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“My parents are bringing Max to visit today,” Alec sighs from his seat at the table in Magnus’ kitchen, hands clasped tightly around his cup of coffee. They don’t often get mornings like this, with Valentine still missing and all, so they cherish it when they do. Unlike most of these rare mornings, though, the atmosphere today is more... tense.
Magnus quirks an eyebrow in confusion and reaches a hand across to take one of Alec’s. They’ve talked about the youngest Lightwood before. Well, Magnus mostly listened as Alec fondly reflected on how troublesome the kid could be, but Magnus has a good sense of him now, and doesn’t know why the thought of his brother visiting troubles Alec so much. The Shadowhunter instantly relaxes at Magnus’ touch, but his eyes still hold a world of worry. “What's the matter?”
Alec looks hesitant, but a glance up at Magnus’ unwavering gaze has him talking. “I don't know what my parents have told him.” He pauses to squeeze Magnus’ hand, drawing strength from it. “About us.”
“Ah,” Magnus says. Although he knows he conceals his doubt well, Magnus can’t help but worry too. He wants the people closest to his boyfriend to like him. He has Izzy and Jace on his side, the Lightwood parents are a lost cause, so Max is all that’s left. And his acceptance is probably the most important to Alec.
“I want you to meet him, I just don't want him to think you’re…” he trails off, eyes flickering away from Magnus with a sigh.
“Everything your parents told him I'd be?”
It isn't a secret that Maryse and Robert Lightwood disapprove of their son’s relationship with the High Warlock of Brooklyn, the lothario Downworlder, but for them to perpetuate their dislike to their youngest son, Magnus knows, would kill Alec.
He nods gravely, his hazel eyes cast down to their intertwined hands as he fiddles nervously with Magnus’ rings. “I’m sorry.”
“Darling,” Magnus smiles. Alec’s gaze drifts back up to him. “I’m sure he’ll be an angel. He’s related to you.”
He can tell Alec is aware just how rude Magnus knows Max might be, but he blushes nonetheless, a thankful smile gracing his lips with ease. Because they both trust that no matter what happens, it won’t change their relationship for the worse anymore than it did when Maryse and Robert voiced their disapproval, even though Max’s acceptance would help Alec a lot.
So Magnus sucks it up, despite his fears. Sitting at the kitchen table, he tells Alec he can’t wait to meet the little Shadowhunter. Alec offers for him to come to the Institute tonight to meet him, after they both finish up with work.
“I would love to,” Magnus grins, sealing the promise with an enthusiastic kiss that may have made Alec a little late for patrols that morning. Not that he really cared.
Hey, forget about tonight. Last minute mission, sorry
Magnus frowns down at his phone. He had been on his way back home from his last client and was excited to get to see his boyfriend early and to meet Max.
He supposes that’s not going to happen now.
When he gets back to his loft after his long day of work, he doesn’t have to get ready like he had been planning. Instead, he conjures up some food, sits at his kitchen table with a spellbook, and decides to get a head start on his work for tomorrow. He’ll wait up like he always does to make sure Alec gets back safely.
Well, at least that’s what he plans before he feels himself slowly drift off.
It feels like moments later when Magnus wakes to his phone ringing loudly by his ears. Looking around, he’s met by darkness only illuminated by the sliver of moonlight filtering in past the half-closed curtains. When he blinks up at the clock across the room, he’s surprised to see it’s 12:55.
His phone rings itself to silence before he can get to it in his sleepy haze, but then it rings again seconds later. The screen reads ‘Izzy’ and Magnus tries not to let the uneasy squirm in his stomach worry him too much. He doesn’t need to be jumping to conclusions.
He picks it up. “Hell-”
Izzy’s rushed words are quick to silence him. “Magnus, thank god!” she says. Her voice is laced with desperation, and so very awake for the middle of the night. Immediately, Magnus’ brain goes into overdrive, the last of his drowsiness vanishing as he shoots up out of his chair.
“What is it? Is Alec ok?”
“No! H-He’s so stupid!” The hint of anger is overshadowed by the sob afterwards, and it has Magnus working faster to create a portal. “Please just come here! Quickly!”
Magnus is outside the Institute a second later, cursing his own wards that keep him from portaling straight inside as he sprints through the doors.
He ignores the mix of confused and disgusted looks the various Shadowhunters shoot his way as he heads straight to the infirmary, all of them too afraid to stop him.
Magnus enters the room with a slam that draws four pairs of eyes on him, none of them the hazel beauties he longs for. His tunnel vision only lets him register Clary’s red hair, with two others he presumes are Jace and Izzy, and a smaller human off to Alec’s side.
The crackling red magic spreads from Magnus’ hands as soon as he comes to stand beside his boyfriend, it’s light fog drifting to cover Alec’s battered body. He feels it seep into the cuts on Alec’s bare skin, identifies something fighting against his magic. Demon venom.
Letting out an indignant scoff, he raises a hand to conjure an antidote straight from his loft, and extends it out in an indication to have someone else feed it to the unconscious Shadowhunter. Clary, who’s closest, takes care of it, and Magnus lets out a relieved sigh when a little more colour comes back to Alec’s pale face.
Only when he feels the potion taking effect and he’s certain that the rest of the damage is fixable, does Magnus look up to Alec’s siblings expectantly, the question of how? left unspoken.
Izzy begins to say something before Jace cuts her off almost instantly. “He was trying to protect us.”
Magnus sighs softly. Of course he was. The pronounced guilt on the sibling’s faces is enough to keep him from saying it out loud, though. And, logically, he knows it isn’t their fault.
He looks down at Alec. Stupid, selfless Nephilim.
“Alec’s going to get an earful when he wakes up,” he mutters, more to himself than to the others, but Izzy perks up nonetheless.
“So he’ll be ok?”
“Yes. But it might be more helpful if I know what did this. Just in case my magic didn’t detect something.”
So Izzy, Clary, and Jace tell him about their mission. About how unusual demon activity was reported in Downtown New York, and it turned out to be a pack of Hellhounds that ambushed the group when they got there. Despite the fact that he’s better at long distance fighting, Alec took the brunt of the hound’s ferocity as the rest took them down, and by the end he fell unconscious, a large gash on his chest and deep claw marks lining his stomach.
“The iratzes weren’t working quickly enough,” Izzy sighs, taking one of Alec’s hands in her own. “Hellhound demon venom is too concentrated, it was working against them.”
Magnus nods and adjusts his magic to further sooth the effects of the venom. It turns a light blue. “Alright, well, thanks for calling me instead of a Silent Brother. But you guys should get some sleep.” He casts a quick glance their way to see some minor scratches and sighs. “After you get some of your own injuries checked out. Alec wouldn’t forgive me if I let you stay here, ignoring your own health to worry about him all night.”
Jace looks like he’s about to argue, but Izzy tugs on his arm, her eyes tired. “Come on, he’s right. And he’ll be happy to wake up to Magnus anyway.”
Jace frowns, hands absently resting on the areas his parabatai got injured, but he sighs in resignation when Clary places a hand on his shoulder, eyes reassuring. “He’ll be ok,” she says.
Something keeps them all there, though. All their gazes shift over to the bedside.
“I’m staying,” a stubborn voice calls. Magnus looks over to identify it. He hadn’t fully acknowledged the little Shadowhunter he now guesses is Max, sitting folded in a chair next to Alec and across from Magnus, watching his oldest brother with a concerned frown.
Izzy’s face sinks, too tired to argue. Staying silent, she gives Magnus a pleading look. Wordlessly, he nods.
“Thanks, Magnus,” she breathes out. She moves to her younger brother, leaning down to place a kiss on his forehead, much to his protest. Laughing softly, Izzy pats Magnus in assurance before leaving the three alone together.
Magnus smiles. This isn’t exactly how he had thought he would meet the youngest Lightwood, but here he is, stuck in a room with someone they both care for unconscious between them.
“So you’re Magnus?” Max says after Magnus sits down. Across from him, Magnus sees the mixture of curiosity and hesitancy in Max’s eyes and can’t help but feel the same. Although, he conceals it much better and nods with a warm smile, deciding not to worry too much about the fact the boy has heard anything about him.
“I am.”
Interrupting what probably would have been an awkward silence, they hear a short huff from the doorway and turn to see Maryse turning from her spot at the doorway and storming down the hallway. Magnus has to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. One, because he is a centuries old warlock who is way too mature for that. Two, because her youngest son sits in front of him. More because of the latter if he’s being honest.
“She doesn’t like you very much.”
Magnus looks back at Max to see him staring at him, face unreadable. Ah, how he loves that brutal childhood honesty.
“Huh, I wouldn’t have guessed,” he laughs, and feels an ounce of pride at the way the boy’s lips quirk up infinitesimally in a ghost of a smile. Still, he looks a little unsure about something.
“She said you ruined Alec’s future when you interrupted his wedding,” he blurts out. He doesn’t look sorry, just thoughtful. “But Alec told me this morning he made his own decisions and that you make him happy,” he says and rolls his eyes, a gesture all too familiar to Magnus, but there is an obvious fondness to it. He settles his judgement back on the warlock. “And you just saved him now, so I guess you’re okay.”
Magnus smiles. “Thanks.” Begrudging acceptance is a good first step. Especially without Alec here to mediate.
“This isn’t how I thought we’d meet,” he admits. Max grins, but his eyes drift to where Alec lies.
“Yeah, Alec would be mad. When he wakes up he’s probably going to ask me if I said anything rude.”
Magnus chuckles, taking Alec’s hand in his own. “That sounds like him. But you’re doing great so far.”
Max pauses, eyeing Magnus up and down as if looking for something. “So can I ask you something?”
Magnus nods without hesitation, assuming he’ll ask something concerning Alec. Maybe not as intense as Jace’s protective brother talk, but something along those lines.
“Where’s your demon mark?” he says instead. He asks it with the curiosity of a kid who just watched his brother get healed by a man who had been branded bad in his mind as a default, but Magnus can’t help the hurt that runs through his veins at the Shadowhunter’s question. Max clearly doesn’t sense it because he just continues staring at Magnus unabashedly.
Magnus knows he doesn’t mean anything by the question. Any Shadowhunter would ask it, especially a kid. So Magnus takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and uncovers the glamour as he blinks them back open.
Max doesn’t gasp or look away or anything that Magnus expects. He just stares, almost like he’s fascinated. Magnus supposes he’s seen a lot of demon marks in his Shadowhunter textbooks, but never in real life. “Why do you hide it?” Max finally asks.
Magnus gives a tight smile. “They’re for special occasions,” he lies.
“They look cool,” Max shrugs, then looks back at his brother. “Has Alec seen them?”
Magnus smiles to himself, remembering the way Alec cradled his face in the palm of his hand as he told Magnus how beautiful he was. How beautiful the thing that marked him a monster to the rest of the world was. He told Magnus that, if he was comfortable enough around him at the loft, he should always have his natural cat eyes showing, proving to Magnus just how different and wonderful he truly was.
Magnus nods. “Yes, he has.”
With amusement, he silently prays that Max doesn’t ask what the special occasion was, and when he looks like he’s about to, the sudden low groan between them draws their attention away from the conversation.
They look down to see Alec’s eyes flutter open as he wakes up. Feeling Magnus’ hand in his, he squeezes it and looks over with a drowsy smile. “This happens too often with us,” he murmurs, face lighting up when Magnus laughs. He catches the way Magnus’ eyes flicker away and his gaze follows, falling slowly on his youngest brother. “Oh, hi Max.”
A flash of worry crosses his face as he looks between the two, but Max is soon to hit him softly on the shoulder and roll his eyes.
“Don't worry, I was civil."
Alec huffs, wincing as he tries to sit up. “I just got hurt and this is the abuse I face?” Magnus releases a surge of pain-killing magic from where their hands are clasped and Alec shoots him a thankful smile.
“Stop being so dramatic, darling, that's my job,” he laughs and winks at Max. “We were actually just talking about you though.”
Alec sighs. “This is why I wanted to be here when you guys met.”
“Yeah, well I was about to tell him about that time I beat you in a fight without my magic.” Magnus smirks when Max gasps and Alec groans.
“Isn’t it late? Shouldn’t we be sleeping or something?” Alec attempts in desperation, but Magnus can see how ecstatic he is just to know that Max is getting along with Magnus. That they're even in the same room together.
Max frowns, crossing his arms. “I’m not tired."
Magnus gives a thoughtful hum before conjuring a laptop and some popcorn from his loft so that it’s sitting on Alec’s lap. “How about a movie? Ever heard of the Avengers?”
When he’s answered with blank stares, Magnus scoffs, murmuring ‘uncultured swine’ under his breath as he selects the movie. Max climbs up so that he’s lying next to Alec and Alec smiles over at Magnus, squeezing his hand when Magnus magically turns out the lights.
There they sit, Max judging the Avenger’s fighting styles as Alec and Magnus laugh softly, until that movie finishes and they decide to watch another. They stay like that till dawn, isolated from a world of danger and responsibilities for just one night together.