In a flash
The aftermath of the kidnapping is a little strange. And definitely more than a little disappointing.
The day after, his parents take him aside and have Alec recount everything that happened. Well, as much as he remembers and despite him not really being able to make much sense of it at all.
He still doesn't know why circles kept being mentioned the entire time. But no one will explain it to him when he asks.
While he is recounting his rescue, he can see his mom make that face that means she disapproves or is angry every time he mentions the man with the sparkles and the pretty laugh. And Alec immediately feels bad. Maybe Alec did something wrong? Maybe she is angry because he needed to be rescued at all?
But once Alec is done - ending with man's portal that looked like a pretty whirlpool of light because Alec can't remember anything after that - his parents share a look. They have a whispered conversation over the top of his head - Alec hates it when adults do that - and then his mother turns back to him.
Only to tell him that it was all a dream.
Well, not the kidnapping. But the rescue.
His mom tells him that there had been no man who rescued him, that his parents had found him and brought him back home.
And Alec doesn't know what to make of that. Because it seemed really real.
He tries to tell his mother that but she cuts him off and tells him to stop talking nonsense. It's her strict voice. And if she is so sure, then it must be true.
Right?
And Alec is really disappointed that everything was a dream, that the pretty man with the light and the sparkles and the warm magic wasn't actually real.
But he tries to put on a strong face during dinner because his mother is looking at Alec with her disapproving frown and Izzy is watching him worriedly.
That night Izzy once more comes crawling into his bed - she says it's to flee from her nightmares but Alec is getting rather suspicious of her reasons - right when Alec is maybe trying to suppress a few tears from disappointment now that his mom isn't there to see. But Izzy doesn't call him on the few tears that maybe do escape.
So, instead he tells her the story of how his rescue went in his dream. Because it makes for a great story to distract Izzy from her nightmares and also because Alec really wants to talk about the man with the sparkles.
Izzy loves the story, decides that she wants to wear sparkles around her eyes when she is older just like the man in Alec's story and she continues to demand hearing it or some variation of it for years to come, whenever she clambers into his bed for whatever reason.
Of course, Alec always agrees.
And while the story changes every time he tells it, the man is always a part of it. Over the years it becomes their thing and more than one training session is spent in character as they reenact the story from his dream. Even though at some point the story turns into Izzy and Alec rescuing the man with the sparkles rather than the other way around, simply because the two of them can never agree on who will do the rescuing and who will be rescued.
Then Jace joins their family. Alec and Izzy quickly get used to him, he becomes their brother in all but blood and soon there is a third member to their imagined rescue party.
And despite it having been years since he had that - most likely drug-induced - dream, Alec is quite adamant about the man in his dream still the prettiest person he has ever seen.
He might have been stating that particular opinion a little too loudly, though. Because shortly after he turns sixteen, Alec suddenly has the epiphany that not only is he gay, but that everyone around him is already quite aware of his sexuality despite him never actually having had a coming-out.
Everyone simply knows because ever since Alec was seven, he has never made a secret of the fact that not only does he think about the attractiveness of men at all but also that in his eyes men are prettiest when they wear glittery makeup, jewelry and sparkling clothes.
Well, at least to Alec himself his own sexuality is quite the revelation at that point in time.
Although, once he gets over that particular epiphany, Alec just considers it, shrugs and then goes on with his life. He's got too much shit to deal with already. Alec has neither the time nor the patience to consider everyone's sensibilities on the issue of homosexuality. Izzy and Jace know - like the entire Institute apparently - and also evidently couldn't care less.
Everyone else will just have to deal.
Including his mother, who Alec loves dearly but who always has something to criticize about him anyway. Alec's apparently blatant sexuality and his overall disregard of others' opinions are just things on a rather long list of reasons for his mother's overall disapproval of anything Alec does that is not directly related to his Shadowhunter duties
Alec and his mom butt heads over pretty much everything, only made worse whenever Izzy or Jace decide to get involved in their arguments, always and uncompromisingly on Alec's side no matter what the argument might actually be about.
And both of his siblings make their stance about where they stand in regards to Alec's sexuality absolutely clear.
Even more than that, between the three of them the word 'sparkling' develops a life of its own. And as with most things, Izzy is the one who starts it.
During a training session when the three of them are in their teens, Izzy gives a pointed look at one of their trainers, before leaning over to Alec and Jace with an eyebrow wriggle.
"I am seeing sparkles. Sparkles, I tell you."
They don't even have to ask what she means by that - seeing as Alec has been using the word sparkles to describe his dream guy for years now - and immediately turn around to focus on the guy in question.
Alec just raises his eyebrows, gives their trainer a rather blatant once-over, then turns back to his siblings to give his assessment with, "Meh."
Jace promptly cracks up at Izzy's offended expression, laughing so hard the three of them get reprimanded for their conduct.
Turns out Izzy and Alec do not have the same taste in men at all.
But from then on, 'sparkles' becomes their not so subtle code word for assessing someone's - or rather everyone's - attractiveness. In Alec's completely unbiased opinion, no one comes even close the man in his dream, as sad as that may be.
Still, it takes him another several years - fifteen years since that fateful kidnapping - to make the connection between his mother's rather repulsed mentions of Downworlders in general and of warlocks in particular and the man from his dream.
To be exact, it takes him until he is twenty-three and standing on top of a set of stairs of a club keeping watch over Jace and Clary implementing their current - and in Alec's opinion - rather harebrained scheme.
When Jace and Clary finally approach one of the Downworlders - the man's clothes and jewelry glinting in the lights of the club - Alec just about swallows his tongue.
While Alec had thoroughly disapproved of their plan to lure a centuries-old, insanely powerful warlock from hiding, he now suddenly wishes he had been paying closer attention to the pictures Hodge had been showing them.
Because the man - and most likely also the warlock they had been luring - who Jace and Clary are now arguing with is not just anyone.
No. It's him.
It's the man from Alec's dream. The dream which supposedly wasn't real.
Alec stares from where he is standing, his brain honestly somewhat blank. Blank at the revelation that this man is most certainly real despite his mom specifically telling him that he wasn't.
And thinking back to what little memories remain from that supposed dream, it suddenly seems incredibly obvious now that the man who rescued him then had been a warlock, that the sparkling light had been his warlock magic.
Which is most likely also the reason for his mother's interference, seeing as Alec being rescued by a dastardly warlock would quite effectively undermine the Clave's narrative of all Downworlders being, well, dastardly.
And as he draws his bow to take out the threat at the warlock's back, Alec almost wants to tip his hat to her, thinking, 'Well played, Mom. Well played.'
Although in the end, her interference doesn't really change much.
Because he is still the prettiest person Alec has ever seen, his clothes and jewelry still sparkle even from a distance and the man immediately zeroes in on Alec as soon as he announces his presence via arrow through body, all of the warlock's attention on him.
And if Alec is a little more showy than necessary about descending the stairs, if he is a little more dramatic about checking the body on the ground, if he does an entirely unnecessary twirl with the blade in his hand before putting it away, well, there is no one to call him out for showing off.
Although, Jace is currently watching Alec with a somewhat incredulous expression. But then again, his parabatai has all the subtlety of a rogue tornado whenever he likes a girl. So, Jace doesn't get to judge.
A/N: So, what do you think of this out-and-proud, grumpy Alec?
Thanks for your reviews (*^^*)