Chapter Text
Alec didn’t seem happy. It was… peculiar, and sad and it made Jace feel guilty. He had a vague suspicion the past Alec, Alec with all his memories, would scold him for leaving, and as he watched this Alec, Alec who had a chance to do better…
As Jace watched him be alone and this new, better fate not finding him yet, he had half a mind to go back and kiss Alec and explain himself.
Truth be told, he knew he probably shouldn’t be stalking Alec at all. But a week passed, a few weeks. Jace kept following Alec threw CCTV a few times and maybe passed him on a street once or twice. Just to be sure.
A month passed, a few months, and Jace had come to hate his new life. It was weird, relearning to be on your own, finding his way around a flat that was too tiny, sleeping in a bed that way too cold, living in a world that was too empty.
He barely slept at all.
Nightmares haunted him, the ones that were long gone thanks to Alec, and so many times he woke up grabbing for his computer, desperately hacking into any camera near Alec, just praying he could catch a glimpse, just see him, for a moment.
He woke up in cold sweat that one night. The night that changed everything. He didn’t open his laptop, he didn’t move, he lay there until the sun was up and he wiped the silent tears from his cheeks.
He stayed offline all morning but the tiny flat was suffocating and he just needed air.
He needed Alec and Alec was his air and he shouldn’t but he wanted him back.
His legs carried him as if they had the will of their own and his mind was far away and he didn’t quite realize what he had done until he was standing on the street, looking at the familiar building, heart beating too fast.
As the sinking realization dawned on him, that he sought out Alec, that he subconsciously walked to his former boyfriend’s workplace.
Maybe... Maybe he should see him. Maybe he should explain. Go on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Alec would be getting his coffee in the shop on the corner right now.
Without thinking, Jace crossed the street, pushing the door to the establishment, eyes darting around.
And Alec was there.
He was the same as Jace remembered him. Tall and handsome and shining. And for the first time in weeks, Alec was smiling. He was smiling at the man sitting with him at the table, eating lunch with Alec .
He was smiling at the man who made him happy for the first time in months.
Jace didn’t pretend to get coffee. He walked out of the coffee shop and run to his overly small flat, throwing himself on the bed and crying.