Chapter Text
Alec
“You are cheating,” Jace said, glaring at Alec, although he was swaying slightly in place, which rather ruined the effect. “Both of you. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but it’s cheating.”
Alec raised a nonchalant eyebrow at him. “Perhaps Magnus and I are simply better at charades than you are.”
We kinda are cheating, though, Magnus observed in his head. I don’t think magical mental communication is permitted.
The rules don’t say it’s not allowed, Alec returned, hiding a smirk behind his glass. And you gotta admit it’s hilarious to watch them struggle to understand how we’re doing it.
The thread of amusement in the bond was answer enough, and Alec turned back to Jace, who was demanding another round.
“No cheating this time,” Jace told them, pointing at the two of them. “I’m warning you. I’ll tell Alec the word, and I’m activating a hearing rune this time to make sure you’re not whispering to each other.”
“Feel free,” Magnus said indifferently. “You won’t catch us cheating.”
Jace scowled and dragged Alec into the area which Clary had drawn specialised Soundless runes all over, so that he wouldn’t be overheard telling Alec what he had to act out. Not that it mattered; Magnus had a hotline into Alec’s head through the bond humming between them, and no ward they’d encountered yet had been able to separate them.
“We should make Alec act out something Magnus won’t know about,” Clary suggested, following them over. “Like… a Shadowhunter-only thing.”
“It’s not fair if Magnus doesn’t know what it is,” Alec protested.
“I don’t care, you two are already being unfair,” Jace replied, and dove into brainstorming with Clary.
(Magnus chuckled in the back of Alec’s mind, and Alec made sure to keep his face blank and calm while he laughed internally. Pranking Jace was so much fun.)
Three more rounds of charades later — all of which Magnus and Alec had won; Jace was growing increasingly frustrated and drunk, which wasn’t helping his acting skills — Clary finally called a halt. “I think we all know Magnus and Alec are better at this than we are.”
“Cheaters,” Jace mumbled, but acquiesced.
Should we tell them? Alec asked Magnus mentally. Or keep them guessing?
Jace’ll be furious, Magnus commented, though he wouldn’t be particularly upset about that.
Jace is drunk and already furious, Alec replied.
Magnus grinned. Then let’s tell them.
“My parabatai is a traitor,” Jace was mumbling. “I swear you’re cheating.”
“Calm down, Jace, I’m sure they’re not,” Clary said with a consoling pat to the back of his hand. “We would’ve noticed if they were communicating.”
“Not necessarily,” Alec broke in, smirking when both Jace and Clary’s heads whipped around to stare at him.
“So you were cheating,” Jace said, eyes wide. “How?”
Alec and Magnus raised their forearms in sync, gesturing to their matching permanent Alliance runes. “It used to be just emotions and abilities, but lately, we’ve been getting thoughts as well,” Alec explained.
“Cheaters,” Jace grumbled, turning away from them with a huff. “We’re going to play another round, and this time you’re going to be on opposite teams.”
Magnus
The next morning dawned with shafts of light that Jace claimed were specially designed to hurt his hungover eyes. (Magnus offered Clary a hangover cure but refused one to Jace until he admitted that Magnus had won their last game of charades fair and square. Admittedly, it was false — Alec had mentally told him the answer, purely to piss Jace off — but Magnus was a fan of irritating Jace, so he didn’t feel particularly guilty.)
Simon dropped in shortly after — he’d struck up a friendship with Clary, Jace, and Izzy, as well as Alec — wearing a shirt with a twenty-sided die in the colours of the pan flag. “Hi guys.”
Jace groaned — his hangover still hadn’t abated fully — but Clary waved cheerfully enough. Alec was making pancakes, which left it to Magnus to swan over and greet him. “Sheldon. Pulling out the Pride merch?”
“It’s June,” Simon replied. “I’m going to the parade in New York with Izzy. Can you believe she didn’t know what pride month was?”
What’s pride month? Alec asked Magnus mentally, causing him to bemoan — yet again — Shadowhunters’ lack of exposure to mundane culture. Last June, he supposed it simply hadn’t come up — they’d been dealing with Lilith and Jonathan at the time — but that was no excuse for Shadowhunter ignorance to continue. “It’s an absolute travesty, my dear,” he told Simon, “but mundane queer culture isn’t exactly in the Shadowhunter curriculum.”
Jace sat up, poised to argue in support of the Shadowhunter curriculum, then winced as his headache apparently increased. Magnus dulled the pain a little, if only so it’d stop bothering Alec through the parabatai bond.
“Mundane culture isn’t necessary for Shadowhunting,” Jace pointed out.
“And Shadowhunters are elitist enough not to bother with anything that isn’t strictly necessary,” Alec put in. “What’s pride month?”
“It’s a celebration of diverse genders and sexualities,” Magnus told him, and launched into an in-depth explanation featuring the origin, the different forms of pride parade around the world, and the general culture surrounding it. “I’ve gone every year since 1970.”
There was an introspective bent to Alec’s feelings through the bond which suggested he was considering an idea, but Clary was the one to speak up. “We should go to New York for it, too, then.”
“Actually,” Alec said, consideringly, “what if we didn’t need to go to New York for it?”
He met Magnus’ eyes, and Magnus understood what he was suggesting. “You want to organise an Alicante Pride Parade.”
Alec grinned. “Well, why not?”
Alec
Organising a Pride Parade in a city that regularly exiled queer people two years earlier was a hassle.
Not enough of a hassle to discourage Alec. If anything, it encouraged him even more — the resistance of his opponents made it from a fun idea into a serious political move, and Alec was always delighted to piss off the remainder of the old guard that’d made it through the Resistance takeover only to be denied at every turn by the new world Alec was building.
He brought it up at the next Downworld Council meeting, and received overwhelming support along with several offers of aid, which he gladly accepted. The parade would be set up with warlock magic, decorated with faerie-grown flowers in the colours of the pride flag, and take place from evening into the night in deference to the vampires’ preferences; it was a celebration both of queer rights and of Downworlder ones, and Alec was delighted when it finally began to come together.
The parade happened on the last Sunday of June, the 26th, and the day was filled with last-minute reorganisations. A patch of flowers had withered for an unknown reason, and Alec needed to regrow them into the purple, grey, white, and black of the ace flag; a float was broken; somebody wanted the parade to go down a different street. At last, however, it was all straightened out to everyone’s satisfaction with a minimum of blackmail and almost no blood spilled at all.
Magnus insisted that Alec come home an hour before the parade was set to start so that they could get ready — or rather, so that he could get Alec ready, because when Alec arrived, he was already dressed to the nines in bright pink, purple, and blue, with more skin showing than Alec had seen on him before in public. What little shirt he was wearing read:
DATING HIM →
STILL BI
His makeup was also in the colours of the bi flag — eyeshadow in stripes of pink, purple, and blue, on both eyes, that stood out when he blinked; a flag painted on his lips; a flag on either cheek; small gemstones stuck around the corners of his eyes; glitter dusting his nose and cheekbones, highlighting them in that same pink/purple/blue.
He looked, in Alec’s estimation, positively ethereal — he was always beautiful, of course, but there was something to be said for the confident pride he wore like a second skin, decked out like this.
Alec, however, doubted he’d be as comfortable in so little clothing. Magnus clearly sensed his trepidation, because he grinned and reassured Alec that he’d be dressed a bit more sedately.
The pants covered Alec’s legs — unlike Magnus’ — but they were tight enough that Alec caught Magnus looking rather below his face whenever he turned around; they were plain black, thankfully, and not too tight for Alec to move comfortably, for which he was grateful. The boots weren’t far off his usual, although perhaps a bit less sturdy and with a few more metal bits on them; the shirt covered a good deal more of his chest than Magnus’ did, at least, and it was black aside from letters in the green-and-blue gay flag that spelled out
← DATING HIM
NO VERY HOMO
The arrows on their respective shirts, Alec noted, pointed in opposite directions, so that when standing next to each other, they’d be pointing to each other. He made a mental note to stay to Magnus’ right so that the shirts worked properly.
The most adventurous part of his outfit was unquestionably his makeup. Magnus had drawn a rainbow flag on one cheek and the gay flag on the other, a pop of colour Alec liked. He hadn’t been covered with glitter (though a good deal had already drifted onto him from Magnus), but Alec’s eyes were traced with black that made them stand out, his face felt odd with foundation, and when he looked in the mirror, he saw an… augmented version of himself — the curves of his face sharpened, cheekbones brighter, eyes standing out more. It was pretty. He’d expected to tolerate it for Magnus’ sake, but strangely, he liked it for himself as well.
Toilette complete, Alec hurried out to oversee the finishing touches on the parade.
Magnus
The parade was everything Magnus could’ve hoped for and more.
He’d showed Alec videos of mundane Prides and explained as much as he could, but he’d half expected the parade to end up relatively boring in the Shadowhunters’ typical shades of black, with a few Downworlders who knew the mundane customs standing out sharply in more colourful wear. But apparently everyone had gotten the memo and Alec was conservative in his mostly-black clothing: many Shadowhunters were wearing flags of various types, often showing nearly as much skin as mundanes might, and the Downworlder half of the crowd was even brighter.
He tugged Alec down into a kiss, and the crowd cheered around them. Alec’s slightly obsessive preparations had turned out perfectly — everything was well-timed and every street was hung with decorations; perhaps more importantly, the atmosphere of jubilant half-defiance was perfect, and Magnus found himself grinning uncontrollably.
Briefly separated from Alec due to organisational difficulties that absolutely required Alec’s approval, Magnus bought himself and Alec several pins adorned with their flags before casting out a mental net to locate his husband. There was a faint shiver of relief in the bond when they found each other again, and probing more closely, Magnus noticed a faint discomfort with the size of the crowd; it wasn’t so bad that Alec wanted to leave, but when Magnus guided him into a quieter area, the slight tension in Alec’s shoulders dissipated. He accepted the pins with a smile that shone brighter than the glitter on his cheeks.
Izzy appeared shortly after in one of the most revealing dresses Magnus had ever seen her in — which was saying something — in blatant stripes of purple, pink, and blue. Simon was wearing the D&D shirt in pan colours that’d started it all off, and while Jace’s shirt only read ALLY, Clary was wearing the colours of the omni flag.
“This is really cool, man,” Simon told Alec, grinning. “Never thought Shadowhunters would have so much pride.”
Alec shrugged, uncomfortable as always with praise, but Magnus pushed a thread of his own admiration through the bond to reinforce Simon’s words. Alec arched an eyebrow at him, and Magnus grinned, unrepentant.
“They’re doing their Alliance-bond-telepathy schtick,” Jace announced, rather complainingly — Magnus supposed he was still salty about his loss at charades, and the bond shot through with laughter.
“Jealous?” Alec asked him.
Jace promptly scowled, and Alec chuckled out loud this time.
Surrounded by brilliant colours and laughter, Magnus had never felt more at home.