This took a while to grind out, my bad!
Next one will be out in a month of so hopefully, but my A-Level mocks are coming out and if ya girl doesn't get A's she gonna cry.
Hope you enjoy the new installment of Magnus being gay, Alec being a Mom, Jace pushing everyone close to him away and Clary being an independent girl who doesn't need a man.
Thanks for reading and please leave a favourite/follow/comment if you enjoyed!
Alec is slow to get up the next morning. He doesn't feel Jace next to him and the room is silent. If he stays still – and he does not move at all—he can hear the crackle of a fire. He doesn't know what they're trying to win now, and he's not sure how he can carry on without Izzy.
He was an orphan now, he thought to himself and he hides his face in the bundle of clothes he used as a pillow.
He was an orphan, an only child, the only survivor of his blood family.
He sees Izzy's grin every time he closes his eyes; he can almost feel Max's hand grabbing at his shirt sometimes. He remembers his father's fingers closing around his on the hilt of a knife, showing him how to throw it and the massive hug he was swept up into when he hit a bullseye for the first time. He catches Jace sometimes, humming his mother's lullaby as he collects fire wood or kneels over the pot of meat stew he's stirring, and he can never bring himself to hum along with him.
Alec didn't know if he could ever avenge every face behind his eyelids.
"Alec?" a soft voice cuts into Alec's thoughts and he hears the door rasping open.
Alec sits up, knowing he's shirked his duties long enough and Magnus' head peers around the door. His eyes, rimmed with smudged eyeliner, soften when they set on Alec and he enters, sitting gently on the end of his sleeping bag.
"Jace is making breakfast. He insisted on letting you sleep in." Magnus told him, and Alec nods, and can't find the words to thank him.
Magnus' eyes search his face a few moments longer, but he doesn't ask anything stupid like ''are you okay?'' Instead he pokes Alec's leg and lies down, half on the dusty floor and half right on top of Alec's leg.
"Did I ever tell you about this one time I managed to steal a whole goat from a petting zoo?" Magnus starts and that sentence alone almost makes him laugh.
"You didn't and now I need to know."
"Well I'm about to. Come on, move over." Magnus says, rolling his eyes and wriggles until he is sprawled over Alec's own sleeping bag.
Alec is smiling as he rolls onto his side to let Magnus lie down. "We don't have time." He said reluctantly, glancing at the door. "We have to get food and get going."
Magnus reaches for his hand and Alec can smell woodsmoke on his clothes and almost lets himself relax.
"We have plenty of time, Alexander." Magnus says in a soft voice and his thumb brushing against the back of his hand. "Time is all we have."
Alec gives one last look at the door and lays his head back down on the pile of clothes, almost nose to nose with Magnus.
"So, I'm in the petting zoo, right? I have no idea how I got there, but there's this goat and he's following me up and down the fence and I just think 'Hey I could do with a friend…"
XXXXX
Jace is just short of fuming when Alec comes out into the courtyard, squinting at the light.
Clary is sat cross-legged on the ground and staring into the fire and the four tins in the embers.
Alec's stomach still hurts from laughing hard at Magnus' stupid stories of his life before the apocalypse. His heart twists at the sight of Jace and the second he spends searching their campsite for Izzy before he remembers.
Before he can say anything else, Clary stands up.
She's holding her backpack, her sleeping bag already rolled up and lashed on.
"I'm leaving." She says firmly and louder than strictly needed.
Alec looks at Jace before he says anything and sees the anger in Jace's eyes.
"Where you going to go?" Magnus says, standing just to the side of Alec with a furrow to his brow.
Clary shrugs. Her face is carefully blank and her eyes dart around the courtyard but never once on Jace.
"I'll head up to my step-father's farm. There'll be other survivors. It's, what, a couple of day's walk out?"
Alec can see the fragile bonds of their group shattering like glass and he shakes his head. "You can't just leave—"
"I'm slowing you guys down. I'm putting you all in danger and I don't want to get any of you hurt." Clary sounds sure of herself but her white-knuckled grip on the straps of her bag give her away.
"You can't leave alone!" Alec says firmly, and Clary flips her hair behind her shoulder and Alec swears she's picked that up from Izzy.
"There aren't many zombies out this way, I'll move fast and in the day. I know how to use my knives."
"Jace, c'mon you know she can't leave." Alec turns to his brother in disbelief. Jace was glaring at a cracked cobblestone with a pained look on his face.
"I don't care what she does." Jace places curious emphasis on each word. "She should go to the farm and we can carry on rescuing other people."
Magnus' mouth is half-open, and Alec feels the same.
Clary's façade cracks at Jace's words but she tries to pull it back. "Even if you don't let me leave now, I'll do it in the night. I can't stay with here."
Alec tries to think of another way to convince Clary to stay and comes up short. "Look, Clary, just stay and have breakfast with us."
Clary's shoulders slump just a little and she nods. Alec scrubbed a hand over his face and sank to his knees beside the fire.
Magnus left his side to sit by Clary, talking to her quietly. Alec couldn't quite hear him but he could hear the angry tone in Clary voice. He didn't think that even Magnus with his jokes and charm could talk Clary out of her decision.
Alec poked the tins until he decided they still needed a few minutes and sidled over to Jace who was chipping chunks out of a brick he'd found.
"Jace—" Alec started and Jace threw his rock down and dusted his calloused hands.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jace said viciously. "She can do whatever she wants."
Alec sighed but he knew Jace wouldn't talk about it anymore and went back to his beans.
When he glanced back at Jace a few minutes later, he was staring at Clary with the same pained expression on his face. Clary had turned her back on him and not for the first time, Alec realised that they were losing.
The meal that followed was one of the most awkward that Alec had ever sat through.
He and Magnus shared winces throughout the meal and the clang that Jace set his empty can down with made everyone jump.
"We should get going. Head back to the city and help others." He announced and Magnus slurped from his can in the dead silence that followed.
"Clary," Alec said, ignoring his thickheaded brother not for the first time. "Is there no way you'll come back with us?"
Clary was tracing her finger around the top of her can and Magnus reached out to gently tap her hand before she cut herself.
"I've decided Alec. And I'm sorry, for everything that's happened."
Something caught in Alec's throat and it wasn't just the partially-cooked baked beans.
Alec placed his cup down with a lot more grace than Jace had and turned to rummage through his rucksack. He found one half of the transceiver set and fiddled with the knob on top before handing it to Clary.
"Keep this on channel three, it's the one we use. We'll be in Brooklyn, we won't leave, and we might try and head up to the farm soon."
Clary took it and clipped it onto the side of her own bag. "Thanks Alec, for everything."
"You just turn the thing at the top to get onto the channels, it shouldn't run out of battery, it's got a solar panel in the top—" Alec knew he was rambling but if he could stretch this parting out for as long as he could, maybe he could convince her to stay.
"I know how to work it. I lived with Simon for months, remember?" Clary gave him a smile which Alec just about managed to return. Clary stood up again, and Alec copied her, feeling out of place. Magnus stood as well and Jace's hands turned to fists on the floor.
"Thank you for everything. I really mean it and I'm sorry about Izzy." Alec reached out and hugged her. Clary shook under his hands and her heart was rabbit-quick.
"Be careful Clary. We'll see you again." Clary didn't seem sure, as she wiped her tears away, leaving streaks through the dirt on her face.
"You can still stay biscuit." Magnus said, pulling Clary into a hug. Alec watched her bury her face in Magnus' velvet coat and felt like another part of the cliff he was on was eroding away beneath his feet.
He flicked Jace in the head as Clary pulled away and his brother didn't move. He was picking at a scab on his knuckles and didn't care for the blood that was slowly seeping across his fingers.
Clary watched Jace for a second and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Jace."
Jace froze, and Alec glanced away, feeling like even staring too hard at this moment might cause it to fracture and break beyond repair.
"And I forgive you. I wish it didn't have to be this." Clary's voice wobbled and still Jace didn't not look up, his breaths too measured to be natural.
Clary waved at the three stranger-family and walked out of the courtyard, not once looking back.
Jace slowly raised his head to watch her just before she slipped out of the thick wooden door keeping their refuge safe and for the first time, Alec saw the tears on Jace's cheeks.