Chapter Text
Max's Eulogy:
“I don’t remember much about being a baby, but I know that I loved it. I had the best life, with the best parents, and the rest of my family would visit our house many times just to tell me how great I was. I even managed to get a few smiles out of Ragnor, who's basically the most difficult person to get a smile from.”
"I wasn’t unhappy, or unsatisfied. There weren’t many other things that I wanted. But I wanted a brother, and I think it’s because the universe knew that I was meant to have one. You were out there, just waiting for the time to be right and for us to come find you. My heart knew that I needed you, and that you were meant to be ours. I asked for a brother on the day our dad left for Buenos Aires, and he came back with you. Not only did I get what I’d wanted, but I got the best possible version of it.”
“Rafa… Rafael. I don’t think there’ll ever be a time when I’m ready to lose you. I’ll never be ready for that. We had so many conversations about this, we prepared for it, and I let you try because I knew how much you wanted me to be okay. But I’m never going to be okay without you. I’ll try, for you, but please don’t be mad at me if it doesn’t work out. Asking me to be okay without you is asking me to do the impossible.”
“I’ll miss you so much. I promise to never forget you, or to stop remembering how much I love you. I promise to look out for your children, and their children, and whoever else comes after them. I promise to keep being your brother, no matter how many years go by. I’ll always be your brother, Rafa, even when you’re gone. You are my favorite person.”
Things that didn't make it into the final version of this fic but that I love nonetheless:
- Max, at some point during his twenties, had looked into finding his birth mother. He didn't find anything that was of much help, but he thinks that it's because he didn't put his all into researching it. A part of him didn't actually want to find out. Alec and Magnus tried their best to keep Rafe in touch with his birth country/culture, as was mentioned in the fic, but the circumstances surrounding Max being given up and adopted by them were very different and required an entirely different approach. They talked to him about it, but Max has always refused learning more about his background. He's happy with the family that took him in and loved him.
- (This one was decided when I was still playing around with the exact time that this fic would take place, and so the characters that it involves aren't mentioned here.) It would be about one hundred years after Alec's death before another member of the Lightwood-Bane family would be given the name 'Alexander'. There may have been a small fight amongst that generation as to who would be allowed the right to give that name to their child, and once it was finally decided, Magnus was asked permission. He agreed.
- At the time that this fic is taking place, Max has someone that he's seeing in what is the first relationship he actually feels serious about. The person is a mundane, and Max is absolutely terrified to get close to them because he's afraid of loving and losing anyone else. Magnus helps him through this.
- Magnus has never been with anyone else since Alec died.