"-and that's when Lydia walked down the aisle and she looked gorgeous, I mean, so beautiful. I never thought I'd find tattoos that attractive, a bit too badass for me I guess, but then again she's a badass so it works. And well, I'm a bit of a badass now too," Simon rambled, smile effervescent.
That drew a chuckle from him. "You? A badass? Dios! I really need to teach you more if you think you're even close to that," Raphael said, grin not as bright as Simon's, but not dour or contemptuous like usual.
Simon faltered, if only for a moment, before driving forward with his tale. "Well anyway, so then they're right about to perform the ceremony, which by the way did you know Shadowhunters use runes to mark themselves as married instead of rings?"
"Yes I did."
"Well so they were right about to do that when who shows up but Magnus!"
Now that surprised him. "Magnus? Magnus Bane was at a Shadowhunter wedding? Magnus Bane interrupted a Shadowhunter wedding?" He was not so startled to leave his mouth hanging open like an imbecile, but his eyebrows arched upwards in a steady climb.
The newly turned vampire nodded, forging ahead once more. "So he shows up and Maryse, that's Alec's mom, tries to get him to leave but he's all 'no, this is between me and your son,'" Simon relates, imitating Magnus' voice very poorly as Raphael's eyebrows continue their ascent. "Then Alec steps off the little dais, thing, whatever, and he starts marching down the aisle. And then... And then..."
"And then what?" Raphael snapped, a bit too caught up in Simon's ridiculous yet vivacious retelling.
"And then Alec grabbed Magnus by his lapels and pulled him into this kiss! I mean, this wasn't your run of the mill kiss. This was a full on, 'forbidden love sees the light of day, ending of the love story, could have started raining just over them and I would not have been surprised because it'd fit the entire aesthetic' kind of kiss."
"No he didn't. A Shadowhunter, especially a male Shadowhunter, leaving his fiancé at the altar for a Downworlder? And Magnus Bane no less? No, eres un mentiroso," he said dismissively, turning away.
"I'm not lying! It totally happened! It was just like that movie the graduate! You know wi-"
"I know of the movie. Unlike you, I was actually alive when it came out," he sneered, but there was a lightness to it that tempered the expression.
Simon sighed, leaning against the bar, looking at the millions of tiny reflections dancing of each glass, glancing towards the back wall before reverberating back in a dizzying display. "It really happened! It was amazing! I-" Simon paused, straightening up, "See Alec was over here, and pretend you're Magnus."
"Me? Magnus Bane? I can be a bit over the top, but I could never match the spectacle that is that man," Raphael stated calmly, pointing a finger at him as he eyed Simon. The other man was currently squaring his shoulders, seeming to take on the posture of someone with a stick up their ass.
"Alright so Alec's here, and he starts marching down the aisle, all somber. And Maryse, she comes up and he totally blows her off and he comes over to Magnus," Simon mimics the gesture, moving towards Raphael, and if his heart still beat he'd think it might flutter at the way he was being looked at. "And then he grabbed him like this and..." Simon gripped the lapels and tugged Raphael forward, catching his lips in a steamy embrace. Vampires tend to run cold, but for a fleeting moment Raphael felt warm all over.
As Simon leaned back, Raphael's lips chased the kiss, the tender caress and Simon said something about Raphael mirroring Magnus perfectly, but he paid it no mind. Without preamble he pushed forward, capturing Simon's lips between his own and, though the other seemed a bit surprised, he met no resistance. For immortals, years are but the tick of the a clock, save for this one moment, which felt incased in amber, stored and preserved for centuries like the greatest treasures of the clan. When they finally broke, not for air as it was unneeded, but for confirmation this was real, Raphael smiled.
Simon looked as if he might blush despite his body's inability to do so and he raised his hand to his neck, stuttering a bit as he tried to speak. He replies seemed to die in his throat or get lost in a jumble behind his fangs and Raphael only had to take a finger and prick it on one for the fledgling's eyes to glaze over.
"It is untoward for a vampire to feed on another for sustenance. We are predators not prey, however there are certain... Properties to our bites, to the sharing of blood between one another, that can be, I'm told, immensely pleasurable." Raphael sucked his finger into his own mouth, the tang of his own coppery blood washing over him for a moment before the cut healed itself.
"R-really?" Simon stammered, fangs now fully bared. Raphael now realized what that lingering emotion he'd not been able to place the last time the fledgling had popped fang in front of him was; attraction.
"Come, follow me. There is plenty more for you to learn about our kind, some things even I have not experienced... Yet." Raphael took Simon's hand, leading him deeper into the hotel, into his bed, and maybe, eventually, into his heart.
Wake the Dead
Start from the beginning
