The Diplomat's Son and The Boy in the Orchids' Garden
Chapter 20 is up!!!
@imandras
“Where will you search for him in Jakarta?” Ragnor asked as Magnus was running through the crowd after the security check.
“I don’t know yet, probably I will start with the Embassy.”
There was silence on the other side of the phone, followed by a deep sigh.
“Ragnor?”
“Don’t go directly to the embassy, please. We don’t know if Asmodeus still works and lives there.”
“Then wha- shit!” he cursed as he bumped against a small luggage on the ground, his heavy rucksack slipping from his left shoulder.
“Let me try to call someone there, first. Find a hotel room nowhere close to the embassy and stay there until I tell you where to go. I am sure we can find a way to have Dot or Annisa’s number before you arrive.”
“But-”
“There’s no but, Magnus. If he ever knows you’re there, you’re fucked. Don’t throw away everything we have done. Also, I am sure if Alec is there, he’s probably tried to get in touch with them as well.”
Magnus stopped abruptly in front of the gate, dropping his bag.
He was panting louder into the speaker now, not only for the run.
a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.
It's an old legend, older than anyone remembers, even if they're as old as the High Warlock of Brooklyn. They say once, in the spirit of peace, the Princes of Hell and the High Seraphims came together to form the most complicated spell of all, a spell of stardust and sunshine - the Soulmate bond.
Now, it is nothing but a story, a figment of overactive imagination.
But then again, all the stories are true.
The whispers are there, in old werewolves who live on without any seeming spells protecting them, their faery lovers laughing side by side in the occasional portraits they have hanging in their home. In the mundane lovers of vampires who should not have experienced the inventions they use every single day.
The Nephilim of course, to their strict policy of never doubting the sanctity of their precious angels, let alone a truce with the demons, have steadfastly refused to believe.
However, after a fateful encounter during an eventful night, Alec Lightwood wakes up frustrated and exhausted, only to find strange runes appearing on his skin- runes long forgotten, buried under millennia of lost faith.
On the other side of New York, the High Warlock of Brooklyn seeks an emergency consult with Catarina Loss, to make sense of the swirling gold now tainting his once blue magic.
It seems destiny binds the two in more ways than one, and invisible string tying them together tightens with every chance encounter.
............................................
Dearest @brightasstars, you are and always have been one of my favorite people on this hellsite, and I am honored to get you as my exchangee. Fun fact, any quote with stars in it has a 83% chance of making me think of your username, and I tried to incorporate as much of stardust as I could in this little gift. I hope you like it 💙
And a big shout out to @myulalie for being a literal lifesaver and betaing this 💙
( @shadowhunterbingo square: Teacher AU)
(Read on AO3)
“I can’t believe we're getting another transfer,” Jace groans. The teachers are all gathered in the lounge, waiting for Principal Penhallow to bring in the latest transfer to their high school. Teenagers can be ruthless, especially when they smell fresh blood - this will be their third new music teacher in as many months.
“Jace-” Alec starts, but Jace ignores him with a roll of his eyes.
“They might as well not even give the poor sap an office, they’ll be gone before they can even use it,” Jace continues.
“Jace, you should really-” Isabelle tries, but ends up as easily ignored as Alec.
“Did you go in on the pool? My money’s on three days,” Jace says with a sharp, derisive laugh.
“I’d like to think I’d at least get through the week, then never come back after the weekend,” an unfamiliar voice chimes in from behind Jace. “Where can I go to put my money on five days?”
When Jace turns he sees a guy a few years younger than himself, with dark hair and glasses and a band tee underneath a suit jacket that’s either well worn or second-hand.
Jace knows he should feel bad that the new guy overheard him saying all that, and he knows he should be nicer - or at least apologize for his somewhat insensitive comment.
Jace does neither of those things.
“I think Underhill was running it,” Jace says instead, nodding towards a man off to the right with curly blonde hair.
The new teacher hesitates, then opens his mouth to say something before Mrs. Penhallow walks through the door and immediately motions for him to come over to her. Whatever he was about to say, Jace will never know, because he closes his mouth and walks away from Jace without another word.
“You can be such an ass,” Izzy sighs, shaking her head.
Jace shrugs. “It won’t matter in a week anyway,” he repeats.
“Would it kill you to be nice for a week?” Alec counters.
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you,” Jace starts but is cut off by Mrs. Penhallow very dramatically clearing her throat from the front of the room.
“Everyone, if I can have your attention, please,” she says, though it’s obvious from the tone of her voice that the words are clearly not a request. “This is Simon Lewis, and he’s going to be the new music teacher for the remainder of the school year. Let’s do our best to welcome him in and give him any assistance he may need adjusting to Alicante High.”
The new teacher - Simon - manages a self-conscious half-smile. “I’ll do my best not to be too needy,” he says with a nervous laugh, which is met with a few chuckles from the rest of the staff. Jace feels a little bad - Simon seems like a decent guy, which is just another reason not to get too attached, he reminds himself.
The last thing he needs is to actually start liking the guy before he leaves like all the others.
---
“Hey! Mister… blondie!” Jace hears the voice behind him and stops, turning to see none other than Mr. Lewis rushing to catch up with him. “Sorry, I didn’t actually get your name yesterday.”
“It’s Jace,” Jace offers, obviously not thrilled about being addressed as ‘blondie’.
“Jace. Great. Hey, Jace. I need help,” Simon says.
Jace grimaces. Already? Day one and the poor guy can’t handle his-
“Any chance you know some local music stores I can swing by? This place is like… really underfunded. I have a few things I want to pick up, and I heard you play guitar so I figured you might know a place.” Simon says the last bit with a slight smirk, and Jace doesn’t have to wonder who gave him that particular bit of information, making a mental note to yell at Izzy later.
But mostly Jace is surprised that Simon’s so quick to dump personal funds into this position. Most of the others were trying to figure a way out by day one, not investing money into the place.
“Yeah, I know a place. What are you looking for?”
Simon shrugs. “Odds and ends. A few replacement strings for a few kids who can’t afford to buy them from the school, maybe some sheet music that’ll actually, you know, interest them.”
Huh. Maybe Jace didn’t give Simon enough credit at first. Jace digs into his messenger bag for some scrap paper and jots down a phone number, name, and address. “Here. If they don’t have what you’re looking for they’ll probably know who does.”
Simon takes the piece of paper and grins. “Thanks. I really appreciate it, man.”
“Sure thing,” Jace says, watching Simon turn and practically run back off in the other direction towards the music wing.
---
“What is that godforsaken noise?!’ Jace asks Alec, scrunching his entire face up in displeasure at the sound coming from the music wing.
It’s only been three days, but that wouldn’t be the fastest the students managed to overpower their music instructor by creating chaos during class.
“Looks like we may need to go rescue Mr. Lewis,” Alec sighs.
“You’re just mad he lasted this long - you only had two days in the pool,” Jace points out.
“Shut up,” Alec mutters as they approach the door to the music room and look in through the window to see…
Well, for a few seconds Jace doesn’t know what they’re seeing. The children are all seated, and there’s no mutiny to be seen. In fact, Simon stands at the front of the room and seems to be intentionally encouraging the horrible noise coming from the kids in the seats.
That’s when Jace notices what the kids have in their mouths - kazoos. One of the kids shouts “A, B, C, D, E, F you-” at the start before falling in with the kazoo like the others, causing several of the students around her to giggle into their plastic instruments.
“Well, that explains the noise,” Jace mutters. “This is awful, Alec.”
“Yeah, but look at them-” Alec says, motioning back to the window. Jace turns his gaze back to the classroom to see the students end the “song” - a term Jace uses liberally here - and fall silent, attention fully on Simon as he explains what they’re going to do next.
“I can’t believe they fell for that,” Jace says, but there’s an unexpected fondness in his tone, with just a hint of how impressed he is at the sight.
“Looks like they might not be the only ones,” Alec whispers with a wink.
Jace sputters, backing away from the door quickly. “No! Not a chance.”
“Uh-huh,” is all Alec says before heading back down the hallway the way they came. To Alec’s credit, he doesn’t say anything when Jace hangs behind to watch Simon teach through the window a little while longer.
---
“You can just sit in next time, you know,” Simon says, sidling up beside Jace in the teacher’s lounge later that day.
“What?” Jace asks even though they both know this can only be about one thing.
“I saw you at the door today. I’d love more feedback at this point, honestly, so just pop in next time! Maybe you can even pick our next song!” Simon adds enthusiastically, and not at all like he’s annoyed with Jace spying on his class uninvited.
“I didn’t even know your first song,” Jace points out.
“Come back tomorrow so I can have a witness I haven’t fled in terror yet! Also, they’ll be playing it on instruments this time around. I can’t promise it’ll sound any better, though.”
“I can’t possibly sound any worse,” Jace points out, but immediately regrets the comment when Simon’s smile drops almost immediately. He covers quickly, adding, “But I might have enough time before 8th period to stop in, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Great,” Simon says, covering any disappointment with a new smile. “Well, I better run. Have to get to that music store you told me about and grab some sheet music I had them order in. Later, Jace!”
Jace doesn’t get it. He’s been nothing but a dick since Simon showed up, but Simon is still going out of his way to be nice to him. None of the teachers go out of their way to be nice to Jace, not even his own siblings.
He also isn’t sure why he can’t just bring himself to humor Simon’s relentless positivity, because Alec is right - he is falling for it, just a little.
Not that it’ll matter if he pushed Simon away completely first.
Tomorrow. He’ll swing by tomorrow and he’ll make a better impression.
---
Tomorrow rolls around and Jace shows up during Simon’s 7th-period class again, but this time he knocks on the window to get Simon’s attention and an invitation in.
“Ah, it looks like Mr. Herondale is going to join us today,” Simons says from the front of the class. One of the students nearest to Jace shifts over a chair and pats the now-empty one for him to sit.
Jace eyes Simon warily. “Join?”
“I saved you a kazoo,” Simon says with a smirk.
Jace is about to refuse, to stand up and walk out rather than look ridiculous in front of the students he has to teach, too… but he sees that smile on Simon’s face and finds that he doesn’t want to be the cause of it vanishing for the third time in a week.
“You’ll have to pick a song I know, then,” Jace says, finally.
“We already did,” Simon states proudly, handing around the sheet music to “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. “A little birdie told me you usually use Metallica as background music in class.”
Jace stares around the room to see who the guilty student is who ratted him out but everyone avoids eye contact, focusing very intently on their sheet music instead.
“Alright, we’re going to sightread this one, but I get the feeling a lot of you should have the basic idea of it already. I know it’s old, but-”
“It’s classic,” Jace interrupts, and some of the students laugh again.
“Right, classic,” Simon corrects with a wink at the laughing students. “Alright, everyone ready?”
Jace brings the kazoo up to his lips, and despite only making noise grudgingly the first few bars, actually gets into the song after a little while. He also manages to avoid the impulse to plug his ears as the teenagers hum their way through the opening sections of the song before Simon cuts them off.
“Great! We’ll work on it a little more in-depth next week with our normal instruments. Remember, we’ll be voting next Friday on the songs we’ll be focusing on for the End of Semester Showcase, so if you like these older classics, remember to vote for them!”
The class files out but Jace stays behind to chat with Simon, even though he knows it’ll make him a little late for his own, which starts in about 6 minutes.
“Please tell me there’s a reason you’re letting them butcher all these songs,” Jace asks, waving his kazoo in the air for emphasis. He wanted to ask before but wasn’t about to question Simon’s teaching in front of the students.
“They get a feel for the melody without having to fumble over technique,” Simon explains. “And it’s fun. I’m sure you haven’t entirely abandoned fun in your life, have you, Mr. Herondale?”
Jace scrunches his nose, and isn’t sure what feels so off about Simon saying his name until he realizes it’s because Simon didn’t call him ‘Jace’ this time. Probably just because students are still milling around, but even so…
“I know how to have fun,” Jace insists. “I did the kazoo thing, didn’t I?”
Simon laughs. “You did,” he agrees. “But I was thinking more… outside of work. I am new to the area, after all…” Simon starts, obviously leading.
“Looking for someone to show you around the city?” Jace finishes for him.
“At least a good restaurant, to start,” Simon suggests hopefully.
Jace is, quite honestly, at a total loss here. He can’t get a read on Simon at all, certainly not enough of one to know if Simon is just being friendly, or naive, or if this is what Jace thinks he’s reading into it. Because it sounds a lot like Simon is fishing to set up a date, but maybe that’s just because that’s what Jace wants him to be doing.
There’s a reason why Jace came back today, after all. And he wouldn’t sit here and hum on a kazoo in front of a bunch of teenagers for just anybody, not that Simon knows that.
Simon must see the confusion written all over Jace’s face because he takes a deep breath and steels himself before speaking again.
“Maybe… as a date?” Simon continues, still hopefully, but this time with a bit more anxiousness. “You don’t have to. Or it could just be as friends… or I could never talk to you again if I totally overstepped and-”
“I think I know a few places,” Jace cuts Simon off before he can talk himself out of the idea. “Tomorrow night?”
“Great. Yeah, tomorrow night,” Simon agrees. “It’s a date.” Simon pauses again. “It… is a date, right? I realize I gave options.”
“Yes, Simon. It’s a date,” Jace confirms, rolling his eyes but smiling at the same time as he leaves to make it to his own class, hopefully not too late.
Normally, Jace wouldn’t have given someone like Simon a shot - too much energy, too much pep - but there’s something about Simon that makes Jace want to see. He has a feeling that Simon might surprise him beyond his ability to survive a week as the school’s new music teacher, and he can’t wait to find out how.
Snapshot
Square Filled: Free Square
Malec. Human AU.
Looking to make some extra income while he works on his degree, Alec Lightwood accepts a job posting for a modeling gig. Arriving at his first session, he meets photography student Magnus Bane. Covering as stylist and photographer for his shoots, Magnus and Alec end up working closely together and getting to know each other very intimately.
The sixth square on my card for the Hunter’s Moon 2021 Bingo collection.
Created for @shadowhunterbingo’s Shadowhunter 2021 Bingo
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Title: Blue
Fandom: Shadowhunters
Pairing: Malec
Chapters/Length: 1/1 I 538
Rating/Warnings: G. None.
Event: Shadowtober + Malectober + Fictober + Whumptober + Flufftober - Day 1
Brief Summary/Notes: “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Magnus said.
--
Written for Day 1- Shadowtober - Parabatai
Malectober day 1 + extra 1 - Blue + Hands @malectober
Fictober - "I chose you." @fictober-event
Flufftober - Wearing each other's clothes @flufftober
Whumptober - “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” @whumptober
Summary: Magnus entered the Cave of the Doomed, ready to uncover the treasure he had travelled so many weeks to find. His journey was successful, but in the end he found a lot more than he thought.
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/F
Fandoms: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Relationship: Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow
Characters: Helen Blackthorn, Aline Penhallow
Additional Tags: Haunted Houses, Established Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow, Drabble, Hunter's Moon Discord's HM500 Event
Summary: Aline doesn't see how a mundane haunted house could be scary when she regularly fights demons.
Read on AO3.
Another masked mundane jumped out at them, and Aline screamed, scrambling to grab hold of Helen’s waist. Helen laughed despite their dark surroundings.
Before they’d gone in, Aline had been sure that, as a Shadowhunter, she would be fine in a mundane “haunted” house. After all, she hunted demons every night. How scary could humans in costumes be?
Horrifying, it turned out. Demons didn’t have a habit of jumping out from a dark corner and screaming in your face.
Helen, on the other hand, couldn’t help but find the whole thing hilarious as she tugged Aline along down the path.
