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“We’re almost to the Institute,” Alec warned, his voice low, and Jace reluctantly released his hand and stepped back, falling into position behind his parabatai as they approached the Institute’s doors. Sometimes it was hell, hiding and lying like this. But Jace and Alec both knew it was the best they were going to get in their lifetime, so they made the most of it. It wasn’t all bad.
“Welcome home,” Izzy greeted them with a smile in the foyer, dressed in leather hot pants, heels, and a crop top. She reached to take their ichor-stained weapons from them, careful not to let it touch her outfit. She wrinkled her nose. “I’ll go put these in the pile for the cadets.” She smirked to herself, and Alec cracked a half-smile, resisting the urge to remind her that she had been a cadet once, too.
“Thanks, Iz,” Jace drawled. “We’ll see you at dinner, okay? I’m filthy. I don’t know about Alec, but I’m going to take a nice, long shower.” He shot Alec a heated glance that made his cheeks flush. Izzy watched the exchange with amusement, raising her eyebrows but not saying anything.
“Okay then.” With that, she turned on her heel and headed for the basement.
When they were alone, Alec reached out and punched Jace in the arm, glaring at him. “You idiot! What if she knows?”
“Then she knows,” Jace said, shrugging. “Do you really think Izzy would say anything, or care, for that matter? Come on, parabatai.”
He had a point.
“Just for that, you’re not getting dicked down later,” Alec grumbled, jogging to catch up with him as they made their way towards Alec’s bedroom.
“What about now?” Jace teased, approaching the bedroom and holding the door open for Alec. The smirk on his face would have been attractive if he wasn’t so goddamn annoying.
“That remains to be seen.” Alec slipped through the door, ignoring him.
“Come on, angel,” Jace growled, low in his throat, and sidled up behind Alec to press a kiss to his hairline.
“You think you’re so pretty,” Alec tried to retort, his voice catching. Jace was equal parts irritating because he did, in fact, think he was pretty, and equal parts irritating because he was, in fact, pretty as fuck. And he lived to torment Alec.
“I think I’m gorgeous,” Jace replied, sneaking a hand around Alec’s waist and underneath his shirt, tracing a path across his abs and up towards his pectorals. “Don’t you?”
“Fuck you,” Alec replied, breathless at the sensation of Jace’s hands on his overheated skin. Still high from the adrenaline rush of battle, they were both sensitive, and Jace’s touch was nothing short of electrifying.
“I’m trying to,” Jace quipped, and then he was in front of Alec, leaning forward to capture his lips in a searing kiss.
Melting into it, Alec kissed back just as hard, tugging Jace’s bottom lip between his teeth and smirking at the moan he got in return. Jace’s hand moved to rub at one of Alec’s hard nipples, and he keened, his own hands scrabbling for purchase along Jace’s back. “You asshole,” he breathed against Jace’s lips, and Jace laughed, unrepentant as always.
They were interrupted from further teasing by a sharp knock at the door. Alec startled, sliding out of Jace’s arms and wiping his lips on the back of his hand. He shooed Jace away, towards the closet, while he looked through the peephole. To his relief, it was only Izzy.
“Yeah, Iz?” He opened the door to let her in, and she squeezed past him, carrying a blue scrap of t-shirt in her hands. Upon closer inspection, Alec realised, to his surprise, that it was a piece from one of his shirts.
“This fell off on one of the seraph blades,” Izzy informed him, dropping the t-shirt piece into his hands. “There’s blood on it.” She looked at Alec, assessing, before continuing, “Did you get hurt in the battle?”
“Huh. I didn’t think so.” Alec looked down at himself, confused. He didn’t feel anything.
“Just check, okay?” Izzy requested, worry and concern filling her eyes. “For me. And if you need to go to the infirmary, go.” She turned to leave, the line of her shoulders tense and agitated.
“Hey,” Alec called to stop her. “I will, alright? I’ll get it taken care of.”
“Good.” Izzy nodded in approval before exiting his bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her.
“Let me see,” Jace demanded, moving to Alec’s side and reaching for his shirt.
Alec swatted his fingers away indignantly. “I can look for myself, you know.”
“Yeah, but you’re not always good at determining the severity of a wound,” Jace said, rolling his eyes. “You underplay shit, Alec.” He reached for the t-shirt again, and Alec let him, conceding that Jace had a point. He did have a tendency to underplay when he was injured, something that drove his sister and boyfriend crazy at times.
On Alec’s back, near his shoulder, Jace found what he was looking for: a shallow, angry red laceration with blood crusted around it. Upon inspection, he found that, to both their relief, it wasn’t serious; the cut could be treated with first aid that they had in the bedroom.
“Thank god,” Alec released the breath he was holding when he heard Jace’s report. He hated going to the infirmary.
“Come on, let’s get this cleaned up,” Jace said, reaching for the first aid kit under Alec’s bed. Alec reached out a hand to stop him.
“Why don’t we just take a shower first? That way it’ll be clean, and I won’t smell like demon guts anymore.”
Jace chuckled, cracking a smile at Alec’s words. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good to me.”
With that, they began to strip, throwing their dirty, ichor-stained clothes in Alec’s laundry hamper to deal with later. Alec followed Jace into the bathroom, where he began messing with the taps while Alec grabbed towels and the fancy shampoo that Jace insisted on using, even though it was ridiculously hard to come by in the Shadow World and, in Alec’s opinion, not worth the shit he had to go through to get it.
Sensing his train of thought, Jace grabbed the shampoo from Alec’s hands, placing it in the shower and standing in front of it protectively. “I had to raid a vampire den to get this, you know.”
Alec rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Jace, I know. That’s the whole point. That’s why you shouldn’t have it.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Jace crooned to the shampoo bottle, mock-glaring at Alec. “He’s just jealous.”
“Why would I be jealous?” Alec retorted, grabbing his shampoo and conditioner and joining Jace in the shower. “That shampoo only gets a fraction of what I have.” He snaked his arms around Jace’s neck and brought the other boy down for a soft kiss. “I have you all to myself.”
“Mmmm.” Jace was too warm and comfortable under the hot spray of the shower, pressed against his parabatai debating shampoo brands, to even argue. Like he said, it wasn’t all bad. Secret relationship or no, he and Alec still found plenty of ways to be together.
“Here, can you wash my hair?” Alec said, breaking their kiss and turning around, handing Jace the shampoo bottle.
“Sure, angel,” Jace purred. He poured some shampoo into his hand and began lathering Alec’s curls with it as gently as he could, smirking in satisfaction when Alec melted into his touch, closing his eyes and relaxing under the warm spray and Jace’s careful ministrations. “With your subpar shampoo, that is.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Alec retorted, but the words were too warm and quiet to have any bite. Jace smiled, working the shampoo into Alec’s roots. He would never tire of making Alec turn to putty in his hands. He considered it a personal hobby at this point.
When he was finished lathering Alec’s hair, Jace grabbed the showerhead, instructing Alec to tip his head back, and began gently washing it out. Alec’s eyes remained closed, and Jace thought he heard a satisfied hum from the other boy in front of him at certain points.
“Okay, angel,” Jace said, quietly so as not to break the trance they were in, “Hand me that loofa and I’ll wash your body, too.”
Wordlessly, Alec handed Jace the red sponge and he made quick work of soaping it and setting it to Alec’s chest. Gently, Jace washed around his chest and abdomen, down his thighs, his calves, and the curve of his ass. It was sensual, not sexual, and Jace enjoyed this just as much as fucking Alec into the side of the tub and making him moan, loud and dirty, when they showered together last night.
When he reached the cut, Jace hesitated, stopping to warn Alec: “This might hurt a little.”
As gently as he could, Jace began to wash the laceration on Alec’s back, trying not to freeze up when he heard Alec’s loud, pained wince. It wasn’t serious enough to warrant a trip to the infirmary, but it was big, and the spot where the demon’s talon had ripped apart his flesh was already turning purple with a bruise. Jace knew it had to be painful.
“You’re okay,” he soothed, reaching down to thread his fingers through Alec’s and giving his hand a squeeze. “You’re doing great, parabatai.” He sent a pulse of lovecomfortsupport through their parabatai bond, and Alec’s shoulders slumped minisculely as the feeling reached him. Jace couldn’t see his face, but based on the way his chest was moving, Alec was about to cry, his breathing starting to come in small, rapid bursts, so he finished as quickly as he could, reaching for the showerhead to gently rinse the cut and the rest of Alec’s body.
“Thanks,” Alec mumbled when he finished, turning around so he could rest against Jace’s chest. The effort of sitting still while Jace cleaned his cut had exhausted him. Usually Alec could endure stitches and broken bones without anesthesia, let alone a minor laceration, but it had been a shit week for both of them and Jace knew this mission today was the only thing Alec had enjoyed all week. He was overwhelmed, and exhausted, and Jace could empathize.
“Come on,” Jace prodded him gently, leaning forward to kiss Alec’s forehead, and then his lips. “Do me, and then we can get out, get it treated, and sleep for a while until dinnertime. Sound good?”
“Yeah,” Alec breathed, and pushed himself up with some effort. “Okay.” He reached for Jace’s shampoo, with a characteristic eyeroll, before washing Jace’s golden-blonde hair and body as he had done for him.
By the time they got out, grabbing Alec’s fluffy white towels on the way, Alec was near dead on his feet and Jace wasn’t far after him. Challenging missions that involved a nest of demons, like this one, typically took it out of both of them, and it was even worse when one of them got hurt. In the back of his mind, Jace felt guilty for not noticing that Alec was hurt sooner; he should have felt it, in battle, but he must have been too preoccupied with the demons and his own fighting to notice Alec’s injury.
Alec prodded him with his foot, nudging Jace out of his reverie. “Stop overthinking.”
Jace gave him a look, the alternative to sticking his tongue out like a five year-old, and guided Alec to sit on the bed while he wrestled with the first aid kit.
“I’m serious, Jace,” Alec said, his blue eyes big and imposing. “Neither of us felt it. It was a hard fight. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I’ll try,” Jace said, sighing. He grabbed the antiseptic and a dressing from the kit, and began to smear the medicine on Alec’s cut. Alec, to his credit, did his best not to react, but Jace caught the hint of a wince around the lines of his mouth and tried to hurry.
Before long, the dressing was securely in place, held tight by two pieces of tape and Jace’s sure fingers as he tied it tight around Alec’s shoulder. “There,” he said, and pressed a kiss to the injured area, causing Alec to huff out a laugh and roll his eyes at him. Jace smirked in triumph. As long as he made Alec smile, he would consider it a win.
“Come on,” he said to Alec, dragging him towards the center of bed, “Let’s get some sleep.”
“Sounds good to me.”
With that, Alec melted into Jace’s side, still wrapped in his towel with damp hair and that same relaxed smile he had worn in the shower while Jace washed him. Jace smiled to himself, too, wrapping an arm around Alec’s waist and snuggling closer until their noses were almost touching. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for this, right here; Alec open and loving in front of him, trusting Jace to take care of him just as he would always take care of Jace, too.
It was perfect.
“You’re perfect,” Jace voiced his thoughts to Alec, and Alec chuckled, closing his eyes as he replied:
“Says the perfect one.”