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Magnus wasn’t joking about stealing Alec a diamond. He could buy one sure, he’s got the funds without question, but there’s a thrill in finding the perfect tough to get ahold of diamond to steal just for his guy.
He’s cut back on the crime even more of late, damn Spider being far too good of a good influence on him. He spends more time actually fighting crime than committing it, but that doesn’t mean he’s gone completely legit.
He still knows where the family jewels are so to speak and he’s always all too aware of when the finest art exhibits roll into town. A cat may be able to clean up a bit, but you can never change its stripes.
So diamond theft is how it has to be. Not just on the principal of maintaining an image or keeping a promise, but because he just thinks it’ll be sweeter that way. Sweet enough to maybe finally get Alec to stop bringing up the time he fake proposed to him just to evade being caught.
It’s been a few months since that night they talked about it, really talked about it not in an abstract way but in a real I want to marry you way. This is where he belongs, where they belong. The Cat and the Spider. Magnus and Alec.
Magnus never thought he’d get married. Never thought he’d even settle down with someone. He steals something and sells it or gets bored with it and donates it. For a long time nothing was permanent, not his belongings not the people he met. His life didn’t beg for stability, his chosen field didn’t beg for open honesty. But here he is thinking about diamonds to steal for his superhero boyfriend who he wants to spend the rest of his life with.
“I’m correct to assume that unless there’s some secret side of you I’m fully unaware of that favors incredibly ostentatious jewels you don’t want a Kardashian sized ring,” Magnus says swiping through some blueprints that hold potential engagement rings within their walls. He fiddles with the spider necklace around his neck and the spiderweb cuff on his ear between swipes.
Alec snorts as he rushes through the living room buttoning up his shirt in a hurry as he tries to make good time to his day job.
“Cat, no one has ever or will ever describe me as ostentatious,” he says as he attempts to slip on his blazer while pouring a cup of coffee and eating a bagel all at the same time. The bagel slips from his grasp webbing catching it before it hits the ground cream cheese side down.
Magnus tosses his iPad on the coffee table and joins Alec in the kitchen pulling the coffee mug that’s dangling on one finger from his hand and taking a sip.
“So a 150-carat ring that’s solid diamond would be too much then?” he asks over the ridge of the mug.
Alec nearly chokes on his bagel. “150, that’s-why? Why does that exist?” he chokes still trying to chew on his bagel. Magnus pats him on the back lightly.
Magnus just shrugs. “People like shiny things.”
Alec just shakes his head grabbing his bag from the rickety little kitchen table. “That’s insane,” he says leaning in to press a kiss to Magnus’ cheek. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“Might be a little late, there’s something I gotta pick up.”
“Pick up? As in dry cleaning or?” Alec says leaving it hanging. Magnus knows what the or means.
“Definitely or,” he says with smile waving at Alec as he heads for the door.
“Be careful. Don’t get arrested,” he says as he opens the door waving back at him.
“I’m gonna avoid being offended and pretend you didn’t imply I could ever get arrested,” he says back and Alec just laughs all the way out the door.
***
Magnus had been kidding about the 150-carat diamond, at least he’d been kidding about giving it to Alec. He’s not ruling out an attempt to steal it later on just for the thrill of it.
But there is a pretty little set of black gold bands encrusted all the way around with nearly three carats of pretty white diamonds that Magnus thinks will look just right on his and Alec’s fingers. The set just happens to be perfectly fit to their size as well.
They also happen to be owned by the young, handsome, semi corrupt new mayor of New York City.
But that part’s just a fun little bonus to the engagement ring buying experience for Magnus.
Magnus walks carefully along the edge of the skylight to the mayor’s penthouse apartment. Below only one light remains on in the whole place a little flickering nightlight that leaks into the main hall.
The rings, Magnus knows thanks to some undercover work as one of the movers when the new mayor moved in and a bit of recon three nights ago while Spider-Man was busy rallying up an escaped from prison Green Goblin, are located in the mayor’s sock drawer. Not exactly high security.
And as a helpful bonus the mayor loves to end his days on a nice cocktail of sleeping pills and straight up vodka, he won’t so much as flinch if Magnus makes a sound.
He leaps off the edge leaning over and picking the windows lock. It creaks quietly as he opens it, but the sounds of the city cover it well. He twists and slips his belt off latching it to the corner and sliding down into the apartment. He follows the tiny light and creeps down the hall not making a sound, the thin silence inducing sheets on the bottom of his heels that he stole from Stark Industries doing their job just right.
The mayor’s bedroom door is cracked open just a smidge and Magnus slowly, carefully slips through it.
The mayor is alone in bed, a lifelong bachelor that if the rumors are true bought the rings as a hopeful dream to one day find himself a match. Magnus usually wouldn’t take that dream from someone; every romantic deserves to be a romantic for as long as they can. But the new mayor also takes bribes from the city’s biggest crime lord and committed 20 percent more of the city’s budget to the police instead of on the ground mutual aid. Those little facts leave Magnus with zero qualms about stealing them.
The chest of drawers sits in the corner third drawer down holding his prize. He drags his sharp nail along the edge of it and slides it open the drawer making a sudden terrible creaking sound. The mayor shifts letting out a loud snore and Magnus freezes until he settles back down burying himself into the comforter.
Magnus releases the breath he’d been holding and finishes sliding open the drawer even more slowly. He picks through a collection of truly hideous looking socks until his nails drag over a little velvet box in the back. He smiles lifting the box up and caressing it. He pops the box open and there the two little beauties sit. He drags a delicate nail over them with a smile imagining just how nice they’ll look on his and Alec’s fingers.
***
He slips out of the mayor’s apartment and leaves it to look like no one had ever even been there with ease. He races home afterwards to find their apartment empty so he crawls his way up the fire escape and waits on the roof tossing the little velvet box back and forth between his hands.
He senses him before he spots him, his own little Spidey sense specifically just for knowing when his Spider is nearby. He rolls onto the roof tumbling before righting himself and stretching out his neck his back to Magnus.
“Good evening, Spider,” Magnus says slipping the velvet box into the pouch at his hip and Alec turns around slowly. There’s a definite smile under that mask.
They’ve met on rooves like this a million times, once as enemies, but quickly as so much more. Magnus stands walking over to Alec slowly swaying his hips just right until they’re practically touching. The heat radiates off of Alec as Magnus reaches out a hand and places it directly on his chest, his heartbeat still running just a little fast from running across the city all night.
“How did ‘or’ go?” Alec asks lifting up his mask about halfway.
Magnus hums a little trailing his fingers back and forth across the spider emblem on Alec’s chest. “Quite successful. The mayor has terrible taste in socks.”
“The mayor? Cat, you robbed the mayor?” Alec says a little incredulously. Magnus likes that he can still throw him for a loop every now and then after all this time.
“Just a little bit,” Magnus says teasingly stepping back from Alec’s warmth just a bit. He trails one single nail down Alec’s chest until he reaches his waistline. Alec’s breath hitches as Magnus pulls his touch away entirely.
“Just a little bit, huh?” he asks swallowing hard once.
Magnus nods pulling the velvet box back out. He can’t see Alec’s eyes but he knows they’ve gone a little wide as Magnus slips to the concrete on one knee.
Alec takes a deep shuddering breath. “I recall this scene playing out once before,” he says with a teasing smile. He’s never gonna let it go.
Magnus rolls his eyes. “Oh hush and get down here,” he says reaching up and grabbing Alec’s hand pulling him down into a mirroring position.
He sits the box down for a moment taking off the long nailed glove on his left hand and reaching out to do the same for Alec.
“I love you,” he says tossing their gloves to the side.
“I love you too,” Alec says on instinct not missing a beat.
Magnus smiles continuing on. “And tonight I slipped into the mayor’s home to steal some rings for us because I love you so much.” He flips open the box and Alec unthinking and uncaring in the moment rips his mask off entirely. He looks at the rings his eyes looking just a little bit glassy. “I know we don’t always see eye to eye. I like to steal; you think stealing’s bad generally. But I don’t mind, I want to keep not seeing eye to eye until we’re old and gray and can’t slip ourselves into these tight suits anymore.”
He takes a collecting breath scooting forward just a bit on his knee right back up in Alec’s space where he loves to be. “So, Spider will you marry me?”
“Promise you’re not about to scratch me and run?” Alec says eyes glassier than before and filled with mirth.
“Oh. My. God. You have to let that go,” Magnus says pulling Alec’s hand towards him. He slips the ring on his finger. He knows his answer.
“Maybe after the honeymoon,” he says with that roguish Spider-Man smile that gets to Magnus every single time. Magnus pushes the box holding the other ring into Alec’s chest and he takes it, slipping the ring out and onto Magnus’ waiting finger. “That’s a yes, by the way.” He adds on running a finger carefully along where the ring now rests on Magnus’.
“It better be a yes, I dug through a man’s hideous sock drawer for this,” Magnus says with a laugh tipping his head forward to rest against Alec’s.
“Spider-Man and Black Cat the superhero wedding of the century,” Alec whispers into the space between them leaning in once to kiss Magnus lightly on the lips.
“Jean Grey and Cyclops can suck it,” Magnus chuckles leaning back in for another kiss, Alec laughing in kind against his lips.
Eventually they pull back from one another laughing too much to properly kiss. Alec tangles their fingers together brining their hands up between them kissing the back of Magnus’ hand lingering just a bit on the rings his eyes locked on Magnus, intense and devoted in a way that still surprises Magnus sometimes.
He looks at the rings briefly before locking back on Alec’s eyes the cities light framing him in lovely reds and blues. They’re not the most expensive thing he’s ever stolen or the hardest steal he’s ever pulled off, but they are the most important, the only ones that will be permanent.