It Suits You

Magnus Bane sat up abruptly, awakened suddenly by the echoing sound of knocks on the front door. What could anybody possibly want at such an hour? It had to have been past two o’clock in the morning; certainly not an appropriate time to be showing up at a person’s house. But Magnus was a warlock, and surprisingly use to being woke up at odd hours of the night.

Shaking his head and rearranging his black hair in a more presentable manner, Magnus stood up and started out of his bedroom and for the door. Walking through the bleak hallways of his recently acquired residence, he couldn’t help but miss the grandeur of Camille’s home. He was quite glad to be rid of her presence but often thought of that magnificent house of hers.

The knocks continued to resound through the house as Magnus walked towards them. When he was close enough to the door for himself to be heard, he called out, “Oh do calm down. I am on my way.” Magnus reached for the door handle and shivered as the night air seeped in and around the door. He had very little idea about who was at the door, but he figured to see just about anyone other than the person that was actually standing before him. “James Carstairs. What an,” he paused, searching for the correct word, “unexpected surprise.”

“I would venture to say that most surprises are quite unexpected,” the silver haired boy said.

“Hmm, he looks like Jem Carstairs,” Magnus mused slightly sarcastically to himself. “But he speaks just like William Herondale.”

“As do you, Magnus,” Jem pointed out.

“You bring up a good point,” the still sleepy warlock acknowledged. “However, if I may ask, why on earth are you on my doorstep at such an hour?”

“May I come in?”

“I suppose you might as well. It doesn’t seem as if you will be leaving any time soon,” Magnus said, standing aside to let the boy pass into the small foyer. “I would be polite and take your coat and hat, but to be completely honest, I'm letting you keep them in hopes of you leaving once you’re done talking. Or whatever it is that you’ve come here for.” He shut the door behind him hard, accentuating the point that he was trying to make.

“Don’t you welcome the company? I would imagine after losing Camille you would be quite lonely,”

“I was quite lonely even when I had Camille as a lover. If her love was food, I would have starved off of what she gave me,” Magnus admitted, startling himself at how honest he was being with the Nephilim boy he hardly knew. Those were words he had only thought about speaking, and only to Camille. He secretly wished for the chance to tell her but would certainly not go out of his way to see that woman again. “And I would only welcome the company if it were on my own terms. And my terms do not include you showing up at three in the morning for what seems to be no reason. So no, I do not exactly welcome the company right now, James.”

“Well fine then. I might as well just leave then,”

“Oh would you?” the warlock asked, sarcastically hopeful.

“If you are going to be like this, then yes,” Jem stated stubbornly.

“Oh alright, stay. You’ve woke me up for some probably ridiculous reason, so I may as well hear your story, whatever it may be.” Magnus reached his hand out and took the hat off of Jem’s head, placing it on a chair near him and ignoring the boy’s started look. “And your coat?” Magnus asked impatiently.

“I thought you were not going to take it,”

“Fine, keep your coat on,” Magnus said, crossing him arms. “I am only trying to be –“

“Polite? As you said you would not be?”

“Oh, do stop talking like William. It is very unbecoming of you. You are such a sweet young man and the only thing he has going for him is his looks.”

“You don’t know him as I do. Nobody does,” Jem countered quickly and defensively. His body had become rigid and his face contorted with his need to protect and defend his parabatai’s good name; as if William still had a good name in the eyes of most people. Magnus had been able to view the good in him once, but recently had become much more wary of the dark haired boy.

“I am sorry if I have offended you James,” Magnus nodded sincerely. “I often turn into quite the insufferable warlock when I am deprived of sleep.”

“It isn’t your fault, Magnus. Will does bring much of it onto himself,”

“I can’t argue with you there. Now, I suppose you have something you wanted to discuss?”

“Yes, I did,” Jem nodded.

“Come this way then,” Magnus said softly, turning away from the Nephilim and gesturing for him to follow him. He led Jem into the drawing room and sat down on his favorite couch across from the blazing fireplace, leaving Jem to choose his own seat. He lowered himself into the nearest armchair and laid his cane across his lap. “So what was so important that you had to wake me up at such an hour?”

“Do you want the honest truth?”

“No James, I would like you to lie to me and waste my time; time in which I should be sleeping, if it weren’t for you already. Yes, I want the honest truth!”

“I don’t think I can go through with my marriage to Tessa,” the silver haired Shadowhunter said solemnly, looking down onto his hands, seemingly ignoring Magnus’ complaints.

“Okay, you came to blather on about your love life. Wonderful,”

Still ignoring him, Jem went on. “I have been thinking quite a bit lately.”

“Well I certainly would hope so,”

“And I feel as if I have to confront my feelings as soon as possible,”

Magnus rolled his multiple colored eyes but felt it best if he simply indulged Jem. “Then I think you should be confessing this to Tessa instead of me.”

“I shall, but I must tell you first.”

“Why? I still don’t understand why any of this has to do with me. Especially at three o’clock in the morning.”

“You will find out soon enough, I suppose. My goodness, I really am acting like Will tonight, aren’t I?”

Magnus did not answer the boy, for he could tell it was aimed at himself more than the warlock. Very suddenly, Jem stood up and walked towards Magnus. He sat down next to him, gauging the extremely puzzled look on Magnus’s face.

“I apologize if this offends you in any way, and you may feel free to throw me out of your house if you must, but I feel as if I have to do this.”

Magnus was just about to question what in the world the boy was talking about when Jem quickly pressed his lips against his own. The kiss lasted less than two seconds, but in that short amount of time, Magnus understood everything.

“That is why you cannot marry Tessa,”

“Precisely,” Jem whispered, a slightly incredulous look on his face. ’He probably wonders why I am so calm,’ Magnus thought to himself.

“When did you come to this realization?”

“I had started to notice something even before I had proposed. There was this night,” Jem started, looking down at his hands once again. He sighed and started again. “I am still ashamed of the way I had acted towards her. The two of us had become…quite intimate that night.”

“Did you two…?”

“No. No, we did not actually consummate anything that night. There was an interruption before anything very serious could occur. But if I am to be completely honest with you, I was almost glad for the interruption. I am not sure if I could have…gone through with it.” He sighed again and ran a hand through his light hair. In the light of the fireplace, Magnus noticed how paper-thin Jem’s skin looked. It seemed as if the wrong move would tear the Shadowhunter in half. But Magnus knew that he was being foolish; he could see the fierce and strong man under his sickly appearance. He knew that Jem would not break so easily. “Oh, I do hope you understand what I am trying to say. I'm not sure if I could explain it any further.”

“There is no need for that. I do know what you are talking about and I truly feel sorry for you. But if I may ask, why did you ask her to marry her if you had such fears? Surely you knew that you would have had to do such an act again.”

“I had hoped, perhaps very foolishly, that I wouldn’t have the same troubles if I were to try again,”

“And did you try it again?”

“Not with Tessa, no. But against all of my better judgment and morals, I visited some place two weeks ago that Will would have liked people to think he visited often.” Magnus knew immediately what Jem was referring to. Before the truth about William’s past and the reason for his cold demeanor was revealed, he convinced many people that he would be out all night drinking and consorting with women of ill repute. That was not the case, as was recently revealed. He would in fact wander the streets at night to keep up the image he projected.

“You spent time at a brothel?”

“If you must be so blunt, yes,” he sighed, shaking his head as if he were ashamed of himself. “But I had the same troubles with that woman as I did with Tessa. That is when I finally realized what was wrong.”

“So why wait two weeks? And why come to me? And better yet still, why at three o’clock?”

“I waited so long because I wanted to be absolutely sure. I spent quite a long time thinking this all over before I acted upon anything.” Jem seemed to stop his explanation there. He was looking down at his folded hands and stayed silent. Magnus didn’t expect him to continue on his own, so attempted to coax more out of him.

“So why me?” he asked softly.

“There are a couple of reasons, actually. The first is because of a rumor I had heard of you several different times.”

“Rumors are not always true, dear Jem,”

“No, but judging by your lack of reaction to all of this, I am guessing that this one was true,”

“Yes, well, that one probably was true, come to think of it,” Magnus chuckled lightly.

“The second reason, and perhaps the one that influenced me to come to you most,” Jem started, gazing into Magnus’s eyes, “you intrigue me, Magnus. You always have intrigued me. You often dress as if you are not from our time and nobody questions it. You are a warlock and you were in a relationship with a vampire. And then there are your eyes. Your eyes are just so beautiful and enchant me.”

“Your eyes are the beautiful ones, Jem,” Magnus said softly and slowly. “I can’t say I have seen more beautiful eyes in all of my long life.”

“I clearly recall Will telling me that blue eyes were your favorite,”

“I told him that blue eyes and black hair are my favorite combination. But blue eyes by themselves are not my favorite. Your eyes are my favorite,”

Jem looked away, almost as if he were more ashamed than embarrassed. “My eyes are the product of my illness.”

“But they are not only that drug. That is what makes them so beautiful James,” Magnus insisted softly, putting a hand on Jem’s cheek to bring his face back to face him. “The fact that one can still see you through the effects of the drug. When I look into your eyes, I do not see the drug; I see James Carstairs. Through your eyes, one sees the real you. They may be clouded with the color associated with the yin fin, but they are not clouded with addiction. You are the only user I have ever seen whose eyes are not clouded with addiction. That is because you are so much stronger than they are, Jem. You may think it is because you only take enough so that you can survive, but that is not the reason. It is because you are so much stronger than anyone can see. You are not as fragile as people think you are. You are one of the strongest men I have ever met, and I am completely sincere in saying this.”

“You are among very few who do not see me as a fragile boy. Thank you for that,” he whispered, nearly choking on the words.

“No need for thanks. I only tell you because I truly believe it,”

“Then thank you for that,”

“Now, why did you decide to show up when you did?”

“This may sound all very silly to you, but I shall continue to tell you the honest truth. I came here because I had a dream. It was all so vivid and it felt real; that is why I chose to listen to it. In it, I was home again at the Shanghai Institute. But it wasn’t a dream of the past; I was as I am today, not as a young boy. My mother, father, and I were sitting in the music room, simply talking. They knew of my feelings and accepted them. The last thing my mother said to me before I awoke was, ’Go to him, Jian.’ That is my birth name; Jian,” Jem explained, tears very nearly falling from his silver eyes. Magnus could tell that this dream of his meant much more to him than most people could imagine. “She told me, ’Go to him, Jian. Go to him tonight and explain to him. He will understand. He will understand because he feels as you do. And don’t you forget, Jian, that your father and I love you. Now go to him.’”

A tear finally escaped from each of Jem’s eyes, rolling unsteadily down each side of his face. Magnus was near tears himself as he reached out a hand to wipe one away. He kept his hand cupped around Jem’s face and the boy subconsciously nuzzled into it. “I don’t think it sounds silly at all. And your mother was correct; I do understand.”

“Perhaps it is odd for me to say, but I think that I am more relieved that you understand than that you don’t find me to be insane,”

“Who said you weren’t insane?” Magnus asked semi-sarcastically. “But don’t you know the insane have more fun?”

What would have been a slight blush on a person with normal skin tone was a major blush on Jem’s fair face as he asked his next question. “Would you care to show me some of this ‘fun’?”

“I would love to show you some of the fun,” Magnus smirked, leaning closer and pressed his lips once again to the Nephilim’s. Because Magnus knew of Jem’s obvious inexperience, he proceeded slowly and gently, not wanting to rush the boy into anything. He certainly did not expect him to be the one to intensify things between them.

Jem snaked his fingers through Magnus’s long hair and coaxed the warlock down so that he was lying across the couch and Jem was on top of him. Magnus could not complain, however; he actually preferred to be more submissive.

Minutes – or was it hours? – later, the two separated to regain a bit of composure. Magnus laughed, the sound low and somehow seductive. “It seems as if you already knew of the fun.”

“Well, I did have an idea,” Jem smirked. He removed a hand from behind Magnus’s head to brush his own hair out of his eyes and stopped to give his hand a puzzling look. He turned the palm towards Magnus and asked, “What is this? It seems to be in your hair.”

“It looks to be mica dust and it wouldn’t surprise me if it were. I had been working on a spell earlier today and something caused quite a bit of mica dust to blow around the room. I suppose some of it got in my hair.”

Jem made a gesture for Magnus to turn his head to the side and the warlock obeyed.

“Oh, I think more than ‘some’ got in your hair,” he laughed. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before; you are coated in it.”

“Well that is quite embarrassing,” Magnus flushed. “I'm sure I look downright foolish, shimmering like I am.”

“No, you don’t look foolish at all.” Jem shook his head, a bit of hair falling back into his face. He smirked, but spoke sincerely, “I think it quite suits you. Perhaps you should make a habit of wearing mica dust.”