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Chapter 3

"Hello Jace." Magnus said after a moment of silence and nodded towards him.

"Yeah... hi." Jace replied.

After Alec's mind seemed to have processed what just happened he asked: "What did my mother talk to you about? Why does she want you to stay for breakfast?"

Magnus shrugged his shoulders. "That's really two different questions."

He then, without answering either one of them, walked past him, in fact, past all three of them. To be honest, he had the desire to leave the Institute right now but he wasn't going to give Maryse that satisfaction. Not after what she'd said to him.

xxx

"Yes, please. In fact Alec, grab some clothes and leave as well. I'd like to talk to Magnus for a moment."

Magnus barely kept himself from exhaling every last bit of air he had left in his lounges. Maryse wasn't buying his story. After the door got closed and left Alec and Isabelle standing in the hall, this got even clearer.

But before it did there was a very long, uncomfortable silence hovering over them.

"You don't expect me to believe any of that, do you?"

"I would like you to." There was no point in lying but, as always, Magnus didn't admit defeat either. "But I suppose I can't make you." For a moment he pretended to think hard about something. "If only I had magic powers..." He was really just making a point here. He could make her believe whatever he chose to. It was a simple spell, very similar to the one he had used on Clary to make her forget everything she'd seen about this world. But he chose not to – that was simply who Magnus was. And he hoped Maryse would appreciate that.

"Magnus" she said and walked over to him. "I have always thought high of you. But make no mistake, if there is anything going on between my son and you-"

"With all due respect, Maryse" Usually he didn't interrupt people but in this case he needed to make an exception. "I think it is you who should make no mistake here... because if there was something going on... I would never speak of it, knowing it would make him uncomfortable. Also, I would not end it if you didn't approve... if that was where you were going with this."

Maryse swallowed and tried to keep her face steady. "Then I guess it's a good thing there is nothing going on." Ah. They were back to talking between the lines. "Because if there were I would have to make my son see just what kind of man you are. I honor you as Warlock, Magnus. But I despise you as a person. And I would make sure Alec would see it the same way."

He fixed her with his eyes, trying to figure out how to respond to this threat. It didn't take him long to go with: "And how would you engage in such a pointless activity?"

It took her a while to answer and when she did, she smiled at him. "Look at the time. You must be starving... you should stay for breakfast."

xxx

"Magnus, wait!"

Alec ran after him and grabbed him by his arm, which made the Warlock stop. He turned around and looked at him, but didn't say anything.

Magnus wasn't the one to keep something from his boyfriend, even when they weren't in that place when everyone knew they were together. He knew. And he wanted to tell Alec but it wasn't exactly easy to tell someone something like that... especially when you were in love with that someone and didn't want to see him get hurt.

He used the time Isabelle and Jace took to walk past them to think about what to say. As far as Magnus was concerned, they were walking too fast, though. It didn't take them long to be gone and he had to answer.

"Let's just say that your mother didn't believe my cover story. Which is a shame, really, I was very proud of it."

With every single word Magnus could see Alec getting paler and paler, which did surprise him. In a way he hadn't thought that was even possible.

The moments past by without Alec saying a word. After a while Magnus was getting worried: "Alec?"

It was as if he snapped out of a day dream (or nightmare, in this case) but still stared at Magnus. "Sorry... I... how did she react?"

Maybe Magnus was imagining it but he was sure that aside from the fear he also saw hope in Alec's eyes. Not hope, that his mother had taken it well... but hope that Magnus had taken the bulllet for him. Which, in a way, was what had happened, but he also knew that there were many other bullets left to come.

"It's save to say that she doesn't like me anymore." Magnus replied after thinking about his words for a while. "Also, she is going to attempt to make you agree with that."

"W-what?"

Magnus exhaled. "In her defense, she did get the shock of her life... I think she needs some time to process what she saw and heard. I believe she might change her mind once she had some time to think about this."

Alec didn't say anything. He simply stared past Magnus.

"I'm sorry, Alexander."

At this Alec looked at him again. "For what?"

"For all of this. I never wanted for your family to find out about us before you were ready."

But then Alec surprised him. He frowned for a very long moment, obviously thinking, and then said: "Maybe... I am..."

"Alec, you don't have to pretend with me. It's okay."

"No I mean... I am. When you were talking to my mother and Jace walked into this whole situation I thought I was going to drop dead that very moment... but guess what: I'm still alive. Even after Jace said he already knew what was going on – of which I have no idea how he figured it out – I'm still standing. And that's not because I've gotten stronger on my own... it's because you made me stronger."

Magnus smiled at him. The words, he needed to describe how glad he was to finally hear Alec say all of this, had not yet been invented.

"I think you're giving me too much credit. I cannot create something that hasn't been there before."

"Maybe not. But you made me see it."

Alec then laid his hand Magnus' neck, using it to pull his head down to him and kissed him. A kiss Magnus didn't need much convincing to participate in. Until...

"Alexander Gideon Lightwood!"

They stopped kissing immediately but Magnus didn't pull away from Alec. He simply looked at Robert, not moving a muscle, which was the only thing keeping him from asking why he was disturbing them.

Alec stared at his father in shock but it seemed being close to Magnus helped him to get over that quickly. "Father..." he then slowly let go of Magnus, but still held his hand.

"Your mother told me what he had seen earlier. I was going to see if you were coming down to breakfast any time soon."

"Why?" Alec asked snippy. "So you and mother can convince me that Magnus isn't good enough for me?"

His father didn't reply.

"Tell me, though, is it because of who he is... or because he's not a girl?"

Magnus held himself back from saying Although, there was a time..., because this was simply not the time for jokes. It was a shame though. He thought it was really funny.

"Let me explain something to you" Alec said and Magnus could see his chest raising and falling very fast as he let his hand go and turned completely toward his father. "If one of us isn't good enough for the other one, it's me for him... because I have kept him a secret this entire time. I wasn't strong enough to tell you how I feel but I am now. And nothing you can say will make me change my mind. Because... because I love him."

At this, Robert wasn't the only one staring at his son out of wide, unbelieving eyes.

"And as for breakfast... we'll go have that somewhere else."

Before either of them could say or do anything Alec had already grabbed Magnus' hand again and was dragging him out of the Institute. For this entire time none of them say anything. Alec didn't because his entire body was trembling, he was now panicking, Magnus could see it – and that was because he didn't say anything. He wanted to give him a little time to deal with it on his own first.

Once they'd left the Institute Alec let go of Magnus' hand and used his own, terribly trembling ones to run through his hair. "By the Angel... did I really just say all of that?"

Magnus smiled. "I believe so."

Alec was breathing very fast and kept walking until Magnus put his hands on his shoulders, made him stop, and looked deep into his blue eyes. Oh, so so blue...

"You did a great thing in there. I am proud of you."

Still very nervous Alec brought upon a smile and nodded just a bit.

"And as for what you said... do never think for just a second that you're not good enough for me. I have lived for 700 years-"

"Didn't you say you were 800?"

"Did I? Weird. Anyway, where was I... ah, yes: I have lived for 500 years, and yet I have never met someone I could imagine spending the rest of my life with." Not that he could, because Alec was a mortal... but if he wasn't, Magnus would. "Because I love you, too."

All nervousness in Alec seemed to be blown away. He simply beamed at him and kissed him again. After a while he broke the kiss off and said: "I'm starving... we should really get some breakfast."

Magnus nodded. "Alright. Just one other thing that's been bothering me... back in there, you said secret boyfriends. Plural?"

Alec laughed. "Yeah. Which reminds me, I have to meet another one in an hour."

Magnus grinned and put an arm around Alec and started walking away from the Institute. "I'm afraid you'll have to reschedule. We won't be done having... breakfast in an hour."