Alec Lightwood was a busy man.

As head of the New York institute, he had little time for any kind of social life, and Magnus had grown accustomed to that.

He had become used to Alec not coming home night after night. He had learned to anticipate his boyfriend's rare appearances happening in the black of night, when Alec would crawl into Magnus's bed at a time so late it could almost be called morning. He had come to expect Alec calling up in the middle of the day to apologetically cancel their date that evening.

Magnus had just adapted around it, frequently whipping up a portal to the institute to visit his busy shadowhunter. It was almost sad how grateful Alec was to see him, sneaking Magnus into his room to give him a welcoming kiss away from prying eyes. Despite everything, Alexander still wasn't comfortable with displaying his affection for Magnus in front of people at the institute.

That was most likely for the best, as the shadowhunters rarely gave Magnus any kind of welcome—more frequently he was challenged at the door and had to wait for Alec to come down personally to assure the guard that Magnus was a friend.

Buried deep inside, beneath his love for Alec, Magnus resented many shadowhunters at the institute. Deeper still, he found irritation at Alexander himself for refusing to show the slightest hint of intimacy in public. It only enhanced Magnus's already prominent awareness that he was an outcast here, as well as cementing his constantly growing belief that Alec was ashamed of him.

Although it was far from prefect, the routine of the pair coming and going to one another's homes worked to an extent, until, that is, Magnus offered his assistance on a demon assignment and ended up using such a surplus of magic that he simply passed out. He woke in Alec's room, his magic so feeble that he could barely feel it.

Alec brought him tea and stared at him with a worried frown creasing his brow as Magnus struggled in even sitting himself up.

Stubbornly protective, he had insisted that Magnus stay in the institute until he had regained his strength as least enough to put up the protective warding around his loft. Despite Magnus's concerns, Alec never gave ground, and the warlock reluctantly agreed that it was probably for the best, although he was not exactly thrilled about being quarantined in the institute with people who despised him and his kind.

During his first day at the institute, Magnus received some dirty looks from numerous shadowhunters, but the group defended him fiercely—Clary often shooting glares at anyone who so much as rolled their eyes or scoffed at Magnus's presence. Jace and Isabelle preferred a more open approach, often challenging the behaviour with a yelled verbal or even a physical comeback. Magnus himself decided that the best thing to do was to simply ignore them.

God help the poor soul who dared to mock the warlock within earshot of Alec. The head of the institute never took the physical approach, but he never just glared.

One shadowhunter had the gall to scoff during Alec's first briefing of the day, regarding treatment of downworlders seeking help.

"Not like he hasn't got an incentive," she muttered, making the man beside her give a less than subtle snort of unpleasant amusement.

Alec fell silent, his gaze dropping on the woman.

"Do we have a problem here?"

He didn't even raise his voice, that was the scariest thing. His expression was perfectly emotionless, a stone exterior to hide what anger boiled beneath.

"Uh, n-no," the woman spluttered, immediately flushing crimson. "No, I don't-"

"If you have an issue with any of my decisions then I'd like to hear them," Alec continued, refusing to let it go.

The woman ducked her head, flustered. "I don't have an issue."

Alec stared at her a moment longer, his gaze darting across to the man beside her, who had his eyes cast downwards.

"Good," he replied with a firmness that ended the discussion. "I wouldn't think you'd have to be told this, but just in case it's unclear, don't ever interrupt me again."

Jace grinned his delight at Alec's usual bluntness being put to work defending Magnus and clapped him on the back after the briefing had concluded and the crowd was dispersing.

Alec didn't share the enthusiasm of his parabati.

Although he was the one who had implemented the 'no intimacy at the institute' rule for him and Magnus, he couldn't smother his rage. He hated the way these people looked at Magnus. He hated himself for asking Magnus to stay here because he now understood the warlock's reluctance. Being around shadowhunters for him meant constant discrimination simply for how he was born, for who his father was, things that he had no control over.

Perhaps it was cowardice that led him to separating his feelings. He wondered that maybe, deep down, he refused to display affection towards Magnus in front of shadowhunters because he didn't want to share that persecution.

The first day, Alec barely even saw Magnus at all.

As head of the institute, he was preoccupied with every case of concern with demonic presence in New York, including every violation of the accords that deviant downworlders were partaking in. The most troubling at this time happened to be a few members of Lucian Graymark's pack who had abandoned their home at the Jade Wolf and were gorging themselves on wandering mundanes.

Planning assignment groups and target areas claimed the better part of the day.

It was late when Alec closed the door to his room, glancing to the bed to see Magnus with an open book in his lap, reading by candlelight. His eyes remained unlined—apparently Magnus felt comfortable enough in Alec's room to show his natural side, and Alec loved that. A new addition of black framed glasses was perched on his nose.

"Busy day?"

The shadowhunter exhaled heavily. "You have no idea," he said as he shrugged off his jacket, throwing it over the back of a chair.

Magnus glanced up, a sympathetic smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "You look exhausted."

"Gee, thanks."

Magnus smiled again, shaking his head fondly and returning to his book. Undressing down to his underwear, Alec let his clothes scatter the floor as he made his way to the bed and shuffled in beside Magnus, head falling against the pillows with a grunt.

He blinked up at his boyfriend, forcing himself to stay awake a while longer despite his fatigue.

"How are you doing?"

The warlock barely looked his way, adjusted his glasses absently. "I'm alright. Resting is doing wonders for my strength. I should be back to normal in a matter of days."

"Days?" echoed Alec, shifting to prop himself up on his elbows. "It was that bad?"

"Well, I did actually faint this time, remember? Have you ever seen that happen before?"

Alec furrowed his brow, recalling times that Magnus overused his power in the past. "You came close once… when you were helping to heal Luke. I'm pretty sure you were on the verge of passing out then."

Magnus hummed, flicking to the next page of his book. "Well, there you go."

They were quite for a moment. Slowly, Alec began to smile and it just grew wider by the moment as he watched his boyfriend reading.

"Can I ask one more question?"

"I do believe you already have."

"Do you actually need those glasses in order to read?"

Closing his book, Magnus glanced to him, his expression one of careful neutrality. "What exactly are you implying, Alexander?"

"That you don't need them, because you're magic, that you just wear them to look cute and it's definitely working?"

Magnus was smiling now too.

He put his book to one side, laying it face-down on the bedside table and leaning back to press a lingering kiss to Alec's forehead.

Although he didn't speak, Alec caught a softness in his dark eyes.

It worried him somehow.

"Are you really okay?"

"Go to sleep," was all he received in reply, and Magnus turned to blow away the candle flame, throwing the room into darkness.