A/N First time dancing and also the start of their first and only break-up! Sorry! (Except not really shushh)

Magnus recieved a text from his Shadowhunter and smiled to himself way more than he should've, and opened his phone.

Alec: Hey, Magnus. Do you think I can come over today? X

Magnus: Of course, Alexander! I haven't seen you in five days and that's totally unacceptable xxx

Alec: Haha, I'll come over after training. 

Magnus: Sounds amazing. I'll make sure I'll have a cup of coffee at the ready xx

Alec: The evening is sounding better and better 😂x

Magnus: Indeed it is. See you soon, my darling xx

Alec: Yeah. See you Magnus xx

Magnus wanted, with almost an ache, to put say 'I love you' after every message, but they hadn't discussed those feelings yet. After Alec confirmed that he wanted Magnus but was nervous, they'd not talked much more about those feelings, both happy to kiss on the sofa and ending the night cuddling on the bed. Magnus knew he had to bring up the conversation at some point, but he didn't want to scare off Alec, wanted Alec to feel sure of himself before doing anything.

Magnus busied himself around the loft, magicking up a song as he danced around the loft, cleaning and brewing and translatinfg. At around five, Alec knocked and Magnus let him enter, still dancing around the loft and it was only after a few moments that Magnus realised Alec was still stood at the threshold.

"Alexander?" Magnus asked, dancing his way to Alec and stopping before him.

"Oh - um -" Alec seemed to shake himself out of his reverie, "Hi."

"Enjoying the show?" Magnus winked and Alec blushed.

"Come on then," Magnus urged, "Dance with me."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Magnus," Alec sighed, "I'll probably kill your foot."

"Let me be the judge of that, sweetheart," Magnus purred, kissing his jaw, and helping him shrug out of the leather jacket. He then tugged at Alec's hand, so with a defeated smile, Alec let Magnus clear some space in the loft, and went into his embrace.

"Just let go," Magnus whispered, linking their hands together and placing another on Alec's waist. He guided Alec's hands to his shoulders and started moving them around.

Alec was no dancer, but he trusted Magnus, so he let himself move with the warlock and after a moment, he relaxed and then he was dancing. Dancing with the incredible Magnus Bane!

It was a literal fairytale moment, especially as Magnus drew the curtains shut and allowed his magic to make little globes of blue light float around the loft. Alec leaned his head on Magnus' shoulder.

"For someone who complained so much about dancing," Magnus teased, "You seem to be enjoying yourself."

"Because it's with you," Alec sighed.

"Damn, Alexander, my flirting skills must be rubbing off on you," Magnus sighed, "That was very sweet."

Alec blushed and pulled Magnus closer, relishing as Magnus gave a quiet gasp of pleased surprise. Magnus started a trail of kisses from Alec's ear, down his jaw and to his neck, lightly teasing the skin as Alec shuddered underneath him.

He was still dancing, but Alec seemed to be losing control of his movements as Magnus kissed and kissed, tugging him using his beltloops to get impossibly closer.

"Magnus," the voice came hoarse and deep.

"Yes, Alexander?" Magnus said in an intended teasing voice, as if he had no clue what he was doing to Alec.

"S - sofa," Alec gasped out when Magnus kissed a particularly sensitive spot.

"Impatient, huh?" Magnus winked, but tugged him to the sofa, quietening the music and tipping Alec onto the sofa, climbing over him and yet again nibbling at the sensitive skin of his neck.

He ran his hands all over Alec, down his clothed chest and abs, trailing feather-light touches across his arms that had Alec arching up, tugging at Magnus' hair harder. And then Magnus stopped the touching and kissing, staring at Alec's forearm. 

Alec looked at Magnus' point of concern and let out a noise which was so different to the others this evening. This one sounded wounded and pained. 

He'd forgotten his iratze.

~~~ 6 Days Ago ~~~

Alec had been watching a movie with Magnus when he'd recieved a call from Jace to say they found a rogue vampire nest and had to attend to it, so he'd excused himself from the loft and gone to the nest and found their leader, Camille, grinning.

"Ah, the famous, Alec Lightwood," Camille smirked at him, "Boyfriend of Magnus, huh?"

"Don't see what that's got to do with the fact we're going to shut this place down," Jace bit back. Camille was looking at Alec intensly.

"Tell me, Shadowhunter, what do you even know about him?" Camille asked, "Do you know who his parents are, or about his tendencies to go looking for love, about his and I's past? What do you even know?"

"Camille-" Jace threatened.

"Oh shut up," she snapped, "Shut this nest down. Go on. Whatever."

Alec stared and realised that it was the truth. He'd known a while ago that Magnus never told him anything. Once, he'd stumbled upon Magnus crying but Magnus wouldn't tell him what was going on, when someone said hi at a restaurant, Magnus merely said it was a friend and wouldn't say a word more. Alec knew this. Alec knew.

"And you, Alexander," Camille slurrued, "Don't realise that you're just a page in his long life. That you barely know anything about him because he's a monster. Because, Shadowhunter, you're so fleeting, a mere second in his life, that it doesn't matter to him what you know and don't. So stop fooling yourself. He will never love you the way you do."

Alec tried his best to not speak back, not say a word, but the words were ripped out of him. "What are you to him? How do you know him?"

"Ah... Everything I've told you so far is free. Anymore and you're going to have to pay up." She turned to Jace. "Am I under arrest or what?"

"Yes," Jace snapped and dragged her away to the Institute prisons whilst Alec was shutting the nest down, all the while the words of Camille ringing in his ears. In all honestly, Alec had always had these thoughts, but hearing Camille say then brought the feelings to life all too vividly.

What do you even know about him? A page in his life. So fleeting. A mere second. He will never love you...

And Alec did the unforgivable. He went down to the prisons that night and looked Camille in the eye, eyes blazing.

"What's the payment?" Alec said, knowing he was betraying Magnus, getting himself into something irreversible, but Camillie had been right. He was trivial. A checkbox of people Magnus had dated in his long life. Someone who would last such a little time that it was effort to fill in the gaps of his life to. He wanted to know just a little bit about Magnus, to make himself feel less trivial in Magnus' life, so that he could say: here, I do know stuff about him.

"You." Camille said.

"W - what?"

"Oh, not like that," Camille rolled her eyes, "I want your blood. For every bite, I answer one of your questions."

"But -" Alec thought to himself. He was being an idiot, of course he was. But how long was he going to go without knowing anything? "Okay."

And it started. Every night for the next five days, Alec would go to the prisons and get little bits of information: who Camille was to Magnus, his other exes, and just simple things like his favourite place. He didn't ask about the intimate stuff (home country, parents); he wanted Magnus to open up about that when the warlock felt Alec wasn't just a fleeting lover. 

But knowing these small things brought a numb joy to Alec and he kept going with it, hiding the bitemarks with iratzes.

~~~ Present ~~~

"Get out," Magnus snapped very quietly when Alec, looking at floor, admitted where the bitemarks were from.

"Magnus-"

"I said, get out," the warlock said louder.

"I'll tell you why - why I did it," Alec offered sadly.

"Alec, snooping around behind my back about my life cannot be justified by any reason. Get out, Alec."

"But -"

"I said get out!" the warlock all but screamed, flicking his wrist and opening the door with a crash.

And Alec hung his head and walked out, eyes brimming with tears. What the hell had he done? Why had he trusted Camille and why the hell had he gone investigating Magnus' past in the most unethical way. Magnus was his boyfriend, not a prisoner of the Clave to be investigated upon. He had been an idiot and he knew since he agreed for the deal.

As he stepped out of the loft, he heard Magnus gently whisper, "Goodbye, Alec," and it pained the Shadowhunter that it was no longer 'Alexander.'

A/N What do you guys think? Please comment, vote and share!

Love, IC ❤️