Hey, guys! I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm really busy at school and cannot really come back home often. So here's a Jalec story I hope you'll like.

I prefer to warn you right now that if you don't like this ship, don't read, or at least read knowingly. I want peace between fandoms, and I respect Malec lovers (yes, I am one too), so don't go insulting me and my work.

Anyway, I do not own anything, aside from the original idea, and I'll let you read, and enjoy, my One-Shot.

The slight barrier between best friends and boyfriends.

Alec was contemplating the night sky of Alicante by the open window of the Lightwood Manor. The stars had always shined differently here than in New York, although Alec could not say which one he liked better. But he knew Jace preferred Idris, because he had spent half his life under these skies.

Downstairs, Alec heard his parents going to sleep after helping his little brother Max get to bed. The eldest of the family was the only remaining teenager in the house, because Jace, Isabelle and their cousins, the Penhallows, had gone to a party downtown, a few hours ago. Alec was not the partying kind. He would rather stay home to read and think.

As the young man was about to pick a book in the library, he heard noises outside. Quickly glancing through the open window, he perceived two silhouettes walking in the direction of the manor, and immediately recognized Jace, but could not name the girl who was firmly holding his arm. "Another one-night-stand," he thought in a sigh. Alec carefully climbed down the stairs and waited for them in the living-room next to the hallway. The door opened on the girl's loud and chicky voice.

"… and maybe we can grab some drinks and go to your room, or—"

She stopped when she saw Alec discretely standing near the couch. Jace raised his look when he noticed she was not talking anymore, and smiled with relief and delight when he saw his adoptive brother.

"Who is this?" the girl asked puzzlingly.

"Hum, hi, I'm—"

Alec was cut by Jace who precipitately strode in his direction, leaving the stranger behind. And, at both Alec's and the girl's surprise, he agilely embraced the dark-haired boy, placing his arms around his neck, and put his mouth against his ear. "Hey, could you do me a favor? Don't ask questions. You're my boyfriend, okay? Thanks, I owe you one."

Alec frowned in misunderstanding as his friend was pulling back, and heard him say to the bewildered stranger, "So, Sally, meet my boyfriend, Alec. Alec, this is Sally."

Alec and said Sally took a moment to realize what he had announced. Then, they reacted at the same time. While Alec was moving forward, holding his hand out to her, she whispered in shock, "What? Your boyfriend? I mean, you're… gay?"

"Yes, I am." His voice was surprisingly stable as he tried hard to make his lie sound convincing.

"But you—Come on! You're kidding me, right?" She chuckled nervously. "It was a good one, I'll give you that."

Alec had never seen Jace seem so peaceful, with such control over himself. Not even in the middle of a fight with demons did he keep quite a temper. The dark-haired teenager, who had remained pretty silent for the last two minutes because of the shock Jace's request had sparked within him, finally accepted his part and joined the argument to help his friend out.

"They never believe us at first, do they, honey?" Alec said with a smile, softly putting his hand on Jace's right shoulder.

"Wait. You mean—You're not kidding?" Sally widened her eyes, almost chocking on her own saliva. "But you can't be gay!"

Jace became a bit cold at her denial and answered harshly, "I just told you I was, and I introduced you to my boyfriend. What else do I need to do to convince you? Fuck him right in front of you?"

There was a dead silence, though Alec tried to appease the atmosphere by laughing at Jace's final sentence. He then quickly changed the subject, "Anyway, where did you meet her, love? I don't think I've ever seen her before." The blond boy did not seem to hear him, he was thoughtfully staring at the girl. "Jace?"

He quickly turned his head toward him after Alec squeezed his shoulder. "I—Hum, at a party."

"At a party, uh? I thought we'd agreed on no more nights out?" To give more credit to his theatrical performance, he exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and turned to Sally as if he were confessing something, "He's a disaster, he never obeys me. Do you?" The eldest of them three gently leaned on the left to kiss Jace's cheek and continued, looking right at him, "Why did you bring a girl home, anyways?"

"I don't know. She was nice," he replied in a childish voice, shrugging at the same time. Alec frowned slightly. Jace never took a childish voice. Then he understood. From the very beginning, Jace was acting, recreating his whole personality. And he did it oh so well.

"Seriously? 'Nice'?" Sally suddenly intervened in humiliation. "So our making-out was only 'nice' too?"

The boys glanced at each other. Jace discretely raised his eyebrows, silently indicating to his friend that he was supposed to get mad. Alec got the message and quickly nodded, before answering in a faked scandalized tone, "I beg your pardon?" He turned to the smallest. "Jace, what is she talking about?"

Sally smiled triumphantly. She took a diva posture and said contemptuously, "Well, your 'boyfriend' and I made out at that party. And let me tell you that he quite enjoyed it, enough to want to finish it at home."

Jace waited for Alec to reply, as if they were acting in a play and it were his turn to talk. The young adult was looking intentionally betrayed and shocked. "How could you—How could you do this to me, Jace? You know I already feel like I'm not enough for you, like you don't love me completely, so why do you need to pin me down some more? Am I worth that little to you? Is that why you feel the urge to bring girls home?"

"No, Alec, I—You mean a lot to me, you—"

"Then why is she here?" Alec's voice was starting to sound colder and angrier. "Why do I feel like she means more to you than I do? When was the last time you took me out?"

"Alec, please, let's not make a scene in her presence…"

"Why? May I remind you she is the reason for this scene!"

Alec was hardly convincing because he had to keep a low voice, not to wake up their parents upstairs. The girl smirked as Jace was getting embarrassed in front of Alec's exasperation. She snapped at Alec, "Guess you need to sort out who is a priority to your boyfriend and who's not, heh?"

Alec quickly turned his head toward her, looking at her with fierce, hateful eyes. And this time, it was not acting. "Shut up. Shut. Up. You're nothing to him. Nothing." Jace raised an eyebrow when he realized that Alec was really hurt and that he did not pretend anymore. "And you will never be. You know why? Because I am the one he needs, the one he loves. He's mine. Got it?"

"Hey, it's not because your boyfriend does not love you enough to be faithful that you need to put the blame on me. I did nothing, I didn't even know he was gay, which I still doubt."

"You tried to steal him from me! You tried to steal the only reason why I wake up every day, why I'm not dead, why I hang on to life, despite the fact that everybody tells me how wrong what I am is, what a monster I am! You don't know what it's like to be me, you don't know anything about me, or about us. And you think you can come up and take him away from me? I'm afraid it's not going to be possible, because he belongs to me, and I'm not letting him go."

Jace was taken aback. How could Alec even improvise so well? How could he fake a shaking voice with such emotional truthfulness? There was only one answer. He was not.

"So your argument is that I'm the bad guy here? Wow, you've got temper. He must be a pain in the ass," she added to Jace. "How can you live with that?"

"Don't talk about him like that," Jace threatened, coming out of a long muteness.

"What? I don't have the right to be mad? May I remind you that you didn't tell me you were gay back at that party? You let me believe I had a chance with you! And then I find out you have a paranoid boyfriend, and you let him insult me! You deserve better than an ass like him, you know? Better than a lousy and overprotective jerk!" As she nearly yelled in a high-pitched voice, Jace beckoned her to be quiet, and she said hatefully, "Why would I shush? Are there other boyfriends of yours in this house that I should know about?"

"No," the blond boy calmly replied to appease her harsh tone. "There are our—I mean, his parents sleeping upstairs."

"And they're okay with you living in their house, with their son?" she told him, despising. "Are they even okay with having a son like that?" As she laid an emphasis on 'that', Alec felt his heart break into pieces. He could not take her hateful prejudice anymore, and he was on the verge of exploding right in front of them.

"Don't ever talk about him like that again," he repeated. "Like he's a monster. Ever. Understood?"

Jace's hands were shaking, and even though he was not looking at his adoptive brother, Alec knew what the other Shadowhunter said had been aimed at him, because somehow he was acquainted to the fact that he was actually gay. And hearing him take his side filled Alec with emotion, which ended up overwhelming him. He broke down and fell into tears, reaching out for the wall next to him, and he sat clumsily on the floor.

Jace was still. He had never seen Alec cry before, and he thought we would never. And he would have never guessed he would be so touched by this vision. Seeing him like this made him uncomfortable, he desperately wanted to hug him, to tell him everything was okay, that he knew he was gay for a while, that it did not matter. But he was paralyzed. Somehow he had no clue of what he could do. He slowly turned to Sally, who looked at him with an innocent face. "Well. Your boyfriend, your business, right?" Jace shook his head, and started taking his responsibilities. He kneeled by Alec and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong, dude?" he whispered so Sally could not hear.

"You… You knew. All along, you knew and you said nothing. Why did you say nothing?" the tallest replied between two sobs.

"Because I think it was your step to make. I didn't want to talk about this if you weren't ready." Jace put his hands on Alec's cheeks and smiled. "I'm sorry if tonight wasn't exactly the right time. But I think you needed me to say these things out loud. To say that I love you no matter what you are, no matter what people say." This moved Alec even more and he looked down, still crying in front of his best friend. Jace added in a murmur, "I know it wasn't the best idea to pretend to be boyfriends, but at least I've learned one thing. You would be a great one. And someday, someone's gonna be so in love with you. And this guy will be really lucky. Because you are wonderful, do you hear me? You are wonderful, and that's why I love you. I know I don't say it as much as I should, but I love you, like a brother and like a friend."

Alec had stopped sobbing. He was looking into Jace's confident golden eyes, like a terrorized child that was looking for comfort. Hearing these words out, realizing how much Jace truly cared for him, made Alec smile like never before. Instinctively, he pounced on his friend, making him fall on his butt, and hugged him tighter than he ever had. Jace was at first taken by surprise and unbalanced, but he ended up hugging him back, shoving his nose in Alec's neck. When they finally broke apart, the dark-haired adult whispered emotionally, "Thank you."

Instead of answering, Jace kissed him. Alec stiffened, but as the blond boy's hand was heading for his hair and as he deepened the kiss, the Shadowhunter subsided and melt under the touch. He let Jace's lips slide on his, the way he had always wanted them to, and pulled their bodies closer, as close as he had always wished they were. After a minute, Jace gently broke the kiss, and they opened their eyes again, their faces still close to each other's. The blond teenager smiled to a now totally peaceful Alec, who had immediately stopped crying, and kissed him quickly a second time. "Thank you. For helping me out tonight, and for being so wonderful."

Alec did not have time to answer, because Sally, a few meters away, cleared her voice and said, "Hum, I think I've seen enough, I'd better go now... I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, and for insulting your boyfriend, also. Actually, I thought you guys had played a trick on me or something, but now I can clearly see the love that binds you... It was nice meeting you, anyway. So, see you, I guess." She discretely left the manor, still a bit shocked by what she just saw.

Jace and Alec looked at each other and giggled nervously. The smallest got up and helped his friend do the same after offering him a helpful hand. The eldest of the Lightwoods brushed off the dust on his clothes and said jokingly, "Never bring a girl home again, please. Not the ones that you don't intend to fuck, at least."

"Don't worry, I got the message. And I don't want to have to kiss you each time I bring one so she believes I'm gay."

"Not that I mind," Alec replied in a wink. Jace laughed embarrassingly.

The front door then opened and Isabelle entered the living-room, without their cousins who seemed to be still at the party. She frowned at the sight of Jace. "Hey, you're already here?" She looked at Alec, then returned to Jace. "Did I miss something?"

The boys had a conniving look, and shrugged. "Nope," Alec said in a grin. "Nothing interesting."

"Yeah, we were going to bed."

"Okay, then. Sleep well!" Isabelle left for her bedroom.

The boys distractedly climbed the stairs to reach their own bedrooms, which were next to each other.

"I'm going to bed," Jace announced, opening his door.

"Oh? No sex tonight, babe? Are you mad at me?"

"You're not funny."

Alec laughed and said less jokingly, "Hey but seriously, I'm glad we talked about my… you know."

Jace turned around on the threshold. "Yeah, I assumed you needed someone to tell you that you were not alone."

"But you won't tell mom and dad, uh?"

"It's not me who should tell them."

"Do you think that they'll be okay with that?"

"I don't know. I hope."

"Me too…" Jace was about to close the door when Alec suddenly stopped him. "I… I wanted to tell you something. It's been a while, but I think tonight is just the right night." Alec swallowed embarrassingly and said, blushing uncontrollably, "You know when you told me you loved me and everything?"

"Mmh?"

"Well, I—I love you, too."

"I know."

"No, I—I mean, I really do love you…" Alec was looking down, and spoke almost inaudibly.

"Yeah, I know that too," Jace said after a while.

"What?" his best friend gasped, quickly raising his head. "How did you—"

"When you told Sally you loved me, that I was everything for you, I knew. I knew that you weren't actually acting, that you truly meant it."

"Oh. Well, then I guess this is it. I just didn't want to lie anymore."

"And I understand. But you know that I'm not—gay."

"Yeah. I know that you can't love me back, and that you won't. I'm just glad you still want to be friends with me after that."

"I'll always want to be friends with you. You're like my brother, Alec! You don't abandon family." Jace put a hand on his arm. "You'll get over me, don't worry. You'll find a guy that will rock your world, and you'll be happier than you could ever have been with me."

"I hope you're right," he sighed.

"I'm always right. Come on, give me a brotherly hug." Alec didn't move. He was still looking down. "Hey, how can I expect you to play my boyfriend if you can't even hug me?" The dark-haired boy laughed and took him in his arms, plainly smelling his sweet perfume. When they pulled apart, the smallest hauled to kiss his cheek and jokingly said in a wink, "Coming to bed, honey?"

So, what did you think? Let me know by reviewing bellow.