West of Words (Alec Lightwood)

🗝 Chapter Forty-Six 🗝

"A connection with Valentine?" Alec's voice was all venom, but it wasn't directed at Varian but rather the idea that he had proposed. "No I won't let you."

Varian's reply was just a small smile, the protective words that Alec spoke were comforting, despite the underlying meaning of Varian needing to ask permission to preform a specific type of magic. In truth, Varian would rather try anything then attach himself to Valentine.

"What have you got on the Mundanes that keep disappearing?" Varian changed tactics, dropping the specific attacking in favor of perhaps grabbing someone on their attempt at snatching a Mundane.

Alec nodded, setting the book that he had been flipping through on the table and grabbing at the computer screen and tapping at it for a moment before displaying the screen to Varian. "Twelve Mundane's in the past few days."

"He's given up on Mundanes' that come for him." Varian mutters, leaning closer and analyzing the faces of each taken. "The process to become a Shadowhunter, to drink from the Mortal Cup is a dangerous one. It basically re-writes every atom in your body, makes you more then you were before."

Varian could feel Alec's lingering gaze on him, all concern and worry, Varian just smiled, an unspoken 'I'm alright.' He looked closer at the screen, nodding in thanks as Alec offered it to him. Varian was quick to set the screen on the table in front of him, the newer technology tends to have a negative reaction around him. "Was there a spike of anything in the locations where they were taken?"

It was a simple question, and he was given the disappointing answer of 'no'.

Varian sighed. "That means portal magic, which I can't do much about save for a ward, but then we'd have to know exactly where." It was an annoyance, but something they'd be capable. "I know of a fight ring that fits the description, I'll head there now and see if I can't do something about all of this."

Varian said it with a sure nod, pushing himself from the desk that he was at and wiggling his fingers in front of him. He set his fingertips together, before pulling them apart a flicker of magic forms an image in between the hands. Varian's sword appears, and he lifts it over his shoulder, it's sheath appearing to hold it on his back.

Alec stands, his stool scraping slightly as he does. He looks at Varian in a curious way, "We can go together."

Varian was slightly railroaded at the response, not use to someone wanting to be around him so much and to join him on little adventures such as this. "Oh, um, yeah of course."

It took him a moment to shake out of the trance that he hovered in, and when he did his face lit up in a smile. With Varian's magic back up to parr, they informed Lydia to the relative location that they were heading in, he formed a portal and they pair of them stepped through.

"Le Petit Feu?" Alec read the name in a curious way, looking up at the cafe with her hands on her hips. "A fight ring at a cafe? You've gotta be kidding me."

Varian snorted, shaking his head as he stepped up to the door and unlocked the door with a wave of his hand. "Bloody hell no, this is my cafe, I need a cup of coffee before we move on, and the fight group meets walking distance from here." It was a long winded explanation that was only finished when Varian reached the counter top and started to flip on the machines necessary to make his mocha.

"Can I offer tea? Coffee? I can do iced, hot, or even hard coffee?" Varian looked up at Alec, smiling at his thinly veiled surprised look, before bending down and grabbing a cup for himself.

It took Alec a minute to say anything as Varian guessed his drink (earl grey tea). "You own a shop?" Alec said it in a small voice, like he was astonished by the very idea.

Varian just smiled and nodded, his concentration turning from looking at Alec to starting to make a tea for him. Footsteps sounded, making their way around the counter top, Alec's hands wrapped around Varian's middle, and he leaned into the touch, smiling as Alec pressed a kiss to the little bit of skin on his shoulder, the part that wasn't covered by the collar of the sweater.

"You're fantastic." Alec muttered, punctuating the declaration with another kiss on his neck. "Absolutely amazing." Varian shivered as Alec continued to kiss him, and though he would love to be showered in kisses, the water started to boil, interrupting the moment between the two.

Alec stepped back, helping Varian whenever he asked, and a few minutes later the smell of freshly brewed coffee and tea filled the cafe. "I've had this shop for a two years, it helped me get through college." Varian felt almost obligated to talk in the silence that fell over the room. "I don't keep normal hours and once a month a group borrows the place for an NA meeting. I join when I can. Mostly Downworlders visit, and Mundanes with the sight. Drunk college students and such."

Varian handed Alec his cup, before making his way into an arm chair by the window. The Shadowhunter followed, and Izzy was the first to speak. "What is NA?"

Varian shook his head, finding that he constantly had to remind himself that the man he had fallen for had not been raised around Mundanes. "Narcotics Anonymous. For Mundanes that have struggled with drugs and alcohol and have moved past their addiction."

Varian noticed the tension in Alec almost instantly when he shared the fact that he attends the meetings when he can. It was a conversation he had yet to have and one that he didn't feel would change their relationship to share. It took Alec a long time before he asked Varian why he attended when he could, and Varian's reply came after a lot of internal deliberation.

"You remember my reaction to Camille Belcourt." Alec's reply came in the form of a nod, "When I was fifteen, she showed back up in my baba's  life and in New York, though she did not care for my baba  anymore." Varian sighed, shrugging his shoulders as he spoke, he had moved past the situation internally. "Camille introduced me to Yin-Fen, and fed my addiction indirectly through another Vampire. It took me eight months to get clean, and in that time I almost died multiple times."

Alec's hand wrapped around Varian's, pure sadness pouring through the connection. "That's why you reacted the way you did." It wasn't phrased a question, but rather a statement.

Varian hummed in acknowledgement. "She had an obsession with my baba, and that obsession transferred to me when she met me the first time." He sighed, forcing a smile to his face as he took a sip from his cup. "I attend the meetings, they hold me accountable, though they believe I'm addicted to a Mundane drug rather than a Downworlder one."

There was an awful pause in the conversation, and for a moment Varian worried that it had all been to much of a shock. That though changed quickly when Alec set his mug down and moved closer, pulling Varian closer to him. "I love you." Varian wasn't expecting the words, but muttered them back just as quickly.

"I love you Darling."