"Right come on Mr Hot Shot." Casey teased. "Knock me on my ass. It'll make you feel better."

"Wow, and you call me suggestive." He retorted, throwing a staff at him, which he caught with ease.

"Mind out of the gutter Alexander." Casey rolled his eyes, causing Alec to smirk. "Clary's at the library, some rune crap or something. I didn't really listen to her. But she promised me she won't leave."

"And you believe her?" Alec arched his eyebrows as he approached Casey.

"It's Clary. She's like a child that you've told can't have a cookie. They'll take the whole jar. So no, I don't believe her. But if she gets up to anything we'll find her. She's not the most subtle of people." Casey replied.

He put the staff down momentarily to take off his leather jacket revealing a string top underneath, his bare arms decorated in many runes. "That is a lot of runes." Alec whistled.

"I know. I just want to be prepared. Downside is I have to use that bastards stele." He growled and Alec's eyes narrowed in confusion. Casey realised that Alec didn't know what he meant and so he elaborated. "The stele I use, it's not mine. It's Valentine's, courtesy of my mother. Guess it's the least of my problems though. Right come on."

Alec advanced, but Casey blocked his attack and the two were thrown into a playful combat. "Your mother's a bitch, babe. Not going to lie." Casey snorted as he dodged Alec's attack.

"You get used to it." He sighed. "I suppose all mothers are hard on their children."

"Mine isn't. She's kind and caring and loving, and I think the only time she shouted at me was when I decided I was going to attempt to paint my room with markers. I got about a tenth of the wall coloured before my marker ran out."

Alec laughed and shook his head. "Why did you do that?"

"Because Luke had painted my room blue."

"Don't all little boys love blue?" Alec questioned, crinkling his nose.

"Not me. I wanted my room pink, so I took matters into my own hands." Casey said smugly.

"How old were you?"

"Seven." Casey admitted sheepishly and Alec chuckled. Casey stopped mid attack and froze. Alec dropped his staff and looked at him.

"Casey, what's wrong?"

"I just remembered something. My mum, she had this box. She didn't think either Clary or I knew about it, but we did. She took it out on the same day every year and would cry over it. It had the initials J.C on it and I thought it belonged to our father."

"But your father is Valentine." Alec stated and Casey sighed.

"I know that, but for the last eighteen years I had believed that his name was Jonathan Clark. But when we were talking there something just clicked and I -" Casey stooped mid sentence, his eyes drifting up to Alec's. Could he trust him with this? Would his position in the institute complicate things?

"Casey, what is it?" Alec pressed and Casey walked to the bench and sat down. Alec followed him, taking his hands in his. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Yeah, but would I be telling my kinda boyfriend or a member of the institute?" He retorted.

Alec didn't reply instantly, he only looked at Casey. He didn't know what he was going to say, but whatever it was it seemed to be troubling him. "You'd be telling your boyfriend." He replied, smiling softly and Casey sighed in relief.

"I always thought that the box belonged to my father, and maybe it does . . . but I don't think that it does."

"Well who do you think it belongs to then?"

"My brother." Casey replied finally.

"Your brother?" Alec echoed loudly and Casey hissed at him to be quiet.

"Yes my brother Alec. I have a brother. Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern." Casey announced and Alec's eyes widened to the point where Casey thought that they were going to roll out of his head.

"Casey if your brother is still alive he could be on Valentine's side. This information could change everything. We should tell -" Alec babbled and Casey stopped him mid sentence.

"Alec, you cannot tell anyone this. That is the whole point. Please, promise me you won't tell anyone." Casey stared at Alec pleadingly and he nodded, apologising and gesturing for him to continue with his story. "When my memories started coming back I would constantly see a set of twins. One had black hair and the other had white hair. I watched as the twins grew from babies into toddlers, seeing their earliest memories. My earliest memories.

"My mum told me that the dark haired boy in those memories was me, but I never got to tell her about Jonathan, my twin. The majority of the memories I have of him are blurry, most of them only mentioning him rather than him actually being there. But I remember the day my mum left Valentine. I was crying, telling her that we couldn't leave my dad or Jonathan behind, and so she lied to me. She told me that we were only playing a game of hide and seek and I believed her.

"And so I left my father and my brother and I never saw either of them again. In my memories, Valentine is not the monster that he is now, you have to understand that Alec. He was kind and loving and simply adored Jonathan and I. He would take us out into this meadow that we had by our house and would cheer Jonathan and I on as we raced up the hill. He loved his children and we loved him. And the memory that the demon wanted to take from me, that was Jonathan, and I couldn't lose him. Not a second time."

Tears streamed down Casey's face as he told Alec everything, sometimes having to stop to catch his breath or wait for the sobbing to stop. His heart hurt at the thought of his twin brother and what his father had once been. He loved Jonathan with all his heart, the fact that the demon had wanted to take that memory showed that he was the one that he loved the most.

And yet he had left him. Yes, he was only a child, but maybe if he hadn't of left things would've been different. Maybe Jonathan would still be here with him.

"And now Valentine is some sort of monster and I can't allow myself to think that Jonathan is the same. I want my brother back Alec. I don't know what had happened to him Alec. I left him and I don't know what happened." He cried and Alec pulled him into his arms, allowing him to cry. He ran his hands through his hair as he rocked him back and forth, offering him hushed words of comfort.

Alec couldn't imagine the pain that he was going through. The pain that he had had to suffer on his own. If Alec ever lost Isabelle it would make him go insane. And for Casey to have lost his twin, to not know what had happened to him - that was a burden that no one should have to face.

And so all he could do was comfort him as his body quivered and his sobs filled the room. As his sorrow and guilt consumed him.

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