Summary: Alec said he wouldn't have jumped, that it wasn't that bad, what he didn't say was that once it had been.
Trigger warnings for Suicidal thoughts and actions.
Unmentioned age for Alec but he's young, like around ten or so. So warning for that too.
Implied bad parents Robert and Maryse Lightwood.
Part of me wants to warn for Stranger Danger but nothing bad happens, Good Stranger but that's not always true.
There are probably others but I can't find them right now.
Alec sniffled, his parents were angry with him again, normally Alec would have been able to brush the disappointment off, usually Izzy and Jace were on his side with him but... not this time.
This time Jace and Izzy couldn't be on his side, because this time Jace and Izzy had been hurt because of his choice, because he had given the orders and they had followed them.
Alec hadn't been able to remain at the Institute, not while the doctors were trying save his siblings, not when they still might die. So, Alec had run, run as far as he could and hadn't looked back.
Now he shivered in the cold night as he walked through the quiet, empty streets. There weren't many people out now, it was late and it kept getting colder.
But Alec wasn't feeling cold, not really, only numb.
He kept walking, further and further from the Institute, from his home until he began crossing a bridge and there he finally paused, he was over water, his parents wouldn't be able to find him, even Jace wouldn't be able to find him, even if Jace hadn't been hurt.
Alec walked over to the edge of the bridge to peer over the side.
The water looked calm, soothing, like nothing could disturb it, though Alec knew that at one point or another something probably had.
Without really thinking about it Alec climbed up onto the gate that lined the sides of the bridge, he found himself sitting on the gate, legs dangling over air, hovering over the water.
He thought about how easy it would be for him to slip, to fall, how the splash of his body hitting the water might be loud but that there were no people around to hear it. Alec thought about how easy it would be for him to slip into the darkness beneath the water's surface, it would be cold, it would take time... but it would be over, over for him, he'd never get anyone hurt again, never hurt any one again after himself, he'd be the last person he'd ever hurt again.
Alec leaned forward to peer at his image reflected in the moonlit surface of the water under the bridge. It would be so easy...
Alec slipped, or did he jump, he couldn't decide before he hit the freezing surface of the water, disturbing it.
But Alec didn't struggle, he let himself sink slowy, down, down, down into the darkness and he found himself looking up, he found himself looking for the light of the moon and let the light follow him down as he began to loose his breath.
Warm hands grabbing his shirt jolted him back to awarness and Alec's eyes shot open as arms wrapped around his chest and dragged him up, up and up until they broke the surface and Alec choked up some of the water he'd swallowed as he was pulled to the bank of the river and then out of the water entirely to shiver and shake in the cold air as a man tried to rub warmth into Alec's bare arms.
Alec waited for the reprimand, the anger and flinched when the man opened his mouth to speak.
The man stopped, paused and then lifted Alec's shivering body up into his arms and carried him away, carried him to a Mundane car and settled him into it before climbing in himself and driving away from the bridge, away from the rapidly calming waters where Alec had fallen, had jumped.
They stopped at a dark and silent loft apartment, the man climbing out of the car, collecting Alec before he opened the door and walked into the living area, setting Alec onto the couch and getting a thick warm quilted blanket to wrap him in before continuing to the kitchen where the man made a cup of something warm and began a pot of coffee.
The man brought the cup of something warm to Alec and held it out to him until Alec took it and stared at him until Alec drank, finding the drink to be hot chocolate.
Alec shivered and looked at the man, waiting for... what Alec didn't know exactly, already this man was showing him an unfamiliar kindness in the face of a failiar that his parents had never granted him.
The man stared at him for a moment before he placed a large dark hand on Alec's head, digging his fingers into Alec's hair, the man shook Alec's head lightly, almost gently, before pulling Alec into the first hug Alec could remember recieving from an adult in his life and just held him as he shivered and shook and suddenly began to sob.
Alec felt safe, for the first time he could remember Alec felt safe with strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, with a large hand holding his head tight and his body forced still, this embrace was different from the like holds he'd been shown in training, that he'd felt during training, it felt almost like the man holding him cared... but Alec knew that couldn't be the case, the man holding him didn't know him, didn't know what kind of weakness Alec was showing by letting him hold him while Alec sobbed and shook and shivered.
Before long Alec began to feel tired, for a moment he thought that perhaps he'd been drugged, that the man had been luring Alec into false security, except the man shifted, he pulled Alec up and he took him to a bathroom and left him there, still shivering and brought back a set of boy's clothing, dimly Alec heard the man tell him he should change before shutting him into the bathroom, alone.
Alec stared at the clothing, body wracked with harsh shivers and decided that he was too cold to ignore the clothing.
When Alec emerged from the bathroom, clothes changed but still cold the man handed him another cup of hot chocolate and a warmed blanket was wrapped around him as he was lifted and tucked into the couch where Alec fell into sleep.
Alec woke to a hushed arguement and fought through his tiredness to hear the words.
"You shouldn't have brought him here!" A woman's voice whispered harshly and Alec flinched, he didn't want the nice man in trouble, not for him.
"What else could I have done?" The man snarled back, "Where else could I have taken him?"
"Anywhere else!" The woman yelled, "You're putting us at risk, bringing him here."
"He fell into the river." The man whispered softly, "And he's... you saw him, I couldn't take him to the station."
"He can't stay here." The woman said harshly and Alec flinched again, but he shifted in his warm cocoon and slid out of it, letting himself fall silently onto the floor.
As the arguement continued Alec crawled his way from the couch and out of sight before he stood and made his way out of the home, sneaking passed the woman that was walking through what appeared to be a shop situated below the home, a little girl and boy laughing as they followed her handing her things, trying tho be helpful Alec supposed.
Alec made his escaped from the building, keeping the small bell on the door silent as he snuck through.
He stopped when he reached the sidewalk across the street from the building and found himself looking back at the shop, he watched the young red head child with her friend and he watched them giggle and push each other playfully and he wondered if he had ever been like that, been permitted to play like that, even as he knew he hadn't, and he knew it was wrong to be jealous, to let emotions cloud his judgements but he felt unfairly jealous of those mundane children that played and laughed and were protected without ever knowing of the dangers that lurked in the darkness.
Alec turned away from the woman and the children and glanced up at the upper story where he recognized the sillouete of the man who had saved him from the water, and saw for the first time, the woman he argued with, they were still arguing and the man turned away from the woman, looking tiredly out the window and Alec looked, memorizing that face.
In a few years the night before would mean nothing to this mundane, he'd just be a kid whose life he saved one cold New York night, but Alec would remember, he'd remember this man's face and one day Alec would repay this man for the kindness he'd given Alec, Alec owed this man his life and a Shadowhunter always repayed their debts.
After memorizing the man's face Alec turned away from the home and began his trek back to the New York Institute and forced himself not to think about the comforting warmth of the man's arms around him, about how safe Alec had felt in them, Alec forced himself not to think about how he'd felt more protected with a stranger than his own parents.
A/N: So how many of you guessed who saved Alec?
P.S. It was Luke.
I may do a sequal about Alec recognizing Luke as the one who saved him and maybe telling Magnus that it had gotten that bad once and maybe Luke recognizing Alec as the boy who'd fallen in the river when he was younger. and Maybe a confrontation between them where Alec reveals that he didn't fall but who knows.