All In The Timing
A/N: The Dark Malec fic I’d promised :)
Anyways, apply canon Magnus’s habit of laughing in the face of heartbreak and fear and on Dark Magnus, and you’ll have a Magnus who’s perfected his Evil Laugh TM. It just comes out at the most unexpected, most uncanny timing. I’m just saying.
****
“So,” Bane said casually as he sat back on his couch, fiddling with the cuffs of his suit jacket. “What did you want to talk about?”
Sebastian’s narrowed brushed around the wide living room of Bane’s apartment, which doubled as his workplace. Sebastian never understood people who received clients at home, especially ones who could be as dangerous as him.
Speaking of which, he had some business.
“I need you to perform a spell,” Sebastian said, going into the specifics. Bane just stared at him, listening, his face a careful blank slate. Sometimes, Sebastian wanted to punch right in the middle of that facade of his, wanted to see it crumble.
Today he would, he reminded himself. He would get what he wanted, and he would get Bane pleading on his knees, if everything went well.
“So?” Sebastian said, finished with his details of the spell he needed. “When will you start?”
Bane gave a displeased twitch of his mouth. “What makes you think I’ll be willing to perform such a spell, Morgenstern? Only a fool would give you the kind of power you’re seeking.”
“You will do it.” Sebastian couldn’t help but smile as he dropped the hook. “Or else, your boyfriend dies.”
Bane blinked slowly, his cat-like eyes focusing on Sebastian. “What?”
“Your boyfriend?” Sebastian grinned and leaned back, delighting in the tiny crease that appeared between Bane’s eyebrows. “Tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed? I’ve got some henchmen looking after him in a secret base right now. One phone call, and they’ll slit his throat.”
Bane blinked again, and titled his head. “Is that so?”
“That is so.” Sebastian pulled up his phone, showing Magnus the proof - a photo of Alec Lightwood that he’d taken right before he came here from the base. Lightwood had been knocked unconscious while he was on patrol and then taken into his base by his henchman, where he’d been put in a cell. The photo showed him in that cell, body slumped in a heavy wooden chair, his arms bound to the arms of the chair with thick ropes. The same ropes were wound around his abdomen and the back of his chair, holding him upright. There was nothing to support his head, however, and it lolled to one side, a small trickle of blood running down his face from where he’d been hit during the scuffle.
Lightwood had put up quite a fight. But his people had the element of surprise on their side and greatly outnumbered Lightwood, and in the end it was a quick capture.
Sebastian turned his attention back to Bane, who was examining the picture with a scrutinising eye. His expression was as blank as it always was, but this time, there was something shimmering under his gaze.
Good.
“I suggest you start soon, Bane,” Sebastian said with a satisfied grin. “The sooner you finish the spell, the sooner your boytoy returns to you. And don’t you dare try anything foolish.”
Bane’s gaze slid from the phone that Sebastian still held up, to Sebastian himself, and then back to the phone. He snorted, lips twitching as he bowed his head. It was like something cracked in him, his breath coming out in short, heavy puffs, shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
This… wasn’t the reaction he was looking for. Sebastian’s grin slipped.
Bane was supposed to be afraid, face turning pale and clammy as soon as he saw Lightwood’s state. Everyone in the Clave and Downworld alike knew that if Bane loved anyone, it was Lightwood. It was why Sebastian had gone through so much pain to capture him, after all. If there was anyone he could use to break Bane, it was Lightwood. He was supposed to break.
Instead, Bane was… laughing?
As soon as that occurred to him, Bane threw his head back, laughing like a madman, one of his hands coming up to rest on top of his forehead. Bane was laughing as if he and Sebastian were old friends, and Sebastian had just cracked a hilarious joke over a glass of wine instead of telling him that his lover was in danger.
Sebastian could only stare at him, incredulous. Behind him, the two Nephilim henchmen he’d brought along for protection looked at each other, confounded. Bane was still laughing, sinking back into the cushions of his couch, clutching at his abdomen as if it hurt.
Was he mocking Sebastian?
“You-“ Sebastian flushed, anger rising within him as he stood, stalking over to Bane and grabbing him by the collar. “You bastard! Did you even hear what I just said?! Your boyfriend-“
“Oh, I heard you loud and clear,” Bane said in between fits of giggles, wiping tears from his eyes. Eyes that glinted with amusement. He was actually amused. The bastard. “I just- you- Oh.”
The laughter which had died down for a moment or two now built up again, rising steadily to a crescendo.
“No wonder he didn’t come home last night!” Magnus exclaimed, still laughing. He winced and pushed Sebastian off, his arm going tighter around his abdomen. “Oh, Oh God, my stomach hurts. Fuck, I haven’t laughed like that in a while now. Anyway, this will do him some good, I suppose - I have been telling him to get some rest.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Sebastian snapped.
Magnus titled his head, regarding Sebastian with amusement, laughter bubbling up his throat again. “What is wrong with you? You left Alexander alone, with, what? Three guards? One in his room to keep an eye on him, another in the hallway outside, and one keeping watch at the front door?”
Sebastian blanched.
Magnus grinned, as if to say, bingo. His cat-like eyes slid to where Sebastian’s henchmen stood, and called out, “They’re not picking up, are they?”
Sebastian whirled on his henchmen, who were indeed on their phones, attempting to call the ones who had been left on guard duty. The worried frowns on their faces told Sebastian all he needed to know.
Fuck.
He needed this spell.
And he couldn’t extract it out of Bane without a bargaining chip.
“I should feel bad for Alexander, but it’s just so hilarious!” Bane cackled. “So many people underestimate him, and then- and then they’re so surprised when they realise they underestimated him!”
“Let’s go,” Sebastian barked at his henchmen before turning to the front door. He could come back here, but he needed to check on his bargaining chip first. Maybe take a few fingers to wipe that stupid laugh off of Bane’s face with.
Bane was still laughing when Sebastian stalked out the front door, his henchmen hot on his heels.
In the forty-five minutes it took to drive from Bane’s house-slash-office to the base, Sebastian had called his guards several times. None of them had picked.
Sebastian’s mind was reeling as the car rolled to a stop and he threw open the door, briskly walking up the short flight of stairs and in through the front door. The shadowhunter he’d left on guard duty there was immediately by his side, asking what was going on, but Sebastian ignored him.
Had Lightwood really found a way to escape? It was unlikely - if this guard was still here, then so should he. He was even tied up, for fuck’s sake. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check on him, and give Bane more of a reason as to why he should perform the spell.
Sebastian clambered down the stairs to the downstairs hallway, mind still reeling as he grew closer to where Lightwood was being kept. He threw open the cell door, and registered the sight of Lightwood, still bound to his chair, a fresh bruise on his face and a surprised expression taking over as soon as he saw Sebastian.
Sebastian’s shoulders slumped in relief, but the relief lasted only a moment.
“Thank you for leading me to him,” came Bane’s voice from behind, and Sebastian froze.
Sebastian turned around, eyes wide and icy with fear as he beheld Magnus, standing with one arm outstretched, blue sparks dancing along his palm. Magnus’s smile brightened just as Sebastian’s eyes went a tiny bit wider, clearly aware of the effect Magnus’s magic was having on him.
It was so easy, really. One simple spell to jam any signals that Sebastian and his cronies’s phones would receive, another tracking spell, and here he was. Magnus worried for the state of kidnappers in the future.
“It’s not personal,” Magnus crooned as his magic tightened its hold on Sebastian’s brain. “Actually, wait. It is. Let me clarify something.”
Magnus’s smile slipped, his cat’s eyes flashing as he looked at Sebastian, who let out a tiny whimper of pain.
“No one lays a hand on Alexander and gets away with it,” Magnus said, and squeezed his hand into a fist.
Sebastian dropped, and Magnus gave him a brief glance - he was dead, limbs spread out in awkward positions, blood slowly seeping out of his eyes and ears - before he stepped over his body and into the holding cell.
Magnus’s heartbeat grew slower and steadier as he drew closer to Alec, who was looking straight back at him, one eye nearly shut by the swollen bruise on his cheekbone. There was blood on the legs of the chair, Magnus realised, and another body tucked away to one side of the room.
“They forgot to bind my legs,” Alec said by way of greeting, and snorted. “Those fools.”
“Good to see you too, darling,” Magnus said, gently cupping Alec’s cheek, fingers brushing along the bruise and healing it. Alec leaned into the touch, heaving a gentle sigh. “Did you sleep well last night?”
Alec snorted again, but this time he smiled as well. “Yeah right.”
He turned his face into the hollow of Magnus’s palm, placing a gentle kiss there, and Magnus’s heart cracked just the tiniest bit.
In a good way, of course.
Alec’s voice was slightly muffled when he spoke again. “Now get me out of here.”
Magnus laughed, a genuine one this time, and got to work on the ropes. “Of course, love.”
