disclaimer: I don't own Mortal Instruments.

Chapter I

"Would it kill the fucker to pass the ball once in a god damn blue moon?" the boy tossed the soccer ball in his hands idly, no doubt aching for the bell's familiar ring to end the school day and allow him to use his feet properly. His fingers gripped the ball tightly and underneath messy dark hair, he shot a quick glance at the boy three seats over, his expression almost wistful.

Maia felt for the boy. It was his senior year, and although Eric Johnson wasn't a bad student, his strengths lay on a soccer field, and given there team's current standing, they weren't being displayed that well. It wasn't from lack of trying though.

Part of the reason for the soccer team's abysmal games was bent over his homework in front of her. Pencil moving at a record pace, his dark hair obscuring his face from most of the world, though that might not be unintentional, she mused. She poked at his back with the pink, blunt end of her pencil, a little worried that he hadn't reacted to the other boy's comment.

It wasn't like Alec to ignore Jace, even in conversation. In fact, Maia was pretty sure it wasn't in his nature.

"What?" his pencil scratched quietly against his papers. She stretched as far as her stature allowed, a little curious at what he could possibly be working on now. For the last week, her somewhat neurotic friend had been fiendishly narrowing down his work pile.

"I thought you finished all your work?"

He paused for maybe a millisecond, "I did, this is. . . extra credit."

She snorted, poking him a little harder. "Why, it's not like you need it?"

"It never hurts to be prepared," he resumed his work, ignoring her incredulous stare in a efficient and timely manner.

She kicked his chair.

"What?" he snapped, twisting to face her. She played with her pencil, unsure exactly as to how to best approach this. Alec wasn't the easiest person to communicate with and things tended to get a little lost in translation when he was annoyed. But now that he was facing her, she could see the dark circles underneath his eyes, the exhaustion written plainly on his face. She met his gaze straight on.

"Alec," she started, "You've been a little . . . off, these least couple of days and I'm just-"

"Fine," he interrupted, "I'm fine."

"Worried," she finished with a glare, she hated being interrupted. He looked like he was going to go back to his self imposed workload, so she spat out the rest of her sentence in a hurry. "Are the boys on the team messing with you?"

Alec looked at her like he might lie, except he sucked at it and he knew it. He placed his almost surgically attached pen down and closed his eyes. "Yes," he answered, not looking at her, "But it's nothing new and nothing I can't handle."

Maybe it was months in coming, a voice whispered, Alec wasn't made for the kind of social scrutiny he'd been forced to deal with this semester. It was quite possible, from Maia's point of view, it was just finally starting to take it's toll on her stoic friend. But she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and plowed on to the hardest part of her question.

She took a deep breath. "Then is it," she forced the word out before it choked her, "Jace?"

His eyes snapped open, searing her with their intensity, and for a second Maia remembered why she used to like him, before everything.

"No," he said simply.

"Oh," she said awkwardly. Maia stopped herself from squirming in her seat, nervous at the sudden topic she brought up. "Well maybe it might help, if you, talked to him or. . . " she trailed off uncomfortably.

He scoffed at her, turning back to his work, and Maia knew was all he would say on the subject. She sighed and decided she'd try again tomorrow. Her eraser made a trail on her desk, a smiley face, an M, and she tried to remember why she was helping Jace.

But you hate Jace, Alec had said, more astonished than angry when she first suggested they reconcile. Maia had shrugged at time, unable to articulate why she wanted him to let the blond wonder back into his life.

Because it's about both of you, she wanted to say, Jace can burn in hell for all I care, but you deserve to have your best friend back, even if he doesn't deserve you. And sometimes, even if she didn't want to admit, it was also because she felt bad for Jace. He was too much of a bastard, too rude, had made too many girls cry, too arrogant for Maia to ever like him, or even relate to him. It still came to her though, how few people Jace actually cared about and for some brief unacknowledged seconds, Maia felt a flicker of sorrow for the beautiful boy, alone in his shell.

She poked him gently with her eraser.

She could almost feel his sigh, she certainly saw it, his shoulders moving down slowly, his chin lifting just a bit, and she heard a low, familiar sound that made her almost smile.

"What is it Maia?" he said wearily.

"Want to do something after school?"

"Not another party," he said immediately, his back stiffening.

This time she did smile, "Naw, just coffee."

She saw him relax and pick up his pen. "I guess. But you buy," he added.

Maia would have argued, had a certain train of thought not struck her. Alec had been acting weird for about 8 days, she frowned. Since the last party she dragged him to.

Raphael inwardly approved at the coffee. Good coffee, he thought, was like good help, never truly appreciated unless you had a long string of unfortunate encounters with the bad side of it. He could almost hear his roommate's ego inflate.

And you doubted me, he would croon.

Prepared to admit defeat and pay for the check, he looked up from his coffee to look at his companion, who was, unabashedly, staring. He raised an eyebrow, Magnus was frank to a fault, but he had good manners. And he never did, what he was doing now. Gawk. At. . . Raphael followed his gaze to a pair on the other side of the cafe. High school kids by the look of it, barely loosening their issued uniform jackets and warming up to the weekend atmosphere.

They were an attractive couple. The girl was Hispanic, mixed perhaps, he decided. Pretty, and curvy he noted appreciatively, though he was sure his roommate's attention lay on her friend. Sure enough the boy's aesthetically pleasing features were only made more obvious when he caught sight of the young student's eyes. Black hair and blue eyes. Ah, Raphael remembered, Magnus' favorite. That might explain it. Pretty boys with those characteristics didn't waltz by everyday.

"Raphael?" Magnus said casually, still staring.

"Yes?" He fished around in his pocket for his wallet.

"How many years can you get for statutory rape?" he asked.

Very slowly, he raised an eyebrow and gave the blue eyed boy another glance. Magnus' fantasy stared in their direction, or rather in Magnus' direction, and he looked rather green.

He whistled. "Cradle robber."

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