Mortal Instruments: One-Shots and Shorts

Scars

When Alec opens up and Magnus knows what to do.

~

Alec rolled off of Magnus and landed next to him on the bed with a thud. They both were quiet for a moment, the only sound in the room was their labored breathing as they attempted to catch their breath.

"Well that was fun." Magnus broke the silence. Alec's eyes fluttered close and he grinned as he reached up to run his hands through his hair. When he did that, a large crisscrossing scar that ran under his arm and across his rib cage was revealed that Magnus hadn't noticed before.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Magnus reached out to touch the scar but the moment his fingers made contact, Alec flinched away. He sat up and looked at Magnus hard, his brooding face impossible to read.

Magnus lazily rolled over onto his stomach, looking up at Alec. "Tell me about them." He implored, his green eyes shining softly in the low light.

"This is why I like the lights off." Alec mumbled under his breath, but Magnus still heard.

"Hey-" Magnus retorted sharply but Alec interrupted him.

"Why? Why do you care about the ugly scars on my skin? I understand that the runes are already hard to look at but-" And then Magnus was pushing himself off his elbows to sit up in front of his lover.

"Alec." Magnus broke in, raising his voice slightly. "Look at me." But Alec remained glaring resolutely at the bedroom wall, his jaw tensed and posture rigid.

"Alexander." Magnus pleaded, and Alec couldn't refuse the gentle voice any longer. He turned his head to lock eyes with Magnus.

"They are ugly and dark and horrible to look at, I know all right?" Alec confessed, anxiously running a hand over his face.

"No, no Alec, they tell a story, your story." Magnus argued. "A story I want to be told, one I want to listen to." He spoke faster, desperate to make Alec see. "It's a story I want to be a part of, can't you see?"

And Alec just looked at him, his expression as guarded as ever but a glimmer of something in his eyes.

"Every scar is a mark of something, some enemy you defeated, some circumstance you outlived." Magnus continued. "All it shows is courage and bravery and stamina, all they do is say you are a fighter."

Alec's detached expression faltered for a moment, vulnerability hiding close behind it.  "Each scar reminds me of the pain it brought, of the mistake I made in order to get it, all they are are damn flashbacks." Alec spoke quietly, defeat echoing from his words. But it gave Magnus an idea.

"Let me give you another memory to add to the scars then huh?" Magnus proposed and Alec looked at him dubiously, but nodded his consent. Magnus shifted around, situating himself to kneel directly in front of Alec with easy access to any part of his body.

"How did you get this one?" Magnus asked gently, pointing to the raised whitish scar on Alec's left collarbone.

"A few Aprils ago, demon bite through the skin and muscle to the bone." Alec, almost robotically replied, as if he were reporting it as a routine hazard to the Clave.

Magnus moved closer, watching Alec carefully for any signs of discomfort, before gently touching it with long, slender fingers. Alec's face remained neutral, bordering on curious.

Magnus took his eyes off of Alec to lean in closer and he kissed the raising skin gently. He could feel the muscle tense and relax as he continued. His fingers whispered gently against the smooth scar tissue as he placed more gentle kisses around the old injury.

When Magnus pulled back he left the skin a little pinker and happily noted that Alec looked more relaxed instead of tense, though his breathing seemed to have picked up a little.

"What about this one?" Magnus asked, gesturing toward a large reddish scar just above Alec's right elbow. Alec swallowed hard as getting this scar had been a particularly painful process.

"Fighting off a rouge, recently-turned werewolf with Jace, let down my guard for one second and somehow the dog got me on my back." Alec's gaze was unfocused as he recounted the memory. "He managed to knock a heavy crate off a shelf, breaking my arm but also pinning it down. He tore into my arm with teeth and claws, just ripped it apart, no way for me to even think about defending myself."

And Alec didn't realize, but Jace actually remembered that day as one of the worst of his life.

Hearing his parabati's screams echo off the walls of the abandoned garage but he couldn't find him. And when he did find him, Alec's screams had stopped, his body was frighteningly still, and he was just lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood. As he had frantically rushed Alec back to the Institute, not knowing if he was still alive or dead, Jace had felt true fear for the first time in his life.

It was a memory still burned into Jace's brain that still haunted him while he slept or replayed over and over in his mind whenever Alec was in danger.

Magnus still sat patiently, allowing Alec to emote. And when he was done, he leaned forward and placed his lips in the center of the angry, red scar. He caressed it with smooth fingers, gently tending to the hurt flesh with his mouth, his lips, his tongue. And gradually Alec would add in these new sensations to the memories he associated with the scar.

He would still remember the pain, the fear, and the trauma in which the scar was inflicted, but now he also felt the gentle, insistent attention of Magnus's touch, the shivers that went up and down his spine when his boyfriend's teeth caught at his skin, only to be smoothed down his wet tongue.

And that night, they stayed up even longer that they expected to as Magnus patiently pointed and asked about each scar, as Alec waded through the painful memories, and as Magnus gave him something else to remember instead.