Howdy hey! I wrote this a while ago and now just wanted to post it here for those who don't use AO3! Hope you enjoy and tell me your thoughts, the next chapter will be up really soon!

Alec had to be honest. He first started watching Magnus Bane's YouTube videos because Izzy told him that he was hot, winking at Alec while saying so. He didn't even really mean to, was just scrolling through YouTube in search of something to distract his boredom with and saw a video by the channel: baneofyourexistence.

It was a vlog of him just talking about how thankful he was for one million subscribers, and about how he felt that his life had changed with every person who took the time to watch a video of his. To Alec he sounded so inspiring and ambitious, so unlike anyone Alec had ever watched before. Plus, he really was hot.

Which is why he, a senior in high school, started a channel of his own. Maybe he could make people feel that certain happiness that came with watching videos. He wanted to at least try.

At first, Alec couldn't film himself alone, had to have someone in his videos at all times to keep him from freaking out or just staring at a camera awkwardly for 10 minutes. His video equipment was pretty low quality, but all he really cared about was the content, keeping Magnus in mind while he did so.

He did challenges with Jace, short vlogs and video games with Max, and even did Izzy's makeup a couple times; updating once every day and learning the ups and downs of YouTube as he went.

Eventually, after tampering and perfecting his equipment, hours of editing, and maintaining the scheduled content; he started getting more subscribers. 100, 150, 200, 350, 500. More and more people commented, mostly positive at first, saying he should do something by himself, that he was funny and 'a precious cinnamon roll' and should do a vlog about himself. And after an adamant Izzy had pestered him endlessly, he had given in.

ME, ALEXANDER GIDEON LIGHTWOOD by aleclightwood

Alec starts out with his usual introduction, in his room, set up with a better camera he'd recently bought and a supportive Izzy manning it. He sits on his bed awkwardly, fiddling with his sweater sleeves and wondering what to start with in a vlog about himself.

"Just pretend I'm sitting right next to you, big brother," Izzy says from behind the camera. "Talk to me about you and you can edit out all the me parts."

Alec nods slowly. "But you know everything about me."

Izzy rolls her eyes and turns on the camera. "Action," she says.

"OK, well...I'm Alec, as most people watching would probably know. Uhh..." he looks at Izzy desperately.

"List some things about yourself." He sighs. He could do that.

"As most could probably tell, I'm not a very good public speaker...or private speaker, for that should see me around cute guys," he whispers to the camera. Izzy laughs. "Uhm...you also know my siblings; Izzy, Jace, and Max. They're a big part of my life, they're the ones to thank for me even doing this video, especially Izzy." She pops her head out from behind the camera, giving it a wink.

"You're welcome."

"Anyway, since I'm so uh...nervous in front of cameras, you may be wondering why I wanted to be a YouTuber at all. Well after watching this one YouTuber...uh, I don't know if I'm permitted to say his name on camera...can YouTube sue?" He heard another laugh from behind the camera and paused to look at his amused sister.

"Alec, it's not like he's world famous. You can say his name. Dios."

"Uhh...OK, well, Magnus Bane or 'baneofyourexistence' is the channel that inspired me." He felt himself smile at the memory of watching the video that had sent him down this path. "Not his makeup tutorials or anything, but his subscriber milestone videos. They were really inspiring and touching, and all I could think while watching was 'wow, I'd love to do what he does.' So, anyway, yeah; I wanted to bring entertainment, and maybe even joy if I could, to any people who were bored or having bad days."

Alec looks up at his sister for more prompts to see she's smiling knowingly at him. "What?" he says.

"Oh, nothing," she says. "Now talk about your childhood or something."

"Uhm, OK, well; I was born in New York, and I grew up there and I live there. Uhm, I live with my parents and Izzy and Max and my adopted brother Jace but plan to move out once I finish senior year in a couple months. I'm going to NYU to major in anthropology and minor in business and...uhm...I'm really looking forward to it," he shrugs.

"Are you single?" Izzy pipes up, once again.

"W-what? I-I, uhm...yes?" he feels a blush spread across his cheeks. "Izzy, you know that."

"Yes but the people want to know," she says, holding up her phone. Standing up to get closer, he sees that Twitter is open and that she had tweeted out about his vlog earlier, posting a picture of him fiddling with his sleeves in front of the camera and saying to comment some personal questions for him.

"OK, well yes I'm single," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I guess we're answering Twitter comments now."

"Mhm. There are only a few, and it'll make the video longer."

"Alright then, proceed, I guess."

" OK, booksfordayz asks 'do you work out? you look ripped.'"

Alec hates the stupid grin Izzy wears as she reads, clearly aware of his discomfort. "Y-yes, I do archery after school and martial arts for at least an hour every day with my brother Jace. Uh, yeah...next question, please."

"OK uh, belieberboy asks 'do you know how precious you are?'"

"Izzy, that's not a question!" he says angrily, but he still feels the blush on his face.

"Fine, buzzkill. mundanemuggle asks 'what's your favourite animal?'

"I love cows. So much," he pauses to pick something up from the dresser beside his bed. "This is a souvenir I got from the Bronx Zoo, most people watching have probably seen it in the background of some of my videos before. They're just so cute and lovely and friendly-looking." Izzy laughs.

"tangledteen asks 'what's your favourite Disney movie?'"

"I like Hercules and Nemo the most, but I pretty much love them all. They were pretty much the only movies Izzy and I watched when we were kids. Our favourite princess was always Mulan, she's such a badass."

"Yep, like me. OK, big brother, the rest of these are comments about how adorable and/or hot you are, so I think we're done."

He laughs a little and fiddles with his sweater, but starts his outro. "OK, well, thanks everyone for watching. This video was a little less fluid and shorter than others, but I hope you guys liked it. You did request it, after all. I'll see you next time, bye!" he smiles at the camera and waves a sweater covered hand at the screen.

They edited out parts of Izzy's voice and that was that. Alec's first solo vlog was his most viewed and most liked video ever, even gaining him a couple more hundred subscribers, as well as many comments saying that they 'shipped' him and Magnus. Whatever that meant.

By the end of the month, he had hit the 1,000 subscriber milestone, with the help of his siblings (especially Izzy and her social media publicity), and was much more confident in his solo videos.

Both Izzy and Jace had also started their own channels after many of Alec's comments requested it, but they loved the rush each video gave them anyway, so their days were now completely filled with vlogs and challenges and stupid skits they all loved to do.

Magnus was also climbing the ranks as a YouTuber, going from 1,000 subscribers to 5,000 since Alec had started his own channel. He had watched every milestone video Magnus posted, and some of the makeup tutorials just to see his face and hear him speak (he had a very...grand way of speaking that Alec adored). He longed to one day meet him, the way all fans of YouTubers did: hopefully but passively.

At the moment he was just happy with where he was at with his dream job.

Alec is in the middle of his 3-year milestone vlog when it happens.

"ALEC! ALEC OH MY GOD LOOK!" A frazzled Izzy says, bursting in through his apartment door. He'd been living alone in his small city apartment since he'd graduated, largely with the support of the money he'd made from YouTube. Even through daily classes and piles of homework, he had maintained his video uploading schedule and done all his work for school. Now, he was almost done with college and had almost 8 million subscribers. He was really busy and happy.

A problem was he had no one to share his happiness with. But that issue was for another time.

Where he sat in his living room, he is seated directly in front of his apartment's door, so he has a perfect view of Isabelle's little scene. He really needed to lock his door more often.

As she burst through the door, he catches sight of an envelope in one of her hands and rushes over to her before she falls down.

"What the hell, Izzy? Why were you looking through my mail?" he asks, looking pointedly at the envelope.

"Sorry, but look!" she holds out the envelope for Alec to look at, and he takes it in his own hands; staring at the YouTube logo on the letter addressed to him.

And, of course, he opens it.

Dear Mr. Lightwood ( aleclightwood),

It has taken you quite the journey, but you are considered a professional YouTuber, with 7.8 million subscribers at this point, and are invited to attend the annual Creator's Summit in Manhattan, New York this year. This is a convention specifically for YouTuber's, to allow them to meet each other and mingle within the growing YouTube community, to celebrate how far each of you have come. We hope you enjoy yourself and make the most of your time there. More information will be emailed later to your YouTube account, including the time and place of the Summit.

Sincerely,

Corporation of YouTube.

It was a short letter, but Alec feels over the moon at the news. He starts jumping up and down when he sees Izzy pull out her own, and together they freak the hell out. Neither of them had been to any YouTube event before, it was basically the next step in becoming a YouTuber, so it was great that they were both going, in the case of any nerves the other might have. That and they'd get to meet other people like them, who also loved doing what they did.

Once they both calm down, Alec shuts off his camera, and they take a seat on Alec's couch to really soak in the news.

"Do you think I could bring Clary as a plus one?" Izzy asks. Clary has been Izzy's girlfriend for the past year. They had met in college when Clary recognized her as a YouTuber and asked if she could maybe sketch her one day for a project she was doing on 'famous people'. Izzy was charmed and said that it was a date. And so they hit it off and had been living together for 2 months. Clary wasn't Youtube famous, though. She occasionally did some videos of artwork and featured in some of Izzy's videos, but she didn't focus on it as a job. So, naturally, it was a valid question.

"I don't know. Maybe call? The letter was pretty specific about it being a YouTube thing. And if she comes, then Simon will want to, then Raphael will."

"OK, well, Simon has probably already been invited, and I bet he's trying to bring Raphael, so I'm going to try." She gets up from the couch to go out onto the balcony, taking her phone and the letter out of her bag.

While she does this, Alec takes out his own phone to order some victory takeout food for him and Izzy. Then as he waits on the couch, playing on his phone, he wishes to know who else would be going, who he might meet. Maybe a certain inspirational black haired, glittery man would be there. He hopes so.

His thoughts are interrupted by a loud ringing. He looks down at his phone to see Jace's name pop up.

"Hey Jace-" he is interrupted by a loud yelling in his ears. "J-Jace, what?!"

"I'M GOING TO THE CREATOR'S SUMMIT AND I'M TAKING LYDIA WITH ME AND OH MY GOD ALEC ARE YOU GOING?!" Alec's adrenaline kicks back up as he answers his pumped brother.

"YES! Jace, I am so excited! Oh, and Izzy's going too. She's here on the phone, trying to see if Clary can come."

"They're going to let her! I called to ask if Lydia could come and they said she could for certain events, like dinners and stuff, but other events are exclusive to YouTubers. ALEC I'M SO EXCITED." Lydia and Jace had met way back in high school. She had been Alec's friend first, and had actually hated Jace's confident attitude when they'd met, but she had eventually come around once she witnessed Jace's true nature. Their personalities clashed in the most spectacular way, and Alec was really happy for them.

"I know, I can't wait to meet the other YouTubers!"

"I know, man, it's going to be awesome. I've to go but tell Izzy I say hi and that THE LIGHTWOODS WILL BE RULING THAT SUMMIT!" Alec laughs.

"Alright, bye Jace." he hangs up and looks to where Izzy stands on the balcony, dancing her happy dance in nine-inch stilettos.

"BE CAREFUL!" he shouts at her, to no avail. She doesn't even see him. He guesses that means Clary is going, then.

Alec tries not to, but he can't help but feel a little jealous of his friends. Izzy has Clary, and Jace has Lydia, and Simon has Raphael. They all have someone to share the experience of their first convention with, and he can't even name someone he'd like to go with.

He slaps his bitterness away, however, and tells himself that maybe he'll meet someone at the convention. Even if he doesn't he'd enjoy it anyway.

Izzy comes back inside and their takeout arrives and they celebrate, chatting avidly about what they are looking forward to most.

Alec loses track of how many times he says that he can't wait.

He just can't, OK?