A/N: Since this is Alec's POV Valentine is going to be called Lucien for most of the chapter. Also The Darkness and The Creator are based on Amara and Chuck from Supernatural. The rest of the angel lore is stuff I nitpicked from different angel and demon shows I watch as well as my own crazy mind.
Chapter Two
Lucian Valentine.
A tiny smile crossed Alec's lips as the man's face flashed in his mind's eye.
Since meeting him only a month previous, he'd started meeting him for sparring sessions whenever he had free time. The man seemed always available, though he'd yet to tell him which Institute he worked for. Instead the man seemed focused on helping him improve his stamina and endurance, his dark eyes burning with emotions he couldn't name when they fought.
Worse, each passing day he could feel the feelings he'd been suppressing moving from Jace to the older shadowhunter. Feelings he'd spent the past three years ignoring. Feelings that led him to notice the way Lucian's biceps bulged as they lifted him into chin-ups. The way those dark eyes gleamed with pride whenever Alec managed to accomplish something he'd been teaching him. Feelings that had him fighting down a blush whenever one of the man's rare smiles were flashed in his direction.
They were terrifying...so he tried to ignore them.
And even worse, he failed.
With each passing day he could feel them growing stronger, harder to ignore.
And then there was the dreams.
The first one had come to him the night Lucien had saved him. It had featured an angel with long black hair, the ends disappearing into inky flames. The angel was cold, but passionate, fierce blue eyes burning like the flames that wreathed his hair as he fought beside another. The other angel had hair dusted with stars and ice crystals, eyes so bright a red they seemed nebulous in comparison to any he'd ever seen
In the first dream, the two angels were battling beside another figure, this one seeming to blur, never settling on one or the other, forever indescribable. Their presence was strong, stronger than both angels, full of light and warmth and love, yet it sent chills down Alec's spine.
Their opponent was shrouded in darkness, just as blurred, but unlike their companion eyes the color of the abyss glared out at them, presence full of anger and hurt, tinged with madness. He watched as the angels and their creator fought the being, his heart aching when the flame-enshrouded one was struck by it.
"Samael!" Shrieked his star-dusted counterpart, his voice full agony and fear before a wave of burning ice shot forth toward their opponent. It struck the being in the center, but the star angel didn't stop. Instead, he pressed his advantage flinging burning ice and half formed stars at the dark presence, red eyes teary and vengeance-filled. The lighter presence helped him light forming complex runes before he turned to the angry star-dusted angel.
"My Helel, my Star. The task I ask of you is one of great importance. One that will one day cause you the greatest of pains…" They whispered, yet their voice powerful, neither male nor female, otherworldly.
One nebulous crimson eye slid away from their opponent. "Amara...she will never stop...but the universe needs balance. It needs darkness as it needs light. I ask...I ask you allow me to entrap the darkness...within you, my light."
The angel didn't hesitant and somehow Alec had known he wouldn't. He knew that Helel was aware that without him, the darkness would only grow stronger. If he had to sacrifice himself to protect this fledgeling universe...he would.
"I will."
Behind him, he could hear Samael waking, his fierce mate who would resent their creator for what Helel had chosen to do. The light formed bright, burning runes around him, their meaning lost even to him, and he could hear the soft lyrical chanting of his Creator. Keeping his attacks focused on the Darkness, he never noticed as the runes began to close in on him. The Darkness, however, did. Something mournful and pained flashed through those eyes as the chanting wore down.
"I pity you...Light Bringer." It rumbled and then white hot pain lanced through him.
He screamed.
In front of him the Darkness wavered, a responding shriek sounding before it was absorbed into him. He continued to scream, sobbing breathlessly as the pain worsened. He could feel as his grace was torn apart, feel as the Darkness and his grace melded into one.
Just as he thought to beg for it to end...it stopped, and a gentle hand was cupping his cheek turning his gaze up so that he could stare into warm, sympathetic eyes the color of what would later be known as honey.
The Darkness was gone.
"Helel," The light he'd finally identified as The Creator said, voice low but so very kind. "Samael must never know."
The Star-encrusted angel nodded even as the runes that had been drawn to contain the Darkness etched themselves into his pale skin, into his very grace.
Behind them, Samael awoke.
Just as the fiery angel woke, so did Alec, his cheeks wet with the tears that Helel had shed as his grace was torn apart and put back together to fit the darkness. Soft, breathless sobs of pain left the teen as he trembled from the phantom pain the star-dusted angel in his dreams had felt and he's prayed to never have that dream again. So lost in a pain he wasn't sure was his to begin with, he didn't even notice as some of his more permanent runes began to change.
Nor did he notice how closely they resembled the runes that had burned themselves into Helel's skin.
The next dream came the day after his and Lucien's first training session. Unlike the first dream, this one was happier. It featured Samael and Helel watching as The Creator created more angels, Samael's lips curled slightly as his counterpart fretted over the fledglings. He watched as the Creator revealed his plan to create the archangels, Gabriel, Raphael, Sandaphalon and Uriel, and his plan to have Samael and Helel nurture and teach them.
Samael took the name Michael, hoping they would respond to him better if they were seen as Archangels as well. Helel followed suit, taking the name Lucifer, the Light Bringer. Together, they nurtured the younger angels, teaching to fly and to fight. Neither brought up the old wars they'd fought in, nor the Darkness that had once ruled beside the Creator. Instead they assigned each Archangel a garrison of their own once they were old enough and taught them softer versions of the drills and maneuvers that had once been their only way of survival. They fell into their roles as the oldest of the Archangels as if they'd never been higher than that, as if they weren't two of the oldest beings in existence.
The most powerful.
He watched and tried to push away the strange mix of deja vu and anger that the dream sent through him.
He woke with rage choking him and tears burning his eyes.
He prays for the dreams to stop.
He prays for Lucien to leave.
Neither happen.
*/*
To his surprise, Lucien is the first to act on the feelings between them.
The dreams continue and he finds his heart torn between the feelings the dreams inspire for the angel in his dreams and the man that shares that angel's likeness. He finds himself falling deeper for Lucien, even as the man seems to grow more possessive of his time, eyes burning with a dark, unnamed emotion every time they parted ways.
Still, he finds himself terrified to act on the feelings, especially with the way most shadowhunter view those with his...proclivities. Lucien, unlike Alec, is handsome, and fierce, able to have any shadowhuntress in the world and Alec finds himself unable to figure out why the man would be interested in him. In the words of his siblings, he's boring. He doesn't party, he trains. He doesn't care for people, Lucien being one of his only friends outside of his family.
There's literally nothing interesting about him.
Yet…
When they spar, he notices that the older nephilim's hands tend to linger. When they talk, he notices how those dark eyes seem to lock on his lips, the way they trace the curve of his throat. More than once, he catches the man's eyes raking over him as they meet up to train or after they spar and it sets his blood alight.
Likewise, he wonders if Lucien catches the way he bites his lip when pins him to the mat when they spar. The way his heart pounds when the man stands behind him to correct one stance or another.
He wonders and he frets, some of the dreams turning into not-so-innocent fantasies of the man who is quickly becoming his best friend. Then...Lucien kisses him four months after they meet.
They're sparring and the older shadowhunter is teaching him a new move. He attempts it, gasping as the man takes him down by using his own momentum against him. He finds himself pinned against the mat, and those dark eyes are burning as they stare into his. He bites his lip, shivers racing down his spine as those hands tighten around his hips.
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice, Alexander?" He rumbled and Alec felt himself freeze, fear clouding his thoughts. H-had Lucien figured it out? Was he about to lose the only person he cared for outside of his family?
"L-Lucian?"
"The way you look at me. The way your eyes linger, and your want." His voice dropped an octave and he leaned closed, his larger body pressing Alec's into the mat. His heart picks up speed, and he could hardly believe this is happening.
Alec finds his gaze dropping to the man's lips involuntarily and he looks away, cheeks burning with shame and fear.
The older man's hand cups his cheek. "Look at me, Mio angelo."
"I'm sorry." The archer responded and Lucien chuckled, brushing his lips ever so softly over the younger man's. "Don't be."
Before Alec could question him,the other was kissing him, lips locking in a burning kiss that left the archer breathless. A sneaky tongue traced the seam of him lips and he gasped, feeling it slip into his mouth and tangle with his own.
He whimpered, pressing himself closer to the older man. The hands on his hips tightened until he was certain they would leave a mark. He whined, his hips jerking upwards as he felt arousal race through his veins.
Just as air became necessary, Lucien pulled away, kiss-swollen lips curling into a dangerous smirk that shouldn't have been as sexy as it was.
"Tell me you're mine."
Something about his words rang of danger in Alec's mind but the fog of bliss from having his crush like him back overrode it. Instead he smiled, kissing the older man chastely.
"I- yes."
The older raven chuckled and stood and pulled him to his feet, arms wrapping around his waist as he pulled him into another kiss.
"Tell me, Alexander. Tell me you are mine, mio angelo."
He can't find a reason not to. Not when those burning eyes are locked on him, those strong arms are wrapped around him holding him in place. Not when everything about Lucien reminds him of the flame-crowned angel haunting his dreams and his heart.
He only has one response he can give, after all his heart has already decided even as his head has not.
"I am. I am yours."
That night, when he returns to the Institute, he dreams of he's falling.
Michael catches him, their grace intertwining in the same way Alec's hand had with Lucien's earlier that day.
It fills him with a sense of euphoria, especially when Michael's wings, much bigger than his own, wrap around them.
"Tell me, my Light. My star," His fiery counterpart whispers, those burning blue eyes locked on his. "Tell me you are mine."
"My mate," He whispers in response, and the love in his voice make his heart pound because it's exactly how he feels whenever Lucien looks at him. "My warrior, I am yours."
As with when he'd spoken the words to Lucien...they feel so right.
So why is there a churning in his gut saying that it's all going to go wrong?
TBC...
