Hey, sorry for the slow update! I hope you feel its worth the wait, this is my favourite chapter yet, please let me know what you think. There is a lot I haven't decided about with this story and I'm hoping you guys can let me know what works and what doesn't! Thanks x

-Chapter Three-

The state of bliss that came from the moments following great, intimate sex was not something Alec had experienced before. He realised as he was lying there, pleasantly tired half-dreaming, half- awake, that he had never had sex in a bed before. He laughed to himself at that rather sad thought, that was the type of scandalous personal fact anyone he knew would have assigned to Jace, not the demure, rule-following older brother. Honestly, he could see why most people preferred their sex in bed, he had none of the usual bumps and bruises that came from a hurried tryst in an alleyway or a toilet, he felt comfortable. As a rule, Alec didn't like being naked, he was somewhat ashamed of his body, and for no good reason had always considered excessive nakedness lazy, a sign of personal slobbishness (this was an assessment he only held for himself, the nakedness, or semi-nakedness, of others was a vital resource to a closeted teen with no internet connection). However, in this moment he felt like the bedsheets were an extension of his skin, he relished the way the fibres felt against those sensitive bits that were usually covered by coarse clothes. He felt comfortable enough to touch himself as well. Not in a sexual way, in a more casual, intimate way, as he lay there he was running his fingers over his chest, occasionally stopping to follow the line of a rune, tattooed across his path. Intellectually, he knew this heightened state had to do with the oxytocin his brain had released, the endorphins rushing through his body, the nerve endings that Harry Potter had made stand to attention. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to reduce how he felt to mundane medicine, it felt too different, it felt…spiritual, or even, maybe…magical. Alec laughed to himself at this, the next time he was alone with Harry he should probably ask him if he had put some kind of sex spell on him, somehow he suspected not but, he thought, as his mind started crawling out of this previously calm bliss, it wasn't like he really knew Harry. And with that, his bliss was over. He barely registered as he started putting clothes on, his body went so profoundly into action-stations auto-pilot that he barely even noticed when he went to grab his bow and arrow. He stopped himself just in time and turned instead to a mirror.

'Don't freak out,' he told himself out loud, 'You know enough. He could've outed you last night, and he didn't, hell,' he added, 'he could have killed you last night and he didn't'. This was not the comforting pep talk he promised himself when he had turned to the mirror two seconds ago. He reattempted.

'Okay, you know, well you think you know, he won't out you. Just go out there, and try not to be alone with him until you have gotten more information.' His heart dropped a little at this somehow even less peppy pep talk. All he wanted to do was to be alone with Harry, forever if possible, he hated that he couldn't trust himself, that he had to engage in tactics and duplicity just to get to know a boy he liked. But doing stuff you don't want to do is part of being a Shadowhunter, Alec knew that. He knew it better than most. So he did what he always did, got dressed, composed himself, and started acting straight. This is what it means to be in the closet. Alec had always thought that the metaphor of the closet was something of a misnomer, in his literal closet, alone, he could be himself, to hide one's sexuality is to be on a stage, under a spotlight inhabiting a role you are biologically unsuited to play, where any slip-up is noticed by an audience hard-wired to judge any challenges to the validity of their heteronormative assumptions. It was a role Alec knew he played less than perfectly.

As he walked on stage Alec saw Hodge, conferring with what he knew must be Clave members from Idris. As he closed the library door, he heard a stern middle-aged Clave member say, 'We hope we haven't made a mistake entrusting this to you, Hodge, you have served your time well and you know this territory better than any envoy. Please, try not to start a war with an unknown world before Robert and Maryse get back from their mission.'

'I'll do my best, Mrs Starkweather,' replied Hodge, with what Alec knew to be forced politeness, 'The guests are organising their own diplomatic proceedings as we speak, I anticipate this strange, new, venture going quickly and smoothly.'

'I'm glad you have such confidence in your abilities,' another Clave member added stonily, 'report back this time tomorrow. Goodbye.' Before Hodge had a chance to respond, the portal had been closed. He pinched the bridge of his nose before turning toward Alec with a wry smile.

'They don't like to admit it, but the Clave know they are no good at diplomacy, it takes someone like me, someone, on the fringes,' he added with a bitterness Alec rarely saw from him, 'to have these kinds of conversations, they require flexibility, humility and understanding. And, well, the closer the are to the Clave, the better you are at shutting those things out. Although you,' he added, pointing a playful finger at Alec, 'seem to have done a pretty good job last night, despite being on the fast-track to Clave ascendency. Perhaps there's a little weirdo hidden in you, too. Don't let them stamp that out. It's already helped you discover an entirely new race of magical people. Who knows what it might yield next.' Alec did not know how to respond to this, he had almost never heard Hodge speak this candidly, or this bitterly about the Clave, and his comments about Alec made him feel exposed, how had his relationship with Harry Potter already caused his mask to slip? Luckily, at that moment the door opened, and Harry, Ron and Hermione came in. Alec got the distinct impression from the look of relief in their faces that they had been wandering around in random rooms looking for them for some time.

'Mr Hodge,' said Hermione, who was clearly the leader of the trio, from what Harry had said she was the most intelligent and most driven of the three, it made sense that she was the designated representative. 'I have spoken with our contacts back in Britain, and Amelia Bones, representative of the True Ministry of Magic, will be apparating to New York in a few hours to join us in discussing this new situation.' Hodge interjected,

'Yes, I have just finished a meeting with my Government, and I will be leading the talks on the behalf of the Shadowhunters, the Clave, that is the name of our Government, wishes me to offer permanent space in our Institute for you three and any other negotiators who will join us.'

'That is very kind, thank you,' Hermione replied, she looked relieved, Harry had told Alec about the flat they had been staying in, it sounded less than idyllic. 'We discussed it last night, I hope it was okay I borrowed one of your fires,' Alec made a mental note to ask what she meant by that later, 'and I anticipate Mrs Bones proposing to you that Harry, Ron and I stay on in New York in a semi-permanent capacity to deal with the threats that come from both of our worlds. I thought it would be good to let you know in advance what we thought of the situation.' Alec tried to contain his joy, Harry staying permanently, working alongside him, he could hardly believe his luck, Alec's reverie was broken as Harry started to speak, 'As we begun to explain last night, our people are living through a civil war, for reasons it would be best not to go into I, I mean we, have been asked to stay clear of the frontline,' Alec's heart broke as he saw the anger, and perhaps also shame in Harry's eyes, he then chanced a look at Hodge, it was clear Harry's last words had struck a chord with him, 'this war has been going on sometime and it has become clear that if we don't take steps to intervene the collateral damage that has come from global unrest, will make any victory against the Dark Side virtually meaningless.'

'As such,' Ron cut in now, with what looked like a forced professionalism, 'if you can come to an arrangement with Amelia we would be happy to stay on and lead the magical arm of this alliance, with the important, ah, caveat that you don't misinterpret this alliance as any kind of power you have over us, we will maintain our autonomy and if we need to return home, to help there, we will do so, we have friends and family who are in danger every day, they will always be our priority, you have no say over our movements.'

'Anyway,' said Hermione, clearly trying to lighten the mood, 'that's how we feel, we just thought we should let you know, before you went into negotiations, oh,' she added, as Hodge sat down to pensively sip his tea, 'Amelia mentioned that she anticipated the talks going on for a few days, so she is bringing her wife Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank as-,' Hermione stopped abruptly, Hodge had apparently choked on his tea. Alec's heart sank. Hermione continued, more slowly, 'as many of us are uncomfortable leaving our loved ones in this time of unrest.' Hodge looked like he was processing his first diplomatic challenge in his head very quickly, 'I'm sorry Miss Granger, for my reaction, but there has not been a, a one of those um, people, sleeping under the Institute roof well, as far as I know, ever.'

'Well you had at least two last night,' snapped Hermione, Alec nearly fell off his chair, surely she wouldn't, she didn't seem like the sort of person who would out him to prove a point, but then again she was clearly more angry than he had ever seen her, her right hand had snapped towards the belt loop which held her wand and Alec swore he saw actual sparks shooting between her flyaway strands of hair. 'Harry and I are both "those people",' Alec audibly sighed with relief, and a little surprise. 'I can't believe I have to say this but, apparently I need to be clear.' Alec thought he saw Hodge shrink ever so slightly in his chair, 'But what Ron said before about maintaining our autonomy of movement extends also to our culture. We. Do. Not. Discriminate. Based. On. Difference. Of any kind. In fact, I have spent most of my adolescence, and the beginnings of my adult life fighting with every fibre of my being a group of people who do. The evil we are fighting believe in purity, in binaries, good blood, bad blood, as a gay person of colour with two muggle-born parents I represent the thing that Lord Voldemort seeks to eradicate from this earth. I have been ridiculed and tortured and had almost every foul thing you can imagine said to me. By the other side. In our world, the side of good defines itself by tolerance and diversity, in this we believe we are afforded strength. If I have made the wrong judgement of your world, if you are a world that does not believe in those things than we should cancel these talks, Mr Hodge, because that means you, are what we are fighting against. And I assure you,' she added, threateningly, 'I am a well-practiced fighter.' The room was filled with a stony silence, Alec didn't dare look at any of them, after what felt like an age, Hodge spoke,

'We will be happy to host Ms Bones and Ms Grubbly-Plank. And I assure you that whilst our world may be more, traditional than yours, we are not your enemy.' With that rather lame sounding concession, the door opened and Jace and Izzy burst in.

'We got a demon horde!' said Jace, not even trying to hide his excitement, 'Load of them in Queens, not a clue what they are but they are getting nasty and I want to get them dead!' His eyes flushed with the kind of mad intensity that Alec, and he guessed all the girls, found insanely attractive,

'Can we come?' Alec looked over, and nearly fell of his chair when he saw Harry had the exact same look, 'we can get you to Queens in about two seconds and I promised Alec last night I'd show him what I could do,' he winked unsubtly at Alec, Alec didn't care, it was his turn to say something,

'Lets go, there is no point even engaging in diplomacy until we know how these guys fight,' or whatever I need to say to get Harry on a mission Alec thought to himself

'Fine,' said Hodge, still, Alec thought, looking slightly scared of Hermione, 'but I take no responsibility for any injuries you three get on the field, clear?'

'Clear!' the three chimed, they were raring for a fight, tripping over their feet in their haste to leave.

Alec had heard the three talk a lot about apparition in passing over the previous night, but they had all completely failed to mention how unpleasant it was. Even Jace had paused immediately after they appeared in Queens with a 'CRACK', and bent double with his head between his knees for a second.

'Sorry,' Hermione said to Izzy, as Izzy pressed her head against the cool bricks, just, Alec thought, to remind herself what solid was, 'It's better if you are focused on where we are going, not how sick you are about to feel so I decided not to warn you, you get over it once you've apparated a few times, I promise. Any way I apparated us a few blocks away from the demons so you could recover for a second.'

'Fanks.' Jace mumbled from between his knees. They all pulled themselves together and started walking, slightly wobbly, towards the danger. Alec jumped up and down, readying himself for his second rush of adrenaline of the day. Hermoine was talking rapidly to the others,

'First, we need to establish that our spells even work on demons, I don't really know what our equivalent to an inter-dimensional being is, our magic could work fine, but it could be like trying to cast a spell on a dead person you know? A totally different kind of magic. Obviously, if it doesn't work, we have to focus on protecting ourselves and the others, I'm talking shield charms mostly of course. If our magic does work, then its go time, you know the drill, make them tiny, tie them up, turn them into a ferret, whatever, go to town, lets show these traditional "angels" what we're made of' Harry shot a grin at Alec. Alec couldn't help but feel that they were both stepping into their element. As they rounded the corner they saw a group of huge demons, maybe twelve feet high, looking at the people scurrying straight through them the way Jace looks at a buffet.

'They just look like trolls,' said Ron, sounding relieved, 'Just stick it their nose, eh guys?' he said as he pulled his wand out a,t the ready. The others laughed, Alec bristled with irrational jealously at the inside joke he was not party to, as he drew his bow,

'Okay,' he called, 'Harry, Ron, Hermoine, you do your thing, whatever you can do to help, that would he great but stay out of the way of Izzy's whip, it's not the fun kind,' Jace and Izzy both looked at him with surprise at that last remark, but he continued, 'Izzy, Jace, attack formation, Jace, you were right, I don't know what they are, but I know they are demons, shoot to kill.' And with that the attack began, at first Alec barely noticed what his new magical friends had been doing, so focused he was on covering his siblings, and launching his own attacks. But after a few minutes he chanced a look. What he saw was amazing. The three were wielding magic as a method of total control over the situation, Hermione had bent a street lamp to clamp one of the demons to a building, Alec didn't know who had done it but another one was writhing against ropes that Alec could see were become progressively tighter, and at that moment Harry and Ron were tag teaming, intermittently hitting another of the demons with debris whilst the other protected the mundanes from the chaos of movement that was happening around them, levitating falling chunks of concrete, and moving cars further down the road.

'Whatcha Alec,' Harry cried as one of the last remaining demons descended on him. Harry yelled something that started with 'L' and the demon stopped in its tracks, frozen like a board, Alec took the chance to square a shot straight into the demon's eye and with a whoosh of his arrow the demon was obliterated into a million tiny pieces. They both breathed heavily, staring lustily into each other's eyes. How good, Alec let himself think, must after-battle sex be? Whilst Alec had been momentarily distracted Jace and Izzy had gone through and dispensed with all of the demons the three had magically restrained.

'WOAH!' Jace yelled, clearly the adrenaline Alec was feeling was mutual, 'That. Was. Amazing!'

'We,' added Isabelle, pointing at Hermione, 'are buying all of you drinks. Now.'

The six were all standing very close, there was this electricity running through each of them. It was like they had met before. Like they were always supposed to meet, cosmic soul mates. It was like the team was complete. And they kicked ass.