Chapter 2 – The Apron

The morning dawned bright and cold. Magnus stirred, and reached out across the bed for Alec, but found only an empty space where his boyfriend ought to be. He opened his eyes, and suddenly the memory of last night's argument came tumbling through his mind. He groaned, and buried his head in the pillow. After lying there for several minutes, a strange smell began to tickle at his nostrils – an unpleasant, burning sort of smell – and he raised his head in alarm. He heaved himself to his feet and shuffled out of the room. His mouth fell open as he entered the kitchen. The place was in disarray (more so than usual) with pots and pans littered about the counters, and a truly evil aroma emanating from the direction of the stove. Alec was in the midst of it all, wearing one of Magnus' rainbow-patterned PVC aprons over his plain dark t-shirt and jeans. He was gazing down mournfully into a frying pan and prodding its indistinguishable contents with a fork.

"What on earth are you doing?" the warlock demanded, so surprised that he almost forgot how mad he was at his boyfriend.

"I wanted to make you breakfast," Alec confessed, spearing what looked like a strip of blackened leather on his fork and eying it sadly. "But I burned the bacon."

"What possessed you, Alexander?" Magnus asked sharply, edging closer to the stove. "I hate to break it to you, but your cooking is even worse than your sister's."

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Alec's mouth for a split second, then his face fell abruptly and he bowed his head, causing his black hair to spill over his eyes. Magnus' heart melted a little, in spite of himself.

"I'm sorry, Magnus," Alec murmured.

"You should be. What have you done to these eggs? They look like djinn vomit."

"No, I mean I'm sorry for the way I acted last night," Alec continued, folding his arms defensively across his chest – he looked like a little kid expecting to be yelled at. "You were right, I was being a brat."

"I was genuinely tempted to put you over my knee and spank you at one point," Magnus said with a wry smile.

"You know what? If I ever act like that again you have my full permission."

"Really?" Magnus asked, his eyes lighting up, but Alec only took the warlock's hand tentatively in his own. His face was pale and serious.

"I hope you know I didn't mean the things I said," Alec said after a long pause, squeezing Magnus' fingers gently.

"Yes you did," Magnus replied, and he pulled his hand from Alec's grasp. "You almost always mean the things you say. I don't doubt that you regret saying it, but you certainly meant it at the time."

"No, you're wrong, I was just lashing out because I was angry, and…jealous. I was jealous, OK?" He spoke almost breathlessly, as if each word cost him a great effort. "You have no idea what it's like to feel like this, how could you? You've never been inferior to anyone in your life."

"Oh Alec," Magnus rubbed his eyes wearily. "You're not inferior and you never were. Please don't say that."

Magnus could see the tears gathering in his boyfriend's dark blue eyes, and almost without thinking he reached out and took Alec in his arms, realizing as he did so that his anger had already faded completely. They stood locked together for a long moment.

"I can't believe I kicked that pigeon," Alec said, quite out of the blue.

"Relax, you only nudged it with your foot," Magnus replied with a grin, and he placed a soft kiss on Alec's forehead.

"And I know I shouldn't have ignored your friend," Alec continued, resting his head against Magnus' shoulder. "I'll apologize, if I see him again. He didn't do anything wrong. I just couldn't stand the way he was looking at you, he was clearly into you."

"Well that just shows how paranoid you are," Magnus laughed, stepping back a little and looking straight into Alec's eyes. "For your information, Angelotti and I were never anything more than friends. We were pretty close for a while, back in the twenties, but that was almost a century ago. We've never had sex, never even kissed."

"You're kidding," Alec raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Oh my God, you really do think I've slept with every single person I've ever met, don't you?" Magnus demanded.

"No, it's not that," Alec insisted hurriedly. "It's just, there was such a weird atmosphere between you two. Whatever you say, he was not looking at you in a platonic way. And you were so...secretive about it afterwards."

"No I wasn't," Magnus said, a little more sharply than he had intended. "I'd have told you anything you wanted to know if you'd only behaved in a vaguely rational manner. And if it puts your mind at ease, Angelotti is not, and has never been, romantically interested in me. He's straight – in fact he's one of the most prolific womanizers I've ever met, or he was when I knew him anyway. So you can stop freaking out now, OK?"

"OK," Alec said after a short pause. Magnus suspected his boyfriend wasn't entirely convinced, and was merely biting his tongue to avoid another argument, but as long as the matter was dead and buried he didn't much care.

"Good," Magnus replied, brushing Alec's hair out of his eyes. "Lets get down to business then, shall we?"

"What business?"

"You still have a lot of making up to do, my darling," Magnus said, grinning wickedly. "Breakfast was a...a very sweet gesture, but sadly the only thing those eggs are good for is chemical warfare. So you might have to devise another way of sweetening me up."

Alec's lips curled into a shy smile as he drew very close and planted a series of soft kisses on Magnus' cheek. The warlock tilted back his head a little as Alec's mouth moved downwards to trace the line of his jaw, and caress the smooth skin of his throat. Desire thrummed through him like a faint electrical charge, and he seized his boyfriend by the shoulders and drew him into a fierce kiss, nipping Alec's lower lip between his teeth. Their bodies were close now, and Magnus could feel Alec's heart racing against his own chest like the wings of a caged bird. For some time they stood locked together, consumed by the force of their kiss, until Alec eventually began to fumble awkwardly with the strings of his apron and tried to shrug the thing off, but Magnus caught him firmly by the arms.

"Leave the apron on, Alexander," he whispered hurriedly between kisses. "It's really doing it for me."

Alec's eyes widened a little, but he did as he was told. Magnus drew a sharp breath as Alec's hands snaked down his chest and hovered at the waistband of his pink silk pajamas. The Shadowhunter's slim fingers inched their way downwards to gently caress his cock, rubbing back and forth through the soft fabric. A low growl rumbled at the back of the warlock's throat as he allowed Alec to press him hard against the wall. At that moment the phone began to ring, but they both did their best to ignore it.

"Whoever it is, they'll just have to call back," Alec mumbled, as he sank slowly to his knees and gave his boyfriend a long, lingering look from beneath his thick dark lashes. Magnus twined his fingers through Alec's tousled hair, almost giddy with lust. But unfortunately, whoever it was on the other end of the line seemed determined not to be ignored, and the phone continued to ring and ring. Magnus glanced over at it irritably.

"Just ignore it, they'll go away," Alec said, slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of Magnus' pajamas and beginning to draw them carefully down.

"Ugh, just wait there one minute honey, OK?" Magnus groaned, sidestepping his boyfriend and shuffling awkwardly – given that he now had a fairly substantial erection – towards the phone.

"Magnus!" Alec protested, looking rather offended.

"I swear, I'm just getting rid of them," he replied, grabbing the phone and pressing it impatiently to his ear. "Hi. Look this is not a good time, could you call back in –" but then he broke off abruptly. Alec watched in growing annoyance as a distant voice buzzed away on the other end of the line, unable to catch a word of what was said. Magnus' brow furrowed as he listened. "Fine…fine," the warlock said at last, his shoulders slumping in resignation. "But this had better be good."

Magnus hung up, and turned silently to his boyfriend, who had now hauled himself to his feet and planted his hands firmly on his hips. Magnus had to force himself to keep a straight face. Despite the distinctly humorless expression on Alec's face, it was hard to take him seriously in his current attire.

"Who was that?" The Shadowhunter demanded, though from his sharp tone, Magnus gathered that he had already guessed.

"Well don't freak out, but it was Angelotti," he said. "He needs to see me. Some kind of emergency. He didn't want to explain over the phone."

"So you're going to drop everything and run straight over there just because he snapped his fingers?"

"There was no finger-snapping involved, I assure you," Magnus commented wryly. "And he can hardly visit me here, given that he's a member of the undead and would end up in a worse state than that bacon of yours if he so much as steps foot outside before nightfall."

"How did he even get your number?"

"Oh how should I know, Alexander? He must have asked around. You were there last night, you know I never gave it to him."

Alec merely shrugged, though he was obviously very far from pleased.

"Look, I'm sorry," Magnus said gently. "I shouldn't be long. But I have to go and get ready now, apparently he's sending one of his – people over to collect me, and they'll be here any minute."

"His people…he has servants?"

"I think minions would be a more fitting description," Magnus waved a hand idly. "Yes I know, he's a prize-winning douchebag, but listen…all douchebaggery aside, when I spoke to him just now, he sounded concerned. Really concerned. I've never heard him sound like that in all the years I've known him. I honestly doubt he'd bother me unless it was important. And – oh crap, there's the door-bell – would you get that, Alec?"

"Why me?"

"Well in case you hadn't noticed, I still have a raging hard-on – entirely your fault of course – and if I answered the door right now our guest would either be horribly offended, uncontrollably aroused, or would try to use me as a coat-hook. So please, Alexander, do this one thing for me?" Without waiting for a response, he turned and hurried off to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him in his haste.