Author's Note: So I've decided to start another story with Alec and Magnus! For the people reading my other story, Under the Water, I will update soon, I promise! I just could not for the life of me get this idea out of my head! I hope you guys like this story.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything!
Chapter 1: By the Walls of A Fake City
The Sun reflected off of the plethora of large, looming buildings that cast slanting shadows on the people rushing to-and-fro underneath its feet. Pedestrians were bustling about the city, some rushing in the haste to fill their quota at work while others were simply meandering about, trying to avoid being pushed off of the cracking sidewalks and into oncoming traffic. Some were buying bracelets and hotdogs from vendors on the corners, taking no notice of the rushing traffic and blaring noise. They went about their lives as if there was not a rather large elephant in the room, a reason why they should stop and question their seemingly average lives. If they came upon the large Wall that boarders the city on all sides, they would simply turn around and go about their daily business.
No one alive remembers when the Wall was placed around the city once called New York- now Alicante- it always has been there. The story that has been told for generations is that an outbreak of a viral disease that was spreading rapidly caused the council of the city to construct a Wall capable of keeping out the infection. This was the story spread by the Clave of Alicante and its elders, and the one that most believed without question. Alec Lightwood was not one of those people.
The story that slipped off the tongue of old men in barber shops was riddled with more holes than Swiss Cheese. If there supposedly was an outbreak, why had absolutely no part of it reached New York? In the times before the illness, New York was the busiest city in the country. People left and came every single day, which ultimately would have spread disease. Alec had attempted to bring this knowledge into light, but very few people viewed his opinion of any matter. That generally happened when one had a disability.
Alec, for one, was a mute, and one with horrible Anxiety that caused his emotions to run out of control at the worst of times. The words that flew around his head simply would not take air. He lost his ability to speak the day he lost his little brother, Max. Little Max, with his grey eyes that seemed glued to the pages of a Manga, who looked the world head on with curiosity and humbleness. The pain of loosing Max was a bright spot in Alec's vision- the Great And Seemingly Endless Pain blocked out proper emotion- he had seen stars before. The dimmed light of them left impacts on Alec's pupils. He could see them, feel them for what they were, but he also saw the spaces between where the sky was a great and dark blue, filled with endlessness and mystery that he sought after. Max's death was a comet- burning away anything else but it's image and now it was all Alec saw on the forefront of his eyelids. He remembered everything about the day he died. He remembered how small Max looked, crumpled in the middle of the street. He remembered the ache in his lungs when he ran to his brother, how he gasped for breath that wouldn't come. He remembered picking up Max's body and holding it against his own and how the salt from his tears mixed with Max's blood. From that day- The End of Days- Alec didn't utter a single word.
Isabelle's hand came into his vision and he drew his expression into an apologetic one. She smiled at him, her black eyes twinkling, and handed him a coffee to take to a customer. Izzy, his sister, and Jace, his adoptive brother, moved out when the Great Pain was inflicted and opened their own little coffee shop. They decided that they needed to leave the negativity that was their parents' failing marriage. After Max left, his father decided that loyalty was below him, opting instead to hook up with a 18 year old blonde bimbo- the same age as his twins, Alec and Isabelle, were at the time. They could not handle being around this pain when the Great Pain was all they could feel at the moment, so when they found their chance, they took it, deciding to move into an apartment together and open up a small coffee shop, named Pour Lightwood's. The pain dulled to one that Izzy and Jace could handle, and now after almost two years, they were healing and happy. Alec was not.
He brought the customers their coffees and pulled in his emotions so that he would not have another Attack. He dealt with them the best he could, though he downright refused to go see a shrink. He wasn't crazy. He was broken. The glass that was Alec's heart knew it was glass- it didn't believe it was wood or granite. It was glass, and it knew it, even though there were so many cracks in it that it could hardly pass for it.
Alec saw the golden curls of Jace's head bounce as he laughed heartily at something Clary had said. Clary had been working here for a few months and Jace was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Alec was glad that she made Jace laugh - an actual laugh that brought creases to the corners of his tawny eyes and pulled his mouth up into a lopsided grin. Clary, with her short stature and unconventional beauty, was not someone Jace went for usually, but he saw something in the pale, freckled girl. Alec waved his hand to get Jace's attention and Jace turned to look at Alec in concern. It really was rather annoying that his siblings treated him like he was a ticking time bomb and they had to treat him with great care. He brought up his hands to speak to him in sign language. He hardly ever used it, only seeing the need to communicate with his siblings. "I am taking a break," he signed slowly towards Jace. Jace nodded and smiled in an encouraging manor, as if he was talking to a small child. Alec rolled his eyes and sat at an empty table, pulling out his sketch pad from a pocket in his black apron that covered the front of his equally black sweater.
Alec found that painting and sketching was something that he could do if he felt an Attack coming on to calm himself. He would stay in his room with his hair sticking up in opposite directions, wildly bent over a piece of ripped paper with a Nubby stalk of charcoal between his calloused fingers for hours, sometimes never sleeping until Jace or Izzy took the item out of his hands and tucked him into his bed. He drew everything and nothing all at once. At times, he drew landscapes of the great city, or a pedestrian that caught his eye, but sometimes he drew what he felt, and it would come out to be some foreign object that he doubted looked like anything. For Alec, this was as close to speaking as he could get. It was the only time he felt like a normal person, like his emotions and words came out on the page so fluidly like one would if they held a normal conversation.
Alec took in his surroundings, occasionally stopping to sketch a coffee mug or someone's hair. The bell chimed and a group of people walked in. They all looked like they were out of a fashion magazine. The first was a modelesque woman who was slender and had a long spill of blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulders in soft waves. She was followed by a beautiful man who was tall and lith. His skin was an even caramel colour and his hair was a perfectly sculpted disarray of spikes. He frowned at the girl and moved to hold the door open for the others following behind him. A man with tan skin and black hair came in holding hands with a thin man with silvering hair and equally silver eyes. A pretty girl with long brown hair slung her arms around the two men as she came in. The last to come in was a tall boy with short green hair. The beautiful man holding the door smiled slightly at them and followed them to a round booth in a corner. Alec had a fierce desire to draw the caramel skinned man, who was all angles and shadows. His skin seemed to sparkle when he shifted in his seat. Alec felt drawn to him. He began to sketch the boy's sculpted face, adding in detail and texture to his soft looking skin.
Alec looked around for signs of Jace or Izzy ,or hell, even Clary, but found no one. With a sigh, he got up and walked over to the table of people. He hated taking orders and interacting with other people. They usually either talked about his muteness or caused him to have Anxiety. He fished out a small notebook, an order pad, and a pen and wrote in his neatest penmanship. 'I'm Alec and I'll be your waiter. What can I get you?' There, that seemed simple enough. He looked up when he reached the table and he smiled slightly at the group and held out the notepad for them to read. Most of them looked taken aback by his use of communication, seeing as they didn't know he couldn't talk, but smiled politely back at him. The boy with silver hair smiled a real, genuine smile at Alec and spoke up first. "Can we get two herbal teas?" The boy with black hair and blue eyes looked at the boy with disgust. "You are an evil man, James Carstairs." James laughed and kissed him on the cheek,"Well, William, you are obviously a saint." Alec blushed and looked down at his notepad, writing down the order. The girl with brown hair hit James and William on their heads and looked at Alec with amusement. "Excuse them, they have no manners. Could I please get a large decaf coffee?" Alec nodded again and wrote it down, tapping his pen against the notepad and avoiding eye contact. The blonde girl cleared her throat and looked at Alec expectedly, her chin rested on the palm of her hand. "Do you have anything without calories? Maybe a V oss?" her voice had a heavy French accent. Alec blushed slightly. Her tone was mocking and he found himself chuckling without noise. He wrote down 'water' and showed her. She drew her eyebrows up and pursed her lips, but said nothing. The man with caramel skin started laughing when he read what Alec wrote and Alec looked at him. His full lips were parted crookedly, flashing a pair of perfectly white teeth. His front tooth was slightly chipped in the corner and Alec smiled at this imperfection. He let his eyes follow the slope of his nose up to his sculpted eyebrows. His eyes were a vivid hazel of green and yellow, slanting slightly upwards. The boy smiled back and Alec felt his face burn and he looked back down at the notepad. A smooth, velvety voice rang in his ears. "I'd like a caramel moccioto with extra whipped cream," he said confidently. Alec's face grew hotter and he opened his mouth, then closed it when the only sound that came out was his whooshing breath. He avoided looking at the boy, instead training his eyes on the last man with green hair. "Dude, don't make it too complicated, he obviously has something wrong with him," the boy with green hair started, then looked at Alec, speaking slowly," I would like to purchase a coffee, do you understand?" Alec felt tears burn behind his eyes and he pushed them back. He just nodded curtly, turning away from the table and heading to the kitchen.
When he walked into the kitchen, he saw Izzy on her phone and Jace and Clary making out. He slammed down the order pad and they all looked up at looked from Alec to the paper several times with looks of shock on their face. It would have been comical in a different situation. He felt like he was going to start crying at any moment, so he turned around and walked out of the kitchen. When he reached an empty table, he pulled out his sketch book again and began furiously running the stalk of charcoal across the smooth surface of the paper. He was just so angry; he was not an imbecile. The beautiful man he drew probably thought he was stupid now. He connected arcing lines and shaded blotches, bringing the utensil down as hard as he could. His eyes were open and dry from lack of blinking and his arm was beginning to hurt. When he finally finished, he was looking down at a portrait of his little Maxamillion.
His mouth opened and he felt hot tears slipping down his cheeks. His breathing started to accelerate into short huffs and he held the edges of the table so hard that his knuckles turnend white. He couldn't breath and the tears were flowing heavily. Arms suddenly wrapped around him and he started jerking violently away from them until hands framed the sides of his face, forcing him to look into the eyes of his twin sister, Isabelle. "Alec, baby, calm down, okay? You're safe. I'm here." She took his hands and led him to the kitchen. He had stopped hyperventilating, instead opting to hold onto Izzy with everything he had. He was okay. Izzy was there. Izzy was safe.