#raphaelsdumort

Even if the mission was a total failure -aside from the fact he had finally used encanto successfully and Magnus got his stuff back from Camille- it was encouraging to know that he  had Magnus by his side. He was a great help and a comforting presence. Simon wished that he could have Clary here with him, but knew that it was impossible. He hoped she had at least decided to stay put in the institute, where she would be safe. Knowing Clary, though, she might be out hunting for Valentine at the moment.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened, forcing Simon to redirect his train of thought back to its tracks. Relieved, he stepped out of the death trap (elevators have never been his thing), and walked past a couple of doors before he found Magnus’. Just like all the others, Magnus’ door was dark, almost black rosewood. However, Magnus being, well, Magnus, had to have something to spice it up. That something comes in the form of a gold plate on the door with the words, “Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn” engraved in the center.

Simon rang the doorbell, but no one opened the door. Persistent, he rang a couple of times but still received no answer. He and Magnus had talked just an hour ago, so Magnus knew that Simon was coming over. Shrugging, Simon put his hand on the cold doorknob and twisted cautiously, still afraid of intruding. To his surprise, it wasn’t locked. Although, he doesn’t really think a badass warlock would need a locked door when he had the power of wards and protective spells. Or maybe Magnus simply knew that he was already here, Simon thought to himself as he walked into the loft.

“Hey, Magnus, I’m here”, he shouted as he walked into the seemingly vacant loft, looking for a certain badass friend. Listening carefully, Simon manages to pick up the sound of the shower in the bathroom. Well, maybe that explained why he didn’t get an answer from Magnus. Simon decided explore the loft as Magnus continued singing along to the foreign tunes playing softly in the shower.

He wandered into the lavishly decorated living room. Like the last time he was at the loft, the coffee table was covered with organised chaos -bowls, strange ingredients and test tubes are scattered all over the place- and there’s a faint smell of herbs in the air. Simon held back the impulse to pick up a test tube with blue, glowing liquid in it. It looked like something Magnus would put in his hair. Knowing Magnus, it might as well be. Leaving the makeshift lab behind him, Simon makes his way to the huge windows on the far wall and stops to admire the view. The city was aglow with millions of tiny lights and he felt himself slowly start to relax.

If it wasn’t for his vampire senses he probably wouldn’t have heard the low, sound of something hissing. He spun around quickly, scanning the room with wide eyes, not noticing anything unusual at first. Once again, his vampire senses saved him just in the right moment. Something was hiding under the coffee table. Just as he started to realize what the creature was, it hissed louder and snapped at him. A a ball of flame shooting past his face confirmed his fears. Of course, of course it was the fire breathing snake. He quickly leaped back, the snake following after.

“No no no! Leave me alone! I’ve already died once and that wasn’t any fun at all,” he said frantically -and no, his voice did not crack or squeak at all thank you very much- as he jumped up onto an armchair. The snake started to circle around it, just as it did in Camille’s house in Agra. Simon knew, though, that the scaly asshole could lunge up and reach him within milliseconds. It was just toying with his nerves by now, the little shit.

If his heart still could beat, it would be pounding like crazy at the moment. Wasn’t 200 beats per minute maximum speed? Or was it 150? He thought he had learnt something like it once in a biology class. Once again, his old fear of snakes clouded judgement, causing him to temporarily forget about his vampire abilities. It wasn’t until the snake rose to shower him in flames that he remembered how he used encanto on it before.

Immediately, he tried to calm his nerves and focus as before. He held his hand out in front of him and said, with something he at least hoped was an authoritarian voice, “encanto… Encanto.” Pausing when he got no reaction, Simon thrust his hand out again. “Encanto, you asshole,” he exclaimed, the power in his voice almost echoing around the loft. He wasn’t aware of it, but he had never acted more like a real vampire than in this moment.

With relief, he saw that the snake’s eyes went blank as it fell under his control. Then he told it to leave him alone and the snake followed his orders and left the room. Simon let out a big sigh of relief -even though it was more out of habit than need- and let the fear drain out of his body. Then, he threw himself onto the armchair and took his phone out. But he kept an eye after the snake, in case it wanted to return for  round three.

“Just come at me, snakey, I’ll be ready”, Simon said with the confidence that only came from defeating an evil, reptilian beast twice. He could bet that it gave him the evil eye from the kitchen. Where had that thing come from, anyway? Thinking about Magnus’ reaction to the snake yesterday, he suspected that he was simply missing his pet snake and took it back with him to the loft.

Confident or not, he gave up his plan to explore the loft. Who knew what else could be lurking behind the closed doors in this strange place?

Drying hair with a hairdryer was always annoying. Magnus didn’t really see how mundanes tolerated it. It made an unpleasant and irritating noise, and it always made his scalp uncomfortably warm. Most of the days he would just use magic to style his hair just the way he liked, but today he he needed all the energy and magic he could spare, and he had to admit that using it on his hair would be a waste.

Tonight, Simon, Luke and Magnus would continue their search for Camille. As soon as Luke heard about Simon’s troubles, he immediately offered his help. They would try to find one of Camille’s most loyal vampires, from the time when she was the leader of the Clan. Hopefully,  she had chosen to trust one of her most loyal servants with the details of her location.

However, with Valentine and his people on the loose, the Clave who’s never able to stay out of Downworlders’ business, and Magnus’ ordinary enemies out there it was better to be safe than sorry. And he actually enjoyed the rest of the styling, so it wasn’t really a problem. Maybe he should come up with a hairdryer that had the perfect temperature and made no noise at all?

He put the hair dryer down as the protective wards informed Magnus that someone was entering the loft. It didn’t bother him; the wards would never let someone unfamiliar through automatically. In his mind, the spells showed him a picture of Alec who was walking into the livingroom. What a pleasant surprise! Magnus wasn’t near done with his hair and makeup, but Alec could wait for a little longer.

Not for the first time, he sent a thankful thought to the protection wards. He had been informed the same way when Simon arrived about a half an hour ago. Then it hit him. Simon was at the loft, together with the snake and Alec. He quickly put on some clothes, ignoring the fact that he looked like a mess, and went out to witness the catastrophe.

He found them in the living room. Alec was facing the other way, making it harder to tell what he thought. His tense shoulders said enough, though. He wasn’t exactly happy to see the vampire. It looked like Alec just spotted Simon, because he was just staring at him as if he had grown an extra two, very offensive heads.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he spat out. Magnus stopped, waiting for Simon’s answer.

“Oh, hey Alec. Good to see that you’re feeling better, after that whole thing with the coma,” Simon said as he looked up from his phone. Alec’s hard words didn’t surprise him.

“What are-” Alec started, but cut himself off abruptly in favour of saying something else. “Did you sneak in or something? Do you even have the right to be here?” Alec said, not sounding too happy. Magnus knew that it was now time to step in.

He walked up to Alec, touching his shoulder to get his attention. “Alexander, what a lovely surprise,” Magnus said in a relaxed voice, with the intention to calm Alec down.

Alec turned around to face Magnus. “Magnus,” he said, breathing out. “Please tell me the vampire has a good reason to be here”.

“Me and Magnus, we’re roomies now”, Simon said, with no sign of being offended by Alec’s harsh words.

“Why would- why- what do you mean by roomies?” Alec stuttered the way he often did when he got overwhelmed.

Magnus knew that it was the stress that made Alec act this way, but that didn’t mean that Magnus would let Alec treat his friend like this. “Alec, there is no need to treat Simon so rudely. Besides, I prefer the term lodger.”

“Lodger? Like, he’ll live here, at the loft?” Alec looked like he couldn’t believe his ears.

“Yes, until the situation looks better. And besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve helped a new, lost downworlder in need,” Magnus said, trying to calm Alec down.

“Magnus is gonna be my Downworlder mentor. How cool is that?” Simon said, excitement practically rolling off his body in waves. As he tuned into Magnus and Alec’s dialogue he forgot to keep an eye after the snake. The snake saw its chance to revenge and started to move towards Simon. It snapped after his legs as he sat. With a scream, Simon jumped out of the armchair, causing both Magnus and Alec to react. Alec already had a seraph blade in hand.

Magnus realized that his beloved snake was in danger and immediately jumped to stop Alec from slicing it into tiny pieces.

“Alexander, stop! I might have forgot to tell you that I have another new lodger”.

Alec turned to Magnus. “Let me guess, is it the fire breathing snake, who is trying to kill your other roommate?” he said, rising his eyebrows. In the background, Simon was once again running from the snake, shouting threats and insults and repeating the word encanto over and over again.

And that was how Luke found them, just some minutes later. Outside the door, he heard loud voices, and was that screaming? Luke instantly threw the door open and rushed into the apartment, ready to fight demons, Circle Members, or the Clave. But, as he reached the living room the strangest scene was playing out in front of him. Magnus and Alec were almost fighting and the words “the snake”, “Simon” and “the vampire” was used a lot.

Then, Luke saw Simon -it wasn’t hard to discover where the shouting was coming from once he saw him- running for his life from a fire-breathing snake. Luke was so surprised by the weird scene that the only reaction he could think of was a loud laugh. All the heads in the room, including the snake’s, turned to the laughing werewolf. They all went silent.

Magnus’ words finally broke the silence after a few seconds of direct staring. “It warms my heart to see you happy Luke, but what is so amusing?”

Luke’s smile was wide and cheerful. “You really don’t see it? You are fighting over something as stupid as roommates, and Simon is literally being chased by a fire-breathing snake, running for his life”. 

He laughed again, not even stopping to wonder why he wasn’t surprised by the knowledge that Magnus somehow had a fire breathing snake. “After this, we have to be prepared for anything, right?”