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The Hunter’s Moon is quiet by the time Alec and Magnus leave, the remaining patrons finishing last drinks and sharing muttered goodbyes. Their exit is acknowledged by some, a nod of the head here and there, even a wave from a young seelie who seems to know Magnus, if not Alec. Alec thinks about how he’d kissed Magnus by the pool table earlier without even a moment’s pause to consider their audience. He presses fingertips to the small of Magnus’s back as they emerge on to the street and tries to imagine what the Alec of a year ago would think if he could somehow glimpse this future for himself. He blinks, a little dazed, as Magnus turns to him with a soft smile.
“Portal or walk?” Magnus asks.
It’s not a particularly warm night, a cool breeze biting at the exposed skin of Alec’s neck but Alec has his jacket and he’s not worried about Magnus, who never seems to feel the cold. Besides which, Alec wants time to keep talking, before they are back at the loft with Magnus’s work to distract him, never mind Magnus’s drinks cabinet.
“Walk,” Alec decides.
It’ll be the first time they’ve walked this route since the party after Valentine was defeated. Magnus tilts his head and leads the way.
They set a leisurely pace, passing by late night coffee shops and bars, restaurants disgorging their last customers on to the sidewalk. Magnus takes Alec’s hand to pull them around a gaggle of young mundane women in matching outfits who are screaming with laughter, holding on to each other as they totter down the street. Alec watches them stumble towards a waiting taxi cab, bemused.
When they are safely past, Magnus doesn’t let go, but does swing their joined hands between them. Alec smiles. It’s playful and light and hopefully reflects Magnus’s mood.
"Why did you really hide how you were feeling?" Alec asks, hoping the good mood will ease the conversation. He knows what Magnus said at the bar, but he’d felt like there was still a little deflection there and he’s through ignoring his gut.
Magnus pouts a little, looks down at his boots as they eat up the sidewalk. "About?"
"Not about me and the promotion," Alec explains, "about your..."
Magnus cuts a wry smile his way. "Demotion?"
Alec swallows and squeezes Magnus's hand with a shrug. "Yeah."
“I told you, I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
“Like what, upset? I’ve seen you upset.”
Magnus shrugs. “Being the High Warlock, it...has been a part of me for a long time. Decades.” His eyes widen, flashing as they catch the lights of a passing car.
Alec nods. “I know what it meant to you. I wanted to believe that you were okay but I guess I wondered if you were hiding the truth when we talked. You’d barely look at me, you were too…flippant and detached. You didn’t…touch me and I hadn’t seen you in two days. I just…still haven’t learned to trust my gut, I guess.” Alec drops his shoulders.
Magnus tugs on Alec’s hand, drawing them to a stop. He holds his gaze with warm eyes and grips Alec’s wrists gently. “You trusted your gut just fine, Alexander. You didn’t let it go, did you?”
Alec huffs. “Yeah, once someone else pointed it out." He answers the repeated question in Magnus’s eyes with a sigh. “It was Catarina.”
Magnus’s eyes narrow. "So, when you said you heard it on the grapevine?'
“Catarina was the grape."
At Magnus’s frown, Alec explains. “The demon possession? The mundane worked at her hospital. Izzy, Jace and I went to see her.”
“Oh.”
Alec presses a thumb into his palm. “How come you could let Catarina see how you were feeling but not me? Was it really just about that or is there more to it?”
Magnus pulls a face, moves away then turns back to Alec with a certain swing of his shoulders that Alec recognizes. Magnus has an expressive body. His shoulders swing more than one way. He’s nervous.
"Losing the position," he says, slowly. "I feel like I'm…less without it." He lifts his dark gaze to Alec's. "Less than when we met.”
Alec is reminded that for all his centuries, Magnus is sometimes the least secure person in this relationship. “Magnus, I didn't fall in love with you because you were the High Warlock of Brooklyn.”
Magnus’s gaze drops away again and Alec groans. “Yeah it was a part of you, but there are a…million other parts that are more important to me. Look, I fell in love with you because you’re the kindest, most generous person I’ve ever met. So powerful. So soft." Alec shakes his head. "You blazed into my life and lit it up. You’re beautiful, Magnus, inside and out. I just…I-”
Alec heaves in a breath, his heart thundering. Sometimes Magnus makes him feels stuff so strongly it just comes bursting out of him, unbidden and unpracticed. “Can’t you see all of that? I don’t care about you not being the High Warlock, apart from how much it means to you.”
Magnus steps forward and cups Alec’s cheek in his hand. He smiles like Alec has hung the sun and his eyes are suspiciously wet. “Thank you, Alexander.”
Alec fights a full-blown grin, wondering if Magnus can feel his cheek warm after his declaration. “You’re welcome. Just…telling you the truth.”
“I like all this truth,” Magnus replies. “And I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Magnus clears his throat with a bashful smile, apparently emotional and his hand falls from Alec’s face to wrap around one of Alec’s again as he tugs them forward to keep walking. “I’m going to miss working with you.”
Alec's throat instantly aches a little and he works his fingers between Magnus’s for a tighter hold, feeling soft, warm skin and humming. “Me too." He frowns. "Now that we’re being honest about how we feel about this can I say how stupid it is?” He hears the petulant lilt to his own voice as his eyebrows rise.
Magnus chuckles. “Fire away.”
“Magnus, you’re the most powerful warlock I know. What are they thinking? If you're the most powerful warlock in New York, you should be High Warlock.”
“Just New York?” Magnus asks, a playful lilt to his voice that makes Alec’s chest warm.
“North America?”
Magnus sniffs. “The most powerful warlock in North America lives in Kentucky. She’s over eight hundred years old and is largely a hermit.”
Alec reaches for his phone in his jacket with his free hand. “Largely, you say? Do you have her number because I may need some help-”
Magnus rolls his eyes. “Hmm I wish she was my replacement. Sadly, you are going to be working with someone far less well-mannered."
“Wait, the new High Warlock has already been chosen?”
“Hmm, more like the new High Warlock has already wormed his way into the position,” Magnus corrects, with a scowl.
Alec frowns and Magnus waves his free hand. “Lorenzo Rey has been just itching to kick me out. He first made it his business to tell me he’d do a far better job than me in the eighties. Since then he’s been biding his time, sucking up to the others at every turn. Now he has his excuse.”
Alec frowns. “Lorenzo Rey, the name isn’t familiar. He’s from New York? I haven't met him.”
“Fortunately for you. But you will, soon enough.”
Alec squeezes Magnus’s hand. “Well I may have to meet with him for the Downworlder cabinet, but I hope you know you’ll always be my go-to warlock. For the Institute, I mean.”
Magnus brightens and the sight of his smile is enough to put a lump in Alec’s throat. Izzy is right. Alec is a giant sap for this man.
“Yeah?” Magnus asks, a look on his face that Alec knows well. He sees it every time he brings Magnus a gift or does some little thing that apparently proves just how much he cares about him.
Alec nods. “Yeah, of course. He may be representing the local warlocks now but he's not touching my wards. I don't know him and I don't trust him.”
Magnus looks away, eyes dark. “You shouldn't. And that's not jealousy speaking, I assure you, he's...never proven himself to be a good man.”
Alec huffs. “See, this stinks. How is he the new High Warlock when you’re the best man I know?”
Magnus chuckles and tugs them to a stop again. At this rate they’ll never make it back to the loft. “Seriously,” Magnus begs. “Stop this or you’ll be the death of me.”
Alec smiles as Magnus steps in close, the cool night air instantly exchanged for the heat of his body. Magnus slides his hands over Alec’s shoulders and down his arms, a sure touch that flips something in Alec’s stomach.
Alec bites his bottom lip. “Yeah, you want me to stop?”
Magnus shakes his head. “No, don’t ever stop.”
“No?” Alec presses his smile to Magnus’s for two glorious seconds, then pulls back to just drink in the sight of his beautiful man under the street lights.
“As long as you feel that way, Alexander, that’s all that matters to me.”
“Yeah?” Alec asks, one eye squinting as he studies Magnus’s clear gaze and finds only the truth.
Magnus presses another soft kiss to Alec’s lips, lingering there a moment. Alec closes his eyes, breathes in the scent of him, taps his fingers blindly against Magnus’s waist then slides his arms around him to pull him as close as possible. All he wants is for Magnus to be happy. When Magnus breaks the kiss and pulls back, his smile reaches his eyes.
“Home?” Magnus asks.
Alec nods with a smile of his own. “Home.”