#ladswithflags

For @ladswithflags. Heyyy! Merry Christmas! Writing this was so fun, fluffy!malec supremacy! ( A little note: imagine Season1!Magnus ). Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had in writing this. 

*****

Lemon Slices and Silk Masks.

One more line.

Two more strikes.

Two more verses were written.

One more page was torn and thrown.

Writing always came naturally to Magnus. The words slipped fluently and rhymed in the way he wanted them.

After all, he was Magnus Freakin’ Bane. The lead singer and backup drummer for the band, Zoom Around the Sound.

6 hours later~

Magnus had thrown a birthday party for his cat, Chairman Meow. It was a masquerade. Nothing formal except for a mandatory mask.

He was wearing a purple tux jacket and trousers with a yellow silk button-up with only a few buttons closed. A few long necklaces hung around his neck and several thin silver rings around his fingers and knuckles. He had an arrow ear cuff on and a few studs on the other ear.

But the show stopper was his mask. Because. It wasn’t a mask at all.

Magnus had asked his make-up artist, Clary Fray, to paint an elaborate and very intricate design onto his face.

He was quite proud of the work. It had a midnight blue base with a silver and gold iridescent design. The colour seemed to shift as the light hit his face from different angles.

It spanned across his nose, curling sharply upwards and covering his forehead.

His usually spiked hair, was fluffy today. And gelled, it fell partly across his left eyebrow. The tips were highlighted in purple.

He sat on a barstool. Drinking limoncello. He usually enjoyed the crowd. To feel lost in a world of loud head-bangers and occasional hook-ups. But today he felt out of place.

When he went to the dance floor he felt as if he were watching himself across the room, alone. Out of focus. 

So, he returned. He sat near the stool and tried to feel light with a glass full of lemon sugar and vodka.

“Ugh, Izzy I’m going to leave in exactly 3 more minutes. I don’t care if this Magnus person knows we’re here or not. Not as if he’d care to notice two college students who apparently got ” invited" to his party. A masquerade party.“ A certain black jean-black shirt and leather-jacketed fellow with a silk black mask said to a sparkly black-haired girl, Izzy. She just patted him on the shoulder and walked towards the dance floor.

"So, this Magnus person would care to notice if you’d tell him your name?”, Magnus said.

Leather Jacket turned around and OH HOLY SMOKES! He had blue eyes. Blue eyes and Black hair were Magnus’s favourite combination. Magnus felt himself smile. Even though it crinkled his paint-on mask.

His celestial blue eyes were lined with black smokey eyeliner. Could he get any hotter?

“Oh, um. I am so freakin’ sorry. No offence to you or your party, which is great by the way. I just don’t like crowds and loud music.” Oh god, that voice. Magnus could die right there.

“Magnus,” he said as he smiled and extended his hand towards Blue Eyes.

“Alec.” Alec shook his hands and stared at his drink.

“Is it good? I’m not much of a drinker.”

“Yeah, it is actually. It’s one of my favourites. Can I get you one?”

“Sure,”

Magnus ordered one for Alec and turned back to the boy in the silk mask.

“So, Alec, what do you do except not like crowds and loud music?”

“ I am a senior college student with a major in Psychology and Mass Communication. ”

“ Oh, fancy! I’m just in a band,”

“ You say that as if it’s not what you thought it would be like?”

“Well, sometimes it feels too overwhelming. The sounds, the fame, the media,” said Magnus. And he continued,“ Sometimes it’s suffocating. Like tonight. I was so excited about this. I planned it for weeks. But now it feels like this place is filled with people I don’t know or people who don’t care about me. Talking to you has been the highlight of my evening, ”

“Oh,”

“Was she your girlfriend?”

“Who? Isabelle? No. Nah, she’s my sister,”

Perfect.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” Magnus raised an eyebrow.

“Nope.”

“Boyfriend…?” He asked with a tiny smirk.

“Yeah, nope. No one.”

Even better.  Magnus broke out into a grin.

Magnus stood up from his chair and extended his hands, “I am not vibing here and you don’t like crowds. What do you say, we leave?”

“But it’s your party,”

“No one’s going to notice as you said.”

And Alec smiled. “Okay,” he said and nodded. They took their woollen coats from the coat rack, Magnus wore a pair of gloves and Alec wrapped a baby blue scarf around his neck. He clasped hands with Magnus and they walked out of the club, away from the buzzing sound of churning people and loud music.

And that was when Magnus noticed the tattoo on the other boy’s neck. “What’s that tattoo?”

“Oh. One night I got drunk and accidentally ended up at a tattoo parlour. My sister, Izzy, convinced me to get this. It’s called a Deflect Rune. In some script it stands for deflecting negative vibes and aura and stuff.”

It made Alec look incredibly sexier, Magnus had no clue how that was even possible. Blue Eyes had reached maximum sexiness and yet he was getting hotter by the minute. “It looks cool,”

People always just assumed Magnus had a tattoo, or rather tattoos, considering his band and the stereotypes his job offered, but he had none. He wasn’t opposed to the idea but he had never found something meaningful enough.

It was a little chilly outside; the New Year was almost here.

They laid down under the clear sky, on the dew-covered grass. 

“That’s the Orion,” Alec said, pointing towards a constellation.

“No, it’s not.”

Alec laughed, “Yeah, I don’t know shit about stars.”

“Me neither, but that one kinda looks like a grumpy cat-face.”

“Sure it does,”

“What look!” Magnus took Alec’s hand and pointed it in a certain direction. Alec squinted.

“You know what, it actually kinda does. And that one is a butterfly. Look, there,” Alec said, a smile on his face.

Magnus burst out laughing, Alec joined. The silence that followed was calming.

“This feels so amazing.” He turned his head around to look at Alec.

Alexander looked him straight in the eye.

“People these days are just so pretentious. Partying, drinking the night away. Maintaining a media presence completely different from what they are in real life.”  Magnus looked up at the sky again, a sad little smile on his face. “This sounds just like me.”

“No. If you were pretentious, you wouldn’t be here with me. You would want to stay at the party even if you hated it there. You think you are just like those two-faced people because that’s how you’ve been shaped to portray yourself since you were a teen. How old were you when you first started this career?”

“12,”

“See, exactly my point. It might have felt fun when you were younger but people change as they grow old. Times change. It’s fine if you don’t like this anymore and it’s fine if you love this job every day even more. What matters, is that you should enjoy what you are doing.”

“I am enjoying myself here. Thank you, Alexander, for coming here with me.”

Then Alec quickly stood up and brushed the grass off. “Wanna go to 24/7 ice-cream shop? It’s just around the block,” said Alec. 

They stopped at a medicine store and Magnus got a pack of make-up wipes and when to the restroom to take off his paint-on mask. When he returned, Alec had also taken off his mask. Magnus was bombarded with the other boy’s beauty.

Some people were hot, some were cute, some were beautiful. Alexander was perfection.

They reached the shop and got a Salted Caramel for Alec and a Belgian Chocolate for Magnus and walked out. They stood near a lamp post and ate in silence; the road was almost empty.

“You’ve got a little bit on your cheek,” Alec said, tapping his own cheek lightly. They had completed the sugary delight.

Magnus tried to rub it off but couldn’t, “Help me?”

Alec leaned forward. He brushed his lips across Magnus’s cheek and licked the ice cream on his lips. Magnus turned around and captured Alec’s lips between his own.

The bells chimed, “Merry Christmas, Alexander.”

“Merry Christmas,” Alec brushed his lips again with Magnus’s, ever-so-slightly, and leaned his forehead against Magnus’s. “Is this a one-time thing, Magnus?” Alec asked, and added in a whisper, “Please say no,”

Magnus looked him in the eye, “No,”

Alec smiled, he looked like an angel. “My apartment is near here, would you like to come over for a nightcap? It’s getting chilly,”

Magnus nodded and wrapped a hand around Alec’s shoulder, Alec leaned into him, and held him close as they walked towards Alec’s house.

They both had a flushed face when they reached the flat, it had started to snow. The apartment was small, basic. It had a living room, a bedroom down the hall and a kitchen and a bathroom on either side of the hallway.

Then they sat on the couch, kissing, warming themselves up.

Alec made two cups of hot chocolate for them. They sat on either end of the couch, their legs intertwined. A warm blanket was spread over their legs.

They drank the cocoa and talked about anything to everything. Talking to Alexander felt so easy, just how he wanted his entire life to feel easy. Talking to Alexander brought Magnus newfound happiness he never knew existed. Talking to Alexander was Magnus’s new favourite activity.

Later Alec and Magnus had a debate of “No I’ll sleep on the couch,” “No you are technically a guest here” “No” “No”. Ultimately Magnus had won and Alec had made him a makeshift bed on the sofa.

Alec receded into his bedroom and peeked from the doorway, “Good night, Magnus,” he said with sleepy eyes and a sleepy smile.

“G’Night, Alexander,” replied Magnus.

***

Alec shifted slightly and dropped a kiss onto Magnus’s head and snuggled him closer. He knew his boyfriend wasn’t yet awake, so he left the bed as quietly as possible.

He wore a pair of black sweats and padded to the coffee machine and turned it on. He poured milk for the Chairman and went off to brush his teeth.

He watched the cat drink from his bowl and took out ingredients to make pancakes. He mixed them into a bowl and set it aside. In the last 4 years if he had learnt anything it was: Magnus loved fluffy pancakes. The fluffier the better.

The Chairman rubbed against his calf, so he picked him up. “Good morning,” he whispered to their cat and scratched his head.

“Good morning,” said the voice he loved the most.

“Good morning,” he smiled. “Did I wake you up?”

“No such thing,” Magnus said and walked towards him and ran his fingers through the Chairman’s fur.

Alec leaned forward and kissed him. It would seem that the years would have changed the way it felt to kiss Magnus but every time it was an explosion of fireworks through his entire body. Magnus pulled away and bopped his nose with his own.

“Let’s drink in the balcony,” Magnus announced as he took both the coffee filled cups from the machine. Music poured through the loft from Magnus’s morning playlist. It had a few hundred songs, repetition was not an issue to worry about.

Magnus had started liking his job again after he met Alec. He had fired his old manager and Alec had found him a new one, Jace Herondale. He was a classmate of Alec at NYU and he seemed to understand Magnus, his style and his tastes. He was perfect for the job.

They drank while enjoying the view of early morning New York City from Brooklyn. Later, when Magnus went to take a shower, Alec quickly made the pancakes, stacked them and drizzled them with caramel syrup.

He arranged a tray with the plate of pancakes, a small candle and something he had made.

It was a shot glass wrapped with a mini black silk mask. The mask was painted on the left side with a silver and gold design, the one he had loved so much. He had contacted Clary, one of his good friends and Magnus’s make-up artist, to help him get the design right.

A dried lemon slice was stuck over the knot of the mask, behind the glass. The glass was filled with pebbles and on it sat a ring.

It was a ring made of intertwined silver and gold wires. It looked gorgeous. He hoped Magnus would think the same.

Magnus came out of their bedroom, dressed in a pair of high waisted maroon trousers and a V-necked khadi white button-up. His wet hair made the fabric on his shoulder translucent; Alec blushed a little.

Magnus sat on a stool and propped his elbows onto the island counter. Alec lit the candle and turned around with the tray in his hands.

“Surprise,” he whispered as he placed the tray on the counter.

Magnus’s head snapped up in realisation. Alec had come around the counter and knelt in front of him. He took his hands in his own.

“Words about love don’t come to me easily, you know that better than anyone.” Alec licked his dry lips and continued. “The love I have for you is a love that knows no bounds. I have loved you since the moment you first showed me the Grumpy Cat and I want to stick around for all the goofy things you have to show me. For the things, we will share in the future. You have made me the happiest I’ve ever been, my life has changed completely and I cannot imagine a moment with you. A future without you.”

Magnus’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

“I want to scream out how much I love you and how much you mean to me and my little heart to the entire world. I want every single person I come across to know that my heart belongs to you, and yours to mine. Marry me and make my dream come true?”

“Yes,” Magnus said, “YES YES YES YES”. He pulled Alec up and hugged him. He twirled them around and dropped kisses on his face. That was when he realised, he had been crying too.

Magnus dropped him and Alec took the ring out.

“Wait,” Magnus said and ran off to the guest bedroom.

He came back with a small black velvet box and pulled the ring out.

“I got this last weekend and planned on proposing tonight. You beat me!” Magnus chuckled.

It was a simple ring with white gold and gold bands parallelly placed.

Alec slid the ring onto Magnus’s left finger and extended his own hand. Magnus slid the ring on.

“Well, hello there, fiancé!”, Alec exclaimed, once he sat down on the stool.

“Hello you, fiancé.” Magnus had the biggest smile. “And look at this!”, he pointed at the shot-glass Alec had modified as he sat back down on a stool. “It’s gorgeous, darling.”

“Aku cinta kamu, sayang,” said Alec.

I love you, my dear,

Magnus’s head turned sharply at that and he smiled his brilliant smile, “Now, aren’t you filled with surprises today?”

Magnus leaned his forehead against Alec’s, his eyes were sparkling more than the glitter he loved so much. “Aku cinta kamu, Alexander,” he said and kissed Alec.

(a little amateur aesthetic board for the story)