Chapter Text
Clary Fray calls a week after Magnus leaves her apartment, and three days after Raphael packs a bag and takes Magnus's second bedroom.
"I'm not moving in," Raphael says, when he dumps his bag in Magnus's living room. "I just need some time."
Magnus just goes out and buys Raphael instant coffee, because he won't be part of Raphael's caffeine addiction, but his loft is only ten minutes from three different supermarket chains. Raphael catches up to him there, and as they're fighting over whether or not they're going to buy brown sugar or honey, Magnus's work phone rings.
"Magnus Bane, Inc.," Magnus says. "Magnus Bane speaking. How can I help you?"
By the end of the walk to the cash register, Magnus has met Clary's girlfriend, Isabelle, over the phone and he has a job. It's his third home cleansing to get rid of a haunting in less than a week, and Magnus has made zero dollars.
"You don't need the money," Raphael says.
"I know," Magnus says. "But it's a matter of principle."
"Well, if you want their money," Raphael says. "Don't be so obvious that all you want is their money."
Which is a fair point.
-
When Alexander Lightwood sees Magnus for the first time, he overdoes it on the stunned look. But whatever, Magnus will take it.
-
"Hello," Magnus says.
He doesn't know the name of the man who opens the door for the first twenty seconds of their interaction. What Magnus does know is that he's glad he wore his favorite red coat today because it has a flattering cut. What Magnus also knows is that the guy at the door is very clearly checking him out.
"I'm Magnus. I'm here to see Isabelle," Magnus says.
The guy at the door visibly deflates. "Oh," he says.
Magnus thinks about it for two seconds and decides that he deserves this. "I'm here about her ghost problem," he says. "But if you would like me to be here for someone else, I could do that too."
The guy at the door turns bright red and mutters something under his breath. Magnus just smiles, amused and flattered. It has been a while since someone was so excited to see him. Longer than that since Magnus has been interested in the attention.
"I…" the guy starts, stops, and seems to remember himself. "My name is Alexander Lightwood. Um, I mean, Alec, you can just call me Alec."
Magnus grins, extending his hand. "Nice to meet you, Alexander Lightwood," he says, shaking Alec's hand. "Do you think you can let me in?"
"Oh, yes, of course," Alec says, moving aside.
Magnus makes a show of stepping inside, his arm barely brushing Alec's as he does. It's all a very complicated process, the single step, the slightest brush, followed by a quick apology. Alec shaking his head as he turns to close the door, his attention still on Magnus, but knowing automatically what to do. Magnus waits for Alec to be done with the front door, before he gestures for Alec to lead the way. There's another moment, where both of them are staring at each other, just a second, before Alec runs into the open closet door as he tries to fall into step with Magnus.
"Lewis," Alec says, exasperated.
Magnus makes a questioning noise.
"It's nothing," Alec says. "Roommate."
They make their way down the front door hallway, and it isn't until Magnus comes face to face with the door in front of what should be the living room, that he remembers what Clary said about this particular room. Jace and Alec share this room, which leaves Magnus with two options: Alec and Jace are together or Alec and Jace are not together. And only one of those options looks good.
"Is Clary in?" Magnus asks.
"No," Alec says. "But Isabelle is. She's the one who called you right?"
Magnus nods, and waits as Alec makes his excuses and goes off to find Isabelle. As soon as Alec turns to go to Isabelle and Clary's room, Magnus pulls his phone out to text Raphael. When he scrolls down his messages, he sees that he has 18 unread messages from his, Raphael and Ragnor's chat group. The last two are just "ARE YOU DEAD?????" and "I'm keeping the loft if he is." Magnus sends a quick, "i'm alive. met a guy. will fill you in later byeee," and puts his phone away just as Alec, and who Magnus assumes is Isabelle, come back.
Isabelle is very clearly Alexander Lightwood's sister. They have the same colored hair and the same shape to their eyebrows, but where Alec's eyes are light brown, Isabelle's are as dark as her hair. She's much shorter than Alec is, beautiful in a different way, but when Magnus looks at them, at the set of their shoulders, and the tilt of their heads, he knows they're related.
"Hello," Isabelle says, shaking Magnus's hand. "I'm Isabelle. We spoke over the phone."
"Of course," Magnus says. "You have a ghost problem."
Isabelle nods and steps in front of Alec to speak to Magnus. She takes Magnus's arm and walks him the three steps to the living room door as she explains the issue. Magnus pretends he doesn't see Alec's disappointed face, and then he pretends twice as hard that he's not enjoying all the attention.
"We have a ghost, and ever since you came to see Clary we don't have the issues with the mess," Isabelle is saying. "But then Jace and Alec started hearing things at night, and then the other night, there was a mess in their room. Well, you'll see."
Isabelle moves to open the door, but at the last second, Alec jumps in front of her. "Wait," he says. "Jace is in there."
"Ah," Isabelle says, her eyes darting between Magnus and Alec. "I see."
Alec glares at Isabelle, gives Magnus an apologetic look, and disappears behind the closed living room door.
"Interesting," Isabelle says.
-
So, the thing is, Jace would be attractive in the boring way, except that his eyes are two different colors, and when he smiles at Magnus, it's not entirely narcissistic.
"Nice to meet you," Jace says.
He's grinning widely and Isabelle is staring at him like she wants to figure out whatever mystery she sees on Jace's face. Jace shakes Magnus's hand and it's not flirtatious, but it's definitely something.
"This is Jace," Alec says. "He's our brother."
Magnus swears he can see the light bulb go off in Isabelle's brain, the entire family is so obvious. It's sort of refreshing, until Isabelle turns her bright grin on Magnus and says, "Don't be so obvious, dear."
She is very clearly talking to Alec, but she's looking at Magnus, which confuses everything. Alec looking like he wants the ground to swallow him whole doesn't help much either.
-
They make a circle, because if Magnus left it up to Alexander Lightwood, they would never get anywhere. He knows this from spending about six minutes in total with the Lightwood siblings. Isabelle and Jace are clearly most comfortable in social situations, both of them easing into conversation with Magnus, both of them engaging and comfortable. Magnus finds out that Jace is adopted, that he started having nightmares about three nights ago, around the time that he and Alec started hearing noises at night. Magnus finds out that Alec recently came out to the family, that the Lightwoods are only half-joking when they say that they think the ghost could be their grandmother throwing a tantrum.
"Grandma loved me," Alec protests.
Isabelle pats his arm. "We know. We're just joking."
"Family members are the most common kind of ghosts," Magnus says, nodding sympathetically. "My brother, Raphael, was being haunted by his sister."
Jace catches the subtle difference, the missing "our," and nods at Magnus. Just like that Magnus is in, and it's easier to feel the energy in the room, something heavier in the air. It doesn't feel like it's coming from Jace, but it doesn't feel like it's coming from Alec either.
"Would you excuse me?" Magnus says.
He leaves the Lightwoods gathered at the door and steps into the center of the living room. Jace and Alec's bed fit easily on opposite sides of the room, Alec's furthest from the windows and Jace's bed as close as possible. In between the two beds is a pile of paperwork, clothes, and a neat stack of photo albums. The mess starts right up against the wall and follows a straight line to where Magnus stands at the center of the room. Around the TV and the playstation is a scattering of DVDS, discs out of their cases across the desk, some falling over the sides. On Jace's bed are thousands of tiny pieces of paper placed almost lovingly, a pillowy mess. Alec's bed is worse, covered in strips of cloth, bedsheets half off, like someone clawed their way up the bed. The energy on that side of the room is different, thicker, as though Magnus is moving through heavy wind when he walks towards Alec's bed.
"Interesting," Magnus says.
"Interesting?" Jace asks.
"You seem to have a poltergeist," Magnus says. "You don't work together, do you?"
"No," Isabelle says. "Jace works at the school with me."
"I thought so," Magnus says. "I think the poltergeist is trying to haunt both of you, but can't follow both of you at the same time, so it's stuck in your room for now. Until it makes up its mind as to who it wants to haunt, obviously."
"Obviously," Jace says.
Magnus just waves him away. "Unfortunately, I think your ghost is starting to make up its mind."
Isabelle, Jace, and Alec turn to stare at the mess on Alec's bed.
"Sorry, man," Jace says.
"What do we have to do?" Alec asks.
Magnus is already pulling out his phone, careful to keep the screen away from the Lightwoods. He hasn't done many cleansings in his life, so he keeps his prayers and incantations on his google drive. But Magnus knows telling the Lightwoods that won't go over very well.
"Okay," Magnus says, once he's read the proper incantation a few times. "We're going to need sage and a fifth person."
-
Simon Lewis is Clary's best friend. Magnus knows because that's how Simon introduces himself the first time.
"Hello," Simon says, shaking Magnus's hand. "I'm also a musician."
Magnus warms up to Simon almost immediately, something about how friendly his smile is, and the general air about him. Magnus is glad Clary Fray found herself a good friend and secretly, he is glad she managed to surround herself with the Lightwoods, one of them in particular. But Magnus will follow up with that later.
"I heard we need to make a circle," Simon tells Magnus. "I also heard you saw Jocelyn."
Which derails all plans for about thirty minutes, while Magnus explains to Simon the art of reading energies in rooms, and carefully skips over the fact that this is only Magnus's fifth cleaning in the last three years.
"Oh, so you're an expert at this," Simon says. "That's great. I really need to sleep again, and Alec and Jace both scream when they're scared. Then everyone is up at like, three in the morning, and some of us need to go to class early."
Magnus laughs, laughs harder when he sees the betrayed look on Jace's face and the indignant look on Alec's. Isabelle, who is sitting on Jace's bed, hasn't said anything, but Magnus knows when he's being watched. He also thinks he has a very good idea about why.
-
Magnus isn't going to deny that he purposely puts Alexander Lightwood on his immediate left, but he isn't going to accept it either. Especially not when Alec tries his best to not seem too eager to hold Magnus's hand, and fails.
They are adults, after all.
-
Alexander Lightwood's ghost problem is much simpler than Magnus anticipated. There is a moment where Jace freezes up and Magnus has to remind everybody not to let go. Oddly enough, it's Simon who has the most trouble staying in his spot after that. And once Jace is okay and breathing normally again, it's Simon who doesn't take his eyes off Jace. No one else seems to notice, and Magnus isn't the type to tell, so he forgets about it almost as soon as he sees it.
The rest of the cleansing goes by smoothly. They burn the sage, they make their circle, and Magnus recites the Latin prayer five times. He adds a quick Spanish prayer that Raphael taught him, says one in English just to make sure, and they're done.
"Well," Jace says, once it's over. "Who the hell did we piss off, and how do we stop ourselves from doing it again?"
"There's no way to tell, unfortunately," Magnus says. "You just go about your life and if you anger any ghosts, you won't know until your room looks like this, again."
Magnus waves at the mess around the room and realizes that not only is he suddenly very tired, but he is starving. "Well," he says, smoothing down his jacket, carefully and deliberately. He tries his best not to smile when he sees Alec tracking the movement of his hands. "I really do have to go now. Give Clary my best."
"So soon?" Isabelle asks.
She's looking at Alec, her face an unreadable mask to Magnus, but Jace and Alec must see something in it, because Jace turns away to hide his laugh and Alec steps forward towards Magnus.
"I'll walk you out," he says.
The walk to the door is different this time, because something about Alec is different. Magnus can't figure out if it's the way Alec is walking, or maybe some sort of tension that isn't there anymore. He tries to figure it out all the way to the door, and then Alec has the door open and Magnus is stepping out.
"So," Magnus starts.
"I'd like to see you again," Alec says, very helpfully doing half of the work.
"Good," Magnus says, slipping his card into Alec's hand. "I'd like to see you again, too."
-
When Magnus gets home, Raphael already has the tea waiting.