A Malec Story

Chapter 79: Moving Day

Alec

Alec was standing in the middle of his room, taking it all in. The walls were empty. The book shelves, too. The bed was made with simple white bedding. It looked like any other impersonal Institute room now. On the ground next to the door stood a dozen boxes with his books, clothes and other stuff in it.

He was moving out today. He always knew he would. It was very common, too, for Shadowhunters who turned eighteen to move out of their parents' house. Go visit other Institutes, or go to Idris to study law or specialize in Rune studies. But he wasn't doing any of that. Today he was moving in with his boyfriend, the High Warlock of Brooklyn. That made him stand out. No other Shadowhunter he knew of ever did something similar. He knew people criticized him because of it. Being gay was bad enough, but dating a warlock... He was lucky there were new Accords, in which it was clear that Shadowhunters and warlocks were on the same side. If Magnus were a faerie they'd be in real trouble now. Since the Cold Peace it was forbidden to engage in any relationship with a faerie.

There was a knock on his door and he turned around to see his mother standing there. She'd come home from Idris early this morning. "Do you really need to leave today?" she asked, sounding a bit frustrated. "Why the hurry, Alec?"

"What hurry?" he said, "I have Magnus back now, I'm not going to waste another second apart from him. You have any good reason for me to stay here?"

Maryse looked a bit sad. "I love you."

"Then wouldn't you want me to do what makes me happy?" Alec answered.

Maryse nodded and Alec continued, "You don't have to be afraid that you won't be seeing me anymore. I'll still come every day. I need to train. I need to make sure Jace won't bring us into new trouble, as you know he's a liability."

Maryse smiled then. "Good to know. You need any help with the boxes?"

"No, he doesn't," came a familiar voice from behind Maryse. Magnus appeared in the door opening and snapped his fingers. The boxes disappeared and Maryse yelped, startled. Alec laughed as Magnus stepped around Maryse and held up his hands, blue sparks sprang off his fingers.

"The perks of dating a warlock," he said, wriggling his eyebrows.

"You should be careful with that," Alec said, "How do you know the Chairman isn't crushed by the boxes now?"

"Because," Magnus said, looking at Alec accusingly, "I know where my cat is and I would never do anything to harm him."

"How do you know where he is?" Alec asked. "You haven't always known where he is."

"Uhm," Magnus looked contrite, "But now I do, because I locked him in the kitchen just to be sure."

Magnus took Alec's hand then and looked around his empty room. "Seems like you're all done here," he smiled down at him.

"But you will stay for dinner, tonight, won't you?" Maryse asked.

"Sure!" Magnus beamed at her, "We'd love to, wouldn't we, honey?"

"Hmphm," Alec said, not feeling entirely comfortable with Magnus calling him honey in front of his mother.

They went to the kitchen where they found Clary and Jace cooking. "Hi, Magnus," Clary said, "Jace and I made spaghetti for Alec's farewell meal. Do you like spaghetti?"

"Who wouldn't like spaghetti?" Magnus asked and then he looked at Alec. "Is spaghetti your favorite food?"

"I don't really have one favorite kind of food." Alec shrugged, "But I like the way Jace makes it. He's actually quite good at cooking Italian."