Hey everyone!

Jeez, thank you so so much for all the amazing comments! You really lifted my spirits, I thought nobody would even notice the story, huh!

So, for all of you, here is the next part. I officially finished writing the story this weekend, and the last two parts should be published soon, in the span of a few days from the previous one.

I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment - what do you think?

Yours,

Moony

"Alec…" he whispered.

Hand that held him in a vice-like grip pressed stronger. He winced as it urged him to rise to his feet.

"So is it true?" Alec asked calmly.

Too calmly.

Jace could only nod.

Hand pressed stronger again before letting go completely. Parabatai mark felt wrong on his skin. It was screaming, almost, burning him with a sour taste of betrayal.

"Get out of my sight."

Jace looked at his face, panicked. He regretted it the moment his eyes met disgusted look on his brother's face.

"Alec, please…"

But Alec only pointed to the door. His eyes were steely, cold.

"Get. Out. I don't want to see you out of your room."

Jace made an unsure step towards the door. He still had to try.

"Al…"

"OUT!"

This time he didn't need to be told again. He ran.

He was never one for waiting.

Staying still in a middle of a mission was one thing, of course, but by now those were instincts more than anything else. If there was a cult meeting, he was more than happy to wait for the right moment, clear his head and prepare for the battle.

But for this battle, there was no way to prepare.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

He was definitely panicking by now.

Is now the right time for 'I told you so'? Asked his conscience solemnly. Jace didn't have strength to shut it up.

Oh, c'mon, it's not like you don't deserve it, you crybaby!

Jace knew, not that he was about to admit it. Feeling of panic was overwhelming, drowning every rational thought he could've had left.

I need to get away.

It wasn't pain he was fearing. That was the worst. He was used to pain. He trusted Alec. He wasn't afraid what he would do.

Jace was afraid of what he would think.

He's probably disgusted by you now… just saying. I mean, you disobeyed him - again, completely broke his trust, oh, and I'm sure Simon would be delighted to see you right now!

Simon…

Jace shivered. He was, truth be told, avoiding Simon ever since Alec dragged him from that very literaly haunted house.

Maybe I should check on him?

He was out of the room before the other voice even had a chance to ruin it all.

Sneaking through the hallway was easy enough. It was mid-morning, meaning that most of other residents have already left the area. For some reason, his gut was telling him vampire was one of the few people that stayed in their rooms.

"Vampire?" he whispered. He put his hand on the door gently, tapping his fingers in a nervous manner. He knew Simon would hear it if he were in there.

Sure enough, doors soon opened and black haired head peeked outside to see him.

"Oh, hi."

Jace, for once, couldn't really find his voice.

"Can I come in?" he asked. Simon looked him up and down before stepping out from behind the door.

"Are you okay? You look like sh…" but blonde was already pushing past him and into the room.

"What..?" he raised an eyebrow when the other shadowhunter gently pushed him away, closing the door and pressing his back against them, exhaling shakily.

"Sorry." he gritted out. "It's just…" he put his hands in his hair, pushing it back in a nervous manner.

"Dude? What happened to you?"

Jace cringed, moving to start pacing the room. "Nothing, that is the problem." Simon's eyes widened a bit.

"I'm not following."

Jace kept walking up and down on the side of the room furthest away from the door, fidgeting with his hands the entire time. From the way he kept glancing towards the door, Simon had a feeling someone was about to burst through them at any second.

Oooh…

"So, who'd you piss off this time?" he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, looking at blond nonchalantly. Jace flinched. He pressed his lips in a thin, stubborn line, and Simon smirked.

"So?" he half expected Jace to throw something at his head for being so pushy. Other half expected him to keep quiet or start teasing Simon back, like always.

However, he never would've predicted the way blonde actually reacted.

He answered.

"Alec." he whispered. And about in that exact second, Simon realized this time it was serious.

"Shit." he breathed out. Suddenly nervous as much as the other boy, he jumped away from the wall. Jace, who previously had stopped pacing, now started again.

"Oh, man. What happened? Is it serious?"

"I messed up so bad…" Jace shook his head. "And I… he's… Alec's going to hate me. I think he does hate me already." He wasn't sure why he was telling Simon all of this, but he couldn't keep it all to himself.

Simon, on the other hand, had a hard time believing what he headr. Still, for whatever reason, what his mouth decided to vomit out was:

"Well, I can't tell that's not true."

It occurred to him he might have said a wrong thing only when Jace looked at him in panic. He started stuttering. "No, no, I didn't… I-I mea-mean…"

He felt sudden, unreasonable urge to swallow his own tongue and choke on it.

But then again, maybe he was just hungry.

"Look, that's not what I meant. I just wanted to say I don't know what happened, so I can't really judge people's reactions and…. I'm just making it worse, am I?"

Jace slid down the wall and curled up in a ball in a corner. "Yup."

"Maybe it will help if you talked to someone? I mean, you are here with a reason, right?"

Jace raised his head to look at him, and Simon was surprised to see how unsure he seemed of himself.

It isn't necessarily a bad change, though…

He snapped out of it before he had a chance to spiral down the usual path of bickering and arguing. Sure, Jace was annoying and arrogant most of the time, but dude did risk his neck (and backside) more than once to save others, Simon included.

"Okay, what happened?" he sighed, sliding down opposite of Jace, so that his back was pressed against the bed. Blonde lowered his eyes again, indifferent facade on his face cracking under pressure.

"I… uh… so, I guess you remember how the two of us got into that trouble few days ago…"

Simon cringed, but nodded. "Don't remind me, please. These last few days I've been either stuck here or on the training mats. I'm starting to lose it, honestly. If Alec assigns me one more extra training, I'll make sure that decision comes back to bite him in the ass in a very, very literal way.

Jace scoffed, smiling a bit.

"Been there, done that. Wouldn't recommend."

Simon's eyes widened. "What?! You bit him? Like, with teeth and all? What? How? When? Why? What happ…"

"What is this, twenty questions?" Jace smirked.

Good to know he's back to being his own charming self, then. Simon noted. Still, he waved both hands to get him talking.

Jace rolled his eyes half-heartedly, but started explaining.

"It was supposed to be a prank. Stupid one, but still. We went on a hunt, some baby vamps going wild and running from the clan, killing people, blah blah the usual. I kept goofing around despite Alec telling me to stop, and, of course, one of the bastards got lucky and bit me. Nothing big, he barely got his teeth in my hand before I got my sword in his heart. But still. Alec was not happy with me. I got assigned extra trainings every day for a whole month afterwards. So, naturally, I got angry and decided to get some sort of revenge."

"So you bit him?"

"I faked sudden blood lust in the middle of a training. Fake fangs, lenses and a lot of chicken blood for effect. It worked better than expected. " Jace mumbled, going red in face. Simon decided he maybe didn't want to know what that meant.

"Did you scare him?"

"To hell and back." Jace mumbled. "Unfortunately."

Before Simon had a chance to do more than open his mouth to ask, Jace raised his hand.

"You don't wanna know. He almost staked me then and there. Later… well, I definitely wished he staked me then and there."

Simon cringed in sympathy.

"Ouch. I take it he wasn't too happy about it?"

Jace blushed, clearing his throat before mumbling "Let's just say the only arse that got affected in any way by that occasion was my own."

Simon whistled quietly, shifting slightly on where he was sitting. He never got a full-blown whipping the way Jace did, but he didget swatted every now and then. Every time it was more than enough to make him behave, even with his vampire healing involved.

"I'll never understand how you manage to get yourself in those situations as often as you do." he shook his head. Jace rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, he was pretty angry back then."

"Angrier than now?" Simon poked with a smile. Smile that disappeared when Jace visibly shrunk in on himself.

"No. Definitely not."

"Christ on a cracker, Jace! What did you do?!"

The very fact Jace couldn't look him in the eyes was setting off alarms in Simon's head.

"What did Alec ask you? Few days ago, after they got us back?"

Simon frowned. "Not much, tbh. Just did I go there, did I know it was unauthorized, did I touch weapons he told me not to, etc. etc. Not any specifics, y'know. I thought he saved details for you."

"Oh, he did." Jace chuckled dryly. "And I blew it."

"That bad, huh?" Simon cringed again. "It must've been real bad if it's still bothering you."

"Well -" Jace looked at him, face blank. "He greeted me with a cane."

Simon sucked in a breath. "Shit!"

However, his horror turned quickly turned to surprise. "Wait. How are you sitting so comfortably then? Do you have, like, an extra pair of muscles back there or…"

"By the Angel, Lewis, shut up!" Jace hid his face in his arms. "Don't ever use those words in that order, and I mean ever. It sounds… wrong." he cringed. Simon couldn't help but laugh at his expression.

"Okay, okay. So, what happened? C'mon, I keep asking you the same question."

BAM!

"Well, long story short" started Alec as he strolled through the door "is that he tried blaming you for everything, lying in my face and making things worse for all three of us. Jace, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Jace closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. But for once, Simon noted absently, he didn't say anything.

"WhAt?!" he hissed instead.

Jace stayed stubbornly silent.

"Yeah, I know. From what he told me, you were the one that wanted to prove himself. He just went to make sure you don't get yourself killed." Alec crossed his arms over his chest again, glaring at Jace with head cocked to the side. Next to him, Simon's face fell, looking hurt. He leaned at the wall again, shaking his head.

Blonde was still looking at his feet, but Alec knew he was listening to every word he said.

"Jace? Wanna enlighten us on the matter?" he called. His wayward parabatai kept looking at his feet. Alec only knew he heard him from a way his jaw was clenched together.

"Along the way, you might also wanna tell me why you stepped right over alarms I had Magnus put on your door?"

This earned him a confused expression and a shift in a position. His eyes fluttered from how hard he rolled them. Annoyance that filled him when he learned of his parabatai's whereabouts slowly turned to anger again.

"Pray tell" he purred "where have I told you to be?"

This Jace couldn't ignore. Golden-blue eyes snapped upwards, staring at him in surprise.

"Don't tell me you forgot!" Alec faked surprise, walking towards the younger Shadowhunter slowly. He was going to strangle that idiot!

Jace seemed to notice the murderous look in his eyes, tensing on reflex. Alec chuckled darkly.

"You see, I was aware you don't follow my orders anymore, but I had no idea you don't even listen to the word I say!" he yelled. Jace shook his head weakly.

"No?" Alec laughed. It was an ugly, icy sound that had even Simon looking down uncomfortably.

Jace watched as Alec inched closer. Every nerve in his body was ablaze, fight-or-flight instincts so hard he had to purposely sit on his hands to stop himself from running. Alec took it all in, his hunched form and sad eyes, and finally stopped merely a foot's width away.

"I see we'll have to deal with this sooner rather than later. So I'll give you two choices here."

Jace glanced at him. Alec caught a spark of surprise before other's eyes looked down again.

"Option number one: You're going to apologize to Simon, admit that you were wrong and go with me willingly, without making a fuss. You'll wait in my office, in the corner of my choosing, and wait for me to come punish you once I calm down enough not to skin you alive in the most literal way imaginable."

Jace gulped. Alec waited a minute to let it sink in before nodding and continuing.

"Option two. You keep being a stubborn brat you've been acting like for the last couple of days, and we do things my way. I haul your ass to my office, whip you for disobeying me then strap you to the most uncomfortable chair I can find to wait in until I'm calm enough to deal with your previous mishaps."

He was purring, dangerous and low, and Simon found out he couldn't look away if he tried. Jace stared at the older from beneath his feet, eyes wide but stubborn, still.

"So what will it be?" drawled Alec. Neither of the younger boys dared to make a sound.

Jace didn't move, or talk. He just kept glaring at Alec. Older Shadowhunter, by now predictably, rolled his eyes again.

"Do you need me to count for you? Well, if you insist on being childish…" he raised three fingers in the air. Jace's jaw twitched, but it remained stubbornly locked shut. Simon though he could hear teeth cracking from the pressure.

"One." Alec removed a finger. Jace's eyes flashed with panic before he turned to staring at the floor again. Alec bit his tongue to stop himself from cursing.

Use that thick skull of yours for once, you moron!

"Two." he pressed further. Jace started shifting on his spot. However, he didn't apologize even after Alec gave him time to do so.

Older Shadowhunter sighted heavily. "Well, if you insist…." he put his hands down and reached to grab Jace.

"No, wait!" Jace started twisting like a maniac, sudden panic overwhelming his system. Alec had a hard time keeping him in place.

"C'mon, Herondale." he chided. Jace kept squirming, pushing himself into a corner and kicking Alec's legs in a process.

"No, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay?!"

Alec's hand grabbed the back of his neck, and hair in the process, hauling him upwards. Jace winced, but moved automatically to relieve the pressure.

Before he managed to twist out of Alec's grasp once again, he found himself pressed into the nearest wall cheek first. His arms were bent behind his back, and other Alec's hand was knotted in his hair.

Jace whined lowly, and Alec immediately relaxed his grasp, shushing him. His intention wasn't to hurt him, after all, only to hold him in place.

"Jace, stop." he commanded, lowly.

At first he thought Jace was ignoring him again. However, after a while, blond's struggles slowly stopped, calming down until he was almost completely still in other's grasp. He was still shaking slightly under his arms, and Alec hummed. He knew how much self-control it took Jace to ignore his instincts, fight against the urge to free himself and resist.

"Good." Alec softened his voice a bit. Jace stilled completely. His heart was beating too hard, Alec could feel it in his wrists, but he stopped fighting like a wild animal. Alec brushed his thumbs on other's hand, offering what little comfort he could.

"Are you going to come with me willingly or will I have to cuff you?" he asked, still keeping his voice intentionally calm. Jace tensed again.

"You wouldn't."

"Wanna bet?"

Silence was enough of an answer in itself. Alec smirked.

"So? Are we gonna do this the harder way again? Or are you going to walk and act like an adult?"

Jace gulped, kinda glad he couldn't see Simon's face right now. Alec's hand in his hair was controlling, firm. It gave him something to anchor him, keep him stable.

Unfortunately, it couldn't stop his stomach from turning, kicking inside his insides like a cartwheel. He had a feeling he was going to be sick.

"Walk…" he decided. His voice was softer than usual, Simon noted. He took it as a sign Jace was finally coming back to his senses.

"Mhm." Alec hummed. "Excellent. Now, before we go, is there something you'd like to tell Simon?"

Jace swallowed before turning his head a bit more to look behind himself. Alec's hand relaxed to allow him more movement.

Simon looked at the duo with arms crossed across his chest. His face was carefully blank, but the line on his forehead was sharp, like it was cutting guilty blond right in the soul. Jace couldn't help but cringe.

"Simon, I…I.." he stopped for a second before cursing under his breath. Alec tugged his hair slightly, more in a warning manner than anything else. Jace tensed in an instant, face turned up in a sneer.

"Oh forget it…" Simon sighed. Jace's attention faltered, as he turned back to him.

Vampire was sitting on a bed, playing with a small dagger he pulled from God-knows-where. He wasn't looking at the duo anymore. And something about that, about his defeated look and slumped shoulders, touched Jace. It made him feel guilty again. Simon was suffering through consequences of his actions, and he didn't fight about it once. All the while Jace was running away from his mess like a frightened child, fighting like he was the one accused wrongly.

"I'm sorry." he mumbled. Simon's eyes flew back to him.

"I... I have no real excuse for what I did." he admitted. Simon quickly masked his surprise as blond leaned his forehead back against the wall. Alec petted his hair, and he shuttered.

"I know what I did was… unfair and uncalled for, and I can't find a good enough reason beside being too big of a coward to face the music myself. I panicked, and got you in trouble when you didn't deserve it. And for that, I'm sorry."

He looked in Simon's eyes, and younger knew he was telling the truth. He looked vulnerable, sad, and Simon nodded his head just so he didn't have to look at him any longer. He understood why Jace would act like that. And he did apologize, after all...

"Apology accepted." he murmured. Jace mouthed 'thank you' before closing his eyes and letting his forehead fall down again.

"Great." Alec finally released his hair, brushing it down in order to calm Jace down further. Younger Shadowhunter shivered, but was silent, pliant now the leftover adrenaline left his system for good.

"Now that we got that out of the way, we'll be on our way. Simon, you're free to go. Seeing as you already went through a part of your punishment, and it was in part my fault for not listening to you as I was supposed to, I'd say we could stop with your trainings starting Monday. As for your grounding - I'd say your debt is paid fully. Your slate is clean on that one."

Simon looked at him surprised before smiling widely. "Awesome!" he laughed. Then, however, his expression changed to one of worry.

"And Jace? Is he… I mean, what is…" he mumbled. Alec sighed again. One of his hands was still brushing blond locks, while the other was keeping his parabatai trapped. Jace was limp in front of him, all fight drained from his shoulders.

"Jace has his own debt to pay." Alec decided. "I'll take care of it, and we'll work on getting trust built between us again. Besides, looks like we have to revisit a few lessons about obedience and teamwork, huh, Blondie?"

"Shut up." Jace mumbled lowly, but without any real bite to it. Alec chuckled, shaking his head.

"Oh, and good you reminded me. Your attitude also need some adjustments to it."

Jace whined softly, and Alec couldn't help but shush him again.

"Shush, Jace. You brought this on yourself, didn't you?"

Jace, predictably, didn't answer, instead choosing to shift his weight.

"Rude." he mumbled softly.

Alec shook his head before once again nodding to Simon.

"I'll see you at evening regular training." he called, pulling at Jace's arms lightly. He still didn't let them, or his nape go, so Jace was forced to walk in front of him with arms bent backward. Simon expected him to put up some kind of protest, but the shorter male went without a word.