Dum Spiro Spero

then and now

Master of the sneak attack

Alec was getting a little frustrated. He’d called Catarina and asked if she could look after Max for a couple of days, only to find out that she was working double shifts at the hospital and would barely be home (though she did agree to stop in and feed Chairman Meow in the evenings). He’d called Maia, who turned out to be hosting friends of Bat’s. He’d considered, but rejected, calling Lily. Lily often spoke of how Max was “so delicious” that she just wanted “to eat him up,” and while Alec trusted Lily, he was not completely sure she was speaking figuratively.

“What about your mother?” Magnus said. He had put Max into an iridescent magical bubble and was rolling him around the bed- room while Alec fetched suitcases from the back of their closet.

“What? No,” Alec said. He watched Max for a moment. “Is he in a magical hamster ball?”

“No! Well, kind of, yes,” said Magnus. “He likes it. Why not your mother?”

“This kid floats up to the ceiling sometimes,” said Alec. “He sets a blanket on fire in his sleep every three weeks or so.”

“Another advantage of the magical hamster ball,” said Magnus. “Magic shield. I didn’t want Max knocking out the neighbors’ cable again.”

“Well, my mother doesn’t have a magical hamster ball,” said Alec.

Magnus rolled Max out into the hallway, to squeals of delight, and called back, “She’s a Shadowhunter! She’s supposed to be able to handle warlocks. She raised you!” He ducked his head back into the bedroom and raised his eyebrows. “She raised Jace.”

I told you not to flirt with me.

I did write it as an extra for Ilumicrate’s Red Scrolls of Magic box; they kindly gave me permission to post it here.

Dear Alec, I once told you that you were not trivial. It broke my heart that you would think so. I should have known then that one day I must tell you this. It was never your fault that I didn’t talk to you about my past. Centuries are not easy to speak of, and they were not easy to live. There have been people I loved who thought that because I laugh so that I don’t weep or break, that I was trivial. There have been people I loved who learned more of me, and thought I was evil incarnate who must be destroyed. I didn’t know how to make those I loved think of me as more than nothing, or less than a devil. I have seen the hearts of warlocks go hard and fragile as glass over time, seen them shatter and destroy the world around them. I have seen hatred and evil in Shadowhunters and Downworlders and mundanes. I never dreamed that I would meet a son of the Angel who could love me. Once I met you, so many feelings seemed made new: love, and hope, and fear you would see me for what I truly was, and turn your face away. That you, steadfast and clean-hearted and clear-eyed, would be right to turn away. I never doubted your heart. Only my place in it. I hoped for a long time to meet someone like you. I didn’t know I had almost stopped hoping, until you came. Whether you choose me tonight or not, whether you want me for always or never again, thank you for being all that you are. Alexander Gideon Lightwood, archer boy who never misses, my hope past hope. You will know me better after you read these stories. I don’t know what you will think of me then. I only hope you know this one truth about me, with all the good and all the bad. I spent days dying in chains, thinking you would never know this, so let me tell you now. I will love you as long as I live. However long or short my life may be, it seems to me that I could never find time enough to love you as you deserve. Loving you made me believe in eternity. Aku cinta kamu.