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When Alec Lightwood woke up on his fifteenth birthday, he was anxiously awaiting the first sentence his soulmate would say to him printed on his wrist. He wasn’t, however, expecting it to be anything close to what it was.
“Je pense que vous êtes la plus belle personne que j'aie jamais vue.”
Alec looked at the unintelligible words, his eyes wide with shock as he pulled his covers off him and stood up, peeling away his eyes long enough to get ready for the day, knowing that the rest of his family is anxiously awaiting to see what he got. Isabelle won’t get hers for a while, but Jace already has had hit for a bit. Not too long, but long enough for him to rub it in Alec’s face.
“What is it?” Jace asks him when goes to get breakfast after he’s dressed. Alec’s a little disappointed, because he doesn’t know French, but he’s sure he can figure it out.
“I don’t know.” Alec frowns, displaying his wrist.
Jace smirks. “A French chick! Exotic. And you don’t have any idea what it says?”
“How am I supposed to know? I’ll have to go to the library and translate it.”
“Tell me when you know! Izzy’s gonna be hounding you.”
“Don’t act like you’re not happy for me, too.” Alec says, and rolls his eyes.
Alec had been true to his word and found out what it means: I think you are the most beautiful person I have ever seen.
It made his heart flutter.
And it was in French.
He’d better start learning.
Five years later, Alec still hasn’t met his soulmate, but he’s not too bothered- he’s practically fluent in French, now, but he’d like to be able to communicate with his soulmate as if he were a native speaker, or as close as he could get, so he wouldn’t have to miss out on any time with them with slow translations and miscommunication. Plus, some people have to wait much longer than a few years to meet the person they’re destined to be with. Alec’s not worried, though it is a bit annoying to hear his sister blabber on every day about how she can’t wait to meet her soulmate, that it’s going to be magical, that waiting one more second is too long for her to wait.
Isabelle walks with Alec to a pizzeria, insisting that he needs to have some time off from his work to be a normal person, despite his arguments. Like usually, when the conversation lulls, Izzy brings up the topic she knows best. “I don’t think I can take it much longer. The waiting and the waiting…” She sighs.
“Yes, I know, Izzy.” Alec says.
“And yours is so romantic.” His sister continues. “And French.”
“It’s French? I didn’t notice.”
“Shut up! You know what I mean. I’m your sister, and I love you very much. And mine was just Simon being all awkward! I think I’m allowed to like your romance.”
“I think if you need to keep out of my business and buy me pizza. And plus-”
“Don’t even say it!”
“I might not even meet my soulmate. Not everyone does. That’s all I’m saying.”
Izzy shakes her head disapprovingly as they enter the pizzeria and sit down in seats across from each other. “Don’t be so cynical. Simon is very happy that he’s stuck with me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short.” Alec laughs.
Magnus Bane has loved his first sentence since the second he saw it. “I’ve waited so long for this.” It read. He likes it a lot, because he feels the same way. And he’s positive he’s waited much… much longer. He desperately wishes he could meet them already, but, for now, he just does his duties as High Warlock and mulls through his day, occasionally accompanied by who he considers his finest friend, Dorothea Rollins. He thinks Dot is wonderful, and that in another life, they’re probably soulmates. But in this one, his soulmate is some fantastic and amazing person who has waited for him and dreamt about him for an unknown period of time. Magnus thinks it’s nice, though Dot find it hilarious because she knows that Magnus has waited hundred and thousands of years to meet someone who they’ve concluded must be mortal, and may not even be born yet. Dot found and lost her lover centuries ago, now keeping their time together as a fond memory. The only thing Magnus has to go on is that it’s going to be a long time before he meets his soulmate; he thinks warlocks have it worse than anybody, destined to find and lose their one true love and watch everything get lost to the expanse of time.
“Some French mundane flirted with me today.” Dot says as they sit together in a pizzeria, holding a slice with pineapple. “Must have been around twenty five.”
“Did you give him your phone number?” Magnus asks, taking some cheese that had fallen off her pizza from her plate and sticking it in his mouth.
“You know that I wouldn’t do that to a mundane. I think those days are behind me.” She looks over Magnus. “Mostly.”
“Mostly.” Magnus agrees. He has a salad, instead of pizza, and it doesn’t have enough dressing on it. Still, he eats it because he’s hungry and skipped breakfast that morning, even if it’s not very filling. “You could have at least got his number for me. I’m jealous.”
Dot rolls her eyes.
“I’m not kidding. I’ve found that French men are very attractive. It’s a universal fact. Anything sounds hotter in French. I’ve had my fair share of women- and men- when in France.”
“You haven’t been to France since the 1800’s.”
“And that’s a shame.” Magnus tuts. “I do remember how to flirt, though. I could never forget.”
Dot narrows her eyes and a smirk grows on her face. “I dare you to go flirt with someone in this restaurant. In French. Anyone. Pick someone cute.”
Magnus laughs and stands up, scanning the crowd until his eyes fall on the perfect candidate, an attractive Shadowhunter that he’d be lying to say he didn’t take interest in when he saw him walk in with a girl who looked too similar to him to not be his sister. “You’re on.” Magnus grins.
Alec doesn’t notice anyone’s approaching his table. Not even when Izzy says, “Is that guy walking over here?”
He simply shrugs it off, still looking at a paper menu despite already knowing he wants to get two plain slices. “Why would anyone come over here? Leave him be.”
He doesn’t notice anyone approached until some man sits down across from him and next to Izzy in a fancy dark getup with brown hair dyed with red, painted black nails, and sly grin. Alec furrows his eyebrows and opens his mouth to ask what he’s doing here, since Alec doesn’t even know who this guy is, but the other man beats him to it. “Je pense que vous êtes la plus belle personne que j'aie jamais vue.” The man says in such a perfect French accent that Alec feels stunned.
The other pair of eyes at the table that was previously creeped at the man sitting next to her now robotically turns to oggle at Alec in such haunting fashion that the man looks genuinely concerned at the movement. “Sorry.” He says uneasily, in English. “I’m Magnus. My friend wanted me to come over here. Can’t say I didn’t want to either- it’s not often I see a Shadowhunter as attractive as yourself. I didn’t mean any offense. If you don’t swing that way, I’ll be going.”
“I’ve waited so long for this.” Alec says, eerily calm, and watches the poor boy go stock still. “Very, very long. I waited so long for a very nice Shadowhunter boy to come and sweep me off my feet and call me beautiful. I learned French. I am fluent in French because I assumed my soulmate would be French, and you know English?”
“Oh, no.” Magnus says, a smile inching onto his lips.
“I learned an ENTIRE LANGUAGE!” Alec groans, dropping his head down onto the table in front of him. “I’m so stupid.” He says, voice slightly muddled.
Magnus drops his head down, too, to mirror Alec. “Wanna go on a date?” He asks.
“Yes.” Alec replies lamely, still garbled from table.
Izzy lets out the loudest, driest laugh on the planet, putting her face in her hands and shaking her head. Without saying anything, she gets up from her chair, still chuckling, and pats Alec on the back before giving him some privacy and leaving him there.