a gleeful year / malec

Bathrooms and Brothers

In one movement Alec managed to push Magnus away and shoot a terrified glance at the door. There in the entryway was none other than Jace Lightwood. His eyebrows were at his hairline and the silence that followed his arrival was deafening, until Magnus' smooth voice cleaved it in half.
"I am very sorry about that Alexander, but you couldn't seriously expect me to let you leave my house looking like that without my marking you."
Alec shot him a sad look, "Uh, it's fine, man, don't worry about it." He mumbled and looked back to Jace, cheeks burning. "Let's go home." He said, looking at the ground.
Jace nodded and pushed out of the door, waving awkwardly at Magnus.

Alec moved out after Jace, letting his hand brush Magnus' as he left the room. Jace turned to him as they reached the top of the stairs, "It's okay, you know." He said with a pointed glance towards the now closed bathroom door. Alec followed his gaze and then began the descent down the twisting staircase, already locking himself in, "I have no clue what you're talking about." Alec responded, leaving the other boy standing on the stairs, jaw clenched.

☆☆

Magnus leaned against the bathroom door, listening through the wood. Either Alec and Jace were talking very loudly, or this door was thinner than Magnus had originally presumed. He sighed, hand still tingling from where Alec had touched it and heart still racing from the actions a moment previous. He listened as he heard Jace reassuring Alec. Magnus felt himself smile, Alec would be fine. He was lucky to have such a loving brother.
And then he heard Alec's reply.
His smile fell like a toddler down the stairs.

A cold bucket of water had throughly doused the heat that had been in his body mere seconds ago and Magnus took a step away from the door. He almost fell into the grasp of sadness that threatened to overtake his senses, however, he simply faced the sink and turned the faucet on, staring at his reflection until he was certain the Lightwoods had left his home.

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For the next two days, endless text messages had plagued Magnus' phone. All of them from none other than Isabelle Lightwood. Magnus decided he'd play it cool and not open a single one, all while consuming copious amounts of chocolate and self-pity.
This plan had been working well for him since the clean up effort on his house had finished, right up until the moment an ear piercing buzz had sounded throughout his townhouse. The sulking teenager was putting in as much effort as he could to ignore it, the constant buzz, buzz, buzz-

The door flew open to reveal a nonplussed Isabelle, moving her hand in to hit the doorbell again before she saw him, such sorry sight that she had to stop herself from recoiling slightly.
He was clad in hair that held the remnant of three day old gel, eyes ringed with black smudges and a crumpled t-shirt that was entirely plain. Magnus had only ever looked this disheveled once before and the memory of that was enough to almost send him back to the unsightly crease in his lounge, his home for the past 48 hours.
Isabelle only rolled her eyes, scoffing at the pure drama-queen etched in every line of his face.
"What's this, Magnus?" She questioned, hand on her hip.
Magnus simply raised his eyebrows, "What are you doing at the door of my house?"
Rolling her eyes, she pushed inside, "I think we both know the answer to that, and I must say that i'm surprised," Isabelle paused, eyeing off the filthy living room, "I didn't think you'd crack first."

Magnus furrowed his eyebrows and followed her inside, closing the door. He was by no means in the mood for this conversation.
"Are you going to explain what you mean?" He inquired, trudging his way into the kitchen in search of a caffeinated drink.
Isabelle dropped onto the stool at his breakfast bar, watching Magnus pour the boiling coffee. "Out of you and Alec, y'know? I didn't think you'd be the one to go and cower as fast as you could."
The boy began to stir the contents of his mug slowly, "Do you even have any idea what happened, Isabelle?"

The teen smirked smugly, "Yes, I do. Jace walked in on the two of you getting all close and personal, so now you're busying yourself with hiding away and he is acting twice as aloof as usual." She sat back in her seat with a satisfied expression, as if she had hit the nail on the head with her explanation and was just waiting for Magnus to try and disagree.
So he did.

"Oh, sweet, sweet Isabelle, I wish that was all that happened, but it wasn't and if you would be so kind to leave me alone so that I could drink my espresso in solitude, it would be greatly appreciated."
She only grinned in challenge.

"Ten dollars says that you're overreacting." Isabelle stared him down, legs crossed and quiet laughter dancing in her eyes. Magnus only glared back, "I am not overreacting." He said with utmost certainty. She scoffed and leaned back cockily, "Then please, do share what he said to ruin you so thoroughly."
Magnus busied himself with stirring his drink before allowing a mumble to slip past his lips.
"He said that he didn't know what Jace was talking about."
This time Isabelle was the one furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, "I'm sorry... what?"
"You wouldn't understand, Izzy." He persisted, moving around the bench to the living room, "Besides, is it really that important?"
"If you're this cut up over it, then yes."
Magnus dragged his coffee to his lips slowly, inhaling the scent before beginning to speak.

"Alec was leaving with Jace, I heard them at the top of the stairs and Jace was trying reassure Alec that things were okay and it was alright that he was... yeah, you know, but Alec just responded with 'I don't know what you mean'. I guess it just hurt me a little is all. I thought we had finished all of the tip-toeing around." Isabelle stared at him as he made the confession, nodding in fake empathy.
"A little upset?" She questioned, a nod from Magnus was the answer.
A beat of silence passed before she spoke up once more, "I suppose you owe me ten dollars then."

Magnus snapped his eyes to hers and frowned suddenly, "How do you win?" Isabelle rolled her eyes, "Magnus, do you seriously expect a closeted football player to confess his love to you in front of anyone right now? You're truly an idiot if you believe for even a second that Alec doesn't care about you, but you're double the idiot for thinking he could climb out of his skin that easily." She grabbed his hands, "You need to pull yourself out of this pool of self pity and haul your ass to school tomorrow, because you will talk to Alexander, and then you'll see how right I am, plus you need to fork out my prize."

Isabelle rose from her chair and flicked the incredibly long hair from her eyes, "Remember Magnus, the role of drama queen is reserved for Clary in our group."

//and the long awaited chapter nine is released! I am so so sorry for the long wait, my release dates are never accurate. Don't listen to me.
But I seriously love you guys so so much, thank you for getting this to 2K reads. As I've said before, 500 was a dream come true and I am obsessing over all of the new profiles that I've seen commenting and adding this story to their library 💞
This fic has been put on the back-burners for so long due to many other projects that I've been working on and I (Alec) have written both POVS for this chapter and probably the next few, so I'd like to apologise for that.
I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter and I would love to hear what you think in the comments!
Stay beautiful,
- faetishh (Alec)