Room 401, Wednesday Morning

[nottrivial]

Alec had spent the last few days pretty consistently upset, and today wasn't much better. Even training in the gym late last night for twice his usual time hadn't helped at all, which was probably because those sessions were good for working off anger and frustration, and Alec wasn't really angry or frustrated, just... sad.

He showered and got dressed and thought long and hard about skipping class today, and then he flung himself back into bed, thinking darkly about how utterly unimpressed his parabatai would be if he saw this pathetic display of heartsickness.

[[open post!]]

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[seveninchmotto]

So much effort made. Isabelle slipped in through the door, closing it behind herself. Not even because she was expecting to need any particular privacy, but because she was used to the Institute and having less people around. And definitely less wandering mundies.

"Hello, big brother," she said, before actually taking a look at him. "Is something wrong?"

[nottrivial]

"Good to see you too," Alec groused. It was pointless to deflect, Alec. Which he apparently realized, as the next thing out of his mouth was "Sparkle and I might be broken up."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

You know, after all the recent drama that had seemed to revolve around them staying together into the forseeable future.

[nottrivial]

"Not really." It was a break-up in only 34 pings, Alec! That counted as fast! "We dated for almost a year."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant," she said, as she strode over to take a seat on the edge of his bed. "Weren't you admonishing me to back off just last week? Did I imgaine that? Because if I did</>, I will very seriously need to rethink my priorities on what I bother imagining."

[nottrivial]

Alec scooted back against the headboard to give her some room, bending his knees and pulling up his long legs against his chest. The effect was that he looked even more pathetic, yes.

"Yes," he said tightly. No need to worry about your imagination running wild, Izzy! "I think that I... told him about it wrong."

[seveninchmotto]

"Alec, there is no way you could ever tell him about it so wrong that it'd merit a breakup."

Okay, she supposed there were ways. But it wasn't like she was going totake Sparkle's side about anything now. Come on.

[nottrivial]

That was the best part of having this conversation with her, in a way. "I don't know," Alec mumbled. "He told me to get out and stay out of his face."

Sounded like a breakup to him. Not that he had much any knowledge of how such things were supposed to go.

[seveninchmotto]

"That does sound like a breakup," Isabelle admitted.

By which she meant she'd maybe said approximately the same thing to a guy or two over the last couple of years. Although she had more of a habit of dismissing boys as boring when she got tired of them.

[nottrivial]

Isabelle was classy that way.

Alec exhaled slowly. "I just asked him to not insult you," he said. "I didn't think he'd start yelling about how unfair that was."

Some people might make an effort to avoid making their sister feel like she was a factor in their breakup in order to spare her feelings, but Alec really didn't think that was an issue here.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle's feelings were hard to hurt like that. If she looked like a factor in a breakup, then she had to doubt the strength of the relationship to begin with.

"I would've." That probably wasn't very helpful. "Look, if he broke up with you over that, then he's an idiot."

[nottrivial]

"He's not an idiot," Alec protested, more to his own knees than to Isabelle. "I just... think you were right when you said it's hard to tell what goes on in his head."

Because he was completely stumped on this one.

[seveninchmotto]

"Well, obviously." Isabelle didn't think mundanes could fully understand Shadowhunters, and she happened to think the opposite to be equally true. She carded her hand back through her hair, watching him. "He's not like us. How could his logic work like ours?"

[nottrivial]

"Yeah," Alec said, and even though he hadn't expected Isabelle to say anything other than that, it was still a relief to find himself on the same page with someone about this. It hit him suddenly that he had really missed her, before she'd shown up here. "He thinks in terms of bullies and victims. Like that's what you were doing."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle raised both her eyebrows. "Really?" she asked, sounding vaguely surprised and a bit affronted. "That doesn't even make sense. Doesn't bullying generally involve a little more repetition?"

She was not going to argue with the victim part, however. She knew how terrifying she could be.

"I waited an entire year to show up again."

[nottrivial]

"Really?" Alec was kind of startled by that, yeah. "He made it sound like there'd been all these visits to where he works." Two visits spread out over a year didn't sound very terrifying at all. Not to Alec, anyway. "And he thought you were scaring him for fun."

That was a note of almost disgusted impatience in Alec's voice, oh yes.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle huffed out a laugh. It wasn't particularly amused or joyful, though. "Oh trust me, I have much better things to do for fun."

Granted, it had still been a little bit amusing. But that had hardly been the point.

"I went to the store when I was here for Parents Weekend, and then again when I moved here, and I didn't see him again until his little freakout at the dance. Really, I have better things to do than stalk Sparkle. The clothes at his store aren't even my style."

[nottrivial]

"Better than the other store he works at once a week," Alec said wryly. "Dite's something."

Well. Dite's had its uses.

"I sometimes think that he just... prefers seeing the world as if he's the victim and everyone is out to get him, on purpose," he said slowly, after a moment. "Like when he and I went shopping and he was convinced he was going to get arrested for looking suspicious just because his -- his hair looks the way it does, or something."

[seveninchmotto]

"It's atrocious, so I can see the logic behind that." That was mostly a joke, although she was not a huge fan of Sparkle's hair. "Other than that, it sounds like paranoia."

[nottrivial]

Alec also did not care for Sparkle's hair, so that made two of them. "Yeah, I guess," he said, sounding miserable.

"But I didn't want to break up with him, Iz."

[seveninchmotto]

"Well, by the sound of it, technically you didn't."

Because Sparkle had. Which wasn't much of a comfort, she knew, but she was almost as terrible at this as Jace. Still, she reached out to rub his arm wth her fingertips, head tilted thoughtfully to the side.

"My personal opinion is good riddance, but I know you don't feel like that."

[nottrivial]

Alec appreciated the arm-rubbing. He managed a smile that was forced, but grateful.

"What did you not like about him?" he wondered. "Other than all that. And him being a mundane."

[seveninchmotto]

"I'm actually fairly indifferent to him," Isabelle corrected him with an idle, light shrug. "Apart from the insults and the mundie stuff. I don't know him enough to dislike him like that, and I don't particularly feel like getting to know him, either."

Insults or no insults. She shrugged another time. None of it was personal. Was she the only one who knew that?

"All I ever cared about was that he doesn't hurt you."

[nottrivial]

Oh. Well. Oops.

"You're not going to hunt him down with your whip or something now, are you?" Alec asked warily.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle gave him a dry look.

"No."

Probably not.