Pandemonium was busy as always. Magnus could not remember a time when it wasn't. He was in his usual spot, the corner overlooking the crowd of dancers, surrounded by beautiful people, mundanes and downworlders alike. The noise, smells and sights were all blending together and Magnus decided that he wasn't in the mood tonight.
But, unfortunately, it had been a while since he had made an appearance so he needed to stay for at least for a drink, maybe a dance if someone took his fancy. He listened to nothing and no one, keeping his mind occupied unconsciously by thinking about the clock over his heart. A day or two left. A day or two before meeting his "soulmate". Magnus couldn't decide if her was nervous, excited, or if he simply wanted to know who the universe thought was good enough to make him wait four hundred years.
His eyes scanned the crowd, watching a couple mundane enter. It was normal for mundane to come into Pandemonium, they'd come in for the rave factor of the club, they never got any preference, not in what is mostly a downworld place. The nerd followed the red head, looking out of place. Jeans and t-shirts were not what was usually worn here.
A couple Seelies and Vampires draped over him and the couches that surrounded him in the VIP area. Like always the downworlders flocked to him as if his power, privilege and influence would somehow magically transfer to them. Any other decade he would bask in the decadence that was offered to him, he might even take them all home for a night of physical indulgence, but tonight his heart wasn't in it. His heart hadn't been in it since the century began.
Camille's reign of terror over the DuMort has meant that Raphael has been absent more than not, Ragnor has decided that Idris is the best place for his retirement, Catarina has been more and more busy at the hospital, and Magnus hadn't heard from Tessa in at least a decade. Immortality had a way of destroying friendships. Friendship, relationships in general, seem to fade as time blends together.
There's screaming coming from the back room now. The red head from before, flanked by her bespectacled friend, was screaming and pointing. At Shadowhunters. Huh. Magnus let the scene play out without his notice, now that the girl had stopped her screeching. He let another Seelie drape over his chest as the Vampire on his left whispered lewd things in his ear. Magnus filed those ideas away for a time where he could get it up naturally.
He brushed them both off and rose to his full height. Without a backwards glance he strode to the dance floor. He glanced around and found a mundane that looked like he could dance. He slid up beside him and grabbed his hips, the mundane turned around and a smile graced his face. He twirled in Magnus' arms and pushed his back flush with Magnus' stomach. They danced like that until Magnus started to get bored, he moved away and slipped into the crowd as the mundane looked around for him.
He moved to the bar and sipped the cocktail the bartender gave him. The alcohol tingled on his tongue and he wished that it did more to his sense than create a taste in his mouth. He listened, half-heartedly, to the conversations around him. Cheating boyfriends, uninterested women, redundancies and Magnus' could care less otherwise.
Pandemonium was starting to feel like a free-for-all. He remembered a time where it was the place to be, but now it just felt like another house party for a friend's crush; you only went because your friend wanted to get laid. Magnus remembered those days too. Years of friend, acquaintances really, that he would party with in the sixties and seventies. He would thoroughly deny any partying done in the eighties. And those people were never to be trusted.
Magnus found himself uninterested in all of this. The drink had lost its taste, the club had lost its vibrancy, and the people seemed like everyday people. He looked to the dance floor and found no one to interest him, he scanned over the bar and found nothing that caught his attention and the up to the VIP area, where the Seelies and Vampires were occupying opposite sides. Without Magnus there they were staying separate.
He placed his half-empty glass on the bar and left a generous tip. Without another glance around the club he moved to the entrance. Conjuring up his coat he stepped outside and took a deep breath. The smell of Brooklyn tickled his nose; sweat, urine, too much cologne and cigarettes. Sometimes Magnus wondered why he'd chosen New York after all these years. Maybe it was worth relocating, somewhere tropical with cute waiters and water clearer than air.
But this was home for now. And he wanted to see how New York would change and grow. Plus, there were only so many fashion capitals before he would have to settled for somewhere as uninspired as Moscow or Egypt.
He wandered home, never stopping to look at the windows, or to properly listen to more people complaining about their lives. He passed flashing lights offering delight, both physical and edible. He ignored the traffic honking and swerving through the streets.
He opened the door to his building and heard the muffled yelling from the apartment in the back, another spat between the junkie and dealer getting out of hand. He ascended the steps one at a time, not bothering to hurry when he knew only the Chairman would be there to greet him. He waved his hand and the door opened as he took the final step onto the landing.
The Chairman bolted through the door and if Magnus had been in a less apathetic mood he might have given chase, or at least have given the Chairman a few minutes to believe he had escaped. As it was Magnus just wanted to get into his sating pyjamas and curl up with a bowl of Roman ice-cream from Bar Fontana Di Trevi and watch some bad reality television. The Chairman ended up on the couch after Magnus had shut the door.
He meowed ungraciously and jumped off, flicking his tail as he sauntered into Magnus' guest room. Magnus conjured up a tub of mixed gelato and placed it on the bench, waiting for him to wash his face and change.
He walked through his bedroom into his en-suite. He debated whether to just wash his face or take a quick shower to get the smell off his skin. The shower seemed like a nice end to an otherwise draining day. He scrubbed at his skin and hair, not bothering to take as much care as he normally would, and was out within minutes. He rubbed his hair and body down quickly with a towel and changed into his midnight blue pyjama bottoms, not bothering with the matching shirt.
The gelato had started to melt as he grabbed a spoon and collapsed onto the couch. He flicked through the channels for a few minutes before deciding to watch the read-off on RuPaul's Drag Race. The Chairman came out a few minutes later and rubbed his face against Magnus' leg. He raised his arm to make some food appear in the Chairman's bowl, but he jumped on the couch and curled into Magnus' side.
Magnus fell asleep there. Gelato still resting in his lap as he drifted off to the Chairman's purrs and Drag Queens' insults.