Chapter Text
Magnus is talking to a group of prospective clients, drink in hand and looking as flawless as ever, when Maryse makes an appearance in her usual manner. He figured he’d run into her at some point, they usually ended up at the same events whenever she was in town, but he wasn’t planning on her intentionally seeking him out. She isn’t a fan of him, Magnus doesn’t think she ever will be, not even enough to casually mingle at an event they both ended up at.
“What are you doing here?” Maryse all but snarls, coming up to stand next to Magnus. Max is with her, standing hesitantly by her side, and Magnus can’t help but smile at him. He was hoping Maryse wouldn’t have dragged Max along with her, but he knows her well enough to know better. She doesn’t care about what Max wants, she never really has, and that would always be a problem between them.
“Well,” Magnus says, trying not to let the anger show in his eyes. He didn’t need Maryse questioning his credibility in front of potential clients, he already got enough shit because he was a bisexual immigrant who loved makeup. “Maryse, whether you’d like to admit it, most people consider me a rather respectable individual. I have just as much right, maybe even more since I helped fund this even, to be here as you do.”
The small group of men and women he’s talking to chuckle at that and he assumes he’s saved enough face to know he’s still in their good graces. “We’re going to go catch a table,” Marissa says, pointing towards a table nearby, “join us when you’re done here.”
Magnus nods and he and Maryse watch them go for a few seconds before Maryse starts talking again. “Is Alec here?” Maryse asks, suspiciously changing the subject.
“No,” Magnus says, frowning, a little confused. Alec hardly ever accompanies him to things like this, it just wasn’t his scene, and Maryse has never once asked Magnus about Alec. “He couldn’t make it tonight, but why does that matter to you?”
“No reason,” Maryse says quickly, gazing around, and that puts him a little on edge. She was clearly anticipating something, something she knew Magnus wasn’t going to be happy about, and that made him nervous. “Just stay-”
Before Maryse can say anything else a newcomer appears, catching Magnus’ attention almost immediately. He recognizes that face, he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forget it, and a sense of rage pools quickly in the pit of his stomach.
“Hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Oh wow,” Shawn says, bending down in front of Max. He smiles, looking directly at him, and Magnus sees red. “Hey Maxi, it’s been forever since I’ve seen you. Do you remember me? You were just a little guy the last time I saw you. How’ve you been?”
Magnus feels a protective urge a mile wide come over him and he has to physically hold himself back before he does anything he knows he’ll end up regretting. Max looks scared, really scared, and Magnus isn’t going to have any of that. He isn’t sure if he remembers the man that had beaten his brother for years, he was only four when they had broken up, but he clearly doesn’t like being around him.
Max shakes his head quickly and takes a step closer to Magnus, grabbing hold of his hand as tight as he can. The look on Maryse’s face is cold enough to freeze hell and Magnus can’t help but feel a little bit of pride. Max had chosen him as his form of comfort over his own mother. That would seriously piss Maryse off and Magnus can’t help but love it.
Suddenly, it all makes sense. Maryse doesn’t want Magnus to know she planned on meeting Shawn and she doesn’t want Alec here to see it firsthand. That’s why she had made her way over once she realized Magnus was here, she didn’t want him to see what was about to happen.
“What are you doing here?” Magnus asks, doing everything he possibly can to keep himself from blowing up. The last thing he wants to do was make a scene, not with Max right next to him.
“I recognize you,” Shawn says, smiling a wide, fake, smile. Magnus wants to slap it off his face. “You were with Alec at that restaurant, weren’t you?” He looks over at Max and seems to choose his next words carefully. At least he’s going to watch his words around Max, that’s all Magnus can really hope for at this point because it’s going to get ugly.
“They’ve got the best food, sometimes I can’t help but go for seconds. Tell me Magnus, do you enjoy seconds? They can get kind of sloppy though.” Shawn scrunches up his nose and shakes his head, disgusted look passing over his face. “They’re not always fun to eat the second time around.”
The rage Magnus has kept safely under control festers up again and threatens to spill out. He’s not an idiot, he knows what Shawn means with that euphemism, but he doesn’t want to make a scene. That doesn’t mean he’s going to let the asshole blatantly disrespect Alec.
“Well, they’re usually more appreciated the second time around,” Magnus says, gaze cold. “The firsts are hardly ever worth a damn.”
“That’s enough,” Maryse says, looking between both of them. Max can sense the tension that is rising between Magnus and Shawn and he takes a slight step backwards, hiding behind Magnus slightly. Maryse watches Max move and from the look on her face, Magnus can tell she’s still not happy. Somehow, that makes Magnus feel a little bit better about the situation.
“I’m doing some business with Shawn,” Maryse says, as if that small statement makes up for the fact that she’s talking about the man who almost ruined Alec. “This is the only free time I have to meet with him, I didn’t expect to see you here. I’m just glad Alec isn’t here; I don’t want him dredging up old drama.”
“Old drama, huh? Is that what we’re calling abuse these days?” Magnus bursts out, unable to hold his tongue.
“Magnus,” Maryse chides, shaking her head. “This isn’t the time nor the place for this. I’m not going to be in New York for very long and I have a lot of stuff to discuss with Shawn. I don’t appreciate how things ended in the past, Shawn has assured me he’s sorry for what happened to Alec, but business is business and I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.”
Magnus can’t believe what he’s hearing. If anything, the way Shawn had subtly insulted Alec earlier is enough to prove that he’s not sorry about anything. Not to mention the fact that Maryse wasn’t the one that Shawn hurt. She doesn’t get an input on this situation, she doesn’t get to let ‘bygones be bygones.’ That’s for no one but Alec to decide.
“And you decided to bring Max to this meet up?” Magnus says, looking Maryse straight on. He decides not to comment on anything, that would just make the situation worse and Magnus isn’t in the mood to fight with Maryse. Magnus has never liked the woman, he doesn’t think he ever will, but he respects Alec and his siblings enough not to trash her in front of them. Even if Maryse never shows him the same curtesy.
Maryse ignores him, as usual, and turns to Shawn with a well place smile. “I’ve already got us a table, but we better get back to it before it gets taken. Come on Max.”
Maryse turns with Shawn, expecting Max to follow her, and heads towards a table on the other side of the room. Only, Max doesn’t budge from his spot next to Magnus. Maryse turns around after a few seconds, checking to see if Max is following her, and frowns once she realizes he hasn’t moved.
“Maxwell,” Maryse hissed, “I know you heard me.”
Magnus frowns, not liking her tone. Over the months that Max has lived with Alec and him, Magnus has grown very fond of the youngest lightwood. He loves him a lot, he’s grown very protective of him, and he doesn’t like the way Maryse just talked to him.
“I want to stay with Magnus,” Max says, avoiding looking at his mother. He stays half hidden behind Magnus, gaze trained down at the ground in front of him, and all but ignores his mother.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maryse dismisses his claim, coming back to stand in front of Magnus and Max. She grabs Max’s hand and pulls him towards her, managing to shake Max’s balance enough to almost make him fall.
The unexpected movement jerks Max forward, forcing him to let go of Magnus’ hand. Though Max doesn’t show it, he’s always been good at concealing things, he can tell that the sudden movement had hurt his arm. Magnus knows Maryse loves her son, probably more than she loves anything, and he’s never doubted that. But she doesn’t always have Max’s best interest at heart and she doesn’t always take his comfort in to account. That is the biggest problem Magnus had with Maryse. Sometimes she cared more about what she needed than what her own son needed, and that didn’t fly with Magnus.
“Stop,” Magnus says, voice unwavering, quickly intervening. He tries not to come between Maryse and Max, he and Alec both do, but Max is clearly scared and doesn’t want to go sit at a table with Shawn. Magnus isn’t going to let Maryse force Max to go with her, no matter how much Maryse will hate him because of it.
“What,” Maryse says to Magnus, clenching her teeth tightly, “did you just say to me?”
“Stop,” Magnus says once again, this time a tad more forceful. “Max doesn’t want to sit with you, he’s going to come sit with me. You can still take him home with you when you leave, he’s only going to sit with me through dinner.”
Maryse clearly isn’t a fan of this plan, if the look on her face is anything to go by. If she were a cartoon character, steam would be billowing out of her ears in droves. But, more than anything, she doesn’t want to make a scene. Maryse’s need to look good will always outweigh her need to debate her point, a fact that has always worked in Magnus’ favor. It doesn’t matter how much she hates Magnus right now; she’s not going to say a thing to him about it.
“You’re really going to choose Magnus Bane over me?” Maryse asks, in a way that suggests the idea is the greatest insult Max could ever give her. As if Max telling his mother he didn’t want to sit with the man who had beat the shit out of Alec for two years was a personal attack against her.
Max stays silent, rooted in place once again next to Magnus. He had hesitantly reached up to grab Magnus’ hand, as if he’d be reprimanded for seeking that slight bit of comfort, right after Maryse had pulled him forward and almost made him fall. Now, his grip was as tight as ever.
When Max doesn’t say anything, Maryse gets her answer and she doesn’t like what she hears. “Well then,” she says, turning around and stalking off without another word.
“Who was that man?” Max asks once she’s gone. “I don’t remember much but I think he hurt Alec.”
Magnus sighs heavily and leads Max towards a table, his hand still clutched loosely in Max’s. He was only four when Alec dated Shawn, it’s not surprising he doesn’t remember much. “He did,” Magnus says sadly. He’s not going to go in to details about what had happened, he knows for sure that’s not something that Alec wants, but he’s not going to lie to the kid. “Pretty bad, actually. It was a while ago; you were just a little kid when it happened. He’s not a very nice man.”
“Why is Mommy talking to him then, if he hurt Alec?” Max asks and Magnus is so not prepared to answer that question.
“Your Mom just has some business to do,” Magnus says. He’s not about to trash talk Maryse, not to Max, even if that means he can’t tell Max what he really wants to. “It’s okay though, you don’t have to be around him if you don’t want to.”
“She always has business to do,” Max says, a little dejectedly, and stares at the ground as he follows beside Magnus. He doesn’t know what to say to that, everything in his head seems wrong, so he just sighs heavily and keeps his mouth shut.
It’s at that moment they reach their table and Max doesn’t say anything else. Magnus has always hated it when Maryse brings Max to functions like these, they just aren’t intended for children, and now he’s got to be the one to try and entertain a nine-year-old at a boring gala he shouldn’t even be at. Magnus doesn’t even bring Alec to all of these functions, even he gets bored and annoyed while attending them, and he wouldn’t ever think of taking Max to one.
Maryse is only in New York every once and a while so she tries to balance spending time with Max and getting all her business done. Meaning, half the time she forces Max to attend boring events he has no business being at because she can’t give up her work to spend real time with her son. It drove Alec and Magnus both crazy, but they figured at least she was spending some time with him.
Thankfully, everyone else at his table seems to be okay with the sudden inclusion of Max. They had already talked a lot about business while they were mingling earlier, Magnus is pretty sure he’s all but officially sealed the deal. They seem to be content with keeping the conversation away from business because of Max; Magnus is grateful for that.
The ride home is silent, not a word is spoken between Max and his mother, and it kind of scared Max. He wishes his dad were here, he always knew how to mediate between the two of them. But he’s been spending less and less time with his mom, meaning he’s spending even less time with Max, and that’s starting to worry him for an entirely different reason.
Maryse doesn’t say anything, instead choosing to scroll through her phone, and Max can’t find any words to break through the terrifying silence. Instead he plays with his own cell phone, an expensive smart phone his mom had gotten for him when she failed to show up to his birthday party, and tries not to look over at his mom.
The stiff silence is broken by his mom’s driver pulling up in front of Maryse’ house and the two of them get out of the car. Max jumps as his mom slams the door, making him incredibly nervous, and slowly follows her inside. It’s then, behind the privacy of their own home, that his mom really lets her anger show. She’s always had a problem with yelling, she’s never really known how to talk to her own children without screaming, and Max isn’t surprised in the slightest.
“Really, Max?” she asks, turning to him with a look of disappointment on her face. “Do you know how embarrassing that was for me? I had friends, business partners, acquaintances at that party. They saw my son sitting with someone else and kept asking me what was going on, especially because you were sitting with him of all people.”
“Magnus is nice,” Max says, “I don’t know why you hate him so much. He’s Alec’s fiancée and he loves him a lot.”
“Nice?” Maryse says, frowning hard. “Why are you so naive? Magnus is a trainwreck, I will never approve of him. Alec could do better than him and the fact that you chose him over me is unacceptable.”
“I just didn’t want to sit with that man,” Max says, trying to justify his actions. “I don’t like him; he… scares me.”
“Scared? Really, Max?” Maryse sighs, shaking her head. “I’m assuming your brother has been clouding your thoughts with misinformation again. There’s nothing wrong with Shawn, he does have a history with Alec but that was five years ago. He needs to move on.”
Max feels tears start to well up in his eyes. He knows his mom is angry, she doesn’t like it when he cries, but once he starts it’s hard for him to stop. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you seriously about to cry?” Maryse says, scoffing. “Good Lord, Max, are you ever going to grow up? You can’t cry over everything, you seriously need to toughen up and stop acting like a baby. I raised you better than that.”
“I want to go home!” Max screams, throat closing up as tears threaten to fall. “I want to go home, now.”
“Home?” Maryse says, body dangerously still. “Your home is here, not with Alec and Magnus.”
Max tries to stop himself from crying but he can’t. The tears keep coming and he feels like he’s going to have a panic attack. “I just want Alec and Magnus,” Max says, half way to hyperventilating, and his hands come up to try to stop the sounds he’s making. “I want to go home.”
“I didn’t do anything, Max," Maryse says, frowning. Max doesn't like the way she's talking to him right now. "I don’t know why you’re crying.”
“I just want to go home,” Max begs, trying to keep the sounds he’s making to a minimum. His mom doesn’t know how to handle him like this, she’s not calming and caring and nice like Magnus and Alec are, and he just wants them. They know what to do when he gets like this, Max just wants them. "Please, I don't want to be here anymore."
“Why you,” Maryse says, rage in her eyes, as she takes a few steps closer. She reaches up and slaps Max across the face.
His mom hits him hard enough to knock him off balance and Max lands hard on his wrist. He scrambles away from her quickly, suddenly terrified. His mom has never hit him before and he doesn’t know how to react. His face stings and his wrist throbs as he scrambles away from her, tears slowly falling down his face.
“Oh my God,” Maryse says, hands coming up to cover her face. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean that. Max, that was an accident. You know I would never hurt you intentionally. Please, you have to understand and you can’t tell Alec. He won’t get it.”
Max doesn’t listen to her. Instead he runs up the stairs, quickly pulling out his phone and dialing a familiar number before he slams his bedroom door shut.
Alec doesn’t bother knocking when he gets to his mother’s house. Instead, he barges right in with Magnus close behind him. Maryse is in the foyer, sitting in a chair angled in the corner next to the winding staircase. To her credit, she does incredibly guilty. Maryse has done a lot of things she should be ashamed of but Alec has never seen her like this before.
The thing is, though, he doesn’t care. Putting her hands on Max will never fly with him, he doesn’t care what her excuses are, and he’s going to be damn sure she knows that.
“We just got inside Max, it’s okay to come down now,” Magnus says, stopping in the doorway, as he hangs up the phone. He doesn’t say anything else but his gaze is focused on Maryse and Alec can tell he’s thrumming with hatred.
The three of them are quiet as they here footsteps rush down the hall. Soon enough Max is joining them, refusing to look at Maryse who’s now standing. “I’m so sorry, Max,” Maryse says, wringing her hands. She generally looks really sorry. Alec still doesn’t care.
Max doesn’t say anything. He stands between Alec and Magnus, staring down at the ground. “Hey,” Alec says with a soft smile as he turns to face Max. “Why don’t you go wait in the car with Magnus, I’ll be right out.”
“Okay,” Max says, throwing a hesitant look over his shoulder at Maryse, before he takes Magnus’ hand and the two of them head to the car.
Alec waits before he’s sure Max can no longer hear him before he speaks again. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he says, voice almost as loud as a scream.
“It was an accident, you have to believe me,” Maryse says, taking a few steps towards Alec. “I didn’t mean to hit him. I just got so angry and I couldn’t help myself.”
“That’s not an excuse,” Alec says, gritting his teeth. “You don’t get to say sorry, that it was an accident, and then expect everything to be okay. Max is a child, your child, you don’t get to touch him like that. You don’t get to touch anyone like that.”
“Alec, please,” Maryse pleads, looking disheveled. “I couldn’t help it; it was an accident. Okay? I didn’t mean it.”
“I don’t understand why you think that makes this okay,” Alec says. “Are you fucking insane? You just told me you couldn’t help yourself, how am I supposed to take that? You apparently don’t have enough control over yourself if you can’t stop yourself from hitting your son.”
“This is the reason why I didn’t want Max to call you,” Maryse says, sighing heavily. “I knew you would react like this.”
“You wanted to keep this hidden from me?” Alec says, angrier than he was before. “You wanted Max to lie to me, about something like this? He called me crying on the phone, terrified, and literally begged me to come and get him. Magnus couldn’t get off the phone with him the entire ride over hear because he was having the worst panic attack he’s ever had. I’ve never seen him that scared in my life. How did you expect me to react?”
“I barely touched him!” Maryse says, throwing her hands out at her sides. “I regretted it immediately after it happened. I just got so angry, okay? Frist he chose Magnus over me, then he said he wanted to go home. I shouldn’t have done it but this is home, I will always be his home, and Magnus is not his parent. Max needs to understand that.”
“Are you seriously trying to justify hitting him right now?” Alec asks, starting to pace. “Why the fuck would you think that would be okay with me?”
Maryse sighs and takes a deep breath, trying to get a hold of herself. “I don’t want to justify it; I’m just trying to explain. I didn’t mean to do it and I get why you’re pissed at me but you have to understand. I would never do anything to hurt him, you know that. I love my son.”
“You just hurt him,” Alec says, unable to believe what he’s hearing right now. “You hurt him bad and you don’t seem to care that much about it.”
“Of course, I care!” Maryse says, sounding shocked. “I’m his mother, I love him. Accidents happen, I would never intentionally hurt him.”
“The fact that you didn’t mean to hurt him means nothing to me,” Alec says, shaking his head. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that you lost control and hurt Max. You’re lucky I don’t try to sue you for custody of him because I am seriously so close to doing it you have no idea.”
Maryse actually has the audacity to laugh and that does nothing but piss Alec off even more. “Alec, please. You know you’d never win. I’m his mother, I’ve got the money and the influence to take you down.”
“Oh really?” Alec says, clenching his fists. “Wanna try me? Magnus has more money than you do and just as much influence. You don’t want to take us on, you will lose. I do everything for Max, everything. I go to his parent/teacher conferences; I take him to the doctor; I handle his anxiety and therapy sessions; I make sure he is safe and happy and that he gets his homework done on time.
“I’m the one he goes to when he has problems,” Alec continues, “because I’m the one who’s actually there. I spend time with him, I provide for him, I’m the one taking care of him every fucking day. I don’t expect anything out of it, I do it because I love my brother and I can give him a better life than you can right now. You see him once a month, usually less, and you tend to bail on of your skype calls with Max. I know much more about your kid and I know that kills you inside.”
Alec is breathing heavily by the end of his mini rant, so worked up he could barely even stand it. The room soon descends into silence and a look crosses over his mother’s face he’s never seen before. It’s a look of shame and deep sorrow. He always guessed this arrangement and the fact that Alec does more for Max than Maryse has ever done gets to her, but he’s never seen that sentiment so clear on her face before.
Still, it doesn’t matter to him and he’s not going to pity her no matter what. It’s her own damn fault and Alec’s not going to let her make him feel bad for taking care of his brother the way that he needs to. He’s needed to get that off of his chest for a long time now and it feels so good to finally say it. It’s just been sitting there, weighing him down, and Alec just couldn’t take it anymore.
“I hit him once,” Maryse says slowly, almost pleading with him. “It was an accident, I never meant to hit him. Obviously I’d never hit him with the intention of actually hurting him and it’s never going to happen again.”
“No,” Alec says, shaking his head. “You don’t get to do that with him. You don’t get to act like this was nothing. Not with Max, that’s not how it works. He called me sobbing, Mom, terrified, and you just want me to act like that was nothing?”
“But it was –” Maryse starts but Alec quickly cuts her off.
“I don’t care what you thought it was, Mom. When will you understand that this isn’t about your perception of the situation,” Alec says, sighing heavily. “Your opinion doesn’t matter on this subject. All I care about is what Max thinks, he’s the one you hurt. Right now he’s hurt and he’s scared and he wants to go home, where he belongs. Because that is his home, it’s where he lives, and I don’t care what you think about that. This is about what Max needs, not your ego.”
And with that, without saying another word to Maryse, Alec turns on his heel and lets the door slam shut behind him.
"We need to go to the emergency room," Magnus says, the second Alec gets in the car. "Max landed hard on his arm when Maryse hit him and it's really hurting him; look at it."
Alec shifts his attention to Max, who's sitting in the back seat of their car. He looks scared, his eyes are a little puffy from crying so much, and there's still a bright red mark on his face from where Maryse had slapped him. He looks down at Max's wrist and notices how swollen it is.
"Okay," Alec says, trying his damnedest to keep his cool when all he wants to do is scream right now. "We gotta take you to the doctor so they can look at your wrist."
"I'm sorry," Max says, sniffing softly as he look down at the ground. "Don't be mad at me."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Max," Magnus says, pulling out of the drive way. "This isn't on you; you didn't do anything wrong."
"Promise?" he asks and Magnus and Alec share a look that says everything.
"I swear," Alec reassures, staring out the window as buildings flash past him. If Max's arm is broken, or even sprained, Maryse is going to have hell to pay.