Famous: A Malec AU Fanfiction

Chapter 40

"Okay, okay," Clary's voice made it sound as if she was trying hard not to laugh, "I'm done. You can open your eyes now."

"Did you go by what I asked you?" Alec asked, his eyes slowly opening.

She nodded, blowing a strand of her bright hair out of her face, "Minimalist. Thinking, less is more."

Clary held up her small, compact mirror to him. Alec could see that her hands were stained with colorful face paint.

She had painted a small sun on his left cheek, each of its rays was one color of the rainbow.

The rainbow, something so small that was meant to represent his pride.

"Can I have a sun on my face as well?!"

Both Clary and Alec turned to Alec's youngest son, Max, who had somehow tangled himself up in the thick blankets of Clary's room. His older brother, Raphael, looked at him with dissatisfaction. It was strange, how the little adopted boy who Alec and Magnus had named after their taken friend had seemed to adopt his ways.

"How did you manage to mess up Aunt Clary's things already?" he asked, his tone sharper than ever. The little boy was only nine, one and a half years older than Max, but he seemed to be much older. Just like Raphael Santiago.

"It's alright, Rafe," Clary told him, smiling at Max. She dipped her small brush back into her paint, "Of course you can have a sun on your face, Max. A bright yellow one."

Max somehow managed to magically untangle himself from the blankets, bounding over to Alec and Clary. Rafe rolled his eyes. Clary looked at him.

"Do you want a sun on your face too, Rafe?"

He hesitated for a moment, and Alec hid a smile. He could see his oldest son's features chasing each other across his face. He wanted to seem like the mature one, but he also really did want a sun on his face.

"Only if its blue. Uncle Jace says that blue is the best color."

"Of course," Clary told him, already spreading a line down Max's cheek. He giggled happily.

It had been three years since Magnus and Alec had adopted Rafe. The papers and phone calls had been even more hectic than they had been for Max. Max had been a baby, with no one having a clue who his real parents were, or what might have happened to them.

Rafe was different. People knew his story, about how his parents had been killed. He had relatives in Spain. Rafe had run away from so many foster homes, had turned away from so many people that had been trying to help him. He was a child that everyone knew had been traumatized. They wouldn't easily let him go to a new family.

Yet, the way Rafe's eyes had lit up when he had run to Magnus and Alec. How he had grinned at both of them. It was worth it, they would get to raise him, and watch him grow up. It was wonderful. All of it had been worth it. Alec wouldn't trade anything else in the world for his family.

"Hey," came another familiar voice, "I thought that I was supposed to be up next for the face painting. Jace has been bragging how he was the first one, and someone really needs to shut him up."

"Dad! Dad!" Max wriggled in his seat as Clary finished the sun, "Aunt Clary's painting a sun on my face! A yellow one!"

"Dad knows that," Rafe replied dryly, "it's not like he's blind, you know?"

"Raphael, be nice to your brother," Alec chided, almost automatically. Rafe rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything else.

"What's taking all of you so long?" Alec's sister came into the room. Clary had painted two letters, a 'B' and an 'I' on either side of Izzy's cheeks in bright, neon pink. She was wearing match bright pink lipstick. Her eyes had been toned with bright blue eye shadow.