Work Text:
Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec
Bolting upright, one hand on his parabatai rune and the other clutching at his chest over his heart, Jace swung his head around the darkened bedroom, attempting to get his bearings
“Jace?” Clary sleepily questioned as she pushed herself up with one hand “are you okay?”
“I...Alec...” trailing off as he got out of bed, looking for a jacket, a shirt, anything he could put on to go and find his parabatai, “Somethings not right.” successfully showing his arms through a shirt and reaching for his shoes in the dim sliver of light leaking in the hallway “I gotta go check on him.”
“Do you want me to come?” Jace smiled softly, still mostly asleep and Clary was ready to head out to who knows where with him
“No, he’s here, you go back to sleep.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Love you” with that, Jace grabbed his stele off the bedside table and stepped out into the hallway, gently closing the door behind him
It was late, or early. Just because Jace was not the operations manager didn’t mean he had to keep track of the time on his day off, but the softer yellowed lighting of the overnight shift lights gave him a small clue.
Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec
With the tug to find Alec and fix whatever the problem his parabatai was having chanting inside his brain along with his heartbeat, Jace moved quickly out of the living quarters and into the ops center.
Jace frowned, scanning the room before relief flickered over his features. Not a demon attack that had dragged him out of bed, so a mundane problem. Or as mundane as you can get when you’re the Head of the New York Institute, so that meant paperwork.
This was a monster Jace would help Alec defeat any day of the week.
He’ll just complain about it first.
With a soft sigh, Jace headed out of the ops center and down the administrative hall to Alec's office. The door was closed, so he had to be ready to face anything.
Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec
Gently knocking before just opening the door fully, Jace stepped over the threshold into a veritable winter wonderland of paperwork. Balanced on every flat surface was loose papers, papers shoved into folders, large folios, and Jace could see a few acquisitions tablets resting on the main portion of Alec's desk.
Of which the man himself was currently resting over, eyes closed and one hand barely holding his head up.
“Alec?”
“mmhmm”
“Alec its-” Jace glanced at the clock on the wall “-two in the morning.”
“mmmmmm”
“You good?” sighing at the state of his parabatai, Jace walked over behind the imposing desk Alec still chose to use for himself and gently pushed him back against his chair. Tapping one of the tablets awake, Jace could see that it was open to a report on various demon activity further down the east coast.
“Alec, if this is the reports for the downworlder cabinet meeting you’re not having for another month I’m calling Magnus here right now to portal you home.”
Slowly opening his eyes, Alec glared at the tablet Jace was holding.
“He doesn’t expect to see me for another few days.”
“Alec I swear to the angel if you’re avoiding him---” he rolled his eyes and scoffed, sitting properly in his desk chair and backing away from where Jace was leaning
“I am not, we’re both working overtime with this legislation.” Glancing over his shoulder at the mounds of paperwork, Jace proceeded to scoff right back.
“You know Izzy and I would help you with this, please let us help you with this. I love you, but I don’t like feeling your stress and anxiety.” setting the tablet aside, Jace reached out to grab Alec by the shoulders, and looked him dead in the eye. “I'm going to help you with this”
Alec reached up to clasp Jace's wrists in his own hands, bringing them down to his lap and looking down to fiddle with their conjoined fingers. “I know you will help, and I know Izzy will too. But with this kind of intense work I sometimes forget that I don’t have to do everything by myself.” Jace grinned, giving Alec's hands a squeeze
“That’s what I'm here for, to bitch slap you into believing in yourself!” Alec looked up, confusion written on his face before he registered the grin and mirth dancing around Jace's eyes. Alec groaned.
“I hate you”
“No you don’t”
“No I don’t”
Tightening his hold on Alec's hands, Jace pulled him standing upright, and brought his arms around his brother. With the slight hesitation that Jace has never been able to shake, Alec brings his arms around to rest on Jace's shoulders, bringing the hug just that much closer and breathing deeply into the juncture of his neck and shoulder.
“Please help me with the paperwork.”
“Of course I will. I’ll even rope Izzy into it. But can you sleep first?” pressing his face into the side of Jace's neck, Alec let out a breath and nodded. That was enough confirmation for Jace, he shifted around and started to maneuver the two of them out of the office, one hand letting go for balance, but letting Alec keep himself pressed against his side.
Upon leaving, Jace pulled out his stele and his the door with a locking rune. He could feel Alec questioning him through their bond.
“Just for security.” Alec huffed against his neck. “Yeah yeah, no one will touch it, just let me be paranoid for you okay?”
Readjusting his grip on his tree of a parabatai, Jace started the trek down the halls and to the living quarters. Once reaching Alec's door, he let Alec lean a little heavier so he could pull out his stele once again and unlock Alec's room.
“C'mon, into bed with you.” preparing to fling alec on the bed, so help him Raziel, Jace widened his stance but misjudged how much of a limpet he had acquired. They both landed in a heap on the duvet, alec tightening his hold around J Jace the moment they both hit soft ground.
“Alec. Alec, lemme go, you need uninterrupted sleep” while squirming around trying to get more comfortable, Alec decided to throw a leg over Jace's torso and pin him to the bed. “Damnit, fine. At least take your boots off.” with the kind of slowness Jace associated with molasses, Alec reached down with one leg and slowly untied one boot and then the other, kicking them to the foot of the bed.
“Is this how we’re gonna sleep?” impossibly shoving his face further into Jace's neck, alec nodded, hair brushing against Jace's face. “Alright, you explain to Clary why I didn’t come back.”
Decisions made, Alec fully dropped off into sleep, safe with his parabatai and behind the wards of the institute. Jace made one last moment choice, and fumbled over the side of the bed for the blanket he stashed the last time this happened.
Finally covered to his satisfaction, Jace settled into Alec's arms, letting the comfort of having his bonded so close wash over his bones and draw him to sleep.
The last thought that swam its way through his head was, oh yeah, we should do this more.