A Room at the Arms Hotel | Earlyish Saturday Morning

[nottrivial]

When Alec woke up at his usual hour today (stupid o'clock in the morning), he had the sincere pleasure of experiencing his first-ever afterglow.

It was a little hard to fully appreciate when Sparkle was still asleep and Alec wasn't sure of the protocol on waking him up, but he was beaming to himself and deciding that maybe not all mundie traditions were so bad after all, when they led to stuff like this. This was a delight.

And then there was a knock on the door, and his afterglow started to dissipate just a bit.

Huh?

[[for guess-who!]]

Comments

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

So, some days, you just had to go through the portal when it opened up in front of you. And some days, that meant that you wound up on an island that your parents had only talked about, and some days you wandered for what had to be like twenty whole minutes before you finally stopped to shake down the person at the desk of the hotel, to see if maybe your parents had checked in last night, because it wasn't like they were at the dorms, were they?

So, some days, Rainey just had to beat on the door and hope her dads weren't naked in there or something. Not that she was going to hold her breath about that, but, really.

"Come on, you two. I know you're in there."

[myownface]

"N'd'y's hmm." Sparkle was not waking up for anything, thank you. Not even some crazy chick knocking on his hotel room door. He'd had a damn good night, he was laying naked in bed with his guy, and no girl in the world had any business waking him up. If the hotel was on fire, she still wouldn't have any business waking him up. And he was going to let her know in as few syllables as possible. "F'koff."

You tell 'er, Sparks.

[nottrivial]

Okay, Alec guessed that meant it was his job to banish her. She was probably with the hotel staff or something, but it was so early, so, best that he drag the blanket off the bed, cinch it around his hips and trot over to crack the door open.

"Hi," he said quietly. "Um..."

Oh. She was younger than he assumed one had to be to be on the hotel staff. And had brighter hair.

"Hello?"

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Oh, wow. You're, like, tiny," Rainey noted, raising an eyebrow as she looked Alec square in the face and didn't dare look down.

Oh god, her dad in a blanket. No, thanks.

"Are both of you this young? Jeez, and you're not wearing clothes, either? Come on, Dad. Put on some pants before answering the door next time, would you?"

[myownface]

"... Da?"

Sparkle was growing more coherent by the moment. Honest.

"Th'fuh isshe talkin' 'bout, 'Lec?"

Okay, sooner or later he'd even manage a real word or two.

[nottrivial]

"I don't know," Alec said, loudly enough for Sparkle to hear. Then back to Rainey: "I -- sorry -- who are you? I think you might have me confused."

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I doubt that. I'm Rainey. Rainey Lightwood? And you're my dad, and that drooling lump in there is my other dad?" A beat. "I'm adopted. Look, can you guys just... like... put on some pants or something? This is way past awkward."

[myownface]

"... I'm hereby staging a protest against pants. No pants. Pantsless day."

Didn't that sound like a good day? Sparkle was totally going to cling to pantsless day.

[nottrivial]

Um.

"You're our... daughter?" Yes, that was what she was saying. "I think that probably justifies pants."

Okay, Alec needed to know right now: why the hell did he have a daughter with pink hair?

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

Blame Sparkle, Alec. He was really big on encouraging individuality.

"Trust me. It definitely justifies pants." And, just to make certain she wasn't joking about that, she crossed her arms over her chest, raised an eyebrow, and tapped her foot on the floor. "So, go on. Go ahead. Pants. You can pantsless day another time."

[myownface]

"Murgh."

Okay, finding out that he had a daughter with Alec was new and exciting. But did this really necessitate putting an end to naked time?

... Yeah, probably.

"Fine, I guess. Pants. I think I have some of those somewhere." On the floor. Over... Sparkle reached that way. Funny how his arm was way too short to get to them from where he was still sprawled out on the bed.

[nottrivial]

"We'll be right back," Alec told Rainey, looking a bit awkward as he shut the door.

And then he stood with his back to the door and looked very, very surprised at Sparkle. Like, hugely surprised.

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, yeah, just close it in my face," Rainey muttered, rolling her eyes toward the hallway ceiling. But then, she was smirking, too. Because traumatizing her parents was probably going to be the highlight of her weekend, here, and so she was pleased to have done a good job of it.

[myownface]

"So..." Sparkle had managed, by this point, to at least sit up, and was leaning forward to peer at Alec. "What, we're dads, now? I so did not see that coming when you invited me to prom yesterday, you know."

[nottrivial]

"I thought, um, liking guys meant not worrying about that," Alec said, and he was only about ten percent joking. "I don't really... I mean. I didn't really expect a kid from... future me."

[myownface]

"Future us," Sparkle countered, leaning a little more so that he could eye the door suspiciously. "I mean, not like I'm complaining. It's not like she's so young we have to clean spitup or anything. But she's demanding pants, Alec. She vetoed pantsless day."

The horror!

[nottrivial]

"That's normal with kids and parents, though, right?" Please say right. "I'm just... really not good with kids." Even when the kid in question was almost his age.

He pulled on his suit pants from last night and got to work on the shirt.

[myownface]

Sparkle was still making faces at his own dress pants as he slid off the bed and got to work pulling them on.

"No? I've been around kids since like forever, they're not really like rocket science or anything. Besides, she sounded like she was, like, maybe a year or two younger than us. Just talk to her like a classmate or something, no big deal."

On the list of weird things that Fandom had thrown at Sparkle, this one still rated lower than that day he'd been a pony.

[nottrivial]

"But she's expecting us to be responsible for her," Alec said. He started to button up his shirt. "And that's putting aside the issue that I don't even know how she, you know, came to be."

[myownface]

"I think she's mostly expecting us to not dance around with our dicks hanging out for her," Sparkle offered. "And we probably adopted her or something. I could totally see myself adopting a kid. I mean, like, someday."

Something about getting passed around from home to home since he was six made Sparkle decide that if he ever did want children, adopting wasn't a terrible way to go about it.

[nottrivial]

"I can't," Alec admitted, looking determinedly at his shirt. "I mean, I literally can't, as a Shadownhunter, since you're not one. It's the Law."

Not that kids were at the top of his list of life goals anyway, but still.

"Sorry," he added.

[myownface]

"Okay, so this is a maybe thing," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I probably can't anyhow. I mean, not if I keep getting in shit back home like I do."

[nottrivial]

"I like cats, though," Alec added, looking adorably earnest. "So that's on the table."

[myownface]

"Cats... aren't really the same thing as giving a home to a kid that wouldn't actually have one otherwise," Sparkle noted, giving Alec a kind of sideways look. But the look on Alec's face made it difficult to even really get mad in the first place. He gave him a quick smile. "But, you know... I like 'em too."

Hence, Velcro.

[nottrivial]

Cats could be rescued too! From shelters and stuff!

...granted, they weren't people, but to some (some that weren't Alec), that made them better.

"Okay." Alec steeled his shoulders. "Should we let her in?"

[myownface]

"I went through all the friggin' effort of putting on pants," Sparkle pointed out. "If we're not letting her in now, I'm gonna just peel 'em off again."

That was... kind of a nebulous, almost-yes sort of answer, right?

[nottrivial]

"So yes," Alec deduced, going back to open the door.

"You can, um, come in now."

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Took you guys long enough," Rainey decided, swanning into the room with a smirk on her face. "Did you both decide to go another round or two before letting me in?"

[myownface]

"Oh no," Sparkle replied completely unconcerned by that accusation, "if we decided on that, you'd be out in the hall for the rest of the day."

Sparkle? Shameless.

[nottrivial]

"Sparkle," Alec hissed, his cheeks coloring a bit.

Seriously, Alec was way out of his element here.

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Nah, that's true enough. Wouldn't even be the first time."

Was it the truth? Was Rainey just pushing in order to see how far out of her element she could throw her Dad? The world might never know!

"So, I show up here, I find you two, and then, wouldn't you know it, I realize that I came all the way here without a change of clothes, or even a wallet..."

[myownface]

"You're shittin' me."

Okay, now that she was asking for money, Sparkle reserved the right to make faces at her.

[nottrivial]

Alec's response, on the other hand, was to go, "Oh, right," and plunge one hand in his pocket for his wallet. But then Sparkle seemed less impressed by her inquiry, so he decided to leave his hand in his pocket and ask, "Um, what do you need?"

That was better parenting than just giving her money, right?

[glttershadow.livejournal.com]

"Oh you know... a place to sleep tonight wouldn't hurt." Rainey's eyebrows lifted pointedly. "If you wouldn't mind keeping this hotel room for another night or two, depends on how long I'm stuck here..."

Look, it seemed like a totally fair request, didn't it?

[myownface]

Yeah, even Sparkle couldn't begrudge her that one. He'd spent enough nights sleeping outside to know how unpleasant that one was.

"... Guess she could take my bed, if the room here's a problem, or whatever."

[nottrivial]

Alec didn't have a problem with it. "I'm fine with it if you are," he said quietly to Sparkle. "We can see if the couch pulls out or if the staff can bring up a cot."