Summary: Catarina asks Alec to babysit a de-aged Ragnor, turns out those transformation potions don't work so well on Warlocks, Madzie comes along with him. Playdate.
-Tags: Potions Mishaps, Children's antics -
Alec looked up when someone knocked on his door. He frowned, he didn't have any meetings at this time, he had an informal meeting with Luke at seven for dinner to discuss safe havens for some of the Packless wolves that were still a little wary of being around Luke's pack for the Full Moon that was due in three days.
"Come in." Alec said, preparing himself for the worst.
The door opened a little cautiously and Alec let out the breath he'd been holding as Catarina stepped into the office.
"Warlock Loss." Alec smiled, "What brings you here, I thought you were going to send the results with Izzy tomorrow."
Catarina smiled back and nodded, "Yes, I was, still am, I was wondering is I could ask you a personal Favor?"
"That depends, does it endanger anyone?" Alec asked.
"No, of course not." Catarina rushed to assure Alec, "I was working on the Project and Ragnor came by."
"Oh, dear." Alec said, he had not yet met Ragnor properly but Magnus had many, many stories about them and all of the things and troubles that they had caused.
Catarina smiled again as she sat down in the chair across from him, "Yes, oh, dear."
"I suppose that the favor has to do with what Ragnor did." Alec said, knowingly.
Catarina laughed, "Yes, I would have gone to Magnus but I need his help to fix it."
Alec nodded, "So what do you need, Catarina."
"I was hoping that perhaps you could keep an eye on Ragnor and Madzie." Catarina asked him.
"Ragnor?" Alec asked.
"Yes, he accidently spilled one of the transformation potions on him and is now about Madzie's age, give or take." Catarina explained.
Alec tried, he really did, but the laugh escaped him anyway.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Alec gasped as he tried to catch his breath, "For that laugh I'll watch them. Are there any concerns?"
Catarina frowned a little, "I know that he had some difficulty with Nephilim when he was young but no, not really, I've given them both a glamor charm, Ragnor was born green and his horns have already begun to grow."
"Do you have a ballpark on how long it will take to fix or wear-off?"
"Not at the moment." Catarina admitted.
Alec nodded, "Alright, are they here or ..."
Catarina smiled, "Magnus is bringing them when he brings you lunch."
Alec's cheeks burned a little, Magnus had made it a habit to bring Alec lunch as often as possible.
When Alec had been still quite new to being Head of the Institute, back when he was sixteen, he had introduce himself to the new arrivals, when he had paid more attention to them than their parents, checked in with them often and made sure that they wer healthy and taken care of they had begun to call him Dad. It had taken Alec months to get them to stop and honestly some of them still slipped and called him dad to his face, Alec had known they still called him dad behind his back. Now they had begun to call Magnus Papa and Alec was entirely embarassed of his children, Izzy, Jace, Clary, and Simon especially because they had no embarassment at all about calling him Dad infront of Magnus, and though they had yet o say it with Magnus around they jokingly called Magnus Papa on occasion when they were talking to Alec.
"Alright, thank you, Catarina, how long am I keeping them?"
"Until we fix it or it wears off, hopefully not past the weekend." Catarina admitted.
"Tell Izzy, Jace, and Clary that they are being assigned to help you with this." Alec said as he stood to collect a form from his filing cabnet.
He quickly filled it out and signed it, "Sign here."
Catarina signed and Alec handed the form to her.
"Give this to Izzy. It's their Orders form, basically for however long it takes you are their knew supervisor, they need to follow ny order you give them." Alec grabbed another form and offered it to Catarina, "For any order that they refused to complete, I'll take care of it when they get back."
Catarina smiled again, "Thank you, Alec."
"Of course, I suppose I won't see Magnus after today for a few days." Alec said sadly.
"Sorry." Catarina admitted, "Ragnor is terrible." But it was said with fondness and Alec could relate.
"Do you want updates?"
"No, that would be distracting but..." Catarina conjured a camera, "As many pictures as you can if you don't mind."
Alec smiled, "Of course."
They shook hands and Catarina left.
Magnus ushered the two young children into Alec's office quickly.
"Hello, Alexander." Magnus smiled and gave Alec a short kiss.
"Hey." Alec got up from his desk, leaving the report he was reading and walking with Magnus to where the two children stood.
"Alec!" Madzie cried and launched herself at him.
Alec caught her up and lifted her up over his head making zooming noises before he settled her on his hip, looking at her with a soft smile, "Hello, Madzie."
Magnus stared, startled at the feelings that welled up inside him at the sight of Alec being soft and playfull with Madzie.
"And who are you?" Alec asked gently as he crouched down to Ragnor's eye level, settling Madzie to sit on his thigh.
Ragnor peeked at Alec from behind Magnus, "No!"
Alec smiled a little, "Hello, No, my name is Alec."
Magnus hid his face, that was almost a 'Dad Joke' and Magnus couldn't believe that Alec had actually made it.
Ragnor looked confused.
"Are you hungry, No?" Alec asked, "I'm guessing that Magnus brought something wonderful."
Ragnor came out from behind Magnus slowly, his green skin clearly visible.
"You don't hate me?" Ragnor asked in a quite voice.
"Not even a little bit, I'm sure we'll become good friends." Alec smiled.
"But you're a Nephilim." Ragnor said and Alec hid his anger because no child should expect an entire people to hate them.
"Yes, and I want you to know that you should definately be safe here, if anyone makes you scared or hurts you you come find me as soon as you can and tell me who it was and I'll ground them." Alec promised.
Ragnor giggled at the same time Madzie did and came to stand next to her.
"Are you hungry?" Alec asked.
The children nodded.
Alec smiled, "Okay, then let's get the picnic blanket and set up the office for lunch."
Alec set Madzie on her feet and stood te get the blanket from the top of his cabnet while Magnus began to set things from the Picnic Basket on Alec's desk.
"You're really tall." Ragnor said, "Taller than Mister Magnus."
Alec smiled down at the boy, "I am." Alec knelt down and leaned close, secretively, "Tell you the truth, I like it, I like Mister Magnus when he leans up to kiss me or uses his Magnis to tug me down."
Ragnor grinned and Magnus hid his own smile.
Then Ragnor frowned, "Why does Mister Magnus kiss you?"
Magnus' eyes widened and he spun around, panicked.
Alec, however remained calm, "Because we like to, he and I are dating, like a Mommy and Daddy do before they become Mommies and Daddies."
"Are you going to be a Mommy and Daddy?" Madzie asked as she came over to stare at Alec.
"No, because neither one of us is a woman so we can't be a mommy." Alec explained gently, sitting down on the ground and letting the two sit in his lap.
Ragnor looked close to tears, "That's not fair!"
Alec laughed, "We wouldn't be a mommy, but we could be a Papa and a Daddy." Alec assured them, "And one day we will." Alec said as he glanced up at Magnus who smiled softly, eyes a little wet.
"One day." Magnus promised.
"Now." Alec said grinning and squeezing the two, "We need to get the blanket all laid out, want to help?"
Twin shireks of agreement answered him and Alec made everyone, Magnus included, grab a corner of the blanket and they shook it and wrapped the children in it and lost them for a couple minutes to be found by loud giggles before they spred the blanket out again and floated it to the ground.
They ate lunch, Magnus offering the children peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while Alec and Magnus had something a little more sophisticated.
After a while Ragnor crawled into Alec's lap and Alec offered the boy bites of his food, some of which Ragnor didn't like and Madzie followed, getting the same treatment.
Before long the children were full and falling asleep against Alec's chest as he talked to Magnus.
"You're good with them." Magnus said as he stared at alec and the two sleeping children.
Alec smiled, "I know. You'll learn when we have kids."
Magnus tore his gaze from the children to lock eyes with Alec, "What if I'm not good at it?"
Alec shook his head, "You're never good at it, Magnus, you learn and you love and you make sure the kids know that no matter what you will always love them, that nothing they can do will change that, that you're always going to be there when they need you, everything else is hoping that when they are all grown up that you didn't make them hate you and that they understand you're always in their corner."
Magnus wiped tears from his eyes, "You'll help me, tell me if I'm pushing too hard, or ..."
Alec smiled, "Yeah, as long as you do the same."
Magnus leaned over and kissed Alec carefully.
"Lunch was nice." He whispered, "But I have to get back."
"We'll be fine." Alec promised.
Alec stood infront of the Nephilim, he people and began to wrap up his speech for the week.
"You may have also noticed my two shadows, let me say a few things about that, yes, they are Warlocks, no that will not be a problem." Alec paused to glare at the few Nephilim that still dislike him and how he ran things, "If there are, if any one harms them not only will they be grounded but as punishment after that they will be assigned to Luke's Downworld integration Project for the next six months.
"If any one allows harm to come to them I will hand you over to Catarina Loss and Magnus Bane for punishment. Ragnor Fell and Madzie Loss are to be made as welcome as anyone else that enteres into my Institute am I understood?" Alec asked.
A chorus of 'Yes, Sir's ansered him as well as the scattered 'Yes, Dad's that always happened when he made such announcements.
"Your assignments have been sent to you and I expect reports on my desk as always, nothing else has changed." Alec said, "I am leaving to my meeting with Luke, Raj, Lydia, you will both come along, Veia is welcome to come along."
Alec finished and began to walk to the Institute's doors, Lydia and Raj falling into step beside him, a diaper bag being collected by Alec at the door before he took both Madzie and Ragor's hands, letting Raj open the door for them.
"So why are we leaving so soon? The meeting not until seven, it's five now." Lydia asked, soothing the baby in the carrier wrapped around her chest.
"We're stopping at the park for the kids to play for a while." Alec informed her.
"Ah, makes sense." Lydia said, "And the bag has what I need too?"
Alec grinned at her, "Of course."
"Can we get Ice cream?" Madzie asked Raj, making Alec look up from his reports.
"Uh...?" Raj hesitated and Madzie let her eyes widen pleadingly.
"Dad?" Raj turned to Alec helplessly.
Alec sighed, Raj had been one of the younger recruits sent to Alec when he was sixteen, it was harder to break them out of calling him Dad and sometimes, when they panicked they slipped up more.
"We can get Ice Cream on the way back to the Institute, after dinner." Alec said firmly.
Both children pouted and Lydia dropped Veia on his lap, leaving the fussy baby with him as she raced to the bathroom.
"Why don't you two go say goodbye to your friends and we'll head to dinner?" Alec suggested.
"Okay." The two cried and Raj snapped a few more pictures of them as they race around the playground saying their goodbyes.
"Sorry." Raj muttered as Alec cleaned up the grassy area they had been aitting in.
"For what?" Alec asked as he stood stretching a little and bouncing Veia.
"I called you dad again." Raj said.
Alec smiled, "I heard, you've always had a hard time not calling me dad."
"You were more of one than mine." Raj admitted.
"You know I never get made about it, but it is a bit awkward to have someone nearly my age calling me dad infront of the Seelies and Werewolves." Alec reminded Raj.
"Right, okay."
Alec shook his head as Lydia came back and Alec shifted Veia to his hip and took Madzie's hand, letting the girl take Ragnor's hand in hers.
Lydia fell into step on the other side of Ragnor but didn't try to take his hand while Raj took Alec's other side.
They arrived at the resturant quickly and settled themselves into the booth to wait for Luke.
Once he arrived he and Alec moved through the work related stuff quickly with Alec giving a list of avaliable, vacant buildings that he and Magnus had gone around to and Warded.
"Thank you for doing this, Alec." Luke smiled.
"Of course." Alec nodded, their food arriving.
Alec spent a few moments cutting Ragno and Madzie's food into child size bites before he set the food before the children.
"So, you and Magnus..."
"No." Alec stopped him, "Not yet, theis is Madzie and Ragnor, I'm watching them for Catarina."
"Ah." Luke sounded.
They finished eating and Alec collected the check and his children before leaving Luke to go back to his pack.
They bought Ice Cream on the way back to the Institute and Alec ended up carrying two small, sticky, sleepy children into the Institute.
He cleaned them up a little before helping the half asleep children into pajamas and then settling them into the bed, tucking the blankets around them and pressing kisses to both heads and he plugged in the moon nightlight Catarina had packed for them and went to his office to do his paperwork.
He frowned and almost panicked when he couldn't find any.
"I did most of it, signed my name." Victor Aldertree said as he stepped into Alec's office.
"Why?" Alec asked, Aldertree was one of the people who didn't like how he ran the Institute or the way he was out without consiquince, of course Aldertree hadn't been in the country when Alec came out and didn't care to learn what had happened when he had.
"Look, what you do is different, I don't like it at all, but it works, when you have trouble, you can make a call to the Seelies, the Werewolves or The Vampires, even the Warlocks and have thme offer aid, information or manpower. Something that no other Institute can claim, heck, they don't even have their Downworld Leaders' numbers. You have Catarina Loss, Magnus Bane, Luke Garroway and the Seelies Queen's secretary in your phone." Aldertree said.
"I have the Queen's number too." Alec said.
"What?" Aldertree said shocked before shaking it off, "That's what I mean. This Institute and by default the area is the most secure and Allied area the Nephilim protect, I don't like it but your way works better than the old way, and you accept people as they are." Aldertree said softly.
"Oh..." Alec frowned, "Oh." He realized, "Aldertree... Are you coming out to me?" Alec asked softly.
"I..." Aldertree closed the door to the office, "How do you do it? Find the strength to make that choice, to be true to yourself before all others?"
"I don't know, I just couldn't lie anymore, it hurt more to keep it trapped inside and I decided that I could make it alone, that it would be worth it as long as I didn't have to lie anymore, didn't have to hide." Alec said gently and led Aldertree to sit in a chair, pulling one over to sit next to him, facing him, holding his hands in his, "It's okay to be yourself, if you can't do that with everyone than this is a start at least, one person you don't need to hide from, someone you can talk to, I'll always listen, you're always safe in this office." Alec promised.
Aldertree sniffled, gazing at Alec's hands where they held his and Alec felt the teardrops drip onto his skin and pulled the other man into a hug, "You're safe."
After a few minutes Aldertree pulled away and Alec offered him some tissues.
"Feel better?" Alec asked.
"Yeah, I see why they call you dad now." Victor said with an attempt at a smile.
Alec smiled, "You want to tell me or just..."
"I'm gay. I like Raj but... I don't... I don't... how can I?" Victor stuttered.
"You try, and if it's not right, you try again." Alec told him, "I can't tell you haw Raj feels, when people do this with me it's confidentual, Magnus even Warded my Office when he renewed the Wards. This is a safe place to speak even if I'm not here, my door is always open. You can just speak to the walls if you need to."
"Thank you." Victor said as he stood, slipping out into the hall with Alec folloowing, heading back to his room.
A small figure made them both stop.
"Hey, kiddo?" Alec said as he lifted Ragnor up into his arms, "What's up?"
"Had a nightmare." Ragnor whispered into Alec's neck, "Got scared, Daddy."
Alec smiled softly, Victor glancing at him curiously, Alec shook his head.
"That's alright, do you have to go to the bathroom before we head back to bed?" Alec asked.
The boy shook his head and Alec bid Victor goodnight and left.
"This should get him back to normal." Catarina said, "At least according to the research we did."
Magnus rolled his eyes and handed the potion to Ragnor.
"It will make me big again?" Ragnor asked, he'd been told the truth when Magnus and Catarina arrived with the counterpotion.
"Yes." Magnus said.
"What if I don't want to get big again?" Ragnor asked, looking over at Alec.
It had been three days and Alec knew that Ragnor had become attatched.
Alec sat down next to the boy, "You know that you and Magnus and Catarina were friends before, they miss you."
Ragnor bit his lip, "Did I know you, Daddy?"
Magnus' breath hitched.
"No, not yet, but we would have met, because Magnus would have insisted, we did have an encounter but you didn't stick around for long." Alec explained gently, letting the boy climb into his lap.
"Will I remember this?" Ragnor asked, looking at Magnus, pleadingly.
"We don't know, it's possible that thes memories can replace the first set or even be added to it the others fading like they were a dream." Catarina said.
"Hey." Alec said, bouncing his leg to get Ragnor's attention, "No matter what Ragnor, you are family, if you need me I'll be here, promise, even if you are older than me."
Ragnor's lips twitched, "Okay."
"Okay." Magnus said, still staring at Alec.
Alec set Ragnor on his feet and stood up and they watched him drink the potion, changing until and adult Ragnor stood where the little boy had been.
"What happened?" Ragnor asked and Alec's heart dropped.
"There was a potion's accident, because you didn't follow the directions." Catarina scowled.
"Sorry." Ragnor muttered.
His gaze swept the room and he stopped at Alec, "You must be Magnus' husband."
Alec smiled, "Not yet, but one day."
"This is definately a good one, Magnus." Ragnor said.
"Thank you." Magnus rolled his eyes, "We should go make sure everything is fine."
"Of course, I'll keep Madzie until tomorrow." Alec told Catarina.
"Thank you." She said.
As they exited Alec's office Ragnor pulled Alec into a tight hug.
"Thank you, Dad." He whispered before following Magnus out, leaving Alec standing in his doorway, shocked but no longer so heartbroken.
Even if Ragnor never called him dad again he remembered at least and that, that was wonderful, because Alec knew those memories that they had made over the last few days had made Ragnor so happy and that little boy had deserved to have happy childhood memories.
Suddenly Alec frowned, was it going to be more awkward for Ragnor to call him Dad or having to explain to Magnus why the child version of his friend had kept calling him dad.
Alec decided to blame it on Raj since Raj had been the one Ragnor had heard it from clearly.
"Daddy?" Madzie asked, "I can't find teddy."
Now Alec had to get Madzie to stop calling him dad or find a way to explain to Magnus and Catarina why she did.
"Hey, dad?" Simon asked as he popped around the corner, "Found these in the training room."
Alec took the green triceratops that Ragnor had slept with after Victor gave it to the boy as Simon handed the silver tyransaurus to Madzie.
He was just going to blame it on all his kids, he wondered if it'd be abuse of power to ground them all for it.
A/N: Another little hapy little thing for this Fandom...Shhh, don't tell my other Fandoms.
Yes I made Victor Aldertree Gay, sorry... and Yes, Raj has feelings for him too, but they don't know that yet.