"I want to go to mundane school." The declaration they had just heard from their 13-year-old son had not surprised Magnus much at all. Alec, however, looked as though he might hit the floor any second. Max was looking back and forth between the two of them, his expression absolutely serious.

"You- what?" Alec practically choked the words out, and Magnus reached to take his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze but knowing that it would almost be impossible to calm him down.

"Go to mundane school," Max repeated. Magnus understood what he was saying, knew the feeling of wanting to learn as much as possible when forever was starting you in the face. He wasn't really surprised when Max echoed these thoughts. "I'm gonna live forever Dad, don't you think I need to learn as much as possible? Maybe make some friends? Learn how to actually be out in the world for once?"

To Magnus, this was perfectly reasonable, but Alec still looked as though he had been hit by a train. "No, absolutely not." Alec's voice was ice cold, and Magnus quickly decided to interject.

"Woah, Alexander, hold on." Glancing over at Max, Magnus could see the surprise on his own face at his father coming to his defense. "Let's just talk about this for a minute. What he's saying makes sense." They had been teaching and training Max all of his life, giving him both educational lessons and lessons combat, both of the magical and physical sort. Magnus could easily see his reasoning for wanting to learn more than what he was currently getting.

Alec immediately began shaking his head, but Magnus held up a hand to keep him from talking again. "It's perfectly plausible, Alexander. He has the chance to go learn things now while he's still aging. He's entirely capable of using glamor to hide his skin. There's no reason he shouldn't go to school if he wants to."

"The mundane world is no place for him, Magnus. If he wants to learn more, we'll hire a someone to teach him, just like Isabelle and I learned." Max looked infuriated, and Magnus could hardly blame him. But he could see that there was not going to be a way out of it without an argument.

"What's your problem, Dad?" It was quite amazing that Max had yet to raise his voice. It was something about him that had always stunned Magnus, he had the uncanny ability to remain calm no matter how upset he got. "I just want to learn something useful. I'm not a kid anymore, so stop treating me like one. I need to know about more than just the Shadow world. There's so much I could learn from going to school, a new language, for example. If you're scared of something, then let's talk about it. Just give me the chance to explain myself."

Looking at Alec, Magnus could see the conflict in his eyes. He knew what Max was saying was perfectly reasonable, that he himself was the one acting unreasonable, but he couldn't help but feeling like he needed to protect Max no matter what.

"Look, Max. I'm sorry, but there's nothing to discuss. No is no."

Magnus was just beginning to think about how he could talk Alec into allowing Max to go to school, about how to calm Alec's nerves and reassure him when Max said the worst thing possible.

"Stop trying to protect me from everything coming and going. I'm not Uncle Max." His voice was still eerily calm, but the anger behind his words was all too clear. As Magnus kept his eyes on his son, he easily saw the change in emotion that crossed Max's face. His expression quickly went from one of anger to one of open surprise and regret. It seemed as though he had had no intention of saying what he had just said, of hurting his father the way he just had, and as he began to realize the weight of what he had said, his entire demeanor changed. Max looked as though he wanted to say something else, to begin an apology, but he seemed to know Alec as well as Magnus did, so he remained silent.

When it looked like Alec wasn't going to say anything, that he was just going to stare at Max for an indefinite period of time, Magnus decided it was safe to step in. Clearing his throat, he tried to speak as calmly as possible. "Max, son, please go to your room. Your father and I need to talk, and if there's anything left to discuss, I'll come get you in a bit."

Max only nodded and gave a quiet, "Yes, sir," before slowly turning around and leaving the room. Magnus could see the pain in the way he walked, the pain of knowing that his words had hurt his father beyond belief.

As soon as Magnus heard Max's door close, he turned to Alec, keeping a tight hold on his husband's hand. "Alexander, I want you to listen to me." He tried to keep his voice soft, not wanting to hurt Alec any more than had already been done. "Max did not mean what he just said, you saw it on his face just as much as I did."

When Alec didn't respond, Magnus decided to continue, hoping he could cut things off before they got any worse. "He's right, though, and I think that you know that. The way he said it wasn't right, but what he said was right in and of itself. He has the right to learn as much as he can, and he can protect himself better than almost anyone else in the world. Between his powers and what you've taught him about fighting, the mundane world isn't going to be a problem for him. Ever."

Magnus had a bit more that he wanted to say, but he could tell that Alec was finally about to respond, so he paused. "It's not that I'm afraid he can't handle it, Magnus." It was obvious that Alec was holding back tears, so Magnus moved to put an arm around him, knowing that all he was thinking of was his little brother. "Max going to school means he's growing up." At that, Magnus was at a complete loss as to what Alec could possibly mean.

"Max growing up means that I'm that much closer to leaving him. To leaving both of you." Alec's clarification did nothing other than cause Magnus to have to hold back tears of his own. He reached over to pull Alec closer, gently kissing his forehead.

"Alexander, I understand what you're saying, trust me. But I think we need to explain that to him, and then let him go to school if that's what he wants. You're not leaving us anytime soon, that's a promise." Leaning into him, Alec simply nodded, looking more than ever before as though he wished he could change who he was, what he was.

Magnus gently knocked on Max's door before opening it slowly. He paused momentarily in the doorway as he saw Max sitting on his bed, knees to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs, tears streaming down his face. "Dad, I'm sorry, he has to know that. I didn't mean that, I didn't mean to hurt him. Dad, please." Max began talking as quickly as possible, his voice strained and flustered in a way that Magnus was unsure he'd ever seen before.

He quickly moved to sit beside of Max, wiping tears away as he did so. "I know that, Max. And your father knows that too. But what you said was extremely unnecessary, and I think you know that." Max nodded as he reached up to rub his eyes, a movement that made him look years younger than he was.

Max sat in silence as Magnus explained to him what Alec had really meant by everything he had just said. At one point, Max reached over to take hold of Magnus's hand, so Magnus moved to fully sit on the bed so that he could put an arm around his son.

"There's something else that we're a bit worried about, Max. And it's more of a mundane thing than anything to do with the fact that we aren't mundanes." Magnus had always known that a conversation of this sort was inevitable, but that didn't make him any more prepared for it in that moment.

"Believe it or not, the Shadow world has actually always been more accepting of, well-" Magnus struggled for words, struggled to find the best way to explain things. "They've been more accepting of homosexuality." He forced himself to not look down at Max, to just keep talking and hope that he got through. "When your father and I fought for our marriage rights, we weren't fighting because we're two men, we were fighting because we were a Shadowhunter and a Downworlder. But for years, mundanes have been fighting for the right to marry whatever gender they want, and they only recently got that right."

Magnus was only slightly surprised when Max gave his hand a gentle squeeze, realizing that this conversation was terribly hard for his father. "If you go to school, a lot of kids are going to bully you, and probably pretty badly, because you have two dads." He had intended to go on, but he suddenly found that he was out of words, that he had no idea what else there was to say.

"I don't care, Dad." Max's voice had regained the strength that it had held when they had begun their conversation. "I'm proud of you. Both of you. You're the one who taught me to stand up for what's right, to stand up for myself, no matter the situation. Well, maybe I can make a difference, just like you and Dad have made a difference in our world. You've taught me that even helping just one person makes a world of difference. So let them say something to me, let them hurt me. I'd like to see them try."

It was in that moment that Magnus realized his son was already twice the man he could ever hope to be. He was unsure that he had ever been so proud of anyone. "Alright," he began, a slight hitch in his voice. "Mundane school it is then."