I decided to write a fanfiction dedicated to Helen and Aline as they always seem to be a background couple. They are too adorable to not be the central couple in at least one fanfiction. This chapter is the start of their relationship, in the trip to Italy mentioned by Mark in the 'Stars to Burn' snippet on Tumblr.
If their is anything you liked/didn't like, or if there is anything you want to see in future chapters, let me know in the reviews.
I own nothing but the plot.
The clave had needed a handful of council members to go to the institute in Rome. The Shadowhunters there were dealing with a spike in demonic activity and they didn't have the numbers to deal with it. Helen Blackthorn had wanted to prove herself so volunteered to go. As her trip came closer, she found herself getting excited. She'd ways wanted to go to Italy and now she was finally getting the chance.
The day itself came, and she found herself outside the hall of accords. Everyone who had volunteered had been told to meet there to portal together. Looking around at the Shadowhunters around her, Helen almost felt sorry for the inhabitants at the Rome Institute. All the Shadowhunters around her were arseholes. The sort that thought they were the best thing to happen to the earth. Some had gone as far as to make a few racist comments to Helen for her faerie heritage. Helen hadn't let the comments get to her. She was just as much a Shadowhunter as the rest of them.
There was one Shadowhunter in their midst however that Helen actually liked: Aline Penhallow. She had sat next to Helen during a few council meetings and had made Helen laugh with her running commentary of the events: making sarcastic comments when someone said something stupid or the occasional puns. Aline had spotted Helen and grinned, and made a bee line for her. "Oh thank the angel you're here. I thought I would go mad with all these low lives. But now I have you" she said with a grin. Helen blushed slightly. "Well I'm glad I have some uses" Helen managed to get out. At some point she had realised she had developed some form of a crush on Aline and as a result found herself getting flustered whenever Aline started to talk to her. Thankfully the portal got opened, giving Helen a moment to compose herself before stepping into Italy with Aline by her side.
As it turned out, Helen and Aline had rooms next to each other. Aline very quickly decided that she wanted to spend as much time in Helens room than her own. Which was how she ended up sitting on Helens bed as Helen finished unpacking (they had been told that they would be there a while) merrily chatting away. Not that Helen minded in the slightest. "Who are they?" Aline asked, pointing at a photo Helen had put up by her bed stand. It was a photo she took with her everywhere.
"My family" Helen replied with, then picked up the photo and sat next to Aline on the bed. She pointed to each of the faces as she said who they were. "That's my Dad. He's essentially raised us on his own since our mother died. I did what I could to help though. Then there's Mark. He's my full brother, but the rest of the family don't treat us any differently. Julian, or 'Jules' as he'd rather be called is the painter of the family. The twins: Livia and Tiberius, well Livvy and Ty, are as inseparable as they are clever, which is very. Drusilla, or Dru, she seems to gravitate towards all things scary and wonders why she gets scared. Lastly there is baby Octavian who will no doubt want to shorten his name when he gets older" she said. There was a slight pause, as Aline took all the information in.
"I can't imagine being part of such a big family" Aline then said, and Helen couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. She didn't know too much about Aline but she knew she was an only child. "Sorry…I didn't mean to…" Helen started but Aline just laughed. "You have no reason to be sorry my dear I was simply stating" she said, and Helen found herself blushing again. Before either girl could say anything, someone was knocking on the door to inform them of a meeting about what they were doing about the Demon spike.
The next few weeks were filled with Demon Hunts and Patrols, as well as Aline and Helen spending a lot of time in each other's company. Helen spent a lot of time talking her family, and Aline would spend time talking to her mum. Life had settled into a routine and both Helen and Aline found themselves very much enjoying it. On the few occasions they weren't obliged to do any work or talk to people back home, Aline would convince Helen to go out on adventures with her. It was during one of these adventures the conversation between the two girls took a very honest and unexpected turn, not that either girl minded.
Aline had talked Helen into going to a café with her to people watch. Helen had been commenting on the attractiveness of a few of the men walking past, and Aline's response every single time had been to shrug and go "he's nice but he's not my type" or something similar. Helen's curiosity soon got the better of her and she found herself asking "so what exactly is your type then?" Aline just looked Helen straight in the face and simply went "you Helen Blackthorn, are my type" which of course made Helen blush an impressive shade of red. "Me?" Helen squeaked, then mentally kicked herself for sounding like an idiot.
Aline laughed then. "Yes you. How could you not be?" she asked, half surprised by Helen's reaction. Then something occurred to her. "Oh…you didn't know I was a Lesbian?" and Helen shook her head indicated that she didn't. That was the thing about Aline, she sometimes forgot that people didn't always know what she knew. "I've been questioning my sexuality for a while. It was seeing Alec kiss Magnus in the Hall of Accords that gave me the final bit of courage I needed to tell my parents I was a lesbian. It was a relief to do it after keeping it a secret for so long. I haven't felt the need to hide it anymore. I allowed myself to notice girls the way I wanted to. Then you came along and that was it" she said, and there was a pause as Helen just processed what Aline had just told her. She'd been crushing on Aline for a while, convinced the other girl was straight and wouldn't like her back and here she was admitting not only the fact she was a lesbian, but had been developing feelings for her.
It seemed Aline had taken Helens silence the wrong way, meaning that before Helen could even put together a response, Aline was already grabbing her things to make a quick and hasty exit. "I'm sorry…I just assumed that…oh by the angel I'm sorry" Aline had mumbled and had made a start down the street and started to hurry away. It was all Helen needed to get to her senses, run after her and grab Aline's wrist. "Aline if anything I should be the one apologising. The thing is, I've sort of had a crush on you for a while but assumed, wrongly assumed you were straight and saw me nothing more than just a friend. Then you go and admit you have feelings for me and my brain needed to process that it had finally heard what it had wanted to, meaning you thought I was not interested when I was very much so" she said and let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding.
"So what happens now?" Aline found herself asking. She had focussed so much on admitting her feelings to Helen she hadn't really thought further than that. Helen just grinned "say you'll be my girlfriend?" she asked with an air of hopefulness in her voice. Rather than give a verbal response, Aline just closed the gap and kissed Helen softly on the lips. "I've always wanted to do that" she whispered on taken a small step back.
Having paid for the coffee they had spent the first part of the day drinking, Helen and Aline found themselves walking round Rome hand in hand talking about whatever happened to pop into their heads. They found themselves laughing at absolutely anything and would spontaneously start singing much to the annoyance of anyone within earshot. By the time they returned to the Institute, everyone noticed their lift in mood. That night, just before she drifted off to sleep, Helen found herself thinking that, no matter what happened during the remainder of the trip, nothing could top the knowledge that she, Helen Blackthorn had a girlfriend in Aline Penhallow.