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Magnus was awake.
Magnus was fairly certain he was not supposed to be awake.
Daring to peek one eye open, the warlock saw that the world was still fast asleep, shrouded in pitch black night.
So literally even “the city that never sleeps” was asleep.
Scratch that, Magnus was positive he was not supposed to be awake.
Someone better be prepared to die.
The warlock turned onto his side to see if his world was still asleep and found that the Shadowhunter wasn't there at all.
That's when the warlock heard the ruckus that must have awoken him in the first place, seemingly coming from within the room.
“Alec?” Magnus sleepily called out, his tired eyes squinting into the blackness of the room, willing them to see. “What are you doing? Where are you?”
“I'm in the closet,” the Shadowhunter distractedly replied, his hunt continuing. The safest hunt of his life, no doubt.
“I thought you came out of the closet years ago?” the warlock hummed, unable to suppress a grin even in this tired state. “Your mother will certainly be shocked when she learns we haven't just been roommates this whole time.”
Surrendering sleep for the moment, Magnus forced himself up onto his elbow and turned his disarming grin and two tired eyes in the direction of the closet.
It was in this position that he could now see Alec rifling through the closet, boxer-clad ass in the air like its own sunrise. And damn, it was a glorious one. Magnus finally understood why people stayed up all night to see those things.
Looking past that glorious ass, Magnus could see an expanse of ivory skin, the muscles tightening and releasing in an intimate dance as the Shadowhunter continued his search.
Allowing his eyes to continue a search of their own, Magnus could see a mess of black hair atop the other man’s head. And he did mean a mess. It was as if the black mass really was the raven it was always described as, wings spread and ready to take flight.
He looked wild, untamed. Magnus had rarely ever seen Alec so uncontrolled like this, so manic. And that was saying a lot since Alec had spent almost every day of the last 7 years with Jace and managed to keep his sanity. Maybe this was finally the breaking point.
Magnus made a mental note to hex Jace tomorrow.
But before he could settle on which hex - he was inclined to make Jace’s head as fat as it seemed, but there were many other enticing options to consider - Alec’s hunt must have been victorious, for he sprung up from the ground like a sexy gopher and turned around.
Magnus automatically rose too at the sudden motion, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, ready to be wherever his Shadowhunter needed him.
But apparently his Shadowhunter needed him right where he was, for before Magnus could move another inch, Alec suddenly materialized before him.
Magnus gasped at the sight of him.
His front looked even wilder than his back. If both of Alec’s eyes hadn’t still been his favorite shade of blue, Magnus might have thought he was a member of the wild hunt, his hair looking positively windswept, his bare skin telling the story of battles past like a book in braille, just waiting to be touched. His entire body painfully beautiful like Magnus once thought only a faerie’s could be.
As if Alec had caught sight of his disarrayed appearance in the warlock’s un-glamoured eyes, looking as if he had just lost a battle with a dragon demon, he took a deep, steadying breath before dropping to his knees, as if in worship of the man before him.
Magnus found himself surprisingly okay with this turn of events. So okay, in fact, that if the good surprises continued he might not even hex Blondie...Or maybe he would just turn him into a rat for a few hours...Damn that was always hilarious...
But all further thoughts of rats and hexes would have to wait, for they were immediately forgotten when two sky blue eyes locked onto two golden suns, gaze unwavering, as if the radiance they beheld were far worth the risk of going blind.
Familiar fingers rubbed soothing patterns into the warlock’s thighs before wrapping around them, fingers playfully tickling the underside. Eyes still locked, the Shadowhunter began to draw the shimmering man towards him. And, as if the Shadowhunter’s pull was as strong and irresistible as gravity itself, Magnus happily let himself be reeled in.
It wasn’t until Magnus’s center was firmly pressed against the Shadowhunter’s chest, his strong, warm thighs encasing the other man’s torso, that Alec broke the silence, albeit seemingly accidentally.
“I love you,” the Shadowhunter burst out, almost surprised at himself, as if he hadn’t meant to say the words out loud but not even his angelic body could contain them.
“Is that what all this chaos is about?” the warlock questioned, a small grin overtaking his lips, his hand coming up to tangle through raven locks before circling to caress an ivory cheek. “Because I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t the first time you’ve told me that.” Magnus’s smile grew before Alec’s very eyes, intoxicating as ever, and he ached to touch it or cover it with his own. But he knew he needed to get through these words first.
By the Angel, why was adulting so hard?
“No, that’s not it,” the Shadowhunter replied, his adam’s apple bobbing as he nervously gulped, but a grin creeping upon his own lips nonetheless. “Let me try again.”
He took a steadying breathe, one of many that night, and scrunched his eyes shut. Only when he felt a second palm caress his face and two gentle fingers ghost across his cheekbones did he dare open his eyes again.
And there was Magnus, smiling gently at him, nodding his head in encouragement.
And by the Angel, Alec couldn’t think of anything more encouraging in his entire life. So he began.
“Magnus...For a long time, I didn’t even let myself have all of me. From the moment I realized who I really was, I worked to eradicate parts of myself like they were demons, like they were something to be feared and battled. And I did battle them. For years. And then one day I didn’t. Because one day they led me to you...Okay, well it took a little more than a day for me to stop fearing those parts of myself, but work with me here,” the Shadowhunter relented, allowing himself a moment to chuckle.
“But I really did stop fearing those parts of myself because I realized that any part of me that is lucky enough to love and be loved by someone as kind and brave and magical as you...well surely those must be the very best parts of me, right? And Magnus...that’s every part of me that loves you. Every cell, every fiber of my being. And even though I spent so long forbidding myself to have all of me...I want YOU to have all of me. You already have my heart. You have my body...And, if you want it...You have my name.”
With that, Alec released one of his warlock’s thighs and maneuvered a dangling glint of metal from where it had been concealed in his curled pinky finger, easing it off with his thumb before grasping it securely between his thumb and forefinger. He held it up to the warlock in offering, and in the shining streetlights of the world Magnus had forgotten, any world beyond this room, he could see the item for what it was: a Lightwood family ring matching Alec’s own, the flames of the Lightwood crest feeling as if they were setting his hammering heart alight.
The Shadowhunter continued.
“I will not live an eternal life. By the Angel, I might not even live a long mortal life. But however long I have, I want to spend every moment of it with you. So, Magnus Bane...Will you marry me?”
Magnus slid to his knees from the bed like jello, as if his bones ceased to exist. Which was odd since he was fairly certain he hadn’t performed that spell.
Alec may not be a warlock, but damn the things that Shadowhunter could do to him were magical.
“Yes,” Magnus breathed from his position in front of the Shadowhunter, as if that was just how his body exhaled.
It was the most beautiful sound Alec had ever heard.
“Yes. Yes yes yes! A million times yes!”
And suddenly Magnus was thankful his limbs had decided to turn to jello because it meant they could wrap around the Shadowhunter with abandon. He could feel joyous laughter rippling through the other man, as thunderous as his own heartbeat, hear their teeth clinking together where their wide smiles refused to shrink for a proper kiss. The warlock only relinquished his grip on the other man when he felt the cold tingle of the ring where it now pressed into his hip, still in the Shadowhunter’s capable hand.
Pulling back, Magnus could see a goofy, awe-struck smile that no doubt matched his own. Somehow, the smile managed to grow even goofier and, amazingly, more brilliant, as Magnus raised his hand in the small space between them. Alec raised his own hand in response and, looking directly into those twin suns once more, slid the ring onto the warlock’s polished finger.
The warlock’s deft fingers, usually gleaming with rings, had been bare from sleep. Gazing at them now, bare except for the shining expanse of his ring finger, Magnus thought he had never witnessed something so beautiful.
Over his long lifetime, he had come to love the blue flames that erupted from his palms.
He thought he might be coming to love silver flames even more.
“Why now?” the warlock asked in genuine curiosity, his fingers dancing across the raised metal L as his loving gaze returned to the man in front of him, seeing the same look reflected right back. “What made now the time to ask?”
Alec blushed, that beautiful, deep red surrounding him as if he were laying in a field of roses.
“You reached for me in your sleep,” he recounted at last, softly as a lullaby. “I mean, you always do, but you pulled me against you and you hummed against my chest and I just...I couldn’t imagine a future where it wouldn’t always be like this, tangled up in you, inside and out, totally and completely. Like a future without you wasn’t even a possibility, isn’t a possibility, can never be a possibility.”
Magnus’s life hadn’t always been like this, so warm and bright and right. But when he was being looked at by this boy with so much love, warmed by his body and the bright radiance of his words, for the life of him he couldn’t remember a time of darkness.
“You know,” the warlock thought aloud, his voice barely more than a whisper, “In my 400 years, no one has ever wanted to marry me before.”
“Well that makes sense,” the Shadowhunter smiled, pulling the warlock tighter against him. “Because no one in the history of the world has ever wanted anything as much as I want you.”
My God this boy was going to be the death of him.
Alec leaned towards the magical man and for the love of God all Magnus wanted was to be kissed senseless by him, but his mouth seemed to have other ideas.
“How did I not find that in the closet?” Magnus’s lips questioned of their own accord right as the Shadowhunter’s were about to consume them.
Alec pulled back with an amused laugh, ever-present smile widening.
“I hid it in the breast pocket of one of the jackets you've already worn this season,” the Shadowhunter revealed through a conspiratorial grin. “I knew you wouldn't wear it again, but you also wouldn't donate it until the end of the season when you restock.”
Humble brilliance was a turn on and it was certainly working, but there was one more question to be answered before the warlock could give in.
“Wait, if the ring was in my hung up coat, then why was your ass in the air?” Magnus questioned, his brows adorably scrunched in confusion.
“You don’t like my ass in the air?” the Shadowhunter taunted back, his devilish grin surely illegal on such an angelic being.
“Darling, I love your ass in the air. I vehemently think you should take up yoga and exclusively perform the downward dog pose. I’m just wondering why you were maniacally burrowing into the closet floor if the ring was hung up.”
The devilish grin remained in place, but a sheepish blush now surrounded it. “Well I got it out of your jacket pocket,” the Shadowhunter began, “But I was shaking so much it dropped right out of my fingers and rolled across the floor. I’ve battled Greater Demons, Forsakens, Endarkened Ones...Who knew I would need an agility rune to retrieve a ring?” Alec now chuckled to himself. “A courage in combat rune probably wouldn’t have hurt either.”
Magnus laughed a glorious melody before calming to a hum. “Have I ever told you you're a brilliant man, Alec Lightwood?” the warlock purred. “And sexy? No, I've most certainly told you the latter, let's stick with brilliant.”
“I'm happy to be both,” the Shadowhunter breathed against him.
The two men pressed impossibly closer against each other as if it were a reflex, as if the red string of fate was tightening around them, securing them where they were always meant to be.
Their bodies were flush against each other, their hearts beating together, their lungs consuming the same air. Their eyes met, alight like the flames of the Lightwood crest, ready to set each other ablaze. Alec might have thought he were dying if he didn’t always feel like this around Magnus.
And just as the only distance left between them, the valley between their lips, wide enough only for their breathes to find release, began to fade into oblivion, a voice rang out into the silence.
“Alec?” the warlock breathed, tauntingly frozen where his lips ghosted against the other man’s.
“Yeah?” the Shadowhunter replied in a dazed voice, gently nuzzling his love’s soft nose and inviting lips with his own, as if unable to contain himself.
Magnus must have been unable to contain himself too because Alec could practically hear the purr in his warlock’s voice before his reply even began.
“I'm really glad you came out of the closet for this.”
And with that final remark, the distance between their lips definitively ended and a glorious new chapter in their lives began.