Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all the characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

Wrapping Things Up

Alec and Magnus broke off their kissing when the yelling from the hallway became too loud for them to ignore. Jaden was the first to come out, his cheeks red and his eyes alight with fury. It was actually a good look for him, Magnus thought as he watched the boy stomp angrily into the room.

Whirling around Jaden glared in the direction of the hallway and the warlock in it. "You go on home and don't you come back, you jerk! I'm staying here and you can't stop me, Bryan!" And that being said the young warlock marched in the direction of the kitchen, needing some more cookies to fortify him.

Wincing, Alec looked at Magnus ruefully.

Sighing, Magnus knew that the only way things were going to end the way he wanted it to was for him to step up and take over. "Go pat the kid's head some more and I'll deal with the idiot." He announced, turning Alec loose.

"Play nice." And on that note Alec said a little prayer and headed for the kitchen.

But Magnus had no intention of playing nice. It was playing nice that was causing all the problems. The two idiots needed a good, hard kick to the ass as far as he was concerned and he was more than ready to deliver.

Walking over to the mouth of the hallway Magnus stared at his pathetic foe, the warlock leaning against the wall while massaging his temples. Normally he would have stood back and enjoyed the other man's misery, but tonight he needed the man happy and with his stupid ward. Because if Jaden wasn't with Diggory than he was going to be with Alec. Magnus knew it in his gut. And that was so not going to happen.

He wouldn't be doing the kid any favors returning him to Diggory, but Magnus figured that if the kid really did love the simpering prick than it was in both their interests for him to land his man.

Moving to stand in front of the warlock Magnus cleared his throat. "You're a dumbass, you know that right?"

"If I wanted to know what you thought I'd ask, Bane."

"Well, while you're wallowing in your gross stupidity, here's some food for thought. If you don't find a way to un attach your boy from mine, I'm going to be spending an awful lot of time with your Jaden. And knowing Alec, and I do, he'll want me to take over your boy's warlock training. Which means, FYI, that in order for me to be able to bear having him as my apprentice, I'm going to have to turn him into someone I can stand to be around for long periods of time. That means that the next time you see your Jaden he could be wearing a lot of leather and glitter. He might even have his hair spiked and dyed rainbow colors. It's possible you know, he seems the eager to please type. And just imagine the kind of damage I could do in less than a month. Just imagine it."

Bryan went white as a sheet, staring at the other warlock in true horror. That there was one Magnus Bane in the world was already a horrendous crime against nature. That there could be two of them was a crime the world would never forgive him for.

"So what's it going to be, Diggory? Are you going to man up or am I going to have to turn your boy toy into a mini me?"

Shuddering at the thought, Bryan gave Magnus a desperate look. "What do you expect me to do? You saw how unreasonable he's being. And you are not allowed to turn him into you, Bane, get that through your gel encrusted head. He's a sweet kid; you've got no business corrupting him with your perversity."

Magnus just rolled his eyes. "I can corrupt him all I want if you don't stop me."

"That's blackmail!"

"Glad you finally caught on. So what's it going to be, Diggory?"

Bryan glared. "How am I supposed to talk sense to him when he refuses to listen?"

"Well first of all, let's get one thing straight, once and for all. How do you feel about the kid? Are you at all interested in getting him naked? He is pretty cute in a boy toy sort of way."

Bryan went red, stuttering in a way that made his answer impossible to understand.

"I'm going to take that as undecided on the getting naked thing." Rolling his eyes Magnus wondered why the other warlock hadn't just offed himself after the Victorian era. The man had been right at home with the prim, uptight idiots. "So how about you give him a chance to win you over? You two can go from there and if it doesn't work he can come crying back to Alec and I'll find him a nice boyfriend instead. I know plenty of guys who would just eat him up with a spoon."

Bryan took a threatening step towards Magnus. "There will be no eating Jaden!"

"We'll see."Magnus shot back in a sing song tone meant to send Bryan's blood pressure through the roof. "We'll see."

)

Once he was sure Bryan had plenty of horrifying images of Jaden's fate in his head Magnus headed for the kitchen, a very pale Diggory following after him in a daze. Walking over to the kitchen table Magnus took a seat across from Jaden, Bryan remaining in the doorway, leaning against it for support.

Giving Alec a look that said plainly not to interfere, Magnus turned all his attention to Jaden.

"Well, kid, you've already had a mother, and since you've decided Alec is your father than that makes me your evil step mother. And I can be evil, believe me. And if you know your fairy tales than you know evil step mothers usually try to kill and or dispose of their step children in creative and often painful ways. Lucky you, I'm the Disney version step mother, so I'm more wicked than evil."

"That's debatable." Bryan muttered from the doorway.

Magnus sent the older man a look that told him to shut up or else.

Jaden struggled to keep his face straight. The way Magnus and Bryan behaved was starting to strike him as seriously hilarious. Plus, Magnus Bane couldn't be as badass as everyone said he was if Alec loved him as much as he thought the Shadowhunter did. "I don't blame you for not liking me very much." Jaden told the famous warlock, returning Magnus's attention to him. "I did try to kill Alec after all."

Looking into the boy's sad, puppy dog eyes, Magnus felt a nudging of his conscience. Things had certainly gone downhill in the conscience department since he'd hooked up with Alec, Magnus thought sadly. He hated having one this developed.

"I wouldn't say I'm not mad about what you did, and it goes without saying that you would have died a horrific, painful, and utterly inhumane death had you actually killed him, but I do get loving someone to the point where you behave beyond stupidly. Believe me, I get it. Which is why I'm cutting you enough slack not to zap the hell out of you."

"Thanks for that." Jaden worked up a small smile, even as he imagined just how he would have suffered at the other man's hand. There was something about the gleam that had gone into the man's cat eyes that made him think that Bane hadn't been exaggerating the inhumane part.

He was never so glad that he was too much of a wimp to kill anyone.

"You're welcome." And hoping he got this right, Magnus crossed his arms in front of him, putting on his serious game face. "Look, Bryan is an idiot. Anyone who's ever met him will agree with me. What you see in him is beyond me, but I'm dating a guy who has less fashion sense than my cat. Love makes no sense, and some things are worth overlooking when your heart's involved. And yours obviously is. For reasons that escape me."

Jaden grinned wryly. "He grows on you."

"Like a fungus. I can see that." Especially given how Diggory dressed most if the time. The man did not wear color, ever. "And being the fungus sort, he isn't terribly bright. Which means that yes, he absolutely had no idea how you felt about him. He really is that stupid. And that in mind you need to realize that you're being stupid by running off without giving him time to think about what you said. Given how thick his skull is, you're probably looking at at least a decade before everything you said tonight sinks in."

Bryan lashed out without thinking. "This is why your father tried to drown you in a-"

Bang

The eight inch blade of the kitchen knife vibrated beside Bryan's head, thrown with such a force that it buried halfway into the wall. No one had seen it coming.

Everyone looked from the knife to Alec, who was leaning up against the kitchen counter beside the butcher block. Alec drummed his fingers by the block without taking his eyes off Bryan for a second. The look on his face promised that the next knife would not be a warning shot.

"Damn you're hot." Getting to his feet Magnus hurried over to grab Alec by the front of his shirt, the warlock giving his man one hell of a kiss while the Shadowhunter blushed bright pink. Deliberately Magnus pushed aside what Diggory had said and instead focused on the fact that he had someone who loved him enough to throw knives at people who were mean to him. And how great was that!

Jace, Isabelle and Maia stared and than laughed, Clary just shaking her head and marveling over how much her life had changed since she'd met the Lightwoods.

Jaden looked over at Clary, who was sitting beside him. "Why did Alec just throw a knife?"

"Your guardian was about to say something…really, really, not nice." Clary glared at the warlock now, obviously wishing Alec had thrown a few more things at the older man. Alec had gone a long way towards healing Magnus's heart, but bringing up the warlock's family was lower than low.

Jaden looked over at Bryan, his eyes narrowing as he watched his guardian yank the blade out of the wall. He didn't have to be a genius to figure out what the man had intended to say. He was as horrified to learn what Magnus's father had tried to do that as he was that Bryan would throw that into the poor man's face.

Twirling the blade between his fingers Bryan reluctantly met Jaden's gaze, honestly regretting his words. "She's right. I shouldn't have said that. I'll apologize to Bane as soon as he comes up for air." And he'd rather be dragged across broken glass for five blocks than apologize to the man. That should count for something. But from the look Jaden was giving him Bryan doubted that he was going to be cut any slack at all.

And to his credit, in everyone else's eyes, Bryan really did apologize when Magnus finally turned a bright red Alec loose. The apology was stilted and stammered at some points, but he obviously meant it which was what counted.

Thanks to Alec, Magnus was in a good enough mood to accept it. Plus, he was man enough to admit that he might have been stressing Diggory's stupidity just a little too much.

"And now that we have that cleared up I'll take it from here as your darling auntie." Isabelle announced, having figured out that Magnus could not be allowed to continue his rant without bloodshed occurring. "Jaden, what Magnus was trying to say was that you need to work on Bryan some before you give up completely. Bryan obviously cares about you and if he wasn't at least a little bit interested than he would have left by now. As an honorary member of the Lightwood family you have to go after the person you love and fight to catch him until you can fight no more. Cause if you don't, kiddo, you're gonna be playing the shoulda, coulda, wouldas for a very, very, very long time."

"Coming from you that's almost profound." Jace smirked.

"Bite me, bro."

"Heck no. I know where you've been."

Rolling his eyes at them Alec gave serious thought to whacking his siblings' heads together. It wasn't like it would do that much damage given their equally hard heads. And he was really, really starting to get tired here. It had been a long day.

Looking at how stressed out his honorary dad was getting Jaden decided that his honorary auntie was right. Sometimes a man just had to do what a man had to do.

The young warlock took a deep breath, got out of his seat, and marched over to where Bryan was standing. Arms crossed in front of him, Jaden was all business as he stared up into the face of the annoying man fate had stuck him with.

"All right, I'll come home with you. I'll give you a decade to fall in love with me and realize that I'm the best thing that's every happened to you, you stupid warlock. And if by the end of that you're still clueless I'm coming back here and I'm going to let Alec get Magnus to hook me up with some of his friends."

"You do not want to be hooked up with any of that guy's friends." Bryan protested.

"That's your opinion." Jaden sniffed, not backing down an inch. "But I'm not getting any younger and I don't intend to spend my considerable lifetime without someone in the bed beside me. I'm over a hundred years old and it's about time I got some action, dammit!"

"Ouch." Isabelle winced. "Okay, if Magnus's friends don't work out we'll move on to my friends. Magnus, we really have to help this kid out ASAP."

"You are not pimping him out." Alec ordered, giving his sister and boyfriend harsh looks.

Seeing where this was going Bryan reached out and grabbed one of Jaden's hands, shaking it fiercely. "I'll take your deal."

Jaden blinked in surprise a couple of times, than smiled. Yes, Bryan was probably only taking the deal to 'save' him from Magnus's influence, but it was still a start. And Isabelle was right, it was too soon to give up just yet. If he was willing to kidnap someone for Bryan, he sure as hell should be willing to do whatever was necessary to land the man of his dreams too. "Okay then. It's a deal. Now let's wrap this up before blood is shed by anyone. It's been a long, long day."

"Yeah." Linking his fingers through Jaden's Bryan squeezed the younger man's hand, silently communicating their continued unity.

Jaden squeezed back, smiling up at him with newfound confidence.

)

After that everyone said their good byes, Jaden and Bryan opted to stay in the apartment and talk things out in more detail without the others there to interfere or give their opinions. Everyone agreed that was probably best, Maia, Isabelle, Clary and Alec all giving Jaden their cell phone numbers before they left. If he needed them, he'd be able to get ahold of them no problem. Magnus wasn't pleased that the kid had Alec's number, but at least the kid didn't have Alec.

Heading downstairs after dragging Alec away from an overly affectionate Jaden, Magnus bid the rest of their group adieu while keeping a very tight grip on Alec. His man was not going anywhere without him and he didn't want company either.

Waving them off after giving the others the first cab, Magnus and Alec stood on the curb and waited for the next cab to hail in comfortable silence.

Squeezing the hand that held his Alec looked over at Magnus with affection. "So if Diggory screws this up…how upset are you going to be when Jaden clings to me like a burr?"

"I'll just attach him to someone else, permanently."

Alec gave his man a wry look, shaking his head in amusement. "You know, I always blamed the fathers of those ill fated children for sticking them with such wicked step mothers."

Magnus laughed, leaning in to place a kiss against Alec's exposed neck. "You like that I'm wicked."

"Can't argue with that."

The two sharing a long, lingering kiss, they broke apart when they heard meowing coming from their feet. Both men looking down they laughed when they saw a familiar white tuff of fur meowing for their attention at their feet, looking up at them with bright, questioning eyes.

Bending down Magnus scooped up the hamster sized cat, lifting his pet up to eye level. "How on earth did you get way out here?" It constantly amazed him how skilled his cat was at ending up in the most unlikely of places. The cat had serious skills.

"Guess he missed his mommy." Alec teased, reaching out to scratch Chairman Meow behind his tiny ears, the cat purring madly as he moved under the Shadowhunter's skillful fingers.

"And his mommy wants daddy's attention too." Magnus purred back, cradling Chairman Meow in his cupped hands as he leaned over for another kiss.

And with their other honorary kid purring away in between them Magnus and Alec got busy making sure that anyone who saw them couldn't possibly misunderstand just how in love they really were.

The End