Archive of Our Own

“Maybe we should get something to eat?” Alec suggested.

The Institute party was winding down. A success if Alec had ever seen one. He was feeling on top of the world right now, and since ‘Val’ had kindly transferred the rest of Alec’s fee over he was feeling a little daring. Hence standing here with his elusive party guest.

“Oh,” Magnus blinked a few times, like the idea of dinner was foreign to him. “I-”

He got it, “It’s just, you look a little pale. Wouldn’t want you fainting or anything.” He really did get it. That had been him not even a year ago, standing, stuttering if some guy so much as looked his way. He still got like that sometimes actually. 

Magnus hesitated a moment longer before admitting, “I am kind of hungry.”

“Great,” he held his arm out, “I know the perfect place.” he felt a little fluttery as Magnus took his arm, herding them to this Italian’s he knew not far from the Institute.

He got Magnus’s chair for him, both for the romance of it all, and because he hadn’t been lying. As soon as Magnus had reappeared he’d looked a little out of it. Swaying, keeping close to the wall. Alec would think he was high were it not for the fact he’d checked on Magnus before the man went to the nearest server and saw for himself his pupils were alright. Just ill then. From what exactly Alec didn’t want to think about right now. Hopefully it wouldn’t matter either in the long run. 

“Order what you like, I’m paying,” well, Val was with that lovely bonus he’d slid Alec’s way, but, still, romance and all that. 

“I can’t let you do that,” Magnus said.

“I insist. I’m celebrating.” Not to mention if it was one of the caterers that had made Magnus ill sweet-talking him into not pursuing a lawsuit was just beneficial for everyone. “I won’t hear anything more about it. I asked you here. But, if you’re so insistent on equality and all that I suppose I could be talked into letting you get the next one.”

Magnus’s nose crinkled a little as he hid a smile behind the menu. Alec caught it anyway, fighting his own. Man this guy was cute. “Let’s just see how this dinner goes first shall we?”

Alec couldn’t keep the grin in after that. 

Okay then. Looked like Magnus was hiding a snarky side. Alec could get on board with that.

They ordered, and the conversation was good. Alec learned more about Magnus, about his work as a palm reader and fortune teller. He also got some food down Magnus that took away some of the pallor marring Magnus’s face. It was good. Great even. Everything Alec expected of a first date.

He even got Magnus’s phone number out of it. “So I can pay you back,” Magnus had smirked, making Alec’s insides go all funny again.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

He really was as well.

He didn’t get a kiss. As much as Alec would have liked one it didn’t feel right. They’d literally just met that day, and, well, Alec was a romantic at heart. He wanted their first kiss to be special. Magnus felt special. He couldn’t describe it but there was just something… magical about him that made the world fade away.

When he went to bed that night, Magnus’s number staring at him from his phone, he thought perhaps it might have just been the high he was riding. Everything had gone to plan after all. The party was a success, he’d been paid, he’d met a cute guy and it was just going his way. So, maybe when he woke he figured things would feel different. 

Yet he was just as excited seeing Magnus’s number the morning after as he was the night before. He just… he felt good about this.

Izzy, bless her, waited until both of them were done choking down their breakfast before asking, “Okay, I give, what’s up with you?”

“I could ask you the same.” She’d been grinning ever since she walked into their kitchen. Usually it was a pain to get her out of bed, yet here she was, smiling serenely opposite Alec. “Valentine didn’t proposition you did he?” It was half a joke. If he ever heard of that slime ball so much as touching his sister inappropriately he was going to deck the guy.

“No.” he relaxed in his seat. “I’ll have you know Valentine is a perfect gentleman.” She sipped at her coffee for a moment longer before cracking and slamming something between them, “It’s Simon. He asked me to move in.”

“Oh.” Judging from the fact she had the key instead of stuffing it down Simon’s throat that meant she’d accepted. “Oh.” She was moving out. She- okay. 

“Are you- are you okay with that?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He wasn’t ruining this for her. She’d been waiting for this for weeks, and, for all his dislike of Simon, he was a good guy. “No, God, Izzy, I’m so happy for you. When are you…?”

She was practically vibrating now Alec had given the all clear, shrugging her shoulders as she said, “I don’t know. We’re thinking about the weekend since that means we’ll both have the day off. But, I don’t know, I can’t wait. I think I might just start moving some of my things in tonight when I go around and then slowly bring it over tomorrow and Friday too so there’s not much left to bring Saturday.”

A solid plan. Half her stuff was at Simon’s anyway as well. Really she’d only need her wardrobe. “Great.” Just great. He… he didn’t really know what to do with that. Still, “I’ll give you a hand if you need one. Jace will too.” He could move Izzy’s dresser, God knows Alec had moved it enough times bringing it up to this apartment.

“Okay,” she laughed, dumping the rest of her coffee down the sink. 

He was going to have to get a roommate. Maybe ask Jace if he wanted to move back in. 

Izzy wrapped her arms around his neck, “You’re really okay with this right?”

He mustn’t look it if she had to ask again. “Izzy of course I am. You and Simon are great together.” Until that idiot dumped her and then Alec was letting every vile thought he had about him out. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. This is about you, and the fact you’re happy and you love him and that’s all I want for you.”

She rested her head on his shoulder, “I really am happy.”

“I know.” he did. He saw the way she smiled. The way she was glued to her phone and finally had someone to talk nerd to who wasn’t her brother and didn’t give her a weird look because she was a girl. He saw the way Simon treated her like she was a princess. How he made a point to navigate around her busy life and not cling to her at the same time. He was perfect for her. It just sucked that she was going to be leaving him. “Now go get ready for work.”

She kissed his cheek, skipping off to her room that wouldn’t be her room come Sunday. 

He let out a long breath. Things would be okay. They’d work out. They always had before. 

With that in mind, Alec showered himself and started his day. After the success of last night, Alec finally had his first event to add to his resume. Meaning, he could start networking. Meaning, he was spending the day in Jace’s food, coffee truck thing thinking of good ways to sell himself to potential clients. 

“It was a miracle I got this job,” Alec sighed, backspacing again over another description of his event. “And if they find out my sister works for Valentine this could all be over.” Urgh, he hated this. 

“You’re overthinking it,” Jace said, lounging on his bench. The coffee orders wouldn’t be coming in for another hour at least, the morning rush just finishing. “You approached Valentine with a solid plan that you executed in budget. Your client was happy, you have proof everyone at that party was happy and I thought you wanted this job Alec.”

“I did.” he does. Event planning hadn’t been at the top of his list of life vocations but it was a decent job. It let him do what he was good at, which was planning and executing said plans. “Maybe I should just join the army.”

“No!” Jace snapped. “Alec we’ve been through this, they’ll kill you.”

“Things have gotten better.” 

“So the media says.”

“Well,” Yeah, that was where everyone heard about this sort of stuff.

“The media is on the government's payroll Alec,” Jace said, and not for the first time. “They’re feeding us what we want to know. They want us to think the army is more accepting these days but everyone with half a brain in their heads know that it’s all just a bunch of lies to get more kids to sign their lives away.”

He sighed, flopping back to stare that the ceiling. “Well I haven’t.”

“And you’re not going to.” Not if Jace had anything to say about it anyway. “I’m just looking out for you Alec. You’re my brother, I don’t want anything happening to you. Which it will if you sign up.”

He took a deep breath, wondering if it was the fact that the truck was new that the ceiling was so shiny or if Jace got up there himself to clean it. Knowing Jace it was probably a mixture of both. 

“What’s wrong with you anyway? You enjoyed planning that party.”

He hummed.

“Which I still don’t get because you hate parties.” 

“I don’t hate them.” He did. Anything other than what he planned last night and he couldn’t stand the place. Loud music, sweaty bodies, strangers grinding on him, no, he just, he wasn’t that kind of guy. If it had to be a party, let it at least be tasteful. Nothing out of control, no chance of someone going to the ER. Still, he wasn’t going to admit that to Jace. Even if they both knew it was true. “And I don’t know. Val’s was easy. What happens when it’s not easy? What happens when it’s not fun and I start thinking about other things I want to do but I can’t because I didn’t go to college?”

“There’s still time-”

“I know there’s still time!” He wished people would stop saying that to him. He knew there was still time to go to college and get a degree and do everything every other twenty three year old either wanted or had by now. But he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, and what if while he was wasting it getting a degree that could lead to nowhere he missed out on some sign from the universe about his actual vocation and-

“What’s this really about?”

He dug his hands into his eyes, willing the world to just stop for a minute. “Izzy’s moving out.”

Jace sighed. Clary had probably told him, which meant Alec was the last to know, which would be just how things were now he supposed. He was always the last to know, and now it would be worse. It was alright for Jace, he saw and texted Clary nearly every minute of the day, and now he’d officially been okayed by her parents that was only going to get worse. Clary was friends with Simon and Izzy, meaning she got first notice of anything interesting in their lives. Really, the only reason Alec knew at all what was going on in their friend group had been because Izzy had lived with him. But now she wasn’t living with him. Now she was moving on with her life, with her job and her boyfriend and who wanted to talk to their brother about things like sex and boys and stuff? 

He was going to get pushed out, and that terrified him. Mainly because he’d just described Jace, Clary, Simon and Izzy as his friend group. He was twenty three, he should have friends other than his siblings and their friends. He should know people through work or school or something that would make sense. 

Jace kicked his shin, “Stop.”

“I’m not doing anything,” he ground his hands in tighter.

“You’re overthinking things and it’s physically hurting me to watch you do it.” 

He took a few more measured breaths before letting his hands fall. “I’m happy for her.”

“I know you are,” Jace sighed. “And I’m sorry things suck for you right now. But you’ll see, nothing’s really going to change Alec. She’s just finally moving her shit out of your apartment. I mean, how many nights does she really spend there anyway?”

“That’s not the point.” The point was that she spent enough nights there for him to feel like he wasn’t alone. He didn’t want to be alone. Not again. He wasn’t going to tell Jace that however, so he plastered on a smile, shaking his head a little, “I’m just being an idiot. It’s hard to believe she’s growing up, you know.”

Jace gave him a long look before eventually agreeing, “Yeah.”

He helped Alec write his resume after that. Full on taking it over when Alec spent too long mulling over different words for the same meaning. It wasn’t the prettiest looking thing on the planet, but his credentials were there, and Alec had a lot more going for him than party planning. Hopefully someone would see that in him and take a chance on him.

With his resume sorted, Alec spent the rest of the day in his apartment sorting Izzy’s things out. Half of it he knew she’d just throw. But there was something soothing about sorting things. Cleaning. He wondered if that was how Jace felt. If it was, it was no wonder he kept his space immaculate.

That finished and still restless he shoved his gym stuff on and went to go sneakily look at guys for a few hours. Maybe he could be a personal trainer. They were always looking for fitness instructors at his gym too. Alec was fit. He took classes and he’d been in martial arts since he was a kid. Maybe if he worked to get some qualifications he could-

He didn’t know. He’d probably end up right back here, walking the streets of New York and wondering just where in his life he’d went wrong. 

The clubs were starting to open up as he shouldered his bag again. He remembered walking here last year, Izzy and Jace by his side, the other two whispering conspiratorially like Alec didn’t know they were going to steal his ID and try and get drinks later. Part of him wishes he liked drinking. Maybe if he’d been more into their social scene they wouldn’t have whispered. Maybe they would have talked openly to him, actually asked him to buy them alcohol like any other brother would have been asked at some point in their lives. 

Or maybe they would have still talked behind their hands because it wasn’t Alec’s social life that was the problem.

He hefted his bag up again. 

Later, when he knew a bit more about the world, he knew there was nothing that could have helped him. Life was cruel, and people were crueler. But at the time, when Alec found himself dragged into an alley, he cursed himself for not paying more attention to his surroundings. His mom had always told him, the others too, to always pay attention. To make sure he knew the signs of being followed. Yet there he was, with an arm around his throat and the air slowly draining out of his lungs.

He tried hauling them off, Alec liking to think he lifted enough to be able to do so. But whoever had him was strong. Far stronger than Alec that was for sure and they held on tight, squeezing every breath he had out of his body.

His grabs turned to claws when his body started to give up. Then, as a last attempt, he dove forward and sunk his teeth right into the guys arm. He held on, even as blood filled his mouth, herpes, aids whatever the fuck he might get was worth it so long as he lived another day so Alec held on until the dick behind him let go. 

Had this been the movies, maybe Alec would have had some inhuman strength to immediately run out of the alley and into wider New York. But this wasn’t the movies, and Alec couldn’t breathe. He struggled to the ground, crawling forward, always forward, but, in the end, didn’t give himself enough time to get away. 

Whoever had grabbed him took their chance again, slamming him to the ground with one well placed boot and tilting his head to, of all things, bite him. If this was an eye for an eye he definitely got the message. Being bitten hurt, and it only got worse as the guys teeth dragged down his neck, ripping it open even further. 

The last thing he remembered before adrenalin or something blissed him out enough not to care anymore was that he hoped the cops that got this guy shot him before he could ever stand trial. Call him sadistic, but when someone was literally pinning him and ripping his neck open Alec thought he had a right to be a little sadistic.

When he woke, there was no beeping beside him to tell him he was in a hospital. 

Probably for the best since he didn’t have insurance. 

God he must look a mess. He wondered who had found him. How they had found him. If they’d found him with that sicko on top of him. If they’d arrested the bastard. God Alec hoped they had. 

He slowly turned his head, surprised to feel no pain shooting through his neck. Izzy must have him on some good drugs. He stretched a little more, his toes popping- no. He stretched again, hearing the same sound, but that wasn’t his toes popping.

He sat up- and promptly smacked right back down. His hand raised in front of his face, yet Alec couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see anything. 

He jerked his arms out, only getting them to about an inch away from his body before they too smacked into something. His toes did too, or his shoes. He was wearing shoes, and there was something all around him.

Oh God. 

“Help!” 

He felt sick. 

“Help!” 

This was a freaking horror movie. Had to be. He had to be getting pranked right now. 

“Help!” 

He raised his hands up, finding the ceiling. He was trapped. Someone had trapped him in a box. God that sicko had trapped him in a box. 

“HELP!”

He was gonna die in here. He was gonna die. He didn’t want to die. Not like this. Not like this! 

He slammed his hands up, screaming as he pushed and pushed and pushed, feeling the lid give just a little. “HELP!” He screamed some more, hoping the guy had just left him somewhere. That someone would hear him and come get him. Hell, he’d settle for that sicko coming to tell him to shut the hell up, just so long as he opened the lid. Just let Alec see a little bit of light before he died.

He screamed again, slamming his hand up and up and up. He gathered his knees under him, sending them up too. He had to get out. He had to get out! 

He kicked and kicked and kicked, flinging his limbs every and any way he could before common sense took over. Panicking- panicking wouldn’t do him any good. He had to think about this. He had to think!

“Come on, come on, come on.” There had to be something. He felt his clothes, knowing it was a long shot but the clothes on his body didn’t feel like the clothes he’d went to the gym in. Had- had that sicko dressed him?

No. No, no, he wasn’t thinking about that. Calm. Just breathe. Calm. 

No phone. That meant he had to do this on his own. He could do that, he was a smart, capable guy. Hell, he’d wanted to join the army, and Alec bet they had far worse trials than being trapped in a box to put their recruits through so, he could do this. He just had to think. 

“Think, think, think.” Well screaming was going to get him nowhere. The more he breathed the more he realised how much oxygen he might have wasted. So, no more screaming. Easy. Sort of.

Next up, getting out of here.

With a clear head, he felt his way along the box, contorting himself in positions he honestly hadn’t known he was capable of doing before having a sort of layout of his cage. It was a box, rectangular, he wasn’t thinking the word coffin, but, yeah, sort of like somewhere a corpse would go. There was a seam, but from testing it that seam definitely wasn’t budging. That meant up was the only way to go. 

He could do this.

Remembering his self defence classes, he brought his knee right up to his chest before sending it in a pressurised spot above him. He did that far longer than he thought himself capable of with little to no results. 

Or, maybe not no results. There was a crack, just along the edge actually. The wood must have splintered after one of Alec’s kicks. He aimed there after, and after every kick he felt along the seam until there was a big enough splinter for Alec to pull on.

Big mistake. 

No light was waiting for him on the other side. Instead something vile seeped in, panic overtaking him once more as he spat out more and more soil that was burying him alive. He’d been buried alive .

Calm. Calm.

He pushed the soil away, spitting it out when it got to his mouth. He tried not to swallow too much, keeping his head turned away and taking careful breaths as he fought to make the hole bigger. He’d only have one shot at this. The earth was still soft, meaning Alec would be able to dig his way up so long as he prayed it wasn’t going to rain anytime soon and he worked fast. Suffocation would be his biggest contender, so careful breaths and don’t give up. He couldn’t give up. 

He dragged down more and more wood, the soil hitting him hard and forcing him down. He packed what he could to the side, smoothing it down and keeping what other from the sides from joining the pile above him. 

He didn’t have a clue if the hole was big enough for him, just had a feeling that if he didn’t try now he wasn’t getting out, so he forced his way up. He dug and climbed and ripped his clothes and skin on the sharp wooden edges. He held his breath and focused more on getting up than stopping the soil from squeezing him to death. He just had to get out. He needed to get out.

His nails split, his skin split where his pants caught on the coffin. Still he climbed. He’d buy himself some new pants. He’d buy himself whatever he wanted so long as he got out of here. Screw wallowing around, he’d seen the light now. He did. So long as God let him live he’d change. He’d go back to church. He’d make amends with his parents. He’d hire a car and drive Izzy to Simon’s himself. Hell, he’d plan their wedding. Just God let him out of here.

The worst of the soil lay at the top. Someone had put turf over the grave and, as Alec now knew and had never wanted to know, turf was harder to dig out of than regular soil. It clumped together, the grass and seeds thicker and stronger than his already weak will needed. 

He dug out of it. 

Somehow, someone up there had listened to him since his hand met air once it pushed past the turf. It scrambled around, digging, still digging until he could drag himself up, taking in precious lungfuls of air. He was pretty sure he was crying, half out of his own grave but he didn’t care. He was out. He was out!

“Alec?”

He looked up, the sky was dark, but unlike his coffin he could see by this light. He could see quite clearly in this light actually. Much more than he usually could considering there were no street lamps around. 

He couldn’t really describe what happened next. One second he was lying there, exhausted, staring up at the face of Magnus Bane, palm reader and cat owner, and the next this urge came over him. It was like something had caught his stomach and sent it spasming in hunger he’d never felt since his third week on the streets. There was just this thing circling around his head telling him to do whatever he needed to stop it. 

He didn’t… really remember much after that.

He must have passed out. Exhaustion he remembered to himself. When he came around he’d never been happier to find himself somewhere he could see. No coffin. Not this time. 

Instead there were soft white silk sheets surrounding him. There was a cat too, sitting on the other pillow, watching him with beady yellow eyes. He’d never loved a cat more in his life. A cat meant someone wasn’t expecting to lock him up in here. A cat meant that he was away from the nightmare that had been his life those last God knows how long. 

It was dark, again, just after eight if the clock was to be believed. He’d been changed too, the soil stained clothes he’d been expecting switched out for pyjamas that eerily fit him. They weren’t his, he’d remember buying monogrammed pyjamas, and he certainly would have put the right name on. 

He swung his legs around, hopping up and in search of Magnus. He had to brace himself by the door, his hand clenched tight around the handle. But it moved. It moved and Alec was let into a wider apartment area. 

It was nice. While Alec admitted this wasn’t the way he wanted to end up at Magnus’s home he couldn’t say he was too upset with seeing it now. Everything was so… homey. Lived in. There were piles of books just strewn around, and jars of all sorts of odd things that made Alec’s nose twitch. He could hear various things tinkering, ticking, humming, buzzing-

“Alec!”

He must have zoned out, Magnus right in front of him now, his hands more pushing than resting on Alec’s shoulders. “Magnus.” He tried going for a hug. Honestly he’d hug an almost complete stranger at this point he was so happy to see a familiar face. 

Yet Magnus held strong, those sweaters hiding arms that could certainly keep Alec back. Magnus’s eyes narrowed, sweeping over Alec’s face, “Alec?” he asked again.

He didn’t know what other answer to give than, “Yeah?”

Those eyes still narrowed on his own, Magnus’s grip slowly receding. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I could use a hug.” He didn’t go for one however. He knew some people weren’t big on hugs. Usually Alec wasn’t either. Not unless it was his family. He’d been a little forward, probably, in trying to get one out of Magnus. So, “I could actually use a shower though. Being buried- oh my go-” he choked, coughing as something got stuck in his throat. 

Magnus waited for him to finish before pointing him towards the shower. He kept a large gap between them as he showed Alec the shower, the body wash and everything else, and only when Alec was washing off the small pebbles of dirt on his skin did he realise it felt like he was waiting for Alec to do something.

Just what, Alec had no idea. But, he had blacked out yesterday. Who knew what he’d done or said to Magnus before he passed out. God he’d probably been a complete dick to him. 

He didn’t dare ask for more clothes. He’d imposed enough on Magnus, and the pyjamas weren’t so bad. Just a little uncomfortable where the soil had hidden away once it had escaped Alec’s skin.

When he got out, he was greeted by the same yellow eyes he’d seen waking up. He skirted around the cat, preparing in his head the apology he knew he had to make. 

Before he could however something was being thrust under his nose and Alec, well, he didn’t even question what it was, his hands seemed to be moving on automatic, downing the whole cup in one go. It, well it certainly made him feel better. He hadn’t even noticed he’d been a little achey. But whatever that was had done the job, Alec gingerly holding the cup as Magnus gave him another long look over.

“Better?” Magnus asked, still keeping a wide berth as he skirted around Alec to a workstation of sorts.

“Yeah. Definitely.” One of the cats, a little tabby this time, curled around his legs. “I- I’m sorry if I said or did anything. I, kind of blacked out? I know that’s not an excuse,” he laughed, the whole thing sounding rather pathetic, “I’ve just… it’s not even important. I’m just sorry.”

Magnus was still eyeing him, it was a little different now, softened, “You’re sorry?” He huffed, “Alec, you have nothing to be sorry about I-” he cut himself off, wandering back to the kitchen, taking Alec’s cup off him to refill it. He cleared his throat, “I have a friend coming over. He should be able to explain things better.”

“Okay.” Probably a cop or something. That was good. That was great actually, he might not have a description of the guy, but, everything helped right?

“You should sit.” 

Magnus didn’t join him however. His cats did, but Magnus stayed puttering around his apartment. Alec wouldn’t say Magnus was scared of him, that wasn’t what this was. Just, wary. Jittery. Alec saw him nearly jump as high as his cats when the door buzzed, Magnus having a small conversation before a sullen looking guy in a suit wandered in.

“This him?” The guy asked, looking sort of like a cop. Cops wore suits sometimes right? Undercover cops for sure. FBI agents definitely. How high profile was the guy that attacked him.

Magnus nodded anyway, dithering about a bit more before deciding, “I’m going to go… there…” and he did, disappearing into one of his rooms.

The suit guy watched him go with only a slight change in expression, sighing deeply before slinking over to Alec. He took the seat opposite, looking far too tired for someone his age. Alec felt that. He didn’t take out a notebook, Alec figuring maybe he had his phone on record so, “I was walking back from the gym-”

“Don’t care,” the guy sighed, crossing his legs. “How are you feeling?”

“Er,” He didn’t want to start with the statement? “Confused? Don’t you want to know about the guy who attacked me?”

“Oh I do,” the guy promised. “And I’ll listen to that when you’re in your right mind. Now, how are you feeling? Hungry?”

“Er, yeah, actually.” the mere mention of food had Alec sipping on whatever Magnus had gave him. It did a little to quench the hunger, Alec figuring it was broth or something. It was good anyway. 

The guy hummed, leaning a little forward in his seat, “You seem to have a handle on it.”

Alec shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was, “I mean, I’ll get a burger or something when I go home. It’s not that important. Now, the guy-”

He got cut off again, “Your ears? They’re okay? Your nose? Your other senses?”

“Well-” Now that the guy had mentioned it, now that Alec was thinking about it, he suddenly couldn’t see. The lights were too bright, and every nice smell he’d noted venturing through Magnus’s home started to hurt his throat. He would have thrown up had his stomach not been aching again in hunger. 

It was more of a struggle that time to force Magnus’s cup to his lips. He heard the guy humming before the cup in Alec’s hands was tilting the whole way up, Alec swallowing every drop. “You certainly seem more in control than some of the fledglings I’ve seen. Hopefully this will continue. I’d hate to have another Peter.”

“Wha-” he tried to get out, but his eyes must have glitched or something because one second the guy in the suit was taking his cup away and the next he was back, more broth in his hand and forcing that down Alec’s throat. 

That was the routine until Alec had seven cups down. When the last one was empty the guy, Raphael he’d told Alec after he’d tried to complain, finally sat back down, same gloomy expression on his face. “Now that nasty business is out of the way, onto the next. Do you know what’s happened to you?”

“Happened?” He croaked, “you mean the attack? Is this where we finally get down to business.” because he got making sure Alec was feeling comfortable enough to speak but e thought he could have done that five cups ago. 

Raphael sighed that same long sigh. “I’m going to take that as a no.”

“I do though! There was this guy-”

“You’re a vampire.”

“- and I was walking home from the gym and he…” Wait, what did, “A vampire?” he snorted, “Very funny.”

Another long sigh, then in a blink Alec was pinned to the floor with Raphael leaning over him, two very real and very not there before fangs right in his face. “Vampire,” Raphael repeated, then to drive the point home he actually bit Alec. on the wrist, but, it was a bite, it broke skin, quite easily in fact, Raphael letting Alec see the blood welling up in his wrist before licking over it. 

The whole thing might have been hot had Alec not been in the middle of a stroke. This couldn’t be happening. This was a prank, right? They’d put some sort of makeup on his arm, one of those removable skin things that had a blood packet inside of them.

But why had he felt that bite? Why had it hurt? Wh- wh-

Raphael sat back down, Alec’s wrist smooth once more. This had to be some kind of nightmare. “I’ve read the police report. Strangulation, slit throat,” Alec felt his throat, he didn’t remember his throat being cut. “At some point during that you must have ingested some of their blood. Then you died, you were buried and dug yourself out of your grave. Which, I have to say congratulations on. Not every fledgling makes it out of a natural burial, the coffin is a bigger challenge than it appears.”

Nightmare. Nightmare. Had to be a nightmare. “I’m-”

“You should check your heartbeat,” Raphael said, “I know that helps some people believe.” 

He put a finger to his throat. Then his wrist, then just got real quiet and tried to listen to the rhythmic thump he sometimes did when he concentrated.

Nothing.

His hands clenched on his cup, Alec realising, slowly, that if he was a vampire, that meant that he drank, “What exactly was in that cup?”

Raphael gave him a look. “What do you think it was?”

He glanced down, hoping he’d see glimmers of brown of broth or coffee or something. Yet it wasn’t brown. Red stared back at him, dried red, but red all the same. “H-human?”

Raphael quirked a brow, “Human is the best for fledglings. I’ve found they often turn their noses up at animal.”

He took a breath, not because he needed to, he realised, in fact he held his breath now and felt none of the strain he usually did when he did so. He didn’t need to breathe. This was real. He was a vampire. Vampires were real. Vampires were real and he was one. 

“You look like you’re freaking out,” Raphael noted, still emotionless, still there and still very much a vampire. He frequently retracted and brought out his fangs again while he spoke. 

“I’ve just had my whole worldview turned upside down.”

A long blink was his reply. “Freaking out is better than violence I suppose.” 

It took a while for Alec to wrap his head around it. Even then he only accepted that vampires were real, that Raphael was a vampire. Everything else was just, he’d get there, he was sure, but, his brain could only handle so much right now, and if he thought about himself being a vampire he’d have to think about the fact that he’d died and-

Magnus came out at one point. He subtly tried to hand off Raphael a mug, the vampire stating outright, “He’s getting there,” before not even hiding the fact it was blood to Alec. “You might not want to spring anything else on him for a while though.”

“He’s…” Magnus glanced at Alec, eyes flitting to the door, “Oh. Okay.”

Magnus didn’t want him staying here. Probably right too. From what Raphael had told him of fledgelings they were quite violent when first turned. Raphael was guessing Alec was quite a single minded guy, an insult, probably, but since he figured freaking out was more important than going into a blood induced rage he’d take the insult. But before he’d calmed down, who knew what he’d been like. If Alec were Magnus he wouldn’t want Alec in his home either.

 “Wait, how do you know about vampires? Are you…?” But Alec had seen him in daylight. 

So, “Actually I’m er, I’m a warlock.” He held his hands up in an approximation of ‘ta da’.

“Oh.” Well, that explained the palm reading. The jars of weird things too. The cats, couldn’t forget the cats. “Is it weird that you being a witch is easier to accept than vampires?”

“Warlock,” Magnus grumbled, although the title did get the first smile Alec had seen from Raphael. “And, probably not since the media is a lot more accepting of those mundane ‘wiccans’ than other shadow entities. We’ll not get too into it right now, Raphael is right, it’s getting late and both of you need your sleep.”

He glanced at the clock, four a.m. greeting him. “Yeah, I guess it is late.” Or early. But, he laughed, getting two odd looks from the others, “I’m gonna have to start sleeping through the day aren’t I? Do I need a coffin?”

Magnus and Raphael shared a look, “No coffin,” Magnus said, “I don’t- it probably won’t be good for your psyche. But sleeping through the day is a necessity I’m afraid. I’m afraid real vampires are more combustible than those sparkly things you might’ve seen.”

Raphael pulled a face, Alec too as Twilight and that dark time in his life where he was dragged to every movie came to mind. He was sure Isabelle still had her Team Jacob hoodie somewhere in their apartment. Her apartment. 

He… “I think sleep is a good idea.” He needed a lie down. Maybe if this was still going on when he woke he’d deal with it. Until then he just wanted to sleep. 

“I’ll show you out,” Magnus said to Raphael, the man hopping up with inhuman speed but walking at a normal pace to the door. 

They had another quiet conversation, Alec’s ears easily picking it up if he thought about listening in. It wasn’t anything important, just Raphael inviting himself around tomorrow night. He left with talk of herding the other fledglings at some hotel. There was a hotel for vampires? Would Alec have to book a room there? Was that the law? Did vampires have a different law to other people?

“Bed,” Magnus said when he came over, gently taking the cup out of Alec’s hand. “Do you need something else to eat before you do though? I’ve dealt with a few fledgelings in my time. They’re usually… well, not like this.”

Alec peered through his hands, “Did I hurt you last night?” was that why Magnus was keeping his distance.

The man quirked a brow, not exactly denying it, “I mean, you certainly tried. But, have no fear, I can handle myself quite well. Warlock you know.”

“Right,” Alec sighed. He rubbed his face. “This is just…”

“I know,” Magnus said, and he probably did if he’d dealt with other people in his position. “And I would have told you myself but, trust me, it’s easier to have someone in the same boat explain it than,” he pointed to himself. 

Alec got it. “Are you sure you want me staying here though? I’m sure I could get home before daylight.” close the blinds, the curtains, everything that could let in light and pray the sun didn’t find him while he was sleeping.

“No, you’re staying,” Magnus said. “Now,” he tugged on Alec’s shirt cuffs, making sure they were the right length Alec realised. “Bed. It’s different for everyone,” he explained, walking towards what Alec hoped was the spare bedroom, “Some vampires pass out as soon as daylight hits. Some are capable of staying up and struggle to even get to sleep. You did alright last night, but, I think perhaps the trauma did most of the work for you.”

The sheets were still white, and the cats were already hopping up, waiting for him. He should have felt more awkward than he did crawling into a strangers bed. But, well, trauma and all that. 

He caught Magnus’s arm before he made to go out, “If I look like I’m going to hurt you again, promise me you’ll do what you have to.” He didn’t want to hurt people. Well, he didn’t want to hurt Magnus, people on the other hand it depended who they were. He could think of one person, one vampire, in particular, that he wanted to hurt. 

“It won’t come down to that,” Magnus promised.

“But if it does,” Alec pressed.

Before Alec’s eyes the hand he had a hold of sparked blue, tendrils of misty magic twined around Alec’s skin, tickling it. Touching it. It made him tingle, and not in an unpleasant way. They stopped just as quickly as they started, Magnus, with his sweaters and his cute smile said, “You don’t have to worry about me.”

Alec supposed that was true.

Mostly because as soon as sunlight dawned, and Alec, strangely, could feel the exact moment it did, he found himself dreaming about fluffy pillows and sweaters with Magnus’s face on them.

He had one of the cats on top of him when he woke up the next night. The other was in Magnus’s lap, the man himself lounging on the pillow next to him, face buried in a book. Alec stuffed his face back in the sheets, “Wasn’t a dream then?”

There was a jerk next to him. Did Alec not make any noise anymore? How depressing was that. “I’m afraid not,” Magnus said after a moment. His book closed, “I’ll go fetch you something to eat.”

He would have argued except his stomach started hurting as soon as Magnus spoke. This time, without the confusion surrounding him, he could feel the way his tongue caught on two extended canines. If he ever needed more proof of his lack of humanity it would be that. 

Magnus left him alone for the most part. With Raphael returning he probably thought it best to keep his distance. Alec understood. He didn’t like it, but he understood. 

The talk that night consisted of coming to terms with his own changes, rather than wrapping his head around this new world he’d been thrust into.

Apparently he could shapeshift. 

Okay.

He would also experience mood swings for the next month or so. Well, he might experience mood swings, Raphael said it was different for everyone. Superhuman strength, speed, he couldn’t say God anymore, or step foot in a church. He couldn’t touch a cross, or holy water or anything remotely religious. What else… oh, sunlight. Fire. Stakes, but, “Wouldn’t all those things kill just about anyone?”

Raphael and Magnus shared another one of their looks, both of them shrugging, “Suppose so,” Raphael agreed. 

There were other things, hypnotism being one of them. The others Alec didn’t really want to touch upon right now, but hypnotism? That he could get behind. 

“Your biggest challenge will be overcoming your thirst. It takes time to build up control,” Raphael said. “Usually we lock the fledgelings away until their…” 

“Second puberty?” Magnus suggested.

He got a dark look for that, yet, “Second puberty is over. The first month everything is new, bright, loud, it’s very overwhelming, and only an idiot would let a fledgeling onto the wider world while they were still under its influence so you’ll be staying here.”

“Not with you?” Alec asked. Raphael had mentioned a clan and, well, since Alec was his kind now, didn’t that mean he was part of this clan?

Yet Raphael’s face twisted, “Ordinarily you would, but moving you from here to there may be too much even if we did portal. The Du Mort is on a public estate. Anyone and everyone walks past.” He hesitated before admitting, “There’s also the humans some of the older vampires in the hotel keep. They can be trusted not to drain them. I don’t trust you yet.”

“Besides,” Magnus piped in, “I think my loft is more preferable to the Du Mort’s basement. I have silk sheets.”

He was starting to get the idea that when Raphael said he kept the fledgelings in the basement he didn’t mean unrestrained. “Okay,” staying here wouldn’t be too bad. “So long as you don’t mind.”

Magnus waved him off, “If I minded I would have taken you straight to the hotel when I found you. You’re more than welcome to stay.”

He nodded, listening to the rest of Raphael’s spiel. 

It was a long night. Made even longer after Raphael left with a promise to come back the next night to check in on him.

It was an offhand comment really. Just Alec trying to make light of his situation. He’d been lamenting about shape changing and suddenly just said, “At least I’m not a werewolf.” Fully expecting Magnus to laugh along with him.

But Magnus didn’t laugh, and Alec remembered there were more things in this world than vampires and humans. Magnus was a witch after all.

“No way.”

Magnus’s face twisted, his head turning all the way around to face Alec sheepishly, “They live down by the docks.”

Werewolves. Werewolves were real. 

He hopped up, making sure he kept distance between them as he circled around to the other side of Magnus’s table. “What else is real?”

Just about everything it turned out. Mermaids, fairies, trolls, goblins, it was like Simon’s wet dream come true. Alec had to brace himself on the side of Magnus’s table as his world view changed again.

“How have I never noticed them?”

To that Magnus shrugged, “Most creatures have some sort of magic to glamour themselves with. A glamour is- it’s a sort of magic that hides certain parts or all parts of something. Like…” he struggled with, hand circling for a good two minutes before landing on, “Well, warlocks. Us warlocks have things that we’d like to hide from normal people. Marks is the official term. They’re a leftover reminder of our origins. We use our magic to hide them so the mundanes- that’s what we call the normal folk- they don’t freak out.”

“Right.” His immediate thought was to ask Magnus was his mark was. He was a warlock, so he had to have one right? But, common sense kicked in and Alec wasn’t going to make this even more uncomfortable by maybe asking something that Magnus may not be comfortable showing. He’d hidden it from Alec for a reason, and was keeping it so for another. If Magnus wanted to show him then he would. So, “What about those who don’t have glamours?”

Magnus’s face twisted, “Usually if mundanes encounter those they don’t live to tell the tale. Or some do, and that’s how you have legends of mermaids and unicorns.”

Fair point.

“It’s still wild,” Alec said, thinking about every time he swam at the beach. How close to death had he been every time he did so? How many mermaids had he passed by when he went into deeper waters? How many had his siblings passed? Oh God.

“It is.” Magnus slid a cup of something Alec wasn’t naming blood his way, “Now drink up. You’ve had another long night and Raphael is not done with you yet. You have all sorts of things to learn now you’re… well…”

“A vampire,” Alec said quietly. He sipped from his cup. Then downed it when the fangs in his mouth started aching at him. He sighed, “This sucks.”

“Literally,” Magnus huffed before wide eyes met Alec’s. “That was insensitive.”

He bit his lip, smothering the hysterical laughter. “That’s okay. I mean,” he snorted, some of the laughter getting out of him, “may as well make fun of it. What else am I going to do? Cry?” He certainly felt like crying, but crying got him nowhere. He’d learned that the hard way.

He set Magnus’s cup down, only now realising it had a set of fangs on the white face. Very funny. He wondered if that was because of Raphael and Magnus hadn’t noticed using it for Alec, or if he, like Alec, thought to find some humour in this.

Poor taste maybe, but Alec wasn’t going to be bothered by it. He let out another chuckle, a sudden thought coming to mind, “You know, I thought we’d at least be on our fifth date before the prospect of moving in hit either of us.”

He saw a little sparkle come to Magnus’s eyes, even if he was still focused on whatever was holding his attention. “Suppose I should have known you wouldn’t be like the others.”

“Because I’m that amazing?” He wasn’t above fishing for compliments right now. He’d went through a trauma.

Yet Magnus was completely serious when he looked up, admitting, “There’s just something about you Alec. I can’t describe it. In a good way,” he tacked on.

He didn’t honestly know if his cheeks could heat anymore, but if they could or couldn’t had this been any other day Alec was sure they would be red. “A good way,” Alec repeated to himself, before banishing the words that immediately came to mind. He probably shouldn’t have brought it up, but now it had, “I suppose we should probably talk about it.”

‘It’ didn’t need to be clarified. Still, “Alec, you’ve just died and been reborn into a world that’s messing your mind up every second you’re awake. Let’s just give you a week before we think about talking about anything relating to ‘us’ okay?”

He was nodding before Magnus was finished. As much as he wanted to clarify a few things between them, like just what this meant for him with his new status as not alive, he knew Magnus was right. It was best Alec heard more about what Raphael had to say, to have time to get his head around this before he approached Magnus about the spark that was between them. “Yeah, ‘course.” he let his head fall onto his hands briefly before deciding, “Is it okay if I shower again? I still feel like I have dirt on me.”

“Definitely.” Magnus even got him some new sleep clothes, and underwear, Alec a little hesitant about what to do with, well, all of it.

Magnus sorted it. He looked almost eager as he snapped his fingers and vanished Alec’s dirty clothes. Then snapped his fingers again so the sleeves lengthened and clothes blew out a little to fit Alec properly.

“I just recently got my magic back,” Magnus explained, doing a full circuit of Alec, looking for more things to change. 

“Did it go somewhere?” he asked, trailing behind Magnus back to the guest room.

“Not exactly.” Another snap and the covers peeled back a little, “Things have been rather dull in this world to be honest. I never really found a need to use my magic, and when you don’t use it for a certain amount of time it just… well, it’s a little hard to wake up. But I have it,” he said, “And that’s what’s important. Just in time too.”

Alec was about to ask in time for what but he had a feeling Magnus was referring to him. To this whole vampire thing. How else was Magnus going to take away his windows if not with magic? “Thank you,” Alec said. “For everything.”

“I’ve already said it’s fine, and I meant it,” Magnus promised. “You don’t have to keep thanking me.”

“I do,” Alec insisted. “Trust me, I know how uncaring the world can be. People like you, you’re one in a million Magnus.” He climbed under the covers, the sun about thirty minutes from rising. It was going to take a while to get used to this whole sleeping through the day thing. Mostly because Alec had never been much of a night person. Bad things happened in the dark, he was living proof of that twice over.

That’s why he was more than thankful he was here, with a guy he’d at least seen before, instead of in some hotel, strapped down and facing a bunch of strangers. Raphael seemed nice enough, but Alec was sure if they’d met under different circumstances he wouldn’t think the same then.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Magnus promised once Alec got settled, taking one long look, like he wasn’t sure what sort of Alec would greet him next.

Considering Alec didn’t know either, he didn’t call Magnus out on it.

When he woke next, Alec remembered to ask the cats names. If they were going to try and trip him up he may as well have something else to call them than grumpy fluff and tabby. 

It was possibly the first time he’d seen Magnus so animated since their date. It took a good few minutes but Magnus managed to get both cats in his arms, showing them off like the proud cat dad he probably was to Alec as he sipped his first mug of, urgh, blood, of the day.

“This is Chairman,” and from the kiss the tabby got Alec gathered he was the well behaved one. Also because the tabby didn’t have his paws on Magnus’s face, not even subtly pushing him away, “And this is Church. He’s a little grumpy but I love him anyway.” The paws grew claws and Magnus wasn’t saying he loved Church then. “They’re indoor cats so, hopefully, they’ll usually be around somewhere.”

“Usually?” 

Magnus pulled a face. “My clients often don’t care about how long they keep my door open. My cats like the indoor life, but that doesn’t mean they’re not dumb boys who like to explore the hallway. It’s a pain getting them back in.”

Alec nodded, noting how fast the little beasts were as they darted under Magnus’s feet. 

Raphael, when he came, Alec noted he didn’t even let the door stay open long enough for the cats to look at it. Him and Magnus had been friends a while then. It was almost unconsciously that he was doing it, attention more on Magnus than the floor. For all his uncaring attitude Raphael was awful considerate.

He told Alec a little more about being a vampire when he finally sat down. Things like how he wouldn’t be able to cry normally, that it would be blood. Bleh. Peeing would be a thing of the past. Other bodily functions too. 

“Wait,” he was definitely okay with not having diarrhea at any point in his life again, but, he pointed down, “Does that mean that…?”

Raphael quirked a brow before understanding, “No that works. Don’t ask me how.”

Alec didn’t. He didn’t need anything other than the affirmation that it worked. 

Sires were covered next. “Since I’m planning on disposing of yours when I find them you shouldn’t need to worry too much about it. But usually there’s a power dynamic between a sire and a fledgeling that you should still be aware about.” The power, the influence, it was all a lot for one person to have, and Alec could see how some people would take advantage of it. Having so many people bow to one will was probably the ideal way to start a gang, to run an empire. To do anything they wanted with the protection of dispensable souls to take the fall if it came down to it.

“Why are you planning on killing him?” Alec asked when Raphael thought about something else he thought Alec should know.

“Your sire? He,” Since Raphael knew it was a he now, “broke the rules. More importantly he’s drawing attention to the shadow world. ‘Serial killer’,” Raphael huffed. “Idiot.”

“Wait-” Slit throat? He’d heard of that guy. “He’s ‘The Vampire’?” Oh, he bet that bastard got a right laugh at that. Was it his suggestion to the papers to use that name or was it just a coincidence? Either way the mug in Alec’s hand was creaking a little ominously as he thought about this guy. “And what do you mean rules?”

Raphael’s eyes flitted to Magnus for a moment, “Usually Camille, she used to be the head of my clan, she would give the vampires free reign over the mundanes. However, after a few too many fires at the hotel I decided we needed a little more order. No murdering. Everyone knows this in my district. I even have the wolves spread it around.” 

So Raphael was in charge then. That was good to know. It also answered some of Alec’s questions about the different laws between vampires and normal folk. “So he broke the rules.”

Raphael snorted, “He’s doing more than that.”

Magnus shuffled over, nudging Raphael’s shoulder. “We should put that to the side for now,” he said pointedly. “You need to focus more on yourself than this vampire Alec. Have no fear, now we know he’s from the shadow world we’ll take care of it.”

Another pointed look and Raphael was changing the subject to explain more about clan dynamics. When he was done and honestly couldn’t think of anything more to say, he had Alec test out a few of his abilities. The strength, well, Alec was rather happy with that. He could do push ups for hours. 

Literally. 

Raphael put his feet up and told Alec to start counting, him and Magnus watching a movie. He told Alec to use his speed halfway through, Alec marvelling at the way things appeared to slow down around him as he pushed himself past his usual push up speed. Was this how superheros felt? If so, it was pretty cool. 

He wasn’t even sweating by the time he was done, but the feeling that he should be sweating had him pushing his hair out of his face. That reminded him, “Am I ever going to be able to get a haircut?”

Will it grow back was his main concern, Raphael shaking his head. “If you know what’s good for you you’ll decide on a decent length that can be styled easily a few different ways. I’ve seen a few vamps over the years get a buzz cut and regret it.”

From the way Magnus grinned he’d been present when the vamps had realised it would never grow back.

Alec darted to the bathroom, checking his own hair out. It wasn’t too long. Nor was it short either. It wasn’t styled like he usually had it, but, right now, he didn’t hate it. Probably wouldn’t hate it either for a few years. The rest of him looked okay too. Never had he been more thankful he kept himself fit if this was what he was going to be stuck with forever. 

Forever. 

Never changing. 

He slunk back into the living area. “I’m not gonna age.”

To give credit to the other two they didn’t come up with some sort of quip about the fountain of youth or whatever. Instead, Alec saw their understanding. Immortality was great. Amazing. But the idea of watching the world move around him while he stayed still? Of everything he knew being taken away, aging in front of his eyes and Alec wasn’t allowed to follow? 

“It’s never easy,” Magnus said. “And I’m afraid it doesn’t get easier.”

Izzy, Jace, Max, Simon, Clary, they’d all move on without him. They’d grow old. Die. 

He hated this. What made things worse was that his body was trying to have a panic attack but everything that came with a panic attack, the racing heart, the choking breaths, they couldn’t happen because Alec, well, he didn’t need to breathe did he? He didn’t need a heart to beat to live. 

He was dead.

He was really dead.

He locked himself in the bathroom again, sitting there with his knees to his chest. He was dead. Really, properly dead. Oh God they thought he was dead. Izzy, Jace, they thought he was dead. They had to. He was in a coffin. A coffin!

No freaking serial killer was going to bury him in a coffin. Underground in some tiny box maybe, but a coffin? No way.

That meant they’d found his body. Raphael had said he’d read the report. The police had wrote a report about him. He was another victim of The Vampire. His freaking legacy was being a victim of The Vampire. What-

He dug his nails further into his scalp. He wasn’t thinking about that. He needed to think about the others because they thought he was dead. They’d buried him. They were probably mourning him.

Magnus. He’d been visiting Alec’s grave Alec realised. He thought Alec was dead too. 

Had he been to the funeral? Was there even a funeral? Alec knew his siblings didn’t have any money. Well, Jace didn’t. Izzy was saving up for an actual house too. Her and Simon. They wanted to move somewhere bigger one day. Had she wasted her money on him?

Were… were his parents there? Did they come see him? Say goodbye? Good riddance? 

His clothes, his money, his room, what was going to happen to it? What was going to happen to him?

Magnus knocked on the door, and Alec could tell it was Magnus because he could hear a freaking heartbeat. How creepy was that? If he listened Magnus’s was the only heartbeat he could hear in the entire loft. Well, the only human heartbeat, he could heart the two little thuds of the cats. “Do you want some company?”

He was tempted to say no, or to not say anything at all but, “I’ll come out in a minute.” This wasn’t just his problem anymore. This had happened to other people. Raphael, probably, at one point, so maybe they had a system in place. Something that would be helpful to him anyway.

It took a moment for him to get to his feet, his ears listening to the rhythmic thumping on the other side, breathing in time to it. The handle seemed to take an age to turn, but Alec managed it, Magnus waiting on the other side for him. He didn’t even hesitate before telling Alec, “I’m so sorry this happened to you Alec.”

“They all think I’m dead.” It was no wonder Magnus had been avoiding some of his questions, his gaze. How hard was it to keep that in? It was one thing learning he was a vampire, and a whole other to learn that while becoming one his body had been found dead and his whole family had been notified and witnessed him being lowered into the ground. 

Magnus’s hands twitched, raising enough to settle on his arms. It wasn’t a hug, and it was probably a good thing that it wasn’t either, who knew what he’d do so close to Magnus’s neck. But it was close enough, and Alec felt as well as heard that not everyone in this room was dead and that, it somehow helped. “We’ll sort something out.”

Just what, no one in that room knew. Raphael told him usually the sire was aware they were changing someone into a vampire. Meaning the whole thing was a lot more organized. With this idiotic man on the loose feeding and covering up his crimes as a slit throat no one had thought to inform the vampires of New York there was another one joining their ranks. Meaning no one to wipe the cameras. No one to pick up the body and either burn or bury it in a shallow grave. No one to be there for when Alec got out for the first few days of bloodlust which, in Alec’s case according to Magnus had been about four hours before Alec had passed out as the sun rose. Even then he said Alec was more concerned with feeling Magnus up than draining him dry.

Alec pretended that hadn’t happened. He didn’t remember it therefore it didn’t happen to him. Still, he was very sorry.

“Your clothes we can probably arrange to bring here. I have a few contacts that can impersonate police officials,” Raphael said. “They’ll confiscate anything you want out of your old home.”

Old, because he was never going back there. Once he’d finished his stay here he was moving into the Du Mort. How depressing. Still, “I’ll make a list.”

Mostly he just wanted his clothes, maybe some money out of his bank account. After Raphael had left with the list Alec realised he was actually happy Izzy wasn’t living at the apartment. That both her and Jace had somewhere else to stay. It wasn’t in the best part of town, but, at the same time, it wasn’t the cheapest place either, and Izzy would have definitely had to negotiate some sort of roommate arrangement if she wasn’t moving in with Simon.

Really, things had worked out on that front. 

He was wallowing on Magnus’s floor as the man himself did what he usually did this time of… wait.

He sat up, dislodging Church and setting the grumpy cat in his lap. He checked the time. Then checked it again. “Am I keeping you up?”

Magnus hummed at Alec to repeat himself. When he did he thought for a moment Magnus had vampire speed with how fast he turned around. “No,” he waved off immediately. “Of course not. I’ve always been a night owl.”

Alec might have believed him had he not grown up with three siblings. He could sniff a lie out like a bloodhound. Not to mention, since he still was keeping an ear on Magnus’s heart, he heard the way it fluttered. Was that-? Could he physically tell when people were lying now? 

Oooh, this was interesting.

“That’s it. Bed,” Alec ordered. “I’m not a baby, I can look after myself, now bed.”

Magnus blinked at him a few times before processing that yes, Alec had in fact told him to go to bed. “I think I’ll be alrig-”

“Bullshit,” he hopped up, moving Church until the cat was cradled like an infant. “You have to work, and since you’re always awake when I wake up Go-” ooh that was going to get annoying, “Who knows when you manage to get some sleep. So go. Now.”

“This is my-”

Alec walked until he was behind Magnus, but from the way the man jerked it must have been faster to him. “Bed,” Alec said, herding him from behind. “I mean it. I’ve been putting my siblings to bed since I was five, you can’t throw anything at me I’ve not already seen.” He shooed Magnus forward until the man was moving, slowly, glaring behind him every other step.

“This is ridiculous.”

“No.” he took a guess as to which room was Magnus’s, and was proved right as he entered a sanctuary full of gold bedsheets and dark curtains. For all his sweaters and comfy pants Magnus certainly had interesting interior designing ideas. “What’s ridiculous is staying awake for three days straight. I’m a big boy, and you’ve sufficiently made sure I’m safe and can’t get out. You don’t have to watch over me.”

“I’m not watching over you, I have things to do.”

“Things that can wait until morning.” Alec herded him further into the room. He was ready to wrestle Magnus into bed if it came down to it. “Now,” he pulled Magnus’s own covers back, “In.” It was late, but hopefully Magnus should get a few hours. “And when you’re done with your last client if you insist on being awake to let Raphael in you have to nap in between. I don’t like the idea of messing your life up more than I need to.”

Magnus tilted his head back, slumping onto his bed, “For the last time, you’re not messing it up.”

“Well I don’t feel it that way,” he really didn’t. Magnus was doing so much for him. “So bed. Look after yourself. I’m not going to go feral.” He hoped. “And if I do, I’m sure you’ll hear me.”

Magnus kicked his slippers off, dragging his sweater over his head, Alec catching a glimpse of a toned stomach. He’d focus on that later when he wasn’t being pouted up at. “Are you this stubborn with your siblings too or am I just getting special treatment?”

Alec took the sweater off Magnus, folding it and setting it on a chair, “I told you,” he kicked the slippers until they were lined up perfectly in case Magnus wanted to get up at any point, “I’ve been putting them to bed since I was five. Do you know how annoying it is to put a three year old to sleep? Trust me, you’re a delight compared to that nightmare.”

Magnus rolled his eyes, fingers lingering on his shirt buttons, “Don’t I feel special.”

“You should.” He wasn’t sure if he used his speed or not when he padded to the kitchen, setting a glass of water on Magnus’s bedside table. “You want your door left open?”

Magnus eyed the water, the slippers, before nodding, “Yes, Chairman and Church like to come in sometimes. Thank you.”

He nodded, leaving the door open a slither before lounging around with the cats. He heard the exact moment Magnus went to sleep. He shuffled around for a while, changing, Alec realised, before small rumbles were coming in place of his breathing. 

It was only when Magnus was asleep that Alec realised he didn’t have a phone anymore. Boredom quickly set in after that, leading to Alec’s attempt to get to know the rest of his new body. 

The fangs? He hated them. Plain and simple. He spent a good ten minutes looking at them in the mirror, making them come and go and come and go and come and- go. Go! “Oh for, blehhh,” he couldn’t talk properly around them. 

So, he hated them.

The hearing? It was pretty cool to have that. He had a good game of hide and seek with the cats with it. Until his hearing went a bit too far and Alec spent half an hour with his hands over his ears trying not to cry as everything magnified. The bubbling potions, the pitter patter of feet, the noise from outside that just never stopped.

He had to force himself to focus on something else, listening to Magnus’s heartbeat, slow and steady, before he didn’t want to cave his own head in.

He didn’t try playing around with it again.

Speed and strength weren’t the worst, as he’d already found out, and Raphael, Alec remembered, said something about shapeshifting?

“Maybe I can make myself a cat,” He said to Chairman.

Chairman blipped at him, before trotting off to try and break into Magnus’s trash again. Alec didn’t know what Magnus was on about, compared to the chaotic disaster that was Chairman Meow, Church was an angel. All he wanted was his cushion. 

He didn’t try shapeshifting. Mostly because he wanted to hypnotise something, but, since Magnus was asleep and Raphael was back at the hotel Alec had no one but himself. 

He ended up, not touching, but leaning over some of the books that were open around the loft, getting a little feel for what this magic stuff Magnus did was about. Sleeping potions. Healing potions. Nothing sinister. Alec didn’t know if he was disappointed or impressed. Magnus really was just a nice guy wasn’t he.

Dawn came after a while, Alec passing out just inside his door. Literally.

He woke in his bed, but he was sure his face had smashed into the floor before he went to the land of dreams. Magnus was awake when Alec stumbled out of bed, a mug of blood, again, in hand, as was becoming the norm.

He got his things that day. Raphael made three trips to get it all in, Alec hearing the vampires below talking about him. They hadn’t been the ones to get his things. Apparently, Raphael had actually approached the werewolves to do it. Something that was causing quite the stir.

Raphael snapped his fingers in front of Alec’s face, “Stop eavesdropping.”

“But they’re talking about me.”

Raphael gave him a look, which, coming from him, was pretty threatening. 

“Why did you ask the werewolves?” Wait, “Are vampires and werewolves really enemies? I thought that was a hollywood thing.” They certainly milked it for all it was worth.

“Not enemies,” Raphael said, to which Magnus had a snort to say to that. “We’re not. We just, we have our territories. Now do you want your things or not?”

He did, forgetting that he’d asked another question until he was halfway through checking Raphael really had brought everything Alec had asked for. Clothes. Money. His phone? “How did you get this?” Shouldn’t it have been in lockup or something?

“The mundane police gave it back once they figured out there was nothing on it. Your clothes and nails were more important to them than your phone.” 

Ah. 

He unlocked it, sorry to see his phone plan cancelled already. Urgh, okay, he needed to sort that out. “Have you thought at all about what you’re going to do?” Raphael asked, lounging in his usual spot, Chairman carefully sniffing his ankle.

“About…?”

“Your family.”

Magnus, curled up in an armchair explained, “We’re not going to keep them from you, or you from them if that’s what you want. But, you have to understand Alec, they think you’re dead. I know it’s hard but sometimes a clean break is what people need.”

A clean break. Never seeing his family again. Cutting them out like they were dead just like they did with Alec. “Not to mention we don’t need them knowing about the shadow world,” Raphael tacked on. At Alec’s look he went on, “I say this out of kindness. Mundanes don’t do well in our world. If you knew half the things that lurked in the night do you really think you’d have lived as easily as you did before? It’s bad enough what those mundanes do to each other without telling them monsters exist as well.”

That was a fair point. Alec had already mulled over what it would be like if he’d known about the shadow world before his murder. He certainly would have stayed in the closet until he was forty. He wouldn’t walk around at night either. 

“I haven’t really thought about it,” he admitted after a while. “I want to see them.” he did. He needed to make sure they were alright. But, what if Raphael was right? What if Magnus was right and it was easier on everyone for him to stay dead? He’d always needed them more than they needed him. Without Alec hanging around them, maybe their lives would be better.

He knew the only reason Jace hadn’t moved further into the city was because of Alec. He hadn’t wanted to leave Alec on his own. Sure, he didn’t live with Alec anymore, but they hung out everyday. More, Alec knew, for his benefit than Jace’s. 

Jace had a job. He had goals and ambitions and he was achieving them. Izzy, she had that big job and a boyfriend. Without Alec around she wouldn’t feel so pressured to keep looking behind her. She wouldn’t second guess taking her and Simon abroad for that job he knew Valentine was hoping to propose to her. 

“I don’t know,” Alec sighed.

“That’s fine,” Magnus assured. “That’s completely fine.”

“Maybe,” He tapped his phone on his leg, “Maybe I should sort myself out before I think about any of that?”

“Even better,” Magnus agreed. Although Alec thought his and Magnus’s opinion on sorting his life out was vastly different.

Where Magnus was thinking bloodlust, Alec was thinking phone plan and income. Speaking of, he checked the envelope Raphael had added to his pile, counting the bills out. He set some aside, the rest of it he tucked into the envelope. He’d give it to Izzy. She’d probably paid for his funeral, she needed some reimbursement for it. God knows it was a waste, him sitting here and all that.

He changed into his own clothes. It wasn’t that Magnus’s wasn’t comfortable, because they were, but there was just something about wearing his own clothes that made something settle inside of him. He also didn’t fear tearing them if he caught them on one of Magnus’s nick nacks which had almost happened more than once already.

Raphael started once Alec had sat down. Thus was the routine for the next three weeks. Alec got up, he was fed blood that Magnus kept getting from somewhere. He listened to Raphael talk, or, on occasion, be walked through one vampiric skill or another. Raphael would leave, Alec would bother Magnus for a while and then they’d both, or Magnus, go to bed.

“What’s this?” It was interesting having a male roommate again. It wasn’t Alec’s apartment, but he was certainly more comfortable hanging around it. Magnus didn’t mind him snooping too, laying down which parts of the loft were safe and which weren’t. The books, mostly, were safe. Which was where Alec found a magazine he’d not seen since Jace was staying with him. It was a newer issue, he gave Magnus that, still, Alec knew the scantily clad woman on the front was just a precursor for the naked ones inside.

“Ah,” Magnus near leapt for it, snatching it out of Alec’s hands and into the trash, “One of my- I mean-” Magnus probably wasn’t used to having someone stay long enough to snoop. Why else would it have been sitting beneath a book instead of hidden beneath his socks or bed like any other single guy.

“It’s fine,” Alec chuckled. “I’m teasing. It’s your loft you can have as many porn magazines as you like.” 

Never had he been so happy he couldn’t blush because Magnus didn’t need to know it wasn’t just him that would have turned red had this topic come up when he’d been alive. “I don’t normally-” he made a noise that accurately went along with his spasming hands. 

“Magnus,” Alec sniggered, “I don’t care. It’s your house. And it’s not like I’ve never seen porn before.” Usually it was on a laptop however. “God knows what Raphael’s werewolf buddies found in my room.”

Magnus’s face was still getting redder. For someone who was four hundred odd years old, something Alec had just learned the other day and man Magnus looked good for it, Alec found it kind of funny that he could still get flustered over someone finding porn in his house. 

He purposefully navigated around Magnus, picking the magazine out of the trash and handing it over. “Just remember I have super hearing now.”

Magnus made a pained noise, “I’ll- I won’t be doing anything like that I promise.”

Alec knew his face would definitely be red now if his body worked properly as, also glad his heart didn’t beat anymore, he said, “I just meant put on a show.”

There was a moment of silence then a scowl overcame Magnus’s face as he stormed off to his room, magazine in tow Alec noted.

He didn’t put on a show. Despite the fact they were about to date before all this Magnus projected the image of perfectly saint like. No jerking off, no more porn magazines lying around. The perfect roommate. Yet he still made a note to tell Alec little things here and there, keeping things PG but making sure Alec knew that he was still interested. Like, “I’m Bi,” he said one day, snacking around his coffee table as Alec had his daily dose of blood.

Alec was tempted to tell Magnus he didn’t care, because he didn’t. But, not in the way that he didn’t care that Magnus found identity in his sexuality. More like, he didn’t think it had to be stated out loud. Alec knew Magnus was interested. They’d been on a date. But if Magnus thought he had to clarify then, “Thank you for telling me. I’m gay.” Something a few years ago he wouldn’t have been able to even think about himself without throwing up. Good for him.

“I just- the magazine- I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t, you know.”

Alec smothered a smile in his mug. Magnus’s nose was doing that crinkling thing and damn if Alec wasn’t already weak for it. “I know. You did say yes to another date.”

Magnus blinked like he’d completely forgotten about that. Which, considering the hectic life he lived, he probably had.

It was nice, living with Magnus. If Alec felt indebted to him. He’d tried to pay Magnus rent, once, out of the pile of money he’d kept aside for such an occasion. That, well, that hadn’t ended well. 

But they’d gotten past it. Alec learning that, well, since the washer and dryer were free game, and Alec only really survived on blood, he wasn’t really all that high maintenance. It was rather like having a third cat, Magnus described it as. Something Alec didn’t necessarily like the comparison of, but understood the meaning anyway. Alec was just company, that’s all there was to it.

“Besides,” Magnus said, once things had calmed down, “I’ve had four hundred years to build up some savings. And blood isn’t something I necessarily pay for.” He sort of proved his point by magicking up a packet of blood that definitely would have made Alec’s stomach roil if it wasn’t already cataloging the vintage. It was weird seeing it in a packet instead of a mug. With a mug Alec could pretend it was something else.

Which brought Alec onto another part of the perks of living with Magnus. That being that Alec got to know about another, he didn’t want to call them species, but, well, people, that existed in the shadow world.

Warlocks were fascinating. That’s all there was to it.

Alec didn’t know if it was just Magnus in general, or all warlocks, but he was entranced. The knick knacks that could either be a fake or something that was actually five hundred years old. The fact that there were genuine spell books that would produce actual magic out of them just lying around. The potions that sometimes made Alec’s nose twitch and ears pop. Just, Magnus. How he looked, how he acted, how he told Alec it was only recently he’d gotten his magic back, and every day that he spent getting used to it again was another day of Magnus adding another spell to his ever growing repertoire.

One day, as Alec was sitting there, job hunting, basically questioning his life decisions to this point, Magnus asked if he was hungry. He answered absentmindedly yes, and then watched as, for the next few seconds, Magnus’s hands circled themselves like they were dancing to a rhythm only he could hear, the sparks and blue mist dancing with it, then a few blood packets were falling into Magnus’s hands. 

That was new. Usually Magnus just snapped his fingers when he wanted to do something. Magnus looked so happy with himself too, going off to heat the blood up in the microwave. 

Alec didn’t say anything. He didn’t really have a need to. Magnus was having fun with his magic, that’s all there was to it.

He started doing it for more things. At one point sitting next to Alec at the coffee table, right on the edge of his knees as he made his hands circle and flow again and again. 

He was trying to make tea. But the trick of it was to make the tea appear, steaming, made, and already in the cup. So far Magnus got all of them individually, but not together. Magnus started sweating the longer this drew out, Alec abandoning his crossword to just watch. He was really into it now, which probably said something about his boredom being cooped up here, but it was really fascinating watching tea appear from nowhere. 

When he did do it, Magnus was definitely exhausted. Sweat was dripping down his nose, and Alec saw the way his arms flopped down to his side. But Magnus was grinning, laughing at the ceiling as he looked at his readily made tea.

Alec zipped off, handing over a glass of whiskey he sometimes saw Magnus sipping out of. “Here,” he said, Magnus downing the whole thing.

“I did it,” he grinned at Alec.

“You did.”

It wasn’t hard magic but it was complex he explained to Alec the next night. It was one thing filling a cup that was already in his hand and a whole other to magic the cup, the tea, keep it hot, have it made and put it all together before appearing in his hand. It sounded complex when explained like that, but Magnus had done it, and that was all that mattered.

The little trick came in handy when Raphael came next, the vamp looking twice at his hand when Magnus merely flicked his wrist and a mug of warm blood appeared in it. Alec had seen the experiments of the first ten he’d tried with that liquid, and had helped clean it up before Raphael could see the mistakes.

“Impressive,” Raphael gave him, sipping from the white fanged mug that actually had been bought for Raphael. “For you anyway.”

Magnus scowled over at him, but Alec could see he enjoyed the praise anyway. 

He started reading more around the loft. Usually Alec found Magnus lounging on the pillow next to him when he woke up. Sometimes he’d come out of the room and find Magnus upside down on his sofa with the book the right way around. It was only when he figured out the writing was upside down- wait, it wasn’t.

What?

 Some aspects of warlock life Alec didn’t get. Just full on didn’t get. Like the Tai Chi on the balcony. But, since it was summer and the nights were warm, Alec didn’t complain. Especially because Magnus knew he had a bit of an audience some nights, and on those nights maybe definitely was teasing Alec by doing his little Tai Chi with his shirt off.

Alec had never felt like more of a lecherous housewife than he did sitting with his chair tilted to the balcony doors sipping from his mug of blood. His legs had never stretched so wide in his life than that one time he saw Magnus do actual push ups off the ground. Sue him, it had been three weeks since he’d jerked off, and with Magnus often there when he woke up and Alec passing out as soon as the sun came up there was basically no time for him to enjoy himself. Not to mention it was kind of weird doing it in a strangers house when they weren’t dating yet.

It was like being at the gym but better. Since Alec wasn’t sweating, or about to die from a weight dropping on his head he could appreciate a good back without fear.

He always pretended he was looking at his phone should Magnus look, and since Alec had super speed now, Magnus was none the wiser. Or, he pretended to be none the wiser as he shoved a shirt on and strode in apologising. 

Tease.

The last week of Alec’s confinement in Magnus’s loft wasn’t as good as the others. In fact, it was possibly worse than the first week Alec woke up here and discovered that yes, vampires exist, everything dark in the world exists and he’s now one of them. 

It wasn’t even triggered by anything, just the idea that he was going to have to go outside. Staying here, it was rather like being at a summer camp. There was no thought about what came after, just Alec living in the moment, curiously discovering this new world. But was no longer going to be in here. He was going to go outside. In the dark. 

Alec… he wasn’t cowardly enough to not admit he had a little fear of the dark. Magnus’s loft was so light he often forgot it was night at all. But out there? In his new room even? Would it be light? No chance. It was going to be dark. He was going to be around strangers. Some people who didn’t drink out of mugs. People that had other people in the hotel. That were feeding on other people they may have brought in off the streets. 

He could have been one of them. If this had been a few years ago would that have been him? He didn’t know, and the unknowing, the fact that no one had told him if that maniac vampire that murdered him had been caught. 

Just the thought of that vamp had him restless. He couldn’t have a panic attack anymore, meaning his body had to find another way to screw him over. 

He wanted Izzy. He wanted Jace. He didn’t want to go live with a bunch of strangers.

Would he have a lock on his door? Would it matter?

Then there were the normal people. Would he be okay around them? He didn’t want to hurt anyone. Well, not any of them anyway. So far he’d been alright, but what would happen when there was more than Magnus around him? He hadn’t bitten Magnus but Magnus’s blood wasn’t exactly appealing to his nose. Warlock blood, apparently, wasn’t all that nice to drink.

Magnus, more than once, had to sit Alec down and make him take deep breaths. It shouldn’t have helped, since he didn’t need to breathe. But somehow it did.

“Muscle memory I suppose,” Magnus said, rubbing Alec’s back. “Sort of like heartbeats. I know Raphael likes listening to mine when he gets overwhelmed.”

“He does?” Alec did too.

Magnus’s hand didn’t stop as he said, “Well, he had it constantly ringing in his ears for all of his mundane life. It’s a bit disorienting to suddenly find it gone.”

It was. It really was.

He had a few other breakdowns. Everything just started getting more and more real the faster the date him and Raphael had agreed on came near. Especially when Magnus, offhand, mentioned that warlocks had demon parents. The conversation had been about Alec’s own parents. He’d finally gotten the nerve to ask about the funeral.

Magnus, well he’d shown up. Right at the back. “We didn’t really know each other but, you were nice, and I just thought I’d come say goodbye.” He’d went later to lay flowers since he didn’t know how well his presence would be appreciated by the rest of the family. They didn’t know him after all.

Knowing Magnus had been there however had finally gave Alec the courage to ask if they’d been there. “My mom and dad. They, mom at least, she looks a lot like Izzy. I don’t know if you know Izzy,” he couldn’t remember if he’d pointed her out at the party or not, or even after when they were on their date. Anyway, “She looks like me.”

Magnus nodded. “I did see a woman who looks like you there.” Had to be his mom. Magnus didn’t mention Alec’s dad. Just said, “She was extremely upset, as you can imagine.”

“Not really. She rarely gets upset. She didn’t even stick up for me when dad chucked me out.” 

Which was how they got here, with Magnus offhandedly saying, “Well at least they’re not demons.”

Alec had snorted, quirking a brow at Magnus.

Yet the man had merely done the same back, quite serious when he said, “How do you think warlocks are born.”

Which was the beginning of Alec’s second existential crisis.

“Demons exist?” 

Demons exist and apparently create warlocks.

“Demons exist? ”

The kind that lived in hell. Which meant hell existed. Which meant heaven existed which meant everything they taught in church might be right. Meaning, well, what did that mean for him? Was he going to hell? Was it the gay thing or the vampire thing? When he got to hell, what kind of reception would he even get? Oh God there were demons in hell. Hell was real. Hell was waiting for him when he finally snuffed it. Demons. The kind that tormented people and were horned and- and-

“Demons exist.”

They came to this world. They actually set foot in this world and created- oh. He turned to Magnus, seeing the man watching him. He didn’t look like this was something he’d not seen someone go through before.

“It’s not-” Alec struggled through, “It’s not you. Magnus, I swear, this doesn’t change how I look at you.” It probably should, Mangus had demon blood. Was it full demon blood? Half? How did that even work? “I just… I grew up Christian, you know, it’s one thing being told I’m going to hell because I’m gay and just, tossing it all aside and a whole other to find out it’s real and there and waiting for me and-”

Magnus caught his arm, their talk after all about demons. How they used to come to this realm but were somehow banished. He made sure Alec believed him about that. The demons couldn’t come here, but they were real. 

“Warlocks are a dying breed these days because of it,” Magnus said, “Can’t say I’m sorry about it.” From how warlocks were created Alec thought it said a lot about Magnus that he’d prefer warlocks go out of existence altogether than try and create more of them. 

Magnus couldn’t deny hell existed however, no matter how much he wanted to assuage Alec’s fears. It was there. It was waiting for both of them. 

“I’m demon born but you have demon blood inside of you now too. Nothing demonic is allowed in heaven.” Which just sucked. That- it well and truly sucked.

He was thankful when morning came that he passed out with the sun, otherwise Alec was sure he’d never go to sleep again. Just the thought that he could pass away and wake up in hell had him pacing the apartment, even more fearful to go outside. What if someone killed him as soon as he went out? They’d already done it once, what if it happened again? 

He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to go to hell. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Magnus promised. He had Alec on the floor, Magnus’s arms around Alec’s neck as he held him from behind. His neck was right next to Alec’s ear, letting Alec hear the rhythmic thumping that reminded him that someone here was alive. He was still here. Barely. But he was.

Raphael came before Alec even woke up. Magnus had finally perfectd portalling. It had taken far longer than conjuring tea, but he’d done it, and there Raphael was having his cheeks pinched by Magnus. Alec didn’t know what was funnier, that Magnus had the balls to do that to a vampire, that the vampire had been, as Magnus said ‘practically raised by him’ so had probably gotten used to such affection. Or, that he still let Magnus do this to him even if he knew damn well Alec was right in the next room. 

Either way, Alec’s day was off to an okay start. 

Raphael helped him pack, and once all his things were in boxes all three of them, Magnus telling them outright he was coming, stepped through a portal to the Du Mort. They stepped through a portal to somewhere at least seven blocks from Magnus’s loft.

It was a test as well as an opportunity for Alec to see the hotel properly that they portalled outside of the Du Mort. Alec’s stomach was starting to twinge as soon as he took a breath, the people passing by them even after dark setting his fangs loose. 

It took effort to listen to Magnus’s heartbeat, singling it out from the others. But Magnus’s heart was slower than others, he realised, and his heart, for sure, didn’t have Alec’s fingers twitching to pull it out and- oh God how brutal was that thought. What the hell brain.

They stood there for five whole minutes before Raphael took pity on him and showed him the entrance.

It wasn’t the front door. Instead they used the workers entrance, Alec forcing himself every step inside. He could hear others, their lack of heartbeat definitely disconcerting compared to those outside. But it was soothing at the same time too. Like finally hearing nothing after constant screaming for twelve hours. 

The lobby was oddly well kept for somewhere that looked like it had been abandoned. Then Alec remembered that there were people that still lived here, they just didn’t want others to know they did, so while the outside was a dump, the inside was nice. No one was behind reception, and this place was definitely old school since it wasn’t a key card Alec was given but an actual key. It weighed heavy in his hand, but, again, it was nice. It felt like it was his. It also showed that privacy was something valued here. Why give a key, after all, if they were just going to walk in?

“Here,” Magnus said, holding his hand out. Alec handed the key over, watching a duplicate appear, Magnus pocketing it. “For emergencies. This way I won’t have to scream at Raphael to open your door up. Just like,” he took another key out, making a double of that, “If you ever need me, just walk in. I don’t mind.”

He took it, clutching onto that one a little more than the other. 

“Best start with the tour,” Magnus said, Raphael coming around the counter to do just that.

People lived in the hotel by rank. Rank was determined either by age, or status. Raphael was clan leader because he’d served under the former leader and, well, no one wanted to question him when he finally deposed her. The older vampires lived higher up in the hotel. They got the nicer rooms, since, well, they’d earned it. It wasn’t just age after all, it was history with the clan. These were the people who helped the newbies when they came, who defended the hotel when it was under threat. They’d lived through a lot put it that way.

Lily lived up there, Raphael told him. “If you ever can’t find me, find Lily. She’s my second in command and is more than willing to help.”

Probably a lie, but Lily, when Raphael knocked on her door, looked nice enough. She had a few nice words for Magnus too.

The other vampires that were young but not old enough to be considered old, lived on the other floors. Alec, since he was a baby vampire right now, was on the first floor with the other fledgelings. The room wasn’t bad, actually, when he got in. They’d taken out the other beds, meaning it was spacious. Certainly bigger than his room back home. It wasn’t damp, it didn’t have crumbling walls. It was a nice, probably more than a hundred dollars a night, room. 

“I’ll leave you to settle in. We have dinner at midnight, I’ll explain more about the hotel when you get there.”

Raphael left, and as soon as he did Alec was testing out the locks. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Raphael, more like the others.

Magnus was doing a slow circuit when he looked back. The window had already been boarded up, but with a few flicks of his wrist Magnus looked satisfied that no sunlight was going to hurt Alec when he slept. He snapped the rest of Alec’s things into the room. Well, sashayed them in, Magnus was really starting to prance about when he did his magic. It was cute.

He hung his clothes up, fiddling with his phone every so often. He really needed to get that sorted out. Before he did that however he needed to make sure he could pay for it. He really needed to talk to someone else about this whole vampire thing. 

A few more things were magicked into place by the time Alec had finished with his wardrobe. His sheets were changed for one, Magnus magicking the silk sheets Alec had basically lived in at the loft. The photos of Alec’s family were larger too. No longer were there polaroids or those stupid photo booth tiny photos. Instead Magnus had them in frames, Alec able to see every inch of his siblings happy faces. The last new addition was one he really could have kissed Magnus for. Scattered around his room were little cat nightlights, all of them off now but he saw Magnus tinkering with them.

“They’ll come on as soon as the sun comes up,” Magnus said. “You’ll have to turn them off manually, but I’ve amended the batteries so keeping them on for long periods shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Thank you.” the last thing he wanted was to wake up to a dark room, and since he wouldn’t see sunlight for the rest of his life, nightlights were a small blessing. He sat on his bed, watching Magnus place the small collection of cats where he wanted them. “How long are you staying?”

A small hum, then, “I should probably get back before midnight.” It was probably going to be the first night Magnus got an actual decent nights sleep. “But I can stay longer if you need me.”

“No.” He kind of hated how quickly he said that. “I mean, you’ve helped me out enough. You should go take care of yourself. I’ll be fine. These people are… family,” that was what Raphael had called them. “They’re family now so I should be fine.”

Magnus gave him a sad look. “It’s okay to be scared.”

“I know.” There was no point denying it, the other vampires would see it the moment he was introduced to them. “But I have to face fear at some point right?”

“Not alone,” Magnus told him, “not if you don’t want to.”

He nodded, but Alec thought this was something he had to do alone. He couldn’t have his hand held every step of the way. He’d never been a people person, but, this wasn’t about making friends. Not yet, anyway. It was about being introduced to people that were going to have his back as much as he was going to have theirs. It was about establishing trust, and if Alec didn’t take that first step on his own then he may as well try and make it on his own. So, “I’ll phone you.”

Magnus sighed, but didn’t argue. He hugged Alec, letting Alec hear his heart up close for as many seconds as he needed to get himself under control before stepping back and opening up a portal. “This isn’t goodbye Alec.”

“I know.” It sort of felt like it but, “We have a second date to get to right?”

“Right,” Magnus grinned, stepping through back to his cats.

Alec didn’t know what to do with himself when Magnus was gone. His things were all put away, and it was still a few hours until midnight. He tried hacking into the wifi password before giving up and just lounging on his bed, probably being a complete creep as he tried to scent any lingering tinge of Magnus on the sheets. They must have been new, since Alec could only smell the hands that had handled it in the store. Probably just as well. 

He took a shower at some point, just to see if the water even ran. After that he tried the door again, locking and unlocking it, bolting it, unbolting it, until he was satisfied he’d have notice before someone tried to break in.

He cleaned up just before midnight, smoothing his hair down and checking his shirt for creases. May as well make a good first impression right. 

His hands shook as he opened his door, dithering in the entryway as he tried to remember where Raphael said they even had dinner at the Du Mort.

Restaurant right? They had a restaurant here? He should have asked for a map.

As it was, he ended up using his handy enhanced hearing to follow the sound of voices until he came upon a dining room. Instead of individual tables, like Alec expected, they’d all been pushed together. There were about ten vampires present already, taking the empty seats and sniffing the surprisingly clear glasses. He didn’t know why but everything clean here surprised him. It was like he’d expected this whole place to be covered in blood or something. Or at least more gothic than it was. The whole room was a nice cream, the table cloth too. The people were showered, perfumed, even manicured. They looked like normal people sitting down for a fancy dinner party. 

Alec took one of the furthest seats from the head. There were place settings for some of them, Raphael and Lily’s up the top. The ones without didn’t seem to mind that their names weren’t present. Some of them looked just as out of place as Alec, one of the girls fiddling with her fork. 

Two minutes to midnight Alec nearly jumped out of his skin as his shirt was tugged, Lily dragging him from his seat to one nearer the rest of the vampires. “I think this is everyone for the night so you may as well be sociable newbie.” She plonked him next to an older woman, her brown hair done up in an elaborate updo. 

She didn’t have a place setting, but her whole aura made Alec wish he knew who she was anyway so he wouldn’t be forced to ask. She looked like one of those people who expected her presence to be known in every social conversation. Alec’s mom was a little like that too.

At midnight exactly Raphael strode in with his usual blank expression. No one stood, so Alec hoped to God he’d done the right thing as he stayed seated too. “Is this it?” he asked.

“Elliot’s with the others,” Lily said, “apparently there’s a party some Seelies are throwing they’ve been invited to.”

There was the barest twitch in Raphael’s face at that. Not a party person then. “Very well.” He sat, snapping his fingers. As soon as he did a number of-

God they were people. Normal people with pulses. He had to close his eyes to stop himself from sniffing the air. From going for them. 

He wasn’t the only one, he noted. Another guy, a few seats up, was breathing rather heavily, the vamp next to him pinning his arm to the table. The mundanes, as Alec was starting to force himself to call them, weren’t for eating, thank God. Instead they poured each vampire there a glass of blood that smelled… wow. That smelled good.

Fresh.

He noted as they walked away that all of them had long sleeves.

That answered that question.

While the other fledgeling downed his in one go, Alec attempted to pace himself. If only because the others were doing the same, conversing in between, and Alec did not want to have nothing to save him from awkward conversation if it came down to it.

For the most part, everyone was willing to ignore him. He was pretty okay with that. Near the end of Raphael’s glass however, he gave Lily a pointed look that quickly had the vampire grinning at the rest of the table. 

“So, newbies, time to hear the rules of the hotel.” No jumping in the pool, ha ha ha. Other ridiculous things that would be actual hotel rules if there weren’t vampires living here and their pool had in fact dried up a good decade ago. 

The real rules, when they came, were a little more sensible. Don’t piss off the wolves. Don’t kill mundanes. Don’t piss off the Seelies or the warlocks or any other creature that could decide to go to war with them. They could get a job, yay, but they had to make sure they were back to the hotel before dawn or they were on their own. No killing their own kind, or killing anyone in the hotel without just cause. If they wanted to go running back to their own lives they had to be prepared to clean up their own messes. Mundane affairs were not their affairs. 

That being said, they all got a new phone when they joined the clan, all full of numbers of vampires that would be willing to pick up their call if they really were desperate. Alec programmed Magnus’s number in as soon as his own was handed over, wondering just how they had the money to fund a whole clan’s data plan.

They were dismissed after another chat about protecting the clan first and always first. He caught Lily before she disappeared along with Raphael, figuring she was probably more willing to talk boring matters than the man who got his face smushed every time he went to Magnus’s.

“About- about talking to my family,” he started with, “You said it was allowed?”

Lily pulled a face before he even finished, “It’s not recommended but I’m not stopping you. So long as your mundanes don’t come here with pitchforks and torches you can do whatever you like with them.”

He could talk to them then. Tell them he was alive. 

If he wanted to that was.

He still wasn’t sure.

“Anything else?” Lily asked.

He had about a dozen questions but, he was sure he could figure it out. Mostly he was wondering, “This place doesn’t have a map does it?”

It did. Lily took great humour in handing it over to him, and Alec found out why when he saw someone had a good time annotating this thing.

Grumpy cat had the penthouse, and underneath that was a very well drawn ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. There was a ballroom that had been renamed the ‘rave room’. The empty pool that was ‘everyone’s lost hopes and dreams’. The basement had sleeping bats swaddled in baby blankets, and certain rooms specifically noted down so Alec wouldn’t go around investigating in taken rooms. 

Funny indeed.

The first few days Alec investigated around the hotel. He saw the pool was just as miserable as it had been named. The gym, that was a new renovation, was empty too. But that was mostly because vampires didn’t really have a need to exercise, being stuck in the same bodies for the rest of eternity and all that. Still, the repetitive motion of lifting weights soothed some of the thoughts circling around his head. 

The basement he steered clear of. There was no one down there. But he didn’t want to look at what his life might have been like had someone from the clan got to him first. 

He tried interacting with his fellow vampires his fourth day there. He tried with the other fledgeling, finding him in the gym too one evening. It had all started out okay, but then Alec asked how the guy had been changed and, apparently, there were people out there who wanted to be vampires.

“I mean, immortality, and staying this beautiful forever?” the guy grinned, more at his body than Alec.

God he was one of those guys. 

Alec got the hell out of there as soon as he could. Especially when the guy started on all the girls he was going to get. He couldn’t handle that conversation from straight guys on a normal day. On a day where he found out vanity got this guy turned, that he’d purposefully put himself in a vamps way to get changed in the first place? No way, he wasn’t listening to that crap.

So no more vampire interaction for him for a while. 

He continued to go to the dinners however. They were, dare he say, nice.

In a weird way. Like Alec thought it was sweet that Raphael took the time out of his night to gather his vampires around for a meal. Even if that meal was more of a meeting some nights. Talk could range from a new mundane movie to just why Peter was an idiot and they needed to stage an intervention. That last topic Lily was very passionate about. 

A proper family dinner.

Some nights were more animated than others. Depending on who was at the table Alec could either be witness to a full blown fight or a civil conversation about flowers.

Never had he been more happy to hear a friendly voice when he finally caved and phoned Magnus. “Is this a bad time?” He’d attempted to wake up early, but, well, his body was a dick and decided sun time was nap time. Still, it wasn’t too late. 

“Not at all,” Magnus certainly seemed awake. “How are things at the hotel? Have you made many friends? Raphael’s not being mean to you is he? I can have a word with him.”

“He’s fine.” And probably listening in so no way was Alec ratting him out at the hotel if he was ratting him out at all. “And it’s okay. It’s an adjustment.”

“It always is.” And Magnus meant that too. “So, are you calling for a jailbreak or just a friendly chat?”

He smiled, falling back to his sheets, “Bit of both? I was hoping we could maybe go out.”

Magnus hummed, the whole thing low and doing things to Alec he was still happy to see worked. “Is this our… date?” there was hesitation there, both of them knowing that things were different now. 

But, they didn’t have to be. Not all of it anyway. “Yes. It is. Kind of. I mean, I need a job so, it’s gonna have to be a very cost effective date.”

“Ah but you forget, it’s my turn to pay.”

“That’s right.” Alec remembered. Still, “Cost effective. I mean it. I took you out for dinner so nothing more than that.” He didn’t want to have to top something amazing on ten dollars he still had scurried away under his mattress.

“I know just the place.” He texted over the address, Alec listening to Magnus fill him in on his day afterwards until Alec really had to get ready for dinner. Magnus snorted at that, “I should give you Raphael’s mug. He won’t tell anyone this but he much prefers it to those wine glasses. Says the mug keeps the heat in better.”

Alec grinned, “Maybe I should buy him a flask. Think he’ll give me a nicer room?”

“You don’t like your room?” Magnus teased. “I made it all nice for you as well.”

“Nah,” he didn’t carry the joke on, “It’s actually great.” no one had broke in yet too. “I very much like the nightlights.” They made everything that little bit better before he found a lightswitch when he woke up. 

“Good. That’s good.”

Magnus managed to weasel him into talking a little longer before “I really have to go.” midnight was fast approaching. “But I’ll see you.”

“You will,” Magnus promised before shouting at his cats as a crash came through the speaker.

That was Alec’s cue to hang up.

He didn’t know if he had to ask permission to leave, or if they had some sort of book to sign out. He eventually sacrificed his pride to ask Lily. Yet instead of the laughter he expected from her she got oddly serious. “You think you’re ready to go outside?”

Alec hadn’t thought about that. Still, “Won’t know unless I try right?”

Lily’s face twisted. “I guess.”

“I’m going with Magnus,” he offered, and that did make Lily a little less tense. “I’ll keep my phone on, if that’s any help too.”

Her face twisted again. “I guess.” She clapped his arm, “Don’t get killed newbie. Raphael hates cleaning out rooms.”

Date night couldn’t come soon enough. He felt a little like his old self as he finally finessed the wifi code out of an older vampire and blasted tunes through his phone. He fluffed his hair up, grabbed a decent shirt that honestly never got sweaty these days because he didn’t sweat. He practically skipped out the entrance, then doubled back in when the smell of mundane had him foaming at the mouth.

He took a deep breath. Then didn’t do that again when his fangs threatened to break through his lip. That was fine, he didn’t need to breathe, he liked breathing, but, he didn’t need to. So he said goodbye to oxygen the rest of the evening and ventured out into New York.

The place he’d typed into google maps led him into upper Manhattan. He actually started recognising streets the longer he walked. If he had a heartbeat he knew it would be racing by now as he passed a street that would lead down to his old home. 

He didn’t end up turning that way. Instead, Alec found himself in front of an abandoned church. He checked his phone. Then checked it again but the address was right and the church didn’t change the longer he looked at it.

He heard Magnus before he saw him. Out of all the heartbeats pounding in Alec’s ears right now Magnus’s was the slowest. It was soothing, familiar to him, and almost made him tempted to take a breath. 

He didn’t. It was sort of creepy too, so he definitely didn’t do that.

“Nice to see you made it,” Magnus greeted him, looking… a little more sparkly than usual. “Shall we?” He asked, hesitating only a moment before offering his arm.

Alec took it, letting Magnus lead him into, yep, the abandoned church. “This isn’t some sort of cult thing I’m being initiated into is it?” He wouldn’t put it past the vampires to have Magnus lead him to one.

Yet Magnus laughed, “No. No cult. I just thought you’d like to know a little about the history of the shadow world now you’re part of it.”

“There’s a history?” of course there was a history. It didn’t just pop out of nowhere one day. He felt like an idiot for even saying what he did.

Magnus didn’t laugh at him however, leading him around the church and towards the back. “A more complicated one than you’re going to believe.” he shifted a few bushes where a large piece of the church had been hollowed out. “After you.”

Alec trusted Magnus, that was the only reason he slipped down the gap into the crypt. Down here, the sound outside seemed muffled a little. He sniffed gently, getting a lot of muted dusty scents instead of pure blood, blood, blood. He still held his breath.

Magnus hopped down next to him, taking no time to look around as he started for the stairs. “This way.”

Upstairs was odder than the crypt. The smells from outside were completely gone. As was the sound. The floor wasn’t stone, like Alec thought it would be, nor was he facing anything remotely church like. It was almost like a hotel. There were doors all around them, and inside them, when Alec zipped over while Magnus had his back turned, were rooms. Old, dusty, but nicely furnished, rooms. 

“Is this some sort of monastery?” They probably had them at one point in New York. Right?

“No, not a monastery,” Magnus grinned, grabbing Alec’s hand to pull him onwards until they came into an open room. “This, is an Institute.”

He glanced around the desks with huge books still piled on top of it. The racks where swords, old, musty swords, were laying. “Like… a mental institute?” 

“A shadowhunter Institute,” Magnus corrected, really getting into the history of it.

Once upon a time, there were demons, which Alec still had nightmares about. Apparently, they used to be able to come to this world, and that time was very dark indeed. Alec was tempted to ask if Magnus knew from experience. How old was Magnus even? Regardless, demons used to come to this world, and then, after seeing how much humanity was suffering, an angel, like heaven and stuff, came down and ‘bestowed Jonathan Shadowhunter with heavenly objects to help defeat the demons’. A cup, a mirror and a sword. 

“The cup is in the Spiral Labyrinth. That’s sort of like a warlock HQ,” Magnus explained. “It was used to create other shadowhunters,” Since of course Jonathan named his people after himself. “People with angel blood that were capable of handling the angelic weapons that sent demons back to Edom.”

He got a talk on Edom, and how the rift that had been constantly open since time began was closed with a joint effort between warlocks and shadowhunters. So, no more demons. Meaning no more use for shadowhunters.

“Places like this just went into disuse when the shadowhunters realised there was no need for them anymore. They tried to go after the downworld to make them feel better. That’s us by the way.” Another word he was adding to his mental dictionary. “But we went into hiding. Pretended we didn’t exist. Eventually they just… integrated.”

He looked around again, imagining it full to the brim with people whose whole life was dedicated to hunting demons. What must it have been like when they were told there wasn’t a use for them anymore? That what they’d been born and bred for was just… gone? “That’s kind of sad.”

Magnus didn’t think so. “Good riddance if you ask me. Shadowhunters were one of the most arrogant, condescending groups of people I’ve ever encountered.”

Oh.

“They also tried to murder me on numerous occasions so, while I respect what they did, I don’t miss them.”

He showed Alec around. The training rooms that were still in pretty good condition. The weapons that Alec spent a good while swishing around.

“They used to light up whenever a person with angel blood touched them,” Magnus said, watching, perched on one of the desks. He had a sword of his own across his leg, the blade lighting up just slightly whenever Magnus touched it. Did that mean… “Alas, they’ll never work again.”

Alec inspected the weapons, wondering what they would have looked like all lit up. “Ooh,” a bow. “I used to do archery when I was younger. Ever since I watched ‘Men in Tights’ I wanted to be like Robin Hood.” He took the bow down, glad to note he didn’t burst into dust as soon as he did so. The arrows were wooden, with interesting carvings along the side. “Think the ghosts in this place would mind if I took these?”

Magnus was smothering a smile when Alec looked back, “You’re taking wooden arrows to the Du Mort?”

“Wh-” oh. Right. Wooden stakes. He supposed wooden arrows were the mini version of that. “Maybe I can get metal ones?” He waited for Magnus to say no to that too. “I can take it, right?”

Magnus shrugged, “I don’t see why not.” He wiggled his fingers around and Alec’s hands grew heavy with a few metal arrows. “There you go. Now you’ll only give Raphael half a heart attack.”

Whatever gave Alec something to do through the long hours in the night he’d gladly suffer a disapproving glare for. 

They went through the rest of the Institute, the library which nearly gave Alec’s geeky brain an orgasm. The rooms, properly now, as well as the garden that had been overgrown from centuries of disuse. It was there that Magnus sat him down in one of the few patches of stone floor and magicked up a picnic. 

Ah, “Romantic,” Alec complimented. The view, the garden, Magnus was definitely getting points for this.

“And for the vamp,” he handed over a glass of warm blood.

“Ooh.” More points in Magnus’s favour. 

He was feeling well and truly wooed up there, watching the stars through the skylight. A little bit of music too once Alec hacked into the restaurant across the streets wifi. Magnus told him a little more about the magic he was re-teaching himself, Alec the annoying vamp that seemed to think that just because Alec had talked to him once they were now buddies. 

The light kept catching on Mangus’s face, making everything a little more sparkly. Or, maybe that was the glitter. He didn’t know whether to address it or not. Eventually he didn’t have to, Magnus caught him staring and started rubbing where the glitter was most prominent on his cheek. “Church spilled some on me.”

He heard the flutter of Magnus’s heart. The lie. But if Magnus wanted to blame it on the cat then Alec would let him. Still, he made sure to say, “It looks nice. You should wear it more often. If you like.” He didn’t mind either way, but it was awful when someone judged someone else on something new they were trying out. 

Magnus kept rubbing his cheek, but Alec caught the shy self satisfied smile on his face.

Their date wound down when Magnus ate the last cupcake he’d bought for himself. He got Alec a travel mug full of warm blood to take home with him. 

Just before they left however Alec snagged a few of the books, Magnus raiding the rooms until he came out with a few rings and necklaces he looked very happy to have on his person. “I’ll snap that back for you,” Magnus said, already sending the books and bow back. “Now,” he held his arm out again, Alec gladly taking it. “Let me walk my date back home.”

He had to force himself to keeping Magnus’s speed, helped with the hand on his arm. The smells were back, Magnus telling him the Institute was still surrounded by wards so the mundanes wouldn’t stumble onto it unknowingly. There were still dangerous things inside after all. Which meant that it was sort of like in its own little bubble, sights, smells, sounds, they were all contained inside and the outside was kept outside. 

He felt marginally better when they were near the hotel. Mostly because they were out of his old haunt. Slightly because being here meant being with people that would stop him if he wanted to go lunging for a mundanes throat.

Magnus didn’t stop when they got to the entrance. Instead he walked Alec all the way to his door. He found himself twirled around, Magnus grinning up at him. “So, second dates. I believe there’s etiquette for the second date, right?”

Alec ducked his head. He knew he should have seen this coming yet, here he was, still feeling all of seventeen about to have his first kiss. He didn’t try and fight the smile on his face, looking into Magnus’s eyes as he said, “I believe there is. Thing is I can’t… quite… remember what it is,” He leaned down, raising a brow.

Magnus didn’t even hesitate in closing the gap, nipping at Alec’s lips gently before grabbing him around the neck and really planting one on him. 

He stumbled, before finding his footing and wrapping his arms around Magnus’s waist. It wasn’t the most chaste first kiss he’d ever gotten, and for that Alec was kind of grateful for. Chaste could be interpreted fifty different ways. This, now this told Alec Magnus didn’t care. He didn’t care that Alec was a vampire, or that he’d been drinking human blood not even an hour ago. 

He reared back, his fangs poking at his lower lip. God he hated these things. 

Magnus kept close regardless, sniggering low in his throat as he leaned forward for one last nip. “It’s been far too long since I did that.” He sighed, leaning forward again, forehead lingering on Alec’s. “How are your fangs?”

It was like going through puberty. He wasn’t hungry, just happy, dare he say excited, and from the looks of things he was going to have to worry about popping fangs as well as boners now whenever that happened. Thankfully he knew a solution for one if not the other, but after listening to Magnus’s heartbeat for a few moments he was able to force out, “They’re okay.”

He knew without looking Magnus’s nose was crinkled again. “I know this is completely unsexy and will probably ruin the mood but I’ve had vampire lovers before. I don’t mind a few nips here and there.”

He made a noise he was definitely not admitting to. “Maybe don’t give me any ideas.”

He pulled back before he did do what Magnus was suggesting. Magnus, when Alec finally looked, was extremely happy with himself, looking almost ethereal in the dim hotel lighting. “You’re right. Gotta save something for the third date.”

Cue his fangs trying to break skin again. 

Magnus understood, “I’m going to go say hello to Raphael. Have a nice night Alec.”

“You too,” he managed to say around his teeth, slithering into his room.

He couldn’t stop thinking about their date the rest of the night. Neither could Magnus from the scant texts he sent through the night. Sometimes there were odd tidbits like, ‘I think your sisters boss modelled his Institute on one of the shadowhunters ones, it certainly looked like it,’ to ‘Church misses having someone to lie on,’ and ‘I think I might have left some glitter on you, my lips looked sadly barren when I got back.’

Tease.

He was more than sad when daylight came and he ended up passing out over another text. 

His phone was silent when he woke up, and since Alec knew Magnus needed his sleep after a night without Alec didn’t bother him. Instead he dragged himself to the gym, avoiding the other fledgeling in favour of setting up a target. 

He didn’t have a foam one, and ended up pinning up one of the chairs he was sure he could replace from IKEA and attempting to hit it. 

It turned out this archery thing was harder than it looked. 

A few vamps zipped in through the night, no doubt attracted by the odd thumps and Alec’s cursing. A particularly memorable interaction was when Lily poked her head through, taking one look at him before going off and coming back with a number of face print outs. “I call next round.”

After dinner even Raphael had a go, pinning up a photo of some woman he definitely made pains to get a bullseye on. 

The bow was a hit with the hotel, who’d have thought. When Alec went to have a go the next night he found it being fought over by a couple of vamps. It turned out everyone got bored when they were trying this whole low profile thing.

“I think I might have started an archery club,” Alec said over the phone one night. “Lily’s getting a few more bows for the hotel. She says it’s good stress relief.”

“I believe it,” Magnus said. “Some of those vamps are wound hard.”

For sure. Especially the older ones. He saw them drawing portraits of long dead enemies over dinner the night before. 

Alec turned the page of the book he was reading. In front of him Raphael got another arrow on his tattered photo print out. It was the third one he’d gone through already. Maybe Alec should suggest therapy. Or a cooking class. Something caught his eye on the page in front of him, “Wait, this is my name.”

A hum came through the speaker.

“Lightwood. That’s my family’s surname. It’s in one of those books I took.” It was even his family crest underneath it. Then, a few pages later, his mom’s maiden name, then Jace’s. “Herondale. Trueblood. Why are our surnames in here?”

“Probably because your ancestors were shadowhunters,” Magnus said easily. “It’s not as uncommon as you think, and angel blood calls to angel blood.”

“So I have angel blood?” Or, had it? 

Raphael gave him an odd look. Was he old enough to know about shadowhunters? When was Raphael turned? He knew Lily was older- “Probably a slither. I believe it.”

He raised a brow, “Just like that?”

Magnus made a sound over the line. “If I said I thought you looked like you fell from heaven would that assuage your curiosity.”

He got another look from Raphael, Alec grinning back at him, “It might.”

He flicked through the pages again back to his own name, reading all about his family history. “I’ve been looking at bouncer jobs.”

“No,” Magnus said immediately, “Come summer they have you working before the sun sets. Trust me, you want something from night onwards.”

Fair. “Okay, no clubs.” Although, he could get a job bartending. It was indoors, and so long as he managed to slink his way through sunlight to the bar- wait, there were windows in some of them. UV lights in others too. Damn. 

There was a hum then, “You know, if you’re really desperate about finding work I think I could maybe see if one of my clients has a job opening. He owns a rare antique book store, and, as some of his clientele is downworlders I think he was considering expanding his hours.”

A bookstore? Not the worst job in the world.

“You can think of it as temporary?”

“No, that sounds good.” Work was work, and a steady income would make him feel a little more human and less indebted to this new world he was in. He still hadn’t figured out how to pay Izzy back. “If he’s serious about night hours I’ll be more than happy to put an application in.” He wasn’t going to just expect a job after all. “I don’t need any qualifications do I?”

“No idea.”

Good enough for him. “Just make sure it’s an actual opening before you ask please.” He didn’t want any handouts. 

Magnus did, Alec getting a text later about an address to turn up to in order to get an application form.

He’d forgotten how much he’d hated filling them out until he was sat in his room trying to remember who from his old life he could put down as a reference. 

Turned out no one.

That was fun.

He honestly didn’t think he’d even get the phone call, but Magnus had done as he’d said and put in a good word, meaning Alec got an interview to at least showcase in person his capabilities.

Luke was a nice looking man. Alec meant that in the sense that he didn’t seem aggressive and he was easy on the eyes. For a werewolf, he didn’t appear to care all that much that there was a vampire sitting opposite him. Mostly he was concerned with Alec’s lack of qualifications.

“You didn’t even graduate high school?” Luke asked.

Alec forced himself not to pull a face. Professional, he had to remain professional. “My parents threw me out of the house when I was seventeen. I didn’t have the capabilities to finish attending my final year. But I got myself a job. You can’t really check the references since they think I’m dead, but I did work for them.” He’d listed every job he had from that first one cleaning floors at the Met to his last one as a party planner for Valentine. 

It was hard, selling himself. Luke wanted to know why he wanted the job, what he could bring to the job, why Luke should even consider Alec as an applicant and it was hard. But Alec did it. If he could bullshit his way into finessing a few grand off Valentine for planning an anniversary then he could do this. 

Which he did.

Sort of.

“I’m putting you on a trial run. One week. You have to handle the book club meeting on Wednesday too okay?”

“Sounds great.” And Alec had always been better at proving his work ethic through actions rather than words so he gladly accepted the deal, returning to the hotel feeling a little better about himself. 

Enough to handle the upturned noses however. While they were supposed to remain on good terms with the werewolves, that didn’t stop a few people from telling him he smelled like a kennel when he got in. 

Whatever. He’d smell like sewage if it meant he got a steady income. 

He didn’t tell Magnus about it. Not until he was sure he got the job, but the others, for all their complaining, were supportive. Half of that Alec put down to the weapons currently residing in the Du Mort. Lily had come through on her promise to buy more bows, and right now everyone was looking a little more relaxed as they got whatever pent up aggression out on actual targets in the gym.

The bookstore was an okay job. It was a lot of lifting, a lot of sorting, a lot of bookkeeping but it was nice. Quiet. The night shift didn’t bring in many mundanes which, Luke told him, were the bane of his existence. Alec understood, he’d worked retail before. 

The downworlders that came in weren’t half as rude as the mundanes. Some of them were from the book club, and the book club itself wasn’t so much a place to talk books as a gathering for downworlders. For some in hiding, Luke’s bookshop was the only place in town they could meet fellow downworlders. It was their only time to safely socialise, like the reclusive werewolf that came in every Tuesday. The lack of mundanes made them feel more at ease and had them come in a few more nights, sometimes to buy things, other times to simply talk.

Alec wasn’t sure what to make of that at first. This was a retail job after all. But Luke made it clear after the third night that he didn’t mind. He sold enough books through the day to make profit, the night was for the downworld. For vampires that wanted that new book in a series but didn’t want to order online. For warlocks looking for a copy of a tome that had long gone out of publication and could only be specially ordered in. For werewolves that were newly turned and needed to slip into the back room where the downworld books were kept to help them out in their new life.

The only creatures Alec didn’t see were the Seelies.

“They come in through the day,” Luke shrugged, still sitting behind the counter. It was Alec’s last night of probation, meaning, if he got the job, Luke’s last night of watching over him. Tomorrow, if all went well, Alec would be opening and closing the shop on his own. “Seelies only come in here for gardening books. Maybe the odd erotica. Things they can easily get when the sun’s out.”

That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t be seeing one however. Just, not one so far.

He rang up the books that came his way. He dusted the shelves and made sure the books were alphabetized in a way people would understand. Then, at the end of the night, after making sure everything was in order, he was handed a key.

“Don’t destroy the place,” Luke said.

He added it to the other two, “I won’t.” Finally things were getting back on track.

With his new job came the freedom to do what he’d been wanting to do for months now. Mail that money to Izzy. Or, as he ended up doing, standing outside her and Simon’s building with an envelope wondering how he was supposed to get this to her door.

“Do you want me to do it?” Magnus asked. He’d been good about coming here. To be fair, they’d been on a date beforehand. A nice game of mini golf that had ended in both of them seeing just what they were getting into with each other. Turns out they were both competitive idiots who were sore losers. A perfect match. They’d made a promise to lose to other people instead of each other after that when it looked like the night would take a sour turn. 

Then they’d just walked until they ended up here. Alec with his hand inside his pocket, wondering if it would be worth it to just show up there and talk to her for a few minutes. “Could you?” 

Magnus took his hand, the other flickering around until the envelope was gone. He hoped Izzy wouldn’t be too mad about it, he’d wrote her a note, made it seem like some sort of will scenario. Hopefully it would ease the blow. 

They walked off before Alec could change his mind and knock at their door. He forced himself to think of other things. It wasn’t like he heard Izzy inside there anyway. No doubt she was working another late night at the Institute. So, no Izzy, just Magnus.

He’d kept the glittery look. It was more purposeful this time. Colour coordinated even. There was pink shadowed underneath his eye, some of it even venturing on top of it. Like Magnus was testing the waters out for something else. He suited it, and it obviously made him happy, so Alec made care not to smudge it when he cupped Magnus’s cheek later for a kiss.

“And then I had a thought,” Lily said, shooting another arrow into some guys face. “Why don’t we buy a business.”

Raphael pulled a face. 

“Hear me out,” she said. “We buy, say, I don’t know, a club. We put our people in charge, we have private rooms that can be hired out, ergo more income. And, we use those private rooms and or drunk mundanes to feed our need for blood. You and I both know we need a back up in case those mundanes run off.”

Raphael’s face still stayed twisted even as Alec yanked his hand closer to try out another nail polish. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” Alec said. “But I think it should be a gym.”

“A gym?” Lily asked, face going so much like Raphael’s it was obvious they hung out more than passing acquaintances. 

“Yeah, I mean, everyone here’s hot,” he wasn’t denying that. “And hot people bring in clients. If we remodel the lower floor we won’t even have to buy another building. And, the mundanes won’t be drunk when you stick a needle in them.” He had another thought, “You could always do that thing, you know, like a blood drive. Say that the gym donates so much money to this specific charity and play on people’s need to both outdo each other and feel like a good person. You won’t even have to trick them if you do that.”

He saw Raphael and Lily share a look, “You’ve thought about this a lot,” Lily said.

Alec shrugged, “We had someone come around my old gym for a blood drive once. You’d be surprised how many people want to flex about it when there’s pretty people about.” Him maybe as well. 

They shared another look over Alec’s head, “Not a bad idea newbie,” Lily said at last. 

“Maybe not,” Raphael agreed after a moment. “I’ll think about it.”

Lily pumped her fist when Raphael wasn’t looking, going back to shooting her anger out. Raphael on the other hand kept his face twisted as Alec set that particular nail polish down and got another one. “Is this really necessary?”

“You’re the one sitting there doing nothing.” And Alec had ran out of nails. He didn’t feel too apprehensive about laying a few coats of polish on Raphael. Not when Magnus was the reason for it. “I just want to get the right shade, then I’ll leave you alone.” They were a family now as well, and, as Alec had learned, sometimes people had to make sacrifices for their family. God knows Alec had sat through this enough times himself when Izzy was growing up. 

After another three experiments Alec finally found the right shade of glittery pink he wanted. Tossing the nail polish remover Raphael’s way, he bundled the pink up with the other bright colours he’d spotted at the beauty store the other day and waited for his next day off. 

“And the book store is good?” Magnus asked when Alec came to pick him up that Wednesday. “He’s not being too tough on you?”

“Luke’s great.” He really was, and since the job was cash in hand Alec didn’t have to worry about things like bank accounts or social security numbers. “The whole thing’s great honestly. Thank you.”

Magnus waved him off, finally locking his door when he set his new gift, and the two escapees, back inside. “I’m just happy you’re happy. Now,” he held his arm out, the two of them portalling across the city. 

A restaurant was on the cards for tonight. It was a little too cold to be wandering the streets, or having picnics on rooftops. Besides, Alec didn’t want to deprive Magnus of a stereotypical date just because he was dating a vampire that didn’t really have to eat what was on his plate. So, fancy dinner. Just the two of them. 

Alec meant fancy too. “My parents used to take us here when we were celebrating something.” Like Alec making the gymnastics team, the judo team, whatever other sports team that wasn’t football and didn’t mean he’d get his face caved in when someone got it into their heads to start calling him gay. At least in judo he learned to give as good as he got. That was before however. Last he heard Izzy had been with their parents here last when she got her job at Valentine’s company. He hadn’t been there for it, but apparently it had been nice. “May as well make some better memories out of the place. It wasn’t the food that was bad after all.” In fact, the food was rather good.

Hence why they were there.

“In that case colour me intrigued.”

Alec used Magnus’s last name for the booking, insisting as soon as they sat down for Magnus to order what he liked. As for Alec, he had a flask of blood he was considering sprinkling onto his food so they wouldn’t draw too much attention.

Everything was going good. They’d finally shook off the awkwardness of living in each others pockets for a month, meaning they could get back to getting to know each other the old fashioned way. Alec asked about Magnus’s magic, his clients and just what he was planning to do with both of them now. “You mentioned something about opening up some sort of specialty business.”

Magnus swallowed, nodding, his glass of water hitting the cloth as he sat up, “I used to run something similar back before… well, before.” Before demons were gone, Alec filled in. “It was a way to make money. Good money actually. I used to summon demons for specific needs of my clients, or mix potions for them. Once they saw I could actually do what they wanted I had quite a few people knocking on my door.”

“I bet.” It must have been insane for the mundanes that came to his door to find out that this guy could actually do magic. Or maybe not. This was a couple hundred years ago. Didn’t they all believe in witches back then? “So you’re going to do that again?”

“I charge what I like, always have,” Magnus said, “But at least this time it’ll be for something genuine. I’ll feel useful again, instead of stuck in that rut I was in.”

He hadn’t mentioned just how he got his magic back, just that it was. Alec had been curious. He’d wanted to ask, and wanted to ask now. But if Magnus wasn’t forthcoming with the details yet then Alec could wait for them. Besides, “I can start spreading the word at the bookstore if you like. I’m sure the downworlders would love to meet with you.” They might not all have money enough to see Magnus, but there were some that were well off.

Besides, if there was one thing Alec had learned about Magnus it was that sometimes he didn’t want anything in return. He was a giving man, maybe a little too much. If someone was in trouble, Alec didn’t have a doubt in his mind he’d help. Why else would Alec be here?

“You’re sweet.” Magnus asked about the others after that. Alec happily told him about Lily’s plan of maybe getting the hotel a more stable income of blood. “Which is not a bad idea I’d have to say,” Magnus agreed. “So long as no one dies.”

“It would certainly stop people from being so bored as well.” Alec had never read so much in his life then when he had days off with no Magnus to see. The other vampires had errands and things to do, and those that didn’t looked just as bored as he was sitting in the hotel. There was nothing to do there. Nothing but sit and contemplate their place in the universe, which got real depressing really fast. “I mean, I know I wanted a job because I wanted money, but, I think at the same time I just didn’t want to lose touch with the outside world.”

Magnus hummed, “I know how you feel. I’ve seen so many warlocks petrify themselves because they just…” he made a face. “It’s hard to involve yourself in the world. Especially for downworlders.” 

Alec didn’t need to eat. His clothes never really got dirty if he didn’t go out and purposefully have something happen to them. He could exist in the hotel for centuries without having to go outside so long as there was someone coming in every night with blood for him. Eternity was a long time when there was nothing tethering him to the outside world. No family, no friends, the only person he would have talked to was Magnus, and at what point would Alec become so unmotivated to go outside that he stopped talking to Magnus as well?

He knew it was the same for others. Werewolves were scared of hurting other people so they holed themselves up. Seelies spent so much time in their own realm the first one he’d seen a few days ago had actually asked him what century it was. It was hard finding something to do with his life, and Alec didn’t think he would stay at a bookshop forever. But it was good enough for now, and it got him seeing other people. It got him up on an evening and into the wider world. Even if, more often than not, he found himself sprinting home whenever his shift was finished in case there was something waiting for him in the shadows. 

Talk wound down as desert came, Magnus slipping his chair around until he could hold his fork comfortably in front of Alec’s mouth. “You know-”

“I know,” Magnus said, “Just trust me.”

He did, so he forced the cake he would have drooled over as a child into his mouth, not even seeing Magnus’s hand move when he did so. He did feel the change however as the cake was somehow layered with something. 

“Probably not what you want to hear but that couple over there just had steak. Mundanes rarely drink all the blood.”

Leftovers. Good leftovers. So Alec gladly opened up for the other two bites Magnus let him have, the rest of it being dragged to his side of the table once more. “So on a scale from one to best you’ve ever had, where does this place rank?” he asked as he called the server over for the bill.

“Not the best, I am centuries old after all.” Magnus considered the question a moment longer before deciding, “I’d give it an eight out of ten for modern New York.” A good frame of reference, and definitely better than a seven. 

“I’ll take it.” Definitely somewhere he could bring Magnus back to then. That was the important thing.

He paid, feeling very good about himself when he did since he had money and could actually do so. Then just as he was helping Magnus put his, Alec was sure new, coat on, he spotted him. Max. Both Max’s actually. Uncle and brother. Only one of them had their eyes on him however.

Max, Alec’s brother, lifted his hand up, giving a small wave. Alec didn’t really know what to do now. They’d locked eyes, Max knew Alec had seen him, the question was whether to wave back or not. If he waved back he might invite Max over and Max might see that Alec was in fact not dead. But if he didn’t wave back then Max might call the attention of Uncle Max who, Alec was very lucky hadn’t actually noticed him because he would have definitely come over. But if Alec didn’t wave back then he couldn’t be all nonchalant about it and pretend that it was merely a coincidence that he looked a little like Max’s supposed dead brother, but Alec didn’t really want to get into all of this right now on a date of all things and he really hated that he couldn’t have panic attacks anymore. 

He took a chance, waving slightly and hoping his face hadn’t shown how shocked he was to see Max beforehand as he grabbed his jacket and pretended it was just some random kid that had waved to him. Thank God he’d already paid. 

Max didn’t call over to him, and it pained Alec like nothing else to walk out without looking back. Max probably hadn’t known it was really Alec anyway. The last time he’d seen Max properly was at his brother’s sixth birthday party when his dad had told him outright that not a part of this family meant not a part of this family. 

Still, the sighting threw him off the rest of the night.

He tried to play it cool with Magnus, but even he knew something was up when they finally got back to his loft. “Do you want to come in?” Magnus asked, the two of them able to hear Church’s screaming from behind the door, “I’m coming!”

As tempting as that was, “Raincheck?” He kissed Magnus’s glittery cheek. “It’s getting kind of late for me anyway. I don’t want to be- huh.” He hadn’t even thought about passing out during sex but well, the thought came to him now. Would he really just go to sleep if they were still doing it when the sun came up? That kind of sucked. Anyway, “I’ll call you.”

“You’d better.” Magnus got another kiss off him before footing his way through the door to his upset babies.

Alec kind of missed them. 

Some of the vamps were already asleep by the time he got back. Alec was tempted to join them, but his body would do that for him in half an hour anyway, so he ended up digging out his old phone and hacking into his old dropbox.

Izzy had the password. She kept logging in too and changing it on him. But they’d grown up together, and Alec knew she only had three passwords before things got too confusing for her so it was easy enough to get in when he wanted to. He liked hand held photos like the next guy, but he only had a few of Max, and the paper ones were back at his parents. Meaning Alec only had the ones online to go through when he was missing his younger brother.

He looked okay, from what little Alec had seen. If Uncle Max had been there too then Alec bet he’d had a great day. Uncle Max was the best, hands down. He was the one who drove Alec to his out of state competitions. They’d go to weird diners where one of Alec’s cousins would start in on inappropriate stories that always had Alec in stitches before Max cottoned on that it really shouldn’t be told. They’d sleep in shady motels where his cousin Sophia would snore so loudly he’d end up snickering and telling stories with Gabriel until morning came and they’d just nap in the car instead.

Uncle Max was great. Alec just wished he didn’t live so far away. Otherwise he was sure he wouldn’t have felt bad showing up to his door asking for help. Uncle Max had never cared he was gay. Or, he never said he’d cared. But then, he wasn’t exactly living the lifestyle Alec’s grandparents wanted for him either. 

He missed Max. He missed his brother Max too. Alec wondered what he was like now. He’d always been a quiet kid. Alec hoped it was quiet in the sense that he just wanted to be quiet rather than he was being quieted. 

He wondered if there was a print shop open at night, he wouldn’t mind getting a few more of these printed off. 

When he got to work the following week he was surprised to see the number of downworlders increasing every night. Word must have gotten out that Luke’s was a safe meeting spot, and after getting permission from the man himself, Alec did his sworn duty as an almost boyfriend and started dropping hints that there was a warlock on the scene. It shouldn’t have been big news, except no warlocks had been born for centuries now, and the ones that were still alive could blend in so seamlessly with the mundanes it was like finding a needle in a haystack when someone wanted one. 

Alec didn’t promise miracles, but he did say that Magnus would hear them out. That was good enough for a lot of people, Alec getting a few hearts texted his way the next day. But that also could have been because Magnus had tried on his nail polish for the first time and kept sending Alec photos of them.

Either way, Magnus certainly had interesting stories for him. Much more interesting than the werewolf who decided to try and take a piss on one of the vampire erotica sections. “They wanted a potion to help heal werewolf scratches. It’s rather easy to make, but, since I haven’t actually made any potion in years I had to settle for healing the poor girl myself.” Another werewolf had come to see him that week wanting to know if there was a cure. A bunch of brownies had come asking about wart removal. Seelies for a locating spell. All of them he charged, but what that charge was varied from person to person. 

It certainly helped Alec get his mind off his near miss with Max. Up until he just so happened to be passing that part of New York again and saw his family, all of his family save his dad, standing outside. If he’d had a heart it would have been racing as he dove into the nearest alley, wondering if he’d missed someone’s birthday.

“Max,” that was Izzy, “I’m telling you he’s gone. See? He’s not in there is he?”

Max scoffed, “Well no, he left with this other guy. But it was him. It was Alec.”

Oh God. 

“Listen buddy,” Jace this time, “I know you miss him. We all miss him, but- but he’s not coming back Max. Whoever you saw, it was just someone that looked like him. Nothing more.”

“It was him.”

“This is getting ridiculous,” mom. His mom was there. God Alec hadn’t heard her voice in years. He suffered through a breath, the trail of her perfume, of just her and memories of happier times brushing up his nose. “Are we going in or not?”

“Mom,” Izzy ground out.

She sighed, but didn’t say anything more as Izzy and Jace continued trying to tell Max that Alec wasn’t going to be there that night. That he was never going to be there again.

It was the hardest thing he ever had to do to walk away from them. He ended up not going to the Institute at all that night, like he’d been planning to do. Instead he found himself lounging around the penthouse of the Du Mort with Raphael nudging him in the face every so often to make sure he was still undead.

“You should talk to Raphael about it,” Magnus said when Alec told him on their next date. They were at the Institute again, Magnus graffitiing the walls with lewd drawings of angels. “A lot of vampires have been where you’ve been Alec. They understand what you’re going through. Some of them still are going through it themselves.”

He hummed, flicking through another book that had caught his eye. “I’ll think about it.”

It was seeing Jace again that finally had Alec telling Raphael about it. He didn’t condescend Alec like Alec thought he would. Strangely he never seemed to want to condescend on things Alec always thought he would do. Instead he sat there and listened through it all. The problem with Max, with his family, how much Alec wanted to see them but didn’t want to mess them up in this.

“My family were immigrants,” Raphael said when Alec was done, “My mama came here with my sisters and me looking for a better life, little did we know the monstruos that lived a few blocks over. It’s hard to leave that life behind. I still visit my sister, the one that’s still here, whenever I can. She doesn’t know me. She thinks I’m her great nephew, and it hurts, but for me, I don’t want her to remember me as a vampiro. Selfish, maybe, but I don’t want to see her face when she finds out what happened to me.”

It wasn’t just this new life after all, it was getting to that new life. It was telling someones family that in order for them to be standing in front of them they’d literally went through hell. It was a lot to tell someone. It was a lot to get someone to believe. Alec was still having trouble believing it and he was the one living it. If he told his family, who knew what they would say to him.

Still, “Did you ever think about lying to them? Just, pretending for a while?”

“Of course,” Raphael didn’t even have to think about it. “I went back. Magnus will tell you if you ask him, but I went back when I had a handle on myself again. I pretended to be who I was to them again. But I’m not. I changed. I did things, awful things and they weighed on my conscience every second I tried to be who I was. It got too hard. Mama was worried, she didn’t have the money to support me and my sisters, and since I couldn’t work through the day I was just another burden to her. So I left.”

Alec liked to think things might be different in this day and age, but the same things still stood true. Alec wasn’t who he was. He’d been pretending even before he got turned that he was still the same kid that had gotten kicked out of his parents. He’d pretended right to Izzy’s face that he was fine when she found him a few months afterwards, a shirt that hadn’t been washed in weeks on his back and pretending the smell was because some idiot had knocked into him on his way to meet her. He’d tried to hard to show her and Jace that he was fine without them, that he could survive, and he did. He’d done it. But it was hard to keep that face on when the other two were moving on with their lives and still had the safety net of their parents to fall back on if something went wrong. For Alec? It had just been himself. 

Now he wasn’t even that guy. He didn’t know who he was or what he wanted. He just knew that he was here, and he had to do something with himself until the answers came to him. Answers that were easier to be answered when he was on his own. He didn’t want to drag them into this nightmare. He’d never wanted that, and they would be if he approached them. So, “thank you. For telling me.”

“It’s only going to get worse,” Raphael said, optimistic guy that he was. “But the clan is here for you. Lonely creatures call to lonely creatures, and vampires are one of the lonliest things you’re ever going to meet. Second to warlocks. But they’re just insane.”

Alec snorted, knowing that was a jibe at Magnus. “Careful, I report back to him you know.”

“Trust me, I do.” Because Magnus was also lonely, and Raphael was part of the small family he’d managed to make for himself in the long years of his life. “Have you met Ragnor yet?”

“Ragnor?” Since they were talking about Magnus Alec was guessing they were connected somehow. Now that he thought about it Magnus had mentioned someone by that name. “No, why?”

Raphael shrugged, “Just tell me when he comes to town won’t you.”

“Sure.”

After his talk with Raphael Alec still didn’t have a clue what to do with himself. But he did know a few things. One was that he needed to come up with another date idea for Sunday. Then two that Luke would also probably appreciate the old books the Institute had on hand as well. Mainly because they had his last name written on one of their pages too.

“Creepy right?” Alec asked, showing Luke where his sigil and ‘family history’ was kept. This was a reference book that would lead whoever read it to a more in depth history of that surname. Alec had been seeking his own out for a while. So far he’d only found Herondale, and while it wasn’t his own last name, Jace’s family history was interesting. The journals he’d found written by the Herondales even more so.

“This is at the old Institute?” Luke made sure.

“Magnus showed me,” and since he didn’t see a problem with Alec telling Luke here they both were. In fact he’d encouraged it. “He says any spell books inside are his, but the others I think are worth reading.”

“Definitely,” Luke agreed, already wandering off with the book in his hands. Alec was just glad he’d read the whole thing before handing it over. He doubted he would be seeing it again for a while. 

As for the other books, “... we took the warlock for questioning, for- for?” He squinted down at the page, really hating how people spelled things a few centuries past. “Yeah, for. For we believed it may be responsible for the recent demonic summoning. Wait they called the warlock an it?” he flicked through the other pages, seeing if there was a name or at least gender he could attribute this person by.

Magnus didn’t look surprised, lounged as he was on his sofa with a cup of tea in hand. “If they didn’t have to know our names why would they bother to write them down? We were only a little higher on the hierarchy than demons to them Alec. Don’t worry, I’m used to it.”

“Assholes,” he tossed the book aside. He’d still read it, but maybe he’d do so at the hotel where he wouldn’t spend all night insulting Magnus’s kind. “How’s your tea?”

Magnus took a sip, his wince only slightly concealed behind the cup. “Nice,” he forced out anyway.

Alec rolled his eyes, coming to sit next to him, “It’s your own fault you’re drinking it. Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you.”

Magnus huffed before downing the whole thing at once, his nose scrunching up big time as the taste didn’t sit right in his throat. For as magically exhausted as Magnus was tonight after keeping a werewolf behind some magical barrier instead of locking it in a room and merely keeping watch, he looked good. He’d done something different with his hair, Alec seeing streaks of glitter from where he’d, probably, not even remembered he had it on when he was messing his hair up. His shirt was a little more loose than what Alec was used to as well. It was still hidden by a sweater, but the shirt underneath definitely had a few buttons undone that wouldn’t have been a few weeks ago.

“Was she okay in the end?” Alec asked, arm leaning on the back of the sofa, his fingers trailing along the beginning of Magnus’s sweater. “The werewolf?”

“Fine. They’re always fine,” after they’d seen Magnus Alec kept to himself. “Werewolves are worriers, the lot of them. I’m thinking of holding some sort of seminar for them, or at least getting their pack leader to do it. How do so many of them not know how to safely lock themselves up for a full moon?”

Alec didn’t know. “Luke has books about it. But, I don’t think the authors live in New York so…” There weren’t a lot of things like abandoned dungeons and such. At least, none that Alec had seen. “Kind of glad I didn’t get turned. Is that a bad thing?”

Magnus leaned his head back until neither of them could ignore that Alec definitely had his arm around him. “Not at all,” he said anyway. “In fact, you ask any downworlder and they’ll tell you they wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. Well, the good ones anyway. And-”

“Those that aren’t seelies because seelies are vain, I know.” It wasn’t the first time Magnus had said so. It was still funny how worked up he got about seelies anyway. Alec just thought Magnus didn’t like the idea that there was a race of people out there who could out drama him.

Alec had lived with Magnus for a month, he knew how dramatic the man could get. Especially when it came to his cats. The amount of times Alec had woke up to Magnus and Church having a hissing contest was astounding. 

“I’ve obviously said this before then,” Magnus noted.

“A few times. But I’ll gladly hear it again,” he leaned forward, snagging Magnus’s lower lip in his own. “I like hearing you speak.”

Magnus practically melted, like no one had ever sat there and told him he was fascinating to listen to. Alec couldn’t imagine why. Even Magnus’s most boring tale ever was ten times more exciting than anything Alec could ever think of. Magnus was just of a whole other world, and it baffled Alec that he got to glimpse that from time to time. “You say the sweetest things.”

“I say true things,” Alec corrected, barely finishing before Magnus was pushing back into the cushions.

Magnus threw a leg over him, making it very clear this wasn’t a chaste situation going on. Alec wasn’t mad about it. Quite the opposite actually. He settled back into the sofa, steadying Magnus around the waist as he tilted his head the right way so he wouldn’t have his nose smushed every other breath. 

He huffed, fingers drifting a little lower until he could feel a slither of skin every time Magnus tilted himself up for another kiss. He was so warm, and for the first time since meeting him Alec could hear Magnus’s heart running at a rate a mundanes would. He could feel Magnus’s heart beating under his fingers, his skin smooth and flexing. Magnus was a little too far away for anything too heated. But he didn’t stay there for long, one long kiss that had Alec pinned to the back of the couch had both of them lining up chest to, well, everything. 

He felt more than heard the shaky breath Magnus let out, Alec feeling much the same. He raked his hands up Magnus’s back, feeling those shoulders he’d spied on through the window in person at last. Magnus’s eyes were different when Alec looked up. No longer were they brown, instead a pair of yellow green slits stared down at him, reflecting the low light in the room.

“Wow.” So that was a warlock mark. Another one. It was… kind of hot. He didn’t draw attention to it however, instead digging his nails in a little, “Wh- what er…?”

Magnus grinned over him, “I was thinking a little of this,” he rocked forward, his hips grinding up against Alec’s stomach. He raised a brow when he was done. “Okay?”

Alec grinned back, sliding his hands back down to Magnus’s hips, “Okay.” he pulled Magnus down a little, tilting his own up. The pressure was just as good as he remembered. Better, even, his skin tingling as Magnus stared him down. 

Magnus wound his arms around Alec’s shoulders, letting another breath out before starting a rough rhythm, grinding down, his hips rolling, thighs parting until he was as low on Alec’s lap as he could get. He tilted his chin up, grabbing that damn lower lip that just kept taunting him and sucking until Magnus was tilting his head once more, nails clawing through Alec’s hair. 

It was weird, not having a heartbeat. He knew it should be rabbiting in his chest right now but there was just Magnus’s. His cock seemed to take Magnus’s lead too. Without Alec’s heart and blood to guide it he focused on the body in front of him, the way it hitched on a particular angle, the way Alec could tell when Magnus really liked something. He’d just been given a cheat code, the only downside being his own body was relying on that cheat code to get off too. 

He slid down a little more, giving Magnus more flat surface to work with. He wanted his zipper down. He wanted Magnus’s zipper down. He wanted nothing between them so he could feel every inch of Magnus’s warmth against his own. 

Magnus seemed to be thinking the same, huffing down on Alec, those eyes pinned to his clavicle. Or, where Alec’s shirt was being dragged every which way as Magnus slid and clutched at Alec’s back. 

He didn’t have to breathe, but Alec felt his breaths getting choppier, his hips a little harder as they met Magnus’s. It was actually shameful how quick he came. But considering Magnus was just a moment before him he decided not to bring it up. 

Magnus slumped on top of him, mouth lazy against Alec’s own as he twirled his wrist behind Alec’s head and whatever might have meant a wash for his briefs that night was gone. 

Alec felt nice and lazy lying there, letting Magnus drop his head to his shoulder. Magnus on the other hand seemed to be going to sleep. Which reminded him of just how late it was in mundane terms.

Taking his hands out of Magnus’s shirt he grabbed Magnus’s thighs, told him to “Hold on tight,” and dropped him in his room. 

Kicking his shoes off, and dragging Magnus’s off, he happily crawled to whichever side of the bed was unoccupied and settled in for a few hours. He had to leave a note eventually. He didn’t know if Magnus had kept Alec’s old room vampire proof still, and considering how many windows were in Magnus’s loft Alec didn’t want to chance being stuck here. So he fed the cats, tucked Magnus into bed, and made sure he knew Alec hadn’t wanted to leave.

He got back just before sun up, Raphael whistling low under his breath by Alec’s door, making a show of looking at his watch even if both of them knew when the sun was coming up from feel alone. “Cutting it short newbie.”

“I’m back though.” Alive and kicking.

Raphael actually rolled his eyes for that. Lucky Alec.

He didn’t make it to the bed for all his bravado. Instead, Alec passed out just inside his doorway, waking up to a sticky note on his forehead with a smiley face. 

Vamps were jerks. Or maybe it was just the vamps he hung around with.

Magnus had a much nicer message than his clanmates when Alec checked his phone. Alec wishing more than ever he’d stayed over when he was sent a photo of an empty side of the bed. One day he’d be there. 

Until then, “Keep the noise down!” He banged on his wall, Peter on the other side just cranking his God awful music louder.

With everything good happening in his life, Alec should have known there’d be a blip at some point. It was while he was at work actually. He was ringing up books for one of his clanmates, the girl looking extremely satisfied with herself as she thought buying Raphael a bunch of erotica was going to get her somewhere in the hierarchy. Alec wasn’t sure Raphael even cared about sex. He certainly never seemed bothered by it. Never checked people out, never made mention of anyone he was seeing. The only person, actually, Alec had heard Raphael show an interest in was Magnus’s friend Ragnor, and that was just a passing question about him. So, good luck to her.

Regardless, he was ringing her up when he smelled before he saw someone familiar. It was just his luck that Simon fucking Lewis knew about Luke’s bookstore. 

He dove behind the counter, Anya leaning over to pluck her receipt out herself. “For a vampire you’re not very graceful.”

“Shut up,” he hissed, raising his head up slightly to see Simon start down one of the aisles.

Anya followed his gaze, “Ex boyfriend?”

“Sister’s boyfriend. One who thinks I’m dead.”

“Ah.” She dropped down to his level, “Want me to take over?”

He stopped the immediate yes that wanted to slip out. He didn’t think Luke would be very happy with him if he started letting random vamps work the till. Not to mention he’d promised Luke he could handle anything. Meaning, he could handle this. 

Somehow. Taking a deep breath Alec stood, “It’s fine,” he said, packing Anya’s books into a bag. “And you might want to get Raphael something on gardening more than sex. I think he’d appreciate it more.”

She rolled her eyes at him. Her loss. She walked out not long after, leaving Alec to tap his nails against the wood so fast he got a few raised brows from the other creatures browsing the shelves.

It seemed to take an age for Simon to find what he’d come for. Alec talked himself up the entire time, telling him to play it cool, that he didn’t have to draw attention to it. He could just do his job and not even speak to Simon. Easy. Simple.

Except the moment Simon saw him he didn’t know what his face did but it certainly wasn’t playing it cool. Simon was… Alec couldn’t even describe the look on his face. 

Thankfully Alec recovered before Simon, and prayed the lapse had been so minute that Simon hadn’t even noticed it. Plastering a smile on his face, he pretended to be busy writing up receipts he actually had to do before the end of the night. 

It was a good ten minutes before a few books slid over the counter to him. All about ghosts and the paranormal. Keeping his smile he glanced up, “Is that everything?”

Simon’s mouth opened but no sound came out. Instead he nodded, blinking a few times to himself before handing the bills over.

Alec bagged everything up, forcing his hand steady so he wouldn’t throw the books at Simon.

He honestly didn’t know how he did it later. But Alec managed to keep his mouth shut. He managed to pretend everything was alright until Simon left. 

He wasn’t stupid enough to know that was it however. He told Luke about it as soon as the man came in the next night. “It’s good you told me,” Luke said, “If it happens again and you don’t think you can handle it, you call and hide in the back alright? This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

“It’s not?”

He clapped Alec on the shoulder, “I used to have a life before this you know. Used to be a cop.”

It wasn’t the same as dying, but Alec supposed even werewolves had trouble keeping their before and after lives separate.

So at least Alec had somewhat of a backup if he messed this up. As it was, after seeing Simon, Alec started badgering Raphael and Lily a little more, trying to get them to teach him how to encanto properly.

“It doesn’t work on vampires,” Raphael said, observing more than tutoring, he was leaving that to Lily. “We’re going to have to call a mundane up.”

“Just give him a chance to get a feel for it first,” Lily said, holding Alec’s chin steady as she forced eye contact. It was very uncomfortable. 

“Do I really have to be this close?” He could smell Lily’s shampoo. He could count the flecks of brown in her black eyes. “I don’t even stand this close to my sister.”

“If you want to do it right you gotta really get in close. Make it so they can’t look away. You gotta draw them in,” Lily intoned, widening her eyes until the two of them were sniggering. Lily grabbed his chin again, forcing him close enough until Alec understood what the draw was. It didn’t have any effect on him, but he could see the way Lily’s eyes latched onto his own, making it impossible to look away. 

After Lily finished with him, they called up one of the mundanes that were here to serve them dinner that evening. What followed were some of the most frustrating and humiliating hours of his life. He didn’t get it. At all. The mundane remained un encanto-ed and Lily and Raphael got a good laugh out of it all. Especially when the mundane yawned right in Alec’s face.

“You’ll get it,” Lily consoled as they walked down to dinner. “It takes a while. Don’t worry about it.”

He still didn’t have it when he went to work again. He did see a few more vampires buying erotica however, which swiftly put him in a good mood. Was it Raphael’s birthday or something or were they that concerned with his sour mood that they thought he needed more pornographic books.

“You know there are magazines. Even porn sites,” Alec told the three vamps waiting to be rung up. 

Lewis rolled his eyes, “Yes but they’re all rather crude.”

“Besides,” Elliot tacked on, “We’re not exactly sure what Raphael goes for. Best to get some variety.”

Alec narrowed his eyes but let them pay anyway. Business was business after all. Yet no matter how long he spent in Raphael’s penthouse he never saw any of those books. 

He felt like an idiot when he realised they’d bought the books for themselves and were using Raphael as a cover. What were they, teenagers? Then again, if Alec was buying erotica from someone he lived with he was sure he’d have blamed it on someone else too. 

Still, he let them keep their cover, he wasn’t going to shame them. He wasn’t that much of an ass. But it was still a little interesting to see what each vamp bought for themselves. Pirates, murder mystery, a plain orgy, all written by vampires for vampires. Alec honestly didn’t understand how these books were more appealing than the mundane erotica section, but, Alec supposed whatever drew their interest was their own business.

He nabbed one for himself when curiosity got the better of him. Curiosity and boredom. “So it’s just that the shadow world is actually stated in it?” Alec asked.

Magnus nodded, face twisting as he flicked through the pages of Alec’s book. “Mundane literature sometimes annoys the vampires. Especially because us immortals have very long memories. Mundanes get things wrong, they leave things out, they change things, and, really, a vampire has longer to hone their craft.” he handed the book back to Alec. “If you like I can give you some one of my warlock friends have written. It’s… I wouldn’t say high literature, but she definitely knows how to describe the human body.”

Alec bit his lip, “I’ll think about it.” He didn’t really get the appeal of erotica. He got that at one point it was the only way to sneakily get someone’s blood pumping. But, Alec had been brought up on wifi and TV. If he wanted to read a book he’d rather have a plot than a ten page sex scene that makes him forget what he was reading in the first place.

“You should look at some of the gay novellas,” Magnus said, handing him a mug. “While a lot of them are rather meh, there are some good ones out there.”

“I know. I used to pretend they were Twilight when I was younger.” He’d take the cover off the hardcover Twilight book and put it on one of the rare same sex fantasy books he’d found. It was why Izzy had started dragging him to the films when they came out. 

Magnus sniggered, “We should watch that one night.”

“No.” he wasn’t putting himself through that again. “Definitely not. It’s also offensive to me now so-”

“If I can sit through Harry Potter-”

“Harry Potter is different-”

They compromised on An Interview with a Vampire. If only because Alec admitted it was gay enough to pique his interest and he wasn’t sitting through seven seasons of the Vampire Diaries. He may be immortal but some things weren’t worth sitting through a second time.

He actually picked up Dracula when he got to work the next night. Apparently a werewolf had convinced Stoker to write it after a vampire pissed them off. According to Magnus it wasn’t the worst thing Alec could read about vampires, and anything to stave off the boredom of his new immortal life was worth looking into.

The bell chimed and Alec’s body went into defence mode. He didn’t even have to look up to know it was Simon. So he didn’t look up. He kept his head down, forced his shoulders to relax and trained his ears on Simon as he started his wary around the store.

More than once Simon lingered on the edges of the aisles, Alec knowing Simon was looking his way. Alec turned a page, already seeing the petty details the werewolf had Stoker include in his writings. 

Simon cleared his throat in front of him, Alec seeing more books slid over to him. “These please,” Simon squeaked out.

Keeping his page, Alec rang them up. “You want a bag?”

Simon nodded, clearing his throat a few more times before asking, “Wh- er, has anyone ever told you that you look familiar?”

Really? That was what Simon was going with? If Alec hadn’t known what Simon was referring to he would have found that whole sentence beyond creepy. As it was, “If you’re trying to pick me up, I’m not interested. Twenty five dollars.”

The notes were handed over. “No, er, I just. One of my friends. You er. You know what, it’s not important. Have a good night…”

Alec wasn’t giving his name and Simon seemed to sense so as he took the bag and high tailed it out of there. Good. Simon just thought he looked like Alec. 

He let out a breath.

Simon came every week like clockwork. Alec thought it was a little weird until he realised Simon didn’t know which days Alec worked. All he did know was that Alec worked Mondays, always late at night, so that was the time Simon turned up. 

He tried to make conversation a few times. But him and Simon hadn’t exactly been chummy when Alec had been alive. Dead, and with the opportunity to ignore him out of anonymity Alec gladly rebuffed any attempts at friendship that came his way.

Simon always bought a book, which would have made Alec feel sorry for his bank account if he didn’t know how good a job Simon had. Him and Izzy together he was surprised they weren’t thinking about getting a better apartment. Actually they probably were.

“Which one is he?” Magnus asked that next Monday. He wasn’t here solely to pester Alec, even if Alec sort of wished he was. It was nice seeing him out in the wild. 

“He’s not here yet.” Alec leaned over the counter, catching one glittery cheek in a kiss before sliding Magnus’s books over to him. “Gardening?”

Magnus shrugged, holding one book up, “I figured if I was going to start brewing my own potions I should have an easier way of obtaining them. Besides, I’ve gardened before. So long as I keep the cats away from the plants it should all work out.”

“That’s a lot of shoulds,” Alec noted, the pair of them knowing those cats of his would get into them if he locked them out or not. 

Magnus slid the book back over to him, “Just ring them up smartass.”

He did. “So date night?”

“Sunday I’m afraid.” It was meant to be Friday, but Magnus had a new client that just couldn’t possibly wait until next week. Alec knew for a fact they were going to be charged through the roof if they were making demands like this off the bat. It wasn’t even an emergency. Not the kind that they consider an emergency anyway. No one was dying, no one was in trouble. Just some mundane with a lot of money had found out her husband was cheating on her and wanted some revenge. So, “Luke doesn’t mind you taking Sunday off right?”

“Doesn’t open on Sundays.” Or Saturdays. Weekends in the downworld were reserved for parties and socialising. If they wanted to go to a book store they’d do so through the week, or the few hours in the day that Luke had it open for the mundanes on Saturday. “But he is having me work all five days next week. Full moon and all.” He didn’t mind. Four days a week was more than he could have asked for. While his day off often varied, he didn’t mind the extra hours. Especially because the only reason it was open an extra day due to Luke holding some sort of support meeting for mundanes that were having their loved ones go through the change that night. 

“In that case, how about we go out on Saturday, you stay over and I introduce you to some of my friends on Sunday?” Magnus asked. As bold as it came out, Alec could see the way his hands twitched, itching to reach for his ear. A nervous tic if Alec had ever seen one, and it was cute that Magnus was so worried about Alec not wanting to meet his friends.

“Sounds good. Although if it’s Ragnor you’re inviting around Raphael made me promise to tell him when he was in town.” He still hadn’t forgotten that, and since Raphael asked so little of him he wouldn’t forget it either. 

Magnus hummed, fingers tapping on the desk, “Ragnor and Raphael in the same place…”

“I made a promise,” he hadn’t. Not really, but, again, he wasn’t going to just forget what Raphael had asked of him. 

Magnus sighed, “Fine. But be warned, those two together are lethal. I may have to invite Cat to mellow them out. Or Dot.”

“Invite whoever you like,” he wasn’t going to limit Magnus if he wanted friends around. “If they like you I’m sure I’ll like them. Don’t be so worried about it.”

He got a soft smile, Magnus snapping his books back to his apartment. “Okay,” he agreed quietly. “I’ll invite them then.”

“I’ll look forward to it.” Maybe in the more anxiety ridden way than excited but, yeah, he was looking forward to it. He would have met them at one point if he’d dated Magnus before he got turned anyway. At least this way everything would be out in the open.

He leaned forward, Magnus meeting him halfway as the door chimed and Alec’s body froze up again. 

“That’s him,” Alec murmured, pulling back to lean on the counter. He nodded to where Simon was making his usual beeline for the paranormal section.

Magnus leaned back, seeming to catch enough of him. “Ah, I remember him now. He was arguing with a blond boy outside the church.”

“Jace.” It might have been a guess but Simon and Jace argued over almost everything. Friends they might be, but they’d never lost that scrappy spark that had set them against each other when they first met. “I’m not surprised. He’s a bit of an idiot.”

Magnus raised a brow, “Which one?”

Alec didn’t even have to think before he said, “Both of them. And Clary. They’re all soulmates if you ask me. I’m actually surprised I was the first one to snuff it the way they act some days.”

Magnus sniggered, leaning over for one last kiss. “Okay, I have to go. Gardening and all that.”

“Have fun.”

He couldn’t help watching Magnus walk out. He’d started wearing these tight pants that Alec couldn’t take his eyes off. Nor could some other people that passed him. Needless to say they distracted him enough he didn’t even see Simon approach the counter until he was there, invading the last glimmers of Magnus’s afterimage.

“You should stay away from him,” Simon said.

Alec blinked a few times as the words set in. “Excuse me?”

“That guy,” Oh, Simon was worked up about this, “I think he was dating a friend of mine. And you look a lot like him a-and if he can just hop from him to you- dude my friend didn’t turn out so good.” There were a few shifty looks sent to the door. “He might be profiling you.”

What? “Look-”

“No, I have proof, just,” Simon started to the door, “Just don’t see him again until I come back alright.” He ran out, leaving the book about contacting the dead on the counter.

Okay.

He told Magnus about it when he came over on Saturday. Simon hadn’t come back to the shop. Or, Luke didn’t mention if he came back to the shop since he didn’t come back after dark. Magnus didn’t really know what to do with it. “I didn’t even think he saw me. Both times.” Since Simon had been at the Institute. “You didn’t mention me to him did you?”

Alec shook his head, “Considering I was attacked days- day?” he honestly didn’t remember, “But I don’t usually tell other people about my boyfriends until I think they’re gonna hang around.” Which had been none so far. 

Magnus came over to the couch, a shy smile on his face, “Boyfriend?”

He downed the mug, face twisting a little. It wasn’t fresh, but Magnus definitely got the next best thing to that. “You don’t like that?”

“No I do,” he brought his feet up, resting them on Alec’s thighs. “It’s just, it’s been a while since I’ve been anyone’s boyfriend.”

“Me too.” 

He raised his arm up since Magnus was already there, getting a face full of glitter cuddling into his side as they started their vampire marathon. He didn’t know how he got talked into Twilight, but, well, he wasn’t mad about it. It was funnier than he remembered, and every so often Magnus would tilt his head back and ask Alec stupid questions they both knew the answer to, yet he answered them anyway. New Moon Alec refused to suffer through however, quickly pinning Magnus to the couch so he wouldn’t have to watch the cycle of Bella’s depression for a second time in his life.

Magnus was more than willing to give up watching the movie too, hands immediately tugging on Alec’s shirt until it suddenly wasn’t on his body at all. “Urgh,” Magnus rumbled, hand slowly descending from Alec’s chest and back up. When Alec looked his normal eyes were out, gleaming gold and rounding out as he watched his own hand scratch over Alec’s chest. “This will definitely do.”

“Oh it will, will it?” Alec laughed, rocking his weight back to his heels. He fingered the hem of Magnus’s shirt, just a shirt tonight too. No sweater, no cardigan, just a shirt that had been unbuttoned already so low Alec probably just had to give it one swift yank and he’d have Magnus semi shirtless. 

The temptation to do so was racking up the more Magnus stared up at him, still running his fingers over Alec’s chest. 

Magnus rumbled again, lips pursed for a moment before leaning up and licking across Alec’s nipple. “Okay,” he said, leaning back down, holding his arms out, “I’m back. You can do what you like now.”

Alec sniggered, popping the buttons open anyway, “You sure? I think the other side of my chest is feeling a little left out.”

Magnus pursed his lips again, “Well if it’s feeling left out.” 

They ended up on the floor when Magnus’s attempt to put Alec on his back had them both toppling over. A lot of laughing, Magnus getting his arm stuck in his shirt and Alec shooing Church off him later they were back to grinding like a couple of teenagers. 

He was happy, this time, that Magnus had made sure his room was vampire proof. Alec didn’t feel much like venturing back to the hotel when he finally put Magnus to bed. 

He woke up to Raphael looming over him. “Ah!”

“You’d better be behaving in there!” Magnus snapped.

Raphael didn’t even care, laughing his way over to a dresser to fetch some sort of sparkly scarf. “Up fledgeling. Breakfast is already out.”

Keeping the covers up to his chin Alec got dressed, hearing the tinkling laughter in the next room before steeling himself to joining it. Warlocks were an odd and beautiful bunch of people Alec learned. He wondered if it was their demon heritage that made them so attractive or just good genes on their mundane side. Either way, he never thought he’d be thinking the words blue skin and hot in the same sentence before. Yet there a warlock was that certainly made Alec take a second look.

Gay as he may be, like he’d told Jace when he asked just why Alec was allowed to say someone was hot, he did have eyes, and beauty didn’t necesserily interwine with sexual desire every time. She was shorter than the others in the room, her hair white and pulled back as she accepted another drink from Magnus. She seemed somewhat familiar to him. The other, foreign, man in the room had skin just as colourful as the girl next to him. Green, and definitely not fake, there were actual horns on his head, his hair white and Alec was sure he had a few extra fingers.

“It’s rude to stare,” Raphael said, loud enough for the others in the room to finally take note of him.

“Sorry. Sorry,” he said to the others. “It’s just, I’ve never seen people with…” He wasn’t going to say different coloured skin because he had. The world wasn’t white. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” the girl with the blue skin said, “You’re new to all this. I can change if it makes you feel more comfortable.” In a blink of an eye her blue skin was gone and replaced with one that was more acceptable to the wider world.

But, “No. Honestly, I don’t mind. And you definitely shouldn’t have to,” what was that word? “Glamour? Yourself? Here. I’m the outsider here.”

“You can say that again,” Raphael grumbled.

The one with the horns whacked him gently, “Stop it. I promised we’d be nice.”

Raphael rolled his eyes, Alec honestly more unnerved with him than the other two. He didn’t think he’d seen Raphael so at home with himself than he was standing next to, who Alec was presuming, was Ragnor. 

“Here,” his hands were full with a mug, Magnus pushing gently on his back until he was a little closer to the group. “Now that you’re awake, this is Alec. Alec these are my friends. This is Catarina Loss, she works-”

“In the hospital! That’s where I know you from.”

Catarina grinned, “A former patient?”

“Poor thing,” Ragnor huffed, getting a glare from Catarina for his troubles.

“Er, yeah,” It was all coming back to him now. “I didn’t have any insurance so you told me to hang out back. I had a long gash on my leg.” he didn’t expect her to remember him. God knows how many people she saw in one day. Still, “Thanks for that. I honestly don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t helped me.”

She tapped her lips for a few moments before snapping her fingers, “You were the homeless boy. I remember, you got hurt running from dogs right?”

“Right.” If he’d still been human he was sure his cheeks would have been red.

Regardless, they could read his embarrassment anyway, Ragnor sharing a look with Magnus over his head before telling him, “Nothing to be ashamed about. All of us were homeless at one point or another. It’s the curse of being immortal.”

“Really?”

Ragnor looked back, “I mean, maybe not Raphael. But he’s still a baby, he’ll probably wind up homeless at one point or another.”

“Let’s hope not,” Raphael droned. Alec had to agree, without his fancy suits and comfy bed who knows what level of sullen he’d drop to. The world wasn’t ready for that. “And I’m not a baby.”

“Course you are,” Magnus chimed. “You’re not even one hundred yet. Practically an infant. How Lily doesn’t put you in time outs is beyond me.”

“Can we get back to tormenting the fledgeling? I’m not enjoying the way this conversation has turned.” 

They were nice, Magnus’s friends. They didn’t condescend him, or make him feel left out. Mostly they just told him stories they thought he had to know about Magnus. Alec kind of agreed. It was nice to see Magnus happy too. They were his family when life couldn’t give him one, and despite the amount of sniping Ragnor sent Magnus’s way there was true love underneath it all. 

He’d never seen Raphael so happy, and was actually rather glad when the evening wound down and Ragnor announced he was staying at the hotel. “We have things to talk about.”

“Gossip about more like it,” Magnus mumbled, fetching his cats for their early breakfast. Then louder, “Are you portalling?”

“Had his magic back for three months and finally remembered what a portal is have we Magnus?” 

A rather rude gesture was thrown back.

“Yes, I’m portalling. Do you have your things Alec?”

He rounded up the rest of his clothes, stuffing them into his overnight bag before joining the departing three at Magnus’s door. It was a little awkward trying to get a goodbye kiss, even more so when Raphael pointedly snickered at him, but the night was a good one, and when he got back to the hotel he could see he wasn’t the only one thinking so.

“I stay in the penthouse now,” he heard Raphael proudly state before the elevator started up the other floors. Whatever was going on between those two he hoped they were happy with it.

Someone who wasn’t happy however was Simon. Like clockwork he appeared outside Luke’s bookstore, looking wild as he burst through the door. He near sprinted over to Alec, slapping a bunch of papers on the counter between them. “Here,” he pushed random sheets Alec’s way. “See. See! I told you, there’s something up with this guy.”

Alec did what he usually did when dealing with Simon and slapped a hand over the guys mouth. “You’re talking too fast and making no sense doing it. What is this crap?”

The thing with Simon was he could make good points when he had a chance to get his brain back in gear. Not everyone could catch up to where his rambles started from, and Alec had little patience with people who didn’t start their stories where they were meant to be started, from a reasonable starting point, not the middle where he has to play catch up. 

So the hand over Simon’s mouth was more than just shutting the guy up. It was sort of like a reboot, meaning that when Alec finally let go, Simon looked a little more put together, sorting through the papers in front of him until he handed over a news article he’d printed off with Alec’s face on it. Urgh, they’d used his high school photo. Oh God Magnus had probably seen it. Nooo!

“This,” Simon swallowed, “His name was Alec Lightwood. He was my ex's brother, and three months ago he was killed by the Vampire.” Simon went into a brief explanation about the Vampire like the whole of New York wasn’t aware there was someone out there slitting people’s throats and leaving twin pin pricks behind that look like a vampire got them. Little did the mundanes know, “The day before that however, he was at a party, and this guy, this Magnus Bane was there.” Another sheet of paper, this time the CCTV from the Institute showing him and Magnus making some questionable doe eyes at each other. 

“Could be a coincidence.” 

“I know, I know,” Simon muttered before rifling through his papers again, “But then I started digging. I wanted to help, I needed to help, I mean, this sort of stuff doesn’t just happen to people you know. So I started looking into the other victims, trying to find a pattern.” Four pictures were put before him, all of victims Alec had seen on the news. “See?”

Alec shrugged.

Simon tapped on each of them, “Dark hair, young. It’s a pattern.” It’s a stretch since apart from the dark hair there was nothing else connecting them all. “This guy’s profiling people. I didn’t even think to look for people that might have hung around with them beforehand but look,”  more CCTV images, this time with Magnus… interacting with the victims. “He’s seen them. He talked with them, all a day before they died. And now he’s hanging around you.” Alec’s own photo was flung in his face again, “You have to admit it’s suspicious.”

Alec nudged the paper down, “It’s certainly something. But Magnus is harmless.” Alec knew so because Magnus wasn’t a vampire. But maybe Simon was onto something here with the other victims interacting with him. 

“You don’t know that. How long have you been hanging around him? Have you been to his home yet?”

“Yes and a while. Look, this is all just circumstantial evidence. And if you go waving this around to the wrong people you could get an innocent man in serious trouble. If I were you, I’d leave this to the cops.”

Simon’s breath hitched, then hitched again as he tried to compose himself. Still, his voice was a little squeaky as he said, “Don’t worry, I am. Just thought I’d warn you anyway because that’s what any decent person would do.”

He nudged the papers back over to Simon. “Either buy a book or stop bothering me. I have actual work to do.” He disappeared into the back, lingering there long enough for Simon to get his things and walk out.

He tried to bring it up with Magnus next time they saw each other. But Magnus had a new shirt on, his own got taken off and it was only when he was brave enough to dip his hands down the back of Magnus’s tight pants that he remembered what Simon had brought to him. “He thinks you’re a murderer.”

Mangus stilled above him, “Well that killed the mood.”

“Sorry,” he gave one last squeeze before taking his hands out. “But he does. Simon that is. He had all this evidence and… did you know that people you’ve been seen with have gone missing.”

Magnus sighed, sitting up, “Maybe.” Thankfully he kept his seat to somewhere above Alec’s hips because certain things definitely weren’t reading the room right now. “I mean, they’re a downworlder, and downworlders that often pass through here like to think that if they make a mess near where other downworlders are they’ll take care of it. Especially if they’re warlocks.”

Alec shifted beneath him, “How can they tell though?”

To that Magnus just put Alec’s hand on his heart, “You’ve said it yourself, warlock hearts beat slower than mundanes. We also smell differently.”

Alec tongued the fangs that still popped out whenever things got a little steamy, “you smell good.”

“You’d be the only one to say so.” Still holding Alec’s hand he brought it up, nipping at his fingers. “And I don’t think you mean to eat, which is definitely what puts myself and a mundane in different categories.”

Alec huffed out a breathy groan as Magnus pointedly dragged his teeth across one digit. He didn’t even think, just grabbed Magnus’s pants and yanked down until Alec could see the bend of Magnus’s cock as it tried to get out. “Okay?” Alec remembered to ask.

Magnus yanked them down the rest of the way, “Definitely okay,” he did Alec’s next. The two of them scrambling around until they were thrusting, hands tugging each other off until more than just Alec’s cum was painting his chest.

Magnus kept his legs tangled with Alec’s when he fell to the side, hand waving the mess away, neither of them thinking to pull their underwear back up even if Alec could see goosebumps starting on Magnus’s skin. “A murderer then?” Magnus asked.

Alec raised a brow, knowing Magnus couldn’t see it from where he was drifting on Alec’s shoulder. “You’re really thinking right now?” Usually he went to sleep after getting off. It was cute. It also reminded Alec periodically how late it was for a man who tried to keep normal hours.

Or, used to keep normal hours. He’d started working more nights now his palm reading business was basically extinct. “I can multitask.”

Alec hummed, “He thinks it’s suspicious that you’ve started hanging around me. And considering I look, well like me, he’s started a whole file on you.”

A hum that came out more like a purr on Alec’s shoulder sounded. “Worrying.”

“Definitely.”

They lapsed into silence, the puffs on his shoulder slowing down until small snores started in their place. Magnus had already vampire proofed his room, so Alec zipped to the door to let the cats in before settling in for a long lazy day in bed.

Their next date night, Alec was surprised when he wasn’t being taken to some rooftop or dance club. Instead Magnus circled them back to the Du Mort, looking more worried the longer they walked. 

Eventually they got halfway there before Magnus just portalled them straight into Raphael’s room. “Another mundane’s dead,” Magnus said, which explained his off mood. 

“Is it-”

“It’s the same,” Magnus confirmed.

Raphael sighed before hopping up. “We’ll have to keep a watch on their grave in case there’s another situation.” Was that what Alec was? A situation? “Do you have a name?”

“It’s on the news.” Magnus rattled it off anyway, Alec looking it up himself to see the image of a poor girl, fresh out of college, staring back at him.

“Did you meet with her?” Alec asked.

There was a brief hesitation before Magnus nodded. “I think your friend might be onto something. She was one of my clients a few days ago.” Alec bet the day before she went missing. They said the body wasn’t fresh. A few days old at least. “A mundane. She wanted some relief for her chronic pain. I recommended visiting Catarina, she’s better at healing than I am.”

Raphael glanced between them, Alec filling him in on what, apparently, all of them had missed. Someone was targeting Magnus’s clients. Or people he’d been seen with. Mundanes, never downworlders. It was strange.

To Alec. The other two apparently thought it was perfectly plausible for someone to do something like this. Apparently Magnus had made quite a few enemies through the years. “Only a few vampires however,” Raphael noted.

Magnus’s eyes cut to him, “You don’t think-”

Raphael shrugged, “You know how she is with power. I wouldn’t put it past her to be stalking around if things didn’t go her way wherever she hides herself.”

“She?” The person who’d attacked him was a guy.

Raphael made a face at him, “Did you see who attacked you?”

He had. Hadn’t he? “I…” he could have sworn he’d seen them. “They had boots on. They were strong too.”

“Vampires are strong,” Raphael pointed out. Which was true. 

“I guess it could have been a girl.” It had been dark, Alec hadn’t been able to see all that much. He’d assumed from strength alone that it had been a guy, that the boot on his back had been a guys too. But girls could wear boots. Girls could be strong. Girls with a taste for blood and no care for mundane life could easily snatch him out the streets and drain him dry if she felt like it. “But why?”

Raphael cut a look to Mangus again. “You want me to tell him or will you?”

Magnus rolled his eyes before telling Alec, “I maybe sort of dated Camille once upon a time.”

Camille. The New York clan’s old leader. The one that had been driven out- “Wait I thought you killed her?”

Raphael shook his head, “I’m not stupid enough to do that. Do you have any idea what would happen if she died? She has subjugates around the world who’ll do anything for her. If they learn she’s dead I’ll be not long after her.”

Alec hadn’t seen a subjugate yet, but he’d heard stories. Apparently they were either mundanes or downworlders, vampires even, that were so devoted to one person they were practically enslaved to them. They’d do anything their master asked of them. Anything. Their will was nonexistent. 

It was a frightening concept.

He ran his hand through his hair, “So, she’s just out there, killing people?”

Another look, “It appears so,” Raphael said. “Not to worry, if it is Camille she’ll show up eventually. If not, I’ll go look for her. I’ve dealt with her before I’ll do it again.”

He said it so nonchalantly. How exactly did someone go about sending a vampire off? If she was willing to kill and kill frequently then shouldn’t Raphael be a little more worried. Magnus certainly was. Although, that could be because his ex was murdering people he was associated with. Even Alec could see the pettiness she was employing in doing so. A little dig normal mundanes would get by, say, putting mean comments on every single facebook photo their ex posted.

He snagged the tips of Magnus’s fingers, “You okay?”

Magnus breathed a little shakily as he nodded. “I’m just not very good around her.” Magnus didn’t tell him to let go however, so Alec slid his hand properly into Magnus’s.

“I’ll deal with her,” Raphael said again, a little more promise in his words now. 

Magnus nodded, “I’m going to phone Ragnor. He’s good with tracking spells. He’ll- he’ll know what to do.”

As soon as Ragnor came and found out about the situation him and Raphael got to work. There were things of Camilles’ left in the vaults. Things that would help Ragnor track her down. Despite saying he wanted to help, Magnus ended up on Alec’s bed, the two of them pretending to watch another vampire movie on Alec’s hooked up hotel TV. 

Alec didn’t know what was running through Magnus’s head right now, but Alec? He was having a little crisis. He didn’t know what he was expecting when the vampire was eventually caught. Even when the vampire was named. All he knew was that he didn’t want them loose.

But now he had a name. Now he had a motive, and he just- he didn’t know. He didn’t know how to feel about the fact his life had been picked out of a sea of millions because it was petty revenge against Magnus. If it was petty revenge against Magnus. It might not be Camille. It might be some other vamp that was targeting people around Magnus. They might not even be targeting people around Magnus it could just be coincidence.

But if it wasn’t. If it was Camille and he was just… he didn’t know. It was one thing to be food, another to be targeted food. He still didn’t even know how he felt about being food altogether. 

“If it is Camille,” Alec said, “Why would she be going after your clients?”

Magnus’s mouth twisted, “Probably to remind me.”

“Remind you?” 

Magnus kept silent, Alec not pressing the issue. If it was important he’d find out. If not, well, he trusted Magnus. He hadn’t hurt Alec yet after all.

“I’ll try and encanto Simon if he comes in again,” Alec decided. If this was a downworlder mess then let downworlders deal with her. There was no use involving the police if nothing was going to come of it, and there was no use Simon getting more involved than he should, again, if he couldn’t do anything about it. “He needs to move on.”

“Ask someone from the clan if you don’t think you can do it,” Magnus suggested. 

“If they’re there.” He would. After he had a go himself. He had to at least try and do things on his own. 

“They’ll be there,” Magnus said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but they like to check up on you.”

“They do?” He hadn’t noticed. 

“The ones that come in ‘just to browse’. Or the ones that hang around outside? The clan looks after their own.” He raised a brow until Alec’s brain finally booted into gear. 

Oh. “I just thought they liked to read.” Old school vamps and all that who were brought up on books and board games. But, they knew what a kindle was. Not to mention pdf books were easier to access and much more discreet than going into a bookstore. Especially for buying those raunchy texts, which Alec knew for a fact had been put online as well as a hardcover. 

So they’d been checking up on him? Making sure he was alright? Or making sure that he wasn’t selling out clan secrets? Either way, it was kind of nice to know they had made time out of their day to check on him. They didn’t have to, and Alec knew Raphael didn’t tell them to. Mostly because Raphael liked to do things himself, or have Lily do it, and both of them liked to corner him when he was in the gym so. 

Huh.

“I guess it’s just a little weird to think a bunch of complete strangers want to look after me.” 

Magnus leaned his head against Alec’s shoulder, “I know.” and he probably did know. Magnus had been where he’d been once. He knew what it was like to be alone and then suddenly surrounded by people that didn’t know him but somehow cared. They didn’t have an obligation, and for someone who’d been trained to look for one it was a bit disconcerting to suddenly be placed in this position where he had to trust in people again. It was different with family. Family was expected to check up. “But,” as Magnus said, “They’re your family now, and like it or not families look out for each other. So don’t be afraid to ask them to do something you don’t know how to yet.”

Their date was sort of a bust after that. Magnus stayed over, for the first time ever, and it wasn’t half as romantic or steamy as Alec had imagined it to be. They didn’t even wake up together. But then, they rarely did. 

Magnus had left a note, at least, and since Alec knew he was a busy man he tried not to feel as down as he wanted to. It wasn’t his fault his ex was a murderer. Nor should Alec feel hurt, not about his date anyway. A mundane had died yesterday. Slaughtered in the street like Alec had been. 

He couldn’t get the other victims faces out of his head. It led to more than one box of books falling on his feet, and honestly Alec didn’t even notice this time when Simon came in until he was right there in front of him. The guy didn’t even say anything, just slid over another sheet of paper with Magnus and the latest victim on it.

A brief thought went through Alec’s head about just how Simon was getting all this CCTV footage. But then Alec remembered Simon was, or had been? Seeing Izzy. Either way, even if they were broken up, Izzy talked to Clary and Clary to Simon so there was still some chain of communication between them. God he hoped Simon hadn’t told the others about Alec’s supposed doppelganger. 

“You want to tell me where your boyfriend was the night she went missing?” Simon asked.

Alec raised a brow, sliding the paper back Simon’s way, “One, you’re not a cop so stop with the interrogation. Two, it wasn’t Magnus. And three, if you’re really not going to drop this until you get an answer he was here, with me. He hung around for a few hours, I gave him a handjob in the back and then we went to his when I got off work.” Well, sort of. They hadn’t really hung out. More like Magnus had been looking for gardening books, and then magical gardening books written by seelies, before asking the seelies themselves. The rest of it had been right however. 

“Well what time did he get here? Was there anything off about his appearance?” Simon pressed.

“No, and early enough. Look, don’t you think I would have seen scratches or something if he’d really killed someone? He’s clean. It’s not him. Now drop it before I ban you from coming in here.” Maybe not an encanto but if he could shoo Simon out without encantoing him then all the better. 

“I’m trying to help you,” Simon insisted.

“You’re trying to cause trouble. It’s not Magnus.”

Alec didn’t know what, if it was the raised voice, just the fact Simon felt like he wasn’t being heard or something else, but in less than a second he was facing down Simon Lewis bawling his eyes out. “I’m sorry,” he kept saying, turning away to wipe his eyes. It didn’t really do much to help. Something really had him worked up, and Alec wasn’t that heartless. He deliberated only a second before venturing into the back and grabbing some toilet paper for Simon to scrub his eyes with. “I’m sorry,” Simon said again.

Alec sighed, leaning his head on his hands as he waited for Simon to calm down. “Look kid,” he said to a guy that was barely two years younger than him, “I get that your friend died, but if you mix yourself up in this you’re probably going to end up in trouble yourself. You gotta move on. They’re gonna catch this person eventually, and when that day comes do you honestly want to have spent all this time doing a job you’re not even paid for or getting your life back together?”

Simon gave a shaky sniff, wiping his eyes again. “I just feel like it’s my fault.”

“Kid-”

“I just- I asked his sister to move in with me. Alec. I should have waited. Or at least stretched our plans out. We knew he wasn’t happy, he was having money problems and- and we knew he always went to the gym when he was stressed. But usually one of us goes with him.” They did? He knew they liked to invite themselves to the classes that were on. They didn’t always go with him. Or, well, he didn’t tell them every time he went. Usually he liked to letch on his own. “Only Jace was working and- and-” He held out the roll again, letting Simon bawl it out. 

“Things happen whether you’re there or not. It was just bad luck.” Awful bad luck and pettiness. “You can’t blame yourself. I’m sure your friend doesn’t.”

Simon snorted at that. “Don’t know about that. He hated me. I’m pretty sure he’s haunting me. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t hate you.” God that was hard to get out. It wasn’t untrue either. Alec didn’t hate Simon. He just thought Simon was annoying and not good enough for his sister. 

“He did. But he was good about it.” Simon took a shaky breath, wiping his eyes again. “Thanks. For listening? I bet this wasn’t how you thought your night would go huh?”

Alec hummed.

“I’ll leave you alone.” More out of embarrassment probably. No one wanted to cry their eyes out in front of a stranger. “I’m sorry.” He walked off, taking his papers with him.

“Wait.” Something kept pricking at Alec’s mind. “You said you think he’s haunting you? Why do you say that?” He hoped to God Simon meant just an odd feeling in the night.

But, “I don’t know. My door looks like it’s been tampered with. Windows too. Things at my work have been going missing too. Like my jacket and my keys. I had to hotwire my van the other day because I couldn’t find them. It’s not anything too worrying, just feels like someone’s messing with me.”

He plastered on the most unconvincing smile he could. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Simon gave him a ‘duh obviously’ look before striding out. 

“Vampires can’t get into somewhere without being invited can they?” Alec asked his next day off. Raphael held two waistcoats up. “Blue one.”

He tried it on. “Depends on the place. But usually no.”

Alec had been mulling over it for four days now. “What if they get invited into the apartment building? Would they need another invitation to get into the apartment?”

Raphael switched the blue out for a brown one. “If we’re talking an apartment building the rules are usually they need another invitation to get into someone’s apartment. Think of the building more like a street and the individual apartments as houses. If one is uninhabited we can enter it without invitation however. Basically if someone lives there you need to ask to be let in.”

Right. Raphael held his hand out, Alec passing the black waistcoat over to him. He thought it was rather funny how many there were, until he remembered Raphael was over fifty and, well, waistcoats were fashionable at more than one point in the last hundred years. What if it’s not an apartment?” Since Raphael had brought it up.

He hummed, “If we’re talking houses, standard invitations apply. There’s also that big loophole in apartment buildings that’s sort of like a skeleton key for us.” He settled on the grey one, moving onto ties next. As Lily had told Alec, the vamp now making faces at her phone on Raphael’s bed, he had a ‘meeting’ with Ragnor to attend to tonight. Hence getting dressed up.

“What do you mean?”

“He means,” Lily piped up, “That the landlord’s permission overrides everyone else's. Technically the land is what we need permission to get onto, and if the tenants don’t own that building, like they’re not making payments on a mortgage, then it belongs to the landlord. Meaning if we ask the landlord to get in, we don’t need permission off the tenants in the building.”

“That’s…” terrifying. If Alec were still mundane and learned that he’d be off buying his own patch of land economy be damned. 

“That’s not even covering dorms or orphanages,” Lily continued.

Raphael agreed in a hum. “Technically it’s public property, people only have rooms or beds there.”

“We can go in and out as much as we like,” Lily grinned. “Used to come in very handy in ye olden days.”

“Not that you’d know about it,” Raphael muttered.

“I’m older than you so don’t even start,” Lily shot back.

Alec tuned them out, handing over different colours when prompted. It was only when Raphael was calling into the other room where they were that Alec realised they had company. Ragnor wasn’t here alone, Magnus strolling in after, making a beeline for Alec. “They’re off Camille hunting,” Magnus said.

Ah. So maybe it wasn’t a date. 

Then again, Raphael didn’t look to be the only one that had dressed up. Was it just him or did Ragnor’s horns look shinier. Regardless, Magnus was here, and while they didn’t have plans, Alec had something he’d like to do tonight and he wouldn’t mind company doing so. Breaking and entering was more fun with someone else after all.

“Bring your hand into it,” Magnus said, waving his own around. “It gives vampires more control, makes the mundanes mind concentrate more on one thing.”

Alec waved it about, Magnus catching it and making it flow more slowly. A few more, familiar, instructions followed. Concentrate on what he was trying to achieve. Draw the mundanes focus entirely on himself. 

They tried it on a random mundane walking the streets, three of them sprinting past him when he was finished before the fourth just… stopped. “You did it!”

He tested it out anyway, having the guy go buy some gum from the twenty four seven convenience store before snapping him out of the encanto. Five more mundanes followed, Magnus happily chewing on a candy bar Alec had someone fetch them before admitting he had control over himself.

“We good?”

Alec nodded, the two of them portalling to Simon’s campus. 

“What does this Simon even do? He’s what? Twenty? Twenty one?” Magnus asked.

“Nineteen. He’s studying accounting, but he has this band as well. He’s got one of those youtube channels so he gets brand deals off it or something, and since they’re starting to get paid to do gigs it’s only a matter of time before he starts raking it in.” He may not have liked Simon all that much but even Alec could admit he had talent. 

“So he lives on campus?” Hence being here Magnus filled in.

“Sort of. He lives in a building just off it. It’s a fully furnished apartment He said it was better for his band to be off campus in case they brought girls back or something.” He motioned to the left, Magnus following dutifully. 

Simon’s apartment loomed, Alec wondering just how he was supposed to get in. Technically it was owned by the college, making it more like dorms only for people who could afford a nice swanky place instead of the prisons Izzy had kindly informed him of when she’d done her few years there. Thankfully she’d managed to get a place at the Institute, Val furnishing some of the rooms at his workplace for those ‘on call’ nights or for the numerous fresh out of college kids he hired that really had nowhere else to rent. Alec wondered if he’d need Val’s permission to just set foot in that workplace if it had a residential part attached to it.

He’d deal with it later. For now, he had Magnus buzz the buzzer and listened to Simon’s tinny voice trickle out. 

“Yes this is Magnus Bane. I believe you’re trying to have me arrested for murder.” He winked at Alec like that had definitely been part of the plan.

It got them in so, maybe he should give Magnus some more credit, the apartment building showing no restraint either, to Alec. Either way, on their way up Alec made sure, “You do remember the plan right?”

“I keep him talking while you do your investigating.” 

Hopefully that talk wouldn’t result in a call to the cops. Quite frankly why Simon was even letting them in was beyond his understanding. Until he saw the katana Simon had bought at one of his comic conventions being jammed at Magnus’s neck. “Not one step closer.”

Magnus made a few shooing motions to Alec, despite being threatened within an inch of his life. The fact he trusted Magnus to handle himself, and that Simon’s blade was duller than the handle of a butter knife was the only reason he left the two of them in the hallway.

As much as he didn’t want to, he gave a sniff around the apartment. He paid close attention to the windows, scenting something else alongside Simon’s usual B.O. He had been right about the windows. The latch was jammed somehow, Alec spying a piece of gum wedged into the frame. There were also minute holds in the brickwork, like someone had forced their fingers in to keep themselves upright. But vampires could fly, right? Why were they climbing up?

He started sniffing again, pushing past his sisters perfume and Jace’s usual coffee blend. He’d smelled Camille’s things before, and this, what was in Simon’s apartment, wasn’t that. If it was a vampire, it was one he’d never smelled before, and since Alec couldn’t find anything else in the apartment to take back with him with it on he grabbed every shred of evidence Simon had against Magnus and strolled back outside.

Magnus had moved from the wall, Simon’s katana in his own hand now as looked to be giving a lecture on just what to attack someone with if they actually were here to murder you. “Which you should be very happy to know that I am not.”

“Really?” Alec asked, he held his hand up before Magnus could explain, turning his attention to Simon and, successfully, encantoing him.

It was quite bad. Alec did it alright. But forcing someone to forget about coming to the bookstore, about collecting all this evidence and basically telling him to get his life back together wasn’t something Alec had ever wanted to do. Yet there he was, nudging Simon back into his home, telling him to go back to his mom’s for a while. 

“His mom actually owns property,” Alec explained as they walked out of the building. He handed over the sheets of paper, watching as Magnus burned each and every one of them. “Hopefully whoever’s been breaking in will leave him alone.”

“Hopefully,” Magnus agreed.

With that done, they ventured back to Magnus’s loft, Alec getting a few hours of cuddles from the cats as Magnus watched enviously from his side of the sofa. Alec made it up to him, setting the cats aside and blowing Magnus all through his TV show. Alec had to admit, some parts of being a vampire sucked, but being able to deepthroat without a gag reflex was a perk he’d gladly keep.

Things went semi back to normal after that. Alec worked. He saw Magnus. He heard from Raphael that Camille had been chased out of town, which definitely made him feel a little, a tiny little, bit better about walking the streets after dark. He just, lived.

“Ahh! I forgot how good this feels,” Magnus arched his back further. The sofa probably hadn’t been the best place to do this, but, well, Alec couldn’t be bothered to relocate them. 

Covering his fangs with his lips he darted his tongue out, raising Magnus’s hips up again and parting his thighs wider as he lapped at Magnus’s hole. Alec actually hadn’t done this before. He’d wanted to. He’d also quite wanted it done to him at some point. But when he’d looked over at Magnus with his feet on the sofa, looking so cosy Alec’s sole thought had been to blow him. Of course, with the angle, and the fact Alec had Magnus’s feet nearer to him than his head, he knew it would take a bit of maneuvering to get them both comfortable. Which had inevitably put the image into Alec’s head of Magnus, legs trapped together, and his hips raised enough that Alec could see his ass. Everything after had sort of snowballed from there, and now here he was, living his dream. 

He pushed Magnus’s knees closer to his chest. If it weren’t for the fangs he was sure he’d have an easier time stretching his tongue out. But, Alec supposed he couldn’t win every fight so he settled for sucking what he could get. 

From the sounds of it he appeared to be doing okay, Magnus’s breath hitching every other nudge. Alec nosed up, feeling just how tight Magnus’s balls were. He wanted them in his teeth, dragging the skin down, but he couldn’t. So he settled for sucking on them too, getting a high whine in response. Flicking his tongue on them, he dove down again, nudging his tongue as far in as he could get as he reached around and tugged on Magnus’s cock. He felt Magnus cum, the sleepy aftershocks wracking through him as his legs fell from where Alec had them to near kicking Alec in the back. 

He yanked Magnus’s pants down to just below his knees, parting them enough to fit his head through, laying it on Magnus’s hip. “Good?” Alec breathed, nosing the skin beneath him. 

Magnus’s cock jerked out the last of its cum, Alec reaching into his own underwear, stroking himself to the sight of it. To Magnus, blissed out, eyes blinking confusedly at him. The trail of cum that started just where he could reach and all the way up to Magnus’s chest. His shirt was rucked up, but not all of it had been saved from Magnus’s orgasm. 

Alec lay his head down, feeling the heartbeat under it pound still, Alec timing it to his strokes. So soft. Magnus was always so soft. There was something wet beneath his head, Alec dipping his tongue out to taste the drying sweat, Magnus’s legs that were trapped on Alec’s back kicking gently at the move, then pushing purposefully. Hands wove in his hair, Alec so close. They tugged, Alec having to angle his head up so he wouldn’t bite down as he moaned out his own end. 

“Good?” Magnus asked, teasing even if he stroked gently through Alec’s hair.

He hummed, falling sideways so he wasn’t awkwardly splayed on the arm of the sofa. Magnus’s legs followed with him, the two of them falling to the floor as they untangled themselves. A lot of snickering later and they were back to watching Tv, Alec curled on top of Magnus’s chest, his heart beating soothingly in Alec’s ear.

“I love you,” Alec said. Had for a while now. Still, there was something nice about saying it out loud. 

He honestly hadn’t expected a response yet, “I love you too,” drifted down to his ears, Magnus combing his fingers through Alec’s hair again. 

He hid a smile in Magnus’s shirt. 

Eventually they went to bed, Alec carrying Magnus there as he usually did when Magnus was still trying to adapt his sleep schedule to later than one p.m. 

Naturally, after such a great night something had to go wrong. 

Alec didn’t even flinch that next Monday when he saw Simon walk through the door. It was sort of a leftover reaction to seeing him for weeks on end. That and he honestly thought Simon, like that first time, had just stumbled into Luke’s bookshop coincidentally. He certainly shouldn’t have remembered why he’d kept coming back before.

Yet when they locked eyes across the room, there was that small shock that had been there that first time. Yet, instead of standing there like a moron for minutes on end, Simon hightailed it out of the store, returning almost instantly with Jace.

They didn’t linger, and Alec honestly didn’t know what he would have done if they had. It appeared they’d only wanted a look, since they left after a moment, leaving Alec’s night worry free once more.

Or it should have been. 

No sooner had he stepped out the store, locking the door behind him, did he find himself facing Jace and Simon. “It is you,” Jace breathed. “Oh my God Alec.”

He didn’t give Alec time to respond, wrapping his arms around Alec’s neck and squeezing so tight if Alec did have to breathe he would have found himself- well, actually he was still finding himself panicking a little. It was a little too close for comfort. Especially after what happened the last time someone squeezed as tight as Jace did to his neck. “Off. Off.” He pried Jace off him, rubbing his neck like he could feel a bruise, a bite, coming up on his skin. “What the hell is this?”

Jace scowled back at him, “Cut the crap Alec. I know it’s you. I bought you that shirt for your birthday. Remember?”

Oh shit. “Er…”

“Oh my God you’re alive. You’re alive!” he laughed before letting out one short breath and pushing Alec back into the wall. “What the hell Alec? You’re alive? What- what is this? Witness protection or something? What the hell!” He hadn’t let Alec go, his hands clenching where they were wrapped in Alec’s shirt. “I don’t understand. Mom saw your body. Why didn’t you-” Oh God Jace was starting to cry. “How could you do this to us?”

“It’s…” complicated? He honestly didn’t know how to handle this. Jace was right, he had bought this shirt for Alec. What’s more he was responsible for the colourful patch on the arm where he’d ripped it and sewn it back together before giving it to Alec in the first place. Jace knew it was him, and Alec? He didn’t know how they’d worked it out. “How are you here?”

Jace swallowed, Alec keeping himself very still as the motion drew attention to the vein jumping out of Jace’s neck. “You mean how did we find you?” He shook his head, “You really were going to just let us think you were dead weren’t you?”

“I…” again he didn’t know what to say. 

“Jace,” Simon said, “It’s getting late. People are going to be starting to go to work.”

“Right.” 

It was also getting lighter meaning Alec had to go now before he passed out in the streets and burned up. 

He took a breath before prying Jace’s hands, that pulse hammering into his ears now he could feel it, away from him. “I have to go.”

Jace grabbed straight back onto him. “No!”

“I have to go,” Alec insisted before biting the bullet and admitting, “But I work nights here. If you come tomorrow so long as you don’t scare anyone away we can talk. Alright?”

He still tried to hold on, even Simon looked tempted to grab Alec too. “Please,” Jace begged.

“I have to go.” 

It was hell getting Jace to stay put. Even more to get him not to follow and stay behind enough that Alec could flit off back to the hotel at the speed he usually did. He didn’t even make it to his room that night, waking up in the foyer he’d fallen asleep in to pen on his face. Someone had given him a cat nose and whiskers. His money was on Lily. Although he wouldn’t put it past Raphael to do so. Especially since he, out of everyone here, was the most likely to know Magnus’s warlock mark.