This is part 1 of 4 of a Malec mini series I'd like to call Four Seasons. Each part we'll see Magnus and Alec's journey through life together and their struggles and accomplishments in their relationship. Told in Magnus' pov. Enjoy
It was spring time when I proposed to Alec. The trees were beginning to bloom again, the birds were returning from their southern vacation and school had started up again for the mundane children. Max would be starting school soon. I would be home schooling him. Alec would be schooling Raphael.
Naturally, Alec was thrilled when I asked him to marry me. The boys were with us at the time and they both squealed with joy as Alec and I kissed. Raphael was 9. Max was 7. Both were as thick as thieves and you'd never find one of them too far away from the other. Family doesn't end in blood, as the saying goes.
The real pain of it all is getting ready for the wedding. I say this because I'm not a Shadowhunter. Traditionally, when two Shadowhunters get married they exchange the wedded rune, placing one on their partner's skin. Runes on my skin would kill me. Or I'd go insane. Worst case scenario is that my body would burn to death as soon as the stele is placed on my skin. Nothing says "I do" more than setting your husband on fire at the altar.
"We'll find a way," Alec had told me. "We always do."
Alec didn't used to be this optimistic. It was only when we started dating that he began to see the brighter side of things. He claims that I opened his eyes to the world around him, whereas I claimed he unlocked something in me. Having trust issues for so many centuries kind of leaves you living a lonely and secluded life. Until the right person comes along, that is. You can throw as many parties as you like and own as many clubs as you want but nothing can ever replace the emptiness in your heart.
And that's where Alexander came in.
The night he and his posse of Nephilim came into my club looking for information about a mundane girl's blocked memories was the first day of the beginning of the rest of my life. Alec had shot a circle member with his bow and arrows from a great distance in my club, and his confidence with his weapons and skill was what attracted me to him the most. Granted, at the time I didn't know that he wasn't fully "out" when I began to lay down my warlock charm and he shied away from it. I just thought he was playing hard to get.
You see, demons are assholes. To be completely blunt with you, demons are the assholes of the other dimension. They will use every weakness they can against you and make you confront your greatest fears and darkest thoughts. Sometimes they'll even expose your deepest secret. This particular demon that these Shadowhunters had me summon did just that. We each needed to sacrifice a memory of the one we loved most. Alec's just so happened to be of Jace, his parabatai.
Jace, of course, as stupid as he is, had absolutely no idea what the true meaning of Alec's memory was. I knew immediately. The boy loved his parabatai in ways that was strictly forbidden in their world. Homosexuality is a big no-no. Falling in love with your parabatai is an even bigger no-no. It results in the removal of marks and the boot from the Shadowhunter world. You're basically shunned and forced to live the rest of your life as a mundane.
I didn't want that for Alec. Not only is being gay frowned upon, falling in love with a Downworlder is just downright preposterous. He wasn't okay with who he was when we first began to talk a little bit, but eventually I got him to open up and see the world a little differently. I thought for sure I had changed his mind and he was okay with being gay.
Until he told me he was getting married. To a girl.
"It's tradition. I'm keeping the Lightwood name alive. Reviving it," he had told me.
Yes but do you love her? I wanted to scream at him at the time. I hated seeing him being forced into something that he didn't want to do but this is classic Alec. Always putting others first before himself. This is who he was. This is who he will always be.
"You should marry for love. Not because you think you're doing the right thing," I said to him.
"Sometimes you don't have a choice."
I lost a lot of sleep the next few days while waiting for that damned wedding. Imagine my surprise when his younger sister Isabelle shows up at my door with a wedding invitation in her hands, telling me "You know what to do" and then walking away in those death trap of a pair of high heels she wears all the time.
So then I pondered to myself (and with the maybe not so dead Ragnor Fell) whether or not I should go to the wedding. In his own unusual way, Ragnor was a big help. He basically told me to get up off my ass and go for what I wanted in life. In this case, I wanted Alec.
Amazingly I got there just in time. Lydia Branwell (whose ancestor I knew all too well. The scatterbrain Henry Branwell) was about to place the wedded rune on Alec's wrist when I waltzed in through the door. Maryse went nuts, demanding to know why I was there and who invited me. Isabelle said nothing, the sneaky minx.
Alec, on the other hand, stared at me from the altar in awe and in shock as I looked up at him. He was struggling to breathe, I knew that much. So was I. He looked incredibly gorgeous in the gold suit he was wearing. How could he not? He was Adonis. Maryse was the boar. Lydia was Aphrodite. I was Persephone. But instead of spending the summer with Lydia and the winter with me, I wanted him twelve months of the year. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I wanted him to be with me.
I was blessed by the Angel that day. By some trick of fate, Alec defied his parent's orders. That young man who used to follow all the rules and played it safe with life decided to walk straight down the aisle, tell his mother off in front of a crowd of people, grab me by the collar and kiss me. Like actually kiss me.
Even the fiery pits of Hell itself wasn't as nearly as hot as the passion and sparks that surged between us. Alec pulled away momentarily to look into my eyes before going in for another kiss. Another kiss. As if one wasn't enough, he had to go for another. At that moment I wasn't sure if my heart was beating really fast or if I was swelling with pride. Probably both.
He wasn't quite the same after that. Not in a bad way, though. Alec changed in the most beautiful way possible. It was like he was given a new outlook on life as well as a new purpose. He suddenly became an advocate for Shadowhunters who were struggling with their sexuality and it was the most beautiful thing my centuries old eyes had ever seen.
After everything we had been through, our ups and our downs, battles and wars, struggles and fights, my biggest accomplishment thus far had been taking in Max. Our special little blueberry who was abandoned by his family after discovering what he was (a warlock like myself).
It was Alec who had found him on the street one day. A small toddler huddled under a piece of cardboard in an alleyway. Alec shone the flashlight on him and Max's skin shone a deep blue color. Like a blueberry. Hence his nickname.
"Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you," Alec whispered, crouching down and holding out a hand to the boy.
Immediately, and I was there at the time this happened, Max raced out from under his little cardboard home. I thought for sure he was trying to make a run for it so I braced myself in case I needed to catch him. But that wasn't so.
Max raced out of his cardboard home and ran straight into Alec's arms, clinging onto him for dear life.
Alec had a look of surprise on his face as he slowly wrapped his own arms around the child. Max, still clinging to him, hummed with content and began to suck his thumb as he cuddled into Alec.
"That's it. We're taking him home with us," Alec said.
"The Clave won't allow it. He's a Downworlder. They'll try to take him from us," I whispered to him.
Alec glared at me. "I'd like to see them try. I'll kill every single one of them who tries to take him away from us."
So that was that. The little boy came back to the institute with us. We named him Max after Alec's deceased little brother. He took pretty quickly to his new home, always racing down the hall on his two chubby legs, laughing when Alec pretended to chase him and when he threw Max up in the air, causing him to squeal with delight. His laughter filled the halls of the institute and our apartment and there wasn't a thing in the world that we'd trade those moments for.
That's when Rafael came in. Alec made a trip to Buenos Aires to help clean up the remainder of the destruction that Sebastian left behind, and that's when he came across a small orphaned 5 year old boy who was living on the streets and stealing food from mundanes. He was screaming something about monsters when Alec finally managed to catch him (I was told he was very fast). Alec knew immediately that the boy was of Shadowhunter blood. We just didn't know which family he belonged to. We still don't know to this very day.
Naturally, Alec brought the boy home with him and named him Rafael after an old friend of mine. Rafael wasn't as calm as Max was when he first arrived at the institute. He was skittish and every sound made him flinch. He stayed mostly to himself and away from people. If they tried to approach him, he'd run away and hide somewhere.
Max, on the other hand, was the only person he didn't run from.
As soon as Max saw Rafael when he and Alec returned through a portal, he came racing over with his toy blocks in his hands. He smiled at Rafael, who stayed hidden behind Alec's back and clutching at Alec's pant leg.
"Papa?" Max pointed at Rafael. "Mm?"
Alec smiled. "Max. This is Rafael. He's going to be your big brother. How do you like that? You have someone to play with!"
Max giggled at this, holding out a block to Rafael. "Play?" He asked in his sweet little innocent voice.
I had been watching closely at the kids when this happened. Rafael stared at the block first before slowly reaching out to take it. Max grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along towards the playroom and in no time at all, Alec and I heard giggles and laughter coming from the room.
"That was fast," I chuckled as the giggles and the crashing of blocks grew louder.
"What did you expect? It's Max we're talking about," Alec smiled at me, planting a gentle kiss on my lips.
Spring was also the season when Rafael asked me why his brother was blue.
"Blue like sad or blue like the color?" I asked him. We were outside planting flowers in the front yard for arts and crafts. Max was much too busy making mud castles to be paying attention to the conversation Rafe and I were having.
"His skin. It's blue. How come?" Rafe asked again.
I sighed. "Well Raphy....Max isn't a Shadowhunter like you are. He's a warlock like me. You know how papa has his golden eyes, right?" Rafael nodded attentively. "Well, Max's special gift is his blue skin. That's what makes him special."
Rafael looked over his shoulder then at his little brother. "Does it hurt him? Having blue skin?"
"Of course not. Look how happy he is!" I laughed when Max slapped a handful of mud on his face.
Rafael smiled. "But will people hurt him because of his gift?"
This threw me off. I wasn't expecting to be having such a deep conversation with a 6 year old about his little brother's skin color. It was touching but at the same time, it made me nervous. I never knew what to expect with Rafael. Max was an open book. Rafael wasn't.
"Some people might try," was all I could say. What could I say? Rafe was 5. Almost 6. I couldn't really have an adult conversation with him about discrimination and racism.
Rafael nodded. "I'll protect him, papa. No one's gonna hurt my brother."
I watched him in complete awe as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and went over to Max and wiped Max's muddy face off with it.
Spring was the season of new possibilities and new beginnings. A lot of things happened in the season of Spring. I had two kids, I was getting married, my school for wayward warlocks was a growing success (more on that later) and life couldn't get any better than it already was. The life I thought I could never have was actually becoming a very real possibility for me. I wanted this life just as much as Alec did, and I'll fight anyone who tried to come along and take it away from me.
I'll fight every last one of them.