Disclaimer: I don't own this. I just borrow it.

Note: This is meant to be a series of one-shots focusing on Alec and Magnus, during random moments in time, and showing "mundane" parts of their life. You could read chapter seven without knowing a thing about chapter one. I really hope I do Malec justice and I am absolutely open to suggestions for which moments I could write for them next so… if you have something, let me know!

Chapter One: G is for Groceries

April 2008

"Can't you just magic it all here?"

Magnus gave a dramatic gasp and clutched at his chest. "Alexander! Why I never… was it not just yesterday that you went on that rant about us being, what was it, perfectly able-bodied adults who are therefore able to get up off our pert little butts to change the channel on the television." He looked at the small gray cat perched on the arm of the sofa beside him, nodding when the cat yowled and set about cleaning his front paw. "You see, even Chairman Meow remembers that rant, although he reminds me you said lazy asses instead of pert little butts."

Alec rolled his eyes and sunk lower into his end of the sofa, wishing his gray hoodie and black sweatpants were better camouflage against the vivid electric blue of the fabric. "Great. You're losing your mind like those other ancient warlocks you told me about… thinking the cat is talking to you."

Another dramatic gasp erupted from the end of the sofa where Magnus sat looking elegantly sprawled instead of deflated, decked out in an oversized white shirt, one that reminded Alec of the shirts Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and the other actors on The Tudors wore while they pretended they lived in Tudor England, skinny black jeans, and an array of colorful scarves. "I am not ancient! I am only three hundred." He ducked when a throw pillow sailed at his head, thrown because of his improper dating. "You're rude and we're going to need groceries so… let's go."

He didn't move.

"You didn't even hunt demons last night," Magnus muttered as he got to his feet and kicked at Alec's legs where they were stretched on the ottoman, "and you say I am a lazy ass. Come on, listen to the cat… his cries are cries of hunger."

"Can't you go?" Alec realized he was whining and he didn't particularly care. "I don't want to change."

He considered what Alec was wearing. The hoodie was more or less new, in that it was still the original heather gray color, there were no holes in the white t-shirt he wore underneath it, and the pants, sweatpants though they were, were not faded and fit him just right. The gay men and straight women of Brooklyn would probably all be checking him out. "You don't need to change," he said, only partly just because he really wanted to get groceries, "you look fine. Let's go."

Knowing when to admit defeat, such as when Magnus didn't insult his clothes, he got up and went in search of his sneakers. "You're really letting me go out in sweats?"

"Yes, though they are nice enough that they count as workout gear, which is entirely different than sweats." He shed two scarves to make Alec more comfortable and added half a bottle of water to the cat's bowl. "It's only Whole Foods, Alec, not a black tie affair so let's roll."

They arrived at Whole Foods half an hour later, having walked there for the fresh spring air while they would take the subway back so the fresh spring air would not spoil their milk. Magnus had not been wrong about those who would check Alec out, one burly construction worker was probably having a terrible afternoon explaining to his equally burly co-workers just why he walked into a trashcan when Alec walked by, and his sexy Shadowhunter was adorably oblivious to all the stares. It wasn't even just because he was grouchy about groceries, he was just apparently eternally unable to believe he was something desirable to anyone but the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and maybe not even him. Alec grabbed a cart as soon as they got into the store, reasoning that if he was pushing it there would be less chance of Magnus telling him to pick between the sixty-four varieties of apples that basically tasted the same… like apples. Magnus walked beside him, one ringed hand draped over the side of the cart. "It occurs to me, Alec," he said in a low voice, "that this is our first grocery shopping expedition and, though I know you've gone to shops for quick things, I wonder if you've ever been to a proper grocery store before."

"Shut up, and yes, I have," he said, glowering unnecessarily at a display of whatever loquats were. "Isabelle tried to set me up on a date once. She'd been bugging me to grocery shop with her too. I told her if she quit saying the word date I would shop with her. She never said it again and I hate grocery stores because of it."

Magnus really didn't hear anything after set me up on a date. "What? Who did she try to set you up with? When was this?"

"Before I met you, obviously, and I'm not doing this here so, as I said… shut up. And shop."

"Please?" He sounded more pitiful than he liked but he at least had to know if he knew the person his tied for first favorite Shadowhunter he hadn't slept with had thought would be good enough for Alec.

Seriously doubting he could avoid answering until they got home, he stopped in front of a display of locally grown organic tomatoes, though what was 'local' to Brooklyn Alec could not imagine. "They were Shadowhunters, alright."

Magnus tilted his head to one side. "They? Plural?"

He nodded, smirking at the alarmed look on Magnus' face. "Yeah, plural. To be fair, Izzy was fourteen and hadn't figured out I was gay so she tried to set me up with Helen and then with Mark. Then I started grocery shopping instead."

He did not ask if Alec knew at sixteen that he was gay, because he doubted it and because it was rude. He laughed instead, finding serious humor in the mental image of a fourteen year old Isabelle randomly throwing Blackthorns at her brother. Sensing that however much Alec had been relaxed by the story, he would lose patience with shopping if they didn't get moving, Magnus chuckled and plucked a carton of cherry tomatoes off the display and put them in the cart. "And that's all?" he asked as they moved along.

"That's all. I don't think Helen and Mark ever even knew." He shrugged off the memories, and thoughts of Mark with the Wild Hunt and Helen's banishment, and pushed the cart toward the cheese counter. "Come on, I want to buy some weird cheese."

"Weird cheese," Magnus sighed, following him to the counter. He was surprised to see that Alec did want 'weird' cheese and even tasted samples from the woman behind the counter before settling on three wedges of Dutch cheese. "I admit, Dutch cheese is not something I've ever really tried," he added as Alec put it in the cart and half dove for the handle before Magnus could take away that safety blanket.

"Ever?" He shook his head regretfully and waited for him to pick a direction, cheese having been all the energy he had for directing the trip at the moment. "It's good. You should have tried some. Anyway, aren't you part Dutch?"

Wandering with deliberate slowness because he suspected Alec hated shopping because Isabelle dragged him along sort of like a reluctant toddler or puppy, and that he might feel differently if he could be in charge, Magnus shrugged. "Yes. Though remember I grew up in Indonesia," he said, leaving out the other details of his heritage so that any eavesdropping mundies would be none the wiser, "so things were a bit different."

Alec shrugged, impatient to move on to other things, and turned the cart down another aisle. "Come on, I don't want to be here all day."

Having been forced to drop back at the sharp turn, Magnus did not miss the twentysomething blonde woman in the baby blue sweaterdress get caught in a head-on cart collision with the thirtysomething Latino man in a suit and tie because both were checking out Alec. Feeling vaguely possessive and just a tiny bit jealous, he risked the public display of affection and put his hand on Alec's shoulder - though that something so platonic could even be considered a PDA was surreal but… such was life with Alec Lightwood. Happily, Alec did not twitch or shake him off, so Magnus kept his hand where it was and hoped the Latino man was bi so a connection might be made with the woman.

They spent an hour and a half exploring the store. Magnus wasn't sure Alec realized it, but almost everything in the cart was chosen by Alec because Magnus stayed back and gave him time and space. He picked out some things Magnus wouldn't have chosen, to be sure, like avocado ice cream - dessert should never also be a vegetable, ever - but he didn't say a word. He paid the cashier and they stepped back into the warm spring day with three canvas bags of groceries each. It was a little unwieldy for the subway so, while they stood in the crush of people waiting for the train home, Magnus thanked Alec's Raziel for the rat scurrying by with a bagel in his mouth that distracted the mundies and magicked a backpack onto Alec, stuffing some of the things into it.

"Why do I get the backpack?" Alec muttered, also slightly distracted by the bagel rat.

"Again, you look like came from the gym. A backpack with my outfit would make me look like a homeless hipster."

Eyes narrowed, he shook his head as he let his eyes wander to the ads posted on the wall. "Or a pirate. You also look like a pirate."

Having had a fondness for pirates for centuries, Magnus was not bothered by this comparison. "Granted, of course, that pirates also do not wear backpacks."

"We should do that."

Blinking at the apparent change in topics, he nudged him with his elbow. "Do what? Become backpack wearing pirates?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "No, that," he said, jabbing his finger at one ad as the train pulled in. They got caught up in the flow of people getting on so he didn't explain until they were standing near the doors and the train left the station. "I don't know what to do with half the stuff we bought so… we should take a cooking class."

Magnus would possibly have been less surprised if Alec suggested an orgy with Jace and Clary. He knew his mouth was hanging open, and he only closed it because that was how one spoke. "A cooking class?"

"Mm-hmm. Don't couples do that? Take a class together so they do something together?"

There was absolutely honesty in his face as he spoke and it reached parts of Magnus he'd forgotten existed. It was clear Alec had been thinking about 'couple things' and that meant the world to him. "They do. And… I can't believe I'm saying this but… let's take a cooking class. Did you write down the number for that class?"

Alec had, and he was more happy than expected to be that Magnus had agreed to learn to the plan. He didn't say anything else on the ride home, already trying to work out how to get a night a week off work to do it. He was so lost in thought that he followed Magnus up to street level without really thinking about it. And he jumped when Magnus yanked on the hood of his sweatshirt. "What?"

"You're extra cute when you get lost in thought," he said first, "but I asked if you still hate grocery shopping so much and wish I'd agreed to magic in home."

He smiled at that and tried not to let Magnus see it, too much. "No, I don't hate it so much," he admitted as the warlock crowed happily beside him. "We can grocery shop again. But…"

Magnus looked at him curiously. "But what?"

Alec pulled open to the door to their building. "But we forgot Chairman Meow's food. You can magic that, though. Just not straight into his bowl. He gets more skittish every time you do that."

Going home laugh was the only best way to go home in Magnus' humble opinion.

So… did you like it? Please tell me! And remember, suggestions welcome!