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It’s nearly dawn when Alec, Isabelle, and Jace end their patrol and complete their debriefings before handing things off to the morning crew. Most of the time Alec would want nothing more than to vanish for some much-needed, and well-earned, rest… but today he’s feeling a little nostalgic.
Maybe it’s the way the three of them worked together, just like old times, with Alec covering with his bow from a distance while Isabell and Jace got up close and personal with a few demons throughout the night. Watching Isabelle and Jace engage in some friendly sibling bickering on the walk back to the Insitute left Alec feeling like he was a teenager again for a few seconds, back when things were simpler and the three of them had a lot fewer responsibilities on their plates.
Suddenly the only thing Alec wants is to end this night the way they used to end all of their overnight patrols when they were kids.
“Hey,” Alec says, glancing from Jace to Isabelle. “Want to go up to the roof?”
“What I want is a shower,” Isabelle says, glancing down at the thin coating of grime, dirt, and ichor on her arms and clothing.
Jace nods in agreement. “And my bed,” he adds for good measure.
“Yeah, but…” Alec starts, glancing out the window to where the pitch black of night is just starting to soften along the edge of the horizon, and sighs. Of course they’re tired - so is he, if he’s being honest - and it seems silly to ask them to stay up just to indulge him in a bit of reminiscing. “Nevermind.”
Maybe they can hear the disappointment in his tone, or maybe they can just sense it, the way siblings who grew up so close together always seem to know exactly how to read each other’s smallest cues. No matter how they know, they do know, and both move to stop Alec before he can walk away.
“Wait,” Jace says, glancing at Izzy just long enough to share a look that conveys an unspoken understanding.
“The shower will be there in an hour,” Izzy says.
“So will my bed,” Jace adds.
“No, really guys, it’s fine,” Alec tries to dismiss. “It was stupid.”
“I mean, you don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to,” Jace says, already turning to head towards the hallway that’ll lead to the stairs.
“Yeah, we can totally just go without you,” Izzy adds, following Jace’s lead.
Alec rolls his eyes but can’t help the overwhelming endearment he feels towards his siblings just then as he turns to follow the pair of them toward the roof. Everyone always thinks Alec’s the selfless one, and maybe that’s true a lot of the time, but he isn’t the only one. This is just one of many moments he could cite of Jace and Izzy going out of their way to cheer him up or indulge in one of his random whims, even when he knows it’s the last thing either of them actually wants to do just then.
“Tonight did feel a lot like old times, didn’t it?” Jace says as they step out onto the roof, reading Alec’s mind on exactly why he wanted to come up here in the first place.
“Raziel, how long has it been since we did this?” Izzy asks rhetorically since they all know it’s been years.
Without having to ask, or even pause to see what the others are doing, the three of them immediately settle into their old spots - sitting so that their legs dangle over the edge of the roof, with Alec in the middle, Jace to his left, and Izzy to his right. Jace and Izzy both lean in to rest against Alec’s shoulders and they sit like that, silently watching the sun start to rise and the first proper beams of morning light hit the Insitute.
They stay there for five, ten, fifteen minutes, watching the morning patrols leave and head out toward the city and some of the overnight stragglers make their way back inside. Twenty minutes, twenty-five, thirty.
The whole time they don’t say a word. Alec starts to wonder if maybe they fell asleep on him, but a quick glance to either side shows his siblings watching ahead of them the same as he is, simply content in the view and each other’s presence. It’s what they used to do, coming up here to appreciate the light that followed even the darkest, most terrifying of nights during their earlier years. And even though tonight wasn’t particularly terrifying it’s still nice to sit and reflect and remember how far they’ve come together, from then to now.
“Thanks for coming up here with me,” Alec says quietly, finally breaking the silence. “I really needed this.”
“I think we all did,” Jace says. “We just didn’t realize it.”
“Yeah,” Izzys’ quick to agree. “This was perfect.”
Alec wraps his arms around Jace and Izzy and gives them both a tight squeeze before they get up and head inside to finally get a shower and some sleep.