Chapter Text
It’s only five minutes into the panel and Magnus is already looking at his watch. The actors haven’t even arrived yet and Raf is so hyper he has to wonder if his son is going to survive seeing all of his favourite actors together on the stage.
It wouldn’t be the first time his teenage son had gotten too worked up and ended up unable to watch what was going on and had subsequently missed everything. And this time, Magnus has flown them all the way to Paris for the Con, so he really really wants Raf to enjoy himself in the city of his birth.
Silently, he checks in with his son and Raf lets him know that he’s okay, so Magnus continues to check out the crowd around him, noting a couple conversing in FSL in the next row. He points them out to Raf who grins, but doesn’t indicate that he’d be interested in starting a conversation. He’s a ‘too cool for school’ teenager after all!
Magnus is not surprised to see such a wide range of people at this con. The show is well known for its inclusivity, even having an actor who is registered blind as one of the leading characters. So it’s not a surprise either to see a girl with a service dog stretched out at her feet, white stick discreetly tucked by her side.
He wonders if the cast, crew and organisers are aware of how many differently-abled fans are in the audience. How many people of different races, ages, sexualities and life experience they truly speak to. He hopes so, because it’s a huge responsibility to be loved by such a cross section of society.
When the actors finally make their grand entrance, he makes sure to turn in his seat so that Raf can see him signing, as well as watching the new love of his life on the stage.
He turns so that he can see the cast as well as his son, and laughs at Raf’s expressions when different actors come onto the stage. It's pretty clear to him which ones are his favourites, which ones he merely tolerates and who are the villains!
Jace meanders out first, taking the central seat and waving lazily at the fans with a big grin. On either side of him are two stunning women, who Magnus would glance at twice if he saw them in the street but only if they weren’t famous. He's not into fraternizing with famous people after his last relationship.
The cheers and screams around the hall are loud and he winces a little at the noise, watching his beaming son who is in a world of his own as he waits in anticipation for his favourite.
When Electra Smith glides onto the stage, Raf screams along with the crowd, waving his arms in the air as if he might catch her individual attention. Sitting beside him, Magnus feels pride crash in waves through his body. Gone is the terrified ten year old who was always too scared to make a noise for fear that he didn’t sound like the others. His confident boy has grown so much in the last five years and Magnus’ heart swells.
Finally, as Raf slumps back in his chair, the room erupts into the largest cheers yet. Tall, dark and handsome has just entered the stage and bedlam is unleashed.
Magnus knows his name is Alec Lightwood, but he won’t allow himself to acknowledge that. It stems from the first episode of ‘The Shadows of the Downworld’, which Raf forced him into watching with Cat and Madzie on a rainy Saturday. He had remarked that T,D&H was pretty cute and they had all teased him incessantly. And if there was one thing Magnus really hated, it was being teased. Especially when Cat went on and on about how he had a type, and T,D&H was exactly that. So now he had to pretend to have no interest in the show, or the actor, beyond his son’s obsession.
Since that day, he’s kind of avoided the show. Only watching when Raf makes a big deal about it or needs support to decode something being said since the subtitles don’t always match the script.
The fact that he has to regularly delete his computer’s search history from prying eyes, doesn’t mean he’s obsessed with Alexander Gideon Lightwood - he needs to be a responsible parent after all and make sure he knows about all the things his son is into!
Which is why, as T,D&H finally makes it to his seat, he makes a studious effort to avoid looking in his direction, instead focusing on his fifteen year old son who is making huge heart eyes at Electra.
Simon Lewis, who is the partially sighted actor, carefully takes the seat beside T,D&H on the end and then everyone is ready for the panel to begin.
The lights dim a little and the crowd buzzes in anticipation.
While Magnus’ eyes are drawn to Simon Lewis as the commentator begins to speak, if they then travel slightly to the right, it’s really not his fault. He watches as Alec Lightwood speaks to Simon, arms waving in the air and he grimaces internally, hiding it from Raf - he’s going to be hell to sign for. He’s already read stories of his outlandish answers at different cons and how hard it has been for the translators to keep up with him, signing for him is going to be interesting.
The fact that he will need to pay close attention to his body language to help support his comprehension, does not start little bubbles of delight popping in Magnus’ stomach. It doesn’t! It’s just the delicious garlic snails Raf insisted on buying for lunch, but then forced his dad to eat.
He turns from the actors to glance at his son, and is surprised at the bright red flush on his cheeks. But when he follows Raf’s line of sight, he immediately sees why.
Electra is looking over at them, and even sending Raf a small smile. At least, that’s what it looks like in the dimmer light.
Magnus takes a second to sign to his son. Are you okay?
He gets a half-hearted, throw away, one word response then watches as his son’s entire face splits into a huge smile. He turns to see his line of sight and watches as Electra finger signs Hello!
Raf waves back, then writes You’re amazing! slowly. Magnus is amazed to see the girl on the stage duck her head, a pleased grin on her lips. She waves again at Raf before T,D&H interrupts them, leaning into her space to ask what’s happening.
Magnus is an excellent lip reader. It’s one of the first things he learnt to do, alongside developing his signing skills, when he adopted Raf, so he could keep them both abreast of any conversation, and he knows Raf is getting pretty good, so they both see Electra say, ‘I’m great. I’m talking to that cute guy,’ before she points over at them.
When Alec turns to look at them, he locks his eyes on Magnus and almost does a double take, mouth curling down into a frown. Whatever he says next, Magnus misses as he is greeted with the sight of the back of his head. But he doesn’t fail to see Electra’s bemused reply, ‘No, the other cute one. The one who’s actually my age, dummy!’
Raf’s fingernails dig into his forearm as they both read her words. Then he is frantically signing to Magnus, Did she call me cute, dad? Did she? Oh my god! I’m dying!! I’m actually..
Raf’s melodramatic signing is cut off when the stage suddenly brightens a little and T,D&H is centre stage with a microphone in his hands.
What’s happening, dad? Raf asks, hands flying through his signs, They’re not stopping the panel are they? I want to ask Electra my question!
Magnus hushes his son as he listens to the honeyed voice that begins to pour out of the speakers.
“If I could have your attention for a moment,” Alec begins. “It has come to our attention that our audience for this panel is diverse, as always, and that perhaps there are some people who may need support in understanding our discussions. We already have our wonderful, French interpreter as usual, however, I believe we have some people who need support with translation into American Sign Language - is that correct?”
T,D&H stops speaking as Electra tugs on his sleeve. Magnus lip reads as she tells him that no-one who’s deaf is going to understand him, and he can’t help his grin as Alec hits his own head.
“I’m so sorry, I feel like quite the prize idiot right now, is there anyone who might interpret what I have just asked?”
Magnus catches the questioning glance his way from both Electra and T,D&H, and feels Raf nudging his arm, Go on Dad, maybe they’ll be really grateful and then I’ll get to meet Electra?
The hope in his son’s eyes spurs him into action and he quickly raises his hand towards the stage.
He sees the relief in Alec’s eyes as he gestures for a member of the crew to bring Magnus forward.
I’ll be back quickly, Raf.
Rafael just laughs and pushes his dad away, eyes immediately returning to the object of his affections, and from Magnus’ point of view, it seems like they’re returned.
The crew member indicates where to go and tries a little broken English which Magnus replies to in fluent French making them smile. So when he ascends the stage, he’s already grinning as T,D&H gestures him to him with the microphone.
Magnus is confident on the stage. His job as an interpreter means he has spent many hours stood in front of large groups ensuring that the minority, and sometimes the majority, of the audience are delivered the correct messages.
He steps over to where Alec and Electra are waiting and then looks out at the crowd, ignoring the microphone he is being offered.
“I need both hands,” he says in English.
Alec laughs, a rich, deep sound, and then holds the microphone back up to his unfairly kissable lips.
Magnus quickly pulls his attention back to the waiting crowd and begins to sign, first in ASL, then French sign language, British sign language, Japanese sign language and finally Chinese, guessing at the demographic in the room, and aware that several of his signs are universal so if there’s someone who speaks another language they can let him know.
Across the hall, eight hands go up in turn. One of them is his son’s and he waves him away with a laugh, catching Electra’s interested glance in that direction from the corner of his eye.
“Well,” Alec begins, microphone by his side now, voice quiet and just for Magnus, “It looks like we might need your services…?”
“Magnus,” he supplies, taking the offered hand.
It is surprisingly cool to the touch, considering they are surrounded by hot lights, but the handshake is firm until they let go and T,D&H’s fingertips graze his inner wrist.
Magnus glances at Alec sharply and notes a slight flush overtaking his cheeks. It must be a blush if his hands are so cool. But he averts his gaze, back to where his son is and begins to sign, asking if he’s okay if Magnus stays on the stage to sign for the deaf people in the audience.
Yes! Is Raf’s quick reply, followed by a more hesitant, Perhaps you can ask for a photo op as payment? You know they were all sold out!
Magnus laughs at his son’s cheek and then turns as Electra asks what Raf said.
When Magnus tells her, signing for Raf at the same time in their own secret sign language so as to keep it private from the seven others who also speak SL in the room, she grins again and then turns to Raf raising both thumbs and mouthing ‘Yes!’
Magnus is overjoyed to see his son smile back. Where has this confident young man come from?
“So, you can help us?” Alec asks, drawing his attention again. Magnus smiles and agrees and then he’s given a spare chair beside Simon Lewis, who gives him an enthusiastic, if slightly uncoordinated, welcome as he introduces himself.
Once the panel starts in earnest, Magnus is busy! Besides Alec, the other cast also give quite long winded responses and he find himself flitting between the 3 different languages the eight people speak. Chinese is the hardest for him as it has been a while since he has translated it, and at one point the three deaf Chinese in the audience titter, embarrassed as he mistakes two of the signs when translating for Alec.
Alec turns to him, a question in his eyes and Magnus quickly whispers an explanation causing Alec’s jaw to drop.
“You’re translating me into Chinese sign language?”
“Umm, yes. Because those three fans over there are Chinese!” He indicates with a quick wave of his hand as he launches into the French translation of what Alec has just said.
He can’t fail to notice that T,D&H keeps his eyes on him the whole time as the French translator chatters away and Magnus’ hands fly through the BSL version too.
It turned out from his quick survey of hands that Rafael was the only ASL speaker in the audience, and since he also spoke FSL which is derived from ASL, Magnus is, thankfully, only translating three ways.
As Jace launches into a long winded answer about action scenes, Magnus slides through the Chinese signs in quick succession while he takes the chance to check on his son, who is happily staring to Magnus’ right, which can only mean he’s gazing at Electra again.
Magnus tries to hide the automatic smile, but Raf notices and signs Stop it Dad!!! with three exclamation points in their secret language, which means he is very, very serious about it!
Magnus grins and then continues to sign as Jace finishes speaking, switching over to FSL as the translator begins.
He is very aware of Alec two seats over, watching him. For a second he allows it to put him off his stride, but then the translator finishes and he sees Raf standing up in the audience.
His instinct is to stand too, worried that there is something wrong, but his son waves him down as a crew member approaches him with the microphone .
When Raf stares at the crew member in exasperation, Electra raises her mic too and says, in perfect French, “Magnus will translate for him,” indicating him on the stage.
The crew member nods and backs away as Raf grins widely again. Magnus is beginning to think his son will have a permanent grin on his face after this panel, happiness rushing through him at the thought.
Dad, please can you ask Electra how she feels about her character arc, with her recent discovery that her Mother was a vampire who mated with a werewolf. Is she enjoying the dual roles and what choices did she make in her performance to accommodate both of these traits?
Magnus gives Raf an appreciative glance as he translates his sons question, Alec holding out his microphone for him, body swaying into his space. He felt a little flushed as he breathes in, sucking in a lungful of air that smells smokey and sweet. He lets his eyes rest on Alec for a second as he finishes translating Raf’s question and sees his eyes widen too as he breathes in Magnus’ (quite frankly, delightful, he's sure) scent too. He sees his eyes widen and for a second it's just the two of them on the stage. Alec's hulking frame leaning into him, both of them taking a deep breath as their eyes stay locked together.
Magnus snaps himself out of it. Raf was asking a question. That's why he's here, not to get lost in T,D&H's eyes.
Magnus has to give his son credit. His question proves that he is clearly more absorbed by the show that Magnus had imagined and he kind of wished the boy enjoyed doing his homework half as much.
Electra is clearly very impressed by Raf’s question too and she directs her answer to him as Magnus interprets. When he has finished in all three languages, the French translator is still speaking, so Simon Lewis leans over to whisper to him.
“Is that your boy? He’s very bright. I haven’t heard a young man ask such an interesting and insightful question like that before and I’ve been coming to these cons for years. Does he love the show that much...or does he love Electra?” He giggles a little as he finishes speaking, endearing himself to Magnus.
“Yes, he’s mine,” Magnus replies proudly, “Believe me though, Mr. Lewis, he hasn’t really shown off his intellect for his homework in quite the same way he does for your show!”
“Simon, please. And I’m not really surprised, Electra has definitely brought in the younger fans in waves. Which is not a bad thing at all. Means we get to do really cool stunts more often…”
Simon trails off as a question is directed to him and he answers in the same babbling way, which is pretty fun to translate. He makes signs to show when Simon laughs, which is often, and he enjoys translating for him.
Alec is more serious, which he captures in his more formal choice of signs. But when one of the deaf Chinese fans asks what his favourite dinosaur is and which one is most like his character, Matthew, he throws back his head, great gulps of laughter erupting from his chest.
It’s catching and soon lots of the cast are giggling too, each of them making dinosaur impressions.
Magnus has a tricky job translating this time and he moans to Alec quietly about it. But the man just smiles and says it will help him to further develop his language skills. Magnus grimaces as he finger spells, Pterodactyl in three languages, explaining the silent ‘P’ to the deaf fans.
When he has to do impressions as part of his signs, the whole audience starts laughing, especially when Simon and Alec ask him to teach them the signs too.
Soon the whole cast and many of the fans in the audience are making dinosaur signs and joining in the fun with Magnus as the teacher. He spots Electra signing hers to Raf, who grins and signs one back to her which she asks Magnus to translate.
Magnus feels a rush of joy in his veins. It is the most fun he’s had translating for quite a while and the cast are turning out to be different than he had expected, especially T,D&H.
As the panel begins to wrap up, Alec takes the opportunity to thank Magnus for his part in teaching them all the different dinosaurs and for sharing his signing expertise, announcing for the audience that he has been speaking three languages for the whole panel. Suddenly, the whole crowd is on their feet, giving him a standing ovation... Alec leading it as his gaze locks back onto Magnus.
For a second he feels the rush of new attraction in his chest, but he quickly stamps it down. No! Alec is famous. He probably has a girlfriend already, or perhaps a boyfriend from the way he's been flirting. He's not really interested in Magnus at all. He can't be when he's got the whole world at his feet. He's just interested in him because he can do something different and because he's helped him maintain the shows great image with differently-abled fans.
He averts his eyes from Alec and concentrates on the rest of the cast, who all take the time to shake his hand. Then Electra tells him to bring Raf to meet them after and she will sort out some goodies to say thank you for lending them his dad.
Alec bends to speak quietly with him and tells him that he will arrange a translator’s fee, but Magnus waves it off, explaining that he has enjoyed it and he came to translate for his son anyway, so it isn’t a problem.
“Well then, at least let me thank you personally. I have reservations at the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower for Electra, her parents, Simon and myself tonight, would you and Raf like to join us?”
Magnus stares at him in surprise, before he eagerly agrees, picturing Raf’s face as he tells him that he is going to dinner with his favourite actress. He is going to get so many cool dad points tonight!
“Can I get your number then, so we can arrange a time?” Alec asks casually before Magnus heads down the steps at the side of the stage. The sparks in his chest are just Magnus' excitement that Raf is going to have dinner with the girl of his dream. He's not interested in Alec!
Rafael greets him enthusiastically and lets out a guttural yell when Magnus tells him about their dinner plans and Electra’s message too. Then he grabs him by the hand, pulling him from the hall and into the bustling convention to go searching for the photo ops line and his chance to see Electra again.
When they make it to the queue, Magnus explains, in French, their situation to the crew member, who smiles and says that they are expected, before whisking them away towards the photo area.
Magnus is surprised to see most of the cast already taking pictures with fans. T,D&H is at one station, arm wrapped around a tall girl with a tear stained face, while Electra is holding hands with a young girl who looks starstruck.
The crew member brings them over to Electra first, who, when she sees Rafael, opens her arms and offers him a hug. Raf looks up at him to silently ask permission and Magnus nods, impressed further with his son and his manners. As he sinks into her embrace, Raf looks even more starstruck than the girl before him.
After a moment, they pull back and Magnus reaches out to shake Electra’s hand, not feeling comfortable hugging a teenage girl who isn’t family.
Raf is permitted to take several pictures with Electra, and she knows exactly which poses she wants to take, holding his hand, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and then standing back to back. Rafael is clearly in heaven asking Magnus to tell her how much he is enjoying himself.
Suddenly, T,D&H ambles over, taking a break from his own long line of fans, and asks if they want a picture all together. Rafael hugs him tightly, getting a bit lost in the enormity of the man, before he grabs Magnus’ hand and pulls him in for the picture too.
He ends up beside Alec, whose arm is casually slung over his shoulders, not affecting Magnus’ blood pressure at all. Really.
He pulls away after the picture is taken, but both Electra and Raf insist that they take one just the pair of them, so he and Alec end up with their arms around each other again. Magnus tries not to flinch away, but it is a lot of T,D&H for one day and he is starting to feel things. Things he hasn’t felt for a long time.
When the pictures are over, Alec reaches out to present Raf with a bulging bag of show merchandise, including baseball caps and action figures.
Raf pulls out the ones of Alec and Electra, laughing, and asks Magnus to translate that he’d like to take a selfie with them all.
They all squash their faces into the frame on Magnus’ phone, Alec’s hot breath tickling his neck, the action figures in Raf’s hands. Then Electra insists on one more, and pulls Magnus and Alec to stand side by side behind them, faces pressed close together to fit.
It is the closest Magnus had been to someone he...finds interesting...for a long, long time. And while he can admit he finds Alec attractive, he doesn’t really know what to do with the feelings. So he moves away as quickly as possible, grabbing the phone from Electra, saying their thanks and pulling a very reluctant Raf away.
“See you tonight,” Alec and Electra call out sweetly as they leave.