6. Something not so fun

Alec held the glass in trembling hands. He hated himself for it, for this. He hated being jealous, it made him feel pathetic and clingy and needy and just so damn worthless. He averted his eyes to the clear glass in his hand. Why couldn't his life be like this? Transparent and easily read? Simple, easy and not at all like the jumbled mess of events he had learnt to live with.

Seriously, what were the chances of Clary's rune bringing back people from Magnus' past. Out of everyone in the whole wide world, in the whole time stream, it had to be people his boyfriend knew. It was official. His life was getting ridiculous.

Alec didn't know if he could handle this whole situation anymore. He just wanted to be with his boyfriend, by himself, snuggled on the couch watching some abysmal show like America's Next Top Model. He just didn't want to be here, at this moment, in this situation at this time. Couldn't he just sink into the ground at disappear? Or, even better, couldn't Will and his friends just go back to London? But he couldn't ignore the fact that Magnus was smiling and laughing and being happy with Will Herondale. The sick feeling in Alec's stomach was returning again.

How could Magnus' apartment be so familiar yet so alien at the same time? Sometimes Alec felt like he could be part of the furniture, like the ostentatiously coloured couch or the canary bed sheets. Other times, like now, he felt like he did when he first walked in here. All awkward and long limbed and like he'd had too many eyes. On extreme days, he felt like a fungus on the wall.

Alec put the glass down in the sink and leant against the counter. He could feel the sharp lines of it digging into his back, right where an old hunting wound was. The pain was welcoming.

Footsteps drew Alec out of his reservoir. Sharp, clicking footsteps that he could recognise instantly.

Magnus.

"I don't want to talk about it." Alec blurted out immediately in case his boyfriend decided to do the whole 'let's talk it out' technique he learned from some show called Dr Phil. He saw Magnus smile and tried to calm down the butterflies that had suddenly colonised in his chest.

"No." Magnus said, moving to stand next to him on the counter, "I'm not asking you to."

Oh, Alec thought, Well that's a change.

"Right." He said out loud, mostly to fill the silence that was cascading down on him.

He felt something move next to him and he tilted his head a little to see Magnus coming to stand closer to him. Amazingly, he could cross his legs in the tight pants he was wearing.

"Okay," Magnus assured Alec, "I want you to know that this is quite obvious, and I don't want you to dispute what I am saying," Magnus took a breath, almost like he was nervous. Alec didn't know how to handle a nervous Magnus. "But," Another pause, another breath, "You're not okay."

Those three, small words held some sort of weight that settled on Alec's shoulders. You're not okay. Simple. Nothing uniquely special about any of those words, not by themselves. But together? Together they were three, horribly open words. They weren't a question, they were a fact. A statement. A true statement.

Alec looked at Magnus. He wasn't, for once, looking at him back. His eyes were tracing the faint patterns along the tiles. Magnus looked forlorn and, despite the array of colours he was dressed in, faded, like an old photograph.

"No," Alec said slowly, "No, I'm not."

Magnus shifted again. More silence.

"It's Will, isn't it?"

Alec glared at the perfectly innocent floor. Of course it was about Will. Everything, it seemed, was about Will.

Magnus seemed to be expecting him to say something, waiting and looking at him with an arched eyebrow. Alec didn't respond. He didn't always have to do what Magnus said, that was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

"Darling," Magnus put his hand on Alec's, He shifted his away. Magnus looked slightly hurt for a second, but then schooled his features into indifference. God, he was always indifferent. Sometimes, it was so hard to make Magnus feel something. "Will and I," Magnus stopped, rethought the words, and continued, "The relationship I had with Will, it wasn't like us."

'Us', what was 'us', anyway? Them as a couple? Them as lovers? Them as friends even. Us wasn't a definitive explanation, nor was it adequate.

"Just forget it, okay?" Alec snapped. He didn't need Magnus' sympathy, or pity. He could cope. He would be fine.

Yeah, Alec thought bitterly, Absolutely fine.

oOo

Gideon clutched a hand to his aching head. From what he could gather, after Gabriel and him had gone through the portal, they had landed somewhere with very, very hard flooring. And they hadn't landed very gracefully.

"Ow," Complained Gabriel, pulling himself up off pale floorboards, "I think I did something to my arm."

"You'll be fine," Replied Gideon without looking at his brother, "You're a Shadowhunter after all."

"Doesn't mean I'm indestructible," Gabriel muttered back, "Who do you think I am? William Herondale?"

Gideon heaved himself up, his hand still placed firmly to his head.

"You know," He wondered to his brother, "For someone who professes to harbour such a toxic dislike for William, you seem to spend much of your time talking about him," Gideon paused and swept hair out of his eyes with his free hand, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were in love."

"No," Gabriel spat with a firm shake of his head, "No. No. No."

"Are you sure?" Gideon asked, widening his green eyes in the picture of innocence.

"Be quiet," Gabriel snarled, his eyes narrowed with malice, "You are the one with the infatuation with the disfigured servant girl, the servant at the London Insti-"

Gideon shoved his brother against one of the smooth walls, his hands fisted in Gabriel's shirt. He glared into Gabriel's eyes, which were so alike to their father's.

"You say one word against Sophie," He breathed at Gabriel, his voice low and dangerous, "And I will make sure you won't say anything again."

Gabriel's only capacity was to nod, a hurried jerk of his pink face.

Gideon realised his hands, sending his brother to the floor once again.

His temper was cooling, now only simmering in the bottom of his stomach, like hot water bubbling nonchalantly in the background of an adequately busy kitchen. He had never felt such an intense fire in his veins before he met Sophie. She made him feel alive.

"Gideon, do you see this?" Gabriel's voice pulled him out of his thoughts like a hook.

"Hm…?" He replied, turning around.

He spotted Gabriel facing a wall. It seemed like a completely ordinary wall. Gideon could see the tiny bumps in the plaster and the faint, black marks of someone's fingerprints. There were some gold boarders at the line where the wall met the ceiling

"Can you see the runes?" Gabriel clarified and Gideon's eyes immediately zoned in on the area under investigation.

There were indeed the delicate lines of angelic runes, some speaking of bravery and others of balance and long sighted vision. So the walls had runes engraved in the surface? That could only mean…

"Institute." Said Gideon and Gabriel at the same time.

oOo

"I am so bored," Complained Isabelle with a stretch of her long arms. Both Isabelle and Clary were seated on the edge of Isabelle's comfy bed, with doona covers surrounding them like crashing waves. Clary almost felt like she was a sea captain, commanding a ship of black and purple, with a lot of underwear casually thrown about.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

Isabelle poked her tongue out and Clary, a look, she guessed, that Isabelle used on Alec and Jace often.

"I don't know. Entertain me."

"Entertain you?" Clary repeated, her eyebrows raised, "How?"

Isabelle picked up a teddy bear that was lazily reclining on her bed. Clary noticed that it had a dagger imbedded in its chest.

"Dance." Isabelle said thoughtfully, squeezing the teddy.

Clary took a second to be absolutely horrified.

"No," She said, shaking her head and sending her curls into a frenzy, "No way."

Isabelle pouted, her dark eyes burning like charcoal in a fire. Clary had always found in fascinating how Isabelle and Alec looked so much alike, with their sharp, curved cheekbones and pale skin, yet their eyes were so different. Isabelle's were the colour of dark stormy clouds and Alec's of clear blue water.

"Jace would dance for me." Isabelle said mournfully, staring pitifully down at the stabbed teddy.

"Well, Jace has no boundaries." Clary snapped, more annoyed at Jace then Isabelle.

She had wanted to go with Jace and Alec to see Magnus. It was her rune after all. She, technically, had gotten them into the mess, so shouldn't she be there to help get them out? Clary could tell that Isabelle wanted to be with the boys as well, but Alec had insisted that she stay here. And Jace had basically walked out with Alec without even asking her if she wanted to come along.

"OI, EARTH TO CLARY." Isabelle's voice cut through Clary's head like a whip, painfully dragging her attention to the dark haired Shadowhunter.

"Jesus, you're loud," Clary said with a scrunch of her nose, "What do you want?"

"Did you hear those voices?" Isabelle's eyes were alert, her hand reaching for her electrum whip, "I swear I heard two people talking."

Clary's sense of adventure bubbled up in her stomach, "But Jace and Alec are…"

"Out." Isabelle finished, "Yeah, I know. And we're the only two here."

There was a moment between them, like lighting crackling through the air. Clary looked at Isabelle and Isabelle looked at Clary. With a smooth, elegant notion of her neck, Isabelle gestured to the door.

Clary wasted no time. She bolted off the bed and threw open the bedroom door, Isabelle hot on her heels.

oOo

"Izzy…" Clary looked around in the hallway, "I can't see anyone."

Isabelle prowled in front of her with the grace of a lioness. Clary was having trouble keeping up whilst not wheezing from lack of air. She really needed to make Jace train her some more.

"Duh," Isabelle answered in hushed tones, "They're obviously not in the hallway."

Clary felt extremely patronised. "Then where are they?" She asked with a huff of impatience.

'Shh," Isabelle said so loudly and suddenly that Clary nearly tripped over her own feet, "I can hear them."

Clary strained her ears, begging them to pick up any sound. It was times like these that she wished she had Simon's vampire hearing.

Even though she could hear anything, Isabelle looked like she was picking something up. She stepped in a sweep of her long skirt closer to one of the many doors that lined the walls, her finger pressed to her lips. In here, she mouthed.

Clary nodded and moved to stand behind Isabelle. With a swift flick of her wrist, she turned the door handle and swung it open wide.

The first thing she noticed was that the room was a mess. The minimal furniture in the spare room had been scattered across the floor in various stages of assemble; the bed was missing at least two legs. The second thing she noticed was the fact that there was two teenage boys in the room. They were both dressed in long coats and white shirts; they looked like they had stepped out from the Victorian Era.

Hang on…

"I am terrible sorry to intrude," The boy with hair that curled around his ears said, "My name is Gideon and this is my brother Gabriel. We appear to be a little lost."

Isabelle raised an eyebrow and fished her phone out of her pocket, "Lost is right," She said, punching in numbers, she placed the phone to her ear, "Hello, Magnus?" The two boys- Gideon and Gabriel- looked quizzically at the mobile, "Its Isabelle," She continued, "We seem to have a problem. We're coming over right away."