Apr 27
A 1961 British Rail poster advertising the completion of the second stage of the West Coast Main Line's electrification with a BR class 81 forging towards Crewe from Liverpool.
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A 1961 British Rail poster advertising the completion of the second stage of the West Coast Main Line's electrification with a BR class 81 forging towards Crewe from Liverpool.
WHEN CHAOS MET LOVE: REDEMPTION
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
A portal opens inside his room, alerting him of his boyfriend’s arrival and Alec immediately runs a hand through his hair to fix them.
“Alec, are you read—“ Magnus’s question gets caught in his throat and he lets out a curse when he exists the portal. “What the—“
He straightens up and glances at himself in the mirror, suddenly worried that the look might not have worked.
Magnus stares at him for a few seconds, making him more conscious of his self and Alec feels so uneasy in his skin that he finally asks, “What?”
“What are you wearing?”
“Clothes?” He looks down, avoiding Magnus’s gaze, “you told me to dress nicely for the date.”
Magnus let’s out a huge groan and crosses the distance between them, pulls Alec against him by the collar of his dress shirt and crashes their mouths together.
Alec startles for a second before he eventually falls easily into the motion of kissing Magnus, of feeling the warlock’s body so close to his, inhaling the sandalwood and slightly burnt smell of the potions that Magnus was probably working on before coming here.
“Wh—what was that for? Not that I’m complaining,” he asks, a little dazed from the kiss.
Magnus points a finger at Alec’s attire and replies, “it’s for this.”
He frowns, still not getting it like he often feels with Magnus when he’s talking in puzzles, “What?”
He peers at his boyfriend, and the word makes something warm rise inside his chest, at the reminded that Magnus is his boyfriend—his again.
Magnus puts both his hands on Alec’s shoulder and makes him turn towards the mirror and points at it, “I told you to wear something nice. I didn’t mean you’re supposed to wear something that’s going to blow my mind and make it extremely hard for me to take you out now.”
A blush creeps up Alec’s face and he grins at the seriousness in Magnus’s words. He looks at himself in the mirror. He is wearing a deep maroon dress shirt that Izzy got for him, with the first few buttons undone, paired with black pants that hugs his ass in all the right places. He has gelled up his hair today, which feels weird but Izzy said he looked nice with the change in the look.
Apparently, Magnus agrees too.
“You’re ridiculous.”
Magnus sighs and warms his arms across Alec’s waist and pulls him tightly against his chest as they both gaze into the mirror, “It’s not my fault that my boyfriend is ridiculously attractive.”
“Shut up,” Alec grins, “Your boyfriend has got nothing on my boyfriend.”
The warlock sways them gently in his arms, gazing at him lovingly in the mirror and Alec lets out a soft sigh, letting himself get lost in the motion.
Eventually, Magnus releases the hold onto him and Alec turns in his arms, wrapping his own around Magnus’s neck and smiles.
“Hi, baby.”
“Hello, my darling.”
There are words on his lips that he wants to say but he refrains himself, doesn’t want everything to feel too much, too soon again. But they are on the tip regardless.
I missed you. I love you.
It’s not that they haven’t said I love you since they got back together—they have, multiple times but its only been a few hours since he’s last seen Magnus so he doesn’t want to be too clingy.
It seems that his early inhibitions and fear of being too clingy, which had finally gone with Magnus are back now that they are together again.
For no reason, Alec feels the need to contain the magnitude of his love because of the fear of loss that he can still feel under the tip of his fingers.
It seems to him that he’s always going to be a little bit scared of losing Magnus now.
“I missed you.” Magnus says quietly against his mouth, pulling him out of his thoughts. And the easiness of it all tears down the walls that Alec has built across himself in the recent few weeks.
His heart eases a bit and he lets himself love Magnus and be loved in returned.
“You saw me this morning,” he teases Magnus regardless.
Magnus groans, “Boring meetings the entire day. Kept on thinking of you and our date tonight.”
A small grin appears on his face as he brushes a few strands of hair from Magnus’s forehead, “Too bad. I barely thought of you. Was too busy working.”
Magnus smirks, “Really, now? Then who are you getting this sexily dressed for?”
“Have to meet a guy or two at the club.”
The warlock’s hold on him tightens and he grumbles, “You are not allowed to meet any more guys. Your days of debauchery are over, Alec.”
“Credit to you,” Alec says with a mischievous smile on his face.
“I don’t know what you are referring to.”
“Hmmm. You forgot? Remember that time when you sabotaged all my dates because you were jealous?”
Magnus throws his head back, groaning again.
Alec couldn’t help that the grin on his face widened—teasing Magnus continues to be his favourite part of the day.
Especially of the entire date-sabotaging thing.
It still baffles him that Magnus was jealous.
“I was not jealous. I just did not think that any of them were up to your standards,” Magnus feigns innocence.
Alec chuckles softly and kisses Magnus on the nose, “So, you weren’t jealous?”
“No.”
“Not even when you saw me at the club with that seelie who—“ Magnus interrupts his words by putting fingers into his ears and babbling nonsense just to tune out the words.
A breathless peal of laughter left Alec’s body and he removed the finger from his boyfriend’s ears and places a kiss on his right cheek. “Okay. Okay. You can stop the drama.”
“That was so mean,” Magnus pouts, “I hate you.”
Alec chuckles again , pulls his boyfriend closer and kisses him easily. “Sorry.”
“Can we go now?”
“Yes.”
Magnus opens a portal and the two of them enter hand in hand.
“Where are we?” Alec asks, mesmerised by the gorgeous span of greenery adoring the monuments.
“Sunder Nursery. Used to be called Azim Bagh early. It’s a world heritage site and was built by the Mughals when they were ruling India.”
They walk around together, exploring the garden and Humanyun’s tomb that the place is famously known for.
“It’s beautiful out here. And cold.”
Magnus smiles, magics a pashmina shawl and wraps it around Alec’s neck, pulling him closer to place a kiss on his nose which has gotten red with the cold temperature.
He doesn’t take the kiss further as he knows public displays of affection, and ones by non-hetero couples are not really acceptable in the country. But they’re only here for a few hours for a picnic, so he guesses they can manage.
Or they can always glamour themselves when the desire to kiss Magnus is getting out of control.
Alec returns a smile and wraps his arms around Magnus.
Magnus finds a spot by the small lake and magics a picnic mat, along with a bottle of wine and an assortment of food and dessert.
His boyfriend sits by a tree and Alec slides down to lay with his head in Magnus’s lap. The warlock’s fingers finds its way in Alec’s hair and he sighs softly at the familiarity of it.
“Give me tea from the institute. Been a while since I’ve gotten any on New York’s finest.”
“What tea?”
Magnus chuckles softly and bends down to kiss his forehead, “oh darling, I forgot. Tea is basically gossip.”
Alec raises a brow in confusion, “then why would anyone call it tea?”
“It’s just a lingo thing.”
“I hate lingo-things.”
“I know.”
Alec hums.
“So?”
“So, what?”
“The Tea, Alec.”
Alec groans a little at the words before launching into a story about Jace and Clary’s latest shenanigans.
“I cannot believe Jace is still allowed to go out in public. He should be banned from humanity.”
He nods because truly, how is Jace’s existence still legal.
Magnus is laughing beautifully at the story he just told and Alec finds himself falling a little more in love, not that he thinks this was possible but yet it is.
Suddenly, the desire to kiss his boyfriend increases exponentially and Alec tugs at Magnus to lie next to him.
His boyfriend glamours them so that they’re not visible to anyone else and lay next to him, hugging Alec’s body tightly.
“This shirt is really doing things to me, darling.”
Alec laughs and warms a hand under Magnus’s shirt.
They make out lazily for a little while before Magnus finally pushes them up to eat something.
“You should try this,” Magnus speaks and points to the small water balls kept in the bowl.
“What’s this?”
“It’s called pani-Puri. It’s one of the most famous street foods in the country. You’re going to love it,” Magnus says and feeds him an entire pani-puri.”
Alec gulps it in one go and then immediately regrets it as it is spicy-as fuck.
Magnus feeds Alec another before giving him any recovery period and Alec loves it but by the end he is tearing up because of the spicy-ness.
“Fuck. How can something so amazing be something so painful at the same time.”
Magnus chuckles. “Light-weight.”
“Shut up. I’m getting better.” He is. Ever since Magnus has taken up the mission of refining Alec’s palette, he has tried cuisines all around and his taste buds have become relatively stronger than how they were before.
Before Magnus.
That’s how Alec measures life now.
Before and after Magnus.
They make out some more before Magnus decides that he wants to do some clubbing.
“You just want to get me all hot and sweaty,” He teases.
“Always.”
Alec mumbles dramatically, “I am more than just a tall drink of water, Magnus.”
A breathless peal of laughter leaves Magnus’s body and he kisses Alec deeply, pulling a small moan out of him.
They go to the club and it gets heated like it usually does with them so Magnus moves them to the VIP area for some privacy.
Somewhere between kissing and grinding against each other, they lose concept of time and space and before he knows it, they are standing infront of Magnus’s loft.
The second Alec’s eyes land on the familiar door, he freezes and immediately pulls back.
Magnus groans lightly at the distance and then looks at Alec in confusion.
“I think I should go to the institute.”
“What?”
“I just remembered that I have this meeting early morning tomorrow with the clave members.”
Magnus peers at him and Alec avoids his gaze because Magnus always knows when he is lying.
“Alec. What’s going on?” He says a little breathlessly and Alec can still feel their heated bodies against each other and he doesn’t want to leave.
But he always knows that he needs to leave.
He cannot be here.
He cannot stay at the loft.
He has been avoiding the loft like the plague and he knows that it was bound to be an issue at some point.
“You’re avoiding coming to the loft.”
“I’m not.”
“Alec. I know you are. I have noticed how ever since we’ve gotten back together, we have spent all our time at your room at the institute—which I don’t mind except that its really drab and ugly. And I did not think much of it but clearly there’s more to this,” Magnus points out gently.
Everything Magnus just said is true. Alec has been doing all of this. They have spent more nights at Alec’s room in the last few weeks than they have in the entire of their relationship.
“Sweetheart, please talk to me.”
Magnus says it with so much love that it aches inside his chest.
“I can’t come inside,” he says finally.
The warlock doesn’t bombard him with questions, just gentle confusion on his face.
“Okay.”
Magnus asks for Alec’s hand and he places his in his boyfriend’s easily as the warlock leads him to sit on the stairs next to the loft.
He leans against the staircase and sighs.
“Can you tell me why?”
“I don’t know,” he says honestly, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Magnus hums.
“It’s okay. We’re going to hurt each other sometimes. But we need to talk about difficult things.”
Alec nods and sits in silence for a while, trying to find the words.
It’s another few minutes before Alec speaks.
“I’ve never really found a place where I felt—where I felt safe. The institute was always just a place I had to live at. But it wasn’t ever really home,” Alec starts speaking and turns towards Magnus. As much as he’d like to have this conversation avoiding Magnus’s gaze, it feels important to do so. “I’ve never been fan of my room at the institute. You have seen the room, it doesn’t have any personal belongings except the bare minimum. I know you don’t like the room either.”
Magnus makes a small sound of protest, “I don’t hate it. It’s just—“
Alec gives him a small smile, “it’s okay. I understand. The institute is not your favorite place to be.”
“It always felt like a place where I had to hide myself so that—so that people don’t find out about me. I was always so scared of living there. Really being myself. I don’t think I ever will.”
He doesn’t realise that he’s anxiously digging deep into his palms until he feels Magnus’s soft touch, his fingers slowly opening his arms.
Old habits are hard to break.
Magnus brings his palm up to his mouth and kisses it softly, relieving the pain a little.
Alec all but tears up at the gesture.
“And then I…then I found you. You welcomed me into your life and your loft,” Alec whispers, “and for the first time in my life, I felt safe. I felt like I was home, Magnus. That even I can have a home.”
And when we broke up and—“ Alec wipes at his eyes and avoids Magnus’s eyes this time. “I’m not—I’m not trying to make you feel guilty of anything but when you asked me to clear my things from here—it broke my heart. I felt like I had nowhere to go. After months of having a place to come back to, going back to the institute was painful.”
A small wounded sound left Magnus’s mouth and Alec turns to find anguish written all over his face.
“So, I—I can’t go back there right now. I can’t make it my home again. Not yet. I’m sorry.”
Magnus cradles his face in his hands and makes him look into his eyes, “It’s alright, my love. You do not have to apologise for being hurt. I just hate seeing you hurting—especially when I’m partially the reason.”
Alec pulls Magnus closer by the lapels of his jacket, “It’s not your fault. I did something stupid and you broke up with me. Like you said, we’re going to hurt each other sometimes. But we’re going to be okay too.”
Magnus leans forward and puts their foreheads together, sighing softly.
“You could have told me this.”
“I didn’t know how—I. I’m sorry that I’m forcing you to stay at the institute. I know how much you dislike it. It’s just hard for me to be here right now.”
Magnus brushes a hand through Alec’s hair and places a kiss on his temple.
“I don’t hate it.”
Alec raises an eyebrow at him, pulling a chuckle.
“Okay fine. I am not a fan.”
“I know.”
“So, what do we do now?” Magnus asks.
Alec exhales heavily and tries to find the words, “I want to come home, Magnus. I just need some time.”
“As long as you need sweetheart.” Magnus says lovingly.
He nuzzles closer and rests his head against Magnus’s chest. “I really, really love you, baby.”
“I love you too, my Alec.”
Alec sighs and murmurs words he’s been holding onto for some time against Magnus’s chest.
“I can’t hear you, love?”
He creates some space and looks up at Magnus from where he’s leaning on his chest, “You can call me Alexander again, you know.”
Magnus avoids his eyes. “I didn’t know—I didn’t know if I was allowed to anymore.”
His heart aches at the small voice Magnus speaks in. He remembers how angry he had been when he had asked the warlock to never call him that again.
Alec asks for a kiss which Magnus obliges easily.
“You always are. I was angry that day when I said that you weren’t. I miss you calling me Alexander.”
“Okay.” Magnus kisses his temple.
He pouts at his boyfriend, “Say it.”
Magnus feigns innocence, “Say what?”
Alec pokes his chest. “Magnusss!!”
“What?”
“Stop being insufferable.”
“I love you, you doof.”
Alec groans, “I don’t want an ‘I love you’.”
“What do you want then?” Magnus grins.
“You’re so annoying.”
“You love me.”
“I hate you,” Alec mouths.
Magnus has a beautiful grin on his face and Alec can’t but mirror the happiness he feels on his own.
The warlock shuffles closer, as if that’s possible and kisses his lips deeply, pulling a soft moan out of him.
“Still hate me, Alexander?”
@magnus-the-maqnificent asked for a soft epilogue. Was this soft enough?
South Kenton trainspotting
8 trains in 40 seconds @traingifs
(from) Clarkson Row, NW1
i’m imaging the epilogue-smut part of WCML - just Feral!Ben remembering (and honoring!) his beast as he plows into... (You? Me? Reader?)
ohmygodyesthisisexactlyitthisisthekink
WCML isn’t very long, so trust me - you’re going to see within the next chapter that Ben definitely has this fucking feral instinctive desire to mate and fuck and use and it’s so primal
So one night I stayed up like “what will happen if / when I make him human again? Do all of those really primal desires vanish?” and I was just picturing him like...fucking her, but it’s so filthy, and he’s so pent up, because even though the physical being of him is human, he spent so much time as a monster that his brain just wants him to make a mess of her
I’m getting so pent up thinking about it holy fuck thanks for that
Basically part 6 of WCML
i was trying to write the softest epilogue for WCML like @magnus-the-maqnificent asked but it’s turning angsty again yall-I swear I’m not doing this on purpose
