3. Banned

"Do you need anything?"

Alexander shook his head, looking down on himself and the large grey shirt and the old black boxer shorts that Jace had given him before he got onto the great trunk – a bed, as he had learned – and snuggled into the large pillow. It had turned a lot less difficult for him to fall asleep over the past few days. Before he had been a cast out he had never needed sleep but his human body tended to get weak with fatigue and demanded rest.
It had scared him at first, that moment when his eyelids had fluttered and the world had gone black, when all his muscles had relaxed and his skin had turned hyper-sensitive to every cool breeze. He had been so sure that it was death that was trying to bring him under his control but after a while he had figured out that sleep was something highly strengthening.

And as an added bonus, it was the most comfortable thing Alexander had ever experienced.

"Clary?" Alexander asked curiously, wondering why they had not taken the short redhead along when they went home.
"Her friend Simon picked her up and drove her home," Jace explained and sat down on the bed, next to where Alexander's right hand was clamped awkwardly into the sheets. The blonde reached out, possibly to touch the other's skin comfortingly but he dropped his hand momentarily with a heavy sigh as if he had noticed that his intentions were not the right ones or that his ambitions were pointless anyways. "Listen, Alec," he said after a while and shifted slightly so that he could lie down next to Alexander, although above the covering, keeping safe distance. "Don't talk to strangers on your own, alright? They're not… Some of them mean you harm. That guy you danced with tonight? He meant you harm"

Alexander tilted his head to the side and his pupils dilated when he tried to figure out in which way Magnus could have wanted to harm him. Everything he had done was buying him a drink and asking for a dance. It had felt nice, so why was it a problem?
Jace drank and danced all the time.
Lazily Alexander reached for the notebook that he had deposited on the small table next to the bed and the pen atop of it. What harm?, he wrote on it and looked at Jace questioningly.

"Really, Alec, sometimes it feels like you're a six-year-old," the blonde sighed with slight annoyance in his voice. "I get the whole amnesia thing but you are just generally clueless"

Alexander winced, Jace's voice sounding hostile to his ears. He wished he could just explain himself, make the other boy understand why he had never had any business with human dealings before but if he told him that he had resided in Heaven for the past four hundred, maybe five hundred years…
He shook his head, ridding his brain from the thought of telling his story and instead pointed at the two words on his notebook again.

"He wanted to use you, you know," Jace said grimly. "Take you home, sleep with you and get rid of you in the morning. He's that type"
Alexander furrowed his eyebrows and took a shaky hold on his notebook.
You sleep with me.

Jace just blinked at him incredulously. Apparently that had not been what he meant and so Alexander tried to find a different meaning for the word sleep but he could not think of any other than lying down and closing your eyes for a few hours straight.

"Good night, Alec," Jace said and got off the bed without elaborating what he had meant by his earlier statement. He simply turned and switched off the lights before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

"Jace," Alexander whimpered quietly but the door stayed closed and he was left alone with his thoughts.

""""""""""""""""""

"You didn't tell me he wouldn't be home, I was worried!"
Alexander awoke to the sound of Luke's voice bellowing through Jace's flat. He sounded angry for some reason, even the steps he took were loud and hard and sounded as if he were stomping around the living room.

"It's not like you're his father. I don't understand why you let him stay in the first place. They should have kept him in the hospital, in therapy, until he could remember where he's actually supposed to be!" That was obviously Jace's voice. He wasn't yelling, he didn't even sound properly angry, more annoyed at Luke's outburst.
Alexander swallowed heavily when he understood what Jace was saying. He had wanted him to stay at the hospital, where women had poked him with needles and put funny plastic nobs on his head. It had smelled strange and the people around him had been talking over his head as if he hadn't even been present.

Why would Jace have wanted him to stay there?

"He doesn't have anyone, Jace; I thought you of all people would be able to relate to that"

There was silence after that and Alexander snuggled deeper into his covering and pillow, almost burying his whole body underneath them. He didn't want to listen to this conversation.

"My family died. Alec –"

"Alec doesn't even remember his family"

That wasn't true, though, Luke was wrong. Even though he had been created and strictly there was no such thing as Family in Heaven, he did remember Isabelle and Max. He remembered being trained for the War with Isabelle and he remembered taking punishment for young Max whenever he had displeased The Dragon.
As far as Family existed in Heaven, Alexander did remember them and he wondered what had happened to them after they fell. For the first time in the whole week Alexander asked himself if he would ever see them again.

"I'm sick of watching a child," Jace said, no emotion in his voice. He talked in a monotone way, as if he was already done with discussing the topic. "I'm not taking him anywhere anymore. You took him in, you take care of him"

Alexander decided that the two wouldn't stop talking about him until he made his presence known and so he got out of the bed, shivering as his bare feet touched the cold, wooden floor, and left the bedroom.
He found Luke sitting on Jace's old green couch and the blonde leaning against the door to the kitchen. Both of them looked furious.

"Alec," Luke said, his voice immediately losing its rage. He smiled warmly at Alexander and patted the spot on the couch next to him, signaling for him to sit down.
Instead Alexander looked pointedly at Jace and took a deep breath. "I need to leave?" he asked almost fluidly, only one short choking noise interrupting his words. Talking kept getting easier.

Jace looked as if someone had hit him and he shoved himself away from the door to take a step towards Alexander. "Alec," he started, guilt dripping from his voice. "It's just… It's been a week and you're still not alright"
Luke hissed through his teeth as if the blonde had just spat out an insult and he stood up, apparently not quite sure what exactly he was supposed to do or say.

"I'm alright," Alexander forced out and he felt his throat tightening and his eyes burn.
What a curious sensation.
He lifted his hand to wipe warm liquid off his cheek, curiously poking his tongue out to taste it. It was salty and watery and he was unsure of how it got on his face but he assumed that he must have been crying. He had seen it in the wonderful television box, in front of which humans liked to sit and waste their valuable time by watching other peoples' lives through glass.

When humans grew sad they cried.

It was new to Alexander because he had never before felt any emotion but his new, human mind seemed to be incredibly sensitive.

Jace's face fell even further and he cast a quick look at Luke before sighing heavily and running one hand through his messy blonde locks. Apparently he had not yet combed his hair. "You know what," he said while shaking his head. "Get dressed; I'm treating you for breakfast"

Alexander could see Luke smiling fondly.

""""""""""""""""""

About an hour later, after Luke had told them to take care and left for work, Jace and Alexander sat at a small table in a nice little diner that was decorated with silly white paper figures and strange looking plants that looked to Alexander like some sort of animal that would strangle you before eating you. It wasn't very crowded and the music playing in the background was soothing so it was easy for Alexander to relax a little.

"I didn't mean what I said," Jace told him after a long time of silence. "I do care about you, you know, but you don't exactly make it easy on me"
Alexander looked at him for a little while before he chuckled quietly and reached his hand out to touch Jace's. It was something that he noticed humans doing for comfort.
The blonde, though, flinched slightly and didn't seem comforted at the least so Alexander pulled his hand back and instead focused on the task of eating his pancakes. They tasted sweet and were funny to chew but he decided to like them because they made his stomach stop rumbling in protest.

"Do you remember anything yet?" Jace asked and sighed softly as he helped Alexander to cut the pancakes into smaller pieces. "Where you live? Your family?"
Alexander nodded before he was able to stop himself. He silently scolded himself, not sure how he was able to explain it to Jace.

"You do?"

The blonde seemed clearly excited and obviously didn't notice the sad glimmer in Alexander's eyes.

"Can't go back," he said darkly and looked down on his pancakes as if they could solve his problems. He thought that, maybe, he could tell Jace the truth just without the part where he used to be a Fighter against the Heavens.

"What do you mean, you can't go back?" Jace seemed perplexed as if that had been the last thing he had expected Alexander to say. His lips were parted slightly, streaks of golden hair hanging in his amber eyes.
Alexander sighed heavily and shook his head before reaching for his notebook on his lap. He took the pen out of the pocket of his jeans and wrote one word on it.

Banned

Jace looked at the notebook for a while and then up at Alexander, confusion written all over his face. "What would you be banned for? Banned from your family? Why? What did you do?"
Alexander shook his head vehemently, a strangled sound escaping his throat as he tried to say something to stop Jace's questions.
"Did you do something bad?" The blonde stared at him as if he could read his mind somehow but he wouldn't have needed to because Alexander nodded hesitatingly. "How bad, Alec, what did you do?" Jace's voice was demanding yet he spoke in hushed tones so that nobody around would hear him.

"I don't know," Alexander said and averted his gaze, refusing to stand the blonde's intense eyes. He could only hear Jace sigh in frustration and he suddenly got the urge to sink into the floor just so that people could stomp on him for being stupid enough to even attempt telling someone what had happened to him.

"What could you have done to be thrown out of your home? I mean, look at yourself!"

Alexander attempted to but all he could see was the blue checkered shirt and the too tight jeans that Jace had given him before they had left for breakfast and he wasn't sure what these things would have anything to do with the reason for why he had been banned.

"Not literally," Jace said hastily and leaned back in his seat. "I mean, you're… for fuck's sake, Alec, you are the most helpless guy I have ever met, what in hell could you ever have done?"

Alexander flinched at the word "hell". It hurt his ears and he wanted to cover them and whimper but he assumed that it hadn't really been Jace's intention to cause such a reaction so he just closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed heavily.
Hell was where The Dragon should be now; Caged, locked away for all eternity. Hell was where the Angels fell to when their crimes had been too grave to allow them a life on earth. Instead they would become demons, half-lives, awful creatures, disgusting and deathly and as merciless as God's Angels themselves.
Hell was what caused Angels to feel the one emotion they had ever known: Fear.

"I don't know," Alexander repeated, a little panicked now and he rocked his upper body backwards and forwards rhythmically in a nervous gesture.

"Whatever you are doing, stop it now before anyone thinks you're high on something," Jace demanded and rolled his eyes, reaching one hand out to put it on Alexander's shoulder and keep him from any further movement. "That's better. Now, Alec, listen to me, if you remember anything, and I mean anything, about what you did to get banned from home you tell me, alright?"

It took Alexander a moment to react but he nodded solemnly and smiled at Jace before his eyes trailed to a tall, colorful figure in the back, standing at the counter and accepting a sandwich that the waiter was handing him.
Alexander fidgeted excitedly as he recognized him.
Magnus.

A/N: Thank you all so much for your lovely reviews! I was really nervous about uploading this so all of your nice words were a major confidence boost :)

I hope you liked this chapter as well :)

Oh, and, since I forgot to set one for the last chapter;
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. I swear. None of it. I don't make money with this. I just write this for the pure joy of eventual Lemons.