Once Upon A Time In Brooklyn

Chapter Six: As Harmonious As Peas in a Pod

Magnus groaned. It was sunrise and he was awake. He estimated he had only slept for a few hours at most. If there was a time he hated, it was sunrise... Unless he was seeing it after having stayed out all night, of course, in which case it was a victory.

He couldn't get comfortable. It felt like a spring from his mattress was prodding him in the back. He rolled over, but the damage was done, he was awake.

He grimaced when he looked down at himself. He was still in the clothes he'd worn yesterday, but they were now rough with dried sweat. He stripped them off, throwing on a bathrobe and made his way to the bathroom.

He showered quickly. His muscles ached and pulled as he reached up to wash his hair. He tried to work the kinks out of his muscles under the spray, though it was impossible to truly alleviate the ache himself.

He stepped out, towelling himself off and throwing his bathrobe back on. His hair hung limply around his face without the gel holding it in it's usual place. He ran a towel through it to absorb the moisture and then combed his fingers through it to get it out of his face.

When he stepped back into the hall, he was surprised to come face to face with Wayland, the other looking like he'd been waiting out there for a while.

"Bathroom," he grunted and brushed past Magnus, slamming the door behind him. Magnus' brain caught up. If Wayland was here did that mean that Alec also-

He got his answer when he saw Alec asleep on the couch. Bloodied towels were strewn on the floor. Magnus frowned, looking around the room for signs of battle, but he saw nothing broken. In fact, other than Alec, the only thing in the room that seemed out of place was the bouquet of roses in a vase on top of the piano.

Something tickled the back of his mind.

Someone insistently handing him something, holding him up even though his body was so very tired...

He looked down at his hand. They were small, but they were there. Small pin pricks that looked almost like puncture marks. Either a vampire had very delicately bitten his hand or he had grabbed at some roses without care.

He glanced at the towels on the floor, and then took a closer look at Alec's hands. They were scratched and punctured, though they were scabbed over already, mostly healed.

So, Alec had saved him again. On the balance of favours he already owed the boy his life an uncomfortable amount of times.

He looked at the roses. How ironic that these ones would symbolise life, where the single one in another room symbolised death? He traced a petal with his fingertip. Clary's words from the day before echoed in his mind.

"What happens if the next person laid up in the Institute hooked up to life monitors isn't you but one of us?"

Magnus noticed the roses stems were still stained with blood.