When they got back to the Alec's apartment, the door was unlocked. Alec was walking first, and he glanced back at Magnus. "Did you remember to lock the door when we left?"
Magnus raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, pretty sure I did. Why? Isn't it locked?"
Alec shook his head, opening the door and poking his head inside to look around. His eyes caught movement through the first door opening. He stepped back out, looking at Magnus. "There's someone in the dining room, Mags." His voice was a bit hesitant.
Magnus stepped in front of him, opening the door and walking straight into the dining room. Alec's eyes widened and he followed Magnus quickly, trying to stop him before he actually got to the dining room. Magnus managed to get into the dining room right before Alec reached him. Alec looked past him and saw-
"We come to visit and you're not even here? That's a great way to show your love for your family, Alec."
Alec smiled and walked past Magnus and walked over to him, hugging him tightly. "You're back!"
"Only for a few days, though. I'm staying with Izzy, and I thought I'd come say hi."
"So where are you going next time?"
"Probably the US. We talked about L.A. We'll see. But who's this?"
Alec glanced back at Magnus, and had momentarily forgotten he was even there. He smiled nervously. "Magnus, this is Jace, my brother. And Jace, this is Magnus, my, uh… my boyfriend."
"What? You guys got together? You didn't tell me that!"
Isabelle came into the living room from the kitchen. She was carrying a pack of cookies that Alec had had in the kitchen cupboard.
"It wasn't until a few hours ago, when were you expecting me to tell you? And why are you stealing my food?"
"You weren't here, and we were hungry!"
"You mean you were hungry. Jace doesn't eat stuff like this more than maybe once a year, and that's on Christmas."
Isabelle rolled her eyes and sat down by the dining table, opening the pack of cookies and pulling one out. She took a bite. "Where were you guys anyway?"
"We were at one of my runway shows. Alec actually liked it."
Isabelle stared for a moment. "You liked a fashion show?"
"It wasn't a regular fashion show! And the designer was nice."
"You met the designer? Who was it?"
"Uh... Seth something."
"Seth Aaron Henderson."
"Oh, go figure. Of course that's the kind of fashion show you'll like."
Jace sat down next to Isabelle and took his phone from his pocket. "We actually came to talk to you, Alec." He looked back up at Alec. "Mom asked about you."
Alec's smile quickly fell and he bit his lip. He looked at Magnus before looking at Jace again. "What does she want?"
"She asked how you were. Where you live now. And she asked if you'd want to come with us to a dinner at some fancy restaurant. I guess you can bring … Magnus, was it? … since I'm bringing Clary and Izzy is bringing that guy."
"His name is Simon, Jace."
"Whatever. What do you say, Alec? Give it a shot?"
Alec bit his lip and looked down. "I don't know."
"Well, if you want to, give me a call. It'll be the day after tomorrow if we're going. The day before I leave again."
Alec nodded a bit. Jace and Isabelle got up from the chairs – it was pretty obvious he needed to think, and with them around that wouldn't happen. They left after saying their goodbyes, and Alec walked directly in to the bedroom, almost throwing himself on the bed. Magnus followed him and sat down on the bed, next to Alec. Alec had already told him what happened when he told his parents he was gay, so Magnus knew exactly why this hurt so much.
"Alec, listen to me, honey. You don't have to go if you don't want to. No one would blame you, okay? If you want to go, I'll go with you, and if you don't, that's fine too. This is not something you have to do." There was a short silence. "Baby, say something."
"Does she think it's all okay because she wants to have dinner with me? They threw me out of the house, that's not something you can fix that easily. Oh Magnus, what am I going to do?"
"You're going to think about it, and then you're going to decide if you're willing to give her a chance."
"Maybe we should go. I mean, how bad can it be?"
"Think about it for a bit, Alec. You don't want to jump into it if you haven't thought about it."
Magnus got down next to Alec and looked at him. Alec put his head on Magnus' chest and his arm over him. Magnus rested his arm around Alec's shoulders and held him tightly. He could hear Alec starting to cry, but didn't know what to do. He kissed his forehead.
"Will you sing to me, Magnus?"
"What do you want me to sing?"
"I don't care."
Magnus lay quietly for a while, staring up at the ceiling and trying to find out what he should sing. Then he smiled a bit, and started singing in a low voice. His voice was a bit rough, but Alec didn't mind.
"What happened to your life
It's more than makeup staining your eyes
You wanna be in a better place
Say you don't wanna live this way
All alone
When your heart is cold
And when you feel you're letting go
You can rise above the world below
Rise tonight, tonight
So hard to watch you bleed
Your fragile heart ripped at the seams
You gotta try to help me understand
But first you're gonna have to let me in
No, you're not alone
When your heart is cold
And when you feel you're letting go
You can rise above the world below
Rise tonight
You can rise tonight, yeah
There's a light, a hope in your eyes
Like a star burning in the sky
There's a fire you can't hide tonight, oh.
When your heart is cold
And when you feel you're letting go
You can rise above the world below
You can rise above the world below
Rise tonight
You can rise tonight."
There was a comfortable silence between them for a few minutes after Magnus finished the song. Alec was silently sobbing and Magnus had closed his eyes while singing.
"You have such a nice voice, Maggie."
Magnus opened his eyes, smiled and looked down at Alec. "Maggie?"
"Don't you like it?"
Magnus smiled and gave him a gentle squeeze. He kissed his forehead again and looked back up to the ceiling. He closed his eyes.
"It's perfect."
AN:
Hi guys! New chapter! Woo!
A few things:
1. The song Magnus sings is Rise by Colton Dixon. NOT MINE.
2. (something I forgot to mention in the last chapter) Seth Aaron Hendersen is a real designer, and my favourite designer. He is not my character, either.
But yeah. We got to see Jace this chapter! I don't actually like Jace that much, so I don't think I'll have him in the story much. Just the necessary amount of Jace. This is TMI afterall. And I hate Clary, but yeah, she'll be there too.
But I think that's pretty much what I needed to say for this chapter... Hope you liked it!
Azooak