DISCLAIMER - I don't own anything, characters and places belong to the goddess that is Cassandra Clare!
"I got a call from Idris this morning," Maryse announced one evening at dinner. It was one of the rare times the Lightwood family – or what was left of it – dined together, as Magnus was on a business trip and Alec had resolved to stay at the Institute for a couple of days – and bring Chairman Meow with him; it had been months since a cat had last roamed the halls, since Jem had 'abducted' Church. Jace had convinced Clary to stay after training, so here they were, glad not to be eating leftovers or Taki's takeouts or something that Izzy had made, as Maryse had done all the cooking.
"Yeah?" Jace pretended to be interested in what his mother had to say. Honestly, he was more focused on food.
"I think you're going to like what I have to say. Especially you two, girls."
Clary and Izzy looked up, listening.
"Dean Penhallow is asking for lectures and practical lessons from trained young members of the Clave. I thought you might want to consider a trip to the Academy, Isabelle."
Maryse often scolded Isabelle for her behavior and particular taste in men, her choice in boyfriends had always been something they had fought over. But she had never made comments about Simon. She had kind of ignored the whole thing. Of course, she admired his courage and loyalty, but he used to be a vampire (and Maryse had been part of a pretty violent hate-group in her youth) and now he was a mundane. Training to be a Shadowhunter, but a mundane all the same.
"I wouldn't mind visiting Idris," Izzy admitted, her expression blank, hiding the emotions beneath. "I love Alicante this time of the year."
"You could have a lesson about less used weapons. I doubt they
teach how to fight with a whip," Alec suggested.
Jace smirked. "There are many ways to use a whip. You should show them, Izzy dear."
Clary kicked his leg under the table, hard. But Jace only kept smirking, even as Maryse told him off, "You still need to learn manners, Jace Lightwood."
"It's hopeless, mom," Alec joked, trying to shrug the awkwardness off. "There's no way to rectify his twisted, corrupt mind."
Needless to say, Jace just looked smug, like he always did, Isabelle was not baffled in the least, while Clary could feel her cheeks burning. Damned pale complexion.
"That's lovely, Maryse," she only said.
"I'm going," Izzy declared later that night while watching Jace and Alec have their round of chess. Clary had been hopelessly beaten by her, and the dark haired girl was waiting to see which of her brothers she'd have to beat next.
Despite the recent defeat, Clary smiled at her. She was rubbish at chess anyway. And Izzy liked to win. And so did Jace, because he got to show his abilities as a wicked strategist.
They had not mentioned Simon all night, but his name hung in the air, unspoken. Even Maryse must have known: her daughter wasn't the kind of good girl to go and lecture at the Academy just because an older Shadowhunter asked nicely.
It was Clary who brought him up.
"I wonder how Simon's doing," she said. "He'll be so delighted to see you."
Izzy nodded. "I'm calling Dean Penhallow first thing in the morning."
Alec's phone rang. He got up and paced a few steps to have some kind of privacy, even though he knew the others were still perfectly able to hear Magnus on the other side.
His boyfriend was complaining about some boring - but very rich - clients somewhere in Germany. Apparently, they had offered even a higher sum for a very easy but boringly long service, which would delay his permanence there.
"Tell the others I say hi," Magnus said. "Do you guys want me to take a quick visit to Idris to check on our friend at the Academy? I wouldn't mind seeing Cat. I'm pretty near anyway, just some miles from the wards…"
"Tell him there's no need to," Izzy said. "I will be going there shortly, and I would like to be the first to visit him, if Clary doesn't mind."
"Of course not," the redhead said. It was true. She missed Simon bad, but she knew where they stood. He would always be her best friend, no matter how little he remembered. Izzy, on the other hand, didn't know how to feel about this new Simon. They still needed to DTR, badly. So it was only fair that she showed up first.
Clary answered her phone. "Izzy?"
"Dean Penhallow said they would be ecstatic to have me!" she sounded so genuinely happy. "I'm going next week. I'm seeing Simon in a week!" Clary had never imagined Isabelle could be so openly excited about seeing Simon, but then again, it had been too many weeks since he'd left. And Izzy was finally starting to really open up to Clary.
"It's good to hear you so happy. Hug Simon for me, okay?"
"Sure. I suggested you could have a lecture too, at first Dean Penhallow sounded a bit uncertain because you're not fully trained yet, but I said you could introduce the Ascending students to runes and talk about your special abilities in that field… she said she'll think about it."
"Thank you, Iz. Are you working on your lecture?"
"Oh," she laughed, and Clary had no idea why, but she didn't ask. "You have no idea what I have in store."
One week and a trip to Idris later
Isabelle burst in the kitchen of the Institute, which was four people more crowded than she liked.
"Oi, tiger!" Magnus called. Apparently, he was back from his boring business trip. He sat next to her brother, wearing one of those shiny outfits that were just so Magnus. But Izzy was not in the mood for some undoubtedly overwhelming conversation about his sense of fashion.
"Back so early?" she just said.
"I could ask you the same thing," he retorted smirking.
"How did it go?" Clary asked.
Isabelle ignored them and her brothers' worried looks, and she went straight for the fridge. Empty. Of course. Where was her mother when she was starving?
"Did any of you ingrates leave me something to eat?"
"We didn't think your trip to Idris would be so… short," Clary admitted, cautious.
"We were counting on you at least staying the night," Jace chimed in, and she couldn't tell if he was being sincere or just malicious. In which case, Alec shot him an angry look.
"Well you were wrong," Izzy said.
"What happened?" Alec asked. Even Magnus stopped smiling and she could see concern written all over their faces.
"I shouldn't have gone."
"Stop being so dramatic, Iz. I'm sure Simon was happy to see you there," Jace said.
Isabelle had to take a deep breath. They kept on bombing her with questions. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? She placed one finger on her temple.
"Please stop talking," she snapped. "All of you."
"Would you just tell us what happened?" Alec asked for the nineteenth time in three minutes.
"What happened," Isabelle echoed bitterly.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Magnus asked.
"I never said such thing."
"Then –"
"What happened is that Simon broke up with me," she finally said.
There was a pause, while all of them processed the information given.
Only Jace was bold enough to say, "What?"
"He dumped me. Simon-scrawny-mundane-bastard-Lewis dumped me!" she realized she'd been shouting.
Silence again. Upset Isabelle was dangerous. Upset armed Isabelle was catastrophic, and it just happened that she always carried weapons. In fact, she was fidgeting with the deadly golden whip at her wrist. No one really knew how to handle the situation.
"Simon dumped me," she repeated for the third time, quietly now, as if she was just talking to herself.
The absurdity of the story made Clary remember how to speak: "This is so not like him."
"That guy sure is stupid," Jace said. "But not that stupid."
Clary shot him an angry look.
Magnus chuckled nervously. "I'm sure you're under an impression that's totally mistaken…"
Alec sided with his boyfriend. "Yes, Iz, it was probably just an argument, Simon wouldn't give you up for anyth-"
"Does the phrase I'm not your boyfriend, Isabelle not sound clear enough to you? Because that's what he told me."
"Explain," Alec said. "You were supposed to give a lecture."
"Well, I didn't. The only advice I gave the students was to stay away from Simon."
"Isabelle," Clary and Alec said at the same time, clearly disapproving.
"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have claimed he was mine before actually confronting him about it."
"Always DTR first," Magnus muttered.
"I thought he would appreciate the scene I pulled. I mean, who wouldn't? Then I turned and left the hall and he sprinted after me. I thought I was gonna receive this hot, passionate kiss–"
"Gross," Jace commented.
"And instead, I was broken up with. Oh, the irony."
"But why? He must have given you some kind of explaination, right? The Simon I know wouldn't–"
"That's the point," Izzy interrupted. "He's not that guy anymore. That's what he told me at least. That he's not the guy who loved me, because as hard as he tries, he just can't seem to remember enough. He thinks not remembering makes him a different person, one who doesn't deserve me. I can believe the first part, but the rest is just bullshit."
"Izzy –"
"He said he wanted to try. He asked me out. We went on three coffee dates. I got my hopes up."
"Iz, you have to understand he was very confused… one day he was a mundane living a perfectly ordinary life, the next we showed up and practically dropped a bomb on him."
"Yeah," Magnus said. "Hey I know you don't remember any of us but that's okay, it's because my evil father erased us from your memory. You used to be a hero and we were all very close. Wanna join our gang and become one of us? It is confusing, Isabelle. It is only natural that he instantly got excited."
"Yes but –"
"It didn't help that among the few memories I was able to give him back there were several of him sharing intimate moments with this beautiful deadly warrior princess." He paused when Alec made a face at him. "Of course he wanted to know you better. To try to get things to the way they used to be. No one would miss a chance with you, Isabelle."
"He would, apparently," she replied stubbornly and bitterly.
"You've been awfully not yourself lately. Maybe he just doesn't like this version of you."
"Jace you are so not helping."
"No, he's right. Maybe he realized he doesn't like me after all."
"Come on, Iz, you can't say that," said Alec.
Izzy shrugged. "Maybe he just met someone. Someone easier to be with."
"Always jumping to conclusion, aren't you?" Jace chimed in.
"Now that I think about it, he has made friends at the Academy," Izzy said. "Lady friends."
"It was bound to happen, but it doesn't mean he's going to date any of them," Clary reassured her.
"Just occasional sex," Izzy retorted.
"As I said," Jace commented, "always jumping to conclusions."
"I'm not calling you a liar, Isabelle," Magnus started. "But I talked to Catarina two days ago and she told me Soames mostly stays with his roommate, a Lovelace or something."
"Can you stop pretending like you don't know his name?" Izzy said. "That stopped being funny sometime around November."
"But it always made him so frustrated!" Magnus said with a smirk.
"Can we stick to the point?" Clary said. "His roommate is a Lovelace? I remember the name, weren't they in the Enclave? Is Simon been placed with the Nephilim kids?"
"Yes, he was, but apparently he dropped the courses to join the mundanes," Magnus said. "And Lovelaces quit Shadowhunting centuries ago. Catarina said this guy will need Ascending, he probably doesn't have a drop of Nephilim blood in him."
"I'm telling you," Izzy continued. "A couple of girls actually edged their desks away from Simon's while I was giving my little intimidating speech."
"Yes, Izzy, because they didn't want your lovely whip wrapped around their throats," Clary retorted.
Unexpectedly, Isabelle smiled at that. Not a full on smile, but the corner of her lips definitely perked up.
"Let's go out," Alec said after a moment of silence. "You need to eat something, the fridge is empty as usual and I'm not letting you anywhere near the flames."
"Magnus could conjure something out of thin air –" Izzy replied.
"I think you mean steal," Clary chimed in.
"How many times do I need to tell you, biscuit, I don't steal anyth–"
"Yeah, sure, Magnus. Iz – go take a shower, change and meet us downstairs in twenty minutes."
"She'll never be ready in twenty minutes, Jace. I know this because even though I've never dated a girl in my life, I assure you that Magnus takes hours to get ready," Alec said.
"This fabulousness," Magnus gestured to himself, "doesn't just happen magically, darling."
Izzy rolled her eyes and exited the kitchen. "Meet you in twenty minutes."
Once she was out of earshot, Jace turned to Clary. "Do you think she'll be okay?"
"She already coped with the thought of losing him forever once. But what I think hurts the most is not losing him. It's being let down by someone you trust. She trusted Simon to be different from all the boys she dated before. She opened up to him and he let her down. And I don't understand why he would ever do that."
"He'll regret treating Izzy like that," Alec said.
"Let's just give him time," Clary said and she meant it.
If nothing changed in a few weeks, she would personally pay him a visit.
Author's note: hello everyone! That was chapter 1. Hope you liked it. I'm almost done with chapter 2, I think I'll post it in a few days but it depends mostly on your feedback, I need motivation, lol. Personally I think the next one is funnier and generally better. Also longer. Let me know what you think!
Love,
Ginny_theQueen