Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the song that this is based off. Just the plot.
So, here's another one-shot guys! This time it's Simon and Isabelle (from The Mortal Instruments) and how I think their first date went, which is based on 5 Seconds Of Summer's song Long Way Home (the acoustic version) because I put that playlist on shuffle and this was the first song. I recommend listening to the song (remember, the acoustic version!) if you want to get the feel of this one-shot. It's a really lovely song, and is my favourite at the moment.
I also wrote this based off a song on my 5SOS playlist to commemorate me going to see them live tomorrow night on their Rock Out With Your Socks Out tour. I'm so excited!
Anyway, do listen to the song. I will convert you to the 5SOS Fam if it's the last thing I do, unless you're already a part of it.
Long Way Home
Simon wanted to go back. Go back to the times when Isabelle and himself just hung out whenever they could, whenever they could. He didn't mind if it was just as friends, or when they were dating. He just wanted to spend time with the beautiful girl who had kept a secret for her parents, which in turn made her afraid to fall in love. Simon particularly wanted to go back to their first date together; he had packed a picnic and drove her to the outskirts of town. A place he had found one day when he was younger and never forgot about; an old school, long abandoned, but still in quite good condition. When it was just them two, it felt like they were far away from everything, in the middle of nowhere. It was a place only they shared together, with no one else. Simon never even took Clary there with him. Simon hoped Isabelle could remember the memories they made on that first date; the fireflies that lit up the world around them when they had stayed out longer than they were supposed to, telling each other stories of what might have happened if there were no Shadowhunters, and that they were just both normal people who had met by chance, maybe in high school.
Even if she didn't remember those things, at least he did. At least he remembered them both sitting in the school yard on the picnic blanket, just relaxing with each other under the darkening sky, Isabelle telling him stories about Shadowhunters and himself telling Isabelle about stories of mundanes. Simon can even remember how he had brought his guitar with him. He may be a bass player, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to play the acoustic guitar. He remembered how he started strumming, and Isabelle had surprised him by knowing the song and started singing. She may not have been a good singer but she wasn't terrible either, and his voice soon joined hers in harmony. As he had strummed the chords for their next song, he remembered thinking that this, where they were right now at that moment, was their reality; not the Shadowhunting, or the arguments between their friends, but just them two hanging out as more than friends. It was crazy, sitting there on the outskirts of town in an abandoned school yard, and it was stupid because they could have been caught trespassing at any time, but it was their way of letting go of all the stress their combined lives had brought.
Simon remembered when it got dark and it was well past the time he was going to take her out for, but he liked spending time with her so he didn't really care. He remembered retrieving an old blanket from the van he had borrowed again so they could wrap it around themselves to keep warm. As he sat with her, Simon knew that it had taken a lot of time for them to get where they are now, considering she didn't like him at first and pretty much ignored him whenever he was around. He knew that she had just seen him as a liability at first before they started getting to know each other and become friends before he had finally plucked up the courage to ask her out. Simon remembered how sitting there with Isabelle wrapped up in a blanket felt like a dream, like it wasn't real as it was perfect and warm and they were getting along better than they had before. Simon knew that that night was when they really connected together and began to get on like a house on fire fuelled by kerosene.
Simon could also see in Isabelle's eyes that that night was when she had realised that he would never let her down no matter what. He knew she had been expecting something amazing to sweep her off her feet, but their first date was amazing in its own way despite not being the conventional romantic first date to dinner or anything. Even huddled in the thick blanket, they continued to sing along to Simon playing the guitar, owning the town in their own little duo concert as they watched the sky turn from the dark blue of the night to the light blue of dawn. It really felt like they were in their own fairy tale, that they were not in reality but in something that was make-believe. Looking back, Simon felt like that night was like a scene from a romantic movie, one in which they wrote their own script to.
When they had both decided it was time to go back into town to bed, Simon was reluctant for it to end. He also got the feeling that Isabelle didn't want it to end either though she never said so. That early morning, Simon felt like something was going his way for once; they had hit every red light on the way back to the Institute which had extended their time together where they just sat in comfortable silence, not having to say anything to each other. And despite it being the best date he had ever gone on, not that he had gone on much dates, Simon also wanted it to end on an even higher note. Instead of waiting to get to the Institute to drop her off, Simon kissed her at the first stop sign he came across. After that, they couldn't help but kiss each other softly at every stop sign on the way, only pulling away whenever a horn sounded behind them to get them moving, with Green Day playing in the background like it was a soundtrack to their morning. Simon knew that they both felt like what was between them was right, and dating would actually make everything in life alright as long as they had each other.
That early morning, Simon took the long way back to the Institute, not wanting their perfect first date to end. He didn't think he would ever be able to top it. However, he also took the long way back because he didn't like the thought of driving back to his house by himself and not having anyone else with him. Driving the long way made him feel like he wanted to drive Isabelle out of town to anywhere as long as they could drive forever with each other, taking shifts at the wheel, and maybe even get lost in the world. They would talk about everything and nothing at the same time, have meaningless conversations that weren't meaningless at all, and even have their sing-alongs to the radio that would play softly in the background. Simon had smiled at the thought.
When they reached the Institute, Simon turned the headlights off just in case he disturbed anyone at the early hour. He had walked Isabelle to the door like the gentleman he was brought up to be and they gave each other a kiss goodnight even though it was now early morning the next day. When Isabelle told him that they were going to take it slow, he couldn't argue because after all, he knew she was hesitant about falling in love and he wasn't ever going to let her down. And if every date after that ended in Simon taking the long way home, well no one but them needed to know.