Quite magical

Chapter Thirty-Three

POV Alec

Alec couldn't sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes his brain was immediately filled with pictures of portals and vampires and evil demons who were trying to hurt Magnus. Alec couldn't help but be worried about his boyfriend. He always said that the Shadow World was dangerous but he never really seemed to be concerned about his own security. Alec knew that as a warlock he was obviously a lot more powerful than he was but even his magic wasn't infinite. His father had taken a part of it away from him after all and if that was possible maybe other warlocks could do the same and hurt him as well ...

Alec had no idea where those thoughts were suddenly coming from but once they had appeared it was very hard to push them aside again. So much had been happening in the last few days and it seemed like he was far from done with processing everything.

Also the storm was getting worse with every minute and the noise outside made it impossible for Alec to relax.

At some point he couldn't take it anymore and decided to go downstairs to drink a glass of milk. When he was a child that had always helped him to calm down again and even though he rather doubted that it would also work in this situation he decided that it was worth a shot. He couldn't sleep anyways at the moment and just lying in bed like that was making him completely crazy so he pushed his blanket aside and got up.

With his blanket gone Alec was immediately feeling cold, so he put on his fluffy morning gown instead before he left the room.

Downstairs he quickly realized that apparently he wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep, because in the kitchen the light was on and the smell of chocolate cookies was hanging in the air.

Even before he could see it Alec knew that the person in the kitchen was Max. For a brief moment he had to think back to the day they had left New York and how his brother had offered him cookies in the car in order to make him feel better. That memory made him smile.

"Hey, buddy. What are you doing here?" he asked carefully after eventually entering the room, trying not to startle his brother.

Max was sitting at the kitchen table in his black pyjamas and looked like he was lost in thought. When he heard Alec's voice however, he lifted his head and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Alec! Please don't tell mom that I'm still awake" he said quickly, sounding guilty. "I really tried to sleep but I just didn't work."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anything" Alec calmed his brother down and walked over to the fridge. "Actually I can't sleep either with all that noise outside."

"Actually I kinda like it" Max said with a shrug. "I don't know why but I think storms can be very fascinating in some way."

"Is that why you're still awake?" Alec asked while he was looking for the milk.

He wasn't very surprised about his brother's answer. Even as a toddler he had already loved it to watch thunderstorms from the window of his room. While all of his friends had been afraid, Max always seemed to find them impressive in some way.

"No. Actually there's something I just can't stop thinking about and that's bothering me so much that I can't sleep." Max sighed, sounding resigned.

'Same here' Alec thought but he didn't say it out loud because he didn't want Max to be concerned about his problems as well. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked instead, hoping that he would maybe be able to help his brother somehow.

Max seemed to think about his offer. Alec didn't want to push him so he just sat down opposite to him and gave him an encouraging look.

"I would tell you about it but it's nothing you can help me with" Max said eventually.