United: Isabelle comes to terms with Jace
A quick little one-shot, not really a spoiler for City of Lost Souls. Isabelle's comment at the end was mentioned while she is mourning/being nostalgic about Jace, but that's pretty much it.
DISCLAIMER: blah blah blah TMI isn't mine blah blah blah blah...*goes into fine print*
"Well?" Isabelle asked over breakfast. "Is there anything you'd like to tell me? Why are you two in gear?"
Jace stared at her coolly, his golden hair more striking than ever in the morning sunlight. "Why would you care?" He asked, challenging her with a sharp golden eye.
She hated how he could do that. How he could maintain that cool, calm mask and make her feel like he was staring into her soul with those golden eyes. He was younger than her and Alec, but had received his marks at the same time. Her parents treated him like their own son. Max idolized him. Alec idolized him. Hodge loved him. And for that, Isabelle hated him. She was supposed to be his big sister, and he was supposed to idolize her. But more often than not, she would find herself watching him train in awe. And he never regarded her with more than a glance.
"I want to know, because you had training yesterday and there's no need for you two to go parading around dressed like that. And if you won't tell me, Jace, I'm sure Alec will," she snapped before turning to her brother. "Care to explain?"
"Well if you must know," Alec started uncomfortably, "Hodge said I could go demon hunting if I took Jace with me, you know, just the two of us, and-"
Suddenly standing up (and almost taking the table with her), she yelled, "Alexander Gideon Lightwood, what did you say?", fork poised dangerously in hand. "Hodge said you could do what?"
"You heard him," Jace said. "Hodge said we could go demon hunting. And there's nothing you can do about it."
"But Alec's training isn't done! And you've never even tried to kill anything, Jace! And- oh never mind," she finished angrily, storming out.
"Isabelle wait-" Jace started, but she had already left the room.
"Forget about it," Alec said, "This is the first time I've gone without her or Mom or Dad, and I might get a chance to actually kill something," he said, stuffing the rest of his toast in his mouth. "I'm finished, let's go!"
"One second," Jace said, sounding distracted. He stood up and, following Isabelle's suit, left the room.
It didn't take long for him to find her, out of the whole Institute there was only one logical place she would be- sulking in her room. Finally, the elevator doors opened and he turned down the hall that led to all their rooms. When he walked in, though, he was astounded to see her lying on her back on the fluffy pink comforter and crying.
He stopped short. In the few months he's been there, he had never expected to witness such a thing. He had always thought Isabelle was strong, even stronger than him, and that it would take more than some small disagreement to make her cry.
"Izzy-" he started, his voice sounding surprisingly weak.
"Don't," she said, fighting to keep her voice even.
Jace laughed. "'Don't' is such a broad thing to say. Don't what? Don't breath? Don't dance? Don't ask Hodge to take off all his clothes and post pictures all over the internet?"
"Don't let anything happen to him," Isabelle said quietly. Then, she sat up and wiped the tears off her face. She hated crying, now more than ever. Finally, she squared her shoulders and said, "Jonathan Christopher Wayland, swear on the Angel's name that you won't let anything happen to him. Swear that you won't let him die."
Jace cast his eyes down. "I can't do that."
"Swear it!" she shrieked, surprised by the shrillness of her voice.
Jace was silent. "Izzy?" he asked, "Do you know what the parabatai oath is?"
"No," Isabelle said, suddenly caught off guard. "No, why?"
"Because," Jace said, assuming his usual pose- that of a maddeningly arrogant know-it-all, "It goes 'Wither thou goest, I will go; Where thou diest, will I die And there will I be buried: The Angel do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.' Trust me, after swearing that mouthful, I'm not planning on letting him die any time soon."
Isabelle thought for a second. "But... well... yeah, okay," she finally said, sounding distracted. "I trust you." But that didn't make her hate him any less. Why? she thought Why is he comforting me? Why do I need him like I need...Like I need the rest of my family?
"Oh, and one more thing," Jace said.
"What now?"
"Can I call you that?" Jace asked, a childish grin on his face.
Isabelle was confused for a second. "Call me what?"
"Well," he started bashfully. "Alec and Max always call you Izzy. And Isabelle's a nice name, it's just so long, and-"
A smile spread across Isabelle's face. "Sure, go ahead."
Both of them left her room and walked back through the winding hallways that led back to elevator, and when it opened they were faced with a very annoyed Alec.
"Well," he started, "That was certainly longer than a second. Unless time runs differently in Jace-topia."
"I'll have you know," Jace started, "That that was exactly one second in Jace-topia, which is, by the way, an extremely nice vacation spot. Especially for those as amazing as me." Then, turning to Isabelle, he said, "Hey Izzy, why aren't you dressed?"
Isabelle stared back at him blankly. "Dressed for what?"
"Well, aren't you coming with us?"
"But," Alec started, sounding genuinely disappointed, "It was supposed to be just the two of us! You're first time demon hunting-"
"Yeah," Isabelle started. "Since when was I tagging along?"
"We're a team," Jace said firmly.
"No," Alec replied equally firmly. "We're a team," he said, touching the parabatai mark on his collar bone. "You and I."
"We need her with us; she's the best there is. Aside from me, of course."
She had loved him just for that.