A/U: Magnus and Alec have broken up.

One more sip.

Another shot.

Another drink.

Spiraling out of control.

Breakups weren't supposed to hurt this bad. He knew that much.

A glittering blue powder.

Do a line.

Do three.

Numb the pain a little.

His head was spinning.

A pinch in the arm was the sacrifice for warmth.

"Get out," he ordered. Feet shuffled. Lips murmured.

Lips.

Kisses.

Slowly falling into insanity. . .

..........

The halls were dark but the door to the kitchen was cracked open just slightly, allowing a sliver of light to be casted onto the wall.

There was quiet conversation going on inside, which was odd for multiple reasons.

1) It was three in the morning and. . .

Well, it was three in the morning and Alec couldn't think of anything else.

He opened the door, just looking for water, not expecting to find Isabelle sitting on the counter with Jace pacing around her.

They were just as shocked to see him.

"What are you two doing up?" Alec asked.

"The same could be asked of you," Isabelle said.

"I asked first," Alec said.

"We were planning an intervention," Jace said, "if we're being honest."

"Whose intervention?"

"Yours," Isabelle said.

Alec hesitated to ask why. Would that make him sound stupid? He knew the answer.

"I'm not--"

"You need to go make up with Magnus," Isabelle said.

"You're obviously depressed," Jace said. "I can feel it. We can both see it on you--"

"I'm fine," Alec insisted.

"No," Jace said. "You're not."

His voice was oddly harsh.

Everyone was on edge from interrupted sleep and a highly debatable topic.

"I'm going back to bed," Alec said.

"Fine," Jace said, grabbing Alec's arm. "You don't want to make up with him? That's fine. But at least go get your stuff back from his apartment. I'm tired of you borrowing my stuff."

That was the Jace Alec preferred; brutally honest.

"I'll go in the morning," Alec said. It was only sort of a lie.

"Why not now?" Isabelle asked.

"Because it's three in the morning," Alec said. "Or has no one noticed?"

"The last one," Isabelle said. "He's probably up anyways."

"Why? And how would you know?"

"I've heard rumors that he's been having killer parties at all hours of the night. And I would know because I actually have a social life. You should try it some time--"

Alec took a menacing step towards Isabelle but Jace stopped him.

"The morning sounds much better," Jace said. Alec turned and left the kitchen.

It was exactly 67 steps to his room.

He could probably do it in his sleep.

But there was no falling asleep now.

.........

Sleep was usually a nightmare.

Tonight was no exception.

The knock at the door tried to pull him out of it but it wasn't enough.

He was trapped, stuck, dying. . .

He needed help.

Another knock.

His eyes wouldn't respond to his brain's commands.

So how the hell was he supposed to answer a door?

........

The summer days had been unusually rainy.

Today was no exception.

Alec was only partially soaked when he knocked on Magnus' door. He figured he'd be polite first.There was no response.

What was the proper protocol here? Could Alec just walk in?

He knocked again.

No response.

Alec put his hand on the doorknob but froze there in hesitation.

It was now or never.

He turned the knob.

"Hello?" he called.

The apartment looked empty from here but there were a lot of rooms to go through if he wanted to find Magnus.

No.

He was here for his stuff and that was it.

That would all be in his old room, as long as none of it had been moved.

"Hello?" he shouted again. There was no use in startling anyone.

Alec glanced behind him.

Nothing but paranoia.

He moved through the rest of the house until he came to Magnus' room. His room would be the next one down. . .

But the door to Magnus' room was cracked open.

His hand went unconsciously to a hidden knife in his pocket. Fingers wrapped around the familiar hilt as he pushed open the door to find--

Magnus.

Face up. Palms up. Eyes closed.

.......

All he could see was a miraculous gold, hinted with tiny flecks of color occasionally.

He could feel each beat of his heart getting slower. And slower. And slower. . .

..........

"Magnus?"

Poking him would be wrong.

Alec looked around the room. It looked like a typical morning after a wild party.

Something metallic caught Alec's eye hidden amongst trash on the bedside table.

A tiny plastic syringe, depressor pushed all the way in, topped with a shining needle, lying on a tiny piece of gauze, flecked with blood.

Drugs, probably faerie, guessing by the glitter, sparkled against the wood.

Alec looked back down at Magnus, and he saw the little marks up and down Magnus' arms like little pink beads.

Magnus using?

Alec knelt down, searching for pulse.

..........

And slower. . . And slower. . .

.........

"Magnus, please," Alec mumbled. He couldn't find a pulse. Or maybe it was too weak to be found.

Magnus' chest was rising and falling shakily.

There would be no "sleeping it off." This was killing him. Whatever it was.

Could you do CPR on a warlock?

"Come on," Alec said. He pulled out his cell phone, searching through contacts for Cat or Tessa's number.

Both numbers went straight to voicemail. Tessa's voice mail box wasn't even set up, not to Alec's surprise.

Alec pulled out his stele.

There was one last option.

Alec drew his rune first, then the one on Magnus.

Alliance.

Maybe it would help.

Maybe it would just drag them both down.

.........

And. . .

Magnus felt colder as if something were pulling him away from the light.

Back to reality.

Damn it.

He was starting to like it here.

........

Alec could feel his energy draining fast.

But he hung on just long enough to break his fall onto the bed.

This was backfiring.

It was taking too much strength.

If only he could ruin the rune. . .

Alec thought in single words.

Stele.

Rune.

Warm.

Magnus.

Magnus.

Magnus.

........

Time wasn't a problem in the land of unconsciousness.

It could have been days.

Magnus wasn't really certain.

He was incredibly surprised to find Alec Lightwood lying next to him on his bed when he woke up though.

Happy? He wasn't sure. Angry? Depending on why Alec was there in the first place.

His arm hurt. His head hurt. His arm hurt some more.

But his head was unbelievable.

He lay there in silence and darkness, unmoving.

Was this just a continuation of another dream?

Alec wouldn't really be there. . . He was imagining it all, he decided.

Magnus reached out, his first movement of the day, and twisted a strand of Alec's hair around his fingers.

Definitely real. Definitely tangible.

Why was Alec here?

Magnus didn't want to ruin the moment, even if it was just a dream.

His fingers played with Alec's hair for awhile.

..........

Something was tugging at his hair.

Up until that point, Alec felt like he was floating.

The tugging wasn't violent. It was more playful than that.

It reminded him of--

Magnus.

Alec's eyes flew open. He was in Magnus' room. It had all happened. It was all real.

"Magnus--" Alec didn't turn around.

Looking would make it real.

.........

His fingers paused, then his arm recoiled.

What did one do in this situation?

As his arm snapped back, he saw the flash of fading black inscribed into his skin.

He took a second take: an Alliance rune.

"Why--"

Alec looked back at him; the first time he had seen his blue eyes in months and it was shattering.

Eyes as cold as ice-- there was very little love and affection in them.

Alec was obviously mad.

Magnus tried the question again.

"Why? Why are you here?"

"I came to get my stuff," Alec said.

"You could have done that four months ago," Magnus said.

On second thought, that was probably not the correct response.

..........

Alec sat up, remembering that he was still technically in the bed of his ex-boyfriend.

"I'm doing it now," Alec retorted.

Magnus' eyes looked around the room, for emphasis more than actual purpose.

"Stop," Alec said. "This isn't about me--"

"Well, you'd certainly like for it to be--"

"Magnus!"

"Need I remind you, Alexander, that you're in my house, in my bed," Magnus said.

"I saved your life!"

.........

That explained the rune.

Then Alec was crying. Not particularly hard. Just enough to get a point across and stab Magnus right in heart.

Magnus liked to classify that type of crying as "soap opera tears."

"Drugs, Magnus? Really?"

Magnus sat up, propping himself up against the headboard and pillows.

He didn't look away from Alec though.

He didn't have the right to look away from his accuser.

"You were dying!"

"I know," Magnus said. He had felt it and on some level of consciousness, known what it was.

"That doesn't scare you?"

"It didn't scare you when you were talking to Camille--"

Another wrong response.

.........

Alec sprung off the bed.

How could Magnus be so indifferent? So unkind?

"I made a mistake," Alec said.

"Yes, you did," Magnus said.

Alec shook his head.

This was too bizarre; beyond words.

"I'll just get my stuff then," Alec said.

"It's where you left it," Magnus said.

Alec could barely make it out of the room.

He stumbled into the room that had been his, not that he had actually slept in it much.

Alec found a duffle bag in the closet and stuffed what clothes hung in the closet and sat, dusty and folded, inside the drawers.

All the while, his breathing worsened, his vision became blurry with tears, and his sense of urgency increased.

He had to get out.

He had to move on.

Magnus didn't want him back; that much was obvious.

And you could only save someone so many times before you had to give up on them.

.........

It was back to square one.

To Magnus, Alec's reappearance felt more like a break-up within a break-up; like breaking a part of your arm that was already broken.

Now instead of being in two pieces, his heart was in three.

That would require more surgery, more superglue, more of whatever was going to put him back together.

The drugs had been like aspirin to a terminal illness-- soothing for awhile but pointless in solving the problem.

Alec was right: he had saved Magnus' life.

Alec was the only thing that could put Magnus right again.

Magnus scrambled out of the bed, getting tangled in sheets that hadn't been washed in months.

He flung open the door, looking up and down the hallway quick. The door to Alec's old room was shut again.

Magnus sprinted towards the front door.

Alec was just opening it.

"Alec!"

Magnus was certain he had never sounded so desperate in his life.

"I'm sorry!"

..........

Alec looked back.

Isn't Magnus what he really wanted? So what was the harm in going back?

He was still hesitant though. He pushed that emotion aside and turned around.

Alec shut the door and leaned back against it, dropping the bag down beside him.

"Were you trying to kill yourself?" Alec asked.

..........

"I wasn't intending on that, no," Magnus said.

"But you've been using for awhile now?"

This was becoming an interrogation.

"Yes," Magnus said. There was no way to defend that.

"You're clean," Alec said, "from this very moment on. I swear by the Angel, Magnus--"

"I won't," Magnus. "I won't mess up."

"Yes you will," Alec said. "We're both going to mess up. But I will not forgive you if you ever touch those drugs again."

A small part of Magnus, the part that was addicted and dependent on the faeries' mysterious substances, was screaming for Magnus to stop.

"Okay," Magnus said.

.........

Alec relaxed, almost to the point of collapsing.

His life was coming back together and it was a massive weight off his shoulders.

Magnus was walking towards him.

"I really missed you," Alec said.

Magnus smiled and took the last step into Alec's arms, which folded around Magnus' waist. Magnus buried his face in Alec's shirt.

"I'm sorry. I really am," Magnus said. "For everything." He looked up at Alec.

"You're forgiven," Alec said. "For everything."

"So we're starting over?" Magnus asked.

"Not completely," Alec said. "I think we can skip the awkward parts."

"Awkward? I think you mean adorable--"

"Atrociously awkward," Alec said. Magnus put his hands on Alec's neck, finger twisting around stray strands of hair.

Magnus memorized Alec's features, as if, the Angel forbid, he could slip away again, leaving Magnus in broken ruins again.

Then he rose up on his barefeet and pressed his lips against Alec's.

And while it was simple and gentle kiss, the Alliance rune grew brighter on their arms, as if there was a new-found power between them.

{Epilogue}

Isabelle knocked on the door to the library. Sometimes Jace got lost in his own mind and she had learned not to startle him.

She heard him mutter something so she entered.

"Alec is still gone," she said.

Jace was sitting on a ladder.

"That's 9 hours and counting," he said.

"Oh?"

"I heard the front door open and close about an hour after we talked to him," Jace said. He looked up from the book he was reading with a smirk. "I think we all know what he's up to."

"Filthy mind," Isabelle said, pacing down below.

"I'm just saying," Jace said. "No one goes to their ex's house for 9 hours--"

"Maybe he's trying to kill him," she offered. "Or maybe he was kidnapped."

At that second, their phones buzzed.

Jace, being the faster of the two, saw the text from Alec first:

1:39 pm- Alec: going to be out for awhile. Don't know when I'll be back. But I'm fine :)

"He's using smiley faces," Jace laughed. "Are you sure he's okay?"

"Probably beyond okay," Isabelle said, putting her phone back in her pocket. "But hey, on the bright side, I've won the bet--"

A twenty dollar bill floated down to the ground and Isabelle just barely caught it before it hit the floor.

"Twelve hours or less," Isabelle laughed. "You have so little faith in Malec."

"In what?" Jace called.

"Magnus and Alec," Isabelle said as she pushed open the door with her back. "Malec-- I don't know. Smashing names together-- it's a mundane thing Simon taught me."

"Weird."

"I agree."