A/N This chapter is awkward filler to explain some stuff before next chapter when the main plot line starts. Reviews are wonderful even if they are (constructive) criticism. Oh, BTW wow! I've got like three follows in less than in hour of having the prologue up! Since this is only my third thing published on here, only my second multi-chapter story, and my very first Mortal Instruments fanfic that's pretty exciting!
Maryse and Robert were exiled to New York with Hodge not long after little Alec's birth, making it easier for them to keep their young son's secret. Additionally, both parents could breathe a sigh of relief that Valentine was dead and gone; he couldn't punish them for their child's "abnormality" if he was six feet under.
Over the years Maryse gave birth twice more, first to a daughter called Isabelle and then nearly six years later to a second son whom they named Max. It was right after Max was born that Maryse became aware that Alec's female side was going through puberty as well as the male side that had apparently been destined to be his dominant one even without his parents choosing it.
She often found her sweet boy crying in his room for no apparent reason and not long after he turned thirteen he began to complain of stomach aches that sounded suspiciously like cramps. Within the week he had gotten his first menstrual cycle.
In those first few months they discussed options, the three of them, Alec, Robert, and Maryse. Maryse and Robert had researched ways of helping their boy, both magical and mundane. Surgery was quickly dismissed but hormones were considered for quite some time along with a few magical solutions but ultimately the three chose to do nothing. Alec said that he was happy being a boy and didn't feel female at all but didn't have any need to end the menstrual cycles or rid himself of the extra organs in his body.
Alec felt wrong hiding his unique nature from his sister Isabelle as they grew older. This was particularly true once she began puberty. He wanted to help his younger sister, show her the best remedies for the dull ache of cramps and commiserate with her over the unfairness of it all when she got hormonal. So, with his parents' permission, he explained to Isabelle the differences between his body and a normal boy's and the similarities between his body and hers.
He always had his parents love and knew he was a good boy, well behaved and tidy. Alec never felt like he was a bad person, until the first night he dreamed about Jace. Alec was sure his reaction to his adoptive brother had something to do with the female hormones inside of him. It was deeply troubling to him, he felt as if he had lied to his mother and father. After all, he had said he was male, wholly and totally. As the dreams continued and he began to be barraged by the same sort of feelings even when he was awake his guilt grew deeper.
Years passed and Alec never said a word to anyone about the feelings, even after they began to expand to other men. Then at the age of sixteen he had broken down in his sister's room after she confronted him about the bottled up feelings he had towards Jace. It had been Izzy that finally said that forbidden three letter word, gay. Once he was presented with that option Alec realized he'd rather be psychologically female. He knew their parents would accept that much more readily than homosexuality because of his, confusing, physical nature. But it wasn't true, after that night spent crying with Isabelle he knew what he was.
It wasn't something that he was proud of and he guarded the secret with his life, keeping it close to his heart, right next to the other thing he wasn't supposed to tell people. Until the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane stepped into his life.