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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Ask Explosion #9:

Asks answering previous posts:

Sabrina, I have one word of advice for you...

R U N

“Chat, please stop talking.”

“But that’s my thing!”

“YOU JINX EVERYTHING!!”

Ayyyyyy~

Well, it’s something, I suppose?

Answered this here.

It absolutely did. Bless you, kind and hilarious citizien. ;P

I’m torn because... on one hand, I want to give proper mythology and such for like--anything that’d be put into the show, but on the other, I liked the idea that Alix’s brother was just sort of a conspiracy who thought of stupid stuff (which is why I kept the concept for MC Jalil Kubdel).

Zoe did it really well in Scarlet Lady where Alix knew the actual mythology and started blurting it out whenever Jalil got it wrong.

New Asks:

Considering “Ikari Gozen,” I imagine Alya and Kagami don’t get along as well. I agree with basically everyone that Marinette and Kagami not getting along is bad, but Alya and Kagami not really getting along makes more sense and is more tolerable.

Since Alya is Marinette’s “““BFF”““ (supposedly), I could see her kind of being like, “You’re competing with my girl over the same guy,” and keeping Kagami at arm’s length, worried that keeping Kagami close will allow Kagami to be closer to Adrien since Adrien is an extension of their friend group (kinda, sorta, not really, but Marinette calling him a friend so technically--)

You know, Alya trying to be a good friend and help Marinette with Adrien in more subtle ways. It’s the wrong way to go about it but she��s trying.

LUKANETTE IS AMAZING IN TERMS OF PROGRESSION KDJNGJDFG, I ADORE IT. Every episode they share together, we either learn something new about them or see more details on their relationship.

I think I was already all-in before “Silencer,” but man, that episode just sealed it even more. I was like well dang, why does the love square even EXIST???

jfdngjkfdjgfdg

Incredible. Only problem is that the creator doesn’t know how to use it properly.

You mean fourteen year olds aren’t perfect human beings???? :o

(no, but really, that’s me all the time; like, she’s barely a teen!)

He’ll believe it if it’s Chat Noir who’s doing it. If Marinette ever does it though, he’ll be sure to shut it down. ;P

Ugggggh, the worst part is that I have the same exact fear that they really are going to be like yeah Ladybug you silly fool Chat Noir has been with you since the beginning!

I mean, we’re already basically getting that with the New York special; Chat was supposed to protect Paris and then didn’t tell Ladybug that he “had to” leave for New York (and the New York thing is inadvertently Marinette’s fault and parts of the fandom actually did blame her for it even though it was Chat’s choice not to say anything), then Ladybug gets upset with him when she discovers it mid-battle, which leads to Chat being distracted and Cataclysming someone (another thing that Ladybug can be “inadvertently” blamed for), then Chat gives up his miraculous so Ladybug isn’t even allowed to be angry and cue the later line of “I can’t imagine being Ladybug without... him.”

So clearly that’s saying something. Adrien doesn’t get anything close to that level and Marinette is chewed out for not asking him to stay when Nino had already asked him too.

It’s like--Marinette chooses to go after Adrien and then gets either nothing in return, or humiliated by the narrative, and then in the New York special, she decides to do nothing and everything still goes wrong while Alya yells at her for it. The “damned if she does, damned if she don’t,” on display is stunning. The girl tries to confess and it’s like, “no, not allowed, but Chat is allowed to confess.”

I still don’t understand this logic of his overarching plot but also “there’s not much of a timeline.” I think the only solid thing we’ve ever gotten was something about all the episodes in one season coming after all the episodes in a previous one, but there are still things that don’t add up? The only thing the season 3 production order will give is making sure the hero debuts work out (so no Viperion or Pegase before “Party Crasher,” for example).

It’s not really reliable. I mean, like--I’ve been experimenting with timelines for a while, and stuff like “Miraculer” baffles me. It’s basically non-canon with no value whatsoever. All it does is make “Heart Hunter” look even more confusing and treats Marinette even more horribly for not picking Chloe when she explicitly told Chloe that she wasn’t getting it back.

I’m not familiar with that one! Is it any good?

(Okay, I actually was too curious and ended up looking it up; fancy! I couldn’t have guessed that it was a webtoon! I started reading the 1st issue and before I knew it, I was on the 6th! Oops~)

Lila is totally Rashta, 100% agree. The fact that the comments have a nickname of “Trashta” for her, equivalent to Liar Rossi, says as much ;P

Because lessons that involve telling someone that they’re valid and allowed to feel a certain way don’t apply to Marinette. Isn’t it nice? :3

Not that I know of? Though I also don’t look for that kind of thing, so it’s possible that it exists and I just don’t know about it.

Even if it did exist thought, I don’t see a problem with you doing your own regardless. Good luck if you do!

No. No I do not. ;P

GREETINGS FELLOW INTJ!

And yeah, I’m not really capable of not analyzing shows. There are some small exceptions, but they’re usually not full shows in the normal sense. If there’s an ongoing plot, my mind tends to be working at all times.

In terms of Miraculous, Season 1 was harmless enough where I was bothered but pretty quiet about it, but then it just got progressively worse. It really feels like one of those things you can’t unsee when it finally hits you, y’know?

I’m glad I was able to help you get that satisfaction you need (and appreciate Lukanette, of course ;3)!

Non-Miraculous Asks:

(some heavy Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt below)

Wow, this is a really dedicated ask! Nice!

Gonna go point by point here:

1 - Yeah, the whole thing with Homura not “being able” to save everyone... kinda questionable, and I didn’t really buy the arguments they used to explain it away. I think there was this one PSP game or something with Madoka Magica where you could kind of choose what happened (like, there were bad ends where Sayaka didn’t get her soul gem back in time and her body was partially decayed; ick) and I think there’s a good end where Homura saves everyone but--yeah, not canon.

I just don’t care for twisted stories like that unless there is actually a good end on the horizon (and I mean like “Everyone Lives and is Happy” good end). Angst is just so exhausting so the second I saw Mami’s head being bitten I was just like, “Ah, okay, so we’re doing this then.”

2 - Eugh, the sexism thing. It’s so... yeah, and especially this because the whole “girls are emotional” thing, I don’t really care whether or not the show is trying to “subvert” or “explain” anything, it just feels like poor taste and I don’t like it. (I also didn’t know about that Death Note thing because I didn’t watch it, but geez.)

3 - Wow, I’ve been away from the show for so long that I forgot what Mami’s wish was; I thought it was to “not be alone” or something (or maybe not die alone?? I really don’t remember), but either way, the fact that it follows some sort of genie wish logic is just--*sigh*--they’re teenage girls, come on (plus, the “genie wish logic” is really overdone to me anyway).

4 - The other thing about Sayaka is that it’s really predictable that she’d “die so quickly.” Basically everything was pointing to her just being annihilated at some point, and being Madoka’s best friend, it was pretty inevitable that she’d go.

((semi-unrelated, but someone also asked me which character’s name was lied about before episode 3 hit and they wondered if it was Sayaka’s; it was Kyubey’s))

Yikes. Sorry you had to experience that.

Anyway, I guess I’m not experienced enough in multiple fandoms to say for sure? If I was ever in a fandom, I would just blacklist the people/stuff I didn’t like, so I didn’t get to see a tong of “bad things” going on.

+ I try really hard not to generalize fandoms into one thing.

𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓝𝓸𝓻𝓶𝓼 𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓾𝓹𝓲𝓭 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓑𝓸𝔂𝓼 𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓛𝓲𝓴𝓮 “𝓖𝓲𝓻𝓵𝔂” 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼

Oof, uhhh, shows, huh? That’s tough.

I think the main ship from Given (Mafuyu and Ritsuka) is really adorable (you might’ve seen the amusing video of their love being mutual before), and while I would’ve said the same thing for the kinda-sorta side ship, it gets--uh... really bad during the movie/rest of the manga, I’ll just say that much.

Mafuyu and Ritsuka though, totally adorable.

Inuyasha kinda? Though Inuyasha and Kagome are definitely not the kind of romantic chemistry that I lean towards (I find “the bickering couple” to be rather exhausting). Plus, Cardcaptor Sakura did the “male tsundere” better than Inuyasha did (though the Clear Card Arc was terrible, at least it’s not canon kinda-sorta? idk it seems like a mix of the anime and manga so...).

After that there’s...

...

hm.

I mean, there’s probably a couple more examples somewhere, but--yeah, I’ve got nothing. Maybe if I thought back to all the generic children shows I watched when I was little (like those old Disney live-action shows; I had no taste when I was younger), there might’ve been something that satisfied kid me but idk.

I don’t remember what post inspired this, but I have no problem answering regardless, ahaha~

My main issue is Aang’s attitude about the whole thing. I’m not saying it was right of Katara to go out and get “revenge via murder” exactly, but I also think that Zuko had the right idea with allowing her to go and face the man who killed her mother so she could get some form of closure (also note that Zuko doesn’t express any sort of opinion when Katara decides not to kill him; he just wanted her to have whatever she thought she needed to heal).

It’s also the episode where Zuko directly confronts Aang on his “violence isn’t the answer” rhetoric which then goes completely ignored as Aang lionturtles his way out of the conflict. Aang is also not confronted on his point of “forgiveness is the first step to healing” (when Katara has a right not to forgive and Aang isn’t challenged outside of Katara commenting on it) and was permitted to ride his high horse when Katara “steals” Appa like, “It's okay, because I forgive you... that give you any ideas?” which is just--

reaaaaaally "holier than thou”-esque when Aang is like, ten, and Katara is a sort of motherly figure to him. The episode even has Sokka praise Aang for how “wise” he is and I groaned through the entire thing.

Another smaller thing is that it sort of makes the air kingdom look way too “perfect” by having Aang be the “source of wisedom,” especially when it’s like “violence isn’t the answer” while all the other airbenders are dead.

#((Guess who lost asks AGAIN.))#((Ugh I'm so annoyed this laptop is really giving up on me I swear.))#((I lost like fifteen.))#((Most of them were ones I was really looking forward to answering as well.))#((Basically needed an emergency restart while I was saving all of them.))#((Really sorry about that for the last fifteen or so asks I had.))#((I remember one from emikogale that involved the ideal ending of the show and that one was great.))#((and another about the fandom not really getting along that said particularly nice things but UGH.))#((If you sent me an ask recently and it's not here then it probably got washed out.))#((Because I don't recall just outright deleting anything because I didn't want to answer it.))#((I'll try to save a whole snapshot of my inbox beforehand so this won't happen again.))#((Seriously sorry.))#((Know that I saw it and likely approved of it but stuff happened and I acknowledge it's my bad.))#((Winter is just really out to get me isn't it? ugh))#character: Sabrina Raincomprix #character: Alya Cesaire #character: Marinette Dupain Cheng #character: Chat Noir #character: Sabine Cheng #category: staff #category: salt #other: non ml talk #other: ask and answer

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livlepretre · 3 years

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6 TVD Prompt Ficlets

Filling a bunch of prompts sent in by @finnismyoriginalsin last August– I didn’t take all of them, so seriously, if any of these tickle anyone, GO WRITE because they are all fantastic!

(Jeremy x Katherine; Tatia, Katherine, Elena x Klaus; Tyler!Klaus x Elena; Klaus x Elena; Alaric!Klaus x Elena; Elijah x Elena)

Prompts:

Not 12am here yet so lol..I have a few more if you wanna do.

Prompt: Stefan is Jack the Ripper with the help of Klaus and Rebekah, obv it’s how he earned the nickname.

Prompt: Jeremy finds the old timey photo of Katherine, meets Katherine who he mistakes for his sister at first (may or may not be shippy).

It’s entirely fucked. He knows that.

The thing is it had all started innocently enough– no one had ever thought to fill him in on the whole evil twin thing, noooo, better to leave him in the dark and let him bleed his broken heart onto his not-sister’s shoulder and start this thing– this thing he thought was Elena letting him in, finally being present, where just about every week she would take him out to this bar outside of town that never cards and buy him drinks and listen. And they would talk.

They never discussed it, it just seemed to spontaneously happen. Between Jenna always listening in on his conversations and her stalker boyfriends that made sense to Jeremy.

So by the time he figured out it wasn’t Elena he’d been spending all this time with, his head had got twisted around. He’d been angry and hurt and somehow those nights out with his sister that he adored turned into even longer nights where he would stare into the sultry, sharp features of the vampire like he was looking into a funhouse mirror. That was how he first noticed the shape of her mouth, the sharpness of her pearly white teeth. How he first imagined that mouth on him, those teeth in him.

The leap from imagination to reality is devastatingly short.

She likes to ask him questions while she nurses his dick, nurses the bloody bites in his thighs. He tells her everything she asks for. More. He’s always liked talking to her. Likes being inside of her even more, even though it means he has to blush and look away whenever his sister walks into a room.

Until one day she stops coming by. He waits for her, and waits.

It takes forever to realize that whatever she had wanted from him, she must have gotten.

It’s soon after that that Damon approaches him with a plan to take the bitch down at the masquerade, and he’s all too eager to participate.

Prompt: Tatia, Katherine, Elena, Amara x Klaus, he can’t escape her, he’s the one running now.

She’s everywhere. He turns the corner: there she is. Looks in the mirror, and there, standing just behind him again, her, her, her.

A thousand years have passed, and while the memory of Tatia Petrova has surely haunted him, it had not been until after the sacrifice, when he’d revenged himself on Katerina and drained that last girl wearing a damned face had the haunting become quite so literal.

Now Tatia follows him for true, her eyes an accusation as she looks and looks and looks at him and refuses to ever look away, her gaze still and fixed as only the dead’s can be.

Katerina plucks at his sleeves, her hands thin and gray as they never were in all the years he had known her. Where once she had caressed him with those hands, had loved him with those hands, now all she can do is demand from him that he acknowledge her. That he look at her, and see what he has done to her. He never looks, because then he would have to see the gaping wound in her chest where once her heart had been. She had given him her heart once, and he had taken exquisite pleasure in holding that still beating heart in his hand and ripping it from her chest, in watching the gray crawl of extinguishment creep over her skin. He had been a fool.

The worst is the last one. Elena, he reminds himself.

Her skin painted with blood from head to toe, flames eternally licking at her hands and her feet. He always knows she’s found him again from the scent of charnel that follows her on a windless breeze. Of all of them, she holds herself farthest back. Never looks at him, never even seems to notice him. It’s unbearable, when he can feel around his wrists and around his ankles and threading through his ribs heavy chains, forging his fate with hers. Her last words had been Go to hell. He had not realized at the time that she intended to drag him there herself. He feels the weight of them, pulling ever tighter. Her silhouette is thinner every time he spies her. He doesn’t want to think what will happen to him when she disappears entirely.

And so he runs. Leaves America, and then the Western Hemisphere altogether. Abandons civilization and society to plunge into the deepest forests, the darkest seas, daring to outrun the inevitable.

Everywhere she finds him. She, she, and she.

His three-faced goddess. His death where he had only ever thought to look for triumph.

He had thought the chase was over that day he plunged his fangs into Elena Gilbert’s neck, but now he knows: that was the day the true hunt began.

Prompt: Davina brings back both Kol and Finn accidentally, their ashes were mixed in the urn. And/or Davina brings back Finn who masquerades as Kol for a bit.

Prompt: Klaus x Davina, he also has a thing for witches like Kol. Gold dagger threats.

Prompt: Rebekah x Kol, secret liaisons

Prompt: Tyler!Klaus x Elena, awkward morning after, angst. And/or Tyler!Klaus x Caroline bc that would be super awkward and angsty.

It’s obvious as soon as she wakes up with her head clearer than it’s been since she turned that this is a huge irrevocable mistake. The mistake to end all mistakes.

Elena creeps out from Tyler’s bed, cringing at the dried blood plastered all over both of their bodies, mapping the wild caresses that had led to the frenzied fucking last night. She trips almost right away– she lands hard on the floor, where she is forced to look into the glassed over eyes of the girl she and Tyler had picked up at the Founder’s party last night and, in a whiskey-drenched, blood-starved haze, seduced and then devoured.

She groans, hanging her head in her hands, as viscous guilt surges up in her throat like bitter bile.

Worse. Her gums ache. Even now she’s wondering when her next opportunity to do it again will be.

“Lovely. You’re awake.” Tyler sits up and stretches.

Elena narrows her eyes at him. Something about his word choice seems off. She’s known Tyler since they were in diapers, and never once has she heard him use the word lovely. In fact, there’s been something odd about Tyler ever since he mysteriously, miraculously didn’t die when Klaus burned–

The blanket falls off of him and she is faced with the evidence of everywhere she had touched him with her hands and her mouth last night, all mapped out in vivid crimson like the cheat, the slut, the failure she is.

“What are we going to do? What are we going to tell Care?” Elena moans, huddling in on herself. She draws her knees to her chest and rests her forehead against them. There’s a dab of blood on her left thigh and she can’t help sticking her tongue out to taste it, to comfort herself with it, even in the pit of all of her anguish.

She’s gone and slept with her best friend’s boyfriend. Completely lost control of herself and abandoned everything that made her decent and worth loving. And she’s a murderer too, now. A really, really hungry one.

“We should come clean with her,” Tyler says. “Straight away.” He eyes her naked body. “Well, perhaps after another bout. What do you say?” He crawls onto the floor with her and pins her beneath him.

Lightning flashes through her brain. She kicks herself for not realizing sooner– but how could she? She’s been a wrecked, starving mess ever since she woke up on that coroner’s table coughing her lungs out.

“Tell me again what you said after you saved me from Klaus,” she whispers. “In the kitchen.”

The hybrid on top of her pauses. “I wanted you to drink some orange juice.”

She shoves him off of her and darts to the other side, looking for her clothes. “First off, as though Tyler Lockwood would ever offer me anything other than a shot,” she says, thrusting her legs into her jeans. “Second off, what the hell, Klaus?” She stares down at her arms. She’s covered in Klaus-marks. Her skin crawls. “What was this? Why are you in Tyler’s body?”

He stretches and prowls towards her. “I’m on holiday here until your little witch friend can find a way to jump me back into my own without that stake destroying me as soon as she does.”

“And so you thought you’d just have a go at me?”

“You handed me the perfect opportunity to separate Miss Forbes from her boyfriend.” He leers at her. “I must say, though, the after dinner show was far beyond my expectations. I do hope I can persuade you for an encore.”

She slaps him. “You’re vile. I’d rather–”

“You’re already dead, and next to that, whatever else you might say is going to pale in comparison.” He leans in, brushes his mouth against her ear.

Elena represses the shiver of delight and disgust that rolls through her.

“And before you go casting stones: you still slept with me when you thought I was your dear friend’s boyfriend. What does that say about you?”

Prompt: Finn x Rebekah or Freya, first meetings again.

Prompt: Klaus x Elena, hybrid baby somehow, oops can’t kill her now. Or, something pre season 1.

“You’re cheating on me?” he asks, bewildered.

Elena– sweet, sexy, sixteen year old Elena– swats him, dashing tears away from her eyes in the next motion. “Of course not! God, how can you even think– Of course it’s yours.”

“I highly doubt that.” Never sleep with a Petrova woman. That has been the rule he has been muttering to himself for 500 years. Why couldn’t he ever listen to himself? No, he just had to seduce the girl while he hunted for the moonstone, he couldn’t just leave her alone once he’d seen her–

“Well, I regret sleeping with you too,” she sniffles. “But since you’re the only one I’ve ever been with–”

In an instant he’s caught her in his gaze. “Tell me who the true father of your child is,” he compels her. Once he has a name, he can vent his frustration and jealousy out on him. Snapping necks always makes him feel better.

“You are,” she informs him, bringing the sky to come crashing down on his head without so much as batting a pretty black eyelash.

He sputters, pushing her away from him. His thoughts spark and short– how– perhaps–

He studies her wildly. Could her doppelganger nature be responsible?

He curses, all at once becoming aware of the weight of the moonstone in his pocket.

How can he sacrifice her now? He’ll have to wait– he pauses, tries to recall how long human pregnancies last– Well. Never mind. He’ll have to wait, at any rate. First for the child to be born, then for it to be weaned. And then? He can already foresee a limitless expanses of reasons to wait longer as this Elena Gilbert raises his child piling up in front of him.

And as he waits, Elena will only grow ever more beautiful and deadly. And he will have no choice but to fall in love with her.

Prompt: Alaric!Klaus x Caroline or Elena, meeting after class, creep.

“Elena, stay a minute after class.”

The girl pauses in the middle of packing up her bag, her large doe eyes curious but trusting. So trusting. Had Katerina ever looked at him like that? Tatia certainly never had.

As the class shuffles out, he takes the liberty of closing and locking the door, noting how still the girl doesn’t question him.

Isobel had chosen well when she’d selected the history teacher.

“What’s this about, Ric? Is it about–” she ducks her chin, very seriously, how sweet– “Klaus?” she half-whispers, half-mouths.

An absolute thrill rolls up his spine at the shape of his name in her mouth.

“Is there something you know that I don’t?” he asks carefully, fighting a smirk.

The girl’s face goes smooth as glass. He suddenly has a desire to tear her scalp free, the better for him to look inside her brain at all of those thoughts he can fair see swirling mercilessly behind her dark eyes.

He hovers over her desk. Cannot resist tucking a long tendril of her silky brown hair behind her ear, to sink into those abyssal eyes like an animal trapped in tar. Those eyes could smother a man. A vampire.

“Keep your guard up,” he murmurs, chucking her under the chin. “You never know who could lying in wait.”

Prompt: Elijah x Elena, him and his ties, during first seeing her after smelling her (you know the gif)

The shock of her existence is immense. In a moment, his entire world realigns. Shifts back into an alignment so seamless and perfect he cannot believe that he had gone on for centuries thinking this possibility were gone forever. This girl– this as yet unnamed, unknown, human girl– is a miracle. An opportunity for vengeance and maybe– just maybe– a chance for redemption.

He straightens his tie. Cannot fight the smile on his face as he greets her. “Hello.”

Sorry lol, damn I ship too many things.

#if anyone wants the prompts I didn't take #PLEASE have at them!#they look super fun!#I just don't have the energy lol #klaulena #elejah #tvd fic #5 sentence fics #submission

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ourooboroos · 4 years

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something in the way you look at me

Summary: Even though so many of Magnus’s texts (clean texts, too, not innuendos or dirty talk or anything -- just kind, friendly texts) had Alec blushing, Alec couldn’t wait to see him again. He was positive he would make a fool of himself, that’s just how he operated, but regardless, he wanted to see Magnus again. That brief time in the bookstore had not been enough. Not enough to get to know each other, obviously, and not nearly enough to appreciate Magnus’s carefully styled hair, inimitable style, and easy grace.

So Alec asked him out. Read on my AO3 or under the cut!

I don't know how or why I feel different in your eyes -Christian Bautista, "Missing Piece"

It wasn’t like Alec had a bad childhood.

He was safe; he never questioned where his next meal would come from, or whether he would have a bed to sleep in at night. His parents provided him with toys and three siblings and every opportunity he could ask for, like guitar lessons, carpools to swim practice, and a laptop when he went away to college. Even his adopted brother, Jace, couldn’t say the same about all of these things until the Lightwood family took him in at age ten. It’s not like Alec had any misconceptions about how lucky and privileged he was.

But he did sometimes feel like something was missing. He just didn’t know what.

Alec was 20 when he met Magnus.

The campus bookstore was crowded; it made sense, it was two days before classes started and students were piling in to buy necessary texts. Alec was working the register, a bit tired due to the early start to his shift, and had just handed change back to a nice blonde girl when a man stepped forward. He was just a few inches shorter than Alec��s impressive 6’3” and dressed to kill in a silky-looking deep red button down shirt and tight black pants. Necklaces draped across his neck and hid under his collar and he placed two large history books on the counter. Alec saw painted nails and various rings glinting under the fluorescent lights above them. He scanned the books’ barcodes with a gulp.

“Buying or renting?” he managed, chancing a glance at the man and immediately regretting it. His face burned as deep brown eyes lined in kohl stare back at him, a smirk playing on the man’s lips.

“Renting.”

“That’s 145 dollars.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed him a credit card. After completing the transaction, the other man signing a receipt, Alec handed him his books, ignoring the way their fingers brushed. “Good luck,” he said.

The other man’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “You, too.”

Alec tried to be subtle as he watched him walk away, his hips swaying this way and that with his books clutched in his arms, but when he looked towards the next customer in front of him he found her staring with raised eyebrows. Oops.

Smiling sheepishly, he quickly grabbed the man’s receipt to put away when he noticed something -- on the bottom, written in curvy script, was Magnus followed by ten numbers -- and he could feel his face flushing as he quietly set it aside to deal with later.

He grinned at the next customer in line. “Buying or renting?”

That night, as Izzy was cooking dinner (Alec told her she didn’t have to, and secretly he would’ve preferred if she didn’t, but she never listened), Alec stared at his phone. He had entered Magnus’s number at the end of his shift before putting the receipt back in its place, but he wasn’t sure what to do now. And he was realizing that whether he and Magnus talk at all is all in his control, and wasn’t that frightening? He’d never made the first move -- or, he guessed, second move, since Magnus had given him his number after all -- especially not on a guy as attractive as Magnus.

“Dinner’s ready!” Izzy’s voice echoed through their open kitchen and living area, startling Alec out of his thoughts. Before he could think about it any longer, he quickly tapped out Hey, it’s the cashier from the bookstore. I hope it’s alright that I’m texting and sent it to Magnus in the hopes that Izzy’s disaster of a dinner would distract him from waiting for a text back.

It turned out not even Izzy could ruin Stouffer’s premade lasagna and a simple salad, and Alec’s phone vibrated in his pocket in the middle of the meal.

Alec hadn’t come to the realization that he was gay all at once. It wasn’t like there was some earth-shattering moment where he suddenly just knew. It was more like he experienced a lot of little moments that added up to this inevitable realization.

The one that stood out to him the most was the time he took the chance in 11th grade to audition for the school musical. It was completely unlike him, and to be completely honest, he only did it because Andrew Underhill always auditioned and always got a leading role. Andrew Underhill was cute. And he was the only openly gay student at Alicante High.

But Alec pretended it was because of Lydia Branwell.

Lydia was awesome. She had a graceful yet take-no-shit way about her. She was the class president and Alec was certain that she could kick his ass if she wanted to. They had been friends since 5th grade. And when he knew and could find the words, Lydia was the first person Alec told.

Anyway, during one fateful rehearsal, Alec caught wind of a party being held that Friday night. He hadn’t been invited, but that was fine with him -- he wasn’t a big party guy. It was not fine with Lydia, who pleaded with him to come along, offering to let him copy her chemistry homework for the rest of the week. And of course Alec caved. (But he didn’t copy her homework. Much.)

The basement was dimly lit and walled with wood panelling, music pumping through an iPod hooked up to an old stereo. It was sweaty and gross as dozens of teens danced sloppily, some spilling out the sliding glass doors into the backyard and lounging around the pool. Soon, glass bottles of alcohol mixed with teenage hormones led a large crowd to play Spin the Bottle. As Lydia dragged Alec into the circle he was overwhelmed by the feeling that this was a scene in a the teen drama that was somebody’s life, and he was an extra. He sat cross-legged next to Lydia and giggled and watched the bottle spin round and round, classmates sharing awkward, inebriated kisses. The bottle had blessedly passed him every time until suddenly… it didn’t.

Alec’s eyes widened. The green-eyed girl across from him, the one who had spun the bottle, looked familiar but he couldn’t place her in his boozy fog. Maybe they had stats class together? She crawled across the large circle towards him, and he swallowed, tense. When she reached him, she paused, glancing from his eyes to his lips and back again, asking silently for permission. The other students cheered. So Alec leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

And he felt nothing.

It was a perfectly decent kiss, but Alec found his thoughts wandering even in the few seconds their lips were connected. She tasted like vodka punch mixed with a fruity lip gloss, and their lips slid together, and Alec felt nothing except confusion at how he was analyzing this whole event so factually.

It wasn’t how he thought his first kiss would be.

They broke apart and Alec offered a small rueful smile. She pecked his cheek and backed into her spot in the circle. A few others took their turns and Alec sat silently, picking at the rubber of his Converse and wondering what it all meant. And that, of course, was when it was Underhill’s turn.

Alec knew what was going to happen even before it did. Underhill took the bottle in his right hand and spun it and Alec watched, nearly boiling over with nerves, as it landed on him.

Underhill’s eyes were questioning as he looked at Alec. The students around him were quiet, and Alec could hear someone suck in a quick breath. Nobody knew how Alec would react. Nobody knew that he had been waiting, wanting, to kiss Underhill for months.

So when Alec nodded minutely and he and Underhill met in the middle of the circle, he paused only briefly before grabbing the back of Underhill’s neck and pulling him in.

That was the moment it all came together for Alec. Every hint he’d felt -- how he couldn’t take his eyes off Underhill when he walked in the room; how, while Jace was preoccupied with Lara Croft, he was more interested in Nathan Drake; how his stomach churned every time his parents tried to reassure him that one day he would settle down with a “nice girl” -- combined and formed a cohesive thought in his head, one that maybe he’d known before but had been too afraid to really consciously consider. He was gay.

He was gay, and he figured it out mid-kiss with Andrew Underhill in a classmate’s dingy basement.

At the time, Alec thought that knowing that he was gay might be the thing he had been missing. He thought that, since he’d figured it out, the missing puzzle piece might appear and slide into place. But even once he’d come out -- once he’d told Lydia, who just smiled and hugged him; once he’d told Izzy and Jace and Max, who reacted as kindly as he had known they would; once he’d told his parents, who didn’t disown him but didn’t want to talk about it, either; once he’d told Andrew, and asked him on a date, and kissed him in the Dairy Queen -- he still felt that hole. He was more himself than he had ever been, but he still didn’t feel complete.

M: If I had a problem with you texting me, I wouldn’t have given you my number. ;) Alec stared at the text. The boy from the bookstore -- Magnus -- had texted him back. With a winky face. And his face had turned red just reading it. How embarrassing.

Alec exhaled, thumbing a message back. He’s halfway through an introduction when another text comes through.

M: I fear I’m at a disadvantage, though, seeing as how you know my name and I don’t know yours.

A: It’s Alec. M: Hmm. Short for Alexander? A handsome name for a handsome man.

It, somehow, was easier from there.

Even though so many of Magnus’s texts (clean texts, too, not innuendos or dirty talk or anything -- just kind, friendly texts) had Alec blushing, Alec couldn’t wait to see him again. He was positive he would make a fool of himself, that’s just how he operated, but regardless, he wanted to see Magnus again. That brief time in the bookstore had not been enough. Not enough to get to know each other, obviously, and not nearly enough to appreciate Magnus’s carefully styled hair, inimitable style, and easy grace.

So Alec asked him out.

He called him, this time, felt it would be more appropriate than a text, if a bit harder. When Magnus picked up, curious, Alec felt his heart beat like a hummingbird’s wings.

“Oh, hello.” Magnus’s voice was teasing, happy. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Alexander?”

Alec swallowed, willing his nerves to go away, and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Do you… would you like to meet up for coffee, sometime?” He winced at the way his voice cracked.

Magnus hummed. Alec smiled at the sound, even as his nerves raced. “Is it a date?”

“Preferably,” Alec all but stuttered.

“Then yes, I think I would.”

The coffee shop near campus was small and nearly empty, odd considering classes had started and it was usually a prime studying spot. Alec waited, sitting at a table in the corner, eyes on the door. When Magnus walked in, he couldn’t help but stare. Magnus was wearing blue skinny jeans and a thin burgundy sweater. He had on the same layering of necklaces and rings he did on the bookstore, his hair was swept back in a sort of faux-hawk, and his eyeliner was dark and intense. He was absolutely beautiful. And when he saw Alec, his face lit up.

As they sat and talked, laughing about anecdotes from class and how they’d chosen their majors, Magnus scooted a little closer and put his hand atop Alec’s. It was warm and soft and felt right. The butterflies in Alec's stomach settled.

And he felt something, some missing piece, some part of a puzzle, fall into place.

#malec #shadowhunters #alec lightwood #magnus bane #alec x magnus #fic #ficlet #linkscap writes #college au #mundane au

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