Monster or Angel - Alec Lightwood

6 - Testing Out Orange

I wake up to sunlight filling my room. I have no idea what time of day it is, but the sun is high so my guess would be late morning, maybe even early afternoon. I stretch my arms and sit up. God, it's been too long since I felt this refreshed after a good nights sleep. I stand up and get dressed and smile at my restored reflection in the mirror.

I walk out of my room and enter the kitchen, making myself up a bowl of cereal to eat. When I leave the kitchen I notice everyone busy at work, making me feel as if I should be doing something more than eating an extremely late breakfast. But the thing is, I don't care. I walk into the heart of the Institute trying to find any of my family, wanting someone to have a general conversation with. You know, I think I would even talk to Clary. Though I am almost positive that if I do find Clary I would just wind her up and make her hate me even more than she already does, if that is even possible.

I turn the corner taking another mouthful of cereal and stop when I hear a familiar voice.

"And what an exciting few days it has been." The voice says. Is that Maryse? I follow the sound of her voice. "The Clave counts on us Lightwoods to maintain order here." I turn another corner bringing me to the training room. Alec, Izzy, Jace and Clary stand before Maryse Lightwood, all holding serious looks.

"You don't need to tell me that. If the mission is important to the Clave, I would prefer to be the one who goes with Isabelle." Alec says to his mother. I stand watching them for a moment longer before slowly backing out of the room. I take another mouthful of cereal and start to creep out again. Sure, I should probably stay if something serious is going down, but I am in too much of a good mood to deal with it.

"You're all so eager to do what you would prefer." Maryse chuckles. "It is time to face the truth. Life is not about what you want to do, it's about what must be done. Which is why Jace and Isabelle will go on mission and Alec and Maelys will stay with the Fairchild girl." She snaps turning around to face me. I immediately freeze, unable to swallow the mouthful of cereal. I am a stealth ninja, how the hell did she know I am here? The others look at me as well.

"Where have you been? This isn't some holiday resort, Maelys." She snaps at me.

"I haven't been sleeping well." I mumble back incoherently due to the cereal in my mouth. She stares at me before pointing at Jace and Izzy.

"You and you, with me, now." She says not giving me another second of her time. And I'm okay with that. Jace and Izzy share a look before walking out after her. I slowly approach the others swallowing my food.

"Well, that was a window into the weird. What did you do to piss off your mom?" Clary asks Alec.

"I'd guess, for a start, all the unsanctioned missions on your behalf didn't go over that big with the Clave." He says to her.

"Oh, come on, Alec. Don't be a downer, I'm in a good mood today." I say giving him a smile. He looks at me before sighing. "And..." I say drawing out the word. "You get to spend the whole day with me and my bestie over here." I say wrapping an arm around Clary's shoulder causing her to give me a confused look. Alec continues to look at me with the annoyed look his mother caused. I pause a moment before lifting my spoon up and offering it to him.

"Wanna bit to cheer you up?" I ask. He rolls his eyes before walking away, obviously not in the mood for my good one. I laugh to myself as I watch him walk away before turning to Clary.

"I guess that I'm on babysitting duty first. And that means you're training with me." I say putting my bowl down. I stretch my arms out as I walk to the center of the training room.

"Training? With you? Aren't you supposed to wait thrity minutes after eating?" She asks causing me to laugh.

"This isn't swimming, Red. Besides, it won't be that much of a workout." I say. She scoffs slightly at me as she walks over.