The Malec Chronicles

Mementos

He's moved back in.

Alec had hardly been able to believe it, when he woke up beside Magnus and didn't have to feel like he should have already snuck out the front door. Instead, he gets to roll over and bury himself back under the covers, wrap an arm around Magnus and attempt to pull him closer without waking him up, closing his eyes against the sun and hoping he would get a few more hours of sleep.

(Sleep has been hard for Magnus ever since the Sebastian and demon realm fiasco, not that it was ever easy.)

"What time is it?" Magnus asks, stirring, blinking over at him groggily. This is the Magnus that Alec had missed the most, the one that was just for him. Messy hair, smudged make up that he had stayed up too late to bother taking off the night before, loose sweatpants and a worn down shirt and soft smiles. If Alec had to pick a favorite version of him, it would be this version of Magnus, but that's just because he knows no one alive (other than maybe Camille, but he's decided she doesn't count anymore) has seen, and Alec is a possessive bastard like that sometimes.

"Too early. Go back to bed." Alec tries to make him listen, he does, but Magnus is already up and moving around the room, making Alec bite back a groan. He'd gathered that the longer you're alive, the less sleep you need, and almost all warlocks have problems with insomnia. (Except Catarina, Magnus has said, but that's just because she does so much during the day she's too exhausted to keep her eyes open by night.) Magnus stays up too late and has trouble staying asleep, but he tends to sleep in through most of the morning unless Alec wakes him up. And even though Alec wanted more sleep, even though they've both told each other not to worry about keeping the same sleep schedules, Alec can't help but feel that he has to drag himself out of bed now that his boyfriend is up and moving.

Boyfriend.

He likes being able to say that.

Said boyfriend is standing in front of the night stand now, frowning down at the picture frame with his brows furrowed. He's thinking, his thoughts stormy on his face, and Alec reaches out to tug at his wrist, messing with his fingers and trying to pull him back to him, back to the present, away from whatever is making him look like that. "After we..." He starts, and stops, fingers tapping out rapid fire against the part of Alec's wrist that he could reach. "When you came back to get your stuff, it was gone."

Alec just watched him, sensing that this wasn't something that Magnus had really wanted to talk about, but hadn't been able to forget. "I left the picture frame. I wanted you to.." It feels stupid now, to think of the anger that had settled into his chest and the pain that formed as lumps in his throat and the lonely that settled into his bones with the cold. "I guess I just wanted you to look over and not be able to forget that I was gone."

"I wasn't able to forget that. Not for one minute." They've had their talks about this already, of course, during those awkward and awful conversations that Alec had insisted they had, just to wash away any unresolved issues or resentments that might have been hovering around them otherwise. There will be bad days, he thought, but they can be new bad days, not the constant rehash of old arguments. "I barely came into the bedroom. I didn't even want to be in the loft."

Alec was glad that Magnus felt it , the sense that Alec belonged here too, that it was his home now. That he had felt the shadow of all the memories, knows that this place belongs to the two of them now. "I looked at it before I went to bed. When I could. Jace threatened to burn it if he caught me looking at it one more time."

This was a stupid thing to admit to, but Alec had been painfully honest about how he felt when they were separated, because it seemed to be the only way to prove that he really did love Magnus, that he had already paid his penance for what he had done. Magnus gets it, and even though he hadn't been as honest about how dark the past few weeks had been for him (maybe it all got overshadowed by his time as a hostage, Alec didn't know), Alec could see it in the look on his face when he thinks Alec isn't looking- thoughtful, grateful, like Alec back in the apartment was still something he couldn't believe was real.

This was a sad thing, but they had spent enough time on sad things, so Alec is grateful when Magnus makes a smile slides on his face and makes his way back into bed again. "I'm really glad he didn't burn it."

Alec looked over his shoulder at the picture, which wasn't their only memento of their trip around the world but was certainly his favorite. "Yeah," He says softly, turning to look at Magnus instead. "Me too."