The Malec Chronicles

All the Beautiful Things

Alec has done a lot of things in his first week of vacation that he never thought he was going to get to do.

He's walked barefoot across sandy beaches and dove under the ocean waves with only the moon guiding him back to the surface. He's stood in front of street vendors and ordered all the food he could stand to take, eating it all with his hands while standing under streetlights, the sauces and grease and spices staining his fingers and being wiped on his jeans because he didn't think to bring napkins. He's slept in until noon, and stayed up late walking down city streets and curving, deserted dirt roads, drank wine and beer and a few memorable drinks that he would never dream of repeating. And he's gone dancing, even though he's spectacularly bad at it, but the old man in charge smiled indulgently and all the girls giggled and tried to teach him how to do better, so he found he didn't really mind acting foolish, considering that he was with strangers and was too busy having fun to think about possible repercussions, anyways. For the first time in his life, he was feeling what total freedom felt like, acting for himself and for no one else.

"What's your favorite part so far?" Magnus asks him, a few hours after they tumbled through the door of their hotel room and fell onto the bed, Magnus repeating his mantra of whatever you want, and nothing more, and Alec saying to Hell with that, give me everything.

Alec considered the question, looking at Magnus, who was only an arms length away from him but still too far, cat eyes glowing in the darkness. He thinks about how his hand had been tangled up in Magnus' this whole time, how they would kiss in the dark and in the daylight, the way Magnus had agreed without hesitation to come on this trip. How, when he looks at him, the dull ache that had settled right underneath his ribs seems to go away for just a moment, how touching him doesn't hurt anymore, how everything just feels right the way they are now, the two of them lost in a big world where no one could ever find them. "You," He whispers, and moves closer, because he decided that he didn't like the fact that they weren't touching anymore. "It's always going to be you."

The only problem was that they were sticking to the mundane world.

Not that this was a problem, because it was what Alec had requested, since he couldn't bear any stray remarks about Max catching him off guard, and didn't think he could see anyone give Magnus a nasty look without slicing off one of their limbs. Still, it did pose potential complications, because in order to take part in all the mundane activities Alec couldn't walk around with enough weapons to supply a small army (Magnus' words) and there were a lot of pop culture references that flew over his head, but most of that could be solved by letting Magnus take the lead in any social situation when Alec got uncomfortable.

(There was something about Magnus that sort of put people at ease, or maybe put them in some sort of a trance to where they couldn't remember that there was anything strange about the man that occasionally had his hands flash blue and his boyfriend that was never a fan of One Direction. Maybe it was all the glitter.)

So it was okay, and Alec was having fun being dragged around from one site to the other, seeing all of Magnus' favorite tourists spots, enjoying the little anecdotes he does let slip about things. They walk through the pyramids and climb ancient runes, go to a few warlock haunts just so Magnus could check up on a few old friends (where Alec was paraded around like some sort of trophy, with a lot of comments about his eyes and his arm muscles, but he didn't really mind), stay in hotels where the bathrooms were bigger than Alec's room at home and the beds were so soft it felt like sleeping on clouds. And most importantly, there was Magnus, Magnus everywhere- smiling next to him in pictures, standing behind him in line with his arms wrapped around him, leaning in for a kiss on the cheek, holding his hand while they walk down the sidewalk and neither of them thinking twice about it, because this is who we love, damn it, so get used to it.