Author's Note: So I started working on the next chapter and it got really big and long and a lot of things happen in it. So, long story short, I chopped the chapter in half into what I call a "bonus" chapter which means I'll give you a little chapter now and a manageable- length one in a few days. So, for all of you Will/Magnus lovers out there (and for everyone else who is still reading) , please, enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 14

Will spent the rest of the day, upstairs, away from Magnus and deep in thought. Jem hadn't made his death easy on Will. Jem's instructions to Will had requested that Will love again, but Jem had never told Will who to love. Magnus had told Will that he shouldn't have to choose and meant that Will should already know who he should be with. Sophie needed a husband, Charlie needed a father, and it was only right that Will satisfy both of the roles.

Will found himself thinking about the decisions his own father had made. He could have abandoned Will's mother and left her to raise a child on her own, knowing that the Clave would end up with the child one way or another. He had done that, he could have stayed with the Clave, married Genevieve, and made everyone happy, but William himself wouldn't have been happy. He couldn't have forced himself into a loveless marriage. He had made himself happy, instead of making others happy.

Will closed his eyes and envisioned his parent's home in Wales. It had been built on the edge of a cliff overlooking a bay. Even in the heat of summer, the air was still cold, and always smelled of crisp salt water. The sky never seemed to be clear and instead remained an impermeable, pewter gray all year round. Will had been just a child when he had left, and yet, he saw himself there now, standing on a bluff, staring out into the ocean as an adult. The last rays of the sun reflected blue on the water and flickered out, one by one.

Frozen grass crunched underfoot as Will turned away from the ocean and looked at the rambling three story house he had been born in. In his darkest nights of sorrow and heartache following his flight to London, Will planned to never come back in the same way Cecily had left, and never came back.

Will walked up the yard towards the house. The house drew him in with heat to warm his frigid body. There was a single light burning in the first floor kitchen of the house, so Will walked over to the window. A woman stood in front of a sink, washing dishes. Her hair was long and dark and her eyes were a piercing blue as she searched the distant horizon. Will felt a pang in his chest. His mother never had stopped waiting for Will to come home.

There was movement behind Will's mother. She turned, a small smile on her face as a man came into view. Like Will's mother, this man, his father, looked much older than Will remembered. His face was lined with age and worry but his eyes were light. The man smiled and grabbed the woman around the waist. He pulled her against his body. Her hands splashed soapy water out of the sink as her arms went up around his neck. They began to slow dance to a song that wasn't playing.

Will's father had given up everything to live on a lonely cliff in Wales. He had lost both of his children in separate circumstances, and yet he was content to dance with the woman he loved. Will's father had chosen his own path to happiness. He laughed and twirled the woman he loved around a tiny kitchen. In eleven years, and more so in this moment, Will had never seen his father regret the decisions he had made in his past.

Everything Jem had told Will suddenly became crystal clear. Jem hadn't told Will who to love, because he wanted Will to decide for himself. For Will, there was only one choice to be made. He hadn't had to choose at all; he already knew the answer.

Sometime later, Will opened his eyes to find himself curled up on a large, fluffy pillow on the floor beside a window, upstairs in the apartment Magnus had designated as Will's. He smelled beef stew and sat up to see Magnus setting a small knee high table with bowls, bread, and a candle near the fireplace.

"It's supper time," Magnus said. "Come eat. I want to talk."

Will went to to wash his hands, and then sat down at the table. Magnus cut thick slices of white bread, then sat down to the right of Will. He poured them cups of tea before they began to eat.

"I'm sorry about before," Magnus said. He buttered his bread, and then buttered Will's as well. "Of course I want you to move in, and be with me. I would want nothing more than to wake up at your side every day, but you have an obligation to Charlie. You might not love Sophie, but you'll regret every day of the rest of your life if you don't at least try to be a father to her son."

"I understand that, but I love you," Will said. "I can finally love you. I want to love you and I'm ready to love you. I have to believe that I can have it all. I can be with you, and I can be a good father. It's hard to keep two people who truly love each other apart. You told me that." Magnus smiled but shook his head.

"But what about Sophie?" Magnus asked. "You have an obligation…"

"I can't be with her. She's better off with someone who can love her in ways I can't," Will said. "I know it would be easier and better for everyone if I just married her, but I can't live that way. Jem would have wanted me to be happy. I wouldn't be, with her."

"It's only right-" Magnus began.

"It's not right when it feels wrong," Will insisted. "I know what I have to do, Magnus, but I can't do it without you. I love you. When you don't believe in us…I will. I need you with me. Anyhow, anyway, and anywhere." Magnus lifted his hand and rested it on Will's.

"I'm here," Magnus said. "I'll be at your side for as long as you need me to be. Even when you beg me to leave, even when you make it clear you want me gone, I'll still be with you. I will always come back to you, time and time again…"

"Until death?" Will asked. He felt himself teetering on the edge of the unknown and realized that this was how a man must feel when it came time to ask someone to spend a lifetime with together. People might think he was crazy, to commit to a man, and a warlock, but Will didn't care. His only thoughts were on Magnus. Will had loved Jem but Jem wanted Will to love again, and the only person Will wanted to be with was Magnus. When there was no one left to be at his side, he still wanted Magnus there.

Everything hinged on Magnus's reply. He would be committing blindly to an uncertain future. Will would have to be with Sophie in one way or another, simply because she was the mother of his son. Charlie would be a major part of Will's life, and yet, a life spent with Magnus wouldn't be impossible. It would take work, but it would be worth it, always.

Magnus took Will's hand and pressed the back of it to his lips.

"Until death," Magnus replied.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please review? Here's a teaser!

"I can make this easy on us. I can walk away. Can you?"