The lunch in Taki's continued as it usually would, aside from the conversation between Alec and Sebastian, that remained lighthearted, but became increasingly difficult for any of the other people at the table to join in on. Especially when the two started speaking French.
"Cut it out, aside from Jace and I no one else here speaks that language, stick to English," Izzy hissed at her brother.
"I'm just making Sebastian feel more at home," Alec mumbled back, and although he didn't mean to have Sebastian hear him, their close proximity meant that the younger shadow hunter frowned in disapproval.
"My English is perfect," Sebastian stated, but rather than bragging he simply sounded like he was stating a fact, which did happen to be true.
"Yeah, I don't think you need to make Sebastian feel any more comfortable," Izzy replied with artificial politeness.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Alec replied, speaking a little louder than he'd intended, which drew attention to the conversation he and Izzy were having.
"Nothing," Izzy said, and Alec looked at her disapprovingly, but he decided to let the discussion go, as of course he didn't particularly want to argue in front of everyone.
"Well, Clary and I are going to head out," Jace said, and his rushed tone caught Alec's attention.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"Demon hunting. I didn't get to go earlier, and as you all keep reminding me, I need as much experience as I can get," Clary said, oblivious to Jace's attempt to cover up their intentions.
"You said you weren't going hunting again!" Izzy complained.
"Wait, if they're going hunting, can we go too?" Sebastian asked Alec with too much excitement in his voice.
"I said one demon hunt," Alec said firmly.
"If Jace is going hunting then I am too," Izzy said, and Alec groaned as he saw how he was losing control of the situation.
"Well Clary needs to go hunting," Jace said.
"I think it would be nice if we all went," Clary offered.
"Like a strange demon slaying bonding exercise," Simon said, and Izzy hit him playfully.
"We're not that strange," she said.
"I said one hunt," Alec repeated, although his voice had lost most of its authority, and he now sounded like he was pleading rather than ordering.
"And we will go on one hunt, one more hunt," Sebastian said with glee, once again using his 'puppy dog eyes'.
Alec groaned in frustration, and then sighed in defeat.
"Fine, we'll go hunting, it is our obligation after all," Alec said, "but, everyone has to be home by midnight."
"Thanks Alec," Izzy said, offering her brother one of her brightest smiles.
"Why is it always midnight? Couldn't you choose a generally less creepy time of night," Simon muttered, making Maia laugh.
Simon smiled at Maia's reaction, but soon stopped as he saw Izzy glaring at him. He decided that things between the three of them were never going to be normal.
"One more rule," Alec said, and Jace rolled his eyes, which Alec chose to ignore, "we all stick together."
"Five minutes! Five minutes! We managed to stay as a group for five minutes!" Alec said as he ran through the city streets with Sebastian.
As soon as they'd started hunting the group of Nephilim had run into a pack of Ravenor demons, and together they'd chased them into an old building. Just as the Nephilim had closed in on the demons, the floor had collapsed, separating Sebastian and Alec from the rest of the group. Unfortunately all fifteen demons had also been separated with the two Nephilim, who were now blindly running through the streets of New York in an attempt to find a better place to face the demons. They had decided that fighting whilst cornered in a collapsing building would not be the safest option.
"Your city is falling apart!" Sebastian declared as he saw the state of some of the buildings they rushed past.
A screech from one of the demons cut off whatever response Alec was planning on making, and he stopped running, with Sebastian following suit. They both turned towards the demons, and Alec quickly grabbed his bow from where it was slung over his shoulder, and got ready to fire. As the demons rounded the corner and came into range of Alec's bow, the assault started, with Sebastian helping by using the daggers he was now very thankful for bringing with him. Three of the demons managed to get past the two Nephilim's first line of defense, and after flashing Alec a reassuring smile, Sebastian drew his sword, and attacked. Sebastian quickly killed one, whilst pushing another into Alec's range, breathing a small sigh of relief as Alec immediately shot it down. Finally Sebastian killed the last demon, and turned to Alec, breathing heavily, but still smiling. It wasn't the kind of manic and empty smile Jace sometimes had after he'd slain something, which Alec was glad to note had become less common since Clary's arrival. Instead, Sebastian just appeared genuinely happy, both to still be unharmed and to have been fighting alongside Alec.
"Where are we?" Sebastian asked as Alec put his bow back over his shoulder.
"Brooklyn," Akec said, and he then frowned as he realised just how close they'd ended up to where Magnus used to live.
Alec was also amazed at how he hadn't noticed where they had ended up, after so many times visiting the neighbourhood.
"Isn't this where your ex used to live, the old High Warlock?" Sebastian asked, having picked up on Alec's change in mood.
"Yes, very near here."
"You okay?"
Alec didn't answer for a little while, as he appeared lost in thought.
"You know what, I think I actually am," Alec replied, and he meant it.
This was the first time since Magnus had broken up with him that Alec had returned to Brooklyn without a heavy heart, feeling as if he were on the verge of breaking down.
"I'm glad to hear that," Sebastian said.
"So am I. Come on, let's go try and find the others, I don't feel like staying in Brooklyn anymore."
"More demons?" Alec asked pointlessly as he saw Jace, Izzy and Clary fighting another group of demons, although Alec wasn't sure what species, just that they had lots of very large claws.
On closer inspection it appeared that Jace and Izzy were fighting, whilst Jace also tried to defend Clary and keep her away from most of the demons, whilst she loudly protested.
"Nice team work," Sebastian said with amusement.
Alec shook his head fondly at his family, and then he and Sebastian launched themselves into the fight. Now that they were out in the open air of the street rather than the old building Alec and Sebastian had left the others in, the fighting was much easier, however the demons seemed to comprehend that they were losing, which was making their actions desperate and unpredictable. One of the demons started to twist and turn as Jace tried to stab it, only becoming further infuriated as it saw Jace's increasing glow. Eventually it reeled back, knocking Sebastian off of the ground just as he gave a killing blow to another demon. Sebastian grabbed onto what he guessed was the tail of the demon, trying not to panic as he was raised higher and higher into the air. Alec's attention was drawn to Sebastian's predicament, and before Jace could kill the demon, an arrow pierced through its skull. As the demon disappeared, Sebastian felt his stomach drop as he looked at the distance between him and the ground, and he then fell. Luckily for him he had someone to cushion his fall. Unluckily for the eldest shadow hunter, Sebastian happened to fall on Alec. Alec groaned in protest as Sebastian collapsed on top of him, and by the time both boys regained themselves, they realised that they were looking into each other's eyes, whilst positioned on top of each other, and neither of them were moving, until Alec eventually came to his senses.
"Uh, Sebastian, I know you just fell, but would you mind…?"
"Oh yeah, right," Sebastian said in a strained voice as he rolled off of Alec and lay on the floor trying to get his breath back.
As Alec stood, and then helped Sebastian to his feet, he was relieved to see all of the demons were dead, and everyone else seemed fine.
"This is why I said you shouldn't go hunting again," Alec stated as he saw Sebastian trying to stretch his bruised limbs out.
"This is the best I've felt all week," Sebastian replied.
Alec gave him a disapproving look, but there was still a glimmer of amusement in his eyes that showed he was actually glad for the demon hunting.
"Okay, now we're going home," Alec said, and everyone decided that this wasn't the time or place to argue.
"So, where did you two end up, with the Ravenors?" Jace asked as they all started to head home.
"Brooklyn," Sebastian said, "and I did not like it there."
"Neither do I," Alec agreed, which earned a few surprised looks from the others.
The other Nephilim also noticed Sebastian's small smile, and the way his eyes lingered on Alec for longer than they should have. Still, no one said anything, and let Alec and Sebastian walk ahead of the group, their words easily passing between each other, and the whole world seeming to fall away for an instant, so that there were just the two of them, exchanging secretive smiles in the darkness of the night.
A/N Sorry for the longer time between updates, I'm currently doing exams so I don't have as much time on my hands. Thank you for the reviews, the more the merrier (and yes they do make me write faster).
