So this chapter is like a continuation of the day our favorite boys started with a kiss (!), it's short, but it serves as a basis for establishing the timeline and what's going to happen in the next chapter ;)

I know it's not as exciting as CH12, but I hope you still like it.

Chapter 13

Alec walked to his room to change his clothes and tell the man who was currently hiding in his closet to leave as soon as he could, but to his surprise the man in question was not where he had left him. Magnus had left, leaving just a note stuck to the closet door as the only evidence of his presence there.

Alec looked around, wondering how he had escaped, and noticed that one of the windows was open. Was that man some kind of Spider-Man, or what? That window, unlike the one in the living room, had no emergency stairs.

He chuckled, why did he even care? This was Magnus Bane he was talking about, the man was skillful, he surely knew how to escape from buildings without the help of any stairs, so he just read the note and quickly put it in a drawer. All that fear of being caught by his sister that had been eating him alive in the past few minutes was rapidly dissipating from his body.

"Hey, Alec?" Izzy yelled from somewhere in the living room. Alec was just taking out his clothes for work, he had told his sister that he didn't have time for a shower.

"Yeah?" Alec said, putting on a clean shirt and changing his pants.

"Why is there glitter all over your table?"

Alec flinched. The stupid glitter! He had completely forgotten to clean it. Magnus had used his silly gloves to examine the wills and not just that, that thing was all over him—in his clothes, nails, hair. Alec had picked up the coffee cups, the dirty dishes, and collected the papers scattered on the floor, but not the glitter. Sometimes it was hard to pay attention to it when it was everywhere, as Magnus had said, you got used to it.

"I hmmm...I was trying to recreate what Magnus does." He lied, looking at himself and making sure he wasn't all covered up in the damn thing too. And he was, how his sister hadn't noticed it was beyond him, but he quickly ran to the bathroom and rinsed his arms, hands, face, neck, and every part of his body that was exposed. Maybe a shower wouldn't have been a bad idea after all.

"And why were you doing that?"

"For research, you know?" He said. He didn't know how he had come up with such a perfect excuse, but he didn't dwell on it too much and just went on. "The trails we've found in our last four cases match among each other, but not with Magnus's previous cases, so I was trying to throw it around to see how this other criminal was doing it." He said, finally joining his sister back in the living room.

"This looks like Magnus's trials." She said.

"Yeah, that was the idea. The only way to get this kind of trail," he said, "is if you have the glitter on you." He added, wondering when he had become such a good liar. He had always been very bad at it, telling lies had never been his strong suit.

"Like an accessory or something?" She inquired.

"Yeah, something like that, I just hmmm, put it in my hands and started grabbing stuff." He lied, well, partially. Technically, Magnus just grabbed things with his hands and made glitter rain. He wore those gloves, but it was pretty much the same.

"This is good, Alec!" Izzy exclaimed, smiling excitedly.

"Yeah, I was going to share that with you guys later. Also..." He said, quickly picking up the wills from the table to distract his sister. Maybe she hadn't noticed it yet, but the glitter was not just on the table, it was all over the apartment. He would have to vacuum it later. "I found something in the wills." He added, quickly showing his sister what he, well, actually Magnus, had found. "It's a map, see? Look at the corners, they form a pattern, and there are some symbols there too, I'm sure they lead to where the real will is."

"Oh my God! Jace is going to go nuts! He loves maps!"

"I know, well, let's go!" He said, trying to get his sister out of his home as quickly as possible.

"But wait, aren't you going to take anything for breakfast?"

"No, we'll get something on our way to work."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, come on, let's go! I'll even pay for it."

"Okay." She shrugged.

They walked out of the apartment and Alec looked at the table one last time before closing the door behind him. If his sister hadn't interrupted, God knew what had happened there.

A flash of crimson colored his cheeks.

He knew what had happened there and the worst part was that he wanted it, he wanted it badly.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus arrived in a cloud to his apartment. He could still feel Alec's lips all over his body and he couldn't help smiling at the memory of what had just happened between them. He was tired, after all, they hadn't slept at all, but his body was still very much awake to even think about going to sleep. So after pouring himself a cup of fresh coffee, changing into more comfortable clothes, and giving the Chairman something to eat, he walked to his studio and grabbed an empty canvas.

He wanted to do some random painting just to let off steam and keep his instrument sharp, but with the first stroke of his brush, he found his hand taking on a life of its own and creating something completely new. It started out as a light background with blues and yellows, like those found in a sunrise, but with each new stroke that mixture of colors began to take shape and by the time he finished it, he had a beautiful abstract painting of...well, he didn't know exactly of what, but it looked good. It was some sort of landscape, a forest of dense trees of very dark colors that were only visible thanks to those small glimpses of light that peeked between the lines that represented the leaves. It gave the impression that if you just kept making your way through it, you would eventually find the place where the light was coming.

"Well, that looks good...who did that originally?" A female voice asked, startling Magnus.

He had been so caught up admiring his own work that he hadn't noticed when someone had entered his loft.

"Cat!" Magnus exclaimed, recognizing his friend and rushing to give her a bone-crushing hug. No one but them knew it, but Catarina was the only living person who owned a key to Magnus's place. "I'm so glad to see you!" He added, kissing both her cheeks.

"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad..."

"I'm so sorry, I know I promised to visit you soon, but things got a bit out of control around here."

"I heard, Ragnor told me something about it."

"You saw him?" Magnus asked.

"Yes, yesterday. He came to visit me at the hospital and then we went for dinner, we talked about a lot of things." She said with a smile. "But we'll get back to that later, now tell me...the painting, who is it?"

"Mine?" Magnus said, smiling sheepishly. She had been one of the few people in his life who had always encouraged him to make his own work, so admitting that he had done it made him feel a bit insecure about his abilities.

"You did that?" She asked, unable to hide the pride and excitement in her voice.

"Yes?"

"It's beautiful, Magnus!" She exclaimed, clapping excitedly. "All those light colors and edges contrasting with the darkness of the landscape...what is it? Some kind of forest? Never mind, it's amazing! You know I know nothing about art, but this piece is absolutely beautiful! Worthy of a famous museum!"

Magnus smiled widely, quite pleased with that reaction. This had been his first original work in a very long time and he liked the result. It reflected how he felt in that moment and in a way, how much his life had changed in such a short time.

"You look happy." Catarina pointed out. "It's been so long since the last time I saw you smiling like that."

"I guess I am." Magnus confessed. He hadn't noticed how happy he felt lately, but yeah, he felt the happiest he had been in a very, very long time.

"It's good to see you like that."

Magnus smiled at her. "You want something to drink?" He asked, remembering that he hadn't offered anything to his friend yet. Where were his manners? "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No, I was hoping you could invite me something, I have to be in the hospital at noon, so…"

Magnus nodded and went to the kitchen to fetch something so they could both have breakfast. He was hungry too, so he started to take out the ingredients and busied himself in the kitchen while his friend just sat there on one of the stools and talked to him.

"Ragnor told me about your alliance with the federal agent." She said as she poured herself some orange juice that Magnus had just put on the counter.

"Of course he did, and do you also think I'm crazy?"

"No, I think you're stupid."

Magnus looked up from the frying pan where he was cooking some scrambled eggs and glared at his friend.

"What? Don't give me that look, you know it's true. Have you thought about the consequences that this insanity could have for everyone? You? Your friends? That boy? If something goes wrong, and I'm not saying he's going to betray you because he hasn't done it yet and I'm sure he's not going to do it, but if for some reason someone else discovered what you two are doing, then things would really get ugly for all of you. You would ruin each other, Magnus. Alec? That's his name, right?" She asked, and Magnus just nodded. "Alec could lose his career and you and your friends could end up in jail."

Magnus sighed. He hadn't considered all the possibilities so far, of course he had thought about what could happen to him and his friends if things didn't go according to plan, but up until now, he hadn't stopped to think about what could happen to Alec.

"Thank God you two aren't sleeping together because if that were the case, that poor man would not only lose his career, but could end up in jail too accused of obstruction of justice or complicity." She continued.

Magnus turned around as fast as he could to try to hide his flushed cheeks. They weren't properly sleeping together yet, but if what had happened a few hours ago served as a reference, well, they were clearly on their way to it, that was for sure.

"Magnus Bane!" Catarina questioned, raising her always very sweet voice a few octaves. She sounded like a mother who was two seconds away from lecturing her errant child because he had arrived home past his curfew. "Are you having sex with him?"

Magnus took a deep breath before answering. No matter what he said, he knew what was coming. Catarina would tell him what he already knew—that what had happened between them had all the potential to go wrong. "No, but we kissed?"

"Oh my God, Magnus! Are you out of your mind!? Why did you kiss him!?"

"How do you know it was me the one who kissed him and not the other way around, huh?"

"Because I know you, Magnus, we've been friends for a very long time. I know you have a thing for danger and everything that has the potential to ruin your life. All the bad things that have happened to you so far are because of that and you know it. Besides, Ragnor warned me that you liked this boy more than you should."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "That loudmouth who claims to be my best friend shouldn't have said anything."

"He's just worried about you, but tell me, is it true? Do you like him?"

"Yes."

"Magnus…"

"What, Cat? It just happened, okay? I couldn't exactly control it. I tried, but I couldn't and last night...well, we were tired of working on his case and we danced, and..."

"And?"

"And I kissed him. It just happened, okay?"

"It didn't just happen, you kissed him because you wanted to!"

"Well, of course I wanted to, and I don't regret it in the least. What happened between Alexander and me has been the best thing that has happened to me in a very long time. What can I say? He's different, Cat."

"Oh dear God." She whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. "You just don't like him, do you? You're falling in love with him!"

Magnus sighed. He couldn't hide it, not in front of Catarina. This woman knew him better than anyone. "Like an idiot."

"When did this happen?"

"I don't know? We've been talking for weeks, getting to know each other, and I...oh, Cat! There's so much I have to tell you!"

"Well, start talking, mister, you have until noon."

o-o-o-o-o

Alec and Jace were on their way back to the office after successfully solving the case of the multiple wills. It had turned out that they had been right to suppose that the five wills were just a map to find the actual document. The moment the family had seen the circle that formed with the five corners of the wills, they had gasped in shock and quickly walked to one of the rooms of the house where there were sculptures of the five symbols illustrated on the sheets of paper. The sculptures were around some mosaic on the floor that incidentally, was a more elaborated version of the funny-looking circle in the wills, so it hadn't taken them long to realize that the actual document had to be hidden beneath it.

After a lot of arguing and bickering, the family had decided to just smash the beautiful piece of art to look for the will, instead of having it removed. When they found it, Alec and Jace quickly examined it and let one of the lawyers read it. To all their misfortunes, the document clearly stipulated that only a very small part of the money would be distributed among all the members of the family and the other, which was a more considerable amount, had to be donated to different charities.

It had been one hell of a conflict after that, with the whole family looking for ways to invalidate the last will of their late father and grandfather, but Alec and Jace had already done their job, so they just filled out the reports to complete the file and said their goodbyes.

"It was really fucked up what that man did to his family, don't you think?" Jace said, once they were inside Alec's car.

"I don't know, I think he was in his right to do whatever he wanted with his money. You saw them, they only cared about him because he was rich, if I had been in his place, I would have probably done the same thing."

"Would you have left us fake wills making us believe that we were suddenly rich to later find out that you were only playing with us and that you had left us almost nothing of your money?"

"Well, you are not like them, but if I had had a family like his, then yes, I would have done the same."

"Well, that's good to know. I'll make sure to always make you believe that I am with you because you're the single most incredible person in the world, and not because I'm interested in getting money from you, it's not like you are the one who best manages its salary of the three of us, right?" Jace said jokingly.

Alec laughed, and they fell into a comfortable silence while they skirted through the always clogged streets of New York.

"I still can't believe how you noticed that all the wills were fake, though," Jace added after a while, "yesterday we spent all day studying them together, I read what the forensic report said. And the map? I would have never seen that thing even if they had told me it was there!"

"It was just a lucky find." Alec said, trying not to take too much credit for that case. After all, it hadn't been him who had actually solved it. Magnus had been the one who had found all those things.

"I don't think it was just a lucky find...give yourself some credit, Alec, you're smart and very good at what you do."

"I'm not...but anyway," Alec said, trying to change the subject, he was starting to feel very uncomfortable, "I didn't have time to ask you this in the morning with the case and all that, but Izzy said you didn't sleep at home, did you stay at Clary's?"

Jace nodded, blushing a bit.

"So I take that things are better between you two?"

"Much better, I think that after meeting her family we kind of exorcised all those demons that were coming between us. There are still things that she has to tell me, secrets she hasn't shared with me yet, but she asked for time and I'm giving it to her." Jace said with a smile. "As I told her, we have a lifetime to be honest with each other."

"A lifetime? Those are very serious words, Jace."

"I know, but I think she's the one, Alec."

"Do you think or are you sure? Because you can't go around saying that if you're not one hundred percent sure."

"I'm five hundred percent sure, Alec. She's it for me."

"How do you know?" Alec asked intrigued because well, how could you know when a person was the person for you? Was it something obvious?

"I don't know...I just look at her and I know. Like, when we're together there's no place I'd rather be, when we're apart she's on my mind the whole time, when something happens she's the first person I want to talk to. I don't know, it's not something I can explain, it's-"

Alec stopped paying attention after that. The only name that had come to mind when his brother hadtried to explain himself had been Magnus's and that worried him. Why was he only thinking about him? Was it because of that kiss? Or, was it something else? He wondered, but quickly shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and tried to pay attention back to what his brother was saying.

"So yeah...it's her." Jace was saying.

"I'm happy for you, Jace."

"Thanks."

Alec smiled. All worries and internal struggles aside, it was good to know that his brother was happy. All his life, the only thing he had wanted was to see all his siblings being happy, and although he sometimes became a real headache when it came to the boyfriends and girlfriends his siblings chose, that didn't mean he wasn't happy to hear they had found the right one.

"What about you?" Jace asked.

"What about me?"

"Yes, what about you...how are things going with that mysterious man you've been seeing?"

"What!?" Alec asked, almost slamming his foot against the brake. They were just around the corner from the FBI building, looking for a place to park.

"What you heard...how are things going with him?"

"I-I…" Alec stuttered. He hadn't talked about any of that with Jace. Izzy knew something about it, of course, because she had discovered him the other day, but she knew how to keep a secret, at least when Alec asked her to do it—and he had asked her to do it. "You-you know?"

"Of course I know, Alec, you're my partner and my brother, I think I know you pretty well. Izzy and I talked about it a few weeks ago, we suspected you were seeing someone, but, well, I'm sure of it now. You've been acting weird and distracted, besides, I couldn't help noticing that you're checking your phone almost twenty-four hours a day, and you and I both know that that's very un-Alec."

Alec sighed. Apparently, his secret wasn't much of secret after all. He had seriously underestimated his siblings, they knew him better than he had thought, and although that was comforting, it was also a bit alarming. He didn't know how long he would be able to keep Magnus's name out of all this, especially not after what had happened between them that very same morning.

"I know you don't want to talk about him, or else you would have done it already, but I really need to ask you something, Alec...are you happy?"

That question took Alec by surprise. Nobody had ever asked him that before. It was such a simple question, but yet so difficult to answer. Was he happy? He wondered. "Yes, I am." He answered sincerely.

"Good, that's all that matters. And well, when you're ready to talk about him, just know that we're here, okay? Maybe we'll tease you a bit and even get jealous of him, but remember that we just want to see you happy, okay?"

Alec nodded and just parked the car, suddenly feeling that the air was too heavy to breathe.

"You think we can go home early today?" Jace asked as they climbed down the car and headed to the building. Alec was grateful that his brother had decided to change the subject, they were getting too deep and he was not ready for that kind of conversation, especially after the day he'd had. "I need to go do some grocery shopping."

"If we hurry with the reports I don't see why that would be a problem...but only if we hurry, you know how Hodge is with that, he loves having all the paperwork ready as soon as we close a case, and with dad patrolling everything is like Quantico all over again, the reports have to be-"

"-finished before the sun goes down." Jace completed what their teachers had taught them back at the academy.

"Exactly."

They laughed and entered the building. The moment they stepped off the elevator, their father, who seemed to have been waiting for them, emerged from his temporary office and without saying a word, signaled Alec to go to his office.

"He used the two fingers signal." Jace pointed out in a whisper. It was a very common signal used by those with more power to call their subordinates to their offices. It was like a physical representation of the words: You. Here. Now! "Well, that can't be good. Good luck with the old man, you're going to need it. Just by his expression it's easy to tell that he's not in a very good mood."

"Thanks." Alec said sarcastically.

His day had started with an unforgettable kiss and would probably end with a heated discussion with his father—there was no doubt that life was full of contrasts.

That's it for today, I'll see you all next Friday ;)