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Alec raised his glass and nodded to the bartender. The same again. Usually Alec didn't drink that much, especially not on a normal work day. But so what? It wasn't like he had to get up early the next morning.
Alec’s brooding was not interrupted by the waitress, who took his empty glass and placed a full one on the small napkin in front of him.
In his mind, the phone call with his parents went on in a loop, word by word again and again.
Why do you care about these degenerate hillbillies?
What do you expect from those who marry within a family? They get sick faster and better should not reproduce further. You are there to corroborate that.
Only the strongest survive, that is called natural selection.
What do a couple of children mean? Statistically speaking, that does not count at all.
What prospects do you think they have in life?
It is their fault, why do they live there at all?
Alec had never been so angry with his parents, so disappointed with his job and so disillusioned with the world as he was right now. He took another sip and stifled a cough. He removed the napkin that had stuck to the bottom of the glass.
He never would have thought that his parents would value human life so little. They had no sense of empathy whatsoever. Compassion and decency was a foreign word for them, with which no stomach could be filled.
Alec preferred to be poor but happy rather than ignorant and rich at the expense of others. He wanted to be able to look at himself in the mirror every morning.
It was only now that he realized that what he had regarded as professional competence for years turned out to be a complete lack of emotion, even indifference. How could he have misinterpreted them for so long?
Despite or maybe because of the strict upbringing they gave him and the high academic expectations, his parents had always been role models for him.
Although law would not have been his first choice, if he had been free to choose, he had taken his studies seriously, because he wanted to be a good and successful lawyer like his parents were.
He had admired his parents for how uncompromisingly they negotiated, how proud he was of them every time they got the best possible deal for their client or won an important lawsuit.
Four days ago he had arrived in this small, picturesque place. Alec found a humble lodging in a boarding house that had only three rooms to rent. Nothing in the sleepy village indicated that he would be confronted with profound blows of fate. He wasn't prepared for it to hit his stomach like a punch every time a name in his files got a face, when he heard a new story that was basically all the same, only in the details differed.
His parents didn't want him to go here, they even tried to forbid him. At first he thought his parents were worried about his health. Or were they afraid that he might find out too much? They knew how thorough he was.
But Alec couldn't be stopped from coming here. Not only for research purposes, he also wanted to escape the increasingly tense relationship with his parents for a few days.
The years in college and university were the best, the freest time of his life so far.
He had never been a party goer and he was a little bit proud that he had denied his parent's wish for the first time, when they wanted to let their connections play so that he could move into his father's former frat house.
Despite all of this, he had enjoyed this time; time when his parents didn't constantly breath down his neck; time when he could finally be himself. It was time for him to gain experiences. Experiences of all kinds. Experiences with which his parents wouldn't have agreed if they had known about them.
All new lawyers were encouraged to take on a certain number of pro bono cases because that was good for the firm's image. It was just that Alec's clients were mostly from the lgbtq+ community, which Alec's parents didn't count among the desirable clientele. His parents made it fairly clear to him that they disagreed with his sexuality.
He had assumed that differences between the generations were normal. However, Alec now defined their behavior as rigid and principled.
Alec has been feeling trapped lately, almost like being locked up in a cage since he started working for his parents.
For this reason, Alec decided to take the testimony necessary for the case assigned to him personally and not just to speak to the families concerned on the phone.
The families he spoke to, whom he had visited in their homes, whom he had to ask insensitive, inappropriate questions, had all been nice and polite towards him. Even if they had every reason to hate him because he was employed by the law firm that represented the company, which was responsible for the pollution in their beautiful village. This environmental scandal, which this international company wants to downplay as trivial or, even better, completely sweep under the rug, has meanwhile resulted in dozens of victims, most of them children.
The doctors doubted that they could be cured without any consequential damage. The likelihood was very high that they would need special care all their lives.
Alec had found out that the company had known that they had discharged untreated toxic wastewater into nature that had accumulated in the groundwater.
The consequences were discovered too late. Children first had to fall ill, who had eaten fruits and vegetables from their own farm, eggs from their own chickens and meat from animals fed on contaminated feed.
Alec couldn’t understand how it was so easy to take for them. How profit could come before humanity just because it was cheaper to pay compensation to the few families who could afford a lawsuit than to close the production facility for the necessary modernization.
Alec ordered another drink. He looked up in confusion when two glasses were placed in front of him and saw Magnus Bane, who sat down with a worried expression.
Magnus Bane. The other reason for his current troubled feelings. Magnus was the lawyer for the families concerned and therefore accompanied him to every visit and was present at every interview.
Magnus was... distracting.
Magnus was the reason why Alec had repeatedly admonished himself over the four days not to lose focus. From day two, he came up with more options to get into Magnus' pants than he worked out strategies for the case.
Alec didn't know what was wrong with him. The case got under his skin. It was clear to him that he didn't always have to agree with his client to represent him in court or to win a lawsuit. It was just that he didn't want to win this trial. On the one hand he wanted the families to get their rights and receive a lot of money, on the other hand he didn't want to work against Magnus.
And now Alec was sitting here. In this bar & grill, which was the only way to get a drink, because the small supermarket actually had opening hours. And Magnus was with him. Impeccable as always. Perhaps even more beautiful than in the past few days. His make-up wasn't as subtle as it was this morning, he had exchanged his suit for a loose tunic in red and gold.
This man was the incarnation of temptation. An allure par excellence. The seduction of his professionalism. The embodiment of distraction. The mockery of his ability to concentrate. Magnus Bane was the personification of sin and the promise of bliss.
Without greeting, Alec just looked at Magnus, who raised his hands defensively.
"I know we can't talk to each other about the case. We don't have to. We could just talk like that, no matter what topic and just forget the case for tonight. Maybe it's liberating and you don't have to take your frustration out on that innocent napkin." Magnus glanced at the small white snippets that lay in front of Alec.
Alec hadn't noticed that he had torn the napkin into small pieces. Alec took another sip. After the second glass he had got used to the taste and the high-proof liquid was no longer burning in his throat. He would have liked to get drunk with something that would have tasted better if he had the choice, but the selection of drinks left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, this establishment wasn't as well stocked as the bars in the city.
He might as well had put his plan into practice with a lot of beer. But that would have taken him too long tonight. Especially since he would have had to pee twice the amount of beer he had been drinking. That would have been a contradiction to his evening plans, which consisted of simply sitting here with the sole company of a full glass.
"It doesn't matter now," Alec answered at some point.
"Why?"
Alec let the liquid circle in his glass. "I quit."
"You have what?" Magnus was sitting slightly obliquely in the booth across from Alec to let his gaze wander through the half-full room. At Alec's words, he turned his full attention to the lawyer colleague.
Alec watched so closely as the liquid in his glass slowly calmed down, as if there was nothing more interesting in the world. "I abandoned the ship, I have bowed out, I have chucked my job. Choose." Alec shrugged.
Magnus saw Alec's façade of arrogance and sovereignty falter. "Do you need a new one?"
Alec looked up in surprise. The glint in Magnus' eyes could be mischief, but it could be something else entirely. "Very funny."
Magnus leaned over to Alec and raised his glass. Alec caught a glimpse of Magnus' bare chest.
Fuck, was that a nipple?
Alec wiped his hands on his pants. He wondered how that nipple would feel between his teeth. Alec wondered if Magnus' skin would feel as soft as it looked like, if he was vocal in bed, if he would ask Alec with softly moaned words, if he would implore him, to thrust even faster, harder.
Alec knew that only an insignificant part of his lewd thoughts could be attributed to the alcohol. Alec was too tipsy to be ashamed that he was imagining right now what Magnus would look like when he rode Alec's cock.
Although he knew that it would probably be better if he switched to water to become a little more sober, he raised his glass and toasted Magnus.
Alec thought of their first meeting in Magnus' small but very tastefully decorated law firm. Alec had announced his appearance on the phone and asked to speak personally to the sick and their relatives. Alec didn't have to sit in the waiting room for long before the young woman who introduced herself as Dot led him to Magnus' office.
That was the first difference in approach that Alec noticed. Maryse would have had an opposing lawyer wait at least 20 minutes in stylish but uncomfortable chairs before being led into the impressive conference room.
Alec reached out and introduced himself.
"Alec Lightwood from Lightwood, Herondale & Branwell."
Magnus took Alec's hand. "Already a senior partner? I'd bet it's only a few months ago since you graduated."
Alec didn't want to reveal that he found the appearance of his counterpart to be quite appealing.
"My grandparents founded the law firm." He deliberately ignored the allusion regarding his degree, because it came very close to the truth.
This was his first case. Although, actually, it wasn't his own case, not exclusively.
He was the one responsible for the research, the drafting of the pleadings in the pre-judicial process and for preparing the exploratory talks with the parties. In short, he basically did all the work to make the senior partner look good.
Magnus nudged Alec's glass with his own and interrupted Alec's revery.
"Penny for your thoughts. Five bucks if they are dirty."
Alec emptied his drink. "My tab is on you."
Magnus threw back his head and laughed loudly.
Alec had changed his mind. He didn’t want to fuck Magnus. He wanted Magnus to fuck him. Right now. He wanted Magnus to lay him out in this booth, to rest his legs on these broad shoulders. He wanted to be fucked while Magnus stood in the narrow space between the tables with the checkered oilcloth tablecloths.
Magnus pointed at the two glasses. Alec nodded briefly and Magnus ordered another round.
Magnus waited for the waitress to leave before turning to Alec. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"About my dirty thoughts?" Alec didn't know which topic seemed less appealing to him, that it felt like as if he had been robbed of all of his illusions or the repeated exchange of body fluids.
"In principle, I wouldn't mind listening to all of your fantasies. Although I would prefer a different environment for this ... enjoyment." Magnus' smile was genuine. He glanced at the other guests. "I actually meant your existential brooding. The wrinkles on your forehead are as deep as the Marianne moat."
Alec was sitting here now, looking at the shards of his supposedly happy childhood.
How naive and stupid he had been. He wished someone had opened his eyes earlier. How many decisions had he made under the wrong conditions? It was idle to think about it any further.
The only crucial decision was, how he acted now, what he decided to do now.
"Is the job still available?"