Hey guys…
Another chapter for you today! I have reached Chapter 15!
Thank you to the 21 of you who have favourited and the 30 who have followed. You are amazing. xx
I have decided that because we are on 45 reviews (and I am really enjoying writing this) if I get 50 reviews by 5/6 o'clock this evening, British time, I will upload a special 50 review chapter, that I may make a bit longer – 5000/6000 words. Just something to consider. Your reviews are what have been making me smile/write so fast/want to continue. X
Hotlight10: yes, I do feel like Will needs to mouth off to Magnus occasionally. I like to think that someone is making a stand about the whole Camille thing! Also, yes, I read CoHF, and although none of the characters I really love died I still cried a lot. Especially at you know what. xxx
L'amore13: I am pleased that you like it! Its little comments like that that brighten up my dark days and make me smile. xxx
AsraStar: I am glad you are still enjoying it and still reviewing for me. Here is an update as soon as I could get it for you. xxx
Greekgoddess54: Thank you so much! I am really pleased that you are all enjoying it! In response to your questions, that may come into play, although I hadn't thought about that… so thank for the inspiration! Your reviews always make me smile, and I had been having a particularly stressful evening when I read that, and it just made me indescribably happy. Thank you so much! Xxx
sarahps12: I'm sorry about Clace, but it will be important and not permanent. Just hang on. And someone needs to tell Magnus how it is. Camille is a bitch. I do not like her at all. I'm afraid you may have to die for a little bit longer, but the moment will come. Xxx
Happy birthday to LoveIsAPowerfulThingxx for tomorrow! I love you darling.
And now for the actual story…
Enjoy xxx
Lu xxx
It had been a few days since Will had been to see his family, and the fact that he hadn't been able to see them since was ebbing away at him slowly like acid.
Magnus had been insistent that Will should come home with Camille every night still, despite the fact that Will said he could go over to a friend's for a bit and that would be so much less pressure on Camille, probably because he was desperate for the two of them to bond. If this was the case, then his plan was going horrible wrong. If anything, Camille and Will hated each other more because Camille felt her day was interrupted for 'that squirt'. And Will just hated Camille, and the less that he could have to do with her, the better.
Will was sitting at home on the Xbox, his feet lazily kicked up on the glass coffee table in a way that he had definitely picked up from Magnus. Camille had just gone out after picking him up from the Institute, where he had spent the morning. In fact, she had never come in at all, just ushered Will in through the door and slammed it shut behind him, the heels or her deep crimson shoes echoing down the stairs out of the building as she went to some fancy lunch or something, probably with Magnus. Will didn't mind. It was better when Camille wasn't there. He could relax, and didn't have to worry about scowling all the time. Besides, Chairman Meow, who refused to be seen when Camille was in the house, would come out and curl up next to Will.
He was just lazily flicking buttons, not really concentrating at all, when his eyes latched onto something – the top of a book sticking out from the back of one of the millions of sofas Magnus always had in his apartment. It looked normal, a deep blue colour with a slight sheen on the cover, and nothing more, but somehow, Will found himself drawn to it. He set down the controller carefully on the table, got up equally carefully to avoid the wrath of the Chairman, and pulled the whole thing out.
It was indeed nothing special on the outside, a normal spiral bound notebook that you could buy for virtually nothing down at a bodega, but it did seem thick, unusually thick for a notebook like that. Will flipped open the front.
Dear Alec…
It was the only part of the message that was legible. The rest had run and blotched, forming tiny veins of ink over the page; as if someone had been crying so hard when they had written this that they had destroyed it immediately. Or maybe someone had cried over it a lot since. Either way, Will could only make out the first couple of words and then the familiar looping signature at the bottom of the page that belonged to his father. Now he was intrigued.
He flicked through more pages. They were covered in writing, words cramped up in the margin, loopy scrawl adorning every page, the paper bumpy from the pressure that had been put on each page. There were fragments of pictures occasionally, little tickets that had been torn in two, a wristband for some sort of festival, now with only a fraction left intact. It was the strangest notebook Will had ever seen, and as he skimmed the pages he realised something else.
This was his dad's diary.
Magnus's diary.
The opportunity was too good to miss – to find out about Magnus's past from Magnus's point of view, to find out how he had lived and what sort of private life he had, to find out everything he had always wanted to know about his father's murky past and actually pretty murky present that Magnus refused to tell – except Magnus was telling everything now. Just… indirectly, through letters to a random non existent nobody that all diaries are written to.
Will clutched the book to his chest, leaving the Xbox abandoned, and padded over to his room, his bare feet silent on the wooden floor. Some part of him felt guilty for reading his father's private thoughts, but the rest of him was filled with an overwhelming curiosity, a huge desire to know more about his dad, to start to understand him, and to find out his part of the story, the side of this whole messed up affair that had never been known. Will slumped down onto his bed, thumbed back to the first page, and then began to read.
Alec sighed and slammed his phone back down on the table.
"Sorry, Clary. He's not picking up."
Jace had disappeared off of the face of the earth. Alec had gone to the apartment the day after Clary had turned up distraught on his doorstep and found it abandoned, untouched since the day before. That wasn't what worried Alec – Jace did occasionally spend the entire night out and return late in the evening very drunk. What had worried him was that he still hadn't returned four days later, and was not answering any of the desperate phone calls and texts that Alec had been bombarding him with.
Clary had been an absolute wreck during this time. Everything had just crept up on her and she had been exhausted, barely sleeping at night. Dark circles fell underneath her eyes, and she looked pale, her cheeks pinched. She had been panicking non stop, about Jace, and about how to afford everything – Jace was leaving her close to destitute, and despite the state she was in she was still holding down both of her jobs, which Alec both admired and was concerned about. Luckily, it was a Sunday, so Clary hadn't to go to work and had instead had a chance to simply breathe.
"It's okay Alec. Thanks for trying."
She said in a small voice. She had seemed to be very quiet over the past few days. Alec moved to sit beside her on the sofa, putting the two coffees that he had been preparing down, glad for the lack of kids. He loved Max, and he loved Tessa, but it was really helpful that they weren't here so that Alec didn't have to deal with both things at once – Izzy and Simon had taken the pair of them out for the day. Clary reached forward and took a sip of her latte, her fingers gripped so hard around the cup that Alec wasn't really surprised when her knuckles turned white.
"Clary… you know that you can stay here as long as you need to, right? And that I can always help you out if you get into a bit of trouble."
"Yeah, I know. I just wish it was Jace that helped support us, and looked after us properly, rather than his brother."
"I know, biscuit."
It had been a term of endearment used a lot around Clary, and Alec had found it catchy.
"I am sorry for being such a burden…"
"Don't be silly. I'm your friend – that's what friends do."
He pulled Clay into a hug – she'd thankfully put the coffee down, or that could have gotten a bit messy – and the began to sob into his chest, great gasping sobs, the sort that only happened when the person felt that their life was on the verge of ending. The sort that had been echoing through the apartment since Clary had arrived, casting a dismal mood over the place like a cloud of smog hanging thick and choking in the air. He stroked the girl's hair softly, holding her close ad she desperately clung to him.
"I promise you Clary, we will find Jace, and then I will tell him what's what, okay? Because he is bloody lucky to have someone as amazing as you, and if he is not careful he is going to screw that all up. Sound good?"
Clary nodded.
"I just wish he'd get his head out of the clouds and realise that this is the real world."
"Yep. You know, for a moment I really thought that he had grown up, but he hasn't at all, and that is not fair on you at all, especially when you have Tessa. I will sort this out, Clary. I know it sounds ridiculous, but try not to think about it?"
Clary laughed.
"We should do something absolutely stupid to take my mind off it."
She sniffed.
"We should. We have…." He checked his watch "Four hours. Where do you propose we begin?"
"Um… watch some stupid movie at the cinema and get ourselves kicked out?"
Alec grinned, memories swimming back towards him and surfacing gracefully.
"I know just the place."
Will sprinted into the classroom, skidding on the floor as usual. Mr Garroway just looked exasperated as usual and didn't even make a comment as he sauntered to the back and threw himself dramatically onto his seat. Max grinned at him and gave him a wave, before turning back to what Mr Garroway was saying. In fact, all of the class was paying attention, which was odd, as it was not usually the case that anyone listened. Whatever he was saying must have either been super exciting or super important, so Will pricked his ears up.
"…Okay guys, so remember that it is parents evening tonight. I think that all of you are able to come tonight except…"
Mr Garroway checked a list in his hand.
"…except Will. Will, are you definitely not going to be here?"
Will shook his head.
"Dad can't get out of work."
The teacher nodded.
"Okay, well, I'll send him and email or something to let him know how you are doing. As for everyone else, I have your times on this sheet of paper," He started waving it about above his head, which looked really stupid "Which I will be sticking up on the door, so if you check that out when you have the time, and I shall see you then. In other news…"
And Will switched off again. He turned to Max, who was chewing on his pen and gazing off into the distance, totally out of it. He threw a screwed up piece of paper at the boy.
"Max!"
Max sat up straight and then turned to look at Will. It was blatantly obvious that he had been day dreaming.
"Hey Will."
"So you're going tonight."
Max nodded.
"Yeah. Dad though it was ridiculously important because it's a new school, and besides, he wants to meet my new teacher."
"Sounds alright. How was your weekend?"
"I stayed over at Aunty Izzy's and Uncle Simon's. Clary is staying at ours and I think dad and her needed a bit of space so they sent us there to get rid of us, but it was fun."
"Why is Clary staying at your place? And who is 'us'?"
"Oh, me and our cousin Tessa, you should meet her soon. And I think something happened between her and Jace and now Jace is missing so she just needs someone to help out."
"Oh, okay. Hey, do you think I could come over tomorrow to meet Tessa?"
"Sure. I mean I'll have to ask dad but I am pretty sure he'll be okay with that. You know, he would have you over every night if you wanted instead of that awful bitch Camille taking you home."
Will sighed.
"I know, and I'd love that, but Magnus is adamant that Camille and I should spend more time together, as if that will make us like each other. All it does is make her worse."
"Urgh. Well, try asking again tonight. It would be awesome if us three could spend more time together as a sort of proper family."
"Okay."
Alec walked into the school with his hands in his pockets and followed the signs towards Max's classroom. It was slightly cold in the corridor, but all of the lights were still on and it didn't feel creepy and abandoned like some schools did after all the pupils had gone home. He found the right door and looked in through the window. There was no one else in there other than Max's teacher bent over the desk, so he walked inside.
The man looked up, the glasses and unruly hair and chequered blue shirt easily recognisable.
"Luke?"
"Alec! I didn't know that you were Max's dad! God, it's been a while!"
"It has." Alec smiled and went to shake his hand. "I thought Clary said you were in Azerbaijan with Jocelyn?!"
"No…no, Jocelyn made me go on one of her mad escapades and within a month had run of with some Italian man she had met there. I came back, and tried to find Clary, but she had moved and her number had changed so I couldn't get hold of her."
"Oh. I could give you her number if you want? I'm pretty sure she'd understand. I don't think she ever blamed you for running off, just Jocelyn."
Luke nodded.
"That would be brilliant. I have missed her a lot. Has much happened?"
"Um, she married Jace…" Luke smiled. "And she had a two year old daughter, Tessa."
"It's a shame I missed all of that. I really hope she doesn't hate me."
"I'm sure she won't. If you explain everything to her, then I am sure she will understand."
"Okay. Shall we get back to Max now?"
"Yep. So, how's he been doing?"
Will was sat at home on the sofa, waiting for his dad to arrive back home. He had stuffed the notebook back into the pink couch a few days ago, having memorised its contents, and it appeared that Magnus hadn't noted its disappearance, or at least hadn't said anything about its disappearance, so that was a good sign. He remembered vividly a few sections if it, especially the few things in there that were written to him, that appeared to be practicing speeches to Will.
Will, um, we need to have a chat about your other parent. The one you've never met...
Will, the thing is, you have a brother, a twin brother…
Will, I know this is hard for you to understand, but… you never had a mom. Not really. Instead you had another dad. His name is Alexander…
Will…
Will…
Will…
There were so many of those sorts of sentences, pages and pages of Magnus trying to work out how he was one day going to tell Will all of these things. Pages and pages of them scribbled over and scored through, discarded. It was clear that even if Magnus had been able to tell Will some day about everything, he would never have had the right words, he would never have been able to find them. Maybe it was better that Magnus hadn't had to tell him about his brother, only about Alec. Maybe it was better that Will had heard that from someone else.
Just then the door opened and Magnus walked in. Will jumped to his feet.
"Dad…."
"What?"
"Please can I go to my friends house every day after school instead of getting picked up by Camille and then get dropped of later?"
"Will, I've already said no, I want you to get to know Camille a bit better…"
"It's just that Camille has been so busy lately what with organising the wedding and everything, and her having to pick me up just wastes her time, which she should be able to have."
"Fine. I give in. Just as long as you are back home by seven every night for dinner."
"Thanks dad!"
Will went up and hugged his dad, impressed by his own acting skills and his ability to convince his father that he actually cared about Camille and her wellbeing. He smiled to himself happily. He was finally going to be able to spend proper time with Alec and Max. Everything was going to be epic. And he still had Magnus, too, at least for now.
How was that? Please review, remember if I get to 50 by 5/6 I will update later with a long chapter!
Thank you for reading,
Lu xxx