I'm in the process of filling out the requests received for a ship + line of dialogue style prompting I did on Tumblr and figured I may as well post them over here, too. They're all short and will probably never be added to, nor edited. Enjoy *insert heart*
This one was requested by baneandalec. Line of dialogue - "This doesn't feel right."
"Something's wrong," Alec announces, stepping back from the piece with a contemplative expression furrowed across his face. Magnus looks up from his perch on the couch at the other side of the room, book in hand sliding down the headrest he'd had it resting on. He squints, trying to figure out what his boyfriend is referring to.
"Looks fine to me," he deduces quickly, nodding his head and turning back to The Great Gatsby. Alec scowls back at him, releasing a frustrated sound as he dunks his brush in the water and turns back to the painting.
Alec frowns at it, dipping his paintbrush into the black and hovering it just above the image like he doesn't know where he wants to start. He stares, seconds stretching into moments into minutes until the paint on his brush is too dry to do him any good and he's stuck tossing it onto the table with an irritated groan. Stepping back, he takes another long look at the piece.
"It just-" he starts slowly, frustratedly. "It just doesn't feel right, you know?"
From across the room, his boyfriend lets out a groan of his own. "You always say that, Alec," the older man tries, tossing his book aside and setting his reading glasses carefully on top before making his way towards the artist. "And it's always perfect."
Alec sighs, leaning back into the circle of Magnus's arms as they loop around his waist. "I know," he mutters weakly, letting out a heavy breath to take the weight off his heart and expel it into the air. "I just want it to be… I want it to mean what it's supposed to, if that makes any sense."
His boyfriend hums in response, contemplating the piece before him with careful perceptiveness. A violet sunset stretching through a dark balcony railing, tattered white curtains fluttering against an invisible wind. Reds and blues and orange and grey all swirling together in perfectly imperfect harmony, heavy across the canvas in a way that sinks deep into the viewer's gut.
Magnus lets out a quiet breath, like he's just watched someone get kicked in the gut and isn't sure how to make it hurt less. Slowly, softly, "Is it about Max?"
Alec laughs, a sort of choked sound the older of the two has come to associate with sardonic surprise. "It's about all of us," he says once the laughter stops. "You know, after."
And Magnus doesn't know, not really, because maybe it was after for Alec but it was beforefor him, before he met the beautiful boy he's come to love so much. So he doesn't know that the red is Jace's rage at the world and the violet is Isabelle's desperate need to understand. He doesn't know the grey is Maryse's quiet grief, her inability to emote after the loss of one of her children. He doesn't know the blue is Alec, Alec steady and safe and reliable for all of them while he crashed like the ocean against the rocks behind closed doors.
He doesn't know any of that, but he can see Max's smile in the white of the curtains, the one from the picture Alec still keeps at their bedside, and he can see Alec's love in the black of the railings, the holes of those curtains.
He doesn't know the before or the after, but he does know Alec. And just like anything he does, Magnus can't find a single thing wrong with it.
He smiles, leaning forward to peck his boyfriend's cheek. "It's perfect," he whispers softly, like if he says it convincingly enough it won't hurt so much.
Alec smiles back, a twitch of his lips that briefly flickers like the sky through his eyes. He doesn't have to say anything, Magnus knows he isn't going to try and find anymore flaws with the piece.
Maybe, it just doesn't feel right because Alec hates to relieve the past almost as much as he loves to paint it.
Did I mention the 146 Things To Do Instead of Self-Harm collection I started on tumblr? Go check it out at /tagged/146things on either my main blog (gideongraystairs) or my writing blog (taitewrites). Love you all *insert another heart*
Also, yes. I have been copying and pasting the author's note and the beginning and end for all of these. Sue me. (But don't actually because you love me and I love you and love should not be bought or sold idk where I was going with that but shh you love me)