Work Text:
i.
Thomas had barely begun to bask in the afterglow when he felt the weight shift in the infirmary bed. He looked to his left with a puzzled look on his face and saw Alastair starting to gather the clothes they had discarded earlier.
“What are you doing?” he mumbled.
“I should go back to my room,” Alastair was putting his clothes back on and avoiding Thomas’ eyes.
“Why?”
“You need to rest, and I don’t want to bother you in your sleep.”
Thomas frowned at that, “come back here.”
Alastair hesitated, then he sat down at the edge of the bed.
Thomas grabbed his hand, “I want you to stay,” he started drawing soothing circles on Alastair’s hand with his thumb.
“Oh.”
“Is that so bad?” Thomas was suddenly worried he had overstepped some boundary.
“No, it’s just that Cha- no one has ever wanted me to stay the night,” Alastair was looking down at their hands.
Thomas knew what Alastair had almost said. Charles had never let him stay the night. Thomas usually avoided confrontation, but in that moment, he had some very strong words he wanted to shout at the redhead. But he had something more important to focus on at the moment.
Pushing all thoughts of the redhead out of his mind, he turned his attention back to the man in front of him.
“Do you want to stay?” Thomas said, “I know this isn’t the most comfortable bed for two people but I really want to cuddle you right now.”
After a long second, Alastair nodded and laid down on the bed. Thomas wrapped his arms around him.
“Are you comfortable?” Thomas asked once they had settled themselves, with Alastair’s head resting on Thomas’ chest.
“I should be asking you that, you’re the one that was injured,” Alastair tentatively wrapped his arm around Thomas’ stomach.
“I’m fine,” Thomas placed a kiss on Alastair's head, “goodnight, Alastair.”
“Goodnight, Tom.”
ii.
A few days after Thomas had impulsively come out to his parents, he and Alastair were taking a walk through the park near Alastair’s house. The weather was starting to warm up due to the coming spring and they wanted to enjoy the sunny day.
“So I told my parents,” Thomas started, “about us.”
Alastair stopped walking and turned to look at him, shock written all over his face.
“You did?”
Thomas nodded.
“How did they react?”
“They accept me,” Alastair started to smile, “and they want to invite you over for dinner,” Alastair’s face froze.
“Oh.”
“It doesn’t have to be immediately, we can postpone it as long as you’d like,” Thomas wanted to reassure him that he didn’t have to agree immediately.
“And you’re okay with this?”
“Of course, I’d love for you to meet my parents.”
Alastair paused for a few seconds before he nodded, “okay.”
Two days later, Thomas and Alastair were in the Lightwood carriage on their way to Thomas’ house. He had offered to pick Alastair up and use the carriage ride to ease Alastair’s nervousness.
Alastair had a basket of cookies in his lap. Thomas had insisted that he didn’t need to bring anything, but Alastair refused to show up empty-handed.
They got out of the carriage when they got to the Lightwood house. Thomas heard Alastair take a deep breath to steel his nerves.
“Hey,” Alastair looked at him, “it will be okay,” Thomas said before he opened the front door.
He wasn’t surprised that his parents and Eugenia were already waiting on the other side of the door. His sister had a grin on her face, which, from a lifetime of experience, could only mean that she was about to pull a prank on Thomas or embarrass him. Thomas was already internally groaning at whatever she would say during dinner.
Turning his attention back to his parents, he made the introductions. His parents greeted Alastair warmly.
“Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Lightwood, thank you so much for inviting me for dinner,” to anyone else, Alastair looked perfectly calm, but Thomas could see the nervousness in his eyes, “I hope it is okay that I brought cookies?”
“Oh, yes, how lovely,” his mother took the basket from Alastair’s hands and passed it to Eugenia, “Genie, dear, please leave them on the table so we can eat them as dessert.”
“Did you bake them yourself, Alastair?” inquired his father while everyone walked to the dining room.
“I helped, it’s my mother’s recipe,”
After dinner, Thomas and Alastair got inside the Lightwood carriage, on its way to the Carstairs house.
“So,” started Thomas, “I think it safe to say my parents loved you.”
A few minutes ago, when his parents had been saying goodbye to Alastair, his mother had requested that he come again for dinner on Sunday. Thomas saw the surprise in Alastair’s eyes while he politely thanked his mother for the invitation.
Alastair was lost in thought inside the carriage, looking outside the window.
“Alastair?”
Thomas grabbed his hand to catch his attention.
“Huh?” Alastair turned to look at him.
“Are you okay?”
Alastair nodded.
“What’s on your mind, love?” Thomas had just started calling Alastair terms of endearment, which always got a smile out of him.
“I never thought- I assumed-” he started his sentence a few times before he finally settled on, “I always thought our type of love would have to be hidden, I didn’t think meeting your parents was a possibility, or that they would like me,” a tear slipped down Alastair’s cheek which he quickly wiped it away, “sorry, I’m such a mess over something so simple.”
“You’re not a mess, I won’t judge you if you want to cry,” Thomas kissed his cheek, “you don’t have to hide anything with me.”
iii.
It was a rare occasion that Thomas had the Lightwood house all to himself. His sister and his mother had taken Grace shopping for new dresses for the summer, while his father had gone to the Institute to continue Jesse’s training.
He had sent a fire-message to Alastair asking him to come.
Fire-messages were complicated for him. Every time he sent or received one, Thomas would always think of Kit, but he knew his cousin would’ve been proud that something he had created was proving to be useful to Shadowhunters in their day-to-day life. And Thomas would always be proud of Christopher, no matter how much it hurt to think of him.
He heard the doorbell chime and ran to open the door, revealing Alastair on the other side.
“Hi, Tom.”
“Hello, love,” Thomas gave him a quick kiss, “come on in.”
They walked to the drawing room, Alastair had been at his house enough times that he knew the path as well as Thomas did. He still felt a rush of excitement every time Alastair visited his house, which had been happening more frequently since his parents had extended the Carstairs family an invitation for weekly dinners.
“How are your mother and Zachary?” Thomas asked once they had settled themselves on the sofa.
“Good, he loves the blanket Eugenia gifted him, Risa and my mom were trying to pry it off of him to wash it when I left.”
Thomas let out a laugh, “please avoid telling her that as long as you can, she’s capable of bragging about it for years.”
Alastair smiled, “maybe I’ll tell her next time I see her.”
Thomas groaned. But he was glad Alastair got along so well with his family.
He felt Alastair’s hand on his forearm, rubbing circles on his tattoo over Thomas’ shirt. It was something he had noticed Alastair had taken to doing whenever he was nervous about something.
“Something on your mind?”
“Mhm,” Alastair looked down at his hand on Thomas’ arm and halted its movements, “just something my mother mentioned at breakfast.”
“What is it?” Thomas intertwined his hand with Alastair’s.
“She wants to move to Cirenworth with Zachary and Risa.”
“Okay...” Thomas noticed that Alastair didn’t say anything about himself moving with his family.
“And since I’ll be staying at our house here in London...”
Thomas was relieved that Alastair was staying, but waited for him to finish his sentence.
“...she mentioned that you are welcome to come live with me,” Alastair cleared his throat, “at Cornwall Gardens.”
“Oh.”
Alastair quickly stood up, “nevermind, it’s just a stupid idea, I can live by myself perfectly fine, you don’t need to leave your home just for me.”
“Wait, Alastair, I do want to live with you!” Alastair’s rambling had kicked Thomas’ brain into action.
“You don’t need to agree just because I’m rambl-”
Thomas kissed Alastair to shut him up.
When they separated for air, Alastair said, “If you think this is too fast-” and again, Thomas’s lips interrupted him.
Alastair kept listing possible excuses while Thomas interrupted him with kisses and pushed him to walk backwards until Alastair’s back was resting on the wall.
“If it’s too much of a hassle to pack your th-” Thomas kissed him.
“We don’t need to sleep in the same bed if you w-” Thomas placed a kiss to his neck that made him cut off mid-sentence.
“Sometimes I snore-” a kiss to the corner of his mouth.
Thomas knew that Alastair’s heart had been hurt before, and sometimes he needed some extra reassurance that Thomas really wanted him, and cared for him, and loved him. Thomas didn’t mind reassuring him, as long as he got to spend the rest of his life with Alastair by his side.
“I-,” Thomas kissed Alastair’s lips, “-want-,” a kiss to his nose, “-to live-,” a kiss to his cheek, “-with you.” He finished with a kiss to his forehead.
Alastair looked up at him through his dark lashes, which never failed to make butterflies explode in Thomas’ stomach, “are you sure?"
Thomas nodded, “yes!”
A soft smile appeared on Alastair’s face, “for real?”
“Yes, for real.”
Alastair couldn’t contain the massive grin on his face, which was contagious and made Thomas have a matching grin as well.
“I love you,” Alastair said.
“I love you too, I can’t wait to live with you.”
+ 1
The day after Thomas moved officially to his house in Cornwall Gardens, Alastair woke up to an arm around his stomach. He smiled, remembering that they had fallen asleep cuddling, something that hadn’t happened since Belial had had London under his control. It had been too complicated to spend the night at each of their houses, between their parents, his baby brother, and Thomas’ sister Eugenia, who considered teasing them her favorite form of entertainment.
But they wouldn’t have to sneak around family members anymore. They now had a lifetime to fall asleep and wake up together. Alastair couldn’t wait to wake up each day with Thomas’ arms around him.
He intertwined his hand with Thomas’ and brought it up to his lips to kiss it.
“Mmmorning,” Thomas mumbled.
Alastair turned around to face him, “good morning love.”
Thomas gave him a peck on the lips, “I could get used to waking up with this view.”
Alastair blushed, Thomas was so casually affectionate with him, and months later it still felt brand new. Thomas’ love was like a band-aid to every time he had been hurt in the past, a steady presence reminding him that love, and being in love, didn’t have to be painful. Thomas’ love brought him peace, and excitement, and happiness...
“Tom.”
Thomas hummed, his head was back against the pillows and he looked ready to fall back asleep.
“Thank you.”
Thomas looked at him questioningly.
“For loving me right.”
Thomas placed a kiss to the back of Alastair’s hand, “thank you for letting me love you.”