Chapter Text
Simon Lewis sat in a black chair behind the front desk at the animal shelter he worked at. He didn’t necessarily hate the job, he actually loved it, but he didn’t like how he was constantly surrounded by cute animals and couldn’t even play with them. A few new kittens had been brought in the week before, and they were the cutest little things Simon had ever seen. But with the manager out of town, he couldn’t. The person who was temporarily taking his place wouldn’t allow it.
“Simon, get off your phone,” Alec said to him as he entered. Simon rolled his eyes and put it down.
“What is with you today, Alec? You’re acting like someone killed your mom.”
Alec said, “Well I’m sorry it’s rainy and moody today. The weather can tend to mess with people’s moods.”
“Yeah that isn’t it, Lightwood,” Simon smirked, “Is someone just acting desperate?”
“I hate you sometimes. Really.”
As Alec walked out, Simon called to him, “Don’t hate me ‘cause I’m right!”
Alec didn’t reply. Simon just shrugged and picked up his phone. He texted his boyfriend, Raphael Santiago, an all-caps complaint about his job and how Alec was being mean to him. Raphael was being no help over text, so Simon asked for him to stop by. Raphael agreed to do so, then, after about ten minutes, said that he was bringing a friend.
~~~~
“I can’t believe you forgot about coffee,” Magnus Bane complained as they got out of Raphael’s car, “We planned this yesterday, Raph!”
“I know, I know, but Simon means a lot to me. If you were in my position, you would have forgotten about coffee too.”
“Friends before lovers, Raph. Always.”
Magnus and Raphael entered the animal shelter and were immediately greeted by Simon. Well, Raphael was. Simon ran up to the Latino and practically jumped into his arms, kissing him. Magnus rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
Simon and Raphael parted, and the latter said, “Si, you remember Magnus, right?”
“Yeah, of course. Hey man,” Simon shook hands with Magnus, “Okay, you guys have to meet our new kittens. Their names are Honey and Marmalade. They are literally the cutest little bundles of fur to ever live. Come on!” Raphael and Magnus followed Simon into a narrow hallway. Simon used his key to open a door, then froze.
“Wh-where are they? I could have sworn their crates were in this room,” Simon smiled nervously, “I-uh, give me a second. I’m going to see which room they’re in. Our system is honestly so screwed up. Okay, I’ll be back in a jiffy!” Simon pushed past Raphael and Magnus and disappeared into another hallway.
Magnus side-eyed Raphael, “Your boyfriend is an idiot.”
“He is not! He just didn’t know where the kittens were put. No biggy.”
“‘No biggy?’” Magnus groaned, “I was promised cute animals, not an empty shelter with the dumbest caretaker in history.”
“Don’t call him dumb, Mag. If he was dumb, he wouldn’t be at NYU.”
They heard steps coming from the same hallway Simon disappeared into. Expecting the nerd to reappear, Magnus leaned against the wall in expected disappointment. Instead, he was greeted by the most surprising thing.
A tall man with a messy mop of black hair emerged from that hallway. He wore a grey sweater and black jeans. He had a box of what looked like dog toys in his arms. He was headed right for them.
The man stopped when he saw them. His eyes locked with Magnus’. Neither of the men were able to say even a syllable. The tall man was amazingly hot. Magnus bit his lip waved a little, “H-hi…”
The man nodded slowly, then remembered he was doing. He pushed past Magnus and Raphael and continued down the hallway.
“Uh...bye…” Magnus said under his breath. Raphael smirked. Simon then ran up to them.
“Okay, so they’re in this one. Sorry about that inconvenience.” Simon walked back towards the front and took them into a room they had already passed. There were animals in this room, including the two kittens Simon had talked about. The three of them played with the kittens for about half and hour, but Magnus could not get his mind off of the handsome man whom he had ran into earlier. Little did he know, Alec was thinking about him, too.