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“May I have this dance?”
Lydia doesn’t expect Magnus to be the first one to approach her at the wedding. In fact, even though she and Alec are on good terms and he’s the one who invited her, she didn’t really expect anyone to approach her. She knows how it probably looks to most people, her showing up at the wedding of the man who left her at the alter, but it isn’t like that. They aren’t like that.
Magnus knows that, of course. She and Magnus are also on decent terms - they spoke once or twice about business, and once or twice more about personal matters. He came to her after her almost-wedding to make sure there were no hard feelings, and they had a long, honest conversation about what the wedding was and wasn’t, just so he knew she meant it when she told Alec to chase his happiness with Magnus.
Ever since then she’s considered him a friend, though she’s certain he has better people to be spending his time with than her. Actual friends, like some of the warlocks and other Downworlders in attendance, or Alec’s siblings.
“Are you sure?” She asks. “I’m fine on my own.”
“I’m sure you are,” Magnus agrees. “But I think I’d be remiss in not spending time with the gracious woman who made this all possible.”
Lydia shakes her head slightly at that, but he isn’t wrong. She knows Alec well enough to know that if she’d said something, if she made a scene when he tried to go to Magnus, he probably would’ve stayed and they both would’ve been miserable.
“Aren’t you worried about how it’ll look,” Lydia whispers, as the new song begins at a slow pace and Magnus pulls her close to him, swaying back and forth with their small steps.
“It’ll look like I’m dancing with a friend,” Magnus replies easily enough.
Maybe they are actual friends, then.
“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Lydia tells him. “I’m glad you invited me.”
“I’m glad you could make it. I know Alec mentioned you getting held up in Idris…”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Lydia insists. “I know we haven’t had a lot of time to get to know each other very well, but I hope we can in the future. Your reputation may precede you, but I’d love to get to know you, especially with how highly Alec speaks of you.”
Magnus’s smile shifts into a slight smirk at that. “Alexander talks about me often, then?”
Lydia can’t help herself as she lowers her voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Do you want to know the first thing he ever said to me about you, when I mentioned you coming to help at the Institute?”
Magnus doesn’t have to lean in closer for their hushed conversation - one of the benefits of slow dancing, already standing close enough for a bit of privacy among the crowd.
“Absolutely,” Magnus says.
“He said you were, and I quote, ‘Um, quite magical’.” Lydia does her best to inflict the words with Alec’s flustered intonation from what now feels like ages ago, even if it was only a matter of months.
“He didn’t,” Magnus says, trying - and failing - to stifle the bubble of laughter Lydia’s reenactment brings out of him.
“He absolutely did,” Lydia confirms, just as the song comes to an end and the dancers on the floor step apart again.
Magnus gives her a quick hug before excusing himself. “I’m afraid I must go make the rounds. But thank you, Lydia, both for the dance and for the best wedding present I’m sure to receive tonight.”
Lydia is sure the teasing he’s bound to give Alec over this information will be harmless, but that doesn’t stop her from hoping she’s very far away by the time Alec finds out what she divulged.