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I don't own TMI

I didn't end up getting to sleep until after midnight last night, what with all of the phone calls I had made and received and reports that I'd had to file. Plus, I had responded to a couple reports of demon activity close to my apartment. Nothing difficult, just a few ravener demons that some warlock, who was clearly in over his head, lost control of during a summoning.

Still, I was up by 6AM on Saturday morning, drinking coffee in the kitchen. I had woken up about 15 minutes prior to that and quietly gone into my room to get a change of clothing before showering in the main bathroom.

That really only took me about 5 minutes. I wouldn't admit this to anyone, but I'd actually stood in front of the mirror for 10 minutes, messing around with my hair, debating if I should find some gel to put in it. In the end, I just scowled at my reflection and ran out of there. Even if I did have hair gel, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

That was how I found myself in the kitchen, standing over my sink, as I did almost every morning since I'd moved in here, trying to think about more pressing issues. Issues, at least more serious than trying to improve my look for certain warlocks who probably wouldn't wake for another 4 to 6 hours.

As I expected, there were plenty of shadowhunters dispatched to the Institute, which meant that my job had shrunk dramatically overnight.

Now that the Clave was officially involved, I was expected to take a step back to make room for whoever they'd assigned take the lead in putting a stop to the faeries and vampires.

On the one hand, I was relieved that the Clave was finally stepping in to help. Anything we could do to stop our enemies before we had another full-blown war to deal with was welcome in my book. But, on the other hand, I didn't exactly like being relegated to the sidelines.

It was funny, in a sort of ironic way. I used to love to stick to the background. I wanted nothing more than to let others shine while I watched their backs for them and made sure they stayed safe. And while I didn't particularly want to do any shining, necessarily, I was beginning to discover that I could be as effective in the forefront as I could in the background. Maybe even more, in some instances.

I leaned up on my toes to catch a glimpse of the sun just beginning to peak above the tall buildings in the distance through the tiny window above the sink. I sighed and headed into my office to start on a schedule of things that needed done for the week ahead.

To my shock, Magnus came strolling in at about 7:30.

"Good morning." Magnus mumbled as he gingerly sat down in the stiff little chair in front of the desk.

"Good morning. Are you feeling any better?" I asked, frowning at him. He looked tired still.

"Yes. Much better, thank you. Your room is free now."

"You didn't have to get up early on my account. Feel free to get some more rest."

Magnus sighed. "I woke up an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep. I have a lot on my mind."

"Oh? Like what?"

He began to fidget in his chair. "Well, for starters, I don't think I fed the Chairman yesterday…"

I resisted rolling my eyes. "I noticed he didn't have any food so I got some. I fed him this morning."

"Ah. Thanks…"

I nodded, folding my arms over my chest. "Well, now that we've solved that problem, what else is on your mind?"

"Lots of things." Magnus stared down at his hands in his lap.

I lifted my eyebrows. This was obviously going to take some prodding. "Go on."

"I really don't know how or where to start."

"If this is going were I think its going, then let's head into the living room, where its more comfortable, to talk." I got up from my chair and led the way out of the office. After a few seconds, Magnus followed.

"It's a little unnerving how different you are now." Magnus said, once he sat down on the couch with a stolen cup of coffee, across from where I sat on a recliner.

"What do you mean?"

Your confidence. You barely had any before, unless you were fighting demons and protecting the people you care for. The hesitant, second-guessing guy I once knew is gone. In his place is a brave young man with endless potential."

Magnus' voice had turned emotional as he spoke. I could tell he meant what he said.

"A lot has happened in the past few months. I wouldn't be much of a person if I didn't learn a few things." I tried to shrug his compliments off.

"Trust me when I say that there are plenty of people who are dumb enough to learn nothing from their experiences." Magnus lowered his head. "I've been so stupid."

I wasn't used to him admitting things like this, but he was finally getting to what was really on his mind.

"It was my fault, Alec. I should have trusted you. Given you more information." Magnus continued.

"You're talking about Camille?" I asked.

"I should have expected for you to be curious. And I should have known that she would try to manipulate you." His head lifted and his eyes found mine.

I interrupted him. "Yes. You should have. But we both made mistakes in that situation."

Magnus laughed a bit, but it was humorless. "It just took me so long to realize it. Maybe Catarina is right. Maybe I do need to grow up still."

His self-pity was beginning to worry me. In the time that I had know him, he'd always been the one, of the two of us, who was the most forthcoming in his feelings, but that was always strictly limited to confessions of love. Any deep feelings that Magnus had about other matters were hidden safely away behind his sarcasm and quit wit.

An emotionally exposed Magnus was something foreign to me.

"Magnus. Everybody needs to grow. Even centuries-old warlocks. That, in and of itself, is not a big deal."

Magnus shook his head. "Nice try, but you don't have to coddle me. It is a big deal. Look at what my childishness has done to you. To us. The only question that remains is why you are still willing to even look at me."

Magnus slung his head back onto the couch cushions. "Maybe I don't even deserve you."

I rose quickly to my feet. "That's enough, Magnus. Your pity-party is starting to get on my nerves." I knew I was being harsh, but he seemed like he needed a dose of reality.

I walked over to the couch and sat down, sideways, so that I could face him. "I don't want to hear you say anything so false ever again." I said sharply.

Magnus lifted his head up and his eyes, which were now shining, found mine again. "Are you saying there is still a chance for us?" He asked softly.

I scooted a little closer to him and he turned his body to face me.

"I believe you just admitted to your share of mistakes in our relationship. I admitted to mine, as well. And I think we have both learned what happens when we refuse to address problems and don't communicate. Do you agree?"

Magnus nodded. "I do."

I took his hand in mine. "Then yes." I ran my thumb along the back of his fingers and smiled softly. "I think there's a chance for us."

His smile was so beautiful. He reached up with his free hand to grip the back of my neck lightly. "Alexander, would you agree to going on a date with me?"

I smiled back at him. "Yes."

Magnus began to wiggle his way over to close the distance left between us. He slid easily into my lap. "I see. Would you agree to letting me kiss you right now?"

I sucked in a shaky breath and licked my lips while staring at his. "Yes. Please."

And then we were kissing. This wasn't our first kiss since breaking up by any means, but this kiss felt special. We were finally taking the steps that were necessary to be together again.

Weight was lifted off of my shoulders and I felt so good. Magnus' hands roaming all over my chest and biceps and his tongue in my mouth probably had something to do with how good I was feeling, too.

I pulled away from him to speak. "I've missed you." I ran my hands up and down Magnus' back.

"I've missed you, too, sweetie-pie." He placed a couple of kisses right below my ear before nuzzling my neck.

"Although, now I have to put up with your silly nicknames again and spend my down time trying to get rid of the glitter you shed all over me. And then there's your almost unbearable flamboyancy, in general." I joked, pretending to mull it over.

Magnus lifted up from my neck and glared at me, but I could see the smile that was creeping into his expression. "I am not flamboyant."

I snorted. "Ok, Magnus. What would you call it, then?"

He shrugged, putting his hands on his hips and effectively recovering all of the sassiness that had gone missing from his personality as of late. "I'm magnificent."

I rolled my eyes in amusement.

"I would have also accepted brilliant, glamourous, or, if you were really being honest, gloriously and unabashedly dashing." He continued.

"How about pretentious, ostentatious, gaudy…" I muttered under my breath.

Magnus slapped my shoulder and pouted.

"You're lucky you're so cute." I said.

"You know you love it."

My hands dropped lower until I could feel his perfectly round ass in my grip. I pulled his body into mine as close as I could get it and basically ground him against me. "I do love it." I whispered in his ear.

Magnus' head lolled back and he moaned lowly. I knew where this was destined to lead to. I just didn't know if it would be smart to dive into the more physical aspects of our relationship just yet.

I think Magnus sensed my hesitation. "Maybe we should give ourselves more time to talk and date for a bit, hmm?"

"Or, we just go for it." I didn't want to stop touching Magnus. I moved my hands to his hips and roll them against me while shifting my own hips. "Resisting you has not been easy."

"Mmmm… No. But making up isn't easy, either." Magnus regained control of himself and moved my hands away from his hips. "There's always the possibility of going too fast, making too many assumptions, getting it all wrong. I think if we withhold sex we might have more motivation to get this right."

"Fine. You're gonna have to get off my lap, then." I huffed at him. I knew he was right and I wanted what was best for us in the long run.

Magnus laughed, getting up. "I need to shower anyway. And don't worry, grumpy-butt, we will be together in every way soon enough." He winked at me and sashayed into my bedroom.

I vowed right then to repay him earnestly for being such a tease. Before I let myself think about that too much, though, I texted Jace to see if anything interesting was going on at the Institute.

He texted back a few minutes later to complain that none of the shadowhunters would give him any information. Probably because of his age. He still had a while yet before he was 18.

I told Jace that I would be heading over there shortly.

I went into my bedroom to ask Magnus if he wanted to join me at the Institute.

He seemed to hesitate as he processed my offer. "Actually, I have a couple clients to meet with and I still have to do my makeup and hair. Then, I have something that I need to work on here. If that's alright?"

"That's fine. I'll fill you in later, ok?" When Magnus nodded, I added. "If you're not busy tonight, we can get dinner or drinks or something…"

"That sounds nice." Magnus smiled at me.

We spent the next 10 minutes alternating between the two of us making out and me trying to drag myself out of Magnus' warm embrace. Finally, after things got supercharged and heated again, I tore my lips away from his and promised to see him later on that night.

When I finally made it to the Institute, the front hall was strangely empty. I walked toward the library thinking that maybe there was a meeting happening. Before I could make there, Izzy stopped me.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi."

"Look, Alec. I'm sorry for being so bitchy the other day…"

I held my hands up in surrender. "Its ok. I've been distracted lately. I guess I haven't been a good brother."

"You have been distracted, but you've been working. I've just been acting like a brat because Simon's been hiding things from me."

"What's he been hiding." I asked, frowning at the thought of Simon hurting my little sister.

"Nothing, really. Just personal stuff, feelings. Like, he won't tell me how he feels about his family. I know there's something going on with his mother, but he wants to keep certain things private."

If anyone could relate to how Izzy was feeling, it was me. "Give Simon the chance to open up to you when he is ready. He's been dealing with a lot of stuff lately." Going from mundane to vampire to mundane to shadowhunter, all in matter of months had to have been a lot to cope with.

"Just make sure he knows that you want him to tell you everything and let him know why its important to you. Make sure to be as honest with him as you want him to be with you."

Izzy looked at me, searching my eyes. "Thanks, Alec. That's good advice."

I smiled at her. "Where is everybody?" I asked.

"All the new arrivals are in the library. But Simon, Jace, and Clary are up in my room. I was just grabbing some snacks."

I grabbed the food out of her hands and we walked toward the elevator together.

Once we were inside and riding it up, she cocked her head towards me.

"Why do you seem so happy?"

"What makes you think I'm happy?"

"Well, you're not exactly smiling, or anything, but you're also not all gloom and doom, like usual."

"'Gloom and doom', seriously?" I made a face at her.

She laughed as we got off the elevator and walked to her room. "Did you finally manage to seduce Magnus, or what?"

I knew my red face was probably giving me away, but I still defended myself. "I have not seduced Magnus, nor have I been trying to do so."

Izzy just giggled and walked through the open door of her room. "Alec, you don't have to hide it. Or be so defensive. We all know you two are going to get back together. I mean, come on. You guys are living together again."

"His apartment is still ruined." I reminded her. I threw the bags of chips I was holding on to Izzy's desk.

"Couldn't Magnus stay somewhere else, though? Or like, pop a house into existence wherever he wanted to?" Simon piped up. He was sitting on top of the clothing that Izzy had strewn all over her bed.

I glared at him and then tried to change the subject.

"Do you guys know when everyone will be done with that meeting? I want to see what information I can get from them."

"Maryse said they'd probably be in there until the early afternoon." Jace said, standing next to the window with his arms folded. "It took you a while to get here. What kept you? A certain sparkly guy?"

I turned my glare onto my parabatai. "I'm going upstairs to put in an hour or so of training." I turned to leave the room.

"Why are you guys always so mean to Alec?" Clary came to my defense.

"He makes it too easy." Jace said.

"Yeah, he does." Izzy added.

Clary looked at me. "Do you mind if I join you? I could use another hour of training."

"Sure." I said. "Let's go."

Clary got up from her seat only to have Jace grab her arm and pull her to him. "I thought we were going to hang out." He whined.

"Eat your chips, Jace. We have all day to hang out." She left him sulking at the window.

Clary and I separated to change into workout clothing. We met up again in the training room.

I started off by doing some stretches before performing some squats and pushups. I usually started that way since training with Jace meant a lot of hand to hand combat practice and I was always better off when I warmed up first.

I turned to Clary. She had been practicing some agility exercises.

"Alright. Pick your poison."

"Uh. What?"

"You wanted to train, so I'm putting you to work. You get to pick what we do, though."

"Oh." Clary said, seeming a bit surprised. "I thought we would just do separate things, but ok. Do you want to practice hand to hand?"

I smiled at her. "I see Jace is rubbing off on you."

"Oh no!" Clary said, her hand clutching her chest in mock horror.

"Just don't let it happen again." I laughed. "Now, let's do this."

Clary got low into her stance and I had to resist the urge to coo at her. (I really don't remember the last time I cooed at anything, though.) She looked like a cute little red kitten. I'd seen her in battle, though. She still had a ways to go in her training, but she was fierce and relentless. And she was learning everything at a fast clip.

Clary and I sparred for the next 45 minutes, both of us working up a heavy sweat.

"You're doing great." I told her. "When you get attacked from the left, just make sure you don't neglect to cover your right side, alright?"

Clary collapsed to the mat and accepted the bottled water that I grabbed for her. "Thanks, Alec. I appreciate you helping me like that."

"It was actually fun." I smiled at her while recovering my breathing. "Will you tell the others that I'm going to go find out what's going on at that meeting even if I have to just barge in."

"Alright. I've gotta go find Jace, anyway, to make sure he hasn't melted into a puddle of pure angst."

A half hour later, after I'd showered and changed, I found my mother in her office.

"I'd appreciated if you'd invite me to meetings that are directly related to my job, mother."

Maryse looked up from her paperwork. "Alec, I know you are grown now, but I am still your mother. The others can handle this now, anyway. I'm afraid things are getting too dangerous. Your sister almost got kidnapped the other day."

"You keeping me and the others ignorant will only make it more likely that one of us gets attacked by the enemy."

"Maybe I should cut down on the patrolling that you kids do."

I cut my eyes to her. "Do what you feel you need with them, but I think I need to remind you that I make the decision on just how much patrolling I do. We talked about this, mother. I thought we understood each other."

Maryse stood up, walked around her desk and pulled me into an abrupt hug. Before I could even react, she pulled away, straightening out her blazer awkwardly. "I'm sorry, Alexander. I know I shouldn't treat you like this, but I just can't lose another child. I look at you and I see what Max could have been if his life hadn't been stolen."

She turned her back to me, probably so I wouldn't be able to see her looking so vulnerable. "I know its not fair to you. I just don't know how else to deal with this."

For the second time that day, I was dealing with someone who wanted nothing more than to pour all of their emotions out on me. I sighed. "I know, mom. I understand how you feel when you think about Max." It was still hard for me to say his name.

"But I can't hide behind that fear. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew I wasn't doing everything in my power to stop people like the vermin that took my little brother from me. We can't afford to let fear immobilize us."

My mother just stood there with her back to me. Her shoulders shook very lightly. I was at a loss at what I should be doing. I didn't know whether to a step forward to comfort her or to just leave the room to give my mother privacy.

I made the decision to go to her. I knew that she had been dealing with things, mostly by herself, for some time. My parents were on the outs and everyone with eyes saw it.

Just when I was about to reach out to pat my mother on her shoulder she spoke. "The meeting was to discuss what the prisoners revealed."

She sounded composed. She sounded normal, as if she had not just been on the cusp of breaking down.

Maryse continued. "The faeries that Magnus captured? We think they were affected by some new strand of faerie smoke that made them servants of someone else. At first they kept repeating 'We are getting stronger. We will defeat you'. The smoke wore off and now they are not talking at all. The meeting was to determine how to get answers out of them." She finished her impromptu ramble with a heavy sigh.

I jumped at the chance to get information from her. "What decision did everybody come to?"

"A consensus wasn't reached." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know by now how things work with the Clave. The meeting will be continued here tomorrow at 9AM. Please make yourself available to attend. Your perspective is something that others should consider in this matter."

I stood looking at my mother, trying to disguise the shock that I felt. It was like she was giving me her blessing to be an adult and be involved in the very real and very dangerous issues that were plaguing the Clave right now. Also, she was acknowledging the fact that I had a viewpoint that was unique and that I had the potential to be helpful to the Clave. She was giving me an actual complement in her own way.

"I'll be here." I told her. "Thanks." I said.

She responded by giving my a small, pinched smile- it really looked more like a painful grimace, but I knew better- and turning her back on me again.

I left her, at that point, to be alone with her thoughts. I went to find the others to go out and grab something to eat.

We ended up spending most of the afternoon that followed at Taki's, just eating and talking ourselves hoarse about possible theories of what could be going on with the faeries and vampires.

Jace, sitting in our crowded booth next to Clary, was just complaining for the 49th time about not seeing any action on our trip to the Hotel Dumont, when something began to click in my head.

"Jace. What did you just say?" I asked, looking up from the slice of cherry pie that Izzy and I were sharing.

"I said I wish I had the foresight to go with the right group." Jace threw me a disgusted look. "If you'd give me as much attention as you're giving that foul pie, maybe you'd have heard me."

"Don't take it out on the pie, man." Simon chided him. "I think most of Alec's attention is on his phone, anyway."

This started them off on a tangent of speculation about my love life again. Truthfully speaking, I had been texting with Magnus since we had arrived at Taki's a couple hours ago, and obviously I'd not been as discreet as I thought.

Under normal circumstances, I would have gone all red in the face and denied things, while trying to send the focus to someone or something else. This time, though, I barely paid attention. Something about what Jace had said was triggering something in my memory.

"Foresight." I said.

"Yeah, Alec. I said that word about five minutes ago. You gotta keep up." Jace said.

Clary was giving me a look as if she knew what I was getting at. "Leave him alone. I think he's trying to remember something."

I slowly nodded my head. "Do you guys remember the names of any shops or restaurants around the Hotel Dumont?" The thought that I was trying to recall had something to do either with that hotel and the vampires that lived there or a place near it.

"Its almost a ghost town around there." Simon said, frowning in memory of the place.

"Yeah, there's only abandoned buildings in that area." Izzy said.

"Oh, foresight!" Clary piped up. "There's a dilapidated old building a couple blocks away from the hotel. I noticed it yesterday, when Jace and I were patrolling with the rest of the group. It's all boarded up, but someone spray-painted 'foresight' one of the boards. I remember it because I stopped and looked at it."

"You never told me why you did that, by the way." Jace said.

Clary's cheeks turned lightly pink. "I liked the way it looked. The design was unique. And it's really faded, like its been there for a long time. But what's the significance of all that, Alec?"

I had only been listening for a while, as a memory came back to me. "We're going to the Hotel Dumont."

About an hour and a half later Jace, Clary, Simon, Izzy and I were on our way to the hotel. Although I made it clear that our trip was purely a recon mission, I insisted that we head back to the Institute to get more weapons and apply new runes just in case we encountered any trouble. I texted Magnus to meet us there since, if my hunch was right, the building would have spells against intruders.

"So tell me what we're doing again." Simon asked.

"It's something that David said to me when I first met him. He mentioned something about his brother and he said the world 'foresight'. I don't know; the way he said it made it sound like it was some secret place or something." I said.

I knew this trip could -and probably would- prove fruitless. That was why I didn't mention it to my mother or to any of the other shadowhunters.

"So basically, we're going all the way across town just to look at some tag that someone left on some old derelict building just because some guy, who is connected to the vamps in some way, said something that might possibly be construed as a clue to what has been going on. But we probably won't find anything and just on a wild goose chase." Jace deadpanned.

My eyes snapped up to his. I nodded, slowly. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

I looked down at my phone again. Magnus had not texted me back yet, and it had been almost two hours.

"What's wrong?" Izzy asked me, after she saw me frowning.

"Magnus hasn't answered my request to meet up with us."

"But you too were just texting earlier."

"I know. That's why its so strange."

"Maybe he's just busy with a client."

"He's been done with clients since 5:30. Anyway, he would still answer me."

"I'm sure Magnus is not just blowing you off, Alec."

Izzy and I had been very affectionate to each other since making up this morning, but this was weird. A couple days ago she had been almost to the point of spitting at the mention of Magnus' name; now she was defending him.

"I more worried that something is wrong. What happened to you hating him?" I asked her.

"Magnus saved me. That tends to make me reevaluate things. I was just so mad at him for how the situation was affecting you. And how stubborn he was being. I mean, you two belong together."

"We're working it out. Finally."

We retraced the path that Jace and Clary had made yesterday.

"This is it." Clary called back to me.

I jogged up to the building that Clary was indicating. It was tagged with spray paint like I remembered. I checked my phone once more. Magnus still hadn't contacted me.

"Try to find a way in, but let's stick close together." I told them since we weren't learning anything from standing around out front.

We checked the front of the building first. Jace, Simon and I tried to pry at some of the boards, but they didn't even budge.

"What the hell!" Jace yelled in frustration. "I should be able to get that free on my own."

"A warlock must have warded this building. I figured as much." I said.

"Let's go around back. There's got to be a way in." Jace said.

"This is pointless." Simon muttered. I don't think he liked being so close to the vampire hangout.

I was the last to round the corner of the building so when I heard a loud bang, I was the only one who followed the sound back out front.

I got back to the street in time to see a slim somebody slip from behind the boarded up door. The person, who looked like a guy, didn't see me at first. He noticed me at the same time that I figured out who I was looking at.

It was a vampire.

It was David.

Thanks for reading!