An Open Door, a shadowhunters fanfic

[Part one of "The Shadowhunter Madness", a series in which I take your prompts into account and try to develop them at the best of my ability!]

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Lots of love,

This time, Raphael thought, Magnus had taken it a little bit too far. As he sat on the bar stool, carelessly holding a drink in one hand, resting his head on the other, he looked around at the unusual crowd of people. Under any other circumstance, Downworlders and Shadowhunters would have no reason to hang out together on a Friday night, but when Magnus had hosted a party to celebrate the end of the war against Sebastian and his army, most of them had agreed to attend.

It was understandable, Raphael supposed, although he was in no mood to celebrate when so many of his people had perished during the seemingly endless fights, when he himself had almost risked not coming back alive – or less dead, anyway.

So he had kept to himself, avoiding conversations and steering away any other being who wasn't a vampire because, even if the plan was to form a better alliance, he still had no intentions to interact with the werewolves, nor with the Shadowhunters and certainly not with the Seelies, marked more or less as the traitors in his mind.

Of course, with his closest friends there, Raphael couldn't really expect to be left alone for a significant amount of time, and sure enough it didn't take long for Simon to come over and invite him to dance.

"I don't dance," Raphael claimed, a perfectly shaped eyebrow raised. Simon didn't seem to mind his austere tone and simply took the matter into his own hands as he dragged the older vampire to the dance floor.

"Loosen up a bit, Raph," whispered Simon into Raphael's ear.

And so he did, convincing himself that it was because that was what the situation required, and no other matter was involved.

Raphael was quite distraught to discover that those weekly meetings promptly continued to take place and, to his even greater dismay, they soon turned into karaoke nights. And although he tried to skip most of them, the majority of his clan – likely corrupted by Simon, Raphael was sure – wanted to go, leaving their leader with not much to do for the entire night.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy music or the company of other people outside his inner group of vampires; it was simply the fact that sweaty bodies, thrumming veins and the general drunk behavior that inevitably seemed to occur made him uncomfortable.

So he spent that one night a week doing paperwork and filing reports, waiting for the others to return and expecting to be soon overwhelmed by Simon's talks of the night's most important events.

Until the time when Simon's story was of how Magnus had romantically proposed to Alexander Lightwood in front of the whole Shadow World by organizing a themed party where everyone else, inspired by the warlock, had also declared their love to their significant other.

Raphael should have been happy for his old friend, and he kept telling himself that he was, of course he was, but something felt off within him. It didn't take long for him to figure out what.

Once he did, he knew he had to act on it. And he also happened to know just the perfect way to do so.

In retrospect, Raphael should have probably consulted Magnus or Lily or literally anyone before attempting to do something like this. But he was just so desperate to prove that he too could plan a romantic proposal for his boyfriend without having to seek help from others that he didn't think much about it, but simply took care of the most pressing matters and went on with his idea.

As soon as he entered the club – whose name he'd read and forgotten – Raphael went straight to the stage, quickly gaining the attention of the entire room. He saw Magnus's eyebrows arching up a little while Simon looked just slightly more confused than usual.

Raphael took the microphone, asked for silence and, without any preamble or music at all, began to sing. He had a beautifully smooth voice – trained after so many years of singing to his younger siblings, and later to the various fledglings that had stumbled upon his clan – and, though he was extremely self-conscious of multitude of eyes pinned on him, he soon let go of his insecurities and merely stared at the recipient of his song.

"All my life has been a series of doors in my face,

And then suddenly I bump into you.

I've been searching my whole life to find my own place,

And maybe it's the party talking or the blood fondue.

But with you, I found my place,

And it's nothing like I've ever known before!

Love is an open door!

With you, with you!

Love is an open door," Raphael sang.

Admittedly, Simon thought that it was quite weird. Raphael had completely changed the rhythm so that the song sounded more like a slow lullaby than a declaration of love from a children's musical. Still, he couldn't help but find the situation kind of cute, although he couldn't begin to fathom why on Earth would Raphael do such a thing.

Beside him, Magnus was grinning as he held his phone up to record the entire thing. Because of course he was.

On the stage, Raphael appeared unbothered by the murmurs and skeptical glances he was receiving from the majority of the people there.

"I've never met someone who thinks so much like me!

Our mental synchronization can have but one explanation;

You and I, we're just meant to be!

Say goodbye to the pain of the past,

We don't have to feel it anymore!

Love is an open door!

Life can be so much more!

With you, with you!

Love is an open door…" Raphael stopped singing and looked Simon straight in the eyes, reaching his hand into his pocket and opening it so that everyone standing close to the stage could see the enormous ring; then he jumped off of said stage and came to drop to one knee before the other boy, saying "So can I say something crazy? Will you marry me?"

Simon was stunned. He was barely aware that the camera in Magnus's hand was now turned on him, as he took a few tentative steps towards his lover, rather looking as if he was about to faint; had he been a human, he probably would have.

Before he could utter a word, Raphael spoke again. "All my life, I thought that I would never find that beautiful and compelling kind of love that everyone around me seemed to so effortlessly find, and so I shut myself away from it completely. That door has been shut closed for so many years, so much so that I thought it was going to be stuck forever, but ever since you've come into my life, you have inched it open a little bit more each day. And when I was about to die at Sebastian's very own hands, I realized it. I realized that I love you, Simon Lewis. I love you and I want to spend the rest of our long, immortal life with you. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the door is open, the literal one of my home has been for a while and so is the one of my heart and, Simon, it will always be open. So, will you marry me, fledgling?"

Now Simon could swear that he was actually sweating, and so naturally he did what he could do best: he started to ramble.

"I don't think I'm a fledgling anymore, you know? I mean, I don't actually know because I have no idea how much time has to pass for a vampire to stop be the baby, as you are all calling me now. Seriously, you have a way to pretend you don't know my actual name, it's almost fascinating…"

"Simon."

"Not to mention I am now able to do tons of things that I would have deemed impossible just a few months ago, so I guess, in a way…"

"Simon."

"Yes," he blurted out then. "Yes, of course I'll marry you, Raph."

The club erupted in cheers and congratulations.

As they were walking back to the hotel, the rest of their clan following close behind them, Raphael let out a chuckle.

"You know, I can't believe you missed the opportunity to quote a Disney movie. I mean, it was obvious that you had to respond with "Can I say something crazier? Yes!" These are the basics."

"I was nervous! Besides, me saying yes is not crazier than you proposing."

"Whatever floats your boat, fledgling."