Chapter Text
Discovering Alec's Blog (...and relationship. But more importantly the blog)
“I don’t see what the big deal is, Alec. Plenty of people use those apps! I bet you’ll find someone in no time!” Jace pushes, unable to just let the topic drop no matter how many times Alec subtly tries to tell him that he doesn’t want to use dating - or hook-up - apps, without explicitly stating why. A shared look with Izzy makes it painfully obvious he’s going to have to bite the bullet on this one, though, or else it’ll never end.
“I don’t need to find someone, Jace.” He gives one last try.
“Of course you do! You’re a great guy, Alec, and you deserve-”
“No, Jace, you don’t get it. I’m kind of already seeing someone.” Alec doesn’t know why he’s so hesitant to admit it. Maybe it’s because, like the idea of getting him together with someone, he knows that once Jace is aware of Magnus he’s never going to let that topic go, either. It isn’t like he’s trying to hide anything anymore - his parents know now, and the threat of Camille and her photos still looms in the background, though she’s been silent for days now.
He hadn’t kept it a secret intentionally… maybe some of it is just making sure things worked out at the start. Maybe there wouldn’t be anything to tell. But there definitely is now, that much he’s certain of. They haven’t been together long but Alec already knows this isn’t going away any time soon.
“We clearly need to get together more often,” Simon declares, situating himself on the sofa next to Izzy. “You’ve got a boyfriend and you haven’t said anything?!”
“It’s pretty new,” Alec admits. “But yeah. I have a boyfriend.”
“...and? You can’t just leave it at that !” Simon prods, bouncing a little on the edge of the seat, the movie they all planned on watching already forgotten in the background on the menu screen.
“His name is Magnus. And… I don’t know there isn’t that much to say? He’s kind, and he’s been there for me a lot after I came out to my parents, and I’m really glad we met.”
“How did you meet?” Jace asks, making his way onto the other side of Alec on the sofa, looking at him just as expectantly as Simon is.
While Alec definitely doesn’t mind talking about having a boyfriend, and he certainly has no issues bragging about how wonderful Magnus is, he hadn’t really anticipated having to tell everyone that they met over some online chats… or that he found him again through a viral internet post.
“Uh…”
“Was it through an app? Is that why you kept giving me a hard time?” Jace demands.
“No! It was…” Alec hesitates, but they’ll find out eventually. Especially if things with Magnus work out, which he certainly hopes they will. “Online.”
“Oh?”
“He works at the online support chats, and I may or may not have spent an excessive amount of time chatting with him after they cancelled The Hunt.”
“...oh my god.” Simon’s words come slow, with a tone of dawning realization.
Here it comes, Alec braces himself. Of course Simon knew about the post, because he was even bigger into fandom things than Alec is, and he knows he watches the show, too. It would only make sense something like that crossed his path.
“What?” Jace asks. It’s very obvious from the look Alec shoots Izzy, and the smirk on her face as she watches Simon, that they know something he doesn’t here.
“ OH MY GOD, IT WAS YOU.” Simon seems to be entirely incapable of forming a coherent thought outside of the one he repeats.
“Is someone going to fill me in here?” Jace snaps, increasingly annoyed at being left out.
“Alec is internet famous.” Simon says, jumping up from the sofa to face Jace properly as he launches into the story. “There was this post - one of the workers from the support chats was talking with this guy and he wanted to find him again because he lost touch with him. So he made this blog post to try and find him again, and it got a crazy amount of attention. There was a hashtag and everything.”
“Someone is going to have to show me this post.”
“I have it saved,” Izzy volunteers, wasting no time. Alec buries his face in his hands.
While Jace reads, Simon continues to talk, asking him questions almost faster than he can answer them.
Alec, to spare all of them what’s turning into a serious Q&A session, waits until Jace finishes reading the first and second posts that Magnus made about him, before launching into the full story of how they met, why Alec really wanted to go to that club the night he accidentally outed himself to them, his first ‘date’ with Magnus at the billboard, and dinner, and the near-disaster at The Institute, right up to Camille trying to ruin everything by setting them up. He left out some of the worse bits - the extent of the time he and Magnus spent not talking after the lunch debacle with Camille, his panic attack after visiting his parents, and things of that nature. But he hits all the main points.
Simon eats through his entire bag of popcorn before the end of Alec’s recollection. “We really need to talk more often.”
“This is so much better than any movie we could’ve picked tonight,” Jace confirms. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about any of this!”
“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.” Alec shrugs.
“You're right.” Simon snorts. “Because falling in love with someone online and having them live in the same city as you, only finding out by accident, coming out to your crazy conservative parents and then getting blackmailed by your new boyfriend’s crazy ex definitely isn’t big deal worthy at all.”
“...well when you put it that way.” Alec rolls his eyes. “And who said anything about love? We just started dating!”
“You came out to Robert over him.” Jace points out, and the weight of that isn’t lost on any of them.
“That was long overdue.” Alec attempts to justify, stubbornly refusing to say any more on the topic.
“I think we’re missing the biggest betrayal of all this,” Simon says dramatically, turning to face Alec and bringing an accusing finger up to point at him. “You have a blog and you didn’t tell me! You know how long I’ve been trying to get you on there, and you had one the entire time and never said a word!?” Simon brings the pointed finger back to rest his hand over his heart. “I could’ve followed you this whole time! Wait, am I following you? What’s your username?”
Alec shakes his head. “Not happening.”
“You have to tell me!”
“Absolutely not. I stayed anonymous this long, I’m not about to ruin it now.”
“Izzy?” Simon turns hopefully to Alec’s sister, but she’s shaking her her immediately.
“Oh no, you’re not dragging me into this. Sorry, Si.”
“What are you hiding? Do you write smut on there?”
“What?! No!” Alec’s eyes are wide at the thought. “I just don’t want anyone to know.”
“Fine.” Simon relents with a sigh. And though they turn their attention to the tv at long last, the way Simon keeps poking at his phone and sneaking glances over at Alec leaves him with the sinking suspicion this isn’t going to be dropped so easily.
---
M: Your friend found me.
Alec gets the text the next morning.
A: What?
M: I think he said his name was Samson or something? I can’t remember, but he said he was your friend and he needed to know what your username was.
A: I can’t believe Simon
M: Simon, right, that was it. So he is your friend?
A: Unfortunately, at the moment. You didn’t tell him, did you?
M: Of course not, darling. I figured there was a reason you didn’t tell him yourself.
A: Thanks. I kind of like having that little space to myself, you know?
M: ...I have an idea, if you want to have a bit of fun with this?
Half an hour later Alec waits expectantly by his phone until it rings. He doesn’t hesitate to pick it up once he sees Simon’s name flash across the screen.
“Are you still never gonna give this up? ” Alec asks without missing a beat, his playful tone reflective of the smile that crosses is face.
“I can’t believe you. If this wasn’t a direct attack on me, I’d be proud of you for even coming up with this.”
“It was mostly Magnus,” Alec admits. They made a fake account for Magnus to send Simon, telling him it was Alec’s. Except the only thing on the page was a video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” that auto-played on repeat.
“Well, just so you know, this only made me even more determined. I’m going to figure it out.”
“Good luck, Lewis.”
---
Alec almost forgot all about Simon’s quest to discover Alec’s internet identity until there’s a knock on his door almost two full weeks after the Rick Roll incident. He isn’t sure who he expects to see on the other side, but it certainly isn’t Simon.
“Hello, Alec.” Simon drawls, voice low and conspiratory. “Or should I say-” he pauses for dramatic effect, and Alec realizes what’s happening a moment too late to hide the surprise on his face. “-Cela!”
A second later Simon’s phone is in front of Alec’s face, his blog pulled up with RunesAndRings on full display; as if Alec needed any more proof that Simon had, in fact, managed to track down his account after that greeting.
“How?” Alec groans, brows furrowed in genuine surprise.
“It was easy, once I stopped to think about it. You went through and yelled at every account being rude to, well, you in Magnus’ post.”
This is somehow even more embarrassing of a revelation than having Simon simply find the account. Now Alec looks mortified.
“Plus - Cela? Really? That name isn’t exactly the Riddle of the Sphinx… for someone trying to hide you weren't particularly clever about it. A nd you put ‘rings’ in your username.” Simon scoffs, clearly very proud of himself. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” He promises.
“Not even Jace?”
Simon laughs. “Especially not Jace. I know he’d never let you hear the end of it.”
“Thanks.” Alec glances behind him. “...did you really come here just to rub that in my face?”
“I wanted to see your expression. And can I just say: totally worth it .” Simon nods eagerly in agreement with his words, smiling.
“Well, I’m not doing anything else right now, if you wanted to grab a coffee and ramble at me forever about my account.”
“What makes you think I read through it?” Simon pretends to sound offended at the assumption, but when Alec remains silent and simply stares at him, one eyebrow quirked, he relents. “Okay, fine, I read back through the entire blog once I found it.” Simon’s eyes light up and his speech picks up in speed, a thing he does whenever he’s too excited for his own good. “And we have so many things to talk about…”