#warpromised

            It had been two days and six hours since Bucky had returned ; Ashley did little but cuddle him on the first day , got a haircut on the second . Now, early in the morning, the man had slipped away from the house , driving thirty or so minutes away to Bucky’s favorite twenty-four hour breakfast place . Now , as the sun was peeking over the mountains , Ashley pulled quietly into the driveway . 

            It’s funny to think about , all the training he had received in stealth was going towards ensuring he could sneak back into the house to surprise his fiance with breakfast in bed . The house was silent as he made his way to the kitchen , pulling a few plates from the cabinet ( plates that him and Bucky had made during a pottery class they took together ; a short - lived hobby , but he still adored the results ) and carefully unwrapping the still warm breakfast. Though diligent in his practice , Ashley had made little progress in learning how to cook properly. Food offered little to him , and he hardly had a need for it when Bucky wasn’t by his side. Sure , he could fry an egg just fine , but he wanted to surprise the other with something he knew he loved.

            It takes only a few minutes to plate , and while it’s certainly not a chef’s presentation , it’s the best he could do with food transported half an hour on the back of a motorcycle. He slips through the hallway, sliding into the room through the cracked door. It was hard to tell if Bucky was still asleep , but it was nearing seven now and neither man seemed to sleep in too late on their third day reunited. Setting Bucky’s plate on the bedside table , Ashley knelt at his side. A small smile graces his lips, and he gently traces the back of his hand against Bucky’s cheek. “ I brought your favorite ; that one from the diner next town over. You needn’t rise now if you’re too tired , but it is here when you want it. ” 

44. How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?

Given his background - how he was brought up, the relationships he was exposed to during that time - Alec has a very hard time with the concept of love. He knows what it is, but he doesn’t really know what unconditional love feels like. On some level, he recognizes familial love but that love is also (for a time) something conditional in that he felt it was based on his family’s idea of him instead of him, himself. He wasn’t sure if they’d still accept him, still love him if the truth about his sexuality was known to them. 

One of the most beautiful things about his character development over time is seeing him become more comfortable with not only recognizing love, but the idea of love, with loving & being loved by someone, as well. His major turning point is City of Glass, & his actions throughout the book speak volumes more - once he becomes aware of it, he digs in 100%. While it may have taken him time to catch on, once Alec is aware of the feelings, he’s all in. That being said, it’s still difficult for him to say the words. He’s more prone to “saying” them through his actions. 

Alec is also incredibly honest - especially with the people he cares for. He’s not about to break that streak, so he would have an incredibly hard time saying it without meaning it, & likely would not do so.

45. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

Shadowhunters typically die young. Death is a far less abstract concept, & something far more familiar to him than it would be a mundane. On his death, he knows he’ll be clothed in white & his body presented so that others can say goodbye. The appropriate words will be said over him. His eyes will be bound with white silk, and he will be laid to rest with his arms crossed over his chest, a seraph blade clutched in the right hand and resting over his heart. Then his cremated remains will either be entombed in the ossuarium in the Silent City, or his desiccated body will be further burned to ashes & used to reinforce the marble arches. 

Beyond that, it’s the general belief that he’ll go to Heaven. It’s not something he’s ever dwelled on - an afterlife, where he would go - until he met Magnus. Now it’s something he questions every single day. 

  “Clara Oswald, when have I ever done what I’m supposed to?”

James is in so many of the memories that she replays in her head. Natasha can’t pinpoint exactly when his face started to rematerialise where once there was a ghost of someone, but she knows that he kept her going in dark days, knows that they took him from her and she from him but that somewhere in her, she was always going to cling to those precious moments. And now, they’re face to face with one another, staring into a possibility and the emotions are out before she has a way to contain them.