Chapter Text
Alec loved early mornings. He was always at the café an hour before opening times, so he could drink his own coffee, read a little of his book, and get the place ready for customers. He lived in quiet, peaceful bliss for that one hour a day, a far cry from his busy, loud, cluttered life.
Or not.
This particular lazy Sunday morning, Alec had barely finished a chapter when an insistent tapping sounded on the door. At first he ignored it, guessing it was a gust of wind or an animal. He continued reading until the tapping became more frantic and he was forced to tear his attention away from his book and glance up. He almost jumped when he was met with the sight of a man, sporting a baseball cap and sunglasses. He quickly composed himself and shook his head, pointing to the glaringly obvious, glittery (Isabelle had made it), yellow 'closed' sign with a fake apologetic shrug. The stranger stomped a foot and gestured dramatically, exasperation clear in his actions. Alec's refusal to let him in didn't stop him, and he continued to rap on the door.
Eventually, Alec had read the same paragraph five times, and was completely unable to focus on anything else but the irritating knocking. Voices could be heard getting louder and louder in the distance, making the man even more insistent. Alec barged up to the cherry-red door, unlocked it and flung it open, a glare on his face. He knew it was bad customer service, but technically he wasn't even supposed to be serving customers yet. He gave him the most scathing look he could muster, and stomped back to the desk he had been sitting behind. The man, after hurrying inside and locking the door behind him, seemed unfazed, flashing a gleaming smile.
"A large, quad, non-fat, one-pump, no-whip mocha please, darling."
Alec let out a defeated sigh and didn't even bother commenting on the customers rather elaborate order - this wasn't Starbucks - and went to make the coffee while the man roamed the shelves.
Alec and his siblings ran a Café-Bookstore. Customers could come in, pay for their coffee and/or baked good and sit down with a book from the large collection the Lightwoods had. Often they would purchase the book they had chosen, possibly along with any others that caught their eye. Alec was in charge of the coffees, hot chocolates, teas, and any other drinks that were desired. Jace spent his days baking cookies and cakes and pastries, his croissants being in popular demand. Isabelle manned the till, and often wandered around the store, recommending her favourite books to indecisive customers. They made a fabulous team, and their business flourished, much to the chagrin of their politician parents.
Alec had just placed the coffee in front of the intrusive customer - gaining a 10 dollar bill and an instruction to 'keep the change' - when a key could be heard and Isabelle bounced through the door, just before they were due to open up.
"I am so sorry I'm late - I went out last night and woke up in this total strangers house in bed with like, five other people in Manhattan and I didn't remember anything so I had to-" she cut off abruptly, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Why is there a suspicious looking man in here before opening time?"
Alec shrugged and explained how the customer had been irritating and had refused to go away, earning an alarmed look and a slap on the arm from Izzy.
"What if he was a murderer, Alec?! You could be dead!"
Alec rolled his eyes at his sisters dramatics and made towards the door to flip the sign to 'open'.
"Well, I'm still alive, so that's a win. He might have been homeless, or something. Maybe I was trying to do something for the greater good!"
Isabelle hushed him and glanced over to the corner of the store, where The Customer™ was sat, her eyebrows raising.
"He is most definitely not homeless. Those are Yves Saint Laurent boots!"
The words meant nothing to Alec, who nodded his head absentmindedly, turning his attention towards the blonde who was rushing through the door.
"I'm sorry I'm late, I should have been here an hour ago, I know, me and Simon were- well that doesn't mat- I'll start on the cookies right aw- we have a customer? It's 8am!"
Isabelle immediately glared at her brother and mouthed for him to keep it down - she was desperate not to offend the stranger.
Now that Izzy had mentioned that he was wearing some type of boots, Alec couldn't help but feel a need to look at what the man was wearing, even though he had zero interest in clothing. Nevertheless, he noted that The Customer™ had removed his sunglasses and his grey coat, showing a maroon shirt that revealed a lot of chest, tight skinny jeans and of course, the average looking boots that Alec guessed - from Izzy's reaction - cost more than the entire contents of the store.
The man's face still wasn't visible, even after the disappearance of the giant sunnies, as his hat covered most of his face. He sipped his elaborate coffee and read his book, and Alec, ever the aspiring writer, couldn't help but wonder what his story was. Why had he been so insistent to come into this place? There were so many other cafés or bookstores in the vicinity that were probably open. Why was he disguising his face? Why was he up so early on a Sunday morning? Why -
Alec was woken up from his little reverie when the bell on the door chimed, signalling their second customer of the day. He pushed the mysterious man from his mind and bit back a groan as the woman in front of him ordered an iced, half caff, ristretto, venti, 4-pump, sugar free, cinnamon, dolce soy skinny latte. Venti?! Seriously, this was not Starbucks.
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The day went by in a flash, the store constantly busy with varied types of people. Everyone sitting down was either on their own or sitting in comfortable silence with someone else as they read their respective books.
Alec smiled as he heard a young girl exclaim to her mother that the 'paparats' were outside. The paparazzi had been especially prominant today, as if they had been tipped off that some celebrity was nearby. Throughout the day he often got glances of them walking past the door, clad in all black with various cameras swinging on their necks.
The mysterious stranger was still in his place at the back of the store, still with his cap pulled low over his face.
As the day began to wind down and customers began to filter out, Alec gathered his siblings together.
"So, who's gonna be the one to tell mystery guy to fuck off?"
Izzy glanced at him, offended on behalf of the man.
"Alec, sh! He'll hear you!"
Alec rolled his eyes in return, shaking his head at his sister.
"Good! Then none of us will have to tell him to get the hell out of here!"
Isabelle opened her mouth to reply, but she was cut off by the bell on the door ringing. Simon, Jace's roommate, loped in, and slung his Star Wars backpack onto one of the tables.
"I," he began to announce loudly, "have had the worst possible day ever."
The three Lightwood siblings raised their eyebrows. Simon was either always overtly positive or dramatically negative, and today was evidently no different.
"Care to elaborate?" Jace asked, grabbing one of the croissants he had kept for Simon as he spoke.
"Well. First of all, accountancy is HARD. I'm gonna drop out. I can't do it. I'll have to become a busker on the streets, barely making cents."
This earned eye rolls from Jace and Alec, while Isabelle nodded sympathetically.
"Second of all, Clary's in town."
No amount of sympathy could stop Izzy from joining her brothers raising an eyebrow in disdain at this comment.
"Clary, as in made up girlfriend Clary?"
Ever since the trio had met Simon, he had always told them about his childhood best friend (and ex-girlfriend, but we don't talk about that), Clary Fray, who had moved to California. At first, they thought it was sweet that Simon loved and missed his best friend that much. However, as time went on and they hadn't met her, and Simon couldn't give them much information about her,
("what does she do?"
"Uh, she tells me she works with celebrities, but thats as much as I know" )
they began to think she wasn't real. Isabelle couldn't even find her on any social media.
"She's real, and she's not my girlfriend. Thing is, I think I want her to be? Again? But she, like, works with famous people! Who are all gorgeous and talented! She probably has some hot actor boyf-"
Simon was interrupted by the sound of a billion phone notifications going off at once. Everyone turned to face the man in the corner, who they had forgotten about. He smiled sheepishly, his hat removed, and held his phone up to his ear, making his way to the bathroom for privacy.
"Ah Raphael, dear! Oh calm down, Raj needed a day off-"
Alec shook his head on irritation, and turned back to the group. To his confusion, everyone looked shell-shocked. Simon and Isabelle slowly began to grin ear to ear and Jace's jaw had dropped.
"Am I...missing something?" Alec asked slowly.
"That is Magnus Bane Alec! Oh my god oh my god how did you not notice it was him?? Oh my god we have to get a picture with him!"
Alec was still none the wiser, and Jace noticed this.
"Alec, dude, come on. Magnus Bane? Two-time Oscar winner? Everyone's favourite actor? The most famous guy on the planet?"
It didn't ring any bells, but the man's fame did explain one thing.
"Ah, so that's why there was so much paparazzi around today. They knew he was somewhere on this street."
"And he was so determined to come in here to get away from them!" Isabelle finished for him, clapping her hands in excitement.
When this Magnus guy returned, Simon, Izzy and even Jace were lined up in front of the counter, as if they were about to meet the Queen.
"I'll be leaving in a few moments, darlings, just waiting for my horse-drawn carriage."
Izzy and Simon giggled at this, and Jace cracked a smile.
"We were wondering if we could take a picture with you? We're all big fans."
Magnus smiled gracefully.
"Of course! Pretty boy-" he peered at Alec's name tag. "Alexander, is it? Alexander, are you not joining us in the photo?"
"It's Alec," he gritted out. Despite his fame, Alec found this Magnus guy to be very annoying. "And I'm taking the picture. I'm not familiar with your work."
Magnus raised an eyebrow in interest but said nothing and stood in between Izzy and Simon.
Once the photo had been taken they began to ask Magnus to sign whatever they could get their hands on.
He was just looping the 'g' in his name on Simon's white t-shirt when the door bashed open and two men came striding through.
"Raphael! Raj! Isn't this a quaint little place?"
The shorter man with the great eyebrows was glowering, and Alec could practically see steam coming out of his ears. The other guy looked incredibly bored with the situation.
"Magnus, you've wasted an entire day of press. I am not in the mood."
Magnus seemingly ignored the anger in the man's voice and kept his airy demeanour.
"Oh, Raph, you're never in the mood. Just give me a moment, I have a book I need to buy."
He disappeared and returned a couple of seconds later, holding a large hardback book. Alec couldn't see the cover properly, but he got a flash of bright colour as Magnus held it closer to his chest. He took it to the till and pulled the sharpie he had previously been using out. He handed Izzy a handful of five dollar notes, way too much than the book was probably worth, and began to sign it.
When he was finished, he strode up to Alec and placed the book in his hands.
"To remember me by, Alexander."
And with that, he was escorted from the building by Raphael and Raj, into a black jeep. Camera shutters and shouting could be heard from the paparazzi, who were overjoyed that their waiting had paid off.
Alec looked down at the book and rolled his eyes. On the front was a picture of Magnus, the title in big blue lettering; "The Bane of your Existance".
On the inside, Magnus had scrawled a message.
"Alexander, darling. It has been a pleasure sitting in your adorable little café library and sipping your wonderful coffee. Perhaps I could do it again sometime, except with you across from me.
Call me!"
The phone number of the hotel he was staying in was listed, along with his fake name and a winky face.
Yeah, as if Alec was going to go on a date with this arrogant, supposedly famous actor. As if.