Born to Endless Love

My Father's a Bad-ass?

 Max age: 20, Alec age: 40

Max Pov- I walked into the flat from my lunch with Quinton, only to be met with my father standing in the living room surrounded by maps and blueprints. They were on the tables, taped onto the walls, and there were even some curled up on the floor.

I looked around at the mess before walking up to him. "Father... what are you doing?" He didn't answer me. His eyes were glued on the maps and he was biting the back of a pen in concentration.

"There's no point Max. There's no getting through to him when he's like this" dad said, walking into the living room with two mugs of coffee. He put one of the mugs on the table next to father who didn't even acknowledge it. He took the pen he was chewing, and started circling places on one of the maps.

"What's he doing" I asked, looking back at dad. He smiled, sitting on the couch and sipping his coffee. "He's trying to figure out where to put the Downworlder orphanages. He has maps of all over the world lined up and he's trying to estimate how many we need."

"I thought the Clave denied the Downworlder orphanage project," I said, looking back at father. Dad smiled "they did but we're going back this weekend to try again." "What makes you think this time will be any different? They could say no again and you'll be doing all this for nothing."

Dad's smile grew at that. "Oh no, we will definitely win this time." "How can you be so sure" I asked, beyond confused. He put his mug down before standing up and walking up to me. He grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me so I was facing fathers' direction.

"Look at him and tell me what you see," Dad said smiling. I looked up at him before rolling my eyes and looking at father. His blue eyes were focused, skimming the maps and circling things in complete concertation.

"What am I looking for here" I asked; looking back up at dad. He sighed, dropping his hands from my shoulders. "If you can't see it yourself then I'm not going to say it." He walked over to father pulling the pen out of his hand and replacing it with the coffee. Normally father would smile at dad when he gave him coffee but he didn't even glance his way. He just took a sip and handed it back to him. I expected dad to get irritated but he just smiled, handing him his pen back.

"So, the Clave meeting is this weekend" I asked, choosing to ignore fathers' strange behavior. Dad nodded smiling "that's right. You could come with us if you want." I smiled excited but lost my smile when I realized what that meant. "To go to the meeting, I would have to go to Idris with you."

He nodded "you haven't been there since you were eight. I'm sure your grandfather will be happy to see you. He doesn't get to come here a lot so you barely get to ever see him."

I swallowed hard, frowning. "I... I don't know..." Dad frowned putting his hand on my shoulder. "Max, remember what the exorcise on your birthday was for. It was to let go of all your past fears and regret. Why don't you want to go to Idris?"

"I just... I just don't want Shadowhunters to look down on me. The only Shadowhunters in New York are our family members and kids who have known me most of their lives. I'm not used to dealing with all the others." Dad shook his head "you're running away Max. You can't avoid other Shadowhunters forever. In fact, I think it would benefit those Shadowhunters to know someone like you."

"How do you figure that?" He shrugged, "Just look at Darius. You helped him in a lot of ways. You two had a rocky start but you're now Parabatai." I rolled my eyes at that. "Yes, but are you forgetting about his dad? What about his friends Gabriel Penrose and Joseph Branwell? They can't stand the sight of me."