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“I am afraid you called me for nothing,” Magnus said, strolling out of the room and taking his son from Robert’s arms, who looked rather disappointed giving away his favorite grandson. Left behind sat a dark-haired boy of 3 or 4 years, kneeling on a bed and looking out the window above. He was picking absentmindedly on the trousers which were a bit too loose to fit him properly.
“Where did you find him?”
Robert considered Magnus for a moment. “I can’t tell you just yet. But he has been in this state ever since we brought him here. Doesn’t speak, doesn’t react on anything.”
“Parents?”
The shaking of a head.
“Poor baby.”
Max started to fuss. Ever since he learned to crawl, the prospect of going on and discovering the world was obviously much more appealing than hours of being carried around. Magnus was a tiny bit sad about it. He loved to snuggle. With an exasperated sigh he sat him down, then turning to his sort-of-father-in-law.
“He has a trauma, but from what I can tell no magic was involved. I wouldn’t recommend to prod his tiny soul with magic without really knowing what you are dealing with.”
“So what should we do?”
“You ask me for advice? I am over 400 years old and just started to change diapers properly on a regular basis. You on the other hand raised some wonderful kids. Well, more or less considering Jace’s self-righteousness and Alec, whose greatness and sexiness is off the charts. Obviously.”
Robert rolled his eyes. They were interrupted by heavy steps, Alec and Clary turning up to join them.
“Magnus, what are you doing here? Everything okay with Max?”
“Everything is fine, Alexander. The Institute just needed me for an expertise. And Max is…,” he trailed off when he worryingly looked for his son on the floor.
“Seems he made his first friend,” Clary remarked and pointed to the room behind them.
The brown-curled boy now sat on the bed, dangling his feet. Max crawled to him on his stubby legs, occasionally interrupting his motions for sucking on his tiny fist and looking at the boy curiously. Before anybody else came into action, Alec moved quiet and easily into the room, crouching down next to his son.
“Hey, Blueberry, did you make a friend in here? Maybe we should introduce ourselves first before you start drooling all over him. That’s the polite way, you know.”
The boy didn’t react and Alec just sat there for a moment smiling and watching his son who now realized his Dad had appeared out of nowhere and changed direction while starting to blabber. From the corner of his eyes he regarded the quiet boy. When Max crawled into his lap trying to grab the zipper of his sweater the oldest Lightwood turned.
“My name is Alec and this is my son Max.” Behind him Magnus just melted a bit by hearing the subconscious proudness in his voice. “You wanna say ‘Hi’ to him?”
Magnus knew Alec. He knew his weaknesses and his strengths and he loved every bit of them, because they formed the man he loved. Talking definitely wasn’t on the positive side of the list. That was a lesson he had learned painfully in the early stages of their relationship more than one time. But apparently that didn’t apply to kids. In fact, not at all. For God’s sake, honestly, Magnus thought, is he the child whisperer?
With shock he saw the little dark head nod after several undecided seconds. Once. Twice.
He could hear the warm smile in Alec’s voice. “Good. Because I really think he loved you from the first moment he laid eyes on you.”
The boy looked back at him with huge questioning eyes before a small smile tugged at his lips and he tentatively reached out his hand.