AN: This is the sort of thing I do when I get bored during Sociology. This contains quite a bit of language and non-explicit mentions of prostitution, so that you're warned. Also, there are a few parts where Alec may seem out of character, keep in mind that this is told from Robert's point of view and he frequently misjudges his children. Depending on the response to this, I may decide to write a fuller fanfiction taking place in the parallel universe, we'll see. And bonus points to anyone who guesses the inspiration for our dimension-hopping mystery man. I stole him from another fandom.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Mortal Instruments, or anything else you may recognize.

Robert Lightwood had always considered himself a pretty good father. Admittedly, his children probably would have benefitted from him being around more, or at least being more available when he was around, and maybe he should have shown their mother more affection than he did, but he loved them all, including Jace, and would have gone to Hell and back for any of them.

Still, he occasionally thought that they could have made it a bit easier for him. Jace was reckless, hot-headed, and seemed to possess some sort of death wish. Isabelle wasn't much better and couldn't have had worse taste in boys if she had been trying. Sometimes, Robert thought that she was trying. Alexander was better as far as his self-preservation skills went, but he was so damn shy, and, frankly, held a skill level that was nowhere near that of either of his siblings. Max had died too young for Robert to ever do more than hypothesize about the kinds of gray hair his youngest would have given him.

Alexander was the toughest to deal with though, despite having the most even temperament. Jace and Isabelle were teenagers, still young enough to believe in their own immortality and be forgiven for their dumb decisions. Alexander, on the other hand, was now officially an adult, and him and that damn warlock…

Being gay was difficult enough, did his oldest really have to get together with a Downworlder that looked like he'd had a rainbow throw up on him? Surely even Isabelle had higher standards than that.

Robert wanted what was best for his children, all of them, and Alexander seemed to be going in very much the wrong direction for that. Which was why he was meeting his oldest son at a restaurant for lunch, hoping to get through to him.

They sat down at a table, dressed casually and mostly runeless. It was a mundane restaurant, rather than the Taki's place his children so often frequented. Robert had never much cared for eating a restaurant while surrounded by werewolves and vampires and the Angel only knew what else.

"How have you been, Alexander?" he asked, attempting to get a conversation started on neutral ground.

The boy simply shrugged in response, staring at his menu, although it didn't look to Robert like he was actually reading it. "Fine," he mumbled.

"Alexander," Robert said harshly. How many times did he have to tell him to look at him and not mumble when he talked? They'd been having these conversations for years now, it was getting absurd.

Alec looked up, his blue eyes darting nervously. "Was there - Was there something specific you wanted to talk about?"

Robert sighed. Small talk with Alexander was impossible. "There was, actually. Magnus Bane."

Alec paled and Robert could see him swallow anxiously. It just drove home to Robert that the High Warlock of Brooklyn was not good for his son. Not if he made the boy this nervous just at the mention of his name. Now he just had to make Alexander see that.

"What about Magnus?" He sounded defensive.

"Don't use that tone with me, Alexander." Best to get the attitude problem out of the way at the beginning. "I'm trying to help."

The eighteen year old didn't respond to that, and they were saved from an awkward silence by the waitress arriving to take their orders. Robert listed off the first thing he saw when he glanced down at the menu, and he couldn't even hear Alexander's request, it was given so quietly.

"Listen, Alexander-"

"Alec."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't like being called Alexander."

Where was this attitude problem coming from? Robert was sure he'd never had to deal with this before that warlock came along. Speaking of which… "Bane calls you Alexander. I've heard him."

"Yeah, and I've told him I don't like it and he's trying to get out of the habit. Besides, he uses it because he likes how it sounds. He's being affectionate, not demeaning."

Robert could think of a few more arguments to use to respond to that, but he hadn't come here to argue with his son about nicknames.

"Fine. Alec-" he put considerable emphasis on the name "-I wanted to talk to you about Warlock Bane. I just don't feel like you've thought through what you're getting yourself into."

Alexander scoffed as though he highly doubted that. "How about you fill me in then?"

Robert did his best to ignore the sarcastic tone. Alexander was going to be difficult enough without the two of them starting an irrelevant argument. Clearly, deflecting the attitude was a lost cause. By the Angel, it had never been this difficult for him to hold a civilized conversation with his son before.

"Alexander, you can't possibly think he's a good decision. He's a Downworlder, for starters, and not one that's exceptionally popular amongst the Clave."

"He's helped the Clave plenty of times," Alec pointed out, paying more attention to the tabletop than his father. "Not his fault they don't like his attitude."

"Actually, it really is. Would it kill him to be polite around them?"

"He would be, if they were." Alexander was mumbling again, but his tone was still defiant. "Instead of treating him like an occasionally useful pile of talented dirt."

"Oh, you're certain of that, are you?" What, just because the warlock had told him so? Was Alexander gullible enough for that? Was Bane that good of a talker?

"Yeah, pretty sure."

Robert waited, but Alexander didn't seem inclined to elaborate, so he prodded a little more. "How's that?"

Alec looked up, head tilted. "How's what?"

"How are you 'pretty sure', Alexander?"

Alec shrugged. "The first time we met him Jace was really rude and I wasn't. Magnus didn't like Jace much and he later came all the way to the Institute to cure me - free of charge."

Robert had to admit that he could see why that sort of thing would influence Alexander to trust Bane more than he should. He still wasn't sure why the warlock had saved Alec like he had, although he wasn't ungrateful for it. Still, the Nephlim doubted the Downworlder had done it purely out of the goodness of his heart. Downworlders just weren't like that.

"Don't you think that might have made you a bit biased? He saved you, it's understandable for you to want to view him in a good light."

'It's not like that." Alec was beginning to look around anxiously, as though gauging the distance to the exit.

This was proving to be more difficult than Robert had hoped. "Alexander-"

"Alec."

"Alec. You have to recognize that Bane is not good for you. He's been a bad influence already, you've never talked back to me like this before. He's a Downworlder, which means he's probably plotting something, regardless of how he feels about you personally, and I don't want to think about how the Clave is going to view you once he's gotten whatever he came for."

Alexander was staring at his lap where both of his hands were resting and didn't respond. Robert's voice began to get louder as he grew more aggravated with his son's apparent indifference.

"He's using you, Alexander. You can't continue buying into his act. You need to get away from him before he drags you into something you won't be able to get out of. This relationship is toxic, and - Alexander Gideon Lightwood, look at me!" The last six words were shouted.

Alec obeyed, pulling his head up slowly, like it suddenly weighed a great deal. When he made eyes contact with his father Robert almost regretted his order. Alexander's blue eyes were dark with stormy fury.

"Quit talking about Magnus like that," he gritted out, his teeth grinding together. "You don't know him, you've never tried to know him, you're just being a bigot. And don't pretend that this is just because he's a-"

Alec cut off when the waitress returned, setting their plates down and leaving quickly. Most of the restaurant had noticed at least part of their argument and was pointedly avoiding their table.

Alexander stabbed his pasta with unnecessary vigor and started eating. Robert followed suit and there were several minutes of angry and tense eating in silence.

"Because he's a what?" Robert finally asked.

"Don't pretend this is just because he's a warlock. You're still upset that I'm gay, you'd have been angry no matter who I started dating."

Robert huffed out a frustrated breath of air and his fist clenched involuntarily. This conversation was going to make him old before his time, he could tell. "Alexander, I don't like the fact that you're gay. I don't think it's good for you and I'm certain you're going to regret it when you're older."

Alexander shoved his plate away and slammed both hands onto the table, hard enough to make the dishes rattle.

"It's not a choice! By the Angel, don't you get it yet? I didn't want to be gay, I just am! Even if it was a choice, it wouldn't be yours to make, it would be mine! And I don't care how disappointed you are about it or how convinced you are that I'd be better off pretending to be straight for the rest of my life, I am finally comfortable with who I am, after years of hiding it from everyone, and I'll be damned if I'll let you put me back in the closet!" His tirade ended with him standing up and storming out of the restaurant.

Robert yelled after him, but his eldest didn't falter for a moment. The older man cursed, threw down enough money to cover the meal and stalked out, hailing a cab rather than chasing after his son. That was plenty enough fighting for one day, if Alexander wanted to screw up his own life beyond repair Robert was prepared to just let him do it.

Someone invited themselves into the cab just moments before it pulled away from the curb. It was an average looking man who appeared to be middle-aged, with blond hair and deep golden eyes that didn't look quite natural. He said nothing, and the cab driver didn't even seem to acknowledge his presence.

He flashed Robert a smile, his entire being radiating cocky arrogance. "Hey, hope you don't mind my tagging along."

Robert did mind, actually, and was just about to say so when the man decided he was going to continue talking.

"I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with your son. Well, I say conversation, I really mean argument. And nobody could help but overhear it. You were quite loud."

Robert just glared at him, wondering if the strange man had a point, and, if he did, when he was going to get to it.

"You really that upset about him being gay?"

"And just how is that any of your business?"

The man shrugged. "Just curious. It's not like it's going to hurt him, so what's the big deal?"

Robert gave a bark of bitter laughter. "Not going to hurt him? Damn right it's going to hurt him. He's going to wake up one morning and realize he has made the dumbest decision of his life and he will have no way of going back and fixing it. He's digging himself a hole and he is refusing to admit that he isn't acting in his own best interests!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "It's that bad, is it? End of the world, huh?"

"Why am I even having this conversation with you? What business is it of yours what my son is doing?"

The man nodded. "No business at all. Of course, I don't think it's as much your business as you think it is, either."

"Oh, now you're going to try to tell me how to treat my own children?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. Although, if you ask me…" The man turned to look out the window and his voice took on a strange, faraway tone. "He could have turned out much worse."

A wave of crippling nausea came over Roberts, so hard that he doubled over in the back of the cab, clutching his stomach. It passed after only a second, but when he sat back up, shaking a little, the strange man has disappeared and it was dark outside the cab.

"What the hell…" Robert breathed, the words barely audible.

The taxi pulled up to the curb. "Here you go, man," the driver said. "I don't if you noticed, but your friend already paid the fare."

Too confused to argue or voice any questions, Robert got out of the car and watched it pull away, disappearing in the dark streets.

He was in a seedy looking area, although it looked like it was probably still New York. It looked like the sort of place that drug dealers came to when they wanted to get mugged. He looked around, trying to understand where he was and how he'd gotten there. The street was empty, except for one shadowy figure standing leaned up against a brick wall next to an alleyway.

Options seeming limited, Robert made his way to the figure. It remained stationary, right up until Robert came up alongside. The figure turned their head, and Robert was shocked to see that it was the strange man with the gold eyes that had been with him in the taxi cab immediately before he'd found himself… Wherever he was.

"Where the hell am I?" Robert demanded.

The man shrugged. "The place isn't what's important here."

"Than what is?"

"You'll see." The man tilted his head towards the alleyway they were standing next to. Robert took a few steps to glance down it, and was disgusted with what he saw.

A man, probably married and in his forties with three kids, was bracing himself against the wall, head thrown back and mouth gaping open in ecstasy. Someone else was on their knees in the middle of the alley, and Robert didn't have to be any closer to know that the one on the ground had their mouth around the other's cock.

Robert made a face of disgust and turned to the man. "And I needed to see that because…"

The man said nothing, simply raised a finger to his lips.

A voice came from the alley, breathlessly gasped out from the lips of the man on the receiving end of the blowjob. "You swallow, I'll-" a bit off gasp interrupted the sentence "-I'll give you an extra fifty."

Now Robert was really disgusted. "You're not just showing me some guy getting a blowjob, you're showing me some guy getting a blowjob from a prostitute? Is there any particular reason why?"

"Oh, there's a reason. You'll see."

Robert rolled his eyes. "And well we're on it, who the hell are you?"

The man looked at him, a smirk in his golden eyes. "I could tell you my name, but we both know you aren't asking who I am, you're asking what I am, and I just don't feel we know each other well enough for that personal a question, Robert. Now, be patient."

Robert fell silent, primarily because he didn't know what else to do. A loud, pleased noise came from the alley. The prostitute must have earned his extra fifty. He could hear footsteps as the man exited the other end of the alleyway, and then the strange man stepped into the alley himself.

"Hey, honey, what happened? Daddy cut you off from the trust fund?"

The prostitute turned and flipped the man off using both hands. "Unless you're gonna pay to fuck me, pal, you can shut the fuck up!"

The man turned to watch Robert's reaction. The Lightwood was just standing there, staring after the retreating prostitute in disgusted shock. He couldn't see the boy well enough to make out any features, but the voice was one he would recognize anywhere.

"Alexander," he choked out, feeling a hard lump form in his throat. He looked at the man who had brought him here, silently pleading him to say that Robert had got it wrong. That that wasn't his son who had just been sucking off some stranger in an alley for cash.

The man disregarded the plea. "What's the matter, Robert? First time hitting up an alternate universe?" He looked rather pleased with himself.

"Alternate-What? My son-"

"You heard me. Come on, let's go see what Alexander has to say, shall we? He won't be able to see you of course, I can't imagine he'd be pleased to see his father."

The man made his way after Alexander and Robert followed, rendered mute as he tried to understand what was happening here. The boy was sitting on the curb, slowly nursing a bottle of beer. It was amazing that Robert could recognize him. Frankly, the older Lightwood wasn't sure that he would have if his son hadn't spoken. There was not a single rune to be seen on Alec's pale skin, his face was sunken in, there were bags under his eyes, and he was thin, unnaturally so, bones showing where they should have been covered by flesh. Robert wanted to vomit.

Alec looked up, eyes tracking across the blond man's form. His gaze went right over his father, proving the man had been telling the truth - he was as invisible to Alexander as he was to mundanes while wearing a glamour. The usually vibrant blue eyes were harsh and vacant, glazed over from the alcohol. They seemed like two bitter bits of broken glass.

"Looking to buy?" Alec drawled out, voice rougher than Robert had ever heard it. It was as bitter as his eyes. "I'm not a model, you know."

The man pulled out a small wad of cash, holding it out. "I'm a bit of an unusual customer. Hundred for your story?"

Alexander raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Robert thought he saw a flicker of something that might have been relief flash through his son's eyes. It made his stomach twist even further. His son should never have to look relieved about getting money without having to fuck some stranger on the streets.

Alec hauled himself slowly to his feet, the half-gone bottle of beer dangling from one hand. He reached out for the cash and seemed surprised when it wasn't snatched away before he could reach it. He pocketed the money, took a swig of his drink, and wiped his mouth. "Don't blame me if your disappointed."

"No worries. I won't ask for a refund."

Alec shrugged. "Whatever. Your money."

"Your story."

Alexander shrugged again, looking around as if there were lots of exciting things to see on the deserted street. "Nothing original. I came out to my family as gay, my father had me chucked out on the street."

Robert made a choked off squeaking sound. He had done this? To his own son? Threw him out, had him stripped of his marks, abandoned him to this?

"No one tried to stick up for you?" The man's question answered one that Robert hadn't quite had time to formulate yet. Maryse had let him do this? And what about Isabelle, Jace? Surely they had tried to protect Alec.

"My sister did. Brother too, once he got over the shock. My mother argued for me, but I guess she decided it was a lost cause pretty quick."

"Ever see them anymore?"

Alec shook his head. "Saw the older two of my younger siblings for the first month or so, but once this became my only option…" He trailed off. That he was ashamed to have Isabelle and Jace see him reduced to this didn't need to be said, not for Robert's sake anyway.

"Only option, huh?" Robert didn't even need to hear the answer to that one. Of course it had been Alexander's only option. He was a Shadowhunter, he had no ties to the mundane world whatsoever. No skills, no documents, no money, nothing. He had condemned his son to a life that Robert really couldn't see as being worth living.

Alec echoed Robert's thoughts aloud, although the details were modified to exclude the Shadowhunter specifics. The Clave had to be kept hidden, after all. The eighteen year old drained the last of his beer.

"Things are so tight, why are you spending money on alcohol?"

Alexander responded with a bitter grin that brought pain to his eyes rather than light. "I'd like to see you suck some stranger's dick while sober." By the Angel, was that really his boy? His Alexander, who barely swore unless he was angry and couldn't even think about sex without flushing bright red?

Done telling his story, Alexander wandered away. Robert hoped he was heading for a place to spend the night rather than looking for more customers.

The man with the golden eyes turned to face Robert, looking expectant. Robert had nothing to say, he was too busy trying to keep down his lunch. He was breathing heavy, trying not to cry, shaking hard.

"Can't I help him?" he managed, his voice cracking.

The man shook his head. "This isn't your world, and that's not your son. Just something that he could have become. I think he's much better off with that warlock, don't you?"

Another wave of sickness almost knocked Robert down, and when he recovered it was daylight again and he was standing on a different street corner. The man with the golden eyes was gone, but down the street a ways Robert could see two men exiting a building.

One of them was dressed in worn jeans, battered sneakers, and a slightly too big black jacket. The other was in leather pants and an offensively sparkly shirt that didn't look like it was following certain laws of basic clothing physics. Magnus Bane and Alexander. His Alexander. Alexander, who had a few runes showing and was well-fed and happy. No thanks to his father, but with any luck Robert was going to be able to remedy that.

He started making his way towards them, unseen. As he watched, Magnus reached out and spun Alec to face him. Alec looked upset - probably because of their argument - and Magnus said something to him. The warlock slowly ran his long, slim fingers down the side of Alec's face, hooking them under the younger's chin, tilting his head up, and leaning in for a kiss.

It was the first time Robert had seen them kiss since the event in the Accords hall before the battle. Had this been an hour earlier, it probably would have made him furious. But when Bane pulled away, Alec's face was more relaxed, and there were hints of a smile around his mouth. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against the warlock's shoulder. Magnus wound his arm around the Shadowhunter's shoulders.

That was when Bane looked up and saw Robert, now standing just a few feet away, unsure of how to announce his presence. The warlock solved the problem for him, slowly pulling away from Alexander and gently turning him around before backing away, presumably to give them some privacy.

Alec's eyes widened in shock when he saw his father, and his face closed off a little bit. Robert opened his mouth, and realized he didn't have a clue what to say. He'd rather not tell Alec that in an alternate universe he had led to the young man becoming a street prostitute.

The two of them stared at each other for a long minute, until, barely aware of what he was doing, Robert stepped forward and pulled his son in for a tight hug. Alexander stiffened in surprise. "I am so, so sorry," Robert whispered fiercely when he pulled back, looking into his son's eyes, silently pleading for forgiveness.

Alexander just looked bewildered. "You- what?"

"I'm sorry, Alexan- Alec. I'm sorry. You were right, I shouldn't have been trying to change you. And I shouldn't have said what I did about Magnus. You're eighteen, you can take care of yourself, make your own decisions. And I'm sorry for treating you the way I did. You didn't deserve that, and I'm sorry."

Alec was staring at him, surprised. "Dad, I-" He didn't seem to know what to say, but he was trying. "Thanks. I- Just thanks."

Robert nodded. "I love you, Alexander. You're my son and I'd do anything for you. I'm sorry for - for making you feel the way I did. I wasn't thinking properly."

A smile was starting to slip across Alec's face. "Thanks, Dad. Means a lot."

Robert reached out, grasping Alec's shoulder affectionately. "I'll let you get back to… Whatever it was you two were doing."

He glanced up at Magnus and nodded a greeting. The warlock nodded back, smiling. Robert turned away, and started to make his way back to the Institute. He might have to arrange to tell Bane what he would do if his son was hurt at the warlock's hands, but that could wait for another day.

Robert Lightwood loved his children. And while he may not have been in the running for a parent of the year award, he was going to make sure his children knew that.