A little love

Chapter 1

Alec stood silently in front of his parents scolding glares, focusing his vision on a cracked tile on the cold, grey wall. He forced his body to stay still, back straight and legs aligned in a regular soldier position.

The silent brothers were communicating telepathically, and the wait was making Alec's heart thrum with anxiety. At last, they spoke.

"Alexander Lightwood, your punishment has been decided." Alec gulped.

Alec had only turned 17 recently, and so far he had done his best to stick to the rules. He knew that his parents would be furious if he were to do anything wrong, they made sure he always remembered that he was going to be a future leader. He had standards that he needed to keep up.

To him, it seemed like he could never meet those standards, no matter how hard he tried. Even if he did everything exactly right, he would get punished for another thing that he should have known he needed to do, even if they didn't say it directly.

For the most part, as long as it went under the radar, his parents would take punishment into their own hands. He knew he ought to be grateful, there were far worse things that could happen to him.

As for what he was being punished for today, Alec wasn't entirely sure. He thought it might be that he had hesitated for a moment on a mission, after all that was a surefire way to get someone killed. Then again, perhaps it was that he didn't make sure Jace had cleaned his room properly for inspection, and they had found mundane items that no shadowhunter should ever have.

If he was fortunate, they might actually tell him.

"We have taken into consideration your position, and we have decided that you shall spend some time in the whitespace. Alec shuddered slightly but remained tight-lipped.

The whitespace was considered a minor punishment, surely it was in comparison to prison or deruning. The whitespace referred to several rooms that had been designed for sensory deprivation, where every surface was the same cold, white, smooth ceramic. The lights were placed at the top of the room so that no shadows could be cast anywhere.

If that wasn't bad enough, the guards were completely silent, and the prisoner would be forbidden from making any noise themselves. All the meals were unseasoned white rice served on a white paper plate.

Alec felt sick. He had been in the whitespace several times, more than anyone else he knew. It was infrequent that he would know why he was put in there, but he always wished they would just beat him instead.

Jace and Izzy had never had to go there. In fact, Alec suspected he was the only one in the family who ever got that punishment. The last time he was there his head had throbbed so hard Alec had been afraid he was going to die.

An extra bonus was that the rooms were encased in some warlock's magic, all runes were nullified, even those of Parabatai.

Despite his fears, Alec only nodded obediently. He knew better than to try and speak, it would only make the punishment worse. As far as he was aware, the longest anyone had been punished with the whitespace was 6 months. Apparently, they had never recovered.

Alec shook the thoughts of that poor soul away. Whatever he had done, he was sure it wouldn't warrant that much time. Normally he was only there for two weeks or so.

Alec pulled in a slow breath, exhaling steadily. He could manage this, he was a Lightwood after all. With a final nod to his parents, he followed the silent brothers to his punishment.

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By the time he got to his new room, nobody had said a word. He stepped it quietly, and the door was closed behind him. They didn't need to explain anything to him, he had been here enough times.