Chapter Text
A soft creaky noise from the other side of the room is what pulls Magnus out of his slumber. He sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes, holding his breath to listen.
Silence.
He blinks a few times, eyes darting around the bedroom, adjusting to the darkness. The dim glow of the moon is just bright enough for Magnus to look around without having to turn on the bedside lamp. He sees nothing out of the ordinary. And Magnus doesn’t believe in ghosts, so there's no reason to be scared either. Must’ve been the wind, then. The weather’s been getting steadily worse these past few days, windier and rainier, the temperatures dropping. Winter is coming, fast.
While the transition from autumn to winter is always quite nasty, Magnus is really looking forward to the cold season. Hopefully there’ll be snow this year. Last year there was very little, and Magnus' snowman was tiny and gone in a matter of days. This year, it's looking really good, though. It's already freezing cold outside, and it's not even December yet! If they're lucky, it might even snow before January.
That’s what Magnus hopes, anyway. Right now, it's still all grey and rainy and windy, and it's making the house make funny noises at night.
Magnus burrows deeper under the blankets to escape the chill of the room, when there's another noise from the direction of the window. A rattling, then a tapping. The sound is loud in the otherwise quiet room. He jerks upright again, scooting back until he's pressed against the headboard of his bed. That was definitely not the wind, nor the rain that’s starting to fall.
Magnus' grip on his little stuffed turtle tightens, pulling it closer to his chest. “It's alright Mr Pebbles, you don’t have to be scared. I’ll protect you.” For all that he's acting brave, Magnus doesn’t feel very brave at this moment. Actually, he might be feeling a little scared, too, but he won't admit that out loud. If you show fear, you might lose the upper hand. That’s what his dad always says. Magnus never really understood what exactly he means, because showing how you feel isn’t a bad thing? But now it might be useful. If he doesn’t show that he's afraid, maybe whatever is at his window will go away.
Seconds tick by agonizingly slow. Magnus is holding his breath again, but the only thing he can hear is the wind howling and raindrops tapping against the window in a faster rhythm. Maybe he did imagine it, after all?
His room is on the first floor, so there shouldn’t be anything, right? But on the other hand, there is a little porch roof under his window. What if someone is trying to break in? Should he call for help? Or stay quiet? What are the chances that his dad will hear him? His room is on the ground floor, on the opposite side of the house. Magnus could make a run for it. His window is still closed, and locked, so he still has a chance.
Very slowly he scoots to the end of the bed closest to the door, Mr Pebbles secure in his arms. Another deep breath, then he slowly shuffles one foot forward, shuddering when his toes touch the cold floor. He's about to finally stand up when there's another, louder noise from the window. It's unmistakably a knock. Someone is knocking on his window.
Magnus freezes, wide eyes darting to said window. From his new position he has a better angle to see outside. There's a dark blob, right outside his window. And it's moving.
Another knock.
All hopes that it might have been a lost squirrel late for hibernation vanish instantly, because whatever it is, it's way too big to be an animal. And now Magnus is too afraid to move. The door is in the middle of the room, right between his bed and the window. If he moves closer, whoever is out there will definitely see him! But if he stays there, what then? It won't matter what he does if they want to get inside. What is he supposed to do to stop them? He's only ten!
Magnus swallows hard, blinking a few times to get rid of the tears gathering in his eyes when there's another knock, this time a little more frantic. He's a brave boy, he won't cry now. If he runs now, his dad will make them go away and everything will be fine.
… Come to think of it, if they want to break in, why haven't they already? And why would they knock first? Magnus might not know that much about breaking into someone’s home, but he's watched enough news to know burglars don’t usually knock first?
You're a brave boy, you're a brave boy, you're a brave boy. Magnus repeats the phrase a few times in his head and makes a decision. One peek. He’ll take one peek, and then he can run. If his dad knows what he has to fight, he can be better prepared to protect them, right? Definitely. It’ll be fine.
Magnus takes a deep breath and holds it, taking a tiny step forward in slow motion. Then another. Then another. He's almost at the door, which means he has a clear view out the window now. Biting his lips, death grip on Mr Pebbles, Magnus turns his head.
There's definitely, 100% someone outside! Magnus gasps and immediately slaps his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound. His heart is racing, his feet frozen on the spot.
The dark blob isn’t moving. Magnus stares. Why isn’t it moving anymore? It's so weird. He stares some more. Now that he has a better view, the blob is actually a lot smaller than what it looked like from his bed. Probably because of the shadows from the moon.
He squints, trying to get a better look. If that’s a person out there, it's not very big. Without realizing it, Magnus takes a step closer, heart hammering inside his chest. He needs to check. The closer he gets, the smaller the shadow gets, until it's no taller than himself.
A step further, the outline of a body becomes clearer in the glow of the moon that’s slowly hidden behind rain clouds. Another step, and black hair becomes visible. One more step, and…
“Alec!”
Magnus dashes forward, all fear forgotten in his hurry to rip open the window. Cold air assault him, mixed with icy droplets of rain. Magnus starts shivering immediately, the drop in temperature nothing compared to the cozy warmth of his bed. He doesn’t care.
He quickly sets his turtle aside to fully open the window, staring with wide eyes at his friend slumped on the roof, curled up to protect himself from the cold.
“Alec?!” Magnus yelps, his voice higher than usual. He makes quick work of pulling his friend inside – as quick as a ten-year old can when he can barely reach over the windowsill and closes the window to stop the cold from coming inside.
Alec's wet and shivering, and Magnus is not sure what to do. He could still call for his dad. But maybe he would be mad? Even though he's not usually the type to get mad, Magnus can't imagine he'd be happy to be woken up because Magnus' friend came by through the window.
Magnus shakes himself out of his thoughts to focus on the task at hand. They’ve learned in school that when someone’s really cold, you need to warm them up. And that wet clothes are bad, because they make you even colder. Magnus' been paying attention! He knows what to do.
With newfound determination he kneels next to Alec, who’s looking up at him with big eyes.
“Y-you're freezing! Why are you outside? You could’ve died!” Magnus' voice cracks, adrenaline still racing through his body.
“’M’ sorry I scared you. Didn’t mean to. But didn’t know what else to do.”
“But- but you could’ve knocked on the door! Or…. Something. That’s so dangerous!” Magnus' hands hover over Alec's shoulders, like he wants to shake him and hug him at the same time.
“M’ sorry.”
Alec sounds so sad it breaks Magnus' heart, even though he doesn’t even know what happened.
Alec is his neighbour, and they're in the same class at school. And he's also Magnus' bestest friend in the whole world. They’ve known each other forever and Magnus knows that they will always be friends. Nothing will ever come between them. Alec is also the one who gifted him Mr Pebbles, the turtle plushie. Magnus' dad took them both to a funfair, where Alec won it in a shooting game. He's really good with bows and arrows. And instead of keeping it for himself, he gave it to Magnus as a birthday present, saying that his name is Mr Pebbles and he will protect Magnus when Alec can't be there. Magnus may or may not have cried that day.
And Magnus promised to protect Alec too, so that’s what he has to do now!
“It's okay. I’m not angry, I promise. But why were you on the roof? It's so cold outside!” Magnus reaches out and pokes Alec's fingers, horrified at how icy they feel.
He rushes over to turn on the bedside lamp, then dashes to his wardrobe. Alec's already a bit taller than him, but not that much. His own clothes should fit him well enough. He rummages through the shelves until he finds the most comfortable pair of pyjamas he owns, pulling them out and ignoring the way he's messing up the folded clothes on top. He’ll fix it tomorrow. On second thought he also grabs the thickest pair of socks he can find, then hurries back to his friend, who has an almost sheepish look on his face.
“Sorry. Your dad would’ve totally sent me back home if I had rung the doorbell, right?”
Well… he's not wrong about that.
“… and I really wanted to see you.”
Oh. Magnus feels his cheeks warm up a little, so he busies himself with helping Alec get changed. Without thinking too much about it he grabs Alec's hand and pulls him toward his bed. It's big enough for them both, and Alec needs to warm up.
In no time at all they're both buried under the blankets, sitting side by side against the headboard. Now that the danger is gone, Magnus has a second to think.
His heart has luckily stopped racing, the fear replaced by relief that there's not actually someone trying to break in. But what is Alec doing outside this late? Magnus squints at the clock on the wall. It's almost midnight. That's way past their bedtime! Something must’ve happened.
He shuffles around until they can face each other. Alec still looks a little sad. Magnus doesn’t like it one bit.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
Alec seems to think about that a moment, then he softly shakes his head and his eyes fill with tears. Magnus' own eyes widen and he rreaches out to pat Alec's cheek. He's seen people do that in movies when someone is sad, so maybe it’ll help his friend too.
Alec sniffs and rubs his eyes with his small fists, then looks back at Magnus. “My dad is mad again. And mom too. I heard them yelling in the living room.”
“Oh,” Magnus hums in understanding. Alec has told him before that his parents fight a lot. Magnus has even heard them once himself, while he was playing outside and the window in the kitchen of the Lightwoods was open. Maryse was yelling something about a “credit card bill”, and Robert was telling her she was overreacting. Alec was there too, and it's the only time Magnus has seen him cry, even if only through a window. But his mom started yelling at him too, that “boys don’t cry”. Which Magnus still finds really stupid. If he wants to cry, he’ll cry. It's not like he can just make all the bad feelings go away. He will never tell Alec that though, because he doesn’t want to make his friend feel bad.
Alec's parents are also very strict. He has to always go to bed on time, is not allowed to watch TV before all his homework is done, and they don’t even let him come over on school nights! Magnus' dad was at least able to help with that last one. He somehow convinced them that letting Alec play outside with Magnus sometimes would actually help him be better at school. Magnus doesn’t really understand how that’s supposed to work, but that doesn’t matter. All that’s important is that they're allowed to play more often than before! Though sometimes Alec's mom suddenly comes over to call him back inside, which is so not cool. She says no a lot. Even for really dumb things! Once, she made Alec go home because his shirt had ketchup on it. Alec doesn’t even like ketchup that much, and it was Magnus' fault anyway. But she said he had to ‘look respectable’. Magnus is still not sure what that means, but he guesses it's grown-up speech for something stupid.
All in all, Magnus doesn’t like Alec's parents too much. He won't tell Alec that either, because that’s just mean and would make him sad. But he doesn’t.
Sometimes he wonders if his own parents would also fight so much if his mom were still here. Magnus dismisses that thought quickly. Asmodeus has never once raised his voice, even when Magnus did some really dumb stuff. Like putting a fork in the microwave because he wanted to see if it would really spark like in cartoons (yes, but it's a lot more stinky than they said!). Or that time he tried to make a ‘real’ potion in the bathtub, with toothpaste, soda, and all kinds of shampoos and food colouring. Some of the tiles are still a little green-ish, but his dad didn’t get angry. He did make Magnus clean everything up though, which took sooo long (the mop he used was beyond salvation after that). But that’s okay. The cleaning wasn’t fun, but since then his dad has joked a lot about Magnus' minty alchemy disaster, and Magnus loves making his dad laugh, so it's a win. Now that he's a lot older and way smarter, he wouldn’t ever try that again obviously.
“They were yelling so loud I heard them in my bedroom,” Alec mumbles, sniffing again. “They made me wake up. And I couldn’t fall back asleep.” He briefly blinks up at Magnus, then looks back down to where he's fiddling with the blanket. “Sorry I made you wake up too.”
Magnus shakes his head so quickly he almost gets dizzy. “It's okay! I’m … happy you came here. But won't your parents be mad if you’re not in your bed?”
Alec shakes his head sadly. “They don’t really check after they sent me to bed. Does you dad do that?”
Magnus nods. His dad always checks in at least once, just before he goes to bed himself. Well, Magnus thinks that he does. He can't say for sure when he's asleep, of course. But sometimes he's still awake, or not fully asleep, and he hears Asmodeus coming in to check on him. And he always says ‘Love you, Buddy’ before he closes the door again.
Which reminds him, did Asmodeus already come in tonight? Magnus isn’t sure, because he was asleep for a while. Does that mean he has to hide Alec now?
Belatedly, he also realizes what he said earlier. He didn’t ask if Alec's parents would be worried, he asked if they’d be mad. Alec didn’t correct him either. It makes Magnus sad a lot. But his own dad is great, and he doesn’t mind sharing him with Alec! Maybe not tonight, though. Alec will just have to hide under the blanked in case he comes to check. It's dark enough in the room that he won't notice.
It's a good plan. Alec can sleep here tonight, and he doesn’t have to hear anybody yelling.
There's only one flaw. Alec's parents will notice for sure that he's gone in the morning, won't they?
Magnus frowns, thinking hard.
“I… I can leave again…”
Alec's unsure voice jerks him out of his thoughts. His friend must’ve misunderstood his silence. Magnus quickly shakes his head again and wraps his arms around Alec. They're just long enough to touch in the back, pressing Alec close.
The other boy hesitates for a second, but then his own arms come around Magnus' back to make it a real hug. It feels really nice, warm and very comfy.
And it gives him an idea!
“Do you know when your parents normally get up?”
Alec pulls back a little and cutely scrunches his nose in thought. Then, to Magnus' disappointment, he slowly shakes his head. “I’m not sure? My dad is often already gone when I get up, because he has to go to work early. Mom sleeps a little longer. Sometimes she only gets up when I get up too to go to school. And when I don’t go to school she sleeps even longer. Which is cool, because then I can sleep longer too.” He adds the last sentence with a little grin that makes Magnus laugh.
And tomorrow is Saturday. Which means Maryse will sleep in. That’s good news.
“Does your dad work on weekends too?”
“Not always. But I think… he's working tomorrow too!” There's excitement in Alec's voice now, when he catches on to what Magnus is trying to say. “So he's at work already, and mom is still sleeping! I can stay here tonight and go back before she wakes up!”
Magnus nods excitedly, slightly bouncing up and down. A real sleepover! And Alec won't have to leave until the morning! And no school tomorrow either! This is so exciting!
Magnus scrambles out of the bed, ignoring the chill when the cold floor makes his toes feel frosty again. There's so much they can do on a real sleepover! So many things because they have so much time! They just have to be quiet, so Magnus' dad won't hear them.
As silently as possible he starts rummaging around his drawers. He has so many games to play, what should he choose first? His eyes stay on Make ‘N’ Break longingly for a few seconds, but building structures with wooden blocks and smashing them might be a little too loud. Most of the games he has in his bedroom are too noisy, unfortunately, so he grabs a flashlight. They’ll need to turn off the light anyways, otherwise his dad might see it from under the door if he comes to check in. It’ll do for now.
He quickly jumps back into bed, crawling under the blanket until his head pops out next to Alec, who immediately starts giggling.
After some wiggling around they manage to make themselves comfortable leaning against the headboard, the room only illuminated by the flashlight. It's then that Alec's gaze catches the stuffed animal that has once again found its way into the bed. “Mr Pebbles!” Alec calls excitedly, then immediately slaps a hand over his mouth with a wince and a wary look towards the door. Much quieter but no less excited he continues, “You still have him!”
Why Alec would think Magnus could ever get rid of his favourite present is beyond him, but he still nods and cuddles the stuffed turtle close to his chest. “Of course! I love him!”
It's quite dark in the room, but Magnus is sure Alec's ears are turning a little pink.
They decide to play some shadow games first. Magnus starts, trying to form an animal while Alec holds the flashlight. Only a few seconds into his first try Alec shudders next to him, the light moving with him. “Ewww, a spider. Why would you make a spider?”
“Because I can,” is Magnus' logical answer while he sticks his tongue out. They both laugh. They take turns forming animals, some more recognizable than others, but they always guess correctly. Until…
“What's that supposed to be, Alec?” Magnus squints, trying to make sense of the shapes projected against the wall.
Alec pouts. “Hey, it's really easy!”
“It looks like a dinosaur!”
Alec blinks. “… How does that look like a dinosaur?! Is a dog! A really obvious dog!”
Magnus drops the flashlight to hide his face in the pillow, muffling his laughter. “That’s not a dog! It's definitely a dino!”
Alec makes an indignant noise and promptly jumps onto Magnus' back in retaliation, causing the smaller boy to let out an ooof when the air is pressed out of his lungs. Magnus tries to throw him off, but Alec sticks to him like an octopus, all the while giggling smugly. The laughter quickly turns into exasperation when Magnus manages to steal his sock instead. “Magnus!” he whisper-yells indignantly.
Alec's about to make a grab for Magnus' own sock, when they hear footsteps down the hall. Footsteps that are getting louder. They freeze, staring at each other with wide eyes. “It's my dad!”
It's clear now that Asmodeus has not gone to bed yet. Alec needs to hide! Now!
Magnus pushes a still stunned Alec off and next to himself, on the side farther away from the door. His hands frantically dig through the blankets. Where’s the stupid flashlight?! Their little scuffle has buried it somewhere in the mess of blankets, hidden, but not hidden enough for the light to not be visible. It takes him a horrifyingly long second to find it and turn it off, plunging the room in darkness. They're running out of time! A wooden floorboard outside his room makes a soft noise when Asmodeus steps on it, telling Magnus that his dad is only a few steps away from the door. Magnus knows to avoid that step when he sneaks down to the kitchen to steal a cookie, because it's always so loud. He holds his breath, afraid to make too much noise now.
For lack of a better idea, Magnus grabs the blanket and throws it over both of them, pulling Alec close and wrapping himself around him. Now they can only hope it looks like Magnus is hugging one of his pillows instead of his best friend. Under the blanket Alec dutifully tries to make himself as small as possible, pressing his face into Magnus' shoulder, both of them trying hard not to breathe too loud.
The door opens with a soft sound, dim light spilling into the room. With Magnus' back to the door he can't see what his dad is doing. His heart is thundering in his chest while he's trying to breathe as slowly as possible to make it look like he's asleep. He silently counts the beats in his head: one, two, three, please go away, four–
Seconds tick by that feel like hours, and Magnus is convinced their great plan will end right here. But then the door creaks again and a soft “Love you, buddy” is the last thing they hear before it clicks shut again. Then retreating footsteps. Then silence.
They stay like that for another minute, hearts beating fast, adrenaline fading.
“Is he gone?”
Magnus can barely hear Alec's muffled whisper from where he's squished under the blankets, but he takes it as his cue to lift the blankets and let the other out, nodding. “Yeah.”
They share a look. “We did it!”
And just like that, nerves are replaced by excited energy again. “Yes, we did it!” Now there's nothing coming between their first real sleepover anymore!
They jump between different games, and they draw something (Alec is really bad at drawing, but that’s okay). They even play a round of Uno but realise very soon that they're both too competitive to keep the volume down enough to not be heard. So, Magnus puts the cards aside and crawls back into bed, where Alec's already sprawled out on his back. He plops down next to him, doing an equally impressive impression of a starfish.
Alec pokes Magnus' arm once, just because he can. “Would you rather have yellow hair or green hair?”
“Huh?” Magnus cranks his head enough to squint at Alec, who's grinning back at him.
“Which one? Yellow or green?
“Pink.”
Alec scrunches his nose. “That’s not an option!”
“Then blue.”
“Magnus!”
Alec throws him another mock-angry look that actually looks more like a pout, then crosses his arms. “Fine. Your turn.”
“Oh? Okay. Uhm… would you rather eat only ice cream forever or never eat ice cream ever again?”
Alec huffs. “That’s soooo easy. Eat only ice cream, of course!”
“You’d totally get a tummy ache.”
“Worth it. My turn. Would you rather be able to talk to animals or be invisible?”
It's Magnus' turn to huff. “Easy. Talk to animals! I’d ask all the cats what they want!”
A laugh. “They’ll probably all say, ‘feed me’.”
“Good. I’d give them cake.” Magnus nods proudly.
“Cats can't eat cake!”
“What? Why not?”
Alec shrugs, scratching his nose. “Not sure. But mom said it's not good for them.”
“Hm. Well, mine can. It's magic cake!”
“A magic cake? Where would you even get that from? I don’t think a bakery sells that.”
In mock offense, Magnus jumps up onto his knees. “Don’t you know I have magic?! How dare you insult me, the great warlock.”
Laughter echoes through the room, only muffled when Magnus quickly puts his hand over Alec's mouth with a shhh, while trying not to laugh himself. Alec clears his throat and nods, pushing the hand away. He's quick to play along.
“Oh, great warlock, forgive me,” he intonates with a deeper voice than usual, another giggle almost ruining the effect. “But I think you need to show me this magic. I’m not a …” Alec squints, clearly trying to find the right word. “… believer!”
“Then let me prove it!” Magnus wiggles out of the blanket to fully sit up, tapping around him until he finds the flashlight he dropped earlier, turning it on to look around. What could make him look magical? He has some make-up, but that’s too much effort right now. A magic staff would work, except he doesn’t have one. A wizard hat might be cool too. He also doesn’t have one. Due to a lack of any better ideas, he grabs the sock he stole from Alec earlier, putting it on his hand like a puppet.
“Behold, I can tell you the future!” He lets his sock-covered hand hover above Alec, acting as if it's doing a fortune teller reading. It's almost like in that strange tv show he's seen his dad watch once, where some lady said she was predicting the future for whoever calls. His dad said she’s a liar, though, and only trying to get people’s money. Maybe he should charge Alec for this?
“I predict…” Magnus ominously lowers his voice, shining the flashlight at the sock in a way it throws the biggest shadow, “that you will marry a donut.”
Alec throws his head back, laughing so hard he has to hold his stomach. “What? Why would I marry a donut? I think your sock is broken!”
Magnus can barely hold back his own laughter, but he has one more prophesy to announce. “There's more! I sense… danger!” Yes, his dad may or may not have finally let him watch a Star Wars movie. Everybody has seen them at school already!
“Ooooh nooo, daaaanger!” Alec tries (and fails) to sound serious between giggles. “What kind of danger?”
Magnus thinks about it for a second. Good question. He hadn’t thought ahead that far. It's not like they have to face that many real dangers. He can't really think of anything.
… Oh, wait, he can!
“Beware… of broccoli!”
From that point on every ounce of seriousness is gone as they both burst into another round of giggles. “B-b-broccoli!” Alec presses out between laughter, curling up and smushing his face into the pillow. “You want me to be afraid of broccoli?”
“Yes!” Magnus agrees between gasps of air. “Broccoli is dangerous! It makes your breath all stinky!”
It takes them a while to calm down enough to stop muffling their laughter in pillows. “If you don’t want stinky breath, just don’t eat the broccoli?” Alec suggests with a grin.
Magnus shakes his head though, hiding a big yawn behind his hand. “It's cursed. If you don’t eat it, it turns into a monster and chases you. Broccoli with legs.”
“Ewww, that is a little scary.”
“See. I told you.”
It's Alec who yawns next, stretching out on the mattress and wrapping the blanket around himself, lifting the other and for Magnus to snuggle under. But they can't go to sleep yet! They need to have as much fun as possible! Sleep is so boring. Nonetheless, he moves closer to get more comfortable.
“We can just give the broccoli to cats, then. If they can't eat cake, I’m sure they can eat broccoli, right?”
Magnus shrugs, sleepily rubbing his eyes. “I don’t know. But if they eat broccoli, they need to get something yummy too!”
“You're right. If they're brave enough to face the broccoli, they deserve some treats.”
“You know what?” Magnus turns to his side to face Alec. “When we’re big we’re gonna build a whole kingdom where a cat is king! Then they can always protect us from mean broccoli, and we’re gonna protect them from cake!”
Alec nods eagerly. “And the mean cats will be the knights, because they really know how to fight!”
“Yes! And I will help the cat king make decisions, because I have magic and I’m smart. And you can lead all the knights, because you're strong and brave and really good with a bow!”
They both keep nodding, spinning their imaginary kingdom further until their eyelids droop and the excited chatter slows down, increasingly often interrupted by big yawns.
“We’re gonna built the hugest cat kingdom there is, okay?” Magnus mumbles sleepily, snuggling deeper into the blankets. “And we’re always gonna be best friends. Promise?”
Alec nods while yawning, holding out his pinkie. “U-huh. Pinky promise.”
With a bit of an effort Magnus raises his hand enough to link their pinkies together, tugging slightly to complete the promise. “Pinky promise.”
Not even a minute later they're both asleep.
₍^. .^₎⟆