Roommates & Soulmates

Ch71: Alec's Family

Alec's siblings, and parents were all sitting around the table with his boyfriend. It was their first dinner since arriving and it felt amazing to have everyone Alec loved - his whole family - in one place. Magnus had felt like family to Alec for a while now, but it was this moment that really made Alec start to visualize Magnus that way.

"It's so great to be home," Izzy sighed. "University hasn't been quite what I expected."

"If you say it's boring I will stab you with this fork," Alec said, trying to be serious enough to make the joke work, but instead of making a witty come back Izzy got out her phone and started typing.

"What are you doing?" Alec asked cautiously, surprised Izzy hadn't teased him back.

"Oh just looking up synonyms for boring," Izzy said, grinning. There was a roar of laughter that had likely come from their dad, but Alec was too busy pouncing on his sister to laugh along. Holding both her wrists with one hand, Alec tickled her without mercy with his free hand. She was wriggling, trying to get free, but her wrists were thin and he could easily keep both her hands secure.

"Not fair!" Izzy managed to say through her laughter, still squirming. Then suddenly her legs joined in and Alec found himself backing away to avoid bruises.

"It isn't Christmas without a little bit of sibling squabbles," Maryse chuckled.

Then dessert arrived, effectively putting an end to conversation as everyone dug in. Alec couldn't help but feel strange eating ice cream without having a cat rubbing at his legs waiting to lick the dish clean when he was done. Both Chairmen Meow and The Great Catsby were quite fond of all things dairy, though Magnus didn't let them have as much as Alec thought the adorable little fuzzballs deserved. Magnus liked to sigh and tell Alec he spoiled them.

"Chairman would love this," Alec said indicated his empty bowl with ice cream residue on it.

"Indeed, he would Alexander," Magnus smiled.

"Who's Chairman?" Max asked. He was sitting two chair over next to Izzy. Alec had his sister on his left, and his boyfriend on his right while his parents sat across from them.

"One of Magnus's cats," Alec explained. "His full name is Chairman Meow."

"What a strange name to give a cat," Robert observed. They were all finished eating now, empty dessert plates in front of them. Alec could pictured both the cats jumping up on the table to get at the few licks of melted ice cream.

"It's a reference to Chairman Mao," Magnus explained. "The founding father of the People's Republic of China."

"Magnus is a history fan," Alec said, then added laughing. "And puns. Huge fan of puns."

"Well then as you've named both your cats with puns," Maryse said, the edge of a challenge in her voice. "That must mean he has a cat pun for us."

"What's a cat's favourite button?" Magnus asked after a moment's thought. "The paws button." His words were followed by groans and laughter in equal measure, but Maryse's laugh was the loudest.

"We are learning all sorts of things about you," she said, as the laughter died down. "But how much do you know about Alec?"

"Oh mom please no," Alec whined, hoping she wasn't about to bring out the embarrassing baby stories.

"Alec's afraid of spiders," Izzy exclaimed suddenly.

"Oh thanks," Alec groaned. He'd managed to go almost a year without Magnus finding out this little fact, and just like that, his sister had ruined it.

"Really?" Magnus asked, turning to face him. Well, at least Magnus was smiling.

"Kinda," Alec admitted. "It's just so creepy the way they can jump at you, you know."