Shadowhunters Imagines & Preferences

Alec ~ Returned

You emerged slowly through the fizzing purple portal conjured by The Clave, stepping out slowly until you were finally back in the New York Institute. The institute you had grown up in, the one you had been a part of when you had left the man you'd most loved behind.

As you look around, you realise that the institute hasn't changed at all since you left two years ago, everything was the same, and almost everyone surrounding the space from which you entered from, you knew. All except for one, a red head who was standing next to the faces you could spot out in any crowd.

"Y/N!" Izzy squealed, running towards you and engulfing you in a tight hug, "You're back!"

"So it seems" you smile, releasing yourself from her embrace before stepping into the open arms of Jace

"It's nice to see you again, Y/N" he smiled as he stepped back, his arm instantaneously moving behind the small, red headed girl. You smirked, raising your eyebrows at his movement - you knew he only ever did that when he was protective of someone

"Oh, uh..." Jace mumbles, catching your eye and recognising your smug expression, "Uh, this is Clary, she's new to the institute"

"Nice to meet you, Clary" you smile, taking her outstretched hand and shaking it

"Nice to meet you, too" she smiles politely, standing back towards Jace. You suppress a laugh, making a note to ask about that particular connection later.

And finally, you turn to see Alec, the man you'd always loved, as tall and beautiful as he'd always been but more sharp, structured, more...manly. You frowned at his stony expression, he used to always smile at you anytime he saw you. As you move to hug him, he steps back, rolling his eyes and scoffing before shaking his head and leaving. Your smile dropped, hurt lacing through your emotions and expressing itself through your eyes

"Don't mind him, Y/N, Alec doesn't like anyone" Clary said, putting a sympathetic hand on your shoulder

"I'm not just anyone" you snap, storming out of the room

***

You lean against the door frame of the gym, watching as Alec pounds into the punching bag in front of him, sweat sliding down his bare chest and making his runes shine. You were still angry and hurt from his response to your return earlier - after all of the fun you'd had, all the missions, the late night talks, everything - and he would barely even look at you.

"Are you going to come in or are you going to continue standing there, creepily watching me?" Alec barked, circling around the bag to hit it from a new angle. You'd always loved that about him, his dedication to training, the seriousness in which he took his calling as a shadowhunter - the punching bag wasn't a bag of foam to him, it was an enemy.

You entered cautiously, keeping a few feet's difference from him, "What the hell was that earlier? You didn't even say anything to me, you-you just walked away from me like I wasn't even there"

You let the pain seep through and into your words, watching his face. Not a twitch, not a flash of regret or sadness or anything. Just a blank, angry mask.

"That was me trying to get away from you, but clearly you haven't received the message" he sighs, moving towards his shirt and towel, swinging the towel behind his neck and taking a sip from his water bottle, "I didn't want to talk to you Y/N, and I still don't. So leave"

"I..." you breathe, stunned and frozen in place, crossing your arms uncomfortably around your chest. You didn't understand where this could have come from, you didn't know what you could have possibly done wrong.

"Ugh, fine then, I'll leave" Alec groans, standing from the chair and storming from the training room and back to his bedroom

"Alec!" you yell, rushing from the room to follow him. The anger welled inside of you, you had done nothing to deserve this treatment and he was not going to treat you like this and get away with it!

"You can't just walk away from me!" you yell at him, his strides too long for you to be able to really catch up with him

"Watch me"

You groan, ducking behind a corridor and around the corner, going through the short cut you'd used to take to his room when you were kids, too tired from training to go the long way. You round the corner, spotting him at the other end of the hallway, opening his bedroom door. You run towards it, sliding between the space between himself and the door, so close to him you could literally feel the heat if his body

Alec tensed and went to move away from you, but you grabbed his arm, pulling him back towards you, forcing him to look you in the eye

"What did I ever do to you?" you ask, confused

He looks at you incredulously for a moment, as though you must know why he wouldn't want to speak to you, but soon his face slips, the mask gone and the pain revealed. You inhale deeply as you see the raw pain behind his eyes and you drop your hand

"You left me. You left me, and you didn't even say goodbye. And I hate you for that" he whispers before pushing off the wall and turning back towards the hallway, leaving you, broken hearted and alone, to wonder how you'd made such a horrendous mess of everything.

(A/N you can either stop reading here for a sad ending or read on for a happy one - up to you)

You sighed, tears slipping down your cheeks as you entered the open door into Alec's room. You moved towards the bed and as you sat on it, you pulled one of Alec's shirts over to you, cuddling it close as if it were your favourite childhood toy.

You had never meant to hurt him, but after your parents had told you that The Clave was sending you to Idris for two years to train with the elite shadowhunter's, you couldn't bring yourself to say goodbye to the boy you'd loved ever since you were young. So you just left. You figured it would be easier for everyone if you just left, that way there were no goodbye's, no pain, no tears.

You'd been so wrong.

"Oh, for the love of God" you hear a groan from behind you, the familiar voice of Alec

You get up off the bed and turn to face him, tears staining your cheeks, "I never meant to hurt you"

"Ha" Alec scoffed, mask of stone reapplied, "Well, you did. It wasn't just me Y/N, it was Izzy, it was Jace. You left us all without a word. No goodbye, no nothing. You didn't have to deal with the fall out, you were just gone and you didn't even care enough to say good bye or even tell us you were leaving. You just left"

"I-" you sob, "I didn't mean to. I figured it would be easier to just leave"

"Well, evidently it wasn't" Alec murmured, his voice strangled, "It wasn't easier, it was harder"

You sniffle, moving towards him, but he just steps back, "Stay still, please"

You don't expect him to oblige but he does and you move towards him, throwing his shirt to the ground and standing directly in front of him, mere inches separating you from him. You move your hands towards his face, cupping them around his face and pulling it down to your level.

"I'm so sorry" you cry, looking into his eyes, "I just-I couldn't bear to say goodbye to Izzy and Jace because I knew I would miss them so much-"

Alec's jaw tensed under your hands and he pulled his face away from you, "So you regret not saying goodbye to them because you knew you would miss them, but leaving me behind was so much easier? Is that it?"

"No!" you protest, grabbing his arm and turning him to face you, "You didn't let me finish. I couldn't say goodbye to you, I couldn't because I knew that I would miss them, but I could leave them. I couldn't leave you, and I knew that if I said goodbye to you, that I wouldn't leave, that I wouldn't be able to because...because I..."

"Because you what, Y/N?" Alec snapped

"Because I-oh screw it" you sighed, leaping into his arms and kissing him, slowly and passionately, years upon years worth of pent up love and passion pulsing through you and through to your kiss

Alec resisted at first, trying to pull away, but you just fastened yourself tighter to him, wrapping your arms around his neck and moving your body to melt into his and before long, he dropped the facade he'd spent two years building and circled his arms around your waist, kissing you back

You were the first to pull away and you looked into his eyes, finally saying the words that explained everything

"Because I love you"