It was the day of Magnus and Alec's meeting with Vanessa and the two of them were in Wayland Manor. Magnus was slouched in an armchair whilst Alec paced frantically around the house.
"Alec, for gods sake, settle down. You're making me nervous." Magnus said. He had a glass of water in his hand and one foot up on the chair.
"I can't calm down Magnus. This could be our only chance." Alec said quickly. Magnus grabbed onto his shirt as he walked past and pulled him into his lap. Then he gently kissed his neck.
"Calm down." Magnus whispered in his ear. Alec had on his Shadowhunter gear and had marked a couple of runes onto his arms. He also had with him his favourite bow, a quiver of arrows and two seraph blades. Magnus was in his usual colourful and sparkly attire. He'd left his contact lenses out but his eyes we're still human. He wouldn't shift them into a cats eyes until is was necessary. They'd done everything that Vanessa had asked of them but even the knowledge of that wasn't enough to calm Alec's racing heart.
"What if she doesn't like us..? What if she says no..?" Alec asked.
"Stop thinking of the worst possible scenarios and drink some water." Magnus said as he thrust the glass he was holding into Alec's hand. Magnus gently rubbed Alec's stomach.
"Then it happens. We can't control the future, but we sure as hell can control the present." The two of them sat together silently, waiting for Vanessa to make her appearance.
They'd been there for almost an hour before they heard the front door finally open.
"Hello?" Called a female voice. "Is anyone here?" Alec shot to his feet but before he got two feet away from Magnus he found himself trapped.
"Calm. Down." Magnus said quietly with a stern edge to his voice. Then he called out. "In here." Moments later a petite woman stepped into the room and looked at Magnus and Alec. Magnus smiled at her. "Vanessa, I assume? I am Magnus Bane and this is Alexander Lightwood." Vanessa bowed her head slightly.
"Yes I am Vanessa. It's a pleasure Mr. Bane and Mr. Lightwood."
"Please, call me Magnus."
"As you wish, Magnus." Alec was frozen with dread until Magnus dug his elbow into his ribcage.
"Um... Would you like to sit down? I can get you a drink or something if you want..." Alec said hesitantly.
"I will take a seat but a drink is not necessary." Vanessa said as she sat down in one of the numerous chairs around the room. "May I ask, is there something wrong with you?" Magnus decided to step in before Alec made a fool of himself.
"Please excuse him, he's quite anxious and has not been well over the past few weeks. I assure you he's on the mend." Magnus explained. Vanessa nodded slightly. She looked at Alec and studied him for a few minutes. To Magnus' surprise, Alec met her gaze but didn't back down.
"I can see clearly that you've marked yourself and gone out of your way to wear your gear. Have you by chance brought any kind of weaponry?" Vanessa asked directly to Alec. Alec nodded briefly.
"I brought my bow, some arrows and two seraph blades." Alec replied. Magnus could see that he was forcing himself to stay calm.
"Do you have your stele?" She asked. Alec dug into his pocket and produced his stele, holding it in his hand so that she could clearly see it. "Excellent. I want you to draw a rune of strength on your right bicep." Alec held the stele in his left hand and began to carve the rune into his arm. Once he had finished, he showed Vanessa the end result as proof. Vanessa then turned her gaze to Magnus who had taken a seat.
"So Vanessa." Magnus said nonchalantly. "When was the last time you met a warlock as fabulous as me?"
"Never. Now, my second request was that you show your differences. Yet I see no difference upon you. Are you choosing not to obey my request?" Vanessa challenged.
"Of course not. For my difference is not an obvious one unless you look close enough." Vanessa raised an eyebrow and glanced over him.
"I see no difference."
"Darling, if you would look at my eyes then it will become clear." Magnus said. Vanessa met his eyes and watched as he made them shift from a humans, to a cats and then back again.
"Interesting." Vanessa said. Magnus glanced up at Alec and saw him standing as still as a statue. He then grabbed onto his arm and pulled him down onto the chair. Alec leaned against Magnus and tried to keep his eyes away from Vanessa. Magnus smiled and put his arms around Alec. "You two are good together." Vanessa mused. "Do you ever fight?"
"No." Alec said quickly.
"Oh Alexander don't lie. Yes, we do fight. But what couple doesn't? We've been together for several years and we've occasionally fought in that time, but we've always made up." Magnus said. Vanessa pondered over the thought for a few minutes.
"Have you two ever split up because of a fight?"
"Yes." Said Alec and Magnus together.
"It was the last time we fought but it was blown way out of proportion." Alec explained. "Once we'd settled down and talked about it we realised that it had been a ridiculous and pointless fight. We also realised that we hate being apart from one another." Vanessa nodded in understanding.
"Well I'm glad you sorted it out. Now finally, what preparations have you been making for the possibility of having a child?"
With that question, Magnus burst into a long winded explanation of what they'd been doing. Beginning with Alec bringing home the baby clothes several weeks prior to sending the letter and up to the day before the meeting.
Since they had received the letter, Magnus and Alec had become very busy with preparing one of Magnus' spare rooms. With Alec being ill over the period of time that they had been designated, a lot of the decorating a preparation had been left for Magnus to do. Not that he'd minded though. Alec had been helpful in his own way, despite the fact that he hadn't been able to get out of bed for several days. The day after they had received the letter, Magnus and Alec had had a very long discussion about the babies room. What colour it should be, what they should put in it, what toys and other things they should buy. In the end they had settled on painting the room neutral colours, with a cot and a changing area and a mobile above the cot. They had decided to go shopping in order to decide what toys and things they should get as they didn't know what would be available. Magnus had instantly gone out and bought some cream coloured paint that allowed for alteration if they got the baby. He had spent three days painting and repainting the room until it was perfect. Alec had helped in small amounts by sitting on the floor and painting the lower areas. By the end of it, both of them had clothes that were covered in paint.
After they had finally finished the painting, Alec had taken a turn for the worse which meant the progress was brought to a grinding halt. Magnus had prioritised Alec's well being over the preparations, desperate Alec's protesting.
"Alec, listen to me." Magnus had said. "I want you to get better. You're very sick and I want you to be okay. I'm going to help you, whether you want it or not. I can't focus on the preparations when I know that you need me by your side." Alec had rolled his eyes and then cuddled up to Magnus on the bed. It had taken three days for him to recover enough for them to do anything and the day after he'd finally been able to get up they'd gone shopping. Magnus took it very slow and didn't push Alec into walking too quickly. Instead they took their time and considered every possibility they could. In the end they had bought a cot with neutral colours, a changing table and some nappies, and two dummies. They had been just about to pay for it all when Alec saw the baby clothes. When Magnus finally realised that Alec was no longer beside him, Alec was flicking through the clothes with a smile on his face.
"Magnus look. They're so tiny." Magnus smiled and looked through the clothes with him. They'd ended up buying several onesies and blankets and a couple of soft teddies along with everything else they'd decided on. After they'd finally gotten back to the apartment with it all, they were dumped with the task of trying to put the cot together as well as the changing table. The changing table was easy to do, but they struggled when it came to the cot. Magnus had refused to use magic on it so they were sitting there for hours trying to put it together. Once they had finally managed, they put it into the decided place, hung all the clothes up in the wardrobe that was already in the room and put the teddies in a chest. The day before the meeting, they had put the final few touches into the room. There was a playgym in the room and also another in the living room and a third in Magnus and Alec's bedroom, they had a bouncer and had gotten a high chair for the kitchen. They had bought a pram and bottles and everything else that they could possibly need.
Once Magnus finished telling Vanessa everything that they'd done in preparation, she looked at them with disbelief.
"You really did all of that?" She asked. Magnus nodded.
"Yes. It was hard with Alec being so ill but we managed. Here's a picture to prove that we did what we say we did." Magnus passed the picture to Vanessa. It was a picture of the room and Alec curled up asleep on the floor.
"Why are you asleep on the floor?" Vanessa asked Alec who shrugged.
"It's a comfy floor and I was tired." Alec said. Vanessa passed the picture back.
"Are you still sick?"
"Yes. But not nearly as bad as I was. I can actually keep food down now though I do have quite a bad headache."
"Okay. Well, I can tell that you two are desperate. No-one else I've seen about this are half as enthusiastic as you two. You have perseverance as you proved with the cot and I believe that you won't use magic to complete small tasks." Magnus bit his lip, he had an uneasy feeling building in his stomach.
"Are you saying we have a chance?" Alec asked.
"I still have more people to see about this. But you two have made a good impression and I'd be happy to hand my baby over to you. I will let you know the final decision within the month. Until then, Alexander I hope you get better and Magnus I wish you all the best." Vanessa then rose from her seat and began to leave.
"All the best to you Vanessa. I hope your pregnancy and birth goes well and if you don't choose us then I hope your baby goes to a good family." Magnus said and Vanessa could tell that he meant every word.
"Have a safe trip Vanessa. It's been a pleasure meeting you and I hope everything goes well." Alec said.
"You will hear from me soon about whether or not my baby will be yours. I wish you the best of luck as I can tell that you will be good for my baby." Vanessa said before she walked out the door. Magnus felt Alec's tense muscles relax as soon as she left.
"Tired..." Alec said as he buried his head against Magnus.
"I know baby. Let's get you home and into our nice warm bed." Magnus said as he stood up with Alec in his arms.