Disclaimer: Don't own the Mortal Instruments.

Simplest Things

He was laughing like mad, his head thrown back and his hair flicking about his head in perfect disarray.

"What is so funny, Magnus?"

A giggle or a sly smile Alec could handle but a full scale chortle was too much for him. Sometimes the simplest things Alec did would seem hysterically funny to the Warlock. It wouldn't have been so bad if Alec had intended to be funny but half the time he really wasn't.

This time all Alec had done was ask a simple question. That was all; nothing strange about that. That was why Alec could not help but frown as Magnus still rolled around on the floor unable to catch his breath in between peals of laughter. His laugh was a harsh sound and it reminded Alec of church bells.

The kind of bells that are double edged, at times they ring to signal the arrival of merriment and happiness and at others they signal death and the intolerable passage of time. Magnus was like that to. Sometimes Alec just stared at him out of the corner of his eye and remembered how old the Warlock was, how many years he had lived and had yet to live. Alec had never before seriously considered his own death but now more than ever it seemed to be very prominent in his mind.

Sometimes he felt like Magnus's immortality was mocking his mortality and it hurt, it hurt so badly that sometimes Alec would actively avoid Magnus's company just so he could keep his mind free of morbid thoughts and dreams of Magnus loving other young men and women who weren't even born yet.

But none of that had anything to do with Alec's question.

He was very much annoyed now and finally Magnus looked at him properly and realised he had crossed line. He breathed heavily as he tried quickly to calm himself down and he fought his uncontrollable lips which seemed stuck in a foolish grin.

He put his head down and his hair covered his expression for a moment before he decided to stand up and face Alec to prove the gaiety had been dispensed with. He coughed briefly and then smiled softly at his lover; a kindly smile and not a mocking one.

"I am sorry, my love," he moved Alec's dark fringe out of his beautiful blue eyes as he spoke. The feel of his touch against his skin immediately calmed Alec's temper. "It's just that sometimes," and here the grin returned, "the simplest things you do make me laugh. And not in a mean way, I promise you. It just makes me so happy to be with you. Your growing up and here I am with a front row ticket to watch you, once a shy and awkward Shadowhunter-"

Here Alec blushed and turned his face away from Magnus. He heard a low chuckle but this time it didn't annoy him, this time he felt like smiling to.

"Come now, darling, you know it's true. But you're changing. It's happening so quickly. You're becoming a wildly hot and gorgeous young man with, admittedly, a less then fabulous taste in style but an adorable sense of humour. I love it."

Alec's smile drooped slightly as he thought about what Magnus was saying. It was back to the issue of time again. Why did everything have to come back to "time"?

"But, Magnus, what happens after that? When my hair goes grey and my eyes start to fail me and everything else that comes with being old. What happens then?"

"Then you will be a sexily mature Shadowhunter, simple," Magnus laughed again but then he saw how sad Alec looked. So he leaned in closer and kissed Alec's cheek tenderly. "I will always love you, do you understand?"

Alec shrugged weakly.

"What can I do to convince you?"

Alec voice suddenly sounded like it was coming from very far away, in the future. "I think you'll only be able to prove it to me when the time comes for you to put it in to practice."

"I see," Magnus said, quietly. "That is a long time away, though."

"I don't know. I think the time will fly by," Alec said sadly.

Magnus opened his mouth as if to speak but then closed it again, thinking better of it. Instead he grabbed Alec around the waist and hugged him tightly as if he would never let him go.

"Thank you," Alec said his voice muffle as he burrowed his head against Magnus's neck. Finally, he believed Magnus. He didn't care if he was proved wrong in the future. Today was the present and right now he had someone who loved him no matter what.

Sometimes it is the simplest of things that can make the biggest of differences.