Alec's POV (miyabita)

"I find that unlikely," Magnus had said.

Alec stood in shock, even when the warlock had offered him a small smile and turned to follow his sister, who had also looked at him with a, "Well, aren't you coming?" glance and a casual toss of her hair. He couldn't bring himself to follow them just yet because his mind was still trying to process what had just happened.

Magnus found it "unlikely" that... what, exactly? Isabelle had made two points. One, he was one-dimensional. Two, Magnus probably wouldn't like him. If Magnus found the former unlikely, than it probably meant nothing. Maybe he was just being polite, trying to get a reaction out of Alec... like with all that staring. (He still wasn't sure what all that had been about.) But if it was the latter...

Alec's face felt warm. He shoved his hands in his pockets, suddenly realizing that he was in a crowd of Downworlders and the only people he knew were over on the other side of the room. He hurried over to them, wondering what Magnus possibly could have meant. What if he really had meant the latter? They had only known each other for an hour! How could the man - only the Angel knew how old he really was - who had seen so much in his life possibly have any interest in someone like him? After all, Izzy was right. He did have a tendency to be a bit "one-dimensional".

But look at it this way, his mind replied, you won't be forgetting Magnus Bane anytime soon either, will you?

As much as the thought annoyed him, Alec knew it was true. He also knew that it perplexed him to no end. He knew absolutely nothing about the man except that he wore endless amounts of glitter, exuded confidence and sexuality without pause, and had done something to close up Clary Fray's mind temporarily. Magnus was hot, there was no question about that, but Alec had been raised to look beyond appearances. He had to, really. Demons and Downworlders used glamours and disguises; almost no one could be trusted from outward appearance alone. And so, while Magnus did appeal to him on some physical level, it certainly wasn't the man's looks that was causing Alec so much internal confusion. He'd stopped to appreciate men before when he thought no one else was looking. (Not to mention Jace...)

No, there was something else, something Alec couldn't put his finger on, and it bothered him. He stood a little ways away from his family, Clary, and Magnus, watching as the warlock calmly dealt (or casually, depending on one's point of view) with Clary's screaming. Alec had an urge to shake her or smack her, anything to get her the hell out of his hair. She yelled at Izzy, Jace, and now Magnus. All over her little mundane friend who had decided to tag along. They really should have told the kid "no" to begin with, but both Isabelle and Jace had told Alec it would be "interesting" when he had initially protested. Fine, interesting. Whatever. Clearly, those two had different definitions of interesting than he did. Alec found the whole thing highly annoying.

He made to push through the remainder of the crowd and walk over, when another set of loud voices reached his ears, this time coming from the opposite direction. A crowd had gathered near the entrance to Magnus's apartment and it looked like several Downworlders had gotten into a very heated disagreement. Alec internally groaned. He didn't want to be here when a Downworlder fight broke out. Certainly, he wasn't afraid of them - he was fairly confident he could hold his own in a fight - but, really, his job was to handle rogues, not mediate petty arguments.

He was so caught up in watching the fight unfold, that he nearly jumped when he felt fingers briefly caress the back of his neck. There and gone. He turned, prepared to take out a seraph blade out of his back pocket, but stopped, his eyes widening as he stared into familiar yellow-green eyes.

Magnus Bane was looking down at him again, grinning.