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You know how they say we all have a few doppelgängers scattered across the centuries? People we’re fated to love throughout creation and even across any alternate universe.
Then what if you’re an immortal warlock who keeps falling in love with the doppelgängers of the same mortal man throughout the centuries?
Doppelgängers who of course, have no memory of you and their past life together with you.
They born. Then you two fatefully meet and fatefully fall in love. You live together for years in paradise then they grey and leave you behind.
But you keep falling in love anyways because, that’s how your fate works; a cycle of fateful meetings, irreplaceable passionate loving and making memories and keeping them precious hoping to someday share them.
It’s like a set in stone prophesy;
So over and over you continue to live with the memory of those whole lifetimes lived - lifetimes in which you had loved very deeply and very adequately cataloguing every single memory of you and him like films on a strip – moments you keep in your heart while you wait, enjoying life’s flings in the meantime.
Then one day one century later in present day New York, the new doppelganger you’re fated to love is riding the same train as you – sitting with his long legs crossed and perfect hair and red lips reading a book.
So your heart immediately leapt in conditioned excitement telling you, ‘okay Magnus, here we go again’.
You would understandably sigh and frown because of course, there are times when you’re fed up of this brutal cycle. But at the same time, you rejoice at finally having another chance to love like you’ve never loved before and it excites and pains you all at once.
However, over time, you’ve realised that for better or for worse, fate is calculating.
You’ve also realised and accepted that you’re a hopeless romantic.
So for better or for worse, you take two steps forward and accepted your fate.
“I see you still like to read”.
Colourful eyes suddenly and curiously look up at you and perhaps your aesthetic was also pleasing to him, for a smile very soon start to work its way along those colourful eyes and around those red lips – a smile that very soon changed into wonderment as if a distant thought or a sort of daydream was just materialised in front of him.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” the doppelgänger said in a tone as if he too was waiting and was now relieved that you showed up, “you’re the man who keeps popping up in my dreams”, his eyes shining with a sort of awe and gladness.
.
.
.
So, you know how they say we all have a few doppelgängers scattered across the centuries? People we’re fated to love throughout creation and even across an alternate universe – over and over we fall in love together like it’s our first.
Then one day a loophole appeared – a pathway that somehow carried through the will and fragmented memories of all those doppelgängers Magnus had loved – their will so strong to meet him again that they travelled through centuries and wired themselves into the consciousness of the man who’s now looking at him.
The shock Magnus had at the moment at this new possibility, left him speechless. He was obviously not prepared to be greeted by this.
So when the doppelgänger saw Magnus’s confusion, his eyes narrowed and worry marked his face as he stuttered in embarrassment. “Please tell me we’ve met before. Otherwise, I’ll be very troubled having dreams about someone I’ve never met”, a shaky laugh followed.
Magnus was about to speak when he noticed something else.
Runes.
In other words, in all the lives Magnus has lived and with all the hearts he had loved, here finally came the chosen one; the one who has the best chance at perhaps spending an eternity with him - a shadowhunter, who might very well be the last of his doppelgängers.
“Who knows?” Magnus replied, taking the empty seat next to him. “And you are?”
“I’m Alec”, a rakish grin suddenly on his lips as he surveyed Magnus in full.
Magnus could feel the muscles in his heart relaxing into a familiar sort of comfort. For the first time not only was he excited and glad to have met his fated partner once again after waiting for what seemed an eternity, but now, he has reasons to hope for a longer life with them together – and yes, he knew he was getting ahead of himself but when a man is happy, a man is happy and right then his heart was so full with happiness that he was having a hard time containing it.
Fate was in truth calculating.
“I’m Magnus, by the way”.
“Magnus…”, Alec repeated to himself as if the way each letter rolled off his tongue was a familiar art he’d already perfected, “Magnus, are you sure we’ve never met?”.
It was as though a thousand butterflies were fluttering around in Magnus’s tummy. So he smiled at Alec and be it, consciously or pure reflex, he reached out a hand and allowed his fingers to traced Alec’s knuckles. As fated, Alec didn’t refuse the caressing.
“Who knows…”, Magnus repeated, melting at the gentleness of the smile Alec was giving him. “But even if we did, I’m glad we meet again”.
Yes. For better or for worse, Fate was calculating.
But Magnus embraced it anyhow because, in the same way;
He’s a hopeless romantic.
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magnus x alec 