@malectober
PROMPT: HUG
She looked at them, gazing from a distance. Her son and the warlock.
Her firstborn, her eldest, the one who made her a mother. Her beautiful blue-eyed boy, with the deft hands and big heart. Her Alec.
If there was anything she could thank Robert for, it was the children.
Isabelle with her fiery passion, poor Max. A pain that would never go away. And Jace, the boy they'd taken in, a son in every sense but blood. And Alec.
She knew. She'd known, deep down, that Alec suppressed things. She shouldn't have been surprised when he fell for Magnus and said nothing about it, least of all because he was a man.
She saw them laugh together, Alec's eyes crinkling the way they always did. Laughter suited him. Magnus managed to coax a chuckle out of him as no one ever did. She may have had her qualms about Bane, but she was thankful for everything he'd done for them, for Alec most of all.
Magnus kissed Alec's cheek and Alec blushed. The redness overtook his features like a tide and Magnus grinned, pleased. He kissed him again, on the lips this time. Alec was still blushing, but kissed him back with equal fervor.
She smiled to herself. She regretted everything they'd made Alec go through, for the sake of appeasing them. Of appeasing Robert most of all, but she knew she was apportioned some of the blame as well. She'd never made a move to tell him it was okay; it was okay to not live up to our expectations, it's okay to not be exactly what your father wants you to be, it's okay to break down and take a breath. He was the oldest, and hefted the responsibility like a true soldier. She knew he would make a wonderful father someday. He'd turned out a wonderful man, after all. Thanks to his own merits.
They were still wrapped up in each other, an embrace wherein no one could tell where Alec ended and Magnus began. She looked away, giving them their privacy. She'd yearned for that sort of love, once — now, she felt privileged to see her children experience it.
She heard a crash; they'd knocked over a plant on the windowsill. They were laughing again, breathless. Alec righted the pot, still grinning, and Magnus entrapped him in a hug. Alec did not make to move away; he leaned against the warlock, relaxed and at ease. He'd never been this calm as a child, or as a teen. He'd never been this happy.
Maryse saw them stay like that, swaying and murmuring sweet nothings to each other, planting soft kisses in the slanting light of the sun where they thought no one could see them and their affection. But Maryse saw, and understood. She knew. She'd always known. It was why she'd went so far as to leave a voice message to Magnus herself, when the two had broken up. She really had always known.
Alec deserved every bit of happiness and joy he got. The Clave saw his love as wrong in all sorts of ways: Magnus was a man, Magnus was a Downworlder. But she'd gotten over all that, and Robert was on his way there. As cheesy as it sounded, Alec and Magnus belonged together.
They were still hugging. Maryse smiled softly and left, vowing the same old vow: I will protect him. It was the first thing she'd thought to herself when he was born. And it was what she thought every time she saw him.
He didn't really need protecting anymore. But she would do so anyway, in any way she was able. Her protection, for his safety: it was like a hug to him of her own.
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