Mini Summary- Alec was injured on-mission. Only Jace knows, but Alec wants him to keep quiet. So of course Jace promises, and takes care of Alec himself.

Jace watched Alec fight from the sideline, staring critically and biting his lip. He could feel Izzy continuously glancing over at him, her face scrunching up like she was completely weirded out by him. He probably did look a little strange; all tense. But he was worried. Alec had gotten hurt barely a few hours ago, but he refused to tell anyone and made Jace promise to keep quiet too. He'd said he was fine and that he didn't want to be a bother. Jace figured he just didn't want to be seen as any less than perfect in the eyes of his parents. Which was... reasonable, as far as excuses went. The Lightwoods were intimidating and pretty high-strung.

Jace winced when he saw Alec's mouth twitch in pain at the movement it took to step out of the reach of the staff in his mother's hand. Jace had to take in a deep breath to keep himself from calling out for them to stop. Alec could act tough as he wanted, but he was only human, and injured humans needed to be tended to- not pushed towards furter injury. But rather than acting on his own opinion, he decided to respect his brother's.

As Maryse went in for another attack with her staff, Alec's face tightened with pain and one of his legs buckled beneath him. Only Jace noticed, but he didn't have time to say anything. The staff caught the back of Alec's shoulderblade, making the boy shout in pain before falling to the matter floor.

Jace looked away and swallow, the audible symptom of pain sending a strange feeling through the younger boy. Like worry, or fear.

"Get up" Maryse order, Alec clearly struggling to do so. A look of concern hit her face "I barely hit you, come on"

Jace looked between Izzy and Maryse, the only other people in the room, before deciding that he couldn't let Alec keep training. The cuts on his back were probably bleeding again after that hit.

Maryse turned back in surprise as she heard Jace's quick steps over "Jace-"

"I'll get him checked out" Jace interrupted, pulling his brother up and trying his best not to glare at anyone.

Without another word passing among the four inhabitants, Jace led his brother out "The hell were you thinking?" He demanded as soon as they made it to the next room "I told you that you weren't fit enough to train yet. You should have just told someone"

"I thought my healing rune would have done its job by now"

"Did you see how deep those cuts where?" Jace asked, immediately realizing his mistake "I mean..." He sighed, opening Alec's bedroom door "You know what I mean"

"I can handle it" Alec protested as he sat himself down on the bed.

"You didn't even have the strength to get back up" Jace pointed out, lifting Alec's shirt over his head without even needing to ask.

"I was getting there" Alec replied, wincing as the air hit his wounds.

Jace sighed heavily "Well they were starting to close up. But that hit reopened a few of them" He explained, unimpressed at the mass of cuts he had to look at.

"None of them are bleeding though, right? I can't feel any blood"

"There's a bit, not much. I'll get something to clean it up with"

Alec looked down at the floor, disappointed with himself. He thought he could handle it, he thought he would be better of if no one knew. He was wrong on both accounts. If Jace hadn't seen his wounds in the first place, he'd be even worse off now. Of course the only way Jace couldn't have seen his wounds was if he wasn't with him when he got them, and if they weren't together, Alec would've been killed by that creature instead of just maimed.

"Might sting a bit" Jace warned before pressing a cool material against his brother's back.

Alec tensed up a bit at the burning sensation, closing his eyes and biting his lip as he fought down the instinct to jump away from the contact. It would help in the long run, so he had to deal with it. The feeling didn't leave even after Jace threw the cloth across the room, landing it on the desk in the corner, and Alec winced at the pain of it

"Here" Jace said, offering a new shirt over.

Alec took it, smiling as a thanks.

"You alright?" Jace asked, face falling into one of worry.

Alec wanted to say yes, and tell Jace to go back to training, that he'd be fine. But he couldn't get the words out. He wasn't fine. He wasn't fine at all. He was in terrible pain, he was embarrassed, he was afraid; afraid of the way his mother might act when he next saw her. She was sure to be mad at him, leaving training like that, for no reason. She must have thought he was pathetic, taking a hit as soft as that and not being able to even get back up. But she wouldn't think any more of him if it was because he was already hurt, then she'd just be disappointed that he had let himself be hurt on the mission. There was no winning anymore.

"Alec?" The worry was in Jace's voice now too.

Alec started to shudder, his eyes burning with the invasion of tears. He didn't want to cry, not right now, not in front of Jace. He tried again to say something, something like I'm fine, go, but he still couldn't. Instead he just looked at his friend, heartbroken and silent.

Jace immediately wrapped his arms around the older boy, holding on protectively. Alec was a mess in his embrace, sobbing and shaking and releasing hordes of hot tears. But Jace didn't care, he just held on tighter. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to, he just let Alec cry. He kept himself calm, contained his breathing even as he felt tempted to fall into the crazy rhythm of Alec's. Eventually, and Jace couldn't even guess how long it had been, Alec began to calm down.

The older boy pushed himself out of Jace's grip, red-faced and puffy-eyed "Thanks" He managed to snuffle out, looking down like he was ashamed "You should probable go... now" He added, not sounding like he liked his own idea

"I'm not leaving you"

Alec looked up, seemingly shocked.

As If Jace was going to walk away when his brother was in pain.

"Wha-"

"How about I read to you?" Jace interjected.

"I-" Alec started in confusion.

"What about the book you just got? You haven't had time to read it yet"

"Uh... okay" Alec agreed, still confused.

Jace smiled "Well I'm not the fastest reader so you might wanna get comfortable first" He said, going over to retrieve the book. Shogun, by James Clavell. Jace had never heard of it, of course. Alec was mostly into historical fiction, Jace was more into typical action/adventure stories.

"Move over, I need to fit too" Jace playfully informed the other boy. After sitting himself against a few pillows and pulling the blankets up to his waist, Jace began reading.

"Blackthorne was suddenly awake. For a moment he thought he was dreaming because he was ashore and the room unbelievable. It was small and very clean and covered with soft mats. He was lying on a thick quilt and another was thrown over him. The ceiling was polished cedar..." Jace wasn't even listening to himself as he read. He focused more on the sound of Alec's breathing, the sbuddering rise and fall of the older boy's chest.

He didn't like his brother being in pain. Sure, they weren't blood-related, and they weren't even Parabatai yet, but Jace saw Alec as his brother nevertheless. And seeing his brother in pain sent an unwelcome sick feeling to his gut. He wasn't used to that feeling, he wasn't used to most feelings; since his childhood had consisted mostly of training and hardly of love, but he really got along with Alec.

Alec's breathing stated to even out, his cost falling into a steady, even rhythm. Jace smiled to himself, continuing to read. It took a good forty minutes to finish just the first chapter, but Jace didn't mind. It had calmed Alec down.

"You want me to stay?" He asked, the head buried against his side shuffling a bit.

"If you want" Alec mumbled back.

If that didn't sum up Alec Lightwood perfectly. He'd put any and all of his own wants or needs aside for anyone else's.

Jace closed the book gently and placed it on the tableside. He pushed Alec a little away from him, much to the older boy's obvious displeasure, but only to gain the room to properly lay into the bed, beside his brother.

Alec looked surprised, as if he actually thought Jace was going to leave. But after realizing that, no, Jace was in fact staying, he immediately resumed curling up and burying himself into the comfort of his friend's body.

After Alec settled himself back down comfortably, Jace hung his arm over the boy's shoulder and placed his head over the top of the boy beside him, like a protective dog.

Jace didn't let himself sleep until he was positive that his brother was already deep in the clutches of oblivion.