He tells himself that he's being cowardly, that there's nothing to fear. Nonetheless, as the meeting time draws closer, he finds himself lurking in the shadows behind a crumbling wall.

Slowly, the others appear. The slight breeze carries their voices, muted and jumbled, to his hiding place. From here, he can see his friends' blurred figures as they form a small group by the restaurant's entrance. Clary and her mundane arrive together, followed closely by Maia. Alec greets his sister with a fleeting pat on the head, and Isabelle turns to smile at him.

Jace lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. This brother business- maybe it's not so hard after all.

He steps out from behind his wall, blinking as his eyes adjust to the fading afternoon sunlight. Clary's standing with the mundane, laughing at something he's just said. Jace feels his hand clench reflexively. In his chest, his heart begins to beat an irregular staccato. He forces himself to take a deep breath, forces his pace into a casual, self-assured stroll.

Clary notices his approach, and turns towards him. He can see her nervousness, her anxiety- and her curiosity. She doesn't know how he'll act, what he'll say- what he'll do. Behind her, the mundane- Simon- realizes that she's no longer listening to him. He follows her gaze, and something that's somehow both hard and vulnerable at the same time flits across his face as he sees where her attention has gone. Hiding his hurt, Simon turns away, towards Maia.

Jace smiles. Smart mundane. Don't interfere when you can't win. Remembering Alec and Isabelle's interaction, he reaches out, and oh-so-causally, his hand descends on her head. Her hair is silky-soft and warm against his fingers, and he discovers that he can't take his hand away.

She tenses, her eyes widening. His name escapes in a tremulous breath. "Jace. Jace, what are you doing?"

A corner of his mouth quirks in a humorless half-smile. "Being brotherly, of course," he replies in a tone of mock hurt. "Can't you tell?"

Her shaky laugh is broken by a hitch in her breath. "No," she says.

Jace's hand tightens in her hair, and he finds it traveling through the smooth red strands in a way that could never be mistaken as "brotherly".

Clary's breath catches again, and without thinking, Jace pulls her to his chest. He strokes her hair gently as she sobs into his shirt. By the door, Isabelle is shepherding the group into the restaurant, throwing occasional unnervingly knowing and sympathetic glances back at the two siblings.

Jace sighs, and looks down at his sister. Her sobs are subsiding, and though her eyes are red and her eyelashes heavy with tears, she gazes back at him. With difficulty, Jace swallows. "This is what you wanted," he tells her, but the words are questioning.

Clary smiles sadly. "Yes. I know."

Jace nods, accepting. He drops his arms, looking down at his hands, at the fading silvery scars that cover them. When he looks up, she's watching him. He forces a smile. "Come on," he says, holding open the door. Together, the two siblings enter the restaurant to rejoin the others.