youfeelluckypunk | (no subject)

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It's been all of two hours since Reid had stopped by the store to surprise his boyfriend with a late lunch. Luke can never have too much to eat, after all, and they'd both agreed just the other day that they ought to stop by the Thai place near their apartment for a meal again sometime soon. Today had seemed like a good choice. Today had seemed like it could only go well.

Now, the food sits in its paper bag on the ground, just inside the doorway of the store, discarded and forgotten as Reid rushes to lock behind him before moving to his next intended destination.

Luke is gone. Not gone from the city, Reid knows that much, he's already called his boyfriend's cell phone and it's still in service and anyway, it'd been clear the second he'd approached the outside of Graymark Books that something wasn't right. The closed sign had been put up, the door locked and the lights shut off, but it's not a full moon tonight and Luke had mentioned nothing about closing early. If there'd been an emergency, Reid would already know about it, and it'd been past the time Luke typically takes a lunch break so that'd been another possibility dismissed, too, all before he'd even found what was inside.

It's clear there was a struggle, unsurprising considering Luke is a werewolf, but what's puzzling is the fact that while the inventory that'd been knocked over hadn't been cleared up, someone had still taken the time to make it look like the store was closed. His first thought is that this is a message directed toward him. Reid remembers Luke mentioning an attempted attack last week, he certainly remembers Marcus admitting the leaders of the vampire clan responsible for the string of murders they've been investigating had see to it that he be followed; but foolishly, he realizes, he'd never thought Luke could possibly be any real danger. That he might be responsible for the love of his life being in any kind of trouble, any kind of pain, just as a pointed message to get Reid to stop digging makes him physically ill--to the point that he'd actually had to rush to the bathroom to throw up before attempting to text every contact in his phone who might have seen Luke today.

The only person he texts again, after the slew of questions he receives back, is Alec. Of all the people he knows, Alec is the one closest to what he considers family, one of the people he trusts the most after Luke. Now, Reid stands at Alec's door, pounding as hard as he can, entirely ignorant of the noise he's making in his desperation to seek help.

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Reid is very aware that Alec doesn't immediately follow him out, but he doesn't stop to check on the reason why. His heart is racing and so is his mind, though the increasingly severe pain in his definitely fractured hand is threatening to overwhelm any sense of rational thought he may be close to possessing right now. Carefully moving his hand in front of him to get a better look, hissing as he does, Reid grimaces at the sight of the blood and swelling, knowing he ought to go have it checked out by a doctor but already deciding he won't.

There's no time to deal with this right now, he needs to find Luke and Magnus, and every second that passes is another away from the man he loves. The man he's supposed to marry. Letting his eyes slip shut for just a moment, Reid lets out a long, slow exhale in attempt to collect himself, though it doesn't work particularly well. At the very least, he finds himself capable of nodding once Alec is back at his side, and they leave the house without another word until they've reached the street.

"I'm sorry," he finally says, keeping his eyes straight, not sure yet whether he's willing to meet Alec's gaze. "I didn't mean to lose control like that, I just--" Deflating a little, Reid sighs. "You understand. I wanted him to know something because I don't know where the hell else to start looking."

"I get it," Alec said, nodding. His eyes flicked down to Reid's hand, checking the damage. Mundanes were fragile, their bones breakable and considering how many times Reid had his the vampire before Alec had pulled him away, he had to wonder if there was any damage.

"Your hand?" he asked, nodding down at the injury. "Is it broken? Do you need some ice or to go to the hospital?"

It wasn't something Alec necessarily wanted to do, not when lives could hang in the balance and people were gone. But, Reid was important too and he didn't want him hurting if something could be gone. He'd be no good if he was in too much pain.

More than a little embarrassed about his outburst, Reid frowns down at his hand, giving a slight shake of his head. "Fractured, maybe. Not broken. I've had much worse, there's no need to go to the hospital. All they'd do is wrap it and try to give me painkillers." He smiles wryly at Alec. "Can't take the painkillers, obviously. And it might take me awhile, but I can wrap it myself. There are bandages at the apartment."

At the apartment, which is empty but for the cats, and Reid's smile fades quickly at the reminder that the only reason his hand is in this condition in the first place is because Luke and Magnus have gone missing.

"Any ideas on where they could be?" Reid asks, voice softening. He's sure he knows the answer but there has to be something that can lead them at least in the right direction. "I know we live in a city where people really can just... disappear. But that's not what happened. Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Magnus? Anyone who could possibly be responsible for this?"

"There's plenty of people would want to hurt Magnus," Alec said, tone tight and emotionless. He didn't want to think of Magnus not being in this city anymore. He didn't want to think of him back in Manhattan, back in his loft while Alec was left behind.

He didn't want to be left behind. He didn't want to be alone anymore.

"I don't know if any of them are here," Alec continued with a shake of his head. This place wasn't full of Magnus' exes or enemies. He was over four centuries old but he'd only been in this city, this world for a few months. "As far as I know, everyone loves him. He's never told me about people hating him."

Alec swallowed thickly. "I've never asked though." Maybe he should have asked.

"No, of course not," Reid says, his tone slightly detached, though he has processed what Alec had said. "Neither have I. But it's like you said, I don't know anyone who's met Luke and dislikes him. He's good, and he's kind, and he helps people in every way he can and-- and-- and god, I need him back. I need to get him back."

He knows he needs to keep it together, Alec doesn't need to deal with him having a breakdown in the midst of having lost his own boyfriend, but Reid's hands are trembling and it sends shooting pain through his knuckles and up the length of his left arm. Squaring his jaw, he forces himself to ignore the pain and takes a step forward, unsure of where he's going to go next but very aware that they can't just stay here.

"I'm sorry," he says, trying to keep his voice steady, "I just-- I don't know. I thought this would help, talking to Marcus, I thought we might be able to get something. Apparently, whoever did this isn't going to make finding them easy." He glances down at his hand, cringing at the ugly swelling and drying blood. "Look, the best thing to do might be to see if anything else was left behind at the store. We don't know exactly when or where Magnus was taken so our best lead right now is going back to the scene of where Luke was." He pauses, grimacing. "Do you know if this has happened to anyone else?"

"I'm fine," Alec said, waving off the apology. He would always be fine, he would always project an image of being fine unless his chest was ripped open and he was halfway dead. If he wasn't that, then hew as fine.

"Simon Snow," Alec said after a moment. "Baz's boyfriend. We've got tracking runes and I tried one with one of Magnus' rings but didn't get anything specific. It's confusing. I couldn't figure out where it was telling me to go."

It had given them something and they'd looked in the general area but still hadn't tracked down anyone or anything. "I can try it with something of Luke's, if you'd like. Maybe it'll be stronger or different."

Simon Snow. Magnus. Luke.

Reid doesn't know enough about Simon to really see a connection yet, though if anything, all signs would still point to the vampires being responsible. The leaders of the vampire brothel know he is, know who Luke and Alec and Magnus are, might even know who Baz is if his cover's been blown; but then, why target the partners of the people he cares about? Ultimately, it doesn't seem personal, as much as it may feel that way, nothing about this really makes any sense.

It's his job to work through things like this, to connect dots and solve cases, but there's a reason why agents and officers and detectives aren't meant to get too close to investigations that pose a conflict of interest. His mind is more on Luke than it is anything else and that's dangerous, it clouds his judgment, because all he wants to do aside from finding his boyfriend right now is personally tear apart anyone who might have hurt him. That's not an especially conducive state of mind to be in when trying to wade through the murky waters of a case.

"We'll try it," Reid says, nodding. It may not work, but he's willing to try anything and everything that might even possibly get them closer to finding Luke.

It doesn't take long to get back to the store, though Reid gestures for Alec to follow him up the stairs directly to the apartment. Even if they do go back down to look at the mess that'd been left behind, he also needs to take certain measure to take care of his hand. "Come on, I'll find you something of his. Can it be anything? Clothes, a shirt, something simple like that?"

"Anything that's hit, yeah," Alec said, reaching into his belt for the stele. The tracking rune he'd carved previously is gone, leaving only white raised scars in its wake. Alec yanked the sleeve of his shirt up and found a spot on his wrist.

"If it's something he's used recently, all the better," Alec said, breathing deep while he drew the rune, watching the stark black lines sink into his skin. He clenched his fist and put the stele away.

Alec wanted this to work. Even if it hadn't worked for Magnus or Simon, maybe it would work for Luke. Maybe Luke would be closer or maybe the rune would find him easier. Maybe maybe maybe.

Alec tried not to feel sick.

His eyes darting around the room, Reid paces for a moment, trying to determine which of Luke's possessions would be best to offer. A large part of him is distracted, thinking of how surreal this feels, how strange it is that everything in this apartment can look so utterly normal when nothing could be further from the truth. Luke is gone, taken, and Reid can't wrap his mind around what right their apartment has to appear just the way it always does. There's no logic to that, he knows, but he's not tapping into logic right now. All he can think about is that he'd do absolutely anything to get his boyfriend back.

"Here," he says, finally reaching for a discarded flannel that'd been left on the couch after he and Luke had hastily made the journey from the living room to their bedroom last night. They hadn't bothered to pick up after themselves this morning because they'd end up running late, too wrapped up in each other to be willing to get up, which doesn't make for the first time that's happened.

He misses Luke, his heart aches for him, and Reid hands over the flannel like he's giving up a lifeline.

"Please let it work," he murmurs, wrapping his arms around himself as he watches.

Alec took the flannel and balled it up so he could get as much of the fabric between two hands as he could. He pressed his hands together around the piece of clothing and closed his eyes, reaching out.

It was dark, just like it had been with Magnus, and it was hard to see anything. It was like pushing through thick, wet mud. Alec kept meeting resistance but he eventually saw the silhouette of what looked like Luke. He was alive, Alec could tell, but he wasn't moving much. There were nondescript walls surrounding him and then Alec was snapping back, snapping out of the trance and opening his eyes.

He took a few huge breaths and handed the flannel back to Reed. "He's alive but I can't -- I don't know where he is. He's somewhere though. He's not gone from the city."

"No," Reid says, his voice void now of any real hint of emotion, and he suddenly feels so tired. Whatever Alec had done, it hadn't worked, at least not in full, though Reid supposes he should at least be grateful for the confirmation of something he hadn't doubted. "No, he's not gone from the city."

His legs practically keep out from beneath him then, and he reaches out to steady himself against the arm of the couch before sinking down on the cushions, staring blankly at the book of poetry they'd been flipping through together the previous night, before they'd ended up distracted by each other. That's what their life is supposed to be, nights spent reading poetry to each other or pretending they only watch Space Hospital ironically or falling into bed without any regard for the fact that a delivery is meant to come to the door at anytime.

It's not supposed to be this: a severe sense of grief, of terror that he can't shake, because Reid knows if anyone had been able to overpower Luke, this isn't just a random coincidence. Luke had been a target and more than likely, so had Magnus.

"I should go back out there," he says, forcing himself to look back at Alec. "After I've fixed up my hand. I need to keep looking. If I stop, I might allow the possibility that he might not come back, and I can't do that. He's coming back, all of them are."

Alec knew he'd given Reid basically nothing. He knew that what he'd done had been something but not enough. Nothing would be enough until Luke was back home, until Magnus was back home. Anything else was a failure.

"Fix your hand," Alec said, glancing down at Reid's injury. "Do you need me to take you by the hospital? If you don't set it properly, it's going to heal wrong and it's going to be painful."

Mundane bodies were fragile. He was so used to being able to draw an iratze and heal himself within minutes, hours, days where mundanes needed weeks and months sometimes. He normally wouldn't care how Reid handled his injury but this time, he cared.

"No."

He nearly apologizes for the shortness, but Reid doesn't. Alec likely wouldn't acknowledge the apology, anyway, which is just as well, and Reid examines his hand more closely with a mild grimace.

"It's not that bad." Not exactly the truth, but he's still not going to the hospital. When Luke is found, maybe then Reid will go, but he won't waste time with any doctors to be told what he already knows-- some of the knuckles are fractured, he needs to take care not to aggravate the injury and ice it so the swelling goes down.

With a sigh, he stands back up from the couch. "I'm going to go get a towel from the bathroom." Hesitating, Reid nods toward the kitchen. "There's ice in the freezer. If you could make me a pack, I'd appreciate it."

Alec didn't argue. If Reid didn't want to go to a hospital, Alec wasn't going to force him to. He knew that he'd likely react the same way if the positions were reversed, if he wasn't able to heal quickly and couldn't use iratzes. So, he nodded at Reid and walked into the kitchen.

He found the ice easily enough and rummaged for a few more seconds before finding a plastic bag to dump it in. He sealed the bag and went back out to meet Reid once again.

While he waited, he let himself think that, if anything, once Magnus and Luke had been found (because he couldn't entertain any other possibilities), Magnus would be able to heal Reid if he was feeling up to it. That was Alec's optimal scenario.

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