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It came to Clary in a dream, a blinding kaleidoscope of colour and sound all meshed together like a whirlpool. The echo of wind tousling leaves on an autumn tree, swathes of russet gold and a glassy sea blue, a soft chime from the sort of bell that should have rang out heavy and deep. It was like she understood nothing and everything all at once, and just when the sound was too loud and the colour too bright and unbearable she saw it, stark and poignant in the centre of everything else.
A rune.
Before she was even fully awake her fingers scrabbled to find the sketchpad she kept in her nightstand, pencil sketching the stark black lines like it had a mind of its own. It wasn't unusual, Clary thinking up new runes in her sleep or in a daydream or in the middle of a conversation, but oftentimes they were nonsensical or things that wouldn't ever need to be used. This one was different, though, the soft curves and stark lines singing off of the page.
Clary knew exactly why she'd dreamt this, and exactly who it was for.
+
"Why" said Magnus, "do people never want to visit us when it isn't the middle of the night"
There'd been an insistent banging on their front door, loud and determined but not strictly urgent and it had both thrown Alec into consciousness and caused Max to take up a round of startled crying in the other room. Alec was halfway out of bed, dishevelled and rumpled and warm with sleep while Magnus stares up at the ceiling, forlorn.
At nineteen months old baby Max was slowly getting better at sleeping through the night, but that was only providing the night was silent and not filled with, say, the sound of someone banging against their door. Magnus frowns at the little baby monitor on the side table and Alec leans over to press a soft kiss to Magnus' cheekbone before murmuring "you're getting the baby"
Magnus looks affronted. "You know you're better at getting him back to sleep when he wakes"
Alec tugs a shirt over his head and makes an impassive face. "Which of us was supposed to soundproof Max's room from outside noise, and which of us spent all day catching up on Project Runway instead of doing that?"
Magnus glances pointedly at something across the other side of the room. With a soft smile Alec stumbles out into the hall and waits for the telltale sound of Magnus entering the nursery and stepping on a toy, swearing softly in a language Alec doesn't quite know before scooping Max up and murmuring "shhh, pumpkin, I'm here now".
Forgoing the peephole, Alec swings the door open and squints at a messy haired, bright eyed Clary Fray. She's clutching a sketchpad in one hand and has her other raised in a fist, like she might have knocked again. "Alec!"
Alec blinks sleepily as she pushes by him and lets herself into the kitchen. "Everything okay?"
Bizarrely, she flicks on the coffee maker and busies herself with finding two mugs and a latte packet while Alec watches on, unsure if he did anything to warrant this late night invasion or not. Jace can't be hurt - Alec would feel it - and it can't be Simon, because she'd be distraught. Alec does a mental checklist of all the possible scenarios and then Clary is sliding a mug across the breakfast island towards him and jumping up to sit cross-legged at the edge of the counter.
She takes a long, steady sip and says, "you might want to sit down"
Alec, forever a stubborn Shadowhunter, remains where he is. Clary taps her nails against the cover of the sketchpad, a nervous tick, and then she looks directly at Alec - she seems anxious, and excited, and something else he can't really decipher.
"Okay" she says. "Alright. A rune came to me tonight, in a dream. It's...probably easier if I show you it"
As she thumbs through the pages clumsily, Alec wonders what she could have possibly seen that would send her here and not to Simon, or Jace or even her mother. It's not that they weren't close; Clary was one of his best friends, but generally he wasn't the first person she came to if something like this happened. Which must mean it had something to do with Alec specifically, or Max - panic unfurls sudden and startling in a sharp inhale, paternal instincts kicking in even before there is any sign of danger. If Clary notices, she doesn't mention it.
"Here" she says at last, setting the book down and sliding it across. The thing about runes was that you didn't so much as read them as you did feel them. It wasn't like looking at a word and connecting the letters to express an emotion, it was as if the rune seeped out from the page and hummed through your veins until you felt what it wanted you to feel.
Love. Alliance. Marriage.
It had the same curved edge as a traditional Wedded Union rune, the intricate flicks and twists but there was something else, threaded through the rune like a knot of rope and it made Alec's fingers tingle, sang something utterly more than just a Shadowhunter rune. It was something Alec had seen before, a safety net hidden within the rune that made it harmless to non-Nephilim. Alec had seen it in the Alliance rune, all those years ago in the Hall of Accords.
Clary was watching him with warm, earnest eyes and Alec let out a sort of hitching gasp when it really hit him. She reached out a hand to fondly wipe away the tears tracked down his face and he swept her into a hug, face buried in the tangled mess of red hair he so often teased her for as she hugged him back with a strength that said I understand.
"Alexander?"
Magnus was standing in the doorway that led off towards the bedrooms with baby Max propped against his hip, suckling sleepily on his thumb. Wordlessly, Clary moved towards Magnus and reached her hands out for little Max. Magnus, Clary thought, only showed his years if you really looked into his eyes. The deep, almost intimate concern in his gold-green irises told tales of centuries worth of wisdom and knowledge. Magnus handed Max over instantly, understanding completely, and Clary took him through to the nursery to give his parents some privacy.
Magnus places a gentle hand either side of Alec's face, thumbs brushing away the tears that lingered across his cheekbones. Alec rarely cried, is the thing; Shadowhunters were trained to hide their emotions, and as such they were able to remain composed in the most dire of situations. Magnus feared whatever it was that may have happened.
"I'm sorry" Alec says, and bewilderingly, he smiles. Magnus leans up to press a gentle kiss to his forehead, and Alec curves both hands around Magnus' wrists where they're holding his jaw. "Nothing's wrong"
"I don't mean to state the obvious" Magnus tells him, "but you're crying"
Alec laughs, a quiet, pretty little thing that makes Magnus feel warm, safe, "Surely you've heard of happy tears?"
Magnus searches Alec's face for something, losing a little tension when he finds whatever he was looking for. "Of course I have. I just assumed you Shadowhunters were devoid of tears, generally"
Tilting his head, Alec kisses the palm of Magnus' hand gently and then he steps back to retrieve Clary's sketchpad, holding it close to his chest. "Don't generalise" he chastises, grinning. "Clary brought us something"
Magnus eyes the page wearily and Alec feels suddenly nervous, unsure in a way he hadn't been around Magnus in years. You have a son, he reminds himself, you've no reason to worry about this. Alec takes a deep breath, and flips the page around.
Magnus stares.
And stares.
After a few moment he takes the paper from Alec, fingers tracing the lines of the rune again and again until he could probably trace it out by memory. Finally, he says "well, I can certainly see why this made you so emotional"
His eyes are glassy and bright and Alec takes a step closer on instinct, places a reassuring hand at the curve of his waist. Magnus laughs incredulously, wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. "I said I wouldn't marry you until we could marry in gold"
Alec smiles. "I know"
"We might...I mean, the clave might not allow it, even if the rune does exist". Alec had known that, of course, but his smile doesn't falter.
"So we'll campaign for it"
Magnus has a sort of far away look in his eyes but it's not sadness, not quite. He looks wistful, vulnerable, and he rests a hand on Alec's chest where a wedding rune might go, fingertips tracing his collarbone. "Alexander, when I made you that promise I meant it, of course, but I never imagined...I would have married you in a downworlder ceremony, one day, if that's what you wanted, but a marriage by rune is what you deserve and I'd hate to settle for less. And I never thought we'd be able to have it, that we'd even have a chance. I thought perhaps I wouldn't be able to marry the only man who'd ever asked, the only person I'd ever wanted this with"
Alec swallows past the lump in his throat. "But now we have a chance"
"Now we have a chance" Magnus repeats, a little choked up.
An image fills Alec's vision, then; Magnus in a gold fitted suit, lined eyes bright and beautiful against the russet colour, tracing a rune into the skin over Alec's heart. Alec tracing one in the same spot on Magnus' soft brown skin, the stark black lines permanent and beautiful. He remembers Magnus' words, crouched by Max's crib, voice soft and unsure. Nobody ever wanted me to marry them before.
Alec takes a step back and steels himself, nervous like he's never been nervous before. Then, at 3:30 in the morning, Alec in sweatpants and an old shirt while Magnus is wearing nothing but plaid pyjama bottoms, Alec drops down onto one knee.
"Magnus" he says, suddenly overcome with emotion, "Magnus. This may be a redundant question, but if I deserve a gold wedding then you deserve to be properly asked. I know this is the part where I'm supposed to give some big emotional speech, but you and I both know I'm not any good with words, so. Um. I love you. I love you, and I don't know what I'd do without you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you"
Magnus is properly crying now, one shaking, ringed hand covering his mouth but Alec can see that he's smiling. Alec slides his family ring from his finger and holds it up between two fingers, the worn down L glinting under the kitchen lights.
"Magnus. Will you marry me?"
Magnus lowers his hand and smiles, fond and blinding and beautiful. "You stupid nephilim" he says, an echo of words from the first time he told Alec that he loved him. "Of course, of course I will"
Magnus lowers himself to be level with Alec and he kisses him, fierce and sure and euphoric. Alec feels Magnus' soft black hair sift through his fingers like silk and Magnus traces patterns across the expanse of Alec's back, mapping out runes over his shirt where he knows they're scarred into his pale skin, eventually just tracing the new rune over and over like a promise.
Alec pulls away, breathless, and holds his hand out with the ring sitting in his palm. There's a red indentation of the pattern where it had been pressed into his skin, forgotten in the heat of everything, and Magnus runs a curious finger over it. "Well" Magnus muses, transferring the ring into his own palm. "A warlock with a Shadowhunter ring"
He doesn't object when Alec takes it back and slides it onto the fourth finger of his left hand, pressing a soft kiss to the skin just above it as he does. Magnus lifts his hand into the light and admires it, eyes shining with unshed tears, and at that moment he hears a soft, pleased little gurgle. When he turns, Max is toddling towards them on unsteady little legs that he's still getting used to, tiny blue hands grasping a folded sheet of paper. Magnus turns around and scoops him into a hug, kissing his cheek before slipping the sheet from his grasp. In the centre is the new rune, sketched out by Clary, and surrounding it are haphazard scribbles in different colours that can only have been done by a nineteen month old let loose with coloured pencils. At the top are the words Congratulations, dad and papa in a squiggly sort of handwriting, and Alec can't bite back the smile at the image of clary with her hand wrapped around Max's, guiding it across the page.
Clary is leaning against the door frame across the room, and Alec meets her eyes with a ridiculous smile. "I take it congratulations are in order?"
Max wiggles over towards Alec and dumps himself on his father's lap, and Magnus turns to wiggle his left hand at Clary. She laughs, elated, and Magnus makes his way over to the door and sweeps her off of her feet into a huge dramatic hug.
"Magnus!" She chides, but she's laughing, and Max giggles and claps both hands in appreciation. "I'm so happy for you" Clary continues, when she's finally back on her feet.
"Thank you, biscuit" Magnus says sincerely. "I mean it. This is all because of you"
Clary flushes as red as her hair, bending to lift Max into a hug so that it doesn't show. He tugs on a curl of her hair and then pops his thumb back into his mouth, evidently remembering all at once that he should be sleeping and that Clary is a very comfortable pillow.
"It is" Alec confirms, stepping up beside Magnus to slip an arm around his waist. "If you hadn't showed up to annoy the living daylights out of me five years ago, I might never have even met Magnus"
"Well" Magnus amends, "I was bound to notice the prettiest Shadowhunter in New York at some point, eventually"
Soft pink heat steals high up in Alec's cheeks and Clary laughs, cradling little Max to her side. "Jace will be very upset to find that he's not the prettiest Shadowhunter in New York"
"I'm sure you can soothe his ego" Magnus tells her, reaching for Max when his head lolls onto Clary's shoulder. "We should really get this little one back to bed, I'd almost forgotten the time"
Clary hands him over but not without pressing a little kiss to the wispy black curls springing out from his head, murmuring a little goodbye. "I'll get going, then. Next time I'll try to have my bursts of angelic inspiration at a more convenient time, but I couldn't wait to tell you until the morning"
"It's fine" Alec assures, smiling over at Magnus and Max. His son is curled up asleep with his head nestled in the crook of Magnus' neck, little bare feet dangling below the cradle of Magnus' arms. Magnus has to lean his head away at an awkward angle to avoid being poked by the little horns peeking out at the front of Max's head, but he's smiling warmly at Alec who can't imagine a better kind of happiness. "It's perfect"