The Mannequin (Malec Fanfic)

Meanwhile

A few days into Alec's coma, Magnus had managed to return close to his normal life. He visited after work each day, but it was enough for him to get by. Raphael rarely ever talked to him recently and he needed to confront him as to why. He either had done something wrong, or it was something to do with Alec.

Once the day was over and people were packing up, he decided now was a good time as any. "Hey, Raphael. Can I talk to you?"Magnus asked, walking up to the small man.

"Make it quick." Raphael gave him a look.

"Why aren't you talking much to me recently? Have I done something wrong?"

"You're so obsessed with that boy that it's ruining your work. Let the guy go, from what I've heard he's pretty ill. You may as well just accept the fact he's probably going to die." Magnus' fists clenched, "well, I'm not wrong, am I?"

Magnus didn't say anything. "Boss," Lupin called from across the room, "I don't see what you've got against the guy. He was struggling when he joined and he was honestly the most uncomfortable guy I'd ever seen in this business and you were never really useful in trying to get him to relax."

"And hey, I've met terminal cancer patients from my days as a doctor make a miraculous recovery with a top record of twenty years lived afterwards." Henry said, Lupin's brother. "You can't say a guy is going to die even when his condition isn't terminal yet. Bit of an asshat move."

Magnus smiled at their support but grimacing when he faced Raphael. "Well you know what? Clearly none of you like me at all, so guess what guys? I QUIT!" Raphael's expression darkened, almost murderous as he stormed out the front doors, slamming them shut.

The three men cheered, pumping their fists in the air and running together for a three-way high five. "Wait-" Lupin said, "who's the boss now? He never did hire an assistant."

"Guess we gotta hire someone?" Magnus suggested with a shrug. "I'll prepare the leaflets for around town."

"I'll put the update on the website." Henry piped and dashed off.

"Guess I'll supervise?" Lupin mumbled.

~*~

One week later

"Next.." Magnus mumbled, leaning his chin in his hands out of boredom.

They were trying for new supervisors and reading their CVs but if they were no good they simply passed them on. They had well over two hundred entries and so far only three of them out of 155 were worthy. "So why do you think you should be our new supervisor?" Lupin asked, being the authoritative one.

This guy was 33, called Quinn and looked extremely nervous. "W-Well.. I've been a manager of different small companies dealing in fashion and a couple photography and five times overall I've gotten awards for my accomplishments. As for this company, I read all their magazines and thought I could give it a go.."

"Hm.." Lupin scribbled in his notebook and Magnus had long stopped even caring. He just wanted to go see Alec who was moved out of ICU that morning and would be woken tomorrow. "Do you have any topics you'd get our photographer to focus on?"

"H-how do you mean?"

"Would we become a fashion magazine for each season, would we advertise charities, be focused on flowers, robotics, etcetera."

"Oh.. Um.. Well, I've always been interested in what's hot on the internet. To get most publicity and get people who do not yet read your magazine to start, whatever seems to be trending can be put into the magazine and change according to the internet. Like recently with that two coloured dress; we could quite easily put some humour into that and get models to dress in it and adjust the lighting."

"Not a bad idea.." More scribbling and more questions followed and in the end Quinn was a probability.

About thirty people later, was a smartly dressed woman; black hair down to her shoulders and her eyes were a rosy pink. She was 32, called Hailee. "So, why are you suited?" Lupin's questions were getting shorter now that he too grew tired and bored.

"Well, my mother used to be a small designer and ran articles in the local newspaper when I was young which lead me on a path to journalism for the 'Popz' magazine." Lupin raised an eyebrow and Magnus even lifted his head off his hand, leaving a pink imprint on his cheek. "I help to publish it and have sometimes been behind the scenes with the models and gotten a few tries at ordering around. The one I helped on was our biggest seller and when this job appeared, I thought it's my time to move on and do what I really want."

Lupin smiled slightly at her enthusiasm, "any focusing topics?"

"Disability."

"Oh? Do elaborate."

"Down syndrome, missing or prosthetic limbs, in a wheelchair, disfigurement. They're all discriminated by society as they are treated almost as 'sub-human', so I've been thinking for quite a while now that, why aren't they getting enough publicity? Sure they exist already, but they're not exactly famous are they?"

After explaining more ideas and continuing on with the questions, Lupin deducted she too was a probability. Nobody after her was up to her, Quinn's or the other's abilities so he and Magnus spent a couple hours deciding on who to appoint. It felt strange, deciding on a new boss though you would soon be under their every order.

Enough hours passed and they had made their decision. The six chosen people were sat in a separate room, waiting eagerly and anxiously. "Thank you for waiting everyone, I hope you haven't been too bored." Lupin said, "but we've chosen someone."

Magnus walked into the room and looked round at everyone, "certain, Lupin?" He nodded. "Alright then everyone, you all showed great qualities to us out of over two hundred people so you all deserve a medal in that sense but of course we can only have one person."

"Oh get on with it." Lupin punched his arm playfully.

Magnus walked over to Hailee and took her hand and shook it. "Hailee, welcome aboard."

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Surpriiiiiiise! Came here to start a new chapter and found this stored away! But after this I still won't be back till June :p you guys just got lucky!

Filler, yeah, but I couldn't exactly but Alec in a coma and wake him up in the next chapter. Well I could but.. Eh. Bit sudden if you ask me.

Anyway, what did you guys think of this chapter? Let me know in the comments and a vote is always highly appreciated :)

See ya next week! ~Fiz