This a Malec story set AFTER the books, but the time frame doesn't really matter, so hopefully it still makes sense? I'd like to continue this- it's a multi-chapter story and not a one-shot. I hope you like it and follow and favorite if you enjoy it, and review to give me feedback and let me know what you thought. Thanks, Fly x

"There's one thing I need to know, though," Alec tried to make his voice cold, but it broke and shook with emotion. "Tell me why."
"Why?" Magnus offered him a small, sad smile. "Why? Because, Alexander, it's not safe. If someone is hunting Downworlders then you're in danger just by being near me. If you got hurt because you were with me, I wouldn't be able to…" He shook his head, trying to swat away the thought like Chairman Meow would flick his ear at a persistent fly. Alec looked angry, but Magnus knew it was only because he was forcing his emotions down, locking them in a reinforced prison cell and trying to be cold, hard and rational, the way his life as a Shadowhunter had trained him to be.
"Do you not think that I can defend myself? Magnus, I'm a Shadowhunter, my life is literally just fighting demons! Not exactly a risk free job, is it? I could die every day, it doesn't matter whether I'm with you or not, so why the hell are you saying-"
"Alec, you don't understand-"
"No! No, don't you dare tell me that I don't understand! I do understand, Magnus! But you're being completely unreasonable-"
"No, I am not." The coldness in Magnus' tone took Alec's breath away, made his throat constrict and his heart crawl up into his throat as if to run away from the situation, the way Alec sincerely wanted to in that moment. He wanted to run away and hide until Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, came to his senses and realized that he was being a fricking idiot.
"I am not being unreasonable. Last week, a warlock two blocks away from here was found murdered, along with his human lover. I cannot allow you to-"
"Allow me? Allow me? You don't allow me to do anything, Magnus! And what, a mundane was killed? They most likely had not exactly been training for combat since they learnt to walk-"
"Alexander, it's not safe."
"So what, you don't trust me to look after myself?" Alec yelled. His voice sounded all too loud in the Magnus' quiet apartment, and Chairman Meow startled at the sound and leapt off the old sofa onto the cluttered coffee table, knocking over a red potion that smoked and sparked when it spilt across the carpet.
"No, I don't trust me to look after you-"
"I don't need you to look after me, Bane!"
Alec's use of Magnus' self-given surname was a rare occurrence, saved for when he was especially mad, and something glinted angry in Magnus' golden, cat eyes, something dangerous.
"Then by all means, leave." The warlock gestured showily to the door.
Hand knotted in his hair in frustration, Alec spat, "Fine! Fine! I will!"

The Shadowhunter stormed out of the apartment, down the stairs and out into the Brooklyn sunshine. He was so wrapped up in his own impassioned thoughts that he didn't notice the taxi he walked out in front of as he crossed the road, and jumped as the driver honked and shouted out the window. "Get out the way! Jesus, look where you're walking, will ya? God!"
'I have right of way!' would have been would Magnus would have replied flamboyantly, probably winking, and that thought made Alec's insides twist painfully. He huffed and went into the nearest coffee shop he could see, ordered a black coffee and gulped it down, burning his tongue and most likely doing some internal damage. He ignored the fact that his insides felt like they were on fire and waited for the rush of caffeine he was relying on to wake him up and hopefully at the same time make the whole argument with Magnus be a dream so he could go back up to his boyfriend and snog his face off without Magnus thinking it was because he felt bad and was apologizing.
Alec had never been good with apologizing and combined with his extreme stubbornness it was seldom that he ever uttered the word 'sorry', even with his close friends and family. He preferred to solve situations that would usually expect an apology from him with gestures: going out shopping with Isabelle even though he hated it because he'd taken her new perfume and given it to someone as a birthday present; training with Jace in the middle of the night after he'd questioned Clary's honesty when she'd first arrived, as she was Valentine's daughter after all, despite the fact that it would take at least three coffees to get him properly functioning the next day, and cooking breakfast for Magnus because he'd lied about a mission to not worry him.
Unfortunately, Alec doubted that this was a situation he could fix with a plate of pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup.

Arguing with Magnus always made Alec's throat burn like he'd just nailed a bottle of vodka (something that he'd also first experienced with Magnus), and he hated how guilty he felt as he finished off his bitter, too hot coffee and chucked the cup in the trash.
But I'm right was the main thing ringing around Alec's head, along with please don't be mad because I need you as he climbed the stairs back up to Magnus' studio apartment, hoping that his time taken to cool off had also brought the warlock around to his point of view. The front door was ajar as always, a fact that was much to Alec's chagrin but wasn't the main issue at hand, and Alec reached out to push the door open, to step inside and hopefully kiss his boyfriend after Magnus agreed that Alec was completely right and said that they should never argue again.

Alec's hand stopped in mid-air like it'd hit a solid wall, and he blinked in surprise, then tried to reach the door again. The same thing happened, and Alec went to kick the door, only to almost break his toe on the wards Alec had watched Magnus erect around his apartment. In shock, Alec barely noticed as there was a little puff of blue sparks above his head, and only realized Magnus had left him a note when it fell on his head. On it was a sentence in Magnus' familiar, curly writing.
I'm sorry Alexander, but I need to keep you safe. M.

"Shit!" Alec cried, kicking the wards again angrily, and shouted without thinking. "Open the door, you idiot!"
There was no reply, and Alec crumpled up the note, shoved it in his pocket and ran down the stairs. As he strode quickly back to the Institute he tried Magnus' phone.
"Pick up…pick up, come on…"
The familiar voicemail message sounded, forming a lump in Alec's throat, and he waited impatiently for the bleep, then his words came pouring out.
"Magnus? It's Alec. I know you're probably mad, it's just, please, please, call me…I mean, if you want to, but please, please…I know you might not want to see me, but I really need to talk to you. So just…call me back when you get this, okay? Call me back. I- Yeah."
He hung up the phone, taking deep breaths to try to quell the emotions rising in him. As he jogged into the Institute, Church followed him through the corridor, meowing loudly, and Alec ignored the cat's blatant pleas for some form of attention and instead headed for Isabelle's room.
"Izzy! Izzy, are you in there? Izzy-" He banged on the door, and she opened it.
"Alec? I thought you were with Magnus-"
"Can you call him? Magnus, I mean. Can you call him?"
"Call him? Can't you just-"
"Izzy, can you just call him, please."
Isabelle scanned his face, frowning, then took out her phone, swiped through her contacts and held it up to her ear. She listened for a minute, then moved it away from her ear. "Voicemail. Do you want me to leave a message, or-"
"No, leave it. Thanks Izzy."
"Alec, are you okay-"
"I'm fine."
"Alec…"
"What?" He span back around from where he'd started to walk down the hall, voice sharp.
"I just thought…" She looks crestfallen, and normally Alec would stop and explain, but his blood was boiling as he headed down the corridor.
"Where's there a fight?" His voice was quiet as he asked Jace the question that made his parabatai's golden eyes widen.
"Alec…are you-"
"I'm fine, now where's a fight?" Alec snapped, fingers itching to hit something, and he knew he needed to get away from Jace before the person he hit was him and not a demon or rogue Downworlder.
"Um…look, Alec, maybe that's not such a good idea-"
Alec slammed his hands down on the desk Jace was standing behind in the office.
"Where. Is. There. A. Fight."
"I don't know about a fight, but, I mean there was a murder yesterday morning in an abandoned warehouse on Fifth, but I don't know if that's necessarily a fight-"
Alec span on his heel and turned to leave. Jace caught his arm.
"Alec, should I come with you?"

Alec studied the boy he thought he'd loved, and wondered how he'd leapt to that conclusion so naively. He loved him as a brother, of course, as his parabatai and his friend, but the fluttering feeling in his stomach and the flush that used to rise to his cheeks when seeing Jace were nothing compared to how he felt when with Magnus. The feeling was all-consuming, hot and fiery and passionate and craving but also soft and sweet and kind and loving. It was insane and beautiful, and Alec cursed the way a few words hissed in a fit of anger and exasperation could tear apart that relationship, that easiness they always had with each other, when he and Magnus would just sit on the sofa and he would play with Magnus' hair absent-mindedly, like he was created to be with Magnus Bane in those moments. When their lips met and Magnus moaned under Alec's touch, he felt no doubt that his entire purpose was made for that action, for that feeling.
Call him over-dramatic, but Alec rarely was dramatic with anything. That was always Magnus' thing.
"No, Jace."

The warehouse was easy to break into with a rune, bits of yellow police tape still caught on the door, so easy in fact that Alec felt his mind wandering back to the way a certain warlock looked in the morning, a mental image that was quickly shot down as he thought back to their conflict that morning and then felt choked with sadness, and so rushed inside and drew his seraph blade, two thoughts of Magnus waking him up with kisses away from shouting out to whatever might be lurking in the darkened warehouse, "I'm over here! Come at me, bitches!" simply for the much-needed distraction that it would cause.

Alec was thankfully forced to focus on his surroundings as the noises of something being dropped echoed in the huge empty space. He could hear the noises of what sounded like a small animal skittering around, claws clicking on the metal, and he sheathed his seraph blade, raised his bow and pulled back an arrow from the quiver on his back, ready to let it fly. Aiming at what looked like random points around the room accordingly to where the sounds seemed to be coming from, Alec squinted in the darkness as his eyes began to adjust. There looked to be a black mass in front of him, and Alec only had time to inhale sharply before it suddenly came towards him with a roar.

Letting arrow after arrow fly at the creature, Alec backed up towards the door, heart beating faster as adrenaline peaked in his bloodstream. Amidst the chaos of battle there was always a sense of calm and tranquillity for Alec, without the complexity and uselessness of feelings, just instincts and survival and the huge shadow-like creature swooping down towards him. Throwing his bow aside, Alec grabbed his blade and slashed blindly at the black thing, then rolled to the side as it smashed into the spot where he would have been. It was harder fighting on his own than he remembered, without the support of Jace or Isabelle as distractions, aid or strategists as well as himself. He had to think of everything: where his bow was, where his blade was, how many arrows he had left, where the exit was, where the next best exit was in case the other one got blocked, what the creature was reacting to and what it wasn't, and assessing himself for injuries, all while moving constantly to avoid the dark creature.

It didn't seem to be able to hurt him as a swirling cloud of black mist, but as Alec ran back around to the door to pick up his bow from where he'd tossed it out of his way, it seemed to solidify into a massive black fist that smacked into Alec and flung him out of the way.
Alec hit the wall, back first, and was struck by blinding pain in his head and back as he slumped to the floor. His head gave a painful stab every time he moved it, and little hot flashes of pain were flaring up and down his spine. His most prioritized worry was the feeling of having a knife stuck between his ribs as he leant down to pick up his blade, gasping and eyes flooding with tears. He'd broken ribs before, but along with his tiredness, anger and general lack of preparation for the situation he had nothing he could do to bind the wound, and no way of stopping for a time out as the shadow-like monster waited, completely still, for the injured Shadowhunter to make his next move. Arms folded across his chest as if to support his ribs, Alec held his blade in his shaking hand, wishing he'd have asked Jace to come with him, wishing he hadn't have gone to the warehouse in the first place, wishing he hadn't snapped at Izzy, wishing that he hadn't left Magnus' apartment, wishing that they hadn't fought and wishing that he'd just stayed in bed that morning instead of getting up early, because maybe then the whole thing wouldn't have happened and he could have used Magnus' coffee machine to make a latte or something, instead of paying for a shitty black coffee.

The evil mist (as Alec named it) solidified again into a fist to crash Alexander Lightwood through the wall, and Alec closed his eyes, delirious, and briefly wondered, both what it would be like to die, and what flowers he would have at his funeral. Painless, fingers crossed, and lilies, hopefully, because they were Magnus' favorite.
There was a humming noise as the fist swung back to shove Alec through the wall, and Alec tensed, sure he was ready for the impact.

Nothing happened.

For a second, Alec assumed he was dead, just because it was so quiet and things were never so quiet when you live your life surrounded by slightly egotistical chatterboxes, but then there was a soft swoosh and Alec blinked open his eyes just to see the shadow monster disappear in a flash of blue sparks. Alec frowned, confused, and then his knees gave out.
A pair of warm arms wrapped around his waist, and Alec cried out. "Ah! Ribs!"
"Ah! I'm sorry…" There was a second, and then a warm, tingling feeling surrounded his broken rib, and the pain disappeared. Alec sagged in relief into the person's arms, and a familiar, delicious smell swept over him, of flowers and spices and cat and something unique and entirely Magnus.
"Magnus," He breathed, and the warlock smiled, breath hot on Alec's ear.
"It's alright, Alexander. I am here now."
Alec gasped as he moved his head, hand flying up to touch the back of his skull. His hand came away red, and he felt dizzy, room swirling under him.
"What's wrong? Where are you hurt?" Magnus' voice was urgent as he gently probed the back of Alec's head, and checked his pupils. "I think you have a concussion…come on," Magnus eased Alec gently up into standing position, supporting the Shadowhunter's weight with ease, and opened a portal. Alec squinted at the bright light as Magnus tried to take him into his apartment, then let out a loud groan when they hit into the same hard wall that Alec had encountered that morning.
"Oh damn it." Magnus started chanting, and Alec's eyes drooped with exhaustion, the ringing in his ear growing louder than Magnus' voice as he willingly let himself fall into unconsciousness-
"Alec! Alec! No! Stay awake, okay? Stay awake! Keep talking to me." Magnus laid Alec down on his sofa and started rushing around, picking up ingredients from around his messy living room.
"About what?" Alec felt drunk, slurring his words as his eyes continued to persistently fight to close.
"About, um, about us. Where do you want to go for my apology gesture? A restaurant?"
"Um…I don't know…"
"Think then, come on love, where do you want to go?"
"Um…" Alec's thoughts moved sluggishly, and he searched for an answer slowly. "Taki's?"
"Okay," Magnus hurried up to the sofa and brought a mug to Alec's lips. "Drink this."
Alec struggled to drink it, but as the hot potion ran down his throat he shuddered, then smiled as the nauseous, dizzy feeling left him, and his head stopped throbbing. He lay back on the cushions again, overwhelmingly tired, and looked sleepily up at Magnus. "Can I go to sleep now?"
"Just give it a minute or so for the potion to work, love." Magnus looked sad as he watched Alec, regretful, and he sighed. "This was my fault."
"No it wasn't." Alec mumbled.
"Yes it was," Magnus stroked Alec's hair and pressed a quick kiss on his forehead. "You can go to sleep now, Alec."
"Mkay." Alec mumbled, rolling over slightly and burrowing himself deeper into the nest of cushions that was Magnus' sofa, and it wasn't minutes before he fell asleep.

When Alec woke up, it took him a few minutes to orientate himself, because he was not in the same place that he had been when he had fallen asleep. As he realized, he glared up at the ceiling fan in the infirmary of the Institute and sat bolt upright in bed. Isabelle caught his arm from where she was sitting beside his bed. "Woah! You okay?"
"Yeah," Alec was mad now, forgoing the momentary happiness he'd felt in Magnus' apartment before he went unconscious. "Where's Magnus?"
"I don't know…" Isabelle looked concerned. "He dropped you off here an hour ago, said you'd been fighting a demon alone. He was pretty mad at us about it."
"What else did he say?"
"That was it…apart from telling you he was sorry. He kept saying that. He looked really upset, Alec."
Alec pushed the duvet off him and swung his legs over the edge, taking Isabelle's hand to pull himself to standing. She seemed to remember something, then looked sternly at him. "And if you rush off and go trying to fight an unknown threat alone again I will tie to your bed. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Izzy."
"Okay, good." Her face was severe as she stared at him, and Alec was reminded in a painful flash of his mother when she used to tell him off.
"How did he know how to find me?" Alec muttered as Isabelle followed him out of the infirmary, down the corridor and towards the front doors of the Institute.
"Because I called him." Isabelle said simply. "He saw my missed call and called me back."
Alec felt a thrill of hope as he took his mobile phone out of this pocket, but there were no notifications. Magnus hadn't called him back. A jolt of sadness made him blink back tears, and a look of upset briefly crossed his face before he forced it down, and he changed course to his bedroom. Thankfully Isabelle didn't try to accompany him, and Alec slammed his door shut so hard the walls seemed to shudder from the force, sunk down onto his bed, and threw his phone away from him in frustration. It hit the opposite wall and hit the floor, so hard the case popped off and Alec was pretty sure he cracked the screen.

Alec hadn't slept in his bedroom in the Institute in at least a week, having stayed over with Magnus most nights, and Alex felt a miserable pang as he realized he wouldn't wake up next to his boyfriend the next morning. Sighing with defeat, Alec got up, picked up his now slightly cracked phone and dialled the familiar number. Magnus' voice chirped out as the voicemail, and Alec winced as he closed his eyes and started to speak.
"Magnus? It's Alec. I know that you obviously don't want me at your apartment, and that's fine. I know you probably don't want to speak to me, and that's fine, too. I mean, I get you might want a break, and if it's something I've done…I know that you said you don't want me around because it would put me in danger, but you and I both know that's not the reason. I don't need you to defend me. Today was a one off because I was angry and we both know it. I get that you might not want to speak to me, but just…call me back, okay? Call me back." Alec took a deep breath. "And also…thank you for saving me today, I…" He choked on his emotion. "Call me back. Please? If you want to. I mean-"
Beep.