"Can I take this off my eyes now?" Alec stumbled forward with the blindfold blocking his vision.

"Absolutely not. Not until I say so," snickered Magnus. "I'll let you know. Don't worry."

Alec was beginning to lose his patience. They were walking for ten minutes now and he still had no idea where they were going. Every now and then he felt like he was getting closer to the road but he trusted Magnus to guide him in the right direction and not let him walk out into traffic.

"Okay. We're here," Magnus finally announced. "Are you ready for this?"

"No. Not really. But there's no going back now, is there?" Alec felt the knot on the blindfold loosening from the back of his head. "This better not be one of your surprise parties. You know I hate those."

"You're going to hate this even more," Magnus whispered with a chuckle. "Ta-da!"

The blindfold was removed and Alec finally saw where they stopped in front of. The neon sign above their heads was of a man in a g-string with bunny ears and he was bending over provocatively.

"Magnus...." Alec's voice cracked. "You did not just bring me to a strip club."

"Sure I did! You need to be exposed, Alec. There's a lesson to be learned here. I'm actually going in here to talk business with a client but you...." Magnus poked the Shadowhunter in the chest. "Are going to get introduced to the fine boys of this establishment. Don't worry. They won't touch you unless you ask them to."

"Or pay them...." Alec grumbled. "Fine. Let's do this. How long is it going to take?"

Magnus held open the door. "As long as it takes. Striking deals isn't easy, you know. Both parties have to come to an agreement-"

"I know how deals work, Magnus. It's just-" A man wearing skintight shorts walked past them. Alec swallowed hard. "This is a strip club."

"So observant," said a voice from beside them. Another young man had appeared from behind a red curtain. He was handsome, with dark hair and bright blue eyes and a jawline most men could only dream of having. He wasn't as tall as Alec but he still managed to look Alec in the eye as he walked past them. He was shirtless, his six pack abs shifting as he moved. "You're Magnus, right? We're expecting you. Follow me."

Magnus looked at Alec and wiggled his brows as if to say "I'd follow you anywhere". Alec just scowled and followed with his hands behind his back. He tried not to look at the stripper poles that ran from the floor to the ceiling. It made him sick.

The young man nodded his head towards the back room. "Lucille is in the back doing inventory. She won't be long."

"Fantastic. We're in no rush. Are we Alec?"

"I don't want to be h-"

"What Alec means is that you have a lovely establishment here. What's it like during business hours? And what's your name?" Magnus shot Alec a quick look when the young man wasn't looking.

"My name's Aiden. Business is nearly always a packed house. You'd be surprised the kind of people that walk through these doors sometimes. Old, young. Man, woman. Straight, gay. Other. It's always something different and that's what makes my job so much fun."

Alec squinted in confusion. "Stripping out of your clothes is considered fun?"

Aiden looked up at him. "Sure. If you love what you do, then your job is always fun. Plus if you're doing it for the right person....makes it twice as much fun."

Magnus noticed how Aiden was glancing between himself and Alec and decided to step in. "I should go see Lucille now. She's expecting me. Alec? Please behave. No funny business."

Alec looked up at the ceiling. "Wouldn't dream of it...."

As Magnus disappeared into the back room, Alec took a seat at the bar. The shelves were lined with different kinds of alcohol from top to bottom; some he'd heard of before and others he hadn't. Not being much of a drinker himself, he wondered if Magnus ever had any of these drinks before in his long life.

"Want something to drink?" Aiden asked. He went behind the bar and put down a glass in front of Alec. "On the house. Only because the warlock scares me."

Alec straightened his back on the bar stool. "You know he's a warlock? You're a mundane."

Aiden shrugged. "I have the Sight. Always did. The first thing I remember ever seeing in the Shadow World was a warlock doing magic. She opened a Portal and stepped through it. I screamed for hours," he poured a glass of bourbon for himself, sighing. "My mother had me tossed into a hospital for sick kids. Said I lost my mind."

"I'm so sorry...." Alec whispered. "I know it must be hard, growing up without any knowledge of a world you didn't think existed."

Aiden waved a hand. "It's fine. A few weeks after she dumped me off to the hospital's care, a man came into my room and told me that what I saw was real. That I wasn't crazy. He told me all about the Downworld and all about Shadowhunters. I was intrigued by it all."

Alec leaned forward in his seat, interested in this story. "What was he? Was he a warlock? Shadowhunter?"

"Ifrit, actually. He adopted me when the rest of my family didn't even want me. Raised me as his own. You might think it's a little silly, being adopted by someone who's going to outlive you. But he's my father and I love him."

Alec shook his head at the sincerity of Aiden's voice. "I don't think it's silly. I think it's beautiful. A complete stranger saw something in you that no one else did. Potential."

Aiden's eyes flashed with surprise as he took another sip of his drink. "Yeah. That's actually what he said to me on my 18th birthday. He said 'potential is like fire, son. You have to breathe life into it and once you do, you must never let it go out'."

"Intelligent man. Is he still around?"

"Yeah. Lives in California. He's a bit of wild card. Didn't really settle down until recently. Oh man....we traveled everywhere when I was a kid. He let our travels be my education. I learned six different languages, learned all about different cultures and met so many fascinating people. I loved it."

Alec tapped the counter and Aiden immediately poured him a glass of bourbon as well. "Then why aren't you still travelling? You're only my age. You can go anywhere you want instead of....working here."

Aiden laughed. "I know. But this pays the bills. Plus I love what I do. You might not think stripping is a job but for a lot of people, men and women, it is. They may not necessarily enjoy it but I love it. I mean...I've got a killer body. I worked hard for it. So why not flaunt it?"

Alec gulped as Aiden came out from behind the bar and ran a hand over his protruding abdomen. "N-nothing wrong with that. Do what you love, right?"

But Aiden wasn't listening. He had approached Alec and placed his hands on the Shadowhunter's chest, biting his lip and winking. "I know why the warlock really brought you here, you know."

"Really? Why did he bring me here?" Alec's voice was raspy as Aiden moved up against him.

"Isn't it obvious? He wants you both to see other people. That's why he brought you to a strip club. This is a place where most people come to sin," Aiden leaned forward and pressed his lips against Alec's neck rune. "Did you come here to sin, Shadowhunter?"

Alec groaned and pushed the mundane away with force. "No. He has business to attend to. Nothing more."

"Nothing more? Are you sure about that?"

Alec paused. Magnus did mention that he wanted to expose Alec, but expose him how? "I'm pretty sure I know my own boyfriend. If he tells me he has business, then he has business." Aiden made an advance again but Alec whipped out his seraph blade from his holster and held it under Aiden's chin. "Don't take another step. This is my first and final warning."

Aiden chuckled, raising his hands in surrender. "Wow. I can see why the warlock is so infatuated with you. You're a tough nut to crack."

"Thank you," said Alec. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get my boyfriend and we're getting the hell out of here."

Just as Alec said this, Magnus appeared around the corner. When he saw that Alec had the tip of his blade held under Aiden's chin, his eyes widened. "Should I even ask?"

"No," Alec and Aiden said at the same time.

Magnus shrugged. "Alright then. Let's go home, Alec. The deal's off. We couldn't come to a conclusion, unfortunately."

Alec sheathed his blade and glared one final time at Aiden before following Magnus out to the sidewalk again. "Why? What happened?"

"It's nothing serious. We just couldn't come to an agreement. She wanted one thing, and I wouldn't let her have it."

Alec stopped and waited as Magnus bought two hot dogs from a vendor. "Well....what did she even want that you wouldn't give to her?"

Magnus snorted. "It's silly-"

"Tell me."

Magnus sighed. "Fine. I wanted to buy her business and then turn it into an orphanage for abandoned warlock children. Her price was that she wanted you to be a stripper at her club."

Alec nearly choked on his hot dog. He spoke with a mouthful of food. "Are you serious?"

"I have no idea what you said but it didn't sound good. But I kid you not. She honest to god asked me if she could hire you as a stripper. Naturally, I told her no. Plus the real reason why I brought you along with me is because I wanted to show you that it is possible to do what you love and be comfortable with yourself. Those boys back there are proof of that. Even if one of them did try to jump your bones...." Magnus shuddered and scowled at the memory of Aiden at the end of Alec's blade. He knew what was going on. He just didn't want to make matters worse by saying something.

Alec finally swallowed his mouthful of food. "Why'd you say no? Because you knew I'd be uncomfortable being practically nude in front of strangers?"

"Not only that but I want to keep your beauty all to myself," Magnus winked, "I don't like sharing. Your beauty belongs to me. No one else can have it."

Alec squinted. "I feel oddly objectified. But thanks, I guess. To be honest I'd rather strip just for you anyway. I'm comfortable around you."

"Wait a second." Magnus stopped walking and put a hand on Alec's chest. "Did you just say you'll strip for me?"

"What?" Alec glanced down at the hand on his chest. "No. I said rather strip just for you. I didn't say I would."

"But you did imply that you'll strip for me, though."

Alec sighed impatiently as he looked around. "You're twisting my words around. I don't like that. But let's say the implication is there....yes. I'd strip for you."

Magnus wiggled his brows. "Would you strip for me when we get home?"

"Maybe....what's the catch?"

"A full body massage. And I mean full."

Alec groaned. "Deal. I'll put on a little show for you when we get home."

Magnus smirked. The thought of Alec doing a striptease almost seemed hilarious but the body that he hid under his clothes was undeniably sexy. "Excellent. But you have to wear the bunny ears I swiped from the club."

"I-" Alec cleared his throat. "Fine. I'll wear the bunny ears. But this stays between us, okay?"

Magnus bowed his head. "What happens in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom."