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When Alec gets back from hunting demons with Clary, Izzy, Simon and Jace in the Rockefeller Centre on Christmas Eve (Shadowhunters don’t get days off), the last thing he expects is what he sees when he opens the door to his and Magnus’ loft.
The loft is beautifully decorated, as it is every year, with mistletoe above the door, themed green and red cushions on their couches, and almost all the fairy lights they owned hanging from almost every wall. Except one.
Magnus stands in the middle of the living room, wrapped in the last string of colourful fairy lights. In one arm he holds a wriggling blue warlock child and on his back, tugging lightly at his neck is a young, laughing Shadowhunter.
Alec stares at them, folding his arms and can barely hold down a fond smile. When he closes the door behind him, all three pairs of eyes go to him. They all stop what they’re doing and stare with that ‘this isn’t what it looks like’ look, when in fact it’s exactly what it looks like. Finally, he’s the one to break the silence.
“What happened to ‘it’ll all be done for the party before you get home’?” He raises an eyebrow, looking each of them in the eyes individually.
“Rafe did it!” Magnus says with a laugh. Rafe gasps in shock, tugging his Papa’s neck a little tighter.
“Hey! Traitor!”
That’s when Max starts wriggling again and Magnus starts laughing again and Alec can’t hold it back anymore. He laughs on his way over to them, then takes Max out of Magnus’ arms, holding him like he is a baby again. He’s still so small, but getting so big every day.
“Rafe, help your Papa out of those lights while Max and I get dressed,” Alec says. Rafe nods, and Alec leans up to kiss him on the head and Magnus on the cheek, but Magnus turns his head so that he catches his lips instead. They smirk at each other cheerfully. Then Alec walks towards the bedrooms.
This day was kind of important, they were having his family over, all of the Lightwoods. And this would be the first Christmas they were all free to be having it together: Izzy, Simon, Jace, Clary...his parents. They all accepted what he and Magnus had made for themselves, he wasn’t worried about that kind of fight, but it had been awhile since they had all been in one room, so anything could happen; he supposed.
“Daddy, put me down! I needa show you what me and Rafe made for you!” Max says, interrupting Alec’s thoughts. He sets him down with a smile, and watches the toddler scamper down the hall happily.
He follows Max into his and Rafe’s shared room, and sees the mess scattered over the floor where Max is sitting excitedly. Alec sits down across from him and looks at the pictures drawn for him, and doesn’t even bother trying to hide a ridiculous smile.
From what he can make out from the scribbles of blue and black, it’s Max, Rafe, and himself fighting demons together. Most pictures have Magnus too, and some even with Aunt Clary (she’s the orange scribble) and Izzy. Alec can’t take it. He almost ‘awws’, but instead grabs his little blue son into a tight hug.
“I love them, blueberry.” Max giggles and is smiling up at him, obviously thrilled with himself. They stay like that, Max snuggling tighter to his Dad’s chest, finding the warming comfort he always loved. Then Rafe runs into the room, breathless in that ‘just been tickled’ way and Max untangles himself from his dad and stands up, hands on his small hips; all business.
“Now we have to get ready, dad.” Alec laughs but nods, getting up as well.
When both Max and Rafe are cleaned and dressed in their best clothes and playing together in their room quietly, Alec walks into the kitchen where Magnus is making dinner for the family gathering. He walks up behind the warlock and puts his arms around his waist, setting his head down on his shoulder with a sigh.
“Darling, are you alright?” Magnus puts down whatever he was making and turns in Alec’s arms, leaning close so their foreheads touched.
“Yes, just tired. Those demons today would not give in,” he sighs again, but smiles when Magnus gives him one of his protective looks.
“Well, you’re home now.” He leans more into Alec, enough to brush their lips together, but also enough to catch what he’s wearing. He leans away and his eyes widen in shock.
“Alexander! You’re still in your bloody hunting gear! Go get dressed, you’re family is arriving in 10 minutes!”
Alec leans in again, smirking. “That’s more than enough…”
“DAD! AUNT IZZY IS HERE!” Rafe shouts from the other room. Alec’s eyes close and he groans. Always the early one.
Magnus smirks back at him. “Go, you stupid Nephilim. I have some cooking to do.”
“Fine,” Alec frowns. “And don’t worry, I’ll keep her out of the kitchen.” Magnus laughs.
Alec walks out to the living room to see his sister standing in the doorway, arms full of presents and eyes scanning the place with wonder (he always loved Magnus’ interior designing talents). Max is standing in front of her, staring at his aunt’s arms, mouth open comically wide. Alec rolls his eyes fondly.
“Alec! Merry Christmas!” she smiles, setting the presents down on the couch to go over and give her brother a hug.
“Merry Christmas, Iz. Where’s Simon?” he asks. She looks around confusedly.
“Oh. He’s probably getting the rest of the presents...” she trails off. Alec glares at her.
“Izzy, we talked about this.”
“What?! It’s Christmas!” she says, Alec just rolls his eyes again.
“Fine, but it had better be things they can share…” Izzy smiles like she won (she most certainly didn’t) and sits down next to Rafe on the couch, talking animatedly about how she took down eight demons today with her whip. Show-off.
That’s when the storm hits, and the rest of the Lightwoods show up, crowding around the front hall in a ravenous chatter.
Clary and Jace have one present in each of their arms and are shrugging off their coats, Simon is stumbling in with about three presents of varying sizes in each arm, and the Lightwood parents are demanding room and have four presents between them.
Alec smiles. This is how it starts.
It isn’t chaos, per se, just a lot of chatter in one room. Alec decided he would go get dressed then finish setting the table, but really he is now just watching the living room curiously. Jace, Simon, and Clary are seated on the long couch in the centre of the room, listening as Max tries explaining his latest drawing to them. Clary always takes a special interest whenever Max talks about how much he loves art, Alec thinks she probably got him something artsy for Christmas and smiles for about the hundredth time that evening.
In one of their lounge chairs, Robert Lightwood is sitting, smiling at their Shadowhunter child as he switches between talking about what he’s been learning on the piano and what he’s been learning from his Dad with a seraph blade.
Maryse and Izzy are talking and laughing with each other, wine glasses in their hands, leaning against the wall next to the lit fireplace. He doesn’t know what they’re talking about, they’re too far away, but the sight brings a smile to his face. They’ve all come so far.
He’s frozen there that whole time, hand halfway to setting a fork down, when familiar hands settle around his waist and a mouth comes around to kiss the top of his ear lightly.
“Look at them,” he says to Magnus, who beams.
“I know. We’re the luckiest people alive.”
They stare contentedly at their shared family in silence, staying there until Rafe sees them and drags them over to join the party.