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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

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The Get Ready Game

CW: Young children of rescued whumpee, referenced past child abuse, referenced past emotional abuse. CW for child’s trauma response/PTSD, Overcompetent Emotional and Logistical Support Oldest Daughter X 100, unhealthy coping mechanisms

@comfy-whumpee‘s Jax Gallagher successfully saved his children (and himself) from Savannah Marcoset. But Izzy, now nearly seven, remembers her mother very well still, and knows that if her father doesn’t yet feel safe, she shouldn’t either.

So she makes a plan.

---

Izzy finds her brother playing blocks in the living room, half-heartedly building a tower while his eyes are on the cartoon show playing on the telly. She glances side to side - Dad's at therapy, only left a little bit ago. There's ages of time before he comes back, and he’ll be all in his head and distracted but probably he’ll want to lay down, so if she wants to do this, she’d better do it while he’s gone.

“Jamie?”

“Hm?” Her brother doesn’t look away from the show, but he kind of tilts his head in her direction. He’s younger than she is, only four and can’t read yet. But he doesn’t have to, she can do the reading for them both. She reads at a high level, her teacher says. Izzy practices every single night, she’s the best reader in class.

She has to be.

“Where’s Grandpa, d’you know?”

Jamie points to the side. “In the, um, in the kitchen-”

“Sssshhhh! Quiet, don’t let him hear I asked.” Izzy puts out both hands, and now she has her brother’s interest. He loves having secrets with her, special kids-only things. It’s why this works, why she can teach him what they need to do, just in case, without him running off to tell Dad or Grandpa right away.

She goes quiet, listening. She can hear Alfie’s voice, low, murmuring. He stays home on the days her dad has to go to therapy, so Jax can go and then come back and lay down in his room without having to worry.

Grandpa will be talking, probably with some tea in hand, and he won’t overhear them. It’s perfect timing. Dad at therapy and Grandpa on the phone, maybe for a long time.

“Hey, Jamie,” Izzy says, keeping her voice carefully casual. “You want to play Get Ready with me?”

Her little brother brightens. Izzy isn’t the best at his kind of play, rough-housing or throwing things around, playing Daddy-and-Baby with the big soft dolls he’s given all sorts of odd names to. Izzy doesn’t like playing baby-holding games, and besides that she doesn’t like how loud he is about it. She’s too quiet, too prone to sitting very still or whisper-talking her way through pretend games about princesses that Jamie doesn’t find interesting at all.

But this game… this game, he likes.

He knows it’s important, even if he doesn’t know why. He knows his big sister is trusting him with big important things, and not being irritated by him or pushing him away. James scrambles up onto his feet, accidentally kicking his little tower of blocks over in the process. Both of them freeze at the crash.

Alfie’s voice rumbles through from the kitchen. “You all right in there, Jamie?”

“I’m good! I just knocked over my blocks, is all! Can I watch one more show?” Jamie pitches his voice just right, and Izzy’s proud of him. He’s learning all the tricks, and he’s doing it without having to be scared first, without it having to be something he has to learn.

“All right, one more,” Alfie calls back, and Jamie grins, giving Izzy an exaggerated finger over his lips. Izzy grins right back, one of her top teeth growing in still, one of the bottom ones flat out missing entirely, she only lost that one three days ago, wiggling it in class until it came right out. The two of them move out of the room and down the hallway, almost tip-toeing in their bare feet, listening to Alfie’s voice, on high alert for him to make his goodbyes.

They make it back to the bedroom Izzy still shares with her father - two twin beds lined up in there, and Alfie’s been talking about moving to get Izzy her own room, but Izzy never feels safer than waking up from a nightmare to still be able to hear her father’s gentle, deep breathing nearby. Jax’s bed has dark blue blankets and Izzy’s has a deep purple fuzzy one, plus special sheets she picked out herself with unicorns on them.

“Okay, Jamie,” Izzy says in her stage whisper. Her brother’s eyes lock on hers, hazel-brown like they all have, but Jamie has Jax’s hair color and Izzy’s short, spiky hair is the same deep chocolate brown as her mother’s, reminders she can’t escape, only try to cut off short enough that she can’t see it. “How does Get Ready start?”

Jamie’s smile widens further. He knows this one right away. “We meet in the hallway outside your room,” He says, very seriously. “Then… we come in here and find the Get Ready bag,” He answers, eyes already shifting to the closet, where it was the last time they played.

“Nope, not there.” Jamie looks at her, confused. “It’s okay, Dad did something in the closet last week so I moved the bag, just in case. I don’t think he found it, though, I hid it really well. Can you think of where I might hide it now?” She lilts her voice, slightly sing-song, like her teachers do at school.

Jamie looks slowly around the room, taking in every detail - the window with the curtains pulled to make it dim, the two beds with the table between them, a lamp. Dresser messy on top with things tossed there - receipts, interesting rocks that Izzy has found and kept and given to her father. Then he nods, firmly, to himself more than her, and points under her bed. “It’s there.”

“Are you sure?” Izzy asks, still in teacher-voice.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because… because, because you would want to get it fast if you woke up, and you can roll under your bed for hiding from Mom,” Jamie explains. He sounds very earnest, and Izzy smiles at him to reward him giving it so much thought.

“Go look and see if you’re right.”

Jamie walks over to her bed and drops down onto his hands and knees, looking underneath. He pulls out a stuffed-full old, raggedy-looking adult-sized backpack, a faded gray that might once have been black, some old band patches and button badges still stuck around the outside. “I was right! I was right, Izzy, I found our get-ready bag!”

His voice is too loud, and Izzy shushes him quickly, closing the still-open bedroom door. Grandpa won’t like it, they’re not really supposed to close doors to shut out grown-ups, but this is too important. “Good job, Jamie!” She says in a high sotto-voice. “You are right. So, if I wake you up and I say, we have to get ready, what do we do?”

“We grab our Get Ready bag,” Jamie answers, all seriousness, patting the top of the bag gently with one small hand. “And we hide, inside the back of the closet in the big box. Then, when it’s safe, we go outside.”

“Right. How can we go outside if Mom is in the living room, though?”

Jamie’s eyes go to the window, and he points. “We go out the window,” He answers, and when she nods, he gets a little braver and adds on. “There’s-... fire escape, out there. Like stairs made of metal. We climb down with our bag. You know how to unlock the window.”

“Good. Right, I do.” She’d had to work out the trick to the window over days when no one was around her, fiddling and messing and making her fingers ache until one day, she’d managed it just right. Child proof my butt, she’d thought, but then she knew she wasn’t as child-y as everyone else her age seemed to be.

Everyone else didn’t have to be ready for what would happen if their mother came back. Everyone else didn’t still dream about their father begging their mother to stop. Everyone else couldn’t still remember, a little bit, screaming-

Well.

Everyone else might not have a Get Ready bag, or play this game, but she did. And when it happened, she’d be ready. Even though she knows the grown-ups wouldn’t want her to do this, they’ll be glad when it’s time, when she does what her dad would do in her place and takes James and runs. He’ll understand, if she has to, and he’ll be proud of her for being ready. He will.

She just can’t tell him ahead of time.

Izzy drops down into a crouch and hugs James tight. His hair smells like strawberry kids’ shampoo, just like hers does, and he’s very warm and his hands are always sticky, even when he hasn’t been touching any sticky things. “You remember very well, Jamie. Do you remember what’s in our Get Ready bag?”

She pulls back, and Jamie presses his lips together in deep thought, tapping on his chin in an overexaggerated ‘thinking’ expression. “Toothbrushes,” He says, finally. “Mine has Wally Lizard on it.”

“And?”

“And toothpaste, the kid toothpaste.”

She’d spent weeks and weeks getting enough - putting a little extra in a baggie every night, so that her dad and grandpa wouldn’t know she was taking more than she needed. There was enough now for she and James to last a while. “Perfect. What else?”

“Ummmmm…” He trails off, sitting on the floor and thinking about it. “There’s pull-up nappies, for me for sleeping, and underpants for both of us, and pants and shirts and Franken-puppy and Unicorn, and the black-and-white bear from the zoo-”

“Paulie Panda,” Izzy corrects.

“Paulie Panda. And also Monkey George. Um um um um there are juice boxes, and Monster Munch, and Jaffa cakes, and that thing with the nuts in I don’t like, and chocolate biscuits… Aaaaand books, and…” He stops and frowns. “I don’t remember what else.”

“No, that’s good, that’s better than last time. You’re doing great.” He puffs out his chest a little in pride, and Izzy smiles, settling down to sit with him, the two of them tucked in the space between the twin beds. “There’s also hair-combs, and some shampoo and soap in a bag I nicked from the shop.”

Jamie’s eyes widen, big as saucers. “You didn’t. That is taking, Izzy-bella, and taking without paying is wrong.”

“I gave them money for it,” Izzy says, dismissive, ignoring the prickle of guilt inside her chest, too hot and sharp not to feel at least a little. “I put some of Dad’s money on the counter when nobody was looking the next day. It wasn’t really nicking, I just didn’t want him to see me get it and have to explain. But also in the bag is… this.” She digs into a front pocket and pulls out a bunch of index cards scrawled with careful child’s handwriting, numbers and letters she had spent hours and hours on. “Do you remember what these are?”

Jamie looks down at them, cocking his head, then looks up and shakes it, side to side. His hair is longer than hers is.

“These,” Izzy says, “are the most important thing of all. These are our numbers. I’ve got about three where I remember them without even having to look, but I’ll get the rest, too. The first card has Grandpa’s phone number, and Dad’s, and it has Nana’s and Auntie Poppy and Auntie Georgia’s, too. Plus the number for Nana’s favorite shop, because her friend works there and her friend could help us get to her if she isn't home. For starters, I’ll say one that you know. We know that if-... that if Mom comes back, Grandpa will probably get-...” She takes a deep breath, tells herself to act more like a grown-up, forces down the panic and fear and worry in her chest, pictures it curled into a ball and thrown in the back of her closet to gather dust. I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid. “Grandpa could get hurt and not be able to help us. So, what do we do when we get out on the street or run away from here?”

“We, um, we find grown-ups, and we… we ask them to call 9-9-9, and tell them our names and our dad’s name, and we say, our dad is in danger and needs help. Then we tell them Nana’s name, or anybody else’s.”

“Good. Really good. What do we do if she gets us and takes us back to America?”

James swallows - this part scares him, just a little. He doesn’t remember America, not really. He was only a baby. And he remembers it being a fun place for a holiday, from the trial. But he knows Izzy is scared of America, scared enough to wake up at night crying because she dreamed about going back, and so he is, too. “We find a phone,” He says, very soft and very slow. “And we push the numbers 9, 1, 1. And that will go to people who will help us in America.”

“Good, good job, Jamie. What do we say when they pick up?” They’ve rehearsed this, over and over again. It’s the most important part of the Get Ready game.

“I say… ‘my name is James Timothy Gallagher, and I have been ab-... abd… I have been kidnapped.’”

“Perfect. And if it were me, I would say, ‘My name is Isabella Nicole Gallagher, and I have been abducted. I am six and three quarters years old and my brother James is with me and he is four, and we are English.’ Then what?”

“We say, um, we say our… our dad is Jackson Gallagher and he has been kidnapped too, probably, and he needs help. And Savannah M-... Mark-set-”

“Marcoset,” Izzy says quietly, sounding out each syllable for him.

“Mar-co-set… is who took him. Then… we wait for help to come.”

Izzy nods, and she rifles through the flashcards, scanning over the names and places and numbers she has carefully, painstakingly, been writing down while casually asking the librarian question after question. How to call emergency services in England, America, Canada, France, Russia, and the country Georgia. Her information, to hand to people, so she won’t have to repeat herself, is copied on six cards.

Under the flashcards, a photo of she and her dad and James that Grandpa took, at the park. It’s a photo where her dad is smiling, and he doesn’t look scared or upset or closed-off. Just happy, with them. It’s the photo she wants to have to show the police officers who she has to hope will help them.

It’s the photo she’ll have if…

“What do we do,” She asks, and her voice is thinner, trembles just a little. “What do we do if she takes him away and we get left behind?”

James crawls over to her in a flash and holds on, putting his arms around her waist and tucking his head under her chin. His hair tickles under her jaw. “We go all by ourselves,” He answers, in his high voice. “You and me, Izzy and Jamie. We go by ourselves, and we go find Nana.”

“Right.” Izzy closes her eyes against a rush of heat, of tears. “I-I have a card-” Her voice catches and she clears her throat. “Dusty in here,” She says, hoarsely - her grandpa says that sometimes when he’s pretending he’s not teary - and forces her racing heart to calm. Stop it. If Dad is gone, you have to be the grown-up, then. When she finally speaks, she manages to keep her voice slow, and even. No sign of her fears at all. “I have a card with Nana’s whole name and address on it, and which buses we take to see her. We can-... we can do it ourselves, all by ourselves. I know we can. But-... you have to be very good and quiet, so we don’t make anyone look at us and the bad guys can’t find us.”

“So Mom can’t find us,” Jamie whispers.

She nods, chin moving against his hair. “Right. We have to go very fast, and be very very quiet, so Mom can’t find us. But with our Get Ready bag, we have everything we need, if Dad-... if dad can’t help us. Okay, last question for our game and then we’ll be done. Do we tell Dad or Grandpa about Get Ready?”

“No.” Jamie answers right away, immediate. He knows this one. “Because, because they… might tell Mom about it.”

“Right. Even if they don’t want to tell her, she might be super mean and hurt them lots to make them. She used to hurt Dad until he would tell her things she wanted to hear, before, and she’ll be even madder now. But… if we don’t tell them about Get Ready, then they can’t tell her, right? So we can go find Nana before Mom does, and if Mom gets to Nana before we can, we have food and everything for a few days until the police officers help us.” Izzy holds him tightly, resting her chin against his hair. “I’ll take care of you, James. I promise, I won’t ever let her hurt you.”

“Dad won’t let her hurt us neither,” Jamie answers, but he likes the cuddles, and he doesn’t pull away. Izzy doesn’t hold him very often.

“No, I know. I know he won’t. But… if he can’t stop her…” Izzy sets her jaw, closes her eyes against the memory of the bright red spots layered over older scars around her father’s neck when his big black necklace first came off. “If he can’t… I can. I just have to be very strong, and very smart, smarter than she is even. I have to be smarter than all the bad grownups.”

“And I have to be quiet and brave.”

“Right. And you’ll be very good at it. I know you will.” She squeezes him, so tightly both of them ache, and then pulls back and away, shoving the backpack back into its hiding spot, opening the bedroom door. The two of them get back to the living room just as their grandpa’s phone call finishes in the kitchen, and by the time he comes back in to ask them what they want for snacktime, James is back building his tower of blocks, and Izzy pretends she’s been on the couch with her chapter book the whole time, sitting open in her lap.

She doesn’t realize she opened it upside down until her grandpa’s gone back in the kitchen to get their snacks ready, and she flushes, embarrassed at the stupid mistake.

Still, she’s… she’s pretty sure he didn’t notice.

Every time they play, James remembers a little more without her having to tell him. Maybe… when their mom comes for them… Izzy can save Jamie - and then get help to save her father.

And he'll be proud of her.

He will.

----

@astrobly @finder-of-rings @burtlederp @wildfaewhump @whumpiary @whump-tr0pes @moose-teeth @orchidscript @sableflynn @pretty-face-breaker @raigash @vickytokio @eatyourdamnpears

#izzy fucking gallagher #child of whumpee #referenced abuse tw #freed whumpee #planning to escape #trauma response tw #child ptsd tw #child's trauma response #whump #unhealthy coping mechanisms #there is a reason izzy took me over in january #I love her #gradually taking back control #even if it's imperfect #by planning for the worst

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pagingevilspawn · 3 years

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Loving You Is A Losing Game - chapter nine

heyyy! it’s been a little while, but i did warn that updates on this book a going to get slower. lots of stuffs been going on with my family lately, so its been really hard to find time to sit down and write... but nevertheless, i hope you enjoy this chapter that i only like the second half of...

~*~

"how many pennies in the slot"

~*~

"when can i see you again?"

____

they had set a date. that night outside of joe's bar, they agreed that in just less than two weeks they would see each other again. paul would be out of town on a golfing trip like he did every last friday of the month, and alex would say that he had a family emergency. it wouldn't be hard to get a day off, just the words 'schizophrenic mother' would be enough to let him have a little while off.

so, on that early friday morning, alex stood in the trailer, packing up his suitcase with clothes while izzie continued to sleep peacefully, not needing to wake up for another twenty minutes or so. she had started back at work two days ago and he could tell it was taking a toll on her. she was more irritable and had been sleeping more, exhausted from being on her feet all day, a large comparison to being practically tied to a bed for twenty four hours straight.

he left a note, izzie knew that he was most likely going to be gone before she woke up that morning, but he wrote one anyway. 'gone to the airport. take your pills. love you'. it was short and sweet. he zipped up his suitcase slowly and quietly, careful not to wake his sleeping wife. before he heads out the door he takes one more glance at her and the guilt settles in deeper. he wasn't going to iowa, no, he was going to boston, to see another woman. a woman who wasn't his wife.

he considers not going for a second, calling off the whole trip and staying loyal to izzie, his wife. that's what he should do. the right thing.

but he has this desire in him, this burn. he needs this release, a sense of normalcy, and jo's the only one who can give it to him.

life was really screwed up sometimes.

he knew that someday, somehow, this would come back and blow up in his face, that was a given. but right now... right now he needs this. he needs to ramble on about stupid crap to jo while she does the same, stuff that he wouldn't talk about with izzie because he knew she wouldn't really care. stuff he wouldn't talk about with meredith or cristina because they would somehow circle the problem right back to them.

he needed this, and he could tell that she did too.

so with that he exits the trailer and slings his small suitcase into the back seat of the cab he ordered, watching as the tin can he called home slowly grew smaller and smaller as he got further away from it. he pulls out his wallet when he reaches the ferry boat not long later, giving the driver a generous tip before stepping onto the dock, the early morning sun just barely peeking above the horizon, setting an orange and yellow tint to the blue water of the sound. it was calming, settling. for the first time he could see why shepherd loved them so much.

when he arrives on the mainland he takes another taxi to the airport, going through security and baggage check quickly, grabbing a straight black coffee from the starbucks by one of the many gift shops, settling himself into an uncomfortable black chair next to an old lady knitting some kind of scarf. it was an ugly thing, green and a weird puke yellow, but the woman seems to like it, so he doesn't judge. he pulls his phone out from his pocket and looks through it, checking to see if he had any notifications or texts. he responds to a few work emails, which was mainly lexie asking for some details on patients since she was covering his service for the next three days.

he doesn't need to wait long before he hears a woman's voice come over the intercom. "flight 270 to boston, group two now boarding." he picks up his suitcase and shows the attendant his ticket before making his way to his seat, which was thankfully an aisle. he places his suitcase in the overheard compartment, letting in his seat mates before him.

he pops a piece of spearmint gum into his mouth so his ears wouldn't get clogged on the way up, leaning back in his seat and drifting off to a much needed sleep. maybe sleep would help to settle his nerves. maybe sleep would bring him some peace.

____

to say jo was nervous was an understatement, she was terrified. for what, she wasn't quite sure. maybe she was worried paul would come home early and see that she wasn't there. maybe she was worried that her and alex wouldn't connect, like last time.

she really hoped that wouldn't be the case though. she needed this, she craved it. she needed the release, she needed the conversations over beer, she needed the ease of being together, even though what they were doing was far from it. easy, that is.

alex would be meeting her at the hotel not too far from her house, a ten minute drive or so. she had a small duffle bag filled with clothes, school textbooks (she still had to study, she was a med-student above anything else after all) and necessities like her toothbrush and comb. she checks the time on the clock on the wall. it was now 2:32. alex's flight landed at around two, and he was going to text her when he arrived at his hotel.

she lets out a long breath, biting her lower lip as she flops back onto her bed, turning on her phone for the hundredth time in the last five minutes, seeing if alex had texted her yet. her feelings were a combination of nerves and impatience. she needed him, right there, right now. she needed to feel something real.

ever since paul hit her two weeks ago she seemed like she was living in a dream world. her thoughts were more hazy and the life she was living just didn't seem all that real. (she didn't have brain damage, but she chalked it up to a sign of shock).

everything had shifted in those two weeks. paul was worse —angry all the time. instead of being greeted by the door with a kiss, it was now an order, either to make him coffee, snack, or some other kind of demand. she didn't know this paul. but, he would get better. she knew he would. people always say that after the honeymoon stage of marriage ends it gets harder. so she thought that that's where they were right now. the harder part.

luckily the bruise on her eye had faded, nearly completely gone by now. a little bit of concealer on the corner of her lid was just enough to cover the yellow spot so it was unrecognizable. she was thankful for that. she didn't want to have to explain why her eye was bruised to alex.

she closes her eyes and places a hand on her forehead, not needing to wait long before her phone buzzes in her hand.

alexandra: just got in a taxi. the driver says i'll be at the hotel in twenty.

joseph: okay, room 363 right?

alexandra: yep ;)

jo chuckles at his response (leave it up to alex to flirt through every text), zipping her duffle bag closed, and walking over to the mirror hanging above her dresser. she ruffles her hair before picking up a spare comb and brushing through it once more. she hated her hair sometimes. it didn't matter how many times she combed through it, it was tangled and knotted as hell five minutes later. she sets the brush down, exhaling a long sigh as she looks into her reflection, her seas of hazel staring right back at her.

she wanted to say that she regretted those three nights. she wanted to say she was going to regret the next three. but honestly? she couldn't. she knew the shame would be flowing through her body once they left the room. she knew that she would not be able to look at herself for a few days in the mirror, only being able to see a woman who cheats on her husband. she knew. but for some reason it didn't matter. she wanted to meet alex in that room for three days straight and let them confine in one another.

she wanted it. she needed it.

so with that thought, she slings the bag over her shoulder and exits the bedroom, closing the door behind her. she gets into a taxi she ordered and drives to the hyatt where alex was staying, nervously tapping her fingers on her knees the whole way, grateful that she had ordered a taxi and not chosen to drive her own car. (no way in hell was she going to pay for hotel parking.) besides, it's not like her and alex were going to be leaving the room much.

she grabs her phone out of her pocket and pulls up alex's contact. she couldn't check in, since the room was in alex's name.

joseph: you here yet?

alexandra: yeah, just set my stuff down.

joseph: okay, i'll be up in a few

jo flashes the woman at the receptionist's desk a polite smile before she can talk, entering the elevators and pressing the third floor button. when the doors close, soft tunes begin to play through the small space, a long groan escaping jo's lips. she hated elevator music. she hated it's stupid rhythm and the way it made you want to claw your eyes out. abso-freaking-lutely nothing was enjoyable about elevator music. when the steel doors open she couldn't get out of them fast enough, cursing under her breath about their 'stupid freaking songs'.

she finds the room quickly, taking in a deep breath before she raises her hand to knock. if she wanted to leave, now was the time. she could make a run for it, text him that she couldn't do it and ghost him after. but the truth is, she didn't want to. she wanted to knock on the damn door, open it and see alex once again. in person this time, not just over her phone.

three knocks. an "it's open," is all it takes for her to swing the wooden door wide and be met with the face of alex karev, who had a small smirk on his features, looking her up and down, drinking in the sight of what's been on his mind non stop for the past month.

jo stands nervously in the doorway, leaning against the frame. she somewhat expected him not to show up. her whole life she'd been abandoned. who was she to expect a guy would fly across the country and cheat on his wife with her? and to show up would be a whole new thing.

but he did. it wasn't something to be proud of, but she didn't think he'd ever know how much it meant to her that he was there.

alex's smirk quirks up higher at one end, "personally... i think you're wearing too much clothes," he teases. that's all it takes for jo to drop her bag on the floor without a thought and jog over to him, pulling him down into a searing kiss.

the kiss was needy, frustrated. weeks of pent up emotions poured into it, burning their mouths with their desire for one another. her arms wrapped around the back of his neck, bodies pressed so tightly together there was no room in between them.

nothing mattered in that moment. it was just them, nobody else, nothing else. all they were was two bodies longing for the touch of one another, to caress their skin, to realize that everything was going to be just fine if they could kiss each other like that for just a little while.

it was just them.

____

jo and alex laid in the afterglow, the sun peeking through the curtains and setting a warm hue on their entangled bodies, limbs seeming to no longer belong to just one person. a calm silence surrounded them, a silence they desperately craved. it brought peace and promise, something they could both agree was a necessity right now in the chaotic mess that they had gotten themselves into.

she traces circles on his chest, eyes closed as he runs his fingers through her hair. her foot moved up and down his calf, nearly in sync with the way his hand twirled her brown locks. they were tired, exhausted after what they had just finished with each other, but they didn't want to fall asleep. the way their skin felt on each other, the fireworks going off in them was just too much to allow them to drift off. just being near each other seemed to heighten their adrenaline.

while she was focused on his chest and (now) making stars with her finger, he was staring at her lips. it was odd, how hers seemed to mold so perfectly into his. at the moment, her lips were swollen, a bright red tint glossing over them from their previous activities. a sight he enjoyed much more than he would ever admit.

they lay like that for a while, until jo shifts a bit, beginning to place tiny kisses on the side of his chest. "how's work been?" she asks, momentarily stopping the movement of her lips on his skin to look up at him, her eyes shining with genuine questioning.

alex moves his hand from her hair to her side, rubbing his thumb across the smooth skin that she possessed there. he pulls her closer to him, stifling his groan in her hair, making her let out a laugh —a sound he had grown more than fond of. "we’ve merged with one of the lower ranking hospitals, mercy west. which sucks."

he can feel jo pout against him. "i'm sorry." she says sincerely.

he blows out a breath, "yeah. i can't stand any of these new people —none of us can, actually."

jo sits up, eyes locking with his, a teasing undertone shining through her words. "oh c'mon, how bad can they really be?"

alex smirks, taking her mock as a challenge. "well for starters, they're all a bunch of total kiss asses." he grins, making her chuckle against his palm. "i'm serious," he laughs, adjusting his position so he could now sit fully upright. "kepner has this little book, where she writes everything down in, and i mean everything," jo leans against the headboards, taking her hand in his larger one and begins to trace his fingers.

"she never stops talking. she's like a freaking chihuahua. and she also got this huge thing for shepherd," he chuckles, thinking about how the girl practically melted every time the neurosurgeon entered the room. "she has her lips permanently superglued to his ass."

jo hits his chest, trying to keep her laughs to a minimum. "i'm sure she's not that bad," she reasons. his curt glare is the only thing that told her that this kepner was in fact 'that bad'.

“she’s terrible. never shuts up about jesus either. jesus wouldn’t approve of all the images she’d probably conjuring in her mind about shepherd though.” he snorts, amused at his own joke. jo rolls her eyes, biting back a smirk.

“oh doctor shepherd, i’ve picked up your lab results. oh doctor shepherd, i’ll assist you on a surgery nobody else wants to even observe. oh doctor shepherd, i’ll do anything you want me to if that means i get to stare at you a little bit longer.”

“please tell me you’re exaggerating.”

alex scoffs, “i wish. worst part is, she does it while mer is in the room. i’m not sure if she doesn’t know he’s married or has just never had the hots for someone before. Because if she hasn’t, she’s making it painfully obvious.”

jo gives up on holding back her laughter, letting a little giggle escape her throat. “that’s… something,” she settles on. over the past few weeks she’d begun to learn nearly everything about alex and all of his friends’ crazy, soap-opera lives inside the walls of the hospital. what she retained is one; that they were all somehow related, either biologically or through sex, and two; people who worked at seattle grace were incredibly horny, to put it lightly. but that was a discussion for another time.

“mhm, then adamson is just a-a bitch. yeah, she’s a huge bitch. don’t know how else to describe her other than that.” he leans over the side of the bed and ruffles through his carry-on bag, emerging with a bag of gummy bears. ripping the bag open he offers the candy to jo, who eagerly accepts and shoves at least four of the bears into her mouth at once.

“percy’s just this… absolute giant. guy’s like, seventy feet tall. he’s also got this thing for adamson, who only sees him as her brother. it’s sad really, she calls him charlie and everything.” he fakes a pout, posing mock sympathy for the man he honestly wouldn’t even give the time of day to if he wasn’t currently invading his work place.

jo clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, “that’s a tough one.”

“yep.” he pops a few more gummy bears into his mouth, waiting until he finished them before talking again. (he one time tried to complete his story with food still in his mouth and jo had physically shut his jaw and forced him to chew until all of the pizza was gone. no way he was making that mistake again —jo was strong.)

“don’t even get me started on avery. god, every time i see him i just wanna punch him.” that piqued jo’s interest, a teasing grin split across her lips.

“are you jealous?”

alex scoffs, “god no. definitely not. i just can’t stand the guy. the dude looks like he should be on the cover of a fashion magazine, not inside of an OR. and, he gets standing ovations in the middle of the emergency room. oh yeah, plus he’s loaded, being harper avery’s grandson and all. i thought we were past the age of nepotism”

jo’s eyes widen comically, snatching the bag of gummies out of his hand and tossing it across the room, cutting off alex’s loud display of protests at the fact that the candy was now scattered carelessly across the carpet. “harper avery’s grandson?!” she all but screeches.

alex visibly winces, “yes jo.” he replied, nodding his head and trying to figure out how the woman he thought he had gotten to know so well could emit that kind of sound. like one of those teenage girls who were obsessed with those movies about vampires and werewolves.

“as in the harper avery award harper avery?”

“no jo,” alex deadpans, dramatically rolling his eyes. “the harper avery who owns the car dealership down the street —yes the harper avery award harper avery. who else would it be?” he gets up from the bed and starts collecting the gummy bears, dumping all the dirty ones into the trash while silently cheering when a good amount of them were still left in the bag.

when he returns to his spot, jo slaps him across the chest. “asshole. there may be a lot of people out there who are named harper avery.” in her defense, there were seven point six billion people on the earth. it was highly likely a few people shared the same name as the former doctor. (at least one.)

“mhm. yeah, well, the guy’s an ass.” he argues, giving her the bag of candy in hopes that she won’t throw it across the room again.

jo’s eyebrows scrunch up as she tilts her head to the side, seemingly deep in thought. “you know you gotta become friends with him right?”

he lets out a bemused laugh, “tell me you’re joking.” he says.

she shakes her head, jutting out her bottom lip. “nope. i mean...there’s gotta be some benefits to befriending an avery, right?” surely, there would be some kind of advantage. extra… good points with the foundation? mentions about oneself to the famous catherine avery? (the more she ran it over in her head the worse it sounded, but there was no way she was gonna give up, because there had to be at least one advantage to being best bros with an avery.)

“sure, i’ll keep that in mind.” he smirks, seeing how the wheels had stopped turning in that mind of her’s and were put to a rest once she realized the lack of good things that could come from being nice to mr. green eyes.

“whatever jerk. help me with some of my homework, i don’t wanna do it and you’re the hotshot surgeon who already finished med-school and works at a big, fancy hospital. sound good doctor karev?” she teases, grabbing her books from her bag and dropping them down onto the bed, the heavy pages creating a loud thump that immediately sends alex back to his days in college. books scattered on his bedspread, day-old mcdonald’s cups on his side table, and packets of unhealthy snack foods thrown across the floor. he lets out a dramatic sigh, pretending to think it over before pulling a book and jo towards him.

“so, biochemistry…”

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half-bakedboy · 4 years

Text

You’re a Shadowhunter Now (read on ao3)

Pairing: Clary Fray & Alec Lightwood Rated: Gen Summary: “If she decides to go on her own, we’ve lost Valentine’s daughter to the downworld, and who knows what that means for the Circle,” Jace added even though Alec had already made up his mind. Alec shook his head and let out a frustrated breath through his nose as he walked away from his siblings.

“She’s not gonna listen to me,” Alec yelled as he walked in the direction the redhead had stormed off.

“Make her, Alec, you’re good at that,” Jace supplied.

Alec muttered to himself, “Apparently not good enough.”

For 5 Years of Shadowhunters presented by the @malecdiscordserver!

The redhead was feisty when she was pissed off and there was something about that aspect of her that both surprised and intrigued Alec. It also had Alec sympathizing with her for the first time in the few hours he had known her. They had gone back to the Institute to figure out how to deal with the nerdy mundane being taken by the New York Vampire Clan in the most diplomatic manner - Alec briefly reminded himself that he was the only one that wanted to deal with it with thought and not action - and the redhead was pissed, to say the least.

“Someone has got to talk to her,” Izzy said as she inspected her nails, pointedly ignoring any responsibility that she might have been given. Jace sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head at whatever thoughts were running through it.

“I think Alec should do it,” Jace offered and Alec just gaped at him.

“You want me to deal with her?” Alec said with a scoff as both Izzy and Jace stared up at him.

“C’mon, you’re the one who couldn’t bother to be around the mundane and accused Clary of being some Circle spy all within a few hours of meeting her. Maybe if you just apologize--”

Alec held up a hand and argued, “Apologize?! You want me to say I’m sorry for being the only one pointing out scenarios in which this-- this little girl is much more than just a damsel in distress that you can save? I think I’m the only one who is thinking with my head here!” It seemed like his words did nothing to focus Izzy and Jace away from whatever they felt for the redhead and he relented, as he always did, with a heavy sigh.

“Just go talk to her. Explain why we can’t just go after him and maybe she’ll understand that you want to get Simon back just as much as she does,” Izzy said softly, resting a hand on Alec’s arm comfortingly. He shrugged her off but he couldn’t argue with her words. Shadowhunters were sworn protectors and as much as Alec wanted to just let the vampires get away with the kidnapping, he held duty above all else, and it was his responsibility to get the mundane out of their grasp.

“If she decides to go on her own, we’ve lost Valentine’s daughter to the downworld, and who knows what that means for the Circle,” Jace added even though Alec had already made up his mind. Alec shook his head and let out a frustrated breath through his nose as he walked away from his siblings.

“She’s not gonna listen to me,” Alec yelled as he walked in the direction the redhead had stormed off.

“Make her, Alec, you’re good at that,” Jace supplied.

Alec muttered to himself, “Apparently not good enough.” He had tried to get Jace to listen to him on many occasions, to stop being so reckless and stop taking in strays as if they were prizes he competed for, to follow the guidelines sent down to him from his parents and the Clave, but it was useless because Jace did what Jace wanted. His bad decisions were rubbing off on Izzy and Alec silently thanked his parents for taking Max away before he could go down the path of resistance with the rest of his siblings.

He stopped walking when he heard soft sobs coming from one of the residential rooms. His heart tightened in his chest as he remembered the times he had waited outside Izzy’s door while she cried herself to sleep after their mother had berated her. It happened far too often and Alec was always afraid of knocking on the door and offering his support. Izzy had to be strong in order to be who she needed to be and who Alec knew she could be and he wasn’t going to interfere with that. So he would sit outside her door until he was sure she was finally getting some rest and spend the rest of the night staring at his ceiling, wondering if he was doing the right thing.

With a steady inhale, Alec let his knuckles rap against the door softly, calling out a gentle, “Clary?” He heard some shuffling and sniffling as if she was trying to hide the fact she was crying and Alec respected that more than he thought he would. The door opened slowly and the glare the redhead had on her face was almost as deadly as the one Alec had perfected.

“What?” She spat, her hair whipping into Alec’s face as she turned quickly and sat on the bed with a huff.

“I just wanted to-- Are you okay?” He asked and the question seemed to surprise Clary. She nodded at first, quick and sure, but then her bottom lip started to tremble and she shook her head.

“It was my birthday yesterday,” she began as a tear fell down her cheek. Alec stayed silent from where he stood, unsure of how to comfort this girl he had barely just met. “It was supposed to be the best day of my life. I turned 18 - a real adult by human standards - and was accepted into my dream school. I had a mom who-- who was-- is my best friend and a stepdad who I trusted with my life. And I had my best friend, the one person who has been there for me since I was little, celebrating with me.” Her voice shook with each passing confession and Alec resisted the urge to sit beside her and place a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“And now?” He asked because if he knew anything, it was that hiding feelings and emotions from those that just wanted to help was the most detrimental thing a person could do to themselves. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know Clary, but it was too late to change his mind as Clary looked up at him with wide eyes and shook her head again.

“My mother pushed me into a swirling hole of magic that her best friend created and now I might never see her again. I showed up at my step dad’s work only to overhear him admit that I meant nothing to him, that my mother meant nothing to him. I almost died and was only saved because some guy I just met gave me some mystical tattoo of healing, and now?” Clary took a deep breath and the tears that threatened to fall seemed to disappear as she tried to compose herself. “My best friend has been kidnapped by a guy that had fangs for teeth and the ability to disappear before I could even register what I was seeing.”

“He’s a vampire,” Alec said ignoring the glare that Clary shot in his direction, “a very powerful one that is using the mund-- Simon,” Alec corrected, “against you.” He sighed heavily, taking a few steps closer to Clary to sit beside her on the bed before continuing, “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re a shadowhunter now. That means you have to follow the rules that have been created to keep all of us safe and protected.”

“But what about Simon?” Clary questioned, turning toward Alec to grip his thigh in her hands, her nails digging into the flesh there like a desperate plea for answers that Alec couldn’t really give her. Alec rested his hand over hers to urge her to relax. She didn’t know it yet, but he was the one with the mind to make a plan and the good sense to make sure they took the correct next steps in order to keep everyone safe. There was a small part of him that hoped he could prove it to her.

“They won’t hurt him,” Alec began and at Clary’s look of disbelief, he added, “They won’t. They want something they think you have and I’m starting to believe that you know less than everyone thinks you do.” Clary nodded quickly and sniffed as an escaped tear fell down her cheek. Alec reached up before he could stop himself and swiped it away with his thumb before resting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. “But we can’t just barge into a nest of vampires without a plan, Clary. You know Simon better than the rest of us and you trust him to stay alive, yeah?”

Clary agreed, “He’s probably torn between fear and excitement that vampires actually exist and he gets to see one in person.” Her watery laugh had Alec relaxing enough to stand and peer down at her. He admitted to himself that he had - still held - reservations about the redhead, but her ability to be thrown into the Shadow World with barely any fear crossing her features was something Alec admired.

“Then we’ll figure out how to get him back, but we’re going to need your help. I need you to calm yourself down and clear your head,” Alec commanded. Clary stood up and wiped at her face, fixing the leather skirt Izzy had lent her before nodding at Alec again as if ready for action. Alec shook his head and nudged her back to sitting with a gentle hand.

“Take a second. Mourn the loss of the mundane life you knew because from now on,” Alec said as he walked toward the door, “you’re a shadowhunter first. You’re the responsibility of the Clave which means you’re my responsibility and I take that very seriously.” Clary stared over at him and Alec had to avert his eyes before he became uncomfortable with the trust he saw forming in them.

“Thank you, Alec,” Clary whispered. Alec nodded but said nothing else as he walked out the door. He shut it behind him and when he heard Clary’s sobs start up again, he slid down the wall outside of the room just to make sure that she was going to be okay.

#fraywood #fraywood brotp #clary fray #alec lightwood #shadowhunters #my writing #mdsrewatch #5 years of shadowhunters #ahhhhhh i love them so much 🥺#dont @ me okay #clary is baby

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cakelanguage · 4 years

Text

Another gift I made for the Malec Secret Santa 2020, this time for yorit1 on AO3! It was my first time venturing into high school AUs, and it was actually quite fun. I hope you enjoy this goofy and fluffy high school au <3

You can also read this on AO3

Alexander Lightwood was different. He was nothing like his brother, Jace who was the star quarterback of the football team and a bit of an egomaniac at times. He wasn’t like his sister, Isabelle who was free-spirited and made a statement with her fashion choices and opinions.

No, Alec was quiet. He tried to take up as little space as possible no matter how much room he was given. Despite his towering stature he tended to hunch unconsciously. Like he was afraid he was always taking up too much room.

But he was stubborn and terse to the majority of people and doted on his family. He stood up for others and advocated for LGBTQ+ rights at school and outside it. He took in those who wormed their way into his heart with nary a thought but kept them away from knowing him besides the front he presented.

He was an array of contradictions that only made him more interesting in Magnus’ eyes.

And he stared. At Magnus. A lot.

Initially, Magnus hadn’t even noticed Alec’s gaze. He’d only realized it when Ragnor and Catarina had brought it to his attention.

“You’re being watched,” Catarina commented offhandedly, taking a bite of her salad.

Magnus smirked. “I’m always being watched,” he purred.

A groan echoed beside him. “I swear, if your head gets any bigger they’ll be no way to hide it,” Ragnor groused.

“I refuse to have this negativity within my eyesight.” Magnus made a shooing gesture. “Remove yourself at once.”

Catarina giggled at their banter before clearing her throat. “I’m being serious, though. You’ve been being watched by mister brooding over there.” She inconspicuously pointed to somewhere diagonally to them.

Not one to shy away from attention, Magnus whipped his head around to try and meet the gaze of his admirer. His eyebrows shot up when he met the gaze of Alexander Lightwood.

Alec seemed to have met his eyes too because his face reddened. The boy gave him a timid wave before ducking his head to gaze at his food, seeming to ignore the other occupants at his table.

Magnus would have continued looking at the bashful boy if his vision wasn’t suddenly obstructed. He squawked and turned a glower to Ragnor. “Are you really trying to cover my face up with a paper bag right now?”

His best friend grinned. “You were staring.”

“He was staring.”

“You wouldn’t have even noticed his staring if Cat hadn’t informed you.”

Conceivably, there was some truth to that. He wasn’t short on admirers so it didn’t surprise him that he hadn’t noticed one person’s attention.

He was curious to see how this would all play out.

It happened at a party.

A Magnus Bane party.

Magnus Bane had risen to popularity with these outlandish parties he threw while his father was away on his business trips. They were grand with drinks flowing in red solo cups and music blasting so loudly that they had the cops called on them more than once.

Magnus could easily party the night away. Immerse himself in the sweaty, hormonally charged throngs of his fellow student body. Ordinarily, he would.

But Alec actually came to this one and that wholly couldn’t be ignored.

The boy still hadn’t acted on what Magnus assumed was attraction to him. He merely continued to covertly admire Magnus from afar. The few times they’d talked, Magnus had reduced the boy to scrambled word-vomit. Alexander was bright red and Magnus was beyond flattered.

Here under the colored lights, the boy was a wallflower if he'd ever seen one. He stuck close to the wall and people watched with a dour expression. Magnus had seen people more excited about midterms than Alexander looked at one of his parties. And that wouldn't do at all.

Optimistically, this conversation would go better than their previous ones.

He saddled up to him with an extra cup of whatever brew Catarina had concocted and a charming smile. "Staying over here all by your lonesome, pretty boy?" Magnus inquired lightly.

Alec lurched beside him and looked at him bug-eyed. "What?" He asked.

"Well, you're denying the party-goers a fine specimen while you hunker to the shadows." Magnus couldn't tell if the boy was blushing with the colored lights gleaming across the room but his expression seemed flattered if not terribly shy.

It was adorable.

"I'm uh—My siblings wanted to come."

Magnus hummed thoughtfully and looked around the room until he spotted Alec's sister dancing amongst the crowd. "Ah, Izzy seems to be having a blast." He turned to Alec with a smirk. "I'm assuming Jace and Clary are making out somewhere around here."

Alec groaned and thumped his head against the wall. "I didn't even want to come." His eyes widened, and he jerked his head back to Magnus with his hands raised. "Not—Not that it isn't a great party because it is uh—everyone loves them and I—" he sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "Parties have never been my scene and it's just easier to stay on the sidelines."

"Perhaps," Magnus conceded, "or maybe you just need to keep trying." He handed the extra drink to him. "Start with something to drink. It'll do wonders to relax those tense shoulders of yours." And what gorgeously broad shoulders they were.

Alec shook his head and pushed the cup away. "Can't, I'm the designated driver."

Magnus arched a brow and poured the new drink into his original cup. "More for me, I suppose." He took a sip, ignoring the fire that licked his throat on the way down. "In the meantime, we might as well see if we can entice you into enjoying the party,” he set the cups down on a random table and held out his hand, “dance with me."

It wasn't a question and Alec recognized that but still, he shook his head. "Unless you want me to accidentally break your toes, I’m gonna… I'll just stay here."

"Pretty boy, I taught Ragnor how to dance." It'd been his own personal hell for half the summer but Ragnor had gotten significantly better at dancing enough so that he didn't look like he was suffering a seizure when the desire to dance struck him. "I'm sure I can teach you something."

Alec swallowed and looked around the room for anything that might help him. "I'm really not a good dancer," Alec insisted even as Magnus started to coax him from the wall. "I'll look stupid which means you'll look stupid."

Magnus waved him off. "Practically everyone looks silly when they dance, so you won't be alone there." He seized Alec’s hand and pulled him away from the wall. “Give it a try for five minutes, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Alec let himself be dragged to the dancefloor with consternation. “Five minutes and that’s it.”

This conversation was going lightyears better than their first few conversations. “If you want to stop, that is.”

He let go of Alec’s hand to grab ahold of Alec’s hips. “We’ll start with a sway, literally everyone can sway,” Magnus instructed as he started to sway his hips with Alec’s. He quickly directed their swaying to match the beat of the music. “See? Just gotta listen to the music; your body should pick up on the beat.”

A nervous laugh bubbled from somewhere in Alec’s throat as he bopped his head. “Yeah—okay, now what?”

“Arms, you don’t want to just flap them about.” You could knock someone out by accident if you did that. “Though if that’s your style, we can work with that.”

Alec raised his arms, shifting them side-to-side like muscled windshield wipers. “This?”

Magnus threw his head back and laughed. “God no, that’s—“ Magnus dissolved into another fit of giggles, waving a hand at Alec, “I’m not laughing at you, I promise. I just—I wasn’t expecting that.”

Alec scowled. “Then show me how to do it,” Alec commanded.

The scowl on the boy’s face resembled more of a pout than anything scary so Magnus figured the boy wasn’t too bothered by his laughter.

“You have to loosen up. You’re too tense!” Magnus ran his hands down Alec’s arms, relishing the shiver that ran through Alec’s body. “Relax your shoulders.”

“They are relaxed.”

He quirked an eyebrow and massaged at Alec’s shoulders feeling the tight muscles jump and release under his ministration. “Darling, I’ve seen assholes looser than your shoulders.”

Alec wheezed, his face twisting up, and squeezed his eyes shut. “That’s—why did you have to say it like that?” Alec groaned with a snort like he couldn’t decide whether to be upset or laugh at Magnus’ comment.

A Cheshire smile spread across his face. “I’m not wrong.”

Alec flushed, his eyes settling everywhere except Magnus’. “Well, I’m relaxed now.”

“Good, now just watch me for a moment.” He winked, biting his lower lip. “Try to keep your gaze virtuous.”

The laughter that tumbled out of Alec was beautiful and something he’d never heard before. His laughter echoed between them, somewhere caught between rough and warm. He’d never heard the boy laugh before.

But he wanted to hear it forever.

Magnus swayed his body, gyrating his hips and moving his hands up his body, letting them move with him. Lidded eyes gazed at Alec who’d stopped dancing altogether and was just staring at him with a familiar intensity.

“Feel free to admire me.”

Alec grinned and shook his head, already miles past his original comfort levels. “Thanks for the consent.” He crossed his arms and gave him a look. “You want a complete too? I feel like your fishing for one.”

“I very much am fishing for compliments,” Magnus said, “I’m just waiting for the hook to pick some up.”

“Normally people don’t admit to fishing for compliments.”

“Normal is subjective, Alexander.” He beckoned Alec over. “Now come join me, let that body talk.”

Alec shook his head again as he walked back over. “You’re so weird.” But his voice was husky belaying his real feelings on Magnus’ behavior. He clumsily joined Magnus and was soon following the beat more or less.

Magnus had thought this would be an innocent folly – just figuring the other boy out – but he found he was having fun. Alec's inexperience and awkwardness were endearing, and Magnus couldn’t turn his gaze away.

And he didn't want to.

He wasn't even sure what it was about Alec that drew him in. Magnus lived for partying, standing out, and being unashamedly himself. He wore glitter and sheer shirts that got him dress coded constantly.

Conversely, Alec was an introvert who orbited around the ones he loved. He'd started an archery club and followed all the school rules to an alarming degree. The only thing Magnus had thought stood out to him about Alec was that he was openly gay.

But just from his interactions with the boy tonight had revealed a hidden charm behind that stoic front. He had a laugh that made Magnus' heart skip a beat. His smile lit up the room way more than the assortment of lights did. He could dance only marginally better than Ragnor could now – which wasn’t saying much – but it made Magnus enjoy dancing with him all the more.

Just these observations made him wonder why he’d never noticed Alexander Lightwood before.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Alec interrupted, nudging him in the side.

Magnus shook his head from his previous thoughts. “My thoughts are worth plenty more than a penny,” Magnus sniffed.

Alec rolled his eyes. “Offer still stands.”

Magnus closed the distance between them. “You surprised me.”

“I surprised you?”

“Don’t sound so shocked.” Magnus put his arms around Alec’s neck and slowed their dancing down to a sweeping sway. “You’re more than I expected when I came over to you.”

Alec frowned. “More...?”

He shook his head. “I mean that in the best of ways,” Magnus reassured. “There’s just something about you, Alexander.”

Alec ducked his head down sheepishly. “There’s uh… something about you too.”

Magnus grinned, running his fingers through the short strands of hair at the back of Alec’s head. “Glad we’re on the same page about that.” He chanced a look around the room his eyes zeroing in on the clock before turning back to Alec who was finally looking at him again. “It’s been more than five minutes, still want me to leave?”

Hands grabbed at his hips as Alec leaned his head closer. “Please stay.”

Any quieter and Magnus would’ve missed Alec’s plea, but his grip on Magnus was telling enough. “Only if you’ll keep dancing with me.” Magnus gave Alec an exaggerated pout.

Alec snorted, shaking his head. “Stop being so cute.”

“Can’t, darling,” Magnus sighed, “it’s a curse.”

At this point, Magnus could feel Alec’s breath against his lips. With each moment his restraint grew smaller and smaller. He doubted Alec would gather the courage to mention his feelings. But he wasn’t going to wait for the other boy to make a move first. “Maybe this is the alcohol talking, but I really want to kiss you right now.”

Alec’s breath hitched, and for a second Magnus thought he’d ruined their moment until Alec let out a pleased sigh. “I – you uh… If I let you kiss me,” he paused to gather his thoughts, “You have to let me take you on a date.”

Magnus’ face lit up. “You wanna take me on a date?”

The tips of Alec’s ears practically glowed. “I’d like to.”

“I think,” Magnus drawled, twirling a piece of Alec’s hair, “that would be more than okay.”

The other boy’s mouth gaped and he seemed caught between awe and joy. Alec pressed their foreheads together. “So do I get that kiss now?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

Magnus bumps his nose against Alec’s. “How are you feeling about parties now?” Magnus inquired. He genuinely wanted to know if Alec’s opinion had changed.

Alec hummed thoughtfully before shrugging. “I won’t say I like them, but I got to spend time with you.” He brushed his lips against the corner of Magnus’ mouth. “So if you’re there, I can see the appeal.”

“Sweet talker.”

Magnus closed the distance between them. Alec’s lips were dry and deliciously warm against his. Just like his dancing, Alec’s kiss was inexperienced and their teeth clanked together before they got the right angle. Magnus led the kiss, coaxing Alec’s mouth to move with his own. It was hungry and sweet and profoundly earnest.

It was perfect.

Reluctantly Magnus pulled back to let them both breathe. Alec tried to chase his lips for a moment longer, eyes still closed as if he thought he’d open his eyes and Magnus would disappear. Eventually, Alec did open his eyes, and quiet awe transformed his face.

“Would it be greedy to ask for another?” Alec asked between them, their lips still barely an inch apart.

“Terribly greedy,” Magnus chided with a grin, “But if you take me to that Thai place four blocks from the movie theater I’ll happily give you another.”

Alec laughed, their noses nudging against each other’s. “Promise?”

No answer was needed; his kiss was enough.

#malec #malec fic #malec secret santa 2020 #Magnus Bane #Alec Lightwood #highschool au #alec is a gay disaster #magnus is a bisexual king #my fic

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malecsecretsanta · 4 years

Text

Merry Christmas, yorit1!

For @yorit1, I'm so happy I was able to write you this fic and I hope it makes you smile and you enjoy it. I've never written a high school au, but I wanted to keep it fluffy and funny. Wishing you a happy holidays; stay warm, grab your favorite warm drink, and read to your heart's content.

Read On AO3

*****

I Caught You Staring (And Now I Can't Look Away)

He was an array of contradictions that only made him more interesting in Magnus’ eyes.

And he stared. At Magnus. A lot.

Initially, Magnus hadn’t even noticed Alec’s gaze. He’d only realized it when Ragnor and Catarina had brought it to his attention.

“You’re being watched,” Catarina commented offhandedly, taking a bite of her salad.

Magnus smirked. “I’m always being watched,” he purred.

A groan echoed beside him. “I swear, if your head gets any bigger they’ll be no way to hide it,” Ragnor groused.

“I refuse to have this negativity within my eyesight.” Magnus made a shooing gesture. “Remove yourself at once.”

Not one to shy away from attention, Magnus whipped his head around to try and meet the gaze of his admirer. His eyebrows shot up when he met the gaze of Alexander Lightwood.

Alec seemed to have met his eyes too because his face reddened. The boy gave him a timid wave before ducking his head to gaze at his food, seeming to ignore the other occupants at his table.

His best friend grinned. “You were staring.”

“He was staring.”

“You wouldn’t have even noticed his staring if Cat hadn’t informed you.”

Conceivably, there was some truth to that. He wasn’t short on admirers so it didn’t surprise him that he hadn’t noticed one person’s attention.

He was curious to see how this would all play out.

It happened at a party.

A Magnus Bane party.

Magnus could easily party the night away. Immerse himself in the sweaty, hormonally charged throngs of his fellow student body. Ordinarily, he would.

But Alec actually came to this one and that wholly couldn’t be ignored.

Optimistically, this conversation would go better than their previous ones.

He saddled up to him with an extra cup of whatever brew Catarina had concocted and a charming smile. "Staying over here all by your lonesome, pretty boy?" Magnus inquired lightly.

Alec lurched beside him and looked at him bug-eyed. "What?" He asked.

It was adorable.

"I'm uh—My siblings wanted to come."

Alec shook his head and pushed the cup away. "Can't, I'm the designated driver."

It wasn't a question and Alec recognized that but still, he shook his head. "Unless you want me to accidentally break your toes, I’m gonna… I'll just stay here."

Alec let himself be dragged to the dancefloor with consternation. “Five minutes and that’s it.”

This conversation was going lightyears better than their first few conversations. “If you want to stop, that is.”

A nervous laugh bubbled from somewhere in Alec’s throat as he bopped his head. “Yeah—okay, now what?”

“Arms, you don’t want to just flap them about.” You could knock someone out by accident if you did that. “Though if that’s your style, we can work with that.”

Alec raised his arms, shifting them side-to-side like muscled windshield wipers. “This?”

Alec scowled. “Then show me how to do it,” Alec commanded.

The scowl on the boy’s face resembled more of a pout than anything scary so Magnus figured the boy wasn’t too bothered by his laughter.

“You have to loosen up. You’re too tense!” Magnus ran his hands down Alec’s arms, relishing the shiver that ran through Alec’s body. “Relax your shoulders.”

“They are relaxed.”

He quirked an eyebrow and massaged at Alec’s shoulders feeling the tight muscles jump and release under his ministration. “Darling, I’ve seen assholes looser than your shoulders.”

A Cheshire smile spread across his face. “I’m not wrong.”

Alec flushed, his eyes settling everywhere except Magnus’. “Well, I’m relaxed now.”

“Good, now just watch me for a moment.” He winked, biting his lower lip. “Try to keep your gaze virtuous.”

But he wanted to hear it forever.

“Feel free to admire me.”

“I very much am fishing for compliments,” Magnus said, “I’m just waiting for the hook to pick some up.”

“Normally people don’t admit to fishing for compliments.”

“Normal is subjective, Alexander.” He beckoned Alec over. “Now come join me, let that body talk.”

And he didn't want to.

Just these observations made him wonder why he’d never noticed Alexander Lightwood before.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Alec interrupted, nudging him in the side.

Magnus shook his head from his previous thoughts. “My thoughts are worth plenty more than a penny,” Magnus sniffed.

Alec rolled his eyes. “Offer still stands.”

Magnus closed the distance between them. “You surprised me.”

“I surprised you?”

“Don’t sound so shocked.” Magnus put his arms around Alec’s neck and slowed their dancing down to a sweeping sway. “You’re more than I expected when I came over to you.”

Alec frowned. “More...?”

He shook his head. “I mean that in the best of ways,” Magnus reassured. “There’s just something about you, Alexander.”

Alec ducked his head down sheepishly. “There’s uh… something about you too.”

Hands grabbed at his hips as Alec leaned his head closer. “Please stay.”

Any quieter and Magnus would’ve missed Alec’s plea, but his grip on Magnus was telling enough. “Only if you’ll keep dancing with me.” Magnus gave Alec an exaggerated pout.

Alec snorted, shaking his head. “Stop being so cute.”

“Can’t, darling,” Magnus sighed, “it’s a curse.”

Magnus’ face lit up. “You wanna take me on a date?”

The tips of Alec’s ears practically glowed. “I’d like to.”

“I think,” Magnus drawled, twirling a piece of Alec’s hair, “that would be more than okay.”

The other boy’s mouth gaped and he seemed caught between awe and joy. Alec pressed their foreheads together. “So do I get that kiss now?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

Magnus bumps his nose against Alec’s. “How are you feeling about parties now?” Magnus inquired. He genuinely wanted to know if Alec’s opinion had changed.

“Sweet talker.”

It was perfect.

“Would it be greedy to ask for another?” Alec asked between them, their lips still barely an inch apart.

“Terribly greedy,” Magnus chided with a grin, “But if you take me to that Thai place four blocks from the movie theater I’ll happily give you another.”

Alec laughed, their noses nudging against each other’s. “Promise?”

No answer was needed; his kiss was enough.

#yorit1 #malecsanta20 #*fic20 #*gifts20

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sloanerisette · 4 years

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Jyoumi Challenge Day #15: Celebration

I originally had another idea, but at the last minute, I thought of this and I’m super happy with it! Got to finally write more with the rest of the DigiDestined, too, and I had a lot of fun. Hope y’all enjoy!

---

With tear-stained eyes and shaking hands, Mimi slowly started to type out a message to the group chat she had with the original DigiDestined.

“He finally popped the question,” she repeated to herself slowly, before attaching a picture that had just been taken moments earlier. One of Mimi in even greater tears than she was now, holding up her right hand for the camera to show off her new engagement ring, with Joe sitting next to her, arm around her shoulders, resting his head next to hers. Both were wearing huge smiles, and Joe had been tearing up, too, eyes red and puffy from wiping them.

“And send,” she said to herself quietly, sending the message and the picture to their friends, before moving into Joe’s lap, hugging him tight. “I can’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. I had no idea…” she breathed out, unable to take her eyes off her right ring finger and the diamond that now adorned it.

“I mean, that was the whole idea, right?” Joe asked with a soft laugh, wrapping his arms around her and letting his head rest on the top of hers. Mimi giggled, looking up at him, and Joe wiped away a few stray tears of hers with his thumb.

“I know, but its still just so incredible. I had no clue when you were planning to propose and… I am just so happy,” she told him.

“Me, too. I’m happy you said yes,” he said sheepishly. Mimi looked up at him, a smirk clear on her face.

“We’ve been dating for more than half of our lives, I’d hope you were happy,” she teased him, playfully bumping her shoulder into him with a giggle.

“I mean, you make me happy, you know that,” he assured her with a soft nod.

“You make me happy, too.”

Silence washed over their apartment, the two enjoying having nothing more but just each other’s presence in those moments. Peace and quiet, and after an eventful night, quiet moments as fiances was all the celebration they needed.

However, that quiet was interrupted after a few minutes by the sudden buzzing of their phones pulled them from their reveries, and Mimi started to scramble off of Joe to get to their coffee table, unable to suppress the elation she was feeling as she started to see text notification after text notification pop up.

He did it?

Congrats!

The lovebirds finally did it!

Congratulations you two!

The ring is so beautiful!

You two look so happy!

The messages were pouring in, and neither of them could hold back the smiles on their faces, and Mimi was quick to let her thumbs fly along her phone’s keyboard.

Thanks everyone! We’re SO happy! The best night of my life :)

She sent the text off, Joe looking over her shoulder to see, then grabbed his own phone.

Mine too.

And Joe’s too!

The newly engaged couple looked at each other from the corners of their eyes, smiling at each other just as much with their eyes as their mouths. Another text alert, however, caused both of them to look back to their phones.

How about we all get together tomorrow night after we’re all off? Gotta celebrate the lovebirds finally getting off their butts!

“Does that sound good to you?” Joe asked Mimi, who nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course!” she chirped, quickly sending off confirmations and details of when to come over, just about vibrating with excitement now as she popped up from the floor.

“We have to get the apartment ready!”

By the time they were both able to make it home that next day, they didn’t have much time to get everything tidied up and set up as much as they wanted. Thankfully, the two already preferred their living space to be neat, but given this would be the first time in a long while that everyone would be coming over.

“You reached out to Yolei about seeing her, Davis, Cody, and Ken later this week?”

“Yup! Friday works?”

“Yeah, I’ll just have to meet you all at the ramen shop,” he told her, Mimi nodding, about to wipe their dining table once again before a loud knock rang out against their door.

“Oh! They’re here!” she shouted out happily, pulling the tie out of her hair and shaking her head to let her hair fall. She grabbed Joe’s wrist (her fiance’s wrist, she thought to herself, with a smile that felt like it would never go away) and brought him along to the door, flinging it open and seeing the whole group there.

Immediately they were greeted by a bright camera flash, causing Joe to blink a few times to gather himself.

“Congratulations!” the group of six cheered, the newly engaged couple wasting no time in letting their closest friends in, the group all gathering in their living room. Sora was quick to place a vase with a beautiful flower arrangement on the coffee table, with Matt placing a chocolate cake down moments later.

“You guys! You didn’t have to do this! But oh these flowers are so beautiful! And Matt, that cake looks divine!” Mimi gushed, eyes wide and sparkling.

“Thanks so much, guys. Really, you didn’t have to go all out,” Joe said.

TK shook his head, “Come on, its not everyday two of your best friends get engaged! Celebration is in order! Hell, we would be awful friends if we didn’t go all out for you two,” he assured the oldest of the group, gently pushing his shoulder, offering him a smile. Joe laughed and nodded.

“Ok, ok, if you say so. Mimi and I will cut the cake and then we can celebrate,” he said, standing up. Before Mimi could stand up or he could move, Tai was already on his feet, placing a hand on Joe’s shoulder to lower him back down.

“Hey, the man and woman of the hour aren’t gonna cut their own cake, I’ll handle it,” he insisted, waltzing over to the kitchen once he picked up the dessert.

“Don’t cut your finger off!” Kari shouted teasingly.

“I’ll have you know the last time I cut my finger while doing anything with food was years ago,” he waved her off, before pausing for a beat, “And even if I did, we have Joe here!”

Luckily, Tai didn’t hurt himself, and soon enough he and his younger sister were handing out slices to the group, everyone sitting around, relaxing like the old days.

“You know, Joe, when I first met you, I would’ve never expected you’d be the first one out of all of us to get married!” Tai said, to which Joe’s eyes narrowed.

“Thanks, Tai,” he deadpanned, before Tai realized what he had said, his eyes going wide as he waved his hands in front of him.

“No no no, not like that! I just mean when I first met you I wouldn’t have expected it! But getting to know you in the Digital World, it makes sense that you would! Just look at you, you’re a great guy, always there for people, one of the best guys any of us know, I bet,” he explained, the group nodding in agreement.

“And hot to boot!” Mimi added, sitting up straighter in order to give Joe a kiss on the cheek, relishing in how bright red he was now.

“He’s right, man,” Matt said offering Joe a thumbs up, “You two are perfect for each other.”

All of their friends had said this to the two of them over the years, but with the situation they were in now, now engaged, it felt even more unreal to the two of them.

“You’re all so sweet!” Mimi cooed, setting her plate down for a moment to get a closer look at the flowers, “Sora— you just have to do our flowers for the wedding! They’re so beautiful! I just love them!”

Sora flushed, “For you two? Of course, I’d be more than happy to,” she assured the couple, “And if you need any help with wedding planning, I’d be more than happy to help,” she nodded.

“I’m sure Mimi has a binder full of every idea she’s had since we were kids,” Izzy said, the group laughing for a moment before falling silent, eyes turning to Mimi.

“Yup, I definitely have.”

More laughter followed, and conversation continued to flow throughout the group throughout the night, with stories being told of old trips to the Digital World and plenty of teasing the Mimi and Joe— which Joe took in far greater stride than anyone would’ve expected.

The night wore on, calm and serenity filling the atmosphere.

“Congrats again, guys,” Kari said, reaching over to pull Mimi into a hug, Mimi squeezing her back.

“Oh, thank you so much. You’re all the best for doing this,” she said before the two pulled apart, Kari giving Joe a quick hug, too.

“Matt, where’d you get the cake? It was delicious,” Joe asked.

“Oh, this little bakery a few blocks from here. But I would definitely recommend getting a wedding cake from there because it was pretty good,” Matt grinned.

“Be careful, though, because Matt will probably try and eat it all before the reception,” TK laughed, earning a flick to the back of his head from his older brother.

“Hey, I wouldn’t complain if you got another cake like that,” Sora added.

“And, hey, we gotta get a bachelor party planned! I think its up to us, Izzy!” Tai said, clapping his friend on the shoulders, Izzy nearly jumping from where he was sitting. “I’m thinking lots of drinking and lots of karaoke!”

Joe paled, looking towards Mimi, mouthing the word “Help”, which left her cracking up.

TK caught on, and couldn’t help but snicker, “I think that’s a good plan. Make it the wildest night he may not be able to remember.”

“You guys are going to kill him before he even gets married,” Izzy said, voice wholly serious.

“Maybe a few girls to come along with us?” Matt added.

“You guys, at this rate you actually will kill him before his wedding day!” Sora lectured, yanking Tai and Matt up by their shirts, “It is getting pretty late, too. We should let them relax for the night.”

“Oh, don’t worry Sora, Joe will survive, he always has,” Mimi said, patting her fiance on the arm lightly, a big smile on her face.

“Hey, no worries, we’ll get out of your hair. You two can have a night doing whatever cute things engaged people do,” Tai said, as the group of six headed towards the door, Joe and Mimi following.

“Thanks again for everything, guys. Not just tonight, but you know, always. We’ll make sure to keep you all up to date on all of the plans,” Joe said.

“We’ll see you guys later. Congrats again,” Matt said.

And with goodbyes said and their friends off, Joe and Mimi started to gather up the mess in the living room, both humming to themselves happily.

“I know its kind of late… but can we have a celebratory glass of wine before bed? Please?” Mimi asked, looking towards Joe and batting her eyelashes, knowing full well how weak that would make him.

With a happy sigh, he nodded, “Ok, but just one.”

With a squeal, Mimi ran to the fridge, ready to finish off the great celebration that was the night she and Joe Kido got engaged.

#jyoumi challenge #digimon #digimon adventure #jyoumi #joe kido #jyou kido #mimi tachikawa #tachikawa mimi #kido jyou #tai kamiya #matt ishida #tk takaishi #kari kamiya #izzy izumi #sora takenouhci

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clansayeed · 4 years

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Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ― Chapter 10: The Elite

PAIRING: Kamilah Sayeed x MC (Nadya Al Jamil) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ⥽

While struggling with nightmares of lives she’s never lived, a shadow from the past looming over her city, and the proposed idea that her life may just be a little bit too weird to handle alone, Nadya makes sure to tell herself that everything is perfect just the way it is. If only. When the self-proclaimed King of Vampires (and Maker of her sometimes-girlfriend and always-boss, can’t forget that little tidbit) Gaius Augustine returns intent on claiming Manhattan as the throne that was promised, she and her friends find themselves forced into the task of saving the world. But with millennia-old vampires and an Order of hunters on their heels as well as allies hiding catastrophic secrets at their backs… it won’t be an easy task. Too bad destiny didn’t exactly ask for her input.

Bound by Destiny II and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the Bloodbound series and spin-off, Nightbound. Find out more [HERE].

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Destiny II tag list!

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

Nadya finds a kindred soul in Taylor Hunter, who was also living a perfectly normal life before being shoved into the chaos of the supernatural. Later, the good news is the Amulet is still in the city. The bad news is they'll have to bid for it... and bidding wars here can be deadly.

[READ IT ON AO3]

“I don’t know guys,” she lingers just on the edge of the morning sunlight; already warm at her back, “I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable leaving you with the people who literally just tried to kill us.”

Unfortunately though they’re a little short in the way of other options. New Orleans is only gonna get hotter and sunnier and while ideal for a mysterious club, Flechette standing on its own and away from the rest of the crammed-together French Quarter buildings doesn’t lend to a safe return to the Graveyard Shift.

Still — Nadya has concerns and she’s gonna voice them.

“I think we’ll be fine.” Though Adrian could try a little bit harder to reassure her. But he’s been distracted ever since the de la Rosa vampires lowered their proverbial weapons. Given how he acted — how cold and cruel he was in the face of enemies — Nadya can’t say she wouldn’t be a little distracted in his shoes. “Whether we’re in her good graces or not, Gaius still poses a threat to all of us regardless. And Isadora seems quite keen on keeping her way of life intact.”

Lily’s boots catch and drag on the concrete under the soles. “Can’t say I’ll be getting much sleep, but she’s kinda our only choice in the way of, ahem, late-morning snacks.”

Nadya understands and offers her a consoling smile. Lily tries to return it, but when she feels the catch of her fangs on her lower lip she practically zips them up and throws away the key.

She’s seen Lily do some strange things with the blood bags back at the apartment. But Nadya has yet to actually see her… you know, and on someone’s neck. Nor is she keen to add it to the list of things she’s seen and been mentally scarred by.

Well if they’re okay with it she really doesn’t have a reason to keep doubting, then, does she?

Nadya peers over Lily’s shoulder to the main floor of the club. With the lights on the place is far less goth-chic but she doesn’t have to squint to see anything anymore, so that’s a plus.

“Keep an eye on him, will you? Just in case…” Nadya asks of them, prompting both vampires to turn and follow her gaze to where Cadence sits. He’s still hunched over one of the dark glossy tables, scribbling away at a piece of paper. Just like he’s been doing ever since Isadora managed to bring him back to consciousness.

After Cadence had separated Isadora’s psychic link he was out. Like… out out. Like actually worried the woman to the point where she was ready to close the club and run him to some local voodoo man out. And everyone was relieved when he finally came to of his own volition but there was no denying he had come back… strange.

Or maybe strange is just the feeling Nadya gets when she looks at him now. Maybe no one else feels it. Maybe she’s just lost a few more marbles.

Of course Adrian and Lily agree. Nadya gives each of them a hug farewell but right before she takes her leave the familiar sound of Isadora’s heels comes up all too quickly.

The woman stays well out of the way of the daylight, just like Adrian and Lily. She looks wearier now than when they first met. Objectively Nadya knows vampires don’t age. But Isadora looks like she’s trying to challenge that theory.

“I’ve called on someone to take you back to the Quarter safely,” says Isadora brusquely, “it may no longer be night but there are numerous factions within our borders that can act at any time.”

“Seems… inhospitable.” Adrian comments. He doesn’t miss the sharp look thrown his way.

“Perhaps. But at least we declare ourselves to our enemies.”

“And you’re implying…?”

“That I trust my allies with certainty. From what I’ve come to understand about your Council, that is not something you are familiar with.”

How has it been five whole freaking seconds and already every anxiety Nadya has about leaving is back with a vengeance?

But Lily sees this and waves her off. “Go while you still can. I’ve got this. You should hear some of the dirt Mari and Jax pull out during a fight.”

If she doesn’t leave now she never will, so Nadya mouths a final “good luck” and pushes through the doors out into the thick morning air.

Immediately she tries to fan herself with her hand, and all that does is push hot air at her.

“Yeah, it takes some getting used to.”

Nadya can’t help it — she almost jumps out of her skin in fright. “Don’tdothat!”

She rounds on the young man, who can’t be older than she is by a year or more, and who apparently finds it funny to give a poor girl a heart attack. If she had her purse she’d swing it at him. The stakes would at least leave a bruise.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. Though I’m gonna need some explaining on how someone that jumpy can hang out in Flechette all night. Doesn’t quite add up, you know?”

He has a point which is rude enough. Worse that he has an incredibly disarming smile directed right at her. Nadya busies herself with tying her hair up to cool off her neck. “After a while you learn to expect what moves vampires are gonna pull. People, though? They’re still too unpredictable.”

“You know,” he laughs, “that’s fair and valid. And pretty true, actually…”

He’s not passing her. And Nadya has the distinct impression if she starts trying to make her way back up the street he’d be right there at her side; tagging along.

“You’re the person Isadora called, then?”

“Taylor Hunter,” he finally introduces; they shake hands light and brief, “but if you didn’t know my name… how’d you know I was who you were lookin’ for, Miss Nadya?”

Nadya pushes up her glasses with a shrug. “Just Nadya, and… Your eyes. They don’t look human.” They’re too bright, especially taking into account he’s got the sun at his back, and shine far too many colors. Though if Nadya’s being honest she probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t met Garrus and Ivy beforehand.

Quickly Taylor ducks his head and Nadya wonders if she’s hit a nerve or something. He certainly looks red in the face. “Shit — really? My bad… They should go back to normal in an hour or so.”

Because she totally knows what that means? “Uh… okay?”

He jerks his chin back towards the heart of the city. “C’mon, we’re meeting a friend of mine to grab everyone coffee. It’ll be a fun story to pass the time.”

Talkative, isn’t he. And there’s a traitorous part of Nadya that knocks on her head one too many times with a hello, who the heck are you to judge missy but what Taylor doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

It’s admittedly very strange to be telling the story she’s telling with new faces taking in her every word.

“That went about as well as I thought it would,” Katherine announces while reaching over and plucking a bottle from around the other side of the bar, “seems like you were lucky, though, and caught Izzy in a good mood.”

“That’s her good mood?” Nadya can’t help but look skeptical. But judging by the looks she’s met with, Katherine isn’t exaggerating.

“Yeah yeah, de la Rosa’s got a chip on her shoulder, what else is new. What about this Amulet you were talkin’ about; does she have it?”

Taylor scrunches up his face and gives a backhanded smack to the solid chest beside him. It had taken Nadya a second to remember the other Nighthunter but once he greeted her by way of ‘muggle’ it was easy. Apparently Ryder hadn’t been putting on airs when he had shown up to Raines Corp. all devil-may-care and bad-boy. That was just who he was.

Not that she doesn’t recognize the somewhat melted look in his eyes when he pretends to be wounded — she’s seen it well enough when Maricruz thinks Lily isn’t looking. “Rook’, you gotta stop beatin’ on me in front of company.”

The man beside Nadya blows a mousy brown curl from his eyes with a laugh. “Feel free to ask one of us to do it.”

“No one asked you, Cujo.”

Katherine rolls her eyes. “Tell me I don’t have to apologize for them?”

Nadya just laughs and shakes her head. It’s been easier than she expected to feel comfortable around Taylor and his friends. They’re just weird enough to be funny. And, admittedly, she’s kinda enjoying not being the odd one out for once.

Too bad Nadya’s natural sense of worry doesn’t allow her to enjoy peace for long. “No — Isadora doesn’t have the Amulet anymore. She had to give it up to pay off some of her father’s debts, I guess?”

Ryder grunts. “Yeah, to th’Smoke.”

“And ‘the Smoke’ is a person?”

“Well… yes and no.”

All eyes turn to Vera, the friend of Taylor’s they had met up with on their coffee run. It’s still a bit weird for Nadya to constantly be pulling her shirt away from the back of her neck from sweat and see someone in full-length silk gloves — but since no one else is going to comment on it Nadya has a feeling doing so would be rude.

Vera is already hard at work pouring over ledgers of some kind; Nadya recognizes those kinds of spreadsheets from work. She carefully balances one black binder each on her knees. “I brought everything dated from last March. There’s just a lot to get through. But if you’re sure Isadora’s telling the truth I should be able to find it pretty easily.”

She looks up and offers Nadya a warm smile. “Don’t you worry, we’ll get it and have you an’ your friends back up to New York in no time.”

“Thank you,” and she looks around as she says it, “all of you, really. I don’t think I can say it enough.”

Though if the looks she gets are any indication… she might have already.

Unfortunately ‘pretty easily’ turns into one hour, then two, then Taylor is shaking Nadya’s shoulder gently out of a doze with a bemused little smile.

“Maybe you should get some rest? The research part isn’t the most interesting.”

“No, no I’m okay.”

“Then take another coffee run with me. I have to swing by work anyway… stretching your legs might help.”

His borderline-overly friendly attitude makes a bit of sense when one takes into account the weirdness of their mutual situations. On their way back from Flechette, Nadya had been hesitant to open up and dig into the nitty-gritty of it no matter how interested Taylor had appeared. But now, with a bit more time on their hands and more than the cliff-notes shared between them, she can’t help but feel relieved that she’s not the only one who feels like they tripped down the proverbial rabbit hole.

“Okay okay, tell me if you get this though,” Nadya pauses to swallow a bite of her pastry, “when there’s, like, a whole pile of crazy going on and everyone is all freaking out and yelling at each other and you just —”

“You just end up standing there because nobody bothered to give you any context?!”

“Yes! It’s so annoying!”

“Not to mention potentially fatal.”

“Oh don’t even get me started on fatal. I’ve never so much as jaywalked before and now I’ve come face to face with…” it takes her a second to both balance her coffee and count on her fingers but she manages, “four vampires, all of them over two thousand years old. All of which who’ve threatened me at some point or another.”

Taylor hisses through his teeth. “Big yikes.”

“That’s an understatement.”

Though she regrets bringing it up not a moment later. Not just because she keeps pushing that inevitable existential crisis down until their work here is done. But also because one of the four is Kamilah, and if she thinks about Kamilah she thinks about how much she misses Kamilah, and if she thinks about how much she misses Kamilah she might actually collapse into tears.

“You really care about her, don’t you?”

The needle scratches on Nadya’s thought-record. When she looks up Taylor has a furrow in his brow and a painfully sympathetic look directed at all of her being. Unsettling doesn’t even cover it.

She’s getting tired of people poking around in her head without her permission.

Though before she can get so much as a word in, Taylor seems to come back to himself. Where he was, Nadya can’t say, but she knows the signs when someone can’t entirely stop themselves from doing something. “Sorry,” he clears his throat awkwardly and won’t look her in the eye, “that was super outta line.”

“Yeah, a bit.” But what’s the use in denying it? “You’re not wrong though.”

“What’s her name?”

“Didn’t read my mind that far?”

Taylor shakes his head. “It’s not really mind-reading so much as… emotion-reading? Or like real-deal empathy, I guess. My father says it’s some unique halfling thing. Fae can share a lot more with each other than humans can, but because I’m not full on Legolas, I only get a part of the package.”

Nadya knows that look. She’s seen it in the mirror enough times.

“One of those bonuses you didn’t ask for.”

“Exactly. Not that it hasn’t come in handy,” he quickly backtracks, “I think it saved our lives back last year. But an instruction manual would’ve been nice — all I’m sayin’.”

Preaching to the choir. “Her name is Kamilah. She’s…” He can tell, though. Does she have to say it aloud?

When Taylor smiles at her it’s a sad thing. No, she doesn’t.

Although when might she have another chance to talk to someone who understands? Because she tried that with Kamilah — and they both know how that went. Not Adrian, or Lily, or even Jax could have even the slightest bit of empathy for what Nadya is going through against her will. And here’s Taylor thrown into her lap with a little bow on top; not only someone who gets what it’s like to be on the outs of all this supernatural crap but also a literal empath.

How can the universe begrudge her for taking advantage of that?

She inhales deep and shaky. “I—we—she and I kinda had a fight right before we left New York. I think it was our first one…”

Nadya remembers reading somewhere that therapy works because telling a stranger your problems is a lot easier than telling your friends; they don’t have any stake in your future, or have sides they need to choose. Well try telling a therapist about the secret group of vampires who run Manhattan, she had thought skeptically. Now, she takes that cynicism back.

While she recounts the events of her fight with Kamilah, Taylor just listens. He nods, and ‘hmms,’ and asks for clarification here and there but it’s more than just proving he’s listening. Nadya tries not to notice but the way his expressions change with her tone and words… he’s feeling everything she is. And boy, does she feel bad for him for it.

They end up walking around in nonsensical circles until finding their way to the only familiar place Nadya knows; Jackson Square. Taylor casually gets them to one of the old wooden benches outside the church. A small four-man jazz band plays off in the shade to a growing semicircle of tourists.

She sips the last dregs of her coffee cold and too-sweet. “I get what she meant and where she was coming from, I do. But I also can’t help but get this feeling like all that I saw in my visions were things she wouldn’t have told me no matter how much I asked… And I know why, obviously, but…”

But there are too many places in her whole explanation that Nadya’s said ‘but’ and even she’s starting to get irritated by it.

“You know,” Taylor swings an arm around the back of the bench, “just because you understand her side of things doesn’t mean your side isn’t just as important. You can fight with someone you care about and have both of you be right and wrong.”

“Then how do we ever stop fighting?”

He laughs dryly. “Oh, fuck if I know. Nik and I get into it constantly about his jobs. He’s always trying to keep me from helping him out but he’s probably more at risk when I’m not around. At least I have magic — even if I suck at using it right now. He’s smart, and strong, and really good at what he does… I just can’t help but worry one day that won’t be enough.

“I think there are a lot of things in Kamilah’s life she regrets; things she thinks will change your opinion of her — that’ll make you hate her or something. And a lot of relationships are like that. There’s just more baggage to sort through with you two.”

Wow, thanks genius. “I won’t hate her though. That’s what I can’t seem to explain right.”

“The best thing you can do is what you’re already doing. Keep explaining it, keep being there, and she’ll realize in her own time what that means.”

Nadya watches him carefully. “Is that what you and Ryder did?”

“Sorta — but we’re working on it.”

It was supposed to be a simple errand run but Nadya can’t shake the feeling there isn’t exactly a search party out for them. She’s not complaining! If the universe is listening she is not complaining. It just makes the return to their very dark, gruesome, and potentially apocalyptic reality all the more difficult. Luckily she’s getting used to dealing with difficult things by now.

When they finally return to the bar business is booming; thank god Taylor gives her a nudge to pick her jaw up off the floor or else she’d probably have offended half of the patrons. Can she really be blamed though? It looks like freakin’ Comic Con in here.

There’s a shrill whistle near the bar at the back and they both catch sight of Cal waving them over. “Everyone’s upstairs!” he has to practically shout over a gaggle of taloned women adorned in feathers, two of them seemingly in heated competition for his attention. “I’d head up but —”

“Oh no you don’t!” Garrus appears over his broad shoulders as if from nowhere. “You’re half the selling point of these sweet swamp shots, Bayou-boy. Sorry my not-so-mortals!”

Taylor and Nadya both watch with equally pitying looks as the fae pushes Cal into the fray. “One day he’s gonna realize I didn’t do him any favors getting him this job,” Taylor mutters close to her ear, and Nadya tries to throw up a sympathetic thumbs-up before they manage to get to the metal staircase and up away from the chaos.

There are way too many people in this apartment. Taylor takes this as an opportunity to literally fall into Ryder’s lap; Ryder is just forced to take it without argument or fight. But Lily has a spot saved right in between her and Adrian which Nadya takes all too eagerly.

“Girl, look at you,” Lily pinches her cheek, “you finally got some sun! Now lemme soak some of it up.”

While one vampire clings to her arm, though, the other is quite pointedly keeping his distance. Nadya turns and gives Adrian a cautious look. He smiles, she would expect nothing less, but the strain shows in little crinkles at his eyes that definitely weren’t there before.

Wordlessly she rests her head against his arm. Adrian tenses — she doesn’t take it personally — but relaxes in the same breath. Rests his hand on her knee in a silent thanks.

Movement draws Nadya’s attention to a small kitchen island where Katherine balances herself on a stool, and where Cadence stands beside her with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

“Hey Cade,” she gives him a little wave, “feeling better?”

The vampire looks at her… and that’s it. There’s still a bit of frenzied confusion in his eyes. Confused, she shifts her attention to Katherine — the huntress just shakes her head.

“Oh good, y’all are back.” Vera walks in from the adjacent room and offers a weary little smile. “Good news is we found the Amulet, and its still in New Orleans.”

But what sentence ever started with good news that didn’t include…

“And the bad news?” asks Taylor; his tone a tad too defeatist for Nadya’s liking.

Ryder growls. “The bad news is I gotta put on a fuckin’ monkey suit.”

The actual bad news is that the Amulet of Nero was put up for auction by the former Lady Smoke. And apparently no amount of money will convince the auctioneers to take it off the docket. “Trust me, Kamilah and I pooled together a substantial sum,” Adrian sighs, “and they didn’t even flinch.”

Vera nods. “If anything that only encouraged them further. Goblins are awful little sneaks but whatever business they sink their claws into is their reputation; they’ll live and die by it. In trying to buy out the Amulet you’ve shown something that could have easily been written off has the potential to get them a lot of money.”

Goblins — she said goblins. Okay. That’s a thing we’re accepting now. “So we need this thing to keep the world from ending and… we have to buy it?” In what world is that fair?

“Isadora has agreed to put her Family’s wealth behind our bid,” Adrian explains, “which should be more than enough for us to ensure we aren’t outbid. And this way we don’t attract Gaius’ attention by riling up the supernatural community. The less enemies we make, the better.”

He knows the question on the tip of her tongue. Nadya knows it, Lily knows it too. But she won’t ask it because their lucky streak has so far not been entirely consistent.

What if they already have Gaius’ attention?

They’ll burn that bridge when they get to it.

BEEP.

“Hey Kamilah, it’s me… again. Sorry, I let the last three messages go too long and I’m not really sure if they still send when that happens? So… here I am.”

Nadya looks down at her bracelet and sighs. She nearly loses her balance — heels and gravel walkways don’t mix well together — but manages not to sound like a total loser on the call. “At risk of this becoming the fourth mistake, uh, I’ll be quick. Adrian said he kept you up to date with what’s going on down here, so this isn’t... About that… I just wanted to say hi, and I hope you’re doing well, and… and let you know that I miss you.

“If I had a choice I wouldn’t have left things like we did. I think we both know that. And the second I’m back in New York I want to try and work this out. For… for us, y’know? And I think you do, too.” She sniffles. “You still have your read receipts on for texts. Anyway, gotta get going. Wish me—us—luck!”

She hangs up there because even for Nadya there’s only so many times she can make herself look stupid until she makes the turn from charming and quirky to downright annoying.

Four is probably pushing it.

She wobbles her way back to the others smiling a little too wide, but thankfully no one comments on it. Vera offers her a clunky gold ring but the second Nadya slips it onto her finger it seems to fit like it was sized and all. “Magic ring?”

“Magic ring.” Lily nods, delighted to be agreeing.

“Too bad Cal couldn’t come with this time,” Taylor elbows Ryder’s side gently, “he deserves the chance to not have to sneak through the kitchens.”

Ryder, however, doesn’t seem to share the sentiment. “I feel like a damn sellout,” grumbles the hunter as he adjusts the cuffs of his borrowed suit. Adrian raises an eyebrow his way. His suit is the one being borrowed, after all. “I said what I said.”

“Yeah, nobody cares.”

Katherine tugs up the top of her dress and brushes her hair away from her shoulder. “We get in, we bid, we get the Amulet and get out. Any more time wasted and someone, somewhere is gonna recognize someone and nobody wants that.”

She rounds on Nadya and Lily both. “Don’t go anywhere on your own, don’t talk to anyone especially the people who are nice to you, and I’ll tell you right now that none of these snakes can make your wishes come true.”

They don’t know whether to take her seriously or not. Lily’s laugh is a few shades shy of offended. “I think I know how to have fun.”

“This isn’t fun, baby fangs, it’s Persephone. The last time we were here Cade —” she jerks her thumb to the vampire; who quickly snaps out of his own little world and blinks in confusion, “— ended up nearly getting gored by a Minotaur in illegal cage fighting; a fight that was supposed to be carried by Cal’s prepubescent Teen Wolf baby brother.

“Everyone through those doors has been playing the game of money and power for decades, some for centuries. They know there are worse things to lose than your life.”

Nadya pulls Lily tighter and links their arms. “Read you loud and clear.”

Unfortunately threatening-if-considerate speeches aside, the likelihood that they’re going to be the reason something goes wrong is… statistically pretty high.

At least they do the noble thing and own it.

“Everybody ready?” Vera looks around, checks for rings, and smooths down the front of her dress. “Then in we go.”

Lily snickers in her ear as they all join the line to enter Persephone. “I’m having middle school field trip flashbacks.” She whispers, and pulls back to Nadya’s equally amused grin.

To say the inside of Persephone is beautiful is definitely an understatement; but it’ll have to do while Nadya tries to catch her jaw as it hits the floor and starts running. She thought Marcel’s castle was beautiful? It still is — but it was so obviously an antique; a relic from a bygone era. This is different. This is a kind of beauty not taken from one place or thing. It’s everyone; all the infinite colors and shapes and species of people that mill around her.

It’s kind of a shame that she’s come to associate beautiful things with how close to being threatened or killed she’ll soon be. It kind of dulls the spark of the place.

Nadya and Lily both crane their heads up, up, four floors up to the swooping ceilings above and their glittering chandeliers — which Nadya has an inkling aren’t made of glass at all but real magical energy in bright playful lights. All around the edges of the landings people gather, leaning and chatting and drinking in that uppity way people with money do. Like even all of this splendor bores them; everything meaning nothing.

A hand falls on her shoulder and Nadya has to stifle her yelp — unlike the first time Taylor startled her she now feels comfortable with reaching out and smacking his arm. “Stop giving me heart attacks!”

Judging by the bright and definitely inhuman glint in his eyes he definitely did it on purpose.

“It’s all kinda epic, huh?”

“Kind of?” Lily scoffs dramatically. “This is the single most epic place in the entire universe!”

Ryder passes them all and rolls his eyes. “You should see Toronto.”

But this time, all overzealous Lilyisms aside, Nadya has to admit she agrees. “It’s… a lot. More than I ever thought I’d see…” And she’s been seeing quite a lot these days.

“Come around next year for Mardi Gras, ‘cause this is nothing.”

At first Nadya doesn’t recognize the woman without the sheer veil over her features, but when Lily and Adrian don’t ask why a stranger is leading them up one of the swooping twin staircases she realizes Isadora’s sent one of her daughters to collect them.

Tony and an unfamiliar vampire stand guard on either side of a circular booth and table that looks like it was made for the de la Rosa Matriarch alone — sleek black stone polished so pristine Nadya catches the woman’s reflection before actually looking up at her face.

Adrian steps aside and allows Nadya to slide into a seat first. Isadora seems to barely notice them. Instead her attention is focused solely on a large piece of curling parchment that — nope, that’s not a trick of the light — the ink is actually moving like an invisible quill is scratching notes right in front of her face.

“Is that the registry?” Adrian asks, and Isadora slides it to him with a furrowed brow.

“Indeed. Word must have been leaked out by a few of their underground sources. The preemptive bids on the Amulet are starting to climb.” The vampire looks to Vera as she speaks. “Whatever has the new Lady Smoke interested enough to show her face around our nefarious sort is worth quite a hefty amount.”

Taylor squeezes Vera’s shoulder — it isn’t until he tenses that Nadya realizes he’s holding the gloved woman back.

“I’m here to help my friends,” she growls out in reply.

Isadora doesn’t look amused. “Try telling that to New Orleans’ elite.”

She’s been under the impression everyone was sticking together, but it seems the fancy-pants de la Rosa booth is for vampires (and human guests) only. But Taylor and Vera leave shortly after to where she spots Ryder cradling his flask like a security blanket in a far less fancy booth on the other side of the main floor.

Silently Isadora moves the barest inch; just enough space to fit both Cadence and Katherine on her side. Instead he clears his throat and volunteers to grab the drinks, and nearly runs into a pair of waiters in his haste to not be there.

Adrian rolls up the magic scroll and puts it aside. “How long until the first lot comes out?”

“It will be showcased at the hour,” Isadora raises a limp wrist with a black card in hand, “which won’t be long from now. Are you prepared for a bidding war? I do hope you brought a second suit.”

A stunningly beautiful fae approaches with a small wooden box. They unfasten the lid and allow the vampiress to slide the card in, offer up a “thank you for your contribution,” and go off in search of the next card to accept.

But second suit? Doesn’t that get Nadya’s attention. “Why would he need a second suit,” but why is she asking Isadora when Adrian is right there, “why would you need a second suit?”

He shifts in his seat uncomfortably. “From what I’ve been told, bidding wars here… are a little messy.”

The vampiress snorts softly. “Money is valuable, but this is New Orleans. If you made it as far as the interior of Persephone you ought to have more to offer than wealth. Bidding wars can involve anything from shows of strength to tests of skill and intelligence. Two centaurs had a proper race on the lawn once.”

The more words she says the less certain Nadya feels. It leaves her tangled up inside and actually holding her stomach with a groan.

“Please tell me you’re gonna offer up your business acumen.” And she actually physically can’t look at his apologetic face so Lily goes above and beyond and pushes it away and out of sight.

“That’s why we needed as much for our initial bid as possible.” Adrian tries his best to console her. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure it won’t even come to something that drastic.”

“I thought I told you to stay the hell away from me!”

She’s a tiny human and Adrian is a hundreds-of-years-old vampire, so he probably doesn’t find her shaking both fists at him to be a scary thing. But it makes her feel better and that’s all Nadya cares about. Well, that and the look of confusion-meets-panic Katherine throws her way.

“Was that —?”

“Scooch scooch scooch please and thank you!” Nadya forces the vampires to let her out and follows the Nighthunter as she rushes to the railing to try and find Cadence in the crowd below.

“Something’s upset you, I just want to help.”

“Being stalked is pretty damn upsetting.”

Thank god the railing is there to catch her because Nadya’s breath is knocked from her lungs. Adrian and Lily are at her sides in an instant and thank god for them, too, because they look just as shocked and that means she isn’t imagining things. She isn’t imagining that voice.

Katherine comes up alongside them, her grip white-knuckled and harsh against the ornately twisted metal bar.

Down below there’s a bar in the middle of the floor on a slowly rotating dais. Some of Persephone’s patrons skirt away from the display before it turns into a fight — and it looks like that won’t take more than a wrong word or touch. But most of them are greedy for more than money, hungry for more than fine wine and foods. They want blood; that’s why they’re here.

Cadence smacks Valdas’ hand away before the man can reach for him. He looks wild like a startled animal; backed up against the bar top and looking frantically for a means of escape.

“You’ve repeatedly ignored my requests not to come to my workplace, you send me flowers I don’t want and cannot refuse, and now you — you show up here, of all places?”

Valdas watches him with an uncharacteristic distress. “Cadence, you’re upset. You aren’t thinking clearly.”

“I’m thinking clearer than I have in years.”

The vampire practically spits the words through his clenched teeth. But that doesn’t make them any less strange in nature.

Valdas steps back. “And what, pray tell, has brought that on?”

In that moment Cadence’s frantic eyes find Katherine up above; his relief is visible even from a distance. Unfortunately the Trinity vampire is so close it can’t be denied. Has him turning to find the thing that managed what he could not in calming the other man in his fear—rage—mania.

He recognizes Katherine slowly then all at once; sweeping his eyes over the onlookers until they land on Nadya.

“Adrian,” she reaches blindly back behind her; feels his hand close tight and steadfast around hers, “I really hope you brought that second suit.”

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wolvesofinnistrad · 5 years

Text

That time Alec moved to NYC away from his hyper religious family, and Izzy and Jace surprised him at his new apartment. Read on Ao3

Life was tough for Alec, for a long time.

First military school, then a strict Religious college.

Really the college was something he had to fight for since they wanted him to go to West Point and this was the best he could argue them down to.

Because of all that, and his intense fear of being outed, Alec managed to stay in the closet until he was in his mid 20s.

Even his siblings don’t know. Well, Izzy knows but only because her and Alec are the closest and she’s smart enough to figure it out on her own.

This also left him severely closed off emotionally, and with very few friends besides his family because he was kind of a stick in the mud.

When he gets an internship in his hometown of NYC he moves back there despite his family having moved away when he was in highschool.

It’s a big fight once again, but finally he’s able to get his own place there.

As he settles in, he still talks to his siblings most days, but slowly those talks begin to get fewer and fewer until Izzy and Jace realize they’ve really only talked to Alec via text for the last 6 months.

Worried he might be depressed or worse, they decide to go visit him and surprise him in NYC.

But when they arrive to Alec’s apartment someone else is living there, but he gives them the forwarding address for where the guy he’s subletting from said he moved.

“Brooklyn?” Both siblings say to each other with shock.

It takes them a while to get over to Brooklyn from Manhattan, but when they reach the fancy apartment building they wonder just how much Alec is making at this internship.

They head up, finding the number of the loft they’d been directed to and knock on the door.

What they expect to see is a surprised Alec, probably wearing a full grandpa style pajama outfit and having been asleep for hours at this point in the night.

What they get instead is another man answering the door in a purple, floral print kimono and a full face mask.

“Why, hello, can I help you?” Magnus asks, not immediately recognizing the two of them.

“Uh... I think we have the wrong place. Sorry, we were looking for our brother, Alec.” Jace is looking anywhere but at the man whose kimono barely goes past his thighs and is open enough to see the smooth planes of his blemishless brown skin and chest.

“Oh, Alexander? Hold on. Alexander honey, there’s someone at the door!”

Jace and Izzy share equally incredulous looks at the man’s word choice before being let in to the lavishly decorated loft.

Neither of them are prepared for what they see next though.

“Mags, babe we need more popcorn, I told you if you left me alone I’d eat it all,” Alec says as he walks around the corner smiling, voice and face softer and more carefree than either of his siblings have ever seen him.

Even more surprising though is his physical appearance.

He’s shirtless, showing off a few tattoos on his side and arms,his beard has fully grown out there’s one shining earring in his right ear, he’s got on a pair of silk pajama pants in the same purple, floral pattern as the other man and where his hands hold the bowl of popcorn they can see his fingernails are painted a matching shade as the other man’s toenails.

He looks, Soft, a word neither of them would have ever used for Alec in their entire lives.

The moment Alec’s eyes land on Izzy and Jace though he straightens, all the comfortable, easygoing demeanor washing out of him as his face flashes quickly to nervous, then an expressionless mask that they’re used to from Alec.

Izzy has her hand over her mouth, because she can’t believe Alec finally accepted himself and got a boyfriend and she wants to scream. Both from happiness and from the fact Alec didn’t TELL her.

Jace just keeps staring, entirely confused.

“What are you doing here?” Alec says, and his voice has lost all the softness it had just a moment ago, sounding like the stern authoritarian they’ve known all their life.

“We came... To see you,” Jace says, as if he doesn’t want to be seeing Alec right now, or simply can’t comprehend that it’s him.

Magnus looks between the two visitors and his boyfriend before a lightbulb goes off. “Oh! Are these your siblings? Isabelle and Jace?”

“Yes,” Alec says, and he flinches for a moment when Magnus comes over and lays a hand on his shoulder.

Magnus knows he isn’t out to his family, but he figures the cat’s kind of already out of the bag.

The moment he thinks that Chairman Meow comes over, purring as it brushes against Alec’s leg.

For a moment Alec forgets to be hard and reaches down to scoop the cat up as he usually does, giving it a soft kiss on the head before his eyes trail back to his siblings who absolutely should not be here.

“You hate cats...” is all Jace can say, because their cat Church has always been a thorn in Alec’s side.

Magnus looks shocked, petting the kitty softly with his many ringed hand. “Alexander is a wonderful cat dad.”

And then for the second time, Alec does something else neither of them have ever seen him do. He blushes, a shy smile coming over his face as he turns towards Magnus.

That’s the moment Izzy knows, even though she’s never seen it on his face before or even expected to, that the expression Alec has is one of being deeply, madly in love.

“Mags...” Alec’s voice is so soft, so quiet and gentle.

He takes a deep breath and finally he turns to his brother and sister and the mask he was trying to wear slips and instead there’s just a sadness, resignation, even a hint of fear.

“Please don’t tell mom and dad...”

The words have barely left his lips before Izzy is running to him, drawing him into the tightest hug she’s ever given him.

“I’m so, so happy for you hermano…” she whispers against his neck and Alec smiles, feeling one weight lifting off his chest.

“What am I not supposed to tell because I honestly have no idea what I’m seeing...” Jace says, oblivious as usual.

Alec looks to Magnus who gives him a reassuring smile, taking the cat from him, then he looks to Izzy who’s beaming at him.

When he turns his gaze back on Jace he just sighs and shrugs. “Don’t tell them I’m living with my boyfriend in Brooklyn?”

Jace stares from Alec to Magnus, who is now taking the face mask off himself to be a bit more presentable, looking dumbfounded.

“You... You...”

“I’m Gay Jace.” Alec didn’t expect to say that, not that he really needed to considering it was pretty clear, but the moment he does he feels the other weight shifting off him like he can breathe again. “Magnus is my boyfriend.”

Izzy just clings harder to Alec, slapping him on the chest.

“I can’t BELIEVE you didn’t tell me! Jerk, I need to know everything, where did you meet, how long have you been together, where can I get one of these kimonos because, Gorg.”

Magnus laughs as he moves to take Izzy’s hand and kisses it.

“Short answer? We met at my club, Pandemonium, and it was about seven months ago, although it took me nearly two weeks to get Alec to even talk to me. And then another month before he was ready to go on a date. Everything after that has been a bit of a whirlwind. And as for this” he gestures to his kimono, “I bought them on our trip to Japan last month.”

“So THAT’S why you were mia for two weeks last month.”

Alec looks sheepish, but he smiles and ducks his head, nodding.

“It was an early 6 month anniversary trip.”

“So is Magnus your sugar daddy?” Jace asks, clueless and tactless as always.

Except when he says it Alec just goes red in the face and looks away, scratching at his neck.

“Oh my God... He is!”

“it’s, it’s not like that!” Alec tries, but he knows he’s kind of already given himself away. It’s not like an intern could pay for a loft in Brooklyn this lavish or a random trip to Japan for a 6 month anniversary.

Magnus is laughing now, coming to hug his boyfriend and peck his cheek.

“Trust me, Alec fights me on every little thing I try to buy for him. I wish he’d be my sugar baby...”

“Mags, please...” Alec says, and its a bit needy and whiny and adorable and so unlike the Alec that Izzy and Jace are used to.

Both of them are realizing maybe they never really knew their brother at all, or maybe he never knew who he was until he was able to find himself on his own.

“This is literally the best day of my life,” Izzy says, smiling as she moves to the couch and sits down.

“:Glad you’re enjoying my mortification.” Alec deadpans it, but there’s a curl of lips that hints he’s on the verge of smiling.

He takes a seat, with Magnus moving as if he was going to flop in Alec’s lap before thinking better of it and sitting on the arm of the chair.

“I find out my brother, who by the way I knew you were gay, has finally found his happiness, someone that makes him happy and lets him be the the best version of himself? This is all I’ve ever wanted for you Alec. And it doesn’t hurt you snagged a rich hottie.”

Magnus does a little twirl at that and Alec drags a hand down his face. “Don’t inflate his ego anymore than ti already is.”

“Too late, I can already feel my head getting bigger.”

“You won’t be able to fit your necklaces over your big head soon Mags.”

“Wasn’t talking about that head Alexander,” and Magnus winks at that and Alec goes red down to his chest so fast it’s like someone poured paint over him.

“I can’t believe our big brother isn’t a tightass anymore.”

Magnus turns to Jace and smirks. “Oh, he’s definitely still got a tight ass, but I’ve been working on it every night.”

That gets him shoved unceremoniously onto the floor off the chair by Alec who looks like he wants the floor to swallow him whole.

“Oh you know if anyone else was here you’d have laughed at that Alexander.”

“Not when it’s my little brother,” Alec says, but he doesn’t seem angry, just embarrassed.

“Sorry, just know that hurt my perfect behind.”

“I’ll kiss it better later,” Alec whispers, not quiet enough to Magnus and Izzy and Jace both about die of laughter.

Figuring there’s literally nothing else that can make this worse for him Alec pulls Magnus into his lap, holding him close like a security blanket to try to deal with the rapid emotional swings of the night he wasn’t prepared for.

“Just, like I said, please don’t tell mom and dad about... Any of this,” he looks around the loft, his safe space with Magnus. “I’m not ready for them to know, to deal with that. I wasn’t really ready for you guys to know either but... I guess I’m glad I don’t have to hide it anymore.”

Alec sighs, resting his head against Magnus’ side. “I’m glad I don’t have to avoid you anymore... I really missed you guys.”

“We missed you too Alec. You could have told us, all we want is for you to be happy.”

Alec smiles, sad and soft, fingers reaching out to entwine with Magnus’. “I know, but, just, this has been a lot for me. I feel like an entirely different person than I was the last time I saw you both and I... I didn’t know how to reconcile the version of me I constructed for our family and the real me.”

Izzy and Jace both understand that, smiling at their eldest brother.

“It’s okay, I’m just glad I get to meet this new, amazing, happy Alec now.”

“Thanks Iz…”

“As long as you’re happy, I’m happy Alec.”

“I know Jace. Or at least, I always hoped.”

“Ok one last thing and then we can go and let you finish your little movie night,” Izzy says, “but can we talk about this new look too?”

Alec smiles, ducking his head again and Magnus scratches at Alec’s beard.

“He was such a confused little baby gay. I had to do an entire wardrobe makeover.”

“It’s true, he threw out most of my clothes.”

“I let him keep the overlong hoodies and sweaters though, he just looked too adorable, this huge man slinking around with his hands looking like mittens from how long his sleeves were. That was the only fashion disaster I could abide.”

“At least I got to keep a couple things,” Alec laughed.

“Your body thanks me for getting rid of that, as does your slowly growing fashion sense.”

“Yes, I get it Magnus.”

“I mean the poor boy was still wearing tighty whiteys, when he looks like this and to have such ugly underwear? I had to get something that showed off his ass and his impressive bul-”

Alec slaps a hand over Magnus’ mouth. “I’m comfortable, but not THAT comfortable yet Magnus...”

“Whoops” Magnus says, chuckling.

They finish out the night, Izzy and Jace promising to return tomorrow at a normal hour to spend some more time getting to know there brother, for real now, and give Alec some time to rest from it all.

“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize them or I would have thought...” Magnus says when he’s laying with his head on Alec’s chest in their bed.

Alec shakes his head, fingers running through Magnus soft hair. “It’s okay. I’m glad it happened like this. I doubt I could have opened up like that if they didn’t catch me with my guard down. It’s, it’s good. I needed this. And I really did miss them and want them to know. I want everyone to know how much I love you.”

Magnus smiles at that. “I know pup, and they will, when you’re ready.”

“When I’m ready.”

“I love you Alexander.”

“Love you too Magnus.”

#magnus bane #alec lightwood #malec #mine #fanfic #my fic #magnus lightwood bane #alexander gideon lightwood bane #izzy lightwood #isabelle lightwood #jace herondale #jace whatever

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symphonic--chaos · 5 years

Text

Someday Stars

Chapter 1/? Malec (Shadowhunters AU) Summary: Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane are both YouTube musicians who dream of making it big some day. When Simon Lewis and his band, Rock Solid Panda, go on tour and ask them to open for him, they both realize this could be their window to something greater.

Also here on AO3

Alec rushed around his apartment, creating a tornado's path with every step as his hands grabbed clothes as fast as they could. He knew he should have folded them after getting home from the laundromat last night. The email from Simon Lewis's management team still sat open on his laptop, which had been thrown unceremoniously to the end of his bed, the words still sitting on the screen: We will be back in New York City tonight and we would love to invite you to join our tour.If you will join us, you will be opening after Magnus Bane, and followed by Simon and the band. We will provide the bus, Simon does have room on his own. Please bring any merchandise you would like to sell. [Text from Izzy] OMG OMG OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS??????? YES, DO IT DO IT DO IT [Text from Izzy] while you're at it, get me some free tickets [Text from Mom] Oh, I'm so proud of you Alec! The book store and myself will be fine. Isabelle can help me. Go! I'm sure you'll make more money on the tour than here, anyway. We need to empty out your web store and send you with merch! [Text from Izzy] waIT I JUST SAW MAGNUS BANE IS THERE???!!!! TICKETS, BROTHER, YOU THREE ARE MY DREAM TOUR. [Text from Mom] Isabelle is screaming, I can hear her from downstairs. With each vibration Alec felt his anxiety grow, his hands shaking as he shoved the last thing he needed into the second suitcase. His eyes scanned over each text as he struggled to hold his phone, the smile growing on his face with each text they read. They lingered on the name Magnus Bane as he read Izzy's texts, he knew the name but he wasn't sure if he'd actually sat and listened to him. Both of them were musicians on YouTube aspiring to be as big as Simon had gotten, though according to Izzy, Magnus had just a slightly bigger following than Alec now because of the tour. Taking in a deep breath, Alec tilted his head back and closed his eyes, trying to focus himself on relaxing- he still had six hours until the tour reached New York City from their first shows in Boston and Hartford the previous nights.

"Alexa, start YouTube."

Alec said to the TV, releasing the button on the firestick as he moved into the kitchen. The cardboard of the pizza box he'd retrieved from within the fridge gave a dull thud as it was tossed onto the counter and a slice of cheese was taken out. "Magnus Bane," he said around a full mouth once he'd selected the search option, leaning against the counter as he watched the TV begin pulling up the search results. A few clicks had him on the fellow singers profile, his eyes scanning over the short bio on the About page. **NOW TOURING WITH ROCK SOLID PANDA** Singer/Pianist/Loverboy Web Shop Insta Twitter

Moving onto the main tab, Alec scrolled through, some of the highlighted ones being of Magnus sitting in a room decked out like a studio, or being in an actual studio. One or two was of him and a girl with a bright smile and dark eyes, her lips painted deep red and eyes with as much eyeliner as Magnus had. Alec noticed there was a trend of hearts on each video title with her in it, no doubt this was someone he liked or was dating and it came as no surprise, Alec thought as he took another bite of the pizza, Magnus was pretty attractive.

Scrolling to the top once more and finally selecting videos, he was surprised to see a video had been uploaded the day before, the preview screenshot much different than the bright, usually gold and purple themed photoshopped pictures he did in most of the videos Alec had scrolled past. This time is was Magnus illuminated on a stage by a single light from above, his head bowed as a grand piano sat at the mercy of his fingers. The picture was only titled HALLELUJAH, rather than the more descriptive titles on other videos.

Alec selected the video and moved to the couch to flop down with the pizza box. The camera shook a little, it was clear someone was holding it rather than it being on a tripod and self-shot. Alec wondered if it was someone from Simon's team or if Magnus had crew of his own- something Alec realized he didn't have any of which might create problems down the line. One of his dogs came over to the couch, a whine in her throat and vibrating against his knee as she rested her chin on him, looking longingly at the pizza in his hand as the piano started, soft and slow. Alec took a final bite before offering half of the crust to the dog, saving the other half for her brother.

Alec choked as he heard the voice come from his TV.

His whipped back to the screen as Magnus sang the first verse, his voice soft but firm like the notes being played on the piano. Despite the camera staying focused on Magnus and the piano as a whole, only moving as the person slowly circled the two, Alec couldn't stop staring at the look on Magnus's face. It didn't take a genius to know something was bothering him, that bright smile and lit up eyes from the video previews replaced by something dark, sad. His voice wasn't forced, but there was something in it that Alec knew all too well, he was singing this to someone- this upload was deliberate, a public liberation.

The camera came around to Magnus's side as he reached the second verse and once again his face was changing, sadness turning to anger and Alec could see the tears in Magnus's eyes. Alec's hand shifted on the remote, the volume on the screen going up as he leaned forward, not even noticing the other dog coming and slowly stealing the other crust half from his hand. “She tied you to her kitchen chair,” Alec could hear Magnus's voice getting louder, angrier, hearing the echo of both his singing and the piano echoing through the empty hall unveiled behind him as the person filming moved.

"And she broke your throne and she cut your hair," Magnus was hitting the keys harder. "And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah." Magnus's voice finally wavered, cracking as the pain seeped out in a moment of weakness, his fingers slammed down the final notes of the second verse before stilling. Alec's breath caught in his throat as he watched the singer take in a deep breath, the sound in the echoing silence monumental as the person filming paused, whether on purpose or a sudden feeling of remorse. "Hallelujah, hallelujah," It took a little under thirty seconds, but Magnus was playing again and this time, he was a broken man nearly whispering his lament. This was for the girl with the heart in her title. Alec finally found his breath as his lungs screamed for air, his heart pounding in his chest and, much to his surprise, his eyes stung with tears for the man on the screen. He didn't even know Magnus yet and already his heart was breaking with him as if he'd been through whatever relationship issues Magnus was having as well. Alec knew he put a lot of emotion in his music, thoughts and dreams into his lyrics, but here was someone who managed to bring him to a level he'd never reached before when listening to a performance. Whether it was the anger resurfacing or a sudden strength that Magnus had forgotten was in him, Alec came back to the moment when he heard Magnus singing the final verse of the song, his voice rising strong, normally low notes changed to high in such a beautiful time and contrast with the notes played on the piano, made his own and suddenly Alec could tell why Izzy was such a fan of the man on the screen. The final 'Hallelujah's' resonated through the hall, the camera recording him picking up each echo of the lyrics until the last note played and the echos faded away. Alec swallowed harshly, his tongue darting out over dry lips only to find everything was dry from his mouth being agape. Alec would be touring with the one who just poured his heart and soul out to not only the piano but his virtual audience. Magnus was a performer to a level that Alec wasn't sure he was ready to follow with his mellow tunes. Magnus was... amazing and Alec knew he needed to meet him. -- Simon waved Alec along behind him, his big goofy smile bright in the near darkness as the sun set behind the tall buildings in the horizon. Lights were just starting to come on and Alec had already been given a tour of Simon's bus, his bunk, and was alerted that all staff needs would be handled by Simon's staff due to the late notice in having him join the tour. It was a relief to say the least, since Alec wasn't used to any sort of tours, he was used to the safety of his recording room behind a microphone and camera with his guitar on his lap. "Come on, this is Magnus's bus. I'll introduce you to him." Simon said, not bothering to knock on the door and instead putting in the code on the door and letting himself in. It took only seconds after the door opened and they stepped up onto the stairs that a woman's harsh voice filled the bus. "You can't just tell me to leave! We've been together for years! YEARS, Magnus!" "Well maybe you should have thought of those years before you fucked two guys on the staff, Camille!" Magnus's voice snapped back, no hint of control there like he'd had in the video that was uploaded. Simon looked back at Alec, behind him on the stairs, like a deer caught in headlights. Neither wanted to move, neither wanted to say anything about them being there, purely out of fear of the repercussions. Alec shrugged and glanced behind him to see how they could back out slowly and quietly, only then noticing what looked like Magnus's staff out on the sidewalk behind them, seemingly waiting for the fight. Great of them to warn he and Simon. "It was a mistake! I had too much to drink, you know how things get!" Camille retorted, her voice going from harsh to pleading, Alec almost able to hear the tears in her voice. Cheap shot, he thought. It was Magnus's silence that had Alec peeking up slowly over the partition between the bus and the stairs, not daring to go up any higher like Simon was. Simon was actually impressed the two hadn't noticed them yet. Magnus looked done, his eyes tired and his lips void of the bright smile he had in every video; instead turned down in a deep frown. He looked thoughtfully at Camille and Alec almost wanted to tell him not to cave to guilt tactics, but this wasn't his place. He didn't know either of them, he didn't know the situation other than her cheating- he bit back the comment. "Camille, you need to leave. It's done. We're done." "Magnus, we--" "We went through this once before, two years ago, remember? You drank too much, you got loose with the wrong guy. I forgave you and said I would never do it again and now here we are, Camille. Back to this same old shit and I'm tired. I want to make something of my life and having to worry about keeping you close so you don't just fuck someone with a bottle of gin? That's not part of my life. Please get out." Magnus said finally and Alec watched him stare Camille in the eye, holding strong to his words. It was something Alec wasn't sure he could bring himself to do in a situation like this, but he felt an almost pride in Magnus for it. "No. No, Magnus, we can talk this o--" Camille started, though Simon clearing his throat caught her attention and she looked over at him, her pleading look turning into a sneer. "We're having a conversation here!" "One that it sounds like Magnus is done with. Look, this is between you two, but we have a show coming up tomorrow and I wanted to introduce Magnus to Alec..." Simon trailed off as he motioned behind him to Alec, who had ducked back down as if he wasn't there. Well, the jig was up. Alec straightened up, giving the two further in the bus a sheepish smile and a hesitant wave. "Uh, hey. I'm Alec Li--" "Lightwood." Magnus finished, sounding miserable still but Alec gave him a break on the smile he tried to force on his face. "I've seen and subscribe to you, you do great work." Alec felt a twinge of guilt that he hadn't heard of Magnus before, especially considering Magnus had at least a thousand more followers than he himself did. A hand rose to run through shaggy black hair in desperate need of a haircut, something he should of had done instead of spending hours watching Magnus's videos. Then again, he was sure Magnus probably followed a bunch of YouTube musicians, especially with a collab folder as large as he'd found under the video collections and the amount of 'Musician spotlight' shoutout videos that were also there. "It's nice to meet you, and ..." Alec looked to Camille, every bit of his willpower used to not make a face of displeasure. First impressions were important and the first of her was certainly something. "This is Camille, my ex-girlfriend. She was just leaving." The bag held towards Camille punctuated Magnus's words as he nodded towards the door. It didn't need to be said twice, Simon moved quickly out of the way and into the drivers seat area as Alec backed out of the bus to make room for her. It seemed like both men were eager to be rid of her, which Alec could only find himself mimicking to ease the moment. Camille looked between Magnus and Simon before she ripped the bag out of Magnus's hands, her eyes narrowing at him. "You'll regret this some day, Magnus. You don't know what you're losing." She spat out, her heels clicking harshly down the aisle of the bus and the stairs to follow. "You okay...?" Simon asked as he looked over to Magnus, moving further into the bus to pat his shoulder comfortingly. Alec was behind him though giving the two a bit of space, not wanting to intrude on the two friends that seemed to be having a moment. "I'm fine, thank you for stepping in. I didn't want to snap, I just..." Magnus sighed before glancing over Simon's shoulder and straightening his slumped back. "Mr. Lightwood, I'm glad you could join the tour. When Simon's manager mentioned wanting to reach out to you, I backed Simon and told her I highly recommended it. They were worried it was too last minute, but who gets a chance like this, right?" Alec found himself smiling at Magnus's smile, no matter how defeated it looked on the other man. "Yes, thank you, and thank you, Simon, for talking to her about me. Really, this is... I couldn't have even imagined I'd be here right now, much less going on a tour across the country performing for people, with other people." "Surreal, isn't it? This one is bigger than my last one, that was kind of just a small venue type thing where it was little crowds, but once we saw forums saying people were sad we were sold out, and when my manager saw people outside lined up around the block trying to get in still, they knew we had to go a little bigger this time. Really it was the last albums success, plus all the promotions and videos we threw up on YouTube that made it work for us. That last bit was at some persuasion of Magnus during one of the collabs we did of a Queen cover. Also we--" "Simon, you're rambling." Magnus chimed in, his fingers massaging his temple. Alec noticed the paint was slightly chipped, but he was sure there was more pressing things that Magnus had to worry about than that. "Oh! Oh, I am, yeah, sorry." Simon laughed and looked at the men he was basically sandwiched between. "Sooooo Alec, you should come see the venue and you can talk to my manager. Do you have a manager? They could talk about pay and stuff like that?" Simon's attention turned solely to Alec, who seemed nervous suddenly. "I... no. I mean, my mom handles a lot of my stuff like little shows around town and my sister handles my merch store but... I'm my own manager." "Nothing wrong with that, I'm my own currently as well. It's not so hard, I can show you the ropes." Magnus offered as he moved to the nearby fridge, pulling out a bottle of water and offering it out towards the two. Simon took it, Alec taking the next offered, and Magnus opened the third to take a long sip. "What order will we be doing this?" "I think you should go first to get the crowd riled up, then Alec, then me." Simon answered, his fingers fiddling with the cap of the water bottle. "Actually, I was thinking, if it's okay, if I go first and Magnus goes before you?" Alec said nervously, clearing his throat. He then looked to Magnus as he lifted a hand in defense, which had the other smirking. "Not that I want to displace you other anything, I just... you know, my stuff is kind of slower and I stand there and play my guitar. Magnus... is everywhere. I saw someone call him the next Freddie Mercury and I mean, I've been watching videos and--" "You've been watching me, Alexander?" Magnus mused, watching the faint trace of pink tint Alec's cheeks at both the comment and the name. "N-NO, I mean, yes, but-- look, what I mean is I think Magnus can get them more riled up and ready for you better than I can. He's got the energy like you, he's got an entire band to perform with, it's just me and--" "Are you torturing the new talent?" A woman's voice floated from the staircase, all three turning to look at the redhead watching them with amusement. "Ah! That's my manager. Alec, this is Jocelyn. Jocelyn, Alec. Her daughter, Clary, does the art for our flyers and shirts." Simon introduced, slipping past Alec to go over and greet the woman. "Should we show him the venue? Go over setlists?" "I think that would be the wisest decision, we don't have much time." Jocelyn nodded, smiling to Alec and Magnus before turning and moving back off the bus. "Alec, do you have a manager?" She asked as Alec came off the bus as well, followed by Magnus. "No, not yet. Just me. Magnus said he could help, though?" Jocelyn glanced past Alec to Magnus as he spoke, nodding in agreement. "I can help you out as well, we'll make you a natural. I've been teaching Simon along the way with the promise that he doesn't replace me." She winked to them and turned to lead them to the venue, the guard at the door opening it for them once he saw the badge around her neck. -- "This is..." Alec stood on the stage, looking over the rows of seating both on the floor and on the balcony above them. "Intimidating?" Simon asked. "Beautiful?" Magnus said at the same time, the two looking at each other with grins before they looked over at Alec. "Yeah," Alec answered with a breathless laugh, since both statements were pretty spot on. He'd played in coffee shops and small bookstores, but this was 10x's bigger than anything he'd been in before. It was surreal, almost so much so that he couldn't believe it was real. He was grateful for the opportunity and even more so of the moment that the two were giving him to soak it all in. Alec was sure they'd both had their own their first time, which Magnus had stated on their way in was the show they did in Boston. It apparently took him almost an hour to recover from it, and he only fully accepted it when they stepped into the Hartford venue. "You ready, big guy?" Jocelyn asked as she touched Alec's shoulder lightly, bringing him out of that moment and making him realize that Simon and Magnus had left his side and were now messing around with some of the equipment waiting for the show the next night. "Y-Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to get lost there." Alec could feel his face heating up, but Jocelyn looked plenty understanding and smiled at him, exuding the air of motherlike patience. "Hey, everyone goes there. Simon looked like a kid in a candy store his first big stage. Took me fifteen minutes to get him to stop running around with his arms up like some musical Rocky." She laughed and led him back to the others, putting a folder down on the table. "Alright guys, I think Alec was right in saying he should go first. No offense, Alec." "None taken." "Magnus you not only have energy, you're just infectious and now that ... she's gone, I think you're just free, kid. That Magnus you bottled up to keep an eye on her, let him go. Be the you we all saw on your channel, the one that we fell in love with when you came to the studio to do Killer Queen with them." Magnus's arms were crossed, his face neutral, but her pep talk seemed to bring a little bit of that light back and he couldn't stop the crook of his lips from forming a little smile. "You want me to..." "Break free." Jocelyn said with a playful wink, the two having found a bond over a shared love of Queen. "Are you guys flirting? This looks like flirting. I'm totally cool with it but like--" Simon's voice carried all the humor that Alec had expected from everything he'd seen on the RSP channel- he'd always seemed like the goofiest of the group. A shove from Magnus had Simon laughing and lifting his hands in a mock surrender. Jocelyn rolled her eyes though her smile was bright and she opened the folder, pulling out different papers and handing them to the men they belonged to respectively. "Alec, Clary and I went through your channel and we picked the videos with the most views, both covers and your originals, the same way we did with Magnus. What your homework is tonight is to go through this list and let me know if there's anything you want to add or remove. Remember that you have a 45 minute slot- so make sure the songs fit. It's okay if you go five minutes over, but we generally try to keep that to any crowd attention and loving you want to do after you perform. Magnus, you do the same, though I'm sure you want to keep your set, and Simon- anything you want to switch up?" Alec was completely baffled at the situation, he had always just assumed that artists picked out their own list of their most current music and then just random songs from different albums, but it made sense that they would go with the most popular since after all, that was what sold tickets. Simon was busy scribbling out one song and replacing it with another and Magnus---- Magnus was watching him. Alec froze, unable to tear his eyes away from the stare they'd become locked into, and it wasn't until Magnus gave a smile, a genuine one this time, that Alec was able to look away, instead focusing on the paperwork on the table. "This list is pretty good, I think I might replace two, but not too much more than that." Alec stuttered as he felt himself grow hot once more. What in the hell was going on with him? "Great, make sure you have it to me by 10 A.M tomorrow. The sound guys will need to go over everything with you and get pre-testing done, so we'll want to take care of that after to make soundcheck move smoothly tonight. Also, you're free to stay in your own place while we're in the city as long as you promise you'll be back on time, assuming you live in the city?" Jocelyn was excited herself to be near her own bed and it was very evident in her tone of voice. Looking around the table, Simon and especially Magnus looked just as relieved to be back home, even though they'd only been gone for less than a week. Alec could only imagine what it would be like in a couple weeks when they'd only be a month into the six month tour. "Yeah, I live about twenty minutes from here so I think that's great. My dogs will appreciate it." "Dogs? You have dogs? You should bring them!" Simon chirped, perking up at the mental image of having dogs with them all as stress relief. "Simon, no. There isn't enough room on the bus and we just started the tour. It's going to get crazy. Let's revisit that in a month, okay?" Jocelyn's words were only relenting at the end when Simon's smile dropped and she even noticed Magnus looked bummed. Alec smiled at the trio in front of him, feeling like they all were Jocelyn's new adopted kids. Admittedly it would be a little nice having a mom on the road, especially since this would be the first time Alec would be far from his own. There was no doubt he was a mama's boy, and there was nothing he would do to deny it if ever called out on it. As Jocelyn and Simon spoke about the setlist change once more, Alec's eyes caught Magnus's at the same time as Magnus had started looking at Alec, the two staring at each other subtly for a moment before Magnus was spoken to by Simon. This would definitely be an interesting start to a new beginning for Alec.

#someday stars #malec #au #youtube musicians #simon lewis #jocelyn fray #my fics

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enkelimagnus · 5 years

Photo

For the Shadowhunters WLW fic bingo, team red. Prompt:

Royalty/Pirates AU.

Izzy/Maia

Read it on AO3

This work will be multi-chaptered.

Because I'm slightly insane and want to make my life harder, I decided the names of the characters would be in their Spanish version so:

Isabelle : Isabel Clarissa: Clarisa Alexander: Alejandro Robert: Roberto Maryse: Marisa

People shouted it from the rooftops. They’d finally captured the crew of the Sea Wolf, one of the most well-known pirate ships in the area. And not only had they captured the crew, but they’d captured the captain, the famed Pirate King.

Rumors were flying around the palace. They said the Pirate King was small and frail. They’d all expected the famed warrior they had all imagined, tall and strong and scary, but it seemed like this one was… not.

Isabel sat in the alcove of her mashrabiya, watching over the main square of the palace. It was the time of the day where the merchants her family allowed to work here were setting up. She would be able to come and see them later in the day, make some purchases. For now, she was confined in her room until the pirate prisoners were taken to the cells. They were still in the throne room with her parents and Alejandro, her older brother and the Principe.

Isabel disliked being kept away from the proceedings. She knew her father would probably sentence the pirates to death or life in the cells, but she still would have enjoyed seeing what they looked like.

There was a light knock at the door and Isabel shouted for them to come in.

“Excuse my interruption, Alteza Real, but you asked to see me?”

Isabel turned around, looking at the young woman who was standing now in front of the closed again door. Clarisa was a young noble, whose parents had rather recently come to the court. Her name was actually Clarice, and she was a Morgenstern, from an old German family, allied to the Madera Clara family for centuries.

Clarisa was sweet, and had become a good friend of Isabel’s. Such a good friend that she was now going to ask her to commit something that could get her in a mountain of trouble.

“Yes. I want to visit the cells before the pirates are executed. And I want to meet the Pirate King.”

“You what?” Clarisa blurted out, before she brought a hand to her mouth. “Sorry, Señora, I was just surprised.”

“I know it’s a lot to ask,” Isabel said, standing from the alcove and walking over to her friend. “But I need to meet him.”

Clarisa swallowed. “Her. It’s a her, Señora.”

Isabel grinned. “Even more reasons to visit the cells. I want to know how a woman becomes Pirate King.” She looked at her friend. “Find me a way to get to her, will you? I know you know some of the people who work at the cells.”

Clarisa nodded. “Yes, Señora. Anything else?”

“Is she beautiful? Because if she is, I might petition Father to save her. That would be quite the beautiful tale. Rey Roberto III pardons woman pirate, who becomes Infanta Isabel’s maid.” Isabel hummed.

“I don’t think she’ll want to be your maid.”

Isabel shrugged. “She’ll want to be my maid if she doesn’t want to die.”

Clarisa hummed. “What if she’s not beautiful? Then will you let her die?”

“A woman’s value is more in beauty than anything else,” Isabel walked towards the alcove again, sitting down a bit heavily. “Or at least it’s what they all say.”

Clarisa was about to open her mouth but Isabel pouted, so she closed it. Isabel looked back at the outside world again, at the people she was so rarely able to be around. There was a beat of silence, with the occasional sound of Clarisa brushing her hand over her skirts.

“Why do you read then, if your beauty is your only value, Señora?” Clarisa asked after a moment and Isabel paused.

“What else would I do all day?” Isabel replied. “Now, go, Clarisa, I want to be alone.” She ordered.

She heard Clarisa walk out of the room and she sighed deeply. Clarisa was right in saying she was somewhat hypocritical. Isabel was tired. She was tired of the way this world worked. She knew she was more valued for her beauty than for her wits, and she wanted to make the rest of the world go that way too, so then she wouldn’t be the only one stuck like this.

Isabel rolled her eyes at her own pitiful thoughts. She was the Infanta. She was much better than any of these people. She was much more precious than any other woman in the kingdom. She was maybe even more precious than her mother Marisa, the Reyna consorte.

-----------------------

Night came. Isabel was waiting for Clarisa to come to help her undress, and the younger woman was late. Idiota. All about big words about beauty not being the most important thing, and yet unable to fulfill her duties. Isabel was tired of her insolence.

She liked Clarisa, she did, but such insolence wouldn’t stand for long. This was not the Morgenstern Family Manor, this was the court of Rey Roberto III. She would need to be taught much proper manners.

The door opened and Clarisa walked through it, carrying a bag.

“Finally, Clarisa!” Isabel exclaimed, standing up. “I have been awaiting you. What did you have more important to do than attend your Infanta’s bedding?” She asked angrily.

“I apologize, Alteza Real, but I was in the dungeon, arranging for your visit to the Pirate King.”

Isabel froze. “That is an excuse I’ll take. What’s in the bag?”

“Some clothing for you. Men’s clothing, so your skirts will not attract attention as we sneak into the night.” Clarisa explained, and she started taking out the various items of clothing. “It’s just some pants, Señora.”

“I have worn pants before, Clarisa.” Isabel added. “I’ll need to get out of that dress first.”

Clarisa helped Isabel out of her dress and into the much less fancy and much more appropriate set of pants and wide shirt. From very far away, a very drunk man could almost believe that she was a man. Which was what they were hoping for anyway.

The night guards of the cells the Pirate King was imprisoned in were known in the palace for their inability to stay sober, and for the high assassination rate of the prisoners in their guards. Rey Roberto III never complained about that last part.

They snuck out of the room with a candlestick, and quickly made their way down towards the cells. They walked past the guards just at the right time, where they were getting some wine and were not focused on what was going on around them.

Clarisa led her Infanta towards one of the last cells of the row, small and narrow. She took the keys that her friend had given her and opened the cell.

“Careful, Alteza Real. She might be wild, still. She’s only spent a few hours here.” Clarisa whispered.

A chuckle erupted from a shadowy figure sitting against the wall, across the door. Isabel turned towards them. There was a small rattle of chains.

“Alteza…” a voice came from the figure. “The Infanta herself visiting little old me? That’s unexpected.”

Isabel licked her lips and pushed open the door. She walked into the cell, with the candlestick. The soft yellow light pushed away the shadows.

The Pirate King was a relatively small woman, with dark coily hair, dark skin and dark eyes. African, Isabel noted. And gorgeous.

Dirty, maybe. They hadn’t let her bathe. They never let them bathe. They were enemies of the Crown. This woman was an enemy of the Crown as well.

“What’s your name?” Isabel asked.

“It’ll be King, for you,” the woman replied, looking at her in the eyes.

“King is not a woman’s name.”

“I’m not a woman. I’m the Pirate King, and you’ll address me as such.” She said, basically hissing.

“Clarisa told me you were feral, I should have expected you wouldn’t behave correctly,” Isabel huffed, looking down at the prisoner. “I’m Infanta Isabel Sofia Madera Clara.”

“Congratulations.”

Isabel ground her teeth. She hated the woman’s behavior.

“I have an offer for you. I will ask my father, Rey Roberto III to pardon you.” Isabel whispered. “Spare your life, in exchange for serving me as my maid.”

“I dislike the very idea of serving you, Alteza.”

“It’s Alteza Real. And you will have no other option if you want to live.” Isabel explained further.

“I outrank you, Isabel.”

Isabel opened her mouth then closed it again. The woman was staring at her with a somewhat playful look in her eyes, as if she wasn’t playing with her life as only bargaining chip. She was talking to her as if they were even closer than friends.

Only Alejandro and the other members of her direct family called her Isabel. The men that Isabel had had small adventures with had all addressed her correctly, even as they groped her breasts through her clothing and kissed her.

Isabel hummed. She gently lowered herself to be at the same level as the woman, and looked at her.

“Your crown is not recognized by my people,” she said.

“Your people think you’re as shallow as the marsh land on the south-east coast of the kingdom, Isabel. Are they right?” The woman asked, looking at her.

“They do not know me.”

“Then why do you claim to know they do not recognize my crown?” She said, her eyes boring into Isabel’s with such a light of wit that it made her almost dizzy.

Isabel swallowed and stood back up. She took a couple of steps back, but kept the candle close to the woman’s face.

“I would hate for you to go to waste and die. Take my offer.” Isabel said firmly before getting out of the cell. She forced herself not to listen to the woman’s answer to her parting words.

Isabel stayed silent as she walked up the stairs again. Her mind replayed her encounter with the Pirate King over and over again, how she’d refused to give Isabel her name then had proceeded to disrespect her by calling her Isabel and not Alteza Real or Senora.

She was gorgeous, at least of face. Isabel had not been able to discern more than brown skin when it came to the rest of her body.

She was witty and full of the kind of spirit that made something in Isabel shudder.

#maiabelle #mizzy #wlw #maia roberts #isabelle lightwood #izzy lightwood #fics #shadowhunters #my fics

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finn-nelson-for-the-win · 5 years

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The Good Life: Chapter 13

Hello, my lovelies! Is it just me or does it seem like forever since I’ve posted a new chapter? In any case, this is yet another filler chapter to set up some events that are to come in the next chapters, but I promise that there will be some fun stuff/drama/shenanigans in the upcoming chapters that will make the last couple boring chapters worthwhile.

Need to get caught up? The Good Life: Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 , Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, Ch8 , Ch9 , Ch10, Ch 11, Ch 12

If you want to be added (or removed) from the tags list for this story, just feel free to let me know!

@pink-royaute @believethaticanandiwill @milllott @likeashootingstarfades @i-dream-of-emus @eveerez @saintsisterwriter

The Good Life: Chapter 13

A few seconds after Rocky—who was asleep at Rae’s feet while she lounged on the couch— lifted his head and began to look around there was a gentle knock on the front door.

“Good morning!” Rae called as she opened the door with Rocky trailing close behind.

“Hello, Rae,” Anna said as she pulled Rae into a hug and stepped inside the apartment when Rae opened the door fully to invite her in.

“How is your sister doing?” Rae asked when the pair both took a seat on the couch and Rocky jumped on the couch to sprawl out in the space between them.

“The doctor said that there were some potential causes for concern, so she was under observation for a few days, but the baby was born without any complications and both she and her baby boy are healthy, happy, and back at home as of Friday.”

“That’s great! I’m glad everything worked out,” Rae replied with a smile, “and congratulations on becoming an aunt!”

“I know! I can’t wait to spoil the kid whenever I see him!” Anna chuckled, “I hope Rocky hasn’t been too much of a burden on you. I know I didn’t give you much time to prepare for him to be here, but I appreciate that you were able to take care of him.

“It’s no problem, really,” Rae assured her as she brought her hand near Rocky’s face for him to lick and gently nibble on, “Rocky seems to have really taken a liking to both my roommate and I over the last couple weeks!”

“I’m so glad to hear that! Is you roommate here? I’ve heard so many good things and I’d love to formally meet them.”

“I’m actually supposed to meet my roommate at the cafe down the street from work for lunch in a little while,”

“Oh! Perfect, my house is on the way there anyways, so Rocky and I can keep you company and just walk home from there.”

“Alright! That sounds good, I’ll just need a few minutes to grab my shoes and gather up some of Rocky’s stuff that you gave me.”

When Rae returned from her bedroom with a tote bag full of toys, treats, and other items Anna had given her while she was watching Rocky the pair fastened the walking harness on Rocky and attached his leash before they all headed downstairs.

The weather was incredibly mild for November, so they decided to walk to the cafe and talk along the way.

“So...I seem to recall the two of us coming to a bit of an agreement a few months back,” Anna began with a cheeky grin.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we agreed that first you needed to get your apartment and roommate situation sorted out and once you did that, you would allow me to set you up on a date and try to find you love.”

“Oh god, not that again, Anna! What is it with you and all my friends trying to get me to date or at least get laid?”

“Because we care about you, duh!”

“In either case, things are a bit...complicated...right now.”

“‘Complicated’ how, Rae?”

“Alright, so you’ve heard me talk a lot about my mates that I knew growing up and in college, right?”

“Yeah! Chloe, Izzy, Archie, Chop, and my personal favorite Finn! Right?”

“Exactly! Well they’re all basically my best friends, but a few days ago I think I did something that could mess up one of those friendships.”

“Did you make out with one of their boyfriends?” Anna asked with a gasp as the two stopped to let a car drive past before crossing the street.

“What? No! I kissed Finn.”

“You did?”

“Yeah...we were both drunk and we sort of made out a bit. I wanted to talk it over with him and figure out what he thought about it, but he’s been avoiding the subject and I haven’t found the right way to bring it up.”

“How do you feel about the kiss?”

“I mean, I used to have a massive crush on him but we’re really good mates now. I liked the kiss, I suppose, but I don’t want it to ruin our friendship or anything like that, ya know?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Hopefully I’ll be able to talk to him about it today when I see him.”

“So...is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to me setting you up with a friend of mine sometime soon?”

“It’s a firm maybe,” Rae replied with a sigh.

“That’s good enough for me! I’ll reach out to him and see when he’d be free to meet up. Now Rae, was that really so hard?”

“If it’ll get you off my back and make you happy to see me getting out and being social, then I’ll do just about anything to shut you up.” Rae quipped and stuck her tongue out at Anna in reply.

“Which reminds me, what’s the plan for your birthday, that’s coming up soon, right?”

“It’s in a bit over a week, yeah, but I don’t have any plans. I don’t really wanna do anything too crazy though. Just something small, maybe, with the gang.”

The pair continued talking about Rae’s plans for her birthday as they were nearing the small cafe Rae was going to lunch at when Anna stopped walking.

“Hey, so, am I going crazy or is that your mate Finn sitting outside the cafe right there?”

“Of course that’s him. I told you I was meeting him here for lunch!” Rae replied with a small chuckle as she kept walking.

“Wait! So you mean to tell me that Finn is your mate and your roommate?”

“Yeah, I thought you knew that!”

“No! I did not fucking know that! Oh my god…”

“What?”

“You made out with your roommate!”

“I’m aware,”

“Oh my god,”

“It’s not that big of a deal,”

“Oh my god,”

“Seriously, Anna. Relax”

“Oh my god, he’s waving at us!”

“Yeah, he’s a nice guy,”

“Oh my god, he’s hot!”

“Yeah, I know. Now, do you want to meet him and say ‘hi’ or not?”

“Of course I do!”

“Cool, now try not to gawk at him like you are now and I can introduce the two of you,” Rae chuckled as she walked ahead to the hostess desk at the entrance of the cafe and pointed towards the table on the patio where Finn was seated and waved Anna and Rocky to follow her inside.

Rae, Anna, and Rocky followed the hostess around the patio to the table where Finn was seated and Finn stood from his seat to give Rae a tight hug.

“Hiya, Rae! I just got you water for now because I wasn’t sure what you wanted to drink, but I haven’t ordered anything else yet,” Finn knelt down to pet Rocky but continued speaking, “I don’t think I’ve ever formally met you, but you must be Rocky’s owner.”

“Uh, yes?” Anna mumbled.

“Sorry, she’s a bit shy this morning,” Rae joked, “Finn, this is my friend from work that I told you about and we’ve been watching her puppy for the last week. Anna, this is my best mate and roommate.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Anna,” Finn said with a smile as both he and Rae sat down at the table, “you and Rocky are welcome to join Rae and I for lunch if you’d like to.”

“Oh, sorry, but we should get going. I live in this direction, so I wanted to walk with Rae on my way home after coming to pick up Rocky. It was great to finally meet you though, I’ve heard a lot about you...like a lot,” Anna laughed lightly.

“Alright, well if you ever need anyone to take Rocky off your hands for a little while, Rae and I would be happy to do it!” Finn added as Anna gave Rae a hug.

“I’ll remember that, thank you,” Anna replied politely before turning towards Rae and lowering her voice a bit, “I’ll text you a bit later today, alright? We still have a lot to talk about!”

Rae huffed and rolled her eyes but smiled as she waved goodbye to Anna and Rocky as they made their way to the exit of the patio area.

“I’m not sure that your friend Anna liked me very much,” Finn stated as he looked over the menu.

“Ah, don’t pay her too much mind. She’s lovely, just a bit...odd,” Rae chuckled before picking up her menu as well, “anyways, what are you thinking of ordering? I feel like there’s just way too many options to choose from!”

Finn laughed and agreed and the two continued looking over the menu and making small talk as they enjoyed their lunch together.

A/N: I have no excuses as to why this chapter took so long to come together, but I am sorry that I’ve been MIA lately. Things in my life are still very crazy and turbulent and I feel like every second of spare time that I have is spent doing everything but writing, unfortunately. I do really appreciate the support and messages of encouragement that I got on my previous post and on every chapter before that. I know that everyone says that they’re grateful for their readers, but I’m completely genuine and can never fully express how much it means to me when y’all read/reblog/like/reply to my posts. I don’t really have much else to say right now, but I’m hoping to get better about posting weekly as things start to settle down a bit more for me closer to the end of June, so please stick it out with me.

Also: HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!! ^_^

Until next time: Stay awesome, my friends! :)

#mmfd #my mad fat diary #mmfd fanfic #my mad fat diary fanfiction #the good life #the good life: ch13 #My writing #finn-nelson-for-the-win

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imnotinclinedtomaturity · 6 years

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Love Yourself (Chapter 25)

title: Love Yourself summary: A lot of things about Dan’s life are pretty great. He gets to make the music he wants, he’s got a great fanbase, and his manager is his best friend. A few things about his life suck a bit more. He’s currently lacking inspiration, he’s rather lonely, and he’s stuck in a rut. Dan’s been going to the same coffee shop for years. It’s quiet, it’s quaint, it’s near his home. Most importantly: none of the employees give a shit that’s he a world-famous singer. Things change when he meets the new barista. chapter words: 5.7k story words: 202.4k (so far) chapter: 25/? rating: m warnings: language, alcohol, sex mentions, some bi/homophobia, eventual explicit smut genre: singer!dan, coffee shop au, barista!phil, slow burn [[ao3]] [[first chapter]] [[previous chapter]]

a/n: @auroraphilealis kicked my ass into gear tonight because i got home and she was like... are you tired... because you could post tonight. and then patiently sat there with me while i edited.

a/n2: shorter than normal, but it’s been less than a week? i think? you better hope good things come in small(er) packages. also a bit more homophobia than normal this chapter, be safe kids. don’t let people talk to you like this if you can help it.

“Isabella,” Dan muttered, empty and shaken. It took him nearly a full second of staring at her to meet her eyes.

She was perched on the back of the lobby sofa, her long legs stretched out in front of her, hooked at the ankle. In her hands was a manila envelope — something that seemed incredibly out of place given the rest of her sultry, borderline inappropriate, appearance. Two months ago, Dan’s eyes would have traced over her curves in the tight dress, probably gotten turned on by the fact that it was so short that he would definitely be able to see her lacy underwear if he just bent down a little. Her hair was in immaculate loose curls, her makeup overstated and dark. She hadn’t changed a bit since Dan had seen her last.

“Well, aren’t you going to invite me up, Danny?” Isabella asked, one eyebrow raised, a sickeningly sweet smile on her lips. Pointed, blood red nails drummed against the yellow envelope as she waited impatiently.

The question was enough to finally shake Dan from his numb stupor. His eyes flickered to Todd, who was watching the scene carefully and looked ready to intervene if necessary. Their eyes met, and Todd quirked his head, silently questioning if Dan needed help. Not bothering to be subtle about it, Dan held up one finger and shook his head.

“Well, Danny?” Isabella asked — taunted more like.

Dan’s attention snapped back to her, his blood nearly boiling just from the thirty seconds of interaction. “Definitely not,” Dan spat harshly, spinning around without a second glance, storming off towards the lift. Isabella had always had the tendency to bring out the most… passionate side of him. Usually not in an attractive way.

He only got a few strides away before Isabella was calling after him again. “Oh, but I really think you should. I’ve got something that I think you’ll be very interested in.”

Dan slowly, warily turned around. Isabella had stood up, and was smugly fanning herself with the envelope. Dan’s mind sorted through possibilities, trying to figure out what it could possibly be — if there was anything that would be important enough that he’d willingly let her into his flat. He was coming up short, though. Whatever was in that envelope was a mystery to him.

“What is that?” Dan forced out through gritted teeth, eyes fixed on the envelope.

“Something special for you. See, I’ve got a meeting with Tatler on Friday, and I think we should talk about what I’m going to say,” Isabella explained. Her voice was dripping with forced honey; she was talking to him like he was a small child.

The small amount of blood that had still been in Dan’s face drained away.

Suddenly, it seemed like there could be a lot of things in the envelope: his sexuality, Phil, a distorted version of their break up…

All things Dan wasn’t keen on Isabella spilling to the public.

Unsubtly, Isabella shifted her gaze to Todd. “Away from prying ears.”

“Todd,” Dan said as he tore his eyes from Isabella to look at the doorman. “I’ll ring down if I need you. Be on alert, please.”

“Yes Mr. Howell,” Todd agreed. The familiar, polite smile that he usually sported had been replaced with a grim look of concern. His brows were furrowed together, his eyes alert, his chest puffed out. He looked ready for action.

The clack clack clack of Isabella’s stilettos echoed as she crossed the lobby, a wicked smile pulling her lips too tightly against her teeth. With a resigned sigh, Dan followed her, feeling like he was marching to his grave, not his own flat.

Dan wordlessly pushed the call button for the lift, worriedly spinning his key back and forth in his hands. When the lift doors opened, Dan stalked forward silently, Isabella following behind without any further invitation.

A flurry of emotions — anger, disappointment, fear — was making Dan’s hands tremble. Three times, he unsuccessfully tried to guide his key into the correct slot, his shaking hands missing every time. With every failed attempt, he felt the intensity of Isabella’s stare increasing, felt her disdain growing.

His fourth attempt was interrupted by a loud, derisive scoff. “Do you have nail polish on?”

Dan tugged the sleeves of his jumper over his hands, suddenly self conscious about his nails again. Using his clothed knuckle, Dan jabbed the button for his flat before protectively crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I thought only fags did that,” she ridiculed, sounding repulsed. “Oh wait, I forgot. You’re a little queer boy aren’t you?”

Dan tried not to flinch, tried not to let her see how much the words had affected him. They sounded far too much like the playground taunts he’d endured in primary school, the jeers of the boys on the football team in sixth form.

Phil likes them, Dan’s mind supplied weakly as he tried to block her out. Her opinion of him didn’t matter anymore — and, really, never did. He just wanted to find out what she had in that fucking envelope and get her out of his life again.

This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to end.

He was supposed to have been able to curl up in bed, maybe watch a cheesy rom-com while drinking a glass of wine, and fall asleep still high on his date with Phil. Instead, he was currently stuck in the most tense lift ride in history, with his ex-girlfriend, all while trying to push through the gnawing feeling in his stomach that something was very, very wrong.

Dan was so on edge that the ding of the lift doors startled him, causing him to jump and yelp quietly. Isabella laughed at him — a laugh full of contempt and judgement. Ashamed, Dan ducked his head and led the way off the lift.

He came to a halt in the foyer, not wanting to let her further into the flat if avoidable. The closer she was to the exit, the easier it would be to throw her out once Dan figured out what the bloody hell she was after.

Dan stared at her anxiously, his eyes pointedly flicking down to her hands.

He expected her to tell him what the fuck this was about, but she brushed straight passed him, deliberately ignoring Dan’s obvious attempts to keep her out of his flat. Frustrated, Dan trailed after her, following her closely down the hallway and, apparently to the lounge.

His path was cut short, though, when she abruptly stopped just inside the lounge entrance, and he ran smack into her.

“What the fuck, Izzy?” Dan bellowed, confused and annoyed. She was the one who’d wanted to go further into Dan’s flat. What the fuck had she stopped for? Dan pushed around her, taking the state of the lounge. Everything about it screamed date— and date with a man, at that. The white flowers looked lovely on the bar cart, situated between two untouched glasses of red wine. The rest of the lounge though… well, frankly, the rest of the lounge was kind of a hot mess.

The sofa pillows were all knocked the floor. The blanket was disheveled and had a very distinct white streak on it — and the towel on the sofa was covered in matching, obvious stains. There was an open bottle of lube on the coffee table, a few drops of which appeared to have leaked out now that Dan was looking more closely.

Dan wasn’t exactly sure what he expected from Isabella, but it was probably something along the lines of a screaming fit followed by having the flowers thrown mercilessly at his head. What he didn’t expect, was Isabella huffing dramatically but entering the room without comment, carefully skirting around all of the dubious objects to sit on the rarely used armchair.

She sat primly, on the very edge of the chair, her thin legs crossed in front of her. Dan wondered, briefly, if she was sitting so precariously because she was uncomfortable — he wondered if she thought maybe they’d fucked on that chair.

He almost wished they had. He almost wished he’d bent forward over the cushion and let Phil take him from behind. Almost wished that he’d come all over the cushion and not bothered to clean it up, wished that he’d stained the spot she was sitting.

From her perch, Isabella’s scornful eyes scanned the room, but she didn’t make any comment about the state of the lounge— even though it was painfully clear what had happened earlier. Somehow, the silent disapproving was almost more hurtful than a snide comment would have been.

Chucking the soiled towel to the side, Dan settled onto the sofa. He picked up one of the discarded pillows and hugged it close to his chest, relishing the small bit of comfort it provided, and waited.

“I’m not asking to get back together. It’s clear that…” Her eyes dropped down to the lube in front of Dan, “That you’re with the tarado from the coffeeshop,” Isabella finished, her voice alarmingly neutral despite the derogatory language.

Dan jerked his head once in an attempt at nodding. It was taking every single bit of Dan’s self control to be civil right now, and he knew if he opened his mouth, nothing but hate would come out.

“I’ve come to make you an offer. One that I think could be very beneficial for both of us.”

Ah hah! Dan thought bitterly, that was why she was being so calm, so un-Isabella. She wanted something from him. Of course she did. All Isabella had ever done was take take take. Why would it be any different now?

“Consider it a no,” Dan spat.

“You haven’t even heard what I have to say, Danny. That’s very rude.”

“Well, I think you’re a bitch, so. Forgive me.”

Isabella closed her eyes, long fake lashes fluttering against her cheeks, and took a few deep breaths — apparently Dan had managed to rattle her a bit. Good.

Her eyes opened again and she flashed Dan a forced smile. “Like I was saying. I’m making you an offer.” Dan opened his mouth to rebut again, but Isabella held up a hand to silence him. “As you may have seen, my appearance in the media has… gone down some since we stopped dating.”

Her voice was tense, and it looked like she was barely managing to retain her dignity during the admission. Dan bit back a hateful laugh, and merely nodded in acknowledgement.

Not that he was… completely certain what he was agreeing to. He’d hardly kept up with her media presence since he’d dumped her. In fact, he’d blacklisted her name wherever possible, so… yeah. He had no real idea.

It was a little satisfying to hear she’d fallen from grace, though.

Isabella continued, her tone carefully even. “And I’ve noticed that rumors have been flying around about you and that —” Isabella stopped abruptly, seeming to choose a nicer word at the last second. “Boy.”

Dan nodded again. His teeth dug into his lip so harshly that, if he was less worried about what Isabella was getting at, he’d be worried that he was drawing blood.

“I think we should get back together — publically,” she added hastily before Dan could react. “And if you want to keep dating the pen — Phil, that’s fine.”

Dan’s jaw dropped. For several seconds, all he was capable of doing was staring at her, trying to process, trying to figure out if she’d really just said that.

When the meaning of her words finally sunk in — that she apparently wanted to be his beard — indignant anger roared up again. “And what,” he cried, “You’ll keep fucking around with other guys?”

Isabella flinched at Dan’s harsh word choice, but clearly tried to remain pleasant. “It’s only fair that I’m allowed to see other people, if you are,” she replied haughtily. Her tone was blunt, terse.

“Really?” Dan finally let out the bitter laugh he’d been holding back. “As I recall, you took the liberty of seeing other people even when I wasn’t allowed to.”

“Suétalo,” Isabella said dismissively. She finally opened the envelope and pulled out two small stapled packets. “I had a contract made for us, and printed one out for each of us. Don’t worry, the lawyer is a very discreet man.” Isabella slid one of the packets across the table, narrowing missing the small puddle of lube. “The terms are listed on the second page.”

In a daze, Dan leaned forward and plucked the contract off the table, setting his phone down in exchange. He turned the page to see what Isabella was talking about. It was long — like, it appeared to carry onto the next page long.

“As you’ll see,” Isabella started, opening her packet to the same page. “We’ll go on two dates together each week, unless one of us is traveling. At least one date will be on a weekend night, and both dates will include drinks and dinner. I will attend all events with you, as your date. Charity events, publicity events, award shows, and other work events do not count as one of the two weekly dates.”

Dan’s eyes followed along on the paper, where each term was written in excruciating detail.

“You will start coming to my work events,” Isabella read off the next point on the list. Chillingly, this was the most professional and direct Dan had ever heard her sound — a change that was definitely alarming. “You will attend all runway shows I am a part of, and bring at least one famous friend — Phil doesn’t count.” Phil’s name still sounded like a curse word on Isabella’s lips, but at least she was using his name. “You will also stop by any major photoshoots I have. I want the media to see you actively supporting my modeling career.”

Dan’s mind was reeling. Fleeting pictures of runway shows flashed through his mind. They’d be boring, unbelievably dull. Especially since she tended to do a lot of shoots for high end women’s lingerie — something he was never planning to buy again.

Well, maybe not never, Dan thought as his eyes caught on his own nails.

Isabella continued on, not noticing that Dan’s mind was drifting. “We will also maintain a constant social media presence. We will both post at least one picture or tweet about each date, in addition to at least two other posts per week.”

Out of habit, Dan’s eyes flickered to his phone at the mention of social media, and he saw that it was lighting up with what looked like a third message from Phil. Dan really wished he could lean forward and look at them right now.

“Every other month, we will go on a trip together, which will all be at least a long weekend. Vacations can be a part of international work events, but posting on twitter and instagram is expected to increase.”

Dan looked back at the page, his eyes falling on the last term just as she mentioned it.

“And of course, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but you’ll obviously limit the amount of time that you’re seen in public with Phil. You won’t be seen out with him at nights, and if you get food together, you will always eat at predetermined unromantic restaurants.”

Everything about this was bullshit — there wasn’t a single term or idea that Isabella had presented that seemed rational or acceptable to Dan. He’d hardly even bothered to pay attention as she was reading off the contract, but this rule — the implication that he’d never get to have a night like tonight again —

That was the last straw.

Dan threw his contract onto the table, noticing that it definitely landed in the little puddle of lube. Good.

“Why the fuck would I agree to any of this?” Dan seethed.

“It’s the perfect solution. You’ll be in a relationship, so everyone will stop speculating about you and that boy. And at night, you can—” her eyes flicked down meaningfully to the bottle of lube on the coffee table, “— get fucked without anyone knowing you prefer it up the ass.”

“I don’t just bot—” Dan snapped his mouth shut before he could say any more of that sentence. That wasn’t a conversation worth having. “I’m not going to let Phil be my dirty little secret.”

“But isn’t that what’s already going to happen?” she asked simply, patronizingly. “You’re not coming out, so you’re going to have to limit your public interactions, anyway. This way, you have the added benefit of having a girlfriend.” Isabella smirked widely, looking like she well won the fight already. “People won’t pay as much attention to you and Phil.”

Fuck, Dan hated, hated the fact that there was a shred of sense in what she was saying. He was going to have to be subtle with Phil — not that he’d never had to do that in the past — and a fake relationship with Isabella really would do wonders about the rumors that were already circling, would be just enough for people’s heteronormative minds to make them stop questioning his sexuality.

“And what happens if I don’t say yes?” Dan demanded roughly.

“Well, see I already have a meeting set up with Tatler, and I did promise them an inside scoop…” Isabella trailed off suggestively, a look of mock concern on her face.

“Cancel, then,” Dan ordered through gritted teeth.

“Oh Danny, that would be so rude though!” She batted her eyes, her voice falsely sweet. “I’d have to give them a different story.”

A feeling of dread washed over Dan, rushing from his stomach all the way up his throat.

“What story?” he managed to ask.

“Turn to the next page, and read along under breaches of contract,” Isabella prompted, a note of triumph in her voice — a tone that made Dan very wary.

Dan did as she said, and found nearly an entire page of her loopy, cursive handwriting — presumably so the lawyer wouldn’t know the contents. Heart pounding, Dan tried to skim the paragraph, but his hands were shaking so much that the paper was illegible.

He didn’t really need to read, anyway, because Isabella was smiling a vicious grin, leaning forward and explaining herself. “I’d have to tell them about how during our whole relationship, you were interested in men and fantasized about them — and even how you made me wear a strap on when we had sex. About how you were determined to stay together because you wanted people to think you were straight, because you didn’t want to be gay.”

Dan’s heart wasn’t pounding anymore. In fact, it felt like it had completely stopped, and crash landed into his stomach. He wasn’t ashamed of liking men, had never wanted to not be attracted to them. It was just easier to explain to the media. But still, he’d never… strictly adhered to gender roles. He knew he had a fairly large LGBTQ+ fanbase — a fanbase that would be crushed to hear that he supposedly held such internally homophobic views.

Isabella didn’t stop speaking, still sounding smug and triumphant. Dan listened — painfully forced himself to listen — as he stared at the uncapped lube on the table.

“And then,” Isabella gasped in mock horror. “Imagine my horror when I came over one night and caught you in bed with Phil, getting fucked from behind…”

Fuck her, Dan cursed internally. He hadn’t even had the chance to do that with Phil yet, and here she was putting these false, horrible images in his head. Images of him and Phil not being as good as they’d been, images of Dan finally getting to feel Phil only to have Isabella burst in.

They’d been so fucking good for months. These weren’t the images of their first time that should be flooding Dan’s mind. Especially not tonight.

“I’m so scarred from it, it was so hurtful.” Isabella wiped away a fake tear, her long pointed nails smudging the black eyeliner under her eyes. “And then I’ll tell them how we tried to fix our relationship, how you told me to sleep with other men because you knew you weren’t man enough for me.”

The knife in Dan’s gut dug a little deeper, twisted a little further. On top of it all — the accusations about his confidence, his pride in his sexuality, his dignity… to add on the fact that Isabella cheating had been his suggestion.

Fuck. Dan’s eyes snapped shut, tears on the verge of spilling out. He felt one leak out, trickle down the side of his nose, and he willed it to disappear. Willed Isabella to not see it. Willed himself to not wipe it away and draw Isabella’s attention to how deeply she was affecting him.

“And,” Isabella sighed melodramatically, her dark-stained lips pulled into a nefarious grin. “In the end, I had to leave you because it was too much pressure and too much shame. You begged me to stay, but I had to do what was right for—”

“You fucking wouldn’t,” Dan seethed, cutting her off before she could finish her story. “Not a single fucking detail of that is true.”

Isabella cackled — literally cackled; her head fell back, a humourless laugh mocking Dan. “It’ll be my word against yours, though. And the media usually sides with the victim.” Isabella shook her head, and shot Dan a look filled with insincere pity. “But if you’re willing to risk it…”

“You bitch,” Dan roared, interrupting her again. He leapt to his feet — to do what, he wasn’t sure. “You signed a non-disclosure agreement! I could sue you for going public about my sexuality!”

“You could,” Isabella agreed, but the smirk on her face made Dan feel like he’d just lost another battle, not won one. “But it wouldn’t be a quiet trial, and when people found out you were suing me because I told the media that you weren’t straight, that would just confirm my story in their eyes.”

Dan’s heart was beating roughly against his chest, his mind speeding through a million different scenarios as he tried to make sense of what Isabella had said, tried to figure out if there was a different way to spin it.

Shit, fuck.

Dan sunk down back into the sofa, defeated. That was exactly how it would appear. And the media probably would side with her, the story she’d concocted would tarnish any good reputation he had.

And Phil.

Fuck. Phil.

Phil’s entire livelihood depended on his personality, his brand. Having an affair was about as off brand as it got for Phil. It would probably destroy him. Dan, at least, made music — music that some people would continue to listen to even after finding out he was a piece of shit. But Phil would probably lose everything. And, shit, it would break Phil’s heart if he viewers thought he was capable of such immoral behavior.

“I — I need to think about this,” Dan muttered. Against his will, he crumpled forward, his legs drawing up into his body. He was so fucking overwhelmed, so hurt. Tears pricked at his eyes again, and this time he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to hold them back.

To his surprise, Isabella dropped the other contract onto the table and stood up. “You have until five tomorrow evening to drop off both signed copies at my flat. If they aren’t there when I get home from work, I’m telling the other story.”

Dan didn’t have it in him to look up. The tears in his eyes were rapidly accumulating, and he was afraid that if he looked at her, if he met her eyes, he’d well and truly break down.

Her heels clacked loudly as she rounded the table, coming to a stop directly in front of Dan. Her long, manicured fingers reached under his chin and tipped his head up. A loud, wet kiss was pressed to his forehead, surely leaving behind a perfect dark red mark from her lipstick.

Her lips felt like fire against his forehead — and not in a good way. It took all of his strength to not recoil, to not give her the satisfaction of knowing that she’d intimidated him.

“I own you, Dan Howell,” she whispered in his ear.

For a split second, Dan was worried that the pretty cocktail, the expensive wine, the fancy dinner, would all come back up. The fear wracked his body so hard, so aggressively, that Dan was sure that he was about to throw up.

With a rough swallow, Dan forced himself to look up. His eyes followed her as she crossed the room, watching as she came to a halt by the bar cart and spun around again. A wicked smile painted her face, a devilish glint in her eyes. Her hip popped out, one hand dramatically resting on it.

“Remember Dan,” Isabella threatened, her voice dropping low and properly angry for the first time tonight. “If you don’t sign or if you, say, try to tell the media about this little arrangement tomorrow, I’ll just —” She looked at him with wide, innocent eyes, the mirth on her face ruining the illusion. Two fingers delicately pushed on the flower vase with just enough force to send it toppling to the floor. There was a loud crash as the vase shattered, water running everywhere, the flowers falling limply amongst the debris. “Spill. See you tomorrow, Danny.”

A loud screech hurt Dan’s ears as she turned abruptly, her stilettos scraping across the wood floors. Dan tore his eyes from her swinging hips, his gaze shifting to his feet. Looking up, looking at Isabella’s retreating form, the damage of the flowers, the contract on the table, it was all too much. His sleek, black shoes were a better place for his attention right now.

When the lift dinged, the unsigned contracts and destroyed vase were the only evidence that Isabella had been there at all. Well, that and Dan’s crushed soul.

Mechanically, Dan started to kick his shoes off. He got one foot half free before he realized that it would be better to leave them on because of the shards of glass.

“Jesus on a fucking tricycle,” Dan muttered under his breath, his brain not fully grasping on to everything just yet. He shakily pushed himself off the sofa, and shoved his phone into his back pocket. He’d deal with Phil’s messages later, when he could stand it better.

Dan made his way to the kitchen, trying his best to sidestep around the scattered flowers — it was a pretty crap attempted, admittedly, given the loud crunch of glass beneath his feet

The cabinets were barren, especially since he hadn’t replaced his mugs yet. He definitely didn’t own much by way of glassware. But still, he rummaged around his cabinets, desperately looking for something he could put the flowers in so that they wouldn’t die.

Everything he could find was far too short (like his drinking glasses) or far too fat (like his mixing bowls). In the sink, Dan spotted the drink pitcher, the one that he’d made gin and tonics for him and Phil in just two nights ago.

Good enough.

Dan dumped out the watery remnants of the drink, doing his best to rinse it out a little bit even though he barely had the emotional energy to even hold the heavy glass pitcher. Hot water swished through it once, twice, three times, and Dan hoped it would do, hoped that he’d gotten enough of the toxic liquor out that he wouldn’t kill his beautiful flowers instantly. Smacking the sink handle to the right, Dan waited for the water to get cold, and then shoved the pitcher under the stream of water, numbly watching the pitcher fill.

He must have zoned out, because all of a sudden the water was bubbling over and cascading down the sides. “Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck fuck,” Dan muttered, slamming the handle down to stop the water flow, and carelessly dumping a portion of the water out.

Realistically, he’d probably dumped too much of the water out — it was only just barely half full now. Fuck, was he capable of doing anything right tonight?

He couldn’t bring himself to care, though. The flowers would have to deal with half a pitcher of water, at least for tonight.

Without bothering to wipe down the mess of water, Dan turned on his heel and took the drink pitcher back into the lounge.

Now that he’d had a few minutes of distance, the mess of the flowers looked even more disastrous. Before, he hadn’t realized just how shattered the vase was, hadn’t noticed the way the piece of glass he’d stepped on had turned to crumbs. He certainly hadn’t noticed the massive puddle of water that was slowly inching its way across the room.

Fuck.

He should have brought a towel.

And a maybe a rubbish bin for the glass, too.

He was such a useless fucking bastard.

He sunk down anyway though, his bum landing right in the middle of the water, probably sitting on a few pieces of glass, too — not that he was capable of feeling that right now. Dan numbly gathered the flowers, one by one, shaking each stem off before placing it in the new pitcher. One rose had snapped in half during the fall, the stem too short to let it stand with the others. It wasn’t perfect anymore. It, too, had been tainted by Isabella.

Dan considered throwing the stem out — hell, for a brief moment he considered throwing all the roses out — but he didn’t have the heart to do it. He wanted them, they were important to him. He just didn’t want them to have been fucking touched by Isabella.

Resigned, Dan shoved the broken flower in with the others, letting it fall all the way down, and pushed the pitcher away so he didn’t have to look at it right this second.

He turned his attention to the glass. The flat, heavy bottom of the vase was still intact, so Dan laid it out as a temporary place where he could pile the broken pieces. Shard by shard, Dan picked up the bits of glass, dropping them into a small mound. His hands were shaking far too much to be doing this. Each time he picked up a sliver of glass, he nearly cut himself. Objectively, he knew he should stop. He should just leave the mess, maybe text the maid and ask if she could come tomorrow instead of Friday, and go to bed.

But for some reason, Dan knew that the knowledge that the glass was sitting here, scattered around his lounge, would eat away at his soul. He knew he’d never be able to sleep if he didn’t at least try to fix it now.

He couldn’t fix Isabella tonight. He didn’t have any magic solutions, didn’t know how to make the whole situation go away. The one tiny fucking thing that he could do was to get rid of the damn glass.

So god fucking damn it, he was going to clean up this fucking mess.

And so Dan sat, methodically finding chunk after chunk, sliver after sliver, and adding them to the growing mountain of glass. Under the bar cart, there was a particularly jagged piece — it was all sharp angles and rough edges. Dan could tell it looked more dangerous than the rest. Nonetheless, he reached out for the shard anyway, his fingers slipping as he fumbled for the piece. The top of his finger scraped against it harshly, and Dan recoiled, his hand flying to his chest.

He looked down, expecting blood, but instead saw a small red scratch leading up to his nail — his previously perfect silver nail that now had a wobbly line drawn through it, the polish scraped away.

A sob caught in his throat, and Dan drew his knees up to his chest, letting the pain and anger finally wash over him. He was furious and hurt and scared and he had no fucking clue what to do.

So he pushed the mountain of glass away, let his head fall forward, and cried.

Sob after sob wracked his body, and soon he was gasping for air, his vision blurred with tears. His body was trembling, and tears were running down his face. The fancy Versace sweater was probably ruined by now, given how many times Dan had messily wiped his nose on it.

How long he cried for, he wasn’t sure, but eventually the insistent buzzing of his phone in his pocket drew him out of his stupor. Shifting as little as possible, Dan dug his phone out of his back pocket, sighing deeply when he saw the hairline crack that was now running across the screen.

Phil :) was calling, and Dan didn’t have the heart to pick up. If he answered it, Phil would be able to tell how upset he was, would wonder what had happened, if he’d done something…

Dan couldn’t enjoy the high from tonight any longer, but that didn’t mean Phil couldn’t. He’d call Phil tomorrow, explain to him the two shitty options — a fake relationship or a reputation wrecking story — in the morning. Dan pressed the side button, making the buzzing stop, and waited for the screen to go back to normal.

His eyes stared at the fracture in the screen, and drifted up to the pile of glass. He needed to not be alone, though. Not right now, not tonight. He needed help.

Dan unlocked his phone, and tapped call on the top contact in his favorites list.

The phone only rang twice.

“Dan? How was your date?”

“C-can y-ou,” Dan’s voice was wretched, his breaths too uneven for him to speak properly. He took a deep, shaky breath, trying to collect himself. “I n-need you t-to come over h-here n-now.” A broken sob escaped Dan’s throat. “P-please,” he added.

“Of course, love.” A warm, concerned voice tried to console him. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

a/n: don’t kill me.

#phan #phanfiction #phanfic #coffee shop au #barista!phil #singer!dan #phan au #au #iminclinedtowriting #ly

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 5 years

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Shadowhunters 13x17, Heavenly Fire -- Mini Review

Yup, you read that correctly. This is just going to be a small review of Shadowhunters 3x17, Heavenly Fire. I watched the episode last week but I just couldn't find the motivation to review it. With each episode, I'm just growing more and more apathetic towards this show. Once upon a time, I used to actually enjoy reviewing this show and talking about it but the spark has died and all this show makes me feel is emptiness, now.

So small disclaimer if anyone's new to my reviews. I've never been a fan of this show. I'm not very nice to it so if you're all about Shadowhunters positivity, this isn't the place for you. Feel free to stick around if you so choose but don't say I didn't warn you. Also, there may be spoilers for both the books and the show.

The first thing I want to talk about is Izzy just barging into Simon's room. This was extremely out of character for show!Izzy. Izzy wouldn't just barge into someone's home and demand their attention. Maybe book!Izzy but that's a bit of a stretch as well and that's a completely different and way more awesome character. She knocked on Simon's door and Simon tells her to hold on and she just barges in. It's like, "why?" I don't understand why she did that. It's not like this mission she was sending Simon was super ultra time sensitive. While I definitely believe Simon would do anything to help Clary, I still wish Izzy would've actually given Simon more of a choice on going on this mission instead of just expecting he would and sending him on his merry way to the territory where she strongly suspects downworlders are being tortured. This was a big risk for Simon to take and it was the kind of mission where Simon didn't really have an "out" in case things got a little dicey. Also, I'm surprised that none of these shadowhunters recognized Simon. He's a super rare daylighter, you would think the shadowhunter community would be more aware of him a little. I mean, everyone and their mother seems to know who Clary is and what she looks like. And then there's the comeback of Victor Aldertree. And I'm left asking myself why the writers would make the choice to for one, copy and paste the same plot from the worst X-Men movie but also, why would they choose Victor Aldertree, a POC character, to be the face for that? And I'm also just really confused on how Aldertree got this position in the first place. He left the show as a disgraced shadowhunter so how did he go from that into this in like a month? This show's timeline is absolutely insane.

We also meet Helen Blackthorn in this episode. And Helen is probably my favorite Blackthorn next to Drusilla and Livvy (RIP dear Livvy, I'm still not over it) but anyway, Helen's show debut portrayal was alright I guess but it was also very uninspired. It's not anything too terrible but nor is it something that I was impressed with, either. I also didn't like that after she found out what the Heavenly Fire was going to be used for, she tells the downworlders that she's going to help them because she also can't deny her own downworlder heritage and I'm just like, "why does it have to be about her downworlder heritage?" Why can't she just be a shadowhunter who believes in doing the right thing? And then, when she's talking to Aline about it, she changes her story and says she did it because it was the right thing to do. Okay, which is it? Quit trying to have both your cake and ice cream. One or the other will set the tone as a foundation for her as a character but trying to do both at the same time just makes her feel very wishy-washy.

I also don't understand how heavenly fire stops strips away the demon stuff but doesn't kill the individual. The demon blood is ingrained in their DNA. Spoiler for the books but when heavenly fire was used on Jonathon, there's a reason why it killed him after the demon blood had been stripped away. Because his body lost that intrinsic part of its being. But whatever. My normal Shadowhunter mantra. "Whatever." I bet that's what the writers in the Writers Room say as well. They gotta know their show doesn't make any sense, right?

And Clary actually kind of made me feel something in this episode. I always talk about how I want dark!Clary but what I really want is to see some complexity to Clary. And while I wouldn’t say she was complex in this moment but I do want to see moments where she genuinely feels vulnerable and the moment where she talks to Jace about the guilt she feels about not being able to save the Jonathon in her dreams, it was a nice moment for her. I want more of that from Clary. That kind of stuff makes her feel real. Not her strutting around like she's the best and most perfect but most innocent shadowhunter to have ever been born.

And Magnus has a drunken break-down in this episode where he basically accuses Alec of only loving him for his magic and I'm just very confused on that? When did Alec ever give Magnus the impression he only loved Magnus because of the magic? In fact, magic has been the core drama in their relationship to begin with. But Magnus breaks down and Alec finds himself unable to propose to Magnus while Magnus is in this condition. A wise decision, really.

Like I said, real quick. There wasn't a whole lot to this episode that I found super interesting or felt a need to talk about. So this is more of a casual thought post than anything else. But I’d probably give this episode a C+. Overall, I just wasn't really all that into it but the structure wasn't terrible so I'll give the show that.

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters 3x17 #shadowhunters 3.17 #shadowhunters heavenly fire

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axelsagewrites · 7 years

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Jace Wayland*Ghost

The song is ghost by Halsey. I was listening to it and I thought of Jace so here you go.

Masterlist HERE

Wattpad HERE

Prompt list HERE

I'm searching for something that I can't reach...

I had always wanted to be with Jace. Ever since we were little kids I had a crush on him. The first time I had met him he had come to New York because his dad died. I got him to crack the first smile and I said that was my greatest accomplishment even though I forget how I made him smile. I would gush to Izzy about him when we were little. Now, however, things have gotten…weird. We hooked up sometimes but it's not romantic. I don’t have a problem with casual sex or anything but its Jace. I want to be his but right now its just physical. I suppose its better than nothing.

I don't like them innocent

Jace was fun, bold, interesting. He wasn’t some clean cut Idris kid and council wannabe. He did things no one would. I remember sneaking out of the institute with him, Izzy and Alec and it was always his idea. We would sneak out to arcades or the occasional mundane event. Most of the time it was just me and him though. I wanted bold and daring and Jace was just that.

I don't want no face fresh

He wasn’t one to shy away from any situation. He faced life head on and gained experience and knowledge. Even as a young kid he always seemed to look as if he’d done everything a thousand times before.

Want em wearing leather

One of the great perks of being a shadowhunter was the uniform in my opinion. Black is, first of all, an awesome and flattering colour but also it gave the excuse to see Jace in leather jackets. Call me cliché but the bad boy vibe is hot.

Begging, let me be your taste test

The first time anything happened between us I was fourteen and he was fifteen. We were casually talking in my room since Alec and Izzy had some family meeting. Somehow the topic of crushes and first kisses came up. “Let me guess, your first kiss was with that Jackson guy from Idris.” When I didn’t respond he continued to tease fourteen year old me. “Well, it's not like it isn't obvious he likes you. He followed you like a puppy when he was here! Didn’t you go on a date or something?” I still remember being embarrassed telling him. “Yeah, something like that. But uh, we didn’t kiss. I got a bit scared, to be honest.” “Scared?” He laughed. “Of a kiss?” “Shut up!” I pushed him and he put his hands up in surrender. “I've not kissed anyone before. We aren't all players Jace Wayland.” “Kissings easy. Once you get the hang of it.” “That’s the thing though, how am I going to get the hang of it if I haven't done it? Hell, I slammed my door shut when he went to kiss me, for angel's sake!” Normally I’d only talk to Izzy about that kind of stuff but Jace always had a way to get me to admit things I didn’t want to. “Come here then.” I was shocked, to say the least. “What?” “Kiss me. I’ll show you it's not scary. It's just a test.” I thought for a moment. Was I really about to kiss my crush? My dreams shattered when he continued. “It's not like it's your real first kiss if it's with me. It barely counts.” “I dunno…” I trailed off. “Scared?” He teased. I sighed aggressively. I wasn’t scared, I was angry. I was about to kiss my crush and he said it wouldn’t count. Fourteen years old me just wanted a kiss in some way or form so I just did it. “Fine.” Next thing I knew I was kissing Jace Wayland. It was a small kiss at first then it turned into more of a makeout. After just under a minute we pulled away. “See? Wasn’t scary at all.” “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes to conceal my smile.

I like the sad eyes, bad guys Mouth full of white lies Kiss me in the corridor But quick to tell me goodbye

Although that was the first time as we got older the ‘tests’ got more serious. It was after some downworlder party we had gone to after we finished a mission. We were both seventeen since my birthday was only a few days earlier, and drunk. I can barely remember it to be honest. All I knew was the next morning I woke up in my bed with a naked Jace beside me. It wasn’t the last time in full honesty. We did hook up sometimes but never it was never serious. We’ve been doing it for about a year at this point. Sometimes after missions, we would head back to our rooms but on the way, he’d pull me into some random corridor and we’d make out for a bit then go to bed like nothing happened. During this time of hookups and kisses, he would date other people. We weren't exclusive or even together but he still wasn’t as open with me about it. If I asked where he disappeared to the night before he would just say ‘I ran into someone’ but how many people can he run into. I didn’t complain though. We were friends with benefits and unfortunately nothing else.

You say that you're no good for me Cause I'm always tugging at your sleeve And I swear "I hate you" when you leave But I like it anyway...

Once I did get the courage to ask him about us. He told me we were better as friends. That he didn’t want to be tied down. I didn’t want to argue or ruin anything so I told him I felt the same. He told me he was no good for me because I’ll always be chasing him into danger. I told him it was annoying sometimes but in the end, we stayed the same.

My ghost Where'd you go? I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me My ghost Where'd you go? What happened to the soul that you used to be?

I feel like even when we do talk now he’s never fully there. His mind always seems to wander to somewhere else. Its like he’s a ghost, like his soul is gone. Yes, we went through hard times. We all did. Me, Izzy, Alec, Clary and him. He’d went from Jace Wayland to Lightwood to Morgenstern to Herondale within a year.

You're a "Rolling Stone", boy "Never sleep alone", boy "Got a million numbers And they're filling up your phone", boy I'm off the deep end, sleeping All night through the weekend Saying that I love him but I know I'm gonna leave him...

We were hooking up less and less and talking less and less. We were growing apart and it hurt. I was losing a friend and my heart was breaking at the same time. On the few occasions I talked to Izzy about it she asked me why I didn’t end it. Save me the pain. I always said I loved him but I know I have to end it. I've got no choice.

You say that you're no good for me Cause I'm always tugging at your sleeve And I swear I hate you when you leave But I like it anyway...

Even still I know I would follow him if he was running into the heart of the danger. I knew I’d always chase after him when he left. I hate it when he would leave but I liked him anyway.

My ghost Where'd you go? I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me My ghost Where'd you go? What happened to the soul that you used to be?

I'm searching for something that I can't reach

I'm looking for romance in a man who barely understands love. He doesn’t understand crushes and why I wouldn’t want everything to be physical. In truth, I put him on a pedestal. I've come to realise that. I want a romantic Jace but I know it won't happen. I just can't get over him. I even asked Alec how he did it. He said it was Magnus but I don’t have a Magnus. I don’t have anyone else who I’ve thought of in the same way I think of Jace. Sure I've had small crushes but none to overtake Jace.

My ghost Where'd you go? I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me My ghost Where'd you go? What happened to the soul that you used to be?

I need to end this and I am. I start to march down the hall to Jace’s room. I don’t even knock. I open the door and see him lying on the bed reading a book. “Hey, do you need something?” “We need to talk.” He put the book down and sat up. “Ok,” he spoke slowly. “about what exactly?” “Us, Jace. Us.” I began pacing. “We cant just hook up and never talk. Before we were at least friends. Now it's like your just an object. You don’t act like a friend, or like you care. All you do is use me. And don’t say you didn’t know I liked you. I know you knew. Otherwise I wouldn’t have given you my first kiss, otherwise, I wouldn’t follow you where ever you go. I wouldn’t have done half the shit I have for you. But I did. I stayed by you as everything unfolded. I was there for you when your whole life changed but at this point, you’re a ghost. Your body haunts this institute as if to remind us that you’re still here but you also arent at the same time. What happened Jace?” I stopped and looked at him though he didn’t meet my eyes. “Why are you a shell of who you used to be? Why don’t you want to talk to me? What did I do that made me so damn unappealing?!” He stayed in silence for a moment before answering me, looking me straight in the eye. “Because I don’t deserve you. We were so close when we were younger because I didn’t know you liked me back so I wanted to be your friend at least. And since I found out about Alec he told me. He told me to look for the signs from you too. Truth is I did like you. That’s why I convinced you to kiss me when we were younger. I distanced myself because I don’t understand it anymore in truth. I don’t know what I’ll be in a couple years. I might not even be Jace anymore and I didn’t want to drag you along into that.” We were silent for a few moments. “I did it because I care. I still do. But you deserve better.” “You’re damn right I do!” I said coldly. “It's not your choice on what I do or what I can handle. You don’t get to decide what I deserve. I do. So now I've decided I deserve to free myself of this idea of you. I'm not going to follow you into the heart of the danger because I don’t want to anymore.” I walked to the door as he put his head in his hands. “If you had told me this the first time we kissed,” I said without turning around. “then maybe you would've known who you were. Jace, you’re the boy I loved for way too long. The boy who is now a ghost.” It felt like a weight off of my shoulders. It was now all in the open so now only time can tell what will happen. But for the first time in years, I don’t care if Jace is involved.

#Jace Wayland #Jace Herondale #Jace Lightwood #jace wayland imagine #jace morgenstern #shadowhunters #shadowhunter imagine #shadowhunters imagine #shadowhunter preference #shadowhunters one shot

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malecsecretsanta · 5 years

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Merry Christmas, @Secretphilosopherwitch!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I cannot express how wonderful it was to write soulmate fluff for these two <3

Read on AO3

*****

My heart knew who it belonged to [long before I met him]

According to the records in the recesses of the New York Institute, the first documentation of a Shadowhunter with a soulmark was Jonathan Shadowhunter. The drawing of the mark was old and looked as if it’d been written on a scrap piece of paper, the name barely legible anymore, but Alec paid no mind to the age or legibility of the soulmark. The fact that there was proof of its existence, an unquestionable account of the phenomenon gave him hope.

Soulmates were a blessing from the angels, the markings on their skin just as revered as the runes they put on their bodies. If a Shadowhunter was lucky enough to have a soulmate, the mark would show up on a Nephilim’s eighteenth birthday and was celebrated with gusto. Family gatherings and sacred rituals where the Shadowhunter who’d been blessed had to swear an oath to uphold and cherish the soulmate that Raziel blessed them with.

And Alec prayed every night to be blessed with a soulmate. To have someone who was destined for him, who’d love him with their whole being. If he happened to pray harder for it not to be a girl, that would remain his secret, especially from his parents.

Growing up, Alec spent all his time training, trying to live up to his parents’ expectations. He’d push aside his own well-being, his own happiness, in hopes of getting a shred of pride from one of them. No matter how many times he’d tried and failed to reach their impossible standards, Alec refused to give up on earning their approval. And that meant squirreling away his sexuality like it was some heinous decision he had made.

No one wishes for life to be harder than it already is.

But soulmates could be the same gender, it was ridiculous to think that only men and women could be soulmates. Even the Clave wasn’t that blind, but for same sex soulmates, they were highly discouraged, if not forced, to keep their bond purely platonic. But Alec had still seen how his fellow Shadowhunters felt about those pairings. Like they were less, a bond Raziel had given them as an afterthought and not with all the care the typical soulmark was given.

So as hard as Alec prayed for his soulmate to be a man, he knew he couldn’t have it all. But that was enough for him. It had to be.

On the cusp of his eighteenth birthday, he anxiously awaited to see if he would get a soulmark. He knew he should’ve been asleep, birthday or not he had to be up bright and early to send out the next squads on patrol. It wouldn’t do him any favors to be exhausted. But he just couldn’t fall asleep, not when he was so close to possibly getting what he wanted.

He lazily traced his parabatai rune and hoped his anxiousness wasn’t being sent through his and Jace’s bond. At one point in time, Jace not being his soulmate would’ve devastated him, but his past crush had faded back to brotherly affection after they’d become parabatai and he was beyond thankful that it did. He felt enough shame for liking men, he didn’t need to add that into the mix.

He was broken from his musings by a knock on his door before Izzy stepped in with a bright smile. She knew how much Alec had been waiting for this day. “How you holding up, Big Bro?” Izzy asked, sitting on his bed.

Alec sat up and shrugged. “Just waiting,” Alec said.

His sister rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder. “I could feel your anticipation from my room.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Oh no doubt,” Izzy gave him a soft look, “But I know how much this means to you.”

He flushed and broke away from her gaze to stare at the clock. He had a minute left. “Do you think I’ll get one?” Alec asked, his voice so quiet he wondered if Izzy had even heard him. But he knew she had when he felt her arm snake around his shoulders.

“Alec, if ever there was someone who deserves a soulmark, it’d be you.” She said it so confidently, like Alec not getting a soulmark was unfathomable.

He went to respond in kind to Izzy, to tell her that she’d get one too, when he felt a heat blossom in his chest that stole the air from his lungs. The heat quickly traveled down his arms, not unlike a caress and Alec could do nothing but stare in amazement as his soulmark pigmented his arms. He might have heard Izzy gasp beside him but he was too focused on what he was seeing.

His soulmark was unlike any he’d ever seen before. It wasn’t a name and it wasn’t a design, but more of a swatch of blues that seemed to glitter against his arms. The blue lazily flowed around his runes and shifted along his skin as if it were alive.

And Alec loved it. He loved how warm the marks were, how they sent affection flickering down to his fingertips. How the blue caressed his skin with all the familiarity of eternity, like it couldn’t help but explore his skin with avid attention.

“Beautiful,” Alec muttered, tracing the mark with his fingers. Izzy broke his wonderment with a swipe of her thumb underneath his eye. He hadn’t even noticed he’d started crying. “Izzy, I have a soulmate.”

Izzy’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but her bright smile could’ve lit up the room. “You have a soulmate,” she repeated, turning her attention back to the marks on his arm. “I’ve never seen a soulmark like this.”

Perhaps Alec should’ve felt cheated that he didn’t have a name to go off of, but he honestly loved the swirls of blue that now decorated his skin. “Neither have I.” But that didn’t matter. Not when he knew for sure he had a soulmate, waiting for him to find and love with the ferocity of his entire being.

Even though he’d received his soulmark, it wasn’t as if Alec could just take as much time as he’d like to try and find them. And while he adored his mark, it did make finding his soulmate a much more daunting task since he didn’t have a name to go off of or a mark to match to someone else’s. But he never let himself lose hope, not about this.

Alec’s twenty-third birthday rolled around with still no leads on his soulmate. Maybe if he was anyone else, he’d feel hopeless at this point, but he was stubborn. He gave no room for his parents to even suggest him settling down with some girl. He had someone. Someone waiting for him just as he was waiting for them.

Somewhere.

And then this tiny, fiery haired mundane comes barreling into his life and he was suddenly captured in her whirlwind drama via Jace’s insistence. He admits to himself that he could stand to be a little kinder to the girl who fell into the Shadow World with all the finesse of a duckling, but suddenly the little spare time he had was going to her and her problems instead of his searches for his soulmate.

He tried to tell himself to calm down, to offer the help Jace expected him to give, but it was hard to tell himself that when his heart yearned for its soulmate. It was literally the one thing he truly wanted for himself and it seemed to be put on the back burner for this girl.

Until that one momentous meeting.

Back at Pandemonium once more, now with the necklace they were going to offer to the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane as incentive to return Clary’s memories. He left the transaction for the others to handle, instead checking the parameter for any suspicious activity.

Well, he would have been more attentive in his search if his soulmark didn’t start pulsing and wriggling on his arms. Sure the mark liked to dance across his skin, but it’d never done this before. It seemed to be responding to something. Or someone, Alec thought with wide eyes. He darted his eyes around the hordes of people dancing as if thinking his soulmate might spontaneously appear from the crowd.

Instead of his soulmate, he spotted a few suspicious characters weaving their way through the crowds. He edged after them, taking in all the details he could from where he was until he spotted a rune on both of the men’s throats.

The Circle had infiltrated the club.

He quickly notched an arrow and let it fly as he quickly headed back to where he’d left Jace, Izzy, and Clary. All around him chaos erupted, Downworlders fleeing the club as fast as they could, whether that was by portal or just supernatural speed. Alec did his best to keep his eyes peeled for any more of Valentine’s Shadowhunters. He’d put away his bow and switched to his seraph blade to allow for more maneuverability as he started making his way through the throngs of panicked clubbers.

With each step closer to his destination he felt the pulsing of his mark increase until it suddenly stopped just in time to see a portal close not far from the rest of his group. He stopped in his tracks. His soulmate… was a warlock? Or at least he could assume they were given the portal. He’d never even considered the thought of his soulmate being a Downworlder, but was that bad?

He didn’t have time to think on the subject, instead gathering everyone up and herding them as quickly as he could to the nearest exit. “Come on, we need to get out of here,” he said over the panicking crowds of people who were still fleeing from the scene as fast as they could.

“But my memories.” Clary insisted.

Alec frowned and looked at the group. “You didn’t get her memories back?” He asked.

Jace rolled his eyes. “Kinda hard to do that when our meeting with Bane was interrupted before we could really get started,” Jace said with a shrug.

“Well if you didn’t get to finish your deal, where’s the necklace?”

Izzy winced and gave him a sheepish smile. “Magnus wanted to see the necklace to prove it was the real deal,” Izzy said.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So we not only didn’t get Clary’s memories back, but we also lost our only bargaining chip.”

“Hey, we can still talk to the guy,” Jace retorted, crossing his arms. “I doubt Magnus is going to just call our deal null before we get a chance to settle something.”

“And how do you plan to find him? He fled with the other warlocks.” And my soulmate, Alec wanted to say but held himself back. It wasn’t the right time to bring it up, especially if he was just getting his hopes up.

Jace shot him a mischievous grin and held up a button. “Lucky for us we can track him.” He motioned his hand over at Alec. “Come on, we’re going to have to use parabatai tracking to find him.”

Alec rolled his eyes but walked over and held his hand out for Jace to draw the rune before they clasped hands. He closed his eyes and concentrated on searching for Magnus’ location.

Near instantly, he felt the same tingling from his soulmark as before and felt almost giddy that tracking Magnus seemed to be what he needed to do to find his soulmate. All too soon Jace pulled away and the feeling vanished once more.

But he knew that he was going to have another chance to meet his soulmate. Whoever they were.

Fighting off the Circle members that had invaded the warehouse went about the same as any mission. Alec focused on saving anyone he could, firing arrow after arrow to take them down as he moved further into the building. And if he happened to be following the way his soulmark was trying to draw him, he didn’t have to admit that to anyone. Nothing was going to prevent him from finding his soulmate, not this time.

As he climbed up the stairs he came across a single man firing spells at the Circle members around him. It was magical to see a warlock in action, especially since he hadn’t seen many of the others he’d come across fighting. The man was almost unearthly in his grace and his magic just seemed to be an extension of his body. Which he supposed it was for warlocks.

He was almost so enraptured that he didn’t notice the Circle member coming up from the warlock’s blind spot, but he quickly fired an arrow to take care of the man at the same time the warlock took down the last of his opponents.

The warlock turned around to face him and Alec felt his breath hitch. He had always wondered what it’d be like to finally meet his soulmate, what the moment would feel like when they’d meet eyes, but all those wondering thoughts paled in comparison. As his eyes met the other man’s he felt like his world disappeared and his heart was caught in a mini supernova of longing and love. He felt warm and light like he’d sprouted the wings of his angelic heritage that had given him his marks.

And his marks, oh his marks. The tingling had settled into a pleasant buzz against his skin. He chanced a glance down at them and couldn’t fight the delighted smile that settled on his face when he saw that the blue swirls were making themselves into hearts before returning to their nonsensical pattern.

He turned his attention back to the warlock in front of him, the smile still firmly on his face. He recognized the face from the photos he’d seen earlier, but those pictures couldn’t do justice to the beauty that was Magnus Bane.

“Who are you?” Magnus asked, with a flirtatious air.

Alec felt his words flee at being addressed by his soulmate. His soulmate… He never thought he would get to find them. He must have been staring for too long because Magnus walked over to him. Maybe it should have been nerve racking to be so close to your soulmate, but all Alec felt was bliss as Magnus drew closer and closer.

He needed to say something, anything. “You’re beautiful,” Alec said softly. He hadn’t meant to say that, he’d meant to introduce himself like a normal person.

Magnus seemed to preen at the comment though, so Alec counted it as a win. “Well, aren’t you a charmer,” Magnus said with a smile of his own.

“I’m A-Alec.”

“Short for Alexander, I presume.”

Alec nodded his head. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Did Magnus know Alec was his soulmate? Was their bond just one-way? Would Magnus even care if Alec was his soulmate? All these questions kept running through his mind and he couldn’t concentrate. He didn’t know what to do. So he did the first thing that came to mind: he held out his hand.

Magnus stared at Alec’s hand with detached interest before clasping their hands together. Their hands fit perfectly together and they both watched in awe as Alec’s soulmark started to glow. Magnus Bane really was his soulmate.

Magnus let go of Alec’s hand and stared as his magic seemed to cling to the glowing marks. He let out a breathless little ‘oh,’ and looked back at Alec.

Neither said a word, as if believing if they tried to talk they’d break this wondrous moment. But Alec couldn’t stop himself for long.

“I’ve waited for you my whole life,” He said, smiling at the other man. “From the very moment I found out about soulmates I’ve been waiting to meet you.” Feeling daring, he reached his hand out to cup Magnus’s cheek, rubbing his thumb lightly over a highlighted cheekbone. “You’re just as perfect as I imagined.” He shook his head, “No even more than I imagined.”

Magnus eyes looked glassy and he blinked his eyes to try and prevent the tears from falling. “I never dreamed I would get a soulmate,” he whispered. “Warlocks don’t get marks or anything of the sort telling us we have a soulmate, it’s just a feeling or a pull from our magic. Most don’t even dare to dream that even that is true.”

Magnus brought his own hand up to cup Alec’s neck and Alec leant into the touch. “We live long lives and thinking about missing our soulmates or losing them to time… I never bothered to look.”

Alec’s heart ached at the admission but he didn’t hold it against Magnus. “Good thing I bothered to look for the both of us.”

Magnus gave a watery chuckle. “A very good thing indeed.”

“And… are you disappointed?”

The warlock furrowed his brows and gave Alec a quick once over. “Surprised, that you’re a Shadowhunter, but disappointed?” Magnus smiled at him. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be disappointed to have you, Alexander.”

He knew that they couldn’t stay in their own little world for much longer but Alec felt like he could stay in this moment happily for the rest of his life. He knew they were going to have to talk about a lot of things and their relationship probably wouldn’t be smooth sailing, but Raziel if Alec thought it would all be worth it. Because Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn, was his soulmate.

And Magnus would always be worth it.

Alec walked into their apartment with a happy smile as he took in the sight in-front of him. Little Max was creating little bubbles out of thin air while Magnus praised his use of magic. Their little blueberry was getting better with his magic every day.

Magnus turned his attention away from Max when he heard Alec set his bow down beside the door. “Look blueberry, Daddy’s home!” Magnus said, swooping their son up into his arms and making his way over to Alec.

The swirls of blue on Alec’s arms glowed softly before turning back to their glittery glory as Alec wrapped them both in his arms. “I’m home,” Alec sighed with a pleased hum. He reluctantly pulled away but it seemed Max had other ideas as he refused to let go of Alec’s shirt. “Hi Max, has Papa been teaching you more magic?”

Max giggled, nodding his head and babbling at him. He had learned a few words, but he wouldn’t start making clear sentences for a little while longer.

Alec grinned and looked at Magnus with a soft look. His husband was beautiful as ever, his tailored trousers following the long line of his legs and the plunging neckline of his shirt leaving little to the imagination. The assortment of necklaces had been exchanged for a thick cord of leather that sat a little below his collarbones and held the arrowhead Alec had given Magnus all those years ago.

“Rafe’s not with you?” Magnus asked, adjusting his hold on Max.

Alec shook his head. “He wanted to hang out with his Uncle Jace for a while, but he’ll be home in an hour or two.”

Magnus sighed, throwing his head back. “Oh Alexander, whatever shall we do? One of our son’s already doesn’t want to hang out with us.”

He snorted and bumped Magnus playfully. “Nah, he still loves us just as much as he always has.” He leaned over and pressed his lips against Magnus’s, relishing in the buzz of perfection that radiated through him. He ended their chaste kiss to lean his forehead against Magnus’s. “I love you,” he whispered.

Magnus smiled that wonderful smile that made the corners of his eyes wrinkle ever so slightly. “I love you too.”

Alec would’ve gone in for another kiss if Max hadn’t gotten impatient and started making bubbles appear between them. Alec stared wide-eyed at Magnus through the gathering of bubbles and couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Magnus was quick to join him, his head thrown back joyously.

He leaned down to Max and started planting kisses all over his son’s face. Max clapped his hands happily giving Alec his own version of a kiss on his cheek.

He never thought that having a soulmate would lead to this life he had, but he was right.

Loving Magnus Lightwood-Bane would always be worth it.

#Secretphilosopherwitch #malecsanta19 #*fics19 #*gifts19

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