Chapter Text
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Magnus grumbles, settling back into the oversized executive-style chair with a blissful sigh that's completely at odds with his words. "A week before Phase II launches, and I'm jetting off to a private island with my boyfriend."
Though they've been dating for a little bit, it still sends a little shiver of excitement up his spine to be called Magnus' boyfriend, mostly because he didn't really have faith that they would ever get here. "Think of it as a very expensive apology from the Lightwoods for nearly destroying your company."
Besides, it would all be going away soon enough. The thing about being an unbridled source of evil capitalism was that it was profitable. Investing in smaller companies and helping them grow could also be profitable, but on a far smaller scale. As it turns out, nice guys don't finish last so much as finish at Walmart shopping the clearance aisle.
For the most part, Alec doesn't mind saying goodbye to all these little luxuries, but he's really going to fucking miss this private plane.
Magnus snorts inelegantly. "You all wish."
"No," Alec says seriously, bringing his hand up to brush a kiss across his knuckles, "I don't wish." He looks out the window at the wisps of clouds, fingers threading through Magnus'. This high up, the air is so clear, and so is the right decision. Down in the smog, it's not so easy.
"I'm getting a shipment in a few days," Magnus frets. "What if there's a mistake and I'm not there to catch it?"
"Magnus, you have a whole company of people working for you."
Magnus gives him a strange look. "All important shipments go directly to my house. The bottom floor is a storage unit."
"Really?" Alec had wondered about it, but it seemed in poor taste to ask your newly-acquired boyfriend why half of his apartment was such a dump.
Magnus shrugs. "Saves money, keeps my secrets safe. No one goes poking around a building that looks that unimpressive."
No one except Alec. Alec wants to be in on those secrets, but he supposes that he hasn't done a whole lot to earn that just yet. Trust is a funny thing; you can want to trust another person - crave it, even - but it can't be forced. It grows organically like love, at least that's what Jace had told him in between bites of organic tofurkey Clary made for him. Jace privately confided to Alec that it tasted how he imagined a dirty thong would, but he ate it for Clary. Alec supposes that's love too.
Jace, who is going back to school to learn the business. His wild, buck-the-trends spirit is just what the company needs right now. Alec simply doesn't have it in him to be a rebel; his socks always match his boxers. What Alec is going to do with himself, he has no clue. It feels great.
"How do you know it won't get stolen?"
Magnus shoots him a pitying look. "Why do you think it looks like a flophouse from the outside? No one bothers with it. Besides, when I go away, I hire Peaches to stand guard."
Alec twisted in his seat to stare at Magnus. "How do you know Peaches?"
"Everyone knows him," Magnus says dismissively.
"Maybe I should get a job as your security guard," Alec murmured.
"I could always use someone to help me with research. Or, barring that, I would like a secretary."
"I think they're called administrative assistants now."
But Magnus isn't paying any attention to him. He's busy staring off into some pervy vision, starry-eyed. "I think you'd look awfully fetching in a sweater set."
Alec refuses to dignify that with a response.
When they arrive at the resort, Magnus whistles. "The Lightwoods must be really sorry."
"Well, this Lightwood is," Alec says. "Besides, we're not staying here."
"Of course," Magnus says with a huff, but his eyes are shining, and he's in a good enough mood. "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride."
"C'mon, bridesmaid," Alec says easily and takes his hand, leading him through the lobby where he's greeted by an austere-faced man in a blue suit. "Mr. Lightwood," he says, "your transportation awaits."
Magnus raises his eyebrows but follows Alec out the back doors where the resort curls around a natural cove with a line of boat slips dotting the far left. Alec leads Magnus to a shining white speedboat where they embark.
A short ride later and they're pulling up to a tiny island with a not-so-tiny hillside home surrounded by infinity pools. And a landing pad.
"How much money does your family have?" Magnus demands.
"A lot," Alec answers, a little embarrassed by the ostentation for the first time in his life. But he needn't have been. Magnus loves ostentation.
"I should have known with your extravagant lifestyle of brown bag lunches," Magnus says, looking around appreciatively.
The main room is beautiful with open walls overlooking the steep hillside, dotted with tropical flowers cascading down the sides. The whole thing is a lush oasis, and Magnus inhales deeply. "Smells like money. And flowers."
Alec tries to see things through Magnus' eyes, but he can't quite get there. He thinks maybe it's because Magnus is simply more artistic than him, but that's not it. Alec grew up with wealth, surrounded by beautiful things. Magnus, who had been raised by a single mother in a military town on the other side of the world, had seen the harshness life had to offer and appreciated the beauty all the more for it.
For whatever reason, he seems to think Alec is one of these beautiful things too.
"Hey," Alec says, taking Magnus' hand and leading him to the back.
The bedroom, where Alec and Magnus drop their suitcases, is filled with along one side by a wall of glass doors that slide apart to open the entire wall, with a large bed commanding the center, haloed in gauzy white fabric gathered at each bedpost.
There's a completely stocked bar in the corner, along with an impressive arrangement of flowers in blinding colors. Magnus crosses the room and touches one of the largest petals, a large sweeping red petal that looked nearly like a burning leaf. "Anthurium."
"You have those in your apartment, right?" He'd seen them on the console by the front door the first time he'd been over there, but he hadn't asked about them. He'd had other things on his mind that night.
"Probably my favorite flower," Magnus says, rubbing the waxy petals between his thumb and forefinger gently. "Did you know that it adapts to nearly any environment?"
Alec can see why it's Magnus' favorite. A showy beauty of a flower that adapts to nearly any hardship? It doesn't take much of an intuitive leap. "They're lovely," he says. He touches the delicate petals of a smaller flower in soft purples and blush.
Magnus answers his unasked question. "Frangipani."
"And they mean?"
Magnus grins at him, incandescent. "They mean love."
Alec kisses him. There's nothing bittersweet about this. A part of Alec had known from the very moment they'd first touched that it would end up this way. He'd hoped, at least. Magnus steps closer, bodies slotting together easily, Alec skimming his fingers up and down the curve of his back.
They've had sex a few times, each time a little frenzied, and once, embarrassingly, in the bathroom of an establishment where they are no longer welcome, but this time feels different. They don't have jobs to rush off to, no companies to run. Right now, they only have each other and nothing to do except enjoy their time together.
Alec walks Magnus back towards the bed. The damp breeze from the open windows rustles the sheets as Magnus gracefully tumbles down, pulling Alec down on top of him. He kicks his legs out, and his flip-flops go sailing over the side.
Alec laughs as Magnus reverses their positions, successfully bracketing him in with his arms. He leans in and kisses Alec, his eyes falling closed trying to memorize the feel of Magnus' stubble against his chin, the feel of his soft lips against his.
"I would do terrible things for you," Magnus says tenderly, kissing both of Alec's closed eyes.
"Like what?" He feels himself grinning stupidly, helplessly.
"Stay at a Holiday Inn," Magnus offers thoughtfully, hand brushing against Alec's shirt, skillfully popping the buttons open.
"Oh no," Alec says in mock horror.
He sits up, letting his shirt fall off his shoulders and pushing Magnus back so that he's sitting up in his lap.
Alec hooks his thumbs beneath the hem of Magnus' shirt, the silky jewel-toned color edged with fine stitching that Alec recognizes as quality without being able to articulate why. He much prefers this vision anyway: Magnus with miles of bare skin, hair wild. Alec kisses his jaw, works his way down Magnus's neck, his Adam's apples, which bobs as he swallows convulsively, tilting his head back to give Alec more room. Alec nips his shoulder playfully, smiling to the skin before licking a stripe up his neck using the tip of his tongue, tasting the sea there, the heavy perfume of the plumeria blossoming over the hill.
Magnus groans, lifts his hips as Alec slides his pants off, the silky boxers beneath them. Magnus turns over pointedly, bending his leg and tucking it underneath his torso.
They don't do it this way often. Magnus has issues with vulnerability; Alec gets that. He doesn't do Magnus the disrespect of asking if he's sure – Magnus is a grown man, and if he's offering, he's sure. But he does take his time, skimming his fingers over the curve of Magnus' back, in-between the sharp jut of his shoulder blades.
He sucks two fingers into his mouth, getting them wet and sloppy before he trails them over the firm muscles of Magnus' ass and dips down, fingers skimming against the tight ring of muscle there and breaching it slowly.
Magnus' breath catches, his shoulders hitch, and Alec presses a soothing kiss on the knobs of his spine, as he pushes his fingers inwards, nearly too dry. He does a little disgraceful shimmy down the bed and lowers his mouth, licking around his fingers, easing the passage. Magnus makes a high-pitched sound and stretches his leg further, giving Alec an unobstructed view of his fingers disappearing into Magnus' body, getting messy and nasty with it, and Alec dips back down, using his tongue to fuck Magnus open right next to his fingers.
Once Magnus is loose and wet, canting his hips, using his leverage against the bed to shove back onto Alec's fingers, Alec kisses his ass apologetically before withdrawing his fingers. Magnus makes a disappointed noise but stays put as Alec leans over the side of the bed, grabs his suitcase, and procures a little packet of lube from the front zippered compartment. He says a brief prayer of thanks that the TSA didn't take more interest in his luggage than they did as he pulls off his pants and rips the packet open with his teeth, dribbling a generous amount onto his cock and slicking it down. The rest goes onto Magnus' ass, in between his cheeks.
"Ready?" Alec asks, holding the base of his dick.
Magnus grunts and pushes back, catching the crown of Alec's dick against his rim, and that's pretty much all of that. Can't get much more explicit. Alec grips himself and eases the head in, arching his back and craning his neck to watch the tip of his dick disappear into the wet head of Magnus' body, the flutter of the muscles against his skin.
Alec gives up once their bodies are flush, licks at the salt of Magnus' skin, the sweat pooling in the hollows. He curls his fingers over Magnus' hip, pulling out and then sliding back in, setting a slow and steady pace to juxtapose their fast and batshit crazy relationship thus far. Magnus' gives in beautifully, his body loose and hot and insides gripping Alec's cock as he rocks forward, getting deeper each time. Pleasure zips over his skin, low in his belly.
He changes his angle, feels Magnus tense up, back arching as he cries out. Alec hits that spot, over and over, reaching beneath Magnus to grab his dick, hard and weeping trapped between his body and the bed, hands spasming against the bedsheets, black fingernails against the soft heather gray: Alec thinks he'll remember this moment for the rest of his life. He curls his body around Magnus' as if he can shield him from everything unkind life has to offer. It only takes a few strokes of his hand before Magnus is crying out, voice hoarse, clenching around Alec so sweet and tight.
"Can I? Can I?" Alec says urgently.
"Yeah," Magnus says, body limp, voice fucked out
Alec grinds his hips against Magnus' ass, closes his eyes, and lets go. He empties himself in Magnus' body, gets as close as he can get without them sharing the same space until he's done, body shivering.
Magnus reaches around and gives Alec's ass a half-hearted slap, which he supposes is his cue to get off of him. Alec presses a quick kiss to the back of Magnus' sweaty neck and extracts himself, rolling onto the bed next to him. He looks over to where Magnus is still sprawled on his belly, face tilted towards him.
"We're not going to make it to dinner, are we?" Alec asks.
"Not unless you count a liquid dinner," Magnus says, gesturing lazily at the bar cart that Alec had nearly forgotten. Of course, Magnus remembered it, the observant lush.
"Hmm," Alec says, getting up. He still smells like stale airplane now with a thin layer of dried sweat and spunk. Shower time. "Make me that fruity pink thing you made last time, will you?"
Magnus laughs and gets up on the opposite side, circling around the bed. "Of course. It'll never stop being hilarious seeing a tiny pink drink in your enormous hands." He heads over to the cart, not bothering with clothes. He winces a little with each step and Alec's mind could go to terribly filthy places, but he needs a shower, a drink, and a powernap before revisiting those particular activities.
"Magnus?" Alec says before Magnus gets too far. He turns, eyebrows raised expectantly. Alec stands, closes the last few inches of space between them.
He reaches out and takes his hand. "Hey, I'll come work for you."
Magnus' answering grin is brilliant. "Yeah?"
He turns his hand over and kisses his wrist, right above his pulse. "Yeah."
"Are you going to be my administrative assistant?"
"If you want," Alec answers mildly.
"Are you going to wear those little sweater vests?"
Magnus cackles as Alec scowls and drops his hand.
"How do you feel about horn-rimmed glasses?" Magnus calls out as Alec stomps towards the bathroom as huffily as he can manage while completely nude and very slightly awkwardly proportioned as all tall people are.
"Maybe," Alec allows, knowing already that he'll wear them, he'll wear any of the possibly dumb and probably sexually suggestive outfits Magnus chooses for him because Alec doesn't really care. He lives to see the way Magnus' eyes light up with happiness.
Alec sighs and closes the bathroom door behind him, still hearing Magnus laugh in the other room.
He'll do it all, he knows, and more, so long as they do it together.
---
Alec steps out of the shower, grabs one of the fluffy white towels, and quickly dries himself off. He wraps it around his waist as he steps in front of the mirror, clearing the fog off with the back of one hand and then studying himself in the mirror.
Inevitably, his eyes fall downwards. Alec looks at the handprint thoughtfully. It's a part of him now, just as Magnus' scars are a part of him. He touches the handprint lightly. It doesn't matter -- he decides who his soulmate is and not the universe. He chooses Magnus, and he thinks that's a hell of a lot more important than some random mark.
Soulmarks are not inherently bad, to be fair. Izzy found a best friend, his mother finally found her freedom, and Alec found his truth and the voice he'd always lacked to speak it. He supposes like everything in life, soulmarks are just what you make of them.
He sends another silent apology Andrew's way, but he doesn't care what biology says. He decides who he's going to love, who he deserves. And he's going to work to deserve Magnus.
Alec grins at himself in the mirror, barely recognizing himself. He's happy, he realizes. He's never seen himself this way before. Something wavers in front of him, and he leans in closer in the mirror, blinking. For a moment, it seemed like the edges blurred on his soulmark, but as he studies it, there's nothing markedly different, the edges as crisp and dark as ever.
Alec shakes his head. He hadn't slept at all on the plane, and jetlag is beginning to catch up to him. "Hey, Magnus," he calls out, chuckling, "maybe I should skip that drink."
From the bedroom, he hears the crystal glasses shattering.
Heart racing, Alec runs out of the bathroom to where Magnus is standing in the middle of the room, a halo of shattered glass around him. He's pulled on some pants and his discarded flip flops.
"Magnus, what the hell happened?" Alec yells, looking around for his own shoes. He's going to have to find a broom somewhere, he thinks, his mind already racing ahead.
But Magnus isn't looking at him. He's staring down at his hand, trembling and empty in front of him, his palm dark black, a perfect match to the altered handprint now on Alec's chest where they'd first touched.