sunlight | a.lightwood x male oc

Chapter 6: Raising Hell (part ii)

Ted was chatting quietly with Zoe, the warlock girl who had just seen her father die at the hands of Valentine's men, asking her about herself and her interests, and distracting her from the grim reality that would probably hit soon. She soon became so invested in what she was saying that she animatedly spoke about her passion for understanding, particularly with regards to physics, a subject Ted was quite happy went over his head, just this once, since relevant questions rolled off of his tongue and his engagement was far from fabricated.

Privately, Alec eyed the interactions with a guarded smile, wondering how many of these moments of utter softness he'd missed, how deeply one man could care when nobody was watching. Teddy had been far from secretive about his love for making people smile, and Alec found himself somewhat frustrated at just how good he was at it--he would be polite and courteous with strangers, incredibly charming to friends and downright endearing to his loved ones, although whether that manifested as gently bullying them or memorising how they had their coffee really varied.

Both men's attention was caught by Magnus' voice, an alert that they were about to move, an action that elicited a gasp only from Clary, although as she'd never been in this situation before, the surrounding warlocks suppressed their eye rolls and continued their idle conversations.

In spite of having plenty of interaction with warlock magic, Ted could never fully adjust to the feeling; a sort of warm and cold air seemed to sweep through every vessel of your being and something reminiscent of pins and needles pricked the back of your neck. Zoe was called over to a group of older warlocks, and excused herself with a clumsy hug before stumbling over to her friends, leaving Ted with a bittersweet sorrow in his chest--his enjoyment of her company marred by the immense sympathy for her newfound situation and utter resentment of the assassins who'd brought it about.

"Ah, much better," Magnus sighed contently, before turning around and noticing his apartment with the furniture strewn ever so slightly out of place, "It's inevitable; after each move I get the itch to redecorate--"

Magnus turned to glance at Izzy with a mischievous sort of smirk, which she seemed to mirror perfectly, before returning his stare to the archer.

"Normally I love a dirty lair, but this one is just sloppy." He remarked suggestively, eyes locked with Alec's, who seemed confused by him, and merely quirked a brow and moved to stand nearer to Ted (whether this was a conscious decision or not wasn't entirely clear). A slightly awkward, thick silence settled for a few seconds, before Magnus turned his attention to Izzy, the two making hushed conversation as he tied his prized necklace on her, giggling like school children and occasionally glancing towards the two men, although this went unnoticed.

"Okay, so how do we summon the memory demon?" Clary prompted, standing up from her perch on the sofa and walking over to the group, "I'll do anything to get my mother back."

"Alright. Pretty boy, get your team ready." Magnus huffed, waving his arm in the general direction of Jace, Alec and Teddy, who were, quite inconveniently, all boys, which didn't exactly clarify the warlock's command.

Alec glanced over at his parabatai, who took it upon himself to be the aforementioned pretty boy, launching into a short, unhelpful set of instructions, including the ever useful 'you know what to do'. Magnus made a face of relative incredulity, and pushed him back into his place, correcting himself and pointing to Alec, who's face reddened as he shrugged his shoulders, glancing between Ted and Jace with a look of disbelief and minor discomfort.

"Okay then, pretty boy, what's the plan?" Ted grinned cheekily, only half-teasing--he was entirely unsure of his friend's intentions with Alec, but was nevertheless glad he'd been given some type of attention over Jace for once.