Alexander Lightwood had a guardian angel. The first time he saw him was when he was five years old, but it certainly wasn't the last time.
They weren't suppose to be playing outside of the Institute. But Isabelle had wanted to go outside and Alec wasn't good at saying no to his little sister. They were throwing a ball back and forth when Izzy got a little over excited and threw it way over Alec's head and into the street. Seeing the tears about to leak out of his sister's eyes Alec ran out of the gates and into the street to fetch the ball. It was only when he was in the middle of road did he hear the honking of the car horns and then all he could do was stare as the yellow taxi cab beared down on him when suddenly he was lifted out of harm's way. He looked down in amazement at the streak of blue sparkly magic around his waist carefully lifting him out of the street and back onto the sidewalk. Once his feet reconnected with the ground he looked in amazement at the sparkly apparition in front of him. The man before him had light brown skin and hair set in glittery spikes that seems to defy gravity. "Are you my guardian angel?" Alec asked in awe.
The man, a warlock Alec guessed, looked at him incredulously. "You're a shadowhunter aren't you?"
"Y-y-yes," Alec stammered, staring wide eyed at his guardian angel.
"Well, running in the road, not smart," said the warlock with a grin. "You ought to be more careful, little shadowhunter." He sauntered off leaving Alec staring confusedly after him before his sister ran to him with scared tears streaming down his face as she gripped him tightly.
This was the first time Alexander Lightwood was saved by his guardian angel but it wasn't the last.
When the young shadowhunter was eight years old he went through a clumsy stage. So one day, while distracted by other things he was walking down a hallway in the institute when he ran headlong into someone coming out of the library. He was knocked backwards and was only saved by a caramel colored hand decorated with a ridiculous amount of rings wrapping around his arm and pulling him upright. When he looked up to apologize to the stranger he was shocked to see his savior from three years ago.
"Running into people now, are we?" the man said with a grin and a wink. "You know you ought to be more careful, little shadowhunter." He left Alec standing there spluttering and confused.
The third time Alec Lightwood saw his angel was four years later when he was twelve years old. He and his sibling were on their first solo `mission. Jace and Izzy had gone around the other way to corner the demon. Alec had elected to go alone because he was the oldest and most experienced. As he slunk around the corner of the building and into the alley he smelled sulfur and reacted quickly but not quickly enough as the demon pounced on him before he got his seraph blade all the way out. He heard its sticky voice in his ear whispering things about how he was going to die in horrible ways. He yelled for his siblings and heard their answering shouts but they were too far away to help. He groaned, he would not die here today, on his first real mission. But then suddenly the demon lifted off of him engulfed in blue sparks and exploded into dust. Alec jumped up quickly in case there was a greater threat on the way, but instead all he saw was a tall slim man at the mouth of the alley.
"My apologies," said the man with a grin. "One of my clients was quite irresponsible with the demon that I so nicely summoned for him, but you know, mundanes are gonna be mundanes..." At the exact same moment they seemed to recognize each other. It was Alec guardian angel. His angel saved him again. "Well, I must be going little shadowhunter," said the warlock with a grin. He turned away and was about to go when he seemed to remember something. He turned back around with a grin, "Oh and one more thing, you really ought to be more careful.
The next time Alexander saw his guardian angel was three years later when he was on a stake out in a subway station. He was glamoured but he wasn't focused on the mission. He was far away imagining what life would be like if the shadowhunters were more inclined to accept people for who they really are, instead of expecting everyone to be perfect and angel chosen. It was in the middle of these thoughts that Alec felt a tap on his shoulder which was immediately strange because he was glamoured. He reached for a seraph blade before he even looked to see who it was. Whoever it was just laughed at this action before saying, "Relax little shadowhunter, I'm no demon." Alec looked up to see his mysterious warlock standing beside him. He jumped up eliciting another laugh from his guardian angel. Alec frantically tried to look more professional.
In the back of his mind he thought, Why do you care what he thinks of you? But out loud he said, "W-w-what do you want from me?"
The warlock only laughed again and said, "Nothing, dear angel chosen, I just thought you should know that your glamour is slipping." Alec gasped and looked down at his glamour rune that was indeed fading. He quickly pulled out his stele and redrew the rune. "Ah, much better," said the warlock, "Now it looks like I'm talking to thin air."
Alec wasn't sure whether he should laugh or unglamour himself or what. So he ended up just looking at taller man and then looking away when the warlock raised an eyebrow as if to say, Yes?
The warlock cleared his throat and with a laugh in his voice intoned in a would be serious voice, "Well, Master Shadowhunter, I'll see you around." He was about to leave when with a twinkle in his gold green cat eyes he leaned in towards Alec and whispered in his ear, "Oh and the demon you're looking for, just got on the subway. I would scadatle after him if I were you." With that he leaned back and turned around calling after him, "You really ought to be more careful little shadowhunter." Alec stared after him for a moment before remembering his mission and jumping through the subway doors onto the train before it left without him.
It took Alec all day to catch up with that demon and send it back to hell, so it was only later that night that he had a moment to think about the strange encounter with his guardian angel and the tingly feeling he gotten all over when the man had leaned forward and whispered in his ear. When he fell asleep his last words were still echoing in his mind, You really ought to be more careful little shadowhunter.
The next time Alex saw his guardian angel he was almost eighteen and he finally learned the warlock's name.
Jace had told him they were going to a party at a warlock's house to try and help Clary find out what was going on in her head. The mention of a warlock made him think of his guardian angel. Maybe this Magnus Bane would know who his guardian angel was, maybe he could tell him where to find him, maybe... maybe nothing. He would go on this mission and came home and his life would continue in the same doldrum that he had existed in all his life. Nothing was going change that.
This thought festered in his mind all the way there putting him in a completely rotten mood so when the door opened and he heard a voice say, "Children of the Nephilim, well, well. I don't recall inviting you." He didn't put together why the voice sounded familiar until he looked up and found a pair of gold green eyes staring right at him. These eyes glanced down to look at the invitation Isabelle was handing him and absently said, "I must have been drunk." Then he grinned right at Alec before turning away and addressing the others. Alec didn't hear. His mind was wiped clean. He couldn't even form a coherent though. This was perhaps the reason that as they climbed up the stairs Alec tripped. He did not fall however because a caramel colored hand grasped his arm and pulled him up right just like it had so many years before. Alec looked up onto the black rimmed cat eyes right in front of him. In the back of his mind Alec noticed that his friends had moved on but he didn't care as Magnus Bane, his guardian angel, leaned in a murmured, "You got hot, you know that?" When Alec didn't answer he leaned back and grinned. "You really ought to be more careful." He said before turning towards a commotion behind him. He left Alec standing there shaking.
This was not the last time Alec Lightwood saw his guardian angel. Indeed after this he saw his angel with more and more regularity. And this how, three years later, on Alexander Lightwood's twenty first birthday, he lay in a bed in a hotel with Magnus Bane, his guardian angel, perched above him, their matching ringed fingers linked as Magnus leaned down and whispered in his lover's ear, "I'm glad you weren't more careful, my little shadowhunter."