Magnus tiptoed into the living room, attempting to be as quiet as possible, but knowing his foot would hit the same squeaky floorboard it always did even before it did so. He idly wondered why he'd never used magic to fix the board as he peaked around the corner to see if Alec was still awake. Magnus had woken up when he had rolled over in the bed and his arm had not found his husband by his side. Seeing a faint light under the bedroom door, Magnus had gotten up to see what could be keeping Alec up at such a late hour.
Rounding the corner, he cleared his throat first so as to not scare Alec. At 35, Alec was a bit more jumpy than he had ever been, and he was likely asleep on the couch, as his long nights of demon hunting were quickly drawing to a close. As Alec's head turned around at the sound of Magnus entering, Magnus began speaking, his voice soft. "Hey, love. Why are you still awake?"
As Magnus sat down beside of him, Alec began smiling but simply replied, "I was just thinking," while obviously trying to keep any emotion out of his voice.
Knowing this, Magnus took his husband's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "About what exactly, Alexander?" was his only question. At that, Alec sighed, knowing that there was not going to be a way out of the conversation before them.
"A lot," was his only response, but as expected, Magnus sat and looked expectantly at Alec, waiting for further clarification. When he sensed Alec's pause, Alec's hesitation at continuing, he took hold of one of Alec's hands and silently waited.
Alec took a deep breath and leaned into Magnus, and as he did so, he finally began speaking again, but this time, his words sent Magnus himself deep into thought. "I was thinking about a little of everything, Magnus. Things like my mortality. And our children. As always."
As usual, Magnus began to think about their three children, all warlocks, and each of whom were essentially rescued by Alec. Samuel, their oldest, had turned 17 that year, and had been rescued by Alec from the Clave courts at 5 years old. Sam's mundane parents had dropped him off on the steps of an Institute, and the Clave had been arguing over what to do with him when Alec had stepped in and claimed him.
At first, it had been a terrifying transition. Magnus had been no more prepared to raise a child than he would have been for the start of World War III. For weeks, Magnus had let Alec do the parenting, kept his distance and simply tried to not mess up. Then came a night when Alec was out on a patrol and Sam began screaming as he woke up from a nightmare. Magnus tried to think of any possible way out of the situation, but he finally picked Sam up and rocked him back to sleep. Then he promptly fell asleep with his son in his arms, and from that moment on, it had been like a light switch had been flipped; he was no longer afraid to be a father.
Three years went by, and they had fallen into a peaceful routine. Then Alec had rescued the twins, Oliver and Olivia, from a house fire. Their mundane parents had died in the fire, but Alec had gone in to rescue the twins, both of whom Alec had seen screaming through their bedroom window. The only reason they had survived long enough for Alec to reach them was that, even though they were only 8 years old, they had been powerful enough to hold the fire off with magic. As expected, Alec had immediately fallen in love with them with Magnus quickly following as well.
Soon after they had officially adopted the twins, Magnus and Alec had had yet another large fight about immortality. With the all the children being immortal, not to mention Magnus, they had fought long and hard of what would become of them and their family. The fight had lasted over a month, and all three of the children had picked up on the tension in the household. Magnus's argument was that it didn't matter to any of them, what mattered was that Alec was with them now. Alec's argument, however, was that when hundreds of years had passed without them in their lives, he would no longer mean anything to any of them.
Immortality had always been a highly sensitive topic between them, and Magnus generally lived every day trying to convince Alec that there would be no one else after him. He spent a substantial amount of time thinking of little gestures he could do for Alec to show him that he would never move on, but nothing seemed to ease Alec's mind. And Magnus suspected this was exactly what Alec was thinking about now.
"What is it, Alexander? Why are you thinking about our immortality again?" Taking another deep breath, Alec turned into Magnus and buried his face into Magnus's chest. Wrapping his arms tightly around Alec, Magnus waited patiently for Alec to continue.
"The twins start high school tomorrow, Magnus." He paused, and Magnus could hear how heavy his voice was. They had put all three kids in mundane schools, teaching them that they needed to be educated if they were going to spend forever in and out of the mundane world. "I don't know, I guess I just get this felling that I don't have much time left anymore."
Speechless, Magnus simply wrapped his arms even more tightly around his husband. There was always the same deep sorrow surrounding the thought of losing Alec, and it was a sorrow that Magnus avoided religiously. For years he'd simply tried to not think of it. There were certain occasions, of course, like Alec's birthday, that made the thought more prominent, but for the most part, Magnus had become an expert at suppressing the very idea.
Before Magnus had the chance to respond, there was a sharp knock on their door, causing both of them to jump. Magnus knew there would be only one possible guest at the door at that time of night, but he was still surprised when he opened the door to see Raphael Santiago standing before him.
He was about to open his mouth when Raphael strode past him declaring, "I had the craziest idea and I couldn't get it out of my head, so I figured I would come by and tell you as soon as possible."
When Magnus turned around, he smiled to see Alec with his head in his hands. "What is it now, Raphael?" he groaned, and Magnus came to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Magnus knew enough to know that when Raphael was talking quickly there was most likely not going to be anything good said at all. Nevertheless, he remained silent while Raphael's words began spilling out.
"So this may be a bit crazy, I realize that, but everything I do is crazy so just hear me out." He took a deep breath, as if trying to steady himself for what might be to come, but Magnus had no idea what would make him so nervous. "So I was just sort of idly thinking about you and Alec the other day, and about how you and the kids are immortal but he's, well, you know, not. Sorry," he added when Alec let out a moan of protest. "Well, I was trying to work out a way to make him immortal, and then it just sort of hit me."
When he paused a bit too long, Magnus stepped in, his words coming out a bit harsher than he had intended, he hated seeing false hope in Alec's eyes. "Out with it, Raphael," was all he said.
"Well, I was thinking about Simon. And then I thought, what if Alec was Turned and then he drank Jace's blood? He would be a vampire, sure, but living on animal blood is more than possible, and Jace could make him a Daylighter. He could stay with you and the kids. You know, forever."