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17,000.
That's about how many people Magnus has been with before Alec. Men, women, Downworlders, mundanes, he has had his fair share of relationship experience. Not that any of that ever really mattered to Alec. He meant what he said after their first date, he didn't and still doesn't care how many people Magnus has been with. Alec knows that every one of the 17,000 has carved Magnus’ path to get him to Alec the way he is today, and he couldn't be more thankful.
Which is why he thoroughly enjoys learning anything and everything about Magnus’ past.
At a first glance, one might see Magnus as closed off and guarded, using sass and fashion to distract from the vulnerable person inside, but Alec has had the privilege of getting to know him through the course of their relationship, to see all the cracks in his old heart and love him despite the damage. So he takes advantage of the trust Magnus willingly hands him now.
It started with Magnus opening up about his childhood, about his dark past with his parents in Indonesia. Since then, Alec has come to learn that Magnus is an extremely sentimental person, keeping shelves upon shelves of photo albums and boxes of tokens from the past. And, since that one night of revealing his past, Alec would ask to know more, would urge Magnus to open up to him. Magnus was hesitant at first but learned to happily oblige once Alec kept insisting, taking an album or a particular object that held its own array of stories.
Magnus would never really talk about his painful beginning often, the only reminder in his loft being the knife he kept from when his mother killed herself. So instead they usually cuddled up for hours talking about all of the people in Magnus’ pictures. As they are doing now.
The photographs he first showed Alec were of himself, Ragnor, and Catarina throughout various decades. He would talk about their adventures together all across the world, about their shenanigans with famous people and of all the languages they learned together. He always told those tales with a smile that Alec could never help but reflect.
Tonight he’s talking about a particularly ridiculous adventure in London involving the Queen. That's when they come to a picture of one of the 17,000 hidden among the happy memories.
“Please tell me you have better exes than Camille,” Alec asks from his seat beside Magnus on the couch, his nose scrunching as he gazes down at the picture of Magnus, Camille, and Ragnor during some sort of photo shoot. He had almost missed Camille, too distracted by the top hat Magnus was definitely owning; Magnus freezing had caught his attention, though.
Now Magnus laughs, looking up from the picture to throw Alec a wink. “16,999 more, darling.” He looks back down with a grin as Alec playfully shoves him. “She was probably the worst, but we did have some good times.” Staring down at the picture, Magnus lets out a sigh and his smile falters. “I thought I wanted to marry her at one point.”
His eyes turn glassy, like he’s thinking of some distant reality where he ever wanted to marry Camille. Alec leans over to rest his head on his shoulder, easing away the tension in the warlock as his attention focuses back on the present.
“It's okay if you don't want to hear about it, I don't-”
Alec stops him with a chaste press of their lips. Drawing back to rest their foreheads together, Alec stares into the beautiful cat eyes in front of him and smiles. “I love everything about you, Magnus. That includes your past. Tell me everything you're comfortable with telling me.”
Beaming, Magnus talks about how his relationship with Camille. About how she saved him from himself, about how for once he felt like she as an immortal understood all that he was going through. She grounded him for a short time before he realised, almost too late, how manipulative and two-faced she really was and everything came crashing down around them.
“She broke my heart, but looking back now I'm thankful I saw through her facade before proposing. She would have been my first wife ever.”
Alec stares at him with wide eyes. “Really? You were never married before her?”
Magnus scoffs, casting Alec a look of plain and obvious relief. “Never, before or after. Most of my relationships have either been short hookups, relationships that just didn't work out, or with mortals who were terrified of committing to an immortal warlock. So that's something I have yet to experience,” Magnus gives a strained smile, absently looking down at the many rings on his fingers and fiddling with them.
They spend the rest of that night talking about some of those previous relationships, some of whom Magnus have photographs with, others Magnus paints pictures of with fond words. But that night is what starts it all. The question of how anyone hadn’t taken the chance to propose to Magnus before echoes in his head, so he swears to himself that night that this will be a first he can finally give Magnus. Later in bed, cuddling up to his boyfriend, he starts planning the proposal Magnus deserves.
Alec's not sure why he did this. Standing in front of a shrieking Izzy, he regrets going to her for any kind of help. Then again, he doesn't really trust himself to plan this thing out as perfectly as he wants to, so he supposes waiting through this storm will eventually be worth it.
“Oh my god, Alec, is this really happening?” she continues to squeal. “Are you really doing this? Is my big brother really going to propose to the love of his life?”
He rolls his eyes, barely holding back an excited smile because he himself can't yet fully believe he's finally doing this. “Not if you don't calm down and help me.”
She lets out a laugh, quirking an eyebrow at him. “As if I would stop you.”
“Fine,” he shrugs, his smile breaking through. But with a sigh, he’s fixing a desperate gaze on Izzy, and he speaks his worries. “He’s never been married, Iz. I want to give that to him, and I want it to be perfect so I need your help.”
Izzy then proceeds to squeal and jump over to Alec, pulling him in for probably the sixth hug in the past five minutes, this one just as bone-crushing as the others.
“I’d love to help, big brother,” she murmurs against his neck. “But you know he’d say yes even if you proposed in an alleyway, holding up a piece of poster paper with the word ‘marry?’ written in glitter, right?”
He scoffs and draws away from her. “It needs to be special.” He doesn’t know how else to put it. Throughout their relationship, Magnus has given Alec so many firsts that have meant the world to him. And Alec didn’t have a problem with Magnus’ past, it’s just that Magnus has experienced it all, so even though all their firsts together were special to the both of them, for the longest time Alec has wanted to give Magnus the same feeling he always gives Alec. To see the reaction the way Magnus has seen it countless times during their relationship.
Now Alec can do that. He can give Magnus something that will show him how thankful he is for all those firsts, and at the same time will show that despite being a mortal, Alec wants to spend the rest of his life loving and being loved by Magnus. Until death does them part.
He’s brought back to the present by Izzy’s over dramatic sigh. “Fine, then of course I’ll help. But first, mom told me she wanted to give you something when you eventually decided to do this,” she grins, grabbing Alec by the arm and tugging him out of the room. “Let’s go.”
Alec smiles to himself and allows himself to be dragged. Soon, Izzy stops them in front of his mother’s office door and knocks, hardly waiting a second before barging in anyway. Alec helplessly trails behind her.
“Jace!” she says as she scans the room, promptly letting go of Alec to clap her hands together as if all of her evil plans have worked out. “I’m so glad you’re here!”
Jace sits on a chair in front of his mother’s desk, behind which Maryse herself sits with wide eyes, a slightly frustrated look on her face. They had probably been discussing some sort of patrol schedule. Jace doesn’t seem to mind, though, and he leans back in his chair with a smirk.
“I don’t think you’ve ever said that to me before.”
Izzy rolls her eyes, but turns back to Alec, gesturing wildly. She looks like she’s barely restraining herself from jumping up and down.
“Alec is going to propose to Magnus!”
Hearing the words, Alec can’t keep another satisfied grin from forming. Especially at the surprised looks on his family’s faces. The two of them stare at him with wide eyes, and his heart swells at the sight of his mother’s sudden toothy grin as she moves from behind her desk to hug him.
When he and Magnus had first displayed their relationship at his own wedding to another woman, his parents had not approved, to say the least. Now it had gotten to the point where they were going to have a wedding of their own, and his mother had secretly been awaiting the day they decided to get on with it.
Maryse herself had grown closer to Magnus after divorcing Robert and moving back to the Institute with Max. Now that she was around again, she made a special effort to be a better mother, which included accepting everything about them. Alec still isn't used to it, or to how close she and Magnus have grown over time because of it. But he loves it.
Jace blinks a few more times at the announcement. Then he stands and joins their mom, and when he steps away, there’s a proud smile on his lips. “I'm your best man, right?”
“Well, he has to say yes first,” Alec shrugs. Jace laughs, voice bellowing throughout the room for a minute straight until he has tears in his eyes, threatening to spill. When he begins to calm down a little, Alec rolls his eyes and turns back to his mother.
“Izzy said you wanted to give me something for this.”
"Ah, yes." Maryse’s features soften and she turns back to her desk, walking over and opening one of the top drawers. She carefully reaches a hand in and slowly pulls it out, eyes flickering over to her eldest son with eager joy. The flash of silver in her hand grabs his eyes, and his breath catches at the realisation of what his mother is holding.
“I had this made a while ago for Magnus, in case your mind eventually caught up to your heart.”
In her hand sits a silver ring, a pattern of flames engulfing a capital ‘L’. The same ring his father should be giving him as Shadowhunter tradition entails. It’s the Lightwood ring, the ring every male Shadowhunter gets made for them by their father before they get married. Alec’s hardly a man to follow Shadowhunter tradition, as his mother knows, so it would make the perfect engagement ring for Magnus.
Tears threatening to spill, he carefully takes the ring out of her hands as if it’s made of glass instead of pure silver, and holds it out in front of him. Disbelief and overwhelming love make the tears flow, and before he even realises, his mother is pulling him in for another hug.
“Thank you, mom,” Alec breathes out. “He’ll love it.”
She pulls back and brings a hand up to cup his face with a smile. “I’m so proud of you, Alec.”
He huffs out a happy sigh, the very words making his chest tighten. His mother has come so far to be there for her children, her irrational hatred for Downworlders turning to a general love for anything that makes her kids happy. Even now, after all this time and progress, Alec still can’t believe how much Maryse’s expectations have changed for all of them, that just by proposing to his boyfriend, his mom’s pride is in his own ability to make himself happy.
She takes a step back and crosses her arms, back to business in a moment but with the remnants of a smile telling Alec just how overjoyed she is. “So do you know how you’re going to do it yet? Your father’s proposal was quite romantic, you know…”
Locking the office door and scribbling a silence rune on it, they spend the next few hours plotting. By the end of the day, Alec goes home to Magnus with more than a few ideas in mind, a hop in his step, and the Lightwood ring’s presence weighing down the front pocket of his leather jacket.
Today is the day.
After weeks of planning every single detail out, Alec has made sure that today both he and Magnus have one of their rare free days together. Usually, when they are both free from their duties as Head of the Institute and High Warlock of Brooklyn, they take the opportunity to go on a date night. It had become tradition, and Magnus probably expects today to be no different. And it won’t be, for the most part. They will go out, and Alec insisted on choosing the location this time. He chose the place that started it all, the Hunters Moon, where their first date had been, where Alec confessed that Magnus was his first, well, everything, and where he found out about the 17,000.
Magnus had been a little surprised, as they usually went somewhere halfway across the globe to explore places Alec has never been to before, but he had been easily persuaded when Alec bet he would win at pool this time. And, well, once you get on Magnus’ competitive side, he pretty much agrees to anything.
From there he planned for them to walk back to the loft, giving Izzy some extra time to finish decorating the balcony at the loft. There, he would propose to Magnus in front of the New York City skyline, using the Lightwood ring and his carefully chosen words to show Magnus exactly how much he means to him.
He dreamed it going perfectly, and so wakes up that morning with a smile, excitement buzzing in his veins as he looks over to see Magnus sleeping peacefully. Love hits him in an overwhelming wave, crashing into his heart and lapping around lazily in his head until he feels dizzy.
Magnus’ left hand rests on his chest. He took all of his rings off last night before bed, as he does most nights, so his fingers are bare at the moment. Alec can’t keep himself from reaching up to take Magnus’ hand in his and pressing a soft touch to his ring finger. By tomorrow morning, it would have only one ring still on it, the sunlight streaming in like it is now to reflect off of it in an assurance of the reality of their promise to each other.
He’s been staring at that hand, tracing that one finger for far too long when he hears Magnus’ amused chuckle beside him, and he looks up to see familiar cat eyes staring over at him. He's breathless all over again.
“Something on your mind, Alexander?”
And Alec doesn’t know what it is. Maybe the knowing tone of Magnus’ voice, or the sight of his enticing natural eyes, or the fact that he can’t take another second of not being married to Magnus, but the words are out of his mouth without a second thought.
“Marry me,” he whispers, voice rough as he surrenders to his own desperation. But despite the specific plan, the carefully thought out details and the heartfelt speech Alec spent days on, it feels perfect.
Because Izzy was right. It didn’t matter how he said it, whether it was written messily on a paper plane or scrawled across the sky, Magnus would say yes. It just had to feel right.
And, looking at the way Magnus’ eyes widen and a smile spreads across his beautiful face, Alec knows that this is right. He nods, head bobbing up and down as he throws himself on top of Alec, a whispered flurry of ‘yes’s muffling against the skin of his neck where Magnus' head is buried.
Soon they’re kissing, smiling lips pressing together in quick pecks they’re too excited to deepen. But neither of them mind and after a few, they just rest their foreheads together, which is when Alec realises Magnus is crying.
Wiping gently at his cheeks, he lets out a soft laugh. “Damn you for being so irresistible. I had a whole plan for how I was going to do that.”
“I love you so much,” Magnus whispers, brushing their noses together playfully. “But I hope that plan included a ring.”
Alec knows he’s joking, so he decides to play along. “Oh, well I figured you had enough anyway.”
“Ha-ha,” Magnus says with a wide grin. He looks like he’s about to make another smart remark, but Alec has flipped them over before he has the chance.
“Wait here,” he murmurs against Magnus' lips. With a dramatic pout from Magnus, he stands from the bed and quickly makes his way out of the room and into the loft living room, where he left his jacket when he came home last night. Reaching into his pocket, the cold metal against his skin sends electricity up his spine, and he speeds back to their bedroom. Magnus is still lying in bed, but now with his arms behind his head, eyes closed and a blissful look on his face that makes Alec’s heart skip a beat. He stands frozen in the doorway until Magnus seems to sense his presence and opens an eye.
“What are you waiting for, fiance ?” he teases.
That sparks flames in the pit of Alec's stomach, and in a moment he's sitting in beside Magnus on the bed, feeling more determined than ever.
He holds out the ring between them. “Will you marry me?”
Magnus looks just as taken aback the second time, his eyes gleaming as he sighs. “Yes, Alexander, of course I’ll marry you.” Shifting his focus down to where Alec has slid the Lightwood ring on his finger, Magnus smiles softly. “I love it. I love you.”
Alec pulls his close so that their noses are brushing and he can just about look into his eyes. “I love you too. And I'm glad I'm able to give you this first.”
The tears are falling again, so Magnus closes his eyes in an attempt to compose himself. With a small smile, he says “I'm happy that you've chosen me to be your first and last everything.”
In that moment, Alec curses the fact that he abandoned the plan, maybe then he wouldn't be scrambling for words to express to Magnus how thankful he is for him, but then Magnus is kissing him and he forgets all about it and gets lost in the perfection of the moment and the certainty of their future together.
And if they both get too caught up celebrating in bed together to tell the others about the change of plans for another while, well that's for them to worry about.