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„Great job, sweet pea, now try and get the teddy bear back to your backpack. If you can do that, you can keep it“, Magnus said and winked at the little girl. He chuckled when he saw her face scrunch up adorably as she concentrated and held his breath when she slowly, but steadily, let the bright pink teddy bear fly over to an even brighter pink backpack leaning on the side of his couch. Madzie beamed at him when she set the bear down on the floor and Magnus clapped his hands a couple times, smiling.
Just as he was about to explain her next exercise, he heard the keys jingle behind him and turned around just in time to see Alec walk into the apartment and close the front door. Magnus felt the corners of his mouth pull up into an involuntary smile. “Alexander. You’re home early.”
“Slow day at the Institute”, Alec replied as he toed off his shoes and hung up his worn out black leather jacket. He walked over to Magnus and stopped only when he was close enough to gently kiss him hello. “Hi.”
Magnus couldn’t help but smile when they broke apart. “Hey.”
Alec smiled at him for another moment, then his gaze drifted away from his boyfriend and towards the little girl that was already waiting a few steps behind Magnus, beaming. He walked over to her and kneeled onto the floor, pulling her into a hug. “Hey Madzie. How’s training going?”
“It’s going great”, Magnus answered instead of her, closing the distance between the three of them and crouching down as well. “We’ve made some really good progress today. Haven’t we, Madzie?”
Madzie just nodded. She still didn’t talk too much, but had long become good friends with both Magnus and Alec. Especially since she came over at least once a week for warlock practice.
The thing about Madzie was that she may be only a four-year-old, but she was already a highly powerful warlock – ahead of her age, as both Magnus and Catarina often said. Unfortunately, neither Iris Rouse nor Valentine had taught her how to use her powers properly. Nobody had ever told Madzie how they could be used to make things easier instead of doing harm to others.
Magnus and Catarina were doing their best to make up for that. They took turns practicing with Madzie, and tried to teach her all she needed to know about her powers. Their teaching methods varied a lot – where Cat loved to use old books and drawings to explain what she meant, Magnus preferred a more spiritual approach. Alec had stopped counting how many times he had come home and found his boyfriend and the young warlock on the balcony, sitting on yoga mats and meditating with their eyes closed. It had been a bit of a bewildering sight at first, but after the first time, Magnus had explained to him that meditation was what had helped him the most as a young warlock trying to get a grip of his powers. Focusing on the energy running through him and the powers it gave him had made controlling them so much easier.
And it seemed to work for Madzie as well. Where she’d been tense and uneasy whenever they had encouraged her to use magic at first, she now seemed much more at ease with it.
Today, she seemed downright proud to show off what she’d learned. At least that was how Alec interpreted her excited giggle when Magnus suggested she should show Alec what they’d been working on.
“You want me to get out of the way, Madzie?”, Alec teased when he got up and stood next to Magnus, leisurely wrapping an arm around his back.
Madzie just giggled again before her features turned focused as she concentrated. They watched as her face turned calm and her soft brown eyes focused on the teddy bear again. She raised her tiny arms slightly and moved her hands to control the soft waves of purple magic that were flowing out of her palms. She directed the energy towards the teddy bear again and Alec watched in awe as the toy rose from the ground and floated over to the couch, where Madzie let it down in a corner.
“Now look at that! Well done, Madzie”, Alec praised. He let go of Magnus to walk over to her, but was stopped by his boyfriend’s fingers closing around his upper arm, holding him back. He looked over to him with a puzzled expression, but Magnus just nodded towards the other warlock in their living room.
“We’re not done yet. Madzie, could you get me the book about the Seelie legends I showed you earlier?”
The girl just nodded and concentrated again. She took a few steps to the side, so she could see past Magnus and Alec, who were blocking her sight onto the bookshelf. Planting her feet firmly onto the floor, she focused on the book Magnus asked her to get, and Alec hardly could stop himself from cooing when he saw an adorable little crease appear between her furrowed eyebrows.
Magnus’ voice was calm and steady when he talked to Madzie: “Remember, sweet pea, deep breaths, focus and then carefully let go.”
Madzie nodded and breathed in, then concentrated on the shelf again. Light purple waves of magic appeared around the book, and both Alec and Magnus watched in silence as the little warlock made the book hover through the air, getting it slowly, but steadily closer towards the two of them.
It was floating over the two of them, still surrounded by purple magic, when the sound of a car crash and other cars honking came through the open window, and Madzie startled. Her magic pulled back at once, making the book fall towards the floor. Which would not have been a problem per se, if Alec hadn’t been standing right beneath it.
He didn’t even have a chance to flinch away, when the heavy, old book already came crashing down right onto his face. A second later, he felt a sharp pain spreading from right above his left eye. He let out a pained groan and reached up, only to find his fingers red with blood when he had a look at them.
Alec groaned again, but this time it was more out of annoyance than because of the pain. Of course he couldn’t just get away with a simple black eye, it had to be a cut. “Shit.”
Magnus was at his side in a second, blue sparks of magic already flowing out from his hands. “Oh no. Put pressure on it, I’ll fix you up in a second.”
He then turned around towards Madzie, who seemed frozen in shock and was staring at them with wide, frightened eyes. “Sweet pea, I need your help. There’s a little brown bottle in the top drawer underneath the sink. Can you get it for me?” His calm, comforting tone seemed to help Madzie get out of her frozen state, as the little warlock just nodded and ran off towards the bathroom.
Magnus focused on Alec again, led him over to the couch and waited until he had sat down. He crouched down in front of Alec, so he could have a look at his injury. It was just a small cut right above his eyebrow, but it bled pretty badly and Alec started to look like he’d just walked off the set of a horror movie.
Alec rose his hands in an attempt to wipe off the blood that was undoubtedly clouding his vision, but Magnus just clicked his tongue and batted his hands away. The warlock snapped his fingers and conjured up a damp towel, which he carefully pressed against the cut and instructed Alec to hold it there.
A moment later Madzie came back into the living room, carrying the vial Magnus had asked for. Alec winced when he recognized the tiny bottle as the disinfectant Magnus used to clean the scratches and minor injuries Alec sometimes brought home from missions. He dragged his gaze back to Magnus, who was now pouring some of the disinfectant onto a cotton swab. “Can’t you just do that with your magic? That stuff burns.”
Magnus smiled apologetically as he closed the bottle and put it back onto the coffee table. “Sorry. There are some things even the best warlocks can’t do. Preventing cuts from getting infected is one of them.”
He reached up and carefully dabbed the sanitizer-soaked cotton on the skin above Alec’s eyebrow, smirking at how Alec’s face scrunched up. His boyfriend might be one of the toughest shadowhunters he knew, but still a big old softie on the inside, especially when it came to the stinging pain of disinfectant on a fresh wound.
When he was done cleaning the cut, Magnus rose his hand to Alec’s face and carefully ran his fingers over the wound. Soft blue waves of magic ran over the delicate skin above Alec’s eyebrow, and closed the cut until it stopped bleeding. Magnus let his fingers linger a bit, just to be sure he got rid of all of the pain. When he was done, he clapped his hands once and got back onto his feet. “All done. With a bit of luck, I think you’ll live”, he chuckled.
Alec just smiled at him, with a soft gaze and that sweet smile that seemed to be reserved for Magnus only, and never failed made the warlock weak at the knees. “Thank the Angel, I was worrying that this was gonna be a close call.”
He then looked away from Magnus and focused on the little girl that was now standing next to the coffee table. Madzie didn’t look as scared as a few minutes earlier, but she still seemed quite hesitant.
Good thing Alec knew exactly how to deal with Madzie in her tentative moments. He kept his big smile and just opened his arms in invitation. “It’s okay, Madzie”, he said in a soft tone, “come here.”
Madzie looked at him for a few more seconds and then took a few short steps until she was close enough for Alec to pick her up and let her sit down on is lap. That seemed to have broken the ice, because next thing he noticed, the tiny warlock had thrown her arms around him as well as she could, and hid her face in his sweatshirt. Alec huffed out a laugh and hugged Madzie back, looking at Magnus, whose face was a mask of affection.
Madzie’s voice was muffled by the sweatshirt when she eventually spoke. She sounded just as hesitant as she’d looked before, unsure and careful. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Alec placed a finger underneath her chin and made her tilt her face up, so he could look at her. “There’s nothing to be sorry for, little one. Nothing happened. See?” He pointed towards his eyebrow, where only a faint pink line reminded of the cut that had once been there. “It’s all good.”
Madzie didn’t seem too convinced by that, but after a few more minutes of hugging and encouraging words, she calmed down. Especially after Magnus had sat down on the couch next to them and, in an attempt to distract her, started joking about the situation.
“You know what, Madzie? You can be proud of what happened. I mean, not many warlocks can say they knocked the Head of the Institute out.” Magnus ignored Alec’s eye roll and leaned closer to Madzie, lowering his voice as if the words were only for her to hear. “But don’t tell anyone about it, okay? That’s our little secret.”
Madzie giggled, nodded and all to happily obliged when Magnus held up his hand for a high-five. “Great”, Magnus chuckled, “now go pick a movie we can watch until Catarina picks you up.”
The two of them watched as Madzie jumped off the couch and darted towards the TV, and when Magnus turned around him, Alec just shot him a pointed glare, but apart from that remained silent. If Magnus making fun of him was what it took to make Madzie happy again – who was he to complain about it?
+++
Later, when Madzie was long gone and the two of them were already in bed, Alec’s thoughts drifted back to their little accident from earlier. “Thanks for helping me with the cut”, he said and shifted so he could snuggle up comfortably against Magnus and rest his head on the warlock’s chest.
Magnus’ chest heaved as he huffed out a soft laugh. “You’re very welcome. But I fear you’re still going to have a black eye for a while, my dear. I can heal cuts and broken bones, but injuries that are still developing aren’t that easy to get rid of.”
“Whatever. It’s not like I’m the only injured shadowhunter walking around the Institute.” With that, he cuddled closer to his boyfriend as Magnus turned off the lights with a flick of his wrist. “Besides, all my clothes are black. It will fit just fine”, he mumbled as the steady beat of Magnus’ heartbeat carried him to sleep.
Alec did have a black eye for the next couple of days. He had never really felt like taking advantage of his position as head of the Institute – but if there was one good thing about being boss, then that nobody dared to bat an eye about his injury in front of their superior. Frankly, Alec was pretty glad about that – Jace and Izzy making fun about him getting knocked out by a four-year-old warlock was more than enough anyways.