AN: beta'd by allcequinn on tumblr, title is from fearless by taylor swift.

Taylor Swift's Love Story starts drifting out of Clary's bag. She hastily de-glamorizes before picking up to her phone to see that Isabelle is calling. That's strange. What could she have to say that can't be put in a text?

"Clary," Isabelle says, her tone urgent.

"What's wrong? Is everyone okay?"

Izzy laughs. "Ohmygod, yes. I mean, except for me. I may never be okay again." Clary can hear another muffled laugh through the phone, and some artsy music in the background. It sounds oddly familiar, but she can't place it.

"Seriously, what's up?" she says, tapping her fingers against the cool metal of the subway pole.

"I changed my mind, we have to talk in person. This is too good."

"Okay," Clary says, drawing it into two distinct syllables. "Be there soon." She ends the call, and spends the rest of the subway ride wondering what this is about.

She's burning with curiosity by the time she opens the Institute's heavy doors, and sprints up the stairs. Clary may be in the best shape of her life, but she's still panting hard when she stops in front of Izzy's door. She catches her breath, and then knocks.

"Clary?" Izzy calls from inside.

She steps into Izzy's room to see Izzy perched on her bed with a laptop in front of her. "What is it?" Clary hops onto the bed next to Izzy, who shuts the laptop before she can see what is on its screen.

"So," Izzy says, smirking. "Tell me about what you did after high school."

"Okay, um. Before I applied to art school, I took a couple of community college courses over the summer, with some friends." Clary doesn't see how any of this could be relevant, unless— Oh. Oh, oh, oh. "Dammit, Justin! He said it was for film class!"

Isabelle's smirk only grows. "I thought we could watch it together," she says, opening the laptop again and making a show of wiping a smudge off the screen.

"No, really," Clary protests halfheartedly, "it's not my best work, and there's almost no nudity, you're not getting—"

"Not your best? As in, there's more?"

"No, oh my god," Clary says, punching Isabelle in the shoulder lightly. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Almost no nudity?"

Clary swallows. "I may have been convinced to wear an ever-so-slightly see-through top. But I mean, this was a year ago. Things have changed up there, if you know what I mean." God, what is she saying? Although really, nothing that she says could possibly embarrass her more than what they're both about to watch. Isabelle's never going to be able to look at her the same again.

Izzy answers that remark with a quick glance at her chest. She raises her eyebrows, and Clary laughs. "Just play it already," she says.

Isabelle hits play, and the scene begins to unfold. All you can see in the little thumbnail is Clary, wearing a flower crown and staring off into a nature scene. Her costar is introduced about ten seconds into the video. When Anya, a blond woman that Justin said he met at the food co-op, walks onscreen, Clary watches for Isabelle's reaction. For her to stiffen up, maybe inch away. But she doesn't.

There's a fair bit of bird chirping and dramatic eye contact before it gets porn-y, and some weirdly complicated camerawork, too; it actually was for a class. When Clary and Anya finally kiss, Isabelle breaks out into giggles.

"What? Are you laughing at my acting? I worked hard on this, you know."

"It kind of seemed like it was never going to happen. Like, I know this is supposed to be porn, but I thought you two were just going to dance around in the forest for the whole thing."

"How did you even find this? Wait, were you— Are you—?" Clary minimizes the video player and takes in what's on the screen. "Is this a lesbian porn site?"

"Okay, you do not get to judge me. You starred in lesbian porn."

"Softcore lesbian porn," she corrects. She's deflecting, and Isabelle's deflecting, which would suggest that they're both hiding something. Given the circumstances, it's more than likely that they're hiding the same thing. There's no point in beating around the bush any longer.

"So you're gay?" Clary says, forcing herself to meet Izzy's gaze.

"My poor parents." Izzy shakes her head in mock seriousness, and just like that, the tension is broken.

"Maybe you and Alec can each marry a beard and do some kind of swap," Clary suggests.

"Ugh, would you really want to be married to Alec, even just on paper? My brother is such a drag." Isabelle frowns, realizing what she just implied. " Caray. Not that– Uh."

Clary smiles at her, savoring the moment. "Isabelle Lightwood, do you know I have never seen you flustered before?"

"Can we get back to embarrassing you now?" she says, regaining her usual composure, but not quite managing to look Clary in the eye.

"Wait, Iz." Clary pushes the computer away again. "I, um. I'd totally marry Alec. I'd marry Eric if it meant I got to be with you." Terrible slam poetry Eric.

"That's very sweet of you, Clary, but you can't distract me that easily," Izzy says, pressing play again.

Clary slumps over onto Izzy shoulder as soon as the credits begin to roll. (Justin is exactly the kind of filmmaker that puts credits at the end of softcore porn.) "What did you think?" she says.

Isabelle pretends to consider. "Hmm, maybe three stars? Three and a half?

"I didn't know you were such a connoisseur," Clary scoffs. "Besides, I'm sure I could do much better now. And me and Anya had like, zero chemistry."

Isabelle nods, still wearing her dog show judge face. "How would it go with someone you did have chemistry with?

"Well, I would start off like this." Clary goes for a lazy, sexy tone of voice, but she probably just sounds anxious instead. That's how she feels, anyway. She reaches out, cups Isabelle's jaw tentatively. Izzy leans into the touch, and Clary goes on, her confidence bolstered. "And then maybe this," she murmurs, a millimeter from Izzy's lips.

She smirks, not closing the gap between them, until Isabelle grabs her face and kisses the grin right off of it.

They don't get as far as the video does that day. When they do, there's more giggling, and significantly less wildlife, but Clary doesn't need dramatic camera angles to feel something real.