A/N : It has been quite a while, huh guys? For the few who probably read this, that is. I've been busy, very busy with school. I've been picking up guitar (slowly but surely) and whatever else that's been distracting me since the last time I updated. I have a quote used in here, translation and all, from City of Bones; Chapter 19 - Abbadon, it's Jace's Latin quote, which took forever to find. I don't own that idea/sentence thing, just so we're making that clear! I can't guarantee updating often, but I had a three day weekend and thought, sure, I need to get at least the chapter I started weeks ago finished.

Don't own the characters, and the quote~

Jace closed his eyes as he listened from afar to Magnus explaining to Maryse Lightwood why her eldest, remaining son's sight could not be fixed. He supposed he'd already given this to Isabelle, considering Isabelle wasn't charging him like a bull seeing red and demanding information from the man. His fault, he'd been repeating to himself like a mantra. His brand new, less-than-cocky mantra. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, he reminded himself from the last time Alec had come close to death because of him. Why did Alec have to be such a willing martyr? He didn't seem like the kind of person who wanted to die. At least not from where Jace was standing.

"And that's why I can't fix Alec's sight," he heard Magnus conclude, and then a sigh of either disappointment in himself, or weariness at having repeated his explanation. Jace knocked his head against the wall, sighing through his nose. Self-disappointment was right. He closed his eyes, wondering why he'd screwed up so much worse this time around.

"Thank you for trying, warl- Magnus," the mother Lightwood corrected herself, and Jace knew the very back of her mind was still adjusting her attitude towards Magnus being almost family at this point in their relationship. She corrected herself., "I'm sorry, Magnus. I wish there was something we could all do for him."

"Things'll work out," he assured the room, unknowingly Jace too. "Speaking of things working out!" he said, the sound of clapping his hands together, the few rings he had clinked together upon contact, "Alec says he wouldn't mind if he lived with me so I could help him out!" Jace opened an eye, making a face no one would be seeing. Force of habit, really. There was a pause, and the blonde half-son could very nearly feel Maryse's expression of shock, or disbelief. These vibes were feelings pretty sturdy, it must have been a combination of both.

"Live with you?" came a squeak. Hmm, maybe Jace was mistaken. That definitely was disbelief coloring the older female Lightwood's voice. Shock tended to sound more disapproving, while this, this sounding like the date for the end of the world had just been announced, was disbelief. Skepticism if he dared.

"Yeah, and then I can help him around and junk. Oh, and I promise not to do the old 'Helen Keller punishment' thing." Jace thought about that one. He got it on try number three. Leave it to Magus to come up with that joke. "I won't rearrange the furniture after he memorizes the layout of my place." Maryse must not have gotten it, so Magnus spelled it out for her. Silence followed, and a noise that hinted disgust, and maybe even a tint of anger.

"Was that a joke?" she asked, a snarl following that.

"Something I heard a while back. Why? Not good taste for the situation right now?" No. Freaking. Duh. Nice try, Magnus, but not nice enough, the eavesdropping blonde thought.

"Just a bit," Maryse mentioned, her voice clipped. The look on her face now, Jace debated, must be something between semi-annoyance and very possibly spite? With a grimace, he couldn't help but think of his half brother bumping into furniture and whatever else was in front of him, walking carefully, unsurely, with his hands outstretched in front of him, trying to find the obstacle before colliding violently and unexpectedly into it. It was just Alec's luck for that method not to work, and wind up covered in bruises and bumps before the week was out.

"Hmm, I suppose it is bad taste right now. Okay. Maybe later then."

Jace could hear footsteps nearing, he jumped away from the wall, just as Magnus walked through the door. He didn't look that surprised to find Jace there.

"Why, hello there, Nephilim," the warlock said, dropping a glitterless wink. He had a bit of eye liner and mascara on, making him appear quite bland, and almost normal looking. "Pleasant seeing you here. How long have you been standing there?" He appeared smug, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, Y'know, just dropped by. I couldn't help but hear something about you wanting to take Alec home to take advantage of him? What was that about?" The definition of innocent angel crossed Jace's face, and would have worked if no one knew better.

"Riightt," Magnus replied, corner of his lips moving upward, letting his mouth show false emotion, trying to direct the attention away from his eyes. Magnus was thinking further along the lines of this, somehow. Jace didn't know what, but it obviously had to do something with Alec.

More silence.

"You know that I know that this is my fault," Jace finally said, looking to the ground. "This is my own fault. All mine and only mine. I'm feeling greedy today, so I'm taking it all." His attempt at being funny? Maybe it was. It was the weakest he'd ever heard himself say. Usually he was a pretty hilarious person, even in the face of death. Now? Why not now? Because it wasn't his life that had been ruined, but his closest friend's life?

"Alec forgives you," Magnus muttered, sounding as if he didn't forgive Jace yet. Jace wasn't blaming him right now.

"So I heard, but you know, he always forgives me." And Jace didn't deserve it. When had he ever earned Alec's sacrifices and his forgiveness? If anything, he should be doing these things for Alec instead.

"I can't imagine why…" Magnus took on a cold look, gazing hard at Jace's pitiful stare at the ground. "Looking for what to sweep next? You seem pretty intent on that floor."

"I'm not in a cleaning mood, actually." He wasn't going to be in any kind of cleaning mood for a while. His insane cleaning urges were dulled right now, because cleaning would never be more important than his Parabatai. "I am sorry, though," he mumbled, using whatever strength he had in his numb body to lift his head up to meet the warlock's cat-eyes. All he saw was stubborn willingness to believe him, none of the hate he was expecting that the tone of voice had given off.

"Yeah, I've heard that a couple times. I'm choosing to use what I already know of you, dear simpleton, to put two and two together and accept you're telling the truth."

"Simpleton? Well, that may be, but I- Wait. What do you already know about me?" Eyes narrowed in a shot of playfulness that wasn't really there. Make light of the mood, when in doubt. Magnus was trying, he should be giving his half too, to avoid the conversation going into screaming fits, or shouting matches, anything that was negative.

Magnus scoffed, crossing his arms, drumming his right fingers on his bicep. His hip jutted out in a dramatic way, his foot tapped as if impatient. Magnus was really trying hard.

"What? Is it really supposed to be that obvious?"

"Yes, Jace, it is." If Jace was guessing right, then it was probably arrogance, blind idiocy he tended to possess once in a while (often enough), and sarcasm, that Magnus was talking about. Heavy on the blind idiocy, he was thinking.

"Well? Tell me!" The blonde hopped up and down, appearing eager to hear bad things about him that he already knew. "Tell meh! So I can correct the errors of mah ways!" Dropping to his knees was a nice affect, if he did say so his self.

Amused, maybe for real amused, Magnus grinned before rolling his eyes, sighing, and turning around, taking a smooth stride that was very feline-like. Very swishy and fluid. "Gee, you really wanna know what I already know about you?" He turned on his heels, pursing his lips in half a pout, half a mocking smile.

Furiously nodding, trying not to be outdone in acting -as Jace was a marvelous actor- Jace bowed down, hands outstretched in front of him. "Please!" he begged in an overly obnoxious worshiping voice. He made himself sound desperate, as if Magnus telling him would let him live happy for the rest of his days. "I am on my knees! No, I'm on the floor! My gorgeous face is touching the floor! Begging you to tell me your knowledge!"

"Well, when you put it like that…" Magnus trailed off, building 'suspense' for the two of them.

"Am I…err, interrupting something?" Isabelle asked, walking out of the kitchen with wide eyes. Had she been in there too? Jace realized slowly that she probably had been listening to the reason Magnus couldn't fix her brother's sight twice. Who did it hurt more? Her, or him? He'd have a mood-lightening contest with her if she would actually play along too.

Jace peeked above his arm from where his head was on the floor. "Yeah, actually. Magnus was just about to tell me the problems with me and what he already knows." He returned his head back to the begging position. "Like I said, I AM BEGGING YOU, O' GREAT WARLOCK! TO TELL ME ALL MY PROBLEMS!"

Isabelle laughed lightly, just as Jace had hoped. "By the Angel, ass-tard, you don't need Magnus to tell you what's wrong with you. You don't even need Clary to tell you! And we all know how oblivious Clary is."

"Watch it," Jace said from under his arms.

"Whatever. Anyways, I could tell you what's wrong with you, you know."

"Oh, I know. But I'd rather hear it from Sir Know-it-all than Madam Pompous." He heard her stamp her foot and nearly growl.

"I beg pardon?" she asked, putting a foot on his back, increasing weight so the boy below her couldn't stand up.

"Nothing," he said, using the small whimpering voice he knew she would like to hear from him. Isabelle was trying too, and he was glad she was playing the part of the annoyed sister. She was playing, wasn't she? Well, he wasn't afraid of her, not right now, anyway. This wasn't the kind of fight they'd get in where he was really needing to hide behind Alec.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Her foot was removed from the small of his back slowly, luring him into thinking he was in the clear. When she heard him snicker, she stamped her foot back down, hearing a crack and groan from Jace. "Twaaaattt."

"Could be," Magnus threw in, agreeing with the female Lightwood. "Well, your pleading doesn't really please me as much as I'd like. So, I've got better things to do than watch you beg where you belong."

"On the floor under Izzy's leg?"

"Precisely. Maybe you have some hope after all. Keep working on that."

"Hear that!" Jace shouted at Isabelle, arching his back to get her foot off of him. "I have hope! Magnus said I have hope!" Pause. "Hope for what?"

Isabelle removed herself from him and took a step back, debating on if it was worth it or not to kick him while he was literally down.

"I take it back," Magnus said immediately, moving backwards, shrugging nonchalantly, as if they were all really having a nice conversation. "I must be off. I am needed at the side of someone smarter than you, and quieter than you," he addressed them, snapping his fingers, topping off their act with a poof of glitter, smoke, and lights, forcing the Shadowhunters to close their eyes from the brightness.

When the smoke dissipated, and their eyes had readjusted to normal lighting, they looked at each other, to where Magnus had been standing, and then to the floor. A pile of glitter and dirt lay on the floor. Silence befell the two, and they were unsure how to keep on acting.

"I'm not cleaning that up," Isabelle said, edging into the kitchen once more, leaving Jace, with a rising sense to clean, to stare at the mess.

A/N: Another attempt to be funny, kind of comic relief-ish? It's been a while O3o Anyways, I'm trying, and I'll see when I can get the next chapter up~