#fandomadventcalendar

25 holiday inspired prompts for December. Feel free to use them in order, or combine them, it’s entirely up to you. (Or feel free to make them into an “Advent Calendar” and pick at random. This website can help you pick at random.) For writers and artists. Tag it with #fandomadventcalendar

-ao3-

“Don’t be such a Grinch, Tahani.” Eleanor says, arms crossed, stare hard and a knitted red-and-green monstrosity clenched in her hands.

“Excuse me?” Tahani’s voice rises in pitch as she gasps in offense, hand going to her chest and drawing Eleanor’s eye to the low cut neckline of her dress.

“A Grinch. A Scrooge. A holiday curmudgeon. She who hates Christmas.” Eleanor lists off counting them down on her fingers theatrically as she does so.

“I know who Grinch is, thank you! And I am not that… that… ugly green creature.” Tahani says, arms flying around to emphasize her point. “I adore Christmas. My Christmas parties are the events of the year. I once raised 3 trillion dollars at my Winter Season Charity Gala. It was attended by my good friend Emma Thompson and-”

“Then you shouldn’t have any problem wearing this in the name of holiday spirit and keeping our covers.” Eleanor smiles sharply and once more extends the sweater at Tahani. And Tahani once more leans back as if she’s being offered lice.

Honestly saying the sweater looks like a Christmas tree threw up on it and made a woman’s portrait from the vomit would be a compliment, but if Eleanor’s being forced to wear one with a deranged clown in a Santa costume then she’s taking everyone else down with her.

Eleanor is almost impressed with Vicki’s new play at torturing them.

Showing up at Eleanor and Chidi’s house, with big fat crocodile tears running down her face and crying about how no one else wanted to be wearing the holiday sweaters she’d knitted for the occasion was pretty inspired. Michael was extra scornful, which she’s noticed happens when he wishes he’d have come up with it himself in one of his 802 previous attempts.

So, unfortunately, what the ‘Eleanor-who-thinks-she’s-in-heaven-by-mistake-and-must-pretend-to-be-a-good-person-and-totally-doesn’t-at-all-know-this-is-actually-the-bad-place’ was supposed to do was grit her teeth and fold with a pained smile.

On the bright side maybe there will finally be something that doesn’t make Tahani look like a fairy goddess and she can finally kill this unfortunate crush deader than a doornail.

—

Tahani’s angrily eating gingersnap cookies across the room and she looks gorgeous even in the sweater from hell (literally). Of course she does, Eleanor grabs her fourth glass of champagne and swallows it in one long gulp.

She looks down at the Santa Clown smiling up at her with its big, creepy, blood red grin. “Shut up! I’m going to burn you later you know that right?”

—

A lot of the rest of the night is gonna be blank but what Eleanor will remember the next morning is gonna be this:

—

All of them in a circle, as they all do end up ritually burning their sweaters in Tahani’s back yard. Even Chidi looking like he feels better after they go up in flames (his had the picture of two garish-looking red boots).

—

The satisfied smile on Tahani’s face as her sister’s likeness joins the bonfire being both terrifying and really hot.

—

The thought that Eleanor should totally tell her that.

—

“Hey, Tahani…”

—

Roasting marshmallows over the fire and trying to sing some dirty versions of traditional Christmas carols but ending up just giggling as soon as too many ‘forks’ join the lyrics.

—

“You’re way, way, way hotter than um… that sweater face, with the- things.”

—

A kiss that tastes like burnt sugar and cranberry punch and gingerbread.

—

Flashes of smooth bronze skin and silky long hair. A playful bite at her neck. Her own mouth traveling down a naked chest.

—

Eleanor wakes up warm and safe and really, really naked.

Ale woke up early Christmas morning. He extricated himself from the warmth of his boyfriend’s arms and pulled on the pajama pants he’d gotten from Magnus the night before. He placed a kiss on Magnus’ forehead and shuffled out of their room to make himself some tea.

Between him and their kitchen, however, was their entire family. Vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and shadowhunters sprawled across the living room on mattresses and couches. All of them sported festive seasonal pajamas, all courtesy of Magnus, a tradition he had been quite insistent on. They all were soundly asleep and creating a rather impossible maze for Alec to navigate to get to his tea.

Alec had to wonder what he did to deserve for this to be his life. He had an unbelievably wonderful boyfriend, a beautiful home with him which would regularly come alive with the presence of their joint family. It was often times overwhelming to him to think of all that had happened to him in such a short span of time.

But he knew he wouldn’t trade a moment of it. Even the mistakes he had made, the things he had lost, in hindsight seemed so necessary to the growth he’d experienced. He couldn’t see himself parting with any of the lessons he had learned, especially the hard ones. He felt wiser and stronger than he had been not even a year ago when he first met Clary Fairchild. Then, Alec had hated her, wanted her gone as soon as possible. Now, he knew he owed everything he has now to her. This Christmas morning wouldn’t be the same without her lying back to back with his sister. Although they still rarely saw eye to eye, Alec found himself unsurprised he considered Raphael family now too. Even Simon was growing on him.

Warm hands wrapped around Alec from behind, soft lips planted a kiss on his back, pulling him from his musings.

“It’s too early for you to be up, angel,” Magnus murmured into his skin. “Come back to bed. Bed’s too cold without you.”

Alec hummed quietly in response, turning in Magnus’ embrace to kiss his boyfriend properly. It earned him a smile when they pulled apart.

“Why’re you just standing out here anyway?”

“I was trying to get tea, but I got…” he gestured to all the peaceful looking faces around them, suddenly feeling a bit emotional. “Distracted.”

Magnus nodded and pulled him back into their room. With a flick of his wrist, he summoned Alec’s favorite tea. He stared into his own contimplatively for a few quiet moments.

“You know,” he said softly. “I get it. You all are the best gift I could have ever received. I spent centuries of my life doing nothing to deserve any of you and I’ll spend the rest of it wondering why I got to have the time with you I have.”

Alec let that settle over him, ridiculous as it seemed that Magnus was the one unworthy of him and his half of their dysfunctional family.

“It’s just hard to believe that all this is mine,” Alec confessed. “My family, my home, my life. I feel like I blinked and suddenly I had more than I could have ever asked for.”

“No better time than the holidays to soak that all in. Count your blessings and all that Mundane stuff.”

They cuddled up on the widow seat, drinking tea and watching the sun rise, each lost in the thoughts of all they had gained and lost over the past several months. The light of dawn cast a soft glow over the glittering snow. More gentle kisses were pressed into cheeks, necks, shoulders, and foreheads.

Just as the cloudy sky began to turn a rosy shade of pink, they heard stirring in the living room.

“I suppose we should go greet our family,” Alec said, finishing off his tea.

“Just a minute more won’t hurt,” Magnus replied, placing a final kiss on his lips.

Alec couldn’t argue. He kissed Magnus again, deeper this time, trying to express to him that no matter what things they’d bought for each other and put under the massive tree in the lounge, no gift could ever come close to the privilege of loving Magnus.

“Merry Christmas, Alexander,” Magnus whispered.

Day 1: a greeting/introduction

“Explain to me again what’s happening here,” Alec said, swirling his glass of wine in one hand.

He and Magnus were sitting on one side of a table for four in a high end restaurant waiting for Simon Lewis, of all people. The vampire was at the very bottom of the list of people Alec wanted to be trapped in a social setting with for several hours, and he was starting to curse Magnus’ irresistible persuasion tactics. But, Magnus had brought it up in the midst of an assault of hickies on the rune on his neck a few days ago and Alec had been too keen to get on with other things to actually listen to what his half-naked boyfriend was murmuring into his skin. He’d only really caught something about “Simon’s new boyfriend” and “a double date Friday night.”

“Simon has a new boyfriend,” Magnus said, bringing Alec’s wandering mind back to the present. “He wants me to be the first to meet him apparently, even before Clary. Something about it being like a meet-the-parents, but not really cuz I’m not his parent and then he rambled a whole bunch about how he wasn’t implying I was old and something else about a stepfather. I tuned most of it out; he doesn’t know how to shut up.”

Alec nodded and sipped his wine before asking, “Yeah, but why am I here?”

“Because I refuse to sacrifice date night,” Magnus answered, kissing Alec’s cheek and intertwining their hands.

Alec hummed gratefully as he brought Magnus’ hand to his lips. Establishing regular date nights had been Alec’s idea after all: a way of making time for the the things he cared about, as Magnus had once told him he needed to do. He was glad the ritual seemed just as important to Magnus as it was to him. The few hours every week where nothing but world-shattering emergencies was allowed to interrupt them did Alec more good than he cared to admit. 

“Oh,” he heard Magnus gasp, surprised. “Well, that’s one way to do it.”

Alec followed Magnus’ line of sight and easily found what had startled him. Simon had arrived, and with him a man who looked uncannily like Jace Herondale. Alec thought at first that it was Jace, but he dismissed the notion almost immediately. He’d left him and their sister in charge of the Institute while he went out. And besides, his brother was a lot of things, but bisexual certainly wasn’t one of them. In fact, it was almost annoying sometimes, how straight Jace was.

But, as the pair came upon them, it became really hard to deny that the man with Simon was his parabatai. From the genuine horror on his face when his eyes caught Alec’s to the “oh shit” look on Simon’s, it was clear that he was an unexpected part of this evening’s equation, and that the shadowhunter was irrefutably Jace.

 Alec’s emotions went cascading into madness with the realization. His wine glass dropped out of hand and crashed to the floor.

“Jace?” he breathed, still not quite believing his eyes.

He nodded, destroying any last doubt Alec had. “I didn’t know exactly how to introduce you to this part of me, but yeah. I’m Simon’s boyfriend.”

Magnus Bane was centuries old. He did not pout. Especially not about trivial things, like the fact that it was December second, 50 degrees outside, and there was absolutely no chance of snow in the foreseeable forecast.

Stupid mundanes.

He’d paid enough attention to things outside the shadowworld in the past century or so to know it was their fault the climate was changing. New York was supposed to be buried under at least a foot of snow right now and it wasn’t. Magnus liked the snow; he liked the way the city looked covered in it. The view of the cityscape was always beautiful, but winter was always the best.

But instead of snow on his balcony, it was rain puddles.

Alec’s arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind. He leaned into his boyfriend’s embrace, letting it melt away at least some of his bad mood. No day could be considered bad when his angel with him. Even if he did wish they could be watching it snow from the safety and warmth of the loft. These days when both of them had the whole day off were rare, and he couldn’t be blamed for wanting to spend it doing mundane things, like drinking hot cocoa wrapped in blankets and watching Elf on T.V. 

Alec pressed a kiss into Magnus’ neck and muttered, “What’re you thinking about?”

“It’s so warm out for the time of year,” Magnus sighed, turning to kiss the side of Alec’s mouth.

Alec hummed in agreement. “Good for demon hunting.”

Magnus frowned at him. “I never thought about that. Winter coats aren’t exactly conducive to the mobility needed to do your job, are they?”

Alec shook his head and Magnus suddenly took back every wish he’d made for snow this season. If it would put his Alexander in danger, he would gladly do without.

“From what I’ve seen,” Alec said, playing with the hem of Magnus’ shirt, “it’s not supposed to snow for at least a week. If only we knew someone with magic, like a wizard or a something, who had the power to change the weather.”

Duh.

Alec chuckled quietly in his ear before pressing a kiss beneath it. He loosened his grip on Magnus’ waist as if inviting him to do as he’d just suggested. And, for a moment, he considered it. But even if his nephilim wasn’t out this afternoon, other shadowhunters he cared about were.

But, he’d be damned if anyone would try to tell him he couldn’t have his cake and eat it too. He stepped out of Alec’s embrace and toward the balcony, rubbing his hands together and summoning his magic. With a quick upward flick of his arms, it began snowing inside his wards. He took a moment to admire his own handiwork before turning back to look at Alec, who was watching him with an intense expression. 

So quietly Magnus almost missed it, Alec muttered, “It’s so hot when you show off like that.”

Magnus felt a smirk pulling at his lips. “Oh please, Alexander. That’s hardly what i would consider a difficult spell.”

Alec just shook his head and smiled, meeting him halfway across the space between them. He pulled Magnus into his arms again and kissed him properly.

This is gonna be late but asgfgfbnslffl I wanted to write it.

xxx

Magnus had to admit, as skeptical as he was at first of Clary making all of them write letters to Santa during the cookie party, he was sincerely grateful for the advantage she had given him. With the letters stacked on his desk and a promise to send them out with the post tomorrow, Magnus had gained access to the ultimate shopping list for his whole family. Tomorrow, when Alec had gone off to work, Magnus could open them and give the shadowhunters, vampires, werewolves, and one very cute baby warlock the Christmas they all deserved. (Especially Simon, who had graciously participated in all of their Christmas-themed activities despite it currently being the middle of Hanukkah.) It had been an incredibly rough year for everyone; they’d lost a lot and sacrificed even more. Magnus hoped he could bring some cheer to lull between seemingly endless wars.

The next morning, Magnus sat down in his study with a cup of tea and his reading glasses. He may or may not have also had a Santa hat on, though he saw himself more as a Sexy Claus than a Santa Claus. (Which had led to a full blown role-play in which Alec straddled his lap so he could “tell Sexy what he wanted for Christmas” and whisper obscene things in Magnus’ ear, but that was nobody’s business but their own.)

An hour later, he had a frustratingly non-material list. With the exception of Madzie and Max Lightwood, all of them had asked for such unquantifiable things. Simon wished his mother would make a full recovery from drinking. Maryse had wished to repair her relationship with her daughter. Izzy had asked for advice on how to tell Alec she was bisexual, which Magnus could give her but wasn’t a gift. Jace wanted more free time so he and Clary could actually go on dates and have a real relationship. Clary’s was only a plea that no one else die on account of her, and Magnus’ heart broke for her. Raphael, whose letter was written more like a prayer, just asked peace and health for his sister. Luke asked for unity among the downworld. Maia wanted to pass her classes in college. And Alec… Alec said he wanted to be immortal so he could be Magnus’ forever; they were definitely going to have to talk about that.

Magnus sat back in his chair with a sigh and tossed both his glasses and the letters onto the desk. He was no closer to a substantial list than he had been when he started and exponentially more defeated. Even as a powerful High Warlock, he couldn’t give any of them what they really wanted for Christmas. He had hoped that he would be able to lighten their loads this season and give them at least some of the joy they all truly deserved, but despair was starting to settle on him like a wet blanket. As usual, he found himself falling desperately short of being good enough for the people he loved.

It didn’t occur to him that there was a letter missing until he got up to make himself a drink. He had also written a letter, at Clary’s insistence, and put it at the bottom of the stack for disposal after he was finished reading the others. It didn’t take a detective to deduce that Alec had taken his with the intention of reading it and buying the whole list, same as Magnus was doing with the others’. Magnus smiled knowing Alec would be as frustrated as he was as Magnus hadn’t written anything material on his list either. How could he, when he had all he could ever want sitting in his living room watching the Grinch and writing letters to a legend he was older than? Magnus was a selfish old man, but even he knew asking for more everything was overboard. So he’d only wished the Angels would allow him to keep these people for as long as possible.

Of course, a list of impossible wishes would never stop Sexy Claus from piling presents as high as the ceiling anyway. He was certain he knew these people well enough to shop for them without their letters to Santa. And that was exactly what he was going to do as soon as he dealt with the client that was ringing his doorbell.

 letters to ___.  & a case of mistaken intentions/identity

fandom: shadowhunters | ship: clary/izzy | type:  fic

Summary:

“Apparently even you noticed before I did.”

“Thanks.” Alec says dryly.

-

Or Alec has accidentally informed Izzy about her feeling for Clary, unfortunately she wasn't actually aware of them until then.

- ao3 -

“I am so stupid.” Izzy whines, voice muffled by the pillow she holds over her face.

“You’re not.” Alec says, exasperation clear in her brother’s tone. She pulls up a corner of the pillow to glare at him.

“I’m in love with Clary. I’ve been in love with Clary since I don’t know when and only noticed it now that she’s actually dating Jace. Clearly I’m not smart.” She says with a huff and puts the pillow back where it belongs. Over her head, to hide her from the universe. “Apparently even you noticed before I did.”

“Thanks.” Alec says dryly.

ao3

“I want flurries. Make it happen.” Parker says matter-of-factly, not a hint of a joke on her face. And Alec loves her, if she asked he’d hack into NASA and change all mentions of the moon to her name - wouldn’t even be hard actually, NASA really needs more funding for their cyber-security.

Hardison really feels rather bad for them.

The point here being that Alec would give Parker the world and sometimes he loves her most because she almost believes he’s magic. He thinks. It’s sometimes hard to tell with Parker.

But she does look at him with the kind of look that makes warmth bloom in his chest and for a stupid grin to slip on his face. He kinda likes being like a magician for Parker.

But how the hell is he gonna make snow happen?

-

She’s spinning around in her green elf costume, arms wide, snow falling on her face and the biggest smile ever on her face. Her eyes are sparkling and bright as she marches back into the bar to grab his hands and pull him outside along her. When the cold air hits them she leans back, twisting on the heels of her shoes and guiding him along until they’re both spinning like children. She’s giggling and then so is he, because her laugh is far too infectious. 

Their family is undoubtedly watching them in fond amusement, but he can’t bother to look away to check.

At the back of his head he reminds himself to cancel that emergency order he placed this morning for the four snow machines; needed by a fake movie production shooting a fake remake of It’s a Wonderful Life - starring Dwayne Johnson, because if he was coming up with a story he was doing it right. 

But it seems Santa’s got his back this Christmas.

| dec 2 | fandom advent calendar: snow (or lack thereof)