Sometimes, you have to be direct... (for alec_lightwood)

[magna_bane]

"I don't know this writing." She murmured the words softly while pushing a few books around on the table. The narrowed and arched looks of three sets of eyes completely washing over her like they weren't even there. Instead, she pointed to a photo she'd taken of the writing from the rooftop where Lilith had tried to resurrect Sebastian. "How do I not know this writing? I've studied all the forms of the Gehenna languages..."

"Magna Bane-Lightwood, if you do not sit down, I will burn all of your books and pour the ashes in the dead sea." Catarina growled softly as she tried to pace the smaller woman with a different attempts to figure out why she couldn't change. They all knew why... but Magna wanted to be sure. Had to be sure. Jace was gone... Alec didn't need...

"Can't this wait, Catarina?" Sighing in exasperation, she turned and leaned back against the table. She felt sick. Ungodly sick. Like everything she'd eaten on her trip with Alec would magically find away to escape. The sickness left her pale and even shaking as Catarina's hand pressed against her forehead.

"No." The blue skinned healer glared at her in a way only a motherly healer could and it quelled her thoughts. If Magna dared to look over her shoulder, she knew that she'd find two sets of feline eyes glaring at her. "You need to put this nonsense away and let me check you over..."

"But... Alec needs..."

"Alec doesn't know what he needs! You know why?" The healer glared her down and didn't have to finish it as Lex scowled and finished for her, "Because you haven't told him!"

"I told him..." Magnus wilted against the table and gave in. Sitting on the edge, Catarina worked her magic grumbling the while time about how Magnus Bane didn't know the meaning of communicating. "He has more important things to worry about..." Keeping her voice soft, she felt a pain in her chest and stomach that nearly made her want to retch right then.

"You know that's not true..." Mal's soft voice permeated the air and Magnus flinched. "If you just told him clearly, you'd realize that. Even if he is a new person, you know as well as we do that he loves you. This isn't something you can dance around."

Rubbing at her face, she finally pressed her hands over it and made a soft sound. When she lifted her head, she waved them away. "Go. I'm tired. We all know this is pointless. We all know why I can't change. So just go home. I need to think." The kittens started to complain and she cut them sharp looks. "You two. Out. I love you, but you're suffocating me. I'll see you in the morning." Both of them glared only a moment before they gave in. One at a time they said goodbye, Mal with a kiss to her forehead and Lex with a hug. After one last lingering look, they were gone. "I know what those looks mean... they are chastising me for not saying it to him plainly."

"Magnus..." Feline eyes rose to Catarina's and she tried to grin only to sigh at the hard look. "Leave all of this where it lay... clean up... lay down. If he doesn't come back here tonight, you call him. The longer you put this off... the worse of a mess you'll make. Are we clear?"

One hand tangled messily in her hair as her eyes closed. Ducking her head, she made a low whimpering sound as her stomach turned. Finally... all she could do was nod.

Comments

[alec_lightwood]

It took Alec longer than he wanted to deal with the Clave and his family... his biological family, not the one he had found only a few weeks earlier. Magna and the kittens were just as much his family as his parents and his siblings, but that wasn't something he was willing to tell the Clave. Not yet at least. After what had happened to Simon, he was wary of letting anyone from the Clave near any of them, afaid of what they'd do to a half nephilim, half demon hunter and her - their- children.

He'd managed to keep his impatience reined in as he'd answered the same questions over and over, his thoughts turning toward Magna and her inability to change whenever his interviewers gave him a chance to consider anything but Sebastian and Jace. Jace who wasn't quite gone but wasn't quite there either, leaving a gaping hole in his spirit where his parabatai should be.

At least Magna would understand why it bothered him so much that Jace was gone... even if she was jealous of Jace sometimes. Which made her offers to help find the blond even more special to him.

Finally, the Clave let him go home and after escorting a shaky Isabelle back to the Institute, he went to Magnus' apartment, the familiarity of the route giving him a chance to mull over what she'd told him about her magic.

She couldn't change into her male form. When she'd said it, she'd looked at him expectantly and he couldn't help feeling like he was somehow disappointing her by not understanding what she meant other than the obvious. Maybe somewhere in his jigsaw memories there was an answer, but Alec couldn't think of it.

It worried him... terrified him actually since he didn't know. But he assumed if it was a serious illness either Magna or the twins would tell him. And if there was something wrong with her magic, she'd warn him before they were dragged into another battle.

But logic couldn't stop the worry that was causing his stomach to clench painfully or the fear that made it difficult to breathe if he thought about all the possible reasons why her shapeshifting wasn't working properly.

Even as he climbed the steps to Magna's apartment, he checked his cell phone for a message from her or the kittens, hoping and dreading that there'd be a text. When he reached the door, he unlocked it and let himself in, stomach in knots as he locked up behind him. "Magna? Mal? Lex? Anyone home?"