tries to reason.

"It may surprise you, but I leave my phone unattended from time to time – and so does Magnus. Especially if it's 7.30pm and I am OFF duty. There are plenty of capable Shadowhunters at the Institute!"

Magnus decides to stay out of this brotherly argument, even though he has various reasons to engage. Alec's now standing right in front of his idiot brother.

"What if -,?" Alec doesn't let him finish.

"Whatever you're going to say – it's not a good enough reason to have an actual key to Magnus' place."

"Our place." Magnus adds cautiously but shuts up immediately when Alec gives him a short, annoyed glance. But it's true!

"Izzy got one, too."

"You've got to be kidding me. Does anyone in this family know anything about personal space or boundaries? Why don't you all move in with us? Tell mom, she'll get her key first thing tomorrow."

"That's ridiculous. Of course, mom won't ever get a key! Who do you think I am. "

"Right now, I don't think you want me to answer this." There's a deep crease between Alec's brows, his jaw slightly clenched, his arms crossed. They continue arguing for several minutes until Jace suddenly apologizes.

Jace? Apologizes? Wait. What? Magnus raises an eyebrow.

"Alec, you're right. I'm sorry – I really am," he places a hand on his big brother's forearm. "Take it - I'll talk to Izzy, too. But I can't make any promises that she'll give it to me."

"First of all: Thank you. And Second: If you don´t, I'll tell her what you really thought of the pancakes she made for you the other day." Alec gives Simon and Jace a daring look.

"You wouldn't -," Simon slightly panics, when Alec cocks a challenging eyebrow, smirking. "Of course, you would. I – we – figure it out."

"Now can you two get out of this apartment, we were kind of busy here, and I did not plan to spend my afternoon with you." He starts to push them back out of the door gently when Jace speaks up, looking back and forth between Alec and Magnus.

"Actually, we just wanted to ask you two if you wanted to come to the park with us tomorrow. Clary and Izzy will be there, too. But it's kind of a surprise for Clary. She really misses spending time with you both– and since tomorrow is our day off – we thought -,"

"Well, I thought of surprising Clary, and Jace just came up with the park idea!" Simon sighs.

"We thought it would be a great idea. Also, I really miss you too, big brother. We haven't seen each other that much lately. I miss my parabatai."

"Softie." Simon coughs, still petting Chairman and getting cat hair everywhere.

The blonde Shadowhunter smacks him lightly on the back of the head. "I'm warning you!"

"For once, I am with the vampire", smiling, Alec ruffles through his brother's hair and pulling him into a tight hug. "I miss you too, idiot. I love the idea. Magnus?" Alec turns to him.

"Why not? I think that's a fantastic idea – Boys, do you need us to bring anything. I hope Izzy's not preparing any meals." Magnus scrunches his nose but a smile begins to form on his face. The thought of a day off, sitting beneath one of the beautiful cherry trees, Alec cuddled next to him, Biscuit sitting a few feet away and laughing with Isabel, pens, coal and various other things besides her. He also imagines Clary's face when she finds out about the plan. He wouldn't want to miss that.

Grinning from ear to ear, visibly relieved, Jace grabs Simon by the collar of his jacket, pulling him up and walking in the direction of the door. "Great! Nah, no need to prepare anything. We got everything we need, and no, Izzy won't touch any food unless it's already cooked. Clary will be so thrilled. Simon - we're leaving -"

"We are?" Simon looks at him, pouting.

"Yes, Simon. We are. See you guys tomorrow at 11am, front door? And sorry again – for interrupting." Alec nods, and Magnus pulls him into his side, leaning his head on the taller man's shoulder. As if his shoulders were made for Magnus' head.

"Watch out for any more moths or butterflies on the way down." He calls after them before he shuts the door with a loud bang.