Because I Love You

Get Warmed Up

The next day, Alec walked into the institute training room with Ally in his arms. Magnus was going shopping and Alec wanted to start to introduce Ally into the Shadowhunting life early though with her being less than year old he wasn't going to let her handle any weapons. Looking around the room, Alec could see that Jace hadn't yet arrived and he decided to show Ally around the room a little bit.
"This is the training room baby girl. We learn how to fight in here with different weapons." Alec told Ally. He walked over to a rack of swords and held Ally so she could see them properly.
"These are some swords. Now they're very sharp so we don't play with them." Ally looked over at the swords and then up at Alec. She didn't have a clue what was happening, all she knew was that they were in a strange place that wasn't home.
"Alec." Came Jace's voice from the doorway. "She couldn't care less. She's a baby for gods sake. She doesn't understand." Alec span to look at Jace. He saw the uncomfortable look on his parabatai's face and sighed.
"Jace I'm sorry..." Alec said. Jace just shrugged but he refused to meet his parabatai's eyes.
"Don't worry about it."
"Jace I am worrying because this isn't like you. Talk to me." Jace payed him no attention and instead he walked over to the target that was painted on the wall. He took five paces away from it and removed a set of throwing knives from his belt.
"Just get warmed up." Jace commanded. Alec quickly set up a play pen for Ally and put all her favourite toys in the pen with her.
"Now you stay in there baby girl whilst daddy beats up nasty uncle Jace." Ally looked at him and giggled before grabbing her favourite bear and cuddling it. "Oh my precious girl."
"Since when have you been able to beat me up dear Alec?" Jace asked as he threw a throwing knife at the target. There was a low thud as it struck just outside of the centre ring. Jace scowled and slightly altered his position before throwing another knife. This time it struck dead centre in the board and he smiled proudly.
"One day I'll do it dear Jace. I will beat you."
"Try it then. Now." Jace said as he threw the rest of the throwing knives, one after another into the target board. Before he even had chance to turn around, Alec tackled him to the floor and tried his absolute hardest to pin him. Jace rolled over so Alec was on the bottom and pinned his legs down. Wrestling one of his arms free, Alec punched Jace in the face and whilst he was stunned Alec kicked up and broke free from him. Scrambling away, Alec stood up and took up a defensive stance a couple of feet from Jace.

It took Jace a few seconds to get back onto his feet but he had a slight smile on his face.
"So that's how it's going to be is it?" He asked as he bounced lightly on his feet.
"Let's show my baby girl how Shadowhunter's really fight." Alec said with a challenging edge to his voice. "Watch this Ally. Daddy is going to kick uncle Jace's butt." Ally was sitting in her playpen, holding her bear close. She hadn't been paying much attention to either Jace or Alec until they tumbled to the ground. She watched the two of them fight for a while before she lost interest and played with one of her noise making toys. She loved the rattling that it made when she shook it.

The next time that Ally looked up from her toys was when Jace fell over right next to the playpen. The sudden noise startled her and she burst out crying.
"Da! Da!" She shrieked and held her arms up to be picked up. Alec jogged over to the pen but before he reached it Jace swung his leg out and took Alec's legs out from under him. Alec hit the ground with a thud which only made Ally cry harder.
"Jace enough. She's distressed." Alec said as he picked himself up off the floor. He closed the distance between himself and the pen in three steps and picked up a wailing Ally before holding her close. Bouncing her lightly in his arms, Alec soothed Ally until her crying became silence. Jace looked up at them and smiled though there was jealousy eating away at him. Alec had everything that he himself wanted, except for the freewheeling bisexual warlock. Jace always thought that he'd be the first to get engaged and have kids but Alec had beaten him to it. It wasn't that he wasn't happy for Alec, in fact he was overjoyed for him. It was that, after all the fighting and arguments, they still managed to stay strong. When he and Clary argued they would often avoid each other for days until one of them eventually gave in. He wanted to know Alec's secret of how they could be so happy after everything they'd gone through together.
"Jace..?" Alec asked uncertainly.
"Yeah?" Jace responded automatically.
"You're staring..." Alec said cautiously. Jace snapped his focus away and looked down at the floor that had a pool of sweat collecting on it.