Winter Blooms (Alec Lightwood)

🗝 Chapter Twenty-Two 🗝

"He isn't." Alec spoke for his boyfriend, taking his long and drawn out pause as a side effect of him only just waking up after passing out for an extended amount of time.

Inquisitor Herondale looked unconvinced, her eyes falling back onto the mostly out of it Warlock.

Varian could not think past the words of the angel, which seemed to echo throughout his mind as he stood looking at the rather powerful looking woman.

"They wanted me dead." Varian spoke without meaning to, his eyes moving from the Inquisitor to his boyfriend. He repeated the words once again, this time full volume, "They wanted me dead."

Alec held a hand out to Varian, not missing the way that his boyfriend seemed to fall into Alec's arms. Inquisitor Herondale just looked on, an obvious amount of discomfort in her face. The Warlock could care less about the opinions of an onlooker, his concentration fully on just trying to wrap his head around the will of the Angels and what he wished he had said to Ithuriel instead of just taking the assaults of the wishes.

"They wanted me dead." He had easily become fixated on the words, they were taking too much space in his mind and all of it was too much of a shock to his system to be able to think past it too quickly.

"Inspector Herondale," Alec spoke over his boyfriends repeated ramblings. "Both Varian and I will update you on the events of the next few hours after  I get Varian to the Infirmary."

Herondale wanted to protest, that much was obvious, but Alec shut her up with a look. Moving instead to wrap an arm around his boyfriends waist and helping him from the Ops room.

The damage and dead that had covered the floor originally had already been cleared away, most of the dead on the side of Valentine rather than on the side of Varian and the Light Shadowhunters. "They wanted me dead."

Alec pulled Varian into an archway of the Institute, out of sight from on-lookers. Alec pushed him into the corner, carefully setting a hand on either side of Varian's waist and telling him to look at him in a voice that was soft and comforting.

"Who wanted you dead Varian?" Alec was nearly panicking, he had only ever seen Varian in this one track mind once before, and he had almost killed Valentine without batting an eye.

The fear that Alec would loose Varian to whatever was eating him up inside sat heavy on his chest.

Varian looked up at him, eyes wide open as if he were seeing the world for the first time, "The angels, they want me dead. They want Clary to loose her runes, and they want to kill me." He felt as if he couldn't breath, something was caught in his throat and his mind wouldn't relax enough for him to try and breath around it.

"By the Angel," The phrase sounded out of place in the conversation, and Alec found himself regretting it once he had said it. He reached towards Varian holding out his hands and giving his boyfriend the opportunity to fall into his arms the moment he needed to.

Varian stepped into Alec's arms, wrapping his arms around Alec's middle and letting himself find comfort while he continued to verbally process through the Angel's words.

"I pose a threat to the natural?" Varian paused, taking a deep breath and leaning back slightly to look his boyfriend in the eyes. "Ithuriel said that if we were to break up there is no pathway into the future, and I'm not sure what he means by that because I-"

Varian paused, looking sort of starstruck as he tried to find the words to say, "I want to marry, uh, you. I want to marry you, and I'm not sure why he would have mentioned it outside of-"

"Varian." Alec said his boyfriends name once, and didn't miss the way that Varian's eyes continued to be glazed over, his mouth moving much to quickly to actually hear his boyfriend call his name.

"I mean, do you want to marry me? You did just have a marriage that didn't go to plan, and I don-"

Alec interrupted again, "Babe."

Varian's mouth clicked shut, his eyes finally focusing on the bridge of Alec's nose, he waited for Alec to continue speaking.

"I do want to marry you, but babe, I need you to focus on me." Alec pat his boyfriends chest, "Breathe with me."

The two of them sat their for a moment, breathing in a secluded corner of the room, perfectly content in the companionship of the other. "I need you to find the Sword." Alec truly hated to ask, given the fragile state of mind that his boyfriend was in, but he needed to know.

"Okay, okay." Varian nodded, "I can find it."

His verbal confirmation was more of a promise to himself, he pulled back slightly out of Alec's arms, letting his back press into the wall and eyes fall shut. It was hard for him to actually concentrate, as he could only think about how close he was to his boyfriend in front of him.

Varian took a deep breath, letting his lungs expand fully as he let his concentration focus in on finding the sword.

In truth he could not remember sending it away, though he could remember the feel of it in his hands. The way that the power surged through him and seemed to light up every nerve ending. His world lit up in a way that brought his magic back into focus, everything appearing just as it had before.

The world was alive, every rock and tree and creature singing its own sort of song that told a very beautiful story.

And suddenly it was there, just within his minds eye, the Soul Sword, singing to him in his own sort of way. All heavenly choirs and booming bass notes, he took a deep breath, hand outstretched, repeating the same action he had done to send it away.

It brushed over Varian's finger tips, whispering promises of safety.

Varian opened his eyes. "It's safe, but I won't take it from there."

Alec wasn't sure how to feel, but he just nodded, trusting his boyfriends advice on this particular subject matter.

"I trust you Varian, I promise to make excuses to Herondale, you're alright." The promise was something of a marvel, and Varian just nodded, stepping forward to press a kiss to his boyfriends cheek.

It was the end of a day that couldn't have gone any worse, and Varian found comfort in Alec's arms.