Notes: This was requested as a prompt on tumblr and it's something I've been thinking of for some time anyway, so here it is! It'll likely get a follow-up later, but this piece of it felt finished on its own and I didn't want to pick at it more than necessary. Hope you enjoy it and, as always, feedback is appreciated. :)

It was supposed to be a moment of joy. That was what Jace had always heard; about how beautiful it was and how excited he would be, if he happened to be lucky enough for it to happen to him at all.

No one had told him that he would also be terrified, but then again, he supposed that not many people had been in his exact place before.

"Don't move," he had muttered only seconds prior as his stele had traced its path on Alec's back to form the calm anger rune. It was fairly simple one and it would have been easier if Alec wasn't as restless as he was. But if that had been the case, Jace guessed, he wouldn't have needed the rune in the first place.

"Does it have to be that big?" Alec asked irritably, but didn't pull away. "Don't overdo it."

"I'm almost done," Jace said, placing his hand at the small of Alec's back in reassurance as he finished the last line. "There you go," he added, tapping the exact place of the rune. "You should be able to activate it yourself when you need to."

Alec made to speak, but cut himself off as he doubled over, sinking to his knees and Jace watched in horror as something shifted under his skin with a nauseating crunch.

"Alec!" This couldn't be happening. Alec's body had never rejected a rune, never, and it didn't look like it had now – there was no blackened skin and his new Mark looked like any other, but it was clear that it was affecting him somehow and Jace tried to get Alec to face him, only to have his hand pushed away.

"Stay back," Alec warned through his gritted teeth, frustration crossing his features when Jace didn't move. "Or at least get out of the way. I don't want to-"

"What?" Jace asked, even more distressed when another pained groan made its way past Alec's lips and he curled in even further on himself. Jace did step away this time, afraid of causing his parabatai even more pain and vaguely registering that he appeared to recognise what was happening to him, as unlikely as it seemed.

It had been the right decision. With one last cry, Alec was surrounded by something that looked suspiciously like magic and before Jace could blink, Alec's wings had already spread in front of him.

Neither of them moved. Jace wanted to, more than anything – even without realising it, he'd been the cause of this – but he was rooted to the spot, stuck somewhere between shock and immense relief.

Alec was fine. He wasn't in danger; he must have realised what was going on when he'd felt the first signs. And it made sense that it would be painful – even now, he could see the blood still dripping from every feather where the wings had broken the skin of his back. It was what finally got Jace out of his stupor and he approached his parabatai slowly, trailing a hand over Alec's shoulder; the gesture light and hesitant. It was meant to be reassuring, but Alec flinched away and got to his feet, taking a step back as if he'd been burned.

"Alec?" Jace found his voice first and reached out again. He still remembered how to approach birds of prey when they were frightened even after all the time that had passed and that was exactly what Alec resembled now as he accepted Jace's touch cautiously, wings pressed against his back in defence. "How," he cleared his throat. "How does it feel?"

"It's fine," Alec waved him off, clearly distracted. "You know what that means, don't you?"

"Of course." It wasn't that surprising, come to think of it; he had already made the conscious choice to share his soul with Alec and it had just so happened that the Angel had made sure they would find each other anyway.

Not all Shadowhunters managed to get their wings. In fact, the majority never did – what with the arranged marriages that their society was built on – and it was a treasured trait for those who did have it. It was a great advantage to have in battle and also a sign to the entire Shadow world that you had found your soulmate.

Because that was how it always happened – all that was needed was a touch on the back and the wings manifested themselves for the first time. Jace had never seen it happen before and the enormity of the situation made him lightheaded, along with everything that had led up to it. He had known Alec for ten years and somehow they had never found out. Not before their parabatai ceremony, not even during all their tests; it just hadn't occurred to them that there might have been a reason they'd been drawn together in the first place.

"And you know we can't tell anyone."

"I know," Jace agreed absently. They would have more than enough time to discuss this later and to figure out how to hide it from everyone, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. Or at least, so it seemed, even if Alec was apparently too overwhelmed to see it just then. "Can I see them?"

Alec nodded and presented his back to him, still looking somewhat conflicted. It made sense – he himself hadn't seen them yet – but he trusted him nevertheless and for now, Jace could work with that.

Tentatively, Alec's wings unfurled almost to their full potential and for a moment, Jace was awestruck. The primaries brushed the walls of Alec's spacious room and he still hadn't stretched them completely; he'd just run out of space. Jace ran one hand gently over the skin in the base of Alec's wings, right over his spine, trying to imagine what they would look like outside. Each of them had to be at least fifteen feet long and it made sense with his height – they wouldn't be able to carry him otherwise – but Jace still couldn't help but be amazed. He had done this. His touch had created something so breathtaking and the thought made him smile even wider despite Alec's fidgeting.

"What do they look like? On the outside," he clarified, trying to glance over his shoulder and failing as he was faced with even more feathers.

"They're..." For once, Jace's words failed him. There was nothing he could say that would do the actual thing justice. The coal black expanse in front of him was formed of three rows of long, sharp feathers, straight everywhere else but at the curved edges. The sight alone was enough to make Jace wish they could be somewhere else; somewhere where he could see them in all their glory. "They look like a raven's." He slid his fingers down the side of the wing and watched, fascinated, as Alec shivered as if he had touched his skin. For all he knew, that was exactly what it felt like; he would have plenty of time later to find out for himself.

They did resemble a raven's wings too much to be anything else, he decided; the way the dark feathers shifted into every colour of the rainbow under the afternoon light and he could only imagine what a sight they would make once they left the confines of the room.

"Do you want to see your own too?" Alec asked and the uncertainty in his voice was enough to force Jace out of his musings and back into their soulmate issue. Because that's what it was, even if they were skirting around it – a problem they weren't quite sure how to deal with.

"Why not?" If he was to be honest with himself, Jace wanted it more than anything. The freedom it would grant him – them – was too grand for him to brush it away. He tugged his shirt over his head, turning around and bracing himself in expectation. "Go on."

It wouldn't be as painful for him, he could already tell – at least he would expect it – so Jace braced himself, holding his breath until he felt Alec's fingers press against the base of his spine.

"Careful!"

Alec pulled his hand away immediately, soothing the feathers he'd disturbed back into place. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No, it's fine. Just-"

"-it still hurts." Jace's left wing had been injured during one of their recent missions and runes weren't exactly designed to be used on wings, so he'd had to heal the natural way. He had tried flying for the first time since then today and he was exhausted; Alec didn't need him to say more to see that. "We should walk home. You can't fly again in that state."

"We'll see." Jace didn't look too worried, although he was still tense, and Alec smiled when his parabatai pushed his wings back into his touch. "You still have work to do."

Alec scoffed, but obliged anyway. It still baffled him how natural this felt now and he carded his fingers through Jace's feathers, straightening the ones that looked out of place.

He hadn't been able to understand Jace's fascination with his wings at first – all he could see was the pitch black mass behind him, obscuring his view of just about everything that wasn't right in front of him – but once Jace's had appeared, his reaction hadn't been much different.

It was like their wings had been designed to be in complete opposition. No matter how he looked at them, Alec's wings were all sharp edges, with long, clearly defined feathers. They were convenient – they would be easier to take care of that way even if Jace wasn't around to do it for him – and they served him perfectly in battle, but they were also intimidating, or so Izzy had said. Alec was glad – if people found them intimidating when he wasn't using them, then it could definitely be used as an advantage if needed – but it all flew out of his mind when he looked at Jace's.

It didn't matter that Jace relished it whenever Alec touched his wings and had encouraged it from the very start; Alec still couldn't get used to the idea and he suspected that he never would.

Jace's wingspan was almost as big as his own, but that was where the similarities ended. His wings were an almost impeccable white, dotted with brown over his coverts and on the gradual curve of his primaries. They were impossibly soft to the touch – just like any snowy owl's wings, because that was what they were – and that made them look deceptively innocent, but Alec knew better than that – he had seen them in action enough times by now to know that Jace could use them to their full potential. It was what had got them hurt recently; his parabatai had tried to use them as a shield and Alec still couldn't shake the image of the bright red blood against the stark white of his feathers. It was what made him touch them with even bigger care now and Jace positively purred at the caress – his wings seemed to be more receptive than Alec's – and the reaction called a smile on Alec's lips despite everything running through his head; everything he'd tried to take break from today.

Hiding this new development had turned out to be impossible just a few days after they had decided to do it in the first place. Hiding the marks on their backs had been easy, but hiding the wings themselves was another thing altogether – despite having a magic of their own, they were usually subjected to a lot of training before the Shadowhunters who got them could fully control when they appeared and disappeared.

And so they'd started training on their own. They had picked the rooftop of the Institute first, hovering just a few feet over the ground just to get used to the feeling somewhere they knew they were safe.

Except they hadn't been. They'd got reckless - and had taken far too much time away from their usual duties - and the next time Hodge had decided to look for them during their training sessions, he'd been in for a surprise. It had only gone downhill from there - even when they had convinced him not to tell anyone anything, Maryse had realised that they were all hiding something as soon as she'd taken a good look at everyone and they had been forced to explain.

Nothing had to change. The soulmate bond didn't necessarily have to be a romantic one. Many Shadowhunters never got their wings and still had happy marriages; the Lightwoods were a clear enough proof of that. That had been just a fraction of the arguments they had used to defend themselves and in the end, the Inquisitor had decided that they didn't need yet another warning about their parabatai bond turning into something that they weren't allowed to even consider.

At first, Alec had been relieved. The parabatai bond remained as steady a shield between him and Jace as it had always been and it was enough to stop him from even hoping that Jace being his soulmate had to mean something else. Something new.

Or at least, that had been the plan. The Law was absolute on that behalf no matter what the circumstances were and Alec suspected that the only reason they'd got off as lightly as they had was that it hadn't happened for the first time. Izzy had been the one to check - parabatai pairs often ended up as soulmates, too, and since both bonds were beyond one's control, the Council usually tried not to make too big a deal out of it. Still, Alec was paranoid enough to remain as conscious as possible about the fact that there was a camera on every corner - both in the Institute itself and in the city outside.

It hadn't been a problem at first. They weren't doing anything illegal; even if they were being closely monitored for the time being, there was nothing they could be punished for.

That didn't mean that things hadn't changed. There had been a subtle shift in their relationship ever since Alec's wings had first appeared; a tension between them that they hadn't managed to dissolve and even the distraction of learning a new skill hadn't proved sufficient. Alec could almost feel the what if that hung in the air between them; the countless unspoken possibilities that they couldn't dare to discuss even in the safety of their rooms. Alec cherished their parabatai bond more than anything and he knew that if it hadn't been for that bond, they might have never found out about that either, but that didn't make the realisation any easier to bear.

No. He couldn't think about that; not now, not ever, and if Jace ever brought it up - and he wanted to, Alec could see that - he would deal with it as quickly as possible. They had their bond. It was enough. It had to be. And, well, if it turned out not to be– Jace didn't have to learn about that.