Freeze

Chapter 1

"Alec..."

"No." Isabelle sighed. She hated her brother's stubbornness at times, although she was just the same. The past few hours Isabelle had been helping their mother with the preparations for the grand banquet the Lightwoods were organising and she wasn't in the mood to argue.

"Alec, come on. All of us are expected to be there tomorrow." Alec detested Shadowhunter get-togethers, and this banquet was no exception. Why should he have to go to a pointless banquet when he could be spending his time doing absolutely anything else? Sadly nobody else understood this.

Isabelle quickly lost her patience and began hammering on the door. "Alec stop being a child and get out right now!" The door opened. Wow, Isabelle said to herself. I didn't expect him to give up so easily. Her brother was scowling on the other side.

"You can't make me."

"Oh come on. You know very well I can make you come. I know you hate this sort of thing but we have to be there for mom. And I will not let you weasel your way out of another one."

Alec pouted. "Jace doesn't have to go," he said rather pathetically, although already knew what his sister's response would be.

Isabelle rolled her eyes, but showed no sympathy. She was the younger of the two and she didn't need to baby him. "Because Jace isn't a Lightwood. Honestly Alec, it's not as if you don't know this. It's just a few hours, it won't kill you." He was about to argue with this comment but Isabelle didn't give him the chance. "I am prepared to fight you for this, you know. And I think we both know who will win that battle," and he did. "You are coming weather you like it or not."

At last Alec gave in. He never had a chance when it came to his sister getting what she wanted. "Fine - but I am not wearing a suit."

She smirked. "Right" So sweet. He thinks he has a choice.

As she began to walk off, proud of her success, a thought came to mind. "And anyway..." she smiled evilly. "I heard that your friend Magnus is going to be there." Alec turned a dark shade of red. He had almost forgotten that night where he was flirted with by the glittery warlock who was probably three hundred years older than him. If that was something that could be easily forgotten.

"We're not... he's not my friend," Alec mumbled.

They'd had this argument plenty of times before but Alec knew he was never going to be able to convince her. Isabelle knew that Alec was gay even if he still tried to ignore the fact. But she had no proof that he had any interest in Magnus – she honestly wasn't paying attention that night – but as a sister it was her responsibility to annoy her brother.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I didn't know you were more than friends." Oh how she loved tormenting her brother.

"I don't like him or anything." Alec knew how feeble he sounded. "He's a warlock."

Isabelle knew her brother, and she knew that he wasn't as shallow as that. "So?"

"He and I are not friends or anything more, Isabelle."

"Right," Isabelle nodded, and glided away before he could throw more weak arguments at her.


The hall was slowly filling with more and more people as they were greeted by all but one of the Lightwoods at the front door.

This one Lightwood who made the exception had stormed off to slouch in a chair in the far corner of the large room to avoid any attention. It had taken Maryse and Isabelle two hours to get Alec into something formal and an additional 20 minutes for Isabelle to shove him through the door.

Avoiding his family was revenge for Isabelle lying to him about not having to wear anything formal. Of course this didn't really affect Isabelle in any way, so she was fine having her brother hate her for the next few hours. As far as she was concerned, her job was done.

Alec looked up at the ceiling when the large chandelier hung, beaming down light onto the crowds of Shadowhunters and other distinguished guests. He just did not understand why everything had to be so formal. Why couldn't everyone just dress normally, rather than go out of their way to get fancy suits and dresses they will never wear again? There was just no logic to it.

After a good few minutes of scowling, Alec poured himself a glass of water and sat back down again, still being incredibly grumpy over everything.

That was, until, he heard a familiar voice from behind him. "Mind if I sit here?" Alec choked on the glass of water. He knew that voice. And he realised his sister hadn't been lying.

"Are you okay?" the now concerned voice asked. Alec slowly turned around. There standing behind him was Magnus Bane.

Alec fumbled over what to say and then realised Magnus had asked him a question. "Oh, hi... yeah - I'm fine thanks."

Magnus took this as an invitation and sat down. "Good." The tall man didn't look as sparkly as he did on the night of the party. He wore a suit jacket over a white V-necked t-shirt and a washed out pair of black jeans. His hair was still spiked, although he had taken the liberty of removing some of the colours and glitter. Despite him still looking like a freakishly bright pixie, this was the most effort Magnus was willing to go to for a Shadowhunter event.

As they sat, the question from a few nights ago remained lingering in both their thoughts. Magnus knew he shouldn't have asked, Alec was a Shadowhunter after all, from a strict Shadowhunter family, but at the time he just couldn't help himself. Plus Alec's reaction was adorable. However now it just made everything awkward.

Finally Alec decided to speak.

"Why did you say that?" he said quietly.

Magnus looked puzzled. "What did I say?"

The shorter boy put his head down. "At the party... you asked me."

Magnus didn't know how to respond to the question.

Luckily he didn't have to. "Nobody knew I am... Well Izzy might have thought so, but nobody really knew. And now they all think it and... I'm not..."

"Oh." The warlock hadn't considered this at all. He hadn't considered that the reason Alec couldn't respond that night was because he hadn't come out yet. He had assumed it was because Alec hadn't taken him seriously. But Alec seemed to have taken him very seriously.

"Alec, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." It wasn't often the warlock apologised, but he meant it.

There was silence again. Then Alec spoke.

"It's okay. You couldn't have known." This didn't stop Magnus from feeling terribly guilty.

How can I change the subject? Alec thought. "I hate these get-togethers," Alec stated bluntly. I am terrible at this. How do people like Jace never make themselves sound stupid? "They are too formal."

"I know exactly what you mean." He hadn't expected Magnus to agree with him. "They are so dull. Who says a bit of glitter isn't appropriate for a formal dinner?" Alec coughed over the glass of water again. "What?"

He signalled to Magnus' hair. "Well... no offence Magnus, but you're not particularly short on glitter."

"You mean my hair? That only has glitter in it because I couldn't wash it out. It is surprisingly difficult."

Alec smiled for the first time in a long time.