Chapter 55: Day One - Alec

Hey guys, hope you enjoy the chapter!

Alec's POV

"Alec! Alec, wake up!" is the first thing I hear when I wake up. It's quickly followed by the feeling of little feet jumping all over me.

"I'm awake Max," I say groggily, covering my head. He does one last jump, before sitting down on the other pillow at the head of my bed.

"Is Clary coming? Is Jace?" Max asks excited, trying to pull my arms away from my head.

I finally let him pull my arms away, "Are Izzy and I not good enough for you?" I ask, reaching up to ruffle his hair.

He quickly sets his glasses right again. "What! No - you guys are great-" Max begins, looking genuinely concerned that he's hurt my feelings.

"It's okay Maxxie. And no, they're not coming to New York - but you'll see them on Christmas day. We're all going to L.A. remember?"

"Did you know that they're dating?" he asks me, looking shocked, but impressed that he knows this information.

"I did know that, funnily enough," I say, finally sitting up myself. There's really no point in trying to get more sleep if he's in this mood. "Anyway, should we go get some breakfast before Iz decides she wants to cook for everyone?"

Max nods quickly, running out of the room to, I assume, the kitchen. I head down after him, and see that he's already started pulling out ingredients for pancakes. "And mom bought bacon," he tells me, "so we could cook that up too!"

"Sounds great," I tell him, heading over to the bookshelf with cookbooks on it. It's probably something I should know how to cook by now, but Clary is always the one who ends up cooking the pancakes.

Once I find the book I hand it to Max so he can find the recipe he wants to make.

"You want something to drink?" I ask him, heading over to the coffee machine.

"I don't like coffee, and it's not good for you," he tells me shortly.

I smile at him, "you don't have to have coffee. I can get you juice, or milk - whatever you want."

"Mmmm," he thinks about my offer, "no, I'm okay thank you! But let's start cooking!"

"What are you guys making?" Izzy asks, coming into the kitchen.

"We're making pancakes and bacon!" Max tells her excitedly.

She ruffles his hair, "can I help?"

Before Max has the chance to say anything, I quickly cut in, "it's brothers only. No sisters allowed. Sorry!" She pokes her tongue out at me, "but feel free to make me a cup of coffee."

"I think I'll make myself one," she says, and walks over to the machine.

"Oh hey," I say, "before I forget, would you be able to help me with something today. I've got to do this Instagram live thing. I think it would be better if I could have someone else film it."

"You sure it's not a brothers only thing?" she asks, taking a long sip of her coffee.

"It's really not," I tell her, "it's like a thousands of people thing - and I don't want to embarrass myself."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before," she says, smirking. As she walks out of the kitchen she yells, "call me when breakfast is ready!"

"Come on Maxxie. Let's make some pancakes," I sigh

After everyone has finished their breakfast, mom makes Izzy and I clean up - which I try to argue against considering I cooking pretty much all the food, but 'since I'm the oldest, I have to take responsibility'.

As Iz and I are washing up, I make sure no one else is in the kitchen before telling her, "I'm going to introduce Magnus to mom and dad tonight."

"They already know Magnus. He's been your manager for like, six years," Izzy says, looking at me like I'm stupid.

"I'm going to introduce him as my boyfriend," I clarify.

"Oh," Izzy says. "That's a big step."

"Well otherwise I would just have to tell them on Christmas day. And telling them now means they'll have a couple of days to get used to the idea before Christmas, so hopefully it'll be less awkward for everyone at the party."

"Dose Magnus know?" Izzy asks, putting down the sponge and facing me.

"Yeah. It's why he is coming to New York today. I'm going to go pick him up and then take him and mom and dad out to dinner."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not with mom and dad; I think I need to do that myself. But… I'd really appreciate it if you could help me tell Max. I want him to hear it from me, but I need to tell him after mom and dad in case he lets something slip."

"Of course I can help with that," Izzy says, picking up the sponge and starting to wash a pan. "Looks like you have your day all planned out."

"That's only the half of it," I say, taking the pan to dry it. "I have to do that Instagram thing, and then I have to meet Simon to rehearse all day-"

"Shit! Simon. Mom and dad don't know I'm dating Simon," Izzy says, colour draining from his face.

"I don't think it's too big of a deal," I tell her. "Mom and dad like Simon… most of the time."

"Yeah, but they've always said they want me to date someone… I don't know, like lowkey. Simon is pretty much the opposite of that!" she tells me.

"Look, you know what. We can help each other, okay. We'll tell them both at dinner tonight, and I'm sure they'll be so shocked at me for dating Magnus that they'll barely notice you're dating Simon."

"You'd really do that for me?" she asks, some colour coming back into her face.

"Of course," I say, tugging on her hair softly.

"Well then maybe I can help you with this Instagram thing," she says.

"Uhhh… okay! Hey everyone. Ahhh… welcome to the first day of the five days of Christmas. I'm currently in New York with my family for the holidays. I thought that I could show you the Christmas tree, and then maybe answer some of your questions?" I say, totally unsure about everything I'm doing. In theory, all of this was normal, but now that I was actually doing it, it felt totally unnatural, which Izzy helpfully points out.

"You're so awkward!" she whisper yells. "Loosen up a bit - just imagine that your talking to only one or two people."

"How many people am I actually talking to?" I ask. Hopefully it's more than one or two.

"That doesn't matter - and just get on with it," she says back.

I lead Izzy, who is filming on my phone, over to the Christmas tree which I sit down in front of. After that, she reads out some of the questions that are being asked, and I answer them as well as I can.

"Okay, well that's all I'm going to do today. You can go onto Kit's account tomorrow for a similar sort of thing with him, and you can catch me again on Christmas day with everyone else! Have a great day and happy holidays" I say, glad that it's finally over.

"You know that was actually pretty good towards the end there," Izzy tells me, ending the video.

"What can I say - I'm a natural in front of the camera."

"Right, and I only wear flat shoes," Izzy replies.

"Whatever, it's over now." I say, dismissing her.

"Yep, now all that's left is dinner with dear old ma and pa," Izzy says wistfully.

"You just had to remind me! You know I was actually starting to feel good about today," I say, falling onto the couch.

"Well, what can I say… reality's a bitch. Anyway, we've got to get dressed because we're picking Simon and Magnus up on the way, and we really should be there early. You know how dad likes punctuality."

"I was just going to wear this," I say, closing my eyes hoping to fit a nap in before dinner. Sometimes it's nice imagining things that are never going to happen.

"Ahhh… sorry Alec, but I'm not sure they let in people whose jeans were once black and now barely pass for grey, and whose jumper has more holes in it than a piece of swiss cheese. And I think you could use a shower."

"Well, I don't really know what you expect from me, but I don't own anything much different. And I showered after rehearsal!"

"God you're so lucky to have us…" Iz whispers under her breath. "Magnus obviously bought you new clothes for the dinner - they're in your bag. He told me that he bought them, I just didn't know the occasion."

I reluctantly follow Izzy upstairs, where she pulls out a pair of chinos and a navy dress shirt. "You should wear them with your brown boots and a belt - I'll meet you downstairs shortly," Izzy tells me, before leaving to get dressed herself.

Half an hour (and a fair amount of yelling from Izzy about not having enough time) later, we're sitting in a cab on our way to pick up Magnus and Simon.

"I really hope tonight goes well," Izzy says, applying last minute make-up.

"That makes two of us," I reply. I repeatedly take my watch off and put it back on, until Izzy slaps it away.

"Stop that - you're going to break it. And anyway, we're pulling in."

I look onto the footpath, and sure enough Magnus and Simon are standing there waiting to get into the cab. Magnus sits next to me and Simon gets in the front.

"Hello Alexander. I knew that shirt would bring out the blue in your eyes," Magnus says very quickly and then kisses me.

"Umm… hey Magnus. You look… good too," I say, thrown off guard.

"Thank you. Isabelle," he says, looking over to Iz, "looking gorgeous as always."

"Thank you Magnus. Is that a new hair gel?" she asks.

"Longer lasting," he answers, touching one of his glittery spikes. "With my job you never know how long you might have to go without getting to touch up." Izzy nods back like she completely understands this problem.

By the time we reach the restaurant, I'm still trying to figure out how Izzy could tell Magnus was wearing a new hair gel just by looking at him.

"We all ready for this?" Simon asks before walking into the restaurant.

Everyone replies various versions of 'no', before following him into the restaurant.

Mom and dad are already sitting at the table by the time we arrive, and they look almost relieved to not have to talk anymore.

"Izzy, Alec. It's good to have you both home," mom says, standing up to great us.

Once we're all seated, dad says, "I didn't realise we were bringing friends," eyeing Simon and Magnus.

"Well they were both in town-" I begin, but Izzy quickly interrupts me.

"Mom, dad. Simon and I are dating. We have been for a few months now and we're very happy."

"And does that mean…" dad asks, looking at me, and then Magnus, and then back to me. I nod at him. "Well that's just great, isn't it. Both of my children… finally in relationships," he says but doesn't sound too happy.

"As long as everyone is happy," Mom says, trying to break the tension.

Dad doesn't break eye contact with me however, and very slowly, very subtly shakes his head. He doesn't approve. Once, that would have shattered me, but something takes over. "You know what dad, it's not my problem that you can't accept me for who I am. It's yours. And if you can't see how happy I am with Magnus - the happiest I've been in a long time, then I don't know what to tell you. But I love Magnus, and if that makes you uncomfortable, then I'd be more than happy to leave."

I then stand, and grab Magnus hand. "I'll see you guys tomorrow," I tell Simon and Izzy. "Mom, it was good seeing you. I'll call you and we can arrange a time to meet - just the two of us." And then I walk out of the restaurant, still hand in hand with Magnus.

"Alec… where did all of that come from?" Magnus asks.

"It's just been such a long time since he found out about me ... and at every step he's not accepted me. I think it's time that I stop trying to please him. If he can come 'round - great. If not, then I don't need him in my life. I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable."

"I've never liked the way your father treated you… and that was… maybe we could go back to my hotel room?" Magnus asks.

I'm about to agree when I hear someone calling out my name.

"Alexander," mom calls, coming out of the restaurant.

"Mom?" I ask, confused.

"Alec, Magnus - I really am happy for you two. I don't want you to think that just because your father is having a difficult time… I'm glad you two are happy."

"Thanks mom," I say, completely shocked.

"And I was hoping… if you didn't have plans tonight, that you would come home." she says, "we could have some tea and just catch up. I've told Simon and Isabelle that they're welcome to come. I would really like to be involved in my childrens lives again."

"Mom, that sounds great," I say reluctantly, "but if dad's going to be there…"

"I've told him he's not welcome," she says simply.

"Okay then," I nod.

Mom hails a cab, and we ride home in silence. When we get home mom quickly pays Max's babysitter, and then makes us all a cup of tea - and gets a glass of milk for Max.

"Simon and Isabelle will be here in a little while," she tells us, coming back from the kitchen.

"Why's Magnus here?" Max asks, looking around the room.

"Well Maxxie," I say, "you know how Jace and Clary are dating?"

"You two are boyfriends?" he asks, looking between the two of us. I nod back, smiling a little. "How long have you been dating?" he asks.

"Well, for about a year now," I answer.

"You know Clary and Jace have been dating for less than that and they told me ages ago!" he says matter-of-factly.

"Well Clary and Jace tend to overshare," Magnus says under his breath, but Max hears and starts to laugh.

After that, Simon and Izzy come in, and Max is hit with the bombshell that they're dating. And then we all just talk, filling in on everything that has happened over the last few years.

Hope you liked that. I was originally going to end the chapter after the restaurant but thought I should add on the last little bit. I know Maryse is a little out of character, but I wanted to have one of Alec parents really supporting him. Also, if you want anything to happen in any of these chapters just let me know and I'll write it! Have a good day :)