Archive of Our Own ^beta

„Is it at least gonna be fun?” asked Isabelle, crossing the doorstep of Institute's briefing room, in annoyed voice.

Alec didn’t look at her, not very bothered, staying at his place at the top of the table. He had his back to her.

„What else do you have to do?” he asked.

„I was supposed to have a date.” Spoke up Jace’s voice from the left of the room, when he sat with his feet put up carelessly. „Clary’s gonna be pissed.”

Izzy could tell. He looked fresh from the shower, his hair already gelled. She would have surely laughed at him, for this ridiculous trying, if she wasn’t feeling so sleep-deprived. Jace almost never gelled his hair.

„I was supposed to have a nap. What’s more important than my nap?”

„We’re gathering intel” answered Alec, turning around, so she could see something other than his back, covered with a dark sweather. He had papers in his hands, a files, Isabelle recognized, marked with the seal of the New York Intitute. He opened them, not wasting any time.

„His name’s Derwid Tambiern.” Alec said setting a single photo on a table. Seelie, quite young in the look, but eyes, green as a forest, with heavy gaze, revealed that he was much older than they would suspect. „We got information he’s been making negotiations with general Mercredi. A job contract, for the lack of better word.”

Oh. They were going to work together. Seelies never worked together, not like this. They didn’t believe in mercenary or job contracts. They were consulting.

„And guess what” said Jace from his place. He was sitting on the table, not caring about the marks the soles on his shoes are going to leave behind on a chair he carelessly put his feet on. „Mercredi’s hosting a strategic meeting.”

Isabelle hummed, low and rich, as cats do, when they’re ready to hunt their pray.

It was clear now, as a day, why she was called back. There was a job to do, a research to be made, and they didn’t have much Shadowhunters to spare. There was not enough of them to even patrol the streets the way their Law required them to do. They had to organize everything anew, and during this shift there was created a new kind of team, variable one, with flexible sets of skills. She, Alec and Jace did everything what needed to be done, whenever it needed to be done.

And the case of Mercredi needed to be taken care of, yesterday. He was a mystery man, working with Seelie Queen on Angel knew what. What worried them, was his broad knowledge of leylines and military training. Faeries didn’t like being soldiers, not the way Shadowhunters were, so a general, highly skilled in magic, coming to the aid of their Queen never meant anything pleasant. And lately he started gathering allies. Another thing Seelies weren’t keen on doing, as they were masters at avoiding truths.

Alec handed her a tightly printed file, gathered with care. With the heels on she was almost as tall as him, so she could see scars between the shell of his ear and line of hair, left from when he was a child and a demon’s claw reached him in a fleeting moment of absent-mindedness.  

„We’ve just got an intel that Tambiern’s going to be at one of the clubs in Brooklyn tonight.” When Alec talked, she opened the file, looking at the adress written with her brother’s steady hand above the name. „We need to know when and where, and it would be great if we knew what they’re going to talk about. And it needs to be done discretly.” He pressed, sounds harsh on the back on his teeth.

„Why is he our target?”

Alec’s face stayed carefully blank, someone could easily mistake it for simple focus.

„He’s known from trying to make impressions. He’s a performer first and expert the second. As far as we were told his ego is bigger than his loyalties.”

„He likes to blab” summed up Jace, with a smirk.

Isabelle sat at the table, heels making a harsh sound on the wood, heel clicking when she crossed one leg over the other. She reached for the photo, her fingernails colour of blood in vast contrast with Tambiern’s white skin and dark hair. He looked like a male version of this princess they’ve read about in mundane books, the ones they found once in the dumpster behind some library. Snow White was her name, and Tambiern could have easily been compared. He also had a purple mark above his collarbone. Alec flopped down on a chair next to her.

„It should’t be hard to make him-„ she clicked with her tongue to accentuate. „-cooperate.”

„I don’t think you’re gonna be effective this time, Izzy” Jace put his finger on a file, on one line that very clearly stated homosexual tendencies. Izzy’s eyes flickered to Alec but he sat unmoving, scanning his own copy.

„He might be bi” she shrugged.

„We can’t risk it.” Jace shook his head, blond curls spilling on his forehead. „Besides, it says he frequents gay bars and clubs. If you tried there, it would be suspicious.”

„It’s not like you want to do it” she waved her hand towards Jace.

„I can totally do it” Jace almost huffed. „I’m completely irresistible.”

„I don’t think you’re his type anyway” said Alec drily, laid back casually on a chair, feet steady on a ground and knees spread wide. He looked at them with raised eyebrowes, looking quite displeased.

He was right. They had surveillance photos of Tambiern in the file and Alec helpfully started laying them down on the table. Almost all of them were grainy and rather fuzzy, but those made in clubs and restaurants, where he was in company of various men, always showed them tall and with dark hair. One of them had a hand around Tambiern’s waist, second was kissing him in the line of jaw on a poorly lit street corner.

„Great” snorted Jace. „He’s one with the type. I don’t get it, blonds are soo much more attractive.”

„Your ego isn’t” answered Isabelle with bored expression. „We can borrow someone from another team.”

„There’s no time” argued Jace, flipping through the photos. „Besides, who would you take? Raj?” Then he smirked, what made him look like a naughty, little boy, full of mischief. „We could do it only to look at him squirming.”

Isabelle chuckled, briefly. Raj was a good Shadowhunter, very skilled and determined to do a good work, but not very keen on broading his horizonts. His spend most of his life in Alicante before coming to the New York and the differences between him and Shadowhunters raised here could be quite easily spotted. Shadowhunters sheltered in Idris didn’t know much about dingy streets of New York and rarely wanted to truly learn.  

„Snowstorm looks kind of like them” she said finally.

Snowstorm was new in the New York Institute and indeed very tall, dark and handsome with round, boyish jaw and warm eyes. He’d be perfect.

„He’s in Alicante” Alec cut in almost absently, still eyeing the photos. „His mother called him to Idris. Some problems with his sister.”

If anyone would know this things, it would be Alec. He wasn’t the Head, not even an acting one, but when their parents left for Idris, it was his job to tediously and meticulously go through mountains of the Institute’s paperwork. Unfortunately, him being right kind of killed their plan before it even had a chance to be born.

„Alright, who else?”

„There’s James?” asked Jace, not looking convinced. „But he’s only a trainee.”

It was a long shot, risky one. James’s hair were dyed, obviously, and he was barely fifteen, with soft line of cheekbones and bony elbows, uncomfortably long in certain places, not even fully placed in his own body.

Shadowhunters looked differently at concept of adulthood, they had to mature fast and bright, the same way they were dying, but James was not only a trainee, he was a child. Even desperation wouldn’t make Isabelle put a boy in a position to seduce anybody, not even talking about hundred years old faerie, with reputation of sticky hands and untraceable chain of lovers.

None of them had to speak up, to put this particular idea in the trash.

„There’s at least two dozens of men in this Institute and you say none of them fits?” she asked with a frown.

„It’s not like we’re made in the lab” snickered Jace. „Excuse me, one shadowhunter with black hair, six feet tall and it would be great if he was skilled in seducing faeries.”

„You’re ridiculous”

„I could do it.”

They turned around, stunned into silence. Jace froze with photos in his hands.

Alec rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, suddenly looking a little bit nervous. Seconds ago he sounded confident and more than sure but now he seemed weirded out. His casual posture changed into a tense lines of back and jaw.

„What?”

„You want to be a diversion?” asked Jace.

The thing about Alec was that a term Shadowhunter seemed to fit him better than the rest of them. They made a living and a lifestyle out of staying in the shadows, of creeping out of them with a purpose of killing demons. Night was their charm and their friend and every Shadowhunter felt it like a hug of a sibling. But they were also angel-blooded and in these rare occasions they could, they wanted to be seen. There wasn’t a creature that wouldn’t feel they were different, wouldn’t see the glow of their skin and feel the power of their runes, even if they couldn’t quite tell where it came from.

Alec always was more comfortable staying behind in the shadows, never quite sure why people kept looking at him when he didn’t want them to. Jace and her mastered it, the shine the angels gave them, but Alec did everything to squish it, to hide deeper and deeper into himself. Even his weapon of choice, the bow, ensured he was deadly but never properly seen.

„It sounds like you think I can’t do it” he said, his eyebrows scrunching above his nose. He sounded little offended.

„It’s not like we think you can’t” answered Izzy, sending Jace a warning look. „It’s just, you never wanted to.”

„That’s ‘cause I don’t.” Alec answered plainly. „But I could. It can’t be that hard.”

It wasn’t, not for Isabelle – she was doing it all the time, pefrectly comfortable with her body, with her long legs and long hair. She loved it, the thrill of chasing a guy, the look in their eyes when they forgot about everything but her. Their duties and sometimes even their loyalties. Jace loved it, not because he was shallow, like Izzy and Alec liked to joke, but because he was conscious, aware of his body and his charm. His gold eyes and locks were complementing his aura of a hurt boy with harsh atittude and angelic face, and girls loved thinking they could be his entire world, even if for one night only.

But Alec was awkward and not magnetizing at all, hidden behind his stretched-thin sweaters with too long sleeves and hair falling on his forehead.

„You would have to dance” came Izzy’s warning. „In a gay club.”

She didn’t mean it as a cruel remark nor as a jab, but she saw Alec’s flinch and the way he blinked in hesitation. Something shameful and painful rose between her ribs, howling for her big brother. For a moment she thought this small reminder was enough, that he’s going to back out, but then something close to determination flickered through his face.

„I know. I listened.” He pushed himself out of his chair. When he leaned in to gather photos back into the file, the stretched collar of his shirt reavealed fresh scars of barely healed runes etched into his skin a night before. The bruise on his shoulder still was purplish and tender from when he hit a wall, thrown back by a rather nasty demon.

„Are you sure?”

„Don’t coddle me, Izzy.” Now, he sounded harsh, his voice tight in his throat. „I look like them. I am them. If anybody’s gonna work, it has to be me.”

It didn’t have to be him, they would find somebody else even if not exactly matching Tambiern’s type the way Alec did. They could post Jace as a bait and even if Tambiern didn’t take it, it still probably beared better possibility of succes than letting Alec walk into the crowd of sweaty and drunk mundanes and leaving him there on his own. But he insisted and this certainty was strange. Alec always was stubborn and there wasn’t a thing he couldn’t do if he set his mind on it. But he never pressed this much about something so irrelevant on the surface.

She looked at Jace, who just shrugged.

„If you want to.”

„Then it’s settled” he stated but didn’t look at them. The line of his mouth was tight.

Isabelle propped her chin on folded palms.

„You can’t go like that” she said, gesturing to his worn out jeans, so much they were more gray than black by now, and hair falling loosely on his face.

He smiled and it was a small smile, with a hint of something that Izzy couldn’t recognize, rare and precious.

„I’ll prepare” he stated.

„Alone?”

„Mhm.”

„No need to be so secretive, big brother.” Isabelle didn’t have any idea how on earth would he prepare and in short two hours they had. Alec wasn’t exactly what you would call seducing even if he cleaned up quite nicely. „You sure you don’t want any help?”

„Nope.” His lips popped, he was already next to the door. „We’ll meet there, okay? Ten.”

She barely had time to nod, when he was out of the door, his heavy boots barely making a sound. Jace looked at her with raised eyebrows and she didn’t know what to say.

&&&

The street was relatively empty, considering they were in front of some dingy, mundane club. Only people there were lined up in a queue, except from one man standing few steps from the door, in knee high boots on a few inch heel and short leather jacket. There was a cigarette in his hand, smoke curling around his nose, ears and above dark splash of his hair.

„He’s late” said Jace grumpily. „I don’t understand why couldn’t he come with us.”

Isabelle asked herself the same question, but she couldn’t come up with any answer beside the one that maybe Alec panicked and just gave himself the opportunity to run.

„You think it’s his way of easing us into it?” asked Jace, not looking at her, instead inspecting shiny tips of his heavy shoes. The laces were perfectly even in his usual way.

They never actually talked about it, never dared, but Izzy knew Jace knew and Jace knew she could tell. It was just easier to pretend sometimes. They couldn’t mention it in front of Alec so maybe they never had a courage to talk about it between the two of them either. It felt like a betrayal. But now they stood in front of a gay club waiting for Alec, something, she’s never thought she’d ever do.

„I don’t know” the man next to the door dropped the cigarette on a pavement, stepped on it with one heel. It didn’t take a second and he already produced another one, from a small pocket inside his short leather jacket. She turned around, trying to spot Alec somewhere, anywhere. „All of it is weird. He said he wants to prepare, like, in what way he wants to prepare? He’s got two drawers of clothes.”

Jace just swayed on his toes.

„Wanna bet he’ll just wear a relatively new sweater and jeans? How does he even want to do this? Have you ever even seen him drinking?”

„It’s a mission” said Isabelle setting the cleavege of her dress in the right way. „He’s not gonna drink anyway.”

Jace looked at his phone, checking the time.

„Where is he?” he asked, turning around to the direction they came from and squinted his eyes, trying to notice anything on the street.

„I don’t know. He should have been here ten minutes ago.”

„Guess I won then” said a new voice on their right and Izzy turned around quickly, hand on a blade and eyes focused. It lasted only half a second before she recognized him, first as a man standing in front of a club seconds earlier and then as her brother.

„What the fuck, man” Jace was right next to her and his face couldn’t have been funnier when he gaped at Alec as a deer caught in headlights, his eyebrows comically high on his forehead. Izzy took a moment to come out of her shock, blinking a few times, looking at Alec in a dim lights of a street.

Because the man in front of them was Alec, by the Angel, but definitely didn’t look like him. She suddenly started to understand his lack of worry. Even if someone did connect this person in front of her to her brother they would have to be crazy to entertain the idea for longer than a few seconds. He was standing there, right in front of them this whole time and they didn’t even think to look at him twice.

To her defence, never in a life of her she’d think Alec would wear knee-high leather boots, hugging tightly his calves and equally tight trousers showing off his thighs and sharp bones of hips. Heels gave them a little pop, when he stood casually, one hand in his back pocket, taking another smoke. Under the jacket she could see some hint of a deep blue shirt and uncovered chest scattered with white scars marking the places where once were runes. She knew for a fact that he put on at least a few – strenght and protection, and rune for sharp eyes, but they must be on his legs, where no one could see them between his unbuttoned collar. What shocked her the most was dark kohl around his eyes and some glitter high on his cheeks, on his lips and in deep black of his hair.

„Told you I’ll prepare” he said and with a smile, but sudden tension in a line of his arms gave him away.

„Is this a cigarette?” asked Jace, his voice hoarse with shock, looking at a still lit… something in Alec’s hand. Shadowhunters didn’t smoke as a rule, because their bodies were considered weapons and weapons were supposed to always be kept in perfect state.

„No” said Alec and showed it to him. It was longer than mundane cigarettes wrapped in big leaves full of thin veins. „It’s herbal. Smells nice, looks cool.”

Skin around his eyes crinckled behind the makeup when he frowned, dark kohl making them rounder and giving them this electrical shade of blue.

„What the hell” said Jace. „Seriously, dude, what the hell?”

Alec flipped the cigarette between his fingers, probably wanting to hide their trembling.

„It is a gay club” he said hesitantly, looking at them. Whole confidence dissapeared from his face. Suddenly behind the kohl, and the glitter Izzy could see Alec she knew, quiet one, never stepping up when he didn’t have to, Alec that she thought gave up on all happiness and hope, that she thought had closed himself off to the world and resigned to the life in the Institute, cold and lonely and lifeless. This Alec was scared. „You do know, right? By the Angel, I thought you knew and just didn’t talk about it. I thought you knew” he said once again gesturing to all of himself; and it broke Isabelle’s heart.

Of course they knew, how could they not? For years she ached for her brother, for the part of him she never managed to see outside of rare, uncontroled glimpses. Sometimes, years ago, Alec looked at Jace and he would smile and Isabelle just knew. And seconds after that Alec seemed to remember and he folded into himself even more. Sometimes she feared he’s going to dissapear completely.

„We thought you don’t talk about it!” Jace put his hands in the air  „But you were out there all this time doing this while I pretended to be blind!”

„So you do know?”

„Of course, I know!” he almost shouted. People in the queue were starting to not so discreetly look over their shoulders to peek curious glances at them. „I just very gentlemanly pretended I was stupid for your fucking mental comfort. Every time when you stood close to a guy you looked like you wanted to run!” he hissed.

„I was a teenager! I don’t do it anymore!”

„I fucking see! Now you’re all sparkly and telling me I didn’t have to scramble my brain so you won’t catch up that we know, and you knew that we know this whole time!”

Isabelle couldn’t stop herself and just rolled her eyes.

„You’re both idiots” she finally said. She raised one hand and put it on Alec’s shoulder, turning him around so she could face him. They were always quite similar height but now with him in heels as well she had to tip her head upwards. „We love you. You must know that, right?”

„Yeah. Yeah, I do.” He didn’t really sound convinced and Isabelle tried not to drag him down just as a prove. They loved Alec and Alec knew that. But love could be harsh and demanding and the best example was their own mother.

„And we don’t care.” Jace added. „Like really, man. You’re out or not, we wtih you, yeah?”

„Well, I’m not, not really.” He said simply, shrugging. „I mean, I got over it, like, some time ago. Just… not in the Institute. You know. Shadowhunters. I… I couldn’t be sure.”

It was another thing that made Isabelle’s guts turn. Shadowhunters kept to themselves, their families, their people were the guarantee in life and in battle. If they couldn’t turn to each other, what was left for them? In a closed community, where everything belonged to everybody there was nothing but loneliness for people like Alec, nothing but hurt.

Her arms found his waist and suddenly Jace was close, she could feel him at her back. Alec’s long arms embraced them, she felt one of his big, rough palms on her neck and with the corner of the eye she could see, how he buried his nose in Jace’s hair. He sagged, his limbs loose and free. His heart beat steadily, even if little too fast.

They stayed like that for a moment, just for a few seconds, embraced tightly and breething deeply.

„Come on, we got a job to do” Isabelle patted Alec’s chest, as he let them go, and straightened his jacket collar. He turned his head so they wouldn’t see that his eyes were wet but they noticed it anyway. Izzy saw the panicked glance Jace sent her and she curved her lips in confusion. They didn’t really do this, talk about emotions and feelings and love.

Finally he found his words in a usual way, slipping in their parabatai bond with ease.

„Yeah. Wouldn’t want to ruin your new style.”

„I don’t dress like that on daily basis” pressured Alec in a dry tone. „Besides it’s you who wore the most straight thing I have ever seen to a gay club. And I’m master at ugly clothes, apparently.” He added deadpan serious looking at Izzy.

„Well, it’s true” she said, thinking back to his stretched sweaters with holes on elbows and jeans who were usually too big to even be called oversized. He looked so not like Alec, as if someone exchanged him for a different model.

„It’s a combat gear!” Jace cut in, gesturing towards his belt and heavy boots.

„They’re gonna combat you out of there in five minutes” answered Alec but his smile revealed a little bit of teeth. Now when he knew they’re not gonna abandon him, bellitle him, that they still loved him, he seemed to fall easily into known patterns. Isabelle didn’t know what to think about it, that Alec suspected for such a long time that they knew and still was so hesitant to even breach the topic. So afraid that their love was conditioned to silence and secrets.

„Where did you even get it from?”´she asked. When Alec looked at her confused, she reached out with her hand and touched his naked chest and a soft fabric of his shirt. It was silk. „The clothes and the make up. You didn’t do it yourself, I just know.”

He looked at her from under heavy lashes as if he were calculating something. She thought she noticed traces of a blush on his neck, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

„I might have had a little help” he said quietly, like he didn’t quite want them to hear.

„I can’t believe we thought you were repressed” muttered Jace under his breath, and Alec glared at him.

„Man, you’re really pushing it.”

Jace raised his hands, palms flat, as a sign of giving up.

&&&

„I’ve got him” said Alec looking above the crowd almost three minutes after they crossed the threshold. Izzy followed his gaze.

Tambiern was there, indeed, his dark hair spread on his shoulders, hands on the hips of another man. He was dancing, eyes half-closed, face and neck blushed, chest covered by shirt woven with what looked like real leaves.

„Good luck, big brother” she touched his arm breifly. „We’ll be here, yeah?”

Alec just nodded and went forward, not loking back at them.

Isabbele quickly realised what he was doing. He started as if he was on the mission. Stepping like a cat, he set himself to be invisible, moving forward slowly and delicately, gently. Then he set up his position and in this exact moment, he straghtened up. It wasn’t that Tambiern noticed him; Alec arranged himself to be noticed in the exact moment he wanted to attack.

Faerie’s eyes shined when he looked at Alec elongating his white, strong neck. He moved once and twice, closer and closer to Tambiern, encircling first his partner, probably already forgotten. When Alec pushed between them, it looked as if Tambiern pulled him, not the other way.

The other man patted Alec’s arm in annoyed gesture, quite visibly bewildered but Alec just looked at him from under heavy eyelids, shrugged and moved his body, like a weapon, like a trap. Tambiern got caught.

The other man waved his hand, his face red and angry, and left.

„Do you see what I’m seeing?”

Alec pushed back into Tambiern’s chest, his gaze dutifully glazed as if he were already at least tipsy even though he didin’t have even a sip of alcohol. He rotated his hips, his hand on Tambiern’s neck, but his second hand was keeping faerie’s palms above waistband and off his face with subtle, authorative touches.

Isabelle watched with huge eyes as Tambiern leaned in for a kiss. Alec turned his face so faerie’s lips landed on his jaw and then neck, and then he changed their position again, still pressing close to the other man and saying something to his ear. His palm touched Tambiern’s skin, right above the edge of his collar.

„My life was a lie” answered Jace, waving his hands dramatically in a gesture that at least halfly was a simple act.

Izzy tugged him by the sleeve.

„Come on. We need to blend in.”

It was weird actually, not having anything to do. Usually it would be Isabelle in the middle of a crowd, even if not with the target, then right next to him, watching, waiting for something to go wrong. Sometimes they even had a little bit of fun with Jace, switching partners and playing the dangerous games of cat and a mouse.  

But Alec managed to twirl Tambiern closer to the bar, not easily, but effectively, so they could sit and observe and react if needed. They ordered drinks, weak ones an sat themselves on high stools. Izzy kept one of her foot on the floor, to move easily and quickly in time of need.

She saw Alec talk, saw him dancing, luring, but in the same moment, she couldn’t help but notice how proficiently he avoided Tambiern’s wandering hands. He moved them quicly from his lower back back to his shoulders, kept his mouth high, not letting Tambiern to reach them. Sometimes he stumbled, in one moment she thought he got a little bit scared.  Tambiern looked at him then a little surprised, and she was almost ready to step in, but Alec just dropped his eyes, saying something else.

Tambiern smiled and Izzy knew this smile. He thought Alec was adorable or more correctly, adorably innocent.

After some time of drinking lazily and exchanging few sentences with Jace every few minutes, Tambiern pulled Alec closer than ever earlier, his fingers dipping in soft flesh of Alec’s forearms, uncovered when he pulled up his sleeves a few minutes ago.  He said something and Alec licked his lips, so convincigly, she almost believed him. He made a small gesture with his hand and then pushed Tambiern out of his orbit, smiling and waving, looking promising.

Tmabiern dissapeared among people, sending Alec last, longing look. Alec momentarily rolled his eyes and hunched, as if every muscle in his body relaxed at once. They lost him for a while, when he pushed through the dancefloor, trying to get to them.

„Got it?” asked Jace, when he reemerged, shifting his hand through his black hair, obviously trying to tame them a little.

„Yep” his shining lips popped, a little bit of sweat gathered on his temple. „I’ve got a day, the topic and the list of half dozen of his lovers, which I didn’t need to know, but he was insisting.”

„He told you this after half an hour?”

„He was very loose-lipped” stated Alec, with a frown to his forehead. „And very handsy.”

„We saw.” And it was back, this uncertain look on Alec’s face. Jace as always, could tel something was amiss and added quickly. „I was this close to going there and ripping his sticky hands. Seriously man, zero respect for boundaries.”

Men.  

Alec decided to carefully ignore the last statement.

„He was just bragging about some lunch with someone super important” he rolled his eyes, clearly not very impressed. „And then he saw it didn’t work, so he started talking about real deal. Apparently he’s not only a guest in this meeting and he really wanted to tell me how important he is.”

He looked mildly disgusted in a very typical way of his, but his eyes shone with what Isabelle recognized as pride. Maybe it wasn’t his regular assignment and maybe she and Jace doubted – more than – but he completed it and with a succes. He had every right to feel proud. She was.

„Great. You’re not gonna forget anything?”

He patted one of his pockets, amazingly capacious for such a short jacket.

„Already written it down.”

Of course.

Jace looked over his shoulder.

„Where did he go, actually?”

Alec puckered his lips.

„He might have gone to the bathroom.”

Isabelle lifted one of her eyebrows. Alec rolled his eyes.

„I might have told him, I’ll follow.”

„And?”

Alec made a face, looking like he already regretted coming back to them.

„I might have send after him the guy who was pissed off”. When they didn’t understand he rolled his eyes. „Tambiern ditched him for me. Earlier.”

And then he smiled in the way he always did when he swiped the floor with Jace during training.

Isabelle couldn’t help but laugh. It was easy to forget sometimes that Alec was just two years older and still a teenager. Moments like this sometimes still managed to surprise her, even if quite rarely.

„Got what he deserves.” Jace never carried a watch, but it didn’t stop him from smiling. „Good job, man, that was quick. In and out in an hour.”

„Yeah. Maybe Clary won’t tear out you hair when you show up late instead of not at all” snickered Isabelle, while they were making steps towards the door.

Alec didn’t move. She turned to him.

„You’re not coming?”

He bit his lip, unsure, and then shrugged.

„What is it?” asked Jace. „You hurt?”

„I wasn’t hurt by dancing” snickered Alec. „It’s just… well. My help might be here.”

„Might?” repeated Isabelle.

„Stop smiling like that” answered Alec with a glare. „You have a boyfriend. Jace has a small, redheaded rat-„

„Oi!”

„-I’m allowed to have someone.”

They stood in silence for a while, looking at each other, club’s colourful lightning dancing on Alec’s glittered cheeks. He finally sighed.

„Do you… want to meet him?”

„Thought you never ask” chirped Izzy.

„He’s not-” he stopped, chewing his lip for a brief moment. „It’s just, are you sure?”

She softened, asking herself if maybe it was too early, maybe it wasn’t their place, not yet. But Alec looked raw open and hopeful and she could see his fingers twitching next to his hip.

„You know Simon.”

„And Clary” added Jace protectively. Alec looked at him weirdly like it wasn’t exactly a point to his favour.

„He’s my boyfriend” he said soflty and quietly, as if he thought it would be a final straw for them. Izzy wondered, if he ever had an opportunity to say it out loud to somebody, anybody, just for the sake of saying it.

Jace scoffed, but he patted Alec’s back once, maybe with more force than was needed.

„Then it’s time for us to meet the lucky guy.”

It seemed to calm Alec. Isabelle could see how he moved one of his hands to his shoulder when she knew his prabatai rune was placed. He nodded and straightened his back. In his full height he easily stood out in the crowd and could survey their sorroundings. He was looking for someone and they let him. When he finally seemed to find who he wanted, his face lit up and he moved through the crowd, expecting them to follow.  

It wasn’t a long trip, just a little bit of bustling in a sea of people, to one of the tables, hidden in the corner. It was half hidden behind a thin screen, giving an illusion of privacy. At the table sat a man, with dark black hair and golden skin, his eyes, rounded with eyeshadow giving away his Asian ancestry. He seemed not to react at the sight of Alec as if he was waiting for him, but the moment he saw them following he reached for his glass as if it was a shield. Alec took one of the chairs, the one closest to the man, and Izzy and Jace carefully slipped with him behind the screen, sitting on the two remainig ones.

„How can I help you?” the man spoke up, his voice warm and smokey, as if he already drank at least two drinks. He was beautiful, unearthly gorgeus, and when he blinked, Isabelle saw gold in his eyes.

„You’re a warlock” she stated and he smiled at her with amusement, baring the tips of his teeth. Beside that, he didn’t do anything else, just looked at Alec with a silent question.

„It’s fine” he leaned closer to the man and it beared familiarity, trust. Intimacy. „I told them.”

He looked almost excited, proud of himself, as if it was something personal to share with this man, something only the two of them would understand. And the man responded, moving closer, putting a hand on Alec’s neck in a fleeting touch full of joy and of pride.

She didn’t know what she expected. Yesterday, if she ever dared to think about it, she would imagine a quiet man, like Alec, discreet one. But now Alec had kohl around his eyes, and a smile on his face, and maybe she had to make her peace with a fact that she never really knew him as well as she thought. The man next to him, the man he apparently chose, had glitter in his hair, his shirt wide open and deep purple, woven with silver thread.  He seemed unapologetic, dangerous, as if he wanted people to fear him and to adore him.  

„I am a warlock” he spoke finally. „Is it going to be a problem?”

Warlocks were different from the other Downworlders, the magic in their bodies terrifying Shadowhunters more than vampiric teeth and werewolf’s claws. It was raw and sentient and something they would never understand. Complemented with immortality their presence in Downworld was never sure and never constant. Shadowhunters needed and feared them equally. That meant, from all the creatures of the Shadow World, they were treated with more cruelty and hostility than any other.  

„So you taught my brother to dance like that?” asked Izzy with a sly smile, instead of replying. Jace stayed quiet at her side and she could tell he was observing, looking for something.

„I’m a Shadowhunter” deadpanned Alec. „I do have some grace.”

„Running through the roofs, maybe. I’ve never seen you dancing.”

„You’ve never had the opportunity.”

„I did teach him to dance like that” chirped the man, lips touching the edge if his glass. His fingers were adorned with rings and ended with manicured nails, painted dark blue. He reached forward with one hand, his eyebrows curved in a challenge. „Magnus Bane.”

Jace stiffened at Izzy’s side but took his hand with a brief look at Alec. He shook it and Magnus seemed pleasantly suprised when Isabelle followed Jace’s example. Alec smiled at them from behind his shoulder.

„As in the High Warlock of Brooklyn Magnus Bane?” it was the first time Jace said something, and Izzy could tell he tried to sound as neutral as possible, for Alec’s sake. She didn’t share a parabatai bond with any of them, but she knew them. Alec looked at ease with Magnus but still stared at them as if at any moment they were to stand up and walk out without another word. Jace could probably feel it deep in his chest, through the bond, no matter how Alec would try to stop it.  

The warlock raised his glass in a toast.

„At your service” he sounded amused. „Or not. For reasonable price, I would say.”

„And what price was this?” Someone might argue that Jace pointed at Alec’s clothes and his appearence, the help with assigment, but the movement was vague, and seemed to iclude Alec as a whole.

Bane smirked and Alec groaned as if he knew what was coming.

„I do Alec pro bono.”

Isabelle couldn’t stop herself and just laughed loudly, not quite believing what she heard.

„It was awful” Alec almost squeaked, in a very loud whisper. The scandal was fighting with a laughter within him. „They’re my siblings, Magnus!”

„They started it.” His lips shaped in a childlike pout and he almost managed to look innocent and young.

Isabelle didn’t know how old he was, as far as she could tell, nobody knew. Some would say he reached nearly thousand of years and others that it was just a half of that time. What nobody could deny was his power, the raw strenght he wielded, not only in his magic, but in his every movement. Each roll of his shoulders and tip of his palm was deeply calculated, as if he couldn’t spare a moment of distraction. He was a wild card, a powerful one. And now his hand was on Alec’s, his cat eyes glowing in the stroboscopic lights when he looked at her brother from under heavy, painted eyelids.

She knew what Jace was looking for. It wasn’t Alec they knew, he looked more like Magnus Bane, than like himself at the moment, and maybe, just a little, she shared some of his doubts. Bane was older, much older, and known for having fun, for engaging everybody around him in his little schemes and affairs. But Alec looked relaxed and not uncomfortable at all, he looked happy. As if it was his place. And he called Bane his boyfriend. He turned to him for help and Bane came, watching over Alec from the shadows in the same way Alec was always doing it for everybody else.  

And Alec never gave his heart easily. It must have been earned.

„I thought you hated clubs” said Jace.

„I do” his mouth curved not exactly in disgust but not in delight either „But with Magnus I can go. Sometimes.”

„Such a flattery, darling.”

Alec just made a weird move with his palm, the one not holding onto warlock’s hand, like he couldn’t exactly decide what he wanted to do with himself.

„It is true.” He didn’t even try to hide it, and it was so Alec, this bluntness, but Izzy’s never seen him showing it this freely behind the walls of the Institute.

„And I adore you for it” said Magnus, rather amused, and patted Alec’s hand. „Are you staying with us? The drinks are awful, but company immaculate.”

„I promised Clary, I’ll be back.” Answered Jace and it’s wasn’t a lie. He’s never tried so much as he does with Clary, never cared enough.

„Yeah, same with Simon. He’s bored out of his mind in the training.” Added Isabelle, which was at least partly true.

It was the end of their shift, as always after the outdoor mission. The only thing left were reports to be written but they could do it tomorrow morning. Now it was time to rest.

„But next time you say I’m dramatic, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Jace pointed a finger at Alec, squinting his eyes. He was already standing firmly on his feet, chair abandoned.

„Well, you are.”

„I’m a fucking delight.”

Isabelle leaned above the table, kissing Alec’s cheek, hot from exciment and blush.

„It was great to meet you” she said to Magnus, his eyes flickering. She’s never seen a warlock mark this close. Warlocks, like Shadowhunters, kept to themselves, and if they agreed to work for Shadowhunters, they never risked spending too much time with them. Isabelle, never making official negotiations within the Institute and rarely being able to get close to them in Downworlder’s clubs, has never seen anything quite like this before.

„And you, Isabelle. Both of you.”

He seemed genuine and kind, so when they were walking away slowly, her soul was peaceful.

There will be questions later and explanations, and Jace will bitch for weeks, just like he does with everything. But sometimes Alec would show them a smile and everytime Izzy would feel something heavy lifting from her chest. Sometimes, in the morning he would sit on his char in a briefing room, nursing a cup of coffe, his shoulders relaxed and ankles crossed, looking soft and happy. Sometimes, he would tell them he’s going out for the night and won’t be back till dawn and then, even with Jace’s stupid noises, he would laugh quietly, because it was still a secret but not completely.

Now they just knew and there wasn’t anything easier in the world than loving Alec with this knowledge. He looked happy, and he looked soft, and finally, sitting next to Magnus Bane, he looked like he knew he was loved.