#prettywarlockk

Alec was like no one Magnus had ever met. He was kind in the way no Shadowhunter before him had been. He was steadfastly loyal, almost to the point of crippling him. He was a natural born leader and, despite what Alec might have thought, he drew people to him whenever he entered a room.

And whenever Alec looked at him, Magnus couldn’t help but feel as though everything in his life had been leading to the moment when he met Alec Lightwood.

Magnus had always been one to fall hard and fast, but with Alec it was different. Right from the start, Magnus was all in, slowly letting down his walls and untangling the thorns, letting this beautiful man into his heart. Alec consumed Magnus in a way he had never felt before, not even with Camille, and Magnus had been sure what he’d felt for her was the epitome of love.

He wanted everything with Alec, including children, a real family.

Magnus kept putting off broaching the subject of children with Alec. He knew that Alec loved him heart and soul and knew that he was in this relationship for the long haul, just as Magnus was. But Alec was young, not even twenty-five, and Magnus wasn’t sure if children was something on his radar, if it was something he thought about or even wanted.

And Magnus wanted children so badly that if Alec said no...it might crush him.

So he waited. When Alec moved into the loft, Magnus said nothing. When Alec asked Magnus to marry him, Magnus said nothing. He said nothing, but he watched. Watched the way interacted with his brother Max, watched the gentle way he cared for Madzie whenever they looked after her for Catarina. Magnus watched, and he knew that Alec would make a great father one day.

If only he had the courage to ask Alec if that was something that he wanted.

Magnus, for once, had a day free of clients and the warlocks of Brooklyn had apparently decided to take a day off from causing mayhem, so he was trying to work on the wedding plans that he’d been neglecting when his phone rang. When he saw that it was Alec, he picked up immediately, fearing the worst - Alec rarely called from work and when he did, it was because he needed Magnus’s help.

“Alexander? Is everything okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. Well...kinda.” The line was quiet for longer than Magnus was comfortable with and he was already on his feet, ready to make a portal. “Look, I know it’s your day off, but do you think you could come down to the Institute?”

“Already on my way.”

“You’re the best.”

“I know.” Magnus smiled when Alec laughed. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

----

Magnus stepped through the portal and landed in front of the Institute. He walked in like he owned the place, having learned that the Shadowhunters generally left him alone if he acted like he belonged, though whispers still followed him. And the whispers were particularly bad that day, though they were quiet enough that Magnus couldn’t hear what they were saying. Not that he cared, it was probably the same racist and homophobic trash he heard all the time - he must have just caught them on a bad day.

“Magnus, hey!” Isabelle walked up to him and gave him a hug. “I assume Alec called you.”

Now Magnus was suspicious. “Yeah, he did. What’s going on?”

Isabelle looked anywhere but at Magnus when she spoke. “I should… let Alec tell you. It’s not my place. He’s in his office, by the way, but I gotta go. Lot of, um, work to do. You know how it is.” And then she was gone, leaving Magnus dumbfounded. Isabelle was usually so calm and collected - she never stuttered or stumbled over her words.

What was going on?

He knew the only way he was going to get answers was by talking to Alec, so he walked the familiar path to his fiance’s office, knocking on the door when he arrived. “Come in!” he heard Alec call, his voice muffled by the thick wood of the door.

Magnus let himself in and was shocked to find Alec sitting behind his desk, holding what was unmistakably a baby. “Hey, Magnus,” Alec said, looking up.

“Don’t ‘hey, Magnus’ me, Alexander Lightwood. At least not until you tell me where you got a baby.”

Alec looked down at the bundle in his arms like he had forgotten it was there, and then back up at Magnus, a soft smile tinged with sadness on his face. “Someone left her on the Institute steps and no one knew what to do with her, so they gave her to me.”

“Someone left a baby on the steps of an abandoned church?” Magnus hadn’t had the greatest parents in the world, but he couldn’t imagine anyone leaving an infant outside what would have looked to them as a run down church where no one would find it.

Alec shook his head. “I think whoever left her knew this was an Institute, whether they could see it or not. She’s a warlock, Magnus.”

“How do you know?”

Alec smiled again, looking down at the baby. “Come see.”

Magnus came to stand behind Alec and looked down to see a beautiful baby girl sleeping peacefully. Her skin was dark, not unlike the glamour Catarina wore and Magnus could see a swath of black hair peeking out from underneath her blankets. But what stood out the most was the two tiny horns protruding from her forehead. They were small now, but Magnus knew that they would grow as she aged. “She’s beautiful,” was all he could think to say.

“Yeah, she is.”

“What are you going to do with her? I can call around, see if there’s any warlocks who would be willing to take her in.” Magnus knew that there were some mundane parents who loved them, warlock children were always better off being raised by other warlocks, by someone who could truly understand them. “Maybe Catarina-”

“I want to keep her.”

Whatever Magnus was going to say about Catarina died on his lips when Alec spoke. He actually had to clutch the edge of the desk to steady himself as the world around him had started to spin. Surely he had heard Alec wrong. “What did you say?”

Alec swallowed hard and Magnus could read the panic coloring his features. “I know we haven’t...talked about this, kids, yet. But I’ve always wanted to be a dad and I just...I want everything with you, Magnus. And...just forget I said anything,” he added with a small shake of his head. “We’ll figure something else out for her.” But the way he was looking at the baby told Magnus everything he needed to know.

Alec loved her and he wasn’t going to let her go.

“Alexander, look at me.” When he did, Magnus continued. “I want everything with you, too. I just wasn’t sure that this, that kids, was something you wanted.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me?”

“Because I was scared. I’ve wanted to be a father for centuries but I never thought it was something that was in the cards for me. But, still, I wanted it. Above everything else, above getting married, I wanted to be a father. And if you didn’t want the same thing…” Magnus trailed off with a shake of his head, unable to finish.

“Magnus, I love you.” No matter how many times he heard it, those words always set Magnus’s heart beating faster. “Of course I would want a family with you. Anyone would be crazy not to.” Magnus laughed, recalling an almost identical conversation when they had broached the idea of marriage for the first time.  Anyone would be crazy not to, Alec said, but Alec was the only one who had ever wanted those things with Magnus.

Seventeen thousand people and no one had ever loved him the way Alec Lightwood did.

“Can I hold her?” Alec smiled and handed the baby - their daughter - to Magnus and he looked down at her, unable to believe this was his life now. There was only one thing missing. “She needs a name.”

“Actually, I already thought of one,” Alec admitted and Magnus’s smile widened, if that was even possible. Of course he had. “I was thinking that maybe we could name her Sophia. It’s-”

“Izzy’s middle name, I know.” Magnus looked at the baby again. “Sophia,” he whispered, trying it out. “I like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Sophia Lightwood-Bane.” At that, baby Sophia opened her eyes and looked up at Magnus unblinkingly. “Well, hello, there, little lady. I’m your dad.”

“One of your dads,” Alec interjected.

“One of your dads,” Magnus repeated. “And we are both going to love you for the rest of our lives. I’m going to give you the best life, Sophia, I promise.”

Alec stood and kissed Magnus on the lips and the leaning down and kissing Sophia on the forehead. “We really lucked out with this one, baby girl.” Magnus felt a tear roll down his cheek and Alec reached out and wiped it away. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m just...really happy.”