Counterfeit Boyfriend

5th Wheel

Alec was doing his best not to make a sound, seeing as it was almost two o'clock in the morning. Even so he refused to go to bed without brushing his teeth first. Unfortunately all that separated the bathroom from Clary and Jace's bedroom was a single wall which he knew from experience wasn't terribly sound proof. Still if he used his phone as a flashlight instead of flipping the one switch that turned on the fan and light together maybe he could keep the love birds sleeping.

Bang. The plastic water glass fell on the floor.

Alec swore under his breath. He hadn't anticipated the clumpy factor paired with bad lighting. Then again maybe they hadn't noticed. Reaching down slowly Alec picked it up and put it back, before tiptoeing down the hall into his own bedroom.

Finally collapsing on his bed, Alec breathed a sigh of relief. Even if they woke up now he could just pretend to be asleep. There would be no teasing tonight. Not that he would be spared tomorrow, but one problem at a time.

It took a while for Alec's mind to slow down enough to fall asleep. He kept going thinking about the events of the day over and over again, of all the things he'd done and not done.

Alec had almost not believed how brave he'd been when facing Camille. There was just something about that woman he disliked. She was so full of herself, like she knew when she walked into a room nothing else mattered. It made Alec mad just thinking about the arrogance of it. He wondered if that was what had given him the bravery to kiss Magnus. Which made him wonder why Magnus hadn't tried to kiss him at the end of the night. Magnus had probably not been interested that way or maybe Alec was just that bad at it. Yeah that was probably it.

Besides, could a rich, Audi R8 owning, lawyer even be interested in someone like him in the first place? Alec doubted it. He wasn't impoverished by any means, but he certainly wasn't rich. He had student loans and no hope of making his resulting degree into a career that could pay for those loans. He hadn't had the guts to tell Magnus what he actually did for a living. Sure, everything he said was true; it had just been a long time since Alec had gotten a literature job. These days he was more into waiting tables than writing columns.

Even so it had been a perfect night and Alec would never forget it. Nor would he forget that kiss. Whether it had meant anything to Magnus or not, Alec would hold tonight in his heart nevertheless.

The sun shining in, those the curtains he'd forgotten to close, woke Alec much earlier than he'd have wanted. Groaning, Alec got up and closed the curtains then tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. He was awake. With a sigh, Alec pulled himself out of bed and went in search of something to eat.

"Morning sunshine," Jace's voice sniggered as Alec entered the kitchen. Alec replied with a non-commital noise. "You were out late. Did you have a good time?"

And without wanting to, Alec smiled. "Yeah," he said.

"Excellent," Jace grinned. "Cause you needed it, Mr Shut in."

"Hey," Alec whined. "That so isn't fair. Just cause you haven't been single since tenth grade doesn't mean you get to give any of us single people a hard time."

"Oh yes it does," Clary's voice joined in. Alec turned to see his sister-in-law making coffee over by the kettle. "Oh and guess what?"

"Oh I have a feeling I don't wanna know," Alec groaned.

"Simon texted me this morning," Clary grinned. "And the set up went great! I'm predicting you'll be promoted from 3rd wheel to 5th wheel in no time at all."

"Fabulous," Alec said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Simon had been Clary's best friend since they were both still in diapers. And to Alec great horror Clary had decided to set Simon up with his baby sister. What had been even more surprising however was that Izzy had gone along with it.