Okay, so here it is. Don't kill me if I get any of the symptoms wrong-I have very little experience with this. :) I hope you like this! This is going to be a short, multi-chapter story, the first of a series I'm calling the Glitter Trilogy. All of the titles will have the word 'glitter' in them.

Also, I have never been to Manhattan, Brooklyn, NYC, or, for that matter, NY state. So if I get things wrong, don't judge me. I'm too lazy to do any form of research. I'd much rather spend my time writing. But Manhattan General sounds like a hospital, right?

Inspired in part by the songs 'Cancer' by My Chemical Romance and 'Your Guardian Angel' by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I definitely recommend listening to it at some point during the following chapters. The video for 'Cancer' always makes me cry... :'(

I own nothing.

Alec Lightwood was not used to this. He was not used to being here. He was not used to not being... healthy.

Alec Lightwood was in the hospital.

He lay in the hospital room, fingers twitching towards the bag that held his stele. He wished he was fighting something, he wished that he was... anywhere but here. But for the past few days, any form of demon hunting had been impossible. His eyes fluttered shut as he remembered earlier that day...

~flashback~

Alec let his body fall against the hard floor of the training room, air rushing out of his lungs. He laid perfectly still for a long moment, his body aching all over. It wasn't a new feeling, nor was the disbelief he felt when he resigned himself to the fact that he was on the floor... and there was nothing around him. He had simply kicked at the air, and... he'd just felt so tired...

He'd gone to bed early every night for the past two weeks (well except for when he was at Magnus'...), but he still seemed to be getting more and more tired. And his body ached all over... sleep seemed to dance at the edge of his vision, urging him towards it...

He winced as he rolled slightly on his side... lately he'd had this awful pain in his side too... he figured it was just a pulled muscle... or something.

"Alec?" Isabelle's voice cut through the air, and he leapt to his feet, ignoring as he almost fell over.

"I'm here, Izzy!" he called, licking his lips and blinking hard when his vision wavered again, and exhaustion once again lapped at the edges of his vision.

"Mom wants you." Isabelle said, smirking at her brother, "She thinks that you need to concentrate more on your training."

Alec let out a sigh and left the training room, slowly making his way down the hall. Of course his mother would think that-he had been unbelievably weak lately. But he'd trained hard yesterday... or at least, he'd tried... and his vision wavered yet again when he reached the door of the kitchen. He raised his hand to knock, but his hand seemed to be far, far away...

His vision seemed to tunnel as he reached out yet again. His hand fell against the door, and the blackness he'd attributed to exhaustion took over his vision. Alec's head hit the door and it fell open, taking him with it.

He caught one last sound before he descended into the darkness, and it was simply his name, being screamed by his mother.

~flashback~

Alec had been compelled to tell his mother everything when he awoke a few minutes later. She'd promptly descended into tears, blamed herself, and insisted they go to the hospital. Ever since Max had died, she'd done the whole 'tears and blame herself' thing a lot.

He shifted uncomfortably in the hospital bed, wincing when he realized that, no matter how often he squirmed, the bed was not going to get any more comfortable. His head lolled back against the pillow, and he waited for the doctor to return. However, his phone distracted him from his pursuit of patience.

It was Magnus' ringtone, a bubbly pop tune Magnus had programmed. Alec didn't let it get past the first few words before grabbing it and answering.

"Magnus?" his voice sounded dry, so he took a quick sip of water and tried again, "Magnus?"

"Alec, darling! You sound horrible! Are you sick?" Magnus' voice boomed through the phone.

"Maybe. I'm at the hospital." Alec pulle the phone away from his ear in preparation for Magnus' answer.

"WHAT? Where, why? Why? Alec! Are you okay?" Magnus yelled, all in the matter of fifteen seconds.

"Manhattan General. I... I'm just tired. I think it's exhaustion." Alec lied, sighing as he heard the unmistakable sounds of Magnus leaving his apartment.

"I'm on my way, Alec." and Magnus hung up.

Alec let out a huff as he snapped his phone shut and threw it on the hospital bed. He didn't want Magnus to come. He just wanted the damn doctor to get his butt in here, give him some medicine, and he wanted to go home. Or, more likely, Magnus'. He wanted to curl up with Magnus and Chairman Meow. He wanted everything to go back to normal.

"Is Magnus coming?" his mother asked, fiddling with a pen.

"Yeah. I don't see why, though. I just want the doctor to-"

But his mother didn't get to hear what Alec wanted the doctor to do, because said doctor entered then, with the kind of grim look on his face that makes you sure, suddenly and completely sure, that your life will never be the same.

~X~

Magnus Bane hurried down the streets of Manhattan, seeking out the hospital. He was worried about Alec, of course, but he had a million things on his mind. Like if he was going to go shopping tomorrow-not if Alec was sick, of course. What time his meeting was with that witch in a few days, and why exactly had the Clave decided that now was a good time to start sending him people to work with?

He was thinking of all these things, and many more, but the second he spotted the tall, white building that arose from the grayness that was Manhattan. Then his thoughts centered around Alec, completely... completely on Alec.

Magnus rushed through the lower levels of the hospital, ignoring the stares of people wondering who this glittering, colorful man was. At last he reached Alec's floor, and he swept past the nurses station, simply waving them off when they tried to stop him from going to his room...

He opened the door he knew held Alec, and saw a man in a long white coat (a doctor, he assumed), Maryse, and Alec lying in the bed, looking half-dead. Alec's head lifted when Magnus entered, tears glistening in his eyes.

"Alec?" Magnus asked, concern creeping into his voice.

Alec looked sideways, and when he spoke, it was one single word. The one word that Magnus least expected to hear, that he least expected to leave Alec's mouth... and the worst one that could have.

"Cancer."

And like glass, with that word, Magnus' world shattered into a million tiny pieces.

So how was it? Do you hate me? I know this was a short chapter, but hopefully they'll get longer soon. I already have this story planned out... and its sequel... and the sequel to that... so hopefully the writing should come faster.

Review!