"He's our brother Izzy," Jace sighed and ran a hand through his hair

"Our brother who's been in his room for three days now, our brother who we've covered up for, yes," Isabelle replied, her eyes still on Jace as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Our brother who refuses to talk to-"

"Alright, alright I get it," Jace interrupted. This wasn't news to him - he'd watched Alec pretty much disappear in front of his eyes, like there was just a shell left of him and Jace hated it. He hated to see his brother this broken, his parabatai who normally would keep the blond in balance. "What do you think we should do then?"

"I'm not going to do anything I've tried but he doesn't listen to me"

"And what makes you think that he's going to listen to me? I've talked to him before and all he does is shut me out, you know that"

Angel, Jace had tried. But just like he himself, Alec was stubborn and wanted to deal with his problems alone. All the Lightwoood's would. It was an easy thing to say, but hard to do. In the end the siblings needed each other and they knew it - they just needed to be reminded.

"You're stubborn," Isabelle shrugged "And he's your parabatai."

Jace knocked on the door. After he'd waited for Alec to open it, he decided that it was no use. Alec hadn't left his room, or his bed, in a few days - not after the breakup.

"Alec?" Jace said softly as he opened the door. The room was dark, even though it was in the middle of the day. It didn't exactly help that the curtains still covered the windows either.

"Alec, are you awake?" Jace tried again and if he focused his eyes on the bed, he thought that he could see a shadow moving. He still didn't get a respons though. Jace thought for a moment Before he walked up to the window and carefully removed the green fabric around it.

"It's a beautiful day" Jace mumbled. It wasn't. It was raining but Alec didn't have to know that "You should come out and see it for yourself"

He turned to look at Alec again when he Heard footsteps at the opening door. It was Isabelle again "Well?" she half-whispered.
Jace rolled his eyes and waved his hand for her to leave. This would take time, if not the whole day, Jace thought for himself. He mouthed for Isabelle to go away and after a few mumblings, she did.

The blond made his way to the bed to sit down on it. "Come on brother, I know you can hear me" He laid his and on what he thought could be Alec's leg. It was hard to tell because of all the blankets. "Are you cold?"
Jace felt a little hopefull when he saw Alec's ead move from side to side under the pillow. No.

"Good. Do you mind if I join you?" Jace didn't even wait for an answer, or for Alec to make some space. Alec groaned as he felt Jace lay down beside him. "Good idea," Jace mumbled and turned to his side to place his arm around Alec's waist "We should sleep in."

Jace couldn't tell if Alec actually did go back to sleep or not, but he himself didn't. All he knew was that he wasn't going to leave his brother alone. He knew that this moment would not come again in the nearest days. Alec had told both Jace and Isabelle to leave him alone before, but this time he hadn't said anything. Not yet.
Jace wanted to tell Alec to wake up, to talk to him, to fight with him, to eat - anything really just to actually see if Alec was still functioning. Because Jace was honestly starting to wonder. But he didn't do it. Instead he lay still, listening to Alec's breathing, because for now that was more than enough.