Archive of Our Own

“He’s ill again,” Alec heard his mom say. Standing outside his door he waited for the others footsteps to disappear before relaxing back into his bed. The door creaked not long after, shutting with a firm click and Maryse climbing next to him. “Are you okay?” 

He shook his head. It really hurt this time. 

The bandages his dad had hastily put on top of his back while he went to fetch some ice was moved, Alec hearing his mom swear before the skin around the burns were stretched. 

“Sorry,” she said, Alec hissing as she still did it. “The skin’s completely broken. Alec you should have told him to stop.”

He swallowed down what he wanted to say. It didn’t matter anyway. He could tell his mom until he was blue in the face that it didn’t matter what he said while his dad was trying to take his wings off Robert wouldn’t listen. Not until he knew for certain that this route, this month, was a failure. 

She disappeared for a moment, a wet cloth splashing onto his back a moment later. “It’s not ice, but it’ll do.”

It worked. Kind of. Once the initial flare of pain had died back to its usual current the cold water was helping him feel better. She wiped his face with the clean side before going to wring it out, Alec catching the underside and the blood on top of it before it left. 

He hated days like this.

Robert came back after a while, and Alec suffered through his back being disinfected and wrapped, left, only after his parents knew he was going to be okay, on his own to sleep it off.

He heard the shouting anyway. It wasn’t even about him, most of it. Why his mom didn’t leave him was beyond Alec’s understanding. She was unhappy. He saw the way she looked at Luke, at the way he in turn looked at Jocelyn. She deserved better than both him and Robert. Yet there she was, standing outside his room fighting for a marriage that neither of them should have entered into.

Alec liked to think, even without him being born, even if he’d been born normal and a shadowhunter, they would still be unhappy, because it wasn’t him they fought about. It was everything else. Alec was just a consequence. A reason for them to go at each others throats.

He hated it.

It took four days for him to be able to sit up. Even longer to walk the length of his room without crying. Every move he made, every step he took he could feel his back pulling at the burns. He could feel his wings heavy on his back, and getting heavier as the fragile skin around it pulled and broke again.

He wished he could use runes. He wished he knew magic, or they at least knew a warlock to teach him the basics. Anything that meant he didn’t have to sit in his room and smell the remnants of burnt flesh as he contemplated whether it was worth going on.

He missed Ragnor. Sure, the guy had only been around to teach Alec how to glamour himself, but he’d been nice. He hadn’t cared that Alec had wings. All he cared about was that Alec was alright. He also made a point to compliment Alec on his drawings, even if, nineteen years on, he knew they were a pile of crap.

He also healed Alec’s back for him. Something he wouldn’t mind happening now as day five dawned and Alec braced himself to go out of his room.

He’d showered, which, honestly he wished he hadn’t after the pain it had left him in. Clean clothes, freshly shaven, he was feeling a little more human. The only thing making him hesitate now were the pitying stares he was going to get once he stepped outside.

It had to happen at one point however, so Alec carefully braced himself against the wall and turned the knob on his door.

No one was in the hallway. It gave him a few extra minutes of peace as he slid along the wall, garnering enough support as he could as he made his way to the ops centre. Before he even got there he could hear the bustle of shadowhunters milling around. Raj organising teams. Robert making sure everyone had their weapons and missions. His mom telling Izzy off for drinking near the computers.

That last one brought a smile to his face, rounding the corner to see his sister rolling her eyes at their mom. They stopped mid roll when they spotted him, a blinding grin taking up her entire face as she abandoned her reprimand and sprinted up to him.

“You’re better,” Izzy said, looking him over.

“I’m out of my room.” Which was about as ‘better’ as he got. “I might need to sit down in a minute though.”

“Yeah.” She immediately moved out the way, taking his arm and guiding him carefully down the steps to the nearest chair. It didn’t have sides, thankfully, meaning Alec could actually sit back, his wings cushioning the burns from the seat. She took the next one just as their mom decided she wasn’t done with Izzy and strode over. “I know,” Isabelle sighed before their mom could, “I won’t do it again. But look, Alec’s up.”

“He is,” She admitted, kissing him quickly on the head. “But still, this is a workplace, you can’t stride off in the middle of a formal reprimand.”

Alec kicked her chair before Izzy could let that snort out, “I’ll make sure she’s supervised mom.”

He, at least, was the proven responsible one, his mom deciding, after a moment, to let it go. “Monitor duty,” she told Izzy anyway. Meaning no demon hunting for a good week.

Isabelle took it in stride, turning her chair around until she could lay her feet on Alec’s. “Did you hear about the Herondales?” 

“That they’re coming here?” He’d heard. Even in his room with only his mom for company he heard. “Why?”

He thought for a moment Izzy would tell him what everyone else was, that they were here to scout out the Institute and report back to the Inquisitor. But she didn’t. Instead she said, “They’re bringing their son Jace with them this time.”

“And?” Alec still didn’t see how this was big news.

“They say he’s quite the catch,” Isabelle drawled, eyes shifting pointedly to the left.

Alec followed them, quickly locking eyes with Clary. “Oh.” A new handsome guy their age coming to the Institute? Definitely a good thing. It wasn’t that he minded the little thing Clary had for him. Except, well, if he was actually into girls he probably would have guilted his way into proposing to her by now. She was nice and all, and Alec had a problem with saying no, but, well, when the heart doesn’t find the female form attractive at all, there was no point in making two of them suffer. So, “You think he’s handsome enough to get her attention?”

Isabelle pursed her lips, shrugging a little. So that was a good sign.

Urgh, he thought after the whole ‘chronic illness’ and seeing him go through puberty would quench Clary’s interest. Turns out she was more persistent than she appeared. Or, she didn’t have all that many options living in the Institute and figured Alec was better than shacking up with her brother Jonathan. 

Isabelle pulled a face, one he was most familiar with when she got something unexpected through the parabatai rune. “Urgh, could you try and look less attractive? She’s sending over a whole bunch of feelings I didn’t need to know about,” and looking directly at him while doing so was left unsaid. 

“I’ve literally just showered for the first time in a week. If she’s finding anything attractive about this, then maybe we need to look into getting her contacts.” Or finding her a nice seelie boy like Izzy had. 

She sniggered, turning both him and her around to the monitor back to do some actual work. He did his utmost to ignore Clary when she came to hug Isabelle goodbye. But, as usual, when Clary told him to have a good night he said the same back, and got punched for it, from Izzy because apparently Clary found that sweet.

He hoped this Herondale kid had a six pack. 

It was a slow night. Three demons, all of them dealt with, then everyone splitting off for patrols. Since it was just Isabelle and Alec they kept one of the monitors up recording demonic activity and used the others to watch some mundane pop star belt her heart out on stage.

“Mom and dad are fighting again,” Alec said after a while. 

“Thank God Max is in Idris.” The last thing Max needed to hear was their parents fighting. It was different for them, they were older, and Alec at least understood why they were trying to hold onto their marriage. But Max was twelve, he didn’t need to see that. 

Then again, “I think I’d rather hear mom and dad fight than go to Idris with Valentine.” The guy gave him the creeps. Or maybe that was just the odd comment about warlocks and downworlders that got under Alec’s skin. Either way, he didn’t like the guy, and had put up a bit of a fight when he asked to take Max and Jonathan with him to see the council. 

“I hear he’s trying to pass a new law. Something about chipping Downworlders.”

It made him shudder. “Makes you wonder what’s next.”

Isabelle hummed. She at least wasn’t like Valentine. Like the rest of their Institute, save his parents. He helped her sneak out to dance with more seelies than arrest them. It made him wish, not for the first time, that he could tell her what he was. 

But he didn’t.

Loyal to the very end. That was Alec. As much as he hated to be.

Dawn was when the official end of the patrols started. Yet with Valentine out of town they saw people start trickling in around four thirty, Jocelyn among them. She caught him looking, coming over to warn, “Clary’s about ten minutes behind me.”

That meant it was Alec’s turn to go get coffee. “Thank you.”

Somehow, despite taking an age to make and find the right coffee, he still hadn’t missed Clary. In fact, if Alec were to guess, he’d say she’d been waiting for him. “Alec,” she said in that weird chipper way she did. “I was just telling Izzy about the enochi demon. I got it all on video for you if you want to see, I know you don’t…” she motioned around her. “And, well, they don’t even let me get too close to the big ones yet so, I thought you’d be interested.”

He’d already caught the action on the monitor between bouts of ‘Gimme Gimme More’ but, as was his curse, Alec didn’t have the heart to say no, and found himself watching again the team Clary had been assigned to take down a demon.

He could feel Izzy’s glee like it was a physical thing breathing down his neck as, throughout the video, Clary shifted that little bit closer to him. Please, he begged, let this Herondale boy be pretty.

“Pretty cool huh?” 

He nodded, choking out a small, “Yup,” and hoped that was the end of it.

He hoped wrong. Despite being out all night Clary still had enough energy to tell Alec all about the interesting mundane sights she’d seen. Especially the art gallery, “They have a new exhibit opening on the renaissance. I was, sort of hoping we could go?”

He prayed for an intervention divine or Izzy related. Yet none came. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to go to the museum too. He liked mundane things. It was the only thing that got him out of the Institute these days actually. But the way Clary was suggesting it meant she wanted to go in the form of a date. Meaning hand holding, or kissing or just generally giving her the wrong impression of what this thing between them should be. 

He tried thinking on ways to let her down. Maybe he could fake being ill. It wouldn’t be so far fetched, he was still injured. But faking an illness meant he would actually have to agree to the date, hence giving her the wrong impression and then fake being ill, which absolutely defeated the purpose of letting her down. 

Then it hit him. He knew if he’d suggested they make it an outing with Izzy she’d ditch on him and make him suffer the whole day. But, “You know what, I’d love to. Yeah, I bet the Herondale boy would like it too.”

“The Herondale boy?” Clary repeated.

“Yeah, he’s coming with his parents this time. He’s about our age too. I bet he’d like to see the sights while he’s here. Nice thinking Clary.” There. Simple. Easy, and he made it seem like he didn’t catch the connotation of it being a date. 

Meaning Clary’s feelings were only a little hurt as she plastered on a smile and grit out, “Sounds great,” leaning to Alec’s left to hiss, “Izzy!” The two of them disappearing back to one of their rooms.

He went back to watching over the monitors, gladly returning to bed when his parents came in right at the dot of dawn. 

That was his routine. It was always his routine. ‘Chronic illness’ meant no patrol for Alec. He, technically, wasn’t a fully graduated shadowhunter because of it too. But, as proven from when he was ‘well’ Alec was more than capable of passing most of their tests. The ones that didn’t require him to put runes on his body and hold angelic weapons that was. 

It was on a night when his back was actually okay, and his dad hadn’t approached him with any new ideas to pry his wings off, when Valentine returned. Jonathan was first in, Alec seeing a blur of red before Clary was swept off her feet. Max was hot on his heels, grabbing Alec from behind and near choking him as he hung off Alec’s neck.

“Good to see you too,” he said when he managed to breathe. “How was Idris?”

“Dull,” Jonathan said.

“Fun,” Max corrected. “Mr Morgenstern took us to the hall where the Accords were signed. They have a giant statue of Raziel there and Mr Morgenstern was telling us all about the different laws that had been passed.”

“Did he now?” Of course he was trying to indoctrinate Max. Max was young, impressionable, just like the rest of them had been at one point. Valentine was a smooth talker too when he wanted to be. Proven so now as Max told all of them about just why Mr Morgenstern’s law about chipping downworlders should be passed.

Alec felt slightly sick.

He felt even more sick when he heard whispers spread around the Institute. Jonathan didn’t look too bothered by it, telling them, just before his dad walked in, that, “Oh the Herondales are here too.”

That explained it then.

Alec had seen Stephen before. He used to come to the Institute a lot when Alec was a kid. Him and his wife. Their own son however, he’d never had the pleasure of meeting. Namely because his mom had insisted they train at the Institute with Jocelyn’s kids instead of going to the Academy. Alec knew why he was here, he still never understood the others however.

A hush fell over everyone as all four of them came in. Valentine, used to such silences, merely smiled at his adoring crowd before pointing out individuals that were important to him. Like, “Maryse, my second in command. Her children are over there, all of them just lovely,” He muttered something too low for any but Stephen to pick up before going on with his introductions.

Alec barely listened to any of it. When he’d prayed before for a guy to distract Clary, he meant one that wouldn’t distract him too. The Herondale kid was just, wow. Blond. Strong. He seemed to radiate light around him. It could have been the fact he was standing in front of a window, but Alec didn’t find it in him to care.

For the first time in his life he was well and truly breathless.

Izzy elbowed him in the side, whatever otherworldly essence the Herondale boy seemed to radiate dissipating slightly. It probably was the lights then. His sister gave him a warning look anyway, the both of them knowing what would happen if someone got it in their mind that Alec had spent a little too long drooling over the Herondale boy. 

“You’ll never guess what,” Jonathan drawled, his voice low enough not to break whatever spell had taken over the rest of the Institute, “That kids name is Jonathan too. It’s like an epidemic. Do you think all our mothers got together before we were born and conspired to name us the same thing.”

“Jonathan?” Alec tested out.

“Jace, really. He even has my second name. I feel like I’m being replaced.”

Alec held his tongue at that. Namely because Jocelyn was introducing herself to their visitors. Alec saw the way she held Jace’s hand, how warm she was to him. Everyone around Alec knew she’d not even said hello to her own son yet. Maybe Jonathan wasn’t so far off.

“He’s er,” Clary sighed, “Something huh?”

Jonathan’s eyes shot up to her, “Not you too. He’s got girls drooling all over him in Idris, and I’m only saying this because I love you Clary, you can do better.”

Straight then.

Of course he was straight. Alec filed that away in his mind, and it made it somewhat easier to look at Jace now he knew the boy was off limits. 

It still didn’t make Alec’s heart beat any less when Jace left, following his parents on a tour of the Institute. 

As soon as Valentine left it was like a spell breaking. Everyone got back to work, talk filling up the halls again as they organised the teams for the vampire raid. Alec picked his tablet back up, noticing, quite happily, that Clary wasn’t standing near him any longer. If one successful thing came out of that guy staying here was Clary off his back, Alec definitely thought he could push whatever simmers of attraction sparking for Jace.

Talk that night, since Jonathan wasn’t going on patrol, was purely about his trip to Idris. Where Max was all for informing Alec on just why the vampires needed to be taken down a peg or two, Jonathan spent his moments of recounting his time away complaining about even going in the first place.

“It was just meetings and lounging around the Morgenstern estate,” he sighed, “Boring after the first few days. I’d have rather been here.” But all of them knew Jocelyn wouldn’t have liked that, and what Jocelyn said was law. “Has Clary been alright?”

Alec brought up the video she’d taken for him last night, again, “Fine. Although you might want to talk with her about paying more attention to the demon than recording it.”

Jonathan winced, watching the video to the end anyway since it was actually interesting. “She’s still on you huh.”

It wasn’t even a secret at this point. Even Robert had mentioned it. Although his dad was asking along the lines of when Alec was going to man up and actually ask Clary out so, he was no help here. “We’re going to the museum tomorrow if you want to come.”

“The museum?” Jonathan teased.

“The museum,” Izzy repeated, her tone the same. “He managed to convince Clary to take Jace so it won’t be awkward if you do want to go.”

“Thanks for that save by the way,” Alec huffed.

“You had it handled. I mean, you’re getting out the Institute and it’s not a date. I’d say you don’t even need my help anymore.”

He gave her a glare. They both knew Clary would try and turn this into a date. Although, depending on the way she glanced at the Herondale boy, maybe the date won’t be with Alec. “I take it you’re not coming then.”

She shook her head, “Museums aren’t really my thing. Not art ones anyway. I have an appointment anyway with an autopsy technician who’s teaching me how to spot the difference in higher and lower level demon venom.”

“Fun.” 

“I know.”

Max poked in about more of Valentine’s propaganda not long after that. He hoped, now Max was back, his mom would take half of that crap out of him. If not, Alec wasn’t averse to doing it himself. For now he let Max talk, and when his shift ended he went to his room and passed out for a few hours. 

He didn’t know why but he felt there was something off before he even stepped foot into the training room. Everything seemed in order when he got there. There were a few people sparring, another few warming up on the punching bags. The Herondale boy, Jace, was there, but Alec was used to seeing new faces every now and then, and even if Jace was prettier by far than some of the others that had passed through the New York Institute, he didn’t think that was the reason for his odd feeling. 

Then it dawned on him. The weapon Jace was using was his bow. Alec’s bow. Not the standard Institute’s bow. The one Alec had painstakingly carved out of wood one winter because his parents told him it was unlikely he’d ever be able to use one of the Institute’s ones. Alec didn’t like the idea of magic being in his veins, or that he might have used it, maybe unconsciously, when making that bow, but standing there, watching someone else use it, he had to admit there was something of himself in that wood. He was feeling a little messed up watching someone else use it.

He wanted to steer Jace, after a few introductions, towards the actual other bows on display. But, as had been drilled into him since birth, Jace was a guest here, and none of the weapons in the Institute belonged to any of them. Even Alec’s. 

So, after standing there, itching to grab his bow off Jace for a good few minutes, he forced himself over to one of the free bags and punched until he was sure the pain in his hands overrode the feeling of wrongness in his veins. 

Clary came in at one point. As she usually did when Alec was training. He learned from Izzy his sister had kindly provided Clary with a timetable of Alec’s movements, which meant, more often than not, he ended up sweating with Clary underneath him before his session was up. Not in the good way either. 

Today however, she bypassed Alec altogether, strolling, well, sauntering, over to where Jace was firing off a few more arrows. 

“Good aim,” Clary said.

He saw out the corner of his eye as Jace shot the last of his arrows, the bow hanging by his side as he smiled winningly Clary’s way, “Thanks. You’re Clarissa right? Your dad’s been talking non-stop about you.”

“It’s Clary,” she giggled, shaking Jace’s hand when it was offered. Up until, “Oh God, you haven’t been using that have you?”

“Using… the bow?” 

“ It’s Alec’s,” she hissed. Or, tried to. Clary just wasn’t a quiet being. “ He made it when he was fourteen. We don’t… we don’t really use it. ”

“Oh.” He sounded sorry too as he quickly handed the bow over. “I- no one stopped me.”

“It’s fine,” Clary soothed. Then said, “Well, I mean it’s not. I’m actually surprised Alec didn’t come over and take it off you. He has like a sixth sense when someone’s using it. This one time Johnny used it, and Alec like let him and stuff, but when they sparred afterwards he broke Johnny’s nose.”

Okay, that had been an accident. Sort of. Maybe. In his defence Jonathan had said some rather cruel things before they got on the mats. Alec had also been kind of pissed because his mom wouldn’t let him sit the sparring exam.

It had just been a bad day, nothing at all to do with his bow. 

He saw Jace lean in close, Alec maybe sending a few harder than usual punches to the bag as he considered the unfairness of his life. “Is he the one that looks pissed?” God he and Clary were made for eachother. Neither of them could whisper for their lives.

Clary must have nodded since Alec heard a loud “Sorry,” sent his way, his bow, once more, going back on the rack where it was meant to be. They moved off not long after, Alec catching something about the museum before he did what he’d been planning to do and practice with his bow. 

He knew before Clary hunted him down again what she was going to tell him. Honestly, this had been the plan ever since he’d thought of inviting the Herondale boy. So he wasn’t too surprised to step out of his room after changing his bandages and and find Clary debating the best way to ask Alec to not come with them to the museum.

“It’s fine,” he said when Clary told him it wasn’t personal. “Besides, I’m sure he’s better company. I can’t exactly walk long distances yet.”

Which wasn’t entirely true. He could walk them, he just found himself in mild discomfort after a mile. Nothing he hadn’t taught himself to push through. But something that allowed them both to feel a little better about Clary ditching him for Jace.

“I’ll bring you something back,” she promised.

“You don-” she walked off before he finished, Alec hoping it was something useful. 

Isabelle was already waiting by the monitors when Alec walked in. She handed him a cookie, and from the taste alone he knew she’d baked them herself. He still ate it. Namely because Izzy wouldn’t let him do anything else, his attempt at talking resulting him with another cookie shoved in his mouth. He heard why after a moment, peering over Izzy’s shoulder to see their parents in another one of their arguments. Quieter than usual, sure, but they were still arguing, Alec catching a little about calling someone and not making things worse or something. Izzy understood it from the look of her face as their parents split, Robert pulling his stele out.

“What-”

“Michael’s coming,” Izzy hissed.

“Michael?” Did they know a Michael? Alec tried to- “Oh God.” Michael Wayland? “What’s Michael doing coming here?” They all knew the story. It was one of the reasons Alec feared even looking the wrong way at guys. Robert and Michael were parabatai’s. Then Robert found out Michael had feelings for him, and instead of talking it out like the adults they were, his dad basically cut all ties. Last anyone heard he was raising a kid on the outskirts of Idris with a wife no one was sure was actually there because they loved each other. The Wayland’s were still a prominent family after all.

“I don’t know,” Isabelle said, eyes scouring the Institute. “But don’t you think it’s weird? Stephen, Michael? It’s like some kind of class reunion.”

Yeah, it was. “Something’s up.”

He didn’t get to think too hard about it. Namely because Valentine made his presence known and Alec found it a little hard to breathe around that guy. He didn’t know why, if it was what he said, or just the fact that Alec was sure Valentine knew there was something wrong with Alec, but his skin just crawled whenever Valentine was in the room. It also could be the fact that he knew Clary had a crush on him and did his best to be ‘chummy’ with Alec while at the same time intimidate him so much if Alec had been straight he would have been so put off by her dad he would never make a move.

Alec was pretty sure in Valentine’s eyes no one was good enough for Clary.

So Alec did his best to keep his head down. Until Valentine swiped one of Alec’s cookies. There was a brief moment of satisfaction of watching Valentine almost vomit it back up, the cookie swiftly finding itself spat out crumb by crumb until Valentine was staring at Alec in horror as he ate his own with no problem. 

“It’s an acquired taste,” Alec said, finishing another. Really, it was just a case of building up a tolerance. Also deciding which battles would be kinder on his stomach than others.

Valentine didn’t touch the plate again, instead doing a slow circuit around the ops room before appearing before Alec again. He slid one of the papers Alec had finished signing over to himself, “This isn’t your work.”

“No,” Alec admitted slowly since it wasn’t. Often he was given other people’s paperwork. He had nothing better to do, and, honestly, he couldn’t be bothered to listen to them complain at him for hours on end. 

Valentine took the whole stack off him, sorting through it efficiently enough he found Alec’s own work easily enough, “Tell them to do their own work Alexander. I don’t run an Institute full of illiterates. Everyone pulls their own weight.”

He nodded, keeping his head down still. 

Valentine still lingered, long enough Alec stole a glance up, he wasn’t sure what to do with the look Valentine was giving him. That considering stare before, “Celine will be joining you on monitor duty tonight. I’ve talked to your mother, we need all the capable shadowhunters we have tonight.” For the werewolf raid. There were a lot of raids going on these days. “I also put Jace on too, the two of you are about the same age, you should see about making friends with him.”

Alec didn’t know about that. Namely because he thought this was just a short visit. The Herondales lived in Idris, Stephen being groomed for the Inquisitor position when his mother steps down. What Valentine was suggesting sounded like that wasn’t going to happen. Not for a while anyway. “I’ll try sir.”

“I know you will,” Valentine smiled. Despite it being kind, there was something off about it. Something in the eyes that told Alec he wasn’t being sincere. “Just like I know you’ll be welcoming to Jonathan when he comes too.”

“Jonathan?” Like, Valentine’s son? He was always nice to Jonathan, mainly because he was the only other guy his age he could to talk to about annoying little sisters. They weren’t the best of friends, but they certainly weren’t strangers having been brought up together. 

“Jonathan Wayland. His parents will be arriving tomorrow. I hear Clary is taking Jace to the museum meaning you’ll be free to help me make them comfortable.” 

“Yeah.” Maybe Jonathan was right, Morgenstern Jonathan anyway. Maybe all three of their mothers got together before they were born and decided to make Alec’s life that little bit harder by naming all their kids Jonathan. “Of course. Will Jonathan- your Jonathan- not be there?”

“He will,” Valentine said, “But I thought it best to integrate you young folk as soon as possible. Your sister I’d hoped would be around to help, but she’s kindly informed me she has the day off tomorrow.”

“She does.” She’d worked hard for that day off too. “But, I’ll make sure she introduces herself when she comes back.”

“I knew I could count on you.” another smile, another shiver up Alec’s spine. “Keep up the good work,” he called, walking off to creep out another poor shadowhunter.

The raid went off without a hitch. Alec’s parents argued well into the night, yet the next afternoon they were awake bright and early with the rest of the Institute and telling Alec to be on his best behaviour for their guests. 

He trained, spying Clary and Jace laughing together on the mats again. Then, since Valentine had sufficiently told the Institute not to take advantage of Alec constantly being off patrol duty, he finished his own work load within the hour, leaving him with plenty time to torment Izzy as they waited for Jonathan Wayland. 

“Stop it,” she warned.

Alec didn’t listen, tilting the bow down his violin in another deafening screech.

“I’m warning you Alec. Don’t you dare.” She wasn’t really mad. Not yet anyway. Her straightner wasn’t even clenched in her hand.

He gave it another go, the noise coming off it a little more musical rather than just pure noise. 

“Alec!” 

“Blame dad, he’s the one who forced me to learn,” Alec said.

“And me but you don’t see me coming into your room when you’re trying to get ready playing sea shanties.” No, she played Christmas music.

But he kept that to himself, instead composing a tune for every swipe of the makeup brush and step she made to grab her clothes for her big day off. Rumour had it she was going on a date. Rumour being the seelie boy Alec had to shoo off when he came too near the Institute to deliver a love note to Izzy. 

What happened to texting?

Then again, Alec wasn’t too sure that Valentine wasn’t monitoring their texts and calls so, maybe good old fashioned love letters were the way to go. 

He didn’t get kicked out, and once Church had heard Alec’s beautiful medley and decided to purr on his lap Alec started playing actual music. “Can’t believe you like the cat more than me.” Church was a connoisseur of good music and while Izzy Alec could weather her bad moods, he didn’t want to mess with Church. Especially because Alec was the only person in this place Church, he wouldn’t say liked, but enjoyed pouncing on enough, mostly because of his wings, to tolerate. 

“You’re going to be careful right?” Alec asked, starting on something Clary had made him memorise from one of her favourite musicals. 

“Yes.” She dangled her whip in front of him, sliding the enchanted snake onto her wrist. “If not you’ll come rescue me right?”

“Always.” It wouldn’t be the first time, and Alec would rather she call him than not call anyone at all. He could handle mundanes even without any runes.

He played five more songs, Izzy holding up two outfits for him to not have an opinion on when Clary burst through her door sniffing, “He’s such a jerk!” 

That was Alec’s cue to leave, holding Church under one arm as Izzy went to do her parabatai duty.

He took Church up to the roof, pulling out one of his feathers to play with the cat a while. Church was very appreciative. Especially when Alec got back to his violin and Church got his proper afternoon nap. 

Izzy found him a while later, clomping onto the roof with enough warning he glamoured his wings again. “You need to do something,” She said before hovering over him.

He took his jacket off, laying it down so she wouldn’t get her dress dirty. “What do you mean?”

“Jace. He got Clary’s hopes up and just as they were about to go out fobbed her off with a lame excuse. So now she’s crying and I have to go out.” Meaning she couldn’t console Clary.

“Alright.” He wouldn’t ask her to give up her day off. She’d been looking forward to this for weeks. “Where’s Jonathan?”

“One, two or three?” Isabelle asked.

“Is Wayland here?” He was supposed to be down there if he was.

“Not yet, but we really need to come up with some kind of naming system. Since you mean our Jonathan, he’s currently completely oblivious to any of this and will remain so, got it?”

He nodded. Jonathan could be a bit of a hot head when it came to, well, everything. Alec blamed it on Jocelyn. “Go enjoy yourself, I’ll deal with it.” He grabbed Church again, Izzy snatching his violin as soon as she could and all but locking it in her room.

“Clary’s in her room, I don’t know where Jace is and quite frankly I don’t want to know in case I punch him.” She continued telling him all the things she would do until they came on Clary’s door, Izzy waving goodbye, Church following along with her, if only to claw at her legs.

He knocked, hearing the upset, “Go away!” that he was sorely tempted to follow.

“It’s me,” he sighed.

There was a clatter, then more moving about, and just when Alec thought she was barricading her door Clary opened it, looking like she’d done her best to look like she hadn’t just been crying. “Alec,” she plastered on a smile, “Hi.”

“Izzy told me Jace stood you up.” he wasn’t going to beat around the issue.

“He didn’t,” she said, “He just had something better to do.”

“Then go to a museum?” Alec shook his head, “Idiot if you ask me.” He kicked her shin gently, “Go put your coat on.”

“Why?” She sniffed.

“Cause we’re going out.” He knew she didn’t get to go out often for pleasure. Since Jace was staying behind anyway, he was sure he could foist off his duties onto him. He deserved it. Alec didn’t like Clary ‘like that’ but even he didn’t like the idea of some guy coming in and messing her about. She didn’t deserve that. So, “Grab your sketchbook too.”

She seemed to know where they were going after that, telling Alec to wait at the front doors for him as she ‘made herself presentable’.

He caught Jocelyn, swiftly avoiding Valentine at all costs, and told her he was going out. She seemed to know about the drama, Alec wondering just how public Jace had brushed Clary off. “Don’t keep her out too late,” Jocelyn warned, like he was going to do something untoward to her.

“I won’t.”

Since it was his darling daughter Alec was making feel better, he trusted Valentine not to be waiting with his seraph blade out when Alec got back. Still, he found himself hiding outside just in case Valentine was looking for him. 

Clary found him anyway, looking far too dressed up to go to a museum. She wasn’t even this dressed up to go out with Jace. Also, Alec was sure he’d seen that dress in Izzy’s wardrobe. Oh no.

He didn’t comment on it. Obviously something had been lost in translation here, and Alec wasn’t going to wound Clary even more by telling her he meant as friends. So, ignore and avoid it was, Alec leading them to the subway.

The exhibit was actually pretty beautiful. It was a lot of mythology and biblically inspired pieces, so detailed it made Alec want to try his hand at drawing. He did, Clary laughing so hard they almost got kicked out when he showed her the results.

“I’m not the best, I get it,” Alec said, holding his own piece up to The Birth Of Venus, “But it’s still pretty good I’d say.”

Clary shook her head, still laughing, “It’s…” 

“I’m getting it framed.”

There were sculptures too, Alec maybe staring a little too long at some of the naked guys as he tried to figure out if it was realistic or offensive. It was only as they were going out that Alec knew for a fact these weren’t the originals. “They have that in Idris,” he hissed, pointing to one of the exiting paintings.

Clary had to know that too, Valentine was a man who enjoyed the finer things of life, and loved sharing that with his kids. There was no way he would deprive them of seeing the museum in Alicante. Still, she said, “Maybe,” and left it at that, the two of them scouring the gift shop.

He was surprised when Clary handed him a sketchbook as they debated where the best place to eat was.

“You know, for your next masterpiece,” she said, “Maybe I could even give you lessons.”

“Maybe.” He certainly had the time for a new hobby. 

They chose a place in Brooklyn. Nothing romantic, and nothing that would give them food poisoning either. Well, Clary food poisoning, Alec was sure his stomach was immune to anything New York could throw at him thanks to Izzy.

It was going well. Great even. He doodled in his new sketchbook, christening it with a botched portrait of Clary. Their food was decent, and free of cockroaches which was also a bonus.

Then Clary tried holding his hand and Alec remembered, to her, this wasn’t a friendly afternoon out. She liked Alec, she had expectations of Alec, and the other guy she clearly had thought she might have a shot at just turned out to be a complete jerk which made Alec, the guy she’d known since they were literal babies, the perfect guy in her eyes again.

He slid his hand slowly away from hers. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it had to be now, here, when the opportunity to branch out had already been planted in her mind. 

It was now or suffer through that kicked puppy look the rest of the night. 

“Clary-”

“You don’t like me, do you?” She cut to.

He hesitated a moment before shaking his head. “It’s not you.”

“Sure,” She snorted.

“It’s not.” He tried the logical route, “You’re great Clary. You’re smart, and you’re you.” Which was a pretty good description according to him because Clary was Clary. She was badass in her own way, she had to be to go toe to toe with Izzy. She was also extremely talented, Alec couldn’t paint half as good as her, and while she wasn’t as concerned with her safety or her paperwork or thinking about the consequences of her actions, she was still pretty great. “But I just don’t think about you like that.”

She nodded, not even looking at him as she bit her lip, looking two seconds from running out there.

“And it’s not because-”

“You’re gay aren’t you?” 

He didn’t really hear what she said for a moment there, his brain still catching up. Then, “Wha-”

“Izzy told me-”

Izzy!”

“Well she didn’t ‘tell’ tell me she just made a bunch of hints about it and I filled in the blanks. And I thought she might be wrong or, you know, maybe you were just confused, and I know that’s the worst thing to think of someone who’s gay but,” she didn’t start crying but it was a near thing as she caught her breath, “I just hoped you know.”

“I- you can’t tell anyone.” She knew, and there was no way for Alec to make her un-know so he better make sure they were both aware of how difficult this situation was for him. “Clary-”

“I know,” she snapped. “And I haven’t and I won’t.” She wiped her eyes. “God this sucks.”

“If I wasn’t,” Alec offered.

She sent a broken smile his way, “I know. You’re a good guy Alec, and I’m sorry for-”

“Hey, no,” He wasn’t saying this to make her feel bad. “I’m your friend and you’re my sister’s parabatai, I like you even if I don’t like you like that.” Was ‘like’ sounding weird yet or was it just him? “And I meant it,  Jace is an idiot for not going out with you. But you heard Jonathan, he’s popular in Idris, he probably already has a girlfriend. You don’t deserve to be messed around like that Clary.”

“I know,” she sighed, fully crying now, Alec wondering if he could steal the napkins on the table next to them. “It’s just, he’s the first guy I asked out, I mean,” barring him she meant, “and he just-”

“I know.” He wouldn’t like it if someone did that to him.

She cried it out, Alec getting a few dark looks from other tables as they all made their own assumptions. When she finished, their table strewn with napkins and Clary cursing about her makeup running she said, “This is pathetic. I’m not even upset about you. Like, I am, but I’m just mad that I care what some stupid Herondale boy thinks about me. He said he ‘didn’t have time for me’ like he had something better to do. What does he have better to do? If he wanted to go demon hunting we could have been back long before patrol started. Hell we could have met up with them. You know, if he didn’t want to go, he should have just said so. You at least tell me if you’re not interested.” He did, or he got Izzy to do it after he ran away like a coward. Looks like he wouldn’t have to do that anymore. “God I just feel so stupid- and then you’re not- and I guess it’s just hard to hear it out loud you know.”

He did know. It as hard to hear it out loud for himself too. Mainly because he’d never explicitly said it to himself. “There’s plenty other shadowhunters out there.”

“Yeah,” Clary sighed, picking at her napkin, “If not, think we could give it a shot anyway?”

“Clary,” he said kindly, “Don’t take this the wrong way but I am definitely not going to have children.” Not just because he was gay either. What he was couldn’t have kids. It was sort of another middle finger to their bastard children that they personally couldn’t continue their family line. Sterile until he died, that was Alec.

That got a snort out of her, whether from the idea of just how Alec said it he didn’t know. She shook her head anyway, “I meant, like, as a cover. We kind of talked about it, Izzy and me. Like, if your dad ever pressured you to get married or something I could…”

He shook his head, “No.” Definitely not. “I’m not doing that to you.”

“I volunteered,” she pointed out.

“You don’t deserve that,” he corrected. “There’s someone out there for you, and it’s not me, and I’m not going to shackle you to myself when you could be happy with them. My parents are proof that marriage can’t survive on logic alone.” Whatever love they had between them had long ago fizzled out. Even Clary knew that. It wasn’t exactly a secret. Besides, she was a Morgenstern, she could do far better than a runeless Lightwood. “You’re great Clary, and I’ll be fine on my own.”

She gave out another snort. 

“Okay, just for that I’m not going to put in a good word for you with Jonathan.” He wasn’t planning on it, but if he could get a little bit of positive attention directed at Clary after this then he’d go through hell to do it. 

“The Wayland boy?” her face twisted from wry to considering as she realised there was indeed another boy coming to the Institute their age and probably single. He got a kick in the shin, “You are not messing that up. I mean it Alec, I’ll tell my dad we’re engaged if you so much as say I have morning breath to that boy.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Things were better after that. He didn’t automatically talk about boys with her and offer to go shopping because he wasn’t like that, but things were easier now. It was also fun to tease her with exactly how obvious she’d been in trying to persuade him to the straight side now they both had most things in the open.

“I was not that bad,” Clary denied, trying to shove him into the wall.

Alas she was short and he trained just as hard as her so he easily held her ground, “You were. ‘Oh Alec, can you please play our song?’ ‘Are you sure you don’t want to go demon hunting with me? My dad says we can break off and get pizza.’”

He got another attempted push. “I do not sound like that.”

“You do.”

She huffed, not really all that mad at him since she try and walk faster than him. Not that she would have succeeded on those small legs. “God Izzy was right, you are a pain. I can’t believe I ever thought we’d be good together.”

Liar. Feelings didn’t just go away now Clary knew the truth. She’d invested time into him. It would take a while for things not to be completely awkward between them. But it would fade, and hopefully it would fade easier now as it probably wouldn’t if neither of them had addressed the elephant in the room. 

Still, there were worse things for Clary to know about him, and Alec was glad, if it had to be either of those secrets, that it was this one. This one, at least, would only get him ostracised from shadowhunters society, something he was pretty sure was already set in motion with him basically not a shadowhunter. 

They walked back slowly, the two of them just enjoying being outside. For him, it was a rare occurrence, the people at the Institute often of the thought that because he didn’t patrol, and he spent some days of every other month in his room ‘recovering’ he didn’t deserve a day off. For Clary, he knew demon patrols weren’t exactly relaxing, and what was waiting for her back at the Institute was most likely humiliating. 

It was nice.

But they had to go back at some point, and Alec may have picked a time he knew most of the others would be out on patrol just to save Clary the looks she’d get walking in with Alec, not Jace. 

Sure enough, there was no one loitering outside. Still, Alec turned to ask Clary if she maybe wanted to sneak in a different way when he caught her looking behind them. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except she’d been pretty much doing this since their walk from Brooklyn. “Downworlder?” If so they were better off going in this way and letting someone else take care of it.

“No,” Clary said, turning back with a smile of all things, “You just have an admirer.”

A chill went up his spine at the thought of who. Had someone followed them? A mundane? Was that why Clary was so calm? He followed her nod, scouring the streets for any sign of life, ready to tell them to piss off when he saw… well, nothing.

“Down there,” Clary muttered, nodding again to where she had before.

Sure enough Alec saw something this time. It was small, and definitely not a Downworlder or a mundane. It was a cat. “Oh,” no. Like Church, other cats seemed to like him. Cats could see through the glamour, he didn’t know how, or even why that was a necessity for their lives but cats could. Meaning they saw his wings when even Clary couldn’t. It wasn’t usually a problem. He’d suffered through Izzy’s ‘Alec the cat whisperer’ jokes for years and was basically immune to them. So the jokes weren’t the problem, instead it was when he found himself in situations like this. Like a cat following him home. Often one with, yep, an owner.

Who knew how long the little thing had followed them for, and from the way it jumped at a loud noise a few streets away it didn’t look like it frequented outdoors a lot. 

“Damn it.” Stripping his jacket off, he got low to the ground, hoping his feathers were enough of a distraction as he made to grab the little thing. “Get the door,” he said when the cat didn’t put up much of a fight. He practically sprinted through, Clary used to the protocol, just like the others were at this point.

He was cute, whoever he was, and he was certainly a he, his owner not having the thought to get him neutered yet. It made Alec feel more guilty when he thought about why that might be. Usually cats weren’t neutered because they weren’t old enough, and this little guy certainly still looked young enough to be in the kitten stages. 

He barely paid attention to the small group being shown around the ops centre, Clary doing the decent thing and explaining, “We got another follower,” before opening more doors for him, Jocelyn and Jonathan’s laughter following him all the way to the residential part of the Institute.

It was probably cruel, but Alec couldn’t take the chance that the cat would escape and get himself even more lost, so he locked it in his room. Since this had happened before, they already had the necessities, although they did have to steal a few toys from Church, Clary helping him set up the litter tray and food bowls as he tried to catch the little cat again.

“Chair- wait,” he read the collar again, sounding out the name carefully, “Chairman Meow.”

Chairman didn’t look up from where he was exploring under Alec’s bed, but then, cats rarely did.

“Does it have a number?” Clary asked, still trying to get her first stroke of the little guy. Alec was kind of rooting for her, Chairman was soft, it was obvious his owner took good care of him.

“Yeah, but it’s late right?” Early by their standards, late by the rest of the worlds. “What if they’re asleep?”

“It’s eleven,” Clary said.

“It’s eleven,” Alec repeated, waiting for it to sink in that people went to sleep at eleven. More importantly, mundanes which was probably what this little guys owners would be. “I’ll phone them in the morning.”

Clary gave him a long look, “Like, morning, morning?” Not their version of morning.

“Yeah?” He could wake up that early. 

Probably.

He’d have to put on twenty alarms but it could be done. 

Chairman was nice company. He was a little timid, but he soon livened up once Clary said goodnight. Alec was used to having cats trapped in his room, so while he was a little annoyed to be jumped on every hour or so, he sort of expected it too. Chairman finally settled anyway when it got close to dawn, snuggling in the constant sore spot between his wings. He just had to think that Chairman was lucky Alec always slept on his front otherwise the cat would be thrown off. Alas, having wings was a pain, meaning no sleeping on his back unless he wanted to feel like his feathers were being pulled and no lying on his side unless he wanted something to go to sleep. 

It turned out Alec didn’t need an alarm. As if sensing a rival to his favourites attention Church came screaming at Alec’s door just after nine am. 

He was hesitant about letting Church in. He never liked the guests Alec picked up off the street. But, after standing there for five minutes with Church in his arms, the cat didn’t look like he was going to attack, so Alec slowly set him down.

“Huh.”

Maybe it was because Chairman was a baby, so he was less of a threat, but Church seemed to, dare he say it, like him. He certainly didn’t attack Chairman, and when he did raise his paw, Alec ready to intervene, it was to instigate a chase. 

“Huh.”

He left them to it, keeping a sharp ear out as he climbed back on his bed, digging out the other phone he used for these kinds of things. He may be paranoid about Valentine listening in on their calls, but he wasn’t stupid to think Valentine wasn’t doing that either. So he may have bought himself a little pay as you go phone that he definitely kept out of Izzy’s reach when he wanted to make calls to mundanes. Stupid, maybe, but Alec didn’t like the idea of Valentine listening to him stutter over explaining that he hadn’t stole their cat and it in fact had followed him home.

So, making sure he had the right number, and Church was still behaving, he dialled up Chairman’s number. Alec didn’t know if it said something about how this guy lived his life or if he’d noticed his cat missing that he answered in the first few rings, a sharp, “Yes?” cutting to the chase.

“Er, hi, my name is Alec,” God he should be better at this. It wasn’t like it was the first cat he’d had to report, “I er have your cat.” No wonder people thought he stole them when he said it like that.

Yet, ”Oh thank God.”

“Yeah, he’s white and tabby,” Since some people still needed a description in case he was some dodgy caller. “Goes by Chairman Meow?” 

“Yes. Yes that’s him. Oh thank God! Where is he?”

“I-” He checked, seeing two little fur balls play fighting, “He’s with me right now, but I can bring him halfway to wherever you live if you have somewhere in mind. I have a carry case so he shouldn’t get lost.” And a lead and harness for those cats who somehow pulled a Houdini and escaped. 

“Well, I live in Brooklyn,” and it was rather cold outside what with it getting to winter and all was left unsaid. Neither of them wanted to keep Chairman in the cold for longer than he had to be, especially after his ordeal last night. 

“I can meet you at the subway? Just tell me which stop is closest to you.”

It took a little bit of negotiating before they had a set time. Which meant Alec just had a few hours to feed, capture and winter proof the carry case. 

“Bye bye Chairman,” Clary waved, not even needing to crouch down all that much to see his face through the case. “You were a handsome little guy.”

“He made friends with Church too. He had quite the adventure,” Alec covered the bars with the blanket. “I shouldn’t be too long. Your dad’s okay with me going out right?”

Clary shrugged, “After yesterday I think he’s thinking about giving you a medal. He said it was better it be Jace, apparently Jace and Jonathan went to the Academy together so, I guess they know each other.”

“Wayland Jonathan?” Alec made sure since their Jonathan certainly hadn’t went to the Academy.

“Yeah we need a system.”

Alec nodded. “I’ll be back soon,” he said again.

“Good luck.”

It wasn’t a long journey by his standards. But Alec wasn’t a cat, and Chairman, it seemed, wasn’t used to being in a carry case since he started complaining as soon as they hit outside. Alec felt bad the whole way there, Chairman’s tiny pitiful meows tugging on his heartstrings.

“I can’t let you out,” Alec said, making sure the blanket kept out the worst of the wind.

He got an odd look from a mundane, and another understanding one from one of the teenagers. 

He didn’t know what to expect when he got off the subway. Usually it was a parent looking person. Meaning, harried, worried and often ready to take off as soon as they had their beloved cat back. He saw a lot of those people as he stood there, waiting. Yet it was a young man that ended up approaching him.

“Alec?” the guy asked, all glitter and- wow.

“Yup,” he was pretty sure he said. “You- hi?” If Jace had glowed this guy just sparkled. His eyes, his clothes, his personality was all just- wow. Although that could just be Alec’s sheltered life talking. No one dressed like that back home.

“You have Chairman?” The guy asked.

“Yes,” Chairman. The cat. He carefully handed the case over, the guy pulling open the blanket to see Chairman’s upset face staring back.

“Hey baby. Aw you’re gonna get so told off when we get home,” the guy cooed, straightening back up. “I can’t thank you enough Alec. Chairman’s an indoor cat and when I saw he’d gotten out- and he’s just a baby, and with how I found him… I’m not an irresponsible cat owner I swear.”

Alec hid a smile, “It’s fine. Honestly it’s my fault. I er, I kind of attract cats. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

They shared a look, Alec’s a little more subtle as he checked this guy out.

Then a harsh wind blew their way and Alec remembered it wasn’t just the two of them here. “You’d best get him home. He’s been complaining the entire way about seeing you and I don’t want to deny you telling him off for longer than it needs to.”

“Right,” the guy said. Hesitating a moment before laying his hand out, “I’m Magnus, I don’t think I said so over the phone.”

He took it, his mind doing a mental count of all those rings, “Alec.”

“Short for Alexander?” 

He had a feeling it was for a purpose and Alec wasn’t too fond of his full name, usually because it meant he was in trouble, but ended up saying yes anyway.

“And that was your number that popped up on my phone?” Magnus pressed.

“Yeah.” He supposed saying it was a pay as you go phone would be a little odd. 

Magnus gave him another once over, “You wouldn’t mind if I called you sometime would you? To say thank you for taking such good care of Chairman that is.”

“Oh.” Mundane. Boy mundane that would result in Alec in serious trouble if he didn’t think this through. But, “Sure.” he had nothing better to do with his days and, honestly, he was feeling a little free after talking with Clary last night so, why not. “I better,” he started walking towards the subway.

“Of course. I’ll call you though,” Magnus promised, hoisting Chairman up a little further in his arms before starting the opposite way.

He felt a little floaty when he got back, and constantly had to make sure his wings hadn’t started carrying him off the ground again. It wouldn’t be the first time. Yet his feet remained on the ground and Alec realised he was just happy. Happy Chairman was back home. Happy he hadn’t been told off by Chairman’s owner and happy that Chairman’s owner turned out to be a nice looking guy that said he was going to call him. 

The Institute was busy when he got back. People were waking up, getting breakfast, and in some people’s cases already training. After changing Alec found himself amongst the last on that list, practicing with his bow until Clary caught him, Izzy yawning on her heels. 

Now, Alec liked to think of himself as a good big brother. He listened whenever Izzy had something to say. He let himself be experimented on when Izzy wanted to try makeup or nail polish or thought something wouldn’t look good and needed a second opinion. He suffered through hours of pointless pop songs because she wanted to have a real ‘mundane’ disco party for her thirteenth birthday and no one but Alec was willing to give it to her and always tried whatever concoction she was attempting to cook that day because he hated that look she got on her face when someone would tell her to stop. 

The point was, he was a good big brother. But he was also a normal big brother too. Meaning, when his sister stumbled into the training room hungover and looking like death, he wasted no time throwing a boa staff at her and telling her, louder than normal, to watch her footing. 

He got his violin out after that to help too, Isabelle near tears in the music room as Alec butchered one classical song after another. He knew she could have left, but the music room was one of the quietest rooms in the Institute. Perfect for hangovers. When Alec wasn’t there that was.

“Stooooop,” Izzy groaned, flat out on the piano. “I’m begging you.”

“You’re going out in less than five hours, you need to get desensitised,” Alec argued, starting on another song. “Also, I think we’re being introduced to the Waylands before that so, best get used to noise now Iz.”

She rolled a little over to him. “The Waylands are here?”

“Apparently,” Alec caught a short glimpse of them last night he was sure. “There was just the two of them, Michael and Jonathan.” He’d only seen two women, and since one of them was Jocelyn and Alec knew what Celine looked like, he figured they’d left Michael’s wife at home.

Or, “She’s dead. Michael’s wife. I heard mom talking about it before I went to get ready. Her and dad have been arguing about it.”

Well that made no sense. “Why were they arguing about his dead wife?”

Isabelle shrugged, rolling onto her back again. “God just let me die in peace.”

She got a loud serenade for that.

Around six they got ready for their evening duties, Izzy disappearing to put her tact suit on while Alec dragged his violin over to his usual seat at the monitors. Church was already waiting, leaning forward and around Alec as if to ask where his new friend was. “Sorry buddy, Chairman’s back home.”

Church looked a little upset, or ast upset as that grumpy face could look, but he stayed around long enough for Alec to start on his favourite songs. 

One by one the patrol teams were grouped, briefed and sent out, Maryse making sure to hug Alec before she went as she usually did when it was a demon they were after that night. 

Jace went out, Alec surprised to see him on Clary’s team. Jonathan was with them however, Clary’s Jonathan, so Alec supposed Valentine had sort of figured that situation out. The only people he didn’t see were their new guests. Not until the patrols had went out and Alec was trying to follow along with the soundtrack to some mundane movie that was showing on the hacked in cable.

“I haven’t heard the violin in years.” Michael.

Alec had only seen pictures of him, and the short glimpse last night. He was taller than Alec expected, his hair a little greying like Roberts was now. He didn’t look to be mad to see Alec, in fact sparing him a small smile as he came a little closer.

“Did your father teach you? I remember him being just as proficient when he was your age too.”

Alec nodded, “He taught Isabelle too. Max is learning piano.” He seemed to want to follow in Valentine’s footsteps as much as possible, and it looked like only Alec saw the problem with that. Alec stood, holding his hand out, “It’s nice to formally meet you.”

Michael shook his hand. “I’ve met you once you know. Just after you were born.”

“Oh?” After he was born? Alec thought his parents hadn’t let anyone see him.

Yet Michael proved he’d been there by looking a little to the right of Alec’s shoulder. It was brief, just a split second, but it was enough for Alec to know he knew. He knew what Alec was. 

No wonder his dad hadn’t wanted Michael around.

“How are you? Your mother tells me you’re an archer.”

Archery, a good middle ground conversation. One Alec latched onto as he tried to work out what Michael wanted from him. He knew Michael was his dad’s parabatai. But he also knew they hadn’t spoken in twenty years. The why, he didn’t know about, all he did know was that things were strained between them, and, according to his dad, for good reason. 

Had Michael… had he threatened to tell someone about Alec?

He didn’t seem openly hostile as he pulled up a chair. In fact, as the night went on, Michael started telling Alec all about his weapons. The ones he made in his own home. “They’re not as good as the Iron Sisters but I find there’s a certain beauty in making your own weapons. Your mom said you made your own bow. Do you think I could see it?”

He went to fetch it, the two of them talking about the practicalities of wood and metal arrows. 

It was nice. Michael didn’t once mention Alec’s wings. He did his best not to look either, but knowing about them, he seemed to know when it wasn’t a burst of wind that knocked a sheet of paper loose or nudged a chair out of the way and a certain curiosity overcame him. Yet he still kept quiet.

“Where’s your son?” Alec asked as it started to get later, the early morning finally catching up with him and leaving him a little tired.

“Jonathan is training. Valentine said he can join the patrol teams tomorrow, but, he wanted a night where Jonathan could get his bearings about him too. It was quite late when we went to sleep last night.”

That made sense. It explained why Jace was only going out tonight too. 

He found himself yawning again, another few shadowhunters that were on monitor duty doing the same too, and glaring at Alec right afterwards for starting the yawning loop. They left after a moment to get coffee, Alec tempted to follow. Except, as soon as they were out of earshot Michael leaned forward and said, “You need to be careful.” He looked around again, making sure they were alone, “Valentine knows there’s something up, he’s ordering physicals for the entire Institute. If he finds you’re fighting fit he’s going to try and rune you Alec.”

“But-” They didn’t have a physician here. Not a proper one anyway. They were all pretty efficient in first aid, and an iratze took care of what bandages couldn’t. If something really bad happened, they’d often just call a silent brother, or, if it really came down to it, a warlock, so physicals for the entire Institute seemed a little far fetched.

Yet, “There are more people coming. Hodge Starkweather should be here by the end of the week. He’s going to be performing the physicals. If you can’t come up with something by then you’d better be prepared to run. You won’t like what Valentine has planned for warlocks Alec.”

There it was, that word. Warlock. That was what he was. 

He found his breath coming a little shaky as the shadowhunters came back. Michael leaned back in his seat, continuing on with his commentary about Alec’s craftsmanship until the others came back at dawn. It was rather terrifying the look he saw his dad give the two of them when he saw Michael sitting close to Alec. So much so he didn’t stick around to hear what it was all about, logging off his computer and near running back to his room.

He didn’t sleep that night. When morning came he was pacing up and down his room wondering if Michael had been telling the truth or just told him that to mess with him. He wasn’t Robert’s best friend after all, he could be trying to get his own back in some way by messing Alec around like this. 

He didn’t know.

At breakfast, he ended up dragging his mom away from Izzy’s pancakes, which he was honestly doing her a favour with, and asking if it was true. “He said Starkweather would be doing the physicals,” Alec finished.

His mom didn’t look like this was all new to her, which meant Alec knew before she opened her mouth that, “I’m sorry Alec,” it was true. Valentine was ordering physicals. “He wants as many people as he can for the raids.” 

“Raids? But he’s doing fine with the raids.” 

“It’s complicated,” his mom said, taking him to the side to promise, “Your father and I are not going to let anything happen to you Alec. Hodge isn’t coming until Friday, we’ll come up with something before then.”

“Like what?” Was the big question. What could they possibly come up with that would let him fail a physical? Everyone knew he was fighting fit when he wasn’t recovering from his ‘chronic illness’. Unless his mom blatantly said he couldn’t fight because he was a warlock then Alec didn’t see a way out of this. 

But she promised again that she’d sort it, and Alec honestly wanted to believe her. So he let it go, and trusted her and forced down as many pancakes as his queasy stomach would allow.

He didn’t train, pretty sure he’d collapse if he went toe to toe with anyone right now, and ended up lying on top of the piano contemplating how he could run away. Alec wasn’t cowardly enough to kill himself. He didn’t want to end up in an unmarked grave on the outskirts of Idris with everyone spitting on it every time they passed. He already knew he was going to hell, and voluntarily going to the circle reserved for suicides didn’t appeal to him. Not if Dante was to be believed. Where did warlocks even go when they died? He knew hell but which circle. Edom? Did they end up changing into demons, always trying to claw their way back to earth and vanquished every time because they’d been deformed so much in death no one recognised them anymore. Is that how there was so many of them? Or did warlocks go somewhere else? 

He didn’t know, but it frightened him enough to know he’d never be reunited with his family after his death that Alec wanted to stave off his own for as long as he could. 

So running away it was. If it came down to it that was.

“No music?” 

Alec jumped up, Jace staring back at him from the doorway. He relaxed back onto the piano, for a moment there fearing it was Hodge here early. “I’m not talking to you.”

The door closed, “I think that’s rather unfair seeing as we’ve not talked before.” he heard the chair scrape away from the piano. “This isn’t about the bow is it?”

“No.” Although he was happy to see Jace hadn’t touched it again. 

“Clary then,” Jace sighed, tapping a few notes out. “Thought you would have been pleased. You jumped rather quickly at the idea of taking her out.” Was that jealousy there? Did he just expect Clary to be upset and wait around until he decided he was bored enough to actually follow through on his promises? Was he actually that shallow he was happy string girls along like that?

Okay, forget not talking to him. “That’s because she was upset and she’s been wanting to see this exhibit for a while.” he didn’t think for a moment she’d just ‘stumbled upon it’ while out on patrol. Anything art related Clary knew about months in advance. Hell, Jonathan usually warned Alec when a new exhibit was opening up at the museum in case she tried propositioning him. “You’re a guest here, remember that before you start messing people around.”

“I didn’t mess her around,” Jace said, having no right to sound as affronted as he did.

“You certainly didn’t let her down easy. You ‘had better things to do’. What better things to do are possibly more important than going out with Clary? You said yes, and Valentine made sure your night was free so unless some world changing event happened that I’m unaware of you had nothing better to do, meaning you brushed her off because you felt like it.” He slid to the end of the piano. “I don’t know how you do things in Idris, but I’m not letting you pull crap like that here. Clary’s practically my sister. You do that again and I’ll show you just how unwelcome this place can be.”

Somehow. 

He probably couldn’t, but Jace didn’t know that, and Alec was a tall guy. He knew how to intimidate people if he wanted to. So with one last glare Alec left and found another place to fret his life away.

Jonathan found him on the roof early evening. He didn’t call Alec down, just got out his new book of poetry and lay next to him, Alec catching the red tint to his eyes. Another fight with his mom then. Looks like this week sucked for everyone. 

There was a sniff after a while, Alec remembering not everyone had fluffy invisible wings to keep the cold out. He thought it was more out of sadness than cold however as Jonathan wiped his eyes. 

“They call it postnatal depression,” Alec remembered Clary saying one day. She’d been sitting in Izzy’s room, the three of them hiding from the fighting outside. Jonathan had just come back from another trip to Idris with Valentine. He’d been young enough that he’d actually asked his mom instead of pretending it didn’t matter when she kissed his dad and Clary but not him.. “I looked it up. The mundanes say it happens sometimes when the mom can’t bond with her baby. It’s nothing to do with them it’s just how her brain works. The mundanes get help though.” Something shadowhunters didn’t. They thought they didn’t need it with their iratze wounds, and what shadowhunter wanted to admit they had a mental health problem? They’d sooner submit themselves to a pack of werewolves. “I think if uncle Luke was still around she’d be okay but.”

Yeah. She wasn’t. What made it worse was that it was just Jonathan. With no help either, it had only gotten worse until most days Alec saw Jonathan eating with him and Izzy than his parents. 

He was formally introduced to Jonathan Wayland when they went to their stations. He wasn’t gorgeous, like Jace, and for that Alec was thankful. He wasn’t bad looking, he certainly took after his father, but Alec thought two pretty boys walking around like they owned the Institute would be too much for anyone. Clary especially. They’d already been shown looks weren’t everything when it came to guys. 

It was rather funny, actually, watching them all suit up together. Valentine had forgotten to differentiate the Jonathans from each other, meaning Alec was witness to a fight as they all tried to figure out which Jonathan went where. 

The only guy who didn’t end up on patrol was Michael, the man keeping Alec company at the monitors as he worked on some design Valentine wanted commissioned off him. It looked like a sword. One that had Michael going off to the library every ten minutes as he looked up another detail he wanted to get right on the hilt. He’d heard from the Institute that Michael’s weapons weren’t the best looking things in the world, but they worked, and apparently that was all Valentine was interested in.

Alec broke his violin out near midnight after Michael asked him. Church deemed him with a visit too, curling up on Alec’s lap.

It was nice. Peaceful. Exactly what he needed after spending the day planning his daring escape. 

He got glared at by his dad when Robert came in again however. Alec had thought it was just at Michael last night, but Alec was definitely in his dad’s eyesight. His mom, at least, saw nothing wrong, telling him to go to bed and make sure Max wasn’t still awake before he did so.

He was woke early the next morning. His phone, his other phone, was buzzing, and it took a moment for Alec to realise why. 

Someone was calling him. 

No one called him. Ever.

Except Izzy if a few mundanes had slipped something into her drink and she couldn’t get home because she’d ended up collapsing into the first lockable room she could find and could still hear the guys outside and was using her last moments of consciousness to tell him to come get her. It had happened more often than either of them wanted to admit. Twice, which was twice too many according to Alec. Still, he’d been sure Izzy had come home last night.

His phone started buzzing again, Alec grabbing it off his table before realising it wasn’t that phone that was buzzing.

Okay, this was even weirder.

“‘Lo?”

“Alexander,” he knew that voice. How did he know that voice? That voice certainly knew him. “Hi, this is Magnus, you kindly found my cat for me.”

Oh. “Magnus.” He was suddenly wide awake. “Yeah, no, I remember hi.”

“Hi,” he could hear Magnus grinning on the other end. “I know there’s that whole three day rule before calling but, well, I didn’t think I could survive that long without hearing from you. So.”

“So?” He turned on his back.

“So, are you going to let me thank you properly for rescuing Chairman or am I going to have to actually do work this morning?”

He was forward, Alec finding he liked it. It meant he didn’t have to spend time worrying himself over how to ask himself. He checked the time, it was basically in the middle of the night for him right now. “I think I have time.” What was one more sleepless night? “Where?”

Magnus hummed before rattling off an address, the two of them hanging up and Alec racing to have the quickest shower in his life. He didn’t have time to make himself look completely alive, but he certainly didn’t look homeless as he stole out of the sleeping Institute and over to the small cafe Magnus was waiting for him in.

Magnus just, he literally took Alec’s breath away when he saw him. If frantic Magnus looked amazing, one that had put effort in was otherworldly. What made it better was that Alec thought it might just be for him. 

“You ordered?” Alec asked, debating the three empty chairs before taking the one opposite. Not too comfortable yet not complete strangers either. 

“Not yet, I didn’t want to brace the line before you came,” Magnus grinned, handing over one of the small menus. “My treat,” he said before Alec looked at the food.

“If you’re sure.” He’d get the next. If there was a next.

He found himself grinning as he insisted on waiting in line instead of Magnus. It was going well so far. Magnus had told him Chairman was settled back in and happily sleeping in his favourite patch of sunlight when Magnus left him. Which was good. Alec had actually worried about that cat. Not because he thought Magnus was a bad owner, he’d already seen how sleek Chairman’s fur was, but, he’d been out in the cold for who knew how long, and Alec knew cats didn’t get colds like people did, but they certainly didn’t not get sick either. 

Cake for breakfast was something he hadn’t done since he was a kid. He found it just as fun now as he did back then as he spooned another bite of creamy chocolate fudge cake into his mouth, listening as Magnus regaled him with another tale about his cat.

“Church misses him,” Alec remembered to say. “My cat. He took quite a liking to Chairman.”

“In that case we should have a playdate,” Magnus purred, swirling his tea under his nose. “Church. I had a friend who had a cat called Church. Miserable little thing. He was adorable.”

“Yeah, my Church is kind of like that. It must be a name thing.”

They stayed off more intense topics, more feeling each other out like strangers did. It was good anyway, Magnus fun company and Alec, even if he didn’t know how to respond to it, enjoyed the mild flirting too. 

They had to part at some point however, Alec had training to do and Magnus, well, Magnus had whatever mundane work he’d blown off this morning to see Alec. They stood outside for a moment, Alec with his hands in his pockets as he wondered just how he was supposed to say goodbye. It hadn’t explicitly been said it was a date. Even if it were, he didn’t know how to end a date so, the ball was in Magnus’s court.

Something the man seemed to understand as he asked, “Can I see you again?”

“Yeah,” Alec breathed, “‘Course. I’m free whenever so just call.” He probably should have sounded less desperate than that. “I mean, my work doesn’t start until late so my mornings are always free? So, yeah, you can call. I’ll pick up. Maybe. You might have to call a few times though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Magnus said, grin still on his face so Alec must have been doing something right. Magnus sighed, “I really do have to go.”

“I shouldn’t keep you then.”

Magnus hummed, the two of them locking eyes for a moment before they stepped back with a smile. “I’ll see you Alexander.”

“Yeah. I’ll pay next time too.” There, that was definite date talk. If Magnus didn’t pick up on it then Alec would just have to work on making his intentions clear that he was interested in Magnus into their next meeting. 

Thankfully Magnus picked up on it, sending him a shark like grin, “We’ll see.”

He definitely didn’t touch the ground the whole way back home. 

There was some kind of commotion in the training room when Alec got there. He was tempted to leave it alone, people fought all the time, sometimes friendly sometimes not, it was just something that happened. But then he heard Max, and the next thing Alec knew he was watching his little brother try and beat Jonathan Wayland in hand to hand. He wasn’t winning. Max wasn’t even midway through his studies yet, and while he was getting better at fighting Jonathan was a fully fledged shadowhunter. Yet Jonathan didn’t look like he was going too hard on Max. More defensive than offensive. To be honest he was taking this whole thing rather well. Especially considering the abuse Max was shouting at him.

It was a bunch of nonsense to Alec. A lot of curse words. A lot of shouts to go back where he came from. Then Max said, “everyone knows you’re dad’s gay!” and Alec watched as not one person looked shocked by it. Even Jonathan didn’t deny it, dodging another jump kick to the head. There were a few more words said, all along those lines. Things about why Jonathan had been essentially exiled because of his dad’s ‘condition’, about why Robert had stopped talking to him and why, rightly so according to Max, they should keep their distance.

“Enough!” 

He couldn’t hear that anymore. Not from Max. The others, sure, they were adults and they were all brainwashed to think the same. But Max was a kid, he shouldn’t know what the word ‘hate’ was yet never mind be screaming it at a stranger that certainly didn’t deserve to pay for whatever his dad might have done. 

He grabbed Max before his brother could start again, dragging him to the corridor. “You don’t speak to people like that,” Alec said before Max could start, “You don’t ever speak to people like Max do you understand me?”

“But it’s true,” Max yelled, still hyped up from his fight.

“I don’t care,” It was hard to keep his temper in check but he did. He knew how scary it was to see an adult shouting, his dad had done it enough times to him, so Alec didn’t shout, but he certainly didn’t show Max he was a pushover. “I don’t care because that’s not Michael. Jonathan is a guest in our Institute. What’s more he has nothing to do with his father and if you think that waving your fists around is the right way to express yourself then you and I need to have serious words.”

“Dad said-”

“Dad shouldn’t have said anything,” Alec didn’t care. He just didn’t. “And even if he did you shouldn’t have listened. What business of yours is it if Michael’s gay? Huh?”

Max said nothing, realisation finally dawning. Maybe not that he was wrong, but he was in trouble, and Max knew, between Alec and their parents, Alec was always the one that was around. He would be the one instituting curfew and he was the one who could make sure Izzy made all of his meals if he wasn’t careful.

“What business of yours is it who someone’s in love with?” Since Alec had certainly caught that tidbit, and it certainly brought him back down to earth after this morning’s elation. He really would have to keep this to himself the rest of his life. Maybe he should take Clary up on her offer. “You don’t speak to people like that,” Alec said. “And you’re going to go in there and apologise and when you come back out me and you are going to have a long conversation about grown up things you seem to think you’re old enough to listen to.” If Max was going to be throwing the ‘gay’ word around Alec was going to make damn sure his brother understood there was nothing wrong with it. Alec was never going to admit it out loud to anyone other than Izzy, and Clary, but that didn’t mean he was going to let his brother think the same vile things the rest of the Institute did. Not Max. So, “Go!”

Max stood there long enough his face went red before marching back into the room, barking out a not apologetic at all “Sorry,” and joining Alec again.

He certainly wasn’t winning big brother points today that was sure. 

He didn’t care who would be looking for him that afternoon. As soon as Max and him were alone he locked the door and talked through Max’s outburst. It wasn’t his anger. Kids rarely got angry because they were angry. Often it was picked up, or disguised as something else and this was no different. Max heard the arguments just as the rest of them did. But Max was a kid, and to him he thought that their parents arguing was because of something he did. Then, with Michael here, the arguments were worse, and Max figured in his young mind if he got rid of the problem that was making his dad angry then maybe he wouldn’t be angry anymore. 

It was awful having to figure it out with Max. But their mom had once done the same to him when he’d been angry for no reason he could possibly think of back then. He’d lashed out too. Mainly at Jonathan because everyone lashed out at Jonathan. But that had been wrong, and it turned out Alec wasn’t angry, he was frustrated and sad because he couldn’t be like everyone else, and he thought because he couldn’t be like everyone else he was making his parents lives so miserable they had to constantly fight about it.

“But it’s not our fault Max. We have no control over them. They’re angry because they’re upset too. But they’re upset because of what they’ve done. Not us. Okay?”

Max nodded.

“Good.” He was tempted to go over the downworlder thing too. But, Max was already looking overwhelmed again. He had a lot to think about and Alec wasn’t going to push it. So he asked, “Tell me really, do you hate Michael because he’s gay, or do you hate him because him being here is making dad upset?”

“Dad,” Max admitted quietly.

“And do you understand now why that’s dad’s problem not yours?”

Max nodded.

“And do you understand that it’s not Michael being gay that dad’s upset about?” He may have embellished that a little for his own peace of mind.

Max shrugged. “I guess.”

Alec sighed, “Do you know why dad’s upset with Michael being gay?” He went over again, determined to get this right.

Thus it continued. It was hard. Max didn’t understand what ‘gay’ was. To him it was just a word his dad had flung around and Max took it to mean something bad. Alec had to carefully tell Max what it actually meant, and love wasn’t bad he tried to convince himself as well as Max. Dad, he tried to work through, was probably just upset because it was unwanted and unknown to him. He’d probably never expected it when he agreed to be Michael’s parabatai, and, they all knew the parabatai bond was something so intimate that having that trust taken advantage of by one party would make the other party extremely uncomfortable. 

He made excuses for Robert until he couldn’t anymore because he really didn’t know his dads mind. But he knew Max’s and what was important was that Max, if he was gay, straight or whatever, was comfortable admitting it to himself and with other people being it too. 

Max was well and truly tired out when Alec let him go. 

Izzy and Clary were waiting outside, both of them with their hearing runes activated. Alec felt like collapsing when the door closed behind him, sharing a look with Izzy. “I was going to come and help you,” she said, “But, you kind of had it covered.”

“Did you hear what he said?” Alec asked.

“I did,” Clary said, “Everyone’s kind of talking about it.”

Of course they were, and, most of all, they’d be asking why Alec had stepped in to stop it. He was sure some of the others probably thought Max was in the right. Even if it was Michael’s son that was being attacked and not the man himself. “I shouldn’t have had to do that,” Alec said.

“No,” Izzy agreed, “You shouldn’t have. I’m going to talk to mom about it when we go out tonight.”

“Iz-”

“She’s going to find out,” Izzy said, “It’s best she know that it’s not okay. Even if she…” if she agreed with their dad about gay shadowhunters. “She knows Max shouldn’t be saying things like that. Especially to guests. I’m talking to Max too,” she went on, really working herself up, “I know you sorted it, but if he hears it from more than one of us he’ll understand it’s not just your opinion versus the rest of us.”

Which was actually a good idea. “Just don’t raise your voice. He’s been hearing mom and dad fight, he doesn’t need us to be his enemy too.”

She nodded, Clary squeezing his arm. 

The ops room went quiet when he walked in, Alec knowing his cheeks were red as he strode to his usual chair. Let them judge him, he thought, he was in the right here. 

He understood, that night, why Michael wasn’t on patrol with the others. It was more than just him designing a weapon. The others didn’t want to patrol with him. Alec wondered if it was because of the gay thing or because of Robert having a problem with the gay thing. Alec’s dad was pretty high up in the ranks, and, well, the Institute wasn’t known for having a lot of outspoken voices. If Robert didn’t want Michael, his own parabatai, watching his back, then they figured he wouldn’t be reliable to them either. 

Well Alec, again, wasn’t going to be one of them. When Michael came into the room that night, Alec made a point, even if the others were avoiding Michael’s eye, to say hello to him. Michael didn’t stick around, but Alec was sure he saw the hint of a smile on his face as they both recognised an ally. Michael would keep Alec’s secret, and Alec wouldn’t let people treat him like crap. Not if he could help it anyway. 

It was a rough few days. Once their mom found out Max had attacked Jonathan Wayland it was like World War III at the Institute. They were in their room until patrol, Alec knowing if they didn’t have a soundless rune strapped to every inch of that room they’d be able to hear every vile thing they’d be saying to each other. Alec and Isabelle were constantly on alert for Max, making sure he didn’t notice their parents absence. Izzy did that by having her own talk with Max, Clary present too for even more solidarity. She focused more on the gay thing than their parents, she told him later, since Alec wasn’t going to sit in on it, he didn’t want to look like he was influencing anything. 

“I mean, what if we come across a downworlder or a mundane who’s gay? I’m not going to have my brother compromise a mission or even just being one of those people you look at funny on the street.” Which was a fair point. 

They had their work cut out for them, enough that Alec honestly forgot Hodge was coming until it was too late. 

Starkweather came with Emil Panghorn and one of the Blackthorn men, all of them greeted warmly by Valentine. The Institute had never felt so crowded, and Alec never so scared. 

That night his parents didn’t go out. They claimed Alec wasn’t feeling well, and with how out of it he must have looked it was believable. 

He didn’t enjoy what came next.

Their solution to getting through the physical was trying to take his wings off. Again. 

It wasn’t like the other times however. He was knocked out for starters, and when he woke he’d never felt pain like it.

His wings were still attached. The rest of him however felt like it was on fire. There was blood everywhere. Even from where he was lying he could see blood on his pillowcase. He was pretty sure if he could move his mouth he would be screaming. He just, he didn’t feel right, and from what he could hear he didn’t look right either. 

His mom was crying. His mom never cried. “We’re gonna have to call in a favour. We can’t let them see him like this.”

“Maybe if we try another blade-” 

“You are not cutting up my son again!” 

Alec couldn’t move. Not yet. His limbs were still, just like his throat, but he could feel it. He could feel every dab of the cloth his mom made on his back. The click as she went over something that had been shifted out of place. 

“We’ll call in a favour,” his mom said again. “Ragnor has to know something. He has to be able to help.”

“That warlock,” Robert scoffed. “He’s useless Maryse, you know he is. He doesn’t know how to get them off anymore than I do.” Not unless he was dead. That was usually how it went. Remove the mark when the warlock was dead.

“He can hide them. He can make him look sick enough Hodge won’t- we’re calling him.”

“Maryse-”

“I’m calling him!” 

There was a pause, then the door slamming as Robert left. 

“I’m so sorry,” his mom said, brushing his hair back before dabbing again at whatever mess Robert had made. 

He felt everything. 

It took a while for the drugs to wear off. Once they did, he didn’t know if it was better or worse. He could move, but moving made everything hurt, and it wasn’t like he could stop moving. He twitched because he was in pain, he twitched because he wanted to stay still and his body didn’t know how to do that now there weren’t drugs in his system.

The bandages were like their own special torture, his mom apologising every second as Alec fought, and failed, to scream. 

It went against everything in his body to drag himself to his bedside table, grabbing his disposable phone and handing it to her.

“Alec-”

“Valentine doesn’t have it on record.”

She seemed to understand. If Valentine heard her phoning a warlock he’d want to know why, and Maryse might say anything to get Ragnor over to the Institute. Like remind Ragnor of Alec’s little problem. 

It was a short conversation, one that Alec heard with growing dread was resulting in them meeting Ragnor in a neutral place. 

His mom was still crying, doing her best to wipe her face as she helped Alec sit up. She tried to get him around the legs but, even with her strength rune she couldn’t carry him all the way across New York. The wings weighed about the same as Alec, and Alec wasn’t a small guy.

“I have to tell your sister,” Maryse decided.

“But you said-”

“I know.” But mom couldn’t carry him, and better Izzy find out than someone else. 

They really were in desperate times. 

Izzy didn’t take it badly. Alec didn’t really hear most of it, everything was just drowned out by the beating of his heart trying to come through his chest. He saw when she came near him however, how her hands shook as she took one of his arms, her constant apologies joining his moms as they helped him stand, Izzy grabbing his legs while his mom begged him to focus on his glamour.

“It won’t be long, I promise but we have to get there. You need to keep them secret,” she said and kept on saying until his wings hung invisible between them, Alec screwing his eyes shut, concentrating as hard as he could on it as he was carried quietly out of the Institute. 

It felt like years before any slither of relief was coursing through his back. He heard cursing and an accent he hadn’t heard in years in his ear. The words took a while to understand, Alec almost boneless with the feel of his skin knitting back together. 

“I told you when he was younger, if they aren’t coming off when he’s an infant they’re not coming off. A warlock’s natural instinct is to protect themself.”

“Then why is his back split open?” Isabelle snapped.

“Because his back isn’t what his magic is trying to protect.” another pulse went through him, Alec rolling his shoulders. “There we go, that’s better isn’t it? I’ll work on the scars too. The poor boy shouldn’t have to suffer because your husband is a brute.”

Mom didn’t even try and defend Robert. 

He felt beyond exhausted when Ragnor finished, slumping forwards until his chest hit something soft, Isabelle working her way into grabbing underneath his shoulders to pull him further on top of him. They were on the floor in some kind of dingy warehouse. Poor Izzy was getting her skirt dirty, but she didn’t complain.

They were in the warehouse a while. Why, Alec wasn’t sure. When he got his vision back, and had strength enough to sit up on his own, he saw his mom and Ragnor talking a ways off. It didn’t look like a happy conversation. He looked back at Izzy, finding her skirt not the only thing that had been wrecked. 

“I’ll buy you a new shirt,” Alec promised, knowing blood was near impossible to get out of white once it had dried. 

“Alec no.” He would have wiped her eyes but her hands weren’t the only things covered in blood. “God are you okay?” she asked, grabbing his face.

He shook his head, or, tried to, she had quite a firm grip. “I feel like I should hurt.” It wasn’t just the pain he’d been feeling a moment ago either. The stretch he’d always felt from the scars on his back was gone. He rolled his shoulders again, carefully stretching his wings out. He caught Izzy looking at them too, fright written across her face. He supposed it was rather scary. He folded them back in. “Sorry.”

“No,” her voice was high even if she was telling him “It’s just. I just never expected- I mean, it makes sense. But.”

“I know.” He wanted to hug her, but he didn’t know it that was okay anymore. “I did want to tell you. But mom thought the more people that knew the more dangerous it was.”

“I kn-” She sniffed, “I’m your sister.”

“I know.” And that made it even worse. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” She said again. “No I just need to- to think and-”

She didn’t leave him. For all her freaking out Izzy sat there with him until mom was done, a vial of liquid in her hand. She stayed with him as their mom helped him up, Ragnor giving Alec a long look, like he wanted to say something, before leaving with a clipped goodbye and a note in Alec’s hand with a number scrawled on top. 

The walk back wasn’t as long as the walk there. It felt weighted however, as the three of them tried to navigate this new shift in their lives. He didn’t know what was going on in Izzy’s head. What new thing was hitting her. What memory was different now she knew the truth. 

They stopped before they got too near the Institute, mom pocketing the vial and telling Alec to give her his arms. “We don’t know if anyone saw you us go out. You’re meant to be ill too.” 

Right. 

“Isabelle get the doors.”

She looked up from where she was going to get Alec’s other arm, “Are you sure?”

“They’ll know we were getting him healed. He can’t look too well however if it’s a chronic illness.” She nodded to the doors, “Get them for us please.”

Isabelle nodded, hurrying up the stairs to grab one of the large church doors. 

They didn’t speak the whole way in. Those who were left behind from the patrols didn’t talk to them either. Alec didn’t think they knew what to say. There was a lot of blood on all of them.

They didn’t go back to Alec’s room. They couldn’t with all the mess that needed to be cleaned up. Instead they went to Alec’s parents room, their mom saying if Robert had a problem he could always go find the shadowhunter in the weapons room he spent so much time with these days.

Alec thought they didn’t need to know that about their parents lives, but, well, a bed was a bed, and with the day he was having he just wanted to sleep. So he did. 

He didn’t know how long he was out, all he did know was that his mom was with him whenever he woke up, sometimes with Izzy, sometimes just her on her own. He was never on his own, which was something he hadn’t experienced since he was a kid. 

He woke up properly to pee to both his mom and Izzy in the room. Izzy was crying, which was never a good thing, but Alec had to pee, meaning he missed whatever had sparked it. He didn’t know whether to sit down when he got back. Izzy was here, but, he wasn’t sure if he was there for him or for their mom.

Naturally, because she’d known him all her life, she could read just that on his face and rolled her eyes, “Get over here stupid, you’re meant to look like you’re ill.”

He still hesitated, crawling slowly between them like he was afraid he was going to be kicked out. He didn’t lie down, honestly his front was stiff from sleeping for so long, so instead he crunched his wings in tight and sat against the headboard seeing more than one of his feathers in Izzy’s lap. “Have you been pulling them out?”

“No,” that meant yes. “They fell out. And mom already said I could have them so don’t even try and take them off me.”

He felt himself frowning, “You like them?”

There was nothing special about them. They were black, like his hair, and when they were small like the ones Izzy had they looked like regular bird feathers. Still, “They’re like really soft.”

She tickled him with one, Alec fending her off until their mom got between them. “Alright, leave him alone.”

She did, taking the others that had fell out while he’d been getting away onto her lap too.

“You’re okay with this then?” Alec asked.

To that, Izzy just sighed, fiddling a little with the feathers before admitting, “I don’t know. It’s a lot.”

“It is,” he said with a sinking feeling.

“I mean, I always thought mom was the bad guy. No offence mom.” This was new. “Dad used to tell me about you cheating on him when I caught him sneaking off.”

“He did what?” Alec snapped, Maryse sharing the same sentiment.

Izzy shrugged, “I guess he was just covering for himself. I mean, how on earth could he think that was cheating?”

“He shouldn’t be involving either of you two in any of that,” Maryse said quickly. “Isabelle I am so sorry.”

She waved their mom off. “It’s fine. I mean, I’m the one who believed him.”

“Of course you did you were a child,” she reached across, Alec being awkwardly smushed as they hugged. 

“God this is awful,” Isabelle said, wiping her eyes again. “I mean, boys have tried it with me but, like you, you’re…” yeah, their mom was pretty badass. It was hard to believe anything like this could get past her. Alec always thought if a demon came in disguised as someone she’d be able to spot it. But, Alec was living proof that maybe that wasn’t the case. 

“Sweetheart everyone makes mistakes.”

Alec glanced between them, finally realising what they might have been talking about before he came back, “Did you tell her?”

His mom nodded. “She had a right to know. And I am sorry for not telling you Isabelle. I trust you, it’s just the people around us I don’t.” Which he didn’t really know what to do with.

Regardless Alec knew the story. About her younger days fresh out of the Academy. About the series of slayings they’d dealt with under Valentine’s command. They had about to lead an uprising against the Clave before something stopped them. For Alec’s mom it had been Alec. 

She’s pretty sure it was the demon parent of a warlock she killed that had come for revenge the night Alec was conceived. She’d killed a few in her time, but only one of them shared a similar demon mark to Alec. She hadn’t known his name, just that his demon parent was one of the fallen, a powerful demon residing in one of the other realms of hell. He’d heard about her slaying his son and come to, Alec supposed, make a new one. 

“Ragnor said it was because he wasn’t of Edom that you were able to survive. His blood is still angelic, even if he lives in hell. I was so scared when I found out.” 

That Alec wasn’t just a normal warlock but one high up in the hierarchy. 

“I still can’t believe dad’s been torturing you for years,” Izzy said.

“He hasn’t,” Alec defended quickly, “He’s been trying to help. If I get them off I don’t have to worry about them. I can go out with everyone else.” Patrol, slay demons, he couldn’t use their weapons or runes but he could still help. 

Except, “Alec, you know that’s not true, right?”

“Why not?” he demanded.

“Normal weapons don’t work on demons Alec.” Which was the crux of it. “Even if you didn’t have your demon mark they wouldn’t light up for you and you know that,” Izzy said not pulling any of her punches. “I’m sorry.”

He swallowed heavily. He’d known that. Deep down. But it was one thing to know it and another to have it stated so blatantly out loud. 

There was more talk as Alec sat there. Izzy asking about memories she now saw differently. Their mom doing her best to make Robert not a master villain in her kids eyes. If Max should know. But all Alec could think of was that there was really no reason for him to be here. Izzy was right. What use was he here if one day he couldn’t just magically have them taken off and become a shadowhunter? None. What, he’d be stuck on desk duty the rest of his life? Did he want that for himself? 

“Alec,” his mom called.

“Hmm?”

She pulled the vial she got from Ragnor out, “I said, Ragnor gave me this for you. Hodge is calling for physicals. If Ragnor brewed this right it should give you enough symptoms that every medical test he can think of will be fooled. Just keep your wings hidden.”

He took it from her, holding it up to the light, “How long does it last?”

“Three days. Meaning three days of discomfort.” He didn’t like the sound of that. “But it’ll keep you alive anyway.”

He gave it back to his mom, pretty sure he wasn’t leaving this bed for another day. “You really think Valentine will kill me?”

His mom blinked at him a few times before carefully putting the vial back to where she’d gotten it. “Do you remember what I told you about the uprising?”

He caught on just as Izzy guessed, “You think he’s trying again?”

That explained the sudden influx of guests. All of them were old school chums of Valentine. Sure enough, “Everyone that’s loyal is here at this Institute right now. He’s already sown enough discord in the Downworld there should be a rebellion at any point. As soon as there is he’ll be going straight to the Clave to implement his laws. If that doesn’t succeed... “ There was another plan in place. “This doesn’t even begin to cover his side projects. And I don’t want either of you looking into them either okay? I’m telling you this because you need to keep each other safe. If Valentine thinks any of us are traitors there’s no telling what he’ll do. He already tried to kill his parabatai.”

Luke. Valentine had said Luke went missing. 

“Mom,” Izzy said slowly, “When you say everyone who’s loyal is here. Does that mean you?”

“Maybe once,” Maryse said. “It’s not been easy.” She told them about trying to defect and retreating to the Lightwood manor to hide Alec away. Their plan had been to live out their lives in Idris, Robert maybe getting a job in the Clave while Maryse played mom and homemaker. Then they’d gotten an invitation from Valentine to help him run his new Institute in New York. An invitation they couldn’t say no to. “He has something on Robert. I’m not sure what but it meant moving here.”

Mainly their mom had been trying to keep her head down, which wasn’t easy considering she was and sort of still was Valentine’s second in command. 

“I’ve been trying to send messages out to the Downworlders to move, but these days they’re more willing to fight than listen to me.” She told them as much as she could to keep them safe. That if worse came to worst and the uprising did happen, the plan was to take Alec and Max to Ragnor Fell for safe keeping. “Even your father doesn’t know that plan.”

It was a lot. It was also a lot to put on Izzy, but mom kind of had to. 

“What about Michael?” Alec asked, wondering how he fit into this. He didn’t seem like he was happy to be here.”

“Michael’s here for your father,” Maryse sighed. “That man is an idiot. But he’s a loyal idiot.”

“He was the one who told me about Hodge. Mom he knows.”

She didn’t even try to deny it, just told Alec to be careful around him. He may be here for Robert, after all, but he was still here, and he was, apparently, using their long out of use forge to make a sword for Valentine. 

He asked a few more questions. What everyone out there was doing, which was answered with the usual. Patrols. Demon hunting. Arresting downworlders, not all of them making it back to the Institute for proper processing. He asked about Max, to which mom said she was keeping him on a tight leash and as far away from Robert and Valentine as she could. Mostly with Clary, but, surprisingly Jace had taken an interest in Max too. He also asked about little things. Was his room clean yet? No one had touched his bow right? Also where his other phone was which his mom gave him a long look over before digging it out her pocket.

“It’s been buzzing,” she said handing it over. “Something I should know about?”

“Nope.” 

His mom gave him another look, Izzy joining in on it too. Unlike their mom Izzy was no stranger to snatching what she wanted from him, so his phone was quickly out of his hands and no amount of grabbing managed to stop her from seeing the name before he got it back.

“Who’s Chairman?”

“No one.” He was never more thankful now that he’d saved Magnus’s number into his phone as his cats name. He did it to the others too, just in case their cats followed him home again. It had happened more than once. 

“Doesn’t sound like no one.” she gasped, “Are you dating a mundane?”

“Isabelle,” Their mother warned before her curiosity won over too, “Are you?”

“No, my God, we are not talking about this. You never have this conversation with Izzy.” She didn’t. In fact she made it a point not to ask about her daughters love life.

“That’s because I know who Isabelle goes out with. Is- is he good looking?”

Alec felt his heart almost stop. Even Isabelle looked mildly horrified as she leaned a little over Alec.

Their mom just gave them both an exasperated look. “It’s like you think I can’t Clary when she whispers. Honestly Isabelle, close your door if you’re telling her something private that girl can’t be quiet if her life depended on it.”

Which Alec wholeheartedly would agree with if he wasn’t in the midst of wondering if he was in a parallel world. “You- you know?”

“It was a shock,” Maryse nodded. 

Isabelle squinted at her, “You’re taking this rather well.”

Maryse rolled her eyes, “My son has wings Isabelle, you learn as a mother if you can love your children when something like that happens then you can love them through anything. Besides,” she tacked on, giving Alec a sad smile, “It’s not like I had many expectations of you.”

Right. No wife. No kids. Alec was to be a permanent bachelor. 

“So?” Maryse asked when the silence stretched. “Is he then?”

“Yeah,” Alec choked out, still waiting for, he wasn’t sure what, to happen. “He er, lost his cat.”

“They like his wings,” Maryse told Isabelle, that quickly getting his sisters attention off their mom as she sussed out that it wasn’t Alec’s good heart that made him appealing to cats. 

It was a little surreal. He didn’t tell them what they wanted to know, still waiting for the other shoe to drop. But they gladly talked around him, Isabelle asking time and again, more for Alec’s benefit he was sure, if their mom was really okay with it. She didn’t outright say yes, but she certainly made an effort, and, honestly, that was all Alec had ever hoped for if his parents ever found out. 

Isabelle ended up snoozing after she’d pried Alec’s phone away again, the few texts Magnus had sent still glowing blue on his screen. He shuffled down, turning until he could spread his wings out without knocking Izzy off the bed. 

She curled up towards his wing, Alec feeling like, maybe, things wouldn’t be so hard between them anymore. There had always been a tinge of discomfort between them. Izzy didn’t know how to ask about his ‘illness’ and Alec, for his part, was happy to leave it alone. Now, well, Izzy had always been the better liar.

His hair was pushed back from his face, Alec glancing up to his mom. “I meant it Alec. There’s nothing you can do that will make me love you less. Okay?”

He was certainly starting to. “Yeah.”

When he woke next it was to just Izzy in the room. She told him as soon as he finished in the bathroom that their mom was negotiating Alec’s physical slot with Hodge. “She’s trying to move it up to today. Make it look like you’re ‘well enough’ to take it, but still sick enough Hodge won’t find it suspicious if you suddenly took ill.”

Smart.

His mom could be very persuasive too, meaning she got what she wanted, hurrying in with a changed of clothes and all but forcing the vial down his throat. The effects were immediate, Alec’s bones feeling tingly and stiff, every move a challenge in itself. It was oddly reminiscent to the feeling he had before Ragnor fixed his back but all over. He needed help getting to the door, and almost a wheelchair to get to the infirmary. 

A few people poked their head out of the training room when he passed, Alec remembering no one had really seen him when he was ‘ill’ except his parents. From the looks they gave him he didn’t look good. 

Hodge looked scared to touch him when they did get there, like he would catch whatever Alec had. But he was a shadowhunter, so he did his job and knocked Alec’s knees, x-rayed his bones and took his temperature so many times he didn’t know what Hodge was hoping to see different.  He answered everything Hodge asked of him, and even went back the next day to prove things weren’t different.

By the end of it all, mom got her wish. Alec was considered ‘too sick to patrol’ and Valentine’s morbid curiosity with what exactly was wrong with Alec was sated. 

He spent the last day or Ragnor’s potion in bed, under strict orders to recover quickly from Valentine himself. “Monitor duty can wait Alexander,” he’d said, helping his mom get him comfortable. 

He had his phone, at least, and, finally alone, his room clean and time on his hands, he was able to look over Magnus’s texts. They were from a week ago, Magnus phoning, God, five times, before texting to ask if everything was okay.

He checked the time, six pm, that wasn’t too late by mundane time. It hurt bending his arms, but Alec suffered enough to get the phone to his ear. He had to ring a few times before Magnus picked up. “This is Magnus, how can I help you?”

Yeah, Alec deserved that, “It’s Alec,” like Magnus didn’t have him saved in his phone. Actually, considering how Alec had been kind of blowing him off Magnus might have deleted his number. “I rescued your cat?”

“Oh, right.”

There was a heavy silence, Alec taking the initiative to explain, “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls. I’ve been,” what did mundanes do when they were ill? Right, “in the hospital.” Which wasn’t exactly wrong. He’d been to the shadowhunter equivalent of the hospital.

“Oh my God are you alright?” 

Great, now he’d panicked Magnus, “Yeah. Well, no, I have to stay at home for a few more days but yeah, I’ll be alright. I just didn’t want you to think I’ve been ignoring you.”

“No, no no, just get better. I- erm, how are you?” 

“Good,” They could both hear the lie in that. “I will be. But I didn’t call because of that.” With his mom knowing now, and Izzy adamant that he not drop this slither of happiness he’d found for himself, he only dithered for a moment before asking, “I wanted to see you again?”

There was a happy noise over the phone, “You did?”

“I… I was hoping we could go on a date. If you wanted to that is.” He was pretty sure he’d been reading this right, but, honestly, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know how to tell if a guy was like that . Not unless it was obvious, which, with Magnus, there was maybe something there.

So, even if he was fifty percent sure he was right, he still felt like a weight had been lifted when Magnus said, “Yes. Just name the time.”

Oh. Alec had to plan it. “Er,” he thought about fun things to do around New York. What was a date thing to do? He had to talk to Izzy. He could still tell Magnus, “Three days from now? I should be better by then.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Magnus promised, Alec asking a little about Chairman before hanging up.

The aches wore off by the next morning, meaning Alec was well enough to walk the short distance to Izzy’s room. He spent all morning with her coming up with fun date ideas. The problem was that he didn’t know a lot about Magnus, meaning anything tailored to what Magnus’s idea of fun was would have to wait.

“I mean, dates are about finding out about each other so, the first few are sort of a brief middle ground the two of you can meet over,” Izzy explained, which helped soothe that little voice in his head that said he needed to find out exactly what Magnus would like for this to be perfect.

Since it was going to be early in the morning, a romantic dinner was out of the question. Meaning they’d have to do something a little broader. 

“Cinema?” Izzy suggested.

Alec thought about it for a while. It was a good idea. A movie was a good conversation starter too. It would take some of the awkwardness away as well. But, “I kind of want to be able to see him.” Also, “I don’t know how long he has free. A movie might be too long.”

So, other things. 

“Maybe a walk?” Izzy said. “A stroll around Central Park. Maybe get him an ice cream.”

Alec raised a brow. It was almost winter. No one wanted ice cream in this weather. Still, “Maybe a walk. We could go to the zoo too.” It wasn’t a large zoo, but it had some interesting animals all the same. They’d just have to be careful of the rain, or snow, God knows what the weather was like these days. 

So long as they didn’t run into any seelies Alec thought a walk sounded perfect. 

He went out for monitor duty that night. Huddled in his blanket, he still played the recovering act, almost everyone giving him a wide berth. Except Max. He tackled Alec as soon as he came into the room, asking a million questions about how he was. It looked like Max had forgiven him for the training room incident. 

“I’m alive,” Alec promised as Max climbed on top of him just to make sure. “Mom tells me you’ve been spending time with Jace. He better not have been going easy on you.”

Jace probably had, but in Max’s eyes Jace was actually treating him like an adult hunter, meaning Max never won. But by God did that not discourage him.

“Jace is so cool,” Max said. “He disarmed me in like two seconds but instead of stopping he told me to fight to get it back and I did…”

That was Alec’s night and he had to say he enjoyed listening to Max talk about Jace more than he enjoyed listening to Max’s repeated views about the Downworld population. 

His morning he chanced the training room, stretching so long on the mats he was sure people thought there was something wrong. But Alec had never moved so easily in his life. No pulling, no stretching, no pain whatsoever of remaining burns. He was sure he was making noises that should not be heard in public. 

A shadow overcame him when he was touching his toes, Alec glancing up to see Jace, a metal bow in hand. “Hi,” Jace said.

Alec straightened up, “Hey?”

Jace twisted towards the back of the room, “You want to shoot together?”

“Archery’s more of a solo sport.” What was his game here?

Jace nodded, going to the range without another word. 

Alec finished his stretches, considering the sparring mats a moment before going to grab his own bow and the target next to Jace’s. For a while there was nothing but the rhythmic sound of arrows hitting a target, Jace definitely skilled in this just like he was everything else.

“Clary and I are going out,” Jace said after a while.

Alec carefully lowered his bow, reminding himself time and again that Jace was a guest here. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I’m taking her to the museum. Like I said I would. Or, she’s taking me. I’ve not exactly been here before.” 

Alec shot off a few more arrows, deciding his words properly, “If you mess her about again-”

“I won’t. Last time… something came up okay. I didn’t handle it great, and I could have explained better but I didn’t. She’s giving me a second shot so, I guess, do you think you could maybe keep your space from her?”

“Keep my space?”

Jace gave him a pointed look, and it dawned on Alec there that to Jace it had probably looked like Alec only took Clary out because he was jealous she wasn’t giving him the same kind of attention anymore. Things were different in Alec’s mind. He didn’t have an interest in Clary for starters, but to Jace, yeah, he could see why Jace would be a little intimidated. Not that he needed to be. 

“Fine.” But if Jace did mess Clary around again he really was going to get Jonathan involved. If Alec was intimidating Jonathan was downright terrifying at times. It was exactly what Jace deserved if he thought he could get away with his behaviour.

The twangs of the string filled the silence again, both of them aiming for perfect shots. Then Jace surprised him with, “I’m glad you’re feeling okay.”

Alec lined another shot up, “You were worried about me?”

Jace shrugged, they barely knew each other after all, “I saw your mom and sister carry you out. I thought you were dead.”

He didn’t even know what his mom had said to the others that had seen him be carried out. He knew he looked awful when he walked back in, but going out had to have been worse. The blood was still pouring out of him after all. It wasn’t really unusual at the Institute. They did fight demons after all. But it was one thing for it to be from an attack and another to think someone’s own body could do that to them. “Well, I’m alive.”

“You are,” Jace agreed, staring a little longer than he probably should at Alec’s face. “Are you really feeling better today?”

He shrugged, he never really knew what to say to questions like that. They’d never specified what kind of ‘chronic illness’ he had, meaning Alec had never read up on symptoms or whatever to make it believable. “Best as I can be,” he settled on.

Jace looked him over again. “You fancy sparring sometime?”

“Really?” After his talk about giving Clary space Jace was asking him to spar.

Jace didn’t seem too bothered by it, saying, “I’m making things up with Clary, I don’t see why we can’t be friends too. You seem… cool.”

“Cool?”

Jace winced, “Kids say that here right? Wayland’s been trying to pick up some of the slang” Nice to know someone was talking to the other Jonathan. “I don’t think it’s working.”

Alec hummed, “Kids don’t say ‘cool’ in Alicante?”

“No,” Jace snorted. “Everyone’s boring over there.”

“And there was me thinking the Academy was the most prestigious place any shadowhunter could hope to train at.”

“Well, yeah,” Jace snorted again, “Doesn’t mean they’re not boring though. You should have heard some of the kids I trained with. They think just because their family is important they’re automatically good shadowhunters. No one’s born with a natural talent to kill demons. Their family worked hard for that title.”

“Do you work hard?” 

Jace shrugged, “My dad’s a Herondale, what do you think?” 

Alec thought Jace spent far too many hours in the training room is what he thought. Very rarely did Alec hear of Jace doing anything other than training, and on those few scant occasions he was always with his mom. “I think the pair of us have got a lot to prove to people who don’t care.”

It was a slither of an instant, barely there really. But for a second Alec felt a kinship with Jace. 

He found Izzy after he showered and told her to keep an eye on Clary in the next coming days. If Jace blew her off again Alec wanted to know about it, and Izzy wholeheartedly agreed, already planning Jace’s funeral.

He played a symphony of songs that night to make it up to Church for being absent. Church definitely appreciated it, purring on Alec’s lap until he fell asleep, his little feet in the air and tongue slightly out as he snored. He snapped a picture to show Magnus, knowing from one cat owner to another he’d at least understand what an honour this was.

Speaking of Magnus, his mom cornered him before he went to sleep that morning and asked just what time he was going out on Thursday.

“Mom-”

“Don’t mom me. Boys are boys and just because you’re one yourself does not make me any less worried. Just give me a general overview in case something comes up.” He’d heard her say the same to Izzy before, still did actually when his mom actually knew about the date. 

He didn’t like it, but he understood why she did it. Why she was like this, and told her about the walk across Central Park. “I’ll keep my phone on loud and the two of us away from any dark places.” Since Central Park could be heavily shadowed, especially in early winter. 

“Good, take a knife too. Or at least one of your arrow heads.”

He promised, and gave his mom both of his numbers now she knew he had a second phone. 

He didn’t see his dad at all that night. Nor the night after. He had a feeling Robert was avoiding him. Or, maybe avoiding mom since she seemed to be lingering around him more than usual. Whatever the cast, Alec didn’t see him, and before he knew it he was waiting at Central Park for Magnus to show up and honestly didn’t care about his dad. Not when Magnus looked like that.

He’d wrapped up from the wind, his jacket fluffy and a scarf covering his nose. It was rather funny seeing Magnus hastily stuff it down, that sour look at being outside lighting up as he spotted Alec. 

“A walk?” Magnus asked when he got near enough. “Do I look like a dog to you?”

“No. But you do look like a man who appreciates the beautiful things in life.” Alec just had to look at him to know that. “And you have to admit, there’s something pretty about Central Park in winter.”

Magnus grumbled but didn’t complain again as Alec started them around the safer parts of Central Park. Namely the parts that wouldn’t lead them into the Seelie realm. Conversation was a little stilted as Alec sorted through what parts of Magnus’s life he wanted to know about, but soon enough they were talking. First about their cats. Then about Magnus’s bogus day the other day. Then, “You certainly look well. Are you feeling it? I brought another scarf.” Magnus had indeed brought another scarf, seeming to conjure it out of nowhere. 

“I’m fine,” Truthfully his wings kept off the worst of any chill, the insulation from the elements the only thing they were good for. But, “I think my hands are a little chilly though. Maybe,” he chanced holding one out between them, Magnus banishing the scarf back to wherever he’d gotten it and eagerly taking Alec’s offered hand. 

“You are feeling okay then?” Magnus pressed. “Because, I’m no physician but I’m pretty sure the hospital isn’t someplace you go when you’re feeling just a little under the weather.”

A nice way of asking what exactly was wrong without pressuring Alec into giving too much information. “It’s a thing that happens every now and then. I’m sick for a little while, then I get better, then I get sick again. It just… it got really bad this time. But I’m okay.” It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to admit to on a first date. What if Magnus thought it was too much? He stressed it again, “It’s really not that bad.”

“I’m sure,” Magnus said, not sounding like he believed him. He cleared his throat a little, “I made this really awkward didn’t I?”

“No,” Alec would have had to broach this topic at some point, and he wasn’t about to bring a mundane into the shadow world so, “Not at all. It’s better you know now than later, right?”

“I suppose.” Magnus hadn’t dropped his hand, which Alec thought was a good sign.

Alec struggled for a moment before changing the subject to, “So what exactly do you do for fun?” 

That Magnus could answer and did, going into an in depth description about all the hobbies he’d had in his life. It was almost overwhelming how many things Magnus had done. Mundanes must really have a lot of time on their hands. Or maybe it was just Magnus.

“You?”

Alec shrugged, “Er, I play the violin. But, I don’t really find it fun unless I’m annoying my sister or serenading my cat.”

Magnus laughed at that. “You didn’t by chance play for Chairman did you?”

Alec shook his head, “I didn’t want to freak him out. Some cats don’t like music.”

Magnus disagreed. It sounded like he had more than one of them as he went on to tell Alec all about cats actually having a personal preference. “Chairman likes country the little traitor. But some of the cats I know like classical, or pop. Just like we like different kinds of music too.”

Alec tried to imagine just how Magnus had discovered Chairman liked country. Was Magnus a secret country lover? Had it simply trickled onto his playlist and before he could turn it over he saw his cat liked it? What was the story here? 

They ended up getting ice cream for all it being cold. Magnus took his hand after too, Alec giving it a gentle squeeze.

It was good. More than good.

Then Alec saw the last thing he needed when he was laying low. A Seelie. Namely one he’d seen before. 

Meliorn.

The man hadn’t spotted Alec yet, which meant, so long as Alec kept his cool, and steered Magnus as far away from Meliorn as he could. The first part was easy. The second part not so much. 

“Alexander!”

“Nooo,” he sighed, wondering if Magnus would mind Alec hoisting him over his shoulder and running.

Magnus had already spotted Meliorn however. Curiosity was written all across his face as Meliorn came over. The seelie had his ears covered, and wasn’t wearing his usual armour either. In fact, he looked almost normal in some high end hoodie. “I was told you would be here today.”

Izzy!

“Really?” 

Meliorn handed a letter over, the thing covered in perfume and delicate writing. Alec had to give it to seelies, they certainly made their paramours feel special. “If you could deliver this to your sister I would be in your debt.”

The worst part was Isabelle was already waiting for it, so Alec could hardly come back empty handed. “Fine. Seriously though, you guys have got to get a better system.” He didn’t like playing delivery boy.

Meliorn gave him a look, “Now that you mention it Isabelle said you had a phone she could perhaps borrow on occasion?”

He was seriously going to kill her. “Fine,” he dug his phone out, handing it over for Meliorn to take the number out of. “Keep it PG though. If I have to read one text about my sisters breasts I’m going to take this off her.”

The smile Meliorn gave him promised Alec wouldn’t be getting breast texts but he would be getting lavish descriptions of his sisters other body parts. He was going to have to get another phone. Or buy Izzy her own. She better pay him for the data. “I am in your debt Alexander,” Meliorn bowed when he handed Alec’s phone back.

“Yeah yeah.” he stuffed it next to Isabelle’s letter. “Bye.” 

He hurried Magnus off before more could be said or, God forbid, the hood over Meliorn’s head Alec was beginning to suspect was one of Izzy’s blew off and Magnus noticed the ears. “Interesting fellow,” Magnus said, eyes still on Meliorn. “How exactly do you know each other?”

“My sister’s dating him.” Sort of. He wasn’t sure seelies knew how to date. 

“Really?” there was an odd note to his voice, “Where exactly did she meet him?”

Alec shrugged, “I think she was on a night out.” 

“Ah.”

“Why? Do you know him?” Meliorn was a knight, he wasn’t constantly glamoured like a pixie or a goblin. He also looked semi normal right now too, meaning Magnus could see him no bother.

Sure enough, “I just thought he looked familiar. Maybe a street artist or something.”

Meliorn did look the artsy type. “I think he is. I don’t know, I don’t ask who they are. So long as she gives me a photo of them to go off I let her go out.” She was more amendable to giving Alec her boyfriends faces than their mom.

“You let her?” Magnus repeated, looping his arm through Alec’s.

“Not like that.” he wasn’t some sort of creep that didn’t want his sister to have any freedom.

“I know,” Magnus laughed, “You don’t come off like that, and honestly the photo idea’s not a bad one. Do you give her your partners back?”

“Er, considering there’s just been you not really. She knows where we are though, just in case you are some kind of murderer.” 

Magnus laughed, “Well consider me honoured.”

“Yeah?” Not just for not having his photo shared. 

“Yes,” he patted Alec’s hand. “You’re doing well, don’t worry so much. I’m having a good time.”

“And you don’t mind…” That he was basically a virgin at everything to do with romance.

“Well,” Magnus considered, “Usually, maybe. But, I’m thoroughly charmed by you. Besides,” his tone dropped to a more serious level, “I’m guessing you don’t get out much with your…”

“Not really.” Which was true. Which reminded him, “If I don’t answer again, I really am not ignoring you.”

“I know,” Magnus smiled, the two of them enjoying the rest of their walk.

He thought about kissing Magnus goodbye. The last five minutes as they wound their way out of the park and to the subway that was the only thing Alec could think of. It would be simple to. Just leaning over, maybe bending down a little, and kissing him. But, would Magnus want to be kissed on the first date? Did it feel right? Maybe the second date was best.

Yeah. Second date. 

Maybe.

But he really wanted to kiss Magnus.

“This is me,” Magnus said, the two of them lingering on the stairs to the subway. “I had fun,” when Alec didn’t say anything more. 

“Yeah, me too. A lot of fun.”

Magnus grinned up at him, Alec thinking maybe now. Magnus seemed to be expecting it too. His first kiss. He was going to have his first kiss-

Someone bumped into his wings, knocking Alec off. This was why he hated crowds. 

By the time he turned back, the moment had passed and Magnus, still grinning, just a little softer now, bopped Alec on the nose and strode off, “Next time Alexander.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

He jogged back, working off the excitement and frustration until he could feel nothing but the ache in his legs.

His mom was up when he got in, sparing him a smile, Alec thinking she was more happy he’d come back than had his first date, and nodded over to where Izzy was bringing her pancakes. He passed over the letter, and his phone, with the promise from Isabelle that she wouldn’t answer any calls that weren’t from Meliorn. “You know you have money, buy yourself a phone.”

“I would but unlike you I have a guard when I go shopping.” Usually dad who liked to make sure Izzy didn’t overspend. “There’ll be questions if I just go buy a second phone.

Which was a fair point. “Just be careful with mine okay?”

She did, and then proceeded to drag him to her room to ask about Alec’s mystery man. 

He didn’t give her every detail, just enough that he was smiling again when they both headed to the training room. 

Jace popped up just as Alec grabbed his bow again, actually giving Alec pointers as they wasted hours testing their accuracy. He didn’t appreciate the pointers, but he didn’t so much mind the company. He decided to give Jace the benefit of the doubt. Mostly because Alec was in a good mood from seeing Magnus and couldn’t find it in himself to be angry right now. A little bit because Jace had about two hours to blow Clary off before they went for their trip to the museum, and until he saw Clary crying in Izzy’s room again, Alec was willing to play nice.

There was a bit of a crowd assembled as Alec settled in to monitor duty. Izzy and Jonathan were pretending to pack their weapons, but Alec knew they were watching the doors just as much as Alec was. He glanced at the clock, six staring back at him. The museum closed at nine, meaning Jace had three hours to get her there before he was officially on everyone’s hate list again.

Six ten came with Jace dressed like he was going to a formal dinner in Idris, his hair smoothed back and smelling like he’d doused himself in cologne. Alec’s nose twisted at it, but Clary seemed to like it when she joined him a moment later. They went out not long after, Alec feeling the other two watch just as much as him until Jace and Clary were firmly out that door.

“He did it,” Izzy said.

“He did,” Alec agreed.

Jonathan turned his lip up at it, packing up for real now. “There’d better be some good demons out there tonight.” Alec hoped there were too. He knew just how annoying it was to know his little sister was out with a complete stranger. The anxiety alone kept him up the first time Izzy went on a date. “Keep your phone on won’t you Alec. I told her to call you in case something happens.”

He nodded. Alec was the only one in their group that would be by his phone all night. If something bad happened to Clary he’d tell the right people. “Your dad’s going out tonight then?”

Jonathan rolled his eyes, “Says he has something to show me. Some ‘top secret’ project. Whatever keeps me off mom’s team I guess.”

“That sucks,” Izzy said, wrapping her whip up, “But hey, if you get bored of playing nice with your dad I think me and Jonathan are hitting the clubs.”

“You and Jonathan?”

“Is that allowed?” Alec asked.

Izzy rolled her eyes at them, “There can be demons at clubs. In fact, it’s been shown they’re drawn to them because of the large number of people. It’s better than staking a hospital out all night.” She pointedly didn’t look at Alec when she carried on with, “Besides, Jace isn’t our only guest, and I don’t think they have clubs in Idris. They didn’t when I was there anyway.”

“Nor me,” Jonathan agreed. “Sure. Text me the address and I’ll meet up with you.”

Izzy looked back at him, Alec shaking his head, “Not my scene.”

“Suit yourself.”

It was a long boring night after that. He stared at some screens. Then stared some more at some screens. At one point he fetched himself a snack, and then stared at screens. Michael was off who knew where tonight, meaning Alec had no one to talk to, or just, sit with him. He was tempted to text Magnus, Izzy had gave his phone back, but it was two in the morning on a weeknight. If Magnus was up he was probably working, meaning Alec just had to suffer at work in silence. 

At three, Jonathan surprised Alec by coming home early. He didn’t even say hello, his head down and looking a little pale as he strode towards the residential part of the Institute. Jace and Clary came home not long after, but where Jonathan was frantic, these two practically skipped, holding hands and everything as they tried to navigate to their rooms.

“Your brother’s back!” Alec called in case Clary thought to try anything on the first date. He was helping her out in the long run. If Jace was serious about her, he wouldn’t press the issue. 

Not that he actually thought Clary heard him. 

The others came back at their regular times, and most of them looked like they’d spent the night finding other things to do than hunting demons. Izzy certainly had fun, Jonathan Wayland coming in to ask Alec, not slurring at all, if he could help open up the window for them to sneak through. They honestly should have just walked in, it wasn’t like they were the only drunk shadowhunters tonight. 

The last in was Valentine, Robert a few steps in front of him. He didn’t even look at Alec, the pair of them following where Jonathan had went at three, Alec guessing it was to do with that ‘top secret’ mission. He wondered if it had to do with the sword Michael was making. 

“Bed,” his mom shooed him off to, “You’re practically dead on your feet.”

He didn’t argue, he’d had an early start with Magnus and right now bed was the best thing he’d heard in a long time. 

Considering Jace kept his promise, Alec had no reason to be mad at him anymore. Clary was happier than ever, and even Jonathan didn’t have anything to say about the two so when Jace asked if they could finally have that sparring match Alec didn’t use it as an excuse to beat Jace up. That wasn’t to say he went easy, he definitely gave Jace a run for his money. But Jace trained relentlessly, and Alec was lucky to be able to train at all. 

He happily accepted the pointers when Jace gave them this time, his sparring one thing Alec knew he had to improve on. 

After, once he’d showered, his phone was taken off him as more explicit texts that were eating into his limit were sent off to Meliorn, Alec dreading the responses. Hoping to escape thinking about that, he went to find Max, only Max was with Jace, and Alec didn’t feel like showering again. Which meant he was stuck with his mom as she made nice to the other women of the Institute, filling her Lightwood role so to say. Alec wondered if the men knew that role was mainly composed of their wives bitching about them. Not that Alec blamed his mom. Robert was a dick sometimes, even Alec knew that. 

Nothing of interest was said, Alec getting the feeling they were toning it down for his benefit. He would have left them except his only options after his mom were Izzy, who was busy helping Jonathan Wayland pick out another clubbing outfit for that night, Jonathan Morgenstern who hadn’t come out of his room since last night and his dad who Alec certainly wasn’t going to make the first move to talk to. Why should he? He’d done nothing wrong. He didn’t even understand why his dad was ignoring him in the first place.

So there he stayed until work, and thus was his routine for the next week or so.

“I’m bored, rescue me,” Alec said one Thursday evening over the phone.

Magnus chuckled on the other end, “What are you doing?”

“Work,” boring, mind numbing work. “Surveillance stuff. You?”

“I know I should be saying something sexy but, honestly I’m not ashamed to admit I’m pretty enthralled in this Hallmark movie. I know they always get together yet here I am, shouting at my screen telling this guy to just go to the airport already.”

Alec laughed, imagining it all. Chairman on one end of the sofa, Magnus on the other, squished in because he didn’t have the heart to kick Chairman off. Was he still in his clothes from the day or did he have some fancy pyjamas with his initials engraved on them? “Sounds like fun.”

“You’d hate it,” Magnus said, “I hate it, I just can’t stop watching it.”

Alec laughed again.

“You said something about rescuing? Magnus asked when Alec finished. 

“Yeah,” he’d been thinking about this next one, “I was hoping we could get together again. Maybe go to the Candy Bar?” 

There was a clink, Magnus probably setting some expensive drink down, “Are suggesting our next date be shopping?”

“Well…” He hated shopping. He just, he had clothes, they were fine, they lasted until Izzy burned them ‘back to whatever circle of hell they’d been birthed in’. But Magnus liked shopping, and if there was a promise of something in there for Alec, he wasn’t opposed to spending the day talking, walking around, and just doing what made Magnus happy. “I figured since you have impeccable taste, and I need something new for my family dinner why not let you help me out. I’m off to see my grandparents you see, it’s kind of  a big thing.” It was, it really was. 

“It sounds it,” he could hear the grin through the phone. Magnus made a big sigh about it, saying, “Alright, you pulled my leg. I’ll gladly spend the day dressing you.”

“And going to the Candy Bar,” He was adamant they go there. Clary had ate the last of his candy bars and neither her or Izzy replaced them. 

“And going to the Candy Bar,” Magnus agreed. “Just name the day.”

“Are you sure?” Wasn’t Magnus busy.

“Trust me, my work lets me make my own schedule. Even if it didn’t, I’d find time for you Alexander.” 

He could feel his face heating a little. “How about Sunday?” The stores always closed early, and he could skip training if it meant getting back just before his shift started. 

“Sunday it is.”

He gladly suffered through Thursday night after that.

Alec hadn’t been lying when he said he had a family dinner. Every year, on the fifth of December, the Lightwoods and Truebloods got together to celebrate the union of their families. A joyous day Alec hated because his parents always ended up fighting at the end of it. His grandparents were okay. They were very old fashioned, was the only way Alec could describe them. They believed a lot in tradition, meaning Alec would be suffering through countless ‘girlfriend’ questions as his sister was looked down on for her ‘free lifestyle choices that were inevitably going to send her to hell’. So Alec definitely needed a better outfit than the ratty suit he’d outgrown three years ago. 

It saved Izzy begging their parents to take him out too, and Alec having to suffer Izzy’s shopping habits. Magnus didn’t know him that well after all. The theory was that he would go easy on Alec because of this fact. If not, well, he had comfortable shoes for a reason.

He may have lied to Izzy about just where he was taking Magnus when Sunday came. She was awake, for once, at the God awful time of eight a.m. Hanging out her doorway, she managed to catch Alec before he went to tell his mom his vague location and Alec knew then and there that if he said he was going shopping she wouldn’t care that it was a date, or that she usually took more than five minutes to get ready. So he lied and promised himself he’d get her something while he was out just in case she ever found out he had lied. 

His mom, at least, told him he’d made the right call. “Knife,” she still reminded him anyway, tucking a small pocket knife they’d picked out together when he was fifteen and there was still hope he might one day fall for Clary. “Have fun.”

“I will.” 

He spotted Magnus easily in the crowd. He was practically bouncing, bundled up again, but looking much happier this time as he glanced at his phone. The urge to kiss him overtook Alec again. But greeting someone with a kiss when it wasn’t their first was kind of weird. So he didn’t, and instead settled for holding Magnus’s hand again at the first possible opportunity.

“Where to first then?” he trusted Magnus’s judgement.

Sort of.

“That depends on how formal this dinner is.”

Around the time Magnus asked what Alec’s budget was he knew he’d made a mistake. Magnus was not going to go easy on him. Alec didn’t know how but it was somehow worse than being with Izzy. Usually, when he went shopping with her, it was hours of looking for stuff for her, often picking up little things for him here and there on the way. With Magnus, Alec understood about three percent of what he was saying, and usually this would be fine, but they were shopping for Alec. So Alec thought he should know what Magnus was talking about. But he didn’t, meaning he felt stupid just standing there floundering around as another question about just what kind of pants he should be wearing was asked.

“Er…”

“Well what kind of underwear do you use?” Magnus’s eyes wandered down, like he could look through Alec’s jeans to see for himself.

He felt his face heating a little. “Is this relevant?” He didn’t want to discuss his underwear. Namely because they weren’t his underwear. All of his were gone. Simply gone, and Alec had a sneaking suspicion they were with his sweaters that had also went mysteriously missing. 

He just thanked God him and Izzy had the same size hips otherwise he would have had to go grovelling to Jonathan. Izzy had some girly briefs which kept things in the right places. Jonathan however, Alec had glimpsed his underwear once and that was enough for him. Besides, Jonathan was like a stick. They never would have fit.

Magnus pressed the issue anyway, “Your underwear affects the pants you wear Alexander. You don’t want blatant boxer bumps if you’re trying to make a good impression.”

Damn. That was kind of true. 

He shrugged, “I…” needed to pick some new ones up. “Briefs, usually.” Definitely after Magnus left however. 

Magnus started steering him down a different street, “We’ll need to go this way then.”

It was a lot. There were so many choices Alec had never let himself look at before, always more concerned with getting in and out in as little time as possible. He felt lost as he stood in the changing rooms, staring down twenty different coloured shirts that were somehow the same colour too? What was this?

Even when he did find a shirt he thought looked good Magnus wasn’t of the same opinion. This was the window shopping round. Meaning they were browsing, not looking to buy anything just yet, and comparing to the other clothes Alec would be forced to try. His feet were already aching. 

But Magnus seemed to be enjoying himself. Alec thought he would be a little put off, but he looked just as much for himself as he did for Alec, sometimes even matching him so they could take stupid sneaky photos in the changing rooms. 

“Now this one is nice,” Magnus said, smoothing his hands over Alec’s shoulders. They left tingles in their wake, Alec letting the feeling fade before looking back into the mirror.

“But it’s a sweater.” Not what he would have went for. But it was nice. Formal in a way his others weren’t.

“High quality, warm, shows off those lovely shoulders of yours.” Alec smothered a smile at that. “And you make it look good. I’d say you’ll be more comfortable in this than you would be a fancy shirt.”

He would be. It was practical too, even if Alec had spent ten minutes squashing his wings down enough and working them around his glamour to make it look normal. His grandparents manors, both of them, were always freezing in winter. Alec often ended up wearing his blazer before the night was finished, and got told off for doing so every time. “I like it.”

“I knew you would,” Magnus grinned at him through the mirror. “Now, pants.”

Urgh.

He had to admit, once they’d finished, that Magnus had done well. Everything wasn’t tight, or fit weirdly on his body, it was comfortable, even the shoes. He supposed that was what happened when he went shopping with a man and not his sister whose idea of comfort is squeezing herself in clothes so tight he can see things no brother should see.

They finished at the Candy Bar, as promised, Alec filling his basket with candy enough to feed himself and two girls who liked to use their femininity to get away with stealing. He’d been brought up with them, he knew a period didn’t come every two weeks, he’d been present at the talk Jocelyn had gave them. 

“What?” Alec asked, seeing Magnus scowling at the chocolate bars.

“Nothing,” He promised, sparing Alec a smile, his scowl back on as soon as he turned to the bars, “Just, remind me to get you a few bars the next time I go to France.”

He’d hold Magnus to that. He liked tasting things from around the world. He also liked the idea that Magnus would be around him long enough to think about Alec the next time he went travelling. 

He bought Magnus a few candies anyway, his complaining stopping when Magnus accepted the bad Alec handed to him. 

It was a few blocks to the subway, Alec taking advantage of every step they had together, even if he couldn’t hold Magnus’s hand with the bags weighing him down. He moved them all to one hand, thankful for the weights he sometimes trained with as his new clothes and food threatened to break skin as he thanked Magnus again for coming.

“I’m just glad I didn’t scare you off,” Magnus laughed, “I can tell you’re not usually one to browse the stores.”

Alec shook his head, “I have a sister though so, I didn’t mind. You did much better than her as well. Usually she has me in something tight.”

“Uh huh,” Magnus said, eyes definitely not on Alec’s when he said that. “I see. And you still have these clothes I presume.”

“Probably.” Right at the back of his closet. “I guess I could break them out at one point for you. Maybe our next date?”

“Definitely,” Magnus said a little too quickly, reigning in his enthusiasm with a gentle smile, “We’ll do something you enjoy next time too.”

“I didn’t mind.”

“You did,” Magnus laughed, “And that’s sweet of you that you did it anyway. So next time we do what you like. You said you were an archer right?”

“Yeah.” He’d looked it up, and apparently archery was a hobby mundanes could have too so he didn’t have any qualms about telling Magnus about it. Still, he didn’t see how archery was a good date idea. It was more of a solo sport, like he’d told Jace.

Magnus hummed anyway, telling Alec, “Bring your bow, I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Okay,” he trusted Magnus. “I will.”

There was that tension again. That urge for Alec to lean forward and just do it. Magnus, he was sure, wouldn’t laugh if it was awful. He knew Alec wasn’t experienced and still had turned up for another date. So, really, it was just Alec’s cowardliness that was keeping him from doing it. 

Magnus seemed to know, again, that Alec was overthinking things since he didn’t press the issue. Instead he gently took Alec’s cheek and lay his lips on the other. It lingered, that was what Alec would remember. Magnus lingered long enough for Alec to actually feel it. Enjoy it. Leaning back Magnus left him with a smug look, telling him to “Call, please.”

“I will,” Alec promised, waiting until Magnus was out of sight before brushing his fingers against the spot Magnus had kissed. He knew why Magnus was so smug when his fingers came back covered in glitter. 

Dick. But Alec’s dick he supposed.

He walked a few more blocks before taking the subway back to the Institute. He hated returning straight away, it made some of the magic fade when he was faced with shadowhunters so soon after seeing Magnus. Whatever the case, fate, pure luck, or just Alec thinking about the mind numbing work waiting for him back at the Institute, he ended up walking past that stop and towards the next one. If he hadn’t, Alec didn’t even know what would have happened.

But he did, so Alec was there as the alley he walked past made a rather large bang. Senses on high alert, he waited for some mundane with a gun, and instead glanced in at nothing. Cats then. He would have walked on but, well, he didn’t like the idea of cats being on their own. The sky looked ready to snow any day, and Alec remembered walking past a cat when he was younger and ignoring it, only to find it dead next time he went past where it lived.

It wasn’t like he didn’t have the space. So long as he kept them to the upper floors of the Institute no one really complained. Well, no one but Church, but he would have to deal with it. 

So, still mindful in case it was some New York crazy that was just hiding, Alec extended his glamour to cover all of him and moved in. There was still rustling, and every other step Alec’s foot crushed something he’d rather not think about. Whatever this was wasn’t afraid of him. Or, as Alec would later find out, had been too stuck to run. 

He narrowed it down to the dumpster, the big industrial ones that often sat outside of restaurants. He checked all sides, hand on the knife his mom gave him before the rustling came again, wedged in between the dumpster and the wall. Rolling his eyes, he braced his hands against the dumpster and pushed, thankful that this was New York and people would rather spread their trash anywhere but the dumpster as it moved easily for him. The other end wedged further against the wall, meaning the little thing had to come Alec’s way if it wanted to scamper free. Usually by this time they’d see his feathers and he had no problem kidnapping it back home.

Except, it wasn’t a cat.

Instead Alec faced a really young, really terrified warlock. It wasn’t like the kid could be anything else, he was blue. Like all of him was blue. His skin, his hair, even his eyes were blue. There were the horns too. Two of them in fact, poking out from his shaggy hairline. 

Alec immediately dropped to his knees, uncaring of what was beneath them. He let his glamour go a bit, the kid, more of a toddler really, still staring, eyes wide at him. “Hey,” not the best of starts but introductions never hurt either. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” but someone had. Whether it was from being on the streets or whatever the kid had ran from someone had hurt him. His clothes were hanging off him, Alec able to see his bones prominently through his skin. He’d probably been hunting for food before he got trapped. Meaning if Alec had kept on walking…

He pushed that thought back, focusing more on the matter at hand. Shuffling a little forwards he held his hand out, wondering again how old this kid was. 

“It’s okay,” Alec said again, keeping his hand up. He’d seen Izzy do this before, usually with a newly turned werewolf but the same principle applied. They had to trust him before he could get them out, meaning he’d better get comfortable. “My name is Alec. What’s yours?”

The kid didn’t answer. He looked old enough to be speaking, and he definitely had an awareness of what Alec was saying, but whether it was muteness or he simply didn’t know how to respond would remain to be seen. 

“Well I am very cold,” he said, “Even with my scarf on. I bet you’re cold too.” Had to be. “How about we get out of this alley and go find your mom?” Alec was hoping this kid was too young to know about stranger danger. He believed, wholeheartedly, that kids should know about it, but warlock kids who didn’t know how to glamour themselves weren’t in the same situation mundanes would be if they were the ones faced with a stranger. 

The kid didn’t budge.

Alec tried for a good hour to get the kid out without outright picking him up. He bribed him with food. He gave the kid Alec’s knife so he would feel safe. He even gave the kid his coat because Alec actually was starting to worry about the dropping temperature.

Nothing worked.

Then Alec realised what he must look like to the kid. In the shadows of the dumpster the kid probably thought he was well hidden. That his skin could be excused and his horns were certainly small enough to only just poke above his head. He must have been warned about mundanes, or something had happened to him to make him wary of mundanes.

So Alec, for the first time in his life, actually used his wings for something. Pushing off the rest of his glamour, he still kept his distance but made sure the kid could see Alec’s warlock marks. That got the kid moving, his head peeking a little out of his hiding place to get a better look at them.

“Guess I should have led with this huh,” Alec said. “I’m a warlock,” he tried not to trip up saying it. He didn’t think he’d actually ever said it out loud before. It didn’t sit right in his mouth. But Alec forced himself to say it again, hoping the kid would recognise it, “You’re one too right?”

“War’ock,” the kid stumbled over.

“Yeah, warlock.”

He didn’t immediately come out. It was a good thirty minutes actually, but the wings got the kid out eventually, Alec grabbing his coat and wrapping the little guy up tight before starting back home.

He knew kids shouldn’t have a lot of candy, but with how boney he was, especially for someone so young, Alec snapped him off as many pieces of chocolate the kid wanted. Then suffered through the vomit when it came right back up ten minutes after. 

Thankfully it wasn’t a long walk from the subway to the Institute, and because he’d been thinking about the nice clean vomit free shirt he was going to change into when he got back, Alec didn’t think about the fact warlocks weren’t allowed in the Institute until he was a block away. 

The only warlocks inside right now were prisoners waiting to be transferred, the other business the Institute had with them done outside of the Institute walls. Even if it was a kid, Alec would be ordered to take the little guy back where he found him and leave him. 

So, plan B then.

“You have a what?” Izzy demanded.

“A new sweater I want to show you,” Alec said, tying his scarf in a knot on the kids neck. “I got it for the family dinner next week, but if you don’t like it I’m not going to wait until tomorrow to return it.”

There was a heavy groan on the other end, Alec hearing Izzy complain to someone, probably Clary, that her brother was hopeless. “I’m coming out.”

He waved her over as soon as he saw her, Izzy blinking a few times before sprinting over to him. “I thought you said you were at the subway,” she said.

“And let Valentine hear it?” It’s why he refused to tell her over the phone what was going on. “And, it’s not a sweater. I mean, I have one, but, I needed you more for this than your opinion.” He pointed to where his coat was currently trailing along the floor, the sleeves flapping as the warlock kid finally started acting like one instead of the silent companion Alec had become accustomed to.

“Is that-”

“A warlock. I don’t know if he ran away or someone took him,” Probably the latter judging by his age. “But I found him behind a dumpster.”

Izzy gave him a long look, “Cats are one thing Alec.”

“I know.” If they snuck this little guy in Alec could get in serious trouble. It wasn’t just a pair of wings this kid needed to hide. He was blue for crying out loud. “But I have Ragnor’s number. He just needs a place to stay until I get in touch with him. After that the warlocks always take care of their own.”

“They do,” Izzy sighed, running her hands through her hair. 

“He’s just a kid,” Alec lay on her.

Izzy shot him a look, both of them knowing she was going to say yes without the guilt trip. “Let’s meet him then.”

It wasn’t what Alec had expected. As soon as the kid saw Izzy he started screaming, tripping over his own feet as he tried to scramble away. It took Alec grabbing him around the middle to make sure they didn’t lose him and no amount of shushing or telling him Izzy was his sister was doing much to help.

“It’s the runes,” Izzy said, observing more than helping at this point. 

“The runes?” He could sort that. Grabbing the kid more firmly he let the screams get louder in his ear, walking them over to Izzy and took her arm. He’d never tried to glamour another person before, but he thought the principle was the same. Just think of what he wanted to hide and extend it outwards. 

It took a few seconds, then before his very eyes Izzy’s runes disappeared, leaving her strikingly mundane. Even she seemed a little shook, her runes having been on her since she was twelve. But their absence calmed the kid down, and that was what mattered.

“She’s one of us,” Alec said, keeping the glamour on Izzy. “She’s a warlock too, she’s just pretending to be a shadowhunter.” He carefully took his hand off her, the runes coming back. The kid didn’t scream, but he did wiggle a whole lot, staring uncomfortably at them until Alec made them disappear again.

It took seven shows before the kid let Izzy say hello, runes on, to him. She looked just as worried as him as she finally got a good look at the kid, sharing a look with Alec over the kids head.

Yeah, he was thinking the same. That little show wasn’t for nothing. This kid had seen shadowhunters before. Meaning it was probable they were the ones to kidnap him from his mundane mom.

“We’ll have to keep him upstairs near the greenhouse,” Izzy said. “There’s a room the gardener used to sleep in. No one goes in there.” Since they didn’t have a gardener anymore. 

“I can get him up,” the gardens were on the roof, and if Alec chose the right angle he wouldn’t have to go through the Institute at all. 

“I’ll get the first aid kit,” She took another glance at the kid and Alec’s stained shirt, “Some milk too.”

He probably shouldn’t have tried gliding for the first time in seven years with a toddler, but, desperate times called for desperate measures, and Alec couldn’t think of a better way to get the kid onto the roof undetected. So he made sure the kid was holding on tight and rode the elevator up to the roof of the nearest apartment building. 

“Okay,” Alec shook himself out. He vaguely remembered how to do this. Wings out, don’t panic, trust in his strength, and, most importantly, if he found himself too heavy to not give up, there was a kid on him and that was more important than a few sore wings. 

He took a running start, getting the feel of the wind beneath his feathers before finding the right angle and flinging himself off the roof. Pure fear drove straight to his stomach, but Alec held himself still, letting the wind catch him and guide him up. 

He’d been right about the weight, he was too heavy for something that hadn’t solely held his weight in years. But Alec refused to let himself shudder, pushing through every shake until he rolled, the kid tucked in tight, onto the Institute’s roof. 

He’d never been more happy in his life that they didn’t have wards surrounding the place. Otherwise the kid would have set off the alarm. Right now the only thing alarmed was the kid, and Izzy who’d seen his rather harsh landing and checked the scrapes on his side. 

“I wish I could use an iratze on you,” Izzy sighed, pulling out the alcohol wipes for Alec to clean himself up with. 

“Same.”

The gardeners old room was quite large, and right now crowded with shears and shovels Alec cleared out as Izzy shook out the old bed covers. They set the kid on top, Alec lighting one of the old lanterns as Izzy got to work.

She once told him she wanted to be a doctor when they were younger. That or a criminologist when she realised she could use DNA samples to track down rogue mundanes. Unfortunately, Izzy was a shadowhunter, so her interest in medicine had fallen to a hobby. One he was glad she’d kept up as she knocked gently on the kids bones, testing their range and mobility. “I have a flask for him. The milk should be warm by now.”

It was still a little hot actually, but Alec gladly blew on it before sticking in the silly straw Izzy had also brought up and letting the kid take little sips.

“We’re going to have to monitor his diet. What did you give him on the way over?”

He told her, getting a roll of her eyes for his effort.

“Figures,” She sighed, turning to the kid, “Sorry bud, no chocolate for you for a while. We’ll keep him on milk for a few days. He’s still young enough he should be somewhat relient on it for nutrients.”

“What if he gets hungry?” a kid couldn’t live on milk.

“He won’t. Not with this level of starvation. We get his hydration up first, and the milk is like an inbetween of water and solids so he’s sort of getting some food. It should be enough to prick at his hunger, and the fluid will be easier on his stomach at this level than solids anyway.” 

Alec had never felt prouder sitting there listening to her talk. Even if the topic was morbid. “I can come up every hour or so on my shift,” so long as he turned up for it they didn’t mind what he did beforehand. The only problem was the shift itself, every hour would only allow him a few minutes before he would be needed back downstairs. The last thing he wanted was to arouse suspicion by making people think he wasn’t doing his job.

“Or…”

“Or?” Alec repeated.

She looked him over, “We could say you’re ill?”

The only problem with that was, “Our parents will see right through it.”

Izzy’s mouth twisted for a moment, “Maybe we can trust mom.”

“Maybe.” But their mom had enough going on, and that still didn’t rule out their dad. “Hey, slow down,” he took the cup off the kid, ignoring the whine sent his way. “You’re gonna be sick bud.” The grabby hands came next, all of which Alec ignored in favour of screwing the lid back on his flask. “No,” he decided after another minute, “We can’t risk it.”

“Then what?” Isabelle asked, “We can’t leave him up here alone.”

The hourly check ins were pushing it too, Alec preferring that to be a plan B if they could think of nothing else. 

“Ooh,” Isabelle said after a moment, hopping up and digging through his pockets for his phone. He knew who she was calling before she put the phone to her ear, Alec wishing more than anything Meliorn wasn’t their best bet right now.

Except he was. He was a downworlder, one with unusual features enough it should soothe the kid. Alec hated to say it too, but seelies loved kids. Yes, they were usually kidnapping them, but their babysitting skills were unparalleled. 

So when Isabelle came in looking dejected he honestly couldn’t think of anything else. “I forgot we had the seelie raids tonight.”

“We do?”

“Valentine announced it while you were gone,” Isabelle nodded. “I already gave Meliorn a heads up. He’s going to be by the Queen’s side the whole night.”

Which meant they were back to square one. Or… maybe not. “Pass me my phone.”

It took some digging. A lot of hope and Isabelle being her usual brilliant sneaky self, but an hour later Alec was staring at his babysitter for the night, and quite possibly the worst mundane he’d ever set eyes on.

“That’s er, some cool looking horns you got there buddy,” the guy, Simon, said.

If Alec could glamour the kid, Simon wouldn’t even be able to see them. Alas, the kid didn’t know any magic, and, after reading Simon’s babysitting bio, he knew the guy was into enough ‘fantasy’ stuff he believed Izzy on sight when she said her ‘nephew’ wanted to play dress up tonight. That and Alec was pretty sure he’d spent so much time staring at Izzy’s boobs he was willing to go along with anything she said to him. 

“So how long will you guys be gone then?” Simon asked.

“Til dawn,” Alec said, stopping himself from grinding his teeth. “I’ll be checking in, so don’t think about leaving.”

“Oh, you work here?” Izzy had led him through the cemetery way. He’d have seen nothing but an old church coming in. 

“Surveillance.”

The guy’s eye twitched as he forced out a “Cool.”

Izzy, blessed Izzy, put herself back in his eyesight before the mundane could ask any more stupid questions, making sure “That’s okay right? Your ad said you could work as many hours as we need you to.”

That dopey look he’d had since coming in here was back. “Oh, yeah, definitely.” Alec would definitely be checking in. “Er, not to sound weird or anything but, is this his room or…”

“His room’s being cleaned,” Alec snapped.

“What my brother is trying to say,” Isabelle glared, “Is that, I think you’ve noticed he’s a bit... underfed?” She waited for Simon’s definite nod before continuing, “My brother just adopted him from a foreign country. They found him on the streets. This room’s the only one he actually goes to sleep in.”

“Oh,” Simon nodded, “Right. That makes sense. For a second there I thought you guys were like traffickers or something. Oh that’s nice. So what’s his name? Does he speak English?”

“No,” Alec said, not actually sure on that one, “And… Raphael.” It was the first name that popped into his head, and Alec knew he’d be getting shit for it later from Izzy’s snort. 

“Cute,” Simon said, “With an ‘f’?”

“Sure,” that was less embarrassing. Right? Apparently not from Izzy’s quivering shoulders. “We have to get going. Remember, milk hourly, I brought up games, if he wants to sleep, let him sleep and,” He held up the baby monitor he’d dug out from when Max had been born, “I’ll be listening, so no funny business.”

Simon nodded, Alec turning the monitor up high before glancing one last time at the confused baby warlock.

They didn’t even make it down the stairs before Izzy was laughing, “Raphael?”

“It was the first name I could think of.”

“Sure,” she laughed harder, “Has nothing to do with the fact you wet the bed thinking about him for five years.”

“Shut up.” Please, God shut up. “I don’t do this to you.”

“I don’t name my son after my first crush,” Izzy laughed.

“He’s not-” He sighed, pushing past her to get to the ops room. 

Truthfully he hadn’t thought of Raphael in years. The last Alec heard the vampire was hiding out in a care home, the sole survivor of the Du Mort raid four years ago. Izzy had given him grief about that too, but even he knew she was glad he’d done his bit to make sure Raphael was safe. He wasn’t a bad guy. He actually helped Izzy out one night when a bunch of mundanes didn’t get the hint to leave her alone. 

He hoped Raphael was as far away from New York as he could get these days. 

As for other Rafael, he was just glad he hadn’t said Magnus. God knows what conclusions Izzy would come to if he did. He wanted to keep that part of his life as separate from this one as he could get. 

Izzy caught up to him in the ops centre, all laughed out as she said, “He’s going to be fine. You said the mundane was desperate enough to believe us, and he seems like a good guy.”

Alec just grunted, going to his usual seat. He slipped a headphone in connected to the monitor as the shadowhunters suited up, the strings of a guitar plucking over as Simon did what he was being paid to do and watch a kid. Alec didn’t actually think Simon was a bad guy. Just mouthy, and with the way Alec was on edge right now he didn’t have time for mouthy. 

He’d make it up to the guy. Maybe buy one of those album things he’d been slipping into conversation over the phone. Clary would probably like it. She liked weird things. 

He kept his promise and checked every hour. The first few Rafael ran over to see him for, his little legs threatening to give way every step. Even Simon had his hands outstretched in case they failed Rafe. 

Then, after, Alec went up and found the little guy asleep, Simon on his phone or composing on his guitar. He always asked Alec a million questions, tone quiet, yet still talking anyway despite there being a sleeping kid in the room.

Most of them were questions about what Alec did. “Surveillance” he finally barked out.

“Like, government?” 

Apparently that was intimidating to this guy so Alec just shrugged and hoped the amiguation would stop the rest of the questions.

They did. 

When the end of his shift finally came, Alec slipped a tip on top of Simon’s fee. The kid deserved it, honestly. He hadn’t been caught, he’d kept Rafe quiet and he hadn’t done anything to warrant being punching aside from looking at Izzy’s breasts. 

Still, he kind of regretted it when he saw Simon nearly fall over his feet to tell Alec if there was any other babysitting services he needed in future to definitely phone him up. “Like really, you’re amazing-”

“Iz,” Alec sighed, his sister grabbing the mundane and towing his chattering body out.

Exhausted from being up a day straight, Alec happily flopped next to Rafael. He wasn’t going to let the kid wake up alone, and considering it was early he caught a few hours sleep before phoning Ragnor.

Or, tried to.

“He’s not picking up,” Alec said, dialling again. The familiar beeps greeted him once the phone had rang its course. 

“You don’t think he’s in trouble do you?” Isabelle asked.

Alec didn’t want to think that. He hoped not to think that. “Maybe he’s just busy.” Warlocks led busy lives. Potions and travelling and stuff. Ragnor was probably with a client or, who knew what.

Izzy didn’t look like that was true, and honestly Alec didn’t think it either. Not with the way things were these days. “Keep trying him. I’ll try the payphones this afternoon too.”

They did. They rang until it got dark again, and loathe as Alec was to do so he had no choice but to ring Simon up again and ask him to babysit. He was still eager, despite the fact it had literally been hours.

“I need the money,” Simon laughed when he got there. “The band doesn’t pay much and college… whew it’s er… yeah it’s draining me dry.”

Izzy hummed, Alec electing not to say anything unless he had to. “Well, you might have your work cut out for you tonight. Rafe’s a bit excited.”

Excited was a nice word for what he was. He crossed between hysterics and hyperactive like a ping pong ball. One moment Alec had a chattering toddler bouncing on the bed beside him like he’d never seen one before, and the next the kid was huddled in a corner not letting them near him. He’d refused his milk twice, and wet the bed and his clothes multiple times. Eventually Alec had to go get some diapers, never so mad than when he saw just how mad the malnutrition was. Rafe was practically a skeleton, and even Izzy had to step outside a moment when she saw him without those poor excuses for clothes for the first time. 

“I can handle excited. I brought my laptop as well. You guys are cool with movies right?” Simon checked.

Alec shrugged, more concerned about the tantrums than the content this mundane wanted to show Rafael. “If he gets too bad call for me over the monitor.”

Words Alec would soon regret.

Rafael was inconsolable. Alec didn’t even think he knew why he was crying. All Alec did know was that he started not long after Alec left, and even when he came back, after Simon was out of his depth and sporting a mark that looked a little like a horn puncture, Rafe wouldn’t stop crying. One moment he wanted Alec, the next he didn’t, but he didn’t want Alec out of his sight either. 

It was breaking his heart to leave, but Alec had a job, and doing it kept Rafe safe so he had to pull Simon aside and tell him to buck up every time he needed to get back to it. 

Eventually they came up with a compromise. It meant creating and adding Simon on Facebook, but it stopped Rafe’s violent outbursts. The video call wasn’t the same as Alec being there, but so long as Alec interacted with Rafe, made sure Rafe knew that Alec was watching, he was still here, the kid was content to just look over every couple of minutes and continue his less volatile crying. 

“I think it’s like separation anxiety,” Simon said, laptop in front of him and some mundane movie lulling Rafe to sleep right now. “You said he was found on the streets right?”

“Yeah,” Alec said low, making sure no one was looking directly at him. 

“I looked it up. I can send you some of the stuff if you like. You know, now we’re facebook pals.” God let Ragnor pick up tomorrow. “It’s kind of interesting actually. It says you should get him a safety blanket, or a toy, something he can associate with you. You don’t already have something like that do you?” Simon looked around like something would just magically pop up.

“No.” Wait, maybe, “I guess my coat.” He’d brought it back down to his room to clean, but, he could bring it back up if it meant Simon got a bit of peace. 

“Your coat could work. Do you want me to send you this stuff?”

He sighed, hating this facebook thing so much, “Yeah, go on.” Izzy would love reading through it even if he didn’t. “I’ll get my coat.”

“I can get it,” Simon volunteered, “I actually have to pee anyway, and I think this little guy needs a diaper change.”

“I’ll do it,” Alec insisted. The last thing he needed was for a mundane to go through his things. “Just wait for me to get up there before you go to the bathroom.”

The coat, surprisingly, helped. Rafe grabbed onto it as soon as Alec brought it up, hugging it close to his chest before ordering Alec in that weird baby babble of his to help him put it on. It was cute. It also sent Rafe finally to sleep. 

He tipped Simon twice as much that night for his troubles. “Want me to put you down as a regular or?” 

Loathe as Alec was to admit it, “Maybe. You don’t mind?” It was taking up a lot of the mundane’s time.

“Nah, I don’t have classes until the afternoons, and the band’s not meeting up until Christmas break so my nights are basically free. Also, you know, money. And I think what you’re doing is really great Mr Lightwood. Kids shouldn’t get like that”

“No, they shouldn’t.” That they agreed on.

 He shared a look with Izzy, his sister taking Simon’s arm, “How about me and you hash out some long term details while I show you out.”

Simon should have added Izzy to that list of his. God knows every other boy did.

He sent Simon’s mundane psychology articles to Izzy as he tried Ragnor again. He was right, she did find it fascinating, and spent the rest of the afternoon with one of the Institute’s tablets looking up what other things they might have to expect from a neglected, abused, kid Rafael’s age.

He felt like pulling his hair out when Ragnor still didn’t pick up. “At this rate we’re gonna have to call Meliorn,” something he didn’t particularly want to do. The seelies would be in hiding now. Meliorn wouldn’t be capable of making contact with the warlocks even if he wanted to. Which meant Rafael would probably end up in the seelie realm. 

Potentially being hunted by shadowhunters who had already hurt him. He would hate Alec forever for doing that to him. 

He wiped his eyes. This was stupid. The seelie realm was secure. It was better than the Institute as well. Rafael could run along those open forests…

Except he wouldn’t be able to eat anything.

Izzy sat next to him, wrapping her arm around him, “We’ll figure something out.”

He hoped so. 

Simon came around just before Izzy went off for patrol. He had several books with him, a few he handed over to Alec. All of them were mundane with things like ‘what to do if your child is afraid of the dark’ ‘stranger danger and how to talk to your child’. Basically things Simon had sent over in a longer format. “I borrowed them from the library. Figured you and your sister wouldn’t be getting out much.” He must have gave Simon a look since the guy just waved a finger over his mouth, Alec feeling the stubble that was growing in fast from two days of no shaving. Maybe Simon had a point. “I also brought my tablet. If you could give me the wifi password I don’t have to use my data.”

Fair.

He snuck one of the books down for his shift, reading all about routines and talking and things he knew but didn’t understand became so much more important when there was trauma involved. Simon must have been reading up on it too since he kept telling Alec through his tablet about a nighttime routine he wanted to establish if he was going to be around more. There was a bathroom on the roof. Well, more in the greenhouse, and Alec felt like an actual idiot when he realised he had nothing for Rafe. 

If Ragnor didn’t pick up tomorrow morning Alec was going to have to go out and buy things. Clothes and a toothbrush and some kind of gentle soap.

“He really likes his fantasy makeup huh?” Simon asked.

“It’s helping him cope,” Alec snapped back, which quickly shut Simon up. Maybe he could get Simon to bring him some supplies.

But, no, that wasn’t fair. The mundane needed to sleep, and he had classes after that. Alec was just going to have to go himself. Unless… it was a lot to ask someone he’d only met a few times, it might put Magnus off too. But Rafe didn’t look to be going anywhere. Even if he was, Alec didn’t want to send him off with nothing.

He ran it by Izzy when she got back and they shooed Simon off. “I can go,” she offered. “Or you can and I’ll phone Ragnor. There’s two of us here Alec.

“And you need to sleep.” Neither of them had done that much. Alec only got a few hours when Rafe took his nap, this night routine Simon had him on meaning Alec was up all day and all night. Izzy too, the only difference being she actually had to go out and hunt demons. “I’m not having you risk your life because I sent you out to get baby things. It’s fine,” he decided, “I’ll call Magnus.” If he didn’t want to speak to Alec afterwards then that was that.

“Alec-”

“It’s fine. I mean, something was going to get between us anyway. It may as well be something mundane like a kid.” Much better than a demon that was for sure. “Go to sleep.”

She did, curling up on the bed Alec had remembered to swap the sheets out for. It wasn’t good for the routine, but so long as Izzy didn’t get herself killed Alec would handle whatever tantrums came his way. Speaking of, he made sure to keep himself calm, trying to persuade Rafe to have his milk and telling Rafe it was perfectly okay when he turned his head away, hands balled to lash out. 

Ragnor didn’t pick up, Alec trying him three times before giving up and getting down to practical matters. He changed Rafe, calming him down with Alec’s coat before bucking up and dialling Magnus’s number.

“And there was me thinking I’d have to make the first move,” Magnus purred when he picked up.

“Yeah,” he sighed, rubbing at his head, then remembering that was a sign of anxiousness and forcing his hand back to his side, “Look, I didn’t call to organise a date. Something’s come up and… this might be a lot to ask but, do you think you could get me some things?”

“Are you… ill?” Magnus asked.

“No, nothing like that. I er,” He couldn’t say he found a kid. Mundanes had things like social services and God knows what else. So he lied, “I have a kid. His mom just dropped him off.” It wasn’t like Magnus was going to see Rafe so why not embellish. He could always say Rafe had been sent back to his mom when Ragnor did pick up the phone too. “I have nothing in for him and I can’t leave him alone. I know we don’t know each other too well but, honestly you’d be helping me out if you could grab me a few things.”

There was a heavy silence, then a low, “what do you need?”

Alec listed everything he could think of, asking for Magnus’s account number to send some money over. He had to say there was something humbling in watching his account slowly be stripped of his savings. It was worth it however. Alec rarely spent any money on himself, and considering his family had old money he’d never be out of pocket. Still, it was more than he’d ever spent on one month before, and he’d only had Rafe a number of days. 

Magnus took a few hours, Alec having to wake Izzy up when he did get the text, making sure Rafe knew Alec would be back before going down to the street just beyond the Institute. Magnus looked a little harried, and Alec didn’t blame him. He had what Alec had asked for however, including the small blanket he’d specifically told Magnus to get.

“Thank you so much.” The head lice shampoo was a particular godsend. Alec had been itching for days, and he was pretty sure Izzy had spread them to the rest of the Institute. They’d already planned to blame it on Max if people started asking.

“It’s fine,” Magnus brushed off. “I just,” he bit his lip before saying, “You said you were all new to this?”

He had, hadn’t he. “I am. Rafe is… I tried to be straight for a while and… he was a surprise.”

Magnus pursed his lips.

Alec got it, “I understand if you don’t want me to call again. Kids are a handful.”

“No,” Magnus said immediately, “It’s not that. I like children. I just, you said it was sudden and,” he spared Alec a sad smile, “You don’t look like you have time for me. That sounded so selfish.”

“No,” Magnus was right. Alec didn’t have a lot of time for himself nevermind Magnus. “You’re right. It’s complicated.”

“Children are,” Magnus agreed.

Maybe if they’d been on more dates Alec would have told him about some of the difficulties. But, they’d been on two dates, so Alec kept his mouth shut and thanked Magnus again. “If things had been different,” Alec offered.

“I get it,” Magnus promised. “Do you need any help?”

Alec looked at the bags, “No. I should be able to manage.” He grabbed the lighter ones first, thinking of that tiny window he was going to have to squeeze all of this through, “Bye Magnus.”

“Bye Alec.”

He really wished he’d gotten that kiss.

Izzy hugged him when he got back, taking half the bags and sorting through them until they had everything in small piles. Toys. Clothes. Toiletries. Rafe gave all of it a wary look, crawling his way to Alec, his legs hurting him today. He helped Rafe that last little bit, setting him on his knee and remembering that other part in the book he’d read. 

“See this,” he grabbed one of the softer toys, a stuffed penguin. He handed it to Rafe, telling him seriously, “I want you take good care of this okay?” Responsibility was good for recovering kids. Giving him chores would be good if they had chores to give him. So looking after a stuffed penguin was the best they were going to get here.

“Hey Rafe,” Izzy called, not taking the penguin off him, but certainly taking it out of his hands, flapping its wings around a little, “They’re like Alec’s aren’t they? Like Alec’s?” She pointed to Alec’s wings, holding the penguin higher until Rafe saw the similarities. Yet another reason Alec had chose the penguin. Association with Alec would give him a sense of safety when seeing it. Rafe certainly liked it more now he saw the similarities. “What’s first then?”

Alec sighed, “I want to say a bath, but we gave him a bath at four yesterday.” Meaning they’d have to give him a bath at four today. Not that Rafe had any concept of time. All he knew was that the bath came after his fourth milk of the day.

“So, reading?”

“Reading.”

They didn’t know Rafe’s education level, being who knew how old. So they took the time when Rafe wasn’t screaming at them to try and teach him some words. Izzy was adamant her name be first. It had been proven that Rafe could speak, he just didn’t know words, which, to Izzy, spoke a lot about when he’d been taken. Long ago enough that he hadn’t been able to speak. She was under the theory that the reason he hadn’t naturally picked up any words like other children was because of his circumstances. She’d read that trauma set back a child’s development, meaning Rafe could understand them to a certain extent but he didn’t want to. Talking directly to him had resulted in negative consequences for him before, so he was making himself ignorant to it now. 

She hoped with a safer environment they could move past this mental block. Alec kept reminding her it had only been two days. Still, he’d never been prouder to see her trying anyway. 

They got that bath. Alec and Isabelle washed their hair out too with the lice shampoo. They warned Simon he should probably do the same when he came around that night. Simon happily informed him he’d already done so. “This isn’t my first rodeo,” he chirped, handing them even more books he’d taken from the library.

That was their routine. Alec didn’t sleep, he weathered everything Rafe threw at him. He read to him, he played with him, they washed their hair out until they weren’t itching anymore. Izzy tried her lessons and eventually moved Rafe from milk only to a mix of milk and small solids. Finding the right solids took a while, which lead to more tantrums and Alec crying because he was sure at one point they’d lost Rafe’s trust forever. But Rafe was still there, still clinging to Alec’s leg when he came to check on him the first few hours of his shift downstairs. He still woke Alec after his scant few hours in the morning to babble nonsense he thought important and showed Alec every time he entered the room that the penguin was still in one piece, Rafe was doing his job alright.

He didn’t remember the last time he’d trained. He’d had to feign ill to get out of dinner with his grandparents, which hadn’t went over well. If he hadn’t looked like death and his parents not actually knowing if warlocks could get ill he was sure they would have called bullshit on him. But they didn’t, and Alec got one whole blessed day to spend with Rafe, his new clothes Magnus had helped him pick out sitting unused in his wardrobe. 

He was in a daze these days. He shaved at some point, he was sure, yet whenever he checked he almost had a full grown beard. It certainly caught Clary’s eye, Alec seeing Jace similarly trying to grow one a few days after she commented on it. 

He didn’t know if it was that comment or just something else, but Alec had forgotten there were other people with other lives until he saw Clary and Jace screaming in the middle of the residential part of the Institute. He sent Izzy down to get his shirt, not wanting to get in the middle of it. Turned out that wasn’t a good idea as Izzy came up not long after just as pissed as Clary had been.

“She said I’m not emotionally available,” Izzy huffed. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve been emotionally available all of our lives. What? So because I’m suddenly not there to listen to her now she’s finally got a boy she thinks she has a right to talk to me like that?”

It had to be the sleep deprivation because Alec was only getting half of what Izzy was saying to him. “Iz,” she wasn’t listening, still going on about Clary and how she didn’t exactly return the favour when Izzy wanted to talk. “Iz!”

“What?” 

He nodded to where Rafe was sitting carefully still. “Oh sweetie,” Izzy melted, “No, no, no, it’s not you.”

That set them back a while. 

On the bright side, Rafe had put on weight, and that evening as Alec went to fetch something light for him to eat he came across Jace sitting outside one of the Institute doors. His parents room if Alec wasn’t mistaken.

The toast weighed a little heavy in his hands as he noted the red eyes Jace was sporting. “You okay?” Alec brought himself to ask.

Jace was not in a good mood since he just sneered Alec’s way and huddled in on himself further. 

He left Jace to it, almost around the corner when the door gave way under Jace’s back and Celine came out. Oh.

“Do you remember what mom used to say about Celine?” Alec asked, Rafe asleep beside him.

Isabelle smeared more ink around her lips as she thought back, “That she was hard to hate?”

Yeah. “She also said Celine was a little careless.”

Izzy’s mouth was all black now, and Alec didn’t think she even knew it. “Right?”

“I think she’s hurting herself,” Alec said. He’d seen the bandages on her wrists. The ones that were always on her wrists. The ones that had moved up her arm that one night Stephen had come home and not even greeted her, Alec remembering the way her nails had dug into her arm so hard he thought they’d break skin. Stopped only when Jace took her hand. “I think Jace knows too.”

Izzy breathed out a long sigh. “Poor Jace.”

“Yeah.” It made sense now. Jace’s bad moods. They seemed to always coincide with Stephen’s behaviour. Alec had noticed how some days he’d be fine, then others he’d just look at Celine like he didn’t know why she was there. It mustn’t be easy to know all that and not be able to help his mom when she took it upon herself to, Alec didn’t know, punish herself? Make herself feel better? 

This was why they needed some kind of therapist in shadowhunter society.

They didn’t tell Clary. It wasn’t their place, and it was one thing for it to be gossip and another for someone to trust the other enough to actually tell them. If Jace wanted to he’d tell her eventually. Until then, Alec just had to hope Jace wised up and realised he needed a better excuse than he has something ‘better to do’ if he wanted to blow her off to look after his mom.

“Another vampire raid tonight,” Izzy sighed, helping keep Rafe still as Alec washed his paper thin skin. “I don’t know what they’re hoping to find. We’ve combed every inch of that place, there’s no vampires left.”

Alec hummed, keeping his tone light as he said, “Makes you wonder what’s happened to them.”

“They’re probably in hiding,” Izzy figured.

Alec hummed again, “But you said they’d been arrested. I looked at the reports just in case we missed anyone from last time but only half were brought in.”

“That’s weird.”

Alec met her eyes, “That’s very weird.”

A duck was thrust in his face, Alec starting for a moment before making quacking noises and sending it right back down to Rafe. Izzy snorted as it happened again, “You’re such a dad.”

He supposed he was, the thought not sitting as heavily as he thought it would in his head. 

Christmas came and went with Alec lavishing Rafe with a full size candy bar. They had to take it slow, Rafe still getting used to solids, but the look on his face every time he had a piece of chocolate made Alec feel like the greatest person on earth. 

They found Rafe enjoyed music around New Year. Alec had mistakenly brought his violin up after tormenting the people on watch with him all night. He played a few notes to Church when he saw the cat lying on top of Rafe, not knowing Rafe was actually awake. The pure curiosity on Rafe’s face afterwards had Alec bringing his violin up every morning after that. He found himself playing actual songs for someone other than Church, Rafe enjoying the funny noises Alec made well enough, but he got this dreamy look on his face when a song was particularly doing it for him that Alec found he wanted to see more of. 

He ended up playing Rafe to sleep after that, Izzy singing carols and every other song that came to mind that Alec could play until Rafe had a favourite. Alec couldn’t describe the feeling he got when Rafe had made a twisty face, whining and tapping Alec’s violin until he got the message and switched tunes. They went through five songs before settling on one Rafe bounced to, the pair of them sharing a look and starting with that every night from then on. Alec didn’t care that in a few months he’d probably hate the sound of that song by the first note alone he’d sang it that much. It made Rafe happy, and if it made Rafe happy Alec would sing it for the rest of his life if he had to. Or, make Izzy sing it, he just played it.

Simon became a semi permanent fixture in his life. Made even more so when Izzy went out with him.

“He’s a mundane,” Alec said.

“You have yours, let me have mine.” which, okay, maybe he had.

Still, “What about Meliorn?”

Izzy’s face got a bit pinched, “We broke up before the raid. It’s… it was never going to work anyway.”

He gave her a hug, not really minding her dating mundanes, he just wished it wasn’t this mundane. The one that had started calling him ‘Mr L’ and never stopped talking. They didn’t have to video chat anymore, what with Simon becoming part of that ‘routine’ and someone that Rafael trusted. But Alec still heard Simon through the monitor. 

Still, there were worse mundanes Izzy could have went out with. Simon was nice, and his music was semi decent. He looked at Izzy like she hung the sun too, which was what his sister needed in a man. She’d had too many awful ones not to be treated like a princess at this point in her life, young as she was by mundane standards.

Michael finished Valentine’s sword. It was just an ordinary day when it happened. Alec had the rare day off and was spending it grabbing a decent change of clothes to go out in. Izzy already had Rafael ready, and had spent the hour doing so complaining the whole time about she had to work. 

Alec had his boots on and wallet in his pocket when he saw Valentine stride by his room calling for Clary. The sword itself wasn’t the best made thing that ever walked the earth, but it was impressive all the same. The level of detail in it alone had Alec slightly envious when he spied Clary running her hands over it. 

“It’s a replica of Glorious,” the sword the angel Michael used. That was why it looked so familiar. “I had it specially made for you.”

“What about Jonathan?” Clary asked.

“Jonathan has his own sword. I wanted something resembling the Morgenstern sword for him. But for my little angel, best to have one an actual angel would use.”

She hugged him, Alec feeling the power radiating from it. Michael had done well, that was for certain, but as Clary hung it around her belt he couldn’t help but think she looked like she was off to war. 

“We’re all getting new weapons,” Izzy told him when he mentioned the finished sword. “Michael’s been working on them nonstop since he got here. The swords took the longest but there’s a whole armoury ready for us.”

“Makes you wonder why.”

They wrapped Rafeal up tight. Hat, gloves, scarf, big coat. He looked like a little snowball by the time they were finished. He could barely walk, but gave it his best go, his feet taking careful steps as they stole out of the Institute. 

Alec was quite excited. He could spend as many hours as he wanted outside and go home and sleep for more than two hours. No Simon tonight either, even if the guy had tried to get Alec to go to his band’s ‘gig’ tonight. 

“First stop the toy store,” Alec said, holding onto Rafael’s hand tight as they got onto the subway. 

They got a few odd looks, Rafael was still blue after all. But he’d blotched a few whiskers and a black nose with Izzy’s eyeliner before they left so it looked more like facepaint for those not of the shadow world. 

He hadn’t been to the toy store in years. Not since Max had outgrown his want for toys and asked for weapons instead. Alec missed the days where he’d play firefighter or pirate. Izzy always preferred playing knights, the two of them pretending they were riding horses all day. 

Easier times.

Rafe didn’t know what to do with himself when they did get there. He had stuck by Alec so close he’d eventually had to be picked up. Even now he still kept his mitted gloves around Alec’s neck, his blue eyes wide as he stared at all the variety before him. 

Alec took him all over, just waiting for that one thing to light his face up. 

It took a while, and another tour of the store before Rafe wanted a closer look at the wooden train set. Alec thought it was the other little boy playing with the store model that caught Rafe’s attention, the way the wheels moved on the floor and that he just had to push and it would go whatever direction he wanted it to. 

“Train then?” Alec asked, picking up the package. He got some tracks too, the easy snap together kind that would keep Rafe entertained for hours. 

With that, they made their way to the clothes store. Rafe was still too skinny for Max’s old clothes, meaning Alec needed to get him some cooler clothes. Thankfully Rafael wasn’t picky, or a fashionista, meaning Alec could get whatever looked cute and comfortable.  

Maybe a few onesies. Rafe just looked so cute in them. 

They were on their way to get something to eat, Alec looking up the best places to bring a two year old, when he felt someone looking at them. It wasn’t hostile, but someone was definitely looking at them. 

His eyes met familiar brown, Alec thinking Magnus before he focused on the rest of the man. He looked good. Really good. He still wore his red scarf, his coat a different fluffy contraption however. Alec waved at him, not exactly knowing the etiquette for seeing someone he’d hoped to get to know better but can’t because Ragnor hadn’t picked up the phone. Not that he regretted it. Rafe was great. 

He was also getting a little fussy having Alec just standing there doing nothing. He checked his phone again, Magnus gone by the time Alec glanced back up.

He told Izzy when he got back. She didn’t really know what to say to him. She was okay, she had time to go out and still be herself. Alec did too, it was his choice that he was here at all with Rafael. She did think however that, “Maybe you should consider moving out.”

“Like…”

“Like out of the Institute,” she nodded. “There’s an apartment not far from here you could try and get. Easy walking distance, it’s far enough away from the main cameras around the Institute for people to spy on you and, well, you’d be able to actually live Alec.”

It certainly sounded good coming from Izzy. He wasn’t going to lie, he had thought about getting his own place for Rafe. He could just get up, do what he needed to do without fear of being caught and then go to work without worrying someone was going to come up and kill Rafe for just being here. He could actually get a decent sleep schedule going. It also would be sort of nice not having to glamour himself every second he was awake. Between that and looking after Rafe he was exhausted. But, “I’m not allowed to move out.” Shadowhunters were required to stay on the premises of the Institute. It was the whole reason for it being there.

“Yeah,” Izzy said slowly, “But you’re not a shadowhunter.”

“They-”

She waved him off, “I know they don’t know you’re a you know , but you haven’t got your runes. You’re only on the night shift, and everyone knows you’re only here because of mom and dad.” 

Yeah, he did. If it were up to the others he was sure they would have killed him themselves by now or at least threw him out. It wasn’t exile, but even Alec knew he didn’t really have a place here. 

“So long as mom and dad say yes I don’t see why you can’t just get your own place. Or at least get Rafe an actual bed Alec.”

He sighed, “I’ll think about it.”

He did. Long and hard. He even broached the topic with his mom at one point, testing the waters to see what she thought of it. She, at first, didn’t like it. But not even an hour later she was back telling him maybe having a place of his own wouldn’t be such a bad idea. “It will certainly stop people talking.”

Eventually it was Rafe that cinched the idea for him. They were walking back from Rafe’s bath when the sun setting over the Institute caught Rafe’s eye. He hadn’t been out much. Their little outing was probably the first one they’d had. Other than that, Rafe was rather like a prisoner, trapped inside a tiny room, only allowed out to be changed and bathed. Alec wasn’t beating him, or starving him, but he was denying Rafe a life of happiness, and happiness meant being able to go to more than one room in his supposed home.

So Alec put an offer in for a number of apartments. 

Then when he had a few replies, he prepared himself to talk to Valentine. Only, he never ended up getting that far.

The morning he was practicing his speech in front of a very sullen Rafe his phone rang. He didn’t think much of it, answering in the thought it was finally Meliorn grovelling for his sisters affections again. Except, “Is this Alexander or Maryse I’m speaking to?”

“Ragnor?” He sounded tired even over the phone. 

“Alexander then. How are you? I’m afraid I only just got your calls.”

Oh. “I er…” He looked at Rafe, still in a mood after Alec had told him he couldn’t have the candy bar that had been sticking out of Alec’s jeans. 

He was going to get an apartment. He was going to try and get a better life for Rafe. He had everything planned out and now…

“I found a warlock child a few months back. He’s been staying with me but,” He swallowed heavily, “He needs someone to look after him and I can’t-” Izzy was going to kill him. He wanted to kill himself. “I was hoping you might know someone who could take him.”

“A warlock child?” Ragnor asked. “How old…?”

He felt sick, the phone lying limp in his hands. He’d told Ragnor everything he’d wanted to know. It had been easy too, just listing off things that Alec had spent the last three months learning. It was all arranged. 

He just felt sick.

Izzy didn’t take it well. She phoned Simon an hour earlier than usual and spent their alone time begging Alec not to do this. “He needs you.”

She loved him too. That was the thing, it would have been easier if Ragnor had just answered straight away. But Alec had gotten to know Rafael. He’d held him when the boy came crying, let him have his space when he was in a mood. He loved the little laugh he made and- and warlocks were sterile. That was probably his first and only glimpse of fatherhood and he’d just thrown it all away. 

He’d thrown it away because, “Rafael needs to be with people who can care for him properly. We’re shadowhunters Izzy. He’s scared to death of us and he has a right to be. He needs to be with his own kind.”

“You’re his own kind,” she grit out.

Alec shook his head, “We both know I can’t do half the things another warlock could for him. I don’t know magic, I can’t keep him safe. I can’t even look at myself without my glamour on and he doesn’t need that around him. This is for the best.” 

She went out with red eyes and came home covered in blood. She didn’t even look at Alec as she walked to her room, but she was there when he woke the next morning, plastering on a smile as she tried to get Rafe to eat his breakfast. 

They bundled him up. The weather was warmer, but Rafe felt the cold far too easily with his thin body. They packed his things too, Alec stealing his little hat. He could pass it off as one of Max’s baby things if someone found it but Alec just…

He saw Izzy take something too, just what he wasn’t so sure of. 

He didn’t even consider letting Rafe try and walk his way there, getting his last few hours of seeing him in as they went to the old warehouse they’d met in last time. 

They were early, which was fine. The whole point of getting there first had been so they could calm Rafe down before handing him over. But with Izzy crying and the two of them failing to keep a calm face they quickly had a tantrum on their hands. 

“We should have just brought him when he was napping,” Izzy sniffed.

Alec shook his head, “I wasn’t having him wake up to strangers.” That wasn’t fair. None of this was fair but that especially wasn’t fair. 

The vibration of magic alerted Alec before the portal shimmered to life. He wiped his face, not bothering to stand as he let Rafe huddle close to safely watch the display of magic.

Ragnor was out first. Only, he wasn’t how Alec remembered him. For one, he certainly didn’t need a wheelchair to get around. For another, Alec distinctly remembered Ragnor being fatter. By fatter he meant healthy. The Ragnor in front of him now… well, he looked a little like Rafe when Alec found him. Not that extreme, but close enough to it there had to be only a few months difference.

He wasn’t alone either. Alec’s heart pounded faster in his chest when he saw the familiar glimmer of Magnus’s makeup. 

He felt like he’d missed something. Magnus too if the way his eyes widened were anything to go by. 

Alec would have said something had Ragnor not leaned forward in his chair, “This is the little one then?” he gave a wave, his arm flopping to his lap after a few seconds, like the energy was too much to expend. “A bit closer won’t you Magnus?”

Magnus wheeled Ragnor closer, Alec remembering the whole reason they were here as Rafe cautiously poked his head out from Alec’s coat. He swallowed heavily before propping Rafe on his knee, “This is Ragnor,” he forced as much calm into his voice as he could, “He’s a very good friend, and he’s been very excited to meet you.”

Rafael pat his head, Ragnor grinning so wide Alec could see where his teeth were chipped. “That’s right, I do have horns. You do as well, don’t you?”

“Do you want a closer look?” Alec asked, knowing it had to happen sooner or later. 

Rafael stared up at him a moment before leaning a little forward, Alec bringing him the rest of the way until his hands were perched on the part of the chair Ragnor didn’t take up. 

“You said he doesn’t talk?” Ragnor asked.

Alec shook his head. “I don’t think he wants to. He still… if we talk to him a certain way, get too direct sometimes, he has tantrums. It’s kind of difficult.”

“He’s a good boy though,” Izzy piped in. “The best. He’s so sweet. He always helps me put his toys away and he never once broke Alec’s violin even though that thing needs to be burned the amount of God awful tunes you play on it. And-” she started crying again, Alec a thin thread away from joining her.

“Iz. You can wait outside if you want.”

She shook her head, but pointedly turned away.

Rafeal picked up on it anyway, no longer interested in Ragnor as he started scouring for his ‘escape’ again. Something else they’d picked up on when things got a little too distressing. Alec kept a firm arm around him, ignoring the harsh shoves aimed at it. “He’s going to be okay right?” Alec made sure.

Magnus, this time, was the one to answer, “We have a place set up. They have other children who have escaped the prison camps. But I’ll make sure myself that he’s okay. You’re doing the right thing.”

“I know,” he choked out. “I know,” he told himself, giving one last squeeze to Rafael before picking him up and handing him to Magnus. He trusted Ragnor and all, but there was no way that man could handle a squirming two year old right now. 

It was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do to let Rafael go. Harder still when Rafe seemed to realise something was going on, his hands trying to grab for Alec as Isabelle loaded up Ragnor’s chair with Rafael’s things. 

The noises haunted Alec long after the portal closed. The pure betrayal on Rafe’s face as Alec got further away from him. He didn’t even get outside before he was joining Izzy on the floor, the pair of them hoping Rafe wouldn’t hate them for leaving him because that was the thing. He’d known so much in his short life, and just when he’d found a slither of happiness Alec turned him away. 

It wasn’t like that, but to Rafe it would be. 

They had to go back to the Institute eventually. He made sure to cancel his plans to move out, and for the first time in months went to his room and slept. He had to work however, meaning he didn’t have time to grieve the loss in his life. As soon as his alarm went Alec was up, showered and sitting at the monitor listening to life go on. 

Izzy was still red eyed when she came in to suit up. Clary was with her however, holding her hand and while she may not have known why Izzy was sad, she did her best to make sure Izzy knew she wasn’t alone. He’d never envied Izzy’s bond so much than he did right then. To have someone else’s feelings instead of his own for a while felt like a blessing right now.

He didn’t really register a lot those next few days. He woke up and he was just… lost. There was no Rafe to feed, to change, to listen to as he told Alec in his own way about Mr Penguin’s glorious adventure down the back of the bed. He didn’t have to time things down to the second so Rafe would feel safe in the repetitiveness of a routine. He didn’t have to do anything. Not for a while. Meaning he was left to lie there and wonder if whatever warlock was looking after him right now was treating him okay. If they knew that he liked his milk on the cooler side because warm was just too hot for his little mouth. If, when he turned his head away it wasn’t because he was being defiant, he’d just trained himself not to look someone in the face and instinct overrode comfort sometimes. 

He hoped Rafe didn’t cry for him. Alec didn’t know what he would do if he found that out.

He ended up in the training room, unsurprised to find he was out of shape. By that he meant he got winded doing three sets of weights. 

It didn’t matter. He had all the time in the world now to go back to building up strength and shooting until his arms ached for a job that required nothing of the sort from him.

Whatever. It was something to do.

The fourth day without Rafael his mom cornered him before he could get into the training room. She didn’t ask what was going on, used to, by now, the way some things couldn’t be spoken out loud. She thought it was a warlock thing, and Alec didn’t correct her. Instead he let her take him out, Izzy too, the three of them going paintballing, of all things. 

It got a lot of aggression out that was all Alec was going to say about it. 

The fifth day Alec didn’t make it to the training room again. Well, he would, but he was detoured by the familiar sight of Jace sitting outside his parents room. Stephen Alec had already seen go to the cafeteria, meaning Celine was alone in there. He wondered if she even knew Jace sat outside waiting for her. 

Sparing one last glance down the hall, Alec slid down the wall next to Jace, hooking his arms over his knees and ignoring the pull from sitting on his feathers.

“I don’t want company,” Jace snapped, face angled away.

“Me neither,” Alec admitted, wondering who else had tried to talk to Jace about this. “But they’ll stop bothering us if it looks like we’re not alone.”

Jace pulled his own knees up, the two of them sitting in silence, lost in their own thoughts. People passed them every so often. Jonathan Wayland to find his father. Jocelyn to Valentine. They got looks every time but Alec was right, now they were together no one bothered them. No one but Izzy who already looked like she needed a hug before she happened on them. He let her curl up next to him, laying one of his wings over her, the feathers invisible, but Izzy could feel them, moving a little closer to them than Alec. “What happened?”

Izzy shook her head, “Just went up to the roof thinking it was cookie time.” She had three in hand too.

God this was awful.

He took two from her, stuffing one in his mouth before holding the other one to his right. It took a minute before Jace grabbed it off him, silence descending once more.

Celine came out after about an hour of sitting there. She looked all the world like nothing was wrong, and if it hadn’t been for the iratze sitting just above her usual bandages Alec would have believed her. She realised she had an audience only when Jace grabbed her sleeve, glancing at all of them before telling Jace, “You should be training Jace, your father wants you on his team tonight.”

She walked off, Alec unsure more than ever if she even realised just why her son sat outside her door. 

He finally took Jace up on that sparring match.

Jace helped. Sort of. He was a distraction anyway, a way for Alec to push off some of his excess protective instincts onto something else. He started with sparring, letting Jace run his cocky mouth and slam him into the floor as much as he liked. Something that made Jace feel better too. Sparring Jace was good at. Sparring Jace didn’t have to think about. Didn’t have to worry about. 

But Alec drew the line at spending his whole day there. He moved them onto target practice after a few days, making it a competition of sorts. He even let Jace use his bow. Carefully. 

“It’s pretty cool actually,” Jace said, letting another arrow go. “Where did you learn how to do it?”

“Youtube,” Alec shrugged. He spent hours searching the library for good books, and found them too. But it was easier seeing a demonstration to go along with the written instructions. “It took me eight attempts to make that one. The others were okay, but I botched them when it came to the carvings.” The smaller ones anyway. He didn’t want a plain old bow. If he was going to make his own he wanted it to be special. Like something those legendary shadowhunters had. They didn’t have standard issued weapons, they had their specially made with their own carvings. Like how Jonathan Shadowhunter’s had the three mortal instruments. Or how Clary’s, now, was a replica of Glorious. That certainly wasn’t a blade that would blend in with the others. 

Jace twirled the bow around, spying the carved archers. “Angels, right?”

“Yeah. I read a few poems when I was younger. Some mundane wrote them about a group of heavenly archers protecting them from the Germans in the First War.” probably fiction, but there were archers in heaven. Most of them cupids, probably. Still, even if it was fiction, Alec thought it was a fitting idea to run with. 

“Think you could teach me how to make one?” Jace asked, nocking another arrow.

Alec shrugged, “If you like.” he certainly had time now.

When putting Jace onto archery was a success, Alec tried weaning down the amount of time they spent in the training room to begin with. Starting with the music room. 

“You have to play something,” Alec said, tuning his own violin. “You’re a shadowhunter. Worse, you’re a Herondale, there’s no way your parents let you grow up without learning something.” It was a staple of any prominent shadowhunter family that they taught their children how to play an instrument. Something about music being one of the heavenly virtues or something. Regardless, Alec had been forced to play, as had his siblings. Jonathan and Clary too, even if Clary had spent most of her time playing with chalk than listening to her father.

“I know how to play piano,” Jace admitted after a while. 

“So…” Alec kicked the stool closer to him. 

“I said I know how to play not that I’m going to,” Jace huffed, kicking the stool back Alec’s way. Thank God it was on wheels.

“Really?” He shoved it Jace’s way again. “Not even if I teach you Clary’s favourite song? She plays piano too you know. You could ask her to duet.”

That had Jace halting, the stool dithering a bit under his foot before he slid onto it with a mighty sigh and wheeled over. “Shut up,” He said when he caught Alec’s face.

“I didn’t say anything.” But it was kind of obvious Jace was gone for her. 

Playing was better than training. Once Jace got over himself and didn’t try too hard he looked like he was actually enjoying himself. He even laughed when Alec started playing his usual sea shanties.

It dawned on Alec about a week doing this that no one really spent much time with Jace. Max did, but Max was also a kid and had lessons most of the day. The others in the Institute however, mostly left Jace alone. It was probably Jace’s fault, he’d probably scared them off or something, but Jace was no different to any guy in a new place. He just wanted someone to talk to. Someone who wasn’t the girl he had his eye on or his parents. 

“It’s nice,” Izzy told him, the two of them in her room, the door closed after what their mom had said about overhearing Clary. “I mean, you’ve never had a guy friend before.”

“I have,” Alec huffed.

Izzy shot him a look. 

“Fine,” Maybe Jonathan and him weren’t friends. They tolerated each other, they sometimes hung out when their sisters did. Often times they’d be depressed together because they both just had that vibe and neither were the kind of people to try and make things feel better. But they didn’t actively try and seek each other out. Jonathan liked his space, these days more than others. Come to think of it the only time Alec ever saw Jonathan now was when he was gearing up to go out. “But it’s not like we’re friends. I just… hang out with him. I’d do the same with Wayland if he hadn’t already imprinted on you.”

She flashed her teeth at him. “We’re going to Simon’s gig tonight if you want to come.”

“You’re taking a shadowhunter to meet your mundane boyfriend?” 

“Wayland can keep a secret,” Izzy shrugged, “And he’s good company. Besides, Simon has class early so we’re staying for two songs and then hitting the clubs.”

“Hunting for demons?” Alec made sure.

Izzy waved him off, “Yes, that. They’re there sometimes.”

He didn’t believe her. 

She puttered around her room a little, grabbing the needle and thread from her dresser before starting to sew Alec’s discarded feathers to a headpiece. “Did you talk to mom yet then?”

Alec thought back over their conversation, “About demons?”

“About what Bane said about the prison camps.”

Bane. Magnus Bane. Alec felt a wash of shame come over him just thinking about Magnus. He’d looked up the man a few days before, the question of why he was there finally coming to mind and leaving Alec feeling like an idiot when the search came up with the glowing words WARLOCK. He’d been going out with a warlock. 

He was kind of glad he’d never told Izzy his almost boyfriends name. She never would have let him live this down. 

He came back to her question, “Prison camps?”

She rolled her eyes, “Were you even listening when he was talking?”

Alec hadn’t actually. As soon as he’d heard Magnus promise Rafe was going to be okay the rest of it was quickly forgotten about. “Ragnor didn’t look right.”

“No,” Izzy agreed. “And with the disappearances from the arrests I think we know what’s happening to them now.”

“Prison camps,” Alec repeated. He didn’t know what that entailed. Not entirely. But if it was run by shadowhunters it was nowhere good. Especially if they were willing to starve a child. But people were getting out. Ragnor had gotten out. So had Rafael, if Magnus was to be believed. “Do you think there’s some kind of underground operation going on?” Someone infiltrating and liberating downworlders.

“I have no idea,” Izzy said. “But I am going to find out where it is.”

He didn’t for a second think she wanted to know to tell the Clave. They both knew Valentine was plotting something, and he already had half of the Clave in his pocket. The other half, Alec realised, he had the support of their children. The Panghorn’s, the Blackthorn’s, the Herondale’s. They were all prominent families, and they were all here right now. The benefactors of their parents demise, the people who would rise into power if something were to happen to their elders. 

Valentine really didn’t mess around did he. 

“I’ll ask Ragnor,” Ask Magnus. “If there’s kids involved…” he didn’t even want to finish that because it wasn’t just if kids were involved. People were being taken. Being imprisoned and abused. It wasn’t right. 

It also drove a slither of fear down his spine when he realised if anyone were to find out about his little winged problem he may also find himself in a camp like that. Izzy seemed to realise the same time as Alec why their dad had been so determined to take his wings off now. It wasn’t just fear of being ostracised anymore. Alec was in danger, and from the looks of things his options of escape were limiting themselves every day.

“It’s probably a good thing we don’t have Rafe,” Izzy said. “Not if things are like this.”

A small consolation, but one nonetheless. They were probably the only shadowhunters that wanted to help downworlders right now, and being distracted with a kid had delayed them long enough. 

“You’ll be careful?” Alec asked.

“Me?” 

“I’m not the one risking my neck out there.” It was far easier for someone to mess with Izzy than it was with Alec. Izzy was the one that ‘accident’s could easily happen to. “If things get too dangerous you need to pull back.”

“I will,” She promised, a little too easily for Alec’s liking. “You have to trust me, just like I trust you to do your work on Magnus. And mom. I don’t believe for a minute she doesn’t know anything.”

He agreed with her on that. 

He tried Magnus first however. He chose a weekend, wondering just what hours a warlock kept. Izzy said he had a club. One he didn’t go to very often anymore, but still attended regularly enough for her, at least, to know him by face. 

He made sure it was sometime near when he used to call, Magnus had always been awake then, before hoping the number hadn’t changed and dialled. He didn’t know why he was so nervous. This was Magnus. Yes, he was a warlock now, and Alec may have spent a little too long digging through the number of paramours he’d had in the last few years, but he was still Magnus. Still the guy who fretted over his cat. Who hadn’t minded that Alec was new to dating and he trusted enough to take his almost son to complete strangers.

“I was wondering when you’d call,” Magnus sighed through the phone.

Alec cleared his throat, “Hi.”

“Rafael is fine. Boisterous little thing, he started two fights before settling down.” 

Rafe. God, Alec hadn’t known how much he’d needed to hear that until now. “He’s okay then?”

“Just fine,” Magnus agreed. “I’d put him on but it’s nap time.”

On? Like, “He’s there?”

There was a heavy silence then, “I… may have picked him up after a few phone calls.”

What did that mean? Was he not getting on with the other kids? Was there some kind of problem? W-

“I can hear you panicking. He is alright, there was just a little complication with where he was meant to go. Things are getting crowded, and not many warlocks are fond of child rearing. Since Ragnor was already staying with me I thought, why not add the little one.” Another pause, “Are you still there?”

“Yeah.” Rafael was still here. Still in New York. Alec could visit. He could-

No. This wasn’t about Rafe. He could phone later if he wanted to organize a playdate. Which he did. Desperately. 

“I er, I actually didn’t call about Rafe. The prison camps you keep mentioning, what exactly do you know about them?”

Another pause, and a few things tinkering. Vials maybe? Alec had always thought they were some kind of bottles or bowls or something mundanes used to make their homes look pretty. But, Magnus was a warlock. He was probably at his workstation right now. “How much are they telling you at that Institute of yours?”

“Nothing,” Alec answered immediately. “Mom’s tight lipped, and the others are all people I don’t know. I don’t…” It was rather humiliating to admit but, “I don’t patrol-”

“Obviously,” Magnus snorted.

Alec ignored it, “They have their meetings outside the Institute. I swear, not even Izzy knew about them. We’re not told to question orders.”

Another silence, then, “We should meet up. Some things shouldn’t be said over the phone.”

That he agreed with. 

They scheduled for the next day at a restaurant. A public place, somewhere Magnus, at least, could feel safe in. 

Despite it not being a date, Alec found himself dressing up for it. He told Izzy, when she saw him, about Rafe, and about if making a good impression on Magnus might let him visit one or two times then Alec would happily dress up to do so. She wholeheartedly agreed but, “Remember this is about the downworlders too.”

“I know,” Alec sighed. “I’ll get everything I can out of him.”

The restaurant itself was fancy, so Alec was glad he’d dressed up. Magnus was already waiting for him, sipping out of a wine glass and scrolling through his phone. He seemed to sense Alec was there however, glancing up before the server brought Alec over. 

Had this been any other time he was sure Magnus would have been smiling at him. But things were different now. Magnus was a warlock, Alec was a Lightwood, and both of them could go back to their little bubble of ignorance no matter how much that suit clung to Magnus.

It was a little awkward at first. They ordered, they waited for drinks and then there was a silence over them as both of them struggled to think of what to say first. 

He forced himself away from asking about Rafe. He could do that at the end, after he learned about, “The prison camps?”

Magnus pursed his lips, leaning a little forwards in his seat. “What do you want to know first?”

“Where they are?” He knew who was running all of this. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the Head of the New York Institute and well known downworlder hater was sectioning away half of his arrests to secret camps.

“There’s one upstate,” Magnus answered easily, “One is rumoured to be in Manhattan. So far they’re the only two I know of, but I wouldn’t put it past your people to have made more.”

Alec ignored the jibe. Magnus had every right to be angry at him. “Do you know where upstate?”

Magnus gave him a location, the one in Manhattan however Magnus told him, “Why don’t you ask your father.”

“My…” Of course he was. All those late nights with Valentine. “Do you- do you know what happens there?”

To that Magnus shook his head. “I only handle the escapees once they come seeking refuge. The actual goings on and rescues,” he shook his head again. “I just know it’s bad. Ragnor had all these…”

“Yeah,” Alec knew, “Rafe was like that too.”

It was the reminder of Rafe that had Magnus easing up a little around him. “I think he’s experimenting. That Head of yours. I’ve heard rumours he’s trying to come up with some kind of disease or, I don’t know. Something to help wipe my kind out anyway.” He barked out a laugh, “Not that your Clave cares.”

“No,” Alec agreed, “They don’t.” Or they wouldn’t. Everything was coming together for Valentine so easily. “What else? Has Ragnor mentioned any special traps or…” It went on like that, Alec learning that Magnus didn’t really know all that much about them.

Then why would he? The downworlders were took by surprise when the raids happened. They didn’t have time to warn other people, and different groups handled different prisoners. Alec wasn’t sure even the people working with Valentine knew everything that was going on it was that intricate. What was certain was that the downworlders were afraid. They knew some of them weren’t being handed to the right authorities. That it was dangerous for them to go on about their daily lives. That one mention of a name to the wrong person could lead to an investigation and an investigation to multiple arrests.

“Why are they arrested?” Magnus asked him, “You work there. I’ve seen people follow the accords to the letter yet they’re arrested the next day.”

Alec didn’t know. “We’re told not to question orders,” was the cowardly answer. The real one being that Alec simply had better things to think about than just why they were out to get a whole clan of vampires when only one of them had kidnapped a mundane. 

“Then why are you questioning them now?” Magnus asked. “Is it because of me? Rafe? You found Rafe starved to death and only now you’re doing something about it.”

“I didn’t know,” Alec snapped, “Before. I- it wasn’t so hard to believe his mom had just abandoned him, or shadowhunters had tried to take him in and he ran from them. If I had known there was something else going on I would have looked into it. My mom tells me everything I ask her.” And if she’d been keeping this quiet it was because she knew exactly what Alec was going to do when he did find out. Namely, try to stop it. He didn’t know how. Or even if it was possible. But, he wasn’t going to just sit there and let people suffer for something they had no say in. It wasn’t their fault they were a downworlder. 

“I highly doubt that,” Magnus snorted.

“She does,” Alec insisted. “I want to help Magnus.”

He got a dark look from under Magnus’s eyelashes.

“You don’t believe me,” Alec sighed.

“No I do,” Magnus sighed, “And that’s the problem. Why is a shadowhunter so invested in helping downworlders? You and your sister look like genuinely nice people and it’s really messing with my head because not even thirty years ago your parents were hunting my kind down for sport, and now they’re doing it again. You’re a Lightwood Alec.”

He didn’t even hesitate before saying, “I’m also a downworlder.” He made sure no mundanes were looking before flickering his glamour off momentarily. 

Magnus followed suit, Alec thinking more out of shock than anything else, his normal brown eyes being replaced with slits that certainly cemented in Alec’s mind that this was a warlock he was seated across, not a good looking mundane. 

It took a moment before a slow, “Fuck,” escaped Magnus’s mouth. He floundered for a moment blinking his glamour back into place before demanding, “How are- you’re a warlock. How are you a warlock? How did I not know you were a warlock?”

He tackled that a question at a time, “Yes. My mom slept with a demon and probably because I don’t know any magic. Ragnor said that a warlock’s magic becomes more overpowering the more they use it.”

“Ragnor,” Magnus hissed to himself. “That’s why he met with your mom. Oh this is all making sense. Wait,” blinked back into the conversation, “You said ‘slept with a demon’ this isn’t another Benedict Lightwood situation is it?”

Alec could not remember who that was. “No?”

Magnus squinted, “I’m gonna take a guess and say that Lightwood was stripped from the family tree. Probably just as well. He was an ass.” He got a little serious again, “Your poor mother.”

Yeah. “She’s still a little haunted by it.”

Magnus nodded, eyes closing as he remembered, “You have to tell her where you are,” when he went on dates. “Alec, I didn’t like your mother all that much but even I-”

“I know.” Only someone truly evil would wish that on another person. 

“Yet your father is working one of the camps,” Magnus mused on.

“Yeah,” Alec sighed, not really knowing what to do with that. “Mom said Valentine has something on him but, he’s been a little… weird around me these days.”

“He knows?” Magnus checked.

Alec nodded. “He used to try and take my wings off. With my permission,” Alec made sure to say when Magnus looked anything but appeased.

Magnus tapped the table a few times before saying, “This changes things.”

It did, “How?”

Magnus gave Alec a long look, “We finally have an in. That is, if you still want to help?”

“I was going to do something whether you told me to or not.”

They spent the rest of their meal talking about Alec. Magnus was still on guard, still waiting for the other shoe to drop and Alec didn’t blame him. To Magnus it would seem too coincidental for Alec, both a Lightwood and a warlock, to be wanting to help him, especially after they met in such sudden circumstances. He’d think Magnus was an idiot if he hadn’t been expecting an ambush by the end of their meal.

So Alec let him ask what he wanted, and he tried to be as truthful as he could in his answers. He told Magnus all about growing up at the Institute, that he hadn’t actually been lying when he said he was ill, just that Alec’s definition of ill was trying to have his wings burned off. He told Magnus all about the cats, the explanation of the feathers getting a curious look he often got from Church at that. He told Magnus about Izzy. About how sweet she was, and genuinely nice. 

How she was looking out for the downworld before she even knew about Alec. “She helped me get this vampire Raphael’s number so I could tip him off about the raids.”

“That was you?” Magnus asked.

“And Izzy,” he didn’t question how they knew each other. Most of the downworld kept some sort of contact with one another. It was just with the shadowhunters that things got a little blurry. “She told Meliorn too, a seelie knight. She doesn’t care what people are if they’re good people.”

Magnus spared him a smile, “I take it this is more so I’ll let her see Rafael than anything else. You needn’t worry, I’ve seen your sister around before, I know what she’s like.”

Right, clubs. 

He’d told himself he wasn’t going to ask, but now the subject had been brought up, and Magnus was right there in person, “How is he? Really?”

To that Magnus made a face that basically summed up looking after a traumatised little warlock. Frustrated but loving. “He’s definitely been through something. I doubt taking him off you helped much either but he’s starting to settle. It helps that Ragnor’s around. I just have to show him Ragnor’s horns and it’s bye bye hissy fit.”

“He’s not too much trouble is he?”

To that Magnus shook his head, “Trust me, I was much worse as a child, and I didn’t have the excuse of being two. He’s lovely.” Magnus tilted his head slightly, “What was the plan by the way, if you didn’t get in touch with Ragnor? You had him while we were seeing each other. You weren’t going to keep him in the Institute forever were you?”

Alec shook his head, “I had an apartment lined up. I was gonna move out, have Simon watch him while I was at work.”

“Simon?”

“The babysitter. He’s seeing my sister,” and was getting a little too comfortable doing so. “He’s a mundane,” Alec explained when he could see Magnus trying to figure out how a shadowhunter got another to babysit a warlock. 

“Ah.” 

He remembered what Magnus had said earlier, “I can see him then? Rafe?”

“I’m not going to keep him from you,” Magnus huffed. “Just, give me a week to settle him in. He needs to understand that there’s a new place he goes home to at night, then we’ll reintroduce you and your sister.”

“Thank you,” he’d never been so happy in his life. 

He practically skipped when they parted, sprinting back to the Institute to tell Izzy the good news. She was, naturally, ecstatic. Until she remembered why Alec went in the first place and was all business again. 

They had locations now. Places for Izzy to monitor and Alec to scout. He started that night on the computers, using the CCTV to do sweeps of the area coincidentally when Izzy told him they were bringing a group of downworlders in. He didn’t see anything that night, Alec figuring they’d taken the selected downworlders to the Manhattan camp. Nor did he see anything the night after. It was on the fourth night, actually, bandaging Jace’s ankle up after a demon decided to sprain it for him, that there was any activity. 

It wasn’t him that saw it either. Jace refused to use an iratze if his ankle was just going to get better on its own within an hour so he was the only one with eyes on the monitor. Meaning when Alec heard, “Your dad’s really going at it,” he thought Jace meant against a demon. Not, in fact looking up to see his camera focused on upstate and witnessing his dad beat a restrained vampire into the sidewalk. 

Alec didn’t know what was worse, the three other vampires watching helpless. Valentine with a UV gun to their heads making them watch. His dad’s unrestrained anger plain for Alec to see. Or Jonathan standing wide eyed at the side, his hands visibly shaking even on camera. 

It made Alec feel uncomfortable watching it. Was that… was that what he really thought of downworlders? Or was there something Alec was missing? Maybe Valentine was making him do it. Or, maybe the vampire had said something to rile his dad up.

He didn’t know. All he did know was that there was no need to execute the vampire when his dad was finished with him. Yet Valentine did, aiming his UV gun on the poor woman before turning her to dust. 

Jace let out a shaky breath next to him, Alec forgetting he was there for a moment. He quickly turned the monitor off, getting back to setting Jace’s foot. 

“I thought my parents had pent up anger,” Jace muttered.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Another three nights of surveillance and Alec witnessed his dad bringing in a group of werewolves, most of them teenagers.

Needless to say Alec was avoiding him. 

“And Magnus said we could bring it?” Izzy asked the next day, her hand wrapped tight around Simon’s CD.

“Yes,” Alec groaned, “He said anything that will get Rafe to sleep and,” loathe as he was to admit it, “He’s been listening to Simon sing him to sleep the past four months.” So yes, Izzy could bring it.

She tucked it into her pocket, looping her arm around his as they passed another storefront. The address Magnus had given them had been one Alec hadn’t seen before. Izzy was just as confused, the two of them staring up a shady looking building with a happy monkey on the sign before slowly venturing in. 

Kids screaming assaulted Alec’s ears as soon as the door opened, the inside just slightly more welcoming than out. They had their glamours on, meaning they could easily slip past the mundane on reception, Alec actually having a hard time finding Magnus when they got inside.

“Huh,” Izzy said, and huh accurately described what they were seeing. 

It was some sort of fitness centre for kids. Everything was bright colours and sticky floors. There were slides far larger than any Alec had seen at a park connected to one of the upper colourful levels. A ball pit? Mats. It was weird. But the kids seemed to like it.

“Maybe we can bring Max one time,” Izzy suggested.

“Maybe.” Alec wasn’t sure what Max would even make of this place.

They scoured around for Magnus, Alec getting tossed every which way as kids ran between his feet and knocked his wings off course every other step. Izzy thought it was funny, but then Izzy didn’t have wings that affected her way of moving.

Thankfully they were found before Alec resorted to standing on tables to avoid the hellions. “Alexander!” Ragnor called, out of his chair, although still greatly underweight. It was slow going for him to make his way over, Alec and Izzy taking half the work out for him by meeting him halfway. “Good to see you again, and you Isabelle. Magnus is upstairs. Told me to go wait for you while he calmed the little one down.”

Now that he was looking up, Alec easily spotted Magnus’s darker colours the floor above. “Do you need any help?” Izzy asked before taking Ragnor’s arm and starting all three of them up to where Rafe was, indeed, throwing a fit.

“I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again Blueberry you cannot go down there with your horns unprotected,” Drifted over to them before Alec saw the little cotton balls Magnus was attempting to put on Rafe’s head. 

“I say let him go,” Ragnor chimed, “See how he gets out of it when they get stuck in one of those turny things.”

“I am not letting him get stu- hello Alexander. Isabelle,” In an instant the harried scowl was gone and replaced with a winning smile.

Alec would have been impressed had he not only had eyes for “Rafe!”

At the mention of his name Rafe stopped his pouting and looked around, a desperate sound coming from his throat as he stumbled over to Alec. He didn’t care that the floors were sticky, Alec dropped to his knees and lifted him those extra few steps.

Isabelle tried to pry them apart after a second, “You’re hogging him,” She whined, succeeding after a moment. “Oh I missed you so much.”

Distantly he heard Ragnor and Magnus talking, a low, “He didn’t even look at me.”

Then, “It’s not about you.”

But mostly he saw Rafe. His little blue hair. His glamoured skin Alec was putting down to Magnus. Just like he was putting the outfit down to Magnus too. He looked good. Healthy. That was all Alec asked for. 

They took it in turns to play with Rafe. Alec had the first half hour when Magnus insisted they go into that sticky playground instead of him. If Alec had been younger, wingless and not trying to keep a toddler from being knocked over, he probably would have found the whole thing fun. There was netting, swaying punching bags, and tunnels of all shapes and sizes. Rafe couldn’t go in alone, being two, meaning while Alec hated every moment of being bent over and knocked into by kids, he had to admit he liked seeing Rafe laugh. 

It was fun catching him from the slide too. The way Rafe was so fearless when he knew Alec was there for him. He felt right again, and almost fought Izzy there and then when she pushed him down the slide telling him, “My turn.”

“Remember when I said my sister was great,” Alec said as he joined Magnus and Ragnor again, “Forget it, she’s mean.”

“What did she do?” Ragnor grinned.

“Pushed me into a ball pit.” It hadn’t been a soft landing. He was sure he’d squished a kid. 

The other two laughed anyway. 

Alec sat up a little in his seat, sliding Isabelle’s discarded slushie his way, “How are you? I never got to ask,” he asked Ragnor.

Ragnor nodded, “Better. Magnus isn’t the best nurse but, my physical injuries have healed.” It was just the mental and starvation to go now then.

“We had Rafe on milk the first few days he stayed with us. He was just… I can’t believe they’re doing that to people.”

Ragnor hummed, “Have you talked to your mother yet? Magnus mentioned you were going to.”

“Not yet,” he needed to. “I caught my dad executing a bunch of vampires a few days ago. It kind of put me off talking to them. But I will.”

Ragnor hummed again, “Maryse has been a good help, when she could. Her and Jocelyn used to send out warnings to the more powerful clan leaders. It stopped last year.”

“Like, October November?” 

Ragnor nodded.

“That’s when we started getting guests.” He rubbed his eyes, “I think he’s planning on disposing of the council. The ones not in his pocket anyway. All the major families are at the Institute right now, and there’s rumours there’s more coming.”

“We both know that council’s not going to be standing if Valentine does overthrow them.” 

Yeah. But whether he’d keep them in name so the shadowhunters wouldn’t be in too much of an upheaval or do away with it altogether and establish himself as some sort of ruler remained to be seen. “I have to do something.”

“And you will,” Ragnor promised. “But right now you’re having a fun day out with a young boy who looks like he needs more sugar.”

Magnus groaned, all three of them watching Izzy herd Rafe back up to them. “Not more sugar. He’s not going to sleep.”

“That sounds like a you problem not a me problem,” Ragnor grinned, already waiting with a conjured sugary drink when Rafe toddled over.

Alec was pretty sure he was the only one who caught the dark look Magnus sent to him.

They stayed there long enough for Rafe to tucker himself out, sitting happily on Alec’s lap as he tried to tell him all about just why Ragnor’s horns were the greatest things ever. He didn’t use words, but since Rafe kept patting his own cotton ball covered horns and pointing to Ragnor’s he got the gist. 

“Oh really?” Alec quirked a brow. 

Rafe nodded, pointing upwards again.

“Well his aren’t as cute as yours in my opinion.”

“Some would disagree,” Ragnor said.

Rafe giggled, standing on Alec’s knees to reach behind and pat one of his feathers. “Oh, you wanna play with the big bird now huh? Sorry bud,” he sat Rafe back down, “There’s people around. We’ll play another day though, I promise.”

“The big bird?” Magnus echoed.

Isabelle snorted, “Rafe hides under Alec’s wing and Alec pretends he doesn’t see him for five minutes. It’s actually a good way to encourage independence. And it helps Alec get a nap in since Rafe spends half his time in there just laughing to himself.”

He shot his sister a look, “What can I say, I’m very entertaining.”

She pulled a face right back, her hair getting grabbed when she got too close. 

It was just as hard as the first time to say goodbye to Rafe. Alec clung on until the last possible second, quickly telling Magnus to go before he did something stupid like run off with Rafe. It was a good day, regardless of saying goodbye. What made it better was that Alec had Magnus’s number, meaning he had Alec’s. Meaning, as soon as Alec created a snapchat after Izzy refused to share hers, he got photos of Rafe and Chairman Meow the rest of the evening. 

Reality set in the next morning. Alec had to talk to his mom. Better, he and Izzy needed to get information about this prison camp. They had a location, they had a general overview of how Valentine and their dad got in. The rest of it however would need to be scouted. 

“No,” Maryse said when Alec persuaded her outside under the pretence of looking for Izzy’s birthday present. 

“Mom-”

“No you are not going in there.” She knew about it then. She knew and she’d said- “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to keep you out of there? Do you have any idea the risks I’ve been taking for downworlders like you Alec? No, because I knew if you knew about it you’d want to help, and I don’t trust you to come out of there.”

She, “Wait,” what exactly did that mean that, “You’ve been taking risks for downworlders? Like, the warnings you sent or are you and Jocelyn part of the rescue teams?”

Her eyes cut into him, before rolling in a manner Alec was sure he got from her, “I don’t even want to know how you know Jocelyn is part of this. But yes. Now drop it.”

“But-”

“Alec,” she took his shoulders, “Listen to me. They have things in there designed to hold downworlders of all kinds. The only reason they get out is because a shadowhunter lets them out. If you go in there… Alec they’ll kill you. They won’t keep you alive long enough for me to get to you, they’ll kill you. Robert…”

“Have… have you talked about this?” Or did dad just outright state that he was going to slit Alec’s throat before he let anyone know they had a warlock in the family. “Is he that ashamed of me?”

“Alec no-”

“You think I don’t hear what he says but I do mom. You guys aren’t exactly quiet when you fight, and you always fight when you’re trying to help me,” when he was there, prone on the bed waiting for ice and bandages. 

“He loves you,” Maryse insisted, sounding more like she was telling herself that then Alec.

“I’m the changeling that snuck into the crib while he wasn’t looking. Just because he tries to love me doesn’t mean he does.”

He waited for her to tell him he was wrong but, his mom simply couldn’t do that. Yes, not every time they fought it was about him, but there had been enough fights over the years for Alec’s name to crop up. He was the reminder of what happened. He was what came to Robert’s mind every time his mom kicked him out of their room. He was, in Robert’s eyes, probably the reason their marriage was failing. Alec had no doubt if it weren’t for Izzy being born Robert would have took off a long time ago. 

Alec gave it to him that he tried. He did. But time and again Alec had fallen short of his expectations. Alec couldn’t get his first rune, meaning Robert had to wait for Isabelle to be the proud dad he always wanted to be. Alec couldn’t patrol, meaning Robert couldn’t guide him through his first demon hunt. Alec couldn’t be a shadowhunter because at the end of the day he wasn’t one, his dad was a demon, not Robert Lightwood, and nothing would ever change that fact.

Robert probably had a knife waiting for Alec since the day he’d been born. He wondered, if his mom had seen him and not loved him, if Robert would have done it. He certainly seemed capable of herding other children to the slaughterhouse, so why not the one that had replaced his first born son. 

“Jocelyn and I are taking care of it,” his mom said.

“And when the Clave is taken over? I just want to help mom.”

“I know,” She looped her arm through his, the two of them starting to another store, “I know Alec, which is why you have to stay as far away from Valentine’s radar as you can.”

“Mo-”

“Someone has to be there for our family.” and that wasn’t fair. “If anything were to happen to me you know your father would claim ignorance. You and Isabelle would be targets next. I need to know that someone is ready to take them somewhere safe. If you get yourself mixed up in this, how can I know my family will be safe Alec?”

“That’s not fair.”

“Well I’m not playing fair,” She said, “And neither is Valentine.” They walked to another storefront, both of them knowing it wasn’t Izzy’s style without looking inside. “If you really want to help then keep doing what you’ve been doing Alec. Warn whatever contacts you have about the raids. They’re placing cameras inside of more downworlder homes these days. Some of the raids are merely a cover up for surveillance. Valentine likes a big catch, and you and I both know everyone has a party at some point.”

He didn’t like it. He really didn’t like it but at least he knew his mom wasn’t secretly beating up downworlders too. Izzy looked relieved at that as well. “Jocelyn huh?” Izzy mused, “Who’d have thought it.”

“Not me.” She seemed like the most devoted wife to ever walk the earth. Or, that should be the other way around Alec supposed since Valentine basically worshipped the ground she walked on. “She doesn’t want us helping the rescue efforts.”

“She doesn’t want you,” Izzy corrected. “I, on the other hand, am a shadowhunter. And mom’s certainly not guilt tripping me out of helping innocent people escape God knows what.”

He knew when she got into moods like this he couldn’t talk her out of it. The thing with Izzy was that she did what she wanted and only an idiot would stand in her way. 

Alec wasn’t an idiot, and figured their mom would talk Izzy down from doing something too dangerous. Yet, a few days after Izzy declared she was going to start infiltrating the prison camps, she came home early from patrol and looking like she was three seconds away from collapsing.

“What happened?” Alec demanded, hoisting her up and towards the residential part of the Institute. There were other shadowhunters on duty tonight, and Alec had already done their paperwork so the least they could do was cover his last few hours. He set her down on her bed, closing the door with his foot. “Iz?” He checked for injuries, but save a bruise on her arm she looked unhurt.

“I saw it,” she said. “Inside. Mom said if I was really serious I could come with her,” she barked out a laugh, “I think she was trying to put me off. It kind of worked.” She fell into her hands. “God, Alec.”

She’d went in. He didn’t know if he was angrier at their mother for denying him and not Izzy or for Izzy not to tell him she was being let inside somewhere like that. He could have been running the cameras, making sure there was no one coming. “You’re not hurt?” Alec made sure.

She shook her head, “Even if I was… what they’re doing in there is inhumane.”

She told him all she could. About the line of cages, all of them specially made for downworlders. The one doused in holy water, the one made of silver, the one with runes carved into the side to stop magic. Then the people. Some of them being hauled off for experiments. Others hooked up between the cages to drips or left hanging upside down as an example for the others to behave. 

“The smell…” she shook her head. “And their faces. They knew mom, but she could only take a few, and instead of asking to bring themselves they showed her where the kids were. Kids Alec. What monster would choose a kids life over their own?” 

No monster at all. 

The kids had it worse off too if Izzy was asked. Their bodies were smaller, and Valentine was more interested in what their young, developing, bodies could do. He experimented with mundane blood, with demon blood, vampire werewolf, seelie. There were kids lying dead because their bodies couldn’t handle the strain, or Valentine had asked too much of them. 

“He has a whole nursery full of babies,” Izzy said, “I didn’t see them but… mom told me afterwards. Apparently he has a warlock in his pocket. She’s breeding them for him in exchange for her own life. I hope to God I never find out her name.”

Her and Alec both.

“I’m going back next week,” She decided once she finished. “I can’t leave them like that.”

“I wouldn’t either,” if he was allowed. 

She did go as well, always coming back more despondent than when she left. “There’s just so many of them.” 

Alec tried to do his part. His mom didn’t tell either of them when her and Jocelyn were breaking downworlders out. It was part of the plan, apparently, so Izzy went out every night not knowing if tonight was going to be the night she went back to the prison camp. They never found out the second location. Alec wasn’t sure Jocelyn even knew where that one was. Meaning Alec only had eyes on one building, if he ever got a tip off they were going there that night. 

He tried his best to listen in on where the shadowhunters were being sent since there was nothing else he could do. He tried to see where their information was coming from too. The cameras he still hadn’t found a way into. But there had to be more than cameras that were tipping off Valentine. It took weeks before Alec got names. Downworlders who had traded their freedom for information. He tried to keep a record of them, telling them to Magnus and Ragnor or both of them when he went for his weekly meetup with Rafael.

It wasn’t much, not anything like Izzy was doing, but they appreciated it all the same. 

“Who’s getting a big boy,” Izzy cooed, bouncing Rafe into the air and catching him on her feet again. He laughed, Izzy sending him up again. 

“I wish he was that well behaved the rest of the week,” Magnus sighed. 

They were in his loft, the first time they’d been invited really. It was a nice place, all open spaces but cluttered enough to feel homey. There were toys scattered everywhere, and a few baby gates Alec guessed led into more important parts of the apartment. Alec had felt a little awkward steeping in here at first, Ragnor telling him the feeling would ware off. Apparently it was something that happened to all warlocks going into another's lair, their magic getting a feel of each other.

Well, Magnus’s magic hadn’t kicked him out, hence why Alec was currently lying on the lofts floor stroking a very happy Chairman Meow. “He’s not giving you too much trouble is he?”

“No,” Magnus sighed, “It’s just… children.” Which kind of summed it up. Kids were a handful every when they weren’t traumatised. 

Alec hummed, leaning his head back to watch Rafe being kissed within an inch of his life as Izzy rolled them around. “Yeah, they’re great.”

The visit to the loft had been so Magnus could get some work done, or, as Alec really read into, have a nap. But so far Magnus was still wide awake and currently leaning over the arm of his sofa, one hand dangling down and being bitten by Chairman every other sway. It wasn’t like Alec and Izzy would be alone if Magnus did go off, Ragnor was here, and even skeletal Alec was sure the man could put up enough of a fight to get them out of the loft. 

Chairman jumped just before two hands slapped on Alec’s stomach, Rafe happily taking Chairman’s place. “You sick of Izzy’s flying lessons already?”

Rafe bounced a little as he probably said ‘yes now play with me’ in his own way. 

“Okay,” Alec sighed, sitting up, Rafe sliding down until he was giggling in Alec’s lap. “Ready?” he lifted Rafe onto the floor, “One, two three…” he covered Rafe with his wing, his body completely gone underneath it. Alec didn’t know if that was a testament to how small Rafe was or how large his wings were. “Ten.” He looked around, “Oh no, Rafe’s gone.” He lay back down, careful not to move his wing that was currently laughing quietly to itself. He glanced back up at Magnus, “If you wanna take a nap, now’s the best time to do it.”

Alec certainly did. He couldn’t really do much with a kid under his wing so he tried his best to catch up on the sleep he’d missed out on coming here so early. He was just dropping off too when Rafe popped out and jumped back on him.

It was a cycle that kept him going for thirty minutes, Izzy nabbing him again to play with his train before they left. 

“Wave bye bye Rafe,” Magnus said, keeping one arm firm around Rafe’s stomach so he wouldn’t try and chase after them. When Rafe did, Magnus carefully herded him inside before closing the door on him, “A word, actually, before you leave.”

“Sure,” he kind of hoped it wasn’t to not bring more toys because Alec had his eye on this new train set that he knew Rafe was going to love. “What’s wrong?”

“Outside,” Magnus said, leading them a street away. “There’s a downworlder meeting. We’re bringing in the informants and formally declaring an act of war on the New York Institute. I thought you should know before anything happens.”

“A-” Well, they knew this was coming. “Okay.” 

“I’ve tried to put them off, but with every rescued soul people are getting more and more angry. I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear.”

“No,” Alec agreed.

Izzy too, “Valentine’s probably going to move the overthrow of the Clave up if they don’t support him.” This act of war was the beginning of every open step Valentine wanted to take. If the Clave didn’t support him the Institutes would. They’d see the downworlders attacking one of their own bases as an insult, and while not all of them were as forthcoming about their views on downworlders, they didn’t go out of their way to be nice to them either. 

“I only thought to tell you both because, well, I thought you might want to come Alexander. You’re welcome as well Isabelle, but,” Yeah, Magnus had seen how very not shadowhunter Alec was. “And you are on our side. Right?”

“Of course,” they chimed immediately. 

Magnus nodded, “Then you should be part of the meetings. Your insight will be helpful. And I know quite a few people are singing your praises these days Isabelle.”

Izzy met his gaze, the two of them knowing right here, now, they were picking a side. It wasn’t really much of a choice when it came down to it. “When is it?” Isabelle asked.

“Tomorrow. I phoned that boyfriend of yours to babysit, I hope that’s alright.”

“Depends what you told him,” Alec said, since, last time Simon had been dealing with Alec, not Magnus.

Magnus fluttered his eyes a little as he answered, “That you and I are in a loving relationship and I’ve been on a business trip the last few months so you had to take our darling to work with you.”

That… yeah that would do it. “We’ll be there.”

“Great.” He glanced between them before, pulling Alec gently away, “Another little word Alexander, I’ll have him right back.” They went just out of earshot before Magnus asked, “Dinner?”

What? “What?”

“With me? Would you like to get dinner?”

Oh. Wait. “Are you asking me on a date?”

“Well,” Magnus gestured around. The air had been cleared, Magnus laughing so hard he got Rafe going when he found out Alec thought he was a mundane. Even if, Alec failed to mention, Magnus thought he was one too, and Alec didn’t spend any minute he could trying to get some sleep between caring for a two year old and work. 

“You realise we’re about to go to war, right?”

Magnus shrugged, “It’s not like there’s a better time to ask.”

Which was true. As soon as this whole thing started they… well, it was a wonder Magnus hadn’t been caught already. With a target on his back for real, who knew if they’d even meet up after tomorrow. So, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay,” Alec nodded. “Yeah.” Why not. He was already betraying the Institute. He may as well do what he’d already been doing before all this started as well. “Get a sitter though.” As much as he loved Rafe he kind of wanted a date without worrying a loud noise would startle him into a tantrum. He trusted Ragnor, anyway, and Simon, to take care of him. It wasn’t like it was just him and Izzy anymore. 

“Of course,” Magnus grinned, “I want no interruptions when I’m wooing you.”

He would have said something smooth back but, honestly Alec couldn’t think of anything. 

Izzy teased him the whole way home. “I knew he looked at you a little too long.”

“Shut up.”

She didn’t. 

It was nice walking back with her anyway. Having someone to talk to about just what someone did on a dinner date. It had been alright before, they’d always been doing something. But, unlike their coffee meeting a dinner implied being alone. No people chatting around them. No casual atmosphere. There’d be candles and music and the pressure to not look like he spent most of his life eating takeout hunched over a computer. 

Thankfully, Izzy had been where he’d been, and had advice aplenty about just how Alec could conduct himself. Also, according to her, conversation topics that would definitely get Magnus out of his shirt by the end of the night.

He may have let her talk a little more about that topic than she needed to.

They never made it back to the Institute. Before the old church came in sight Alec found himself backed up into a wall. “Are you an idiot?” Robert hissed, “Are you that stupid! I didn’t raise you to-”

“Robert!”

He didn’t know if it was his mom or Izzy that got his dad off him. All Alec saw was Max’s red face as he tried to work out what was going on.

“He’s fucked it up now. I told you- I told you we should have dealt with him. Sent him away, something!”

Alec grabbed Max, covering his ears as Izzy kept between Alec and Robert. “What’s going on?” he asked Max.

Max shook his head, burying it in Alec’s stomach. 

God help the mundanes around. If they heard them, Alec wouldn’t put it past them to have their glamours on. 

He didn’t really care either as he got the gist of what his dad was saying. Cameras. There were cameras in Magnus’s home. Someone had seen Alec with his wings on display, worse, consorting, being friendly, with warlocks. 

Izzy met his eyes just as Robert started on dealing with Alec properly, “Go.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Izzy took Max as he raced off, tracing back the way he came. It was far from the leisurely walk they’d taken before, Alec’s feet aching by the time he reached Magnus’s loft. He banged on the door until Magnus, changed out of his fancy clothes, answered.

“There’s cameras. They’re watching you,” he got out trying to catch his breath. 

Magnus wasted no time, the door remaining open as his magic fizzled around the loft. He cursed under his breath, calling for Ragnor and Rafe. “Where’s your sister?” Magnus called.

“With my parents. They’re… my dad’s pissed.” Murderous more like it, and some part of Alec wished he hadn’t known this was coming at some point. 

“Rafe!” Magnus called again, Ragnor struggling to put his shoes on. “Okay, we need to move. Alexander, how secure is your sister’s phone?”

“Not at all.” He had his other phone, meaning Izzy only had her normal standard issue one. The one Valentine probably had on tap. 

Magnus cursed again, grabbing a pen and scribbling something down. A fire message then. “My things I can come back for later. But we three need to go.”

“My-”

“She’ll meet us there,” Magnus promised, hands swirling around as Rafe finally toddled out of his room. He quickened his pace when he saw Alec, excited even if Alec had left him not even two hours ago. “Yes, carry him. Ragnor call Luke, I want this meeting moved up. Who knows what they overheard in here.”

He grabbed Rafe like Magnus asked, not even questioning where they were going as he stepped through the portal and out to a desolate warehouse. 

Things were a little tense. Magnus was sending fire messages, Ragnor was calling people and Rafe was confused enough he started stomping around in a mood. Alec tried his best to calm him down, but even he was worried. What happened now? Who had even seen him on the camera? Could it be deleted? Had his dad done that and just decided to go out and tell him not to do something like that again.

“Alec?” 

He caught Max, Izzy not far behind him. There was a bag on each of their backs, Izzy handing Alec one too. Their mom was the last one in, the door closing behind her. 

“Is dad?”

She shook her head, hugging him tight.

That was that then. 

His hands shook as they hugged her back. His mom was there for him. She cared. She wanted him. She’d always wanted him. 

He picked his bag up, Maryse going over to the others asking, “You mentioned a meeting?”

Always down to business.

Max was still crying. Alec felt like joining him. But he didn’t, because he was the oldest, and there wasn’t just Alec here. Rafe was already hiding at the arrival of new people, eyeing Maryse warily but not terrified like he had with Isabelle. She must have got him out, he figured, then wondered what had went wrong along the way for Rafe to end up on the street.

He’d have to ask.

Later. 

Right now another portal was opening, and on the other end the remaining downworlders of New York were gathering together to plan for war.