If they don't give us 'morning after the wedding' content with two husbands being fluffy and cuddling in bed then wow you are not ready to hear me wailing!
Alec can’t sleep. He hoped that after running across half the city, his bones would grow as heavy as his heart and sleep would come easy, but nothing ever goes how Alec wants. He tosses and turns all night, forcing himself not to think about Jace or his parents or the look on Magnus’ face when he reached out to Alec and Alec let him go — like a coward. Every time he feels himself slipping into unconsciousness, his stamina rune pulses, and it’s like he just drank 50 espresso shots simultaneously, and the torturous cycle repeats.
When 5:00 AM rolls around, Alec’s alarm blares to awaken him from a sleep he never experienced. Alec whacks his fist down to silence it, already showered and dressed, before heading out the door. He’s about half a block away from Starbucks when he realizes his glamour rune is active, so the barista won’t be able to see him.
“Dammit,” he swears, and a jogger removes her headphones and looks around, startled.
He scrubs over his face with his palm and makes his way back to the Institute. Izzy’s going to be testy without her pumpkin spice latte, but there’s nothing Alec can do to quiet his runes. He’s tried every trick he knows with his stele already.
Well, there is something Alec can do, but he’s not going there.
He makes a pot of coffee in the Institute kitchen, even though he knows it won’t be as good as the Americano he was craving. He decides to try bribing Izzy with a cheese danish, but when he goes to grab the box from the top shelf, he overshoots and bumps his head on the ceiling, feeling a burst of energy at his agility rune.
“Fuck,” he swears under his breath, but the pain fades a moment later as his iratze rune soothes the ache. Alec narrows his eyes. He’s getting tired of this.
As the day goes on, Alec grows more and more frustrated. He sweats bullets under the thick layers of clothing he wears to try and hide his golden runes, because apparently even the New York weather patterns are conspiring against him today. But he can’t shed a single layer, can’t risk someone seeing. They’ll know immediately, and Alec won’t survive the questions. He’ll drown.
His eyes glaze over as he tries to concentrate on the page in front of him. He’s been reading and rereading the same paragraph for the last fifteen minutes and absorbing nothing. It might as well be a report on Jace streaking through the ops centre for all Alec knows.
He sighs and pushes away from his desk. He can’t sleep. He can’t focus. He might as well train with all of this nervous energy.
He changes into a pair of thick joggers and throws a bulky hoodie on over his layers, careful to keep his runes hidden beneath the fabric. He steps into the training room and hesitates in the doorway as he spots a familiar mop of golden hair on the sparring mat.
Jace lands blow after blow on the punching bag at the center of the room. He practices his left hook, even though his form has always been flawless. Normally, training with Jace is the best part of Alec’s day, but today he’d rather walk across a minefield than face him.
His eyes dart from Jace to the hallway and back to Jace. He hasn’t spotted Alec yet. Alec can still escape, try and avoid Jace for the rest of his life. It’s a solid option. Except it isn’t. Jace has to know something’s wrong. Their parabatai rune has been fucked up for hours, and Jace may be dense sometimes, but he’s not oblivious. He knows.
Alec bites at his lower lip, sucks in a breath, and clings to his fleeting bravery as he steps into the center of the room.
Jace jolts backwards when he finally spots Alec. “By the Angel, you scared me. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
Alec grips at the soundless rune on his wrist through the cotton fabric of his sweatshirt. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to.”
Jace studies Alec’s face, eyes tracing over him. Alec’s heart hammers in his chest as if he were on a hunt, and he might as well be, given the circumstances. Alec avoids his gaze, too overwhelmed at being caught in Jace’s scrutiny.
After the longest beat in recorded history, Jace asks, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Alec lies, still not making eye contact.
“Are you sure?” There’s a concerned — instead of accusatory — lilt to his voice, which is far better than Alec hoped for. “Things got… weird last night.”
“You mean besides you almost breaking the Accords?” Alec tries for banter, for normalcy. The longer he can pretend the better.
Jace rolls his eyes, and relief washes over Alec at being released from his gaze. “You ran out on us last night, and then we couldn’t track you. We were worried about you. Did you activate your deflect rune or something?”
Alec instinctively grabs at the prominent rune on his neck, the sleeve of his sweatshirt sliding down as he shifts. Jace spots the golden light pouring from his skin. He stumbles backwards, pointing at Alec with his mouth agape. As soon as Alec realizes his mistake, he slaps his wrist to close the pocket. He grips his wrist so hard it starts to ache. Doesn’t matter, though. His iratze will kick in, in 3… 2… 1… and a second too early.
He’s too late. Jace has already noticed, and he won’t let it go.
“I want an answer, goddammit!” he says. “What the hell happened last night?”
Alec sighs. There’s no point in hiding anymore. He rolls up the sleeves of his hoodie.
“Fuck,” he hears Jace breathe.
Shimmering sunbeams stream from Alec’s runes, shooting out in all directions and colliding against the walls of the training room in a prism of light.
“I met my fated last night,” Alec says as if that weren’t obvious.
“I can see that,” Jace says. “Congrats, man. Who is sh— are they?” He’s quick to correct himself.
Alec rolls down his sleeves, smoothing out the fabric, and plops down on the floor. He’s not sure he can manage to say the words standing. “Magnus Bane.”
“Holy shit.” Jace runs his fingers through his hair and joins Alec on the floor. “Are you kidding me?”
“Do you honestly think I’d joke about something like this?”
When Alec was younger, his mom used to tell him and his siblings bedtime stories about how someday they’d meet their fated, the person handpicked for them by Raziel himself to be their perfect companion. Alec used to dream about meeting them — that perfect complement, his other half. He yearned for that partnership crafted from fate, balance, and a hint of magic.
All Alec’s ever wanted is for someone to love him as fiercely as he loves them.
As Alec grew older and started to have feelings, he started to doubt he even had a soulmate. Why would the Angel find someone for him when what he wanted deep in his heart was wrong?
He had all but given up hoping for a future that was never his, but then a boy waltzed into his life and helped with his archery and taught Alec to believe in himself. For a brief flicker, Alec entertained the idea that Jace might be his someone, but that light went out before it could consume.
Jace knows how important soulmates are to Alec. He’d never joke about this.
“I know,” Jace says. “But fuck, the High Warlock of Brooklyn? Nothing’s ever simple with you, man.”
Alec grimaces. That’s an understatement.
“What are you gonna do?” Jace asks, his voice softening to try and chisel away at Alec’s defenses.
“What can I do?”
Jace swallows hard, and Alec can hear his sharp intake of breath. “You know, you could go visit Magnus—”
Fiery anger twists in Alec’s gut like a vice grip. “How could you even suggest that? Do you have any idea what could happen to me if anyone found out? I could be deruned or—”
“So, what, you’re just gonna live like this forever? Hopped up on stamina and nourishment runes?” Jace gestures at Alec. “It’s almost 70 degrees out, and you look like you’re ready to go bobsledding.”
“It’s not my fault mundanes aren’t fixing global warming,” Alec grumbles. “And it’s not like I’m enjoying this. Every fucking second is like sensory overload, and I can’t make it stop.”
Jace places a tentative hand on Alec’s shoulder, and Alec suppresses the urge to flinch away from his comfort. “But you can make it stop.”
“Are you not—”
Jace holds up a hand to silence Alec’s protests. “Just hear me out. You don’t need to marry the guy. Just slip over to his place, give him a quick kiss, and you’re free.” Alec opens his mouth to speak, but Jace plows on. “Just because you’re soulmates doesn’t mean you’re obligated to be together.”
Alec’s heard stories about people rejecting their soulmate. Finding them after all that searching only to turn them away like a spoiled child returning a Christmas gift.
Alec feels hollow. This is worse than not having a soulmate — knowing his fated lives and breathes and has a heart that beats in time with his but he can never have them.
He was right. The Angel is punishing him, but it’s so much worse than he imagined.
“People fall in love with people other than their fated all the time,” Jace continues. “It can happen to you too. You don’t have to be with… Magnus.”
Alec doesn’t like the way Jace’s voice twists when he says Magnus’ name, like it’s a dirty word.
Alec chews on his lower lip, thinking, before he says, “I guess you’re right.”
Jace squeezes Alec’s shoulder. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, but you’ll find someone else. I’m sure of it.”
Alec doesn’t want to admit it, but he won’t, because he’s already found him, and he’s about to walk away.
Alec paces back in forth in front of Magnus’ apartment building. He digs his nails into his palms, letting the subtle pain keep him from spinning completely out of control before his rune soothes the ache. He sighs as he glances at his watch, plopping down onto the cool pavement below. He’s been waiting for over an hour, and the only thing he’s relieved is the cramp in his leg.
He gets up and buzzes Magnus’ apartment one last time before he decides that this was pointless and heads back to the Institute. Why he ever thought he could just show up at Magnus Bane’s doorstep unannounced is beyond him. He hears the screech of the ancient buzzer travel through the intercom system, but when he hasn’t been buzzed inside two minutes later, he finally accepts that Magnus isn’t home.
He picks his phone out of his pocket and starts texting Jace to let him know that this plan was a failure when he hears a harmony of laughter crescendo down the street. A woman’s voice blends with a man’s voice that forces Alec’s heart into a sprint. It’s the voice that has been playing in his head on repeat.
“I can’t believe you tipped the bartender $100 for two rounds of cocktails,” the female voice says, growing louder as they approach Magnus’ front steps.
Alec can see them now and panics. His eyes dart around his surroundings, seeking out hiding spaces, but then he remembers why he came and forces himself to project a courage he doesn’t feel an ounce of.
Magnus escorts a woman Alec doesn’t recognize down the street. He pats her arm gently. “She was a student. How else will she pay her rent?”
“You’re too much,” the woman says.
“Too much is my middle name,” Magnus responds with a wink then stops short. “Alexander.”
Alec can’t breathe. He doesn’t know how Magnus knows his name, but he doesn’t care. He just knows that he never wants to stop hearing Magnus say it. Which is exactly why he has to end this before he makes a decision he can’t take back.
Alec swallows and tries to emulate all of the false confidence Jace is a master of parading around. “Magnus. Can we talk?”
Magnus and the woman he’s with exchange a look, and it appears as though they have a silent conversation. She raises her eyebrows and Magnus pulls a face. Alec gets the impression they’ve been friends for a long time.
“It’s getting late,” she says, “I better head home. Goodnight.”
Magnus says goodnight as she conjures a portal in the alley beside his building. The wind whips and cracks as it’s sucked into the swirling vortex until the portal closes with an abrupt snap, and Magnus and Alec are left in silence.
Alec captures Magnus’ gaze and stares into his brown eyes, but they’re not the same eyes he met at Pandemonium. They’re flatter somehow. No warmth. No depth. Synthetic almost. And Alec’s hit with the realization that they must be contacts, because Magnus is going through the exact same thing he is.
The thought comforts him. Magnus is probably just as eager to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all.
Magnus ushers Alec inside his apartment. They climb up a few flights of stairs, taking two steps at a time before arriving in front of an ornate set of double doors. Magnus tries unlocking them with a spark of blue magic, but the blast deflects and shatters an ornate vase down the hall. Magnus pinches the bridge of his nose before fumbling around in his pockets for a key and opening the door the mundane way.
He steps inside, keeping his back to Alec, and immediately sets off towards a drink cart on the other side of the room. The apartment is decorated as lavishly as Alec imagined based on the decor at Pandemonium, but it’s not overly flashy. It’s cozy. Homey. Alec shakes his head. Not his home, but somebody else’s. They really need to get this over with.
“What’s your poison? Gin? Vodka? The blood of fallen demons?” Magnus calls from across the room.
Alec laughs nervously and grips at the back of his neck. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
“Whiskey on the rocks it is.” Magnus gets to work pouring liquor and clinking glasses. “Make yourself at home.”
Alec takes a seat on the edge of couch. He starts to tug his jacket off but thinks better of it, shrugging it back into place. He won’t be here long.
Magnus hands a drink to Alec. Alec takes a sip and feels a shudder rip through his spine. He coughs as the burn of the alcohol courses through his sinuses. “This is stronger than the stuff they serve at the Institute Christmas party.”
Magnus nods. “That’s what happens when you drink straight liquor, darling.”
Magnus takes a sip of his drink without flinching, but Alec notices now that he’s shaking and the memory of Magnus’ broken voice calling out to him flashes in his mind’s eye.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Magnus asks.
Alec levels him with a look, and Magnus chuckles into his glass. “Fair enough.”
“I assume you’re having issues as well?”
“I almost charred a client this morning.”
“By accident?” Alec tries to be playful in his nervousness.
Magnus rolls his eyes. “By accident. I’d like to regain control of my magic before my practice’s reputation starts to suffer.”
“And I’d like to deactivate my runes before someone tells my mother, and she starts planning a wedding that won’t happen.”
Alec winces, and he feels the room go both literally and figuratively colder. Magnus looks at him with a blank expression, considerably more steely than the easy banter they were falling into before Alec fucked it up, but it’s better this way. They can’t get attached.
“Right,” Magnus says, “let’s get this over with.”
Alec wipes his clammy hands on his jeans and tries to steady the drumming of his heart before it bursts from his chest. He crosses over to Magnus and hesitates. Magnus raises an eyebrow in challenge, and Alec takes the bait.
"This doesn't mean anything," Alec says before grabbing a fistful of Magnus' shirt and crashing their lips together.
A symphony of sensation explodes when their lips meet. The soft, addicting heat lights each of Alec's nerve endings on fire, simultaneously extinguishing each of his overactive runes in the sweetest mixture of relief and desire he’s ever felt.
Magnus’ lips are plush and warm and soft in all of the ways Alec imagined but also so much more. He melts into the kiss, losing himself in the feeling. Magnus tangles his fingers in Alec’s hair, urging them closer together and a shiver ripples down Alec’s spine. He parts his mouth, reveling in the wet, hot feeling of Magnus’ lips against his.
Magnus grazes his teeth against Alec’s lower lip, and Alec tries his best to suppress a groan from the back of his throat. Magnus’ body goes rigid, and he pushes Alec away suddenly.
Alec blinks back into reality and presses a finger to his lips when they part, the phantom touch of Magnus’ lips still igniting all of his senses.
“Get out,” Magnus says.
Alec yanks his hand down to his side. “What?”
Magnus snaps his fingers, and this time, his front door swings wide open. “My magic’s back to normal, and your runes have quieted down. You got what you came for, so get out.”
Alec nods before making his leave. He hovers in the doorway and takes a final glance at Magnus. He can’t suppress the feeling that he’s making a horrible mistake, but he still walks out the door.
