One Shot (heavenly fire spoilers)
"This weather is just terrible, "Simon remarked.
"Just terrible? Not horrible or discussing at all?"
"Yeah, those too."
Simon and I sat on a bench in the institute. It was weird to see him decked out in shadowhunter gear. But today was our first day of training, and I wasn't sure if I was prepared for it. Simon had done a good job with memorizing runes, and he even took his first rune like a champ. But it wasn't the training I was particularly worried about. It was after...
"Okay. We're ready," Jace said, hanging himself on the door way with his right arm and head poking out. Simon went in first.
"Go easy on him. I still need him conscious when training is over."
"I won't be training him," Jace informed. "Isabelle is."
"Oh great."
Jace quirked a smile and we followed Simon into the training room
The training room was all set up. Beams twelve feet stood four feet apart. Up on the balcony were strings and a flip cage. Knives and swords decorated the wall, not nearly as much as those in the weapons room, but they were put here for convenience only. Targets ranged at different distances stood to the right of the weapons, the classic red circles creating an illusion for the eye. Dim light poured in from the large glass windows, revealing floating specs of dirt, and giving everything a bluish- grey hue.
"So what's first?" Simon asks. Isabelle appears with a sword in both hands and tosses one to Simon. It was by luck that he didn't catch it by the blade, and with his new found shadowhunter speed, he was able to catch the hilt in the time that she'd given him.
"You learn how to hold a sword." Simon looks down on it. It's not the first time he's even held a sword, but it was the first time he learned how to do it right.
"Wow. A lot different from D and D." I could hear Isabelle as she rolled her eyes.
"Find balance first." I advised. "If you don't have a balance, you don't have anything." I remember Jace saying that to me when he taught me. A faint smile played on his lips.
"Okay." Simon placed his feet under him and then looked up and Isabelle. She shook her head.
"No. Not like that. Put your dominant foot back, bend your knees to keep them loose, and try rocking back and forth like that. Face your opponent sideways, gives them less of a target." Simon rearranged himself the way Isabelle described, and swayed sideways.
"Good," Jace praised.
"Now raise your sword," Isabelle continued.
"Clary," Jace called. "Come here. I wanted to work on hand to hand combat."
Simon drops the sword to his waist, "Is that your way of saying-"
"Pay attention Simon." I say before he could finish the sentence. I wasn't harsh, and I could see the traces of a smile out of the corner of my eye as he watched Isabelle's demonstration on how to thrust the sword out.
He leads me over to the corner of the room, where neither Simon nor Isabelle can hear us talk.
"You know, if you really want to keep it a secret from him, you have to control the look on your face better. Has it really been worrying you that much?" Jace questions as I come closer.
"I'm just not sure he's ready. I want to do it, so badly, but I don't want to overwhelm him."
"From all the things that have happened in the past, I'm pretty sure he can take it. He has all of his memory back now, and it's not like he just became a shadowhunter yesterday."
"It feels like it. It feels like just a week ago we were pondering what to get Isabelle for Christmas when he was still a vampire. But it feels like a year ago that I was at his eighth grade soccer game." I shake my head, feeling a lot like a mom who wondered where the time has gone now that all her kids were grown up.
"Two years since I saw you two at Java Jones," Jace teased.
I snicker. "Three years since I burst open into the storage room at the Pandemonium Club."
"So the training went well." I look down at Simon. His hands were already bruised, and his arms were tired from constantly holding the heavy sword.
"Yeah, it was perfectly fine until I stepped into the training room."
"Well, if you want to catch up to me..."
"You know what? I'm surprisingly not that motivated anymore. I don't care if you can out-sword me. I'll stick to D and D."
"Simon."
"I know, I know. I'm supposed to take these things seriously. And I am. I promise. I didn't leave once, or complain once during training."
"I heard differently."
"Well, it's not like you were paying a whole lot of attention."
"I thought you'd might be embarrassed. You know, if you slipped up or something and there was two girls there to watch you do it." I shrug.
"Oh c'mon Clary, Simon is used to that." Jace stepped into view. The light from the windows caught the light parts of his hair, darkening the others, and created shadows on his sharp face. "Anyways, I'm going down to make lunch before Isabelle can get there, want to come?"
"Um, no thanks. I'll be down in a minute." I gave him a reassuring nod, and he seemed to catch on, so he left with a knowing smile. I took a deep breath.
"Everything okay, Clary?" I ask.
"Yeah. Everything's fine, there is just something I wanted to ask you."
"Well, I'll say Fray. Your timing is impeccable, but if you could have just announced your feelings for me maybe a couple months earlier-"
"Simon. This is serious. I mean, like, really serious." She sounded annoyed.
"Okay, okay. What's on your mind, Clary?"
"Simon, I wanted to ask something of you. This thing won't be easy, it will be hard for both of us, and I know you're really new to this shadowhunter thing but I can't wait any longer." She takes another deep breath. "I- I look at Jace and Alec and I see how well they know each other. Parabtai bond or not, they would still love each other like I love you. And I'm so happy to know that you're one of the few people that I know from the bottom up. I know most everything about you, and you can say the same for me. Not that this friendship isn't enough for me, but I think-" She stops herself. "No, I know that we were meant to be parabatai. So? Will you? Will you become my parabatai?"