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Magnus was not naive; living for over a century would guarantee a certain level of wisdom and common sense. He knew that sometimes leverage was needed, even against the dearest of friends. Ragnor and Catarina knew that too.
Ragnor had plenty of material to hold against Magnus if the occasion arose, all of it starting with ‘I will tell your nephilim about that time…’ . Normally it was to do with the pirate incidence or Peru. Whilst they weren’t stories he was ashamed of he would rather have Alec’s respect for a little longer.
Magnus himself had an equal treasure trove’s worth to potentially use against Ragnor. And for Cat...well. He had a few items….she was far too sensible to let Magnus accumulate anything actually useful. However despite her responsible nature, Catarina had by far the most blackmail material out of them all. She had videos. Entire videos! In a folder! Clips had been collected since she could start filming on her phone. All of her closest and oldest friends.
Magnus had discovered the folder years ago, before even Ragnor had, but he’d never told Cat that he knew. Though she probably did know. It wouldn’t surprise him.
The most surprising thing however was how Magnus came to tell Alec about the folder; how he had ended up showing him one of the videos. It had started on a Saturday when Cat and Ragnor had just left the loft after an unexpected breakfast visit.
***
“Alexander, you’ve been washing that mug for almost five minutes. What’s wrong?” Magnus asked quietly, wrapping his arms around Alec’s middle from behind and resting his chin on Alec’s shoulder.
“Oh, sorry.” Alec quickly put the mug down and reached for another one to wash; he was tense still, even when Magnus pressed a featherlight kiss to his shoulder. Magnus waved his hand and the rest of the dishes disappeared, Alec sighed and dried his hands on a nearby tea-towel.
“I didn’t mind doing them.” He said.
“What’s hurting you, darling? Is it that demon scratch from last night? Did it not heal properly?” Magnus relaxed a little when Alec shook his head and intertwined their hands.
“No…”
“Please talk to me, Alec.”
Magnus stepped away so he could sit on the kitchen counter to face Alec; he looked like he was a million miles away, warm hazel eyes focused on something out of Magnus’ reach. His lips tugged down in a tiny frown. Magnus gently ran his thumb along Alec’s cheekbone, the taller man closed his eyes and leaned into the touch.
“Do you think they like me?” Alec whispered eventually, like he was confessing a dark secret. Like to say the words was to expose a part of himself that was wrong or shameful, like he thought Magnus would laugh at the question or say he was being ridiculous for asking. That the weight Alec held in this was petty and unimportant.
“Who, darling?” Magnus wanted to be sure of what Alec was asking; Alec opened his eyes to search Magnus’ face for...something, Magnus wasn’t sure what.
“Ragnor and Catarina. I...I don’t know if-if they approve of me. With you. I…” Alec’s words stumbled to a halt but Magnus waited, knowing that his boyfriend needed time to put what he was feeling into words. “They’re your family and I want them to like me, to approve of me. To think I deserve you. But I’m not sure they do, Catarina especially. I’m a shadowhunter but I don’t want that to be the only part of me they see.”
Magnus nodded slowly. Waiting a few seconds to check that Alec didn’t have anything else to say. When he was sure Magnus moved to take both of Alec’s hands in his and tug him closer until Magnus could rest their foreheads together. By sitting on the counter they were almost the same height, Magnus was a little taller for once.
“Alexander, they do like you. It doesn’t matter if they approve anyway, not that they don’t, I wouldn’t let that stop me from being with you.” Magnus said at last, hoping that it was the right thing to say.
Sometimes it was difficult to put what he wanted to say into coherent sentences that Alec wouldn’t misunderstand. He could be hit by his insecurities at any time due to the slightest of things and didn’t always understand what Magnus was trying to convey. Alec was a man of actions and not so much of words.
“I know it shouldn’t matter, not really, but...but it…”
“Just does?” Magnus offered.
“Yeah. It just does.” Alec leaned back and shifted as if he were about to move away, how he always did when he thought he was doing something stupid or childish or something he was unsure about. Magnus didn’t let him, he kept ahold of his hands.
“They do approve of you, Alec, they like you. They really do. I can prove it to you if you want.” Magnus said, flashing Alec a mischievous smile that had the shadowhunter blushing a little but returning the smile regardless.
“How?”
Magnus just grinned even more and patted the space on the counter next to him, Alec hopped up to sit next to him. Shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. With a snap of his fingers Magnus was holding Cat’s phone in his hand, she wouldn’t notice as she’d be working. Alec frowned in confusion.
“Did you get a new phone?”
“No,” Magnus chuckled, “this is Cat’s phone. She’ll kill me if she finds out I’ve borrowed it though so please don’t mention it to her.”
“Of course. But why are we risking your life over this?”
“Cat has a blackmail folder. For her closest friends. Mostly Ragnor and I. The point is, is that she had videos of people she knows will be around for a long, long time.” Magnus explained as he navigated his way through the phone’s display screens until he found the folder, Alec leaning over his shoulder to see.
As promised, the folder held over fifty videos and over a hundred photos. Magnus scrolled through slowly, flashes of Ragnor’s personal shade of green passed by along with multi-coloured glitter from Magnus and occasionally light blue. Finally, he found the one he wanted. Alec let out a shocked gasp and Magnus couldn’t help smirking proudly as he played the video.
It wasn’t grainy or blurry and Cat’s camera control was perfect. There was no plausible way to deny that it was Alec in the video. Sitting on Magnus’ couch with Ragnor lounging next to him looking as posh as ever. Alec had a cocktail in his hand and, judging from his flushed face and giggling, it wasn’t his first. Cat’s voice came from behind the camera.
“What are we talking about Alec?” She asked, stifling a laugh. Video-Alec’s eyes snapped up to the camera and his face lit up in a blinding smile.
“I swore not to tell anyone!” Alec said, sloppily shaking his head.
“Ah, but we’re your friends, are we not? You can trust us.” Ragnor tried, the shadowhunter tilted his head to the side and looked like he was thinking long and hard on what he was about to say.
“Please, Alec? We’ll tell you our most embarrassing moments too.” Cat added and with that Aled was convinced.
“That sounds fair. Me and Mags were at the Institute, you know, the shadowhuntery one, and we were...uh doing stuff.” Alec dissolved into a fit of giggles, Ragnor raised his eyebrow at the camera. “When Sheldon - wait no, Simon! Mags calls him Sheldon. Anyways, when Simon barges in through the door! With Clary! ‘Cause Iz was-” more giggles, “Iz was cooking!”
Alec doubled over laughing whilst Ragnor held a thumbs up to the camera and the video cut off.
Both of them sat on the counter for a while before Alec dropped his head onto Magnus’ shoulder.
“That’s so embarrassing. I don’t even remember that.” Alec moaned, Magnus knew he was bright red without looking.
“It’s a blackmail video, it’s meant to be traumatising.”
“Yeah, I guess it is…”
Magnus knew Alec was processing everything so he sent the phone back to Cat and ran circles on the back of Alec’s hand.
“My laugh is horrible in that.” Alec said after a while.
“I like your laugh, Alexander.”