A/N: Sorry it's been a while, got 12 hour days at work at the minute so I'm exhausted when I get home and the one day I was home earlier this week we had a power cut! Typical!

The day of the party loomed and Max was causing mayhem. It had started the day before his actual birthday and progressively gotten worse as the week went on. Alec thought he might calm down after his actual birthday and had gotten opening presents and eating cake out of his system but no, by the time it got to Friday Alec was begging Clary to save him. He didn't know what had come over the kid, he was usually fairly quiet and well behaved but he'd turned into a hyper and loud little Tasmanian devil. I guess that is what normal 3 year olds are like Alec thought. His parents had almost trained Max as you would a dog so that he wouldn't shout unnecessarily, didn't seem to have excess energy and generally would just act on his parents command. Alec was glad that Max was seemingly gradually forgetting that 'training' even if it did mean he had to deal with Max when he had days like this.

Luckily, Clary didn't have to work Friday either so she came over and helped with Max and getting the stuff set up for the party the following day. Max really seemed to have a soft spot for Clary, he happily played with her and let her read him stories and feed him his lunch. When Max went down for a nap after lunch Alec asked Clary if she would mind watching Max while he went out to get the food for the party. It would be so much easier without having Max there, especially in the mood he was in at the moment. He felt a bit bad leaving Clary on her own, but he knew that this would be his only chance really and he wasn't sure that Max was so comfortable with Clary as to let her watch him without Alec there. Clary, of course, did not hesitate to agree, saying that she would gladly sit and blow up the red and blue balloons whilst he did the shopping.

Alec rushed round the grocery store ticking items off his list as he went. When he had a full trolley he went to the bakery section to select the cake that Max would like best. It was a pretty easy choice really, they had a spiderman cake and that was the theme of everything else so he picked up one of those and went to the checkout.

By the time Alec got home Max was actually up, although still a bit sleepy from his nap so he couldn't have been awake for long. Clary had him on her lap on the sofa reading him a story. Alec used that time to put the food away in the fridge and cupboards and hide the cake, then went over to his friend and little brother to sit down next to them and see what the story was about. Max snuggled into Clary more as Alec sat down so maybe Alec had been wrong about leaving Max alone with Clary whilst he wasn't there. He was absolutely fine and didn't seem at all bothered. That boded well for the future if he ever needed a babysitter...

Once the story was over Max sat up straighter giving a big stretch and then said to Alec "Can Clary come to the party?" Alec eyed the reaction on Clary's face. He didn't want her to feel coerced into giving up her Saturday to go to a kid's birthday party but she kept the same even smile on her face as she looked down at Max. "Of course she can! Only if she wants to though" Alec added. "Pwease Clary" Max said with his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. "Oh Max, I would love to come!" Clary replied as she started tickling his ribs.

XxX

Clary stayed the rest of the evening, putting Max to bed again. She then helped Alec cook a proper adult worthy meal in time for when Izzy got home from her course. This was the first time the girls had met but they got on like a house on fire. Clary wasn't the most fashionable of people but she could hold her own in a conversation and name drop a few designers.

After the three had dinner Alec got out the sweets and things he'd got from the store to go into the pass the parcel game, as well as the little toys for the party bags. Izzy set about dividing out the toys into party bags, Clary started wrapping layers of newspaper around sweets and Alec arranged party food into bowls and covered them with clingfilm. It wasn't long before everything was prepared for the party tomorrow and Clary got up to get ready to leave. Izzy wasn't too happy about this and instead asked if she wanted to stay and watch this new rom com that had come onto Netlfix. Clary didn't have anywhere to be so she put her coat back on the peg and went to gather the blankets from the floor putting them back on the sofa.

Izzy was popping popcorn, Clary was tidying, Max was asleep so Alec tried to sneak off upstairs. Perhaps he could continue watching that horror series he'd started a few weeks ago. "Alec, where are you running off to?" Clary called. "I was just gonna watch tv upstairs so I don't disturb you two" Alec explained. "Uh uh. If I have to be subjected to a girly film with your sister, then so do you!" she said as she went over to him and pushed him back towards the sofa. He plopped down without complaint, besides he could just text Jace or something, he didn't have to watch the film and he didn't want to leave Clary with his sister if she didn't want that. His sister could be intimidating at times and besides he'd already left Clary alone with other members of his family today.

As the film started Alec pretended to be interested whilst getting through his handful of popcorn. After less than ten minutes though Alec was bored. He texted Jace to ask him how his week had been and waited for a response, grabbing another handful of popcorn to keep himself entertained. He really didn't get rom coms, they seemed so unbelievable most of the time. Forty minutes and another three handfuls of popcorn later he still hadn't heard back from Jace. Maybe he was out, it was Friday after all and he could remember from when he was at college that the dorm was basically empty most Friday and Saturday nights.

A thought sprung to Alec's mind, he had barely seen Magnus that week, they'd taken on two new staff at work so the rota was less Alec and Clary heavy now so Max had only been in Daycare two days that week and he'd only seen Magnus one of them. He decided to text him, their friendship was developing nicely and he wanted to keep it going. He was being honest when he said he wanted to see where it went with time.

Hey Magnus, what you been up to this week? Up to anything much tonight? X

He got a response almost immediately. Yea stuff Jace, Magnus wanted to talk to him!

Hi Alec, not a lot during the week, another busy one with a couple of late nights at the office. I'm off out in an hour or so with a friend I met at college. He's around here on business for a couple of days so just going out for dinner x

Alec felt something in his tummy. He didn't really know what it was, a kind of unfamiliar knotting. Hopefully the food they'd cooked for dinner wasn't off.

Oh no, make sure you have a relaxing weekend then. Where are you guys going for dinner? X

Just that French place down by the river. What about you, doing anything this eve? x

That place that has the terrace overlooking the river you mean? The fancy one? Just watching this rom com with Clary and Izzy. Bored out of my skull x

Yea that one, but I haven't seen him in a while so thought I'd show him the best the town has to offer. Which rom com? X

Alec huffed a little bit at that, must be some guy to take him there, that place was crazily expensive!

I dunno exactly, it's called The Lucky One, about some guy who's a marine or something. I'm not really paying attention x

Oh. I LOVE that film. That guy in it is super hot x

Alec snorted at that. Of course Magnus would be into rom coms, especially the ones with hot guys in them. Thinking about it maybe Alec should pay attention a bit more.

Ha, yea actually he is. Anyway, I'll let you get ready for your dinner x

You really should watch it properly, it is pretty good. Yes, I should get ready now he'll be here in half an hour and I have no clue what to wear. Night Alec x

That knotting feeling surfaced in Alec's stomach again. He knew Magnus liked to look good but why would he care that much about what he was wearing to this dinner. He was pretty sure that restaurant had a strict suit, tie and dress shoes policy, surely picking clothes for that wouldn't be difficult. He text a quick goodnight back and tried to focus on the movie properly. The problem was it was half way through by now so he didn't really understand the plot.

The movie ended, by which point all three were yawning. It had been busy days for them all, Izzy had a practical session of sewing at school that day which was physical work and Alec and Clary had been running round after Max most of the day too. Clary got her shoes on quickly, picked her coat off the hook, called a quick "See you just before 3 tomorrow guys" then hurried out the door before she could be convinced into staying any longer.

Izzy got up from the sofa she was on, moved over to where Alec was sitting and covered them both with a blanket again. "Who were you texting during the movie darling brother?" she questioned. "Magnus. I tried Jace but I guess he must be out" Alec responded. "Ah that was why I saw a range of emotions covering your face then" Izzy deduced. "Was it that obvious? I think he might be on a date. He's taking some friend from college to that French place on the river. It's so expensive and fancy there." Alec complained. "Oh Alec. You did say you wanted to be friends. He is entitled to see other people you know" Izzy explained softly. "I know, I know. I just didn't think he'd move that quickly. I mean I know I said I wanted to be just friends but I did also say that we would see where it went in time. I guess maybe he's not willing to give that time?" Alec thought out loud. "Well you don't know for sure that he's on a date right. You said you only think he's on one?" Izzy asked. "Yea, he didn't say he was going on a date but it sounds like it is. I mean who takes a friend to that place!" Alec said with a huff at the end. "Yea, I know what you mean. Well if it's bothering you so much maybe you should just ask him?" Izzy suggested. "What! No, no way. I can't ask him that. Besides I'm not even sure if I actually want to know" Alec replied. "Ah brother, maybe you should just be more like me and go on dates that don't mean anything and have one night stands if it's bothering you this much." Izzy chuckled out. "Iz! I don't want to hear that! I'm your older brother!" Alec shouted. Izzy just laughed and sauntered off up the stairs.

Alec followed and fell into bed. He could shower in the morning. He was too tired right now. Besides it was more important he slept, Max would probably be up at the crack of dawn with excitement for his party.

XxX

Alec was right. Max was up at the crack of dawn. He woke him up at 5.30 by jumping onto his bed and then all over Alec. Maybe Alec should rethink this whole bed thing, at least with the cot he couldn't escape.

Thankfully Alec managed to get him playing with his new train set they'd got him for his birthday in his own room again. He did come in and show Alec bits of train set and tell him cool things he'd managed to do with it, but Alec got away with a few grunts of acknowledgement and managed a couple more hours of on and off snoozing.

By the time it was nearly 8am though Max was then riding up and down the hallway on his also brand new scooter so Alec thought it probably best he get up. Firstly, he'd gotten Max the scooter as apparently it developed motor skills in young children but he didn't want to find out what those motor skills in Max were like as he fell off into a wall or rolled down the stairs. He somehow doubted he'd be able to cling on or stop himself. Secondly, Izzy was likely to come out and shout at Max any second.

"Come on Max, let's go downstairs for breakfast." Alec called as he waited for Max to scoot back down to his end of the hallway. "No, I like this" Max retaliated. Alec groaned and just grabbed Max off the scooter with one arm and carried him downstairs flailing against him whilst he tried to cover Max's mouth so his shouting wouldn't wake Izzy.

This sort of behaviour carried on for a while until Alec told Max he could cancel the party quite easily if he didn't calm down. He was as good as gold after that. Alec didn't like resorting to threats but they sure were effective.

By the time 2.30 arrived Alec and Izzy were putting the food out onto the dining table, which they had moved over to one side of the room to make space in the middle of the open plan kitchen/lounge/diner for the kids. Shortly after, the first ring of the doorbell came and Izzy went over to answer it. It was only Clary, who Izzy greeted with a one armed hug as Max had already run up to steal his own hug of Clary's legs.

"Hey Maxy! You sure seem excited!" Clary exclaimed as she picked Max up for a proper hug, giving him a kiss on his cheek too. "Yea! It's the party!" Max squealed and then wriggled so Clary would put him down. Clary went to walk over to say Hi to Alec but Max just tugged on her hand and pulled her the other way to show Clary his scooter.

Everything was laid out and ready to go when the second ring of the doorbell came much closer to 3 o clock. This time it was Magnus and Finn, which caused Max to get even more excited as Finn also had to be shown his new scooter and they proceeded to ride it round the adults legs.

Not long after that the rest of the kids arrived. All their parents made some comment to Izzy or Alec around giving them a few hours off from their kids, popped the child through the door and then hurried off. Seemingly, none of the kids seemed at all bothered and happily just played with the others, waving a quick goodbye to their parents.

Alec and Clary got the party games underway, starting with pass the parcel. At least with six kids it was easy to remember who had already had a turn or not. There was also a good 30 layers of wrapping around the main present according to Clary so this lasted quite a while. Max, who of course, got the main present was delighted with the face paint set shouting that he wanted everyone to have face paint done. Clary was happy to do it and Magnus wanted a go too so they settled down to that, one child up each time whilst Alec and Izzy played spin the tail on the donkey with the rest of them.

Max wanted spiderman to go with the rest of the his dress up outfit, which Clary very skilfully did. Magnus was really good at doing tigers and Clary got the glitter out for the girls butterflies. Once all the kids were face painted up Alec got them all to pick some party food on to their plates and sit on the floor to eat. Everyone was quietly eating away until Max shouted "Why don't you have face paint?" over towards the adults who were sitting on the dining chairs.

Izzy got up, dragged Clary over to the face paints and had her do a butterfly on her cheek. "You too Alec!" Max hollered. Alec just shook his head causing the rest of the kids and Magnus to start chanting his name. "Okay, okay fine!" Alec conceded.

Magnus pulled Alec over to the face paints and asked him what he wanted. "I dunno, something quick and easy, whatever you want" Alec replied. That was the wrong thing to say. Magnus didn't go for quick and easy, at least fifteen minutes and nearly a whole tub of glitter later and Alec was a sparkly unicorn, much to the delight of everyone else.

So Alec got his own back as Clary and Izzy played musical chairs with the kids. Alec had a really creative side so he took a while to think about what he wanted to subject Magnus to.

"You okay there Blue Eyes?" Magnus said as he nudged Alec's knee with his own to get him out of his staring off into space mode. The phrase Blue Eyes got Alec out of that quick enough though. "Oh, yea.. Just trying to imagine what I want you to look like" Alec replied.

He decided to go quite intricate, starting with a rainbow down from the middle of Magnus' forehead to his cheek. He held Magnus' chin softly between his forefinger and thumb of one hand as the other one drew broad strokes down the side of his face. Magnus sat quietly, letting Alec do his thing. He was quite excited to see what it looked like, he knew Alec was into art but he'd not yet seen any of his work.

After a few more minutes the rainbow was finished and Alec moved on to start a bird on Magnus' other cheek."So how was Max this morning? What time did he wake up?" Magnus inquired. Alec responded but then told Magnus to stop moving so he could draw the bird, placing his hand under Magnus' chin again to hold him in place. Once the bird was done Alec took an overall view of Magnus' face and then decided to fill in the gaps with some fancy swirly bits and more glitter. He knew Magnus would like that.

Magnus took this opportunity where Alec wasn't drawing on his face to talk again "So how did you like the movie yesterday? Get into it in the end? Zac Efron is hot isn't he?" Magnus chuckled out. This reminded Alec of what Magnus was doing yesterday and he felt slightly down again, as he had the previous night.

Alec held Magnus' chin again and started the swirls as he replied "It was alright but yes Zac Efron is a looker. How was your date?" That caused Magnus to bolt his eyes open even though Alec was currently drawing over one eyelid. The face paint brush managed to get into the corner of his eye and Magnus yelped.

"Oh gosh, sorry, sorry. I'm so sorry. I think I have some eye wash in the bathroom" Alec said as Magnus was rapidly blinking and his eye was getting redder and watery. Alec got up and hurried off to the downstairs bathroom round the corner as Magnus followed. He rooted through a cupboard until he found the eyewash and passed it to Magnus.

Once Magnus' eye wasn't hurting him anymore and he had wiped away the residue liquid he turned to Alec and said "How does it look?" Alec being the ever caring friend he was replied with "It looks better, but take the eye wash home with you just in case it feels sore again later". With that, he turned towards the door but Magnus grasped his wrist before he could reach the doorknob.

"Hey, wait. Why did you ask how my date was last night?" Magnus quizzed. "Oh, well, I guess it just seemed like such a fancy place to take a friend, and you said you needed to pick out what to wear and stuff. But it's okay, just cos we had a bit of a thing for like a week doesn't mean you can't tell me you are going on a date" Alec countered.

"No, no Alec, you've got it all wrong. It wasn't a date at all. I only took him there because whenever I go to visit him, he always takes me to really really nice places and I wanted to repay the favour. Jem's from a rich family so I guess I sort of felt like I couldn't just take him to any old place. And I always carefully pick out what I wear. Have you not seen me?" Magnus explained with a chuckle towards the end and a motion down his body to the rather jazzy outfit he had on.

Hearing that made Alec's shoulders lift from the almost permanent slump they'd had since the previous night. "Oh, okay. So it really wasn't a date? Cos if it was you can tell me, really." Alec responded.

"No, Alec. It really wasn't a date. Jem is verily happily engaged to a lovely girl named Tessa, and I meant what I said when I said I'd wait for you to be ready" Magnus urged Alec to believe him.

"Ohhh. Sorry, it just seemed like such a date worthy restaurant to me" Alex explained. Magnus laughed out "Yea, it is. That place is incredible and if you are ever ready for a proper date with me then I will gladly take you there." Magnus said as he place his hand on Alec's bicep with a little squeeze.

Alec blushed at Magnus' words, muttered out "Uhm, thanks", looked up at Magnus with a small smile on his face and said "Anyway, we better get back to the party"

"Yea, let's go Blue Eyes" Magnus agreed as he dropped his hand slowly from Alec's arm down to his hand and gave that a light squeeze too.

XxX

The rest of the party was a great success, Max managed to blow out his three candles all at once as Izzy filmed it on her phone and he passed out the party bags just before the end. After all the other kids were collected Alec asked Clary and Magnus if they wanted to stay for a little while longer. Clary had already started tidying and said she wanted to help until it was finished anyway and Magnus agreed easily, saying Finn had already said he didn't want to go home like the other kids, he wanted to see Max open his presents.

It was just after 6.30 when all the leftover food was in the fridge and the used plates and newspaper from pass the parcel was in the bin when the group settled down on the sofa to watch Max open all his presents.

"Open mine first!" Finn shouted. "Okay, sweetie, Max will open them in the order he wants to" Magnus told Finn. Finn's present was actually wrapped in spiderman wrapping paper and was the biggest so Max did go for that first. He unwrapped it with enthusiasm to reveal a big spiderman soft toy thing that could shoot white string out of it's wrists and if you pulled the cord at the back it would say spiderman's catchphrases.

The next few minutes consisted of Finn, Max and the spiderman toy shouting out 'My spidey sense is tingling' until Max remembered he had other presents to open. Magnus had also got Max a little something that was wrapped in the same paper so he opened that one next. It was a pair of spiderman slippers which max immediately put on with a little help from Magnus.

Clary had gotten Max a radio controlled car which Max and Finn spent the next hour playing with, crashing it into walls and people's feet. By the time it got to 7.30 which was usually around Max's bedtime, both boys were just lying on the floor, taking it in turns to drive the car back and forth into each other. Magnus saw that Finn was tired so got ready to take him home. Max and Alec walked Finn and Magnus out to the car. Once Finn was in his car seat Magnus turned to Alec and said "I really mean it. What I said earlier. I am completely willing to wait for you Alec."

That really warmed Alec's heart, he knew Magnus could probably go out and get any guy he wanted, he was gorgeous, and funny and could likely find someone better than Alec, but here he was, saying he would wait for him to be ready. Alec leaned up, placing his arms round Magnus' neck and gave him a gentle squeeze, leaned back again slightly and placed a soft kiss against the bird on Magnus' cheek.

As Alec stepped away Magnus' mouth formed a grin, he gave a quick "Later Blue Eyes" and slipped into the car. As they drove off down the street Alec turned round to see that Max was shivering slightly, he hadn't put a coat on him after all and it was December, so he scooped him up into his arms held him tight and went back inside.

Just as he was walking back over to the sofas where Clary and Izzy were quietly chatting Max said loudly "Why did you kiss Finn's daddy Alec?"