pineslog | [closed] all in the golden afternoon

Entry tags:

[closed] all in the golden afternoon

Who: Magnus Bane (

appetitive), Alec Lightwood (

babyhunter)
Where: Go Ask Alice teahouse
When: April 2nd, afternoon
What: Clary had been looking for someone named Magnus Bane and happened to come across his protective husband. Setting up a meeting for the three of them in a public place just makes sense, right?
Warnings: None!
[Closed]

Though he's not entirely sure why, Magnus is suspicious of the girl asking them to meet—him to meet, technically, but he's thankful to Alec for coming along. His hand is being firmly held by his husband's, and even though he doesn't have any of his weapons with him, Alec is an intimidating force in black leather. It makes Magnus bite back a smile to see him here, sitting in a tufted armchair and surrounded by floral wallpaper, drinking from a delicate china teacup. The teahouse had struck Magnus as an ideal place to meet, not only because it was a relaxing setting but also because Alec enjoyed tea so much. And really, with other caffeinated options such as coffee, it would be difficult for anyone not to find a cup of something to enjoy.

Sipping from his cup, rings clinking against the porcelain, Magnus glanced around as they waited for the third and final member of their party to arrive. "Maybe I should put in a job application here," he said, glancing over at Alec, cat eyes glinting golden in the sunlight streaming in from the windows. He was partially trying to calm his own nerves, especially because he had no idea of what caused them. Clary Fray was, from the description Alec gave him, completely ordinary and non-threatening. Yet something niggled at him from the back of his mind, and without any recollection of his past, it felt safer to be cautious until they could find out what it is she might want from them.

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In regards to the witchlight, Magnus took a cue from Alec and said nothing about what had happened when he'd held it. There was already so much that was different about him: his cat eyes, his magic, not to mention his ethnicity and sexuality were both in a small minority compared to everyone around them. With so many reasons for people to see him as something different, something peculiar, he didn't feel comfortable with adding to the list in case it proved dangerous. Magnus knew that he liked being unique, it was obvious from his fashion choices, but not at the cost of his or Alec's safety.

Sharp words broke him from his thoughts, shattering concerns about potential problems and drawing him back to squeeze his hands around Alec's where it rested on his thigh. "Calm, my love," he said softly, stroking his thumb over the large ring on Alec's left hand, "She meant the demons, not you." Not us is implied in the words, though he doesn't speak them. Even if they are all somehow connected, it's a little easier to see the similarities between Alec and Clary thanks to the marks they shared. Even some of Alec's possessions which were being held at the police station were covered in them, and yet nothing about Magnus nor his scant possessions bore one of the strange symbols.

"We're all trying to figure it out together," he added, relaxing his hands and only just realizing they'd been covered in warm blue flames. Sighing, he slumped down in his chair and shook his hands to force the magic to dissipate. "Damn..."

Clary jumped at Alec's outburst. She didn't feel surprise per-say but she was startled. She hadn't been talking about him or Magnus or anyone else. Just those creatures, the way they twisted and moved in her head. She had a dream about them the night before and it was for that reason she drew them this morning. It was a method of getting them out of her head. As if her thoughts could be freed from such a strange and unusual bug like monster.

She never understood why monster had to be bug like. She liked the ones that looked like people or people shaped beats; like zombies. At least she liked them in movies, it was ridiculous to think that such things existed.

Clary had looked down where their hands met, her brows furrowing. She continued to not look surprised but had no idea why nothing was surprising her. "Are you okay Magnus? I really didn't mean for this to be stressful. I just..." She signed feeling her frustration and annoyance twist uncomfortably in her gut. "I want to know. It all feels so familiar."

Even Alec getting mad at her was familiar. Like bursts of anger that he failed to control, Alec was always the emotional one but Clary had no idea why she thought that. They'd only just met.

"Not me, us. Someone thought there was something wrong with us because of what we are," he corrected softly as Magnus soothed away the residual wariness that was causing Alec's self-control to slip. Not just his, he realized when he felt the tingle of flames around his hands. Magnus' magic felt so normal to him, he hadn't even noticed that his hands had been wrapped in flame until his husband swore. Thankfully, Clary was the only one who would have seen the evidence that Magnus wasn't a Mundane.

Why did he label people as 'Mundane'? Alec wasn't even sure what it meant but he knew the three of them weren't Mundanes but he wasn't sure what they were.

Looking at Clary and Magnus, his expression was apologetic and confused. Even with the partial explanation he'd given, he didn't understand the reason for the outburst. It felt right but he knew that Clary didn't intent to hurt either one of them. He was still suspicious, but Alec wasn't sure if that was directed at Clary, her situation, or the memory loss that seemed to be so common in town. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to act like that. Or to cause you to slip, Magnus." Wrapping a hand carefully around his teacup, he let his mind drift, trying to find a reason for his defensiveness. "Someone thought we were monsters," he said slowly, testing the explanation. "They were going to hurt us for what we are. That might be why we're here." That didn't seem quite right but it also felt partially true.

Taking Magnus' hand again to give comfort and to show his husband that his magic didn't frighten him, he let their joined hands rest on his thigh beneath the table so no one would notice if there were any more displays of power. "It does feel familiar and Magnus is right. What you drew are demons. I don't know why we know that, but I know it's right."

Smoothing a hand up the inside of Alec's forearm, Magnus hoped to comfort him without too much intimacy. He could vaguely remember the loathsome feeling of being discriminated against, and yet he wasn't entirely sure if it was for the same reason that Alec seemed to believe. It puzzled him more deeply than Alec's outburst or his show of magic in front of Clary, let alone anyone else in the shop whose eyes had been drawn by the raising of voices. "You are not a monster," he said to Alec, fingers tightening against his arm as his cat eyes darted around the room. He spoke with conviction, and yet there was a clear emphasis on the pronoun—you rather than we. Lashes fluttering as he blinked rapidly, a spell which seemed to come as naturally as breathing settled down over his eyes and disguised them as a common brown without Magnus being aware of the change.

"I'm fine, biscuit," he said, back to a cheerful tone as he lifted both hands and wiggled his fingers in the air. He settled them back on the table so he could raise his cup and once again sip his tea. "No harm done. I wish we knew enough to help you remember, but luckily the memories return over time." Already he and Alec had recalled several details of their lives here, even if the specifics of living in New York were hazy.

Glancing down at his hand as Alec took it, he smiled when it didn't surprise him. Alec had never shown fear of his magic, and in fact it had seemed to draw him closer to Magnus when they were reunited after being discharged from the hospital. "I've been thinking," he said slowly as if the thought were still formulating in his mind as he absentmindedly drew shapes into the palm of Alec's hand. "Alec has mentioned hunting more than once, and plenty of his possessions seem to be some kind of," he paused, turning his hand in the air as he searched for the word, "Gear, all of which have those runes on them. Perhaps there is a connection between that and your demons." He gestured towards the sketchbook while scooting his chair slightly closer to Alec's. "If I'm a warlock, it wouldn't be difficult to imagine the two of you being demon hunters."

Clary took a sip of her tea, using the time to organize her thoughts. The scenes were hazy at best, shadows of a memory fluttering about in her head. She remembered Magnus's name, read on a sign as if it was meant to mark something. She wanted to understand it, the meaning behind that gold lettering but she couldn't recall and thinking about it only gave her a headache.

She gave the pair time, trying her best to ignore their small touches. It was cute but she felt as if she was intruding on something that was theirs. When she felt like she could trust her own voice she placed down her tea cup, listening to it ring softly against the saucer.

"I don't know." She sounded so unsure. "I don't think anyone had thought about me like I was a monster and I don't really look like a Demon Hunter." Clary tried to remember fighting anything but all that came to mind were the self defense classes that Emma taught at the school. She'd gone to a few of those and managed to not fall flat on her face.

"I don't have weapons." At least she didn't yet. "I'm not sure I'd know how to use any either." Another detail clicked in her head. "How does being a warlock fit into all this? They aren't demons." Magnus looked nothing like the grotesque figures she saw in her dream. He was cute, articulant and pleasant. Clary didn't know why but she trusted him. Even if the memory of his name in her head was a little unsettling.

Alec knew that they were being one of those couples that in the past he'd found obnoxious while secretly envying their happiness. They should rein in the PDA, especially when they were trying to figure out the connection binding the three of them, but the freedom to be himself with Magnus was something that he hadn't had before. He wasn't going to hide his feelings when they needed each other and no one in town cared if two men held hands in public.

"We're not monsters," he corrected, voice trailing off when something happened to Magnus' eyes. For a moment, he thought something happened related to the accident, but it felt perfectly normal to see Magnus' eyes shift from gold to brown. Glamour. Something as normal a breathing for Magnus.

"What would a demon hunter look like?" There was only curiosity in his tone. The idea that Clary hunted monsters like the ones in her sketches seemed unlikely but they did have similar possessions and marks.

"My weapons are at the police station. I'm supposed to get them back soon. I want my bow back." The rest were important but he felt like something important was missing without the bow, quiver, and arrows being nearby. Maybe the idea of being a demon hunter wasn't that outlandish if he missed his weapons so much.

Looking at Magnus, he considered the word warlock and the strange one that had lingered in the back of his mind. Returning his attention to Clary, there were two conflicting descriptions: Mundane and Shadowhunter. Which one was she and why were some people Mundanes? "I'm a Shadowhunter. I don't know what it means but I keep thinking of it in relation to the marks and the bow. And I keep remembering a nursery rhyme about hunting."

Magnus looked over at Alec, meeting his eyes, and felt some of his discomfort melting away at the confidence in his words. He could tell that something changed, though, as if he were distracted, and frowned. If it didn't warrant a comment, Magnus would ask him about it when they were home alone once again. For now, he consoled himself by threading his fingers between Alec's once again beneath the table.

"Dressing in black leather seems like a decent start," Magnus said with a teasing tone that was directed at Alec. "But looks aren't everything, so who could really say?" Clary may have been a very petite young woman, but there was a fierceness in her green eyes. "As Alec said, weapons or other times that could cause people harm are confiscated, which could explain your lack of any."

He sighed softly, wishing he remembered more about something that felt like such an important detail about himself. "I don't exactly remember," he said apologetically, deft fingers tracing the rim of his teacup. "Just that I can do magic. My existence, along with these demons, could suggest the possibility that other fantasies may actually be realities.

Blinking rapidly, as if suddenly hit with a thought, Magnus' eyes unfocused from where Clary sat across from him. "Shadowhunter," he echoed pensively, eyebrows pulling together in the shadow of a frown. The word left a bad taste on his tongue, yet Alec had used it to describe himself. "Children of Raziel," he added as the daze passed and he recalled more details. Looking over at Alec in awe, his face relaxed into a smile. "You're nephilim."

Clary had remembered seeing what might have counted as a weapon with her things but she’d declared that there had been some sort of mistake. With that, leaving in that black dress, she thought that maybe those at the police station had reconsidered and kept the items with them. She didn’t expect to see them again however she decided to keep these details to herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the two sitting across from her but that she didn’t really want to be talked into being a demon hunter. Her life wasn’t great but it was hers and she liked it.

At Magnus’s question she began to think harder about what a shadow hunter might really look like. "Maybe like the sort of thing that comes out of a D&D game." She paused, unsure where that came from. An image of a friend rose to mind but it was fuzzy and out of place in her thoughts. She shook her head and quickly retracted the statement. "Never mind."

"Isn’t magic something that people can usually do in stories?" Clary knew there was more to it than that. She’d seen Magnus’s display but some nagging part of her insisted that it wasn’t true. At the same time she heard a smug voice echo a familiar sentence in her head. It was followed up by another comment, one that made her clench her teeth tightly together ‘Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies.’

"It isn’t ridiculous." She proclaimed forcefully before looking at the two across from her. She hadn’t meant to say as much aloud and she felt her cheeks warm. "Sorry." She spoke in a surprised tone, looking down at her tea. "I’m not sure where that came from."

Clary looked between the pair and exhaled. "Wait. Raziel. Nephilim. Children of God?" She didn’t know what it meant, not really but she read and Nephilim was a common enough word when you spent a great deal of time immersing yourself in fantasy.

"Black for hunting through the night," he recited absentmindedly, hoping that saying the phrase aloud might help one of them remember what the runes meant or why Clary was drawing demons in her sketchbook. Staring at the page in front of him, he willed some memory to surface but everything was frustratingly blank except the few things he instinctively knew. Glancing up, he gave Clary a confused look. "What's D&D?"

Reaching for one of the cookies, Alec began breaking it into bits, not realizing he'd offered pieces to both of them until suddenly knew that he'd done the same thing for his siblings. Had there not been enough food when they grew up or was it just automatic to share with those around him? "All the stories are true."

The words felt as right as the nurary rhyme had. It was part of his childhood. It was one reason why Magnus' magic hadn't frightened him. Magic was commonplace to him just like the marks on his skin.

About to take a bite from his piece of the cookie, he scowled as he tried to figure out what Clary meant. Before he could ask, she apologized and he glanced over at Magnus. "If other fantasies are true, that would explain some of my scars." There were too many of them to pretend that they were from a normal life. The ones across his chest looked like he'd been clawed up by something large and terrifying.

"Not Children of God. Children of the Angel." The words were said slowly as he tested them, realizing that they felt right. Looking over at Magnus, he wasn't quite sure if he liked the look his husband was giving him. Being part angel seemed normal but for some reason seeing that awe made him realize he'd never live up to the image that 'Nephilim' implied. "Being a Shadowhunter doesn't change who I am." Or who he loved, but he'd wait to tell Magnus that later.

Feeling both confused and unsettled about the entire demon-hunting conversation, Magnus allowed himself to be distracted by the piece of cookie that Alec offered to him. It was a small gesture, yet it made him break into a smile that took the place of the pensive frown he'd previously been wearing. "Thank you, dear," he said softly to show his gratitude without interrupting the flow of conversation.

"If magic only exists in stories," he said, lifting a hand and stirring the spoon in his cup merely by twirling a finger through the air a few inches above it, "Then clearly, at least some of the stories are true. The ones involving magic, for starters." He made to say more, but Clary's outburst startled him into silence. His concentration gone, the spoon handle bent itself in half and sank below the surface of his tea. Slouching down in his chair, he pushed the cup aside.

Seeing the shadow of doubt in Alec's eyes, Magnus reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder. "There's still a lot to process, and even more that no one at this table knows. We may remember sooner or later, but for now, perhaps we shouldn't strain ourselves to answer every question in one night."

Clary felt relief wash over her at Magnas's words. They didn't need to know everything right now, they had time. Time didn't feel like it was on he side but she wanted to believe him. Her eyes dropped down to her tea while thoughts clattered and scampered in her mind. She didn't think she was a child of an angel but as much as she wanted to scream and yell about it she knew she couldn't. It wasn't Alec's fault and it wasn't Magnas's fault either.

"You're right. Beating our heads against the table trying to remember won't help any of us." She exhaled a slow breath and then pushed a bit of he hair over her shoulder. "Thanks for meeting with me, anyway." Clary felt like the conversation had run it's course. Now she wanted to go home, go to where she thought was home and draw, do something to spill her thoughts from her head.

"Oh." She looked down at the tea. "How much was this?" She hadn't even thought about it but she should probably pay for her cup before making her exit.

His expression turned worried as he watched Magnus. For whatever reason, the turn the conversation had taken was having a negative effect on his husband. Maybe I'm not good enough. As soon as he thought it, he pushed the idea way. Magnus chose him. He must have wanted Alec even with the strange backgrounds they both had. Doubting their relationship when they didn't even remember it was asking for trouble.

And this wasn't about him. This was something else that was causing Magnus to be uncomfortable. Alec gave him a reassuring smile while carefully ignoring what happened to the spoon. Magnus' magic was unpredictable at times, but he hadn't seen something like that happen before. Whatever it was about magic and Angels that was unnerving him needed to be discussed in private.

"You're welcome. We'll figure this out eventually" The words were polite, but Alec wasn't sure if he really wanted to be polite. The happy bubble that had surrounded them had been broken and doubt was making it difficult to rebuild. "Don't worry about the tea. It's our treat."

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[closed] all in the golden afternoon

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