A/N: So this story sort of just came over me (I partly blame Kevin and Lily for giving me Clary/Alec friendship feels) and I spent the last two days typing down 3 pages of nothing but basic plot and this little monster of a chapter (I know, I know, objectively it's not all that long but it wasn't supposed to be five pages!) It's not betaed and merely proofread two or three times by me but I had to get this out there, to see if/at what rate I'll continue to actually write it out. I'm still working on other projects (for example the fic I've been talking about in The Little Things, for everyone who saw that) but I wouldn't object to writing a bit for this in between if anyone would be interested in reading it.

Basically, what I'm getting at is: If you've got any thoughts at all after reading this (I'll get ahead of myself and thank you for giving it a chance right here), review and let me know? I'm torn between thinking I did okay and wanting to virtually burn it. I experimented a bit with my style as well, so if you think this majorly sucks or if you've read something else I wrote and think this is better/worse, I'd appreciate your opinion!

Long ass author's note over and thank you for taking the time to read it!

Warnings for this chapter: non-explicit mentions of rape, also a demon trying to rape someone, though he doesn't get far at all (if you're easily triggered better be cautious, though), a bit of violence

Chapter 1

"Clary, are you sure this is a good idea?" Alec fidgeted where he stood, nervously fingering the hem of his frayed sweater.

"Oh, come on, Alec, loosen up a little! You only get to graduate high school once, what better time to go out and celebrate!" Clary was bouncing up and down on her feet, either out of actual giddiness or because she was trying to see past the people lined up in front of her. Her enthusiasm lured a fond smile out of Alec, though.

"I thought you were supposed to party in college?"

"That doesn't mean we can't go out now," Clary said with an almost frighteningly wide smile, playfully slapping Alec's hand away from where he was still toying with the loose threads of his sweater. "Stop doing that. I can't believe you actually showed up like this, didn't I tell you to dress up at least a little?"

Alec looked down at himself self-consciously, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at his friend when he was done with his inspection. "What? This outfit is perfectly acceptable."

"Let me guess, it counts as dressing up because it's actually still black and not some faded shade of dark gray?" Clary asked, laughter evident in her voice and eyes sparkling with mirth. She bit her lip, trying to keep from outright laughing at her friend.

"Yes," Alec said, actually sticking his tongue out at her and playfully pulling at one of her red curls, dimples forming on his cheeks as he grinned down at her.

"For someone this tall and reserved you're actually incredibly immature." Clary laughed, batting his hand away from her and pinching his cheek in revenge. It was her secret weapon ever since she'd first seen the old woman at their favorite ice cream parlor do it when they'd been kids. The look of pure shock that had crossed his face was quite possibly the most hilarious thing she'd ever witnessed.

"For someone this tiny and artistic you're actually incredibly eager to drag me into a night club," Alec said in his best mocking tone, rubbing his cheek and glaring some more.

"Maybe if you'd stop being this grumpy you'd actually have fun and it wouldn't feel so much like I'm dragging you?" Clary said, adapting Alec's tone and linking her arm through his as best as she could with the height difference between them. "Now try to look less like you plan on murdering me for this, we're gonna be in sight of the bouncer when this guy's through. I'd actually like a try at convincing you that this is a good idea. If he even lets us in. Your sweater looks like you pulled it out of a dumpster."

"Does not," Alec murmured under his breath as they took a step forward, foreign bodies pushing into them from behind, trying to speed up the process. The feeling wasn't one he enjoyed too much and he wasn't looking forward to the amplified version of it he'd have to deal with on the dance floor.

"Does too," Clary murmured back, pulling him closer into her side as she felt him fidgeting even more.

Miraculously, the bouncer let them in – maybe he mistook Alec's rather shabby wardrobe for some kind of fashion statement – and they found themselves in the stuffy humidity of Pandemonium. Multicolored lights, changing so quickly Alec felt a bit dizzy just watching, danced over the grinding mass of bodies of all shapes and sizes before them. Alec gulped at the sight.

"Do we really have to?" he asked, barely audible over the deafening volume of the bass pulsating through the room, his fingers automatically going back to the threads he'd toyed with earlier as he watched the dancers. Clary grabbed his hand in hers to prevent him from doing even more damage.

"Yes. We don't have to stay long if you don't want to but you could at least try to enjoy yourself for a bit, okay?" Her huge green eyes pleaded with him. Alec had never been able to resist anyone's puppy dog eyes and Clary had perfected hers years ago when she'd first started begging her mother for art classes.

With a defeated sigh, Alec let himself be pulled onto the dance floor. Sweating bodies brushed against his back and sides as soon as he'd hesitantly started swaying on his feet, his arms pressed stiffly to his sides to avoid further contact. If it weren't for Clary twirling in front of him and seeming to have the time of her life just jumping around and moving to the beat, Alec would have fled to a dark corner the moment someone bumped into him and almost spilled half of their beer down his sleeve.

"Alec, this doesn't count as letting go!" Clary yelled over the noise around them, poking him in the side and giving his stiff posture and minimalist movements an accusing look.

"I'm just trying not to bump into anyone! Obviously, I'm alone in that!" Alec yelled back, glaring when another careless dancer almost swung her arm into his face. If he hadn't ducked just in time his nose would probably have been broken now.

Clary just rolled her eyes at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the writhing crowd and toward the bar. As soon as they'd reached the periphery of the dance floor she gripped his elbows, holding him in place as her gaze bored into his.

"You stay here, do you hear me? No slinking off into a corner. I'm going to get us drinks and then we'll try again!" Before Alec could protest, she had already disappeared into the stream of people coming and going to and from the bar. Hopefully, she wouldn't try to put to use the awful fake ID she'd gotten just for the occasion.

Out of sheer boredom, Alec tried to distract himself by people-watching, as much as he could in the dim lighting and with all the constant movement around him. It was hard to focus on anyone in particular in all that dizzying back and forth, until his eyes fell onto an especially sparkly figure that seemed to draw his gaze like a magnet. Maybe it was the outrageously colored, skintight clothing. Or maybe the glitter sticking to his generously revealed tan skin and multicolored spikes, reflecting the light. Whatever it was, something about this man made it impossible for Alec to look away again once his eyes had locked on him.

Alec lost himself a bit in taking in all the obviously well thought-out details of the man's outfit, from the high boots over the huge belt to the numerous gold chains around his neck. When he looked up again to inspect the stranger's face further he was met with a knowing gaze and a lazy smirk that had blood rushing to his cheeks even from across the room. For a second, Alec could have sworn the stranger's eyes flashed just like a cat's but then Clary appeared at his elbow with their drinks – virgin versions, she'd thankfully refrained from testing the credibility of the ID – and he shook his head and accepted his Pina Colada, not looking back at the stranger. It wasn't such a rare occurrence, after all.

For someone who prided himself on his rationality and who wasn't in the least artistically gifted in any sense of the word, Alec sure had a vivid imagination. He couldn't count the times he'd passed someone on the street, thinking he'd caught a flash of purple skin or curved horns or fox ears or even the talons of an eagle once, only to turn back around for a second glance to find either nothing or at least nothing unusual.

As a kid, he'd loved to play with the 'pixies' in their garden, as he'd called the butterflies - to Clary's great amusement and Alec's even greater embarrassment whenever Maryse told childhood stories about him despite his protests – and he'd always get excited and bounce rather than walk the whole way whenever his mother agreed to take him to Central Park to look for 'fairies'. Surely, what he'd seen in the stranger's eyes had either been one of those occasions, maybe due to a trick of light, or the man was actually wearing contacts. With how much thought seemed to have gone into coordinating his outfit, Alec wouldn't rule the possibility out.

Banishing further thoughts about the man from his mind, Alec concentrated on sipping his drink while he and Clary observed the dance floor in companionable silence. Once they'd finished, they threw themselves back into the writhing crowd and this time around, Alec was actually grateful for the distraction from thoughts about the mysterious stranger, now that he didn't have anything else to do with his hands.

That didn't mean he fared any better in his fruitless attempts at not accidentally harming anyone and at the same time not getting hit himself, though. Dancing – in general, but more so in such a crowded environment – wasn't exactly his forte and he didn't protest when Clary gave up with an exaggerated eyeroll another half hour later, pulling him back toward the bar. They tried to lead a half-yelled conversation over the bass but only understood about half of what the other was saying and eventually they agreed to leave after Clary would be back from the bathroom.

She wasn't even gone for a minute when something else across the room caught Alec's eye. This time it wasn't a tall attractive stranger, but a girl and a boy sneaking out of the back door, presumably to an abandoned alley. That in it itself wasn't all that unusual, considering they were in a club. What made every muscle in Alec's body tense and his heart race was the predatory, downright evil grin on the boy's face right before he followed the girl out.

He quickly weighed his options before he started fighting his way through the dancing bodies to get to the other side. He'd heard and read enough horror stories about Pandemonium's lax security and trusting girls and guys alike being raped and/or murdered in the dark alleys surrounding it to be pretty sure that if he didn't go after them and his suspicions shouldn't be unfounded, after all, the girl could end up being the next one briefly mentioned in a newspaper report.

When Alec had finally made it to the back door he wasted no time slipping through it, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness of his surroundings while they searched for the pair. It didn't take him long to find them, the girl struggling and crying silently as the boy pressed a palm over her mouth to keep her silent, his other hand pinning both of hers to the wall in her back. A demonic grin that made shivers crawl up and down Alec's spine spread on the boy's face as he looked down at his victim, his lips parting to reveal what looked to Alec like way more teeth than a single human being should ever possess. Before he'd had time to really process what he was saying or think about how dumb he was being, he already found himself shouting at the boy.

"Hey!"

The boy turned, his disconcerting teeth gleaming and sharp in the stray rays of moonlight falling into the alley as he narrowed his eyes at Alec. Taking him in, he seemed to change his mind, giving Alec an appreciating glance before he used his grip on the girl's hands to throw her into the row of dumpsters next to them. Not sparing her another glance, he slowly approached Alec, the same predatory look that had Alec following them out in the first place back on his face.

Alec stumbled backward, his hand already on the door handle, ready to throw the door open and run for it until he could hide in the anonymous crowd and hopefully get security to actually do something. He hadn't even moved the handle a single inch when the boy was already on him, his revolting breath fanning over Alec's face as he pushed him up against the door, his abnormally plentiful, pointed teeth sending even more panicked shivers down his spine. The handle was pressing painfully in his back now, making him all the more aware that his only escape route to relative safety was blocked – as well as the only way out for anyone who might save him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alec saw the girl struggling weakly to her feet, holding her head and giving him a pitying, panicked look before she ran for her life. Alec couldn't reproach her for it, and if he was lucky maybe she'd be able to direct security here before it was too late for him.

"Don't worry about her, pretty boy, I'll be done with you and long gone from here before she'll even get to one of those useless security guards," the boy said with a smirk, following Alec's gaze. He was just about to turn his attention back to Alec when another, foreign voice cut through the silence of the alley.

"I wouldn't bet on that." Alec's gaze flicked toward the wall opposite them, coming to rest on the strange man he'd stared at earlier. He looked very out of place in all his glittering, colorful glory, just casually leaning against the wall behind him, legs crossed and inspecting his nails like this was something he did all the time.

"Oh, and why not?" the boy said, his voice a cold monotone. His nails dug into Alec's arms until they drew blood – Alec gasped and started to shiver in earnest when he looked down to where the boy's hands clutched him only to find they suddenly resembled claws rather than actual human fingers. The boy didn't mind Alec, his attention on the stranger.

"Because I'm not going to let you," the stranger said, a mocking grin tugging at his full, bright violet lips. He lifted his gaze from his nails to stare right at the boy and another shiver went down Alec's spine – his eyes still looked very much like a cat's. A cat about to pounce and kill. This time, there was no mistaking it for a trick of light.

Alec felt the boy's nails – claws? – bore even deeper into his arms and he could sense the tremors running through him from this close up. Looking up at him from where he was still pressed into the door, fear was evident on the boy's distorted features. It made no sense, the stranger was unarmed as far as Alec could tell and apart from his murderous glare there was nothing particularly threatening about him. What was there to be afraid of? Looks couldn't kill, after all.

Just as the thought crossed Alec's mind, his attacker lit up like a particularly dry stack of hay, stumbling away from him with an agonized scream, but not before Alec could feel the flames singe his own skin where they had touched. Uncaring, the stranger stepped around the crumpled, burning form of the boy, approaching Alec with a significantly more friendly look in his eyes.

There was nowhere Alec could have fled, his back was still to the door, the handle still threatening to puncture one of his kidneys. Strangely enough, despite what had just happened, Alec didn't feel the stranger was posing a threat to him. He didn't feel the need to run. In fact, if this wasn't an expertly timed case of spontaneous combustion, the man had somehow saved Alec's life. Something in the depths of those cat eyes told Alec that he was right, no matter how lunatic it sounded. Little about this evening didn't sound lunatic.

"Are you okay?" Unable to form words just yet, Alec simply nodded his head, still transfixed by the stranger's weird gaze.

"Are you just in shock or do I have something on my face, beautiful?" the man said with a teasing lilt, a small grin lighting up the cat eyes. They were an alluring mixture of green and gold and Alec couldn't have said if he was speechless because they seemed to freeze all his higher brain functions, or because he'd just barely prevented a rape only to be almost raped and probably murdered himself if his attacker hadn't been burnt to ashes by the owner of said eyes.

"Your eyes," was all he managed to get out in a broken whisper, letting the wall support even more of his weight because it didn't feel like his legs would carry him much longer. For a second, Alec could see shock and surprise widen those disconcerting eyes, the stranger's mouth opening like he was about to say something.

It snapped shut, however, when approaching footsteps and voices echoed down the alley. Alec blinked once and the stranger was gone without a trace. With a now unhindered view of the stretch of pavement before him he noticed that the remains of his attacker and the flames consuming him had disappeared as well. The place looked as peaceful as if none of what Alec had just witnessed had ever happened.

On a whim, Alec decided that it'd probably be better if he wasn't here all on his own when security came, lest they assumed he was the rapist in the absence of another living being. And who knew if he wouldn't just blurt out the whole story of what he'd just seen? He'd bet money on that story landing him in the funny farm even quicker than he could blink.

With shaking arms, Alec pushed himself off of the door, gripping the handle like a lifeline before he turned it and stumbled back into the humidity and flashing lights of Pandemonium. He fought his way back to where Clary had left him on shaky legs, accidentally bumping into more than one person but thankfully avoiding having any drinks spilled on him.

He'd mostly gotten a grip on himself by the time he arrived at their meeting point. To his surprise, Clary wasn't there waiting for him impatiently. He'd been prepared to tell her some story about deciding to go to the bathroom as well and getting lost on the way. When he checked his watch he realized with a jolt that less than fifteen minutes had passed since they had parted. It felt like hours, or maybe a whole different life.

Only seconds later Clary appeared at his side, an apologetic smile on her face, telling him that there had been a ridiculously long queue in front of the girl's bathroom and that she was sorry he'd had to wait so long. Alec just nodded absently and dragged her out of the club by the wrist as fast as he dared. Clary laughed at him for being that desperate to get out of Pandemonium and Alec offered her a weak smile, hoping she didn't notice anything too off about him.

He needed time to process what had taken place in that alley. And maybe he needed time to make himself believe that it had all been in his head because he wasn't sure he could deal with it if it should turn out to be real.

A/N: Sorry to bother you again, just a little reminder to tell me what you think about the idea/the writing style/whatever, if you've got any thoughts? Thanks in advance :) I also wanted to take the opportunity and mention that this story, if you want me to continue writing it, isn't guaranteed quick updates. The basic plot is standing, aka I at least know where this is going to go, but I don't have any chapters done in advance. (thought I'd put this here for the people who actually read through all of it and who'd be interested in that detail ;) ). Though reviews are always a great motivation, even if you just write 'this is probably not going to be my new favorite fic but I'm curious to see where it's going' :)

P.S. I promise I won't put long author's notes everywhere in the next chapters.