#raphaelsimon

Elaine made the two of them change before thrusting a cup of hot chocolate in both of their hands. “Go sit on the couch and warm yourselves up before you end up sick,” she said before going back into the kitchen to finish up dinner with Rebecca.

They snuggled up together on the couch and Simon grabbed the quilt on the back, tossing it over their laps. He leaned against Raphael, giving a content sigh. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For coming here tonight,” Simon replied. “I know Hanukkah isn’t your thing, but-”

“It means something to you, Simon,” Raphael said. “And that’s enough of a reason for me.” He smiled at Simon before pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “I’m more than happy to spend time with you during this time.”

Simon returned the smile and rested his head on Raphael’s shoulder. “I still want to say thank you.”

Helen sat down in the armchair next to the couch and watched the couple fondly. Simon caught sight of her watching and blushed as he pulled away from Raphael. The old woman smiled at him. “Don’t stop on my account,” she said. “You two are very cute together.”

“I’m just glad you’re accepting of this.”

“After everything I’ve seen in my life, you being happy is more important than the gender or religion of the person you’re with.”

Simon smiled. “Thank you, Bubbe.”

Once the menorah was lit and they ate dinner, everyone came back to the front room to eat dessert. Helen and Rebecca had made doughnuts earlier that day filled with different kinds of jam, which everyone happily ate.

“Shall we open presents?” Helen asked. “Simon, will you grab the gift bags off the dresser in my room?”

Simon nodded and walked into the front room a minute later with his arms full. He carefully set them down on the coffee table. “Would you like me to hand them out?”

Helen nodded. “Please, there are names on all of them.”

Simon picked one up and looked at the name before smiling softly and turning towards his boyfriend. “This one is for you.”

Raphael looked at it in surprise. “Me?”

“Yes you,” Helen said. “You are dating my grandson and in my eyes that makes you a member of this family.”

Raphael hesitated for a moment before accepting the gift bag. “I didn’t bring anything for anyone, I-“

“It’s quite alright, Raphael,” Helen said, a soft smile on her face. “You didn’t have to, but I wanted to get you something so I did.”

“I-I-thank you,” Raphael said before pulling out the tissue paper and taking out a book that contained several short stories involving vampires and other creatures. “Oh wow. Thank you.”

“Simon told me about your fascination with vampires, so when I saw that I thought of you.”

Raphael smiled and looked up at Helen. “Thank you. I really appreciate this, and for letting me spend Hanukkah with you.”

Helen returned the smile. “You’re welcome, Raphael, and you always have a spot at the table for future holidays.”

“Well, I plan on being with Simon for a very long time, so I think I will gladly be around for more holidays.”

The family continued to open gifts, Elaine having given Simon and Raphael a combined gift of matching Star Wars mugs and hot chocolate mix to go with it.

Afterwards, Simon stood up and grabbed his and Raphael’s gifts. “I’ll go put these in our room. Be right back,” he said before pressing a kiss to Raphael’s cheek and heading down the hall. Raphael watched him for a moment with a smile on his face before turning back around to see Helen looking at him.

The woman stood up and grabbed the wrapping paper scattered about. “Raphael? Would you help me?”

Raphael nodded and stood up, grabbing the rest of the wrapping paper before following Helen into the kitchen.

“You really love my grandson, don’t you?”

Raphael nodded. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I rarely feel attraction to anyone, but Simon…” He paused for a moment and smiled. “He means alot to me.”

“I have known people like that, everyone else thought them to be broken but I thought they were just fine,” she said, laying her hands on his shoulders. “I’m glad you and Simon met. I can tell you love each other very much.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Can I ask you something?” Helen nodded and Raphael opened his mouth to say something before shaking his head and looking down at the ground. “I don’t know how to say it actually.”

“Just say it, Raphael.”

Raphael looked back up at her. “Simon asked me to marry him.”

“Oh!”

“But I didn’t say yes.”

Helen looked at him in surprise. “Why not?”

“I don’t know. I know I want to spend as long as I can with Simon, but even as a child I never saw myself getting married.” Sighing, he turned away from Helen and leaned against the island, watching as the snow fell outside. “He doesn’t show it, but I know that not giving him an answer upset him, and I hate doing that. We had enough of a rocky start. We didn’t get along at all when we first met, but now I can’t picture myself without him.”

Helen stood beside him and placed a comforting hand on his back. “And I’m sure he feels the same way.”

“Then I should say yes?”

“I think you should do whatever your heart tells you to do, Raphael,” Helen replied. “You’re a good man, and regardless of if you get married or not, I think Simon will love you and be happy with you.” She smiled softly at him before giving him a hug. “And whatever you decide, this family will still love you.”

Raphael returned the embrace. “Thank you.”

She pulled back after a moment and smiled again. “Will you grab some wine glasses and bring them out into the front room? I need to find that bottle of wine I bought.”

As it grew closer to midnight, everyone decided to retire for the night. Raphael dragged an intoxicated Simon to their shared room, Simon stumbling and giggling the whole way.

Once they reached the bedroom, Simon jumped on the bed and immediately rolled himself up like a burrito with the covers. Raphael chuckled and closed the door. “You don’t want pajamas?”

Simon shook his head before hiding it under the covers, his reply slightly muffled. “No, I want snuggles with my boyfriend.”

“Well this boyfriend isn’t going to snuggle you unless you change,” Raphael said, unbuttoning his shirt. “And your sister was kind enough to get us matching pajamas.” Simon unrolled himself from the covers as Raphael picked up the Stormtrooper pajamas. “These look pretty comfy, don’t they?”

Simon nodded. “They do.”

He got off the bed and grabbed the other set of pajamas, his being Chewbacca. Once they were dressed, they got under the covers and Raphael pulled Simon close, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I’m glad you invited me.”

“I’m glad you came.”

“Simon?”

“Hm?”

“I think you deserve an answer.”

Simon opened his eyes, looking suddenly sober. “Raph, do we have to do this now?”

“I wanted to say yes.”

Simon blinked a few times, trying to process Raphael’s words. “I-I thought you didn’t want to get married.”

“I said I never pictured myself getting married,” Raphael said. “And I’m still unsure of how I feel about it, but I do know that I care about you immensely, and I want to spend whatever time I can with you.”

Simon continued to stare at Raphael for a long moment before he was cupping Raphael’s face and kissing him. “I love you.”

Raphael smiled. “I know.”

“I should go get the ring,” Simon said. “I brought it with me, I don’t know why but-“

“Just go to sleep, Simon,” Raphael lauged. “You can find it in the morning.” He wrapped his arms tighter around Simon and sighed contentedly. “Your grandmother is going to be very happy.”

“How do you know?”

“I might have let it slip that you asked me.”

“You did what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Raphael replied with a yawn. “I needed someone to talk to, and I didn’t want to call Magnus.”

“He’s practically your father, he’s going to be upset you didn’t talk to him.”

“He’ll get over it. Now go to sleep, you’re already going to have a nasty hangover when you get up.”

“Yeah, I did drink a little much tonight, didn’t I?”

“Not as bad as Magnus’ New Year’s party last year.”

Simon let out a giggle. “I barely remember that.”

“It’s okay. I still have videos.” He pressed a kiss to Simon’s cheek. “Good night, Simon.”

“Night, Raphael.”

But still, it isn’t just anyone that he’s trying to muster up the courage to ask out. It's Raphael; unfairly handsome, absurdly sarcastic Raphael, who is essentially the sole reason that Simon made it through his introductory history class, thanks to hours and hours of tutoring sessions that arose after Simon desperately posted in the first year Facebook group one night when he was a little drunk and bemoaning the horrible grade he’d gotten on his first paper.

The crush that came along with spending so much time with Raphael had been more than a little inconvenient at times, mainly on the days when Simon was too tired and distracted to have his heart in studying and really wanted nothing more than to just stare at Raphael for a few minutes, but he’d (mostly) managed to keep it from affecting their sessions, if only because he needed an A in the class to keep his scholarship.

But he submitted his final paper (after having Raphael look over it no less than three times) two hours ago, which means that his crush has gone from being a quiet, dormant thing that’s easy enough to ignore (except for when he’s drank a bit too much or when he’s having one of his weekly venting sessions with Clary) to being blazoned in screaming color inside his mind.

Hence the spiced hot chocolate and the standing outside Raphael’s dorm room and the multiple aborted attempts at knocking.

He tells himself that he’ll try one more time. If he can’t bring himself to go through with it, if the fifth time (or maybe it’s the seventh, but who’s counting?) doesn’t turn out to be the charm, then it obviously isn’t meant to be, and he’ll take the hot chocolate back to his own dorm room and call Clary and-

“What are you doing here, Simon?”

Simon jumps, spins around and finds himself almost toe to toe with Raphael, who is simply standing there with a raised eyebrow, snow melting in his dark hair and along his shoulders, which are covered by an unfairly well-tailored black leather jacket.

“Hey, Raphael,” he says, heart still pounding from the shock of Raphael sneaking up on him. “Nothing. Just, uh. Hanging out. You know how it is.”

“Outside my door?” If it was anywhere else, Simon would think about trying to play it cool, pretend that he didn’t even know he was standing outside of Raphael’s door, but that won’t fly in this case, because a) he’s stopped by Raphael’s room at least half a dozen times and b) there’s a damn miniature whiteboard attached to the door with Raphael’s name written on it in careful, precise handwriting.

For a moment, Simon wishes that he’d given up and left when his last attempt to knock on the door had sputtered out, but instead of attempting to duck out of the situation, he forges on ahead. He already looks supremely uncool; might as well make it even worse.

“Actually, I came here to thank you,” he blurts, thrusting the hot chocolate towards Raphael’s chest. “For helping me make it through the semester. And also, I maybe wanted to ask you out. On a date.” Sighing deeply, he immediately fixes his eyes on the lid of the hot chocolate, so that he doesn’t have to see whatever emotion is currently flickering across Raphael’s face.

Absently, he notices that his hand is trembling slightly.

“Only maybe?”

There's something in Raphael’s voice, something that almost sounds amused, and even though Simon knows it’s probably in his best interests to keep his gaze averted, he’s always been a curious person, so he finds himself looking up anyways. What he sees almost makes him stumble back a few steps.

Raphael is actually smiling at him. It’s little more than a quirk of his lips, but still, there’s a definite upturn to them that makes a spark of hope ignite in Simon’s chest.

“What?” he asks, just to be cautious, because it would be just his luck to get his hopes up only to realize he's completely misinterpreting the situation.

“You only maybe wanted to ask me out? It’s not like you to be undecided about something,” Raphael answers, reaching out and taking the hot chocolate. His fingers momentarily brush against Simon’s, and the spark in Simon’s chest flares brighter. “You’re a very opinionated person.”

“And you’re not?” Simon laughs in mild disbelief. Raphael shrugs slightly as he brings the hot chocolate to his mouth and takes a sip.

“You didn’t answer my question.” His tongue darts out to lick a droplet of hot chocolate off the corner of his mouth, and for a moment, Simon is so distracted that he kind of forgets what question he’s supposed to be actually answering. It’s only when Raphael clears his throat slightly that he remembers.

“It wasn’t just maybe,” he answers, cheeks feeling like they’re mildly on fire. “It was a definite. Once I knocked on your door. Which I was trying to do when you showed up out of thin air. Which you should really stop doing, by the way.”

“I’ll try to walk louder solely for your benefit,” Raphael replies, voice completely and utterly deadpan, although his smile hasn’t abated. “When do you get your final mark for the class?”

“I’m not sure,” Simon says, the change in topic momentarily knocking him off guard. “Sometime in the next two weeks, I think. Why?”

Raphael’s smile grows slightly larger as he steps closer, close enough for Simon to smell his cologne.

“If you don’t pass, I’ll have to tutor you again. And I have a strict policy of not dating anyone I’m tutoring.”

“If I fail, I’m making posters and putting your face all over campus, and they’re all going to say, ‘this man is a terrible tutor’,” Simon responds, hoping that Raphael’s smile will grow a little larger.

When it does, it takes everything he has to not pump his fist victoriously.

“If you do that, I definitely won’t go out with you.” After a moment, Raphael raises his free hand and brushes his thumb over the line of Simon’s cheekbone. It’s a fleeting touch, and there’s barely any pressure behind it, but it makes a pleasurable shiver course down Simon’s spine. “Come back when you find out if you passed or not. Thanks for the hot chocolate.” With that, he steps past Simon, unlocks his door, and disappears into his dorm room. Once the door has clicked shut behind him, Simon lets out a deep breath and sags against the nearest wall, still able to feel the phantom touch of Raphael’s thumb on his cheek.

He hopes with everything he has that he passed the damn class but, just on the off chance that he didn’t, he immediately starts compiling a mental list of people he knows that are smart enough to hack into the school’s database.

Just in case.

&.

Two and a half excruciatingly long weeks later, Simon receives the email containing all of his final grades, and he immediately skips to the bottom of the list of classes.

Introductory History: 91%

As soon as the words sink into his brain, he jumps off the bed, shoves his feet into the nearest pair of shoes, and runs out the door, phone in hand.

By the time he makes it across campus to Raphael’s dorm, his feet are soaked (who knew that it snowed so much overnight?), and his heart is pounding. As he walks down the hallway, the thought that he could have put some more effort into his appearance occurs to him, but it’s too late to turn around; before he can completely lose his nerve, he knocks on Raphael’s door.

It creaks open a few seconds later. Even though it’s the middle of the afternoon, Raphael looks like he just woke up; he’s barefoot, his short hair is tousled, and he’s wearing a pair of sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt.

Just like that, Simon’s already impressively large crush kicks up a notch.

“Did you pass?” he asks, yawning midway through the sentence. Simon nods, brings up the email on his phone, and passes it over. Raphael scrolls for a moment before pausing, lips curling into another smile.

“Impressive,” he murmurs, passing the phone back. Reaching out, his fingers grasp the front of Simon’s sweater and tug him closer. “Where are we going on our first date?”

“I have no idea,” Simon answers, chest bumping against Raphael’s. He carefully wraps his arms around Raphael’s waist, and when Raphael only pulls him in tighter, he relaxes and drops his forehead against Raphael’s. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Raphael says, nose brushing against Simon’s. “After I finish the nap that you interrupted. You’re welcome to join me, if you want.”

Simon can’t think of a single thing he wants more than that, even if the dorm room beds are absurdly small.

He’s sure they’ll find a way to make it work