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Looking down into his drink, Alec thought about how he had been looking forward to this day for a week, in hindsight he should have known something like this would happen.
Alec was having to speak on the importance of the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance to the rest of the Council, and with Magnus busy at the Spiral Labrynth, Alec had no other choice but to bring Rafael and Max with him.
It took some doing but he was able to get permission to bring Max into the City of Glass with him and Alec really had been looking forward to showing both of his sons how incredible and beautiful the capital of the Nephilim was.
The day had started so great.
********
“Alexander, are you sure this is a good idea?”
Alec huffed over the phone, “Magnus, I told you, they won’t even be around the bulk of the Shadowhunters. While I’m giving my presentation in the Council Hall, they’ll be outside in the Square with Simon.”
Alec waited for Magnus’ response as he changed his outfit yet again, wanting to look perfect for the meeting.
“I know, I know, and it’s not that I don’t trust Samuel but you and I both know that there will be a lot of people who are not a fan of Downworlders at that meeting and I don’t like the idea of exposing Max to that.”
Sitting down on the edge of the bed with his left sock hanging from his hand, Alec responded quietly, “Yeah, I get that, that’s why my plan is to keep the boys out of the Council Hall since most of the other members will portal right in. The ones who would say something typically avoid me anyway.”
He heard Magnus laugh on the other end, “Well in their eyes you are a corrupt hellion who is daring to raise a young Shadowhunter with demon spawn.”
“Yeah I guess I am. I’ll text you when we’re in Alicante and I’m sure Simon will let you know when he’s with the boys.”
“Well, good luck with your presentation, not that you need it. Tell the boys I love and miss them and tell Sigmund I said hi. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Alec always felt better after talking with Magnus, but this phone call did make him a bit more nervous about going into Alicante. Trying his best to shake off his nerves, Alec finished getting ready before going to get the boys.
As soon as he walked into the living room, his legs were hit with a small blue blur.
Heart full, Alec lifted his youngest, laughing son into his arms. At three years old, his horns had started to just peak through his dark blue curls.
Alec fake groaned, “What have we been feeding you Maxie, you’re almost as heavy as Uncle Jace.”
Max giggled at that, before squirming to get down when he saw Chairman Meow coming out of Rafael’s room.
Speaking of, Alec discreetly watched as his newest son slowly walked from his room. Rafael was still getting used to them, and although he seemed to like Max, the little warlock’s bursts of toddler energy seemed to startle Rafe at times.
Alec had to bite back a smile as he watched Rafe settle in to the chair next to Max. After weeks of having to reassure the newest addition of their family each day that he was welcome to sit whereever he wanted and eat whatever was given to him, it felt like a big win to see him officially making himself at home.
“So, after we have breakfast, we’re gonna over to the Institute, pick up Uncle Simon, and get Daddy’s things from Uncle Jace to take to my meeting. Sound good?”
Both boys, mouths full with cereal, just nodded their heads.
After a few moments, Rafe slowly asked, “Why isn’t Papa coming?”
Alec had expected this question; Rafe had grown a bit attached to Magnus and the latter’s extended stay at the Spiral Labrynth was not sitting well with him at all. Even long nighttime phone calls, and constant reassurance from Alec that Magnus would indeed be back didn’t seem to be helping very much.
“Well, Papa can’t come because he’s busy with his own work right now, remember?”
Rafe lowered his eyes despondently, but nonetheless nodded. Alec felt his heart break in his chest for what felt like the millionth time thinking about what his baby must have gone through to believe that Magnus wouldn’t come back.
The archer gently walked over to his eldest and sat next to him, wrapping an arm around the back of his chair. When Rafe glanced sideways at his father, but kept his head firmly bowed, Alec slowly brought the boy’s chin up with calloused fingers.
“How about, while we’re in Alicante, we go to Ms. Wrayburn’s old store and pick out your very own training bow,” Magnus was going to kill him, “then, when Papa comes back you can show him and tell him all about Idris.” Alec felt confident Magnus would forgive him when he saw how Rafe’s eyes lit up at the promise of a new toy and seeing his Papa again.
With a smile that lit up Alec’s heart, Rafe jumped down and tugged on Alec’s hand, “Let’s go to Eed - rees then Daddy!?
Max laughed loudly and joined his brother’s efforts by pushing on the back of Alec’s legs as well.
*************
The doors to the Institue opened before Alec had even got the boys halfway across the lawn; Jace was standing against the door, a wide smile across his face.
“How is my favorite little warlock,” he said scooping up the little blue boy in his arms, “and my favorite future Shadowhunter,” he gently lifted a blushing Rafe in his other arm and dropped a kiss on top of his dark curls.
Alec smiled as he followed his children up the steps. Laughing at his parabatai’s antics.
“Do you know if Simon is ready to go? And did Red finish putting all of my notes together for the presentation.”
Jace let out an exasperated huff, “I’m great Alec, how are you, how are the boys, I know Max is growing up much too fast. Really Alec, has having kids made you lose all of your manners?”
The glare Alec gave him clearly stated, if my kids weren’t here I would be giving you a very unfriendly gesture.
Jace laughed, “Yes and yes Alec, Simon is getting his things together and Clary has your oh-so-precious notes ready in the kitchen. Relax Alec, everything is gonna go great”
At the acher’s relieved smile, Rafe in Alec’s arms and Max in Jace’s, the four made their way through the old halls of the Institute into the kitchen where Clary and Simon were waiting.
Rafe stayed clinging to his father while Max wriggled his way out of Jace’s arms and ran up to his Uncle SImon, his arms up in a clear demand which Simon quickly saw to.
Jace glared at Simon, “I should have never saved you from the Dumort, I should have listened to my gut that you would do me no good. Stop laughing mundane!”
“I’m sorry Jace, but it’s just hilarious that after everything we’ve been through, it ends with you being jealous of a toddler. I mean come on that’s hilarious.”
Alec and Clary exchanged exhausted looks as Clary handed over Alec’s notes, “I’ll summon the portal on the street near Lightwood house,” checking to be sure that the boys were preoccupied, she pulled Alec gently to the side and whispered, “please be careful, especially with Max, Lazlo and Dearborn will both be there you know.”
Alec nodded, “Clary, I’m a gay shadowhunter, raising two kids with a warlock. I know how to handle bigots, especially in the Clave.”
“I know, I know, just promise ok?”
Alec nodded slowly, then took his kids to follow Clary and Simon into the living room to open the portal. After making sure Max was safe in Simon’s arms and Rafe in his own, the four of them made their way out on the streets of Alicante, leaving Jace and Clary in New York.
*************
“Ok, so I promised Rafe I’d take him to Diana’s old store, so don’t go there cause I want to. You can show them all the old houses, the Blackthorns, Fairchilds, maybe some of the demon towers, and by then I should be done with my presentation, hopefully it won’t take too long.”
Simon tried to hide a smile as Alec rambled while holding Max close and rubbing his hand steadily up and down his back.
“Alec, we’re gonna be fine, like you said you’re the first presenter and you’ll be out before any of the less pleasant nephilim that you unfortunately have to be meeting.”
“I know, it’s just now that we’re here, I’m starting to get nervous for blueberry, you can practically feel the intolerance wafting out of that place,” admitted Alec, who had run in quickly to the Council Room to hand off his notes to Jem Carstairs to give him a heads up on what would be said.
“I mean, Jem didn’t even want Tessa to come because he was worried about what hate people may spew, and here I am waltzing in with my toddler. Am I crazy?”
Simon’s voice dropped it’s playfulness, “You are not crazy for wanting to show your sons, both of your sons, where you came from. They are crazy for having such despicable predjudices. I promise, I won’t let anything happen to either of them,” he referred to the bow carefully strapped to his back along with a quiver of arrows.
“I mean, I’m no you but I was partly trained by you, so I’d like to think I’m better than average.”
Alec scowled, “Partly? Jace did not train you in archery, if anything I had to correct all the bad habits he taught you with a bow. And I don’t care what he says, he’s not training Rafe.”
With the tension broken up a bit, Alec kissed Max’s head, ruffled Rafe’s hair, luckily the small Shadowhunter was too intrigued with the large fountain in the Square to pay much attention, and made his way into the Council hall.
Ignoring the glares and whispers as he passed, Alec made his way over to where Jem was sitting, near the front of the dias.
“Could they make us seem like we’re on trial any more than they already are?”
Alec nodded at him and said, “Well, I’ve been in more unfriendly places than this.” He tried to hide the nervousness in his voice but he wouldn’t be surprised if Jem, perceptive as he was, noticed and was just being polite.
Pretty soon, the hall was filling up. Alec tried to keep track of who he felt he could count on as allies, and felt reassured as he did so that his presentation may not be met with total vitriol.
Consul Penhallow quickly called for silence as the heavy double doors closed .
“Thank you everyone for coming today. First on the Council agenda, we have a presentation from Alec Lightwood and former Silent Brother Jem Carsairs on the progress of the Downworlder-Shadowhunter alliance.”
Alec, slowly stood, “Hello, today Jem and I will be talking briefly of the benefits of working closely with your respective city’s population of Downworlders, and how it can increase Institute productivity and lower demonic presence.”
As Alec fell into his presentation, he was pleasantly surprised at how good everything seemed to be going. No one had thrown a tomato at him yet, which Isabelle had bet ten dollars would happen within the first five minutes, so at least he got an extra ten dollars.
Alec was almost done with his presentation, about to start taking questions, something he was incredibly worried about, when the door burst open.
“Are you fucking serious?”
Zara Dearborn stood in the doors, staring at Alec with a look of such utter loathing that Alec was frozen for a second before the ringing voice of the Consul snapped him out of it.
“Ms. Dearborn! What is the meaning of this, you are not permitted in this meeting; furthermore, I expect you to use more respectful language when speaking to superiors.”
While Zara briefly looked abashed, those last words seemed to spur something in her, “Superior?! He is invited to come here and share his ‘ideas’”, she sneered rudely at this, “all the while smuggling in one of those things in with him. And I’m the disrespectful one.”
Alec’s world seemed to come to a halt. He vaguely felt Jem stand beside him and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but all Alec could hear now were his worst fears come to life.
“This is treason! Arrest all of them now!” He thought that might be Horace Dearborn.
“First we need to get that warlock in custody before he can hurt anyone.” That was Lazlo, but no, thought Alec, Max is a baby, my baby, he would never hurt anyone.
“Doesn’t Lightwood also have a Shadowhunter son? We need to get that boy to safety.” These words from one of the Larkspears spurred Alec into action.
He shrugged Jem’s hand off his shoulder and elbowed his way through the crowd who were already halfway onto the streets of Alicante. Alec wasn’t even sure if all of them were enemies, but he didn’t have a care other than getting to his family, no matter who he knocked down to get to them.
He was confused when he got out to the Square to find all the members had stopped in a semicircle around the fountain before he saw the reason why, his heart dropping into his stomach.
Simon was standing in front of the boys, who were against the lip of the fountain, seraph blade raised and in hand and Alec had half a mind to wonder why he didn’t go for his bow, his best weapon, before something else caught his eye.
Horace Dearborn, who had obviously been the one leading the charge, was on his knees, clutching his arm where a tiny dagger had embedded in his arm, the dagger that Alec recognized because he had given Jace such a hard time about giving it to Rafael months ago.
The boy in question, was standing protectively in front of his younger brother, hands cletching as if itching for a second weapon in case anyone would try to come near again.
As Alec made his way through the people, he heard Simon’s voice ring out with uncharacteristic rage.
“If you come any closer, that scratch is gonna be the last of your problems. My parabatai is Clary Fairchild, my fiance is Isabelle Lightwood, and my best friend is Jace Herondale. So you can make an educated guess what my training has looked like.”
The crowd backed up a step; both at the threat in Simon’s words, but more than that was the look in Alec’s eyes as he strolled up to stand next to Simon in front of the boys. Simon glanced at him quickly, hoping the eldest Lightwood understood why he hadn’t gone for his bow.
He got his answer when out of the crowd, someone shouted, “Get that monster out of here?”
Simon thought Alec couldn’t look any angrier, but when the sound of Max’s cries cut through the air, Simon realized how wrong he was, comparatively Alec hadn’t even been angry before. He was now.
Quick as his sister’s whip, Alec had spun the bow left propped against the fountain into his hands, and an arrow out of Simon’s quiver; nocking it quickly and releasing the arrow so that it made a thin cut onto the shoulder of the person who had insulted Max.
Before the crowd could react, Alec already had another arrow ready pointed this time at Lazlo Balogh, who had taken residence in front of the crowd.
“What’s your problem Lightwood? Someone has the guts to tell the truth to your face and you start missing?”
Alec’s hands didn't waver, “I didn’t miss. Next one won’t miss either.”
The standoff between the crowd and Alec and Simon was silent bar the cries coming from Max and Rafe softly shushing him. Everytime he heard his baby sadly moan, “I’m not a monster,” his anger grew until he was ready to cut through every last one of them. He and Simon could do it, he was sure, Simon had enough practice with Jace with blades that he could take any of the older, out of practice Council members with ease. And with Alec at his back protecting his blind side, Alec was sure it would be quick work. A fitting punishment for the monsters who made his blueberry cry and threatened to take his other baby away from him.
Simon was waiting for Alec’s command patiently, ready to stand by him when a glimmer between the two sides started to take shape. Rafe’s head popped up when he saw his Papa.
Magnus Bane strolled out, his magic sizzling with rage as he took in the scene before him, and pointed his yellow eyes at Simon.
“Take the boys, now.”
Simon didn’t need to be told twice before picking up a still teary Max and taking Rafael’s hand and walking them quickly through the portal. Rafael luckily seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation as he merely glanced sadly at his fathers before meeting Simon’s strides back to New York.
Magnus, reassured his sons were safe, softened his approach as he stepped to Alec.
“Alexander,” when he got no response, he brought a ringed hand to Alec’s chin and turned his face to his own, ”Alec, your family is safe. You did a good job today, but there is no more fight here for you. Max needs his Daddy right now.”
Those words seemed to be what broke Alec out of his stupor. And with a trembling nod, he allowed Magnus to take his weapon from his hand and walk him through the portal.
*************
Alec had still been simmering with anger when they got back to the loft, so, given that it was nightime in New York, Magnus had put both the boys to bed.
Alec looked up from the glass of scotch in his hand as Magnus came and sit beside him.
When Magnus gently placed a hand on the back of his neck, that was Alec’s breaking point. He curled into Magnus as he cried out his rage at the words his son had to hear, his pride at watching Rafe stand up for Max and Simon stand up for both of them, his love for the man who should be his husband by now and who he couldn’t love more if he was, and his sadness at how he was sure his blueberry would never forget this day, not for the beauty of the city and the fun with his family, but for the first time he was called a monster.
Alec also cried because he knew it wouldn’t be the last.
When he was sure Alec was done, Magnus brought his head up to meet his own cat eyes.
“I think I can put together what happened between what I saw and what Simon said, but I’d like to hear everything from you.”
So Alec slowly recounted the day, from hopeful beginning to horrible end.
“How’d you know where to portal? How’d you know anything was wrong at all?”
Magnus sighed and looked away slightly embarrassed, “Jem has his own emergency ways to contact me, and I may have not-so-subtly reminded him of that when I found out he’d be presenting with you. I hope you’re not mad.”
Alec huffed out a laugh, “Maybe I would be annoyed, but given what happened, I’m just grateful.”
Alec let his words die away, but Magnus knew him better than that.
“Alexander, I know that’s not all. What’s eating you?”
Magnus wiped a tear dropped from Alec’s eyelashes as he waited for his answer.
“It’s just, when we were all standing there, before you showed up, I was ready to give Simon the order to start fighting. I knew he would do it if I said, I knew we’d win, I didn’t care if that meant we killed everyone in that Square. None of that mattered.”
“And that scared you?”
Alec nodded, “Terrified me, I told Clary I knew how to handle bigots like that but,” he trailed off.
“It’s different when it’s your kids. We all like to think there are certain things we’re not capable off but I think that all goes out the window when it’s your children. I’ve seen it happen before, Alec and it just means you’re a good father.”
Alec smiled softly at him, “I think I wanna see the boys.”
Together, the two walked hand in hand to Rafael’s room first, finding the boy laying in bed, pretending to be asleep.
As Alec turned the lamp on, Rafe jumped up in bed and threw his arms around Alec when he sat down.
“Estas bien, Daddy?”
Alec had to hold back even more tears, wow where was he storing those, at his son’s selflessness, he could sense Magnus doing the same behind him.
“I’m good baby. I wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened today, but I’m so proud of how you protected Max. You’re an amazing big brother.”
Rafe’s chest swelled with pride at these words and he gave his daddy another hug, leaning back against his Papa who had come over for his fair share of hugs.
Suddenly serious, Rafe looked into Alec’s eyes, “Max is not a monster.”
Alec could feel is heart knit itself back together a little at those words, “I know that baby.”
“You need to make sure to tell Max he’s not one.”
Oh how easy it was for Alec’s heart to break again.
As the two fathers made their way out of Rafe’s room, Alec braced himself before going into Max’s.
Max wasn’t even pretending to be asleep, instead he was gazing intently into his mirror, poking at his horns.
Alec gently lifted the boy onto his lap on the bed, pulling his hands away from his head, before he could irritate delicate skin around his horns.
“Look at me blueberry,” Alec waited until the boy had slowly lifted his eyes up to meet his own. Navy blue meeting ocean blue.
Alec took a breath, steeling his heart for his next words, “Max Lightwood-Bane, I need you to listen to me very closely, because what I am about to say may the most important thing I’ve ever said: You are not a monster.”
When the warlock lowered his eyes and slumped his shoulders, Alec quickly intervened, tipping the boys chin up softly, “No no no, you look at me, everything those people were saying was wrong. You are an amazing little boy, who is not a monster, and who is beautiful, blue skin and horns and all. Your magic is gonna help so many people someday.”
Max sighed sadly, “Then why did they say those things?”
Alec looked at Magnus, who just met his gaze with his own sad eyes, before turning back to his blueberry.
“I don’t know Max. Your Papa has been alive a long time, and there have always been people like that, who are just mean for meanness sake. But when you see or hear people like that, you just remember what I told you, ok? Me and Papa and Rafe and Uncle Jace and Uncle Simon and Aunt Clary and Aunt Isabelle and all of our family love you so much. And you are not a monster.”
After both Alec and Magnus softly kissed the boy on his forehead between his horns, they turned on his nightlight and shut the door quietly behind them.
As the two were getting into bed, Magnus looked at Alec with all his love and reassured him, “You did amazing today my love. I’m so lucky to have you to raise the boys with.”
Alec smiled and accepted a kiss from Magnus before his doubts escaped him, “But what do we do the next time this happens?”
Neither were naive enough to try and add an ‘if’ to that question.
Magnus brough Alec into his arms, kissed him on top of his head and whispered, “We do exactly what we did today. Tell Max he’s not a monster, that we love him more than anything no matter what, and hope for the best.”
With that, the two of them drifted to sleep in each other’s arms, hoping for a much better tomorrow for their family.