Archive of Our Own ^beta

1. Every single day Magnus took his lunch break in the food court and, every single day he regretted it.

Working in a mall had its perks sure, being surrounded by high end stores filled with beautiful things and often, beautiful people. Magnus loved his mall, but the lunchtime rush was one of the things that made him crazy. His manager had turned their employee break room into extra space for stock overflow, claiming that they all had a perfectly good cafeteria they could use on their lunch breaks instead. While this was logical reasoning, it made getting your food and finding a seat an Olympic sport each day.

Now, after working there for three years, Magnus had gotten the knack of finding a suitable spot to sit and knew the tricks to getting the best seat. As Cristina Yang always said, “sometimes you have to be a shark,” and if that meant gently plowing people over to get the last seat, well, that’s what Magnus did. And most days he was able to sit comfortably and enjoy his food.

Today was not going to be one of those days.

Sighing, Magnus put his earphones in as he watched a middle aged man take the seat he had been eyeing when he was in line for his food. Every other seat was occupied by a person or a bag so Magnus took his food to the far side of the food court, leaning against a cement pole as he ate. It wasn’t nearly the most comfortable nor the most convenient but he only had half an hour for lunch and he didn’t want to spend the majority of it trying to find a seat. Perhaps someone near him would leave their table and he would be able to sit for a little, at least.

He surveyed the crowd of people as he ate, watching the groups of teenagers, families and couples surrounded by shopping bags. Some may call him a creep, but Magnus was a people watcher. The mall was the perfect place for watching because so many different types of people came to the mall, and almost everyone did it at least once in their lifetime. There was the regulars, the high school kids who took up large tables and hardly ever bought anything even though they were there almost everyday. There were the splurgers, the ones who needed an extra table for their bags alone and direct opposite them, the savers, who came to the mall for only one item. There were countless couples, men being dragged from store to store by their girlfriends, carrying armloads of bags.

Being a weekend, the mall was especially packed today giving Magnus plenty to watch. His eyes scanned the cafeteria as he ate his noodles. He stopped though when he got to the closest table to him. There were four people at the table: a woman with long, raven hair, a stocky man with blonde hair swept over to one side, another woman with short curly hair and the most beautiful green eyes Magnus had ever seen, and … an angel.

The last inhabitant of the table made him do a double take, eyes raving over his features greedily. He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, with the same raven hair as one of the women and beautiful, bright hazel eyes. He had a gorgeous smile, one that lit up the entire room when it decided to peek out. He looked like he belonged in a fashion magazine, effortless masculine beauty just oozing off him. Magnus was both incredibly jealous and extremely attracted.

He was staring. Most definitely staring. For much longer than was necessary. But he couldn’t seem to draw his eyes away, even if he tried.

The pretty one laughed out loud and Magnus cursed himself for having his music on and missing it. It was probably deep and loud, sounding like music or something. Honestly, this man looked like a Disney prince so he wouldn’t be surprised if his laugh sounded like music. He immediately hit pause on the song, hoping beyond hope that someone would say something to make Prince Charming laugh again. He kept his earphones in though, so that he didn’t look too creepy.

Only moderately creepy.

“Can you believe that?” Tall dark and handsome/Disney prince asked, rolling his eyes. Gods, he even looked pretty rolling his eyes.

The other raven haired one sighed, shaking her head. “It’s not as though you advertise your sexuality openly. You can’t blame someone for making an assumption.”

The blond nodded in agreement. “Isabelle’s right, Alec. If I saw you and didn’t know you, I don’t think I’d know you’re gay.”

Magnus grinned into his noodles. This conversation suddenly got a little more interesting.

“You can hardly tell your left foot from your right.” Alec quipped back, throwing a fry at the blonde.

“Well your parents certainly seem to forget your sexuality on the regular, no matter how many times you tell them.” The curly haired women ribbed. This seemed to amuse the group, all of them breaking out into simultaneous laughter. “You can’t blame the poor saleswoman for thinking she had a shot with you. Though her face after you told her you didn’t play for her team was pretty hilarious.”

Alec shook his head in confusion. “I just don’t know how I could ever not be gay.” He paused, and Magnus subtly turned his head so he could see the group from his peripheral vision. “Especially when someone like that exists.” Alec’s voice took on a dreamy quality and Magnus’ ears perked up, wanting to see the person who had caught the man’s eye.

As casually as he could, he glanced over at the table, quickly looking away when he realized they were all looking at him. He felt heat rise to his cheeks, fearing he had been caught and instantly became a lot more interested in his noodles, aware of four sets of eyes on him.

“Now, he is a fine example of a beautiful human being. I would not hesitate to climb him like a tree.” Alec sighed. “Or, you know, get to know him, take him out to dinner and treat him like any gentleman would.” The tips of Magnus’ ears became hot, but he couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his features. He tried to play it off casually, still aware of Alec’s eyes on him.

Those eyes.

And if he cocked his hip out just a little bit further, and made sure to flex his bicep when he brought his chopsticks to his mouth, well, he wasn’t really hurting anyone.

“Keep it in your pants and go talk to him then.” The curly haired woman suggested, smirking.

“Yeah, big brother. He’s incredibly pretty. If you wait too long I might just beat you to it.” Isabelle laughed, playfully hitting her brother on the arm.

“Yeah, no.” Alec muttered, dejected, so low that Magnus almost missed it. “Unfortunately for me, that man is so far out of my league. He’s probably got men and women fawning over him all day.”

He wasn’t wrong, Magnus thought. Magnus was no stranger to random people coming up to flirt with him. And he often entertained it, enjoyed it even. It made his job much more interesting. But never before had anyone as stunningly pretty as Alec been interested in him, and not think he would be interested back.

Alec sighed. “Plus, who knows if he’s even into men?”

“There’s only one way to find out, bro.” The blond supplied, elbowing Alec.

Magnus’ phone pinged, breaking him out of his mild stalking, and alerting him that his lunch break was almost over. He wished he had more time, more time to stay, maybe even to talk to Alec. He envisioned himself walking up to the table, sliding his number across it to the other man and winking, saying something simple, yet clever and suave like “call me, pretty boy”.

But alas, Magnus’ boss was a stickler for punctuality and if he was late one more time he would most certainly be jobless.

***

“Hi welcome to Balmain, my name is Magnus. How can I help you today?”

Magnus spent the next hour thinking about dark hair and hazel eyes, rhythmically going through his day. He greeted customers, helped them find their sizes and fixed displays. Everytime someone new came into the store, he found himself disappointed that it wasn’t Alec. Magnus wasn't one to make assumptions but if he had to guess, he assumed Alec wouldn’t be showing up anytime soon in Balmain. His old, worn leather jacket and ripped jeans combo didn’t exactly strike Magnus as designer.

He was helping a young woman find her size in a dress when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He sighed, and finished folding the cashmere sweater he was holding. “Welcome to Balmain. My name is Magnus, how can I help you today?”

He twirled on his heel and if he had been holding anything in his hands, he surely would have dropped them. For standing in front of him was Alec and Isabelle. Isabelle had a wide grin on her face, a twinkle in her eye that spoke nothing but mischief. Alec, on the other hand, looked very uncomfortable and kept looking down at his shoes.

Magnus watched in curiosity and amusement as Alec’s cheeks became a pretty shade of red when he looked up and made eye contact with Magnus. He winked at him, only serving to worsen the problem.

Isabelle smiled sweetly at Mangus, grabbing Alec’s arm where he appeared to be trying to slip away. “Hi Magnus, I was wondering if you could help my dear brother here find a suit? He’s hopeless at shopping and needs something better to wear than a leather jacket for a wedding we’re attending next week.”

Magnus nodded seriously, flashing them both a smile. “Of course, my dear.” He let his eyes roam Alec’s body, taking him in from head to toe. For sizing purposes obviously. He had broad shoulders and a chest that Magnus could tell was sculpted even though it was covered by a tshirt. He could see his arms because they were covered by the jacket, but Magnus just knew they were probably flawless like the rest of him. “He’s in good hands here, darling. I’ll have him dressed to the nines in no time.” He looked to Alec, offering him a hand. “Follow me?”

Alec followed Magnus to the back of the store where the men’s suits were. He was nervous - much less confident than how he had been back in the food court, when he was talking about climbing Magnus like a tree, that was for sure. He held his hands behind his back, shifting from foot to foot, eyes darting around the place as if he thought someone was going to jump out of the racks and attack him.

It took Magnus almost no time at all to find Alec a suit that fit him in all the right places. Alec tried on a few of them, timidly coming out to show Magnus and get his verdict. They settled on a deep blue one, with a fitted style jacket and slim slacks. Magnus was right, his arms were a piece of art but they were nothing compared to his thighs. Magnus quickly said the suit was perfect before shooting Alec back into to the room to take it off, incredibly aware of the fact that they were in the middle of a store. They were in the middle of his workplace. No one had explicitly said it, but Magnus was sure ripping an outfit off a customer and ravishing them in the middle of the store was frowned upon. Or something.

Once Alec was back in his regularly attractive clothes, Magnus brought him over to the counter and packed the suit in a bag, ringing it up for him. Alec had barely said anything during their entire interaction, but he didn’t look nearly as nervous anymore. Suddenly, Magnus got an idea.

“I’m bisexual, you know.” He mused, casually, typing Alec’s total into the computer. Alec’s head jerked up from where he had been about to insert his card into the machine.

“What?”

“Mhmm, interested in both men and women. But,” he smirked, “I don’t know how I could not be. Especially when someone like you exists.”

Watching Alec’s face morph into understanding was almost comical. Shock turned to understanding which quickly turned to embarrassment. His face was almost an alarming shade of red and he stammered over his words, rushing to get an apology out. “I - uh, I didn’t me-”

“Darling,” Magnus purred, stopping the man’s sputtering. His face was beet red and it looked as though he was wishing for a back hole to open up below his feet and suck him down and away. “It’s quite alright. You yourself are quite the example of a beautiful human that I wouldn’t mind climbing like a tree.” He winked. “Or, you know, get to know, take out to dinner and treat you like any gentleman would.”

“Uh - really?” Alec asked, embarrassment turning to bewilderment. The card machine beeped at him, clearly impatient for having made wait so long. Alec quickly ducked his head and finished the transaction, every so often throwing a smile at Magnus.

“Really, really.” Alec’s payment went through and before he could think twice about it, Magnus scrawled his phone number on the receipt before handing it to Alec. “And if you need a date to that wedding, give me a call, hm? It would be a real shame if you got all dressed up in that suit and had no one to show you off.”

The colour quickly returned to Alec’s cheeks, and he ducked his head, smiling. “I’ll keep that in mind. I ah, actually don’t have a date. So, you know, I’ll probably take you up on that, if you’re serious.”

The line was backing up behind him and Magnus knew he needed to start serving more customers before he lost his job. It would be a real shame, but losing his job because he was flirting with a beautiful man would make a great story. Maybe one they could tell at their wedding.

He handed Alec his bag, giving him a quick wink. “Call me, pretty boy.”

Alec sent him a smile over his shoulder and quickly left the store. Magnus pretended that he didn’t watch him walk out and to his group of friends, showing them Magnus’ number proudly, smile splitting his face.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. The school bake sale was always one of the biggest events of the year.

Which was crazy, because the school itself wasn’t that big and really, how big could an event be for children under five? But that clearly didn’t stop the parents from going crazy and creating masterpieces, each more extravagant than the last. Alec felt slightly out of his depth, but he knew he was better off than some.

There was always the group of parents that brought in the pre-packaged or the easy-bake cookies, which seemed perfectly reasonable. Parents were busy, especially single parents like him, which is why last year he had brought a plate of cookies from the grocery store. He learned his lesson quickly, after having been judged by the PTA moms with passive aggressive comments and stares. Apparently if you were a parent, prepackaged cookies were the equivalent of refusing to fundraise. Or forgetting your kid somewhere. Or something like that.

So this year he had spent the entire weekend creating, in his opinion, a true masterpiece. He had made just a simple sugar cookie, but each one had been designed to look like the students in the class. It had taken him hours, a lot of icing and an almost creepy amount of time staring at Max and Madzie’s respective class photos, but in the end it had been well worth it. Even the group of snooty moms who never spoke to anyone but each other and wore heels to every single event, said they were impressed and in Alec’s book, that was a win.

“Dad! Can we have our cookies now?” Madzie asked, pulling on his pant leg, sweet face smiling up at him. Max was standing beside her holding her hand, grinning at Alec with the few teeth that he had. Alec had first adopted Madzie when she was two years old. She had been dropped off at the precinct he worked at and after an unsuccessful attempt at finding her a decent home, Alec had taken her in. Max came to him similarly, though he was taken out of an abusive home when he was only six months old. Alec knew the moment he first held him that he wanted him, and so going through the lengthy adoption and social services process had been well worth it.

Now, he was a single father to two beautiful children, Madzie now five and Max two. They were the ultimate joys to him and he wouldn’t change anything about his life.

Except maybe where he had told Madzie about the cookies this morning. Alec shook his head, ruffling her seemingly always unruly curls. “Not yet, sweetpea. Let me get them all on the plate and then we’ll see, okay? We have to wait for the rest of your classmates.” She grumbled, but nodded. Alec went back to plating the cookies. “Why don’t you -” He looked down to see the space once occupied by his two children suddenly empty.

Alec scanned the gymnasium, quickly spotting his two little monsters. They were talking to another parent and his son across the room. Madzie had her hand in Max’s and if Alec had to bet, he would assume that Max wasn’t the one to drag them over there. He went back to plating the cookies, every so often checking in on them to make sure they were okay.

“Wow, Alec those cookies look great!” Lydia said. Lydia was Max’s teacher and had become a great support system to Alec ever since he had first enrolled Madzie. The two often met after school for coffee and a few times Lydia had come over to babysit for him when his shifts had gone late.

“Thanks. I spent my weekend off creating them so they better be good.” He grinned.

Lydia laughed. “What we do for our kids, huh?” She looked around. “Speaking of, where are they?” Alec gestured over his shoulder to where Madzie and Max were. Lydia’s eyes widened and Alec had a moment of panic, but then her face split into a grin. “I’m surprised you’re not over there with them.”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Did you happen to see who they were talking to?” She smirked, patting Alec on the shoulder before continuing her walk down the row.

Alec turned around, taking a closer look at the parent his children were so adamantly talking to. When he saw just who it was, he almost dropped the tray of cookies in his hand.

They were talking to one of the new dads, Magnus, whose son Rafael had just transferred at the beginning of the year. Madzie and Rafael had become good friends, and she talked about him near constantly when Alec picked her up each day. Alec had been meaning to meet Rafael’s father, both because they should probably set up a playdate or something and well, he was the most gorgeous man Alec had ever seen.

Not that he had ever, or would ever, tell him that. Besides the fact that he was out of Alec’s league, he probably had a beautiful wife - or husband - at home waiting for him.

Cookie presentation suddenly the last thing on his mind, Alec haphazardly threw the rest of the cookies down before wiping his hands and straightening his shirt. He would just go over and introduce himself, and check on the kids. Right, because he couldn’t just let his kids wander around and talk to strangers. He should go check on them and make sure they were okay, and if he happened to introduce himself to Magnus in that time, two birds with one stone, right?

Approaching the group, Magnus and Rafael had their backs to him but Alec could see Madzie and Max perfectly. Once he got into ear shot, he caught the last bit of whatever Madzie had been saying. “- he thinks you’re really pretty. He always talks about your hair and your clothes and tells Auntie Izzy -” Alec darted behind Madzie and placed a firm hand over her mouth.

Cheeks burning, he sent Magnus an apologetic smile and extended the hand, the hand that wasn’t stopping his daughter from turning him into a puddle of embarrassment. Well, more of a puddle than he already was. Gods, Alec was a grown man but suddenly, he felt like a teenager. “Sorry about them. They’ve had too much sugar today.” Madzie grunted behind his palm, probably trying to retort something about not being allowed any sugar yet. Alec would gladly give her every cookie on that plate to get her to stop talking, judgey PTA moms be damned. “My name is Alec Lightwood.”

Magnus, to his credit, didn’t look the least bit creeped out. He was actually grinning and extended his hand, shooting Alec a wink. “Hi Alec, I’m Magnus. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Though,” he laughed, “I feel I already know you after all that little Madzie here has told me.” Madzie grinned up at him, the picture of an angel, and Alec couldn’t find it in himself to be mad.

“Oh? I’m sure none of it is true.” He amended, scooping a giggling Max up and setting him on his hip. Madzie and Rafael were giggling and whispering about something below them.

“What a shame.” Magnus sighed, mouth tipping up in the corner. “Here I was hoping that the part about calling me pretty was true. Oh, well.”

Alec bit his lip, fighting back a grin. He could hardly believe his luck, flirting with the cutest dad at school. He could feel the watchful eyes of the other PTA moms on his back, but he could hardly care about their judgey stares right now, not when Magnus was looking at him with literal stars in his eyes.

But Alec remembered the beautiful husband or wife, and his spirits sunk. “Well, I’m sure your significant other thinks so as well.” He tried for light and airy, but he was sure it didn’t get across as intended.

“Mhm.” Magnus nodded. “Well, I would certainly hope so.” He shrugged, cheeky grin on his face. “If I had one, that is.” Realization dawned on Alec and his mouth dropped open, apology already on the tip of his tongue. Magnus, sensing is coming, waved him off. “Not to worry, Alexander. I was married, but my wife and I split well over a year ago.”

“I’m sorry.” Alec offered. He wasn’t really sure how to react in this situation, seeing as Magnus didn’t look the slightest bit upset.

“Don’t be.” He shook his head. “She was a right B-I-T-C-H. Once I got full custody of Rafe, we moved out here and we’ve both been better since.” He winked. “I certainly am better now that I’ve finally met you. And that I hear you like to talk about me.”

“Well,” Alec drawled, “that part may have been true. I’ve been known to go on the odd tangent about your hair.”

Magnus laughed, loud and beautiful. “My hair, hm?”

Alec shrugged. “And other things. Though, many of them are not school appropriate nor suitable for little ears.” He whispered the last part, gesturing to the group of little ones still at their feet. His confidence was building with every smile and laugh he got from Magnus.

Alec looked down at the tray in Magnus’ hand, laugh escaping him when he saw what was clearly a tray of store bought cookies. “While you are exceptionally pretty Magnus Bane, I don’t think your beauty can stop you from the wrath of the PTA moms when they find out you bought your cookies.”

Magnus looked down at the tray in confusion, before looking back to Alec. “What? You’re telling me everyone here made everything they bought?” At Alec’s nod, his eyes widened. “Don’t these people have jobs?”

Alec shook his head, laughing. “I have so much to teach you.”

Magnus grinned. “Let’s start with proper bake sale etiquette. Are you free for dinner this week?”

Alec was interrupted from answering by a persistent tug on his pants. He looked down to two pairs of wide eyes staring up at him. Madzie and Rafael had matching smiles on their faces. “Can we have a playdate this week, daddy? Please, please, please?” Alec looked up to meet Magnus, who shrugged and nodded.

“Why not? We can have it over at our place.” The kids squealed, quickly yelling out their tanks before running off to play. Alec set Max down, who toddled off after his sister and her new friend happily.

Magnus took a step closer, close enough that Alec could smell his cologne, but far enough away that they were still being appropriate. Or at least, looking appropriate. “I have a good babysitter that could watch the three of them after the playdate, you know.” Magnus whispered, voice dropping low. “Maybe we could go to dinner, and after that you and I could have a playdate of our own at my house?”

Alec grinned, cheeks flushing. “It’s a date.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. The bass thumped loud in the club, lights changing to the beat of the music.

Alec watched Clary and Jace speak with Magnus from his vantage point above, watching, waiting to see if anything went wrong. The club was busy and dark, the mass of bodies swirling and moving below him, though he never lost sight of Jace and the others. Though he didn’t know him, he didn’t quite trust Magnus Bane alone with Jace. And based on the decisions Jace had been making lately, he didn’t trust his parabatai with Magnus Bane either.

He gazed down at the group, watching for signs of trouble. He found himself getting distracted by the warlock though, much more distracted than he should be. He had activated his far sighted rune to ensure that he could see what was going on, but it also had the added benefit of giving him a closer look at Magnus. The man moved with a gracefulness that was almost beautiful, the lights danced off the jewels embroidered into his suit jacket with every movement, making him look like he was shimmering. He had rings adorning each finger, their bright shine pulling Alec’s attention one flick of the wrist at a time. He was wearing makeup, something Alec found he liked. The sparked on the lids of his eyes and up his cheek bones were entrancing, and he had to focus to pull his eyes away.

Magnus took the jewel from Jace, examining it for a moment for saying something to Jace and Clary. Clary looked angry, crossing her arms and shooting Magnus a dangerous glare. Well, dangerous if you were a kitten. Alec could see from the hard line of his back that Jace was also upset. He took a step towards Magnus in what was supposed to be threatening, but Magnus looked hardly phased. Clearly the warlock didn’t have what they need, and had just scammed them for the jewels. He turned his back on them and opened a portal, hands swirling as purple magic came out of them.

Alec saw the assassin moments before he was about to strike, sneaking up on the group. His circle rune was prominent, throbbing in the lights of the club and making him stand out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, none of the others had noticed him yet, too focused on their conversation. He was crouched behind Magnus, seraph blade ready to attack. He raised his arm and Alec didn’t hesitate before notching an arrow and letting it fly. He didn’t need to check to make sure it hit its target, already knowing that it did, and moved down the stairs two at a time.

He approached the group quickly, well aware of piercing gold eyes on him as he walked passed and to the assassin. He bent down to remove the man’s weapon and retrieve his own arrow, checking his pulse quickly to assure he was dead. The music was too loud to hear, but Magnus said something and Alec, blindly, hoped that it was something about him. He was sure that it wasn’t, what with all the beautiful people in this club, but he could dream right?

He picked up the fallen seraph blade from the assassin, giving it a quick twirl in his wrist before depositing it in his thigh holster, and saw with a flare of satisfaction, a grin on Magnus’ face.

***

Using the button Clary tore off Magnus’ jacket before he fled through the portal, tracking him to his loft was easy. They snuck in the back and to Alec’s dismay, found it already infiltrated by Circle members. The wards were down long before they arrived, signalling that Magnus and the others were sitting open and without protection. He just hoped that there weren’t too many casualties when they arrived.

Entering the loft quietly Jace, Alec and Izzy split up, the mundane following along with Jace like a puppy. She bounded after him, asking questions and pretending as though she knew what she was doing and Alec could see that Jace was eating it up. Izzy caught Alec’s eye and the two of them rolled their eyes.

Alec moved through the loft, down corridor after corridor, checking each and every room. The loft was much more spacious than he had thought, Magnus probably having done a spell to make it bigger than it was. He found two circle members, easily disbanding them with a swift arrow to the chest. It was almost too easy to kill Valentine’s men. Alec just hoped their wasn’t a reason for that.

He had just taken out another circle member when a crash sounded from one of the nearby rooms just down the hall. Quickly, Alec activated his soundless rune, pulling his bow out as he crept towards the door. Peering around the frame, Alec took quick inventory of the room; it appeared to be the library, books and loose pages strewn all over the floor. There were two people in the room, one a warlock and the other a circle member. Alec ducked back and out of sight before either of them could see him.

“Your magic’s strong, warlock.” The circle member spat out. “Much stronger than that horned weakling I killed this morning.”

“Elias,” came the immediate reply. Came Magnus’ immediate reply. Alec tensed, nocking an arrow. He should have known it was Magnus, but he had been too focused on the rest of the room to get a good look at him. He could hear the sound of Magnus’ magic, pulsating and cracking like someone had captured lighting and put it in a jar. Blue shadows jumped off the wall, brightening as Magnus threw another attack at the Shadowhunter. He knew the warlock was powerful, he was the High Warlock after all. Alec didn’t want to jump in and save him and risk offending him.

“That was his name!” The circle member exclaimed, almost gleefully. “Well, lucky for us he sold you out before I could take his warlock mark.” Alec felt the bile rise in the back of his throat at the statement. Valentine and his followers were horrible, there was no doubt about that, but hunting Downworlders and keeping parts of them as trophies? He felt ashamed that he was of the same heritage as this man. The same race.

Another crash, another grunt. Alec was getting restless, but he knew that Magnus could hold his own. Knew the warlock was capable of handling this man. It didn’t stop him from wanting to launch an arrow through his forehead though.

“Cats eyes.” He seethed maliciously, almost hungrily. Alec had never seen Magnus’ warlock mark, but knew about it. The Clave kept a detailed record of all Downworlders they interacted with, Magnus’ file being no exception. “Would be a nice addition to my collection.”

And Alec couldn’t sit by and let this man disrespect the Downworlders like this. Disrespect Magnus like this. He moved before he could even think, rage and disgust clouding his vision. He stood and rounded the corner, arrow already notched, letting it fly straight into the leg of the vile man in front of him, before he even finished getting his sentence out.

Magnus was standing in the middle of the room with his back to Alec, the squirming circle member on the floor in front of him. With a flourish of his arms, Magnus sent a pulse of magic towards him, immediately knocking him out. Or killing him, Alec wasn’t sure. He thought it better not to ask, but secretly hoped it was the latter.

Alec was now faced with Magnus, all alone for the first time. He had yet to actually say any words to the man he had been thinking about for the majority of the day. Ever since he had seen Magnus’ picture on the screen this morning in the briefing, there had been something about him that stuck in Alec’s mind. He thought about something clever to say, something that might impress Magnus, make a good impression. After all, this was the first time he met the warlock and he wanted to make a good impression. For business reasons of course.

But instead of something well crafted, professional and cool, what came out of Alec’s mouth was, “Well done.”

Gods, Magnus was never going to take him seriously now. Magnus was hundreds of years old and had met countless people, and Alec had just word-vomited “well done” as a way of greeting. The spell Magnus had done probably wasn’t even something difficult. It was probably something the warlock did often, yet Alec had just congratulated him on it. Just when Alec was considering fleeing the room and running straight back to the Institute, Magnus spoke up. “More like medium rare.”

And, well - he had just made a joke. He’d saved Alec’s lame attempt at a greeting and turned it into a witty joke. He was still embarrassed, but Alec smiled. Maybe he would be able to make it through the rest of this conversation without embarrassing himself further.

Magnus turned on his heel, closing the few steps of space between them. He was even better looking up close; gold green eyes shining, makeup perfect despite just being in battle and tailored suit fitting in all the right places. Alec blushed, shutting down the thoughts immediately. He shouldn’t be focusing on the physical features of one of their allies, no matter how beautiful they were. He was here to work, to represent the New York Institute, that was all. He turned his thoughts back to the conversation at hand. “I’m Magnus. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.”

Every single thought Alec had had before that moment, immediately left his brain. It was as if someone had erased everything that had been previously inside, and replaced it only with Magnus’ name. And his face. And his eyes, which were so, so pretty.

He was so out of Alec’s league. Why did the first beautiful man he was interested in and decided to talk to have to be Magnus freaking Bane?

“Alec.” He finally managed to remember his own name and stammer it out, all the while, probably looking at Magnus like some love-struck idiot. So much for getting through this conversation and not making a fool of himself. Magnus smiled back and really, that wasn’t fair at all. Alec was only human. He could only take so much.

Realizing that he should probably go check on Jace and Izzy, Alec gestured towards the door. The next thing out of his mouth was probably the most embarrassing thing he had ever said, and he was sure that it would haunt him until the day he died. “Oh, uh … we should really - we should, you know probably get…”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence, too distracted by the way Magnus’ eyelashes cast a shadow on his cheekbones when he blinked, and the glitter that lined his eyelids, shimmering in the light. His brain to mouth filter was out of commision and the only words escaping him were jumbled gibberish. Of course this had to happen to him right now. “Right.” Magnus amended, taking pity on him with a smile. “We should join the party.”

“Right.” Magnus smiled again and Alec knew he needed to leave the situation, lest he lose all brain function completely. Being around Magnus had this magical ability to turn his usual dexterous speech into that of a thirteen year old girl meeting her idol for the first time. Alec wondered idly if Magnus’ magic had anything to do with it, if the warlock had put some sort of spell on him to make his palms sweat and his heart beat out of his chest rapidly.

Probably.

Without looking back, he turned and all but ran from the room, leaving Magnus standing behind him. He knew he probably looked like the biggest idiot right now and Magnus most likely thought there was something seriously wrong with him, but he hoped that tonight wouldn’t be the last time he saw the warlock.

He hoped that maybe, after they retrieved the mundane’s memories, that he might be able to see Magnus again and maybe have something to say other than gibberish.

Maybe in another universe there was another Alec Lightwood who wouldn’t run away at the sight of a beautiful man like Magnus Bane. Maybe there was a universe in which Alec was confident and could make jokes and maybe even flirt with him.

But that clearly wasn’t going to be the case in this universe.