Summary: They light a candle every night hoping the son I couldn't be comes home.

Alec runs away young Au.

A young man walked through the city, no one looked at him and he was careful to never touch anyone, not even by accident. He'd been doing this for nearly ten years, though not in this city.

It had been ten years since he had been here in this city, ten years since he couldn't take the pressures of his parents, ten years since he had run from his family.

The young man sighed and looked at the building he had once called home, now he didn't call anywhere home.

He never had been able to give up being a Shadowhunter, as far as most knew he was an orphan that wandered from Institute to Institute and helped out where he was needed before moving on, never staying too long and always leaving before he wore out his welcome.

Alec sighed again as he approached the building and entered the building, frowning at the small display of candles by the door, that hadn't been there when he left.

He gazed at it for a long moment, his eyes finally being drawn to the small picture of a serious, young him.

"That's Alec." A young woman said, and Alec turned around to look at the speaker.

It took him a moment before he recognized his baby sister.

"What happened to him?" Alec asked.

Isabelle shrugged, "He just vanished one day, Mother thinks he went out to fight Demons and died."

"What do you think?" Alec asked.

"I like to believe that he's out there somewhere." Isabelle smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry." Alec said.

"So, you're the new guy." A blond man drawled.

"Jace." Isabelle hissed, "Behave."

Alec stared at the other man, he'd learned that his parents had taken in an orphan after his disappearance but he had never bothered to look farther into it; it felt like they had been replacing him, and he had heard how proud they were of the boy's skills, where they had never had a kind word for Alec.

"James Leander." Alec introduced himself, holding his hand out to his sister.

"Isabelle, and this is Jace." Isabelle smiled, taking the offered hand.

Jace rolled his eyes as Izzy filrted with the new guy, James Leander didn't seem interested and he seemed really uncomfortable but trying to tell Izzy that was like trying to get Warlock Bane to arrive on time, in other words next to impossible.

Jace studied the man, his red hair was fake and Jace noticed the way he itched at his eyes, which told him he probably wore contacts. The man was tall, taller than him and thin, Jace wondered if he'd see ribs if the man took his shirt off.

The man was hiding something, it was either he was hiding his real identity or he didn't want to be recognised, Jace wanted to know why, and he'd figure it out, with or without his Parabatai's help.

"Jace." Izzy said sharply, "Stop being so suspicious, my Parabatai."

James watched them with those brown eyes and seemed almost upset at that revealtion.

"Problem, Leander?" Jace snarled.

The man shook his head, "No." He said faintly.

Jace rolled his eyes, the man better find a backbone if he wanted to survive here at the New York Institute.

Alec settled into his room, at least he hadn't seen his parents, apparently a young woman named Lydia Branwell was in charge of the Institute, and had been since Jace had brought a unRuned Shadowhunter and her mundie friend turned Vampire to the Institute.

Served his parents right, at least now the Downworlder got a chance at a fair investigation, Alec had only ever heard good things about the Branwell girl, except for the death of her fiance.

Alec shuddered, Isabelle had been flirting with him, he was sure of it and it freaked him out but he couldn't get her to stop without revealing one of two things, one of which was the reason he had run away.

Alec threw himself on his bed and threw his arm over his eyes, he was not going to tell Isabelle that they were brother and sister, that was just asking his parents and the Clave to show and they were going to have trouble enough with Valentine's Circle members, they didn't need the Clave trying to be helpful.

And he couldn't tell her the other thing, he didn't know how she would react, maybe if he hadn't run away she'd have hugged him tightly and reassured him that love was love and he deserved to be loved and love someone no matter their gender, but he had run and this woman that he had met wasn't the young girl he'd abandoned, he was alone, as he always had been.

Alec sighed and settled down to sleep, he'd have a long day fighting for some measure of respect from Jace tomorrow.

He wondered what was going on in that man's mind before deciding that it didn't matter in the long run, he wasn't going to be here long enough for it to matter.

Even if Jace was a very handsome man.

Alec fell asleep with a little smile on his face, maybe he'd dream about him, not like he could hope for anything else, but a man can dream, maybe later down the road he'd be able to slip away and go dancing with someone, let them take him home and have a good time.

Alec sighed softly in his sleep as he dreamed a soft dream, knowing that nothing within would ever happen with Jace, even a blind man could see that he'd chosen to love Valentine's daughter, there would be no other for him and Alec would only have dreams where he wouldn't be cast from his world for loving who he wanted.

And just inside the doors of the Institute Isabelle Lightwood used the lit candle from the alter to light another, changing the nearly burnt out candle for the new one.

"I miss you, Alec, I hope you're out there some place and that you're happy and safe." Izzy smiled, tearfully, "Jace is making friends as usual, the new guy arrived today, I think maybe you would have liked him, he's good, I can tell. Good night, big brother, where ever you are."

Izzy stood up and headed to her own bed, they had to convince Warlock Bane to redo the Wards tomorrow and that was going to be fun and James Leander might just learn a thing or two about the way they ran their Institute.