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‘What are you doing?’ Magnus asks, turning his head to raise an eyebrow at his boyfriend.
Alec is pulling himself out of bed. Well, it’s more like a graceful fall, because Alec is exhausted. He knocked on Magnus’ door at 4am and fell face first into bed. Now, only five hours later, Alec is already getting up again. This has been happening for almost two weeks now.
‘The Institute,’ Alec says. ‘Sorry I woke you.’
Magnus waves the apology away. He loves being woken by his boyfriend, especially if it means he can prevent him from doing something stupid. It doesn’t happen very often.
‘You’re not going anywhere.’
‘But-’
‘I will tie you to this bed if I have to.’
Alec raises his eyebrows, but the yawn that follows lessens the effect somewhat. The shadowhunter stumbles around the room looking for his shoes and jacket.
‘Magnus.’ Alec’s tone is low and dangerous.
‘What? I tidied up a little.’ He didn’t. He just spelled Alec’s things into one of the kitchen cupboards.
Alec sits down on the bed with a sigh and looks Magnus straight in the eye, his blue eyes piercing, serious and tired. Magnus resolve strengthens when he sees how drawn and pale Alec looks.
‘You need to rest,’ he says, sitting up so he can cradle Alec’s face in his hands. ‘You can rest for today. Things are quiet.’
‘You know that can change at any moment. They need me. I need to look out for them.’
Magnus sighs and drops his hands from Alec’s face. He knows Alec is right. The supernatural world is a fickle thing and things can go from blissful peace to all-out war in a matter of minutes. He could force Alec to stay. Magic away the doors and windows. Magic them to a place far away where there’s nothing but sun and drink with little umbrellas. That won’t do, though, because Alec would be pissed as hell if he did that. He grins when the perfect solution pops into his head.
‘How about a deal?’
Alec squints his eyes, but waits for him to continue.
‘We’ll tell the others that you need a day off, but that if they need you, you’ll come running. Someone will text you every hour with what’s happening. That way you can still keep an eye things while you’re spending a day with your favourite warlock.’
Alec huffs, but Magnus can see him turning over the proposal every which way in his mind. After a minute, Alec relaxes and nods. ‘Okay.’ Alec starts pulling his shirt over his head. ‘You tell Jace to contact me every hour. If he misses one, I’m coming over. If he makes a joke out of this, I’m coming over.’ Alec wiggles out of his pants. ‘If I get any suspicion there is anything wrong, I’m coming over. If I find out tomorrow that he lied, I’m kicking his ass.’
Magnus grabs his phone and fires off a quick text to Jace, smiling when Jace replies with: Finally
Alec, now only clad in his boxers, crawls back under the covers and curls into Magnus’ side, his head on Magnus’ shoulder. He hums contently and closes his eyes.
‘What do you want to do today on your day off?’ Magnus asks, combing his fingers through Alec’s dark hair.
‘Dunno,’ Alec shrugs.
‘TV in our pyjamas?’
‘Sounds nice. Sleep first.’ Alec starts to snore softly almost immediately after that.
Magnus shakes his head fondly. He curls his arms tighter around his boyfriend and buries his face in Alec’s hair, feeling himself slipping back to sleep as well. His arm will probably be asleep in ten minutes, but if it means that the bruises under Alec’s eyes will lighten, then it’ll be worth it.
Later, when Magnus wakes up with pins and needles in his arm, but a smiling Alec next to him, he still thinks it was worth it.