Invictus

Sundays

It happened on a Sunday.

Alec had always loved Sundays.

Not because there was no school - although that had been part of it, because as much as he had always loved to learn, being a closeted gay man in a private school like the Institute hadn’t been all that easy - but because of the tradition that surrounded Sundays in the Lightwood family.

On Sundays, they took their father’s pickup before lunch and they drove to the forest. It had been a different experience for all of them, but Alec knew he hadn’t been the only one to cherish it so deeply.

To Jace, it had been an opportunity to run around in the woods, making the nature his playground and the trees his training partners. He had ran, and climbed, and pushed his body to its limits, but Robert had always been there when he needed to be slowed down.

Izzy had been all about the scientific aspect of nature, of discovering biology through the living organisms surrounding them. Even as a young child, she had been carrying her little scientist kit around, observing leaves, insects and moss through the portable microscope their parents had gotten for her.

Alec was a more lyrical soul than his siblings. He loved the forest for its ethereal beauty. On Sundays, he had seeked a quiet corner and watched the day grow old and the nature around him remain unmoved by the sun sinking down beneath the tops of the trees. He had watched flowers blossom, illuminated by the sunlight seeping through leaves and branches. The woodland was never silent, but it was quieter than New York and there he could think better. There, he was at peace.

And then, the accident had happened and Sundays had lost their allure.

Not even flowers had brought him peace after that.