Disclaimer: CC owns 'em.
A/N: So, HAPPY MALEC WEEK, GUYS! As said in the summary of this collection of oneshots, this is a collection is oneshots. All Malec, obviously :p I have taken prompts from a few friends of mine for some of these oneshots too.
So this one is MALEC AU. ALEC AND MAGNUS ARE NEIGHBOURS. T RATED. FULL OF HOMOUR AND FLUFF AND CUTE STUFF :) I didn't want all these oneshots to be full of smut so I threw a couple of T rated into the mix so there's something for everyone here :) BUT IF YOU PREFER SMUT, STAY TUNED FOR THE OTHER ONESHOTS THROUGHOUT THE WEEK BECAUSE THERE WILL BE MORE ;)
Also, THIS ONESHOT WAS A PROMPT, FROM NONE OTHER THAN an awesome friend of mine by the name of Tonia (on twitter fuzzyton) she's a major Shadowhunters fangirl so do check out her twitter page… anyway, girl, this one's for you :) SOME OTHER ONES ARE PROMPTS TOO, I'LL WRITE WHO FROM IN THE SUMMARIES AS AND WHEN I GET TO THEM! :)
The prompt was: Malec hate! fic. I like hate! fics. I also like neighbour! fics. So I combined the two :)
Alright, here we go, Malec Week 2016 – Day 3! Btw, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LIVE-TWEET AS YOU READ USING THE HASHTAG #MALECWEEK2016 AND TAG ME ArtemisFAYZ394 :)
…...
Hate Thy Neighbour
Alec Lightwood hated his new neighbour.
Someone had moved into the apartment above his own when he was away at his family's lake house in the summer. He didn't notice at first.
But as time wore on, hitting the 3 month mark as the leaves turned brown and the fall crept over New York City, it was beginning to get unbearable. Despite not even knowing who resided upstairs, he definitely noticed the presence now.
It all started a week after he got home from his holiday.
Alec had stumbled through his door after a killer 12 hour shift at the bar he worked at, the clock chiming 2am. He fell onto the couch, too tired to move, when he heard a crash from upstairs.
He looked up, curiously at first, but when he heard a loud moan, followed promptly by a feminine scream of pleasure, he blushed hard, disgusted at what he was hearing.
He scrabbled off the couch and ran to his bedroom, hoping to hide. But the sounds followed him; in fact, they got louder. Standing in his bedroom, he looked up at the ceiling, in the direction of the rhythmic banging of a headboard against a wall.
Cringing in disgust and anger, he fled the room, sitting the kitchen and plugging his headphones.
So that was the first thing: his new neighbour, whoever they were, was not shy when it came to bedroom activities. A fact that had been proven many, many times in the past months.
The next thing was the fact that whoever lived up there had a habit of walking around in heels of some kind all the time. Alec could hear every step they took, he had the apartment above mapped out; he knew which room the person was in at all times because he could always hear them moving. It was infuriating. Like birds squawking right outside a window or a rough tree branch incessantly tapping against the window at night while you're trying to sleep.
Not a day went by when Alec didn't hear the world's most annoying soundtrack. He tried to block it out, drowning it under the sound of his guitar playing or his uber-loud stereo. The vindictive part of him sincerely hoped that his music royally pissed his neighbour off.
Then there was the cat.
Alec had woken one warm September morning to find a small, fluffy white face pressed against his own. He yelped in shock and shoved the thing away, staring in bewilderment at the little green eyes.
The thing was no bigger than a tv remote control. Fluffy, white and adorable. But Alec was allergic to cats. And this one had tried to take up residency on his head.
After throwing the cat onto the fire escape, he downed some anti-histamines and washed his face savagely. He knew the cat came from upstairs, it was never here before the new neighbour showed up and ruined his life.
And that wasn't the last he saw of the cat either. The thing kept coming back, breaking into Alec's apartment all the time. Slipping past him when he opened the door, squishing through the tiny gaps of an open window. It was ridiculous. And it had taken to raiding Alec's kitchen for food.
So, not only was his new neighbour a sex-addicted, high-heel stomping life-ruiner, but they were also an irresponsible, forgetting-to-feed-the-cat moron who clearly didn't give a shit about anything.
...OoOoO….
The final straw came the night of Halloween.
Alec had worked a long shift, all he wanted was to go home and watch Supernatural reruns and eat pizza. Was that so much to ask?
Yes. Yes it was.
Because his darling neighbour decided to throw a party, a loud, obnoxious, house-party. Thumping bass music and yelling drunkards filled the stairwell up the apartment. They were on the roof, outside and in the apartment above Alec's. It was already 1am and the party showed no signs of slowing down.
Then, to make everything just so much better, some random stranger burst through his front door, brandishing his arms and grinning insanely. Drunk. Great.
Alec glared angrily at the man, his eyebrows raised as he took in the guy's costume, which appeared to be half the Joker. He wasn't wearing pants, leaving the expanse of his long, caramel coloured legs on show.
"Can i help you?"
Alec asked bluntly, hoping the guy would sense the sarcasm. But he didn't. He did, however, run to Alec and throw his arms around him, laughing as he twirled them around the living room.
"Dear Sir, i need ice! We ran out of ice! Do you have ice?! ICE! Ice, ice, baby!"
The man then proceeded to rap, badly. So badly that Alec thought his ears may bleed.
Just to get the crazy bastard out, he grabbed a bag of ice cubes from his freezer and shoved them at the man, who caught them then hissed and exclaimed loudly.
"It's cold!"
He slurred, like this was a surprise to him. Alec just grumbled, unamused.
"Well, its ice. It's gonna be cold. Now get out."
The man looked at him wounded. The dejected look in his eyes was slightly comical, given the fact that he had smeared Joker make-up all over his face.
"Are you mad at me?"
He asked in a child-like voice, tears welling up. Dear god, this guy was the worst kind of drunk imaginable: major mood swings and over-neediness. Double great.
*please note the sarcasm.
Alec sighed and shook his head, not wanting the stranger to burst into tears.
"No. I'm just tired and i want to go to sleep. So please leave."
The man stared at him thoughtfully for a second before smiling.
"I like you."
He stated shakily as he stumbled back towards the door. He sang out of it with a call of "Adios!" and Alec was finally left alone. Though not in peace, as the party continued.
But somehow, he managed to fall into a fitful sleep.
...OoOoO….
That was it.
He'd finally had enough.
He couldn't deal with this anymore.
Ever since he started putting food out on the fire escape for the cat, the thing had made Alec's apartment his second home. And when Alec returned to that home from visiting his sister for the weekend, he found his favourite leather jacket laying in tatters on the ground, shredded by the fiend's claws.
Grabbing the cat and slinging his jacket over his shoulder, he growled, his eyes burning a hole in the ceiling, trying to kill his neighbour with the Force as he stomped angrily towards his door and up the stairs. Once he reached the door numbered 73, he smashed his fist against the wood, a relentless rhythm of anger, hitting it until the door swung open to reveal an angry looking guy behind it.
But Alec cared not for the idiot's anger, instead he just shoved the cat towards the man, who yelped and scrabbled to catch the creature.
"That. Belongs to you. Maybe you should bloody feed it every once in while so it doesn't keep breaking into my apartment and ripping up my clothes!"
Alec yelled exuberantly, brandishing his jacket so the man could see the destruction.
Silence followed his outburst as the man placed the cat on the floor, cooing over it and whisper-shouting.
"Chairman! You naughty boy! Destroying a perfectly sexy leather jacket! I thought i taught you better than that."
Alec listened dumb-founded, as the man let out a laugh.
"Excuse me, but is this funny to you?"
He asked bluntly, his eyebrow cocked, daring the man to answer.
"A tiny bit."
He said as he stood up and Alec momentarily forgot how to breathe.
It was the man from Halloween, the half-Joker.
Except this time, he was fully clothes, in skinny jeans and a loose fitting shirt, casual but hot, much to Alec's chagrin. His face wasn't painted as the Clown Prince of Gotham anymore, but there was make up a-plenty and glitter everywhere. Somehow, though, the guy made work. Unfortunately. It made it hard for Alec to stay angry.
But when he rolled his eyes to the floor and saw shoes with heels on the man's feet, all those months of annoyance came hurtling back.
"Well it's not funny! Just like how i can hear every bloody step you take in those fucking shoes! Or how your parties are always so loud and last forever! Or how i can hear you having sex every other night right above my bedroom while i try to sleep! It's not funny that i have to look after your cat, despite the fact that i am allergic, by the way, because you never feed the damn thing! And it's not funny that you burst into my fucking apartment, half naked, at 1 o'clock in the fucking morning pissed out of your head and yelling for ice when i just got home from a 12 hour bar-shift and all i wanted was to sleep! None of it is funny and I'm sick of it! So start acting like you care that other people live around you or i swear to god, your face will look worse than my jacket does!"
Alec ended his screaming rant by thrusting his jacket in the man's face, pointing in anger and glaring into hypnotic golden green eyes.
The man regarded him for a moment, his mouth opening and closing a few times while his eyes widened slowly with shock.
"You're him. Mr Downstairs Neighbour. Mr Harley Motorcycle and Acoustic Guitar. I've seen you around, I've heard you play the guitar on the fire escape. You always play your stereo really loud, probably to try and piss me off but truthfully, i love it. You have impeccable music taste and the voice of angel. You always put food out on the fire escape for Chairman, even though you seem to hate him, but you never let him go hungry, even when i do. And on Halloween, you didn't yell and scream at me even though i know i made you mad, but you said i didn't. I've wanted to meet the man behind the kindness and beauty for so long. And now i have and it turns out you hate me. Because I'm a slutty party-animal who can't even take care of a cat. I'm sorry. Truly. Please, you don't have to accept the apology, but you do have to let me buy you a new jacket."
He ended softly, folding the material and placing it back in Alec's arms. He seemed sad, there was a melancholy pensiveness in his cloudy eyes that led Alec to fully believe his sincerity.
His words hit Alec like falling rain. Gentle, almost comforting and caressing, but there was hint of a chill surrounding them; the obvious point that clearly, their feelings towards each other were polar opposites.
But they made him think. He thought about every time this man had annoyed him without meaning to. Every step he had taken. Every party he had thrown. Every time the cat had broken in. And the strangest thing happened as he thought about the last 5 months. He smiled.
Even the thought of waking up with a cat on his face made him chuckle a tiny bit. He looked up at the man, who was watching him with something like admiration in his eyes and he smiled again, reaching out a hand.
"I'm Alec. Alec Lightwood."
The man smiled, nodding slowly, shaking his hand and not letting go.
"Magnus. Magnus Bane. Question: is Alec short for something?"
Alec blushed a little and nodded.
"Alexander."
Magnus sighed softly and ran his other hand through his black and red hair.
"I love that. I'm gonna call you Alexander from now on. Well, either that or Blue Eyes."
Alec blushed again, cursing himself. This man had made his life hell in recent months. But he had grown accustomed to it, used to it. He wondered if he would miss the riot that was Magnus Bane if he suddenly disappeared.
"I know this is about 5 months too late, but, welcome to the building, I'm just downstairs if you ever need anything."
Magnus laughed, finally releasing Alec's hand and leaning gracefully against the doorframe.
"Thank you, and i might take you up on that offer. In fact, i think I'm out of ice."
He stated with a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a sly grin, winking as Alec glared at him. But the glare dissipated as they fell into laughter, and Alec realised with a shock that this was the first time he had laughed properly in a long time.
As they relaxed into comfortable silence, Alec found all of his resentment falling away. Instead, he was filled with a kind of love/hate reminiscence. Like, everything that had ever annoyed him had shaped a foundation for something. Something that wasn't hatred at all. He had developed a fondness for his neighbour, and now, actually meeting him, after only knowing him through the ceiling, his opinion was quickly changing.
"Hey Magnus? Did i hear you call the cat Chairman earlier?"
Magnus grinned widely and laughed, kneeling down to pick up the kitty who was circling his feet.
"Yes. Alexander Lightwood, meet Chairman Meow."
Alec choked on air.
"Oh my god! That is the greatest cat name ever."
Magnus beamed with pride and bowed his head.
"Why, thank you. I came up with it myself."
Alec snorted and stepped closer, holding his hand out to the cat.
"Hey there, Chairman. I'm Alec. But you already know that, you've spent enough time sleeping on my head and stealing my food."
Magnus giggled and waved Chairman's paw at him, making Alec internally 'Awww' at the overbearing cuteness.
He was stroking behind Chairman's ear, smiling at the cat now, though worried about allergies. Although, Chairman had high-jacked his apartment for months now and no symptoms had emerged. Weird.
He was about to repeat his thoughts on his cat allergies to his neighbour, but as he looked up, he gasped, not realising that he had been standing so close. His face was an inch from Magnus', Chairman basically squished between their chests.
They didn't dare make a sound. Alec couldn't breathe. He hadn't ley himself think it at Halloween due to his anger but now he couldn't help it. There was no denying Magnus' obvious beauty. And for some reason, Magnus was staring at him with the same attention to detail.
Alec stepped back and cleared his throat, scratching his neck before smiling up at Magnus.
"Hey, if you're up for it, d'you fancy coming shopping with me? I believe you owe me a jacket, after all. Then maybe we can grab a coffee or something after?"
He tried not to sound so hopeful, not forgetting the hell Magnus had caused him. But truthfully, that's just how life goes sometimes. Sometimes something amazing comes out of the worst possible situations.
...OoOoO….
"Absolutely not. No. You can't!"
Alec cried as Magnus strutted around his apartment in his new shoes. They had heels. Huge, chunky heels.
"I won't allow it. I will not be able to stop myself from killing you if you wear those around your apartment. I can hear you walking around all the time as it is!"
He went back to his yelling place, but it was all in good nature. Over the past weeks, they had hung out a lot, gotten to know each other. And Magnus had gotten a lot more considerate to their living situation, giving Alec back his peace.
Except for the Chairman thing. The little bugger still loved to break in to sleep on his head and eat his food.
"Ok. For you, Alexander. I will not wear them indoors."
Alec nodded in thanks and took another sip of beer.
"You know, we could solve all our problems in one very simple way."
Magnus mused, peaking Alec's interest.
"Oh? Do tell." Alec replied.
"Move in with me. Then you wouldn't hear me walking around on your ceiling, Chairman wouldn't break in, i wouldn't throw as many parties and you wouldn't have to listen to me having sex. Simple. Problem solved."
But Alec wasn't listening. Not after the first 4 words.
"What?" He asked breathlessly.
"Move in with me. Please. Move in with me, Alexander."
Magnus stated, his earlier breeziness gone, replaced by genuine, nervous emotion.
"I... Ah... I don't know-"
Magnus silence him with a finger on his lips. He sat down on the couch and faced Alec head on.
"Listen, i know it might be weird of me to ask. But we've spent every day for several weeks together. We hang out all the time. The only time we're apart is when we sleep. It just makes sense to me that you should move in here. You can keep this place too, we can have both. I just... Everything about me that annoys you will go away. Though granted, my place only has one bedroom-"
Alec cut him off, he had heard enough. He knew what he wanted.
"But that won't be a problem."
He finished for him, looking directly into Magnus' eyes. Magnus bit his lip as Alec took hold of the front of his shirt and before they could process what was happening, Alec's lips were on Magnus' hard and fast and messy and perfect.
After a good while of biting, kissing, licking, sucking and moaning, arms wrapped around each other, hungry and yearning, months of frustration working its way out, Alec pulled back, panting hard.
They simply stared at each other for a second before Alec leaned in and placed the sweetest of fleeting kisses to Magnus' lips and whispered.
"I'll do it. Let's live together. Let's do it."
Magnus' eyes widened and he smiled slowly.
"Are you sure?"
Alec sighed in exasperation.
"Magnus, if i wasn't sure, i wouldn't say it."
Magnus bit his lip and smiled, making Alec melt and drag him in for another kiss. They remained there, fused together, languidly exploring each other on Alec's couch, for the rest of the day.
And when they got tired, they climbed the stairs to Magnus' apartment, walking hand in hand to Magnus' bedroom, for the first time ever, no one was downstairs to their annoying footsteps.
They crawled into bed, laying side by side, their foreheads pressed together and hands clasped between them, sharing light kisses as the night hours fell.
As they drifted off to sleep, and Alec watched Magnus' ethereal features flutter, his lips curving into a serene smile, he couldn't help but appreciate the irony and wonder of that old, cliché phrase:
Love thy neighbour.
Every little thing that had infuriated him so much about the man beside him was now nothing short of just another quirk, something that Alec loved to hate. It was cute and sentimental, those little traits had bought him closer to Magnus, closer than he had been to anyone in a long time.
Smiling to himself, Alec pulled Magnus closer and placed a kiss to his lips that were parted slightly in sleep.
"Goodnight, Magnus."
He whispered as he closed his eyes, holding his man tight to his body, realising that never wanted to let go.
A feeling that vanished first thing in the morning as Magnus laughed hysterically at Chairman, who was asleep, sprawled out lengthways, across Alec's forehead.
Some things never change, he mused to himself as he couldn't help but join in with Magnus' infectious laughter.
...OoOoO….
A/N: So? Let me know what you think via reviews/faves/follows or on twitter :) Stay tuned for tomorrows oneshot! I've got them all written, I just need to pick which one will go up next. I'll surprise you!
Love ya, and HAPPY MALEC WEEK!
