Summary: every picture tells a story...
Magnus had thousands of pictures, some were portraits from long ago, when he was young, some were faded polaroids that crinkled and pealed at the edges. There were stains on some of them and tears in others, some had been streaked from tears falling on them or rips where they had been folded over one too many times.
Alec never begrudged Magnus his pictures, his memories, there were days, when Magnus was in a sad mood where Alec would point to one and ask about the person within the paper frame, Magnus would talk for hours after, sometimes forgetting what had gotten him down to begin with.
As the years went by and time moved on Alec made sure to take as many pictures of his family as he could, he didn't realize when it happened but one day he was out walking with Izzy and an older woman had smiled at him and said it was good of him to spend time with his mother.
Alec had been startled as had Izzy and then they looked at one another and Izzy's eyes had widened as she realized that Alec still looked eighteen and Alec was frightened at how many wrinkles he say around Izzy's eyes.
There had been frantic research and finally they had found a Demon that had chuckled and grinned toothily at Magnus and had told them that his Father thought it a fitting wedding gift.
Magnus had been terrified that Alec would hat him but Alec had smiled and said that it was okay, and Izzy, and Jace had extracted a promise from the Warlock to be there for Alec when they finally passed on.
And suddenly Alec had decided that he would take no more pictures, that he had to be in them with his family and he noticed the progression, how with each passing year Izzy went from looking like his mother to grandmother and great grandmother; her children called him uncle and her grandchildren too, the great-grand children and every child that came from both Izzy and Jace, some as they grew older would stop and he'd be called brother when meeting new faces and then son and great grandson until one day he'd be called uncle again and it would come to cycle again.
Magnus stood by him and held him when he cried for first Izzy and then Jace, Clary and Luke, even Simon eventually died and moved beyond. Magnus held his hand through the funerals of every descendent he had and soon Alec had nearly as many pictures as Magnus, sometimes they told stories and as the need for Shadowhunters faded Alec found himself writing, he wrote the story of a young red-head thrown into a world she knew nothing of, a boy who had fallen in love and held on tight to it, a young vibrant sister who had taken the world by storm and a vampire who had laughed and failed at being a vampire spectacularly.
He never wrote under his own names, but rather the ones that had faded from even Clave record, Isabelle Wayland and Jace Fray, Clary Lewis and Simon Santiago, Maryse Lucian. He had long ago given up the Lightwood name, it had become as much a legend as Alec had. Alec Lightwood had gone into the Clave history books as the Nephilim that had love a Warlock and had brought peace to the Downworld in a way that had never been achieved before and had lasted since.
Now he was just another Immortal, many assumed him a Warlock as he spent decades and then centuries with Magnus. Sometimes when they just couldn't handle each other anymore they would 'break up', though they never dated anyone during these times, and only once had the separation lasted longer than a few months.
Alec didn't remember what they fought about but they had spent a decade apart on different continents, Alec learning new languages and cultures while Magnus drank Pandemonium into debt.
When they had reunited they had promised never to be apart for that long again.
All the Warlocks and Seelies knew that Alec was Magnus' boyfriend, lover, husband, life-partner and a thousand other things they had never been able to put names to and eventually it had just made more sense to introduce himself as Alexander Bane instead of Alec Lightwood.
Sometimes Alec would look at his pictures and smile, others he would find himself in tears as the world aged around them he convinced Magnus to take pictures in historical places, get portraits done by inspiring Artists.
Eventually Magnus and Alec had their own hall of Portraits done by young and up and coming painters and even sculptors. They were known as the immortal lovers, first painted by Clarissa Wayland, they had been her debut and had made her famous and she had enjoyed returning to painting instead of fighting, she was little more than a footnote in the art history books. Each time they found an artist that reminded them of one of their long lost family they would find a way to sit for them, whether it was a commission that they paid for and never picked up or a seemingly random set up, they would let the young artist paint them and then vanish, leaving the painter with a painted canvass of a couple that a thousand artists had tried and failed to capture from looking at previous paintings, none as life like with the captured look of love in their eyes as Clarissa Wayland had managed but the artist was always able to describe them the same way as Clarissa Wayland had painted so it was obvious that they had been visited by the real immortal lovers.
And Magnus and Alec would sneak into the opening and unveiling and look at their love before returning home to renew it.
But even Warlock do not live forever and when Magnus finally laid down in his red silk sheeted bed and closed his eyes for the last time and turned to dust sometime between dusk and dawn Alec did not follow him as he expected, he remained tangled in the sheets surrounded by the left over dust that had once been the love of his life and her realized that what Magnus and Alec had once taken as a gift from Magnus' father was really a curse as Alec lingered on earth as the people that knew him and Magnus faded away and left him, he collected pictures of old friends, cut from history books and when he showed up to new artists he no longer had his lover with him, his eyes once filled with love and happiness were now filled with longing and despair, but they were placed in and adjacent hall to the immortal lovers' and titled 'the heartbreak of the immortal'.
Alec wandered those halls now, his face smiling softly at Magnus as the man laughed at something Alec had whispered while the were sitting for the portrait.
"They are amazing aren't they?" A young voice asked.
Alec turned, startled that someone had spoken to him, most left him alone after all, and his breath caught in his throat.
"I know, I get that a lot, my mom opted for gene splicing, I guess I have to be grateful I only ended up with cat eyes, some get the ears and tail and... other things." The boy shuddered.
"They're beautiful." Alec breathed as he stared into familiar green-gold cat eyes, he almost couldn't bear to hope, but By the Angel he prayed.
"Really?" The boy asked.
"Yeah, they're lovely." Alec smiled, unknowingly the same one he had given at the very start, shy and unsure.
The boy grinned, "I'm Magnus, Magnus Blight."
Alec took the offered hand, "Alec Lightwood."
"Well, Alexander, would you like to maybe discuss the Immortal Lovers over dinner?" Magnus asked.
Alec smiled softly, "I'd love too."
Magnus shifted his hold from a shake to hand holding and Alec blushed as Magnus grinned, maybe they could fall in love again, maybe the world awaited their exploration and dance as it had done once before, maybe Alec would never die and Magnus would fade into dust again and again but as long as Magnus returned to him Alec would be there waiting for him to come back to him, and perhaps over the years it was alway the immortal lovers' portraits that drew them to each other time and time again, after all every picture tells a story and Alec and Magnus had many pictures together.
I don't even know where to start trying to explain.