Magnus was starting to have some regrets.
“No,” he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You can’t pick out five of the exact same hoodie.”
Alec frowned. “But they’re not the same.”
Magnus raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“I am!” Alec protested. “This one has no pockets, and this one has slanted pockets, and this one has rounded pockets-“
“Which are completely useless,” Magnus stated, looking at the pockets which looked like they couldn’t even hold a set of keys. He snatched it out of Alec’s hand and tossed it aside. “Pick only one, and let’s move on.”
“Why are you so grumpy?” Alec mumbled.
“Why am I-?” Magnus whirled on him, incredulous. “Why am I grumpy?! Maybe because, if you hadn’t bloody insisted on staying home, we could’ve started out early and-“ he huffed. “How the hell am I supposed to pick out a whole wardrobe for you before 10pm?! This is way too stressful?”
Alec calmly checked his watch.
“You have four hours,” he said, and then amended, “Well, three hours and forty-two minutes to be precise, but I think that’s enough time.”
Magnus glared at him.
“You could’ve just summoned whatever, you know?” Alec said, and it reminded Magnus of how Alec had said the same thing just before Magnus had portalled their asses here - Just summon whatever.
It made him even madder.
It also made him a little sad to think that Alec didn’t think himself worthy of a shopping spree and good clothes.
He was determined to show Alec that investing time and effort (and money) on oneself was actually a very good thing.
Unfortunately, he only had three hours and forty minutes to achieve this. He really needed to get a hold on himself and stop giving in to Alec’s puppy doll eyes.
For now, he went through his mental list of what he needed for a basic wardrobe for Alec. Five short-sleeved t-shirts and five long-sleeved. Five sweaters at Alec’s insistence. Five pairs of sweatpants and five pairs of jeans. At least two parts of formal clothes and one tux, and…
"You can have two more hoodies," Magnus acquiesced. "But they can't all be black."
Alec’s lips twitched as he turned away, as if he wanted to smile.
Magnus watched him as he turned to the racks of hoodies, rummaging through them and checking for sizes. At last, he pulled out a brown hoodie, and Magnus groaned.
"No."
"Why not?" Alec frowned.
"Because," Magnus said, walking over to Alec and holding the sweater against him. "Brown clashes with your features! You're obviously a winter. Brown is too warm for you."
Magnus looked over the racks, and pulled out a navy blue hoodie, holding it up against Alec. “See? That looks much better.”
Alec scrunched up his face. "What even is a 'winter'?"
"You are," Magnus said simply. "People use seasons to categorize different types of complexions. Your skin has cool undertones, and combined with your dark hair and blue eyes - that makes you a winter."
Alec blinked owlishly.
"Never you mind," Magnus shook his head. "Here, hold this, and-" he reached out for a dark gray hoodie, the color of storm clouds, and held it up consideringly against Alec. "Hmm, maybe more of a blue-gray? This shade kind of washes you out."
"What does it matter?" Alec muttered bitingly. "Just pick something and let's move on."
"Hush, you." Magnus frowned. "It does matter, you know? Dressing well does more of a number on your self confidence than you’d think.”
Alec snorted. “Right.”
“It’s true!” Magnus raised his eyebrows. “I’ll prove it to you. But first-“ he turned back to the racks of hoodies. “How about that light gray?”
Alec groaned.
The hoodie Magnus finally picked out was more white, threaded through with some black giving it the look of television static. They went through several stores, Magnus picking out everything he had in mind and a few extra. A leather jacket that Alec had looked at for two seconds long. A pair of fluffy bathrobes, one bright purple and one blue. Three pairs of socks for the colder months.
At last, Magnus and Alec touched down on the store he’d planned for the grand finale - a formal clothing store. It was run by a werewolf family who’d immigrated several decades past from London, and was by far the best place for formal clothes Magnus had ever known.
Magnus stood and watched as a younger werewolf took measurements of Alec, who stood like the Christ the Redeemer with a blank, almost bored expression on his face. However, Magnus thought he did see a hint of curiosity in the boy’s eyes as the werewolf brought over a sample tux.
“I have to try that on?” Alec frowned, lowering his arms.
“Well,” Magnus shrugged. “Yes. Obviously.”
“I didn’t have to try any of the other clothes, though,” Alec pointed out.
“You would’ve gotten to,” Magnus pointed out, “if we’d simply left in the morning like I’d planned.”
His inner bisexual was still mourning the loss of that opportunity.
He didn’t stop to ruminate on that for long, however. His inner bisexual still had work to do.
One of his brain cells stopped to whisper that maybe Magnus’s inner bisexual shouldn’t be involved in this. Magnus promptly ignored it.
Alec appeared to be grumbling under his breath as he stepped off the podium and headed into the dressing room, the werewolf in tow with a huge cushion of pins in hand.
As much as his inner bisexual was enjoying this, there actually was a good reason that Magnus chose to have Alec try on a tux, specifically.
It was a very well known fact that every man looked good in a tux.
And if you wanted a man to feel beautiful, well. The fastest way was to put him in a tux.
A few minutes later, Alec stepped out of the dressing room, slowly making his way back to the platform.
As Magnus had predicted, he looked exquisite. It was a simple but classic black tux with a white shirt, fitted perfectly thanks to the werewolf’s expertise with pins. The tux showed off the little dip of Alec’s waist, the firm thighs which somehow looked better than when Magnus had seen them bare, the muscle of Alec’s arms as he tugged at the lapels of his coat.
If Alec in a short skirt was lewd, Alec in a tux was as sexy as a sharp blade.
Magnus cleared his throat. “You look great.”
He wondered for a moment if great was too big of a compliment, and if maybe he should’ve settled for ‘good’ so as to not give Alec the wrong idea, until he deemed the idea too ridiculous and dismissed that thought.
“Go on. Turn around,” Magnus urged Alec. “The mirrors are behind you, you know?”
Alec narrowed his eyes at Magnus, but turned around anyways, and Magnus held his breath.
He was hoping Alec would like looking at himself just as much as Magnus did.
However, after a quiet minute or so, Alec looked over his shoulder and said, “It’s alright, I guess.”
It would be an understatement to say that Magnus was bummed, but he’d take it for now.
Now that all the shopping was accounted for, Magnus simply flicked the shopping bags home, and he and Alec strolled through the mall, which was slowly closing down. Shutters were coming down all around, and lights were slowly dimming.
Magnus was just contemplating where to get dinner when Alec spoke up, “Can we get going?”
“Of course,” Magnus replied, still in thought. There were quite a few Downworld restaurants that’d be open at this time, but maybe Alec would prefer a mundane restaurant? “Just let me think of where to-“
“Let’s just go back to the apartment,” Alec grumbled.
Magnus paused. “What do you mean, back to the apartment? You’ve been cooped up in there all day! Two days, in fact!”
“Magnus,” Alec sighed. “I’m hungry, and I’m tired, and I really need to pee, so can we please just-“
“If you can walk for just a few minutes, there’s several places nearby where we can eat,” Magnus pointed out. “Also, most restaurants have decent washrooms.”
Alec frowned, the type of frown that had Magnus mentally scrambling because he knew what came next.
“No,” he said firmly. “And I’m not going to budge this time.”
He'd been giving into Alec a lot recently, which was getting concerning. He needed to have at least some level of modicum.
Alec looked at him. "Plea-"
"No."
Alec pursed his lips. "I'll just run back to the house by myself, then."
"No you won't," Magnus said coolly. "Not unless you want to change into a short skirt in the middle of the street."
Alec narrowed his eyes at Magnus. "Those rules don't apply outside the house."
"Of course they do. I'm afraid I don't make the rules." Magnus shrugged languidly. "Oh wait, I do."
Alec stared at him consideringly for a long time.
"Fine," he grumbled at last. "But I get to choose."
Magnus paused at that condition. He wasn't really sure he trusted Alec’s taste. Shadowhunters didn't exactly eat for leisure. And this whole argument was about him not giving into Alec’s demands and establish some control.
On the other hand, Alec was actually going along with his plans for once and it might not hurt to loosen the leash a little.
