A/N: Hello hello! Oh my god, I know I'm late by one week. So sorry. I've been busy with some readings and driving lessons and life...The best part is I'm posting two chapters this week. Look forward to the next one in a couple of days. Let me know if I'm rushing things around or there's some things lacking here and there. So here's the next chapter. Keep calm and carry on reading! :)

Chapter 11

Part I: Maybe It Is Alright

In the distant, Magnus could tell that the bright spots dancing on his closed eyelids were the sun, lighting up the space that he was in. It wasn't as bright as it usually was when he woke up in his own bed. Of course, he wasn't in his bed or even in his room but at the moment, he was too disorientated to remember why.

He felt something brushed under his chin, tickling him to the extent of forcing his eyes open and glancing what was underneath him. He tried moving his hand but it felt heavy, like it was stuck beneath something.

Magnus opened his eyes wider, revealing green coloured orbs laced with yellow ring around them. Odd combination if you ask around, but on Magnus it just adds to his perfect features.

He could feel another body pressed against him, so warm and lithe yet he could tell that those were muscles underneath the clothing. Alec looked so calm and at peace, so far away from his usual self.

Gently, Magnus brought his free hand up and brushed away the ebony locks from Alec's forehead. His fingers travelled down to caressed the other boy's eyebrow with tender and they furrowed closer before returning back to their original manner; relaxed and content.

Alec mumbled something incoherent and Magnus let slip a small grin. He was being truthful when he'd compliment the blue eyed that he was adorable. But it didn't really quite fit Alec, not when he was usually seen with a reserved and collected posture.

When Alec started to stir in his sleep, Magnus quickly took his hand off the other guy. He watched; his expression amused as the boy curled beside him tensed for a while before opening his eyes.

Since when had those deep blues looked breath taking?

Alec blinked a few times so as to chase away the sleep that were still lingering on the very edge of his eyelashes, persuading him to go back to sleep. Once his vision was clear-as clear as it could get staring at someone's chest- his head shot up and his eyes locked with Magnus's.

His first instinct was to push away the other's body or get himself to move away; instead his eyes transfixed on the amber ones. Magnus didn't look away either, he was captivated with those cerulean orbs that he found himself holding his breath. No movements, no words, just the sound of their breathing and something crashing in the kitchen.

"Good morning." Magnus softly croaked after a while. Alec didn't respond to him, his eyes were trailing Magnus's physiognomy carefully, like he was examining a piece of China porcelain that he would never see again tomorrow. His blue eyes that were still drowsy were full of glow as they travelled from Magnus's forehead down to his cheekbones and towards his chin.

Alec was about to say something, and Magnus didn't know why his heart started to beat a little faster when he saw Alec moved his lips but they didn't get the chance; Izzy cut them off their morning stupor.

"Wakie wakie, boys! Enough of that cuddling. We have to get to school and I made you guys breakfast." She chimed in joyfully. Her voice broke whatever it was that had confined Alec and Magnus in their state. At the mention of breakfast, Alec's whole body jerked up from the bed and in a blink, he was standing on his feet. The image of his sister wearing an apron across her school uniform with a spatula on her right hand disposed any thought of…well, anything else.

"You do what?" Alec's voice shook, showing how ridiculous Izzy's words had sounded.

"I didn't do anything." She shrugged. "I made you guys breakfast." There, she repeated it again. This time, even Magnus was out of bed in a quick jump.

"Oh dear, we better get ready soon Alec." Magnus glanced at the other boy, looking for a sign of something, anything that showed he was thinking about what just happened between them. His answer proved Magnus that he wasn't.

"We should." With that, the two males rushed to their respective bathroom, leaving a scowling Izzy at the door by herself. Despite the daggers that she shot at her brother and Magnus, the two were completely unaware that Izzy had witnessed the whole exchanged they had on the bed.

When the two boys were gone from her sight, she shouted,

"Better hurry up or you'll have to finish all of it!" She could hear an even louder rustles coming from the bathrooms, knowing that she'd managed to scare them. Putting down the spatula that she brought out just for act, she untied the apron and took it off, eyeing the cereals and coffee that she had prepared on the counter.

Izzy wasn't entirely thoughtless, she admitted herself that her cooking skill was beyond repair and the only thing that she could make on her own without killing people was drinks.

Magnus showed up first, looking as handsome as he usually was with the uniform and his hair all 'glittered' up. He sighed in relief at the sight of the cereals on the table and gave Izzy a wink. She merely stuck out a tongue at him and sat on a stool.

"What was that all about?" She quietly asked, looking across Magnus to see whether her brother had come out from his room.

"What was what all about?" Magnus asked, although he had a feeling where that conversation was leading to.

"You know what I'm talking about." She hit him on his arm. "I saw everything."

"You mean you spied everything." He continued to finish his breakfast without looking at Izzy. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You were getting comfortable with Alec. I assumed that you don't want to be disturbed." She grinned. "Besides, you two had been cuddling the moment I woke up."

Magnus, who was sipping his coffee, smiled back at her.

"Aww…you should have seen it! You guys are just too cute to be true. I should have taken a photo." She regretfully said, almost to herself.

"We're not true, Iz. We've been through this so many times. I don't even know if he likes me." It was true. The moment when Izzy and Magnus arrived at his apartment yesterday, it was like they had conducted a mission; Alec's personal life mission. Izzy kept going on about the whole fencing club ordeal and she skipped the drugs part, not wanting to scare Magnus even more.

And surprisingly, in between their conversation, Magnus had slipped out,

"I think I'm having a crush on Alec." With that said, Izzy was totally out of her pretence, her mirrored prudential all gone as she told Magnus that she knew it all along. One thing leads to another, and in the end they ended up watching some of Alec's childhood videos in his room, which explained the last night event.

"You're going to have to figure that out yourself. My skill in being your fairy godmother has started to wear off." She spoke in a dramatic tone. "I have my own love life to take care of, you know." Izzy added, a glint of joy flashed through her eyes. My, my. That girl is in love. Magnus pondered.

"What love life?" Alec's voice broke off their 'secretive' conversation and they pretended that they hadn't been talking. Magnus wondered how long had Alec been standing there and listening to their conversation. He hoped that Alec hadn't known about his feelings, he needed to make sure of it first before he confronted Alec. He didn't want the feelings that he was having was just a side effect of being single-due to the broke up, Magnus hadn't really much been seeing any other people in his life. It was pretty much just Alec and Izzy who were staying under the same roof.

'God, my life is pathetic.' He inwardly sighed. Alec was just sitting down beside Magnus when Izzy leaned forward to her brother and slyly said,

"Magnus is having a crush on someone." The Asian-looking guy was very much prepared for that. He'd saw the look on Izzy's face before she spoke and he pretended not to be shocked, although his heart said differently. He turned to look at Alec, who was staring at him back. There was something in his eyes that Magnus didn't really expect to see. His face was astounded; Magnus had anticipated that but the gaze in his blue eyes, which was a dissimilar story, caught Magnus off guard.

There were too many things going on in that pale boy's eyes. A blaze of mixed emotions were as far as Magnus could unravel before Alec turned away and changed his interest towards his breakfast.

Magnus somehow was still stunned. How had he managed to see through Alec for the very first time and yet he didn't understand anything? Well, almost everything. There was that one thing that he'd suspected long ago was there and when he'd finally caught a glimpse of it, Magnus wasn't actually proud to be right. For what he had seen beneath the boy with a sweet smile, bright thoughts that carried him through his perfect grades and a good friend was a broken hearted person.

What actually happened to him that he became beyond repair?


It was lunch time. The cafeteria however wasn't as packed as it usually was since most of the students were busy lurking in their classrooms or the library, killing time with extra notes and materials they could get. The final exams were three months away yet the major number of students that were having lunch in the cafeteria were the seniors.

Among those students, seated at the centre table were Clary, Simon and Izzy. Surprisingly, Magnus was nowhere to be spotted. Jace and Alec would be in the library, struggling with the blonde's IQ.

"You two have anything on after school?" Clary asked. "I was thinking that we could study together." The redhead was chewing on a sandwich. Simon was sitting beside Izzy who had her eyes focused on her phone. Clary could see that Simon was trying to peek at Izzy's phone and when Izzy brought her head up to face him, Clary could've sworn she heard some bones popping when Simon turned his head.

"Sure. Your place?" Izzy reached out her hand and took a sandwich from Clary's tray.

"I thought we could maybe, crash at Magnus's place?" She blinked her eyes a few times.

"Please don't tell me it's because Jace is going to be there as well. Trust me, I know you." Simon stared at Clary. "You'll end up daydreaming instead of studying."

"Wait! That's a great idea!" Izzy exhaled.

"What? Daydreaming?" Simon looked at her questioningly.

"Not that. I mean, sure. Magnus won't mind if we spend some time there." Then, she looked down and mostly whispered to her phone,

"We could have triple date time instead of double."

"Triple?" Clary quirked her eyebrow at her. Simon was also staring, not the usual staring but the other staring, like she'd said something stupid or bizarre.

"Forget about that." Izzy said; more to herself as her focus was glued to her phone. The other two shrugged their shoulders and they stayed silent. Clary continued on finishing her lunch while Simon was trying to bring Izzy back to reality.

"Who are you texting?" He finally asked his girlfriend after what seemed like decades for him to pick up his courage.

"Magnus." She simply answered; her dark orbs still aimed towards her phone's screen. Simon kept looking at her, his upper body slightly turned towards her side.

When Izzy finally noticed him, she closed her phone and said to the two,

"Study date, this afternoon at Magnus."

Part II: Definition Of Fine

"Is that correct?"

"No."

"Like that?"

"No."

"What about that?"

"Still no."

"Screw this thing." Jace said exasperatedly and pushed away his book; his left hand still holding his blue pen. "I did exactly the same thing you showed me."

Alec peered on the paper that Jace had written and pointed out,

"You missed one step, Jace." The blonde grabbed the book back towards him almost eagerly and scribbled a few things before shoving it back towards Alec.

"Is that correct?"

"Finally." Alec leaned back on his chair and let his head fell backward. He could hear Jace sighing, as if that much of work had been tiring. Mostly it's just your brain doing the thinking, but with Jace he'd resort to some other unnecessary things like ruffling his already messy hair or scratching his ear with the back of his pen.

"I don't get why you insist on going out here just to make me do a few questions." Jace looked around him. They were completely alone at that area which was a few distance away from the classrooms block and located just behind the school. The gates separated them from the outside; cars were passing by and people walking along the sidewalk. It was a plane of green grass and trees which provided them with enough shades at the spot they were seated. Tables and chairs were prepared for the students-in this case, Jace and Alec- for their own use.

"The library's packed. Madam Theresa won't be able to keep all of them quite. It's like listening to cats purring in their sleep." Alec closed his eyes for a while. In his head, he was trying to remember and memorize a few things that he had just indirectly learned.

"I like cats." Jace shrugged. "They're not so intimidating like ducks."

"What's wrong with ducks?"

"Everything." Jace shuddered. "Have you seen one before? It's like they could rip off your eyes when you get close enough."

"That's like the strangest thing I've heard this year." Alec let out a laugh. His eyes flickered towards a corner and he caught someone looking at them from behind a lamp poll. He blinked once and the man was gone.

"What is it?" Jace frowned and turned his head towards Alec's line of view.

"Nothing." Alec muttered, still looking at the lamp poll. "I thought I just saw someone." Jace's phone beeped and he opened it, reading a text from Clary. A grin found its way up towards his lips.

He looked at Alec who appeared to be staring still at the distance.

"It seems that we are having a study group this afternoon at Magnus's place."

Alec glared at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah." The blonde said. "Clary just texted me saying that she and Simon are coming over to study with Izzy. Magnus can study with us." He proposed.

At the mention of Magnus, Alec's mind couldn't help but drifted to that morning 'incident'.

"We should stop by at Taki's." Alec said. "A room full with hungry teenagers are no good for the country." He joked.

A snort came from Jace. "As long as the said teenagers doesn't go into coma state like someone did." The air was filled with their laughs.


A dark haired and a blonde were walking along the sidewalk of the New York City, heading to Taki's as promised by the former. They didn't take the car; Simon drove straight with Clary and Izzy to Magnus's who had left earlier.

"We could use some exercise." The taller between the two tried to console his buddy next to him. The golden orbs held no anger yet Alec could tell that Jace was pretty much irritated.

"Yeah, totally. I mean like we hadn't been exercising for what? Years?" He gestured wildly in front him. His blazer hung loosely on his free shoulder while his hand dragged along his bag which seemed too light. Jace was impervious to the stares that he attracted.

"We didn't tell them where we're going anyway." Alec affirmed.

"I know." Jace said, defeated. Taki's were just a few steps ahead of them. "Thank god it's not too far."

Alec's head turned to his left. He narrowed his eyes and stopped walking. He couldn't help the feeling that both of them were being followed and his instinct kicked in when he saw the same man he'd seen earlier standing in a phone booth. Jace was already standing in front of Taki's and was holding the door open when he shouted,

"Hey Alec! Come on." Alec turned his head towards the blonde and nodded. When he looked back at the phone booth, the man was gone.

"What were you doing out there?" Jace asked when he saw Alec entered. He solely shook his head and motioned to Jace to walk ahead. But they didn't get to take a step forward; a boy in a school uniform blocked their way and looked at Jace with a sneer.

"Herondale." He leered. "I see you've been released. How's life?"

"Jon." Jace said with a look of acknowledgement at the boy. Jon was tall, slightly lean but not skinny like Simon. His hair was auburn but it looked like it'd been dyed. It didn't appear natural, Alec mused. "I've been well. How's school?"

The boy grinned, a look of bored and blasé discernible on his not-so-pale complexion.

"School's great. Oh, and I go with Sebastian nowadays." Sebastian's voice filled with fake enthusiasm. "The records' are perfectly clean for two years." St. Alicante's logo was perfectly sewn on the boy's untucked shirt. It was another elite school right across the town, usually known with their records coming second after Institute High (fencing included).

Alec would've thought that the boy was just taunting Jace if it weren't for the looks that were cast to them by the rest of the people in the restaurant. Then it hit him, one by one he took them in; they were wearing the same uniform as Jon or as he said, Sebastian.

Alec cleared his throat and said as polite as he could mustered,

"We're running late. We should just get our food and meet our friends as promised." That was another way for Alec to say we-better-get-out-of-here-soon. His words were loud enough for Sebastian to hear but the guy didn't seem to care. He looked at Alec, his eyes scanning him from head to toes and out of the blue, he said,

"You're friend with the so called prodigy." Sebastian sounded amused and Alec felt a sense of foreboding. Only a few people would label him with that word-people who knew him from fencing. His mind travelled back to the man that he saw on the road and back at the school. Something was wrong.

"Jace, we should leave." Alec commanded, grabbing the blonde by his forearm and turned to the door. Unfortunately, their way out was blocked by a few boys who looked like they were some sort of a gangster group. Jace looked collected, he hadn't said a word after the short 'friendly' greeting but it seemed like he'd been watching the rest of the restaurant. He turned to face Sebastian again, his arms folded on his chest as he spoke casually,

"What is it that you want?" Sebastian chuckled softly, the sort of chuckle you'd hear from a boy like him-menacing and rude.

"What makes you think I want anything? I'm just happy to see you Jace, all patched up from those juveniles. I'd think that after you ran that kid down you'd at least spare yourself the joy of seeing sunlight again."

That boy was totally trying to get on Jace's nerves. Alec could tell by the way Jace's arms flexed a little that he was holding back from attacking that boy. They were both in their uniforms; that would scream a lot of trouble.

"Excuse me boys." A big guy from behind the counter growled. "You might wanna take your business outside or I'll have to use some force and you won't like it, I promise you that." The man was huge, his beards combed and his hair tied in a ponytail.

Alec took Jace by the wrist and this time, he headed towards the back door and strode along the alley. The door screeched when it was opened the second time and Jace stopped dead in his track. Alec spun around and locked eyes with Sebastian's dark ones. Thankfully, he was alone. Regrettably, it meant he hadn't had enough.

"You sure seemed pretty comfortable, Herondale. Does your friend here know about you, what you've been up to for the past two years?" He looked questioningly at Alec who glared back at him. And then he smiled, a sudden realization dawned on him.

"Oh he does! And you don't mind, do you Ace? Is he your new underling?" He asked Jace, his index finger pointing at Alec. Jace kept his quiet and the other boy carried on with his jeering.

"I thought you'd at least find someone bigger than me since I've been a very good subordinate. Didn't think that this scrawny here would pass to qualify." Jace would have a lot of explaining to do when they got to Magnus's, Alec thought. When he thought that Jace was going to just stand there and listened, the blonde spoke steadily,

"He's not my underling. He's my friend. I know everybody at school thinks of me as a monster because I hit a boy and I've never stop telling that to myself. I am a monster." Jace took a step forward, towards Sebastian who now seemed to hesitate his next words. The blonde let out a sigh and proceeded,

"Things have change, Jonathan. I recommend you do the same." Something flickered in Sebastian's eyes when Jace used his other name. The blonde had turned around and was starting to walk away from Sebastian, taking a few steps thinking that Alec was following suit behind him when he heard the sound of glass smashed and shattering.

"Shit." It had come from both Alec and Sebastian, almost simultaneously and would've been funny if the scene before Jace's eyes as he turned wasn't as it was; Alec was sitting on the ground, his hand holding one side of his head and Sebastian standing wild-eyed, a half of what Jace thought as a bottle of beer still gripped firmly in his hand.

Things happened in a blur; one moment they were standing there, too shocked to move and the next second Jace had Sebastian pinned on the wall. A few punches collided on the dyed-auburn's face and in sheer seconds, Sebastian's cheekbone was bruised, his lips cracked and bloody and his left eye were swollen. Jace would've carried on if he didn't hear the small sound telling him,

"Let him go, Jace." Alec's voice held no pain yet his face was a grimace. The side of his head was bleeding heavily and the crimson fluid had flowed down onto his neck, staining the collar of his white school shirt. His blazer was hanging limply on his shoulder; his other shoulder was occupied with his bag.

"Idiot." Jace let go of the boy's collar and let him slide down the wall, too stunned to even stand on his feet. If it wasn't for Alec's sake, he'd at least spat a few other curses and remarks at Sebastian, maybe add some punches in his guts but all of the thought flew away when he saw Alec staggering on his feet.

"Whoa." Jace rushed towards his friend and held him steady. "Take it easy, Alec. He hit you pretty hard there." The blood was still oozing from the wound and Jace knew Alec needed a few stitches for it.

His hands reflexively grabbed the dark hair's shoulders when Alec stumbled and almost fell on his face.

"We need to get you to a doctor." Jace proposed.

"No…just take me…back to…M-Magnus." Alec struggled out his words. His visions were getting blurry and he was grateful at Jace for letting him leaned on the blonde. "Please…" He said, certain that the blonde wouldn't be able to deny him. Jace complied almost immediately and half carried the other guy all the way back to Magnus's apartment which was only two blocks away. Jace thanked the Angel for that.

I failed in trying to make a cliffhanger...:(

I just want to inform that the Jonathan in this chapter is a different person to Clary's brother, Jonathan. I only realized that I've used his name before after I wrote this chapter. But it was too perfect for me, so please accept it as it is. :)

Leave a review, as always and look out for the next one! :D