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Hanging out at a bookshop every other day wasn’t exactly how Magnus would have chosen to spend his days. Except he was trying to get his magic back and part of that was trying not to be so… reclusive. And Luke said his bookshop was open to anyone, but mostly Downworlders.
So fine, whatever. But the biggest problem Magnus faced? The guy from the party the Clary from the other world had him crash. Magnus was almost sure that guy thought he was some jerk Clary invited to the party to cheat on her boyfriend and that Magnus tried to play him too. It had been way easier to just flee once Clary and Jace were back in their world. Magnus thought he’d never have to think about the Shadowhunter children again.
Of course he was wrong because the cute party planner guy came to the bookshop every single week. And on different days! The audacity.
“You’re utterly pathetic,” Catarina said.
Magnus glared at her. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Wingwoman, if we’re being honest,” Cat said dryly. “And it’s so sad to see you fall this far, Magnus. You like him, and, from what you said, he likes you too. Or at least finds something interesting about you. Something I cannot fathom at the moment.”
“Ragnor and Raphael are rubbing off on you and I don’t like it,” Magnus muttered. “Besides, I’m not going to do this whole date a guy who is definitely a descendant of a long dead race of demon hunters.”
“You don’t know that.”
“His last name is Lightwood. Lightwood, Catarina. He might not know about the Shadow World, but the name itself implies that at some point, his family were Shadowhunters.”
“Right, but that was centuries ago,” Cat pointed out. “So I don’t think he knows about any of that.”
“Shadowhunters don’t like Downworlders. They think they’re above us.”
“Seeing as the Shadowhunters are the ones who don’t know anything about this world, I think they’re the lower species now.”
“Catarina!” Magnus sighed.
Cat sighed. “Okay.” Her eyes caught something behind Magnus. She grinned. “Sorry, Magnus, thank me later.” She pushed him. Hard.
Magnus stumbled away from his hiding place between bookshelves and… straight into the guy walking down the aisle. The guy caught him before Magnus could take them both down. Of course it was him. Alexander Lightwood. Party planner, book stalker, and possible Shadowhunter many times removed.
“I’m sorry,” Magnus squeaked.
Alec gave him a weird look. “Your friend pushed you,” he said. “Are you avoiding me?”
“Absolutely not,” Magnus denied, even though he had in fact been doing that.
“Good,” Alec said. “We never finished our conversation. At the party. You went off with Clary and Jace. Although, they both said they never met you before.”
If Magnus was more confident in his magical abilities, he would have opened a portal right then and there. And maybe magically knocked Alec out and taken all his memories of Magnus. How was he supposed to answer what Alec was clearly wondering?
“Unless you’re their drug dealer,” Alec said. “In which case, that would be why Clary won’t say she knows you. She knows I would never let the fact that she did drugs go. I would probably hijack Simon’s best man speech at her wedding and bring up this story.”
Magnus stared at him. “Why?”
“Because being an asshole is how Clary and I show affection for each other,” Alec said matter of factly. “She’s already said she’ll talk about my, uh, high school fashion sense that I wish I could forget.”
“How bad?” Magnus asked.
Alec gave him an unamused look. “Bad. Don’t ask.”
“Well, now I’m curious,” Magnus said.
“He’s not a drug dealer,” Catarina’s voice said from somewhere behind a shelf.
Magnus turned around, trying to find her. “Catarina!”
“I am wingwomaning, Magnus, and you need a lot of help right now,” came the response.
Magnus turned back to Alec, hoping that he hadn’t heard what was said, but knew that hope was in vain. “I’m not a drug dealer,” he said lamely.
“I got that,” Alec said, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. “I like your friend.”
“Everyone likes me,” Cat’s voice said.
“Catarina, please go away,” Magnus said.
“No, I’m recording this for Ragnor and Raphael.”
Magnus groaned. “Catarina, why?”
“Because they’re going to be so upset to have missed this.”
Alec snickered. “Well, anyway,” he said, raising his voice ever so slightly—probably so Catarina’s phone could record it, the traitor. “I wanted to ask you something, but since you’ve been avoiding me, I haven’t been able to do that.”
Magnus could hear Cat snickering. Why did he have to have such horrible friends? He should have brought Tessa with him. At least she wouldn’t laugh.
“Would you like to go out on an official date?” Alec asked. “One where you wouldn’t have to, you know, sneak into the venue. And preferably one where you don’t ditch me to ‘not deal drugs’,” he said, making air quotes, “to my friend and his girlfriend.”
Catarina was full on laughing now. Magnus glared at the shelf that sounded like it was in her general direction.
“And there would be a no friends policy, so you won’t have people laughing at you,” Alec added.
“That would be great,” Magnus said, covering his face with a hand. It muffled his voice. “That would be really great.”
“Excellent, should I pick you up from Luke’s bookshop?” Alec asked teasingly. “You seem to spend an excessive amount of time here. I’ve just been coming on random days to try and catch you.”
Magnus closed his eyes while Cat laughed. “I’ll give you his address. And his phone number. Oh, I hope this goes well because Ragnor is going to love you.”
Magnus definitely needed new friends.